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cutegirlmayra · 4 years

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Commission Receipt: SonicFanJ’s Sonic Ring Gate

Commission: Sonic Ring Bond: Sonic and The Bond of The Ring Gates Ch. 1

@sonicfanj Commission for Sonic AU Story

Time: about 2 months or so.

Review: @sonicfanj : You (Cutegirlmayra) were extremely open and easy to work with, allowing me to form the world the story takes place in as naturally as working with you so that way the story would be cohesive and work. Any time you had questions you had no problem presenting them promptly and concisely so I could answer them just as easily so you could work your magic on the story and it is everything I could hope for as it embraced my versions of the characters and highlighted the titular Ring Bond. I really appreciate the way you worked my AU and have allowed me so many possibilities for endless stories. Thank you so much for all of your hard work on this story!

Paid Amount: 50$ and the overall scale of the story was about 105 pages.

Product Preview: With permission from @sonicfanj, here is a draft of the product.

Sonic and the Bond of the Ring Gates

By: Cutegirlmayra

For Sonicfanj

There's a faint chill in this wind… One that usually calls to explorers from the east to the west, south to the north, to come and await adventure down these rounded hills sprayed with painted green grass like fine, long hairs protruding from the fertile land. The checkerboard walks of natural browns and tans create trails in this constantly changing world. There are natural ramps like cliffs that slide upwards towards raised platforms of ground, leading to high-standing loop-de-loops and down into tunneled caverns deep. Winding dirt pathways of untold perils and exciting thrills await any young spirit with plenty of moxie and taste for the unknown. With fast velocities, one may even clear a whole new area in a matter of moments. Thus, the straight path connects all, and yet, only the gates allow true explorers to trail-blaze through these natural beauties and wonders. The trees sway endlessly in this paradise, where flowers twirl like windmills, and water sprays up and falls in cascades of sparkling dew from the ocean beneath. There is another beautiful mystery hidden here in this wonderland of sun and spring… powerful energy that appears randomly throughout every zone and act as limitless sources of untapped potential. Glistening in beams of circular gold, and appearing as though light in a matter of seconds, are the unfathomable Rings. Spontaneously igniting into existence like rayed balls of glory, these rings either are created within rows or scattered upon the icy tipped mountains and river valleys with flowers that bloom as though never touched by mortal, gloved hands.

Until today, that is…

The ever-blue sky wanes only slightly as big, fluffy clouds shadow what appears to be a pink hedgehog. This young girl is known to this world as the adventurer Rosy the Rascal and her charming persona as a speed-loving, dare-devil that constantly chases this suddenly brisk wind.

She seems to be enjoying a nap before the wind tickles her hide and sways her quills back with its cold, lingering touch. She ruffles her nose, sneezes, and blinks her eyes open a moment.

Her long lashes seem weighed down before the morning dew lightly falls from them. It dips into the tall grass as she begins to wake from a pleasantly restful slumber.

"H-huh? Did another gate appear?" Her voice is soft but high-pitched, cheery but also slightly bored as she wipes her eyes and yawns, getting up to look around.

"Woah! It's broken off already?" she exclaimed, her mouth growing big in her amazement as she spoke these words to herself. She got up, dusting off her white leotard, and careful to make sure she acquired no grass-stains. She had recently washed the last remaining stains off under the gently flowing waterfalls she had ventured to previously and was silently hoping the pure white of her flexible cloth would remain clean from her last efforts to maintain its pretty, clean color.

"It was so sunny and bright a moment ago… did we drift towards colder climates?" She had hoped to sunbathe long enough to dry herself and her clothes, but it seemed that wasn't going to be the case anymore. Rosy placed a hand over her eyes to block the light sprinkles of rain forming above as whitish-grey clouds began covering more and more of the sky. "Huh… I thought Tails and Zooey would have called to let me know if I was drifting too far while out and about… I wonder…" She pulled out a device to check her location but found a few messages lingering on the light bluish-green screen instead.

"Opps!" she stuck out her tongue, realizing she slept through a constant barrage of messages she had failed to receive while sleeping. "Typical me!" she waved it off with a roll of her wrist. Her graceful side kicked in then and she extended her leg, almost as though enjoying a ballerina's stretch while scolding herself with a playful tease. "I should really keep up with that…"

Before she decided to jump into the stressful messages, she refused to do anything but enjoy waking up and taking in the sights again, especially so soon after waking up. "Don't want to spoil my mood." She chimed and ran to loosen the rest of her tension off. Traveling at a leisurely speed, wanting to warm up after a chilly awakening, she began to read and skim the lines of messages that mostly began with: Where are you? Have you seen Sonic yet? How's the new speed drills coming along? Careful adventuring. Give me a call once in a while!

It was a sweet reminder of how many friends she had made since joining Checkpoint and sharing that infamous Ring Bond with Sonic The Hedgehog.

"W-woah!" she stumbled slightly in her red looped shoes that resembled slippers. The wetted grass began to make her supersonic speed seem relatively faulty. She had wanted to master it better, but with all this sliding, she decided to take it at a slower pace. She puffed up her cheek in annoyance as she stuck to sliding more than running, zig-zagging to remain safe from falling on her face at these speeds. "Ohhhh! One day, I'll learn to make my speed perfect! Just like Sonic's!"

Speaking his name only gave her warmth in her cheeks, and she just had to mention his name aloud again, lifting her head up towards the sprinkling rain skyward. "How does Sonic do it? Is there an ideal terrain for him? Ohh, Sonic~" she daydreamed a moment, remembering him and his aloof attitude, confident smirk, and raised eyebrow at her attempt to embrace her idolized hero.

She placed her wobbling hands that were once balancing her up by her heated cheeks, swooning at the idea of seeing her longtime crush again before suddenly feeling something pound the ground and cause her to pull backwards as though being sucked back. "Ahh!"

Her feet scampered in pigeon-toed shambles as she desperately tried to get a grip on the ground with her heels.

But it was no use…

She dropped on her bottom, the wetness making it uncomfortable as she leaned up and rubbed her behind lightly, looking around in slight pain at her immediate predicament. She was exhausted almost entirely in a matter of seconds, "What's going on..? I was just fine a moment ago…" Judging her knowledge of physics, she wondered why she fell backwards if she was propelling her feet forward at such rapid speeds… Even if she slipped, she should have rolled forward onto her face or hit her chin; she shouldn't have fallen backwards as though being caught up in a tug-o-war.

She looked herself over, but everything seemed fine besides her apparent tiredness. "What was that just now? An earthquake? Oooh… My body aches as though I haven't slept at all! That's no fun." She rubbed her head and then adjusted her three quills that acted like bangs on her forehead carefully back into place. She crawled up to get her arms under herself and tried pushing off the ground again.

She got back up on her feet but the entire mass of land she was scaling suddenly began to crumble and break apart.

She tumbled down again, the earth seeming to get ripped apart and sections of it being thrown as though pulled somewhere into the ocean.

"Wha-ha-ha!" In her dizzy confusion, she was able to grip her fingernails into the rising earth, but it crumbled seconds later and dropped down beneath her. She immediately flailed back, kicking her feet as the ground began to part as though chipping off just in front of her, and the winds gushed water back as though magnetizing the whole of the shifting landmass.

"Is this a seismic anomaly?" Rosy was well aware of her world, which would have new lands shift along the crust and form new adventures for her and her friends to explore. Not only that, but much like the mysterious rings that would randomly form into creation, whole land masses could blip in and out of existence as well. Now she worried the clock was ticking, was this land about to disappear from under her feet? But this wasn't like anything she had experienced before. The land wasn't just moving, and it didn't appear to be colliding with anything either. It certainly wouldn't have waited that long to form into sparkling material that would have been absorbed by the world and used to make more rings and new lands to explore... Would that mean she'd get wet all over again?

The land was being sucked into something… something she couldn't identify quite yet, which made her worry greatly.

Her eyes grew big and glossy with panic, but then… comforting words clung to her heart.

"Just keep your feet on the ground, and you'll accomplish anything." Sonic had spoken these words to her when the ring had jolted her with power during the unique transfer of a Ring Bond. She visualized the spinning balls that lit up around her and Sonic when he shared his incredibly personal speed with her.

She had never felt so close to someone before… his hand opposite of her own upon the ring, and the way their eyes locked onto one another's souls for a moment… as though they both knew this encounter was fate.

"My feet…" she looked at her squabbling body, panicking at the falling earth crumbling around her. She glared in determination and twisted herself around, spinning her feet to match Sonic's figure 8 movement but sadly, she wasn't experienced enough to master some of his techniques just yet. She relied on her expert balance to keep herself somewhat straight and let herself rip forward and dash in a blink of an eye. The earth began to decay almost instantly behind her wake, more and more of its once glorious landscape now being torn asunder and thrust back in an arched fall to the ocean below.

She wasn't fast enough to create a sonic boom, but by collecting enough rings to propel herself forward, she was able to gain just enough power to make a diving jump across the other side. Speeding with reckless abandonment towards the ocean, she took one final glance behind her to see the whole of the land crumble and spiral down towards something unknown to her.

Having jumped in the air, she was still full of momentum and spun slightly as she glided through the raging storm. For a brief moment, she thought she saw something black swallowing the land from below the surface of the water… But she couldn't be certain.

"What is that thing..?" She lightly breathed out, before looking to see she was heading straight into the rushing water of an enraged sea. "Oh no! Heeellppp!" Her eyes finally released the fearful tears she had held back for so long, knowing she was stuck in the air like a flightless pebble about to crash and drown in a continuous, hazardous sea.

How many times had she looked upon the ocean with appreciation and delight? Only to now be deathly afraid of its rapid waters dragging her into the unknown vortex and sucking her down into the depths of its black hole?

Her angle was leading her straight into the harsh flow of tide where the land had been whisked away and disappeared below. Did the darkness expand? Was it sucking the ocean just as it did the land she was once resting peacefully on? Before she felt herself loosing all hope, she gripped her hands together over the communication device. "S-Sonic… Tails… Anybody-!"

Suddenly, something golden and shiny spun itself open into a ring of brilliantly shining light.

"Rooosssy!" A familiar voice tore her from her horror as she looked to see her loving fox friend fly out of the Ring Gate. With his hands outstretched, he expertly grabbed her and aerially maneuvered himself from crashing into the ocean with her.

The water barely skimmed his fur as he pulled up from the dive, "Got'cha!" he rejoiced, flying up into the air and trying to dodge the cold winds blowing him back down. "It's like it's sucking me in too!" Tails gritted his teeth, holding Rosy close before the winds knocked him back and he had to extend his reach on her.

The dragging force was enough to make his twirling tails feel like they were being pulled from Tails, and he had to keep twirling them or they'd surely be sucked into the whirlpool forming below.

His arms dangled as he struggled to keep his head up, fighting the dragging winds that threatened to pull them into the twisting blackness under the sea…

"Tails!" Rosy shouted out, "What's going on!?" She clung to him as best she could, but his grip weakened and she slipped. Instinctively, she grabbed his hands, and he nervously looked down to her, his eyes squinting at the strain this was taking on his small body.

"Didn't you get our messages?! Zooey said-!" Before he could finish, he noticed the rings that randomly formed where there should have been land. But since there wasn't anything left, they drifted through the air before falling into the pull of the strange, monstrous entity. Then something strange happened…

The closer they got to the mysterious darkness, the duller their gleaming, astronomical shine became. The substance looked as though trapping them in like distant sparkling stars being coated in its sinister hue. The radiant rings, even in all their brightness, were like speckled lights being dipped in its murkiness. And then… The rings blipped out of existence into the darkness, imploding in on themselves like rays in a black hole.

"The rings…" Rosy looked horrified as Tails continued to struggle in the air like a leaf hanging on desperately to a branch during a hurricane.

His body swayed left and right vigorously, "I…Grr, can't fight for… Raah-! Much longer..!" his grunts and strains led Rosy to assume he wouldn't be able to hold onto her much longer either. It wouldn't be long now till the inevitable happened, and they too would be turned into lights flickering out of all known existence in that swallowing dark galaxy below.

He tried to pull Amy up more towards him, but failed twice and was thrust down two steps closer to their demise.

He looked behind him, breathing heavily as he felt like something was about to rip his twin tails off from the powerful force dragging him towards the endless spinning cycle of oblivion. "It's not fading away at all!" Tails cried out, as though thinking it might just blip away like much of the world's energy when it's expended. This seemed to be otherworldly…

"Tails…" Rosy softly let out, turning to her long time friend as one of his hands slipped and now, only a mere set of hands held the two together from certain destruction. Worried once again for her life and her friend, she desperately wanted to cling onto the hopeful belief that Tails's strength would be enough to save them both. "Don't give up, Tails!" She called out, "Tap into Sonic's power! Remember, he called you a hero too!"

Tails squinted his eyes shut, remembering that heroic day he had fought all alone using Sonic's powers to defeat the sky pirates, Battle Kukku's armada, and the praise he received from him and the others at Checkpoint.

"I… I can't use it for this." He admitted, feeling the hopelessness restricting him. "I don't have any ground under my feet!" He appeared to have heard Sonic's advice similarly to how Rosy remembered it too.

"Then spin dash, Tails!" she reached into her quills and threw out a ring, storing items there as most hedgehogs store their things within their hair. It rapidly was pulled back in the whiplash, however, and they shot back with it. "Y'ahh!" she flailed a moment, but Tails—even in his terror of losing his grip and his friend—held on with pain-staking conviction. Though, momentarily fearing the worst, he was able to fly back and grab her and twist themselves back towards the falling Ring Gate. "Spin, Tails! Like your life depends on it!"

He felt the rain sprinkle against his eyes and fur, and with every amount of strength left in his being, he let Rosy fall to his tails. He grabbed her as she screamed a moment spun himself to give some power to his throw, tossing her towards the opening portal. She flung into the portal, reaching back for him, "Tails, nooo!"

Successfully, he had shot her through. He began to be thrown backwards towards the dark, spiraling abyss. Tumbling, he unclenched his jaw to see the terrible tornado of water forming beneath the ocean's surface like a cork being unplugged in a bathtub. The water rippled upwards as though imploding on itself, creating a funnel that sucked everything inside itself… only to disappear into nothingness. Fighting through the panic, Tails whipped himself into a tight ball as his twin tails hurled around his body. He was still falling back, the Ring Gate opened in front of him like a giant's mouth encasing him, also being sucked down and flopping forward towards the entrance of the strange fountain-top effect the water and substance had created.

Falling into the figurative 'eye of the storm' Tails finally released himself like a sling-shot into the ring gate, yo-yoing a moment as the vortex tried to suck them both back out of the Ring Gate. But the Ring Gate began to wane and soon… shut in a ball of light as Tails and Amy landed to the ground, exhausted and spent, and feeling their power almost ripped out of them for some odd reason…

"What... ha… ha… was that?" Rosy struggled to get her strength back, even enough so to get up and loop an arm around her best friend. She flopped over on his body, simply thankful she had not lost her trusted companion. "Also… Don't scare me… ha, ha… like that again." Rosy fell back to the ground and panted, "I thought you… ha… ha… sacrifice yourself for me… hah… hah…" Her eyelids drooped up and down with her breathing, but she was just so glad to have Tails on the other side of the Ring Gate, not knowing what had happened to it.

Tails, forcing one eye open, also gasped in what looked like determination to explain things. He laid on his stomach as Rosy flopped onto his back, "I … hah, went to investigate… Hah, a reading that Zooey and I found… The X-Tornado," he licked his lips, feeling his mouth dry for some reason now. "C-couldn't handle winds with these speeds… hah, hah, ahh… and you weren't answering." He pushed himself up, at last, and let her slip off of him.

He turned to look at her as her stomach bounced up and down in her breathing, her mouth open wide and her head fully drawn back to let in as much open air as possible.

Patting her with his tails lightly, he smiled fondly to her, "Anyways… Long time-," He wiped his mouth with his arm, "No see, Rosy." He seemed relieved to know she was safe now too.

"Readings..?" She looked up through the gaps in his rising and falling tails. They had been teleported to another bright and sunny land, but for how long would it remain this way?

Sensing Rosy was going to panic again, Tails tried to help keep her calm and wiggled the tip of his tail towards her nose. He chuckled as she giggled at the tickling touch, "Hahah! Stop it~" she cutely squealed in delight, covering her face and rolling over, kicking out her legs.

"Sweet as usual." Tails complimented, finally having some air back in his lungs. "You gave us all quite a scare… I'm glad I left when I did. Zooey had trouble pin-pointing your location… We almost didn't know if the Ring Gate was going to appear where it needed to in time."

"I thought… Whew," Rosy got up, but felt a little light-headed when she did so, gripping her head a second to regain herself. "That Ring power couldn't pin-point precisely?"

"We're working on figuring more stuff out. Time will tell." He shook himself free of the water residue and sighed, "That was technically a prototype."

"What!?" Amazed she was saved by happen-stance, Rosy got up and left her mouth wide-open in front of Tails.

He smiled kindly to her and nodded, "Don't worry, I would have risked everything to make sure you were okay."

She closed her mouth as it trembled, tears still forming on the sides of her eyes. "T-Tai-Tails…" She was overwhelmed by his friendship and jumped to embrace him. "You're the best!"

"Haha! H-hey, you are too." He patted her head, a little awkwardly, before helping her to move off of him. "We should report back to Zooey. She must be furious with us…"

"Oh yeah… I was supposed to be gathering data for her on the new land created but…" Rosy cut herself off.

They both turned to look at where the Ring Gate had once hovered… saving their lives.

"…Do you think Sonic and Mighty are okay?" she tilted her head towards Tails, letting her head rest slightly on his shoulder.

Like a doting brother, he leaned his own head against hers, looking quite unsure. "They'll be okay. They're more experienced at this than we are… I'm sure we'll find them soon."

The day had only just begun…

-Around the same time, but on another continent of Sonic's World-

Sonic trail-blazed through the sunny, fertile lands with a relatively relaxed sense of adventure. The beautiful, nature-filled wonders of his broken world were enough to satisfy the legendary hedgehog's need for change, excitement, and awe. The rings he gathered helped fuel him forward as his touch would have them transform into balls of light that he'd absorb to keep him running for so long. Nothing meant more to Sonic then racing freely across these dew-sprinkled meadows and spinning through the forest littered with old Eggman traps he loved to explode.

One after another, explosions skyrocketed into the air, sending Sonic into a zigzagging escape. Finally, the proclaimed hero stopped quite a distance away on some far-off hill to look back over his shoulder and tip his toe up at his accomplishment.

It was a life, one he made on his own, and would protect no matter what.

He felt cocky, rubbing a finger under his nose in his glee before gasping at a piece of the forest suddenly lighting on fire from the aftermath. Usually, his turbulence was enough to lash the flames out behind him, putting all threats to the environment out of Sonic's mind. With such great winds whipping behind Sonic, he could easily enjoy himself taking out Eggman's leftover scrap metal or traps without a worry or care in the world. But now the explosions were threatening what Sonic loved to protect the most, the natural plant life suddenly was engulfed in the blast he must have missed. "Not on my watch." He frowned deeply, narrowing his eyes as he bent himself down, bringing a fist up by the side of his cheek as he burst back through the forest. This time, the wake of his wind was physically manifested as though an arrowed, rippling wave of winds and a sonic boom that pushed the forest back and broke the flames from devouring their innocent and beautiful victims.

Sonic skidded to a halt and turned to look back, seeing a small piece of flame still lingering,… he walked over and scuffed it out with his foot, kicking some dirt over the burn it left behind and nodding with a smile.

He also looked over in pity for a flower that's stem had wilted slightly under the heated pressure, and tenderly used his fingers to rub the stem upright again, before sticking a twig next to it, helping it remain upright by tying the two together with some knots made of grass blades.

The flower's petals seemed to almost twirl a notch as though saying thank you with a wave.

He lovingly placed a finger on one of the rectangular petals, decorated as though sketched with a pencil, and then flicked it to start spinning again.

Once it did, he nodded at a job well down and dusted off his hands. Whik Whik Whik.

"That should do it." He smirked, "Now… Why would Eggman leave random traps for adventures to fall into? What is that mad mind thinking?" He put a hand to his chin and pouted, "I better warn Checkpoint about this… huh?"

He blinked as he heard a Ring Gate spinning open behind him.

He turned as though prepared for whatever may come, but his face showed of innocent curiosity.

"And you're sure he's pinpointed here this time?" A familiar sound, before Mighty the Armadillo stepped out of the ring and grinned to Sonic. "Speak of-! So it is!" he hopped a little to get his last foot out of the portal, a funny little gesture before the ring closed and he stood in front of Sonic.

"Long time no see." He greeted, extended his hand.

Sonic smirked too, extending his hand.

However, as Mighty went to reach for it, Sonic swiped it back, "Ha! Don't think I'll fall for that again!"

"W-what again?" Mighty made a slight sneer, not liking how rude Sonic was being all of a sudden.

"Last time we shook hands, you nearly crushed me! This time, I'll just pat your back." He winked and stood closer, patting his back in his goofy way.

Mighty sighed, "And I see you've been occupied by dangers, again." Mighty looked at the burnt forest, but Sonic just waved it off, removing his arm from around Mighty's shoulder in brotherly salutations.

"Ah, pay no mind to that. Eggman's still out there, you know." He began to walk off, but Mighty held out a hand to him.

"Hang on, Sonic! I've got some news to tell ya!"

"Aren't you usually the one who disappears and bathes in nature?" Sonic shrugged, not sure why he was so persistent in him hanging around. He raised an eyebrow, "What's got you so jumpy all of a sudden?" He was used to Mighty being rather relaxed and polite, this was a new side of him… He wasn't a big fan of 'worrying expressions'.

"It's forest-bathing!" Mighty argued, "And I love nature just as much as you do! But this is a crisis!"

Sonic folded his arms and pivoted slightly back to Mighty, "Well, get on with it. I don't like dilly-dallying."

Mighty took a breath in to relax himself, "Well, I don't like being pushed either…" He continued after relaxing his nerves a moment. He gestured out a hand to Sonic, "Have you heard about Zooey's readings lately?"

Sonic remained cool, as usual. "I don't really call in very much." He admitted, nonchalantly.

"That's not good." Mighty shook his head, then looked up back at Sonic. "Cause neither had I."

Sonic put a finger in his ear, itching around it and looking disinterested in the small talk.

"As you may be aware, the Ring Bond we made is still active. So I-"

Sonic turned his head and stuck a hand out, "If all this is going to be about things I don't want to hear then-"

"Dang it, Sonic! Let me get my message across!" Mighty stomped forward, asserting himself as Sonic pouted his lips and looked at him as though his intimidation had little to no effect on him.

"Then skip the theatrics and get on with it. Is everyone okay?" Now Sonic's smart-alecky, punk attitude changed as he straightened himself up, creating a neutral ground with him and Mighty as he was curious as to what was riling the young armadillo up.

Mighty spoke about the large islands getting blown up out of the sea, throwing the world's shifting plates out of proportion, and splitting everything up into pieces that eventually were swallowed by some dark mass got Sonic's attention real quick.

"-And so Zooey has instructed me that Tails was sent to learn more, but he hasn't gotten back yet… I was then sent to find him, but you know how unpredictable Ring Gates are. They ended up sending me to you, instead of Tails." He sighed again, putting his hands to his hip and shaking his head, looking a little upset by the turn of events. "I accepted it as soon as I saw you, but now I'm really worried… Where could he be? Why didn't he report in?"

Sonic thought a moment. Though he didn't want to admit it, he was a tad bit concerned too. He knew he had shared a Ring Bond with Tails before, so he hoped that was enough to keep him situated. But what if his power really didn't wane after awhile? Was everyone running around with his speed and unique skills?!

He didn't want to think about it, looking down and surmising the idea of denying the need to ever mention it again.

"We've had some good times together, Mighty… you may be unaware of this, too… but Tails has my spin-dash ability. He should be able to handle himself." He gave a masking thumbs-up, "Besides, he's usually off with that Rosy girl. She's tough too. Oughta be, if she wants to stay an adventurer." He relaxed a little bit too, trying to not let Mighty's nerves affect his usually chill ones too.

"Oh, that's a good point! Rosy's not reporting in either!" Mighty's anxiety seemed to spike just then. "I'm worried about them. They're kinda young for this exploring stuff."

"Old enough to joke about old times with though." Sonic was trying to not show how fidgety he had become. He didn't like hanging around for so long, even if it was good company… but it was more than that.

Tails? Rosy? They were both missing? It wasn't unusual for a pair of explorers to get lost and find their way back through a wild Ring Gate,… but with what Sonic just heard about the anomalies…

He couldn't help but get antsy in his feet.

"I haven't seen them since the Ring Bond…" He admitted, biting down on the word as he really didn't want to talk about it.

"What? Rosy got a Ring Bond with you too!?" Amazed, Mighty ducked his head down to try and look at Sonic's expression. "I assumed... S-since she was a hedgehog..."

Sweat dripped slightly down the side of Sonic's face, feeling awkwardly scrutinized for what he felt was no reason.

He put a hand out in front of himself and turned more to the side, frowning. "Nosy much? You'll duel my own nose at this rate!" he joked, but was slightly annoyed by all the foul news. "Besides, you should have recognized my own power in her by now." He tried to change the subject, but couldn't think of anything to say, so just kept looking away, "Makes you sound a bit oblivious, pal."

"Hmmm... I vaguely recall..." Mighty looked away, a bit shaken by what Sonic implied but realized he probably just didn't think much of it. "Well, anyway, at least I know they have something to protect themselves... If Rosy and Tails are out there… with all this havoc going on…" Mighty looked down, gritting his teeth. "Even Knuckles is MIA…"

"Knuckles, too?" Now Sonic fully engaged himself in the conversation, walking more over to his side, "You mean… He's not on Angel Island?"

"No one's been able to successfully make a Ring Gate appear at Angel Island! We don't even know if it's hovering around anymore." Mighty tensed up, but Sonic placed a hand on his shoulder.

The two looked at one another, a moment of understanding, and immediately, Sonic calmed Mighty down.

"We'll find them." He stated firmly, like the natural born hero he was. He looked out towards the land he had momentarily been cruising on. "What was Tails's last location? And Rosy's?"

"That's the thing… Where Rosy was… and where Tails was sent too… it doesn't exist anymore." Mighty's face shifted to grief, and that's when Sonic's eyes grew a bit wider.

"They'll make it."

Mighty's head shot up and turned to Sonic.

"…Tails is pretty smart, he wouldn't let himself get caught up in all that." Sonic's face seemed hidden by a sudden shadow that came from a fluffy cloud above. The winds were changing… blowing a little more chiller than before against Sonic's and Mighty's face.

"And you know that rascal," Sonic spun around with a confident smirk on his face, not letting fear dictate his path. "She'll never change." He winked and gave his friend a thumbs up. "It's a new adventure! Let's find our pals!"

"Y-yeah!" Getting pumped from Sonic's contagious and hopeful spirit, he went to give him a fist pump but knocked Sonic back as he skidded against the forest floor.

It was quite comical because Sonic's face shifted from the brave, inspiring, and heroic friend to the now wide-eyed, naïve and confused look of someone who's been punched several feet to the side.

"Sorry!" Mighty cried out, "I can't always control my strength!"

"Darn, Mighty…" Sonic rubbed his shoulder, looking a bit hurt from that but smiling nevertheless. "How many boulders do you lift a day?"

Mighty snickered at the joke before slyly opening one eye to tease him right back, "You mean break in half?"

The two laugh a moment, mostly to take the edge off their clearly concerned feelings towards their lost friends.

After a moment, Mighty looks to the flower that Sonic helped upright and kneels down by it, also placing a hand out to feel the light wind it carried from its gentle twirling.

"… Still… I'm worried about them. I can't help it." His eyes drooped a little as Sonic rotated his shoulder a bit to get the pain out. He stopped just behind his friend, also watching the flower.

"They've proven to be strong, Mighty. Without any of ours, or Checkpoint's, support." Sonic tried to remain optimistic but also level-headed; he didn't want to see Mighty so downhearted.

"I know that." Mighty sighed out, letting his hand drop to the ground as he rubbed the light vegetation it had springing out from it. "But support is always nice to keep around."

Sonic scratched his head a moment, thinking back to his many adventures with the two…

Although he had barely known them, they were close to his heart. He just didn't like admitting it or openly talking about it.

Patting the air comfortingly, he decided to opt for comedy again. "Come on, Mighty. You're being too serious! Let's just go already and find them! I bet they're just playing around like usual. Maybe even taking out some baddies while they're at!" He tried to show they didn't need to worry so much about the unknown, but Mighty still seemed to be in deep thought.

"Inevitably… we may run into that mysterious vortex… or they may have already!" He shook his fist and looked at it, growing angry. "If anything happened to them-! I would blame myself." He closed his eyes. "I'm a lot stronger than they are… if I can't protect them, I'll never forgive myself."

"…You care very deeply about your friends and this world, Mighty… but don't forget!" Sonic sped up to stand behind the flower, making sure Mighty saw him too. "I do, too!" He pointed a thumb back at himself and grinned charismatically. "If I offer you my hand, will you not crush it?" He offered the hand again to him.

Mighty's eyes softened before he nodded fiercely, turning his eyes into a tough devotion and determination to find them all safe and sound.

He placed his hand carefully into Sonic's and Sonic helped him up to his feet.

The flower lightly blew in the wind between them…

"I know you don't like hearing it, Sonic… But being with you again… I feel your powers still resonating in me. We're still not sure how this all works, but I feel your nature and the things you stand for help trigger it."

Sonic rolled his eyes, frowning, and choosing not to respond to that.

They took off, racing through the land before a powerful force trips Sonic backwards, his rings suddenly flying out like balls of light and turning into their proper forms again.

"Whaa! What happened?!" Mighty called out, still holding Sonic's hand before reaching up for the rings. If he let go, he knew Sonic would take off without him, besides, Sonic was the quickest way to finding anyone! With that speed, where could he not go to look?

The ring he reached for tilted and flew off as the winds began to grow stronger.

Sonic, amazed a moment that he just lost all his rings, looked out into the meadow beyond, and put a hand up to look further out into the distance.

Dark storm clouds…

Cold winds…

Raging waves splashing high up from way into the distance where the land ended…

"It's like they're being drawn somewhere…" Mighty mentioned, not noticing what Sonic was looking at, and watching the rings fly off. He moved his head in their direction, watching before gasping at the scene Sonic was studying.

"I haven't seen nature move this fast before…" Sonic gritted his teeth, "Everything is magnetizing into that one central location… Is it Eggman?"

"I-I don't think so." Mighty stepped forward, letting Sonic's hand go as a Ring formed between them and they quickly caught it.

Looking to one another, Mighty reached out and grabbed another Ring, the sky being full of them flying off towards the direction beyond.

They tapped the rings to create the balls of light that had once made their Ring Bond, but this time, it simply connected them to each other.

"Just in case…" Mighty warned, and with a warrior's spirit, gave Sonic one final look.

Sonic agreed with a nod, but turned his frown towards the ring…

He didn't like sharing so much… but he figured, for now, he needed to get used to it.

Mighty held a device up to his mouth, "Checkpoint? Yeah… It's Mighty, Zooey… I know Tails advised against this, but… Send in the Biplane. I'm requesting the X-Tornado."

"Oh no! Don't think you're leaving me out of this! Oh… O-Oh dear, I hope that wasn't super pushy or rude…" Zooey's voice came through the mic, and both Sonic and Mighty smiled nervously to her contradicting nature. "B-but I'm going to pick you up, anyways!"

Sonic looked to Mighty, "Kinda persistent on joining the cause, eh?"

"She's been itching to get out here ever since Tails disappeared…" He hinted at, but Sonic didn't seem to understand the implied meaning. He turned his head, unsure what Mighty was getting at.

"And?"

Mighty just sighed again, not sure how to explain it to Sonic. "She misses everyone."

"A worry-wart too, huh?" Sonic kid and nudged Mighty, who smiled compassionately back towards him.

"Just be safe, Zooey. We'll wait for you to pick us up here."

"Roger that! I'll be right there! Ohh… Come on, Ring Gate! Work for me, you can't be 50-50 all the time!" the mic shut off as the two boys had sweat drop awkwardly from the sides of their faces.

"Whelp, it's a real rescue mission, now." Mighty put the device away after sending her their location, but Sonic shook his head.

"It's not a rescue team if there's no one to rescue." He leaned a bit forward, as though implying that Rosy and Tails may just be fine.

Mighty straightened up his back, then turned back to the storm clouds ahead. "Yeah… Maybe."

The ground shook suddenly and the two tried to keep their balance, the Ring Bond between them holding them stable as Sonic looked to see the ground start breaking off and being hurled down beyond the horizon.

'The Sea..?' he thought to himself. "Mighty, I think you better tell me everything about Zooey and Tails's research into this thing!" his voice's tone blared his urgency.

"R-right! Not much is known about it, it's like a black hole but it's not!"

"Not?"

The ground began to tremor even more violently, and the two reached down to grip it, bending to a knee.

The vibrations traveled all throughout their body, and finally, Mighty had just enough sense to continue.

"According to Zooey's theory… it may be the opposite of a Ring Gate!"

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Sonic, fighting the effects of the aftershock, still couldn't quite get a hold of himself.

"It means-!" Mighty looked to see the crumbling earth getting closer to them. "Run!" he yanked the ring in his hand back, sending the force down through the floating line of lights before pulling Sonic up and to his feet, tossing him to land.

When he did so, he reeled his legs into a figure-8 and dashed as soon as his feet—like spinning tires—hit the ground.

They raced away from the pulling effects… but Sonic's feet soon were back in the air, and the two hovered suspended till the force of the winds tried to suck them towards the falling earth.

"Ahhh!"

Bursting into existence, a bright circle looped out into space as a star-shaped x-tornado jetted into Sonic and Mighty's way. "Hold on!" A voice called out as it spun itself to avoid collision and turned swiftly, with great precision, to catch Mighty and Sonic as they were flown back.

"Offph!" the two slammed into one of the star-point wings.

Gripping on, they smiled as they saw Zooey through the slightly tinted plane's cockpit, winking to them cheerily. "I hate missing a cue!"

"That was fast, and that's saying something coming from me," Sonic smirked before looking back down as the plane arched its turn to get out of the suction itself.

"I took a chance getting here. It really wasn't easy, but I figured I had to act fast. Besides, Tails and I were already making a backup plan to find Sonic if all went south." Suddenly, the wind pushed the X-Tornado back. "Ah!" Zooey reflexed and groped for the turbo-engines, but she was now pinned back by the G-force.

Mighty and Sonic couldn't move either, getting pressed against the wing, they grunted out sounds of discomfort as they were also being squished.

She squinted an eye open and tried to take stunted breaths, then gathering all her strength to grip the horizontal 'T' shaped stick and pulled it out.

The engines roared as power began to be stored directly into their dual-units.

Shakily placing her other hand on the one gripping the lever, she pushed it back with all her might, "I won't… give uuuupp!"

Her cry went well with the sudden explosion that skyrocketed the X-Tornado out from being wobbly sucked into the dark vortex, and the three managed to break from its pull and fly high into the atmosphere.

Zooey wasn't one for strength, however, and as Mighty and Sonic began to lose their grip in their exhaustion as well… she slumped back in her chair.

The Plane began to slowly glide into a dive… before a signal caught it and began to auto-pilot the plane towards a new Ring Gate.

The plane's main computer showed: NEW PILOT ACTIVATED. DIRECTIVE – ANGEL ISLAND.

-Back with Tails and Rosy-

"Just don't look down!" Tails gripped the side of what looked to be an island's remains as the rest of the neighboring land was completely enveloped into the black ocean…

Rosy peeked from having her arms tightly secured around the pointed cliff pillar, looking back towards the sea. "What is that? Why would it destroy such beautiful islands?"

"I don't know… but look!" Tails pointed and the winds began to blow gentler. "It's like it's charging up… That seems almost-" His eyes scanned the skies before an epiphany hit him. "Like a machine!" he dove down towards the sea, scaling just inches above the cliff they were previously holding onto.

"Tails! W-wait for me!" Unable to get her footing right, Rosy stumbled a bit and looked down in a bit of fright at the towering height of where she was standing… face-up, hugging a cliff's peak. "Ohhh… Just my luck. Every time something cool is happening, I'm always in the rut of things… TAAAILLLSS!" she cried out again as Tails finally spun up and gave her a slight pout.

"If you keep complaining all the time, Sonic will never see you as a true adventurer." He scolded, waiting for her to figure out her own way down.

"Oh! How rude!" Rosy stuck out her tongue at him. "Besides, it's not like all of us have genetically awesome tails!"

"Nope! That's just my luck!" He winked in a bit of a gloat, mimicking Sonic by rubbing his pointer finger underneath his nose and turning his head away and up high. After his kid, he offered her his hands, "Come on, then. I'll help you down. Don't let go, okay?"

"Em-hmm. Thank you." Rosy, happy he wasn't really going to strand her there, jumped into his arms as he gently hovered down again to the water's surface.

"Woah…" Rosy looked to see the sea seemed bottomless now… "Did it… swallow the land below the sea too?"

"It looks like it ate everything, even below sea-level." Tails confirmed, also trying to see through the murkiness of the deep blue. But as he got too close, Amy's nose dipped into the water and she flailed.

"Oh! Sorry about that!" Tails pulled up instantly, but Rosy gave him a grumpy glare, her white leotard dripping with cold water.

"Are you sure it's wise to go straight to its epicenter?" Rosy questioned as he finally made his way to where the soft swirling tide began to shift on towards the next land in its path. The suction wasn't as strong anymore, and it did seem to be floating on…

"Hmm… Ah! Do you see that! Swirling in the mist there!" Tails saw a glimmer of hollow blackness like a hoop turning on an axis. "It's spinning so fast… but I can see it kinda looping into an oval and reverting back to a circle… Like a-!"

The two immediately shouted out together, "Ring!", "Ring?" Rosy tilted her head.

"But I've only heard of gold rings." Rosy admitted, "Then, of course, that Dark Ring Eggman tried to make."

"Of course!" Tails exclaimed, lifting Rosy and himself higher above the device. "It failed!"

"Well, yeah. But what does that have to do with it?" Rosy didn't like being kept out of his head, so she waited a bit more patiently to hear what else he was thinking of. "A ring for your thoughts, Tails? I wouldn't mind being in the know too, okay?" she innocently asked, but seemed to be suffering in annoyance, and Tails could certainly hear it in her undertone.

He sighed, "Sorry, what I mean is… I think Eggman's failed experiment might have been tossed aside but is now functioning in a new capacity… aside from Eggman's original influence…"

"But how does that make it able to make islands completely vanish?" Rosy lifted her arms up and wide, showing the magnitude of its new power.

"Hmm… Maybe… The Dark Ring was meant to be a foil to the Rings connection with the Master Emerald, which gives unlimited power to whoever has the bond with it… right?" Tails was piecing things together while also carefully studying the moving sea below him. He wanted to be safe and careful, but all he could see was his own reflections and Rosy's… The black ring must have moved on. "I'm wondering if this thing creates anti-matter…"

"You can't create what's there," Rosy argued, blinking up to him with a bit of a child's furrow, as though wanting to understand but finding some holes in his thinking.

"Em-hmm. Good point." Tails nodded, "So maybe it destroys matter already existent, leaving nothing but a void behind…"

"But wouldn't that mean it's destroying the sea continuously?"

"Not continuously, no." Tails flew a bit more after it, not wanting to lose sight of it. If he could track it, then they might have a way to study it and turn the strange device off. "You can't spontaneously create matter, but you might be able to randomly destroy it. I have a theory, it's a bit of a long-shot, but it might be slowly destroying the sea… but the molecules would take forever… that's why the wind and everything rushes so fast… it even destroys the atmosphere around it."

"But what about the storm clouds?"

"Ring energy is still a big mystery, maybe… Maybe this whole planet has secrets to its life force, and this thing is tapping directly into it and killing it as fast as it can… though this world has so much in it, its probably unable to take it down in one big gulp." Tails gulped then, fearing his own words. "That means we have some time but… the more we hesitate, the worst things get. And you can't bring matter from nothingness…"

"T-Tails…"

Tails could feel Rosy shivering slightly in his arms, and quickly fumbled to try and make the situation less dire. He had been careful in watching the experimental Dark Ring's movements, but unwisely inconsiderate of how desperately serious his words were… he had frightened her and left her without hope to return the world the way it used to be. "D-don't worry, Rosy! I-I-I have another theory that could help, too!"

Rosy sweetly turned her head back to him, her eyes shining with a will to find hope, even in this dark realization…

Tails felt the weight of that stare on him… and even if he wasn't sure this was accurate, took a deep breath and gave her a stern look of faith. "The Master Emerald… it's the source of power and Chaos energy in this world. If Sonic is the only one with a Ring Bond to it… he may be able to cast limitless stocks of energy into the world. He could save it, canceling out the effects of the Dark Ring if we could just figure out how to stop it… otherwise… it may be an endless yin vs. yang…" Tails looked a bit worried again, but Rosy had enough to believe in now.

He looked on, not daring to look back and feel disappointed in himself if he failed to spark some light of hope in her. But without realizing it, he had given her just enough to remain cheery and optimistic.

"Yeah! The answer is Sonic and his amazing Ring Bonds!" Rosy bundled up her fists and looked encouragingly towards the horizon of Angel Island. "Ah! That's Knuckles's island!" She exclaimed, "It's heading there already!?"

"What?" Tails squinted his eyes to try and see that far. "How can you see that? It can't be Angel Island."

"It's an island and it's floating, give me that much." Rosy folded her arms, muttering coldly as she didn't like the fact that Tails kept doubting her at times. In fact, all the boys tended to contradict her, but she knew what she meant and what she meant to do!

"We've got to warn the others! Maybe Checkpoint can help!" She pulled out a ring and tossed it in the air, "Come on! Help has to-!" immediately, the X-Tornado drifted through the ring at high speeds and arrowed itself into the sea…

After a moment of shock from Rosy and Tails's end, the X-Tornado lifted up and floated in a soft drift towards the island…

The main dashboard read: OBJECTIVE ACHIEVED. LOCATED IDENTITY: TAILS. PILOT: ZOOEY'S DIRECT PRIORITY SUCCESSFUL. RELOCATING… RELOCATING… NEW OBJECTIVE: SAFE BASE LOCATION. CLOSEST LANDMASS: ANGEL ISLAND.

It's thrusters suddenly engaged and it's nose shot up as it was blown through the water towards the island.

"Waahhh!" Rosy and Tails quickly flew away from the gushing water and followed the plane. "Wait! Stop! Come back!" they hollered after it.

"Is that..?" Rosy's eyes suddenly shook as she saw Sonic and Mighty drifting up from the sea, unconscious. "Tails! Stop! Turn back!"

"But my plane…" Tails whined, not wanting to abandon it but then feeling Rosy's hands grab at his face to turn his gaze back towards their floating friends. "Ah! Sonic! And Mighty too!? Then… Who's flying the plane?!"

"No time for that!" Rosy kicked and was immediately released from Tails's grasp.

"No! Rosy!" he watched her crash into the water, quite a drop but she broke half the fall by using a wobbly Sonic Spin-dash and skidded across the ocean's surface like a thrown flat stone.

The water was dragging Sonic and Mighty's bodies gently towards the Dark Ring, and with great effort, she treaded the water to reach them.

She spat out the salty water and grabbed both Mighty and Sonic, flipping them over her shoulders to give them something to float onto. "They won't wake up!" She cried out to Tails, who hurriedly scooped Sonic up from the water, then turned back to Rosy, "I can't hold more than one…"

"The island is still so far away…" She looked back at the long stretch of sea and the tedious riptide the failed Dark Ring had created. "…Hmph!" Puffing up a side of her cheek, she made her decision and wasn't going to back down from it.

She gripped Mighty's arms around her neck and began to swim.

"R-Rosy..? What are you doing?" Tails asked, still holding a limp Sonic down in his grasp, like a bee trying to carry a grape.

He followed after her, watching her spit out water some more and continue to fight the pull. She didn't answer him, and that's when he realized what impossible feat she was trying to do.

"You can't be serious!" he called out, but no answer. He flew down beside her, "Rosy, even with Sonic's super speed, you can't move that well with it, and especially in water… It makes his speed sluggish and only wears you out. I'm sure we'll find a different solution…" Tails waned in his words, realizing that this was probably the only thing they could do at this point. He couldn't carry more than one at a time, and by the time he reached Angel Island and back, Rosy and Mighty could be pulled into the mutated, defective Dark Ring and gone forever.

Again, with silent resolve, Rosy kicked her feet into a spinning figure-eight, not backing down in her convictions even for one second.

'Sonic always taught us, as long as you have ground under your feet, you can run!' she thought to herself, her vision going blurry as she tried to steady her movements. The ocean was freezing, and even with her boundless energy, her body couldn't quite keep up with her spirited moxie. She was moving in an 'S' formation, making it hard to steer her fast-moving feet accurately within the sea. Mighty's body was now held by one of her arms, and in order to keep him upright, she had to push herself down in contrast.

Her legs were up and down, unable to get enough lift to speed off like a motorboat, which is what she wanted… but also not enough to keep her upright and not drown in trying to keep Mighty afloat.

"Rosy…" Tails watched on in brotherly concern. "You can do it, Rosy! Fight on!" he cheered, realizing that was the only thing he could do at this point.

Rosy got her first real gasp for air and then fell straight back under the waves. She could feel the pull from the Dark Ring's vortex, but at least it wasn't as strong as when it was full on devouring a shifting island!

'I don't have ground under me… but I sure do have something else!' She felt her lungs squeeze in need of another breath… But she held it in, closing her eyes and trying to get her feet to propel her out of the sea… She pictured it, skating across the sea! If she just…

'I have…An unshakable will!'

In Tails's hands, Sonic's heart—his core—began to slightly radiate with ring energy. In Rosy's core and heart, his ring energy transferred through glowing lights all throughout her body. Like a bubbling of fizzy soda, they soared through her and her legs began to move more accordingly with the rest of her body. No more clumsiness, for a split second, she had more power and control over Sonic's speed than ever before!

She came out like a comet from the water, racing across its surface and holding Mighty from the front now.

"Woah!" Tails's mouth was completely agape, amazed by her rocketing form shooting in a jagged wave through the blue and straight towards Angel Island.

'This… feeling-!' Rosy's eyes shone with love at the high-speed exhilaration. 'I remember this feeling..!' she felt her quills move with the winds, the fun of her wet feet almost gliding over the surface. 'It's Sonic's freedom! I feel it! I've known it before!' She cried out a 'Yahoo!' and continued to make her way speedily towards the floating Island.

"Race you there, Tails!"

"Hey, no fair! I can't use Sonic's speed with my tails!" Tails joked but was truly happy for his friend. 'She's been trying so hard to harness his ability… I'm proud of her.' He looked down at Sonic, 'But… I bet he'll be a little taken aback she can still use so much of his powers.' Tails gave a half-tilted smile, knowing Sonic was even hesitant to share a Ring Bond with himself.

Tails shook his head, 'We'll cross that bridge when we get there… and if this… I don't know, leftover black hole, ruined ring experiment thingy keeps making a black hole the size of a puny ring or worse, bigger than a ring gate-!' Tails's eyes shrunk with his anxiety and overthinking, but tried to focus himself on Angel Island again, realizing he was sinking down towards the water with his negative thoughts, 'N-Nevermind that! Tails, focus! I'm not sure how Eggman created it… but apparently, he once fused it with Metal Sonic… that destroyed not only him but created some kind of catalyst for the Black Ring to become a real threat! It's slow-moving now… considering the size and power of our planet, but if it keeps pulling and trapping all the ring energy within it… who knows what could happen!'

"Tails!" Rosy waved to him as she had grabbed onto one of the hanging vines from the island's bottom rocks. "Taaailllsss!" She waved it more vigorously, her limitless cheer having never ceased, even while trying to swim through the dangerous riptides of the sea.

"Rosy… I can't let anyone down!" He narrowed his eyes, "I have to stay alert and sharp, I'm sure Sonic will think of something too! I'm not the only one here… I don't have to be the guy with all the answers…" He began to speak out loud, as Sonic's eyes slowly blinked open, weakly coming to. "If that ring continues its course, me and Rosy's Ring Bond with Sonic might disappear too… All energy could vanish, including life as we know it! We can't let that happen! A-although, I don't know how life and the rings tend to coincide, but that doesn't mean we can just sit here and do nothing!" He flipped his watch on, and Sonic watched groggily and wearily as Tails held him up and against his chest to try and reach it. "This is Tails to Checkpoint! We've located what appears to be an Anti-Matter Ring! It's the byproduct of Eggman's failed Dark Ring experiment and Metal Sonic's Ring Bond! At least, that's the idea I could come up with on the fly… anyway… Still! We need back up, we need anyone that we can get! This whole world's existence-and its powerful life sources-are at stake here!"

Unknown to Tails… This radio transmission was intercepted at an island far away from their current peril…

In a mountain carved with a big, angular nose and humongous mustache…

Sat a tyrant with glee springing from ear to ear…

"Reeallly~?"

With his hands intertwined together, a surprised Eggman wiggled his mustache at this new discovery. "I accidentally created an Anti-Matter Ring? Now, who would have imagined that!" He jumped from his chair, sinisterly rubbing his pointer finger and thumb against his long facial hair. "Why, I did, of course!"

He jumped with his long legs like a skip over to his machines, bounding with his egg-shape body jumbling awkwardly towards a keyboard. Typing fast, he pulled up different sea-faring charts and finally found the abnormality.

"Wha..?!" His mustache deflated as he lifted his frantic hands up from the keys, "I did that..? I mean, of course, I did that… but that!?" He zoomed in on the areas that used to have landmasses floating around in their normal shifting climates… but now…

"Oh, dear… Look at all that empty space…" More and more locations showed up, with the past images in a square beside it and flashing in broken, dotted lines to show that the land didn't exist anymore.

Then… a cruel smile formed upon the big egg-shaped villain's cheeks. A grin that could only mean one thing…

A truly rotten plan.

"I'm pleased to bits! Thrilled!" He spun around and rushed to the garbage can, diving in and digging around to pull out odd and in things before finally-!

"Ah-ha!" he brought out Metal Sonic. "By this point, I should really stop attempting to throw you out." He tossed the hulking husk to the ground and rushed over to another pile of metal scraps, shoving them away to reveal some containers with egg-shaped robots shadowed inside…

"Hehehe… hohoho…! With all this, I'll be able to build my Eggman Empire right above the now nonexistent islands! I'll forge a completely metal world out of the one the… what did that blasted fox call it..? Oh, yes! The Black Ring, cleared for me! HAHAHA!"

It was the possibility a villain dreams about, hopes for, and desperately wishes on a star to receive…

Then, during his wondrously evil boastings… which he honestly didn't deserve… His computers fired out a siren's wail and red flashed a warning across every light source.

"Hmm? What's this?" Eggman, slightly worried, turned around to see what was wrong. "And I was in the middle of my happy gloating too!" He stomped over to the computer and began to type things out, but warnings continued to spread across the screen.

"…Oh… That's…" His glasses shone with the red light as the words read out their error.

WARNING! WARNING! IMPLOSION IMMINENT. EVACUATE WORLD.

Eggman scratched under his chin, "Hmm… With the rings power always fluctuating on itself, and the world constantly moving and creating more of this strange occurrence of limitless power… if the Anti-Matter Ring is randomly alternating the normal range of these power levels… Then the delicate balance of this world will begin to falter and ultimately fail. So? What's that got to do with me?" Eggman shrugged, wondering why the computer was flipping out.

WARNING! WARNING! UNKNOWN POWER RELEASE IMMINENT. CATASTROPHIC UPHEAVAL OF POWER. WARNING! EVACUATE WORLD.

"Ah? A explosion? Oh, couldn't you just speak in plain English, if you please~" Eggman gestured to the computer, then clicked a button rather skillfully with his finger.

YOU IGNORANT SACK OF YOKE, WARNING! GET OFF THE PLANET! ENERGY EXPULSION WILL RESULT IN PLANET WIDE RECONSTRUCTION. ENERGY WILL IMPLODE ON ITSELF. SUPERNOVA. RUN, YOU FAT EGGFACED MASTER, RUN! ALL MORTAL BEINGS FEAR! FLEE! IMMINENT MEANS NOW!

"Hmm… A little too plain." Eggman made a side frown and then quickly blocked the computer's pop-up warning. "If the energy does expel into the world, the perfect way to stop it is to seal its power into something else for the time being… Can't just launch it into space, so why not have something contain its magnificent properties?" He held out a hand towards Metal Sonic… "And who better to harness the power of a planet than a machine that has already wielded such great power before? However… this will be like nothing any living thing or immortal machine has ever experienced before! What a fitting way to finally triumph over Sonic The Hedgehog..! Once,… and for all!"

But it wasn't just Metal Sonic Eggman was referring too... he began his diabolical schemes, starting up his laboratory and beginning a devious work on a few other Egg-shaped masterpieces...

-Angel Island-

"They're still out cold..." Rosy, tenderly attending to the two unconscious heroes, placed some warmed cloths over Mighty and Sonic's foreheads. Sweetly, she sat by their heads and waited patiently for Tails as he continued to fiddle with his wrist device.

"Grr... It's still acting funny! It's like, something else is receiving the signal!" Tails seemed very much absorbed in his device, but next to him lay Zooey, who was also sleeping after getting knocked out.

The X-Tornado biplane had successfully landed on Angel Island, beating both Rosy and Tails to the finish line. It was banged up just enough to show some wear and tear, but overall, it was still in fighting shape.

Tails was trying to boost his signal through the plane's communication channels, but again, nothing seemed to respond.

Rosy sighed, seeing Tails so caught up in fixing his tools that she gently moved Sonic's head to the tip of her knees. Humming what sounded like a peppy tune, she lightly stroked his quills on the side of his face.

He began to squirm a bit, and her eyes lit up like fireworks at seeing him fidget. "T-Tails! Tails, he's-!" She leaned up a bit, seeing his eyes squint slightly and looked to Tails once again, her tail wagging in excitement but stilling once she noticed Tails still wrapped up in his own task.

"Ohh... Well, Sonic-! Ah..." She reverted her attention to Sonic, but he softly turned his head and seemed to fall back into his slumber.

Once again, she pouted and sighed, leaning back down. "Guess you guys had a big adventure without us..." She dipped her head, "I always miss out on the fun!" she puffed up her cheek in defiance but then quickly shook it away, shaking her head to match her inner emotions. "That's alright, Sonic! Fate brought us together again! Rest as much as you want, and I'll protect everyone while you regain your strength!" she felt the weakness in her arms, the heaviness of her own eyelids, but ignored it almost completely.

She had swam a long way, only to then climb up the vines enough to sit on an overly large root beneath the floating earth. Tails quickly came down after dropping Sonic off next to the X-Tornado, which had skyrocketed up and landed near a patch of dirt and grass, just outside the forested path towards the Master Emerald.

She knew she wouldn't last long without sleep either... but that Black Ring Vortex wasn't going to rest, coming at an ever-steady pace towards the island, slowly sucking the life out of the sea and world as they knew it.

She patted her cheeks to try and scold the sleep away, as Tails finally did make his way back over to her.

"I can't understand it... No matter how much I fiddle with it, the signal is strong but still isn't passing through." He shook his squarish board as though hoping it would magically hit some circuits together and make the signal reach Checkpoint.

"Don't fret, Tails. That doesn't solve any of the world's greatest mysteries." Sweetly, Rosy tried to calm him down. Her smile never left her, and the gentleness in her eyes did help him take some breaths to relax.

"Thanks, Rosy. I'm just not used to... well, not fixing things!" He admitted, scratching the back of his head. "I just wish I could help..."

"Maybe we could make a Ring Bond!" Rosy jumped up suddenly, and the surprise of her uppity nature made Tails step back a bit.

"Wah!? For what reason?" He genuinely was always startled by Rosy's can-do spirit. It never failed to amaze him.

"Maybe with our combined powers, we could overcome the bad ring!" She bundled her fists together, eager to give it a try.

Sonic squirmed a bit again, his eyes squinting open in annoyance at being woken up by such loud conversations...

"It's absorbing ring power and everything connected, I guess, through it, Rosy..." Tails scratched the back of his head again, gesturing the reason he didn't think it would work, but gently trying to let the girl down. "Besides... What power could we lend each other?"

Rosy pounced up to Tails and grabbed his two hands, "Hope." she stared intently into his eyes.

Sonic blinked a bit and looked casually over to Rosy, seeing her from behind. He just appeared to want to listen... nothing more.

"Rosy..." Tails was touched by that but also felt it a bit optimistic. "Em. Okay, I'll give it a go." He nodded, "Can't hurt, right? Might as well try what we can, while we can!"

"Yeah!" Rosy nodded enthusiastically, as the two took out one ring for each other in their possession.

They closed their eyes as they held it out, and the rings seemed to glimmer and form into one ring that seemed larger than normal. Their hands, as though unchanged, we're now gripping two sides of the ring's curve. "Ready?" Tails opened his eyes, smiling to her reassuringly. "Now, if this doesn't work... don't be too disappointed in me, okay?" He gave her a friendly wink, hoping to soothe any frustrations she may have if her plan did fail. Which... he half-wondered if it would.

"Em!" Excited, Rosy felt the twinkling rays of the interconnected spirals around them, but as it started to fuse, it seemed to dim and fade away.

"Ah! What's wrong?" Rosy looked around at the balls of light twinkling away and drifting down... all in one direction.

"I knew it. It's not how this works." Tails sighed, "I guess only Sonic really understood that element..."

"They're all... gathering down there..." Rosy peeked at their direction, just slightly over the cliff as the twinkling lights fell below the surface of the water... disappearing into its depths... "The ring... must be getting closer..."

Tails sucked in a hesitant breath, not wanting to look. "I'm worried, Rosy. What if we lose our special connection to-" he paused himself, looking to Sonic as Sonic had re-closed his eyes a moment, feigning being asleep.

"Ah! T-that can't happen!" Rosy let go of the ring, afraid by what Tails may be implying. What if her unique bond with her adored hero, Sonic, was severed forever? The world she loved...

As her weary body begins to fail her fluttering heart, her steps falter near the edge of the floating island...

Her eyes shrink as she feels something pull her down and a few pieces of crumbling rock give way under her feet.

"Ah! Roooosssyyy!" Tails tried to swing the ring, thinking that she's still attached but realizes the ring has reverted back to normal. 'Oh no!' he dives to reach her.

A blue blur suddenly crosses his vision, and he's pulled back by the light as he blinks and puts an arm up over his face.

When he lowers it, he gasps as Sonic is holding Rosy back to the floating island, his hand outstretched and grasping her wrist, as the rest of her seems to be angled towards falling.

"S...Sonic..." She's pulled rather quickly up to him then, as he slings the arm around her waist and wiggles his iconic finger up by his face.

"Hasn't anyone ever told you not to play around the edges?" his cool demeanor quickly sweeps her up in hearts that-in her vision, anyway...- fly out and dangle all around her.

"My hero~" she bundles her hands up by her face and dreamily watch him gently place her back. He waits a moment with his hands out, making sure she has her balance again on both feet and then turns to Tails.

"You two sure like to make a racket. What's this about a Black Ring?" he placed the back of his wrist leisurely against his hip, keeping up appearances, as always, effortlessly around these two doting hero wannabes.

"Oh boy, do we have the world to tell you..." Tails excitedly approached, but also quickly checked on Rosy. They hugged, and he continued as Rosy set her hand on his shoulder to continually comfort Tails that she was well. "Eggman's experimental ring he used with Metal Sonic, and possibly against you, I'd imagine... well, it started what I'm calling a Black Ring! A dark mass, like a black hole, is sucking everything the rings are apart of!" Tails got animated in his explanation, moving his arms out wide and flinging them in front of himself to demonstrate just how big this whole thing was.

"Everything connected to the rings, you say?" Sonic felt a tinge of concern, having already felt something as Tails and Rosy were attempting to make a Ring Bond with one another. "It's a bit rash to assume, but this Black Ring seems to be attracting a lot of attention. And it's more purple than black, from the looks of it..?" Sonic folded his arms, gesturing over the edge to reveal the ocean's typical blue had turned into a mass of purple, seeping up as though trying to hook the vines of the island...

"Oh wow, he's right!" Rosy exclaims as Tails quickly flies just a bit down to check it out.

"It's sucking the vines down! At this rate, if it reaches the roots, it'll pull the island down to it! The rocks will crumble away too!" Tails shouts from below, then rises back up to the gang. "Mighty and Zooey are still out, what do we do, Sonic?" fear was plaguing him, but he just didn't want to be the sole one thinking a plan through.

"You two were using my power again, right?" Sonic ducked his head, not liking to mention it.

It startled the two, worried they had done something wrong, and apologetically looked down at the ground.

"It... It never faded away." Tails admitted but knew that was something Sonic probably didn't want to hear. "B-but-!" He chimed up again, standing just a little bit taller now and being bold. "You're powers saved our lives, Sonic! Even without you there, we felt you in spirit!"

"Yeah! He's telling the truth, Sonic!" Rosy also piped up, not wanting her dear friend to stand alone.

Seeing the two again... seeing how much they've grown and truly become more than the simple adventurers he once met... He smiled, having seen so much potential in them and finally witnessing its fruition.

"I'm glad you're both safe." He closed his eyes and remembered the first time he met them, such hero worship he received from the two.

He reopened his eyes to see the confident explorers now before him, heroes in their own right, worried they were letting him down.

He didn't like thinking his power was being drained, but the overwhelming sensation of thinking his power could protect them even if he wasn't there..? It was enough to comfort him and leave him with great pride for his unique talents and gifts.

He unfolded his arms and gave them a signature wink and thumbs up, grinning widely. "Enough excuses, just don't let my power go lame!"

The two's faces lit up with joy, and they nodded in agreement, "You're so cool, Sonic!" They said in unison, and he flicked his long nose with his finger, soaking in the praise.

"Well... I don't like to argue, so... I'll have to take your word for that." He gave each a light pat on the head, as they turned to each other and placed their hands on their heads, gleefully fanboying and fangirling at the approving touch.

Sonic just rolled his eyes, hearing them laugh one to another. 'I may have said that... but I still feel a bit grumpy about it.' he looked down towards the purple ocean spot... stained with the Black Ring's influence trying to suck the island down. 'That thing looks like it's got a mind of its own... How do I combat it? It's not like I can swim.' he sighed to himself, "If we pull that ring out of the water... what would happen to the air?" He looked back to Tails, who stopped celebrating meeting his lifelong hero again with Rosy and quickly addressed him again, right away.

"I-I'm not sure... but if it manifested its enormous powers that me and Rosy saw again... I'd imagine it would be like a vacuum in the sky!" He seemed to think that worse than a whirlpool or hurricane.

"Hmm..." Sonic looked away, 'If that thing takes away my power... would Super Sonic even be enough to fight it?' he tried thinking it through, before turning to Tails and Rosy. "Listen, you two. I need all the power I can get with this thing around. So no more using my power. That thing drains ring energy and practically everything else, right? Leave my abilities to me then. I'll find a way to stop it."

He bent himself forward a bit as though trying to keep some authority, but Rosy and Tails both looked heartbroken at his statement.

They looked at one another and nodded in unison, then turned sternly to him. "We should all work together!" Tails stated.

"Yeah, you can't just leave us behind again! We're highly skilled adventurers now too!" Rosy squished her knees together in defiance, wiggling her body around to and fro to show her frustration with that statement. "We promise we'll always make your speed look cooler than anything else! Just let us help you!"

Now, with that stated, before Sonic could think of a good comeback to set some lines down, Mighty leaned up and gripped his head. The warm cloth falling into his lap as he looked at it curiously, "H-huh?" he searched around and found Sonic instructing the two.

Automatically thinking Sonic was probably in the right, he got up and stretched his arm by rotating the aches out of it, and came over to support. "I didn't really hear much of what you guys were talking about, but..."

"Mighty!" the two gave him open smiles, but then he took a teacher's stance and they knew they were about to get scolded again.

"He's not gonna be on our side... is he?" Rosy pouted, sad that he immediately sided with Sonic.

"They still just see us as kids." Tails sighed, his twin tails flowing downward to a halt.

"We understand you're both strong now, but maybe not experienced enough to handle all this world can throw at you. Circumstances be as they are, we were worried what trouble you two might have gotten yourself into." He folded his arms as Sonic nodded, but then made fun of Mighty by making a face that made the upset Rosy and Tails suddenly hide their snickering.

"We've got to prove ourselves again, Rosy!" Tails turned to her, whispering as he looked pumped to try. "They don't know what we've done or been through, I'm sure we can be useful to them if they just see what we can do!"

"Yeah!" Rosy raised her fists in the air, closing her eyes as her tail flicked with the starting of an engine.

Once the engine finally revved up, so did her tail and her excitement as she looked up to see the X-Tornado coming alive again.

"No time to waste scolding them, then." Zooey, from the cockpit, waved at the gang from her heightened seat. "Let them defend their right to explore this strange phenomenon... after all, they were probably in the crossfire of the ... what was it again? Black Ring as well?"

"An Anti-Matter device... Zooey, you believe in us!" Tails's eyes twinkled with appreciation just like Amy's thrilled anticipation to get out there already and help.

"Looks like I'll need the Chaos Emeralds." Sonic looked over to Mighty, cocky as ever with his expression, "Which means a certain Guardian I know will be dropping in any minute now..."

Just then- everything shifted.

"Wo-woah!" the island began to turn on its axis, causing the gang and even the X-Tornado to slide with the new shifting angle.

"What's going on!?" Zooey cried out, falling from the cockpit and hitting the plane hard as she tumbled off.

"Zooey!" Tails quickly flew up and grabbed her, helping her down as the Plane toppled over and rolled.

"I got it!" Mighty, sticking his feet hard into the turning ground, lifted both hands up to catch the plane's wing and stop it from fully falling over. The entire plane was over the ground, suspended in the air as Mighty caught it and tried to fight the force of the wind to bring it back down. The sheer size of the plane versus Mighty was a feat to behold and impressed both Rosy and Tails too.

"Thank you, Tails. I-I didn't mean to be a bother, but I hope borrowing your plane and setting a new priority in it wasn't too much for a worried friend..." Zooey held on tight to Tails, as he blushed a second and nervously began to stutter on his words.

"N-No, no problem!" he fidgeted a moment with her in his arms, but as soon as they laid down to grip the ground, his two tails helped give her sliding feet a place to situate themselves. "It's my fault for not calling you sooner!"

"Nonsense! If you two were caught up in this awful thing... Ohh, I'm just glad you're both alright!" she suddenly shouted over the increasing wind as the gang cried out when the Island fully turned to reveal the ocean below...

Like a foreboding, purple shadow over the sea... the Black Ring began to rise from its depths and bring a swirling, scaling cylinder wall of water with it. It continued to try and pull Angel Island down to itself, but although tilted, it still wasn't being flown down from its spot.

"The Master Emerald!" Zooey cried out, "It's keeping us above it!"

"But will it move on? Or just get stronger?!" Mighty called up to them, placing the plane down but struggling to keep there. It kept wanting to fly up and be thrown into the now tinted dark purple mass.

"We can't... give... up!" Sonic strained against the powerful wind whipping at his back quills, getting up and staring down the Black Ring from it's sucking mouth, trying to pull everything into it.

"This is my home... and it's not going anywhere!" Sonic formed a fist with his hand and jumped.

"NOOO!" everyone watched in horror as Sonic began to be pulled towards the spinning ring, growing in size again as it once did before.

"You can't just sucker-punch a black hole!" Tails cried out, terrified that he'd lose his hero.

Rosy's eyes were then full of tears, watching Sonic jump towards such a scary fate, "Soooniicc!"

"GRAAHHH!" A blast of red with a cowboy hat suddenly leaped up and joined Sonic in the air. Sonic looked over, shocked.

"Knuckles!"

"Hit it on its side! I'll knock it off with you!"

The echidna let out a battle cry of sorts and Sonic and him punched the ring out of the water vortex at the same time.

A 'ding'ing noise reflected the impact as the Black Ring was flung out and the water fell back to its surface, the Island regained its axis as Mighty cried out, "Hold on!" and helped the three back towards the X-Tornado's cockpit.

They hid behind it for now as the plane remained on its side, useless for the time being.

As Sonic and Knuckles drifted down from their swings, they noticed the flipping ring halt and begin to suck upwards, dragging the clouds down to it.

"Grr... This thing doesn't quit!" Knuckles spun around and grabbed Sonic mid-air, gliding back to his island...

"Knuckles, I need the-!"

"Not gonna happen, punk!"

The two landed where the others were, and Knuckles tossed Sonic away from him.

"Knuckles... you've seen what that thing can do, right? We have to stop it!" Sonic threw up a fist to show his mind wasn't going to be changed. "You have to help us! The whole world's at stake!"

"Hmph, sounds like another bogus scheme for taking my emeralds!" Knuckles folded his arms.

"Look at the sky!" Mighty gestured quite boldly back to the Black Ring, sucking everything down into it's spinning, gaping mouth. "If we don't do something now, all could be lost!"

"This world..." Zooey lightly touched the ground, a serene sorrow upon her face. "Doesn't a guardian stand to protect? Can't he look past the oath of sole purpose and see that this world needs his power? I know... umm... I'm aware that you're only in charge of your precious, ancestral island but-!" She tried to stand up, holding a delicate hand to her tender heart. "Please, Knuckles! We need the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald to help us stand and fight!"

Knuckles didn't seem happy about her pleading, but a softness came over his stubbornness, beating it out as he couldn't stand glossy eyes from someone needing his help. "Grr... I don't like someone threatening my island... I'll need an explanation before I can just hand over the power of the emeralds to you adventurers again." He gestured to Sonic, still bitter that he had to use them beforehand for other, similar reasons.

"So, you have to understand what the deal is then, before getting your haughty knuckles dirty?" Sonic folded his arms, not liking Knuckles's hesitancy. "That could merit the requirements of a coward who doesn't like to share." He scolded, wagging his infamous finger out towards him, mockingly.

"What did you say!?" Knuckles jammed his head up towards Sonic, but Sonic just leaned forward to push back, unafraid.

"Zooey, go on and tell him what he needs to know," Sonic smirked, seeing that Knuckles was more motivated to listen and do the right thing now.

Rosy picked up on the tension and hid her face slightly behind her bundled fists, looking between Knuckles and Sonic, "L-Let's not fight with each other..." She didn't like the contention between her friends, especially with her beloved Sonic.

Tails noticed Sonic was egging Knuckles on through a tactic of urgency, but he was surprised how well it was really working for him. "Sonic's pretty smart, Rosy." He lightly put a hand on her shoulder, getting her attention off their boyish brutishness and turning her sights to his tender eyes. "Knuckles needs a reason and Sonic's giving him a big reason to listen in on why he should help, you know?"

Rosy's slight worry over the two boys fighting seemed to be comforted and soothed over as she nodded understandingly, trusting Tails's explanation. "Okay, as long as we're all still friends just trying to help the world out."

"Right!" Tails encouraged her, seeing her smile return was more than enough for him to look back at Zooey and give her the same support to speak up too. He indirectly helped her concerns as well, as she nodded sweetly to him and stood up, holding onto the sideways plane as a shield from the winds above.

"We received disturbing readings that showed the energy levels were being manipulated in irregular intervals from their normal, sustainable and stable, fluctuation. Upon further investigation, Tails and Rosy discovered a polar-vortex drawing all matter of energy into nonexistence. This constant suction, crafted from the unfortunate leftovers of Eggman's contraption, the failed Dark Ring, caused a catastrophic anomaly where all of nature's natural resources are being destroyed continuously before they can regenerate fast enough to cancel out the polarities abnormality adequately-" She was losing him, his eyes were spinning around and around his head, before he finally closed his eyes and hit his two mitten hands to the side of his head.

"All I understood was the word-EGGMAN. So he's behind this again!" He swung his fist out, "That no-good, backstabbing, thieving liar!" he gruffed out.

Zooey put a finger up to her mouth, "Um..." She thought it rude to interrupt her but realized he wasn't getting it and looked to Tails. He smiled and nodded, and she decided to speak more in layman's terms. "Technically speaking... oh, how do I put this... It's storing ring energy and converting it into a type of... of... Anti-Ring matter!" She sprung her arms out, showing the magnitude of her predictions. "If it continues-no, when it gets done, it could either implode into a brand new, glamorous ring gate going who knows where into the universe and destroying this planet in the process, creating the most destructive ring gate the galaxy has ever had to witness! Or... simply explode and leave nothing within the realm of our known universe left..." She got gloomy then, a fake smile creeping up in muted fear on the side of her twitching cheek. She looked down, "If what I'm saying is right... then it's breaking down the individual molecules of the ring energy... all energy consists of it... and if it isn't channeled out... then it will blast through all things, breaking them down till it destroys them even to an atomic level!" she closed her eyes, squinting against the Armageddon she is suggesting. "We'll all... this world... the friends and adventures through this natural wonder of a world we've come to love... will cease to have even a sliver of itself left... It'll all be gone... forever." She fell back to her knees, having Mighty and Tails catch her and stare at her pitiful state as she began to realize the horrible consequences if this Ring isn't stopped.

"Explode?!" Sonic and Knuckles said in unison, looking to each other with shock... before it quickly changed to a serious tone.

"Alright then." Knuckles nodded, "So... the power would release itself into... uh... into..?" He looked back at her for help.

She put a hand up to her aching head, unable to fathom that kind of end. "Into an unknown form that could potentially endanger all life as we know it here... and everywhere near its radius of impact."

"We can't let that happen!" Tails took her hand that was against her head, surprising her as he held it reassuringly.

She gazed up at him, her eyes shining at his strong, believing determination. "Tails..." she lightly spoke, as though breathlessly swooning over the fox boy.

Rosy sees the ring, humming its awful tune in the air and gets up, walking around the plane as her quills move rapidly in the spiraling winds.

Sonic watches her and holds out a hand a moment, but hesitates as she walks by him and Knuckles. She looks at the flowers on Angel Island, the land springing with all kinds of life, like wispy strands of flexible colors that drift in her sights, the details on them all unique and original, the beautiful wonders of how things come to be.

As though on cue, a ring randomly manifested by her and she lightly reached out to grab it, but it was blown like a leaf into the winds and so were the petals of those beautiful flowers with their stunning colors and dances all blown out of their peaceful lives to be converted to a dark power within the foreign ring, sucking everything from everyone.

She hugged herself, realizing that her fear was turning to anger, and not liking the feeling...

"This world... is so beautiful... who would want to end it all!?" She spun around, her tears dropping from her eyes at last, but instead of flowing down, they flew up just like the petals from their flowers. They turned and spun into the dark ring, taking even her powerful emotions it seemed and metaphorically turning it against her.

She turns to Mighty, pleading, "We have to let as many necessary hands help in preserving this unique way of life!" She turned to Tails, "We've gotta ask Checkpoint for everyone to help! No matter what imaginary rank they're at! Even the most inexperienced explorer can lend a helping hand!" She moved to Zooey, "We have to fight... we have to keep this world alive. It's too beautiful and wonderful to give up on!" She turned with her eyes narrowed now to Knuckles, "Anything is possible!" she then looked tenderly to Sonic, as though asking him to declare her truth too. "So long as your feet are on the ground... and your will is unbreakable."

Sonic admired her a moment and then nodded at the strange sense of powerful beauty she portrayed in her stance and words. He nodded to her, giving her that recognition she always wanted from him. "You two sure have grown up." he complimented and gave her a wink and thumbs up. "Welcome aboard the S.S. We can do it! Let's save the world!"

Her expression slowly formed into a cute, excitable open grin. "Yeah!" She cheered, not needing to hold herself for comfort anymore; but instead, she raised her arm high with a fist of hope towards the ring. "Let's punch the ring out of this world!"

Sonic snickered a moment, thinking that funny before looking back to Knuckles, "More than enough of a reason for ya, bud?"

Knuckles nodded, "Yeah, more than enough." He smirked right back. "What do we need to do?"

"Finally! You agree for once!" Sonic joked, shrugging a little comically before turning to Zooey, "I like anyone with the same passion and free-spirit as I treasure. So maybe... it is about time to let Checkpoint help out... at least this once." He winked, being a bit arrogant again but in a silly, rubbing it in their face, kind of way.

Rosy, believing the comment was directed mostly to her, blushed and watched the team prepare to set out with their new plan...

She turned to look at the Dark Ring, "We'll end this nightmare... and Sonic and us... We'll figure out a way to defeat you!" She formed sturdy fists and held them by her sides, turning boldly to the ring, directly ahead and above her like a shadowed halo...

The wind beat against her quills... first left... then right... as though challenging her newfound stance. But like the rooted flowers it was ripping their petals from, she did not waver in her angry, narrowed eyes towards its fiendish self...

She was going to stop it. No matter what!

As some of the gang stayed behind to call Checkpoint and let them know what was going on and get some backup ready, Knuckles, Sonic, and Rosy headed towards the Master Emerald.

"Tell me why we brought the pipsqueak instead of Mighty along..?" Knuckles looked back from ahead of the group, but Sonic glared him down.

"She has a right to be here and do as she pleases like the rest of us. Besides, I have a feeling saying 'no' to her wouldn't end well..." He muttered the last part as he looked behind him and joined Knuckles's gaze at her peppy walk with them.

Following the two leaders, she hummed a tune and swung her arms gently out like she was on a tightrope, just enjoying the sun and the fact that everyone was going to save the world together!

She also didn't like feeling helpless or alone, so now that her number one hero, Sonic, had seen her true heart's desire to also save this planet and galaxy from devastation, she was overjoyed with that acceptance!

He didn't see her as a little girl anymore or as an amateur adventurer. She was finally an equal to them all!

Sonic and Knuckles sweat-dropped at her sudden attitude change, looking ahead but keeping their eyes back at her. How could she be so cheery after all they heard and saw? It was puzzling to them... just as it has always been for Tails.

However, coming up to the Master Emerald's shrine, where the Chaos Emeralds are usually positioned upon pillars around it... Eggman had already been connecting their powers into a device that resembled a ray-gun. "Whohoho! Look who just so happens to always show up at the most crucial of times!" Eggman laughed, but there was clearly some animosity there when he saw Sonic among the three.

"Eggman!?" Sonic stepped back a moment, surprised to see him. "What are you doing here? Oh no, do you really think you can take one of your all-time blunders and try and say it was your 'greatest plan all along' or something like that?" he air-quoted with doing the bunny-ear gesture with his hands.

"Hmph, taking a second look at your experiment and finding some success in it is nothing to be ashamed of, Sonic." He stuck his nose in the air and turned to the side, as though not wanting to answer Sonic and his idiocy. "For your information, I have discovered something useful with that 'Black Ring' as you call it. And now, thanks to your little distraction for its guardian... I now possess the power of the Master Emerald and it's seven servers! Whohoho!" he gestured out to his device, though not understanding the secret of the ring bond, he was still aware of how power transferred from one object to another.

Therefore, Eggman had connected through a stream of electricity the seven Chaos Emeralds and placed a spiraling gun's barrel with an electro-ball at its tip upon the Master Emerald, charging it up with Chaos power to shoot bullets that spun out into rings, almost like donut holes that rotate out like a pizza with a hole at its center. The Black Ring immediately sucked the formed chaos rings into itself and began to get bigger and bigger.

The X-Tornado's monitor flashed with a warning, showing the Black Ring now had enough power to wipe-out the cosmos.

"What is going on!? It's power levels just spiked!" Zooey pressed her hands into her cheeks, panicking. "By my previous calculations, turning the ring up towards the sky should have slowed down its progression but now-!" her eyes shook in fright as Tails put an arm around her, then turned to Mighty.

"What do we do? Checkpoint is too concerned about opening ring gates so close to the Black Ring, so our reinforcements won't be here for a while! Mighty!" he gripped his arm but Mighty looked just as shaken and taken aback as Zooey did...

"Mighty..." Tails looked back at the monitor. "No, I can't let it end like this!" He let go of both of them and began to type furiously upon the keyboard of the monitor. "I won't give up! I love this world and everyone on it! I won't let things go down like this if there was anything I could do about it! I'd never forgive myself if I just stood around fretting!" he clicked an engage button and suddenly the X-Tornado, now on its right side, began to turn on and get its jets going.

"Out of the way!" Tails grabbed both Zooey and Mighty and pushed them down as the dashboard of the X-Tornado read: NEW PRIORITY ENGAGED. PUSH POWER SOURCE OUT OF KNOWN ORBIT AS FAR AS POSSIBLE.

Zooey looked up back to the monitor as Tails began to get up, she climbed into the cockpit, getting a better look but Tails pulled her down just as she saw ''as far as possible'. "Tails, what did you do?!"

"Zooey, get down from there!" he called out, then turned to Mighty as he held her, making sure she wouldn't try that again. "Mighty, I need you to fling the X-Tornado to have its tip hit the side of the ring. I'm gonna have it propel it out of our solar system!" He said this with absolute authority and confidence, something Mighty wasn't used to in the little fox boy.

"Tails... are you sure? Don't you love that plane?" Mighty seemed hesitant, knowing Tails spent many nights working to upgrade it regularly for his adventures and rescue missions at Checkpoint's HQ.

"...It's what has to be done." Tails looked down, as Zooey felt sorry for him and hugged him back, amazed by his self-sacrifice but admiring his bravery in a last stand.

Back with Sonic, "What are you doing!?" Sonic cried out as they moved back after seeing the Black Ring get bigger.

"Super juicing the darn thing, of course~" Eggman rubbed the tip of his mustache with his thumb and pointer finger, gloating already at his ingenious plan. "Once this thing reaches its supernova, I'll have enough power to make immortal machines! Ones you simply can't just 'blow up to smithereens! Not without some severe consequences, of course." Eggman cooed as he puckered his lips, thinking himself witty of making a super machine that if destroyed, the explosion would likely take out that sector of the planet. "Aren't I a stinker?" He teased.

"Yeah, a real rotten egg. Don't you care for your own life?" Sonic spat out.

"Oh, but of course, I have some reservations on some drifting planets in case this whole thing becomes a bust." Eggman shrugged, then pointed behind him as if that was where the random drifting planets he was talking about were. "Not to worry, I'm sure you'll all be long gone in atomic ash and dust by the time I'm safely stowed away there."

"We have to stop that gun!" Rosy, without so much as a plan, charged with her Sonic speed towards the gun.

"Wait, Rosy, Grr!" Sonic took off after her, 'She's using my power!'

"Oh? Hoping to stop me, are we?" Eggman lowered the gun remotely and it began shooting the rings at Rosy.

"Look out!" Sonic, having a lot more expertise with his speed, was easily able to speed up and hook Rosy from the side, tumbling away from the ring beams as the whole of Angel Island pulsated from the ground with glowing, gold power.

"Haha! Now to swing this whole island into the Black Ring's pie hole. Eat up, Blacky! Daddy's back, and he's got the main course right here..." He extended his hand out as an Eggman airship floated beneath the island, completely out of sight from the Sonic team as they were diligently working on a solution on top of it. "Farewell, Sonic. I'll take the power it releases and make a whole new world out of it."

"That's an idealistic's dream!" Sonic seemed to curse the word out, "You'll destroy us all!"

"Well, not me. Fire!" Eggman laughed as his airship began to fire from the bottom of the Island, trying to split it up so it would float easier up to the Black Ring.

"Whhaa! What is that!?" Tails cried out as the earth shook under him.

"We're being attacked?! An ambush?" Zooey looked at her Checkpoint watch to see a massive object below the Island. "At this rate, 13% of the island will be blown off and blasted into the Black Ring!"

"Who would do such a thing!?" Tails exclaimed, "Do they realize what will happen if-!?"

Mighty reared the plane up onto his shoulders, "This isn't the time to talk and speculate anymore! I'm tired of watching that thing eat everything I hold dear... RAHHH-RAAH-RAHH-RAHHH!" like an Olympic thrower, Mighty spun on the shaking earth to get enough momentum into his swing. The winds were working for and against him at the same time, but with his incredible strength, he had the entirety of the X-Tornado flinging in the air and finally launched it like a massive javelin. "Like a game of darts!" He cried out, fist-pumping the air as the tip of the plane seemed to be headed directly into the line of the ring-like Robin Hood's arrow piercing the bullseye. It was an incredible shot! One that looked prime to hit the ring like a needle and push it out and away from the planet's atmosphere.

But they underestimated Eggman.

Who was underestimating Knuckles.

"Like heck I would allow you to steal my emeralds for your stupid gaaaaain!" Knuckles leaped into the air and took Eggman off-guard, punching him straight into the line of the Black Ring.

"OHHHH! NOOO!" Eggman couldn't stop himself from flipping over and over again in the air, causing his Egg Mobile to be unable to pull away from the Black Ring's vortex.

The ring shrank as a result of not getting the chaos rings pulsed into its core anymore, but was still just big enough to pull Eggman in.

"SAVE ME!" He cried out as Metal Sonic burst from the bushes, zooming into the Black Ring as well.

"Woah, where'd he come from?" Sonic looked around, helping Rosy to sit up straight, "Was that his plan? Super juice the faker?"

"Ah! Sonic look!" Rosy clung to him and pointed to the X-Tornado, shooting through the sky and the same vibrating noise of being hit echoing from the Black Ring as it was shot through each layer of the atmosphere into the galaxy.

Suddenly, the whole cast felt their power being depleted...

"Kn-Knuckles..." Sonic fell further onto his knees and reached for the Emeralds.

He pulled out a ring he had been storing, and tried to connect the chained ball of lights from the ring he had summoned to string into each of the Chaos Emeralds, and finally, the Master Emerald.

The Ring Bond caused the Ray Gun to spark and get slashed through, exploding it as the energy was released like shining dust blasting and then twinkling as it dissolved back into the atmosphere.

"You stay here." Sonic looked down at Rosy, who nodded, "It's risky to save Eggman now but... Be safe." She let him begin to crawl as his power was being sapped from him and all his friends.

All over the world, power seemed unequal and there didn't seem to be enough to sustain the life forces thereon...

He gripped his stomach, and watched as Knuckles, floating down from his launched hit, seemed to resolve his differences with Sonic and punch the Master Emerald to bounce up into the air. "DOOO ITTT!" Knuckles shouted out.

The balls of light strung all around the Master Emerald, phasing through it before sending out a huge connection line to Sonic's original ring.

Power coursed through him, and he flexed his arms out to the sides of him, letting it excel his limits into Super Sonic!

In a flash of yellow, Rosy blinked her eyes and uncovered them, gasping in delight as Sonic took off after the X-Tornado and Black Ring.

"Yay! Alright! You can do it, Soooniicc!" She cheered from the ground as her voice faded quickly away while the force of the atmosphere's created a fire around Super Sonic's form. One layer... the second... finally blasting through the third and onward towards reaching out for the Black Ring.

The X-Tornado was now suspended in space, flickering before finally losing all power as it took everything to not break apart by breaking the sound barrier and the planet's forces.

Super Sonic pushed the plane back towards the amazing planet, letting it have a chance to be salvaged later. "Thanks buddy, you did good." He seemed to be saying that to Tails but spoke to the Plane.

He turned determined towards the Black Ring. "Endless power..." He started charging himself up, "Meet limitless destruction!" he blasted Chaos energy around the surface of the Black Ring, and then dived into its black hole...

Inside, he saw Metal Sonic struggling to pull Eggman out from its core, the inside was like a purple, sparkling vortex where energies couldn't escape... but with one hole leading out, the whole thing was starting to have multiple combustions.

"Oh, oh!" Eggman, seeming to snap out of unconsciousness, noticed that his life force was slowly leaking out of him and then being returned to him as the power began to respond to the Chaos power destroying the Black Ring's entrapment from the outside. "Quick! Metal! Absorb its power!" He kicked and struggled, trying to turn the robot's attention away from preserving his life and towards gaining ultimate power.

Metal Sonic's red eyes shifted quickly back, but his stomach jet remained in full power.

"You silly old man, don't you value anything!?" Super Sonic folded his arms and shook his head. "I'm going to have Chaos energy pull all this power out little by little, that way, no explosion needs to happen."

"Like I'll let you do that..." Eggman sneered, thrusting a ring gate out from his hand. Suddenly, those husks of metal eggs drifted into the power still being destroyed by the Black Ring, instead now, the deactivated robots were absorbing the mass of energy, and slowly... their eye lights turned intimidatingly on. "HAHAHA!" Eggman continued to laugh and kick his legs out. "You're too late!"

"What did you do!?" Super Sonic looked on in amazement, seeing the lights explode and flicker out... then the whole of the ring blow up light. "You're going to have it implode!"

"Right into my inventions!" Eggman hit Metal Sonic. "Now, be a good little mock-up hedgehog and eat your fill too! WHOO!" he was let go and fell through the portal. "Come on, you precious pretties, you! Stop dawdling and get in here already!" he seemed like a doting creator before an annoyed overlord not wanting to waste another second. "Let's let the ring finally take Sonic out with it!"

"Oh no!" Super Sonic felt himself getting pulled in as Metal Sonic looked to a now, perfectly fine Eggman sitting in his base through the window of the Ring Gate, to then a struggling Sonic.

Not allowing this perfect, opportune moment to go to waste, he kicked Super Sonic down into the imploding explosion about to occur and followed the other Egg-shaped robots into the portal, only turning around once to watch Super Sonic's frame be flung into the core of the Black Ring...

He finally entered in as the Ring Gate spun shut.

Super Sonic's gloved hand reached for salvation... but with his powers being drained along with his life force... he slowly fell back... the purple absorbing him until...

The explosion had been significantly lessened thanks to Eggman's machines absorbing the combusting power of endless, limitless energy... taking half the power it needed to where the explosion didn't reach the planet...

The team looked horrified, seeing the explosion in the air and huddling together, expecting the worst.

Rosy covered her mouth, not wanting to accept what this could mean-Failure.

"Sonic... Oh no,... Please, I know you'll save us." Tears began to string in blobby lines by her eyes as Tails pulled her into the desperate embrace with his tail, his eyes also glossy, fearing the end.

Mighty went to shield, putting his arms over his friends and squinting his eyes tenderly shut, worried for his family of friends.

Mighty was suddenly jolted out of his thoughts as his eyes opened to an unexpected touch, seeing Knuckles standing next to him and over the others just like him. He only gave Mighty a side-glance, before also putting his arms over the team.

Two mighty guardians, hoping to provide some sense of security and hope.

Knuckles, as though a hero's fate, closed his eyes and waited to brace for the incoming doom...

But it never came.

The team held their ground, Rosy crying in their ears and Tails's tears finally streaming down before Zooey looked up in amazement.

"Look!" she pointed, as the team opened their eyes and turned their heads skyward, in hope and faith that the tone of her voice meant a miracle.

While the X-Tornado was falling back to the planet, it's engine flared to life with its monitor reading: OVERRIDE PROGRAMMING INITIATED. FORMER PILOT: SONIC. DIRECTIVE: PROTECT ALL CHECKPOINT ADVENTURERS.

The X-Tornado blasted through the still gaping wide Black Ring, just moments before the devastating explosion. Due to Super Sonic's chaos energy, the ring continually drained and broke down the power; however, due to its limitless properties, Sonic's life force was barred from being touched and sucked dry.

His old, faithful machine that he gave to Tails still held some of its old programming, and dived into the mass of explosions and purple Anti-Matter, swerving to blast out with Super Sonic clinging onto its wing, face hidden and head down in exhaustion. He wasn't able to flee the pull, but with the last of the X-Tornado's power, and the last sliver of consciousness he had left, he softly spoke out, reaching a hand towards the planet he saw in the distance of space through the hole of the Black Ring.

"Chaos..!" He felt the light exploding behind him rapidly, and soon engulf him as his eyes, head, and hands fell to the plane's wing. "Control..."

Zooey had seen a flash of light far below the explosion in space and noticed Super Sonic and the X-Tornado on a straight dive down through the air.

"It's Sonic! He's alive!" She cheered.

"He's saved us!" Tails burst into excitement, standing up again from his crouching hold on the two girls.

Knuckles and Mighty also leaned up, smiling proudly as Mighty flexed an arm out and hit its base, "Knew he could do it!" and Knuckles punching the air in enthusiasm.

"That's the last time Egghead tries to mess with my island!" He practically roared out, causing the team to laugh and celebrate together.

But Super Sonic faded and his grip on the wing loosened, drifting into unconsciousness.

"AH!" The gang all turned back from celebrating at Rosy's cry, "He's not waking up!"

"Sonic!" Knuckles suddenly cried out.

"Oh no!" Mighty followed suit, also leaning out to try and squint his eyes through the lingering light of the many explosions in the air to see him hurdling down with fire burning around him and the destroyed, burning up plane.

Within their shock, Zooey began to loudly mourn, "How are we going to help him!?" She curled over and pulled her hands towards her chest, crying out her distress.

"Tails, can you reach him from here?!" Rosy turned to Tails, who narrowed his eyes and ran towards the edge of the island, whipping his tails into their famous twirling patterns.

"Only one way to find out! I've gotta try!" He sped off the island like a turbine launching from a runway. His hands formed fist as he dove through the sky, hoping to make it to Sonic before it was too late.

-Back at Eggman's mustached mountain base-

"I've done it! Oh-ho-ho, I've really done it! Magnificent!" Jumping from one side of the base to another, examining his brand new toys...

Their red eyes watched him like an animated Pogo Stick as he moved so wildly, rubbing his hands before throwing them in the air. "It's ingenious! It's beautiful madness! Haha! With these new robots at my disposal, containing in them the energies found so naturally throughout this world that I could-as of yet-not find a way to successfully harness now each have the power to supersede not only Sonic but all of Checkpoint! Oh! It's... Well, it's all I've ever wanted!" He wiped a tear away from slipping under his glasses. "Now it's time, my sensational inventions! Go! Reek havoc on this world! And once they realize that by trying to destroy one of you, that the entire half of that globe's landmass is also thereby destroyed, they'll have no choice but to turn themselves in and be roboticized into my army, forcing the world to bow to their new, supreme emperor! WHAHAHAAHA!" Eggman's boisterous laughter caused the other machines to bounce as though trying to mimic his actions.

Metal Sonic looked at his master and then his metallic claws, stretching them out as balls of light began to spin and twist around his fingers as though fairies dancing through barbed wire.

He glared and caught the energy in his hand... he hated life force, but he charged his stomach engine and revved it up, forming a huge ball of light in his center as little balls of connecting light linked and swam towards it.

"Hmm? Testing your new abilities, are we, Metal?" Eggman turned back around, bouncing his own big stomach over to the strange new power. He ducked his head down to the side of it, amazed, before curling the sides of his mouth into an evil grin. "So many possibilities... Just don't screw it up again." His glasses shone with his power before leaning to his full, straightened height and putting his arms behind him, smiling intimidatingly down at Metal Sonic in a tyrant's threat.

His glasses now shone with the red of Metal Sonic's ready eyes.

"Good. Go forth, My Hard Boiled Heavies!" He turned around and dramatically pointed his finger out towards the caverns that created the two eyes and nostrils of his mountain. "And conquer this world, or fail, and destroy it once and for all! HAHAHAHA!"

-A barely intact Angel Island-

Tails, still so far off from where Sonic is about to crash into the sea, sees him slowly sink below his sights, at the water's horizon line. "No! I'm not going to make it!" his eyes water once again, ducking his head. "I knew it! I'm useless without my technologies! It's all my fault... I couldn't do anything to stop this..."

As he fell into despair, a horn's billowing low note crashed through his eardrum as he immediately looked up with shock.

"Checkpoint! They just barely made it!" He exclaimed as ships floated in a steady line over the horizon he was heading towards. The X-Tornado soon crashed next to the fleet, causing a wave to turn some of them a bit but they wouldn't be dissuaded from their objective of reaching Angel Island for support.

Tails rubbed his eyes with his hand as they reflected the shining sunlit water's surface over the sea. "We did it. We all did it, together."

A few of Checkpoint's members saw Tails and waved to him, hoping he'd land on one of their sailing crafts and rest.

He nodded eagerly and with deep, sincere thankfulness in his heart, landed and like a child, falling to his butt, and bawling his eyes out in front of them. Many asked if he was okay but he just nodded through his wails of gratitude.

Once everyone reached Angel Island, they pulled some of the earth from below the surface up and let the Master Emerald's energy pull it up and repair the broken, floating island.

Knuckles was a little spooked by how many people were now on and surrounding the island, uneasy as he tried to avoid some and keep others away from the altar containing the Chaos Emeralds.

His loud voice carried and soon he got a reputation as a hothead, but Checkpoint seemed fond of the overly protective echidna, even having a few try and befriend him. The unusual contact with people left Knuckles a bit overwhelmed, but he couldn't say no to such kind treats as grapes and other goodies from their line of provisions.

It only took a few days for Zooey and Tails to form a research community and begin to ask about what Sonic had seen. Strange, new robots with rumors flying around from other Checkpoint bases about robots with extraordinary strength and endurance. "Apparently, their powers aren't like anything we've ever seen in a Dr. Eggman robot." one member stated and pulled up some printed out charts. "These are the readings they sent us. They don't make sense. How can a tin-can contain so much ring power?"

"The rings and their gates are still a mystery to us." An elderly member stated, leaning heavily on his cane with both his hands and a huge hunch on his back. "We need to be cautious. Sounds a lot like what Sonic described to us." He turned to Zooey. "What do you suggest, my dear." He pulled a bit on his long, thin white beard, but it was clear he was wobbly from losing one grip on his cane.

"Hmmm..." Zooey tried to think reasonably, "W-well, if it's no trouble, I think our first priority is pulling up more land from below the sea and using the Master Emerald's power to create new landmasses."

Tails sadly shook his head, "No good, The island floats but doesn't move. Besides, if we defeat these new, supercharged robots, then their power will return to the atmosphere, and hopefully, renew the planet's lost power."

"There is a disturbance in nature. It may need more time to recover. A quick bandage to its surface isn't going to help." The elder intercepted the conversation again, bringing all eyes and attention back to him. He stabilized his shaky body by returning his once stroking hand back to his cane, "No offense, dear girl, you are very smart. But I believe Tails is wise in his reasoning."

"That won't do either way, though." the first member that spoke shook their head in response, "If these readings are accurate, one good punch and the explosion could have catastrophic results. They carry enough power to explode a good portion of a sector of the planet!"

The research community looked discouraged, their ears turning down as no solution seemed plausible at the moment.

Then Rosy stood up, "Cheer up, everyone!" she was holding plates of small ice cream bars. "We'll find a way, we always save the day!" She began passing the tray around and letting everyone take one.

"T-Thanks, Amy." One stated.

"Hehe! I go by Rosy, mostly." She blushed, before looking to Tails. "Is Sonic still getting restless while on this Island?"

"A new Ring Gate hasn't appeared here in a while... without them, he's kinda stuck here, and isn't happy about it." Tails sighed, worried for the adventurous hero.

"Is he still recovering?" She turned to Zooey, who smiled sweetly.

"I believe he's fully able, now." She gestured a hand out to her as she spoke, and Rosy happily handed her an ice cream bar.

"Okay! I'll see if he wants an ice cream bar!" Her tail wagged in sweet excitement at spending some 'quality time' with her admired blue blur. She took off as the research community once again sighed.

"She's too good for this world." One bit into his bar.

"Nah, she's too innocent." Another muttered, licking the sides of the bar that were melting.

"...No," the elder spoke up, looking at the ice cream bar and holding it up to the sun, "She's just what we need." And lightly licked a little of its tip, "Oh! Cold!" the group all laughed.

Rosy rushed over the hills with Sonic's super speed, but remembering his last caution about them, slowed down after finding him. She fixed her quills and front three bangs then took a deep breath and pulled down her white leotard.

Walking over to him, she noticed his face was towards the expanse of the sea... though she couldn't see his face, his arms were folded and quills gently blowing in the wind.

She swooned at the sight of such a wonderful hedgehog in what looked to be an amazingly beautiful and serene setting. 'He's so cool!' she thought sweetly to herself, swooning.

She hid her face slightly by raising the tray, pointing her feet inward, pigeon-toe like and shuffled them a moment, nervous on how she was going to approach him.

'Big smile! He'll love that!' she encouraged herself and shook her head of all other insecurities that may creep into her heart, and off she went!

"Hello, my darling, Sonic!" She cutely spoke up, but Sonic just turned to look over his shoulder at her.

"Oh, it's you." He looked down at the ice cream bars. "One of those for me?"

"Ohh!" She puffed up her cheek, holding the tray down in a mild tantrum at his response, "Who else addresses you in this way!?"

He lowered his eyelids and rolled his eyes a moment, sweat-dropping. "Is it for me or isn't it for me?"

"Hmph, it's for the one who saved the planet!" she presented it but he lifted up his hand.

"Think I'll pass then." He turned back to the view, placing his hands on his hips. "Eggman did that, even if it was by consequence of stealing the Black Ring's power buildup. It still wasn't me who did anything remarkable or noteworthy..."

Rosy bent her eyes, "Ohh..." She looked down a second, not sure how to turn that into a positive. "W-well!" She leaned up on her tippi-toes, "You-you, you totally got information for Checkpoint and the research community! Without knowing about those new robots, we may have been pretty in the dark there..." she felt the significance of her words fading as he continued to face away from her. "Ohh... Sonic?"

"...Even then, I only ended up giving more power to the Black Ring through Chaos Energy." he lowered his head slightly, but turned to her with a smile, "Say, can the ice cream bar be for after I kick ol'Egghead's butt?" he gave her a confident thumbs up.

"Em!" She nodded excitedly, seeing his spirit wasn't that dampened like she thought. "Have one then!" she held them up to his face again.

"W-wha? But I haven't saved anything yet." he blinked in surprise.

"Hehe! Take it as a way of saying you absolutely will!" She handed him one and he accepted it, although reluctant.

"You never change." He smiled, "but those robots are dangerous, I'm gonna head out soon to stop them." He began to take a bite, before his eyes shone like stars at their taste, and ate the treat as Rosy closed her eyes and smiled.

"How is it?" she giggled.

"Good, why?" Sonic looked back to her, mumbling as the food was already sticking out of his mouth, wiggling as he spoke.

"Because I made it, silly!" She laughed.

"Woah... you did this?" In disbelief, he took the treat out to look at it from all sides, then smirked. "Not bad, kid!"

"It's Rosy!" She stuck out her tongue at him and he chuckled back at her playfulness.

"Alright, suit yourself, rascal." And finished the treat, sucking the remaining chocolate and vanilla off his gloved fingers.

"Now... how to locate those robots..." He seemed to be in deep thought again, "We don't have a plane, and those Ring Gates aren't forming as often as they used too with all this energy drained out of the world... so how?"

Rosy held the tray down and also looked a bit disheartened, "Hmm..." She couldn't think of anything. "I know some people who are good thinkers!" She chimed up, "O-oh, not saying we're not good thinkers or anything! It's just... Tails and Zooey are really, reaallly good at it!" she stressed, making Sonic laugh.

"You've got a point. Let's try and regroup with the others." He gave her a thumbs-up, "And get back to saving the world!"

"Yeah!" She cheered, lifting a fist in the air, "And maybe on the way, you can teach me more about how to use your power!"

"H-huh?" He flinched a little as she took off, and he could feel in his heart his power activating now that she was so close. It was like the feeling of a Ring Bond... "H-hey, kid! Wait! I'll carry ya back!" he took off after her, a strange discomfort in seeing someone else using his supersonic speeds...

But she wobbled anyway, "W-woah!" and began to tumble again and curled up for safety.

"Uh-oh." He took off and caught her like a bouncy ball. "Not so easy, is it?" He smiled but also sighed in relief. 'At least she can't use it for long... or too well, for that matter.' He set her down and she uncurled. "Now look here." He put his hands on his hips, "What'd I say about using my power?"

"Make it look cool?" She whined a little, embarrassed as she sat on the ground that she couldn't impress her hero.

As though sensing that, Sonic's expression turned a bit more tender and he shook off the feeling. "Ehh... Nevermind, come on. I'll teach you a trick or two..." He extended his hand to her.

"Ah! Really?!" She burst up and took his hand, wiggling her tail as she came up close to rub her cheek against his hand. "You're the best, Sonic! My hero, for sure! Well, and Tails's, and Checkpoint's... the whole world's! But... um... could you... spare a moment to be just with me? Sometimes? I'll make us a picnic!"

He panicked and his feet shuffled under him, making sounds of discomfort before finally conceding. "If I ever have time, Rosy. Now come on, this is too much-ah!" He was pulled into a hug.

"You're a real hero, Sonic! I'll marry you someday!" She nuzzled cutely into his cheek as a faint bead of sweat dripped from the side of his face.

"H-hey now... let me go..." he looked uncomfortable... but his mouth seemed to fight against forming a frown... or a smile at her affections.

-Elsewhere, on Angel Island-

"How have you been, Zooey?" Tails walked slowly up behind Zooey, who was pouring over some research notes that had just been sent in, surrounding herself in her computers and fax machines. "You look a little worn out..."

"Ohhh, Tails, now is not a good time to be fretting about me... ohh..." Every time a new paper came out of the machine, her ears would sink lower and her gentle cries of hopelessness would increase. "I-I-I'll be fine. Has Rosy found Sonic yet?"

"She's pretty good at it. We all are." Tails sat down next to her, seeing her pull out another paper being sent in and watching with sorrow as the look on her face lessened in liveliness. "We tend to run into him a lot..."

"Ohhh..." She whined softly again, and as the machine flared to life once more, reached for the new paper but this time Tails couldn't bear to see her face wallow in such misery again.

His tail flopped over the paper that came out, causing her hand to pause in its route to secure it as her eyes blinked in surprise at the action.

They followed the line of his body up to his eyes as he had them closed, smiling the best he could and bouncing his shoulders a moment as though non-verbally apologizing, but he really did want to brighten her mood.

"You work so hard, Zooey... maybe let me help a bit more too." He didn't want to open his eyes and see if she'd stubbornly tell him she had to get back to work, he couldn't handle that kind of rejection from her...

But instead, delicate hands cupped the sides of his face, moving their fingers through his white, protruding fox fluff and making him open his eyes with a blush.

"You're so kind to me, Tails... I don't know what'd I do without you."

The two's heads are so close together now... that Tails ducks his own a bit in a dip, shyly.

"A-any time..." He nervously states.

Zooey smiles, moving closer to his head, "Oh, Tails..." she seems to really appreciate his efforts, and for a moment, he looks surprised. They had grown close, but was it okay for him to assume this close..?

He didn't fight her approach, but just silently watched to see... how close... she'd...

A large gust of wind moved Zooey's forehead from lightly touching his own, and knocked the two down to their sides. The papers flew up everywhere in the turbulence.

"Is the Black Ring back!?" Zooey worriedly shouted out over the rushing, powerful wind.

"No, it can't be that!" Tails cried out, then gasped as he turned his prone body around to see Metal Sonic menacingly hanging over him, A Hardboiled Heavy also to the side of him. Her hands moved as though preparing a magic trick, and then with the same power as that of the rings, brought forth a black ghostly vortex of sparkling lights.

"Ah! It's the Black Ring's stored energy!" Tails was amazed to see it so well utilized, it wasn't causing a black hole, but instead was fueling this new robot's power.

She tipped her hat to the fox boy, as though rewarding him for guessing right, then dipped into her hat, and pulled out a jerboa or weasel looking creature with a similar cowboy hat to Knuckles.

He flopped out, his one shiny fang glistening before jumping up and pulling out a popgun, "Now you listen here! What'd you do with my Marvelous Queen?" He seemed to be referring to his beloved aerobike.

Metal Sonic, mimicking Sonic's usual antics, folded his arms and floated in the air with his feet together, then wagged a scolding, mockful finger towards Fang.

"What!? You can't expect to just pop me out and not give me my stuff back!" he fired two corks that the Heavy Magician used her hat to have it disappear into its void, then put it back on. "Grr... I got half wolf in me, you know... I'll give you a feisty fight!" He went to adjust his hat when he noticed Tails. "The boy..?" He seemed to recognize him before his eyes lit up with money signs. "The girl..!" he looked around him. "Ehem, I'll have to chop you up and sell your parts later... I've got a treasure tracker to find..." He suddenly took off but tripped a few times trying to escape and finally booked his way away.

Metal Sonic looked to Heavy Magician, who immediately flew off and stopped Fang in his pursuit to then point him to the others.

"Say that again?" He looked back at Tails and Zooey, who were not sure what was going on. "Oh? I take care of these pipsqueaks and get my Marvelous Queen back? Sounds fair." He dipped his hat, smirking. "I'm all for fair deals..." He held up his popgun, then shot the hat off of Heavy Magician. "Like I will do anyone else's dirty work!" He leaped to grab it, skidding across the ground and rummaged inside of it.

"Quick!" Tails called out, not remembering Fang at all and taking Zooey's hand. "We have to fight!"

"F-fight!?" Zooey wasn't used to that and so when he began to fly and swing her around, she was equally unsure. "Wo-woah-woah-woah!" she flung so fast that Metal Sonic and Heavy Magician were whacked back a bit by the force in Tails's spin with Zooey's foot hitting them away.

"Heh, there you are!" Fang pulled out his aerobike and got quickly on it. "Later, losers! I've got another sap that's supposed to do me some favors!" he took off, gesturing back a sly peace sign that he flicked off as a wave goodbye.

Knuckles, helping Mighty create some makeshift huts and places for the new Checkpoint guests, was arguing with him about not making Angel Island a new Checkpoint base when they saw Fang scoot quickly by on his aerobike.

"Woah, who was that?" Mighty was intrigued but Knuckles just dipped his head and growled.

"Who cares? As long as he's not messing up my island... and stay on topic!" He shouted back but Mighty didn't engage such ruthless banter. He was a peaceful armadillo and found Knuckles's constant hostility exhausting.

"No, I don't recognize him. Something's off." He held up a hand to Knuckles, not wanting to create more friction with him as he passed and watched Fang drive off in a cloud of dust. "Where did he come from..?" He trailed off as his eyes glanced towards where a large explosion of fire seemed to catch the trees and blaze them with light.

"Eggman!?" Knuckles cried out as many Checkpoint explorers scurried back in fright and others rose to the occasion.

"Let's go!" Mighty rushed towards it head-on, soon followed by many more adventurers running alongside him. "Tails and Zooey are back there!"

With another powerful swing, Tails tried to fling Zooey again who was beginning to get some confidence in this tactic, readying her legs back to kick them out but Metal Sonic grabbed her leg mid-air and glared.

"Uh-oh..." Tails sweated nervously as Metal Sonic rotated them around at breakneck speeds and sent them flying.

He wanted to find Sonic... and Sonic would always appear when there is danger to his friends...

Knuckles and Mighty jumped into the fray with others, but with Metal Sonic's new power-up, he withdrew slightly into a curl and began to charge Black Ring power, letting it out to blast through their forces and leave them drained of power while in the Black Ring's influence.

Surrounded by the black dome of Anti-Matter destruction, they fell to their knees and tried to actively fight to remain standing. One by one... they fell until Metal Sonic sucked the Black Ring's power back inside himself.

His eyes blared through the darkness as it dissipated back inside him and he turned towards the Master Emerald's alter...

"We... Can't lose... grr... ah." Knuckles, still striving to move, reached out towards Metal Sonic... and collapsed.

"We can't detain that... we can't even fight it... urk..." Tails also followed suit as the Heavy Magician shook its head from Fang's last move, and grabbed its hat, placing it back on with a plop!

"We can't lure them together... ahhh... but we also can't destroy them while on the planet... we're... we're... doomed..." Zooey also lost consciousness then, not sure how to resolve these unanswered questions.

The world looked lost...

-Back with Teaching Speed Maneuver Lessons-

"Your thin shoes are skidding everywhere. They're too slippery." Sonic, running while glancing at Rosy's feet, seemed worried as she kept trying to reach higher speeds but would slip and tumble constantly. "Your feet are also pigeon-toed. Try and keep them straight. Dig into the earth, it's not like your hurting it."

He was finally coming to terms with lending his power out. He could feel the Ring Bond when she used it, however, it didn't feel like it did when chaos energy was draining from him. This felt shared, as though he wasn't losing anything. 'Maybe helping her isn't so bad.' He thought to himself, reaching his arms down to her as he saw her once again sliding.

She reached forward and took his arms, then smiled as her feet began to dig into the ground, holding a better form.

"There ya go!" Her excitement rubbed off on him, and he began to grin wider as well. "You're doing it, kid!"

"Rosy!" she hollered up, still upset he wouldn't call her that.

"Whatever, keep digging!" he chuckled lightly.

"Ohh!" She sped up then, wanting to show him.

"Woah!" He was moving backwards, so he turned himself around and got behind her, keeping her steady by having his hands on her waist. "You're actually doing it pretty well now..." He kept his eyes on her feet's positioning, seeing them slightly turn from his legendary figure-8 back to her feet moving fast. "...Rosy..."

She was so fixated on impressing him that she closed her eyes and ducked her head, holding a fist in front of her and another fist back and straining every muscle to move more than it ever had before.

However, she felt Sonic's hands on her hips and opened her eyes. With them both moving so fast, she couldn't help but feel his hands were secure, although sliding gently against her shirt. Her face then turned red as he looked around to her, "What's wrong? You can go fast, I know you can. Just focus."

But her eyes were dazzled by his own, and the moment so precious and romantic to her that she covered her face, her feet fell out of position, and she tripped him up on her tumble down.

"Wah-Ahhh!" the two rolled along the ground before Sonic caught her just before the cliff ended again. "Rosy!" he called out as she kept her hands bundled up by her face, and he gripped her white leotard to stop her from fully rolling off.

When she peeked open, she gasped behind her and scrambled into his hold.

"Phew." He sighed, "Guess we accidentally ran straight through the island."

She breathed a little irregularly, and to Sonic's mind, he thought she was scared.

In truth, Rosy's heart had never raced so much in her life. It was so much fun learning from Sonic, but it was also strangely intimate how kind he was in trying to safely teach her his craft. She couldn't tell why he had hesitated so much before but figured it was because Sonic still saw her as a child adventurer.

Maybe now... he finally saw her as an equal... as a future spouse?

Her daydreams got the better of her and she giggled to herself, her breath returning to her and her feet kicking out in her giddy fantasies of romantic runs through the saved world...

Thinking this odd, Sonic got up, helping her up too. "It's dangerous, Rosy. If you don't get a hold of my powers, I won't feel comfortable letting you use them like this..." He wanted to comfort her, but he was also worried about her absentmindedness. He looked over the cliff, "You've gotta be more aware of your surroundings..."

"You tumbled too." She cooed, but he just looked at her funny, wondering why she was acting strangely all of a sudden.

"That's because I was directly behind you. I guess I'll hold you like this from now on." He re-positioned himself—one hand holding her own and the other her waist, "Wait, our legs might get tangled up if I try that..."

Rosy swooned but when he went to look at what she was doing, she reverted back to standing straight and upright.

He raised an eyebrow, but let her go and tried to think, "Hmm... Maybe traditional is just the way to go?" he put a finger to his chin as Rosy imagined church bells.

"Yeah, I like traditional~" she chimed, sighing into her dreams of grandeur.

"Okay, if you agree." Without another tick on the clock, he scooped her up bridal style. "Guess the lessons can wait. It's easier this way, anyway."

"Oh, Sonic!" her eyes lit up with hearts, but he couldn't tell why she was so happy all of a sudden.

"Uhh... weren't you begging me to teach you a moment ago?" He just looked at her funny and then rolled his eyes, "Girls. They're so weird."

Rosy just smiled at that, "Boys are the weird ones! You said you don't want me to use your powers, but then you said look cool while using them if we must. Now you're saying to just let you carry me~" she placed her hands on the sides of her face and demurely looked away, blushing. "Someone can't make up their mind, huh?"

'Rascal!' Sonic immediately grew embarrassed and annoyed at her play on his words. "You-!" he then sighed, not wanting to get so flustered, "Ah, whatever."

"You've been saying that a lot lately." Amy delicately blinked her long lashes his way.

"I don't mind the company... so long as you can keep up." He looked away from her, but she could tell there was an honest truth to that, and it made her glad and encouraged to keep striving to race along by his side...

"You must be so lonely... being so fast... that no one seems able to keep up." She tilted her head to him, and he looked away.

"Why am I still holding you like this again?" He spat out, and she giggled.

"...You know something? I think you're secretly happy you shared a Ring Bond with us."

His confidence seemed to crack. His facade crumbled slightly and he looked down, worried she saw right through him.

"That way, we can all travel in your amazing winds... You'll never have to be alone again, if you share your power with others, then they can protect and have fun in this amazing world we call home." She looked around the place, then to the Master Emerald's shrine far off in the distance. It's emerald shine never ceasing to entrance her. "Isn't that nice?" she smiled up to Sonic.

He looked back at her with slightly narrowed eyes, "I don't like to be analyzed like one of Zooey's research data prints." He seemed to be pouting, and that made her laugh even more. "But I think you're sadly right, Rosy." He sighed, "I think... maybe the Ring Bond isn't gonna go away." He looked over the cliff, "And that means... I'll be running into you guys often."

"Or tumbling behind us!" She mocked a little, and he gave her a disappointed look, as though unamused by her teasing. She giggled at his reaction, and he just shook his head again. "But that's okay... because... I never wanted it to end, anyway... I don't want any bond with you to end."

Sonic's eyes opened a bit more from his playful squinting at her rascal antics before looking more seriously to her.

Their eyes relaxed to look at one another more honestly now, without judgments, images to keep in mind, or even seniority.

It was just... a soul. A freedom bound soul that wanted what was best for the world and their lives and wanted... to share that with someone.

"We may have only trained for a little bit but..." she looked down, feeling the shift of the moment as she really felt his eyes fully on her and her words now. "I... I like you the way you are, Sonic. That's why I want to use your power for the good of the world and be someone who you can trust remaining by your side... even when it gets dangerous, I want you to know that we're all here for you, as your friends."

Sonic feels something quake in his soul. He's been so alone for so long... hearing those words... felt like a relief and weight off of his shoulders.

"Let us rescue this world with you, see it with you, enjoy its beauty with you... please?" she sweetly tilted her head.

"...You are a rascal." He moved his mouth to the clear other side of her, turning his head to resist her charms, but keeping a sideways glance her way. "You think pretty words are all you need to win my friendship over?"

"I... was kinda hoping to win something more." She closed her eyes and blushed.

"...Huh?" He seemed genuinely confused by that statement.

Right after it clicked for him what she was implying, and looking about to counter that with some rude remark, Metal Sonic burst from the foliage of Angel Island's jungle-like paradise and swiped towards Sonic.

"Sonic, look out!" Rosy had just opened her eyes back up to notice Metal Sonic behind him, spooking Sonic as she climbed up and let her head take the brunt of the swiped claw hit.

"Rosy!" he cried out, racing away from Metal Sonic and looking back over his shoulder to see him. "Where'd he come from!? Where are the others?" He looked back to Rosy, knocked out in his arms.

It was the first time Sonic had felt this way since first rescuing Rosy from Metal Sonic...

"ROOOSSYYY!" He shot through Angel Island like a blue bolt of lightning, the Chaos Emeralds shaking in their spots as they began to sense Sonic connecting to them through a Ring Bond with the Master Emerald again. His emotional outburst kept him moving at incredible speeds but Metal Sonic was supercharged this time, and zoomed right up next to him, swinging his leg out to trip him up. "RAhh!" Sonic, still enraged, jumped to slam a fist into Metal Sonic, hoping to knock him back like usual...

But this was not a normal fight, The impact sent a sonic boom throughout the area, while Metal Sonic's head did move back, he resisted the force of the hit enough to slowly push against Sonic's fist, leaving him amazed.

"Oh... right, you're super-juiced up!" Sonic growled in response, "Guess that means everything I'm going to do is gonna be doubled back, is that it!? Tinhead!?"

Sonic threw Rosy up in the air, spinning himself into a ball as it tore through the grass below him. He wound-up for another striking blow, "Try and predict this!" he shot through, hoping to slice him completely in half but Metal Sonic burst the Anti-Matter dome out from his being as Sonic phased through it.

His spinning slowed and he uncurled, still trying to hit him but fell to the ground.

The Black Ring's power sucked at his energy, but he couldn't let Rosy hit the ground without catching her first.

Pushing against it, he summoned his strength and sent a punch at Metal Sonic, knocking him back and having the power sucked back inside him—perhaps to defend himself, as Sonic finally got the gravity of being drained off of his shoulders and raced to catch Rosy again, rushing off.

"Better to retreat now and find a safe location for you." He looked down at Rosy, worried...

In the wind of their chase, the roar of an aerobike leaped over a hill into view and crashed next to Sonic. Sonic expertly dodged but while doing so, the aerobike rolled and slammed into Metal Sonic, pushing him further into the jungle and finally off route of Sonic.

However, while all this occurred, Heavy Magician had snuck it's way to the Master Emerald...

"Excellent! Now, with the power of the Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds all within my Hardboiled Heavies Black Ring dimension, I'll have the power to take over more than this pathetic world, but the entirety of space itself! Wha-hahaha!" Eggman's voice broke through a speaker on Heavy Magician, as she floated up to the Master Emerald, looming over it with its waving hands in a spooky manner.

However, as though the Master Emerald was sensing Sonic's emotions, it blasted out an electric pulse that began to short circuit Heavy Magician... but its void of Anti-Matter began to leak...

"Oh no... This is an outrage!" Eggman pounded his fist into his console, seeing on his screens that Heavy Magician was being overwhelmed by the unlimited power of chaos energy, furious that it was so much power that not even the Anti-Matter void created by the Black Ring could absorb it enough. At this point... The Master Emerald was winning.

"Grr... If I can't have my all-out war with Checkpoint and Sonic, then so be it!" he hadn't anticipated their rebellion being so tactically well-plotted out... Now, his Heavies were being attacked by more than just Sonic's forces, but by all the adventurers of the world.

News got out fast, and on multiple screens, Eggman could see Heavy Rider and bounding over their traps and flipping through the air on Jimmy, her trusted Motorbug, swinging her spiked ball and chain before the Master Emerald's pulse traveled through the dimension of the Black Ring's energy and effected her as well.

Then there was Heavy Gunner, flying high but also hitting with a whiplash of his powerful cannon before the Master Emerald's power also shocked him a moment.

"Noo..!" Eggman gripped his mustache down, tapping his legs repeatedly on the ground as he worriedly looked to see Heavy King throw out his scepter to prepare a powerful move before Checkpoint swarmed him as he began to malfunction, right before his true victorious moment.

Eggman began to pretend to bite his nails in anxiety as Heavy Shinobi, missing his asteron ninja stars as he also arched back with it.

"Could it be..? Did the Master Emerald initiate a Ring Bond with the Black Ring to destroy it!?" Eggman stepped back, leaning on whatever he could find as metal pieces fell back from him bracing himself. They tonk'ed and tink'ed against the ground as he began to breathe heavily. "That's impossible, the Master Emerald doesn't have a will of its own! Unless..." he put a finger up to his chin, tapping it rapidly as a thought began to come to mind. "SOOONNIICCC!" he roared through his angry epiphany. "Fine, if the Master Emerald is acting vicariously through Sonic's will... then I have no choice..." Looking over the inventions he was so proud of, he seemed to look at the failing struggle, not sure why his most brilliant scheme could so easily go up in ruin.

Checkpoint.

It was all their fault.

He growled, thinking to himself as he walked towards the console, one last ho-ray to end it all.

"I'll just take them all down in one, fatal swing!" Eggman lifted his pointer finger up to the detonation button, took one last look at what he ultimately felt was the all-win situation for him, but then shrugged, not really that attached, and smirked widely as he clicked it down.

The whole base blasted into red alerts and an escape rocket lifted up from the ground as Eggman rubbed his hands together, "Goodbye, once and for all... To you, Checkpoint..." He gave a slight, comical wave as he opened the hatch to the Rocket. "And to that blasted hedgehog!" he slammed it behind him once boarding in.

Mighty began to blink his eyes as what appeared to be a spiraling ring gate forming before him. "H-huh?"

He was amazed to see a yellow blob come out of it through his hazy, just barely coming to vision. The little guy reached out a hand to him, seeming cheery. "Need a lift?"

Knuckles and the rest of the adventurers were just awakening as well as he spoke, "I need to get this last Ring Gate we've helped the planet forge to Sonic before the rest of Eggman's robots blow up too."

"The rest?!" Mighty's eyes suddenly shot open, he tried to get up as quickly as he could, but the loss of his power took a heavy burden. "Ugh... how long were we out?"

"Ehem." The little yellow boy wagged his hand that was still outstretched to help him around.

"Oh... Sorry." Mighty took it and got the needed help he needed up. "Name's Mighty. What section are you from?"

"Gone." The boy looked a disheartened saying that. "When the Robots all blew up, there was nothing left of the land. We only had a few moments to prepare and evacuate. They're going off one at a time so-" He looked around, "Do... Do you all not know!?" His sudden expression changed to a bit of panic. "Quick! You all need to get out of here and on your boats, stat!" he pulled Mighty along with him, stretching out his arms to reveal skin attached that acted like wings as he glided up and down the hills, heading to their Island base.

Knuckles, by this time, had awoken and shook his head. "Wait... what?" He didn't seem to grasp all that the little flying squirrel had said.

The adventurers woke up in fright, hearing they needed to leave immediately to their ships, they quickly scattered in panic.

"Uh oh, someone's got to look after these people!" Knuckles gritted his teeth and forced himself to his feet. "I know you're all trying to gather back your strength... but don't forget your courage!" He held up his fist, and others began to turn to him. "Alright, let's bring people down a group at a time. But nothing's happening to my island without my say so! And I say-!" There was a great blast throughout the island...

The explosions were swift and without mercy as many of Checkpoint's bases fell one after another...

But many spread the news, and adventurers prepared and evacuated as many as they could before the terrible blasts from the Heavies' Black Ring combustions.

However, on Angel Island... no one was ready for what was to come.

The wide-expanding void sucked the island's core and the Master Emerald and seven servers fell through the air.

But before all this... Sonic was still trying to save one part of the world at a time...

Starting with her.

Sonic turned to Fang, seeing him point his fake revolver at him, "Now, hand over the pretty, and we'll talk like civilized men."

"Trouble just constantly follows ya, without delay, don't it, Rosy?" He looked down at her, realizing only now that escape wasn't an option to get her to safety. "This has nothing to do with Rosy, can't we just fight? Man to machine to... weasel thing?"

"Darn it!" Fang slammed his foot down a few times, "Nack the weasel was a cover-name! Why can't anyone get that!?"

In his momentary tantrum, he looked to see Metal Sonic getting back up, holding its head and cricking its neck back into place, then glaring ahead at them.

"Ghrr... I don't have much time. Give up the girl or face the consequences!" He then looked behind them, "Is that..?" His eyes lit up, "The biggest treasure I've ever seen!"

Spotting the Master Emerald's brilliant light and pulse into the air, he didn't see the robot it had unknowingly attacked...

"Why, she's just a magnetic for money!" Fang was completely distracted.

Sonic sighed, "Don't you both know it's rude to bully little girls?" Sonic gently placed her down.

"What do you want with Amy Rose, anyway?" Sonic, taking on a whole new persona as he got up from setting her gently down, rose his eyes in annoyance and fierce justice. He was done playing games... it was time to get serious.

The Master Emerald seemed to reflect that, as Heavy Magician tried her best to push through the Chaos Energy pushing her back, and feeling the Black Ring's power struggling to contain so much energy and not having enough time to break it down properly...

"Forget the tracker, she did her part! Woo-hoo! I'm rich!" He gripped his hat, taking off towards the emeralds but Metal Sonic just dashed in front of him, still upset that he rammed him with his aerobike. "Yee... uh-oh." he seemed to grow cowardly suddenly, trying to smooth talk his way out of this one. "Haha... Cunning, no? But don't you think that hedgehog is a far bigger threat at getting those pretty gems than me?"

He gestured a thumb back to Sonic, who looked over his shoulder, wondering what Metal Sonic would do first...

"If I have to fight you both to keep this world safe, I will." Sonic remained poised and ready for battle.

He was only waiting for it to start...

Metal Sonic looked back to Sonic, then bypassed Fang to take him on.

"Excellent." Fang smirked, seeing them go at it and sneaked on over to Rosy, "You've got quite a crowd with this Checkpoint posse, but you're still just a whiny, useful little daydreamin' girl! Thankfully, that means easily manipulated, and that's going to make me rich!" he grabbed her as quickly as he could, hoisted her up like a rag-doll, and began to rush off behind the battlefield that Metal Sonic and Sonic had created.

Ramming their heads together, it was almost scene-by-scene compared to their first encounter, but this time, Sonic was distracted. He noticed Fang trying to make off with Rosy and had to push against Metal Sonic to get closer. "Not on my watch, buddy!" He bent his eyes and summoned every bit of power in him to move Metal Sonic back. Metal Sonic, at first, was prideful and wanted to prove his energy boost was enough to defeat him... but as his thrusters pushed off with explosive might, Sonic kept like a steady missile and shoved him all the way back to where Fang was. "HAAA!"

"Hehe! Two birds with one- Huh?" Fang's eyes went small as his mouth dropped and he cried out in horror as Metal Sonic was thrown by Sonic's might into Fang, and Rosy was flung into the air.

The two collided but Sonic jumped to grab Rosy, carrying her like before and sticking his tongue out to Fang, "I don't think the lady wanted to go with you, pal!"

"Grr... I ain't beat yet!" Fang held out his popgun, "If I can't use her, no one will!" He shot as Metal Sonic, now ticked at this interference, grabbed his neck. "Gwak!"

"Woah!" Sonic turned and let the shot whack off his shoulder, "That has more of a punch than I thought..."

Rosy was finally stirring after the swing in Sonic's arms, and when she saw Fang, she gasped.

She remembered him fondly and seeing as Metal Sonic was choking him...

She didn't hesitate, "Sonic..!" She tried to find her voice again, begging, but it was still hoarse. She lifted a wobbly finger towards him.

However, Sonic wasn't focusing on that and seeing Fang began to falter in Metal Sonic's grip, she pushed out of Sonic's arms.

"Rosy!" he cried out, but she began to spin, as though trying to master a Spin-dash. "That's... not possible." he felt his power again, "I never shared that with her..."

She was learning it through his speed, and although not a master at it, wiggling the path as she released it, she was still able to jam in-between Fang and Metal Sonic, forcing him to release Fang to dodge her.

"You're hearts a little too kind there..." Fang rubbed his hurt neck, panting as he looked back to Rosy, uncurling and plopping down on the ground as though that was all she had left to give.

"It's... emulating... Sonic's then... right?" She weakly opened her eyes to Fang, smiling...

That act of love broke Fang a moment, he frowned and looked away from her, shaken by her tenderness towards him.

"I used you... I was kidnapping you..." He gripped the ground, "Why are you still... so kind?" He put an arm over his eyes, but she just blinked in innocent naiveness.

As though fed up with interruptions, Metal Sonic opened a portal and threw Fang into it. "Ah!" Rosy dived and grabbed him through the ring gate that Metal Sonic had created, but this one was much like Heavy Magician's, and looking to see the boats beneath the rocking waves, she gently swung him onto one, seeing other groups boarding as well.

"W... Why is Checkpoint fleeing the island..?" She blinked in surprise, then looked up from the ring to see a wide void beginning to spread.

"Ah! Soooniiccc!" She pulled her head out of the Ring Gate, turning to him, "It's-!"

The void began to spread over them, and immediately Rosy felt the ground beneath her all but disintegrate. It was so much more powerful than before, but being living beings, it took longer for the Black Ring's draining to fully break them down.

In that second, as she felt herself suspended in air, Sonic was suddenly surrounded by the balls of light. They formed into rings, small gates emerged from them that brought forth the seven chaos emeralds... but the Master Emerald had already plunged into the sea... sinking deep below its waves... as the Island became no more...

All the Hardboiled Heavies had now self-destructed, releasing the Black Ring's power. But Metal Sonic, resisting the void, took in the power and sucked it into his existing Black Ring power stored in himself.

It saved lives... but that wasn't his intent.

His eyes blazed red towards Sonic, a final battle as Sonic burst into Super Sonic and went to grab Rosy. "Amy!" He called out, surprising her as she hadn't heard her real, true name be used in so long.

It was full of something, his words conveyed a feeling she had never heard from his lips before as she reached out to grab him.

Metal Sonic, seeming to understand that complex vocal structure as well, reached instead for Rosy and had absorbed by then the full amount of the Black Ring's blast.

The rest of Checkpoint fell to the water, saved by the rings that fell around them from the Master Emerald's pulsing power. They were able to safely make it to the boats, but many were more injured than others.

As Knuckles glided to and from the boats to rescue others in the water, he looked to see the sky blank of everything but Metal Sonic and Super Sonic... He closed his eyes once his job was done and let the wind calm his own raging spirit... then dived down into the water, prepared to drown if that's what it took to recover the Master Emerald again...

"No!" Tails cried out, holding Zooey as he was trying to fly them to a nearby boat. "Knuckles... we needed his leadership."

"He finally learned to accept us, even over his precious island duties." Zooey's heart went out to him, "He must be suffering so much..."

"We all are." She looked to see that Tails was handing her off to Mighty, who placed her down with the others on the ship. "But that doesn't change the current situation. Knuckles has done more than enough for a couple of strangers like us. What we really need to do now, is get this Ring Gate to Sonic." Mighty gestured over to the squirrel, who bowed as if charming royalty.

"I'm Ray! I've been sent as a messenger!" He chimed, though his spirits were really not placed well with all that was happening.

"Ray?" Zooey seemed confused, "Wait... you're the one that was faxing me all those papers!"

"Oh? So you're Zooey! Nice to meet ya!" he scratched behind his head, "Now, where is this fearsome Sonic?" He held up the ring and pointed to it, small and normal looking but it had been so long since the gang had seen one since the Black Ring's toll on the planet's energy.

"Is that..?" She was amazed to see it twinkling in the harsh sunlight.

"Yep! We were able to gather enough of the planet's energy, but it's truly the last. We're hoping Sonic will know how to properly use it-AH!" The boat was suddenly rocked as Super Sonic and Metal Sonic crashed into the ocean, kicking and punching, though a robot had an advantage if it didn't need to breathe...

"What was that!?" Mighty cried out, not seeing the blurs as it was too fast for his slow reaction. He looked over the side of the boat and gasped, seeing a massive mound of water heading straight towards them. "Brace yourselves!" he ducked and held on to two younger kids, hoping to protect them as the large Checkpoint ships were able to be pushed back but stay afloat, while the smaller ones toppled over and began to swim towards the nearest larger ship.

The whole of the world was like one big orb of water now... if Sonic didn't save the planet, there wouldn't be anything left of a planet!

Sonic felt the time-crunch of being under the water for so long, but looking to Rosy, worried she wasn't handling the fast-paced battle as well as he was.

He had to figure out a way to get Metal Sonic to back off and forfeit Rosy... that's when he saw Knuckles swimming up from the bottom of the ocean, having the Master Emerald held by one arm and being held up by his shoulder. It was a slow movement... too slow.

Sonic couldn't fight against Metal Sonic's sharp engine bursting through the water, and one punch in that thing would tear up his hand for sure...

So he did the next best thing.

Seeing an air bubble next to him, he shoved Metal Sonic with a powerful kick into it, seeing Rosy gasp desperately and able to take in the oxygen while Sonic propelled himself towards Knuckles.

All of Checkpoint cheered when Sonic emerged from the water with Knuckles and The Master Emerald. "Metal me! You want a real battle!? I'll let you try and absorb the Master Emerald's power in exchange for my friend!"

They all gasped, some even shrieked in protest at what he was suggesting before Knuckles coughed in absolute shock.

"OVER MY DEAD-Ahhh..!" Sonic dropped him on a boat, then spun the water into a whirlpool that pushed the other ships away from their battle.

Metal Sonic, having heard this under the water, didn't want to lose his tactical advantage... knowing Sonic couldn't swim without his super form to help him fly through the water.

Looking to Rosy, who was pounding against him in the water, he decided that Eggman must have blown up the others and left him with all their residual power.

If he could absorb the Master Emerald and utilize the released Black Ring's power—knowing the planet would try and absorb its power back first—he may get enough power to fully take Sonic and the rest of Eggman's enemies down in one powerful, cosmic showdown...

What evil doppelganger could refuse?

A spray of water, like a massive geyser, blew out from beneath as the Checkpoint ships all watched while Metal Sonic held out Rosy to block any counteractions. If they even dared fire or try a counter-strike, Rosy would be caught in the crossfire... a literal shield for him to break the surface of the water successfully without being targeted or tricked.

Checkpoint had to stand down... and worriedly looked to Sonic, confused on his reasoning. He wouldn't actually give up the Master Emerald's power to an Eggman robot... would he?

Forced to fly back, Super Sonic waited for the deal to be made... His friend for the Master Emerald. It was a deal that could either seal the fate of his planet, dooming everyone to an apocalypse,... or bring about something Sonic hoped would renew harmony and the planet's power.

Just one thing to do...

He waited as Metal Sonic held Rosy up as she gasped for air and then struggled all the more, gasping between her duel back-quills with one clawed-hand and having her flail on her back.

"This meanie robot won't leave me alone!" She coughed out, straining and kicking like a turtle on it's back in his hand.

He shifted his body robotically, turning with a clank twist of his torso, and holding out his hand for Sonic to deliver up the Master Emerald... it seems the plan was working.

"Yo, Mr. Sonic!" A voice called, as Sonic looked to Ray cupping a hand by the side of his mouth to project, and winked to reveal the small ring gate in his hand, unactivated yet, and using his squirrel flap on his arms to hide it from Metal Sonic's view.

However, Metal Sonic looked through the skin to see it, glaring and turning to Sonic.

He opened the void...

"Ahh..!" Rosy felt her strength being pulled, and that's when Sonic bent over, feeling that Metal Sonic was directly trying to suck out her Ring Bond with him.

"M-Metal... Stop it..." Super Sonic squinted, feeling the bond begin to fade as Rosy tried to use his super speed.

"N-no!" She didn't want to lose that bond with her hero, more than anything, it meant the world to her to be connected to him in this way, in any way! "I won't... let you steal... what we have!" She curled up into another ball, shredding Metal Sonic's hand as he tried to keep a grip on her.

Through the void, she homing-attacked out and uncurled to Sonic, hitting a backlash on Metal Sonic as his hand whammed into his face and the void expanded in his anger to suck her power and ring bond dry.

Checkpoint, once again, fell to their knees at its power.

Sonic reached out and grabbed her, holding her close as his Super form began to falter. Holding her close, the two felt their Ring Bond... slowly... begin to...

"No." Sonic's eyes closed and he felt the Master Emerald's bond still alive and active from its core, responding to his emotions. With the swelling of his heart, he opened his eyes and quickly took in the gravity of the situation. Checkpoint... Mighty, Zooey, Tails, Knuckles... he saw everyone in pain.

He couldn't stand it, he looked at last to Rosy, seeing tears in her eyes.

"I... I don't want to lose... my very special bond... with you." She admitted through her tears. She gripped his shoulders, not wanting to lose hope.

Rings formed around the Master Emerald as little balls of light connected them like dots to the rings. The Chaos Emeralds emerged from the small rings, and all connected to the Master Emerald.

Sonic held out his hand and Ray smiled, tossing the ring to Mighty who threw it through the air, "You've got one chance! Make it count!" he called out encouragingly, but also, it was the truly the last hope.

Sonic caught the ring as Metal Sonic stood in place. He had witnessed the powerful rings blip out of existence before inside of the Black Ring's power and didn't feel the least bit threatened at their 'last stand' display. He just threw the ball of darkness above his head, the purple matter like a misty threat to reality, and Super Sonic tightened his hold on the ring, holding it up to have the Master Emerald link with him again.

"Sonic..." Rosy's eyes shined in the brilliance of the light that radiated the ring bond between him and the Master Emerald renewing.

Sonic now had the connection he needed to the Black Ring's power... and super juicing the unlimited power of chaos energy into Sonic, who in return, charged the Ring in his hand and threw it open into the air, turning it into...

"A chaos ring?" Tails's eyes were amazed, "He's created a ring that burst energy!"

Zooey's mouth dropped, her hand moving her over her mouth before stepping back and swinging it down, "That's... the exact opposite of the Anti-Matter dimension... it's like a... a..."

"A world of light." Rosy reached up to the ring, feeling her Ring Bond grow exponentially then.

Super Sonic smirked to Metal Sonic, "Time to end this." he tossed Rosy down to where he saw Mighty, "Keep her safe for me, will ya?"

"On it!" Mighty jumped up and grabbed her, about to crash into the water before Ray swooped down and offered him his tail, "Hold on! Yikes!" he felt the pain of the grip on his poor little tail but fought through it and flew back to the ship, rubbing his bum a moment and kissing his tail that felt like it would have been ripped off.

Tails embraced Rosy, glad she was okay, but she looked back to Super Sonic, wondering what he was planning to do now.

"As much as I hate to admit it, that dimension can only be destroyed with power, and that power struggle ends here." Super Sonic spun into a ball in the air, and to match him, Metal Sonic spun into a similar form, the Black Ring's aura sucking the residual power from the Heavies that the planet couldn't retain in time, and formed a large orb around Metal Sonic's frame... descending back over him after getting powered up.

The ultimate showdown... of light versus darkness.

Which was stronger? The power to sever and break apart bonds... or the power to make them?

Now would decide... the fate of the world.

Super Sonic took all his might and shot towards Metal Sonic, pushing him into the Ring Gate. After entering, Metal Sonic clashed with Super Sonic, absorbing his power but unable to thrash it back, and Sonic never ceasing in his power.

Metal Sonic uncurled to noticed his surroundings... chaos. Untouched, unpolluted, the power of the world... the rings not yet formed.

He grasped to absorb their power but by doing so, the Black Ring began to shrink...

With so much power, it was gulping down too much and couldn't contain it all...

Metal Sonic's eye-lights read out 'WARNING, SUPERNOVA' and Super Sonic uncurled with a grin, cocky as ever.

"I was wondering Metal Sonic... you've always wanted to form a Ring Bond with me, right?" He reached up his hand and opened the Ring Gate further, this time, creating millions all over the world. "I think the Black Ring can only release its pent-up energy through explosion, imploding on itself and coughing up all its power back to the planet! And in order to do that, I need you to give it up!" He threw out a ring that spun out with a bead of lights, and Metal Sonic reflexed to grab it, as was his programming when something was thrown at him.

His eyes scanned the ring, then looked to Super Sonic.

"We can really find out... who's the true hero now." Super Sonic had no fear in his eyes, but if this backfired... if Metal Sonic gained the power of Super form, he could feed the Black Ring forever... never having its power outweighed...

"Time to see how this thing works!" The power of Ring Bonds were still greatly experimental, but Sonic knew, he knew what he felt with Tails... Rosy... and Mighty...

It was more than just power he shared.

As the Ring Bonds began to form, Super Sonic felt the Black Ring eating at the dots of light connecting them, and soon felt the power of the Black Ring in himself.

Metal Sonic gripped the ring, hoping for the power to finally best Sonic... but what he didn't realize... was that there was no relationship between him and Sonic, and therefore...

"Ha! Fooled ya, Tincan!" Super Sonic, now having a connection directly to the source of the remaining Black Ring's power, shot into Metal Sonic, grabbing his shoulders and throwing him into the Black Ring Void. "Robots can fry up with too much power, and you hate me!" He cried out, feeling the Black Ring take them in and begin to self-implode with all the power it couldn't contain.

Metal Sonic's systems began to burn up, electricity sparked wildly like lightning as Super Sonic's power couldn't be retained either... he had no system that could hold such emotions and feelings.

The explosion sprayed molecular dust into the atmosphere,... Sonic had used the Black Ring's power to turn the raw energy into atom-leveled material that the planet could use to heal from.

Instantly, land formed again, rising from the planet's core as molten lava accelerated its process and Checkpoint held on as earthquakes formed new mountains, breaking off to drift in the sea and tectonic plates rotated the ever-shifting masses of earth around as the dust of chaos energy landed to the ground, sprinkling it and having grass and trees spring out spontaneously from its power.

Everyone marveled as some ships were pushed into the air and below them, new land arose as they cheered, jumping off the ships and looking at the new flowers and rings that burst into existence in abundance.

It was a true renewal of harmony at its finest; Superpowered from Sonic's use of breaking down the power just enough so that it would be easy for the planet to digest utilize it without waiting for billions of years to go by...

But the Ring Gates he had formed began to softly, one by one... spin into themselves and disappear...

Tails, Mighty, Knuckles, and Rosy all looked into the sky, scanning for their hero, walking along the new earth, and having a silent prayer in their hearts that this wasn't the end of their adventures with Sonic the Hedgehog.

"Quick, you two!" Mighty pointed dramatically back at them, spooking them in their intense search for Super Sonic in the skies. "Try and use his super speed!"

Tails spin-dashed and Rosy, having a super-charged Ring Bond with Sonic now, due to her close proximity to him when he had formed the renewed bond with the Master Emerald, ran as best she could and also spun and dashed in her curled ball form.

But though they retained his powers,... he was nowhere to be found.

"Sonic..." Rosy uncurled, sitting on the ground and beginning to cry as she looked at the beautiful new grass, the fresh smells of nature, and the gentle blowing wind against her face. It was as though the world was taking a sigh of relief, peacefully returning to life, but even better than before. "Sonic... if you live... if you live then-! Then, I'll-!" She sniffed, before bursting into tears, throwing her head back, and having her hands in balled fist by her eyes. "I'll marry you-ou-ou, Wha-haha-haaa! Sooniiicc!"

The others lowered their heads, even Knuckles took off his soaking wet hat to pay some respects.

A foot gently landed beside the young girl... and a ray of light shone through the newly made clouds and bright blue sky...

"Amy Rose... why are you crying?"

The voice was sweet but also full of tender joy as Rosy wiped her eyes and looked up. "S...Sonic!" She jumped into his arms, and his super form faded to bring back his royal blue and a kind smile.

He held her back and then winked to the others, "Miss me?"

They all cheered, rushing over as Knuckles slapped his knee with his cowboy hat and rushed to him as well.

On another island, Fang pfft'd at the happy moment, watching it quite a while away with a grumpy expression, folding his arms as a butterfly flew by him and landed on his nose. "GET OUTTA HERE!" he hollered, "I hate happy endings! Pah-tooie!" he spat out and waved his arms about, then pulled out his popgun and raced after it, "Blasted thing! I'll show you to try and leave on a good note, come 'ere!" he fired a few rounds of corks at it but it flew spiritedly off into the new world...

A whole new world to explore with brand new continents and Eggman hard-banking back to the planet..? Oh yes, the young explorers had plenty of new adventures to discover now! And wonderful new bonds, along with the true powers of the ring gates, were sure to bring about new journeys and uncharted voyages! Zooey was thankful everyone was alright, but even more excited for the unlimited possibilities to come!

And the new, hidden dangers of this world... were soon to come to pass as well.

END.

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