It had been a few hours since 4D and the Chaotix arrived in Robotropolis, the capital city of the Robotnik Empire. Nikki was walking back to the hotel, he had to go handle some personal business on the other side of town. He felt a sense of emptiness as he shambled exhaustedly through the cold maze of metal and grime. The whole city smelled like a sewer with rubbing alcohol instead of water. The air was dry and thick. Nikki looked ahead down the same road he had ran down what must have been some three hundred times when he was younger. The one by the old docks that had since devolved into a ship graveyard. Nikki still remembered the day the water became too sludgy to safely navigate. He still remembered the condos blurring together when he and Tails would race to the comic book store. This was the first time he'd been there in quite a while, and probably the last time he would ever be there again, so he decided to slow down and walk for once. Everything was so different. He wouldn't miss this place, but… part of him would. He appreciated the opportunity to go back for just a little while, but he was also ready to leave. For real this time.
Nikki ran up the side of the luxurious hotel in the center of Robotropolis, and slid through the window. Cherry wasn't there. Nor was the Tails Electric. Nikki felt his heart sink, as the events of the previous evening came rushing back to his drowsy mind. "Peni? Peni, wake up!" Nikki shouted, rushing over to her. Nikki turned on the lamp, the room was somewhat illuminated… Nikki looked back to Peni.
She was entirely gray.
"No… No, no, no!" Nikki yelled. He rushed out the door. He heard screaming, he heard cries for help all around the hotel, before they all turned to zombie-like moans. Then, silence. He thought he had Cherry pinpointed at one of the rooms. "Open up, Phantom Thief! We have you surrounded!" Nikki shouted, his eyes crackling blue. He broke down the door, and entered the room. Nobody was there. Not Cherry, not her victim. Only a Silhouette and the smoking remnants of a mobile phone. Cherry had already been here, and she'd already learned how to use the Tails Electric's new app. Nikki gritted his teeth, and blasted out of the room. "Everybody run! Get out of here! Ditch your phones, laptops, everything with internet access!" He called as loudly as he could, making his way to the room the Chaotix booked. He opened the door, and took a sigh of relief. Vector, Espio and Charmy were all sound asleep. They weren't Silhouettes. However, the headphones Vector was wearing… they were rumbling. Nikki almost had a heart attack, looking back on the PC monitor he himself had blown up when coming to the empire through the InterNav. The phone from a few rooms back was one thing, it was in the Silhouette's hand and was fairly small. But this wouldn't end well if Nikki didn't do something.
Nikki ran forward, grabbed the headphones off Vector's head, and tossed them out the window. "Hey! My white noise!" Vector cried as he snapped awake just in time to see the explosion. He and Nikki stood there, staring at the red and black embers falling from the detonation… and bits of similarly-colored goo as they splattered onto the concrete below. "Nikki! You've got some explainin' to do. What's going on?! How'd you get here so fast?"
"Short version? Cherry's the PT," Nikki answered. Vector's eyes widened. "I'm Sonic the Hedgehog, and our Phantom Thief friend just turned a bunch of people including Peni into Silhouettes. Then she took the Tails Electric. Oh God… If she figures out how to use the InterNav properly, she could take hearts on a global scale. We have to stop her!" Nikki held his head in his hands. "Grr… I shouldn't have trusted her! This is my fault!"
"Whoa, slow down, Nikki!" Vector exclaimed. "It's okay. You didn't know. We'll just call the cops, and get this sorted out." Vector held up a communicator.
"That's the thing, I—" Nikki rambled. He was cut off by a car crash outside.
"What's all that noise?" Charmy asked, waking up. Espio's eyes opened slowly, his meditative state and focus broken. Everybody looked out the window. Cherry was shooting death stares at the drivers caught up in the early morning commute, resulting in a wall of destroyed cars around the hotel.
"No good! The police won't be able to get through," Vector grumbled.
"And nobody's gonna be able to get out, either," Espio growled.
"I'll go gather up as many people as I can," Charmy stated. "I'll airlift them out of here!"
"Good idea… don't let Cherry spot you!" Vector called as Charmy flew out of the room. "What about you, Nikki?"
"I need to stop Cherry. I have to at least try. It's me she wants, so win or lose… This ends here," Nikki replied. In a blur, he shed his Nikki alter-ego and returned to his usual look. Vector looked at him, shocked as Sonic leapt out the open window.
Cherry continued to cause a catastrophe around the hotel as fire spread all around the place from the destroyed cars. She could hear the police sirens growing closer, but all it took was a single glance to ensure they were not a threat. "No… none of these work!" She shouted. "Your Personas are worthless! All of them! Get out of my head, get out of my head… GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Cherry screamed, her voice cracking and echoing as she tugged at the ends of her top hat. She convulsed, stretched, and bent unnaturally, her eyes flashing between every shade of every color until they settled back on gray.
"Cherry!" Sonic's voice shouted. Cherry swung around deliriously with a strained grunt, to see the hedgehog jump down from the hotel window. He landed on his feet. He kept his head down, standing opposite to Cherry. She couldn't get a good look at his eyes. "Stop this right now. I know you want to find a personality, but you've taken it too far. You took it too far long ago, but you don't even want these Personas! You want mine, right?!"
"Well I'll never get it, will I?!" Cherry snapped, approaching Sonic. "I can't have your Persona, and soon, I won't even have you anymore!" Sonic stepped back as he heard Cherry's footsteps close in. "All because you want to go home. To YOUR friends, to YOUR future. You're just going to leave me behind, leave me to suffer more!" Sonic backed up to the wall. Cherry drove her knee into the gap between his torso and arm. There was now a hole in the wall. Sonic inhaled sharply. "Look at me, Sonic. This can all be over if you just look at me."
"I'm not just going to hand over my Persona," Sonic muttered. "I understand you're hurting, but that doesn't give you the right to take away the happiness of others to feed some stupid addiction! That's all it is at this point, you're just wasting their personalities!"
"Oh, but doesn't it?" Cherry asked, cupping Sonic's face in her hands. "What makes these people so deserving of happiness instead of me?" She lifted Sonic's head up, but he kept his eyes closed. She tried to pry them open. As Sonic's eyes opened little by little, he watched Cherry's eyes turn green. "What is it that makes you love these pretty eyes instead of mine?" Sonic was confused at first, but then… it hit him. "... My Sonikku?" Sonic's now completely blue eyes opened fully, glowing so brightly that they burned Cherry's retinas like lasers. Sonic grabbed Cherry by the neck. He squeezed tightly. He wound up a throw so fast it sounded like the revving of a Spin Dash, as Cherry flailed around… He then shot Cherry forward at her own car barricade with a burst of lightning as backup. She hit the cars hard, only to be ran over by Sonic. He continuously kicked her down. "What are you doing, Sonikku? Why are you hurting me?"
"Cut that out! Don't you DARE pretend to be her!" Sonic shouted, Spin Dashing atop Cherry, grabbing her, and slamming her backwards through the car door. "Let Amy's Persona go, NOW." Cherry opened her eyes, staring into Sonic's heart. Sonic felt a little piece of him get taken away, before swiping at Cherry's eyes. She screamed, and shut her eyelids tight. Sonic continued to beat her down as the color returned to him, before she dodged one of his punches. Before Sonic could react, she flew into the air. "Wha—?!" Sonic watched as Cherry spun around in the air, creating a tornado.
All the Silhouettes in the area were swept into the tornado, there were more than Sonic had expected. He tried to run, but before he could get any momentum, he was pulled off the ground. Just then, a small rope wrapped around Sonic's leg. He looked over, and saw Espio holding onto the other end of the rope. Vector was supporting him, playing tug-of-war with the tornado. Sonic then heard a scream. He reached his hand out, just in time to catch Charmy as he was nearly sucked into the tornado as well.
"Hold onnn!" Sonic cried, watching as the tornado stopped. Espio untied the rope from Sonic's ankle. There was now a mountain of Silhouettes. At the top, stood Cherry. She had a good view of the entire city now, and was sniping people from overhead to add them to her mound of bodies. "Charmy, throw me over there."
"Uh… okay! I'll do what I can," Charmy exclaimed. He spun Sonic around, before tossing him as high onto the mound as he could. Sonic landed on the side, running along on the Silhouette platforms to try and reach the summit. Their clammy hands tried to grab him, but he was too fast. When he was in range, he jumped up to the top. Cherry hadn't noticed him, she was too focused on the people below. Sonic snuck up on her, ready to send her flying off the top of the peak, when… she turned around. And stared him right in the eyes. Sonic felt the world around him melt away, as the color drained from his body once more.
"So this is it, huh? I've finally caught you with your guard down," Cherry muttered. "I didn't think it would be that easy." She walked closer, as Sonic's body went limp despite his attempts to stagger forward. "I'm sorry, I truly did want to be with you on your own terms. But now we'll never be apart. Now we'll be the same…" Cherry's mouth twisted into that signature Sonic smirk, as the Silhouette that was once Sonic the Hedgehog fell over lifelessly. "I am thou… thou art I. Doesn't that just sound perfect?" Cherry ran down the mountain, arms flowing freely behind her. "This is it. I'm free… I've actually broken free."
"It's such a wonderful feeling."
…
When Cherry neared the bottom of the mountain, she checked for any witnesses. The sun had barely risen before, so it was unlikely anybody had seen her all the way up there. But she decided to check anyways. "Hmm… nobody. Great! That makes things a lot easier," Cherry sighed. She slid down the steep slope and then made her escape.
For exactly two steps.
"You leaving without us?" Madonna asked, stepping out from around the corner with Kate and Kofi. Cherry stopped dead in her tracks, and turned around.
"Madonna! Kofi! Kate! Sorry, I, uh…" Cherry greeted. She had to come up with an alibi. "I mean… the PT hit. I was trying to get out of here. I thought they got you, Sorry for not checking."
"Cut it out, Cher," Kofi Yo said. "We know you aren't telling the truth." Cherry's poker face fell.
"W-what do you mean?!" Cherry asked, stepping back only to bump into Vector and Espio. "AH!" Cherry screamed. She tried to steal their hearts, but was tackled by Madonna. "HEY, LET GO! Madonna, please! They'll kill me!" Madonna forced himself to tighten his chokehold on her as the two detectives towered over Cherry. "So that's it…?! You ratted me out. You knew all along, didn't you?"
"We're not dumb. Of course we knew you were the PT, Cher," Kofi replied, calmly. "We weren't working with anyone but you. We didn't want it to come to this. We just wanted to be good friends."
"We thought we could help you," Kate squeaked, crying. "We didn't say anything cuz we knew you would get mad at us, but…" Kate sniffled. "... This has gone on long enough! We can't keep letting you do this, we can't have any more blood on our hands!"
Cherry stopped struggling, as Madonna pinned her down to the sidewalk completely. "You just wanted to be 'good friends'? You THOUGHT you could help me?" Cherry asked, eyes turning blood red, like Penumbra's. Cherry turned to sludge, and wrapped around Madonna's neck. "Well you THOUGHT WRONG! I didn't hurt you before because you were important to me. But now that I have this Persona, I don't have to worry about you anymore. This personality doesn't care about friendship, or belonging, or attachment. And neither do I! Not anymore…" Madonna choked, as Kate and Kofi rushed in to help, crying and screaming for Cherry to stop. They tore away at the sludge, but it didn't seem to work. Their fingers phased right through it, and Madonna eventually passed out. Cherry then saw her chance to strike. She reformed her body out of the sludge, and in one scan, stole both their hearts. Kofi and Kate fell onto the ground, Silhouettes.
"You jerk! Why would you take the hearts of your own friends?!" Charmy cried, flying in and stinging Cherry.
"Charmy!" Vector shouted. As Cherry tried to steal Charmy's heart, Vector rushed in and punched the ladybug hard. Charmy retreated behind a car, as Vector closed in. Cherry held her head. "The kid's right. You've got a lot of nerve doing that. You really ARE heartless!" Espio seemed to be focusing on something in his mind.
"Wait… Vector," Espio muttered, looking afraid. He sensed another presence in the area. "A sneak attack! Get dow—!" Espio was shot in the neck with some kind of dart. He drowsily fell to the ground. Vector was next. Then, Charmy. Cherry looked over.
"Oh now what?!" Cherry cried. Standing atop a car… were the Knothole Freedom Fighters.
"It's okay… We're here to help," Sally stated, hopping down. "Looks like you've been cleaning up the trash around here."
"Sally? Antoine? Bunnie?" Cherry asked, switching her Persona back to Sonic's. Sally gasped.
"You stole Sonic's heart?" Antoine asked. "Please do not tell me you will be zee one doing bad jokes and catchphrases now."
"It doesn't matter," Sally said. "Cherry, you now have Sonic's intel on how the systems work in Robotropolis, correct?" Cherry nodded. "Then our plan may still work. You can use his knowledge to carry out the plan for him. Remember. Redirect the cameras, take Eggman's heart. Okay?"
"Got it... you guys go on ahead!" Cherry replied, feigning confidence. "I'll meet you at the fortress. I have one last thing to do here." Sally nodded. She and the others ran towards the fortress. Cherry looked to Madonna. She walked over and pulled his eyes open. Cherry stared deep into them, and felt herself gain a new Persona while Madonna turned gray. "Ahahahaha… finally, we're all together again." Cherry wiped some tears from her eyes, before following the Freedom Fighters.