Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Introduction

*On the expansive grass plains of Soleanna, our opening shot is of 3 Egg Pawns dressed in knightly armor, fitting for the castles that dot the region. They’re mostly minding their own business, slacking off and dueling each other. However, their party is soon crashed with the arrival of our hero, Sonic the Hedgehog, homing attack them to pieces.*

Sonic: “Knighty night, robots, heh.”

*Twin Buzzers arrive to avenge their destroyed friends.*

Sonic: “What, you guys the fun police?”

*Tails flies in, smacking them with his tails hard enough to destroy them.*

Tails: “Well, it was a bad pun, Sonic.”

Sonic shrugs: “Aw, well.”

*More Egg Pawns and Buzzers fly to them, but they are popped by Rouge the Bat and Knuckles the Echidna.*

Knuckles: “I see Eggman is sending us the welcome party.”

Rouge: “Nothing we can’t handle, right, red?”

Knuckles: “Of course not.”

*On cue, new reinforcements arrive, some kind of sleek Eggman mechs. They aim their guns at the heroes.*

Sonic: “Well, Eggman’s upgraded his toys. Still looks like tin cans.”

*They fire on the heroes and they scatter from the mess of bullets, circling around the mechs as they keep up.*

Knuckles: “They’re better trained at least.”

Rouge: “But they’re still Eggman machines. We got this.”

*Someone does get them, Shadow and Omega, as the black hedgehog smashes the head in while Omega breaks the legs and torso with his punches.*

Omega: “Eggman mechs, destroyed!”

Shadow: “Too slow, Sonic. You got to be faster than that.”

Sonic: “Hey! I was just about to attack them.”

Shadow: “Hmph, sure. You better keep up then, because Eggman is ahead on his flagship. I’m not waiting for you.” *With that, Shadow and Omega run off onto the plains.*

Rouge: “Well, that’s my cue. I’ll find that treasure first as well.”

Knuckles: “In your dreams, bat girl!” *Rouge and Knux glide and fly away as well.*

Sonic: “Geez, how’d we end up last on the starting line. *Turns to Tails.* Ready to go, buddy?”

Tails: “Yep. Let’s go.” *The two buddies speed off on the plains.*

-----

Kingdom Valley

Badniks :

• Knight Egg Pawns: The usual standard fare badniks, and tried and true army of Dr. Eggman. Here, they are dressed up in knight armor, but it’s not doing much to protect them, easily dispatched in one hit, two with a shield. Just watch for their swinging, sharp swords. +200 points.
• Archer Egg Pawns: Egg Pawns dressed in loose garb than their knightly copies, carrying bows and arrows. Move when they are about to fire to avoid the attack. Easily dispatched. +200 points.
• Red Egg Flapper: Jet propelled badniks that really don’t have an attack of any kind, just floating there. Makes for easy step stones that get destroyed in one hit. +100 points.
• Buzzers: Buzzing bee badniks that have a zapping stinger. Slow, and their shots are easily predictable. More better used as homing attack stairs across gaps and to upper areas. +100 points.
• Egg Sentry: A sleek-modeled silver mech made by Eggman, perhaps the next evolution after the E-2000s. They can either march or stand still and rotate their torsos around to fire energy bullets from their gun arms. Thankfully, they are slow to react, but take 2 hits to smash apart (1 with Knux and Omega). +300 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. Floating over an Egg Flapper in the line that floats across the whole lake.
2. The left side of the courtyard, hiding in a corner.
3. Take a little detour into one of the bedrooms in the castle to find it.
4. On a high point of the cathedral, reached with Tails flying.
5. Home attack the archery targets to make the medal appear.

It’s possibly quite strange to see that this stage is so early in the line-up compared to where it was at in the original game, but I am promising now that this rewritten adventure will be going in a much better direction. Case in point, the opening of this stage starts on a field in the mid-afternoon sun that is bordered by a lake. Here, we are offered the first path choice right off the bat. We could either run around the field safely, collecting rings and dashing along Dash Panels, or take a risk by heading to the lake edge and use the line of Egg Flappers gliding back and forth to home attack our way across the entire way, which is somewhat faster as well for it. At the other end of the lake paths, they converge to meet a stone bridge and up to a castle, where Knuckles awaits.

Knuckles: “Hey, Sonic. Shadow and the others already went through here, but their passage brought down a gate and more of Eggman’s baddies. Let me go and find the switch so you can go through.”

In the castle’s courtyard, we can spot that the gate to the inside of the castle has dropped and closed off access, and that there are various Knight Egg Pawns and Egg Sentries around. As much as they are trying though, a single punch to all of them will smash them to bits. Knuckles is quite easy to control, being able to jump, glide around and climb, punch up to three times with Square and grab stuff with the O button and toss them by pressing it again.

The switch is on the right path in the courtyard, noted by more enemies surrounding the switch. Destroy them or dodge them and hit the switch to open the gate up and let Sonic through.

Back as Sonic again, we can continue into the castle proper now, this one looking pretty well together despite being many centuries old. Though, Eggman’s pawns are not helping matters, knocking over various suits of armor, columns and loose bricks onto us as we run through the halls, passing through various living areas and head upstairs. A few Egg Sentries fill these more narrow halls, but they are easily dispatched as we make our way out to the walls, speeding through more badniks until we reach a condor perched on the wall. Jump to it, and they’ll carry us off over the plains, letting us take in the castles around, the lake, the plains and the mountains encompassing the region as we collect rings.

Sonic: “Whoo! What a view!” *Eggman’s flagship is spotted flying over a certain castle still a distance away.* “Too bad that gaudy airship clashes with it.”

Eventually, we’re dropped off onto the roof of an old cathedral that has windows and statues of gods gone by on it, which is when Tails comes into the picture, who has been following us. Calling him, he’ll start flying and pick us up, carrying us across the gaps in the architecture to get closer to the ground. His control scheme is also simple, with the usual jumping and flying with a second press, his tail spin with the Square button and grabbing small things with the O button . Some buzzers try to get the jump on us, but they are easily dealt with as we soon reach the grass below and run towards the flagship.

Sonic: “Oh yeah! Time to let loose!”

I think we can all agree, I hope, that the boost gameplay of Unleashed and onwards fixed a LOT of what what wrong with the Mach Speed sections of ‘06, so that is what follows here, a long straightaway of running and boosting with all the power from the rings we got so far. Speed on through, gathering rings for more boost and smash through the lines of Egg Pawns looking so desperate to even stop us, but can’t, although, if we want to dodge them, we can side step with the shoulder buttons like in Colors. Quickly, the castle Eggman is over is right in front of us, where we spot Shadow, Rouge and Omega entering the upper areas.

This courtyard is much more massive, having archery ranges, dueling areas, and a drawbridge over a moat, but it has already been pulled down. It’s nothing for Sonic and us, as we are soon running through this ancient castle through the right staircase, which is a bit more decayed from its old age. We run through these halls too, dodging badniks and falling columns and debris as we make our way up the giant castle’s winding interiors. Buzzers break in through the upstairs windows to try and catch us with surprise bullets, but keeping on the move will sneak us right on by as we tear up the carpet and stones and run up the outside ramparts, going up the path we saw Shadow and the others on to the door, which is where our Goal Ring is, ending the stage.

Time Bonus :

• <1:30.00 = 50,000 pts
• 1:30.01 - 2:00.00 = 40,000 pts
• 2:00.01 - 2:30.00 = 30,000 pts
• 2:30.01 - 3:00.00 = 20,000 pts
• 3:00.01 - 3:30.00 = 10,000 pts
• (Any second over from here is -100pts)

Ranks :

• S-Rank: >60,000 pts (+3 Soleanna Medals/1-2 that wasn’t earned with an A- or B-Rank) (+3000 Rings)
• A-Rank: 55,000 - 59,900 pts (+2 Soleanna Medals/ 1 that wasn’t earned with a B-Rank) (+2000 Rings)
• B-Rank: 50,000 - 54,900 pts (+1 Soleanna Medal) (+1000 Rings)
• C-Rank: 40,000 - 49,900 pts (+500 Rings)
• D-Rank: 39,900 pts and lower (+100 Rings)

-----

Conclusion :

*The doors swing aside as Sonic, Tails and Knuckles rush into a room that looks to be a cathedral area, with plenty of stained glass windows depicting a strange story of something dark being sent into a staff, with other glass windows showing this dark creature looking like a devil of some sorts. The rest of the room is dark brick walls and banners of some ancient clan with horns like the devil’s image. In this same room is Shadow’s team and worse, Dr. Eggman himself, portly laughing at Sonic’s entrance.*

Dr. Eggman: “Hoh ho, nice of you to join us, dear hedgehog. I was wondering what was taking so long.”

Sonic rubs his nose to that: “Maybe don’t illegally park so far away then.”

Omega: “Enough games, Eggman! Surrender, or we’ll take you by force.”

Dr. Eggman tsks his robot: “One of my creations, thinking he can order things to happen. You all know I run the show here! Besides, all of you are too late anyway, I’ve gotten what I came for.”

*Eggman pulls out a stony-looking scepter that has a dark jewel at the end of it that pulses like a heartbeat.*

Rouge eyes it.: “Huh? It’s real?”

Dr. Eggman: “As real as it gets! And I’m going to use it! Ho, arise, and serve your master!”

*Eggman raises the scepter into the air, and the pulsing darkness in the jewel comes out like a dark mist and floats around the room.*

Sonic: “Huh? What’s that?”

Tails shivers: “Why do I feel like it’s watching me?”

Knuckles: “Is this another one of your tricks, Eggman?”

Dr. Eggman: “You poor, naive fools don’t even know what you are in the presence of, don’t you? Don’t worry, it will be clear soon enough.”

*The dark fog eventually stops next to Eggman at his side, and reforms its mass into a new shape… which looks to be a twisted version of Sonic and Shadow, with outstanding features including jagged quills, empty black eyes, a bent nose, horns, no mouth, is entirely in grey and black colors, and any gloves and shoes from Sonic and Shadow look like they are actual ‘flesh’ of the creature.*

Shadow and Sonic: “Why does it look like us?!”

Dr. Eggman scratches their head at this too: “Hmm… I wasn’t told that it was a hedgehog.”

The creature suddenly speaks, but with no mouth, it seems to be coming out of nowhere. “I have only taken the form of the most powerful being(s) in this room, Dr. Eggman. I am Mephiles the Dark, and I will happily serve your needs.”

Dr. Eggman: “Wonderful!” *To Sonic and the others* “I’d love to stay and chat, but I have evil to do! Ta-Ta!”

*Eggman and Mephiles are encased in a blue light that teleports them away back to the ship, which then charges its engines and flies off to Wave Ocean.*

-----

*The company of 6 watches from the balcony of the castle as Eggman’s carrier flies off.*

Sonic: “Shoot! He got away! I’m going after him!”

Shadow: “Wait, Sonic! You have to tread carefully.”

Tails: “I assume you are referring to Mephiles?”

Rouge: “Yes. From what intel we gathered, that creature has lived for millennia, serving those who hold that scepter, called the Scepter of Darkness.”

Sonic: “How apt.”

Shadow: “Don’t take him lightly. Besides that mimicry power, he has been known to wipe out those the owner of the scepter asks for by any means necessary.”

Knuckles: “He’s definitely not made of Chaos, but something more sinister, from what I feel from him.”

Omega: “Mephiles doesn’t generate body heat, my temperature scanners have confirmed.”

Sonic: “So we’ll just be careful like we always are. Come on, let’s go!”

Shadow: “You three head on over there. Our team is going to head off into Tropical Jungle.”

Sonic: “I assume you aren’t going to tell us why like you did with this?”

Rouge: “Sorry boys, but we just want to confirm it, just to be sure.”

Knuckles: “Keeping secrets seems to be the usual with you two, huh?”

Shadow: “We’ll tell you once we find out for sure. I promise.”

Sonic: “We’re keeping you to that. Now, let’s go!”

*Tails grabs Sonic and both them and Knuckles fly away from the castle, followed by Shadow and the others leaving too.*

-----

Sonic’s Story, Interlude - Soleanna Forest

We leave from Kingdom Valley through a Soleanna Mirror, a device that allows for quick travel to a certain area. It is blackened steel with a clear glass mirror that shows Kingdom Valley inside. It seems this mirror has more properties than just warp transport, as it seems it can accept Soleanna medals to access something further with the stage, but for right now it is locked, since we have more pressing matters to deal with.

Soleanna Forest encompasses most of the forest region that connects between Soleanna New City to the east and Soleanna Castle Town to the west, where it is less of the hustle and bustle of both. Plenty of wildlife can be heard and seen around, from various birds, to deer and even a small croc near the Tropical Jungle entrance. However, its mirror, which is to the northeast of this area, seems to not be powered at the moment, suggesting its been used or in use. To the south, there is a train station that the conductors here call Radical Train. It can be used to get to and fro of New City’s and Castle Town’s southern ends, and they make a mention that today’s rides are free for the ‘Festival of the Sun’ that is planned for the evening. Although White Acropolis can’t be accessed from here as its mirror is blocked, north can be easily marked from the snow capped mountains and Kingdom Valley’s mirror, and south has, besides the train, a view of the sandy plains below of old ruins lost to time that is Dusty Desert.

Other points of interest in this forest are an archeologist retreat, a weather station, and the roadblock. There are quite a few archeologists taking refuge in the log cabin retreat in the mid western area, some a bit scared having seen Eggman’s robots try to attack them in Kingdom Valley. One asks for help to save a few for a Soleanna medal, which is a mission we can do at any time. There will be plenty more missions to do everywhere in due time. The weather station is a simple square building with a metal tower next to it with a satellite dish. The scientists inside are constantly monitoring the weather of Soleanna for any changes, however, they seem to be slightly worried as they’re getting abnormal readings unexpected for the Festival of the Sun day. One asks if we can fix the satellite in Kingdom Valley if we can spare the time, which Tails can do if we so want to. The roadblock to White Acropolis’ mirror seems to be a mystery, with no certain way of getting through them unless someone lifted them out of the way.

Once we’re all done here, it’s off to Soleanna Castle Town, which is where Eggman’s ship was heading for.

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Sonic’s Story, Interlude - Soleanna Castle Town

Soleanna Castle Town is one half of this small country’s liveliness, representing the more government side of things. To the west, on a separate island, is Soleanna Castle, where the royals of this country live and govern. The only access to it is a road that also goes to Wave Ocean, which spreads across the entire western coast with plenty of recreational activities to do. Right now, the guards are preventing anyone from going to the castle, saying the Princess is getting ready for the ‘Festival of the Sun’ tonight. South from the Soleanna Forest entrance is the Radical Train station here, and further south still is a cavern that has the entrance to Dusty Desert, which is guarded by… G.U.N.? Their presence is to be expected actually, as their base/fort for Soleanna is on an island to the south, providing extra support for the country. For now, they are keeping Dusty Desert off limits as Eggman’s mechs are appearing everywhere and that they are already in use of the mirror.

For the most part, the town has 3 story buildings of various designs. The northern and southern parts look more like residential housing, made into cul-de-sacs. Plenty of people are walking by, waving hi to Sonic. More closer to the middle of town, the buildings are more places of business, selling various wares, though the ones we can go to are selling gems and other items, including Chao Garden items, because I would have that exist in this game once again since SA2, (But don't expect me to go into detail on that, just know it's like SA2s but improved. :D). In the center of town are no buildings, but a long stone walkway with ocean water running through the man made channels on either side of it. There are also a lot of torch holders, explained by the people around here that they are to be lit tonight for the Festival of the Sun, their celebration for the sun god Solaris. It also marks the first day of Summer as well for the country.

Our destination is Wave Ocean, where Eggman’s craft can be seen flying out there.

Chapter Text

Introduction

*Sonic and the others are walking down the boardwalk that leads to the beach.*

Sonic: “I wonder what Eggman wants over here? All I see is a lot of water.”

Tails: “I’ll scout ahead, but I think he’s out over an island.”

Knuckles: “I have a feeling… let’s go, Tails.”

Tails: “Alright.”

*Both fly off, leaving us with Sonic.*

-----

Wave Ocean

Badniks :

• Surfer Pawns: Hang 10, brah. They like to carry around their surfboards and swing them at whoever walks by close enough. Whoa, not cool. A few are also surfing on the water, being hazards to dodge or home attack over. +200 points.
• Ellas: Umbrella badniks hiding among real ones, but easily distinguished with their red/black cloth. Mostly just hurts to the touch unless hit with an attack. +100 points.
• Spiked: Bouncing volleyball badniks that will pop out with spikes every 3rd bounce. Just don’t hit it with the spike out to defeat it. +200 points.
• Egg Sentries +200 points.
• Egg Gunships: A small, floating craft with two Egg Sentries on it. They want to gun down the blue hedgehog. Dodging them is fairly easy, and the craft can be taken down in 2 hits. +500 points.
• Aero Chasers: Large, jetpack wearing mechs with devices on their back that fire lasers down in a line. Mostly found in boost sections to avoid, but they can be destroyed with some debris if they don’t crash into something first. +300 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. Resting on a beach chair guarded by badniks.
2. Floating on water that we can hydroplane on.
3. In the boost section, smash through a rock pillar that has the medal behind it.
4. In the second boost section, boost off a ramp to get the medal.
5. Follow a secret path in the shrubbery of the ruins island to find it.

Here’s hoping we packed our floaties, because we’re onto a beach stage. This go round, we’re not starting on some random cliffs, but right at the end of a boardwalk onto a beach, with an opening similar to Emerald Beach as we run through some sand bars and boardwalks, passing by beach chairs with people waving at Sonic and badniks trying to stop him. Dash panels provide quick changes in direction on the sharp corners while we can coast across the sandy curves or hydroplane over the water with enough speed. We go from island to island as we make our way to a lighthouse, with nothing but water and rocky islands ahead.

Sonic: “Hmm, out of land. Time to hit the gas!”

It’s onto the water with boost mechanics as we race from island to island, dodging Surfer Pawns and Spikeds and Egg Gunships that are trying to slip us up, and any rocky outcroppings that we could accidentally slam into and drown from. The first rocky island is a twisted loop going 270 degrees around to point us to the next island. The next is a bit more lively with the volleyball badniks really bouncing around and trying to hit us. After it, it’s open sea for a while as we then have to quickstep to avoid Aero Chasers and rocky outcroppings and Surfer Pawns, although some boosts into both can destroy an Aero Chaser with the flying debris.

After passing through a short sea cave that clears out the Aero Chasers, we happen to find ourselves among boat riders and skiers that are out on the water enjoying the fun. Of course, slamming into them would just make Sonic stop and drown so avoid them with quickstepping and using the ramps that are spread out among the area. Eventually they get scared off as more Aero Chasers come to attack, but we can get rid of them by boosting on the ramps to smash them. Eventually, we lose them as we reach the island that Eggman’s ship is over, which has some old ruins on it. We also find Tails and Knuckles here.

Tails: “I think I saw a transport bean come down into those ruins, but they’re heavily guarded with badniks and mechs.”

Knuckles: “Hey, how about we all go together? Nothing has usually stopped all three of us before.”

Sonic: “Heh, then let’s go.”

With the three amigos in tandem, we head off into the ruins in search of the center. We’re offered some choices as we find that there are two paths: one is taking the ruins above and dealing with mechs and badniks, while the other is a clear, watery swim below where the ruins are being blasted by mines and we’ll have to fight the fact of not drowning either. Both paths are of the same length and time, even if the water makes us move a little slower. Tails can fly us over them if we don’t want to deal with them. The land path also has plenty of secret paths in the overgrowth, easily spotted with the light filtering through it in this late afternoon sun, some requiring Knuckles’ punching to break through. To choose either Knuckles or Tails, all we need to do is press the D-pad Left or Right to switch between the trio. Whichever way we go, our Goal Ring is soon in sight, finishing the stage.

Time Bonus :

• <2:00.00 = 50,000 pts
• 2:00.01 - 2:30.00 = 40,000 pts
• 2:30.01 - 3:00.00 = 30,000 pts
• 3:00.01 - 3:30.00 = 20,000 pts
• 3:30.01 - 4:00.00 = 10,000 pts
• (Any second over from here is -100pts)

Ranks :

• S-Rank: >60,000 pts (+3 Soleanna Medals/1-2 that wasn’t earned with an A- or B-Rank) (+3000 Rings)
• A-Rank: 55,000 - 59,900 pts (+2 Soleanna Medals/ 1 that wasn’t earned with a B-Rank) (+2000 Rings)
• B-Rank: 50,000 - 54,900 pts (+1 Soleanna Medal) (+1000 Rings)
• C-Rank: 40,000 - 49,900 pts (+500 Rings)
• D-Rank: 39,900 pts and lower (+100 Rings)

-----

*The small shrubbery here has given way to full ruins, where they depict two ancient gods. One is of the sun god Solaris, which is depicted on the overhead murals, and it appears to look like a bird of some kind. The second is of another god, which is more abstract but made of fire.*

*Sonic and his friends enter the open air temple ahead, where they spot ‘Shadow’ placing a familiar blue jewel into a pedestal.*

Sonic: “Shadow? What are you doing here, and with that Blue Chaos Emerald?”

‘Shadow’: “Hmph, you’ll see.”

*It floats into place, and an earthquake seems to shake the island for a short time.*

Knuckles: “W-whoa! What’s with the earthquake?!”

Tails: “I wonder if it has something to do with the temple!”

*They soon cease, and the three get their bearings again. Looking at ‘Shadow’ again, they now notice that some of his notable colors are missing.*

Tails: “Wait a minute, that isn’t Shadow! He doesn’t have any red on him.”

*Mephiles chuckles as he drops the act, sounding like himself and not Shadow now.* “You mortals are so gullible and easy to fool.”

Sonic: “Only when you stand in the dark. Why not come out and fight?”

Mephiles: “You think you have a chance against me? I’d like to see you try.”

Boss: Mephiles

Mephiles begins with quite a surprising attack, rolling into a ball like Sonic and spin dashing around the ruins with some speed that is just below Sonic’s, making it difficult to catch up with him. Not that it would work since he is protected while like this. However, he will stop right next to Sonic and reveal his true attack with a beam of dark energy from his hands, which has to be dodged as soon as he stops moving. He’ll take a moment to rest before spin dashing around again, which is the perfect time to retaliate with a hit. Succeed, and he’ll add a few homing attacks that need to be dodged as well when he does it. Attack after the laser still for the first three hits before he mixes it up.

*Mephiles changes his form into Tails, although he is twisted with four tails, bent ears, and otherwise looking empty of emotion and similar changes he had with Sonic’s form.*

His attacks have changed now to match the two tailed fox’s, as he starts flying around high in the air for a bit before lowering down and firing his laser. Though, with this, he can be home-attacked anytime he’s low enough, which can stop him from shooting the laser. Further attacks come with spinning around his tails like blades when he lowers down, meaning we can’t attack then. Get three more hits in, and Mephiles will change things up one more time.

*Mephiles changes again, now turning into a faded Knuckles, though his dreads are bent awkwardly, and his fist-spikes are actual spikes, and again looking empty and an evil image of the red echidna.*

His last form is expectedly tougher than the rest of them (Sorry XP) as he actually goes to do a three punch combo on us, which hurts, and ends with the laser shooting out from his fists. Like with Sonic’s form, dodge with the last wind up and then hit when he takes the recovery moment. His added attacks are spindashing for the second, and then gliding around for the third, which does have that same weakness from ‘Sonic and Knuckles’ with a jumping hit when he’s low enough. Finally, he’ll be down with 9 hits in total.

Ranks :

• S-Rank: <1:30.00 (+3 Soleanna Medals/1-2 that wasn’t earned with an A- or B-Rank) (+3000 Rings)
• A-Rank: 1:30.01 - 2:00.00 (+2 Soleanna Medals/ 1 that wasn’t earned with a B-Rank) (+2000 Rings)
• B-Rank: 2:00.01 - 2:30.00 (+1 Soleanna Medal) (+1000 Rings)
• C-Rank: 2:30.01 - 3:00.00 (+500 Rings)
• D-Rank: >3:00.00 (+100 Rings)

-----

Conclusion :

*Mephiles groans from the beating.* “Errrgh… more powerful than I expected, but no matter.”

Sonic: “What are you and Eggman up to?!”

Mephiles: “If you want to know, head on over to White Acropolis. Now, goodbye.”

*Mephiles gets beamed up to Eggman’s ship, which then flies off promptly back into Soleanna.*

Sonic: “Well, you heard him, let’s go to White Acropolis.”

Tails: “I hope we aren’t being taken into a trap.”

Knuckles: “It’s not like we have much of a choice. I say we go and worry about it there.”

*Our heroes run back off to shore.*

-----Meanwhile, aboard the Egg Carrier Mk IV.-----

Dr. Eggman: “Splendid job, Mephiles. You got the Chaos Emerald in. That makes 5 ruins activated.”

Mephiles: “Dr. Eggman, you still haven’t explained yourself on why you need my power.”

Dr. Eggman: “Oh, that is still a secret, but I can tell you this, demon; you will love what you’ll become.”

*Mephiles only nods to it as he changes into a strange looking anthro frog with horns. There is no visible other force in the darkness, so one wonders who he’s copying.*

Dr. Eggman: “Now, come along, Mephiles. It’s time to send the hedgehog away.”

-----

Sonic’s Story, Interlude - Soleanna Castle Town

Nothing much to note here, as our next level is on the other side of Soleanna, so the train is the best choice. Mission-wise, a G.U.N. soldier has Soleanna medals to give if we destroy what he asks for.. Once we’re done here, it’s time to ride the train over to Soleanna New City.

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Sonic’s Story, Interlude - Soleanna New City

The New City side, as it implies in its name, is more recent and modernly built after there was no further room for construction and they needed more business and living places. Comparably, this is much more akin to Station Square’s Adventure Field, as both business and leisure seem to take place here. Unlike that place though, they have built themselves onto the sea itself and have canals as their streets instead of roads. Most of the buildings here are more varied as well, with hotels, a couple short skyscrapers in the square and a marketplace, and business of many kinds like surf shops, trinket spots and more.

For landmarks, the southwest corner here is this end of the Radical Train system and right onto the various hotels they have that can be entered, finding some tourists from other places Sonic’s been to even, and maybe the rare spotting of Amy at just the right time of day. After a river street, next is the marketplace that consists of tents and small buildings. The next river street cuts out the square of this city, with the skyscrapers in the middle.for offices. Everything north is then other small businesses and a park, filled with various kinds of entertainment. The northeast portion has a separate building that has a path for travelers wanting to head up to White Acropolis with its mirror.

Head on over to the other side of New City and through the White Acropolis mirror to go on and deal with Eggman as the sun is setting behind us.

Chapter Text

Introduction :

*Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are in the midst of riding one of the ski lifts on the snowy mountain range when missiles from Eggman’s ship are fired and blow up their chair, which they dodge at the last second with jumping off to the snow ridge below.*

Sonic: “I was wondering when Eggman would send us some presents.”

Tails: “I don’t think I would want toys from Eggman.”

Knuckles: “Too bad, looks like we’re getting them anyway.” *He points to the mechs and badniks coming down the mountain.*

Sonic: “Then we’ll return them back to that big bellied man in red! Let’s go!”

-----

White Acropolis

Badniks :

• Skier Egg Pawn: They simply just ski around on narrow paths or just generally in our way to make things hard on us. Too bad they still easily go down with a good smack. Shredden’! +200 points.
• Cluckoid: Don’t trust these badniks to predict the weather, as all they offer are windstorms. Besides slowing us down with their wind, it can also kick up the snow into flurries and cause a white-out for a couple seconds. +250 points.
• Snow-binaut: Remember those Orbinauts that float around with spikes? Well, these carry around snowballs instead, 8 of them. Sounds like a downgrade, but they pitch these snowballs like baseballs, which hurt! Attacking before the snowball hits protects us, but be sure to break the orbinaut before it resumes the snowball fight. +250 points.
• Egg Sentries +200 points.
• Egg Rocketeers: They’re like Egg Sentries, but have had their gun arms replaced for ones that fire rockets for a more explosive impact. That’s really the only thing more dangerous about them. +300 points.
• Egg Gunships: Now coming with one or two Egg Rocketeers on it. +600 points.
• Egg Owl: A giant badnik in the shape of an owl, with flapping wings included. It has spotlights for eyes beaming around in sweeping motions. If spotted, it’ll fire homing missiles that have to be dodged behind some kind of cover. One wonders how many hits it can take. +10,000 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. Right next to us, hiding behind the pole that connects to the ski lifts above.
2. On the first ice floe below, meaning we’ll have to not use the ski lift and risk ice crossing to get it and then get back. The pattern of ice being released is predictable though.
3. During the snowboard portion, head left after the first Egg Owl avalanche to go through a secret ice cave with the Medal.
4. During the snowboard portion, near the end, floating on a trick ramp.
5. Fly or climb up the tallest spotlight tower to get it.

Quite the warm welcome for a chilly night under a darkening sky, met by some Egg Rocketeers reloading to fire more rockets at us. Get rid of them, and we can be on our way through this snowy mountain.

After dodging some Skier Pawns and mechs as we run a bit down the ridge, our first real obstacle comes as we enter a small forest section and immediately get white out conditions as we are shown Cluckoids blowing the snow around. We hear Eggman’s voice through some kind of loudspeaker.

Eggman: “Maybe you can deal with the weather vanes, but will you like what you see when the snow calms down?”

The Cluckoids are easy to spot, as their glowing yellow eyes stick out in the snow, even behind the trees. They’re found in the corners with the trees and bushes only making slight mazes to walk through. After all four are destroyed, the snow settles and reveals the true threat, a giant owl badnik! The eyes sweep over our exposed cover and a missile tries to explode on us, but hiding behind a rock formation will keep us alive and not lose our rings. Once it’s back in search mode, we’ll have to hide from the searchlights it has and run up to it, and home attack one of the eyes, shattering it so it can’t use it anymore. Screeching, it flies off for now, allowing us to continue.

Sonic: “Hah, having trouble seeing? Get some glasses, robot.”

The path ahead opens to some short ski-lift rides over freezing ice floes as we go down to the mountain. Not helping is the Cluckoids now also trying to blow us off the open sides along with the white-out, but destroying them will get us through safely. Of course, landing on the ice floes below won’t be bad, but we will have to jump across the floating pieces of ice to safety or risk becoming one ourselves as we plummet to our death. The further down we go, the Egg Owl appears again, with only one working spotlight now.

Eggman’s voice: “Hello again, hedgehog! Time for a chill pill!”

We’ll have to hide behind bushes and trees, the metal poles of the ski lifts and even the mountain itself as it attempts to search for us and blow us up. Eventually, it will meet up nice and close with the path again and we’ll have to take a little risk hitting the other as it may notice us when we strike it. Of course, we’ll succeed breaking it and leaving it without sight, but now we’re taking a different route down as Sonic rips off a piece of metal from the badnik and uses it as a snowboard.

Sonic: “Wahoo! Time to shred!”

Ah, memories of Ice Cap in Adventure come rushing back like the avalanche we had to run from… as we have to do that here as the Egg Owl releases so many rockets and makes a rush of snow, trees and rocks try to come down on us. Time to use our boosts and speed as we shred down the slopes, dodging trees and Skier badniks as they get swept up behind us in the mess. Luckily, our escape is with a trick ramp and we even damage the Egg Owl to boot as we bounce off to the next ridge to go down.

Either taking the sneaky path to the left side or taking the leisurely ride down dodging some icicles, we pass through a short cavern and meet up with the weakened Egg Owl that releases rockets onto our path we need to dodge or jump over the craters it makes in the snow and rocks with the trick ramps provided, how convenient! We’ll soon jump off one final one and deliver the last blow to the Egg Owl, blowing it up as we stop in front of Eggman’s base, which looks like a fortress.

Sonic: “The place looks impenetrable, even for Eggman base standards. Though, hearing the alarms going on inside, I bet Shadow and the others already broke in.”

Tails: “Maybe we should break the spotlights? They seem to be keeping the door shut with their electric current.”

Knuckles: “Well, let’s get to smashing, me and you, Tails.”

We take control of Knuckles and Tails as we use the duo to climb up the walls to the top, dealing with some mechs, then fly our way on over to the first tower. Falling down is not a good idea though, as a lot of badniks and mechs and lasers will sweep and attack to try and catch us. Anyway, breaking the spotlight is as simple as punching or tail-swiping it, turning off a light over the huge steel door.  Continue to do this with the other three, fighting badniks and dodging missiles and lasers as we can as each of the 5 are broken. When they are, sirens go off as the doors open up for Sonic to get through.

Sonic: “Let’s blast through!”

One final run into the courtyard and dodge enemy fire as we break through the glass doors and enter the elevator with a Goal Ring inside, finishing the stage.

Time Bonus :

• <3:00.00 = 50,000 pts
• 3:00.01 - 3:30.00 = 40,000 pts
• 3:30.01 - 4:00.00 = 30,000 pts
• 4:00.01 - 4:30.00 = 20,000 pts
• 4:30.01 - 5:00.00 = 10,000 pts
• (Any second over from here is -100pts)

Ranks :

• S-Rank: >65,000 pts (+3 Soleanna Medals/1-2 that wasn’t earned with an A- or B-Rank) (+3000 Rings)
• A-Rank: 60,000 - 64,900 pts (+2 Soleanna Medals/ 1 that wasn’t earned with a B-Rank) (+2000 Rings)
• B-Rank: 55,000 - 59,900 pts (+1 Soleanna Medal) (+1000 Rings)
• C-Rank: 50,000 - 54,900 pts (+500 Rings)
• D-Rank: 49,900 pts and lower (+100 Rings)

-----

Conclusion :

*Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles come out of the elevator when it reaches its stop, and come out fighting, easily knocking aside the Pawns and mechs in their way through these metal, sterile halls. Soon, they meet up with Shadow, Rouge and Omega also beating up the robots. Together, with explosive effect, they smash right into the central area room, which appears to be some kind of open-air room with benches, a simple altar, a few trees and bushes and plants and a view of the night sky and stars above.*

Sonic, puzzled: “Huh? What’s this?”

Tails: “I think it’s a small greenhouse?”

Knuckles: “Since when has Eggman ever cared about going green?”

Dr. Eggman: “I do, just not for the planet, heh he.”

*His ugly mug appears on one of the walls, while the entrance behind them shuts with thicker steel doors.*

Shadow: “No! It’s a trap!”

Dr. Eggman: “Correct! You fell right into it!”

Omega: “Preparing to blast-”

Dr. Eggman: “I wouldn’t recommend it. The steel is thicker in that room, and the glass is bulletproof and MIGHT just ricochet right into your ‘friends’. I know how you suddenly care about them, Omega.”

Omega: “Damn you, Dr. Eggman!”

Dr. Eggman chuckles softly: “Don’t worry, you won’t be there very long. As of right now…”

*A rumbling begins that turns into a grander earthquake than the one in Wave Ocean. Outside, avalanches can be seen occurring.*

Sonic, for once a bit frightened: “AAAH! What’s going on?!”

Dr. Eggman, who is clearly not moving: “Oh, just the 6th Emerald being placed into the altars of Iblis. I would tell you more, but that would ruin the surprise.”

*The earthquakes finally cease again, and everyone finds their footing.*

Knuckles: “Geez, that was worse than the last.”

Dr. Eggman: “Now, I'm tired of you all, see you in 200 years!”

All: “200 years?”

*A cloaked figure comes in on Eggman’s feed and his hands glow strangely with grey colors. In their room, the altar in the center also glows that strange grey color as it fills the room.*

Dr. Eggman: “Goodbye!”

*The 6 fade away into sparkling dust and are not there anymore. We change focus to be on the ship.*

The cloaked figure, in an altered voice: “They have been sent forward in time, Doctor.”

Dr. Eggman: “Excellent. Now everything is set up to happen as planned. Now! Time to drill down to the Aquatic Base and release Iblis for my master plan!”

*Before we fade off ourselves, the Egg fleet roars its engines and flies off again.*

Chapter Text

Introduction :

*Sonic screams as he lands face-first, as always, through a glass ceiling and into a dark-metallic throne room. The owner of it is quickly readable as there are Eggman insignias and portraits of the ugly Doctor hanging grotesquely on the walls. Everything has a scheme of black, grey, red and dark yellow and there’s a heat-shimmer to the air. As Sonic picks himself up, he groans.*

Sonic: “Aw man, now I wish that the fall DID knock me out. So ugly!”

*A familiar cackle of laughter is heard, but it sounds more metallic or through a speaker.*

????: “Heh he he, I’ve been waiting for you, hedgehog.”

Sonic: “You must have been waiting for a while, metusala.”

????: “That is true… I had to upgrade while you were MIA.”

*Dr. Eggman finally appears from the shadows, revealing he’s now entirely an upgraded Eggman Robo. His brain is in a glass dome at the top, and his face, a permanent mustached smirk of metal.*

Dr. Eggman: “But it has been fun while you were out. I’ve conquered the world!”

Sonic’s face goes shocked: “Wait, WHAT?!”

Dr. Eggman: “Come now, don’t be surprised. Without you and the 5 others, the rest caved and I took over, permanently!”

Sonic: “N-no…”

Dr. Eggman: “Now, enough chit-chat. I’m taking you and the others in, right now.”

*Eggman’s robots start coming in.*

Sonic: “I’m outta here!”

-----

Eggman’s Foundry

Bandiks :

• Pieces of Egg Pawns: Just because they’re being built doesn’t mean they won’t attack a Sonic. Thankfully, just being a hand or a foot or halfway built makes popping them even easier. +100 points.
• Mechanic Egg Pawns: Aw, look at them with their cute overalls all covered in oil and small wrenches that they throw at us like boomerangs. Wait, nevermind, not cute at all. +200 points.
• Cyan Egg Flapper: Machine gun toting flappers that sweep their bullets around, but only below them. +250 points.
• Machinery: Mostly the various claw arms, welders, bolt shooters and spraypainters and etc. on the assembly lines and factory floor that are now out to get us. Easily broken in 1-2 hits. +300 points.
• Egg Sentries: +300 points.
• Egg Rocketeers: +500 points.
• Egg Hovers: Egg Sentries that have traded their lower bodies for jetpacks to float around with and fire their bullets from the sky. Now they only take one hit to kill. +400 points.

Iblis Monsters :

• Phoenix: A medium sized bird of fire that spits out fireballs every so often at foes. Despite their fiery looks, touching them is fine as long as they aren’t attacking. +300 points.
• Lizard: A small, flame-covered reptile that walks around, looking for prey. They will bite anything that comes close. +200 points.
• Golum: A large, brutish monster of cooled lava, browner except towards the head, which is fiery red. It attacks with punches in front of them. The best way to defeat them if not a strong character is to get a direct hit to their head, which will shatter the beast. Hitting the rest of the body will just bounce us up higher. +500 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. Risk fighting some badniks and monsters and dodging Eggman-robo’s lasers to get the medal on his throne.
2. In a corner of the cafeteria.
3. With Tails, fly below a part of the weapon assembly line with a catwalk that has the medal on it.
4. A bit past the reception area, use Knuckles to punch a cracked wall to reveal the Soleanna medal in the room behind it.
5. In one of the warehouses, behind the enemies in it.

Time to make a hasty retreat! The door behind us has been opened by the robots so let’s get out of here. Breaking through and passing through some stone halls, we come out onto a huge production area for badniks, akin to the great rooms that were Eggmanland’s interiors. Lava can be seen pouring from smelting pots and being turned into badnik parts on assembly lines. Down below seems to be full-on magma, which the smaller pots gather it for the bigger ones. Control rooms are scattered here and there, run by Egg Pawns on duty. Catwalks span for miles, zigzagging everywhere. The assembly lines run through the middle, and split off to warehouse doors to store the finished robots for send-off once flying trucks return.

As we pass through an area with piles of raw material for building, various contraptions for pushing and crushing try to hurt or hurl us around, but they can be easily dispatched or avoided. Past that, we head through another hall and end up in a cafeteria for the working robots. Must be lunchtime, since the place is full of hungry workers. Knocking around the tables here would be perfect as they’ll fling around and destroy multiple mechs at once, and maybe even cause a chain reaction. Once through that, it’s another hall back onto the factory in a control room, where we find Tails in the midst of some angry badniks. Pop them, and free our buddy.

Tails: “Phew! Thanks, Sonic! I just appeared in front of them and couldn’t get a chance.”

Sonic: “Don’t worry, buddy. I’m always here for ya.”

Tails: “Allow me to help you move on.”

Tails operates a few controls on the machines, and some cranes swing closed smelting pots close to the open windows here. Hop on, and they’ll take us across to a catwalk we run through, knocking off a few Egg Pawns along the way to the opposite side of the factory. Over here, Iblis monsters appear, trying to stop Sonic’s progress with their fiery attacks. This side is also filled with saws, welders, and grinders making guns and other weapons, so either dodge or use them to accidentally defeat an enemy in our way.

The path we’re on heads into castle interiors again, with more of the Eggman gaudiness as there are various statues of the egotistical leader hamming up his power with poses. YUCK. Also, Knuckles is here, trying to punch at a heavy steel door.

Knuckles: “Come on! Let me out!”

Sonic: “Having trouble, big red?”

Knuckles: “Uuuugh… The doors are too heavy for me to break.”

Tails: “Probably a precaution by Eggman, since this is his reception area.”

Sonic: “No sweat, we’ll just find a different way out.”

With the team back together, we can continue on though some office spaces and then back into the factory in the warehouse area, where there are many robots on standby for shipment, but will attack if we get close. Whether we fight or run through this area, we find a flying semi-truck that just landed, and Sonic gets an idea.

Sonic: “Hey, guys, board that truck! I have an idea!”

*Tails and Knuckles don’t question the blue blur and commandeer it.*

Sonic jumps onto the assembly line that ends here, and a boost section commences. Lay on the gas and just watch the destruction of everything on the line shatter to metal bits to the lava below, while the truck follows closely behind. The level ends once they reach the ‘end’ of the assembly line, and are launched out one of the big glass cathedral windows, Sonic holding on to the truck as they break on through.

Time Bonus :

• <3:00.00 = 50,000 pts
• 3:00.01 - 3:30.00 = 40,000 pts
• 3:30.01 - 4:00.00 = 30,000 pts
• 4:00.01 - 4:30.00 = 20,000 pts
• 4:30.01 - 5:00.00 = 10,000 pts
• (Any second over from here is -100pts)

Ranks :

• S-Rank: >65,000 pts (+3 Soleanna Medals/1-2 that wasn’t earned with an A- or B-Rank) (+3000 Rings)
• A-Rank: 60,000 - 64,900 pts (+2 Soleanna Medals/ 1 that wasn’t earned with a B-Rank) (+2000 Rings)
• B-Rank: 55,000 - 59,900 pts (+1 Soleanna Medal) (+1000 Rings)
• C-Rank: 50,000 - 54,900 pts (+500 Rings)
• D-Rank: 49,900 pts and lower (+100 Rings)

-----

Conclusion :

*While Sonic and others fly away on their transport, we watch Eggman-robo from his lair.*

Eggman: “They’ve escaped? Fire the defensive guns!”

*It turns into a quick, wild scene as the semi-truck is seen doing some crazy maneuvers and using other trucks to take the attacks, all with Sonic whooping and hollering the whole way. They manage to finally escape from the stronghold.*

Eggman’s Computer: “Target has escaped from the range of machine guns.”

*He steams as Sonic and the others fly inland, looking for a safe place to land. Eventually, they come across a small village with a fire pit that looks to be in the ruins of Castle Town, with only tents, tee-pees and other small, simple buildings that don’t look to be well established. The three land and disembark.*

Sonic: “Geez… is this Soleanna? I can’t recognize it anymore.”

????: “It is… or what’s left of it.”

*Shadow appears from one of the stone ruins.*

Tails: “Shadow? You guys are okay?”

*Shadow nods, beckoning them to follow. He leads the trio to the center of town, where Rouge and Omega are giving the inhabitants here food. Some are human, others are various species akin to Forces creatures. No recognizable faces are in the crowd. We time skip ahead a bit, to them exchanging what happened when they arrived.*

Knuckles: “Jeez. At least you guys got out quick enough before the volcano erupted.”

Rouge: “Likewise, with you and Eggman.”

Omega: “I will destroy Eggman! No matter the cost!”

Rouge: “Relax, Omega, we’ll deal with him soon.”

Shadow: “Wait, Rouge, maybe we should. Sonic and the others have done a blow to him and he’s distracted. Still dangerous, but we might be able to stop him here.”

Sonic: “While you guys are doing that, how about we head back to the volcano? You said there was something you missed?”

Rouge: “Yes. A strange cavern sealed by a steel gate. It most likely opened in the eruption by now.”

Knuckles: “Then we’ll go explore that, while you guys stop Eggman!”

Sonic: “Alright! Let’s go!”

-----

Sonic’s Story, Interlude - Ruined Soleanna

Soleanna has seen better days, as there are barely any buildings left standing. The castle of the leaders and buildings here are rubble and crumbling stone. Most of the water here is bubbling hot and steaming from lava flowing into the ocean from the volcano. As stated earlier, the buildings are nothing more than cloth and logs or various metal they could scour. The people and anthros look utterly tired, beaten from constant war with Eggman. There are only two mirrors to be seen, one to the southeast marked by the Eggman truck liberated by Sonic and co., heading for Eggman’s Foundry and one to the northeast for the volcano, Flame Core. Otherwise, the location is a tad bit smaller than Soleanna Castle Town, flattened with 200 years of battle. Most of the citizens will gladly give a Soleanna medal to clear out mechs that are attacking their stolen kids in the stages before and onwards.

When we’re ready, head on over to the mirror leading to Flame Core.

Chapter Text

Introduction :

*Sonic, Tails and Knuckles arrive at Flame Core, Eggman’s stronghold over the mountainous regions of Soleanna. Although, it’s suffering a state of meltdown as the volcano is erupting and lava is flowing everywhere.*

Knuckles: “They really did some damage, huh?”

Sonic: “As long as Eggman doesn’t get to use this as his power generator anymore, let his base get destroyed.”

Tails: “We’ll have to be careful, the place looks unstable now.”

-----

Flame Core

Badniks :

• Mountaineer Egg Pawn: Dressed in climbing gear and carrying axes, they look ready to climb up the volcanic wasteland. They won’t mind having some hedgehog on an axe, so dodge that swinging thing if possible. +250 points.
• Yellow Egg Flapper: Bright yellow colored Flappers with a searchlight attached to the bottom of it. Being spotted by it alerts nearby enemies to come over AND calls extra badniks in for help. +200 points.
• Zappers: Floating bug zappers trained to float after anything that isn’t their masters and zap them and deliver big voltage to them. It alternates every 6 seconds so pay attention when it’s the right time to strike. +300 points.
• Bat Brain: Simple bat badniks that swoop down from the ceilings or overhangs when we walk by and try to hit us before returning back up there. Pop them when they come down to get rid of them. +250 points.
• Egg Sentries +300 points.
• Egg Rocketeers: +500 points.
• Egg Hovers: +400 points.
• Egg Gunships: +600 points.
• Sol: Orbinaunts, but they spin flames and balls of lava at you. Quite dangerous if one isn’t careful. +250 points.

Iblis Monsters :

• Phoenix: +300 points.
• Lizard: +200 points.
• Golum: +500 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. Walk around the first generator to find the Soleanna Medal behind it.
2. On a rail that we will have to jump for quick and back off before falling in the lava.
3. Jump over a hole in the boost section while boosting to grab it in the airtime.
4. Over the edge on the northwestern side of the cavern area, use Knuckles’ glide and climbing to get it.
5. Same area, but near the southeastern crystal, in a cage guarded by badniks and Iblis monsters.

Thanks to the damage Shadow’s group did earlier, the volcano has begun to erupt and is raining down meteors of hot rocks and lava is flowing down the paths of the mountain. The generators that once collected the energy produced by steam are shooting sparks and electrical wires are sparking and arcing around even in the lava. Pots and other machines that brought ocean water up here are either spilling water onto the lava and making hardened surfaces to walk on, throwing steam everywhere that burns, or overloading the machines that need a healthy hit to spill the water out from. The rail lines that move the pots or machines are in various states of melting or hovering dangerously over the lava. Our target is some distance ahead, the opening in the mountain of the extended steel doors.

Our stage begins with running past one of Eggman’s now defunct generators that has its dead wires laying across the steel walkways to traverse as lava is flowing down below, suggesting we better not fall. Most of Eggman’s mechs and Iblis’ monsters are angry that now there is a second intruder trying to damage their boss’ machines, so they line up on the walkways to make for a more treacherous passage, though they can be avoided if confrontation is not the mood for today. At the end of this row of walkways, we find that we’ll have to cross the lava somehow, and see one of the water towers here explode and spill water everywhere and create a walkway that hardens quickly.

Sonic: “Whoa, interesting. Better hurry before it turns to lava again.”

The curvy path is easily traversed before it collapses behind us on safe ground again, where we see more of Eggman’s generators fraying electricity everywhere. Avoid the electrified sections to avoid being shocked. After that, we will have to ride a few rails to get any further, with the lava bubbling dangerously close and even geysering up onto the rails, meaning we have to be quick to change rails and jump over any leftover gaps in them. Eventually, we’re stopped again where we need to make another lava path to get closer. Thankfully, we got Tails here to help now.

Tails: “Leave this to me, I’ll get a path built for you.”

The side path has hardened lava rocks shifting around in the lava that the fox can land on for a breather as we make our way across the destroyed pieces of walkways melting into the lava. Eventually, we’ll start climbing up one of the water collectors, with badnik fare and Iblis creatures trying to stop us from doing so. We can destroy a few supports to get rid of a whole bunch instantly with a collapse of metal. In any case, our stop is on top of the machine, where hitting a valve will release the water so Sonic can proceed.

Sonic: “Thanks buddy! I’m gonna blast through!”

Speeding through this longer curved path lands us near the doors we need to enter, with a long walkway being the last way in. However, rocks are raining down heavily here and making holes in the walkway and our foes trying to stop us as well. Boost and sidestep through and we will soon be inside, safe from falling rocks as we are dropped down a lava tube into a cavern.

Sonic: “Huh? What’s going on? There’s lava here, but the cave’s pitch black.”

It’s hard to see much more than a few feet ahead as there seems to be some kind of black formations with purple gems on them glowing faintly in the darkness as they seem to steal the light from the lava somehow. Within the midst of them all is a dark purple crystal that the rock trees grow from, radiating the dark energy. A few home attacks shatter the crystal and return the light to normal, letting us see we are in an expansive cavern with steel bridges and rocky curves guiding the way ahead to more darkened areas.

Sonic: “I see. I’m going to have to break those crystals if I don’t want to blindly fall off.”

Knuckles: “How about you allow me, Sonic? I think I see badniks and those fire creatures in there too. I’ll clear them out for you.”

It will be a breeze to get through this section, as even just gliding will make Knuckles defeat whatever’s in his way as he goes through the darkened areas and breaks crystals and foes alike. With each release, the light floods in and slowly reveals that the large cavern has a massive Eggman drill and scaffolding going down into a hole with lava and darkness below like a gaping maw to someplace evil. Radiant purple energy flickers like lightning sometimes, arcing aimlessly.

Knuckles: “Geez, that’s scary. Are you sure we got to go down there?”

Sonic: “If we want to get out of here, we need to. Come on! Geronimo!”

A short final section follows with us jumping down the machine’s spinning parts, running down scaffolding, and jumping down rocky ‘tites and ‘mites and other jutting rock formations like a gymnast as we find the Goal at the bottom, overlooking a dark cavern where the purple electricity flows from.

Time Bonus :

• <3:45.00 = 50,000 pts
• 3:45.01 - 4:15.00 = 40,000 pts
• 4:15.01 - 4:45.00 = 30,000 pts
• 4:45.01 - 5:15.00 = 20,000 pts
• 5:15.01 - 5:45.00 = 10,000 pts
• (Any second over from here is -100pts)

Ranks :

• S-Rank: >60,000 pts (+3 Soleanna Medals/1-2 that wasn’t earned with an A- or B-Rank) (+3000 Rings)
• A-Rank: 55,000 - 59,900 pts (+2 Soleanna Medals/ 1 that wasn’t earned with a B-Rank) (+2000 Rings)
• B-Rank: 50,000 - 54,900 pts (+1 Soleanna Medal) (+1000 Rings)
• C-Rank: 40,000 - 49,900 pts (+500 Rings)
• D-Rank: 39,900 pts and lower (+100 Rings)

-----

*Sonic and the others walk through the quiet cave, Tails and Knuckles looking worried.*

Tails, nervously: “It’s so eerie and quiet… what could be at the end of this?”

Knuckles, with nerves bare: “I-I don’t know if I want to find out.”

Sonic tries to cheer their moods: “Aw, come on guys. We know it isn’t Eggman, so it’s already less ugly and foreboding. Though, I do wonder who it could be then.”

Tails, less nervous: “I think we’re about to find out.”

*The tunnel opens to a wider space again as they seem to be in a deep chamber of the volcano, devoid of lava, but instead filled with dark purple energy radiating from all the crystals in the room. In the middle of the room is a black figure who looks familiar, but they aren’t focused on that, as next to him are two diamond cages of energy, and the prisoners inside look even more shocking!*

Tails: “Sonic?!”

Knuckles: “Shadow?!”

????: “Huh? Who dares enter my chamber?”

*The figure turns his head back, revealing himself to be Mephiles, although looking more menacing than before. He now has black horns sticking out from his head among his high pointed ‘quills’ and glowing red eyes on his blackened hedgehog face that still doesn’t have a mouth. The rest of his body is also hedgehog-like, but he’s lost the ‘gloves’ and ‘shoes’ to be more long and sharp like claws and spiked boots.*

Tails and Knuckles look scared behind Sonic, who speaks: “Well, I lied. It was ugly in here.”

Mephiles: “How did you escape?” *His head unnaturally turns 180 degrees to look back to the cages then back at Sonic.* “Oh, never mind. Now I see.”

Sonic, slightly unnerved at the exorcist act: “What, that you’re unhinged?”

Mephiles: “That you must be taught a lesson who’s really in charge here.”

Boss: Mephiles, Phase 2

The dark demon starts with a surprise attack, charging straight at us with a dark aura eerily similar to Sonic’s Super form. It is clear that 200 years has let Mephiles build his strength, and how better to show that off than with a Super form of his own. The aura continues to stay as he darts after us, and we’ll have to dodge him before he hits us. We can’t attack him while he has the aura, which only disappears for a couple seconds when he shoots a big laser from his hands like from his first fight. Take that opportunity to strike at him and get away as he gets angry and charges around again, faster than before. This continues for three rounds, faster and faster to match Sonic’s speed until he falters the fourth hit, and decides to change tactics.

Mephiles: “Take this, Energy Blast!”

Taking a page from Shadow’s Super form, he starts with a Chaos Blast-esque explosion to get us to move away from him, and follows it up with various shots of arrows of dark energy to try and pierce us. After that, he follows with ‘Chaos Control’ to appear beside us and fire a laser blast at us. It’s best to jump when that happens so it’ll pass over or under us. And again, the invincible aura fades again so we can strike him for another hit. This repeats 3 more times, the arrows lasting longer for each and stopping and starting for the last hit. Mephiles will finally stop for good after 8 hits.

Ranks :

• S-Rank: <2:00.00 (+3 Soleanna Medals/1-2 that wasn’t earned with an A- or B-Rank) (+3000 Rings)
• A-Rank: 2:00.01 - 2:30.00 (+2 Soleanna Medals/ 1 that wasn’t earned with a B-Rank) (+2000 Rings)
• B-Rank: 2:30.01 - 3:00.00 (+1 Soleanna Medal) (+1000 Rings)
• C-Rank: 3:00.01 - 3:30.00 (+500 Rings)
• D-Rank: >3:30.00 (+100 Rings)

-----

Conclusion :

*Mephiles stops the fight, tossing Sonic, Tails and Knuckles aside with some light speed energy arrows.*

Mephiles: “Enough games! I’ll end you now!”

*The dark demon starts charging up a laser to kill the trio, but is stopped suddenly with a ball of lava splashing him in the back for some painful damage*

Mephiles screams in pain as he looks behind him: “Who did that?!”

*There is another hedgehog standing at the cave entrance, but anything more concrete is hidden in the darkness.*

????: “Leave them alone!”

*Before Sonic and the others can wonder what’s going on, a cyan/grey portal appears below them and they are whisked away though time again…*

Chapter Text

Introduction :

*The trio come out from the portal in the middle of a desert, next to some peculiar looking ruins. Sonic faceplants somehow into the sand, ending up head deep in it that he has to pull out of, while Tails and Knuckles use their flight and glide to land on the ground on their feet.*

Sonic spits out sand from his mouth: “Bleh! How come I always land face first?”

Tails: “Well, you don’t exactly fall gracefully.”

Sonic, shaking the sand from his quills: “Thanks.” *Sonic looks around.* “Well, it’s not fire and eggs. Think we’re back home?”

Knuckles: “Feeling from the Chaos in the world, it feels like it. Whether we landed in Soleanna is a different matter.”

Sonic: “Well, let’s get moving and find out!”

-----

Dusty Desert

Badniks :

• Djinn Egg Pawns: Egg Pawns in arabian garb that can spin two flames around themselves as their big attack every so often. Best to attack them from the air. +250 points.
• Green Egg Flapper: A Flapper with a rifle attached underneath it. A glow will appear from the gun a second before it fires a quick shot, so watch for that. Moving helps to avoid it. +200 points.
• Monk-33s: Much bigger Coconuts that have become quite enlightened. They float around in their pose and toss their bombs at us psychically. Thankfully, just smack them when they get close to defeat them. +350 points.
• Statue-esque: Various looking badniks posing among the other statues in the ruins, mostly attacking with scimitars. Just don’t attack when they swing and we’ll be fine. +400 points.
• Skorp-trucks: What’s better than a regular truck? Making the shell of the vehicle a Skorp! Well, at least in Eggman’s eyes anyway. They’re easy to knock over with a boost as they are here for recon, but be wary of the spike ball swinging at us if we take too long to deal with them. +300 points.
• Egg Sentries: +300 points.
• Egg Rocketeers: +500 points.
• Egg Gunships: +600 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. Jump on top of some of the ruined buildings in the starting area to find a Soleanna Medal.
2. Boost through some ruins on the left side to find this Soleanna Medal.
3. Before going into the palace ruins, walk around a bit to find the Soleanna Medal in the shade of the building.
4. Break an old door about to collapse in the pantry area to find the Soleanna Medal behind it.
5. A switch with Iblis on it in the basement reveals a Soleanna Medal behind a wall.

In the morning light, the path ahead starts us off in the ruins of buildings long forgotten to time in the sands that have covered and even broke a few of them. But from the shapes that are noticeable, the pieces have round shapes leading to points on top, which suggests this place is more Arabian in culture compared to the more medieval England of the forests and castles of Soleanna. Quite strange indeed, though there isn’t much more we can gleam from here, as we deal with some of Eggman’s machines roaming around in search of something.

Leaving from there and running around through the sand dunes here, we spot Eggman’s fleet ships hovering over a mass of ruins that looks like a huge, intact palace, and releasing more badniks to quicken that search.

Sonic: “What could Eggman be looking for? I’m still not sure what his plan is. Maybe I’ll hurry and see where they are going?”

We go through a boost section to trek across the desert faster to those ruins, but of course, it would never be so simple to get there. Skorp-trucks are reconning the desert and have noticed us, and they’ll do all in their power to stop us cold. If they don’t toss their spike ball to the ground, they’ll break and topple various ruins that we will have to either jump over or boost through to avoid hurting ourselves. And, if we hold steadfast enough, we can blast the trucks to the wayside with a well-timed boost as well. Once we’re through all that, we’ve arrived at the front steps of the building.

*Tails and Knuckles arrive to help.*

Tails: “I don’t think Eggman knows we’re here quite yet, even with the badniks on alert.”

Knuckles: “Maybe we’re early?”

Sonic: “If that’s the case, let’s find what he’s looking for first. It has to be here. Help me search.”

The interior of the palace is quite grand, and whatever hasn’t been sandblasted through the broken windows reveals this place at least belonged to an old king who enjoyed the color red and gold quite a lot. There are statues of genies and unknown fighters carrying their weapons and looking royal, although a few look… questionable. Treasures not looted or broken are marked for dig sites, perhaps archeologists were going to explore here before Eggman scared them off recently.

In any case, we make our way through the living area, dealing with badniks that try to slow us down. Tails and Knuckles help fight alongside us and point out where to go next if we get lost. The dining room has some broken table pieces we can use to hit anything in our way. The kitchen area doesn’t fare much better as it’s lost its back wall. Soon, we’re in the ballroom, or what’s left of it with the crumbling ceiling sometimes dropping rocks on foes and anthro alike. We have to make our way to the other side, where there are stairs going down into what looks to be a basement.

Down beneath the sands, it is much cooler, with light seeping from holes in the ceiling. The decaying living areas of servants and wine cellars are just a few of the rooms we pass through and finally through a treasure room where the wealth would have been, but it’s been stolen or lost, though there are traps still active here. What’s curious here is the hole in the wall, where the Goal Ring sits in wait. Avoid the traps and grab it to finish the stage.

Time Bonus :

• <3:00.00 = 50,000 pts
• 3:00.01 - 3:30.00 = 40,000 pts
• 3:30.01 - 4:00.00 = 30,000 pts
• 4:00.01 - 4:30.00 = 20,000 pts
• 4:30.01 - 5:00.00 = 10,000 pts
• (Any second over from here is -100pts)

Ranks :

• S-Rank: >60,000 pts (+3 Soleanna Medals/1-2 that wasn’t earned with an A- or B-Rank) (+3000 Rings)
• A-Rank: 50,000 - 59,900 pts (+2 Soleanna Medals/ 1 that wasn’t earned with a B-Rank) (+2000 Rings)
• B-Rank: 40,000 - 49,900 pts (+1 Soleanna Medal) (+1000 Rings)
• C-Rank: 30,000 - 39,900 pts (+500 Rings)
• D-Rank: 29,900 pts and lower (+100 Rings)

-----

*After what seems to be a while, Team Sonic leaves from the dark tunnel to find themselves in an open-air temple of sorts. Similar to the one they saw in Wave Ocean, there are plenty of paintings, pictographs and ancient text of the Sun Gold Solaris and the lesser Fire God Iblis. This one has some new information about the 7 Chaos Emeralds floating around Iblis.*

Tails, looking at the images: “I think the language is saying something about Iblis being either sealed or released with the power of the… Chaos Emeralds?”

Knuckles: “Maybe my people were here once before, since I noticed some echidna text too, but there’s no images of them.”

Eggman: “You’re right, though I wonder how you got here so quickly with my breadcrumbs?”

*The trio turn around to see Eggman in his Eggmobile floating above them.*

Sonic: “What, you don’t remember?”

*The mysterious figure from before floats besides Eggman and whispers something quick before disappearing again.*

Eggman: “Ah, you traveled through time, I see. All according to plan.”

Knuckles: “Seriously, what is this plan of yours? You’ve been secretive about it!”

Eggman: “Heh he. I enjoy seeing your gears slowly turn, trying to figure me out. I suppose I can tell you I’m here on this very special day to awaken Iblis for reasons I won’t spill.”

Sonic: “Uh-huh. And your friend?”

Eggman: “No more questions! I’ve already done my business here. Why don’t you play with my toy? Egg Cerberus! Fetch the hedgehog!”

*Mechanical barking is heard as Dr. Eggman flies away and from above, a huge mech canine with three heads appears and snarls at Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles and bites at them.*

Boss: Egg Cerberus

Aw, who’s a good killer robot dog? Yes, you are, Egg Cerberus. :3

Too bad he’s hungry for us! Dodge those biting heads, distracting him for a couple seconds while Knuckles and Tails fly off to land on some loose sculptures in the area.

Tails: “Sonic! Climb onto the mech! There’s a rail on his back!”

Knuckles: “Stun a head with a home attack and guide the stomping dog to a statue and we’ll do the rest!”

Rush around quickly to the tail of the dog and grind up it to reach the heads from the back, where we can home attack the square of the back of its head to short it down for a while. Sonic will ride it and we can control the dog to ram into the statues Knuckles and Tails will knock onto it, though the heads will lash and try to fight back for control. Hitting all three heads could help, but would take more time and we just have to steer in the right direction to keep control. It’ll take about 4 statues to tame the dog for good, knocking it out.

Ranks :

• S-Rank: <2:00.00 (+3 Soleanna Medals/1-2 that wasn’t earned with an A- or B-Rank) (+3000 Rings)
• A-Rank: 2:00.01 - 2:30.00 (+2 Soleanna Medals/ 1 that wasn’t earned with a B-Rank) (+2000 Rings)
• B-Rank: 2:30.01 - 3:00.00 (+1 Soleanna Medal) (+1000 Rings)
• C-Rank: 3:00.01 - 3:30.00 (+500 Rings)
• D-Rank: >3:30.00 (+100 Rings)

-----

Conclusion :

Sonic: “Hah, add dog-tamer to my list of skills, Tails.”

Tails: “Well, at least mechs made by Eggman.”

Sonic shakes their head, smirking: “Spoilsport.” *He looks around.* “Anyway, I guess we better go after him?”

Knuckles: “We should. But I wonder if Shadow and the others made it back safely too.”

Sonic: “Welp, no use sticking our heads in the sand. Let’s get back to Soleanna proper.”

*The trio rush out of the arena, the camera panning up to where an old emperor would sit to watch the sports happening below. There is an altar there, glowing with the Purple Emerald.*

Chapter Text

Sonic’s Story, Interlude - Soleanna Castle Town

We return to Soleanna’s Castle Town through the mirror from Dusty Desert, surprising the couple G.U.N. soldiers that were standing guard over the mirror.

G.U.N. Soldier: “Huh? How’d you guys get into Dusty Desert?”

Sonic: “Well, I am Sonic. Though I’m not sure myself.”

G.U.N. Soldier 2: “Well, I guess we won’t stop you, but at least warn us next time. Dr. Eggman’s machines have been coming through the mirror too.”

Sonic: “Of course, we’ll tell you next time.”

There are the usual missions here of helping G.U.N. with ridding badniks from past stages, and some of the inhabitants here wanting things to trade a Soleanna Medal for. And perhaps some nice things to buy too, like gems...

Our next destination is to Radical Train, which we want to board after hearing from the conductor that Shadow and the others just boarded too.

Conductor: “Ah, Sonic! A black Hedgehog named Shadow said to come on so you all can chat.”

-----

Introduction :

*The trio board the train and walk through as it is ready to go. It’s quite a fancy looking train for the citizens of Soleanna and tourists alike, a silver shelled exterior and a black, red and gold colored interior. Most designs and insignias are of the Sun God Solaris. The chairs are soft and comfy, and tables a durable, warm wood. As they walk through, they find Shadow and the others in the second car, talking at a table. When Rouge spots them, they beckon them over to join, which they do, sitting as the train lurches forward.*

Sonic: “Shadow! I see you guys made it back just fine.”

Shadow: “Yes, and likewise with you. A strange creature is the one who brought us back, but we couldn’t see his face.”

Tails: “I’m not sure who did it with us either. It was hard to see in Mephiles’ dark chamber.”

*Both sides exchange what’s happened since the separation in Flame Core.*

Rouge: “Hmm, that doesn’t sound good at all. What could be happening today?”

Sonic: “Well, we just watched Eggman fly off from Dusty Desert. I believe he was mentioning he put a Chaos Emerald in the temple there, but we didn’t catch it.”

*Shadow and Rouge look at each other in worry.*

Sonic: “Huh? Why does that worry you?”

Rouge: “Well, before the trip to the future, we saw you guys putting a Chaos Emerald in the temple in Tropical Jungle.”

Knuckles: “Wait, what? That’s impossible! We were dealing with Eggman over in Wave Ocean.”

Omega: “Logic error detected. Solution: Bootstrap Time Paradox.”

Sonic: “What is he referring to?”

Shadow: “We can confirm today IS the Festival of the Sun… and we ARE here before we arrived naturally to Soleanna.”

*Sonic and Knux obviously look confused.*

Tails, who has been thinking: “So we’re on our second trip through Soleanna on the same day. But what does that all mean?”

Rouge: “Eggman mentioned he’s releasing Iblis, right?”

Sonic: “Yeah. He certainly seemed happy later when we met him again in White Acropolis.”

Shadow: “And you mentioned when you saw the writing in that temple that it seems to be both a releasing AND a sealing ritual.”

Knuckles: “The writings were worn, but yeah.”

Tails: “Maybe if we put the 7th Chaos Emerald in first, we might be able to stop Iblis instead?”

Omega: “Logical error resolved. However, I wonder what was that future we saw. Is it supposed to happen?”

Sonic: “I certainly hope not, it looks like a bad future to me.”

Shadow: “We’ll have to be careful then.”

*The train suddenly comes to a stop.*

Sonic: “Huh? Why’d we stop moving?”

The conductor: “S-Sonic! You and your friends need to get off! Eggman’s sending a train to ram us!”

*In real quick succession, there isn’t much time to react as the 6 rush to the open side doors and jump off when one of Eggman’s bullet trains slams the other train aside, the group landing on some scaffolding below. Eggman’s voice echoes by.*

Dr. Eggman: “Choo choo! Out of my way, pests!”

Sonic: “We got to stop him!”

Shadow: “We’ll deal with Eggman. Go and look around here.”

Rouge: “He’d only try that stunt if we were close to something big. Look for a temple.”

Knuckles: “You sure?”

Shadow: “Yes, now go!”

-----

Radical Train

Badniks :

• Demolitionist Egg Pawns: Miner-looking Pawns with unlimited sticks of dynamite to toss at us and explode. Just don’t be with the stick when it goes BOOM! +250 points.
• Magenta Egg Flappers: These Flappers fly around on their set paths and drop bombs wherever they please that explode a few seconds later. These can be grabbed and tossed wherever. +250 points.
• Billy: Simple goat badniks with sharp horns on their heads. They’ll charge every so often on the paths they guard. Just don’t hit the front end, aim for the back. +200 points.
• Fireworm: Large worm badniks that fly around in the air, spitting fire from their backs. There are also defensive spikes on the sides of their long bodies. Aim for the head or back when they aren’t spewing fire. +300 points.
• Rexon: Big plesiosaur badniks with a love for swimming in lava. They bob their head around and spit fireballs every so often. Also good stepstones for homing attacks and even standing on their bodies. +350 points.
• Egg Sentries: +300 points.
• Egg Rocketeers: +400 points.
• Egg Grenadiers: Even more dangerous than the Rocketeers, they release grenades from their gun arms that will explode on target, but will stay on the floor if they miss for a few seconds before exploding. Pick them up and toss them back at the mechs to surprise them if it’s too dangerous to approach. +500 points.
• Egg Gunships: Now coming with Egg Grenadiers! +600 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. Get some air on the Magenta Egg Flappers bombing the scaffolding to the cliff to snag a Soleanna Medal.
2. Jump on the lone Rexon body that has a Soleanna Medal floating on it that is floating beside the path.
3. Boost through a pile of rock debris Eggman blasts down on the side of the path for the medal.
4. Brave going to the center of the magma on the Rexons for another Soleanna Medal. Tails will make it easier.
5. Floating in front of the grand statue of Iblis, behind the goal ring.

We’ve fallen onto the scaffolding for the maintenance of the tracks below, and we will just have to forge on ahead while dodging some Magenta Egg Flappers trying to come after us, bombing the small walkways. Thankfully, we soon reach safe land by meeting up with the cavernous cliff side beside the tracks. From what we can see, it looks like the train and its tracks come up from the cliffs that meet from the desert below and bridge over the end of the forest of Soleanna Forest above. Ahead and behind us are miles of twisting, curving tunnels and paths that don’t look to be trodden on for quite some time, though torches here appear to still be lit somehow.

Our voyage ahead takes us around a long curve of a path, dealing with the badniks we see fit along the way, especially those goat ones that like charging around. Eventually, we’ll find our way into our first cave section, heading into the underground of Soleanna, which is surprisingly active with magma rivers. The road ahead jumps across it a few times, taking us over old stone bridges marked with Iblis symbols, perhaps as protection to not let them fall over. The only real danger here is misstepping into the magma or hitting a badnik wrong as we make it to another cavern to light again.

Dr. Eggman: “Surprise!”

Outside again, it gets to be a dangerous boost section as Eggman’s train is speeding on the track above in the other direction in pace with us, dropping heavy amounts of cannon shells and bombs that we have to dodge quickly or risk falling into a pit or getting hurt. Later on, it’ll cause rock slides ahead to try and hit us with the falling rocks and block the road in sections. Good dodging and boosting will be key here to get through it all safely. As we leave back underground…

Dr. Eggman: “Hah! Hide all you want, Sonic! I’ll get-”

Shadow: “Doctor!”

Omega: “Eliminate Eggman!”

We come through into a larger underground cavern filled with magma pools and lava falls as our goal is at the top of this cavern. This area looks to be more complex and ancient, with neat stone walkways slowly climbing upwards along the cavern walls here. Rexons swim below and Fireworms and more badniks and mechs take up the road above to keep us on our toes. Thankfully, Tails is here to fly us if necessary, which is needed sometimes for the big gaps in the path caused by broken wooden scaffolding falling away from age. Knuckles is also helpful where he can, usually taking down badniks for us if we pass them by and letting us climb with his fists in the stone walls.

At the top sits the goal ring in the midst of another open temple. However, there is also a statue seeming to depict the mighty Iblis. Magma constantly runs on and from it, seemingly not melting the statue. It somewhat looks like the Golem Iblis monsters from the future, although much bigger and stronger. One wonders if the people of long ago prayed here too.

Time Bonus :

• <3:00.00 = 50,000 pts
• 3:00.01 - 3:30.00 = 40,000 pts
• 3:30.01 - 4:00.00 = 30,000 pts
• 4:00.01 - 4:30.00 = 20,000 pts
• 4:30.01 - 5:00.00 = 10,000 pts
• (Any second over from here is -100pts)

Ranks :

• S-Rank: >65,000 pts (+3 Soleanna Medals/1-2 that wasn’t earned with an A- or B-Rank) (+3000 Rings)
• A-Rank: 55,000 - 64,900 pts (+2 Soleanna Medals/ 1 that wasn’t earned with a B-Rank) (+2000 Rings)
• B-Rank: 45,000 - 54,900 pts (+1 Soleanna Medal) (+1000 Rings)
• C-Rank: 30,000 - 44,900 pts (+500 Rings)
• D-Rank: 29,900 pts and lower (+100 Rings)

-----

Conclusion :

Knuckles: “So that’s Iblis, huh? Weird he’s not melting from the lava on it.”

Tails: “Maybe it’s made of some heat-resistant material, impressive for back then as well, I bet.”

Sonic: “Look, there’s another altar for an Emerald. But someone’s already done it?”

*The Red Chaos Emerald glistens on the altar in the center, flickering bright with the light of the magma.*

Tails: “That might explain the messed up structures, maybe another earthquake.”

Knuckles: “I wonder who put it there since we don’t have any Chaos Emeralds.”

Sonic: “Let’s get out of here and find Shadow.”

-----

Sonic’s Story, Interlude - Soleanna Forest

Coming up from the normal access staircase below that has Radical Train’s mirror, we meet with Shadow and the others who are waiting there.

Omega: “Eggman got away.”

Sonic: “Kinda expected since we met him in Kingdom Valley later.”

Shadow: “Speaking of that. You’ll have to avoid your past selves as best as you can. It is not a good idea to meet unless it was destined to happen, which-”

Sonic: “Yeah, save that before it hurts my brain again. However, I know we need a Chaos Emerald for Tropical Jungle, but we don’t have one on hand.”

*Shadow shows the hero trio the Green Chaos Emerald.*

Shadow: “We took it off the train and junked it. This is the one you’ll place in Tropical Jungle.”

Tails: “Alright. We’ll get it there safely.”

It’s mid afternoon again, and although Eggman’s fleet can be seen in Kingdom Valley, our next target is in Tropical Jungle. Its mirror is easy to spot at the entrance to the dense jungle. We can also help with more missions from the archaeologists and weather scientists and the other areas as much as we want. But whenever we’re ready, it’s off into the mirror to the next level.

Chapter Text

Introduction :

*The trio make their way through the dense brush path.*

Knuckles: “I really hope this jungle is better than the last one we visited.”

Sonic: “Why, because of that huge alligator?”

Knuckles: “Yeah. We barely escaped that one.”

Sonic: “Ah, you worry too much. Come on, let’s go!”

-----

Tropical Jungle

Badniks :

• Explorer Egg Pawns: Yet another Egg Pawn with a sword, sharp enough to cut trees down, possibly onto us. Obviously be careful approaching these ones. +250 points.
• Black Egg Flapper: These ones float around, and will release their spikes every few seconds. Only attack when the spikes are retracted. +250 points.
• G8OR: Medium sized alligator badniks that come out from the water or dense brush and bite hungrily at us. The tail also sweeps around with spikes on it. A strike to the body is the safest move. +250 points.
• Egg Sentries: +300 points.
• Egg Rocketeers: +400 points.
• Egg Grenadiers: +500 points.
• Egg Gunships: +600 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. From the entrance area, head northeast into the water to find the sparkling Soleanna Medal floating around.
2. Have Knuckles break a cracked stone wall in the first intact ruins we come across to find the Soleanna medal.
3. Past the first intact ruins, fly with Tails up onto the stone platform above that it floats on.
4. Knock over the random circle of crumbling columns past the second set of intact ruins to reveal the Soleana Medal.
5. Behind the temple with the goal ring, up against the wall in the water.

The start of this stage may be a bit of a scare as we are right on the edge of the swamp the jungle is on. Although, ‘swamp’ is not the best term here as the water is clear enough to see the ground below, making for either knee deep running and sometimes the rare full dip for a couple seconds. So don’t be worried if Sonic falls in when he drops out of hydroplaning. It appears that this jungle used to be ancient ruins, probably like the castles in Kingdom Valley, but here, nature really took over and broke most of the features, leaving for random pieces of stone ruins to be placed all over and trees outstretched high into the sky.

Tails and Knuckles keep close by, ready to help at a moment’s notice with their flight and strength.

Another big surprise for this stage is that this is all one big, open area that can be explored in any way and direction we choose, since there are plenty of open spaces between the sprawling trees and decaying ruins. We’re shown in the beginning what the temple looks like, then returned to Sonic to find it. The easiest way to find it is by just following Eggman’s mechs and badniks, as they’ll lead the way to the goal without fail. Of course, with the special dome shape and despite being covered in vines, it looks pretty intact compared to the rest of the ruins, just quickly running through and finding the easy to notice clues will make the search over and done faster than Eggman’s calm demeanor when Sonic is around.

Time Bonus :

• <1:30.00 = 50,000 pts
• 1:30.01 - 2:15.00 = 40,000 pts
• 2:15.01 - 3:00.00 = 30,000 pts
• 3:00.01 - 3:45.00 = 20,000 pts
• 3:45.01 - 4:30.00 = 10,000 pts
• (Any second over from here is -100pts)

Ranks :

• S-Rank: >50,000 pts (+3 Soleanna Medals/1-2 that wasn’t earned with an A- or B-Rank) (+3000 Rings)
• A-Rank: 40,000 - 49,900 pts (+2 Soleanna Medals/ 1 that wasn’t earned with a B-Rank) (+2000 Rings)
• B-Rank: 30,000 - 39,900 pts (+1 Soleanna Medal) (+1000 Rings)
• C-Rank: 20,000 - 29,900 pts (+500 Rings)
• D-Rank: 19,900 pts and lower (+100 Rings)

-----

*Sonic, in usual grand style, slam dunks the Green Chaos Emerald into the altar like he’s some kind of basketball star and sticks the landing, and self-congratulates himself, as Tails and Knuckles watch, embarrassed, as there is somewhat of an earthquake that occurs for a short time.*

Knuckles, whispering to Tails: “He does this every time.”

Tails, whispering to Knuckles: “I know, but let him. It makes him feel accomplished.”

*Sonic break-dances for a couple seconds before being interrupted by a loud noise.*

Sonic: “Huh? What was that?”

*On cue, one of Eggman’s bigger machines barrels through the jungle, unfamiliar to them all.*

Tails: “Whoa! How’d that get here?”

Knuckles: “Probably from Sonic placing the Emerald there! Let’s smash it!”

Boss: Egg Genesis

Players of the original ‘06 recognize that this machine is the Egg Genesis Sonic fought once before, but this one is MUCH bigger, at least 3 times as big and easily taking up the airspace above us. It’s raining down constant missiles to try and kill us, and it doesn’t seem to end. We can’t really do any damage to the mech from down here, as what we need to hit is on top of the mech. The only way to get up there is with two springs guarded by light badnik presence that are easy to dodge/destroy.

Onto the mech’s upper half, there are plenty of big rocket launchers firing more missiles at us around the central ‘head’ of the mech, with that E-Series green eyes blinking every so often. Following in the footsteps of Heavy Dog and Blue Falcon, which, let’s be honest, this is just a bigger version of, we have to keep on hitting the guns with Tails’ and Knuckles’ help to break down its health bar till they break off and can’t fire any more. The head can release a shockwave beam to jump over every so often, but with all the homing attacks we’ll be doing, it’ll be easy to dodge. Just don’t be led to fall off to destroy all the guns and make it pop open its head for Sonic to home attack it one more time to finish it off.

Ranks :

• S-Rank: <1:45.00 (+3 Soleanna Medals/1-2 that wasn’t earned with an A- or B-Rank) (+3000 Rings)
• A-Rank: 1:45.01 - 2:15.00 (+2 Soleanna Medals/ 1 that wasn’t earned with a B-Rank) (+2000 Rings)
• B-Rank: 2:15.01 - 2:45.00 (+1 Soleanna Medal) (+1000 Rings)
• C-Rank: 2:45.01 - 3:30.00 (+500 Rings)
• D-Rank: >3:30.00 (+100 Rings)

-----

Conclusion :

*Sonic and the others land on the ground safely while the mech crashes behind them, lopsided.*

Sonic: “Another Eggman mech, turned to scrap.”

Knuckles: “Ha, he needs to make them harder.”

*As they start walking away from the mech, there’s a strange noise from the mech.*

Tails: “Do you guys hear… ticking?”

*Whoops! Looks like the Egg Genesis had a self-destruct switch activated from its death, and it explodes violently enough to toss Team Sonic forward a couple yards and knock them out.*

-----

*Sonic and the others wake up in one of New City’s hotel rooms, rubbing their heads. From the light in the windows, it’s night with the moon rising above the water.*

Sonic: “Uugghh… I feel sore.”

Tails: “Did we really fall for that trap?”

*A pink hedgehog comes in through the door.*

???: “Sonic, Tails, Knuckles! You’re all okay! Phew.”

Sonic: “Amy? What are you doing here?”

Amy: “Well, I was here for some special foods, but then I met another hedgehog, then the Princess of Soleanna…”

Sonic: “Um… okay.”

Amy: “In short, we found you lying around and helped you.”

Sonic: “Thanks. Wait, we?”

*A silver-colored hedgehog peeks in through the door.*

???: “Are they awake?”

Amy: “Uh-huh! Come in!”

*The hedgehog comes in, and if we remember from what we saw in Flame Core through the darkness…*

Tails: “Wait… you saved us in the future, didn’t you?”

*The hedgehog looks surprised and gets a bit nervous.* “I… uh… well…”

Amy: “It’s okay, Silver. You can tell them. They’re very understanding, especially with all that’s happened.”

Silver: “Yes… I did.”

Sonic: “Well, thank you for that. But… what’s going on?”

Silver: “Quite a lot. Another time manipulator like me is helping Dr. Eggman today so he’ll conquer the world from then on with Solaris.”

Knuckles: “That explains the mysterious figure.”

Sonic: “Wait? When is it?”

Amy: “It’s night time. Princess Elise had to leave to start the Festival of the Sun, so that’s why she can’t greet you.”

Sonic gets up with urgency in his voice: “We got to go see her! Eggman’s going to enact the final part of his plan!”

*On explosive cue, a big BOOM is heard from outside, followed by screaming. Everyone gets up quickly and heads outside the hotel.*

-----

Sonic’s Story, Interlude - Soleanna New City

People are screaming and running all over the place while Eggman’s badniks and mechs are attacking them and causing general havoc and mayhem.

Silver: “We need to hurry and save Elise!”

Sonic: “Yeah, but let’s also get rid of any badniks we come across.”

It’s all up to our discretion if we want to destroy the badniks for extra rings and stuff or just move on to the other side of the island. Otherwise, there isn’t that much to do here. Note that the Radical Train can’t be used right now, nor any other mirrors.

-----

Sonic’s Story, Interlude - Soleanna Forest

Same thing here, either destroy the badniks for rings or move along to the next area for where we need to go.

-----

Sonic’s Story, Interlude - Soleanna Castle Town

Our destination is the center of town, where all the lit flames are for the festival. However, in the center stage area is a gaping hole going underground, covered by a dark seal like Mephiles and someone else’s. Out at sea, something seems to glint and glimmer the moonlight in sparkles, but it’s hard to tell what it is. Nearby, we spot Elise doing her best to fight some badniks. Help her destroy the badniks to initiate the next location.

Princess Elise: “Phew, thank you very much, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Silver, and Amy. She told me much about you, and it’s cool to see you in person.”

Sonic: “Ah, don’t mention it.”

Princess Elise: “Anyway, Eggman came in with a drilling mech right when the festival’s flames lit and I narrowly avoided it. Then he sent his machines to cause trouble. I know what he’s really planning though. He wants to get to our inner sanctum and open up the final temple! Follow me to the castle, as we have another way down there.”

*Before we can move on, Shadow and the others come running by.*

Shadow: “Ah, phew, I see you guys saved the princess.”

Sonic: “Huh? Well, yeah. Where were you guys?”

Shadow: “Dusty Desert. We think we might know a way to stop Iblis and Mephiles, but then we saw the trouble here. Did you see where it could have come from?”

Knuckles: “Yeah, I think I saw some strange movement over in Wave Ocean.”

Omega: “Let’s go! Trouble could be brewing there.”

*The dark trio leave.*

Welp, that was something. With Elise in tow now, we can head to the castle through the other road, let through by the guards that once blocked us, and head down into the basement area where the last mirror we need to go through is.”

Chapter Text

Introduction :

*The six enter the lower basements of Castle Soleanna and see the metal lined halls and aquatic tanks that make for walls and the glass that blocks out the sea beyond.*

Princess Elise: “This is our water research lab and aquarium for sea creatures among other things. These used to be just caves leading to our temple to Iblis and Solaris, but we’ve updated them over the years.”

Tails: “Fascinating!”

*Eggman’s drilling can be heard getting louder and louder.*

Sonic: “Too bad we have no time for a tour. We have to get to the temple first!”

Princess Elise: “I’ll take Silver and Amy through our passages, but unfortunately, I’m worried that Eggman’s machines have already snuck into the main area and caused the security doors to close.”

Sonic: “We’ll deal with them, don’t worry.”

*The hero trio head on into the base itself.*

-----

Aquatic Base

Badniks :

• Bond Egg Pawns: Dapper badniks with a penchant for shaken martinis. They also tote machine guns like crazy. +250 points.
• Cyan Egg Flappers: +250 points.
• Monk-33s: +300 points.
• Jaws: Small, piranha like badniks with a bright color scheme, steel teeth for biting, and a propeller for swimming. Make sure to hit the body area only. +300 points.
• Mawz: Grey shark badniks with big choppers for biting. However, compared to its smaller Jawz companion, these can ‘float’ in air as well as the water. Scary, indeed. Two hits to the body center will destroy it, or one Knuckles attack. +350 points.
• Egg Sentries: +300 points.
• Egg Rocketeers: +400 points.
• Egg Grenadiers:+500 points.
• Egg Gunships: +600 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. In the first tank, around some of the dense part of coral.
2. In the second tank, in the other castle that’s still together. Just float in from up top to grab it.
3. In the third tank, in one of the left trenches.
4. In the fourth tank, take a risk to touch the top of the volcano to grab the Soleanna Medal.
5. Protected by badniks in a cage in front of the temple with the Goal ring.

As Elise had warned us, the security doors are indeed closed at four checkpoints, preventing further intrusion for badnik and hedgehog alike. But don’t worry about that for the moment since we have to wade our way through the aquariums first, which can be entered with springs. The ‘swimming’ for Sonic is similar to Colors, where constant jumping will make us go up and stopping makes us sink. That will be useful for easily scoring hits on the swimming Jaws and Mawz that lurk in every tank. Inside of every tank is the emergency switch that will open the security doors marked with the symbol of Solaris so we can continue onwards.

Making our way through the first hall, past their equipment for looking out into the ocean, we find the spring into the first tank. This one is fairly straightforward with just some usual sea-floor rocks and coral that is only a few inches high at most. The emergency switch, with its bright yellow color, is easily found tucked in a circle of rocks. We can then leave and move on through the opening doors, dealing with the outside badniks as we see fit.

The next aquarium has more badniks, but also more pointy regular fishes that can hurt us as well. It also contains some model ruins that look like old castles for variety among the coral and rocks. The switch here is in one of the castles of course.

The third tank is even more developed and bigger, and includes actual sharks swimming amongst the Mawz, so watch out. This one is much more rocky and deep, with trenches in the bottom where the switch is hiding in one of them. Just look for the bright color and we’ll be okay. Also to note there are air bubbles to breath down in all of the tanks in case we need them.

The final tank appears to be their underwater volcano test chamber as this one has a mini volcano bubbling in the water, keeping it warm. The sea creatures here are of the bottom dweller and other small creatures. The switch here resides in a corner of the tank with a sort of machine watching what the mini-volcano does.

Once the final door opens, we can rush on through and hit the goal ring in the temple. Compared to the steel around it, the temple still has its natural stone, with more symbols of Solaris and Iblis on it.

Time Bonus :

• <3:00.00 = 50,000 pts
• 3:00.01 - 3:30.00 = 40,000 pts
• 3:30.01 - 4:00.00 = 30,000 pts
• 4:00.01 - 4:30.00 = 20,000 pts
• 4:30.01 - 5:00.00 = 10,000 pts
• (Any second over from here is -100pts)

Ranks :

• S-Rank: >60,000 pts (+3 Soleanna Medals/1-2 that wasn’t earned with an A- or B-Rank) (+3000 Rings)
• A-Rank: 50,000 - 59,900 pts (+2 Soleanna Medals/ 1 that wasn’t earned with a B-Rank) (+2000 Rings)
• B-Rank: 40,000 - 49,900 pts (+1 Soleanna Medal) (+1000 Rings)
• C-Rank: 30,000 - 39,900 pts (+500 Rings)
• D-Rank: 29,900 pts and lower (+100 Rings)

-----

*As Sonic’s and Silver’s groups reach the temple, Eggman finally arrives through the ceiling in his new shiny toy, as rocks rain down and cause a mess. The machine is quite huge and long, at least over 40 feet long or so. Most of it is just sleek metal from tail to the head, with glowing lights every so often and an Eggman color scheme. But the head makes for the interesting end as it has an open dragon mouth filled with drills for teeth. The teeth retract and the head opens wider to reveal Eggman within the ‘mouth’ of the machine in his Egg-Mobile.*

Dr. Eggman: “Knock knock, it’s EGGMAN!” *One can swear he’s blaring his theme from his mech’s sound system.*

Sonic: “Wow, is that really how you want to greet us?”

Dr. Eggman: “What? You do it every time, I just got there before you.”

Tails, with slight sass: “He’s got you there, Sonic.”

Sonic, to Tails: “Whose side are you on?”

Dr. Eggman: “ANYWAY! Out of the way, hedgehogs. I got a prophecy to fulfill! Victory will be mine!”

Knuckles: “Have you forgotten that we’re always destined to stop you?”

Eggman: “True… but another fellow tells me otherwise.”

*The mysterious figure appears again next to Eggman from a dark grey portal.*

???, in an altered voice: “I will deal with Silver. You deal with Sonic.”

Dr. Eggman: “Excellent! Time to die, Sonic!”

Boss: Egg Wyrm

Eggman, in usual taunting fashion, begins by charging at us full throttle with drills sticking out, trying to ram us over and squish or drill us. Dodge it quickly as Eggman will bounce around the room a few times before drilling underground. But we aren’t safe as the evil scientist will cause rocks to fall from the ceiling and shake the floor to shock us so the rocks hit. Just keep jumping and moving and Eggman will finally appear, leaping around and making 9 holes in total, so dodge both the leaping and hole making, which will fill with dirt afterwards. With the 9th hole, he’ll pop out and reveal his pod for a couple seconds, so hit that sucker while he’s exposed for some Eggman cussing.

Dr. Eggman: “Why you little pincushion! Take this!”

He’ll drop underground again and start a Whack-a-Mole-esque fight, where every third pop up will be Eggman’s pod, and not the drills that will hurt us. Be quick though, before he hides again. After every hit, he’ll make sure to cause an extra tremor and rock drop with each appearance, so using Tails’ flight might be useful to keep airborne and safe.

After 4 hits in total, Eggman comes out and has the machine bounce around again to try and barrel us, being definitely more persistent. He will also add some extra leaping jumps during this to catch us up and maybe make us lose our rings. Eventually he’ll stay underground and return to the 9 hole dig and pop out of the 9th one for another hit.

Dr. Eggman: “Time for the spin cycle!”

It seems Eggman’s mech can split into 9 pieces as the mech will now appear from all 9 holes to surprise-drill us for pain. Just keep dodging and stay away from the holes, and watch carefully for his actual pod to appear. 3 more hits make 8, but there is one final attack where he sends all 9 Wyrm pieces flailing around the room, with his wyrm having the head exposed after a few seconds. Hit it one last time to finish him off.

Ranks :

• S-Rank: <3:00.00 (+3 Soleanna Medals/1-2 that wasn’t earned with an A- or B-Rank) (+3000 Rings)
• A-Rank: 3:00.01 - 3:30.00 (+2 Soleanna Medals/ 1 that wasn’t earned with a B-Rank) (+2000 Rings)
• B-Rank: 3:30.01 - 4:00.00 (+1 Soleanna Medal) (+1000 Rings)
• C-Rank: 400.01 - 4:30.00 (+500 Rings)
• D-Rank: >4:30.00 (+100 Rings)

-----

Conclusion :

*Eggman’s pod pops out and rushes to the temple while the mech explodes behind him, while Sonic and the others run right behind, trying to stop him.*

Dr. Eggman: “Almost… there!”

Sonic: “Stop what you’re doing!”

*Eggman opens the pod, hand outstretched, and slams the White Chaos Emerald into the altar.*

Dr. Eggman: “YES!”

Sonic, Tails and Knuckles: “NO!”

*Eggman smirks as another earthquake starts, shaking the earth harder and the water in the area starts splashing around.*

Dr. Eggman: “Hah! It worked! Goodbye suckers, I have a new beast to command!”

*Eggman leaves through the hole in the ceiling, leaving Sonic and the others in the crumbling room. Silver and the others come over with Silver glowing light blue psychokinesis and Amy and Elise with hands outstretched.*

Amy: “Sonic! Grab on!”

*Sonic grabs Amy’s hand, Knuckles grabs Elise’s, and Tails grabs the White Chaos Emerald and flies after them as they are carried out of Aquatic Base by Silver as the base gets filled with dirt and we fade to black and credits.*

Chapter Text

Introduction :

*Shadow, Rouge and Omega sit in custom seats made for them in the body of the G.U.N. jet that is flying towards Soleanna.*

G.U.N. Pilot: “ETA 5 minutes to Soleanna, beginning descent now.”

Omega: “Shall we review our mission one last time?”

Rouge brings out some confidential folder from a backpack to read from: “G.U.N.'s scientists have discovered a time anomaly over the entire country of Soleanna at 2400 hours. Later satellite imagery then showed Eggman on his new fleet ship on the move to Soleanna, suggesting he knows something about it or is possibly going to cause it. History of Soleanna is that they are the home of the ancient Sun God Solaris, whose coming usually brings a destructive period followed by rebirth. Other notable gods here are the fire god/magma beast Iblis and the Dark God Mephiles. Iblis’s data is less known but what is known is that he is controlled by 7 temples powered by Chaos Emeralds. His appearance causes the island to be engulfed in lava and be reborn. Mephiles the Dark, on the other hand, is known to be a being of dark powers akin to a devil with trickery and energy, and possible mimicry. The monster has accounts of it existing even a couple millenia ago. He is controlled by a stone scepter called the Scepter of Darkness, and he whatever his owner pleases, even killing. Eventually, he is sealed back in the scepter till the next person comes along. Our mission is to find out if the scepter is what  Eggman  wants on the island, and if necessary, deal with whatever happens to our discretion.”

Shadow: “I wonder how angry they’ll be that we brought Sonic and the others along.”

*Through one of the windows, we can spot Sonic’s plane flying through the sky.*

Rouge: “They did say it was our assessment to do whatever is needed, and having him here makes things easier.”

Shadow: “You think we should tell them?”

Omega: “Nature of time anomalies are highly unpredictable. The more pieces at play make for more elements to watch out for. Sonic has a mentality of acting on instinct, which may complicate things. It would be wise not to tell them more than necessary.”

Rouge: “Besides, they know it’s Eggman that needs to be stopped. They don’t need to know anything more than that.”

Shadow: “I don’t like the secret keeping… but alright. But if they do ask, we have to tell them.”

Rouge: “We will.”

Shadow: “... I still can’t believe I’m working for G.U.N.”

Rouge: “The G.U.N. Commander felt really adamant on giving you guys this job, letting this be your first mission to decide if you want to join.”

Shadow: “I know. I guess I just feel weird working for the same people that wanted to handle me discreetly.”

Rouge: “I understand your hesitation. I’m not going to force you to do it, alright?”

Shadow: “Alright.”

G.U.N. Pilot: “We’re about to land at Soleanna. Buckle up, please.”

---

*Team Dark and Team Sonic arrive at Kingdom Valley, meeting the beginnings of Eggman’s resistance and Sonic’s bad jokes. Rouge and the others watch from a short distance.*

Rouge: “Really? Knighty night?”

Knuckles: “I swear his puns are getting worse.”

*They leave on their cue, leaving Shadow and Omega to watch.*

Shadow: “Why do I get the feeling something bad is going to happen?”

Omega: “Eggman is certainly up to something evil if he has this presence already.” *The new models appear and test the gang.* “Case in point.”

Shadow: “He must be really interested if he made a new model just for us.”

Omega: “Time to crush all of Eggman’s robots.”

*Shadow and Omega rush in and destroy the Egg Sentry.*

Omega: “Eggman mechs, destroyed!”

Shadow: “Too slow, Sonic. You got to be faster than that.”

Sonic: “Hey! I was just about to attack them.”

Shadow: “Hmph, sure. You better keep up then, because Eggman is ahead on his flagship. I’m not waiting for you.” *With that, Shadow and Omega run off onto the plains.*

Rouge: “Well, that’s my cue. I’ll find that treasure first as well.”

*Team Dark rushes ahead towards the flagship.*

-----

Kingdom Valley

Badniks :

• Archer Egg Pawns: +200 points.
• Knight Egg Pawns: +200 points.
• Dancer Egg Pawns: Egg Pawns with ball gowns/tuxedos and scarves that fly around when they dance. When they spot us, they’ll skate around and do spinning twirls as their attack. +250 points.
• Red Egg Flapper: +100 points.
• Buzzer: +100 points.
• Egg Sentries: +300 points.
• Egg Rocketeers: +400 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. There are some fresh pumpkins in one of the veggie patches. Break them to find a Soleanna medal inside.
2. In one of the bedrooms we can hide in through Rouge’s sneaking on the bed.
3. Defeat all the Dancer Egg Pawns and open the separate cage to get a Soleanna Medal.
4. Behind the throne in the throne room.
5. In the church chapel, on one of the pews.

Welcome to Shadow’s version of the story. Things here are somewhat different compared to what we went through in Sonic’s story, and I don’t mean in just the order of levels. Their gameplays and styles are also different, easily noticed with Shadow’s powers. Of course, he does have a homing attack to deal with enemies as we see fit, but that isn’t all he has at his disposal once he destroys a few badniks and gets their Chaos Energy. His Chaos Bar can be used at any time, letting him use his other moves. One is Chaos Spear, where he manifests a small amount of Chaos into a spear to toss at enemies, smashing whatever it crosses through in a straight line ahead of the way Shadow is facing. It’s quite useful for damaging a line of enemies or hitting them from afar since it travels for quite a distance and can even hit regular targets. With half the bar, Shadow can call forth his Chaos Blast, and it works just like it did in Shadow’s game. Every enemy within a couple feet of him will be destroyed, and bosses quite damaged. It’s very useful for crowd control when Omega isn’t around. The only other power to note in Shadow’s arsenal is Chaos Control, but it can only be used at certain spots marked by a ring of Chaos Energy. It will give him a full bar and let him use his powers to stop time in its tracks while it’s running. It’s mainly used to get through things on a fast timer, like an open gate that shuts quickly or to dodge traps doing too much at once.

Team Dark also doesn’t start in the same place Sonic did, instead being already at the final castle that Eggman’s ships are flying over. As expected, Eggman’s forces are in much greater numbers as well, making for more to deal with. We start off at the back of the castle since there doesn’t seem to be a drawbridge here, instead, it has more trees and gardens lost to time. The badniks here also follow a more patrol route, making clearly marked paths of where they go. It will both make for easy chaining if they line up, but also means we can bypass them by sticking out of their sight. As long as a badnik doesn’t face our direction, it won’t go into an attack phase, and alert his fellow enemies to get us.

Once through the greenery, we arrive at the back door, where the gate is closed, but there is an open window above.

Rouge: “Allow me. I’ll find the switch for this.”

We take control of the bat and fly up to the window with her flight. The inside of the room is a bedroom, guarded by a lone Knight Egg Pawn lazily walking around. Rouge is all about stealth, and striking the pawn when it doesn’t expect it makes it burst more rings out. If it does notice us, it will alert its friends in the hall. Speaking of said hall, it’s a long one with a few bedrooms to hide in since the badniks come towards us. The black stone and red-carpeted halls turn a few times and lead us towards the front area, and down some stairs to big doors leading us to a grand ballroom.

As expected, there are plenty of Dancer Egg Pawns ballroom dancing around the room as they protect the switch in the middle of the room. There’s a few ways to go for the switch, one of them being flying over them all and landing in the center of the room. Another is one of Rouge’s attacks, which is that she can drop Dummy Rings when she flies to bomb a duo together so the other badniks don’t get alerted and attack Rouge, though it does cost a little Chaos Energy to use. The other choice is to just gung ho it in and handle the robots as we see fit to rush the switch. In any case, turning it on opens the gate for Shadow to head on into the castle, though there is also a second louder noise, suggesting something else has dropped.

We make our way through the armory and training area of the castle where there are plenty of Knight Egg Pawns swinging their swords around. Good thing they’re also distracted if we want to dodge them instead of fighting them. Further on, it’s onto stone halls again as we return to the grand entrance area and meet up with Rouge again, as she tags along as we head up the other stairs to more halls with badniks and mechs on patrol.

Eventually finding our way into the third floor, we’re soon trapped in the back side of a throne room with lots of Eggman’s machines staring us down.

Omega comes in with the group: “Allow me to deal with these cheap machines.”

Eggman’s forces will certainly try their best to take Omega down, but we’re in control of a machine equivalent to an army’s arsenal. Omega’s main attack is punching, of course, taking down whoever in his fists way. Using a bit of Chaos, we can use bullets to mow down more badniks the direction Omega faces, and spending more Chaos lets him use rockets that will blow up a large grouping of enemies. Quickly, all the badniks will be shards of metal on the floor.

Omega; “Let’s roll.”

Continuing on is fairly straight-forward and fast, as we take a few more halls, dealing with Pawns as we find the exterior stairs to the chapel above, dodging or dealing with a little Buzzer assault. The view outside is beautiful and breathtaking, and we can notice that the drawbridge to the castle has dropped and that Sonic’s speed trail can be seen coming towards the castle. Breaking through the door, the Goal Ring awaits in the center of the chapel of the church, with all the devil imagery of Mephiles on the windows.

Results :

• Stage Completed in less than 3:00.00. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• 75% of the enemies destroyed. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• 100 rings collected. = 1 Soleanna Medal.

-----

Conclusion :

*Shadow and the others take a look around the church-like floor of the castle, seeing the depictions of the dark being we saw the first time around being sealed and his devilish appearance kinda looking like his future self.*

Shadow: “So this is Mephiles, huh?”

Rouge: “I’m wondering how exaggerated the demon features are and the scepter.”

Omega: “Watch out, Eggman is coming.”

*The fat doctor comes from a separate room to the side, opening the doors with a slam. He isn’t very surprised to see Shadow, Omega, and Rouge.*

Dr. Eggman: “Ah, there you three are. My robots did alert me you were coming.”

Shadow: “What are you doing here, Doctor?”

Dr. Eggman: “Hmph, the powerful military of G.U.N. doesn’t even have a clue what I’m doing? How pathetic. I don’t think I’ll tell you.”

Rouge: “I’m surprised you don’t want to tell us, Doctor. Normally you’re so boisterous.”

Dr. Eggman: “It’s a big plan… wait, where’s the blue hedgehog? Normally, he’d be wisecracking by then.”

*The doors swing aside as Sonic, Tails and Knuckles rush into the cathedral. Shadow’s team and Dr. Eggman look over to the others, the jolly doctor portly laughing at Sonic’s entrance.*

Dr. Eggman: “Hoh ho, nice of you to join us, dear hedgehog. I was wondering what was taking so long.”

Sonic rubs his nose to that: “Maybe don’t illegally park so far away then.”

Omega: “Enough games, Eggman! Surrender, or we will take you by force!”

Dr. Eggman tsks his robot: “One of my creations, thinking he can order things to happen. You all know I run the show here! Besides, all of you are too late anyway, I’ve gotten what I came for.”

*Eggman pulls out a stony-looking scepter that has a dark jewel at the end of it that pulses like a heartbeat.*

Rouge eyes it: “Huh? It’s real?”

Dr. Eggman: “As real as it gets! And I’m going to use it! Ho, arise, and serve your master!”

*Eggman raises the scepter into the air, and the pulsing darkness in the jewel comes out like a dark mist and floats around the room.*

Sonic: “Huh? What’s that?”

Tails shivers: “Why do I feel like it’s watching me?”

Knuckles: “Is this another one of your tricks, Eggman?”

Dr. Eggman: “You poor, naive fools don’t even know what you are in the presence of, don’t you? Don’t worry, it will be clear soon enough.”

*The dark fog eventually stops next to Eggman at his side, and reforms its mass into a new shape… which looks to be a twisted version of Sonic and Shadow, with outstanding features including jagged quills, empty black eyes, a bent nose, horns, no mouth, is entirely in grey and black colors, and any gloves and shoes from Sonic and Shadow look like they are actual ‘flesh’ of the creature.*

Shadow and Sonic: “Why does it look like us?!”

Dr. Eggman scratches their head at this too: “Hmm… I wasn’t told that it was a hedgehog.”

The creature suddenly speaks, but with no mouth, it seems to be coming out of nowhere. “I have only taken the form of the most powerful being(s) in this room, Dr. Eggman. I am Mephiles the Dark, and I will happily serve your needs.”

Dr. Eggman: “Wonderful!” *To Sonic and the others.* “I’d love to stay and chat, but I have evil to do! Ta-Ta!”

*Eggman and Mephiles are encased in a blue light that teleports them away back to the ship, which then charges its engines and flies off to Wave Ocean.*

-----

*The company of 6 watches from the balcony of the castle as Eggman’s ship flies off.*

Sonic: “Shoot! He got away! I’m going after him!”

Shadow: “Wait, Sonic! You have to tread carefully.”

Tails: “I assume you are referring to Mephiles?”

Rouge: “Yes. From what intel we gathered, that creature has lived for millennia, serving those who hold that scepter, called the Scepter of Darkness.”

Sonic: “How apt.”

Shadow: “Don’t take him lightly. Besides that mimicry power, he has been known to wipe out those the owner of the scepter asks for by any means necessary.”

Knuckles: “He’s definitely not made of Chaos, but something more sinister, from what I feel from him.”

Omega: “Mephiles also doesn’t generate body heat, my temperature scanners have confirmed.”

Sonic: “So we’ll just be careful like we always are. Come on, let’s go!”

Shadow: “You three head on over there. Our team is going to head off into Tropical Jungle.”

Sonic: “I assume you aren’t going to tell us why like you did with this?”

Rouge: “Sorry boys, but we just want to confirm it, just to be sure.”

Knuckles: “Keeping secrets seems to be the usual with you two, huh?”

Shadow: “We’ll tell you once we find out for sure. I promise.”

Sonic: “We’re keeping you to that. Now, let’s go!”

*Tails grabs Sonic and both them and Knuckles fly away from the castle, followed by Shadow and the others leaving too.*

-----

Shadow’s Story, Intermission - Soleanna Forest

For the most part, nothing has changed in Soleanna Forest, the only thing being different is that weather scientists and archeologists are asking for help from Team Dark as well from their own areas.

Once we’re ready, head on over to Tropical Jungle’s mirror and hop on in.

Chapter Text

Introduction :

*The dark trio walk through the upper canopy and twisting branches above the ground, talking amongst themselves.*

Shadow: “I’m worried that Sonic and the others guessed so quickly we were hiding information.”

Rouge: “It’s still for the best. We don’t need them messing things up if the time anomaly turns out to be true too.”

Omega: “I sense 3 life forms… confirmed. It’s Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, down below.”

Shadow looks down in between the branches: “Wait, what? Did they follow us?”

Omega: “No, their time signature is slightly off.”

Rouge: “Like they were misplaced… or maybe the time anomaly already occurred today.”

Shadow: “Let’s follow them, see if they’re heading to the temple.”

-----

Tropical Jungle

Badniks :

• Explorer Egg Pawns: +250 points. Note that there is also the golden variety that destroys all the badniks around it, usually carrying a shield as well. +500 points.
• Black Egg Flapper: +250 points.
• Egg Salad: A literal bowl of ‘salad’, through those fruits and veggies are actually bombs that explode once tossed. Definitely some greens to avoid. Smash the bowl to stop the assault. +300 points.
• Mang-no: It looks like the other big fruits that hang off the trees and plants until it shows its spikes to poke the fool who wants to hit it on the third strike. It’s darker than the other fruit, looking metallic as well. If it is not hanging off something, hit its front where the eyes are to destroy it. +300 points.
• Egg Sentries: +300 points.
• Egg Rocketeers: +400 points.
• Egg Grenadiers: +500 points.
• Egg Gunships: +600 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. Release one of the vines that floats over a platform that has the Soleanna Medal on it that has more branches to move us along afterwards.
2. Once at the base, fly with Rouge to a ledge below hiding the Soleanna Medal under the post.
3. At the fruit section, bounce off the highest fruit to get a Soleanna Medal and some Black Egg Flappers to skip some danger below.
4. There is a random pull vine leading away from the base. Ride it and the following ones for a Soleanna Medal and lots of rings and lives.
5. Before the goal ring, there is a cracked warehouse garage door that can be broken open to reveal a Soleanna Medal inside.

Tropical Jungle begins with evoking memories of Adventure 2 and Heroes’ jungle levels as we run through half-pipe loops of twisting branches intermixed with either being flung by vines or jumping across the swinging one from one to the next like a character that can get one sued in .4 seconds. For the most part, this is pretty straightforward and easy to get through before the thirty second mark and finally seeing where the meat of this level is in the form of a steel box.

Shadow: “Is that a small base that’s been built into the jungle?”

Rouge: “How does Eggman have the time to do all this, I’ve always wondered.”

Omega: “There is activity occurring in the base, 3 life forms in trouble, not Sonic but a possible Amy Rose.”

Shadow: “Then let’s get the place opened up.”

Using the last vine to land on the super-structure, it’s time to move on ahead as we make our way around the outside of the building that has quite a few floating platforms rotating around like Eggman’s base in Iron Jungle. Thankfully, we can fly in Rouge’s grasp if we need a lift. Be careful around some of the windows as stuff sometimes flies out of them that seems more like an accident than on purpose since it only happens once. At the corner, we can find some badniks guarding the switch that will start opening the big doors at the end of the level.

The second section has no platforms to take this time, instead requiring us to use the various vines and fruits growing off the trees and along the side of the base. Be careful that some of the fruit on the base side are actually badniks in disguise if we bounce on them too much. Otherwise, it’s just jumping and riding vines that will fling us forward to the next caged switch. Good thing there are also gold Egg Pawns here that will destroy all the badniks quickly.

The third and last section finds our progress blocked as there are waterfalls running over the gaps in the platform dropping fruit as well that we need to cross through. There is a switch that will stop the waterfalls, but only for a split second. As expected, there’s a ring to perform Chaos Control as well so we can get across fast enough. Don’t dally so we can get to the third caged switch that will open the doors entirely. Out from it comes the Goal Ring… and the gigantic Egg Genesis hauling machine butt out into the jungle.

Results :

• Stage Completed in less than 3:00.00. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• 75% of the enemies destroyed. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• 100 rings collected. = 1 Soleanna Medal.

-----

*Shadow and the others step into the base’s interior, where it looks like a fight occurred, and they see Amy and two others they don’t recognize.*

Amy: “Shadow? Are you the ones that opened the doors?”

Shadow: “Yes. What are you doing here and who are these guys?”

Amy: “It’s a long story. But let's start with introductions. That’s Silver and the human is Princess Elise, the royal here in Soleanna.”

Silver waves: “Hello.”

Princess Elise: “Ah, hello. G.U.N. did tell me to expect visitors to the island.”

Rogue: “A princess? Well, hello indeed.” *Shakes her hand.*

Omega: “Strange. Silver has a slightly different chemistry than us.”

Silver, looking nervous: “W-wha? H-how does he know?”

Shadow: “G.U.N. gave him an upgrade with better sensors to detect any time anomalies, like the one over the island right now, or to detect anything that’s causing it as well.”

Silver: “So you guys can detect that in this world, huh?”

Rouge: “That’s strange to say. Are you not from this universe?”

Silver sighs: “I’m just telling everyone today, am I? Yes, I am from an alternate dimension, but I was sent here to fix the mess. But I’ve also visited the future, and saw that Eggman was already in control of the planet 200 years later.”

Shadow: “What? Eggman’s in control?”

Silver: “Yes. Something happened today that caused it, from what I can gather.”

Rouge: “Interesting…”

Silver: “Worse is that he keeps Mephiles out as well to make sure there is no uprising.”

Shadow: “That’s terrible… and he’s already been released.”

Silver: “What? O-oh no… that means he just needs Iblis. With him, he can create Solaris to rule the world under his power.”

*There is a rumbling as the Chaos Emerald is put into the temple.*

Shadow: “T-that must be Sonic placing an emerald in the temple here in this jungle.”

Silver: “Oh, thank you that you guys know about the sealing ritual.”

Rouge: “Hmm, is that what the Chaos Emeralds do as well? We knew they were important, but not that they can seal as well as release.”

Princess Elise: “N-not that I want to interrupt this, but we have to stop that machine before it reaches people.”

Omega: “The battery is still within vicinity, in confrontation with Sonic’s trio.”

Shadow: “Okay, let’s go help them then.”

-----

*As Shadow’s team and Amy arrive at the temple area, they see Sonic’s ‘victory’ over the Egg Genesis before it suddenly explodes and tosses Team Sonic some distance away, dazed and out.*

Amy: “NO! SONIC!!!”

Shadow: “What? They got defeated?”

Omega: “Machine had a silent ticker for an after explosion! It may be revealing another form.”

*A smaller version of the Egg Genesis, shaped like a big boat appears from the wreckage, now targeting Shadow and the others.*

Rouge: “It’s spotted us. We’ll have to take it out for good.”

Boss: Egg ARK

Going in with the biblical references cause why not? The Egg ARK’s just flying around through the air, firing at us with 4 cannons each, which look like brown versions of the cannons from Heroes, on the port and starboard of the ship. The springs are still here, so we can use them to jump onto the deck of the ship, where the cannons turn around and keep firing at us. Just keep on the move, avoiding their targeting reticles and smash each cannon to bits. With all of them gone, the core appears from the stern end, so give that a few hits to finish this machine off for good.

Ranks :

• <2:00.00 = S-Rank (+3 Soleanna Medals / 1 or 2 if A- or B- Rank were already earned.) (+2000 rings.)
• 2:00.01 - 2:30.00 = A-Rank (+2 Soleanna Medals / 1 is B-Rank was already earned.) (+1000 rings.)
• 2:30.01 - 3:00.00 = B-Rank (+1 Soleanna Medal) (+500 rings.)
• 3:00.01 - 3:30.00 = C-Rank (+250 rings.)
• >3:30.01 = D-Rank (+100 rings.)

-----

Conclusion :

*The machine finally explodes and sends its pieces flying, revealing nothing under it.*

Omega: “Eggman machine, destroyed!”

Rouge: “Hey, we should get Sonic and the others some help.”

Silver, with Elise, who had arrived during the fight: “We looked them over. It looks to be just the shock, no actual damage. They do need a place to rest though.”

Amy: “Oh! I got my hotel room I was renting in New City for the day. They should be safe there.”

Shadow: “Okay. You guys take them there.”

Rouge: “I wonder where we should go now?”

*Silver floats Team Sonic with his mind as the rest walk out of the jungle.*

-----

Shadow’s Story, Intermission - Soleanna Forest

It’s starting to get orange in the sky as the sun begins to set, as some of Soleanna’s guards come rushing to Elise.

Guard 1: “Princess! It’s nearing the time for the festival!”

Guard 2: “We must get you ready!”

Princess Elise: “O-oh! Right! Um, I have to go guys.”

Silver: “Go, we have this.”

*As the guards leave with Elise, Eggman’s ships are flying over to the mountains.*

Shadow: “It looks like he’s going to the mountain range.”

Amy: “That’s White Acropolis. You can enter it from the lifts in New City.”

Omega: “Let’s move.”

Time to head off to Soleanna New City to the east, once we’ve done all that we can here.

-----

Shadow’s Story, Intermission - Soleanna New City

Amy and Silver are already taking Sonic to the hotel, so we can be heading off to White Acropolis to deal with Eggman. There are some missions that we can do from the hotel guests who have had their luggage stolen by Eggman’s robots and from the market area that have lost their cash boxes from Eggman’s machines as well, and have taken them into each stage for Soleanna Medals. Head on over to the lifts once we’re ready to go.

Chapter Text

Introduction :

*Shadow and the others have had no problems riding the lift all the way up to the top to the resort, getting there by the start of night. From their vantage point, they can see Eggman’s base in a lower point below with a ski path leading straight to the front doors.*

Shadow: “Hmm… this seems too easy.”

Rouge: “Agreed. There has to be traps ready to pop up from the snow.”

Omega: “We must be on guard.”

Shadow: “Let’s go.”

-----

White Acropolis

Badniks :

• Skier Egg Pawns: +200 points.
• Security Egg Pawns: Egg Pawns dressed in blue and looking like cops with flashlights. If they do spot us, they will fire off their weapons at us and warn others nearby. Don’t be seen by them to get rid of them easily. +250 points.
• Cluckoids: +250 points.
• Snow-binauts: +250 points.
• Egg Sentries +200 points.
• Egg Rocketeers:. +300 points.
• Egg Gunships:  +600 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. Under one of the random trees in the lull before the avalanche starts.
2. Found between the first and second Chaos rings, above some Egg Sentries we can bounce off of to reach it.
3. Found between the second and third Chaos rings, by smashing the lone Egg Gunship for it.
4. This Soleanna Medal is hiding behind the back wall of Eggman’s base, opposite of the door side, only guarded by three patrolling Egg Sentries.
5. In one of the rooms while we’re looking for the elevator switch, floating in the open.

The stage begins with not much fanfare, as we make our way down the slope with only a few Skier Egg Pawns going around, not even being much trouble at all. But as soon as we pass a few lines of horizontal trees, klaxons start blaring as there is movement from Eggman’s base. From it, the Egg Owl appears and fires off a ton of rockets at the piles of snow built up from the top of the mountain.

Dr. Eggman: “Have a nice trip! Don’t get snowed over! Mwah hah ha!”

Rouge: “Avalanche!”

Omega: “Escape! Escape!”

The Egg Owl leaves to let us get crushed by snow and trees as we have to make a hasty run down the mountain, and all without a snowboard. Unfortunately, the snow here is heavy and makes our run slower, so soon, the mess behind us is getting close. The only means to get out of here alive comes from the salvation of the Chaos Energy rings that will let us use Chaos Control to stop the stuff behind us in its tracks and let us get ahead. In the stopped time, it’s still not a cakewalk since there are frozen Snow-binauts, Skier Egg Pawns and Egg Sentries in mid firing, which their bullets can still hurt even then. Thankfully, the machines can be destroyed for that extra bit of Chaos to make it to the next ring that will refill the bar entirely and let us perform Chaos Control again if the power runs out. Three Chaos Controls and probably near misses later, we’re at Eggman’s base, as the avalanche misses us.

Shadow: “Huh, the base isn’t running its sirens.”

Rouge: “Maybe the doc thinks we’re dead.”

Omega: “We should take the advantage to bust in.”

Rouge: “Yes, and discretely as well.”

Thankfully, the gates are open right now so we can sneak right in… right into a large badnik patrol full of Security Egg Pawns and Eggman’s mechs. If we don’t want to be in a large firefight, it might be best to sneak through their patrols in the gaps they make, and forfeit the enemy medal since it will slow us down with the doors shutting till the alert is turned off. Once inside, we are still not done as we need to either continue sneaking or taking out badniks that roam the halls of this floor, as we search for the elevator switch. Eventually we’ll find it towards the back of the place, but it’s booby trapped. After dealing with a short fight with the big mechs with Omega’s power, the doors open for the stairs for Shadow’s team, revealing the Goal Ring.

Results :

• Stage Completed in less than 3:00.00. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• 75% of the enemies destroyed. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• 100 rings collected. = 1 Soleanna Medal.

-----

Conclusion :

*Shadow and the others make their way to the top floor through the stairs, fighting off badniks till they meet with Sonic and the others who have taken the elevator. Eventually, we’re back to that conservatory greenhouse… about to be locked into the future.*

Sonic, puzzled: “Huh? What’s this?”

Tails: “I think it’s a small greenhouse?”

Knuckles: “Since when has Eggman ever cared about going green?”

Dr. Eggman: “I do, just not for the planet, heh he.”

*His ugly mug appears on one of the walls, while the entrance behind them shuts with thicker steel doors.*

Shadow: “No! It’s a trap!”

Dr. Eggman: “Correct! You fell right into it!”

Omega: “Preparing to blast-”

Dr. Eggman: “I wouldn’t recommend it. The steel is thicker in that room, and the glass is bulletproof and MIGHT just ricochet right into your ‘friends’. I know how you suddenly care about them, Omega.”

Omega: “Damn you, Dr. Eggman!”

Dr. Eggman chuckles softly: “Don’t worry, you won’t be there very long. As of right now…”

*A rumbling begins that turns into a grander earthquake than the one in Wave Ocean. Outside, avalanches can be seen occurring.*

Sonic, for once a bit frightened: “AAAH! What’s going on?!”

Dr. Eggman, who is clearly not moving: “Oh, just the 6th Emerald being placed into the altars of Iblis. I would tell you more, but that would ruin the surprise.”

*The earthquakes finally cease again, and everyone finds their footing.*

Knuckles: “Geez, that was worse than the last.”

Dr. Eggman: “Now, I'm tired of you all, see you in 200 years!”

All: “200 years?”

*A cloaked figure comes in on Eggman’s feed and his hands glow strangely with grey colors. In their room, the altar in the center also glows that strange grey color as it fills the room.*

Dr. Eggman: “Goodbye!”

*The 6 fade away into sparkling dust and are not there anymore. We change focus to be on the ship.*

The cloaked figure, in an altered voice: “They have been sent forward in time, Doctor.”

Dr. Eggman: “Excellent. Now everything is set up to happen as planned. Now! Time to drill down to the Aquatic Base and release Iblis for my master plan!”

*Before we fade off ourselves, the Egg fleet roars its engines and flies off again.*

Chapter Text

Introduction :

*Unlike their counterparts' journey to the future, Team Dark lands safely at the base of the mountain of Flame Core, surrounded by the dead landscape and looking at the steel gate with Eggman’s face on it blocking entrance to the volcano’s inside.*

Omega: “Determining location… please wait.”

Shadow: “This can’t be right. The entire landscape looks dead and destroyed.”

Rouge: “And reeking of Eggman. His work is everywhere.”

Omega: “Cannot access G.U.N.’s information. Regrettably, I'm going to have to try Eggman’s servers.”

Rouge: “No G.U.N.? Could he have been telling the truth of our 200 year time travel?”

Shadow: “I see too many Eggman related things around… did he?”

Omega: “Information found. We are 200 years in the future, and in Soleanna.”

Rogue: “Oh no.”

Omega: “Eggman has conquered the entire world after defeating Sonic and Shadow. Their locations are unknown. Any resistance is quelled instantly.”

Shadow: “So… this must be Eggman’s stronghold then, this entire island.”

Omega: “He had Iblis reshape the island and fit his machinery before leaving him underground as a protective measure.”

Rouge: “We have to do something. We can’t just let this slide.”

Omega: “This place seems to be the powerhouse of Eggman’s foundry to the southeast. We can cripple his power here if we destroy the generators, and open the doors in the process.”

Shadow: “Then let’s do it.”

-----

Flame Core

Badniks :

• Mountaineer Egg Pawn: +250 points.
• Yellow Egg Flapper: +200 points.
• Zappers: +300 points.
• Bat Brain: +250 points.
• Egg Sentries +300 points.
• Egg Rocketeers: +500 points.
• Egg Hovers: +400 points.
• Egg Gunships: +600 points.
• Rocky Orbinaut: Seems those Sols in Sonic’s stage were actually regular orbinauts spinning rocks around and throwing them. Still painful, obviously. +250 points.

Iblis Monsters :

• Phoenix: +300 points.
• Lizard: +200 points.
• Golum: +500 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. Climb or fly atop the cave entrance for the strong door to find a Soleanna Medal up there.
2. On the metal road between the southern and southwestern generators, obviously within patrol routes.
3. Behind the volcano, in a cage. Defeat the nearby enemies to release it.
4. Underneath the northern generator, with a few Rocky Orbinauts floating around.
5. On the ramps for the northeast generator, in plain sight.

Shadow and his team are at the base of the volcano and the stronghold doors, which aren't erupting since the generators also prevent that. They’re spread out like a hexagon around the volcano, with metal structures connecting the six like bridges and ramps leading up to each of them. Everywhere, there are dead trees and rocks and not much else to look at. The sky is a dark purple of evening, but it looks so polluted and smog-filled that time looks to be frozen, figuratively.

Thankfully, the badniks are on patrol but haven’t been alerted to our presence yet, though there are quite a lot of them out there, especially guarding around the lava generators. Speaking of them, destroying the generators requires using Omega’s weapons on them. It’ll take four punches, 3 rounds of guns, or 2 rockets to knock them out of commission, confirmed with the electricity dying off and a slight earthquake rumbling after each one. Getting all that Chaos shouldn’t be that hard with all the robots around.

*After the sixth generator is turned off, the earthquakes start getting more severe.*

Omega: “Abort! Abort! Volcanic pressure is rising to critical levels!”

Shadow: “Let’s get out of here!”

While the volcano erupts, spilling lava down the mountainside and shooting and raining rock and ash all over, we’ll have to run on out of here past the southern generator and away from the volcano, dodging the falling debris with their shadows and reach the Goal Ring at the end of the path with them running off, an non-standard results screen appearing.

Results :

• Stage Completed in less than 3:00.00. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• 75% of the enemies destroyed. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• 125 rings collected. = 1 Soleanna Medal.

-----

Conclusion :

*After a couple minutes more of running, the trio find themselves in the ruins of what looks to be Soleanna Castle Town, most of the bricks and anything identifiable gone, and all that there is are tents and lean-tos and fires. Huddled among them are sad, weak-looking anthros and humans that have lived under Eggman’s tyranny.*

A random male one speaks up: “Who are you? Are you working for Eggman?”

Shadow: “We aren’t. And I’m sure you noticed the volcanic eruption? That was due to us.”

A female canine: “Thank you, but I’m worried that you’ve doomed us to Eggman’s wrath again.”

Rouge: “We won’t let that happen while we’re here.”

Omega: “All of Eggman’s machines will be destroyed and Eggman captured!”

A male bird: “We’re sorry that we can’t offer much in return though.”

Shadow: “It’s fine. Hmm, have you seen a blue hedgehog, fox and echidna yet?”

Male human #2: “We haven’t.”

*However, someone shouts from the southeastern area.*

Female bird: “One of Eggman’s semis is coming… and there’s a hedgehog on top of it!”

Rouge: “That certainly sounds like Sonic. Guess they just escaped too.”

*Shadow goes to greet them while Omega and Rouge help with some tender care and food. Soon, Shadow is back with Sonic’s team. We timeskip ahead so the six can, exchanging stories.*

Knuckles: “Jeez. At least you guys got out quick enough before the volcano erupted.”

Rouge: “Likewise, with you and Eggman.”

Omega: “I will destroy Eggman! No matter the cost!”

Rouge: “Relax, Omega, we’ll deal with him soon.”

Shadow: “Wait, Rouge, maybe we should. Sonic and the others have done a blow to him and he’s distracted. Still dangerous, but we might be able to stop him here.”

Sonic: “While you guys are doing that, how about we head back to the volcano? You said there was something you missed?”

Rouge: “Yes. A strange cavern sealed by a steel gate. It most likely opened in the eruption by now.”

Knuckles: “Then we’ll go explore that, while you guys stop Eggman!”

Sonic: “Alright! Let’s go!”

-----

Shadow’s Story, Intermission - Ruined Soleanna

Like in Sonic’s story, we have the duo of mirrors, one for Flame Core that we just left and one for Eggman’s Foundry next to the truck. And the folks here are still offering Soleanna medals for saving their stolen kids. When we’re ready, head for the truck so we can take the fight to Eggman.

Chapter Text

Introduction :

*With Omega at the wheel, Shadow and Rouge ride atop the Egg semi-truck, as he locates an opening from the outside, dodging the gunfire from the guns like a pro.*

Omega: “Time to get revenge on Eggman!”

Shadow: “Just remember we’re up here, alright?”

Rouge: “Best we hold on then.”

-----

Eggman’s Foundry

Badniks :

• Pieces of Egg Pawns: +100 points.
• Mechanic Egg Pawns: +200 points.
• Cyan Egg Flapper: +250 points.
• Machinery: +300 points.
• Egg Sentries: +300 points.
• Egg Rocketeers: +500 points.
• Egg Hovers: +400 points.
• Egg Semis: Not exactly attacking directly, they will fly about and drop their cargo onto us then fly just far enough away to be out of regular attack range. Thankfully, they do also tend to drop metal chunks that can be home-attacked right back to sender to destroy them quickly. +1000 points.

Iblis Monsters :

• Phoenix: +300 points.
• Lizard: +200 points.
• Golum: +500 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. Destroy the first Egg Semi.
2. Destroy the second Egg Semi.
3. On the far left Egg Semi as they all smash through the stain glass windows to the outside.
4. Jump and ride a few catwalk rails over the semis to catch a Soleanna Medal.
5. Destroy the last Egg Semi.

How’s this for an action stage, riding a raging semi while fighting off Eggman’s machines?! Since he doesn’t have a way to directly attack us inside the base, he’s opted instead to have his semis flying around, dropping enemies onto the roof of ours, which we’ll need to destroy with Shadow and Rouge’s attacks. They’ll continue to do so till they are destroyed by the environment, being bad drivers of course, or from the scraps of metal that also fall out and can be home-attacked right back to the truck and smash it. Whatever happens with the trucks follows with a few short jumps over the conveyor belts, with only a loss of rings to worry about if we miss.

Another Egg Semi comes to ruin the fun, so it will need to be dealt with as necessary. With it scrapped, we need to move to the left or right side of the semi to avoid hitting any machinery or piping in the way. The level then opens as more semis ride below, alongside us. We’ll have to jump across them to avoid more machines and pipes that end up in our way and get off the ones that are doomed to crash into a wall. They’ll take us also through a ride outside and back inside as each one crashes and leaves us back with Omega’s again. After that, it’s one more Egg Semi to smash or let crash before the stage ends with us breaking through into Eggman-Robo’s big wooden doors into a Goal Ring.

Results :

• Stage Completed in less than 3:00.00. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• 75% of the enemies destroyed. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• 100 rings collected. = 1 Soleanna Medal.

-----

*Shadow and the others look around in the throne room.*

Shadow: “Hmph, maybe we scared the doctor out of here.”

Rouge: “I dunno… something doesn’t feel right.”

*Eggman comes out from the door behind the throne, angry, though still in a chipper mood.* “I suppose it’s to be expected that you three would make such a mess of my facility to slow my reign.”

Omega: “Eggman, you will surrender!”

Dr. Eggman: “I think you know the answer to that.”

Shadow: “I refuse to believe that we would actually lose to you.”

Dr. Eggman gloats: “But you did, and I won’t spoil how, heh he. Time to take out the trash.”

*He presses a button on his body that adds more metallic skin to him, making him much bigger and imposing, breaking through the ceiling as something akin to a Great Eggman Robo, with his brain on top. He towers over the trio, his legs lost in the fire and darkness below, his torso looms over the arena for miles, his head lost in the polluted black night sky.*

Dr. Eggman: “Scared yet? Maybe this will make you whine for your mothers! Metal Sonic, GO!”

*Eggman’s loyal servant for many years rockets into the area, looking at Team Dark with his cold, red eyes. He looks quite unchanged for being 200 years old, still vaguely resembling Sonic in figure, but with all the painful, sharp angles to cut his foes on. He stays silent, only revving his fiery afterburners.*

Boss: Eggman and Metal Sonic 

The battle begins with the speed of Metal Sonic blasting his way around the arena with his jet engine, attempting to cut us up with ramming into us. All we can do is dodge since his body seems to be impervious, the same going for the rotund belly of the Eggman that takes up the entire north end of the arena. As we dodge each charge, the robot goes quicker, and quicker till he gets annoyed enough to jump to the south end of the arena and starts revving his engine again for a super charge.  Dodge it by moving away at the last second, but he’ll just bull charge around if he fires off at an angle, bouncing off the sides to trip us up. But perhaps we aim the bull of a machine right at Eggman’s center, letting him crash into it like it were the big red cape…

*A successful, speedy smack to the center of the robo makes the chest walls open up wide, exposing the electric innards of the machine.*

Dr. Eggman: “No! Don’t touch that.”

Ignoring his request, damaging Eggman for real requires home attacking the electrical components till they either fall off or explode violently, annoying the master above.

Dr. Eggman: “Grrrrrr, time for some heavy rain!”

The chest of the robot shutters its doors again to prevent further attack, and Metal Sonic returns to charge around the arena. All the while, Eggman starts raining down bombs from above, which we will have to dodge from their shadows though they do explode a big radius around them. We’ll have to do our best to dodge it all till Metal Sonic revs himself up again, and we can guide him to smash into the shutters to open them and let us tear into the robot more. Once it’s the halfway point, the doors close again as Eggman attacks anew.

Dr. Eggman: “I’ll crush you!”

Eggman’s mech fires off its hands like rockets to jet around through the walls and cause a mess, firing off back and forth to catch us off guard, and we’ll have to not be standing in their path to avoid damage. Metal Sonic is floating above, providing support with his own rockets and energy balls to make sure we don’t stand in one place. After a few passes, the hands will fly into the air with Metal Sonic and come down diagonally to try and crush us… but they too can be lured to both smash into the shutters to open them AND crash into the electrical components for massive damage. The resulting damage causes Eggman’s body to explode and send the head of the mech to fly off to safety, the egghead enraged.

Dr. Eggman: “GAH! Finish them, Metal! I’m out of here!”

Too bad Metal’s idea of finishing off the trio is STILL using Maximum Overdrive, blasting around at high speed, smashing through the crumbled castle pieces and trying to run us over. Dodging is near impossible, unless we use the Chaos Energy ring that appears to use Chaos Control, but even then, apparently the robot is going so fast that he’s still moving somewhat more manageable to dodge in the stopped time. The flaw in Metal Sonic’s programming that never got fixed will kick in after 8 ricochets and shorts the robot, where two homing attacks will cause Metal Sonic to flee for his own safety as well.

Ranks :

• S-Rank: <3:00.00 (+3 Soleanna Medals/1-2 that wasn’t earned with an A- or B-Rank) (+3000 Rings)
• A-Rank: 3:00.01 - 3:30.00 (+2 Soleanna Medals/ 1 that wasn’t earned with a B-Rank) (+2000 Rings)
• B-Rank: 3:30.01 - 4:00.00 (+1 Soleanna Medal) (+1000 Rings)
• C-Rank: 4:00.01 - 4:30.00 (+500 Rings)
• D-Rank: >4:30.00 (+100 Rings)

-----

Conclusion :

Omega: “Mission not completed, Metal Sonic and Eggman got away.”

Shadow, looking a bit tired: “Ah, leave them. They’ll be gone for a while with how we left everything.”

Rouge also looks tired: “That fight felt harder than usual, phew.”

Shadow: “We should get out of here, check to see if Sonic and the others are alright as well.”

Silver, oddly hiding behind some rubble, but speaking to the trio: “They’re fine and back home. I will send you back too.”

*Before Shadow and the others can react, a cyan/grey portal appears beneath them and returns them back to Soleanna’s present day.*

Chapter Text

Introduction :

*Team Dark finds themselves warped underground in Soleanna’s Aquatic Base, in an unknown part of the facility with more research stations and aquariums.*

Shadow: “Where are we?”

Omega: “Location seems to be under Soleanna, unknown as of where.”

Rouge: “I see insignias of the castle that sits outside the town area. Could it belong to them?”

Soleanna Guard, somewhere afar: “You hear that?”

Soleanna Guard #2, also afar: “Ah, you’re just hearing the echoes. Let’s move on.”

Rouge: “Uh-oh. We better sneak out of here.”

Shadow: “Lead the way then.”

-----

Aquatic Base

Badniks :

• Jaws: +300 points.
• Mawz: +350 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. Floating above the bottom-dwellers tank, where a good jump and flight will catch it.
2. Easily spotted in the left aisle of supercomputers.
3. In the sun chart area, on top of the northwest computers.
4. Enter the first tube to be dropped at the beginning of the narrow hall and a Soleanna Medal.
5. Break a cracked stalagmite to reveal a Soleanna Medal.

Since this is long before Eggman invaded the base, we appear to be the trespassing force right now, so we better find a way out of here. However, compared to the straightforward layout of Sonic’s version, this place is much more of a maze with aisles of machines making many paths and long tubes of aquarium tanks twisting around every which way. Worse is that there are guards patrolling some of the paths and we cannot harm them in any way, meaning we are forced to avoid them. Thankfully, we are in control of Rouge for this level, with the others right behind, so their sounds won’t be alerting the guards, but it also means we can’t just fly right out of here.

We start where scientists are observing an underground aquarium filled with bottom dwellers, with them mostly sticking to their desks with only one or two walking around at a time. Find a good opening to sneak through to the other side of the area, where we find there is an opening in the tube here where we can be whisked ahead by the current inside and by speed panels like a pinball in a tube to the next section.

The next area looks to be their supercomputer area, with the tall mainframes making aisles. A few lone guards and scientists are walking around here, so the best course of action would be to follow somewhat behind one of them till they head down a different aisle, then rush on ahead to the other side, ending at a clear tank full of water, meant to cool down the machines. Jump in and take the tube at the bottom to be blasted off further ahead.

The following area leads us to a holographic sun area, where the scientists here appear to be observing the sun’s atmosphere and more, though the high science they are doing could also be related to Solaris since they have the ‘Festival of the Sun’ in bold letters on their boards. Don’t be too close to the fake sun, since it actually is radiating some heat and we’ll be easily spotted by the people in here. Instead, here we can climb above with some of the boxes here and sneak our way over to the eastern side where there is another high speed tube to enter, but this one has three exits, all leading to the same area, but placing us at various distances away from the end location… which will be explained shortly. The middle is the one that drops us closest to the exit, followed by the last then the first for slower routes, though it might be rewarded to go in the slowest first tube.

As for where we end up, they drop into a narrow hall with no guards, and heading further reveals the metal gives way to natural caverns, as we seem to have found the original caves that run under Soleanna Castle Town. Only a few of Eggman’s toys are playing around in the water, and are pretty easy to deal with. There are a few natural waterfalls and rivers in these caves, offering an easy, open rush to the finish at the maw of a cavern overlooking what appears to be the beach, and the Goal Ring.

Results :

• Stage Completed in less than 3:30.00. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• 75% of the enemies destroyed. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• 100 rings collected. = 1 Soleanna Medal.

-----

Conclusion :

*Shadow and the others step out into the morning sunlight bathing the beaches of Soleanna’s coast, not too far from Castle Town.*

Omega: “Confirmed, it is morning, before we arrived at Soleanna by plane.”

Shadow: “Hmm, was that Silver who sent us back?”

Rouge: “Sounded like it, but he didn’t show his face.”

Omega: “It could have been his original interaction with us.”

Shadow: “Possible. Well, let’s get out of here. We need to meet Sonic, but where?”

Rogue: “Why not Radical Train? It’s in all the regions to account for where they could end up at.”

Shadow: “Yeah, sounds good.”

*The trio rush along the beach, back to Soleanna Castle Town.*

Chapter Text

Shadow’s Story, Intermission - Soleanna Castle Town

No use puttering around in the sands here, which is where Aquatic Base’s mirror for Shadow’s team is. Time to head onto the Radical Train to wait for Sonic and the others.

Shadow, to the train conductor outside: “Can you tell Sonic, a blue hedgehog, to come onto the Radical Train if you see him pass by? Tell them Shadow and the others are on board.”

*The train conductor nods.* “I will.”

-----

Shadow’s Story, Seventh Stage - Radical Train

Introduction :

*Team Dark waits for a couple minutes till Team Sonic finally arrives in their train car and they all sit together in the train car as it moves forward.*

Sonic: “Shadow! I see you guys made it back just fine.”

Shadow: “Yes, and likewise with you. A strange creature is the one who brought us back, but we couldn’t see his face.” *Shadow is thinking about that he had to lie a bit, again.*

Tails: “I’m not sure who did it with us either. It was hard to see in Mephiles’ dark chamber.”

*Both sides exchange what’s happened since the separation in Flame Core.*

Rouge: “Hmm, that doesn’t sound good at all. What could be happening today?”

Sonic: “Well, we just watched Eggman fly off from Dusty Desert. I believe he was mentioning he put a Chaos Emerald in the temple there, but we didn’t catch it.”

*Shadow and Rouge look at each other in worry.*

Sonic: “Huh? Why does that worry you?”

Rouge: “Well, before the trip to the future, we saw you guys putting a Chaos Emerald in the temple in Tropical Jungle.”

Knuckles: “Wait, what? That’s impossible! We were dealing with Eggman over in Wave Ocean.”

Omega: “Logic error detected. Solution: Bootstrap Time Paradox.”

Sonic: “What is he referring to?”

Shadow: “We can confirm today IS the Festival of the Sun… and we ARE here before we arrived naturally to Soleanna.”

*Sonic and Knux obviously look confused.*

Tails, who has been thinking: “So we’re on our second trip through Soleanna on the same day. But what does that all mean?”

Rouge: “Eggman mentioned he’s releasing Iblis, right?”

Sonic: “Yeah. He certainly seemed happy later when we met him again in White Acropolis.”

Shadow: “And you mentioned when you saw the writing in that temple that it seems to be both a releasing AND a sealing ritual.”

Knuckles: “The writings were worn, but yeah.”

Tails: “Maybe if we put the 7th Chaos Emerald in first, we might be able to stop Iblis instead?”

Omega: “Logical error resolved. However, I wonder what was that future we saw. Is it supposed to happen?”

Sonic: “I certainly hope not, it looks like a bad future to me.”

Shadow: “We’ll have to be careful then.”

*The train suddenly comes to a stop.*

Sonic: “Huh? Why’d we stop moving?”

The conductor: “S-Sonic! You and your friends need to get off! Eggman’s sending a train to ram us!”

*In real quick succession, there isn’t much time to react as the 6 rush to the open side doors and jump off when one of Eggman’s bullet trains slams the other train aside, the group landing on some scaffolding below. Eggman’s voice echoes by.*

Dr. Eggman: “Choo choo! Out of my way, pests!”

Sonic: “We got to stop him!”

Shadow: “We’ll deal with Eggman. Go and look around here.”

Rouge: “He’d only try that stunt if we were close to something big. Look for a temple.”

Knuckles: “You sure?”

Shadow: “Yes, now go!”

-----

*After Team Dark follows down the tracks for the train, they find it turning around at Castle Town’s station.*

Shadow: “Now’s our chance! Get on!”

*As Eggman’s train leaves the station, the trio hop onto the caboose of the train as it leaves and rushes down the rails.*

-----

Radical Train

Badniks :

• Demolitionist Egg Pawns: +250 points.
• Magenta Egg Flappers: +250 points.
• Egg Pawns: The originals, just enjoying being passengers carrying guns and shields on the train. Nothing difficult to handle. +200 points.
• Engineer Egg Pawns: Pawns dressed in cotton clothes to avoid zapping themselves. There is at least one in each of Eggman’s train cars, and they attack by controlling the traps of the train, like blowing fires from the coal burners or making electricity zap down from the lights. Getting rid of them opens the doors ahead. +300 points.
• Luggs: Badniks in the shape of luggage, they look fine until they show their eyes and open their mouths and try to gobble us up. Hitting their sides will destroy the badnik. +250 points.
• Egg Cannons: Black, orange and white cannons that fire shells every so often. They require a few homing attacks or one stronger attack to destroy. +200 points.
• Egg Sentries: +300 points.
• Egg Rocketeers: +400 points.
• Egg Grenadiers: +500 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. On the second train car, on top of the pyramid of steel pipes.
2. At the end of the third train car, in a cage opened by a switch in one of the left cabin rooms.
3. Take out the Engineer Pawn in the fifth car, and hit his switch to reveal a Soleanna Medal from a wall.
4. In the seventh train car, in the pile of boxes.
5. Jump atop the last cannon with homing attacks to bounce and reach the Soleanna Medal.

Time for a nice, relaxing, morning train ride… is what would be said if this weren’t Eggman’s sinister ride to hell and back. This will be anything but a simple ride as every train car has deadly traps and badniks on it, ready to kill us. Even this back car isn’t safe as it’s full of living luggage badniks that want to eat us for breakfast. Past that is the next train car, open to the elements with steel pipes stacked and Eggman’s machines shooting and bombing us. We can hit the pipe stack to roll the pipes forward and destroy them all without damage to us.

The third and fourth cars are for ‘passengers’, which are full of regular Egg Pawns out for revenge for being so damn weak. The third car is specifically full of cabins with bunks, so some are pretending to sleep, so give them a wake-up jab. The fourth is more open and full of the pawns sitting at tables that they move to use as cover. Thankfully, their cover is flimsy and easy to break through and defeat the robots behind them.

The fifth train car is the mid-engine for the train, and there is a maniac Engineer Pawn making the coal burners and lights spit fire and electricity and making spikes appear from the floor. Quickly, and safely, make our way across and give the fool what for.

About 60% through the train, we hear Eggman shout from the head of the train.

Dr. Eggman: “Surprise!”

The last four train cars have cannons attached to them, firing shells at the road and cliff wall Sonic’s team is running along. We should help them by taking out all the cannons, which go down in three hits, and destroying all three cannons in each car lets us move on to the next. The sixth and seventh are more industrial and square, and full of boxes both explosive and not, so be careful with those as they will explode a second later. The eighth and ninth cars are open, and have Eggman’s mechs guarding them to make sure they don’t get destroyed. Beat ‘em all up to reach the tenth car, and the Goal Ring.

Results :

• Stage Completed in less than 4:00.00. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• 75% of the enemies destroyed. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• 125 rings collected. = 1 Soleanna Medal.

-----

Conclusion :

Dr. Eggman, at the wheel: “Hah! Hide all you want, Sonic! I’ll get-”

*Shadow and the others bust in.*

Shadow: “Doctor!”

Omega: “Eliminate Eggman!”

Dr. Eggman, who doesn’t even turn around: “Ah, perfect timing. That is, time for me to go. Enjoy your presents!”

*He is immediately warped out of the train car, and to his airship with the familiar disappearance, revealing the Green Chaos Emerald powering the engine.*

Rouge: “I’ll get that, thank you.”

Shadow: “Wait, he said presents, what if it’s a trap?”

*The bat doesn’t listen, already snatching the emerald.*

Rouge: “Hmm? Well, it wasn’t.”

The computer: “Self destruct sequence activated. Destruction in 5… 4…”

Shadow: “Hold on!”

*The black hedgehog is quick to grab everyone and the Emerald and Chaos Control the heck out of the train before it counts to zero. Though, surprisingly, it doesn’t explode. Rather, a beam fires from the Egg Fleet in Kingdom Valley and laser blasts the train off the tracks.*

-----

Shadow’s Story, Intermission - Soleanna Forest

*Team Dark appears in Soleanna Forest’s Radical Train station.*

Shadow sighs: “That was a narrow escape…”

Rouge: “What happened?”

Omega: “Beam fired from Eggman’s Fleet in Kingdom Valley. His ships are more dangerous than once appeared to be.”

Rouge: “We’ll have to deal with it later.”

*At this time, Sonic and the others arrive from below the train station.*

Omega, acting as nonchalant as a robot can be: “Eggman got away.”

Sonic: “Kinda expected since we met him in Kingdom Valley later.”

Shadow: “Speaking of that. You’ll have to avoid your past selves as best as you can. It is not a good idea to meet unless it was destined to happen, which-”

Sonic: “Yeah, save that before it hurts my brain again. However, I know we need a Chaos Emerald for Tropical Jungle, but we don’t have one on hand.”

*Shadow shows the hero trio the Green Chaos Emerald.*

Shadow: “We took it off the train and junked it. This is the one you’ll place in Tropical Jungle.”

Tails: “Alright. We’ll get it there safely.”

*Sonic and the others leave, leaving the other trio to think.*

Omega: “Next destination?”

Rogue: “Maybe we should return to the ruins in Dusty Desert?”

Shadow: “It’s the only place we haven’t checked for any clues, and it’s the oldest place here. Maybe it does have something about Iblis.”

Rogue: “All we can do is check.”

When we’re done with gathering all the Soleanna Medals we want, head to Soleanna Castle Town.

-----

Shadow’s Story, Intermission - Soleanna Castle Town

We can help the townsfolk to our leisure, but our next stop is at Dusty Desert to the southwest, passing through G.U.N.’s checkpoint.

G.U.N. Soldier: “Ah, Agent Rouge. Please, go right ahead. Just watch out since Eggman’s mechs have been spotted in the desert.”

Chapter Text

Introduction :

*The trio have been searching the desert region for hours for anything Iblis related, and were about to give up until…*

Shadow: “Hey, wait, is that a cavern over there?”

Rouge: “Yes, it is, and I think I just saw one of Eggman’s pawns leave it.”

Omega: “Initiating search!”

*The trio rush into the cave, unsure of what they’ll find.*

-----

Dusty Desert

Badniks :

• Djinn Egg Pawns: +250 points.
• Green Egg Flapper: +200 points.
• Sandworm: Those wormy badniks that like hopping around from sand and cave floors and walls. Hit their head to defeat them. +200 points.
• Spiker: Why are the spikes on the head of the badnik springy? Maybe it’s because they like to hide among other, or under, real spikes. Deadly trap indeed. Hit them on the sides to defeat them. +250 points.
• Fool’s Jewels: Something straight out of Rogue’s worst nightmares. Coming in various shapes and sizes, and mixed in with the natural crystals, they spit out bullets every 5 seconds on anyone who passes by them. The only way to tell them apart is that they have a duller color and bounceable heads. Hitting their gun when it's exposed or using chaos or Omega’s guns or rockets are the only way to destroy them. +300 points.
• Statue-esque: +400 points.
• Monk-33s: +350 points.
• Egg Sentries: +300 points.
• Egg Rocketeers: +400 points.
• Egg Grenadiers: +500 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. The only symbol of Solaris in the tile room will give out a Soleanna Medal, of course and open the door to boot.
2. One of the axes has cracked the wall in a spot. Break it open with Omega to reveal a Soleanna Medal.
3. On the stairs down between the mural and crystal rooms, jump to reach it.
4. In one of the dead ends of the maze of crystals, easy to snatch up.
5. Behind the pedestal where something once stood, in the room where the Goal Ring is.

The stage begins with a large room full of symbols on the floor, and a large wall with four symbols on it. Of course, we have to find the ones on the ground that match the wall ones. Touching the wrong ones will either activate spikes, fire or badniks, though one may be special… In any case, figure out the four to jump on to raise the wall and open the way forward down a sand slide to the next area.

Following is a long hallway filled with swinging axes, flamethrowers, and falling stalagmites, and it’s clear that those weapon traps were installed by Eggman to stop any intruding hedgehogs. They require good timing to dodge, but they aren’t anything difficult. No, the main attraction of the room is the large mural on the left wall going down the whole hall. It depicts the Fire God Iblis being awakened by the 7 Chaos Emeralds, then sending out waves of lava to level the earth flat for recolonization by those chosen to survive, which, most likely Eggman took to mean HE can do to his advantage and his image.

Omega: “So Iblis is designed to bathe the earth in fire to be reborn clean and anew.”

Shadow: “The doctor’s dream, no doubt. Let’s keep going.”

Deeper into the caverns, we find an area full of crystals growing from the ground and walls, and most likely, Rouge being quite excited now.

Rouge: “Oh, if only I could have some time to enjoy these beautiful jewels… *Sigh.* But duty calls.”

Shadow: “Nice restraint, Rouge.”

Their trick, besides some mimicking badniks among them, is to disguise the true path forward through their maze and reflect the badniks in them multiple times over. Thankfully, a careful eye and noticing which image of the badnik isn’t larger than the others will guide our way forward to the other end to the deepest reaches.

The final area has some surprise lava falls and rivers mixed with sand falls and rivers running over the path ahead, requiring some flight over the lava and simply just running and jumping through the sand. Beyond that is the Goal Ring, floating and waiting for us at an empty pedestal.

Results :

• Stage Completed in less than 4:00.00. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• 75% of the enemies destroyed. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• 125 rings collected. = 1 Soleanna Medal.

-----

Conclusion :

*The area with the pedestal has dark purple crystals growing out from the walls, ground and around the thing, suggesting whatever was here belonged to Mephiles but is now gone.*

Rouge: “I wonder… could they have split the Scepter apart to make sure calling Mephiles was difficult?”

Shadow: “It’s possible. Also means the doctor had known about this before.”

Rouge: “Still… no explanations on how to get rid of them.”

Omega: “Possible solution. Just reverse the Iblis process we saw on the mural and break the Scepter of Darkness.”

Rouge: “Would it be that simple though?”

Shadow: “At this point, we have to try. We haven’t found any clues otherwise.”

*All of a sudden, the cavern shakes and low booming is heard from outside.* 

Shadow: “What was that?”

Omega: “It came from outside, possibly from Soleanna Castle Town.”

Rouge: “Could Eggman be enacting his final plan?”

Shadow: “Let’s go.”

-----

Shadow’s Story, Intermission - Soleanna Castle Town

Shadow: “It’s like a warzone here!”

Rouge: “Didn’t Princess Elise tell us way before that she had the Festival starting here?”

Omega: “We must locate the Princess and see if she is safe.”

As we arrived back into town in the evening, it had already been ravaged by Eggman’s forces. However, we can notice that Sonic’s team has put a stop to any further damage. We can find them towards the northeast near the beach.

Shadow: “Ah, phew, I see you guys saved the princess.”

Sonic: “Huh? Well, yeah. Where were you guys?”

Shadow: “Dusty Desert. We think we might know a way to stop Iblis and Mephiles, but then we saw the trouble here. Did you see where it could have come from?”

Knuckles: “Yeah, I think I saw some strange movement over in Wave Ocean.”

Omega: “Let’s go! Trouble could be brewing there.”

Head on off to Wave Ocean’s mirror on the boardwalk to deal with the final stage.

Chapter Text

Introduction :

*Rouge carries Shadow as Omega uses his jets to float and land on the first of Eggman’s ships that have landed in the ocean to prepare for an assault on Soleanna after his plan is finished. It’s oddly quiet out on the moonlit ship, Soleanna slightly burning in the distance.*

Shadow: “Strange… where’s the welcoming party?”

Rouge: “Agreed. We didn’t even have any resistance getting to the ship… could it be a trap?”

Omega: “Alert! Something surfacing dead ahead!”

*A huge machine surfaces from the water, flying into the air and stopping at the port end of the ship. It’s blue in color, has two legs and two powerful wings it’s flapping to fly with, creating such heavy gusts that it is making waves in the water, rocking the ship some. In the cockpit that is a dragon head, between the horns, is Metal Sonic, silently eyeing his prey, ready to attack.*

Shadow: “It’s Metal Sonic!”

Rouge: “And that mech looks tough.”

Omega: “We WILL destroy you, Metal! You’re inferior!”

*The only response of Metal is to fly back and begin his attack.*

-----

Wave Ocean

Badniks :

• Chrome Egg Pawns: Chrome metal Egg Pawns wearing sailor outfits, looking beefier than their regular cousins. They seem unbreakable… but are easily launched like a rocket with any attack, useful to hit something off in the distance with. +300 points.
• Chrome Egg Flappers: Green Egg Flappers encased in chrome metal, making them unbreakable to attacks… but accidentally making them easy to send flying with a single hit like a cannonball. Might be useful to hit something with them. +250 points.
• Egg Cannons: +200 points.
• Egg Sentries: +300 points.
• Egg Rocketeers: +400 points.
• Egg Grenadiers: +500 points.
• Egg Hovers: +500 points
• Egg Gunships: +600 points.
• Egg Wyvern: A badass looking two-legged, two winged dragon mech painted blue to fit with its pilot, Metal Sonic. He makes sure to keep it flying out of reach from Team Dark, but there might be some other way to hit him. +20,000 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. On the upper deck of the first Egg Fleet ship.
2. Take a detour with the Chrome Egg Flappers on Shadow’s route to get the Soleanna Medal floating above it.
3. Behind us on a floating piece of wreckage on Rouge’s route.
4. Beat up all the mechs guarding the cage the Soleanna Medal is in during Omega’s route.
5. Awarded for defeating the Egg Wyvern.

Metal Sonic wastes no time beginning the stage with a charge with the machine, trying to hit us with the large legs and tail hanging down. Rush to the sides to avoid it, but be ready to move around as he flies above and drops bombs and Chrome Egg Pawns and Egg Flappers onto us. It must be quite a surprise to finally run into our first enemies that can’t be destroyed naturally, but it’s for good reason. Resist the urge to beat the badniks until Metal Sonic returns to the port side of the ship again, out of reach of homing attacks. However, he is not out of reach of the Pawns and Flappers we have at our disposal to hit, who get flung like cannonballs straight back at the Egg Wyvern with force, damaging the mech slowly. Once enough hits are racked up, Metal Sonic makes his mech release missiles from the tail and blow up the ship we’re on, and tosses the trio apart to different ships.

Rouge and Omega: “Oh no!”

Shadow: “Everyone regroup when we can!”

Still in control of Shadow, we land on the deck of another Egg Fleet ship, and Metal Sonic wastes no time attacking us again. It’s not much different than the first round, but it will require the use of Chaos Control since Metal releases the Egg Pawns and Flappers while making the wings blow gusts of wind, slowly pulling us back and leaving the badniks blown in the wind. Stop them with Chaos Control and return them back to sender until Metal Sonic breaks things off with more rockets that destroy the ship again. We’ll have to navigate this wreckage with jumps and homing attacks off more Egg Flappers and Egg Hovers till we reach the final ship, with our perspective changing to Rouge.

Metal Sonic keeps his Egg Wyvern up in the air for the most part, dropping lots more bombs and badniks to clutter up the deck, plus with no extra help from the Cannons firing at us. Thankfully, kicks and Chaos bombs from the bat will take them down and her agility will keep us safe until the evil robot returns to sea level. Kick the metal badniks back at their master till he gives in and fires his tail missiles again, then it’s just a matter of flying across the wreckage with nary a problem to the final ship.

Omega’s fight against the Egg Wyvern is a bit more difficult since Eggman’s regular mechs are also cluttering up the deck while Metal Sonic dropping his payloads, requiring some pinpoint fighting to not fire off the chrome ones too soon. But we’ll prevail, and give Metal what for, and make him angrily destroy the ship. We’ll have to make use of Omega’s jet glide to make it across the wrecked pieces and to the trio, safe and sound.

Shadow: “Now, let’s give this impostor what for!”

The robot is now done playing around, foregoing distance to attack right up to the port side of the ship, breathing fire that follows us around. It will eventually stop, and leave Metal vulnerable as we can home attack up the mech’s body and hit the cockpit. Next, he’ll release bombs and more flamethrowers to try and trip us up, but he’ll still be vulnerable after dodging it for 10 seconds. Strike him, and he’ll finish with releasing tail rockets at us, that will follow us around endlessly. A Chaos Control ring appears, so use that to make sure we’re guiding the rockets straight back to the Egg Wyvern. It will finally explode, offering us a Soleanna Medal and the Goal Ring, finishing the stage.

Results :

• Stage Completed in less than 6:00.00. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• 75% of the enemies destroyed. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• 150 rings collected. = 1 Soleanna Medal.

-----

Shadow: “Hmph, that’ll teach that machine who’s boss.”

Rouge: “Right. Now, we better do something about this ship, just in case.”

Omega: “I will blow it to bits.”

Mephiles, from somewhere: “Oh, will you now? Too bad my master has asked me to stop you.”

*The dark creature appears from a simple puddle on the deck, looking like Shadow again.*

Omega: New target, Mephiles. Your destruction is guaranteed too.”

Mephiles, crossing his arms like Shadow: “Hmph, is that so? Have you beaten Shadow before?”

Omega: “We have only fought once, but Rouge stopped the fight.”

Mephiles: “Pathetic robot. I don’t care. Shadow’s form will be perfect to kill all of you anyways.”

Shadow: “Like how Sonic defeated you twice?”

Mephiles: “I will be using ALL of my power this time. Observe.”

*The dark creature floats into the air and releases an extreme version of Chaos Blast that tears apart the ship to pieces and throws the trio onto past wreckage. They are okay, save for some light scorch marks. Even from afar, Mephiles now glows like an inverse star, darkness emanating from him like he was Super Shadow.*

Omega: “His power has increased dramatically! It’s almost like a super form!”

Rouge: “And us without Chaos Emeralds.”

Shadow: “I’ll deal with him… but you both will have to stay behind.”

Rouge: “Huh? Why?”

Shadow shows his inhibitor rings: “I’m going to release the Chaos within me all at once to protect me and deal with him.”

Rouge: “I’ve never seen you take them off before. I think I remember reading in your report that you have a lot of Chaos Energy stored within you.”

Shadow: “Yes. But if I take these off, I can release the built up power to act like a super form for a while… till I’m drained.”

Omega: “Danger of unawakening if drained to empty.”

Shadow: “There is no other way… but I trust you two to catch me should that happen.”

Rouge: “... Alright. Go save the day, Shadow.”

*Shadow releases the inhibitor rings with a click and gives them to Rouge. He then closes his eyes before opening them again, and his body is glowing in inverse colors with the yellow aura around him. He then blasts off towards Mephiles, who stares at him.*

Mephiles: “You still wish to challenge me? You are a fool, and you will perish!”

*Mephiles’ dark energy swirls around him fast, enough that it pulls the water up and makes a sort of hurricane made of water and his energy, and pieces of the shipwrecks are dragged into the stream too. He releases another blast of energy and tosses Shadow up high near the top of the eye.*

Boss: Mephiles, Phase 3

Mephiles certainly isn’t playing around with how he wants to harm us, as he tosses the wreck pieces at us through the hurricane and towards us. We should keep in mind that this form isn’t invulnerable, so getting hit by it will make us lose our rings/lose a life. So, use Chaos Control to stop time and home attack the wreck piece, which will send it back to Mephiles in normal time, stunning him and a bit of damage done. The hurricane disappears and we land on the water and we need to jump across the ship pieces and give a good Chaos Blast to the dark monster, damaging him and angering him again, making another cyclone into the sky and tossing Shadow into it. The second run is the same, though requiring 2 pieces of wreck to stun Mephiles and then giving him another Chaos Blast, when he changes things up.

Mephiles: “The sea shall be your grave!”

The dark monster blasts his energy into the water and makes the ocean get choppy, as though it were in a heavy storm occurring despite the clear skies above. We have to time our jumps to avoid drowning and land on the next ship piece and make our way to Mephiles at the end of them all. This time, we’ll have to use some Chaos Lances to stun Mephiles from the shield of energy around him before delivering another Chaos Blast.

Mephiles: “That’s it! DIE!!!”

After another blast, he swirls the energy in the ocean to make a massive whirlpool, dragging the shipwreck pieces down to the sea floor as they spin around. He is floating too high to fire lances at him from there, but some leftover Chrome Egg Flappers fly by, perhaps so Eggman can watch Shadow’s demise, but instead, Shadow can home attack them to cannonball at Mephiles till he finally floats down in pain, and we can deliver one last Chaos Blast to the dark creature, finishing him off.

Ranks :

• S-Rank: <3:00.00 (+3 Soleanna Medals/1-2 that wasn’t earned with an A- or B-Rank) (+3000 Rings)
• A-Rank: 3:00.01 - 3:30.00 (+2 Soleanna Medals/ 1 that wasn’t earned with a B-Rank) (+2000 Rings)
• B-Rank: 3:30.01 - 4:00.00 (+1 Soleanna Medal) (+1000 Rings)
• C-Rank: 4:00.01 - 5:00.00 (+500 Rings)
• D-Rank: >5:00.00 (+100 Rings)

-----

Conclusion :

*Mephiles screams as his body explodes like a supernova and throws Shadow far away, in an attempt to throw him into the sea.*

Rouge: “Now, Omega!”

*Omega launches Rouge like a speeding bullet through the air on a rocket he fires, going towards Shadow and catching him before he lands in the water, and she carries him back to Omega, on a piece of ship. Shadow looks utterly tired as she lands, putting the inhibitor rings back on.*

Omega: “Shadow successfully caught, and Mephiles eliminated.”

Rouge: “Yes, let's get him back to shore.”

Omega: “Yes.”

*The E-Series robot uses his jets to propel the wreck back to shore.*

Chapter Text

Introduction :

*In the devastated lands of the 200 year reign of Eggman, the future looks utterly bleak and choking to death. But in the mountainous range of Flame Core, a cyan-lined, grey portal appears, and from it comes a silver-colored hedgehog, wearing some strange getup of black gloves and shoes that have cyan-lines running along them in various shapes, and gold bracelets and anklets completing the look. It is Silver the Hedgehog, the creature we’ve seen pop up in both stories thus far. The portal disappears, but he seems to be talking to an unknown entity from wherever he came from, through one of his bracelets.*

Silver: “I’ve successfully landed in the Chaos Dimension, but, uh… I thought you said this place was going to be greener than this?”

*Looking around with Silver, we appear to be near Eggman’s volcano after it’s already erupted, spewing lava everywhere.*

The creature from the other side: “Huh? How odd. The timeline here must not be stable and it dropped you elsewhere, but it is still Soleanna and the targets are still in play here… multiple targets. I think we need to fix this thing. You go investigate.”

Silver: “Understood, sir. Silver, out.”

*He stops the call on his bracelet and looks around again.*

Silver, looking quite excited: “Oh boy, my first mission!” *He takes a moment to breathe and compose himself.* “Okay, be cool. I got this.” *He psyches himself up literally with a glow around him and floats on to Flame Core.*

-----

Flame Core

Badniks :

• Mountaineer Egg Pawn: +250 points.
• Yellow Egg Flapper: +200 points.
• Zappers: +300 points.
• Bat Brain: +250 points.
• Egg Sentries +300 points.
• Egg Rocketeers: +500 points.
• Egg Hovers: +400 points.
• Egg Gunships: +600 points.
• Rocky Orbinaut/Sol: +250 points.

Iblis Monsters :

• Phoenix: +300 points.
• Lizard: +200 points.
• Golem: +500 points.

Mephiles Monsters :

• Imps: Small (Half Silver’s size), black and purple cat minions conjured by Mephiles, possibly maybe pieces of him. They wield small pitchforks and dash around, swinging it as they do. Easily plucked away with a psychic toss and poofing into a black cloud. +250 points.
• Boarbarians: Medium (A bit taller than Silver), black and purple boars made by Mephiles as the Imps’ leaders. Bigger and stronger looking, they wield battle axes and charge if provoked. They’re heavier to lift, but with the lava shooting around, that can be a worthy substitute to kill them. +500 points.
• Goatzerkers: Large (Eggman sized), black goat monsters that don’t look to be of Sonic’s world with their buff stature. It’s only the elite few that guard Mephiles’ inner sanctum and control the boarbarians. They wield hefty broadswords and constantly attack like they’ve been berserked. The only weak spot they have is their skull heads, so toss boulders, lava or anything heavy onto there to make them poof away in black smoke. +1000 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. Toss aside a bunch of scrap metal in a pile to reveal the Soleanna medal within.
2. On a little outcropping off the second rock formation. Easily jumpable and back again.
3. Floating above the entrance to the cave, catch it while gliding down.
4. Behind a pile of rocks in the first large area of the cave near the fortress.
5. Defeat both of the Goatzerkers in the last room to open the cage with the Soleanna Medal.

It’s high time we finally take control of Silver, and before the collective fanbase once again walks off having to control the sloggy hedgehog, there is a promise that this time he doesn’t feel as stiff as he did before. He isn’t going to be breaking any speed records like Shadow and Sonic do, but he can still jog at a brisk pace and his momentum isn’t lost when he jumps, and when he psychically glides forward, he slowly loses momentum and height so we can land safely from his jumps, which will be quite useful over the grand divides caused by the lava flowing below our feet of the destroyed generator stations behind the volcano.

Silver, approaching the first large gap between broken pieces of walkway: “I’m going to have to jump with the X button, then hold X again to carry myself in a psychic lock that will hold off my descent for as long as I can over this. No sweat with my training.”

As one notices, Silver can’t go into a ball to hit enemies with, but don’t fret, as Silver has his mind as his weapon instead.

Silver, from another hint sphere:  “Hmm, these robots rely on dangerous close attacks. Good thing I can just psychically grab them with the O button when they glow and I can hold them, and then toss them again whenever I want with the O button again.”

And with just a simple toss, Eggman’s machines are flung off like projectiles and junked into the nearest object, lava, or foe. As we make our way to the northern generator, Iblis monsters appear from the lava, mad as well.

Silver: “Weird that their fire prevents me from holding them, must be a barrier, which I can’t grab.  I should wait to grab them when they aren’t on fire or toss other things at them.”

At the northern generator, there seems to be something odd happening towards the sea, but to get there, there is a long, upended piece of steel walkway that is just too far away to grab, but…

Silver: “I think I can knock it over with the enemies and stuff around me. I grab them like before, but then wait till I’m locked onto the target with a cyan cursor, then toss it at the target. Though, this could take a few shots.”

After three badniks/Iblis creatures/boxes/etc are thrown at it, it falls over finally with a splash and allows for a path ahead to the disturbance over a few rocky formations above the lava. Once we finally reach the sea, there appears to be a cave entrance caused by an earthquake opened below, with seawater and lava waterfalling into the dark depths. Jump down with Silver’s glide to land safely in the dark cave and move on to the dark caverns within.

For the most part, the caves are nothing noticeable, looking like lava tubes with magma slightly glowing in the walls. But as soon as we enter the first open cavern, it’s a wide expanse of rock with some piles on one side of a lava river, and on the other side is a fortress of green stone, and there are purple/black monsters guarding over it.

Silver: “Oh my, an enemy encampment. I better be careful.”

Spotlights are lazily swirling around the fortress, and stepping in them will alert the foes inside to release some Imps to attack Silver, but they aren’t much more than an annoying slowdown than anything else. Though it does reveal Silver can hold multiple small things at once. Use them or the rocks around to break open the wood door and turn on the switch inside to open the gate ahead to the deeper caves, which get darker and more purple with dark influence.

Silver’s bracelet turns on and the other man speaks: “It seems a time anomaly messed up your entry, but don’t worry, Mephiles and Eggman are still here, and so are Shadow and Sonic. Sonic, Shadow and Mephiles are further ahead, though proceed with caution.”

Silver: “Yeah, I’ve met a few of his lackey’s already.”

Silver’s Superior: “The ones ahead are bigger, so watch out.” *The watch turns off again.*

In the area ahead, there are large gates preventing further entry. The doors are marked with Mephiles face, looking devilish with horns and a triangular head. The ground glows with the dark crystals, and there are more of Mephiles’s minions around, especially the bigger Boarbarians.

Silver: “The bigger the thing I try to psychically hold, the harder it is to hold up and toss, and those boars are near the limit. Though, there are lava balls bouncing across the holes in the ground. I can grab a glob and toss them at them to defeat them.”

As we deal with the foes, perhaps we also break a crystal with a thrown rock, enemy or lava. The gate will glow and seem to shimmer like it got broken to a degree.

Silver: “Oh? Those dark crystals must control the gate. But I can’t grab them directly. I’m going to have to toss things at them to break it.”

Thankfully there is no shortage of badniks and rocks alike to break them all and open the gate. Ahead is more of the same, with more boarbarians on guard. With skill, we can get through it all and reach the final gate blocking the cave… and meet two massive warriors on guard.

Silver: “They’re too heavy for my still-novice skills, but maybe those rocks can help. Those heads are the only thing not covered with dark energy. I should target them with the rocks.”

As the saying goes, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Throwing the boulders at their skulls make them shatter and the entire foe dissipates in black fog, and with both gone, the gate opens and reveals the Goal Ring inside, finishing the stage.

Time Bonus :

• <4:00.00 = 50,000 pts
• 4:00.01 - 5:00.00 = 40,000 pts
• 5:00.01 - 6:00.00 = 30,000 pts
• 6:00.01 - 7:00.00 = 20,000 pts
• 7:00.01 - 8:00.00 = 10,000 pts
• (Any second over from here is -100pts)

Mission Performance :

• Defeat 50 enemies = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• Score 50,000 points. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• Collect and hold onto 75 Rings = 1 Soleanna Medal.

-----

*Silver walks through the darkened lava tubes as he gets another call from his bracelet.*

Silver’s Superior: “We’ve figured out the multiple target problem… and it isn’t good.”

Silver: “What’s wrong?”

Silver’s Superior: “The time anomaly was caused by some time user, and sent two groups 200 years into the future, including Shadow and Sonic.”

Silver: “Okay.”

Silver’s Superior: “But there is also the second Shadow and Sonic that went through time naturally, probably defeated and captured by Eggman and made to suffer.”

Silver: “Oh my!”

Silver’s Superior: “Mephiles is ahead, fighting the younger Team Sonic. Make sure the trio get sent back to their original time. Here are their coordinates to send them to.”

*His bracelet flashes a holographic screen showing the date and time to send them to*

Silver: “Understood. Silver, out.”

*With the bracelet off, Silver heads into Mephiles’ base room, and he sees the captured Sonic and Shadow, and Team Sonic finishing off Mephiles before he gets angry and fires energy arrows at them, slamming them into the walls of the dark cavern.*

Mephiles: “Enough games! I’ll end you now!”

*Silver pulls out some lava from one of the geysers in the wall nearby and tosses it at Mephiles. Although it will take more than that to poof him away, the devilish looking hedgehog stops charging the laser and is stunned.*

Mephiles screams in pain as he looks behind him: “Who did that?!”

Silver stands in the darkened entrance so the trio can’t see him well, saying: “Leave them alone!”

*Silver then opens a cyan/grey portal below Team Sonic and whisks them away to their proper time period.*

Mephiles: “GAH!!! You will pay for this, intruder!”

Mephiles, Phase 2.5

It’s the continuation of the fight against Mephiles back in Sonic’s story in Flame Core, and for some reason, Mephiles cannot change his strategy to fit this new foe.

Mephiles growls: “Grrrr… why can’t I take your form?! No matter, what I have is enough.”

He stays in his ‘Super Shadow’ form, but fights more dirty by keeping around Silver, who is slower, and blasting off his ‘Chaos Control’ every so often with a wind up. With how much energy he uses, it leaves him open to attack by either psychically grabbing him and tossing him into a geyser of lava that erupts in the room, or grabbing a ball from the geysers and tossing it at Mephiles. Each time Mephiles will scream and come at Silver harder with more energy blasts and take some time to actually tire out again. But, after six hits, Mephiles finally succumbs to the pain he’s feeling.

Ranks :

• S-Rank: <3:00.00 (+3 Soleanna Medals/1-2 that wasn’t earned with an A- or B-Rank) (+3000 Rings)
• A-Rank: 3:00.01 - 3:30.00 (+2 Soleanna Medals/ 1 that wasn’t earned with a B-Rank) (+2000 Rings)
• B-Rank: 3:30.01 - 4:00.00 (+1 Soleanna Medal) (+1000 Rings)
• C-Rank: 4:00.01 - 4:30.00 (+500 Rings)
• D-Rank: >4:30.00 (+100 Rings)

-----

Conclusion :

Mephiles: “NO!!!!!!!!”

*His body explodes in a black haze, and all surrounding darkness is sucked into the ‘black hole’ caused by his body before disappearing entirely. And seemingly connected to it, Future Sonic and Shadow come out from their prisons, and of course, Sonic faceplants the cavern floor as Shadow lands on his feet.*

Future Sonic: “Ow… that hurt.”

Future Shadow: “200 years, and still can’t land a jump.”

Future Sonic: “I can! Just get too excited is all.”

Silver: “Um… hello.”

Future Shadow: “From what we saw, you are our rescuer?”

Silver: “Seems so. I think Mephiles is gone.”

Future Sonic: “Good. I was tired of seeing his dark, ugly mug.”

Silver: “We better get out of here. I don’t trust this volcano to stay stable much longer.”

Future Shadow: “Lead the way.”

*The trio leave the caverns back the way Silver came.*

Chapter Text

Introduction :

*We catch up to the trio sometime later, having left Flame Core and are around the southern coast of Soleanna, away from the people to the west. Future Sonic and Shadow seem to have lost their speed since they are on par with Silver’s pace. Silver’s bracelet goes off again.*

Silver’s Superior: “Oh, I see you rescued the prisoners, though, I wonder how helpful they’d be to you like this.”

Future Sonic: “Hey! I’m still a fully capable hedgehog!”

Future Shadow: “You realize we’ve been walking slower, right?”

Future Sonic: “Really? I thought the country just got larger.”

Silver: “I think they are capable, sir. At least they know this world better than I do. I won’t tell them too much, alright?”

Silver’s Superior: “Alright. We will trust you.” *Silver’s bracelet turns off again.*

Future Sonic: “You’re not from around here, are you?”

Silver rubs their head: “Yeah, I’m not. But I can’t say that much, and this is my first mission.”

Future Shadow: “Understood. Hmm, I assume though you are also here for the Doctor?”

Silver: “Yes. Any idea where he is?”

Future Sonic: “You really haven’t met Eggman, have you? Turn around.”

*Silver turns around and sees the massive factory plastered with Eggman’s statues all over it, looming over the leftover remains of Soleanna New City, where the water has been replaced with lava.*

Silver: “Oh.”

*Suddenly, the factory walls shatter apart as the Great Eggman Robo that Team Dark dealt with in their story grows to its gargantuan size.*

Silver: “W-whoa! He’s huge!”

Future Sonic: “Still not as big as his ego.”

Future Shadow: “Wait, that means our team is there right now, back when we were first sent here.”

Future Sonic rubs their head, clueless: “Oh Chaos, not again.”

Silver, seeming to understand perfectly: “Right. Let’s go then.”

-----

Eggman’s Foundry

Badniks :

• Pieces of Egg Pawns: +100 points.
• Mechanic Egg Pawns: +200 points.
• Cyan Egg Flapper: +250 points.
• Machinery: +300 points.
• Egg Sentries: +300 points.
• Egg Rocketeers: +500 points.
• Egg Hovers: +400 points.
• Egg Semis: +1000 points.

Iblis Monsters :

• Phoenix: +300 points.
• Lizard: +200 points.
• Golem: +500 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. In one of the ‘alleys’ of the ruined buildings, before the first crack.
2. Toss one of the badniks at the basketball hoop in the park to make a Soleanna Medal appear.
3. Destroy all badniks in the square area to open the cage with the Soleanna Medal.
4. Protected by some of Eggman’s mechs under one of the leftover stalls still standing in the marketplace.
5. Rewind/Fast forward the clock in the lobby of the hotel to read midnight and reveal a Soleanna Medal from a door that opens.

For this stage, we got some new companions in Future Sonic and Future Shadow. Although, it seems 200 years of captivity has waned their powers, Sonic is only able to do his usual homing attack and Shadow the same, and weakened forms of his Chaos Lances. Thankfully, it should be enough since Silver’s psychokinesis can handle grabbing the rest, since he can hold 5 small enemies with ease. As for the stage around us, we’re outside Eggman’s foundry, the walls having crumbled and destroyed most of the leftover buildings that were once Soleanna New City. Lava churns from the factory’s tubes and spills into the channels of the town, replacing the water that once ran through it.

Walking through the once familiar streets proves to be quite difficult as the factory’s meltdown along with the backed up volcano causes the earth to rip apart in such wide cracks that the other two won’t be able to follow after Silver.

Future Sonic: “Aw, shoot. We’re stuck here.”

Silver: “Hang on, I’ll undo the damage. I can do general Time Manipulation by bringing up the menu with the Square button , then choose with the D-Pad how I want to change things. In this case, I’ll hold Left to rewind time back to before the crack formed and then Down to hold the fix for a couple seconds. But it will only last for so long, usually a couple seconds before it catches up to the present.”

As everything but the heroes and the timer reverses for a couple seconds, the crack seals before our eyes and we have to cross it quickly as it still quakes while under the stop function. Eventually, it opens like before, but now with us on the other side.

Future Sonic: “Whoa. Cool.”

Future Shadow: “No time to admire this. Let’s go.”

Most of what was the original buildings here have crumbled, and the park as well is now burnt grass, melted metal and now with the factory gone, cracked apart. Some can be traversed by moving metal see-saws over the gaps with Silver’s psychokinesis, but the bigger ones will need Silver’s rewinding to cross. For the most part, it’s smooth sailing until the center of town, where we find the bridges are out with the lava bubbling below in a wide river. The broken skyscraper pieces would be useful, but…

Future Sonic: “Look out! There’s a lot of Eggman’s badniks coming this way!”

*Many Egg Hovers and Cyan Egg Flappers make a wall of machines as Egg Semis fly by fast.*

Silver: “I have an idea. I’ll stop time and toss the Egg Semis with my mind at the badniks.”

Stopping time proves useful to catch a few trucks in place in front of the wall. Target and push them with Silver’s psychokinesis that will launch them in regular time and destroy most of, or maybe all of the foes, making the next part easier to lift the heavy skyscrapers into the lava as makeshift bridges to cross.

Future Sonic: “Oh? They have a lot of Chaos. I’m feeling faster already.”

Future Shadow: “Yes. I feel my power returning too. We should smash all we can find.”

Beyond that is what’s left of the marketplace, which the badniks here have commandeered into makeshift ‘pillboxes’ to hide in. Too bad Silver’s psychokinesis can still catch them off guard and toss them aside like the junk that they are. There are quite a few encampments to get through. There is another lava street afterwards, but this one has bridges that can be repaired with rewinding and stopping time, and crossing to the other side.

Nearing the end, closer to the battle occurring in the factory, we’re in the leftovers of the hotel district, one still standing that the badniks are holed up in, firing upon us. Rush in and clear them out as we can to reach the roof and find a wobbly piece of the factory wall that lays across the roofs all the way to where the Goal Ring is.

Future Sonic: “If we were faster, we could just run across. But we can’t, I know it, and hate to admit it.”

Silver: “I can use my stop time manipulation to hold it off for as long as we can. If we refresh my power where it lays over a building, we should be able to cross without it crumbling under our feet.”

With liberal use of his Stop time manipulation, we’ll cross over the long transverse through the end of the town, pausing only over other hotels, and finally reach the Goal Ring glowing at the end.

Time Bonus :

• <5:00.00 = 50,000 pts
• 5:00.01 - 6:00.00 = 40,000 pts
• 6:00.01 - 7:00.00 = 30,000 pts
• 7:00.01 - 8:00.00 = 20,000 pts
• 8:00.01 - 9:00.00 = 10,000 pts
• (Any second over from here is -100pts)

Mission Performance :

• Defeat 55 enemies = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• Score 55,000 points. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• Collect and hold onto 80 Rings = 1 Soleanna Medal.

-----

*Silver and the two future hedgehogs arrive on the battlefield as soon as Team Dark originally pushed away Dr. Eggman and Metal Sonic.*

Future Sonic: “Hey! Get back here, Eggman!”

Future Shadow muffles Sonic with his hand: “Wait, we’ll deal with him, But Silver has to do something first.”

Silver: “Oh yeah, I’ll do that now.”

*Silver sneaks through the rubble to get close enough to hear the original Team Dark in Shadow’s story talking.*

Omega: “Mission not completed, Metal Sonic and Eggman got away.”

Shadow, looking a bit tired: “Ah, leave them. They’ll be gone for a while with how we left everything.”

Rouge also looks tired: “That fight felt harder than usual, phew.”

Shadow: “We should get out of here, check to see if Sonic and the others are alright as well.”

Silver, keeping his hiding place. speaks to the trio: “They’re fine and back home. I will send you back too.”

*Before Shadow and the others can react, Silver opens a cyan/grey portal beneath them and returns them back to Soleanna’s present day.*

Silver comes back to the others: “Okay. That’s done.”

Future Sonic moves Shadow’s hand away: “Can we deal with them now?”

Silver: “Yeah, it can’t hurt to do that. Let’s go.”

-----

*After following Eggman and Metal Sonic for a while, they stop at the volcano for Flame Core again. Seemingly knowing they were here, the mad doctor turns around in his Eggmobile.*

Dr. Eggman: “Mephiles did warn me that some grey hedgehog was causing trouble before he stopped communicating.”

Future Sonic: “He’s gone now! He got nixed!”

Dr. Eggman shrugs: “Good riddance. One less mouth to feed, though he didn’t actually have a mouth, did he? Heh he.”

*Metal Sonic thumbs up, a happy, murderous robot.*

Future Sonic, looking shocked: “H-he made a good joke?”

Future Shadow, unamused: “Enough games, Doctor! We’re here to stop you!”

Dr. Eggman: “With your pathetic weakness and whatever this wannabe hedgehog is? Too bad you didn’t get rid of the other god in my control. Iblis, arise!”

*The lava surrounding the volcano suddenly reverses direction back into the caldera with impossible speed, before the mountain reerups and a massive monster comes out from the volcano. It is Iblis, turning into a massive sized version of a Golem.*

Dr. Eggman: “Quivering in your shoes yet, pincushions?”

Future Shadow: “You only won last time because we were already tired.”

Dr. Eggman: “And you are weak now. I’ll wipe the floor with you.”

Silver: “Don’t count me out! I can do this!”

Dr. Eggman: “You must have rehearsed that a thousand times, haven’t you? No matter, Iblis! Kill the hedgehogs! Have fun!”

*Eggman and Metal Sonic rocket off into the sky as Iblis roars and sends his fists down to crush the trio, but they move out of the way in time.*

Future Shadow: “We’ll have to deal with Iblis first.”

Boss: The Fire God, Iblis

The massive lava monster doesn’t really do much for attacks other than letting fireballs rain down from him, but it’s not like he needs to do a lot since he can just stomp down on us and make walls of fire and lava behind him. Being covered in magma, touching him is ill-advised and he’s too large and covered in a fire barrier to be lifted by psychokinesis. For thirty seconds, the timer doesn’t count up as well.

Silver: “Oh dear. I didn’t expect to fight such a hard boss so soon.”

Future Sonic: “Hang on one second. I’ll be right back.”

*Sonic is seen running by fast, attempting to make a trench in the dirt.*

Future Shadow: “Oh! A water trench. That can help.”

*Shadow uses his Chaos powers to also drill out the trench and it soon fills with water from the ocean on both ends*

Silver, adapting just as quickly: “Oh! Use the water to our advantage. Got it.”

Similar to using the lava in chunks with psychokinesis, we can gather up a ball of water from the trench and toss it at Iblis, his legs most vulnerable. Getting them wet will take off the fire barrier around them, and another will cool the lava. With another psychokinetic push, although we won’t be moving the leg far, it will give enough to unbalance Iblis and make him fall over. While he’s stunned, send a water ball to his head to take off the flame around it, but it will soon get back up, using its hands to walk around instead and letting the other leg just walk around and kick whatever it may.

Focus of water balls should be on the torso and arms of Iblis, though the other leg can be cooled off and hardened to prevent further trouble. Losing its arms and torso will leave the cooled head susceptible to another water ball, hardening it some to be loosened from the body. Quickly use Silver’s Psychokinesis to punt the head into the trench and solidify the head for good.

Ranks :

• S-Rank: <3:00.00 (+3 Soleanna Medals/1-2 that wasn’t earned with an A- or B-Rank) (+3000 Rings)
• A-Rank: 3:00.01 - 3:30.00 (+2 Soleanna Medals/ 1 that wasn’t earned with a B-Rank) (+2000 Rings)
• B-Rank: 3:30.01 - 4:00.00 (+1 Soleanna Medal) (+1000 Rings)
• C-Rank: 4:00.01 - 4:30.00 (+500 Rings)
• D-Rank: >4:30.00 (+100 Rings)

-----

Conclusion :

*With the head cooled solid, the beast can’t reform and stops its rampage, and an angry Eggman comes back down.*

Dr. Eggman: “No! This wasn’t supposed to happen!”

*Future Sonic jumps and hits his Egg-mobile, causing it to malfunction.* “That’s for 200 years of captivity!”

Dr. Eggman: “U-uh-oh.”

*He flies off into the horizon, but doesn’t get far as it explodes and sends him flying into the sky, and Metal Sonic chases after his master.*

Future Sonic: “Don’t think you’ve escaped punishment!” *He rushes after the two.*

Silver shouts: “Thank you for your help!”

Future Shadow: “I suppose you have to return to the past now, since we saw you there too.”

Silver: “Really? I was there too? Alright then. Good luck with this Eggman.”

Future Shadow: “Yes. Hopefully, you can fix all this so it never happens. Good luck.” *He leaves, going after Sonic.*

*Silver sighs happily and opens up a time portal for himself, going back in time further to a more helpful spot.*

Chapter Text

Introduction :

*Silver appears from his portal not in the skies, but in underground caves, and he suddenly feels really cold, seeing his breath.*

Silver holds his arms close to himself, shivering slightly from the extreme change in temperature to what he left: “Brrr… did I go too far back?”

Silver’s Superior chimes in: “Weird. You used our coordinates, but you still ended up off by the whole day. It was supposed to place you in the morning, not at night.”

Silver: “I guess I’m under Soleanna then. I better find a way out of here.”

-----

White Acropolis

Badniks :

• Skier Egg Pawns: +300 points.
• Archaeologist Egg Pawns:  Archaeologist is a bad term to name them for, since they’re actually destroying anything they find rather than preserving it. They throw a bomb for a long range attack and thrust their chisel if someone gets close. +300 points.
• Cluckoids: +250 points.
• Snow-binauts: +250 points.
• Snow-Egg: They look like snowmen, but they’re made of metal and have Eggman’s face on them. They chuck snowballs at anyone who comes around their radius. Easily dealt with any hit to them. +300 points
• Velo: A velociraptor badnik, but only the skeleton made out of steel. Collapses if it hits something but the only way to destroy it is with a rock crush, explosion or tossed into water. +400 points.
• Egg Sentries: +200 points.
• Egg Rocketeers: +500 points.
• Egg Gunships: +600 points.

Mephiles Monsters:

• Imps: +250 points.
• Jacked Rabbits: Medium sized snow bunnies that are anything but cute. They have devil horns, purple tinted white fur, wear loincloths and a scarf, and look like they’ve been hitting the gym. They mostly charge around with their horns ahead of them. They’re heavy to toss around, but tossing them into the lava or water will deal with them. +500 points.
• Frost Hound: Medium sized, jet black furred dogs with an icy air around them. They breathe an icy wind at their foes to freeze them and let them either slide away or get hurt by traps or badniks. They can’t be lifted with their icy barriers, but they can be fought by throwing lava onto them to burn them away. +500 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. Either slide down a bit from a higher rock step or glide with psychokinesis to grab the Soleanna Medal on the sole ledge midway up.
2. Take the top path on the first jump and snag a Soleanna Medal for our troubles.
3. Floating on a lone rock formation in the middle of the second river. Psychic glide will be needed to grab it.
4. Grow the lone icicle in the last river to fall down and offer a platform right next to the shore to a Soleanna Medal.
5. Knock down some stalactites below the temple into the lava to get a Soleanna Medal.

From one extreme to another, it’s time to chill out in this ice cave. They might look somewhat familiar, being like Flame Core’s caves, but under ice since the volcano underground is dormant… somewhat. But that’s for later in the level. The beginning has us climbing up some slippery ice slopes with various sized rocks rolling down the slopes as we navigate rock steps up to the top. The smaller ones can be grabbed by psychokinesis, but the big ones will need to be hit or dodged to roll on by. There’s a few Cluckoids trying to blow us back down the ice, but they can be easily dealt with by those same rocks.

At the top of the cave is a long ice slide down, so give in to the fun and start sliding down to the bottom. Along the way, there will be rocks to dodge or push out of the way with Silver’s powers, which might help when the Skier Egg Pawns rush on by us as obstacles, though they can be easily pushed aside too. There are a few jumps along the way that can be utilized with a psychic glide as well to reach a higher, faster path down to the bottom, but the lower route isn’t much more difficult save for the Eggman snowmen badniks tossing some icy pitches.

After the ice slide are multiple underground rivers raging by, most likely from the ones in Sonic’s story that we saw there. There are ice sheets floating by to get across, but touching one makes them immediately crack and crumble underfoot.

Silver: “They’re moving fast and are much too weak to stand on right now, but stopping time should make traversing across much easier. Just got to be careful I don’t run out of energy while I’m on one”

The only way to keep the gauge running over the longer stretches is with collecting the rings floating over the water as well, so don’t miss them. Past the first three rivers, no more ice appears in the water, seemingly making any further progress past the last two impossible. But above, water is seen dripping from icicles at various stages of being built.

Silver: “Hmm, maybe I can knock an icicle down with a rock to use as a platform ahead. However, a few aren’t big enough to fall yet. I can target them with my power and fast-forward their accumulation till they are ready to fall then.”

Psychokinesis a rock or badnik or anything at hand to knock down the finished icicles, but for those that aren’t ready, we’ll have to use Square and the Right command to make them grow fast before our eyes and then knock them down into the water. Thankfully, they’ll stay where they are in the river, wedged in rocks underwater. Once we’re done with the last river, the cave ahead is simple, and the ice melts away and there starts to be a heat shimmer instead.

Silver: “Whoa, the volcano is active. And wait, Mephiles’ minions are here too. Could he be here?

We seem to have found ourselves in the main chamber of the volcano that made Soleanna that lies underground, and it doesn’t look too dissimilar to what we saw in Sonic’s Radical Train. Here there are natural rock walkways spiraling up the walls of the chamber, patrolled by badniks and Mephiles’ ugly creations. Send them into the lava and move onwards, passing through what looks to be old stone gates depicting Iblis and Solaris symbols once again. At the top is the temple, Goal Ring and Mephiles.

Time Bonus :

• <4:00.00 = 50,000 pts
• 4:00.01 - 5:00.00 = 40,000 pts
• 5:00.01 - 6:00.00 = 30,000 pts
• 6:30.01 - 7:00.00 = 20,000 pts
• 7:00.01 - 8:00.00 = 10,000 pts
• (Any second over from here is -100pts)

Mission Performance :

• Defeat 50 enemies = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• Score 50,000 points. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• Collect and hold onto 75 Rings = 1 Soleanna Medal.

-----

Conclusion :

*Surrounded by an open-air temple, an Iblis statue and an altar, Mephiles floats over to the center with the Cyan Chaos Emerald in hand and places it upon the pedestal. Silver watches from behind some cover, but the chamber soon shakes violently, the lava churning below for a while before stopping. It’s quite eerie to see the dark monster not be affected by the movement at all, since he’s floating.*

Mephiles: “6 down, one to go. And then, I’ll be back at full power with them.”

*The dark creature disappears in a dark blink of light similar to Chaos Control, leaving Silver alone.*

Silver: “Whoa. Is that how they awakened Iblis?”

Silver’s Superior, on his watch: “Yes. All 7 of those gems can awaken Iblis from his slumber here.”

Silver: “Should I take it then?”

Silver’s Superior: “No, not yet, since it can also seal him away for good as well rather than his slumber he’s in right now.”

Silver: “I feel I need to go back a bit farther. You think I can?”

Silver’s Superior: “Hmm, you should be able to, but it’s hard to say with the time anomaly.”

????: “Hah, is this the pathetic loser they sent to fix it? You aren’t even worth fighting.”

Silver: “What? Who’s there?”

*Silver attempts to turn around, but we get to see the mysterious figure from before is floating behind him and makes his own portal that Silver falls through.*

????: “Don’t need you ruining this plan yet.” *He vanishes as well through his own portal.*

Chapter Text

Silver's Story, Interlude - Soleanna New City

*Amy hums ‘Follow Me’ to herself as she’s picking out the best apples from a fruit stall in the middle of the market square when, from the sky, Silver comes falling down and crashes through the tent of another stall right nearby, surprising her.*

Amy: “Huh? Oh no! Someone’s hurt.”

*She springs into action and comes over to the aid of Silver, rubbing his head as he’s sitting on a crushed bench with more fruits around him.*

Silver: “Ow… that’s the first bad landing I’ve had.”

Amy: “Are you alright?” *She offers her hand to Silver.*

Silver: “Yeah, just a bit sore.” *He grabs it to pull himself up.*

*As she gets him up, his aura glows pink for a second before disappearing.*

Amy: “Better?”

Silver: “Actually… yeah. What did you do?”

Amy: “Oh, I just used my arcana skills to heal you.”

Silver: “Whoa, really? Cool.”

Amy smiles at that: “Thank you. Mmm, when I touched your hand, I felt that you’re on a journey. Am I right?”

Silver: “I mean, yeah.”

Amy: “Oooh, my tarot spread this morning said I’d meet someone on a mission to save the world. Could that be what you’re doing?”

Silver starts looking nervous: “U-uuuh, how do you know that?”

Amy: “I’m not an enemy, I promise. I’m Sonic’s friend.”

Silver’s ears perk up to that: “Sonic’s friend? Well… maybe I can tell you. But not here.”

Amy: “We can talk in my hotel room.”

-----

*In Amy’s hotel room now, Silver and Amy have been talking about Silver’s journey thus far, winding up here.*

Amy: “Wow, my cards were right on today. I’m surprised you’re taking on such a big job by yourself.”

Silver: “It’s tough, but I’ve been trained to handle it. I want to show them I have what it takes.”

Amy: “So what are you going to do now?”

Silver: “Hm. I’m not sure. I can’t exactly interfere with the day or what happens unless it was meant to happen.”

Amy: “In that case,” *She gets up from her chair.* “Let's just walk around Soleanna. Something is certainly going to meet up with us if it’s destined to happen.”

Silver: “I guess it’s better than sitting around.” *He gets up too.* “Alright. Let’s go.”

Our journey continues in the lobby of Soleanna’s hotel in New City, and as we know, there is plenty to do and see in the way of Soleanna Medals and rings and more. But when we’re ready, head on over to Soleanna Forest.

-----

Silver’s Story, Interlude - Soleanna Forest

*As the duo of hedgies walk through the forest, they get surprised to see a bunch of Eggman’s lumbering mechs terrorizing the place as they are chasing after Princess Elise, who is carrying something. She has a shield around her, and despite running, she doesn’t shy to blast fire from her hand back at the mechs to slow them down, but they stay out of her distance.*

Silver: “We should help her!”

Amy brings out her hammer: “Let’s smash Eggman’s creeps!”

Time for a short fight involving a few Egg Gunners and Egg Hovers, trying their best to take down Elise, but even failing this basic job. Put them out of their misery with a Psychic grab and toss, and Amy might even score a few hits with her hammer, smashing them apart with one strike. Once they’re all gone…

Princess Elise: “Oh, thank you very much, strangers. I think they were after this.”

*She reveals the Red Chaos Emerald in her grasp.*

Amy: “The red Chaos Emerald. How did you find it?”

Elise: “One clumsily fell and dropped it, and something just told me to grab it.”

Amy: “Good intuition. Eggman doesn’t deserve those gems at all. I wonder what he wants them for.”

Silver’s Superior mutters to Silver only: “Get that jewel to the temple under here. It’s where it belongs.”

Silver: “Hey, maybe we should get it to the temple underneath here? Remember I told you Amy that they seemed important?”

Amy: “Oh yeah. To seal Iblis, right?”

Elise: “Iblis? Our fire god? So that’s what these gems can do… Come with me. I know a secret way down there.”

With Princess Elise added to our team, it’s time to head on over to Radical Train’s side door, where we left from the mirror in Sonic and Shadow’s stories. And, btw, to get to Silver’s version of White Acropolis, if we remember the random rock blockade to the northeast, they can be levitated and placed on rocky pedestals to clear the rubble away to the secret cave entrance. Anywho, time to move on to the next stage.

-----

Silver’s Story, Fourth Stage - Radical Train

Introduction :

*Silver, Amy and Princess Elise make their way into a cavern just below the Radical Train station, traversing through a tunnel to somewhere deeper underground.*

Princess Elise: “There are lots of caves under Soleanna. Some have been excavated and altered by my past ancestors, under our castle. The rest are still untouched, like these, home to the old worshiping places for Iblis.”

Amy: “Woah. Amazing.”

Silver: “I’ve never seen places like this before in my world.”

Amy: “It’s common in our world, for sure.”

Princess Elise: “The temple is ahead.”

Silver: “Right, let’s go.”

-----

Radical Train

Badniks :

• Demolitionist Egg Pawns: +250 points.
• Magenta Egg Flappers: +250 points.
• Billy: +200 points.
• Fireworm: +300 points.
• Rexon: +350 points.
• Sol: +300 points.
• Egg Sentries: +300 points.
• Egg Rocketeers: +400 points.
• Egg Grenadiers: +500 points.
• Egg Gunships: +600 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. On a lone ledge on the steps down in the beginning area, blocked by some rock barriers that need to be smashed.
2. On a ledge next to the tunnel out of the bottom level of the first cavern. A stalactite will need to be knocked down with a rock or badnik nearby.
3. There is a cracked wall in the tunnel area. Use Amy’s hammers or throw bombs at it till it crumbles and reveals the Soleanna Medal inside.
4. The cages have numbers on them labeled one to five. Putting one closest to the beginning and up to five at the end will make the cavern shake and reveal a wall opening with a Soleanna Medal inside.
5. On top of one of the buildings near the top of the cavern.

The stage begins with a short walk through the old tunnels, flames flickering from torches along the walls. As Elise walks beside them, she seems to get a red aura around her with little flames dancing around her.

Amy: “I forgot to ask earlier. Are you a pyrokinetic user?”

Princess Elise: “I am one of many generational users passed down over the years. I can gather fire energy just from passing by them and can release it from my hands at anything I want with the Square button that I have highlighted with a red arrow over, though I can also release it without pointing at anyone either.”

Silver: “How cool!”

Amy, to herself: “Hmm, I wonder if she’s connected to Blaze…”

Ahead into a more open cavern, the path ahead is darker than usual as most of the torches have been snuffed out, and the only light is from below with the lava glow and Eggman’s flame related badniks. With Elise’s power, we light some torches and see the bridge ahead. Crossing over, there are a few large rocks blocking the way ahead.

Amy: “Leave this to me. I’ll smash them with my hammer! Just press Square and off I go!”

Those rocks won’t know what hit them, crumbling to pieces with just one hit. There’s a few more on the steps down to the mid level of this cavern, and more torches to light if we want to see the path easier. Besides some badniks here and there, the challenge comes from the tight walkways we have to walk on. After those, more stone steps lead down to the bottom level of this cavern with some badniks and crumbling rockways that are on the lava. It will require Silver’s Stop power to make it across before it drops underfoot to get to the next tunnel.

Thankfully, the next tunnel is lit with torches, so none have to be lit, but it isn’t hiding the fact that there are plenty of Eggman’s toys trying to blow the place up. Give them a taste of their own medicine to clear them out of the way for safe passage. There are a few spike and bottomless pits and stalagmites blocking the way that need to be dealt with, but it’s nothing too difficult.

Amy: “I can also swing my hammer in the air with the Square button and slam down on something, perfect to hit buttons or obstacles below or in front of me.”

At the end of the long tunnel, we enter into the bottom chamber of another cavern, one that looks the same as the one we walked through in Sonic’s story. From where we are, there doesn’t seem to be a way across to the stone walkways across the lava pond, but above, there are cages hanging from weakened ropes and dried vines.

Elise: “I can burn those weak binds with my fire once I have them targeted and then press Square to burn them away.

Once the five of them are down, the cages still aren’t useful enough to climb across. But there are some bubbling spots in the lava.

Silver: “I can move the cages with my psychokinesis, and I wonder what happens if I put them into the bubbling spots in the lava.”

Moving them into the holes makes them sink somewhat and seem to float like they were on water. With all five put in, we can cross over to the other side. We can then head up the stone walkways we went through before and find the crumbled wood walkways were actually wood landings for abandoned huts and buildings, perhaps for the old guardians of this place that are long gone. At the top is the familiar Iblis statue with no lava on it yet, and the Goal Ring and altar.

Time Bonus :

• <4:00.00 = 50,000 pts
• 4:00.01 - 5:00.00 = 40,000 pts
• 5:00.01 - 6:00.00 = 30,000 pts
• 6:30.01 - 7:00.00 = 20,000 pts
• 7:00.01 - 8:00.00 = 10,000 pts
• (Any second over from here is -100pts)

Mission Performance :

• Defeat 40 enemies = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• Score 55,000 points. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• Collect and hold onto 70 Rings = 1 Soleanna Medal.

-----

Conclusion :

Princess Elise: “Oh my. I never thought I’d see some of the statues of Iblis this close up. The ones in our castle don’t compare.”

Amy: “He looks big and scary, but I guess that’s to be expected for a being of pure magma.”

Silver: “And there’s the altar in the center. Place the Chaos Emerald there.”

Elise: “Got it.”

*She steps up to the altar and places the Red Chaos Emerald on it. The jewel floats and glows, and gets followed with a rumbling earthquake.*

Princess Elise: “I think we better leave! This way!”

Silver and Amy: “Alright!”

*As the trio leave through a bridge walkway, we look back to the temple and see the lava spill from the ceiling and drop onto the Iblis statue and run down the stone to the chamber below.*

-----

Silver’s Story, Interlude - Soleanna Forest

*The trio leave through the Radical Train mirror again, and return to the sanctuary of the forest.*

Silver: “Phew, that was close.”

Amy: “Very. I didn’t expect an earthquake.”

Princess Elise: “I suppose that is what they meant by Iblis’ awakenings.”

Silver and Amy: “Huh?”

Princess Elise: “Legends say that the beast roars seven times before it appears. Those roars must be the earthquakes of Iblis being unchained.”

Amy: “There always is a shred of truth in legends like that. But now what do we do?”

*Silver’s bracelet chimes and his supervisor speaks.*

Silver’s Supervisor: “I see that there are three temples awakened now.”

Amy: “Is that your boss?”

Silver’s Superior: “Huh? You’re not alone?”

Silver: “It’s fine, sir. They know this place better than I do and want to help.”

Silver’s Superior: “Alright, just be careful. Now, we found more of these Chaos Emeralds. Most are aboard that airship in Kingdom Valley.”

Amy: “That’s Eggman’s new flagships. Not that I doubt our skills, but I think the ship might be too hard to get to right now.”

Silver’s Superior: “The other is back in Radical Train, but I can see Shadow’s team is going for it.”

Amy: “Oh? Shadow’s here too? Must be G.U.N. related as well.”

Silver’s Superior: “The only odd thing standing out is the errant one you met in White Acropolis, Silver. He’s labeled as a time user, but his data’s encrypted.”

Silver: “Does that mean he’s one of ours?”

Silver’s Superior: “The ones above me don’t want to talk about it. Something is up here. If you want to try and figure him out, he’s in Wave Ocean right now.”

Amy: “Then that’s where we’re going.”

There are the usual scientist and archaeological missions for extra Soleanna Medals to do if we want, but as for the story, it shall take us to Soleanna Castle Town.

-----

Silver’s Story, Intermission - Soleanna Castle Town

Once more, there is G.U.N. soldiers and random townsfolk asking for help for Soleanna Medals. Once we’re ready, it’s off to Wave Ocean.

Chapter Text

Introduction :

*Silver, Elise and Amy arrive on a big island on Wave Ocean by a motorboat owned by Princess Elise and her guards. The island they dock at is covered in trees and ancient ruins lost to time.*

Amy: “It sure was nice your guards drove us to this island.”

Princess Elise: “It is. There’s no faster way to travel.”

Amy: “So, is this where that time user is?”

Silver: “Yeah. We’ll have to be careful, since he seems so powerful.”

Amy: “Right. Let’s go.”

-----

Wave Ocean

Badniks :

• Surfer Pawns: +200 points.
• Ellas: +100 points.
• Spiked: +200 points.
• Grounder: Mole badniks with drills on their nose that roll around on tank treads, coming out of weak walls and foliage. They’re colored green to blend in with the scenery more, but like their old selves, just one hit pops them open. +200 points.
• Whisp: Fly-shaped badniks that are just as annoying as their organic counterparts. Swat them away with anything to smash them. Tends to come in groups of three. +200 points.
• Egg Sentries: +200 points.
• Egg Rocketeers: +500 points.
• Egg Gunships: +600 points.
• Aero Chasers: +300 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. Under an umbrella on the left side path of the island.
2. Floating in the air on the right hand path in the Aero Chaser section.
3. In the middle path, fire an arrow at a painted wall in the spike pit section to drop something to reach the Soleanna Medal floating on it.
4. In the beginning of the water section, hiding among some reeds.
5. Once through the water section, it’s around back behind the pond.

From our starting position at the dock, there appear to be three pathways that we can take to the center of the island. Both of the beach paths go around the jungle, where we will have to contend with the beachy badniks like the Ellas and the Spiked, along with some Egg Sentries. After about 30 seconds of them, the paths seem wide open until Aero Chasers fly from around the bend ahead and lay down their lasers upon us that we will have to dodge. They can be destroyed, but through some unconventional means.

Amy: “Oh! Toss me up at them, Silver! I’ll smash them with my hammer!”

Launching Amy into the air with psychokinesis will allow her to slam it down to the ground and break it, but another one will usually fly by a few seconds later, and there seems to be an endless supply of them. Just keep on the move and work our way forward till we find a path into the jungle that will take us to a point deep into the jungle, with barely any badniks to deal with.

The middle path however dives right into the jungle ruins, where it becomes obvious that this is not a simple walk, with plenty of arrows being shot out of stone mechanisms, spike trap pits across the ground, swinging logs, and more attempting to kill us. The arrow shooters and moving traps can be Stopped so we can progress safely, though the pits will require moving some collapsing ruins or leftover logs into them to walk across. Near the end of this path is a longer spike pit trap with no way across save for a grind rail and a pressure switch at the other end.

Amy: “Good thing I learned how to grind from watching Sonic. I can get across just fine.”

Silver: “Just don’t leave us behind.”

With Amy, we can jump and grind to the other side and hammer down the switch, bringing down hanging logs and other wooden traps that Silver and Elise can pull and burn down into the pit to get across themselves.

After all that mess, our progress seems to be stopped by a large wooden gate and more arrow shooters, which is also where the other paths converge.

Elise: “Hey, I think there are some targets in the trees. Silver, why not grab the arrows being fired and toss them at the targets?”

It’s best to use Silver’s Stop power to hold the arrows in place to grab the arrows, then get Silver’s cursor locked onto the targets and toss the arrows at them. When all four are hit, the gate opens up to most likely the stuff of nightmares.

Silver: “The only way ahead is through this lake. We’ll have to swim through it.”

It’s time to take the plunge into the underwater section of this level, where we’ll have to swim through the submerged ruins to whatever is on the other side. Thankfully there are plenty of air bubbles to grab, especially with Silver’s mind to bring right to us. There are some ruins to push around with Silver’s powers or to break with Amy’s hammer, and plenty of Eggman’s Grounder badniks drilling out to try and surprise us, but it should be nothing for the likes of us. Elise can’t really help us at the moment, since her fire powers are negated here, but she’ll be able to make it through just fine. Eventually, we’ll be out the other end with a short walk ahead with some more badniks to the entrance of some ruins and the Goal Ring.

Time Bonus :

• <4:00.00 = 50,000 pts
• 4:00.01 - 5:00.00 = 40,000 pts
• 5:00.01 - 6:00.00 = 30,000 pts
• 6:30.01 - 7:00.00 = 20,000 pts
• 7:00.01 - 8:00.00 = 10,000 pts
• (Any second over from here is -100pts)

Mission Performance :

• Defeat 40 enemies = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• Score 50,000 points. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• Collect and hold onto 80 Rings = 1 Soleanna Medal.

-----

Conclusion :

*The trio walk through the large temple, which is just one giant room that has seen better days, with overgrowth getting in through the cracks to reclaim it to nature. There’s some symbols of Solaris on the walls, but age has ruined the words to unintelligible writings. In the center of the room is a machine churning out Aero-Chasers and pumping them through the skylight above. The operator is the same cloaked figure we’ve seen before.*

Silver: “Who are you?”

The mysterious figure doesn’t turn: “Hmph, persistent, aren’t you? But you are still so naive.”

Amy: “Hey, bub, that’s no way to talk to someone.”

????: “And working with the locals. Even more pathetic than I thought.”

Amy steams: “HEY! I’ve fought Eggman before! I’m not a weak girl!”

Princess Elise: “And neither am I. Now explain what you are doing here?”

????: “The fact alone that you don’t know me Silver bothers me. They think they can erase me? I’m going to show them who’ll get erased. Meet me in Dusty Desert, and we’ll talk there.”

*With a snap of his fingers, he is gone, and surprisingly, the machine seems to rust 1000 years in an instant, becoming useless.*

Amy: “Who was that? He seems to act like you know him, Silver.”

Silver: “I don’t know him.”

Silver’s Superior: “Ergh, I’m sorry I can’t provide more either. Whoever they are, no one wants to talk about it here.”

Elise: “Whoever he is, they have to be powerful since that machine he had rusted instantly.”

Silver: “Yeah. We should go after him.”

*The trio leave the temple.*

-----

Silver’s Story, Intermission -  Soleanna Castle Town

Passing through Soleanna Castle Town at the moment at mid-day, the people in charge of the festival and getting the finishing touches underway for the night’s events. Perhaps they wouldn’t mind a little psychic help or a flame light or even hammering down some posts and giving us Soleanna Medals for our hard work. And of course, there are plenty more missions to do for G.U.N. and other people as well.

Whenever we’re ready, head on over to the Dusty Desert mirror, passing by the G.U.N. soldiers on guard.

G.U.N. Soldier: “Ah, Princess Elise. If you are heading for the desert, be careful. Eggman’s badniks have been spotted causing trouble.”

Chapter Text

Introduction :

*With Silver’s Superior telling them where the signal of the mysterious figure is, they are led to a unique part of the desert that goes into a canyon and those archaeological fellas, or just watchers of movies like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, can notice that we appear to be in Sonic’s version of Petra, though I promise we’re not going to be going into any religious related things. In any case, the two hedgehogs and a human look around, admiring the scenery.*

Silver, wide-eyed: “Whoa… your world is so cool! Buildings carved into mountains and canyons are such a sight to behold!”

Princess Elise: “Even now, it’s beautiful to see the hard-worked architecture our ancestors made thousands of years ago that still survives.”

Amy: “I wonder what it was like back then, so many years ago when this place was bustling with activity.”

The mysterious creature appears in front of them with a dark grey portal: “Be careful what you wonder about, or else you might not like where you’ll end up.”

*With a snap of his fingers, the canyon suddenly fills with a lot of badniks acting as an ancient civilization.*

Amy: “Oh my Chaos!”

????: “I control time itself. It bends its will to me. I can call forth whatever I please to fulfill my needs.

Silver: “Grr.. who are you?!”

‘The Time Eater’: “I have many names that your people know of, Silver. But I think I will tell you what I want to be called now. My name is ‘The Time Eater’.”

*He lets his cape billow off him in some kind of wind, revealing a face of pure evil marked with demon horns growing out of his black and cyan-spotted frog head. The rest of his body below the dark purple cape is shockingly a mess of steampunk gears and steam, connecting back again to regular limbs ending in webbed toes and hands. All-in-all, he looks like he’s messed with the fabric of time one too many times.*

Silver touches his bracelet:  “Did you get that, sir? *The bracelet makes static noises.* “Sir?”

‘The Time Eater’, his body glowing a grey aura: “No talking to superiors, you green-gilled hedgehog. Now you deal with a master!”

Amy: “Uh… I think we should run, Silver!”

Silver: “Way ahead of you!”

*The trio run back as the ‘Time Eater’ laughs evilly.*

-----

Dusty Desert

Badniks :

• Djinn Egg Pawns: +250 points. +500 points for Gold.
• Crusader Egg Pawns: Knight Egg Pawns dressed in more thicker armor that prevents them from being lifted by Silver’s Psychokinesis. Either burn their Eggman-insignia attire clothes off or slam them with Amy’s hammer to shed the armor and destroy them normally. Comes with either swords or arrows. +300 points for the regular ones, +600 points for Gold.
• Green Egg Flapper: +200 points.
• Sandworm: +200 points.
• Spiker: +250 points.
• Statue-esque: +400 points.
• Monk-33s: +350 points.
• Egg Sentries: +300 points.
• Egg Rocketeers: +400 points.
• Egg Grenadiers: +500 points.
• Egg Gunships: +600 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. In the entrance of the temple door at the start, needing Amy to hammer the false doors in.
2. In the second target’s area, on top of the highest building.
3. In the third target’s area, behind one of the homes that has a little niche behind it with the Soleanna Medal.
4. Behind a pillar in the cavern up to the fourth target.
5. Floating on a ledge below the cliff with the fifth target.

Oh, hey, a full chase stage! We never really had one of those before besides parts of one. Though, knowing that the trio we are in control of can’t run very fast, the level is slightly more complicated than that. Our foe doesn’t attack us directly, instead calling forth a lot of badniks out of thin air, similar to the enemy gauntlets of Robot Storm and Robot Carnival, but here, they seem to come out endlessly if a group is destroyed. The reason for this is that they aren’t meant to be destroyed mindlessly, but to be used as tossing fodder for Silver to hit various floating targets in the air, looking like the Thundershoot ones from Heroes. Hitting them all will open a gate preventing escape from the ravine with the Goal Ring behind it.

The first target is in front of the temple at the beginning, being protected by The Time Eater and plenty of badniks marching around. The badniks won’t leave us alone while we get a lock on the target, but just keep at it till it finally hits the big thing and disappears. The evildoer’s response to that is making a bunch of press weights appear to crush us in lines, so get moving away from him to avoid getting hurt.

The second and third targets are up some sloped paths in the canyon’s walls, leading up to old ruins of homes once lived in by people, but now overrun with badniks. The targets themselves float over a lower building, which shouldn’t be too hard to hit once locked on to. The villain won’t follow up here, instead just floating menacingly in the canyon, but he will still drop enemies and then weights on the targets are hit.

The fourth and fifth targets are higher up the cliff walls near the gate, but require entering some enemy infested caves to jump on springs in the back and be bounced up to the top. From the high cliffs, the targets loom past the ground to step on, so make sure not to step off too soon. Some of the more helpful badniks here might be the Green Egg Flappers since they tend to be a bit more aerodynamically accurate than the rest, but the wide range of badniks and bombs should still make for enough ammo to hit the targets with. Escape the crushers by jumping off the ledges back down to the bottom of the canyon again.

Once all five targets are hit, the gate will finally open and let us escape through the Goal Ring.

Time Bonus :

• <4:00.00 = 50,000 pts
• 4:00.01 - 5:00.00 = 40,000 pts
• 5:00.01 - 6:00.00 = 30,000 pts
• 6:30.01 - 7:00.00 = 20,000 pts
• 7:00.01 - 8:00.00 = 10,000 pts
• (Any second over from here is -100pts)

Mission Performance :

• Defeat 70 enemies = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• Score 70,000 points. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• Collect and hold onto 75 Rings = 1 Soleanna Medal.

-----

Conclusion :

*As the trio run up the slope out of the canyon, over the ridge, The Time Eater appears once again, as the background behind him looks warped, as though looking through a bubble with the twisted image that doesn’t look like the natural desert.*

‘The Time Eater’: “Leaving so soon? I’m not done with you yet.”

*The trio skid to a stop and try to double back, but the Time Eater makes a portal for them all and warps them all someplace else in Soleanna, at an earlier time.*

Chapter Text

Introduction :

*The time trio find themselves spit out in one of the castles in Kingdom Valley, and don’t get much time to gather their bearings when The Time Eater appears in front of them.*

Silver: “Why are you doing this to us?”

‘The Time Eater’: “I enjoy teasing you fools. So weak and naive to what’s truly going on.”

Amy: “Why don’t you tell us what’s really going on then?”

‘The Time Eater’: “I want power, and Eggman’s willing to give it to me! When Mephiles is unleashed and Iblis is unsealed, we’ll combine to make Solaris and conquer this world and beyond! I will show you and your superiors their mistake for banishing me!”

Silver: “Oh no!”

‘The Time Eater’: “Yes! Now arise, beings from olden times, and kill them!”

*The Time Eater once again brings in a ton of badniks into the level, but also awakens suits of armor to attack the heroes before he disappears for better matters.*

-----

Kingdom Valley

Badniks :

• Archer Egg Pawns: +200 points.
• Knight Egg Pawns: +200 points.
• Egg Knights: Egg Hammers repurposed with swords instead of their hammers and in suits of armor like the smaller pawns. They take two hits to destroy by tossing badniks, rocks, or other things at them, or one if hit in the head. +1000 points.
• Dancer Egg Pawns: +250 points.
• Dragoon Egg Pawns: Egg Pawns also in armor that carry long lances. They attack by jumping and landing with the lance pointed down at their foes, so stick away from their shadows or be ready to grab them before the lance connects. +300 points.
• Red Egg Flapper: +100 points.
• Buzzer: +100 points.
• Egg Sentries: +300 points.
• Egg Rocketeers: +400 points.
• Egg Grenadiers: +500 points.
• Egg Panzer Dragon: As the name suggests, it’s a gigantic robot dragon made by Eggman that’s encased in armor. It’ll bite, scratch and release guns and rockets in an overkill method to defeat Silver and the others. The armor can only be taken off by dropping something on them, then pulling off the panels with Silver’s psychokinesis. The weaker metal below then can be damaged with anything on hand to knock this powerhouse out of commission with a special prize inside. +10,000 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. Defeat all the enemies in the starting area to open a cage with the Soleanna Medal inside.
2. Floating in the archway for the staircase for the ground floor. Some nearby steel boxes can be moved and jumped on to reach it or toss Amy up to grab it.
3. Have the dragon explode the suits of armor at the beginning of the hall to make a Soleanna Medal appear on one of their pedestals.
4. In the second hole the dragon makes, floating on a dining room table.
5. Once the mech is destroyed, it appears behind the Chaos Emerald on a throne.

Surrounded by Knight and Dragoon Pawns, it might be best to push them aside with some psychic power or just stop time and get the heck out of there. We are in the basement of a castle in Kingdom Valley and this dungeon has quite a lot of perils. Spike pits abound that need to be jumped over, though some are long in length that Silver will need to drop steel crates, metal shields or drop a few chandeliers to get across. A few of the chandeliers will require flaming their ropes to drop into the spike pit. As we traverse the place, there are a few glowing switches that need to be hit with an enemy or by Amy to open the gate at the end of the area, so we can climb up the stairs to the ground level. Up on the ground floor, there is a rumbling of the walls and ground.

Princess Elise: “Huh? Do you hear something loud lumbering this way?”

Amy: “I do. What is that.”

*The wooden front doors shatter to pieces as a gigantic metal dragon head with distinct red and black coloring stretches its neck to bite at the trio.*

Silver: “Whoa! A dragon!”

Amy: “It must be Eggman’s. We have to smash it!”

To start, we’ll have to toss a nearby badnik at it to dent a metal piece. Then we can grab the dented piece and pull it off with the same throw motion. Stopping time might help to get a good grab on the dragon without getting hurt, but it’s doable without it. It’ll respond with thrashing and leave from the hole it made, but soon crash through the wall entirely, showcasing the high ceilings of the grand hall of this house and setting its sights on attacking us.

Now that it’s inside, it’s firing off guns and rockets at us as well as sometimes gnawing and clawing if we get close. Thankfully, those rockets are great ammunition to grab and fling back at the dragon with Silver to dent the metal. As we pull off the armor plates, the dragon will slowly stumble backwards through the hallway, sometimes making a few holes in them and a few times falling over onto its back. With it keeled over, we call pull the tail and hind leg armor off, angering the dragon back to its feet for more of its regular attacks.

Once we reach the back wall of the room, the weakened dragon now has no armor plating keeping its body safe, so toss some enemies and rockets at the robot to knock its limbs, head and chest out of commission. When it’s all dead, the machine explodes in spectacular fashion, and reveals its battery, the Yellow Chaos Emerald. Collect it as our Goal Ring.

Time Bonus :

• <4:00.00 = 50,000 pts
• 4:00.01 - 5:00.00 = 40,000 pts
• 5:00.01 - 6:00.00 = 30,000 pts
• 6:30.01 - 7:00.00 = 20,000 pts
• 7:00.01 - 8:00.00 = 10,000 pts
• (Any second over from here is -100pts)

Mission Performance :

• Defeat 40 enemies = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• Score 70,000 points. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• Collect and hold onto 80 Rings = 1 Soleanna Medal.

-----

Conclusion :

Silver: “Whoa. It was running on that?”

Amy: “Yeah. Dr. Eggman does that sometimes, using these Chaos Emeralds as batteries.”

Silver’s Superior: “Oh, thank heavens you’re alive. I couldn’t get in contact with you at all. What happened?”

Silver: “We’ll explain in a moment, I think we should get this Chaos Emerald to an altar. Is there one nearby?”

Princess Elise: “Hmm, now that I can focus better, I think this castle has an altar in the next room.” 

*She points to the door behind the throne. Together, they find a room dedicated to Iblis with statues and symbols scattered all over the room, with an altar in the center. They waste no time placing the gem on the altar, and it glows and there is a very mild earthquake that vibrates the items in the room before it stops.*

Silver’s Superior: “Hmm, so this was the second one that awoke. So, please, tell me what happened.”

-----

Silver’s Story, Intermission - Soleanna Forest

*The trio return back to the forest, having told Silver’s Superior everything.*

Silver’s Superior: “This is not good. He must have done something reprehensible to be banished from here, but I still can’t access it. But now with your info, maybe they’ll finally listen.”

Amy: “I suppose, in the meantime, we should try to find more Chaos Emeralds or altars, huh?”

Silver: “Yeah. I don’t think we’ve visited the jungle yet, so maybe we can check there.”

There are plenty more missions to do for more medals, but the story calls for us to go to Tropical Jungle now.

Chapter Text

Introduction :

*Silver and the others have been checking the jungle for a while, as we watch them walk into Eggman’s base we saw in Shadow’s story. It’s one gigantic, open room, and the Egg Genesis can be seen getting its final pieces welded on above by moving arms.*

Amy gasps: “We just stumbled into one of Eggman’s bases.”

*The trio must have tripped an invisible laser, as the doors shutter closed behind them and alarms begin to blare as badniks and the machine wakes up from their sleep mode.*

Silver: “Oh no! We’re trapped!”

Amy: “Let’s find some way out of here.”

-----

Tropical Jungle

Badniks :

• Explorer Egg Pawns:. +250 points. +500 points for Gold ones.
• Black Egg Flapper: +250 points.
• Egg Salad: +300 points.
• Machinery: +300 points.
• Mang-nos: +300 points.
• Egg Sentries: +300 points.
• Egg Rocketeers: +400 points.
• Egg Grenadiers: +500 points.
• Egg Gunships: +600 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. Right underneath the middle of the Egg Genesis, with fire and traps protecting it. Stopping time makes grabbing the Soleanna Medal easier.
2. In the northwest corner of the arena, protected by a barrier that only comes down by breaking two targets on either side of that corner that have Eggman’s insignia on them.
3. Do the same thing in the northeast corner.
4. Ditto in the southeast corner.
5. Once more in the southwest corner.

This might be the first stage where we are in the midst of a boss mech, but it’s still a regular stage. The arena we are in is somewhat large, think like the areas for the Egg Breaker in Shadow’s game, though this one is more square with protruding corners that house the electronics for everything. Those electronics are key to getting out of here, by throwing badniks, missiles and other things at them till the consoles explode and one of the arms holding the Egg Genesis breaks off. Breaking all four will drop the Egg Genesis with a crash, shocking it off long enough to let us leave through the opening garage doors.

But of course the mech is not going to let us leave here in one piece, firing off its plethora of guns, missiles and bombs like crazy to catch us by surprise. Thankfully, Silver’s time powers should make avoiding them easier. Badniks are also constantly being produced and released from the walls, congesting the walking space even further, though at least there are no shortage of weapons to get rid of them with.

All-in-all, this stage is probably going to move faster than others, as destroying the consoles will reveal our ticket out of here, with the Goal Ring floating outside the doors.

Time Bonus :

• <4:00.00 = 50,000 pts
• 4:00.01 - 5:00.00 = 40,000 pts
• 5:00.01 - 6:00.00 = 30,000 pts
• 6:30.01 - 7:00.00 = 20,000 pts
• 7:00.01 - 8:00.00 = 10,000 pts
• (Any second over from here is -100pts)

Mission Performance :

• Defeat 50 enemies = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• Score 60,000 points. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• Collect and hold onto 75 Rings = 1 Soleanna Medal.

-----

Conclusion :

*The Egg Genesis comes back online and rockets out the open doors, finally leaving Silver, Amy and Elise alone. Before they can leave, Team Dark steps into the base.*

Amy: “Shadow? Are you the ones that opened the doors?”

Shadow: “Yes. What are you doing here and who are these guys?”

Amy: “It’s a long story. But let's start with introductions. That’s Silver and the human is Princess Elise, the royal here in Soleanna.”

Silver waves: “Hello.”

Princess Elise: “Ah, hello. G.U.N. did tell me to expect visitors to the island.”

Rogue: “A princess? Well, hello indeed.” *Shakes her hand.*

Omega: “Strange. Silver has a slightly different chemistry than us.”

Silver, looking nervous: “W-wha? H-how does he know?”

Shadow: “G.U.N. gave him an upgrade with better sensors to detect any time anomalies, like the one over the island right now, or to detect anything that’s causing it as well.”

Silver: “So you guys can detect that in this world, huh?”

Rouge: “That’s strange to say. Are you not from this universe?”

Silver sighs: “I’m just telling everyone today, am I? Yes, I am from an alternate dimension, but I was sent here to fix the mess. But I’ve also visited the future, and saw that Eggman was already in control of the planet 200 years later.”

Shadow: “What? Eggman’s in control?”

Silver: “Yes. Something happened today that caused it.”

Rouge: “Interesting…”

Silver: “Worse is that he keeps Mephiles out as well to make sure there is no uprising.”

Shadow: “That’s terrible… and he’s already been released.”

Silver: “What? O-oh no… that means he just needs Iblis. With him, he can create Solaris to rule the world under his power.”

*There is a rumbling as the Chaos Emerald is put into the temple.*

Shadow: “T-that must be Sonic placing the emerald in the temple here in this jungle.”

Silver: “Oh, thank you that you guys know about the sealing ritual.”

Rouge: “Hmm, is that what the Chaos Emeralds do as well? We knew they were important, but not that they can seal as well as release.”

Princess Elise: “N-not that I want to interrupt this, but we have to stop that machine before it reaches people.”

Omega: “The battery is still within vicinity, in confrontation with Sonic’s trio.”

Shadow: “Okay, let’s go help them then.”

-----

*By the time the three arrive at the battle scene, Team Dark is putting the Egg ARK to sink, so they check upon Team Sonic, finding them alive, just knocked out. By the battles’ end, they regroup.*

Omega: “Eggman machine, destroyed!”

Rouge: “Hey, we should get Sonic and the others some help.”

Silver: “We looked them over. It looks to be just the shock, no actual damage. They do need a place to rest though.”

Amy: “Oh! I got my hotel room I was renting in New City for the day. They should be safe there.”

Shadow: “Okay. You guys take them there.”

Rouge: “I wonder where we should go now?”

*Silver floats Team Sonic with his mind as the rest walk out of the jungle.*

-----

*It’s starting to get orange in the sky as the sun begins to set, as some of Soleanna’s guards come rushing to Elise.*

Guard 1: “Princess! It’s nearing the time for the festival!”

Guard 2: “We must get you ready!”

Princess Elise: “O-oh! Right! Um, I have to go guys.”

Silver: “Go, we have this.”

*As the guards leave with Elise, Eggman’s ships are flying over to the mountains.*

Shadow: “It looks like he’s going to the mountain range.”

Amy: “That’s White Acropolis. You can enter it from the lifts in New City.”

Omega: “Let’s move.”

*Team Dark leaves, and Silver carries Team Sonic with Amy back to her hotel room.*

-----

*Sonic and the others wake up in one of New City’s hotel rooms, rubbing their heads. From the light in the windows, it’s night with the moon rising above the water.*

Sonic: “Uugghh… I feel sore.”

Tails: “Did we really fall for that trap?”

*Amy comes in through the door to their room.*

Amy “Sonic, Tails, Knuckles! You’re all okay! Phew.”

Sonic: “Amy? What are you doing here?”

Amy: “Well, I was here for some special foods, but then I met another hedgehog, then the Princess of Soleanna…”

Sonic: “Um… okay.”

Amy: “In short, we found you lying around and helped you.”

Sonic: “Thanks. Wait, we?”

*Silver peeks in through the door.*

Silver “Are they awake?”

Amy: “Uh-huh! Come in!”

*Silver comes in, and they recognize his shape from Flame Core.*

Tails: “Wait… you saved us in the future, didn’t you?”

*The hedgehog looks surprised and gets a bit nervous.* “I… uh… well…”

Amy: “It’s okay, Silver. You can tell them. They’re very understanding, especially with all that’s happened.”

Silver: “Yes… I did.”

Sonic: “Well, thank you for that. But… what’s going on?”

Silver: “Quite a lot. Another time manipulator like me is helping Dr. Eggman today so he’ll conquer the world from then on with Solaris.”

Knuckles: “That explains the mysterious figure.”

Sonic: “Wait? When is it?”

Amy: “It’s night time. Princess Elise had to leave to start the Festival of the Sun, so that’s why she can’t greet you.”

Sonic gets up: “We got to go see her! Eggman’s going to enact the final part of his plan!”

*On explosive cue, a big BOOM is heard from outside, followed by screaming. Everyone gets up quick and heads outside the hotel.*

-----

Silver’s Story, Intermission - Soleanna New City

Once again, it’s general mayhem as plenty of Eggman’s badniks are terrorizing the city.

Silver: “We need to hurry and save Elise!”

Sonic: “Yeah, but let’s also get rid of any badniks we come across.”

Push any badniks we see out of the way and rush on over to Soleanna Forest.

-----

Silver’s Story, Intermission - Soleanna Forest

There are plenty of pushover badniks standing in our way, so toss them aside and focus on rushing to Soleanna Castle Town

-----

Silver’s Story, Intermission - Soleanna Castle Town

Hurry on over to the festival square to find Princess Elise standing her ground against the badniks. During the waves of badniks, Team Sonic comes in to mop up the rest of them. When they’re all destroyed…

Princess Elise: “Phew, thank you very much, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Silver, and Amy. She told me much about you, and it’s cool to see you in person.”

Sonic: “Ah, don’t mention it.”

Princess Elise: “Anyway, Eggman came in with a drilling mech right when the festival’s flames lit and I narrowly avoided it. Then he sent his machines to cause trouble. I know what he’s really planning, however. He wants to get to our inner sanctum and open up the final temple! Follow me to the castle, as we have another way down there.”

*Before we can move on, Shadow and the others come running by.*

Shadow: “Ah, phew, I see you guys saved the princess.”

Sonic: “Huh? Well, yeah. Where were you guys?”

Shadow: “Dusty Desert. We think we might know a way to stop Iblis and Mephiles, but then we saw the trouble here. Did you see where it could have come from?”

Knuckles: “Yeah, I think I saw some strange movement over in Wave Ocean.”

Omega: “Let’s go! Trouble could be brewing there.”

*The dark trio leave.*

With Team Sonic following, head on over to Soleanna Castle, the guards letting us go to the basement and Aquatic Base’s mirror.

Chapter Text

Introduction :

*The six enter the lower basements of Castle Soleanna and see the metal lined halls and aquatic tanks that make for walls and the glass that blocks out the sea beyond.*

Princess Elise: “This is our water research lab and aquarium for sea creatures among other things. These used to be just caves leading to the temple of Iblis and Solaris, but we’ve updated them over the years.”

Tails: “Fascinating!”

*Eggman’s drilling can be heard getting louder and louder.*

Sonic: “Too bad we have no time. We have to get to the temple first!”

Princess Elise: “I’ll take Silver and Amy through our passages, but unfortunately, I’m worried that Eggman’s machines have already snuck into the main area and caused the security doors to close.”

Sonic: “We’ll deal with them, don’t worry.”

*The hero trio head on into the base itself while Silver’s team heads down some hallways.*

-----

Aquatic Base

Badniks :

• Bond Egg Pawns: +250 points.
• Cyan Egg Flappers: +250 points.
• Monk-33s: +300 points.
• Jaws: +300 points.
• Mawz: +350 points.
• Egg Sentries: +300 points.
• Egg Rocketeers: +400 points.
• Egg Grenadiers:+500 points.
• Egg Gunships: +600 points.

Soleanna Medals :

1. Behind one of the cavern pillars at the start of the stage.
2. After ascending up the invisible path, there is a faraway candle Elise can light to show another path branching off to the Soleanna Medal.
3. Before leaving the cavern, follow some ledges to a hidden candle that reveals a Soleanna Medal behind a lifting fake cavern wall.
4. In the aquarium, towards the back behind some rocks Amy can smash.
5. In a cage, protected by Eggman’s final forces. Defeat them all to open it and nab the Soleanna Medal.

The stage begins with the trio running into a cavern similar to what we saw in Shadow’s ending of Aquatic Base, with views of the ocean and night sky from some of the holes, and waterfalls from others.. A wide bottomless pit extends as far as the eye can see with no easily discernible way to move ahead at first.

Silver: “How do we get through? There’s no path ahead.”

Princess Elise: “There is, it’s just invisible. We have candles scattered around that I can light that will shine the way.”

In an alcove in the rock face, there is a candle that can be targeted and lit with Elise’s flame. Once it comes alight, ropes of fire flow through the air like electricity and line up onto a path that seems to have no floor until Princess Elise steps on it, showing camouflaged rock and metal pathways ascending upwards into a higher part of the cave. In a sense, these paths are like the ones from Hang Castle in Heroes, with the flames guiding the true path ahead. At the top of this path is another candle in an alcove, revealing the path ahead deeper into the cavern, hugging around the wall for the most part till we reach the next cliff with some badnik presence fighting back at us.

Finding the next candle, the path continues for a while till we start noticing a bunch of rocks and more of Eggman’s toys falling from the darkened ceiling.

Silver: “I wonder if Eggman’s entry underground is making the ceiling unstable.”

Princess Elise: “Don’t worry, this path will be fine. Go ahead and toss the rocks aside so we can proceed.”

With more badniks and rocks on the path, the journey is getting harder, and after lighting the next candle, it seems Eggman’s doing more damage than we thought, as a giant boulder lays upon our path.

Silver: “That’s too big of a boulder for me to move.”

Amy: “Leave that to me! Hi-YAH!”

Smashing through the giant rock with Amy, the route ahead is fairly clear, save for some badniks and some waterfalls spilling onto the path, extinguishing the fire from those sections, but the water also shows where it’s safe to walk and where it cascades off into the pit below. Eventually, we’ll be through to the other side, and we can move on ahead through some steel doors to another science area.

Princess Elise: “Huh, who closed the security door? We can’t leave with it like that.”

Soleanna Scientist: “There are enemies in the tank over there, and the sensors won’t unlock the door until the invading force is dealt with.”

It’s time to take another dive into the drink, going into an aquarium filled with watery badniks and rocky terrain with more sea volcanoes. We can use Amy’s hammer or Silver’s psychokinesis to break all of Eggman’s toys, turning the tank’s red lights to blue, signifying the security is now unlocked. After a quick shake off of water, we’re just one hallway away to the Goal Ring, protected by Eggman’s forces lined up in one final group to stop us. Either destroy them or find some way through them, perhaps by a hidden spring near the entrance to a grind rail for Amy near the ceiling, and hit that Goal Ring to finish this stage.

Time Bonus :

• <4:00.00 = 50,000 pts
• 4:00.01 - 5:00.00 = 40,000 pts
• 5:00.01 - 6:00.00 = 30,000 pts
• 6:30.01 - 7:00.00 = 20,000 pts
• 7:00.01 - 8:00.00 = 10,000 pts
• (Any second over from here is -100pts)

Mission Performance :

• Defeat 50 enemies = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• Score 50,000 points. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• Collect and hold onto 75 Rings = 1 Soleanna Medal

-----

*As Sonic’s and Silver’s groups reach the temple, Eggman finally arrives through the ceiling in his Egg Wyrm.*

Dr. Eggman: “Knock knock, it’s EGGMAN!” *One can swear he’s blaring his theme from his mech’s sound system.*

Sonic: “Wow, is that really how you want to greet us?”

Dr. Eggman: “What? You do it every time, I just got there before you.”

Tails, with slight sass: “He’s got you there, Sonic.”

Sonic, to Tails: “Whose side are you on?”

Dr. Eggman: “ANYWAY! Out of the way, hedgehogs. I got a prophecy to fulfill! Victory will be mine!”

Knuckles: “Have you forgotten that we’re always destined to stop you?”

Eggman: “True… but another fellow tells me otherwise.”

*The mysterious figure appears again next to Eggman from a dark grey portal.*

‘The Time Eater’, his robe covering his body again: “I will deal with Silver. You deal with Sonic.”

Dr. Eggman: “Excellent! Time to die, Sonic!”

*As they begin to fight, The Time Eater stares at the other trio.*

‘The Time Eater’: “As for you three, no more games. This will be your tomb.”

*With a snap of his fingers, a ton of badniks appear around us in a large circle, making no less than maybe a thousand huddled masses of robots out to kill us. The Time Eater sneaks into the crowd, so we can’t find him.

Boss: The Time Eater

Our final fight against the Time Eater is less against him and more about the wide arrange of foes out for rings and our deaths. The badniks attack in waves, usually sticking to the theme of following the stages of past stories. The key to surviving is making good use of Silver’s psychokinesis and letting the AI of Elise and Amy smash the stragglers. So the fight begins with Kingdom Valley mechs with swords and shields. Then it’s Tropical Jungle’s more hand-tossed foes, followed with the winter antics of White Acropolis badniks. Next is the future hellscape of Eggman’s Foundry and Flame Core, with Dusty Desert’s toys finishing off that section. Nearing to the end, our villain can be seen wandering through the audience, trying to stay protected as Radical Train’s mechs step forward, then the ones from here in Aquatic Base. With all the other waves gone, only Wave Ocean’s badniks remain, now leaving The Time Eater to float in our vicinity. Don’t go chasing after him, as he’ll just warp elsewhere. Instead, grab one of the Chrome Egg Flappers with Silver and fling it right at him once he’s targeted, and in one hit, the fight is over.

Ranks :

• S-Rank: <4:00.00 (+3 Soleanna Medals/1-2 that wasn’t earned with an A- or B-Rank) (+3000 Rings)
• A-Rank: 4:00.01 - 4:30.00 (+2 Soleanna Medals/ 1 that wasn’t earned with a B-Rank) (+2000 Rings)
• B-Rank: 4:30.01 - 5:00.00 (+1 Soleanna Medal) (+1000 Rings)
• C-Rank: 5:00.01 - 5:30.00 (+500 Rings)
• D-Rank: >5:30.00 (+100 Rings)

-----

Conclusion :

*The glass cannon of the ‘Time Eater’ flies back from the hit, banging across the floor as his cloak rips some and his body looks semi-dented.*

‘The Time Eater’: “W-what? Impossible! You shouldn’t be able to touch me, you naive wimp!”

Amy: “Maybe you’ve forgotten, but we’ve been tempered well for battle. Maybe you were the one who’s naive.”

*He growls and ribbits, but from behind him, we can see Eggman launching himself and placing the White Chaos Emerald into the altar.*

Silver, Amy and Elise: “NO!”

‘The Time Eater’ laughs: “Mwah hah! In the end, it was meant to be! Iblis will be freed and we will become Soalris! HAH HAHAHA”  *He disappears into his void.*

*The timely trio rushes over to Sonic and the others as the earth begins to shake and the place begins to crumble apart.*

Dr. Eggman: “Hah! It worked! Goodbye suckers, I have a new beast to command!”

*Eggman leaves through the hole in the ceiling, leaving Sonic and the others in the crumbling room. Silver and the others come at them with his glowing light blue psychokinesis and Amy and Elise with hands outstretched.*

Amy: “Sonic! Grab on!”

*Sonic grabs Amy’s hand, Knuckles grabs Elise’s, and Tails snatches the White Chaos Emerald and flies after them as they are carried out of Aquatic Base by Silver as the base gets filled with dirt.*

Chapter Text

Final Story - Introduction:

*We cut ahead to Eggman, who is flying to the volcano that Iblis is climbing out of, dripping lava down the mountains.*

Eggman: “Yes. It’s nearly complete! With Iblis awakened, I can create Solaris and rule the world! Mephiles, Time Eater, to me!”

*The Time Eater flies over with his slightly dented body, and Mephiles comes out of the scepter looking smaller than usual, with less of an aura.*

Dr. Eggman, a bit surprised: “What the?”

The Time Eater: “Apologies, sir. They got a hit on me.”

Mephiles: “Most of my body has been destroyed by Shadow, but I did succeed in tiring him out.”

Dr. Eggman still smiles regardless: “And Sonic, despite his looks, is also at the end of his energy rope. Perfect, time for you three to become one!”

Mephiles and Time Eater: “Yes sir!”

*They fly off to Iblis, and soon a blinding light covers the screen as we rewind to a bit earlier.*

---

*Silver and the others come out of the hole Eggman drilled in the ground, and land nearby. As they do, Rouge and Omega are carrying Shadow, who has his inhibitor rings back on, with them, meeting up with them*

Sonic: “Jeez, what happened? Why is he sleeping?”

Rouge: “He expended all the Chaos Energy from his body to defeat Mephiles. He needs to recharge.”

Tails: “I don’t know. Eggman must have a small bit of Mephiles still in the scepter. He always likes to have a back up plan.

Knuckles: “I don’t think we’re going to have a chance to rest either, since Eggman is flying to Iblis right now, most likely preparing to make Solaris.”

Sonic: “Gr… I have to stop him.” *He attempts to run, but then suddenly trips and faceplants.* “Whah!” 

Amy: “Sonic?! Are you ok?”

Sonic: “Yeah… but I feel tired for once.”

Silver: “I wonder if the time travel you both did also drained some Chaos energy.”

Omega: “Or Dr. Eggman’s real plan was to tucker out Sonic and Shadow, his best competition, and single-handedly destroy us with the might of Solaris.”

Knuckles, looking angry: “Yeah, that sounds totally like him to do that.”

Princess Elise: “Is there anything we can do to help them?”

Tails brings out the White Chaos Emerald from his tail: “We could have them go Super, that ought to bring their energy back up, but getting the other 6 might take too long.”

*At this point, the blinding light from Eggman’s perspective occurs, and from the volcano area, once the light fades, there is a massive shape of a hawk in the sky, radiating light.*

Princess Elise: “No… he created Solaris.”

*From the monster, Eggman’s voice seems to boom out.*

Dr. Eggman: “Heh he he. Poor Sonic and Shadow, too weak to defeat me? Pathetic, and I doubt your friends could even compete with this! Might as well say your final goodbyes, suckers!”

*With that, Solaris flies into the sky, getting ready to nuke the world.*

Omega: “We can not let him get away.”

Knuckles: “But how? We’ll never make it in time.”

Silver: “Leave that to me. I’ll warp us close to them, and then we’ll just need to grab them without stopping.”

Amy, to Sonic and Shadow, sitting in the middle of the square that is covered in Festival of the Sun stuff: “You two rest, we’ll be back soon.”

Sonic: “Hurry, before the doc wins.”

-----

Final Story - End of the World

End of the World

Badniks :

• Demolitionist Egg Pawns: +250 points.
• Magenta Egg Flappers: +250 points.
• Surfer Pawns: +200 points.
• Ellas: +100 points.
• Spiked: +200 points.
• Djinn Egg Pawns: +250 points.
• Green Egg Flapper: +200 points.
• Archer Egg Pawns: +200 points.
• Knight Egg Pawns: +200 points.
• Explorer Egg Pawns:. +250 points.
• Black Egg Flapper: +250 points.
• Cluckoid: +250 points.
• Snow-binaut +250 points.
• Egg Sentries: +300 points.
• Egg Rocketeers: +400 points.
• Egg Grenadiers: +500 points.
• Egg Gunships: +600 points.

Mephiles Minions :

• Imps: +250 points.
• Boarbarians: +500 points.
• Jacked Rabbits: +500 points.
• Goatzerkers: +1000 points.

Iblis Monsters :

• Phoenix: +300 points.
• Lizard: +200 points.
• Golem: +500 points.

A fearful sight appears at the top of the screen, a counting down timer of 14 minutes to doom, when Dr. Eggman will set the world on fire. We have to finish the stage by then, or it’s game over. Thankfully, with one Emerald already in possession, there are only 6 more to grab. To get to the others, there are portals in the square leading to the other places, opening up when we get close. Next to them is one of the other heroes, ready to jump in and get the Chaos Emerald. In line, Amy will go to Dusty Desert, Knuckles to Radical Train, Omega to Kingdom Valley, Tails to Wave Ocean, Rouge to Tropical Jungle, and Silver himself goes to White Acropolis

Portal to Dusty Desert:

Hopping through the portal with Amy, we find ourselves in the arena we fought the Egg Cerberus in… but a time bubble surrounds the place and it has been rewound time to before the mech broke, pouncing and running around the arena again. The mech is angry, biting and pouncing around, while the Purple Chaos Emerald is out of reach in the stands above in the emperor box, and Eggman and his lackey’s forces are making getting around a bit harder. Since it still wants to catch a hedgehog, guide it into ramming into a column to daze it, then ride the rail from its tail to the heads, and then jump onto the stands above, running for and grabbing the Chaos Emerald to get out of here.

Portal to Radical Train:

Knuckles takes his portal into Radical Train’s altar area, which has it’s lava cooled off for the moment, but the ceiling has collapsed and there are lots of mounds of dirt to climb, while Iblis’s monsters and bombing badniks try to hurt us. Dodge and climb fast to the top and glide on through to the undamaged altar area, and grab that Red Chaos Emerald to get out of here.

Portal to Kingdom Valley:

Omega’s trip to Kingdom Valley takes him straight to the castle with the altar in it, filled to the brim with the knightly badniks, Iblis monsters and a few of Mephiles Imps. All will fall to his punches, bullets and missiles, so mow on through and snatch that Yellow Emerald for our troubles.

Portal To Wave Ocean:

Tails takes charge in Wave Ocean, thankfully not having to pass over an ocean, rather, having to trek through the ruinous island to the Blue Emerald at the center. The more dangerous forces out here are Iblis’ monsters, burning the grass and creating a lot of fire to either fly over or swim through the underground to avoid them. The timer still slowly ticks down, but keep quick on our feet to make it through the final two sections.

Portal To Tropical Jungle:

Rouge enters the portal into Tropical Jungle, where it’s more of Iblis’ monsters setting the ground and trees alight with fire to make navigating that much harder. Not helping is the trees falling over by Eggman’s badniks’ hands. The Green Emerald is right where it was left in it’s altar in the center of the jungle, protected by Mephiles’ monsters as well. Perhaps it is best to just sneak over them so as to avoid a confrontation and get out of here quickly.

Portal to White Acropolis:

The final portal is all Silver’s, as he returns into the underground of White Acropolis near the Cyan Emerald, which has mostly frozen over due to the lack of lava in the volcano, taken by Iblis. There isn’t a cave-in occurring here, but there are a lot of Mephiles creatures and Iblis’ fiery goons trying to stop us at any cost. Rocks will at least make a good deterrent to getting rid of them at least as we climb up the walls of the chamber up to the altar and snag the final Emerald, ending the stage.

Time Bonus :

• <6:00.00 = 50,000 pts
• 6:00.01 - 7:00.00 = 40,000 pts
• 7:00.01 - 8:00.00 = 30,000 pts
• 8:00.01 - 9:00.00 = 20,000 pts
• 9:00.01 - 10:00.00 = 10,000 pts
• (Any second over from here is -100pts)

Mission Performance :

• Defeat 50 enemies = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• Score 65,000 points. = 1 Soleanna Medal.
• Collect and hold onto 75 Rings = 1 Soleanna Medal

-----

Final Story, Interlude:

*With all seven Chaos Emeralds brought together, they float together around Sonic and Shadow and they already start having an effect on them, waking Shadow and Sonic able to stand up straight again.*

Sonic: “Oh yeah, I’m feeling better already!”

Shadow: “Huh? Was I sleeping?” *He remembers what happened last.* “Oh, yeah. We have to deal with the Doctor.”

*The Emeralds continue to spin around, but they are also including Silver in their radius.*

Silver: “Huh?”

Amy: “I think the Chaos Emeralds want to power you up too, as you could be helpful to the fight.”

Silver: “Whoa. They can think for themselves?”

*Amy nods* “Yeah, they can.”

Silver: “Well, I guess I’ll oblige then.”

*He gets closer to Sonic and Shadow to tighten the circle, and the jewels spin even faster, radiating more of their brilliant light. Soon, they release a while light that blinds for a moment before fading and revealing the superpowered hedgehogs. Super Sonic and Super Shadow look how they have been in the past games. Silver’s super look has his front quills wavering in an invisible wind while his back quills are more lifted up. His body is mostly the same, and besides the golden glow, the cyan lines from his gloves and shoes seem to travel up and around his body like veins, perhaps adding extra support to his powers.*

Super Sonic: “Time to show Dr. Eggman he messed up!” *He flies into the sky.*

Super Shadow: “You’re going to pay, Doctor!” *He follows suit.*

Super Silver: “Uh… what they said.” *He can be seen facepalming as he flies after them, hating he had no cool line ready.*

-----

*In space, the trio of golden hedgehogs come face to face with the massive god monster, which spreads for miles when up close.*

Dr. Eggman’s voice booms from somewhere: “Oh? You three made it finally? Hoh ho, you’re too late to stop me. Once I gather up the final charge from the sun, it’s curtains for everyone else. Say goodbye to your peaceful life, you miserable pincushions!”

Final Boss: Solaris

Solaris is a massive monster, passing the scale of even Final Hazard for sheer size. Most of its ‘attacks’ involve flapping its massive wings back and forth, regurgitating lava balls that float around in space, and sometimes dropping mines, courtesy of the Eggman within. We’re invincible from the attacks, but they will knock us off course, wasting the precious rings we have, though there are plenty more to collect floating around in space, both in bundles and item boxes. Its final attack, which is technically when we run out of rings, is firing its death beam at the planet, killing us off instantly as well with a fade-out, and Dr. Eggman gloating away.

Dr. Eggman: “GOODBYE, SONIC! MWAH HAH HA!”

In order to stop Solaris from turning the planet into a primordial ball of lava reshaped by Dr. Eggman, we should start the fight with Silver, and grab some of the space junk floating around aimlessly with his psychokinesis, which despite their huge size, is still tossable like it were weightless, though he can’t lift Solaris. And hey, some of the junk looks familiar, like pieces of past Death Eggs, including metallic mustache pieces, teleporters, maybe even some final bosses. Back to the point, toss those pieces of junk at Solaris and they’ll stun the massive monster from moving. With it stunned, Shadow can come in close and fire off some Chaos Spears and Chaos Blasts to start destroying the body of Iblis that protects the outside. But we would only have enough time to partially damage an area before the boss is back to moving again, so how can we maximize damage…

Simple; after breaking open a hole into the mammoth creature, change to Sonic and just rush on inside. We’ll start bouncing around like a pinball in the interiors, denting the steampunk pipes and gears of the Time Eater’s massive body and burning away the dark energy of Mephiles acting as the steam for the Time Eater and the connecting strands for Iblis’ outer body. And with the constant rebounding and our control, we’ll be taking out Iblis’s body as we bounce back into the interiors. How’s that for taking Sonic Spinball and upscaling it by a factor of 100? The health bar will be going down much faster, getting an angry rise out of Eggman.

Dr. Eggman: “Grrr, no!" "Not there!" "Stop that!”

Eventually, we’ll probably fly out of the creature with the swiss cheese holes it’s gaining all over, but that just means we can return to using the others again. Silver can strike at any of the open interiors to gain some extra damage on the boss as well as stunning it and can even pull some of the truly damaged pieces that fly out to damage Solaris even further, and Shadow’s Chaos Blasts will certainly eviscerate more pieces by nuking the insides apart rather than the more durable outside. And again, Sonic is useful for getting the stubborn pieces, being the fastest to catch them and ricochet around for extra big damage.

Eventually, with all the destruction, Solaris will fall apart, losing its wings, tail, and even its body, scattering like junk into space till just the head is left, the battle seemingly ending...

Ranks :

• S-Rank: <6:00.00 (+3 Soleanna Medals/1-2 that wasn’t earned with an A- or B-Rank) (+3000 Rings)
• A-Rank: 6:00.01 - 6:30.00 (+2 Soleanna Medals/ 1 that wasn’t earned with a B-Rank) (+2000 Rings)
• B-Rank: 6:30.01 - 7:00.00 (+1 Soleanna Medal) (+1000 Rings)
• C-Rank: 7:00.01 - 7:30.00 (+500 Rings)
• D-Rank: >7:30.00 (+100 Rings)

-----

Dr. Eggman: “Worthless, good for nothing lackeys! I have to do all this myself, do I? Goodbye, Time Eater and Mephiles, enjoy the bleakness of space.”

Mephiles and Time Eater’s voice: “Wait, what?!”

*To everyone else’s surprise, a body is ejected from the head of the monster, which looks like the Time Eater, except bigger and corrupted with black and purple dark energy flowing all over it [and might just look familiar to what we’ll see in Generations], and it gets rocketed into deep space. The leftover lava on the head drips off, which, like the rest of the body, seems to get pulled back into earth’s orbit and falls down into the atmosphere. The leftover metal head breaks into Eggman’s space Eggmobile.*

Dr. Eggman: “Grrr… you think you’ve won, hedgehog?”

Super Sonic: “Well, I am just about to punt you back to earth like you belong.”

Dr. Eggman: “Well, not yet. Look behind you.”

*The trio of sparkling hedgehogs look behind themselves to see an equally massive looking machine similar to the Egg Wyrm, but this one comes with wings! Metal Sonic is seen in one of the eyes in an Egg-mobile, and the other eye is empty until Dr. Eggman flies into it, locking into place as the machine roars in confirmation.*

Dr. Eggman: “Better make your last wishes Sonic, Shadow and Silver, I’m making hedgehog flambé tonight!”

Final Boss: The Egg Amphithere

The doctor has one last hurrah, stealing another kind of dragon design just to work the medieval vibe he’s been on here. The sheer size is once again the nuisance here, the body repelling us backwards, protected by some kind of energy. It’s also fast, preventing Silver from tossing things since it’ll be out of the way by then. And noted by Eggman’s threat, it spits fireballs every time it spots a hedgehog, charging a cursor over them before firing. Move quickly to avoid the hit, which knocks us aside if it connects.

The only way to damage Eggman’s toy is to use Sonic and rush right into the gaping mouth of the dragon mech, as he notably can be heard banging around in there, and Eggman makes some angry comments.

Dr. Eggman: “Huh? I can’t control the mech! What’s he doing in there?”

This isn’t doing damage however, as we’ll next have to use Shadow to pummel the mech’s body with Chaos attacks, denting the machine's metal armor severely. Once at a decayed stage, Silver can then rip off the armor and expose the weaker body underneath. Shadow can destroy them, but it might be a smart idea to destroy some other armor sections first to maximize the damage done by taking out a few sections at a time instead of one. With them gone, Sonic will likely fly out of the mouth or the open sections as they reassemble together, and start the whole process over again.

As body sections begin to fall off, it starts getting faster and more maneuverable, so it might be a smart idea to break the wings off the mech at some point when it’s stunned, as that’s where most of its rockets and machines are. With them gone, the mech struggles a lot more to get anywhere, slow enough that even Silver can toss junk straight at the mech to stun and damage it. Though, it will still get faster again as it loses more and more body sections. And don’t forget to keep gathering rings, as losing now would just suck.

The fight will be entirely over once the head is damaged and pummeled into submission, with some dialogue.

Super Sonic: “You guys ready?”

Super Shadow: “Always am.”

Super Silver: “Is it that time?”

Super Sonic: “Yep. Fire away!”

We, as Silver, grab Sonic and Shadow and launch them straight at the eyes of the machine. They’ll burrow right through, blasting Dr. Eggman and Metal Sonic’s Egg Mobiles back to earth’s atmosphere while the mech explodes to metallic bits.

Dr. Eggman, fading away at the end.: “CURSES!!!”

Ranks :

• S-Rank: <6:00.00 (+3 Soleanna Medals/1-2 that wasn’t earned with an A- or B-Rank) (+3000 Rings)
• A-Rank: 6:00.01 - 7:00.00 (+2 Soleanna Medals/ 1 that wasn’t earned with a B-Rank) (+2000 Rings)
• B-Rank: 7:00.01 - 8:00.00 (+1 Soleanna Medal) (+1000 Rings)
• C-Rank: 8:00.01 - 9:00.00 (+500 Rings)
• D-Rank: >9:00.00 (+100 Rings)

----

Final Story - Conclusion:

*The trio of hedgehog’s golden glow begins to fade.*

Shadow: “Not again.”

Sonic: “We’ll need to use Chaos Control, but we’re too far for any measurable distance.”

Silver: “Oh! Don’t worry. I’ll handle that.”

*The others nod and they grab hands in a tight circle.*

Sonic, Shadow and Silver: “Chaos Control!”

*With the usual light blip seen with Chaos Control, there is a cyan border around the outside of it. With it, the trio return back to the surface with Tails and the other, collapsing from exhaustion as their bodies turn to normal.*

Amy: “Are they alright? Did they make it back safely?”

*Sonic snores… loudly.*

Tails chuckles: “Yep. They’re just tired.”

Princess Elise: “You’re welcome to stay here in Soleanna for the next few days, free of charge. We’ll have a big celebration for you all.”

Rouge: “Free of charge is my kind of talk. Vacation it is.”

-----

*Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles have been bunking in Amy’s hotel room, for obvious reasons that she cares about the well-being of her friends. With Sonic fully awake now with the others, she had left earlier in the day to see Princess Elise and Silver. Alone, the three talk.*

Sonic: “So… any sightings of Eggman?”

Knuckles: “So far, none. He wasn’t at the projected crash site, already long gone from the craters he made with Metal Sonic.”

Sonic: “Alright. What about Iblis?”

Tails: “He’s back underground as the molten core of the planet. Somehow, he got sucked back into the volcano it came from.”

Sonic: “That’s good. No widespread devastation. What about Mephiles and the time creature?”

Tails: “Scientists are detecting their merged body hurtling into deep space, and can’t really do anything about it.”

Sonic: “Hopefully, it’ll stay there.” *He gets up from bed.* “Well, I wanna run now, tired of sitting around.”

*At this point, a Soleanna guard arrives at the door.*

Soleanna Castle Guard 1: “Ah, already ready to go. Princess Elise would like you to come to the festival in the square, so please follow me.”

Sonic, following the guard: “What? I thought the Festival of the Sun had already passed?”

Tails, following as well: “Maybe it’s for something else.”

Knuckles, following last: “Maybe for us?”

*The trio follow the guard out to Soleanna Castle Town.*

-----

*In Soleanna’s G.U.N. headquarters, Shadow, Rouge and Omega gather in front of a holographic projector that makes a model of the G.U.N. Commander we last remember from Shadow’s game, as it projects him into the room.*

G.U.N. Commander: “Well, I am glad that you three did a fantastic job on preventing Dr. Eggman from creating such a dystopian future.”

Shadow: “You aren’t mad at us that we involved Sonic and let the doctor get away?”

G.U.N. Commander: “It’s to be expected. The man is probably only going to stop once he’s dead… and even then, from what you saw, seems like even death isn’t enough.”

Omega: “We will not rest until Dr. Eggman gets what he deserves.”

The G.U.N. Commander chuckles a bit: “Heh, as I would hope. Speaking of, because of your wonderful work, I would love to welcome you to your new job, though only if you want to, Shadow and Omega.”

Shadow: “I don’t know… but what is it, if I may ask?”

G.U.N Commander: “The president and I have been talking in secret for a while… and we both kind of realize that all of this really began with the G.U.N raid that killed Maria. Although we aren’t sure whether that made a difference or not that Dr. Eggman was going to come from that, it certainly wasn’t helping that we’ve been doing some shady stuff.”

Shadow: “Yes… that makes me hesitant to join. I don’t want to do that.”

G.U.N. Commander: “I agree. You are much more of a worthy asset than that. That’s why we both decided to come up with making you three our Special Forces, if you will. I will personally send you guys on missions that are of much more important, life saving matters than the rest of ones below would do. It would mostly deal with things caused by Dr. Eggman for the most part, but there might be more as it comes up. No one else will have the ability to call you guys out except for me, and even then, you are free to do as you want whenever you’re not on call. So, would you be willing to join that?”

Rouge: “That is really tempting, sir.” *To Shadow.* “Well? Do you want to do it?”

Shadow: “If we’re really going to be helping people with this, and dealing with the doctor… yes.”

Omega: “I am willing since I get to have my revenge on Eggman.”

The G.U.N. Commander smiles.* “Wonderful! I’ll be waiting for your full report on everything that happened when you return to headquarters. G.U.N. Commander, out.”

*His hologram disappears and through a nearby door, a Soleanna Castle Guard comes in.*

Soleanna Castle Guard 2: “Shadow, Rouge, Omega. Princess Elise would like you to come over to the festival, so please follow me.”

Rouge gets up: “Oooh, royalty wants us. Let’s go.”

*The other two see no reason to complain and get up, following the guard out.*

-----

*Silver is walking with Princess Elise and Amy through the streets of Soleanna during the remade Festival of the Sun, as he is talking to his superior on his bracelet.*

Silver’s Superior: “Well, in the end, I’m certainly glad you were able to succeed Silver. Good job.”

Silver: “Yeah, and I’m thankful for all the help I got here too.”

Silver’s Superior: “Indeed. Speaking of…”

Amy: “Aw, does Silver need to return back to his dimension.”

Silver’s Superior: “We were planning that originally, but with The Time Eater still in that dimension, someone should stay behind to make sure he can be stopped again should he ever return.”

Silver: “I assume that falls to me?”

Silver’s Superior: “Yes, but also, this world seems to be quite the perfect place to train and hone your skills even further, so consider it like an extended stay.”

Amy: “Cool! That means you get to see our world more.”

Silver: “Right. Alright then, sir. I won’t fail you. Silver, out.”

Princess Elise: “Now, let’s hurry. I got a surprise for you all.”

*The trio continue ahead to the central square of the town, where all the torches are lit, and see Sonic and Shadow’s teams have also arrived, and around the whole area is a crowd large enough to possibly be the whole town.*

Amy: “Hi, Sonic!”

Sonic: “Oh, hey Amy. Why were we called here?”

Princess Elise: “I asked you all to come, so that way my people can see the heroes who saved us from Eggman’s terrible plan.”

*The crowd is quite ecstatic and cheering loudly.*

Sonic waves to them: “Oh yeah. Heh, let’s go greet them.” *He’s off and running, high fiving the crowd.”

Tails: “At least things are back to normal again.”

Amy: “Let’s keep it that way.”

Chapter Text

Here we are in the post-game of Sonic 06 | A Retelling, and there is still plenty to do. One is to earn all those Soleanna Medals from the NPCs throughout Soleanna who eagerly expect your help. Another is that we can use the Soleanna Medals we’ve earned to use on the mirrors to go on Extra missions for some added challenges. There’s plenty of nice things to buy in the shops as well, including items and stuff for Chao and the expensive Gems to help boost the experience even more. Oh yeah, there’s fun to be had in the Chao Garden to raise Chao, of course, games for Soleanna Medals and just for fun. Oh, and to access the way to Soleanna’s Ruined Future area, there is a portal in Princess Elise’s castle that has appeared to allow us to travel back and forth to and from there.

Gems : Beautiful, glimmering jewels sold by the shopkeepers here in Soleanna during the Festival of the Sun. Each one seems to have a strange power when used. Activate it with having it equipped and pressing Triangle.

• Pink: Provides the ability Shrink, which makes the character 25% smaller but gives them a triple jump and more agility.
• Red: Provides the ability Rage, which will make even stronger enemies go down in one hit, but at the risk of drawing enemy attacks towards you.
• Yellow: Provides the ability Attract, drawing rings to you like an electric shield… which it kinda is since the character gains a shield as well.
• Green: Provides the ability Restore, which will use the energy in the gauge to revive the player should they die with no rings in hand. Mind that it has to be by touching an enemy or something damaging, and not death by pits/laval/water.
• Blue: Provides the ability Stomp. Any badnik underneath it that isn’t spiky there will be smashed, and ground  badniks nearby will be stunned.
• Purple: Provides the ability Lock, which will let Sonic, Shadow, and Silver use the Chaos meter an unlimited amount of time for 15 seconds.
• Black: Provides the ability Bomb, which will destroy all enemies on screen, using up whatever energy was in the bar.
• White: Provides the ability Perfect Defense, which will protect the user from everything that attacks them with the Chaos energy it has, including crushing, but not death by pits/lava/water/etc.
• Rainbow: Time to go Super, fellas! Provides invulnerability to all and gives Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow, and Silver with their Super forms for a stage, draining rings like it would. For the rest, it also allows unlimited flying for Tails and Rouge, unlimited weapons for Omega, Amy can call more hammers, and Elise unlimited fires, also draining rings.

Missions :

Sonic’s Story:

• Archaeological Help: Help save the Archaeologists in each stage trapped by badniks. Save them by popping them all.
• Kingdom Valley: They can be found in Knuckle’s courtyard area behind the cage.
• Wave Ocean: They can be found in the final ruin island, halfway through.
• White Acropolis: They can be found during the downward trek after breaking the first eye on the Egg Owl, after the first ski lift.
• Dusty Desert: They can be found in the ruined palace in the dining hall.
• Radical Train: They can be found in the first cavern area, on one of the bridges.
• Tropical Jungle: They can be found in the large ruins area towards the middle of the stage.
• The Weather Satellites: Turn on the various weather satellites throughout Soleanna to give the scientists accurate readings.
• Kingdom Valley: On the top level of the church area.
• Wave Ocean: Only doable on the return visit since Tails and Knuckles will be there, on top of the lighthouse.
• White Acropolis: Right at the first ski lift, which has a building beside it, with the satellite on top.
• G.U.N. Base: Right on top of the base building.
• Radical Train: Right at the beginning in the scaffolding area, on a separate path that doesn’t go to the road.
• Tropical Jungle: The only modern building in the jungle, a watchtower at the beginning that overlooks the place. Obviously use Tails or Knuckles.
• Soleanna Castle: On the roof of the castle, overlooking the sea.
• G.U.N. And Destroy: Help make Soleanna safer by destroying a certain number of enemies to lessen Eggman’s presence.
• Kingdom Valley: Destroy 10 badniks in the boost section.
• Wave Ocean: Destroy the badniks in the first beach area.
• White Acropolis: Destroy Eggman’s forces in his base.
• Dusty Desert: Destroy 4 Skorp-trucks in the boost section.
• Radical Train: Destroy the badniks in the Altar Cave.
• Tropical Jungle: Destroy the badniks in the altar area.
• Aquatic Base: Destroy the badniks in the whole area.
• Helping out a Friend: A Soleanna resident has lost one of their favorite items. Help them get it back.
• Kingdom Valley: A lost kite for a kid, caught on the wall of the first castle before the condor flight.
• Wave Ocean: A lost volleyball for a teen, around the lighthouse road before the boost section.
• White Acropolis: A stolen snowboard for an adult, leaning against the wall of Eggman’s base at the end.
• Dusty Desert: A lost cell phone for a G.U.N soldier, found near a building in the opening area.
• Radical Train: A lost hat from the conductor, found in the scaffolding area to the cliff road.
• Tropical Jungle: A lost magnifying glass for an explorer, in the beginning ruins area.
• Aquatic Base: A lost piece of armor for a Soleanna Guard at the castle, found near the second tank’s front.
• Lost Luggage: Badniks have stolen various tourists' luggage. Kindly, and swiftly, get them back from the badniks that have a luggage symbol over them.
• Kingdom Valley: Found with one of the Knight Egg Pawns in the final castle’s opening area.
• Wave Ocean: Found with a Spiked in the opening beach area, 
• White Acropolis: Found on a Skier Pawn in the tree maze.
• Dusty Desert: Found on one of the Djinn Pawns in the palace.
• Radical Train: Found on a Demolition Egg Pawn in the cave before the boost section.
• Tropical Jungle: Found on a G8TR in the beginning of the level.
• Aquatic Base: Found on a Mawz in the last tank.
• Safe and Sound: Various stall owners and businesses have had their safes/cash boxes stolen by Eggman’s toys. Go and break the safe symboled badniks to return the money back to their owners.
• Kingdom Valley: Found on an Egg Sentry in the beginning castle courtyard with Knuckles, which requires climbing onto a ballista wall.
• Wave Ocean: Found on an Egg Gunship in the beginning area.
• White Acropolis: Found on an Egg Rocketeer on one of the towers in the courtyard of Eggman’s base, so only Knuckles and Tails can get it.
• Dusty Desert: Found on one of the Skorp-Trucks in the boost section.
• Radical Train: Found with a Rexon in the final area, requiring Tails to fly to it.
• Tropical Jungle: Found on an Egg Grenadier near the end of the level.
• Aquatic Base: Found on an Egg Sentry in the final fight before the altar and Goal Ring.
• Save the Children: The weary future residents of Ruined Soleanna have had their kids stolen by Eggman’s badniks. Please save them before they get hurt.
• Eggman’s Foundry: Surrounded by Egg Sentries in the office area.
• Flame Core: Surrounded by Sols around the first destroyed generator.

Shadow’s Story:

• Archaeological Help: Help save the Archaeologists in each stage trapped by badniks. Save them by popping them all.
• Kingdom Valley: Found in the garden area among some of the badnik paths.
• Tropical Jungle: Found next to the first switch.
• White Acropolis: Found outside of Eggman’s base, by some snoozing badniks.
• Aquatic Base: Found in the final cave area before the Goal Ring.
• Radical Train: Trapped with some of the Luggs at the back of the train.
• Dusty Desert: Found in the axe swinging area.
• The Weather Satellites: Turn on the various weather satellites throughout Soleanna to give the scientists accurate readings.
• Kingdom Valley: Found on the balcony Rouge has to fly to, but it will bring out 4 Knight Pawns to fight first.
• Tropical Jungle: Actually, it’s Eggman’s satellite, but we can take it over by defeating the 4 Egg Sentries that pop up near it at the first switch.
• White Acropolis: Found on the tucked away cabin near the top of the mountain before the avalanche area, where 5 Snow-binauts will pop up to stop us.
• Radical Train Station: On top of the Radical Train station in Soleanna Castle Town.
• Wave Ocean: On the poor science boat that is stuck riding these terrible waves near the second ship.
• G.U.N. and Destroy: Help make Soleanna safer by destroying a certain number of enemies to lessen Eggman’s presence.
• Kingdom Valley: Destroy all the badniks in the garden area.
• Tropical Jungle: Destroy all the possible badniks on Eggman’s base. (So not the Mang-nos.)
• White Acropolis: Destroy all the badniks at Eggman’s base.
• Aquatic Base: Destroy all the badniks in the cave area.
• Radical Train: Destroy all the badniks on the train.
• Dusty Desert: Destroy all the badniks in the last part of the cave.
• Wave Ocean: Destroy 25 badniks in the entire stage.
• Lost Luggage: Badniks have stolen various tourists' luggage. Kindly, and swiftly, get them back from the badniks that have a luggage symbol over them.
• Kingdom Valley: Found on one of the Dancer Egg Pawns in the ballroom.
• Tropical Jungle: Found on a Gold Explorer Pawn near the second switch.
• White Acropolis: Found on one of the Security Egg Pawns in Eggman’s Base.
• Aquatic Base: Found on one of the Jaws at the end of the stage.
• Radical Train: Found on one of the Egg Pawns in the passenger section of the train.
• Dusty Desert: Found on an Egg Sentry in the final cave area.
• Wave Ocean: Found on one of the Chromatic Egg Pawns on the first ship.
• Safe and Sound: Various stall owners and businesses have had their safes/cash boxes stolen by Eggman’s toys. Go and break the safe symboled badniks to return the money back to their owners.
• Kingdom Valley: Found on an Egg Sentry during the fight in the throne room.
• Tropical Jungle: Destroy the Egg Rocketeer around the third switch.
• White Acropolis: Found on one of the Egg Gunships during the avalanche.
• Aquatic Base: Found on an Egg Sentry in the last part of the stage.
• Radical Train: Found in a Lugg in the second train car.
• Dusty Desert: Found on a Fool’s Jewel in the crystal maze area.
• Wave Ocean: Found in an Egg Cannon on the third ship.
• Save the Children: The weary future residents of Ruined Soleanna have had their kids stolen by Eggman’s badniks. Please save them before they get hurt.
• Flame Core: Surrounded by Rocky Orbinauts under the southeastern generator.
• Eggman’s Foundry: Saved from the Egg Semi at the end of the level.

Silver’s Story:

• Archaeological Help: Help save the Archaeologists in each stage trapped by badniks. Save them by popping them all.
• White Acropolis: Found on one of the rocky walkways during the river crossings.
• Radical Train: Found near the bottom of the first cave.
• Wave Ocean: Found on the left path’s starting area.
• Dusty Desert: Found next to the buildings of the southwestern target area.
• Kingdom Valley: Found in the basement dungeon at the base of the stairs.
• Aquatic Base: Found near the beginning, looking lost.
• The Weather Satellites: Turn on the various weather satellites throughout Soleanna to give the scientists accurate readings.
• The Ski Lift: On top of the building the ski lifts operate from. Silver will need to make some stairs up to it, or glide there from somewhere else.
• Radical Train Station, Soleanna Forest: Near to Silver’s Radical Train mirror, we can’t miss it.
• Wave Ocean: On the docks, though an Aero Chaser will appear to try and zap us.
• Kingdom Valley: Found in one of the holes the dragon makes, sticking out a window.
• Archaeological Retreat: On the roof of the retreat building. 
• Aquatic Base: Near the end of the caves, past the waterfalls, facing out to the sky.
• Helping out a Friend:  A Soleanna resident has lost one of their favorite items. Help them get it back.
• White Acropolis: A lost axe from one of the archaeologists, on one of the rocky outcroppings of the second river crossing.
• Radical Train: A lost loop of rope, also from an archaeologist, in the altar area near one of the buildings.
• Wave Ocean: A lost RC plane, for a nerd, on the eastern beach area before the Aero-Chasers.
• Dusty Desert: A lost ring for an engaged woman, near to the exit gate, guarded by badniks.
• Kingdom Valley: A lost sword for a Soleanna Guard, found in the basement area.
• Aquatic Base: A lost gem for an explorer, in the beginning cave area.
• Making Soleanna Beautiful: Quite simply, Silver’s team can earn 20 Soleanna Medals for helping to fix various things, like broken statues, misplaced decorations and more to the approval of Soleanna residents.
• Lost Luggage: Badniks have stolen various tourists' luggage. Kindly, and swiftly, get them back from the badniks that have a luggage symbol over them.
• White Acropolis: Found on an Egg Snowman during the opening climb.
• Radical Train: Found on an Egg Sentry in the tunnel to the final cave.
• Wave Ocean: Found on a Grounder during the underwater section.
• Dusty Desert: Found on a Monk-33 near the first target.
• Kingdom Valley: Found on an Egg Knight in the basement area.
• Tropical Jungle: Found on an Egg Grenadier.
• Aquatic Base: Found on a Bond Egg Pawn in the ending hall of the level.
• Safe and Sound: Various stall owners and businesses have had their safes/cash boxes stolen by Eggman’s toys. Go and break the safe symboled badniks to return the money back to their owners.
• White Acropolis: Found on a Egg Rocketeer in the final climb up to the altar and Goal Ring.
• Radical Train: Found on a Magenta Egg Flapper in the middle of the first cave area.
• Wave Ocean: Found on an Egg Gunship in the middle path.
• Dusty Desert: Found on an Egg Crusader at the top of the northwestern cliff area.
• Kingdom Valley: Found on a Dragoon Egg Pawn in the beginning area.
• Tropical Jungle: Found on a Black Egg Flapper.
• Aquatic Base: Found on a Cyan Egg Flapper after the large rocks.
• Save the Children: The weary future residents of Ruined Soleanna have had their kids stolen by Eggman’s badniks. Please save them before they get hurt.
• Flame Core: Surrounded by plenty of Mountaineer Egg Pawns in the first cave area.
• Eggman’s Foundry: Surrounded by the wall of badniks where we have to move the skyscraper to make a bridge. Destroy all the enemies to save him.

Extra Stages :

Sonic’s Story:

• Kingdom Valley:
• The Past: The biggest differences between the past and the present is that the castles and church are back to their former selves, with no broken pieces fallen off and looking majestic and regal. There’s also plenty of Mephiles’ shadowy creatures on patrol, some of them ‘haunting’ inside badniks and powering them up. The goal is still in the same place, in the church area of the large castle.
• The Future: In this good future of Kingdom Valley, the castles have been restored to their former glory and simulated holographic battles occur for onlookers. However, it seems a few of Eggman’s toys are trying to crash the battle, so get rid of them on the way to the Goal Ring.
• Wave Ocean:
• The Past: In the distant past of Wave Ocean, it seems we have entered a ripple in time where the world was being reformed by Iblis, so most of the ocean has been replaced with lava in various states of cooling. We’ll have to hydroplane where we can in some of the ocean areas, while jumping across cooled lava sections caused by the waves in others throughout the entire boost section. Thankfully, the island portion is the same, guarded by a few more Iblis monsters with Eggman’s toys.
• The Future: This ripple of a good future shows Wave Ocean looking just as beautiful as ever, though a few badniks remain to smash.
• White Acropolis:
• The Past: For the most part, traversing the snow-bounded mountain is the same trip as it was before, but now there are no ski lifts to carry us over the ice floes and only a few badniks in presence, though there’s plenty of Mephiles’ minions patrolling around as well. The final area where the ‘tower’ would be is just a camp full of badniks to smash and Mephiles’ minions, with the Goal Ring in the center.
• The Future: This good future has plenty of hoverboards to speed over the snowy slopes and provide a more fun ride down the mountain, ending with the Goal Ring near the base of the mountain.
• Eggman’s Foundry:
• The Past: This time ripple takes us to the factory in the midst of construction, where there are plenty more scaffolding around and more bottomless pits abound, with plenty of Construction Egg Pawns carrying drills and such to attack anyone passing by. The goal is at the end of the maze of paths, and we can go any way we please to the Goal Ring.
• The Future: The repaired future of Soleanna has New City bustling and thriving without Eggman’s influence, though a few badniks have snuck into the city. Run through the winding canal streets to the Goal Ring on the other end of the city.
• Flame Core:
• The Past: This stage takes place nearing the end of the volcano’s completion, the lava returning back underground, but none of Eggman’s lava generators or metal structures have been made yet. This is a pure speed stage, running through the rocky terrain to the volcano, then inside through the twisting tunnels to the center and the Goal Ring.
• The Future: Soleanna’s forest has thrived in the good future without Eggman’s reign, so the jungle has somewhat grown more into the forest and mountain. Make a whole lap around the mountain to clear out some badniks and reveal the Goal Ring.
• Dusty Desert:
• The Past: The stage has reverted back to its former glory, when people used to walk the streets of the once majestic town. Team Sonic can either run through the now bustling streets or jump across the fixed roofs to get through town. The dusty path from the present is now a long, cobblestone road leading into the beautiful palace that is being attacked by Eggman’s toys and Iblis’ monsters causing a ruckus. Blast on through the luxurious palace to the furnished, mazy basement to get to the Goal Ring at the end.
• The Future: This good future of Dusty Desert has also been restored through futuristic technology to revitalize the ruins into a living history area, though some badniks still remain to cause trouble.
• Radical Train:
• The Past: This time, we’re at some point before the train was built, so we’re purely taking the twisting cliffside road through the same caves to the Goal Ring in the 2nd cave, which has all the structures intact. Watch out for the extra Iblis monsters on patrol.
• The Future: The future of this cliff side road and train has been restored to its former glory with the altar area and bridges restored to withstand new earthquakes, should they happen again.
• Tropical Jungle:
• The Past:  Ultimately unchanged and untouched for not being affected by man. The only difference here is more Mephiles’ minions on the prowl, but we can handle this speedy stage.
• The Future: Over 200 years later, explorers have done their best to recreate the temples that once stood in the swamp, though still respecting all the nature that exists here.
• Aquatic Base:
• The Past: We’re off to some point in the past of the base being under construction, where it’s long tunnels twisting through the darkness lit only by torches. Expect heavy resistance of surprising Mephiles minions and Iblis monsters appearing along with some of Eggman’s lost toys confused on where they are.
• The Future: Mostly unchanged in the 200 years of growth, with just now an entire aquarium expanding from the beginning to the end of the stage to swim through.

Shadow’s Story:

• Kingdom Valley:
• The Past: Similar to Sonic’s, we’re in the medieval past of the castle, met with more knightly badniks and Mephiles minions on the prowl. Sneaking around is much tougher with their numbers, but there’s always blasting on through. Nothing much different about the trip through the castle itself to the Goal Ring in the church.
• The Future: *Spins the wheel of fate* Oh, looks like we got a bad future only a few years ahead, with a ton of Eggman’s toys, Iblis monsters and Mephiles minions infesting the entire castle. We’ll have to smash through them all to survive to the Goal Ring.
• Tropical Jungle:
• The Past: This past version of Tropical Jungle has the base under construction, with much less footing to walk on while badniks shoot at us. At least there’s plenty more vines and tree branches to swing around and grind on to the Goal Ring at the end.
• The Future: Shadow’s team finds themselves in the early bad future of Eggman’s win, the base firing off guns wildly at any intruders coming its way. We’ll have to be swinging and grinding fast through this stage to get across safely, since the base has no landings to speak of. Iblis monsters are in full force as well as we try to get to the Goal Ring at the end.
• White Acropolis: 
• The Past: Oddly could be considered an easier stage, since we don’t have to contend with the avalanche that occurs at the beginning of the stage, though the blizzard at the summit isn’t helping matters. Freezing time can help us see ahead to the end, which is the same encampment of Mephiles’ minions and badniks and the Goal RIng like in Sonic’s past stage.
• The Future: Time to visit the future and it’s another bad one. The volcano has erupted and all the snow is melting and converging with the lava. We’ll have to be quick and use Chaos Control to escape the rushing, cooled lava and through the heavy snow to escape to the ‘Goal Ring’ over the cliff of where Eggman’s Base is going to melt from.
• Flame Core:
• The Past: It appears that, before becoming a lava generator plant for his foundry, Dr. Eggman was using the volcano as a weapons stockpile facility for missiles, guns and badniks of all kinds. It only seems right to break in through the gates and clear out his stockpiles in an explosive way, our job only finished when everything is like a store after Black Friday.
• The Future: A good future is under siege of Eggman as he attempts one last time to conquer Soleanna by trying to make the volcano erupt with some powerful devices his badniks are carrying and cover the country in lava. Stop them at all costs, perhaps by hitting their payloads for an explosive finish.
• Eggman’s Foundry:
• The Past: Our arrival in this past stage takes us a few years after Eggman’s win, as he attempts to take down Soleanna New City for his factory. Although we know it’s a futile attempt, we must fight through this Robot Carnival/Storm style stage, fighting off all the badniks the Egg Semis drop upon us from different stages, and finally, the Egg Semis themselves for the Goal Ring.
• The Future: Also taking place in Soleanna New City’s repaired future, Shadow’s team traverses their own path through the city on the water, though theirs is more land based, and break through a slew of Eggman’s semis that are trying to attack the city again. Destroy them all to get the Goal Ring to appear.
• Aquatic Base:
• The Past: Take the cave portion of Shadow’s stage at the end and extend it over the whole stage is where we are in this time rippled area. We appear to be in a cavern tunnel that overlooks the sea on one side, with plenty of rivers and such to traverse and badniks to smash and a few Mephiles minions to spice things up.
• The Future: 200 years later, the Soleanna government extended their base further, so now that last cavern part is now a mixture of metal and natural rock to the exit and Goal Ring, along with updated equipment to spice things up.
• Radical Train:
• The Past: We take a trip to sometime in the past when the Radical Train line was being built, so instead of riding a train, we’re riding the rails like in Rail Canyon. Thankfully though, there are plenty of stations to take a breather at and not too many holes in the track where it hasn’t been built yet, though there are towers to climb there instead to get ahead.
• The Future: Another bad future greets us as we see that Eggman has gone hog wild on the tracks, with now 15 rails to grind on, but there are a lot of trains speeding back and forth, and worse yet being that there are lots of holes to avoid in the tracks. We’ll have to fight through some trains to make progress to the Goal Ring at the end, but don’t expect this to be easy.
• Dusty Desert:
• The Past: It’s off to the past of Dusty Desert’s ruinous cave and it seems those Arabian diggers must have visited Egypt or Sandopolis at one time since the interior of this cave is all sand slides with some breathing areas to see the murals and, at the very end, the Goal Ring and Mephiles’ scepter piece.  
• The Future: In this good future look of the cave, explorers have finally discovered the cave and got rid of all of Eggman’s traps. In their place, they’ve added some fun, simple floor and wall puzzles to solve for ring prizes. It still ends in Mephiles scepter piece spot, though it seems no one has ever found it again so they have a fake piece on display.
• Wave Ocean:
• The Past: So one has to wonder what the past version of a stage that took place on floating Eggman ships would be going to. Well, here’s a first, it’s an underwater stage for Shadow’s team. We are going to be going through some beautiful reefs among the seabed, looking for Eggman’s submarines that are scouting the island out. Go and destroy Eggman’s toys with Omega’s powers to reveal the Goal Ring in a cage.
• The Future: In this good future of this sea level, we’re back underwater again, where we can see people in their own subs enjoying the beauty of the sea, the trek much easier through some dug out ruins providing a faster way to the Goal Ring. Though watch out for the few Eggman badniks lurking in wait in the darkness.

Silver’s Story:

• Flame Core:
• The Past: I’ll be simple with this, we’ve jumped timelines to a few years after the trio of hedgehog’s win against Eggman, where the country is healing from the scars. It’s in somewhat a literal sense because the mountain did somewhat split apart in places, leaving the place unstable for living. The timely trio will have to fill those voids with rocks and dead trees to at least cover the scars and let time finish the rest, get the hint?
• The Future: Okay, listen closely: We’re in the bad future of where Eggman won, but after Silver and Sonic and Shadow finally got rid of Iblis and ran off Dr. Eggman and Metal Sonic. But you know evil villains, they always return for more. The battered country is trying to rebuild, but Eggman’s sent out all of his forces to try and conquer the land once more. Destroy every last one and fling Dr. Eggman and Metal Sonic into orbit to earn our Goal Ring.
• Eggman’s Foundry:
• The Past: Here’s a mind bender: This stage is the past version of a bad future that is in the different timeline of a GOOD Future. Head spinning yet? In short, we’re in the good timeline of beating Eggman and visiting Soleanna New City before it is finished, in mid construction. So there are plenty of construction arms and machines at work making the city bigger, so we’ll have to watch where we stand for falling objects. And of course, there are badniks trying to ruin the day, so get rid of them too on the way to the goal ring.
• The Future: One more time through Soleanna New City’s futuristic streets, the trio will have to rely on Silver’s time powers and psychokinesis, Amy’s strength, and Elise’s fire to cross the bustling land and canal streets to pop the final stragglers of Eggman’s toys trying to cause harm and get to the Goal Ring.
• White Acropolis:
• The Past: There are lots of ice walls blocking passage in some parts of the stage, but with the rest of the team here as well, and extra Iblis monsters and Mephiles minions, breaking through shouldn’t be too tough.
• The Future: It seems civilization has finally found this cave and has broken a lot of the icy slides and built bridges, making for easier crossing to the restored altar ruins at the base of the volcano. Watch out for those leftover badniks though.
• Radical Train:
• The Past: Nothing much to note here about the past of their stage, other than an influx of Iblis monsters causing trouble.
• The Future: Similar to Sonic’s good future of the cliff stage, the ruins are now restored and the lava suppressed and traps covered over. Makes for an easier stage to cross through besides the badniks still around.
• Wave Ocean:
• The Past: Their version of the island is about the same as it was in the present, but there are plenty more badniks on the prowl, and a few of Mephiles’ cretins for good measure to make things harder.
• The Future: It seems 200 years later, this island has been forgotten about and all the traps and wood have fallen over, making the trap crossing easier, along with an abundance of overgrowth making the paths even tighter.
• Dusty Desert:
• The Past: Team Silver’s time ripple to the past takes them to the actual Petra of the past, which has plenty of statues that need to be telekinetically moved in the 5 areas of before to open the gates to the Goal Ring, all with the badniks and Iblis monsters causing trouble around us.
• The Future: We have another bad future, the ruins have all crumbled due to Eggman destroying them all and the canyon is being filled with lava. We’ll have to climb to the top by jumping across sinking stones and more to get to the Goal Ring at the end.
• Kingdom Valley:
• The Past: There’s no dragon this time for the castle, but there are plenty more minions of Mephiles patrolling around with the badniks in this horrid past, attacks coming from all sides. The Goal Ring sits at the end of the grand hall full of monsters and badniks alike.
• The Future: All the traps have been covered up with wooden walkways, so there’s now no risk of death from that, though there are still quite a lot of badniks roaming around through the castle and a digital version of the dragon to play with whose much nicer and wanting to help us.
• Tropical Jungle:
• The Past: It seems we’ve rode a time ripple to an alternative past that has taken us to a different version of Tropical Jungle that is more ruins over the sea than forest. I am, of course, referring to the original Tropical Jungle for Silver and Rouge. *Shrugs* Hey, it wasn’t a bad stage, and with my improvements to their moves, this stage should pass by a lot quicker.
• The Future: So… taking from that, the bad future equivalent of that past level has the team going through the decaying ruins that fall over easily to Silver’s moves. We’ll have to keep moving to avoid sinking into the water below, though at least it’s not instant death if we can find the springs to the next ruins.
• Aquatic Base:
• The Past: Silver’s past version of the stage is mostly unchanged, though there are more rocks to contend with on the path, Iblis and Mephiles monsters on the prowl, and the last section being a short tunnel to the Goal Ring with pits in it that Elise needs to light flams for to see where they are to avoid them.
• The Future: 200 years later, the royalty of Soleanna has updated the caves of Soleanna, though they’ve only made sure to build their structures around the rocks to reinforce them, while still showing the views and sea smell outside