Triple Trouble

This is a birthday present to my little bro, Cryptosporidium137. Happy birthday, big guy! :D

(Note: The Ed and Al of this story are from the end of the series, but sometime before they head off to different locations.)

“Ugh…my head.” muttered Edward Elric as he sat up off the floor. The last thing he remembered was falling asleep before waking up with an aching headache. The blond teen blinked to clear his vision and glanced around. What he saw dumbfounded him. He had fallen asleep in his room, but this defiantly wasn’t his room. He was sitting on a completely white floor that seemed to stretch endlessly in all direction. Above him was a clear, white sky (although slightly lighter than the floor). No clouds, stars, or even a moon existence above. It was just…empty space. “Where the hell am I?”

“That’s a good question, pal.”

Edward turned around to see who had said that. The first thing he noticed about the speak was that…he had blue legs? “What the…?” Edward looked up and into the face of…a blue hedgehog?

“Hey there!” greeted Sonic, waving.

“AAAHHH!!” Edward jumped to his feet and spontaneously moved into a fighting stance. “A…a chimera?!”

“Chimera?” Sonic raised an eyebrow. “My name’s Sonic the Hedgehog, not Chimera! I’m the fastest thing alive!”

“S-Sonic?” Ed repeated, returning to a normal stance. “You’re a…talking hedgehog?”

“Duh! What else would I be? A talking crocodile? I already know one of those, by the way…”

Edward stared at Sonic with disbelief. He said he wasn’t a chimera, and he looked very different from the chimeras he had seen before. They were usually monstrous and a lot bigger. “I’m Edward. Edward Elric.”

“So, Edward, you don’t know where we are either?” Sonic asked.

“What? Oh…no…I don’t.” Ed replied, glancing around again at the blank surroundings. “I just fell asleep and the next thing I knew, here I was with a headache.”

“Me too!” Sonic exclaimed, folding his arms over his chest. “I was taking a nice nap under a tree when I suddenly found myself here.”

“So…where do you come from?” Ed asked the anthropomorphic hedgehog, curious to where in the world such a creature could be found. Before he could answer, however…

“HEY, HEY, HEY!! What the hell is this place?!” shouted a new voice. Sonic and Edward turned to see a third person walking toward them. The blue haired person spotted the duo and glared at them. “Who are you punks? Are you the ones who brought me here?!”

“Whoa there, calm down!” Sonic said, trying to keep the guy from pouncing them. “I’m Sonic and that’s Edward. We were brought here too. Who are you?”

“You don’t know who I am? I’m the great Black Star!” announced the blue haired teenager, striking a pose. ”How do you not know the person who’s going to surpass God?!”

“Never heard of you…” replied the two other teens.

“Man, where have you both been all your lives? Antarctica?” Black Star asked, scratching his head.

“Wait…where?” asked Ed, never hearing of a place called Antarctica. Before he could ask any further, another voice interrupted him. This one, however, was different.

“Welcome, my guests!” came a mysterious voice. The three confused males looked around, but they couldn’t figure out where the voice was coming from. Suddenly, there was an explosion of black fire nearby and the three of them threw up their arms in protection. The black fire swirled around like a vortex before vanishing, leaving behind a figure cloaked in black. The figure’s face was hidden by a hood and his black robe made him clearly visible in the white world. The three teens stood there in silence for a moment before one of them spoke up.

“Who are you?” Ed asked, stepping in front of Sonic and Black Star. All three of them knew it the moment this guy had appeared; he was the reason they were here.

“My name is not important. If you must call me something, you may call me the Darkmaster.” answered the cloaked figure, giving a slight bow.

“Okay, Darkmaster. Why are we here? We didn’t agree to be your guests.” Sonic said, walking up next to Ed.

“The reason you are here is simple. I’m conducting an experiment and I required the three of you. Therefore, I took you out of your individual worlds and brought you here.”

“Well, I don’t care what your experiment is, jerk!” Black Star shouted, suddenly dashing toward Darkmaster with fists raised. “I’m going to clobber you until you send us back!”

Black Star rammed his fist into Darkmaster’s form, but found his fist striking empty air instead of solid matter. Darkmaster vanished into thin air, much to the trio’s surprise. He reappeared a few feet away, completely unaffected by Black Star’s charge.

“Did you say our individual worlds?” Ed probed.

“Yes. You all come from a different world. Feel free to discus that among yourselves. However, I believe you will find something even more interesting on your persons.”

“On our persons?” Sonic asked. This guy was just confusing him even more…

“Correct. You will use what you find to…amuse yourselves for the next two hours. After that, I will send you all back to your worlds…” Darkmaster waved his right arm and there was another explosion of black fire behind Sonic and Edward. They turned around to find a few pieces of furniture had appeared. There was a couch, a chair, and a glass table. “…all six of you.”

With that, the mysterious Darkmaster vanished in another vortex of black fire, leaving the three teenagers alone once again the strange white world.

“Haha, that guy needs to learn to count!” Black Star said, putting his hands on his hips and laughing. “There’s three of us here, not six!”

“I wonder what he meant when he said we’d find something to amuse ourselves with on our persons…” Ed stated, looking over at Sonic was glancing over himself. The blue hedgehog didn’t wear anything except a pair of white gloves and red/white shoes. If something was hiding on his person, it would most likely be…

“Whoa, I just felt something inside my shoe!” Sonic exclaimed in surprise as he lifted his shoe off the floor.

“It’s probably just a bug,” Black Star guessed as the blue hero slipped off his shoe, revealing his dirty, unwashed sock. “You should just-” The muscular boy stopped when he watched Sonic reach into his shoe and pull something out. That something was no bug, but a tiny fox! “-squish it…”

“Whoa…Tails, is that you?!” Sonic asked as he brought his tiny friend up to his face, dangling him from one of his twin tails. “How did you get so tiny?”

“I-I don’t know, Sonic!” the small kid squeaked. “I didn’t even know I was in your shoe until you took me out. It was so dark and scary in there…”

Edward and Black Star gathered around Sonic, staring at the small fox boy with amazement. Not only were they interested by the fact Tails was a small, talking fox, but also because he was so small to begin with! The three giants were so focused on the nervous tiny that neither of them noticed that Edward’s pants pocket was moving. Suddenly, a certain blond boy appeared from the pocket and stared up in awe at the towering former alchemist.

“Brother?!” Al shouted, shocked at his older bro’s size. Edward glanced down at his pocket and his eyes widened when he saw Al.

“Alphonse?!” Ed’s gloved hand reached into his pocket and scooped Al out. He held the younger teen before his large face.

“E-Ed! How’d you get so big?!”

“I’m not big, Al. You’re tiny!” Edward curiously poked his brother, easily pushing him backwards.

“Hey! Don’t do that!” Al yelled at his brother’s giant face. The tiny boy suddenly sensed a presence behind him and turned around to see Black Star staring at him.

“Hey! Why do you two get a tiny person?!” the meister shouted.

“B-brother…who are these people?” Al asked, shivering under the gaze of the giant Sonic and Black Star. Before Ed could answer, Black Star started shouting again…

“I bet there’s a tiny dude somewhere on me too!” Black Star began looking through his pockets and tapping his feet against the floor. However, he couldn’t feel anything in his shoes or pockets. The teen grew even more agitated as he folded his arms over his chest. “Where the hell is mine?!”

Right after saying this, Black Star’s ears picked up something nearby. VERY nearby. It sounded like screaming, but it was very squeaky and soft. The egotistic teen tracked the sound to his armpit and raised his arm over his head. He smirked when he saw who was stuck in the fuzzy patch of blue hair…

“Well, well, well! Look who we have here. It’s a good friend Soul!”

“Black Star, what have you done to me?!” shouted the albino weapon as he desperately fought to escape his smelly prison. Black Star chuckled and peeled the tiny teen off his pit. He brought his friend up to his face and grinned.

“Wow, Soul, I always knew you were a small guy compared to me, but I never thought you were THIS tiny.” the giant taunted.

“This isn’t cool, Black Star! How did you do this to me?” Soul glanced around and noticed Sonic and Edward holding the tiny Tails and Al. “And who are these guys?”

“I had nothing to do with this, little guy. It was that Darkmaster guy.”

“Darkmaster?”

And so, the three giants explained everything they knew to their tiny companions. They told them how Darkmaster had taken them out of their worlds and probably shrunk them too. The three shrunken boys were shocked by the whole situation, but somehow believed it. The empty, white world they were in did support the idea that they weren’t in their own worlds anymore…

“We have to find a way out of here, Sonic!” Tails exclaimed to his best friend. “There must be a way back to our own world.”

“He’s right! If we look around, we might find this Darkmaster person somewhere.” Al said to his elder brother.

“Hurry up and get us back to normal!” Soul shouted at Black Star, still very angry at his sudden change in size. The three shrunken victims watched as their giant comrades simply stared at them blankly. They wanted to return home as much as they did, but something inside them clicked when they held these tiny “bugs” in their hands. Simultaneously, all three of the giant teenagers cracked an evil grin. Getting back to their own worlds could wait…

“What’s the rush, little buddy?” Sonic asked as he grabbed Tails by his twin tails and dangled the boy in front of his face again. “He said he’d send us back in two hours. Until then, why don’t we have some fun?”

“I agree with Sonic.” Ed grinned as he gazed at his brother’s small form. “I had to endure those years of being shorter than you, so I think I should take advantage of the fact I’m the big one now!”

“B-brother…are you serious?” Al asked in disbelief, but was shown Ed wasn’t kidding when the larger male curled his fingers around him and held him tightly in his fist.

“Sounds like fun!” Black Star announced as he tossed Soul into the air and caught him while he screamed in anger. “Since we’re like gods to these bugs, how about making them worship us?”

“How do we do that?” Sonic asked, liking the idea of being worshiped like a god.

“Like this!” Black Star walked over to the couch Darkmaster had summoned and sat down on it. In two quick motions, the blue haired ninja kicked his black shoes off, exposing his sockless bare feet. Sonic and Ed glanced at each other before walking toward Black Star just as he wiggled his toes. “Ahh, it feels good to have those off.” Black Star looked at Soul evilly before dropping on the ground in front of him.

“What the hell are you doing, Black Star? What’s this about wor-” Soul started to holler, but was cut short when Black Star stomped one of his feet right in front of Soul. The shockwave created from the stomp lifted Soul off his feet and threw him a few feet back.

“Okay, butter knife, time for you to please your god. Rub my feet!”

“Excuse me?!” Soul got back to his feet and glared up at the sitting giant. “I’m not rubbing your disgusting feet! That’s so uncool!”

“Rub them. NOW.” Black Star stomped his other foot next to the first one creating a tremor through the floor that made Soul’s legs wobble. The white-haired teen started to sweat a little from fear as he imagined Black Star stomping HIM next. That fear made him run up to Black Star’s left foot as the giant raised it, giving him access to the sole. Soul immediately began rubbing the hard, sweaty sole. He grimaced as he felt like he was rubbing a brick wall through some sort of sludge. The sweat dripped into his arms and soaked his sleeves.

“Mmmm…that feels good. Make sure you do the other one too.” Black Star muttered as he raised his other foot on its heel, urging Soul to run over to it and massage it too.
Sonic’s lips curved into a smirk as he watched Black Star force his tiny companion to give him a foot massage. Boy did those feet look sweaty, too! Black Star must of just finished a workout before being taken here. Sonic’s own feet were kind of sore after his long run, and he had his own little guy to fix that! He looked down at Tails in his hand, his smirk still present.

“How about it, pal? Could you give my tired soles a nice rub too?”

Without waiting for an answer, Sonic opened his hand and let Tails fall. If he had been anyone else, the young fox probably would of hit the floor with a splat. Luckily, Tails had two tails that could spin like a helicopter and slow his decent. He safely touched down on the floor and looked up to see that Sonic had already discarded his shoes and was about to take his socks off. The blue speedster tugged off his left sock, releasing a shower of sock fuzz that blended in with the white surroundings. The teenage hedgehog sighed as he planted his blue, bare foot on the floor. His right sock was next to come off, causing another downpour of sock fuzz. Once both his feet were bare, Sonic planted them in front of his tiny friend, placed his hands on his hips, and grinned down at Tails.

“Okay, Tails, I’ll let you choose which foot you want to rub first.” Sonic said, wiggling his ten toes with anticipation.

“S-Sonic, please d-don’t make me do this! It’s gross!” Tails pleaded, making the giant hog frown.

“Come on, Tails. I don’t want to get rough…” Sonic slowly raised his left foot and hovered it over Tails, earning a shriek from the younger boy.

“You don’t have to make him rub your feet if he doesn’t want to.” Black Star cut in as he laced his arms behind his head, relaxing to the feeling of Soul servicing his feet. “Why don’t you make him do something else? Like lick them?”

“Hey, that’s not a bad idea.” Sonic replied as he kept his foot hovering over Tails. “Are you an expert at this or something?”

“Hehe, well I AM the one who’s going to surpass God someday. Therefore I need to know how to be worshipped properly!”

“Heh, if you say so.” Sonic turned his attention back to the intimidated Tails. “Okay, little buddy, you don’t have to rub them. You can LICK them instead!”

“But Sonic! That’s even worse!”

“Look, Tails, either lick my feet or I’m going to get a little rough. You want your big buddy to get rough?” Sonic smirked evilly as he flexed his toes.

“N-no…” Tails sniffed a little and looked over the bottom of Sonic’s blue foot again. It was really smooth and sweaty, not to mention putrid. Not wanting to find out what Sonic really meant by being “rough”, Tails closed his eyes and began licking over Sonic’s blue sole. The fox boy groaned as the taste of salty sweat practically poured into his mouth and down his throat. He sobbed a little, but Sonic didn’t seem to notice it as he just stood there over his close friend and relaxed. The feeling of Tails’ small tongue against his foot made him shudder with delight.

As the two giants played with their tinies, Edward had taken a seat on the nearby chair and just watched them. When he first woke up in this strange dimension, this was the last thing he thought he’d be doing. The blond teen looked down at his brother in his palm, who was staring at him with a hint of fear. Edward had never seen his brother look at him that way, and he kind of liked it. It was normal for someone to wear that expression when they were face-to-face with someone so impossibly big.

“What do you say, Alphonse? Should we join in on the fun?”

“Brother, stop this! You can’t treat me like…like a slave!”

“It won’t be so bad, Al. I’m just having a little fun…” Ed grinned as he bent down and placed Al down by his boots. The former State Alchemist began undoing the straps on his footwear before kicking them off much like Black Star had done. Also like the hyperactive assassin, Edward was not wearing any socks, so his bare foot and automail one were in clear view.

“Wow, you have a metal leg! How’d that happen?” Sonic asked from a few feet away, looking down at Ed’s steel foot.

“It’s a long story…” was all Ed replied with. Sonic felt like Ed didn’t want to talk about it, so he dropped it and went back to closing his eyes and relaxing. Ed turned back to his brother and wasted no time in raising his human foot over the boy. “Okay, Al, all I want you to do is smell your big brother’s foot! You don’t have to touch it or anything! Sound good?”

“It sounds horrible!” the tiny alchemist shouted in response.

“Fine, then I’ll just make you so somewhere even WORSE than rubbing or licking them!” Ed grinned wickedly down at Al as the younger boy’s eyes widened with shock.

“No, wait! I’ll smell your feet!” Al said before he immediately ran over to Edward’s flesh and blood foot. Once he was just inches from it, he braced himself and began sniffing. He didn’t expect it to be too bad, since he had actually smelled his brother’s feet before when they were younger. However, Al instantly discovered that Ed wasn’t a kid anymore. He was a fit, grownup teenager and smelled just like one. The horrid fumes that were packed into that one bare foot made Al’s face turn green. His eyes watered and he started coughing. Despite all this, Ed simply relaxed in the chair and watched his little bro choke on his foot odor. He didn’t know why he enjoyed it so much, he just did…

Some time later, Sonic and Edward took a seat on the couch with Black Star and the three teens began to converse. They talked about their separate worlds, about their battles, and about themselves. The conversation was an interesting one; it involved such topics as alchemy, souls, and chaos energy. Even the three shrunken boys were interesting in hearing about other dimensions. However, the fact that they were forced to worship some really smelly feet made the experience less than thrilling…

“Man, and I thought I had it tough.” Sonic commented. “Those witches you mentioned sound MUCH more dangerous than Eggman.” Sonic glanced around the white world for something to tell he time, but found nothing. “Either of you know how much time has past?”

“I’d say about a half hour or so…” Ed answered.

“Awesome! That means we still have an hour and a half with these runts!” Black Star bellowed, pumping his fists into the air. A certain weapon, however, didn’t like this news…

“Screw this!” shouted Soul as he took his hands away from his friend’s sole. “I’m not being your slave for another minute!”

“He’s right!” Tails followed, swallowing his fear of the giants. “You can’t treat us like this just because we’re small!”

The three titans simply stared down at the fuming tinies. Moments later, smirks emerged on the trio’s faces at the same time.

“We’re your giant masters, bugs!” Black Star shouted as he slammed his foot down, knocking Tails and Soul off their feet. “We can do anything we want with you.”

“Yeah, so you don’t have the right to complain.” Sonic added. “In fact, you should be put someplace even worse than our feet for talking back to us.”

“And I know the perfect place.” Ed finished as he started unbuttoning his black coat before slipping it off, revealing the black tank top he wore underneath. The former Fullmetal Alchemist also revealed his muscled arms, which were hidden by the sleeves of his jacket. Ed chuckled and lowered one of those muscular arms to snatch Al up.

“B-Brother! I didn’t say anything!”

“True…but you were thinking it.”

“I wasn’t! Really!”

But Ed would hear none of his brother’s “lies”. He raised his left arm into the air, exposing slightly haired pit. The giant blond brought Al close to the pit and laughed as the boy increased his struggles.

“No, Ed!! That’s disgusting! Please don’t-” Al begged, but was ignored and ultimately shoved head first into his older brother’s stinky armpit. Ed smirked as he rubbed Al in there good, gluing him to the pit and soaking him with teenage sweat. Al continued to scream, but his face was plunged into Ed’s flesh, so all he got was some muffled words and a mouthful of hot sweat.

“Great idea!” Sonic complimented as he raised his own arm and sniffed under his pit. The hedgehog’s black nose stuck up as he smelled how bad it was. His green eyes glanced down at Tails, who’s face went pale and immediately tried to run. Sonic, being so incredibly fast, snatched him up and slapped him under his left arm in under a second. Sonic lacked any hair, but his glistening blue pit was more than sweaty enough to act like flypaper to the tiny fox. Tails’ face was pressed up against the sweaty pit much like Alphonse. Instead of keeping his arm raised so he could observe him, Sonic lowered his arm down and trapped Tails between his ribs and arm.

“I like the way you two think.” Black Star said, glancing down at Soul afterwards. “Well, bug, I guess you’re going back in the pit!” The meister laughed as he leaned down to snatch Soul up. The albino weapon glared hatefully up at Black Star before morphing his arm into a scythe.

“Come any closer and I’ll cut you!” Soul threatened, but his intimidation had no effect on the giant assassin. Black Star merely shrugged and kicked Soul into the air with his bare foot. The blow felt like a train to the tiny Soul and he was knocked out of consciousness. Black Star caught him in his hand and shoved the teen’s prone body under his arm. Instead of just keeping Soul in there, Black Star instead decided to use Soul as deodorant. As the red eyed boy slept, Black Star rubbed him up and down his fuzzy pit. His clothes and hair soaked up as much of the sweat that had built up under the titan’s muscular arm as possible.

“This feels awesome!” Black Star cried as he switched hands and applied his new deodorant to his other pit. Once he was finished, he left the unconscious Soul in his pit and lowered his arm down. The three then continued their conversation, focusing on their training exercises and fighting styles. Al and Tails were no longer interested in the talk and begged to be let out, but their cries were muffled by the giants’ arms and didn’t disturb their conversing.

“Wow, you sound like a pretty strong guy!” Ed said as Black Star finished telling a story about how he defeated ten evil humans single-handedly. “How about a sparing match? I haven’t had myself a good one in a long time!”

“I’m game!” the blue haired ninja replied before the two of them jumped off the couch and ran away from the furniture, desiring more room for their brawl. Instead of following them, Sonic sprawled himself across the couch and decided to resume the nap he was originally having. Before dozing off, Sonic peeled Tails off his pit. The fox kid found himself free of the smelly hell and dropped upon Sonic’s peach-colored chest. Sonic looked down at him and appeared amused when he saw the boy’s fur soaked with his sweat.

“Get some rest, little pal. You’ve been though a lot.” Sonic said as he lowered his large, white gloved hand upon Tails’ tiny form like a blanket. To Tails, however, it was nothing like a blanket and more like a tremendous weight that kept him from moving a muscle. Still the boy fought, but he was weak from his torture in the pit and it didn’t look like he was going to make any progress…

Meanwhile, Edward and Black Star had begun their fight. They were very excited to see each other’s fighting styles after just hearing about them. The two very fit teens exchanged punch after punch, kick after kick, and were soon all over the place. Black Star grabbed the blond teen by his leg and tossed him, but the skillful martial artist landed on his hands and pushed himself back onto his feet. Edward delivered a clean blow to the meister’s face, but Black Star responded with a knee to Ed’s stomach. The two fighters were evenly matched, with Black Star lacking Tsubaki and Ed lacking his alchemy. They could only rely on skill and brute strength.

As they sparred, they began sweating profoundly. Their pits were especially damp, and that meant bad news for the two tinies stuck within. Alphonse found himself, for the first time since getting his body back, wishing he was still a suit of armor. The smell of Ed’s pit had turned from terrible to absolutely hellish. He wanted to pass out from the smell, but the constant moving Ed was doing as he fought kept him wide awake. As for Soul, he had chosen the worse time to resume consciousness. He awoke with a massive headache and a splash of salty sweat to the face. It took the albino a few moments to realize where he was and he began shouting hysterically. Black Star, however, could not hear his tiny friend’s screams over his own breathing. All Soul got from yelling was the foul taste of teenage perspiration on his tongue.

The sparing match lasted a good while…even longer then they had spent talking, in fact! Eventually, the two combatants ran out of energy and collapsed where they stood. They were both covered in bruises and sweating like pigs, their black shirts clinging to their torsos like a second skin. Despite their fatigue, the two of them couldn’t help but laugh.

“That was a good fight!” Black Star exclaimed, stretching his arms into the air. “I held back a little, though, hehe…”

“Heh…it looks like losing my automail arm hasn’t affected my fighting skills as much as I thought.” Ed said as he raised his right arm and examined it. “You were damn strong, though! Probably one of the toughest opponents I’ve had. I’m glad that wasn’t a real fight…”

The two boys remained laying on the ground in silence, wishing to rest for a bit. The silence barely lasted a minute before it was broken by a loud noise.

“What the hell was that?!” Ed jolted up into a sitting position and looked around.

“Ehehe…sorry.” Black Star also sat up and rubbed his stomach through his shirt. Another noise, a little quieter this time, came from the boy’s stomach.

“Wow…” Ed cracked a smile and chuckled. “Sounds like that fight made you a little hungry.”

“A little? I’m STARVING!” Black Star hollers as he collapsed on his back again and stared at the blank sky. “HEY, DORKmaster!! Give us some food!” Black Star waited for some sort of response, but got nothing. “Asshole…”

“We shouldn’t be here much longer.” Ed said as he also laid back down. “Just hold on a little while longer and eat when you get home.”

“I can’t wait any longer!” the sweaty meister replied as he jumped to his feet and walked over to where Sonic was. “Hey, Sonic, are you hun-?” The teen stopped when he noticed his blue friend was fast asleep. “I guess not…” Black Star looked down at Sonic’s chest and spotted the tiny Tails, still trapped under his huge friend’s hand. He had long since given up his struggles and just laid there in defeat. Black Star blinked a few times before he got an idea. He gently lifted Sonic’s hand off of Tails and removed the fox boy, all without waking the hedgehog up. Black Star then raised Tails up to his face by one of his twin tails.

“W-what are you doing?!” Tails shouted, flailing helplessly as Black Star dangled him.

“Heheheh…I wonder what fox tastes like.” Black Star said a she licked his lips. Tails’ eyes bulged as he watched the giant human open his mouth wide and hover Tails over it. The fox boy shivered in fear as the hot, smelly breath of the titan washed over him.

“S-S-SONIC!!! HELP!!!!” Tails shouted just as Black Star spread his fingers, dropping Sonic’s young sidekick into his mouth. Black Star snapped his jaws shut and began swishing Tails around his mouth. The tiny was covered in Sonic’s sweat, but it surprisingly made him taste even better.

“Mmmm…not bad.” the meister mumbled as he used is tongue to slam Tails onto is right cheek. Tails desperately tried to fight the pink muscle, but it was like a monster that wouldn’t budge. After sucking on Tails’ form and tasting every inch of him, Black Star tilted his head back and prepared to swallow his snack. Before he could…

“Hey, little buddy, where’d you go?” came Sonic’s voice as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and looked over his chest. Black Star mentally cursed before spinning around and spitting Tails into his hand. He quickly wiped the saliva-soaked boy off with his shirt and spun back around.

“Here ya go, Sonic. I caught him scurrying across the floor! It’s a good thing I didn’t step on him!”

“Oh, thanks.” Sonic grabbed Tails and brought him before his face. “So, you tried to escape? Bad little buddy! I guess you need to be punished now.” Sonic jumped off the couch and went over to where his socks and shoes were.

“N-no…Sonic…” Tails muttered weakly. “I…I didn’t…he…” But Tails couldn’t say much else. His close encounter with death had shaken him up pretty good.

“No excuses, little guy. “ Sonic said as he carried Tails over to his sock and dropped him inside. Tails laid there at the bottom, watching helplessly as Sonic’s blue foot appeared in the opening. Sonic pulled on his sock, effectively securing Tails underneath his sweaty sole. He then pulled on his other sock and both his shoes after that.

“Hehe…I wonder how Soul’s doing.” Black Star muttered before raising his arm over his head and looking under it. Soul was conscious, but all the sweat that had been soaked into his body had left him disoriented and weak. “Hehe, looking good, Soul! Ready to worship my feet some more?”

“You…bastard…when I get back to normal, I’m gonna-”

“TIME’S UP!!” came a familiar, dark voice. A vortex of black fire appeared and from that fire came Darkmaster once again. “The experiment is over. You may now return.”

“It’s about time! I was getting tired of this boring place.” Black Star exclaimed, lowered his arm back down on Soul and walking over to his discarded shoes. As he pulled them on, he said, “I don’t even feel like giving you the slugging you deserve!”

“So, time’s up already?” Edward muttered as he put on his own boots. Before slipping his jacket back on, the former alchemist raised his arm and peeled his younger brother off his pit. He dangled the exhausted teen in front of his golden eyes and grinned. “You ready to go home now, Al?”

“Yes…” Al muttered weakly. “I can’t wait to be back at my normal size…”

Darkmaster waved a hand a veil of blue light appeared near the six teens. The light was in the form of a doorway, and beyond that doorway the three males saw something different; their own worlds.

“Step into this light and you will wake up back in your world. However…” Darkmaster gave a soft, eerie chuckle. “I don’t remember saying anything about returning your sizes…”

“W-what?” Al’s eyes widened with shock. “What do you mean you’re not going to-?!” Before Al could finish, Ed stuffed him into his pocket and muffled his shouts.

“This is awesome, little guy! Now I’ll defiantly be the big brother from now on!”

Black Star walked over to Edward, ignoring Soul’s renewed shouts of anger. The teen gave Ed a smile and a thumbs up.

“It was nice knowing you, Ed! Make sure to keep your training up!”

“Definitely!” Ed responded, giving Black Star a similar thumbs up. Suddenly, Sonic appeared before the two in a blue blur, also sporting a thumbs up.

“I had a lot of fun! Judging my Tails’ squirming down there, it seems like he had a good time too. I’d love to chat some more, but I really need a change of scenery.”

And with that, Sonic gave another wave and ran straight into the light. Both Edward and Black Star were impressed with the hedgehog’s speed. Guess he wasn’t lying when he said he was the fastest thing alive…

“Let’s go, Ed! Me and Soul have a lot of ‘plans’ when we get back. Same with you and your bro?”

“Well, I don’t want to be too hard on him. Maybe a quick foot rub when we get back…”

The two giant teens laughed as they made their way into the doorway of light. Both Soul and Al were less than thrilled about their new lives, but there was nothing they could do about it. As Black Star and Ed crossed the veil, it vanished into thin air, leaving Darkmaster alone in his empty world.

“That was fun…” Darkmaster said to himself as the snapped his fingers and watched the world around him begin to dissipate. “I’ll have to conduct this ‘experiment’ again sometime…”

With that said, Darkmaster vanished into a vortex of fire. The white realm disappeared with him, its purpose fulfilled…for now.