Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Yo!”

Ellen stiffened when she heard that voice call out to her from the window of her classroom. Sharp teeth clamped around the stem of her lollipop Slowly, and with nervously wide-eyes, she tore her head from the screen of her phone and looked to her left. Red eyes met mischievous green ones.

Sonic the Hedgehog. Victoria Housekeeping’s latest headache.

“...Good grief, he’s naked!” Ruby cried out in shock, pointing at the cobalt hedgehog sitting on a tree next to Ellen’s desk. And the only thing Sonic did in response was raise an eyebrow.

“I didn’t know you had friends,” he commented with a smirk to Ellen.

The room was quiet for a moment.

“Begone, pervert!” Ellen’s friend Lynn grabbed a pencil from her case and tossed it at Sonic. With a bored smile, he dodged it by tilting his friend. That didn’t stop the others from grabbing their items and lobbing them at him.

Ellen sat at her desk, still hunched over with her phone in her hand. Her mouth was slightly open, so the lollipop fell out of her mouth and landed on the floor. “Ellen!” She blinked when Mona said her name. “Help us get rid of this creep!”

“Y-yeah!” Ellen grabbed her candy from the floor and weakly tossed it out the window.

Watching all this, Sonic sighed. With little effort, he dodged everything tossed his way (more pencils, pens, a calculator, and entire desk. Once he was bored of playing tag, Sonic sighed loudly and swung off the tree branch, away from the school. Ellen’s friends sighed in relief once he was out of sight.

“Oh thank god he left…” Lynn sighed, dropping to her seat and sliding down half way. “Honestly, what was he thinking? Strutting around… naked next to a school!?”

“You think he was some kind of kid? He seemed pretty short,” Mona commented, and placed her hand next to her waist. “I mean, he was basically this tall, right?

“My point still stands. That just makes me wonder what all the parents are doing,” Lynn shrugged.

“I feel like we should tell somebody about this,” Ruby added after a few beats of silence. “Right, Ellen?”

The shark thiren was still staring out the window. “Ellen? You good?”

“Hmm?” She flinched and looked back. Her large tail was stiff. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just shocked, is all.”

“Hey, Ellen, you wouldn’t happen to know that kid, do you?” Lynn asked her.

“Never met any beast-type hedgehog thirens before in my life, nope.” Ellen maybe said that a bit too quickly and curtly. 

Lynn raised an eyebrow at her and frowned. “Really? Cuz… it seemed like he was talking to you,” She commented. 

To save face, Ellen shrugged and went back to looking at the screen of her phone. “Maybe he’s stalking me or something, I dunno.” Her phone began to buzz; she was getting a call from a payphone. “Anyways, I have to use the restroom. Don’t call me if you want something from the vending machines.”

“Hey, Ellen, hold up!” Mona tried to say, but Ellen was already out the door and disappeared down the hall. 

“Weird… usually she’s only like that when we’re talking about work,” Ruby mumbled to herself.

Ellen looked around for the hall. Once she determined no one was watching her, she ducked into the boy’s restroom. 

Sonic was sitting on top of the dividers, one leg crossed over the other and a smug grin on his muzzle. “So, are you the introvert the extroverts adopted or what?” He asked.

“Quiet, you,” Ellen huffed. Her cheeks were slightly red. “Did we really have to meet up here? And what happened to the clothes Lycaon gave you?”

“A, I’m not wearing anything from a guy whose sense of style is from the 1750s, and B, the girl’s restroom isn’t exactly empty right now,” Sonic said. He jumped off the divider and landed in front of her. He was roughly half Ellen’s height, eye level with her midriff.

“Whatever, just make it quick. It’d be a nightmare if somebody caught us,” She sighed.

Sonic scoffed. “Don’t you know who I am?” Ellen levelled an ineffective glare at him. “Anyways, Tails did a scan on that Ether stuff. Apparently, it’s like the Chaos Emeralds, but not exactly.”

“Chaos Emeralds…?” Ellen had a vague recollection of how Sonic and his band were warped into New Eridu; Eggman taking the gems and kidnapping Cream, which lead to a mission gone wrong that left them stranded here (and led to Sonic giving NEPS a run for their money).

“Okay… how does that help with getting you guys back home?” Ellen asked him.

“That’s the neat part, it doesn’t! It actually makes things more complicated…” He leaned back somewhat and scratched his ear with a gloved hand. “Be careful if you go into Hollows from here on out. Tails has no idea how the Chaos Emeralds will interact with them.”

“Is that it?” Ellen frowned at him. “Couldn’t you have told me this over a text?”

“Did they ever tell you patience is a virtue?” Sonic asked with a cocky tilt of his head.

“Ironic, coming from you.” Sonic shrugged.

“Second thing is that Lycaon can’t pick you up today, that’s my job today. He’s busy.”

Ellen frowned again. “With what?”

Out on the streets of Lumina Square, Lycaon let out a harsh whine as Missile-Wrist’s missile fist slammed into his cheek and knocked him into a car. The vehicle crumpled under him, and the broken glass dug into his finely pressed suit.

“Watch out!” He opened his eye when he heard Tails shout, and lunged out of the way just as the fist struck the car’s fuel tank and made it explode.

“Oooh ho ho ho ho!” Dr. Eggman chortled from above them as the canid pair struggled against his robot. He was sitting in his Egg Mobile, and eating popcorn as he watched the fight from video feeds recorded by Spinners. “Have you had enough punishment for today, dog? Just call the mayor and tell him to hand control over the city to me! Then I won’t have to do anything nasty!”

Lycaon snarled. When Missile-Wrist launched its other fist, he twirled around the fist and grabbed the rope connected to the arm. It retracted, and Lycaon turned around to push the fist, keeping it from returning to the Super-Badnik. The engines on his mechanical calves burst to life, but even with the extra propulsion he was being dragged towards Missile-Wrist. The launchers on its chest began to power on.

“Miles, now!” Lycaon shouted, his voice strained.

In the air, Tails pulled up on the control stick of the Tornado-2, looping upwards and then diving back down. Gunfire rained down from the sky, striking Missile-Wrist in the head but doing little else aside from getting its attention. So Missile-Wrist fired its homing rockets upwards, forcing Tails to fly out of the way to avoid being shot down.

With it’s attention diverted, Lycaon let go of the fist and knelt down; his legs launched right into Missile-Wrists fist, and with a powerful swing he slammed the heel of his leg into the robot’s head. It only knocked it back by an inch.

Snarling, Lycaon used his leg to push himself above Missile-Wrist and stomp back down, making it kneel. He landed behind the Super-Badnik and dashed forwards again; he ducked underneath an arm swing and kicked upwards, slightly dislodging the shoulder from its socket.

Missile-Wrist stood back and raised its working left arm, allowing Tails the opportunity to fire larger caliber bullets into its back. It stumbled forwards, and Lycaon struck again, attacking with a flurry of rapid, ice-covered kicks to Missile-Wrist’s chest.

One fierce strike knocked the robot onto its back with a loud thud, and covered its rocket launchers in ice. “Time to finish this…!” Lycaon raised his foot–

And snarled in pain as a bullet hit his shoulder and knocked him back. “Dammit…!” He placed his hand over the wound to stall the bleeding. Glancing upwards, he saw Eggman smirking down at him, twirling a pistol in his finger as the protective glass of his Egg Mobile while he chewed on another handful of popcorn.

“Lycaon, are you alright?” Tails asked as the Tornado-2 flew over the feral butler.

“It’s just a flesh wound,” He growled. He removed the hand from his shoulder and licked the blood off his palm. “You handle Eggman. I’ll deal with his machine.” Tails nodded and gave him a thumbs up.

“Handle me!? Do you really think you can–! AAAH!” The Egg Mobile was tossed around like in the air by the Tornado-2’s bullets. Eggman spilled his popcorn to grab the controls. “Leave me alone, you crazy fox!”

As they left, Missile-Wrist used its arms to push itself back onto its feet and extended its working arm. Growling, Lycaon launched himself at the Super-Badnik again. Missile-Wrist stomped forwards as well, moving faster than Lycaon anticipated. He placed his hands on the ice covered rocket launchers to vault over and kicked it in the back of the head.

Missile-Wrist’s right arm spun around, so when Lycaon landed he raised his leg to kick it off. But when he was about to hit it; the red lines on the fist extended, revealing themselves to be claws that grabbed his ankle.

Missile-Wrist launched its fist, which ripped off Lycaon’s mechanical leg by the middle of the calf. The momentum of the fist swept Lycaon off his foot; he would’ve fallen snout first had the fist not retracted and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck. His body jerked as the fist came to a sudden stop, smashing the ice covering Missile-Wrist’s launchers.

“Miles… I require some assistance!” Lycaon managed to say as launchers started to glow. 

Before they could fear, a black blur was stabbed into the arms; a pair of shark-themed shears. The blade cut through wires with ease, making Missile-Wrist drop Lycaon on the floor. Then, it was knocked back a blue blur that slammed into its chest, knocking it farther away in a single hit than Lycaon could in a flurry.

Sonic landed in front of him. “Hey, old man.” He turned his head slightly and smirked at the broken prosthetic. “Nice pedicure.”

Lycaon growled slightly. “What happened to the suit and slacks I gave you?”

“Ask Rina. Maybe she found it!” Sonic snickered.

Missile-Wrist recovered from its tumble and stood back up. It looked at the shears for a moment, and then glanced back at Sonic. The blue lens turned bright red as it fired the next set of rockets at them.

Smirking, Sonic raced forwards, grabbed one rocket and tossed it at another, making those and the ones next to it explode. He grabbed another rocket that whizzed past him which carried him into the air. The other missiles followed him upwards, whizzing over Lycaon. “He’s all yours, Ellen!” Sonic shouted.

“What!? You brought her–!” Lycaon heard metal shred. He saw Ellen pull out her shears from Missile-Wrists arms and stab them through its arm, dismembering it. “Ellen! You’re supposed to be in school!”

“I’m on break,” She muttered offhandedly. Missile-Wrist loomed over. “And you’re in my way.” The Super-Badnik slammed its head down, and when Ellen jumped it away it kicked its foot out. It slammed into the handle of her shears and knocked her back.

Missile-Wrist fired another salvo of rockets. Ellen tilted her head, and then rushed forwards, swinging her shears around her while her crimson eyes glinted dangerously. The blades of her shears sliced through rockets, making them explode behind her as she ran towards Missile-Wrist.

The Super-Badnik tried to kick her again. Ellen slid to the right and raised her shears; she opened them and thrust forwards, clamping the blades around Missile-Wrist’s loose shoulder joint. It didn’t cleave through the metal, so instead she pulled, ripping out a chunk of metal and wires. The arm went slack.

Before Missile-Wrist could fire another set of rockets, Ellen jumped up, and with a yell, stabbed her shears into the robot’s optics. The first thrust broke the lens, the second one just barely managed to reach the camera behind it. Ellen bared her fangs and repeatedly stabbed her weapon into Missile-Wrists until it was a gouged-out hole.

Ellen hoisted her shears over her shoulder and shouted into the sky. “Hey, Sonic! There’s a hole, now!”

“Really?” Sonic was still in the, flying around and hopping from rocket to rocket, helping Tails harass the doctor. “On it!” He turned to Eggman and winked. “Same time next week?”

“What are you–!?” Eggman shouted and pulled on his mustache as Sonic tilted his wrist downwards. The rocket carrying him flew downwards, and the others chased after him like they were programmed to. “N-no! Missile-Wrist, get out of the way!”

“Fat chance!” Ellen jumped off Missile-Wrist’s head and whirled around in the air, tossing her shears downwards and giving it more momentum by slapping her tail into it. The shears were just barely able to cut through its foot and pierce the ground, pinning it down.

Missile-Wrist looked up; Sonic stuck his tongue as he let go of the rocket, which cleanly flew through the hole in the eye Ellen made. It and the others exploded, decimating Missile-Wrist from the inside out.

Ellen stuck out her hand and grabbed Sonic by the top spine as he blasted backwards from the shockwave. “Woo!” He cheered. He flipped backwards and stood on Ellen’s shoulders. “How’d you like, Egg Face? Got any more toys for us to scrap?” As he talked, Ellen walked over to the shears and pulled them out of the remains of Missile-Wrist’s foot before levelling a cold glare at Eggman.

The doctor snarled. “This isn’t over, Sonic! It doesn’t matter how many other half-breeds you team up with. I will win! Someday!” With annoyed huff, Eggman turned around and flew away.

“...Hey, is what he said discriminatory or something?” Sonic looked down at Ellen to ask her. She shrugged.

“To some people, I guess?” Ellen’s tail flicked idly behind her. “Though, I wouldn’t exactly call this thing ‘half’ of me.”

“I mean, your tail is roughly as long as you are tall. It’s close enough.”

“Well, yeah, but I don’t really do anything with it. It’s more decoration, as reductive as that is.”

As the two bickered about the racial insinuations of Eggman’s words, the Tornado-2 reverted back into a biplane and landed next to the Lycaon. Tails jumped out of the cockpit helped Lycaon up. “Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine. The bleeding stopped already,” Lycaon said. He moved his shoulder and hissed in pain. “Rina can clean and stitch the wound close when we return to the mayor’s office. Speaking of returning… Sonic!”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll take her to school, lickity-split!” Sonic said in an exasperated tone. Lycaon groaned to himself slightly and he jumped off Ellen’s shoulder. “Wanna hit up a convenience store, first?”

“Fine. You’re paying for my candy,” Ellen pointed at him. “And put on some pants, too.”

“Fat chance!” Sonic swept Ellen off her feet. “I’m taking the scenic route, by the way.”

“Whatever. Just make sure to reach the school before the next class starts–!” And they were off.

Lycaon watched the cloud of dust kicked up. His muzzle was curled downwards in a deep frown. “Let’s be off while NEPS is still licking their wounds,” he told Tails.

“Right!” The fox cub flew up and grabbed the collar. He grunted as he struggled to pick up the mass of muscle and fur that was Lycaon. “Ooof! You’re… really heavy!” His namesakes whirred like rotors he slowly carried Lycaon into the cockpit of the Tornado-2.

Back at the Mayor’s office, Lycaon was shirtless; his claws dug into the wooden armrest of the chair as Rina stitched his shoulder. On the other side, Tails tightened a new leg he made for Lycaon.

“Is everything alright?” Rina asked as she dug the needle into Lycaon’s blood matted fur again. “You seem tense.”

“I mean,” Tails looked up from his work and pointed his wrench at the needle she was holding.

“Yes, well, aside from this.” The head maid of Victoria Housekeeping pulled on the string, making Lycaon hiss. With a flick of her wrist, she cut the string with her nail.

“Nothing. I’m just concerned, is all,” The wolf-man sighed, placing one hand over his patched eye.

“Is this about Eggman’s attack on Lumina Square?” Rina asked him. “I heard about it on the news when I was with Corin. That robot, Missile-Wrist, went from Fantasy Resort all the way to Lumina Square. Are all of the doctor’s robots that powerful?”

Tails shook his head. “Thankfully, no. The police can handle basic Badniks, but they won’t be able to stop his advanced models like Missile-Wrist or his personal Mechas.”

“And they’ll become even stronger with the Chaos Emeralds,” Lycaon sighed. Gems of ultimate power are now scattered around the city. “You said that it’s possible for one to utilize their power, yes?”

“Only a select few, in my world’s case. Sonic, Shadow, and Silver can all use Chaos Control, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Knuckles was able to do the same,” Tails said with a slight frown. “However, now that brings up the question of whether or not you guys can use their power, too.”

“Earlier today, you discovered that Ether emits a similar energy signature to the Chaos Emeralds,” Rina said to herself as she placed gauze over Lycaon’s shoulder. “It stands to reason that someone from our world would be corrupted by the Emerald’s energy, yes?”

“What about those with higher levels of Ether resistance?” Lycaon asked rhetorically. “Those individuals should have greater control over the Emerald’s energy, yes?”

“Most likely, but not to the extent that Knuckles or the hedgehogs have,” Tails said “Our world has been stewing the Emerald’s energy since its birth and they’re integral to its lifecycle. Meanwhile your exposure to Ether is more recent, if we’re speaking on a universal scale.”

“So, it’s entirely possible that someone from our reality will experience some form of backlash if they try to use the Emerald…” Lycaon reasoned. “Though the question remains, what sort of backlash will it be?”

“I hope to never find out, to be honest,” Tails said “Anyways, I’ve finished the repairs on your foot. It’s good as new!” Lycaon crossed his leg to get a better look at the repairs. 

He smiled slightly when he noticed the two-tailed sigil on the left booster. “Was that really necessary?” Tails blinked and sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.

“Ah ha ha, sorry! Force of habit!”

“Think nothing of it. I think it’s adorable you have your own logo!” Rina said, smiling down at the fox. “Master Lycaon, I also finished dressing your wound. Try to not put too much stress on your shoulder, otherwise you’ll start bleeding again.”

“I know. Thank you, Rina and Tails.” Lycaon grabbed a white shirt from the coffee table and put it back on; the sleeves strained slightly against his forearms. “Let’s go down stairs. We have to inform Mayor Mayflower about this.”

“Right now? In person? Master Lycaon, you’re injured,” Rina said, gently placing her hands on his shoulder as he buttoned up his shirt.

“And Eggman and the Exaltists are out there, waiting for the moment to strike,” Lycaon responded gruffly.

He exited the room and walked towards the staircase. From the railing, he could see Sonic, Corin, Cream, Cheese, and Ellen in the lobby; the hedgehog was teaching them a new dance. He alternated hopping between as he talked. The three girls mimicked his movements.

Then Sonic smirked; he told them something which made Ellen roll her eyes and Corin blink and flail her arms. The hedgehog dropped to the ground and started breakdancing, spinning on his shoulder and kicking out his legs. Corin tried to do the same, but she ended up using her arms to spin slowly around. Cream chastised Sonic for teasing them with Cheese nodding beside her, though he was simply laughing.

Lycaon exhaled through his nose.

“Okay, so I know this might sound weird, but…” Lycaon looked down; Tails walked beside him and jumped up to hold onto the railing. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Sonic this excited in recent memory.”

“What do you mean?” Rina asked curiously. “Has he not always been this lively?”

“Sonic’s really mellowed out these past few years,” Tails answered with a shrug. “Back in the day, he’s been ‘Oh boy! New adventure!’ Nowadays, he’s ‘Cool, adventure’. Does that make any sense?”

“Is that a form of a trauma response…?” Rina wondered aloud.

“Boredom, must likely,” Lycaon said, looking back down. Now Sonic was dancing for the girls, though Corin was still trying to mimic his movements. Tails nodded.

“Kinda hard to excite yourself to go exploring, if you’ve basically explored everything already,” Tails said with a shrug. “So… you’re cool with us being friends with Ellen and Corin, right?”

Lycaon blinked at the question. “You’ve become important allies to us. Maintaining a working relationship is important to achieve our goals.”

“You didn’t answer me,” Tails said. He looked condescendingly at Lycaon, and the butler had to remind himself that Tails was, apparently, only eleven years old.

“What I want shouldn’t come at the cost of what Corin and Ellen deserve,” Lycaon said in a gruff voice. “If they wish to be friends with all of you, then I won’t object.” As if on cue, Sonic looked away from Ellen and the others and looked up Lycaon. The hedgehog gave the wolf a cocky smirk.

“But he at least needs to be decent.” Lycaon adjusted his collar and walked off to find Sonic a shirt.

“...he still didn’t answer my question,” Tails sighed and placed his fists on his hip.

Rina giggled softly as Lycaon retreated. “Don’t mind him. He’s just worried.”

“He’s got nothing to worry about. Sonic practically raised me, and I turned out great!” Tails said. He looked down the stairs. Somehow, the dance lesson had turned into Sonic balancing a vase on his head, while Ellen had her shears open and prepared to throw them. Corin was panicking, while Cream and Cheese were tugging on Sonic and Ellen respectively.

“Well, Ellen and Corin are closer to Sonic’s age than you,” Rina said with a chuckle. Tails could only laugh awkwardly in response as Ellen tossed the shears.

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG
Ether / Attack / Team Sonic

HP - 6120 | Pen Ratio - 0%
DEF - 600.2 | Impact - 93
ATK - 600.2 | Anomaly Mastery - 94
CRIT Rate - 19.4% | Anomaly Proficiency - 93
CRIT DMG - 50% | Energy Regen - 1.2

CORE PASSIVE: Sonic Drive
A Tension Gauge and Boost Charges appear underneath Sonic’s health bar. When Sonic performs his EX Special Attack, he consumes one [Boost Charge] to enter Overclock Mode [Max. 5]. Overclock Mode lasts 5 seconds; while in Overclock Mode, Sonic cannot be swapped out, and in return Sonic’s [ATK and Crit DMG increases by 30%, and Vital View]. When Sonic exits Overclock Mode, his [DEF decreases by 45%] for 8 seconds.

Sonic fills the Tension Gauge overtime. When the [Tension Gauge reaches 100%], he gains [1 Boost Charge] and [his Crit Rate increases by 16%] for 12 seconds.  When a Boost Charge is used, the [Tension Gauge cannot be filled] for 10 seconds.

ADDITIONAL ABILITY: Blue Star
When another character in your Squad is a Stun or Defense Agent;
When Sonic is in Overclock Mode and triggers a Chain Attack, the Stun DMG multiplier of the attacked enemy [increases by 50%], also, [the duration of Overclock Mode is increased by 4 seconds]. This effect can only be activated once every 20 seconds (If it can be activated, the star beside Sonic’s Tension Gauge will glow).

BASIC ATK
Homing Attack - Sonic homes in on the closest enemy, dealing Ether DMG. Press repeatedly or hold the Basic ATK Button to use Sonic Combo (or Spin Slash when in Overlock Mode) after this attack lands.

Sonic Combo - Unleashes a rapid series of strikes against a nearby enemy, dealing Ether DMG. Cannot be used in Overclock Mode.

Spin Slash - Sonic spins in a wide circle, dealing Ether DMG in wide AoE around him. Using Homing Attack immediately after this will have Sonic home in on all enemies that were damaged by Spin Slash.

Phantom Rush - When in Overclock Mode, afterimages of Sonic appear and rapidly strike nearby enemies, dealing Ether DMG. Holding the attack button has the afterimages continue to attack, even if Sonic is out of range. When the attack ends, the afterimages all launch the enemies in Sonic’s direction, where he creates a small tornado that lasts three seconds and deals Ether DMG.

DODGE
Quick-Step - A rapid dash dodge. Sonic is invulnerable while using this skill.

Bullet Time - When an enemy performs an attack that can be Dodge Countered, pressing the Dodge Button has Sonic gain Vital View S (enemies stop completely) for 4 seconds instead of dodging.

Dash: Sonic Boom - Hold or Double tap the dodge button to make Sonic run. Running makes the Tension Gauge fill up slightly faster, but it is also harder to control Sonic. If Sonic is hit by an attack while running, one Boost Charge is lost and Vital View is activated. While in Overclock Mode, Sonic

Dash Attack: Spin Attack - Sonic curls up into a ball and runs over the enemy, dealing Ether DMG multiple times.

Dash Special: Flare Kick - During Spin Attack, Sonic uncurls and kicks his feet upwards, dealing Ether DMG.

EX Dash Special: Blue Tornado - During Spin Attack, Sonic uncurls and spins his feet around, forming a tornado around him that lasts 3 seconds and deals Ether DMG.

SPECIAL
Spin Kick - Sonic drops to the ground to unleash a sweeping kick, dealing Ether DMG.

EX Special: Sonic Boom - Sonic kicks his feet wildly, launching wind blades that deal Ether DMG.

EX Special: Wild Rush - After performing a Dash Attack or Dash Special, Sonic homes onto the closest enemy, dealing Ether DMG. After the initial attack, hold the Special Button to have Sonic home in on the next enemy up to three times, dealing Ether DMG.

EX Special: Cross Slash - When in Overclock Mode, after performing Sonic Boom, Sonic launches multiple Chaos Energy energy blades at the enemy. It deals massive Ether DMG, but immediately depletes the Tension Gauge and consumes all Boost Charges.

ASSIST
Quick Assist: Recovery Smash - Sonic smashes into the knocked back character, dealing Ether DMG.

Defensive Assist: Perfect Parry - Sonic parries the enemy’s attack, dealing massive Daze.

Assist Follow-Up: Grand Slam - Can also be activated by pressing the Special Button after a Defensive Assist, which also consumes a Boost Charge. Sonic homes in and slams into the parried enemy, dealing Ether DMG, and slightly fills up the Tension Gauge.

CHAIN
Shooting Star Kick - Sonic dives down to deliver a devastating kick, dealing massive Ether DMG. While in Overclocked Mode, multiple afterimages appear that also deal Ether DMG to surrounding enemies.

Ultimate: Light Speed Attack - Sonic smashes into enemies at light-speed, dealing massive Ether DMG. Sonic automatically gains 1 Boost Charge.

Chapter Text

In a dark living room, Eggman sat on the couch, with a glass bottle of Chaos Cola in his left hand, the TV remote in his right, and a bowl of assorted snacks on his lap. With a sigh, he flips through stations while drinking his soda.

After the Chaos Control misfire, his tower base had been warped to the bottom of a large man-made canyon (at least he assumes it’s manmade since the canyon walls had blast marks on them). Thankfully, he’s close enough to the city that he can get enough Wi-Fi, and not so close to Scott Outpost that he can be detected.

Eventually, he landed on some cheap soap opera flick, 'La Ultima Pasion'. Eggman set the remote down and watched in silence.

Sage poked her head out through the doorway and frowned. The light blue glow of her body didn’t get Eggman’s attention. “Orbot?” Next to her, the red spherical assistant (his serial number is 5A-55) looked up from his tablet. “Does Father usually become this… demoralized after a loss?”

Orbot shrugged. “He probably wanted to impress you today with a quick victory. This is the first evil plot you’ve been a part of since the Starfall Islands, after all.”

“But Father doesn’t need to impress me,” Sage said, floating away from the darkly lit room. “As his daughter, I am programmed to find everything he does to be inspiring.”

“Trust me, you’ll grow out of it.” Sage pouted at him. “The Boss won’t stay like that for long, anyways. Once Metal Sonic finishes his reconnaissance of this planet, he’ll be out and about to conquer as much as he can before Sonic inevitably stops him.”

“Speaking of, how goes Brother’s mission?” Sage asked. Orbot swiped his gloved fingers on the tablet and tapped the screen.

“Sending you the info now. Despite what I said earlier, there’s not much to conquer. Those giant bubbles of distorted space and probably-Chaos Energy cover large swaths of the planet’s surface. At least, that’s what Metal Sonic has observed so far.”

Sage’s eyes brightened as she projected a map of the world onto the wall. New Eridu was located on the North-Eastern Hemisphere of the globe, surrounded by large bubbles of distorted space. Beyond that were uninhabited cities for miles and miles with signs of nature slowly retaking the ruins.

“So, yeah. There’s not many people to brutally conquer and lord over,” Orbot said. 

“No…” Sage nodded as she looked at the map. Her eyes turned red, and her white dress became black. “But. There is plenty of free real estate and resources. Send a request to Metal Sonic,  asking him to take note of any abandoned mines and pockets of ore he finds that aren’t in distorted space.”

Orbot nodded slowly. “Normally, I’m not supposed to take orders from anyone but the Boss, but since you’re his surrogate daughter, might as well.” He sent the new commands to Metal Sonic with only a slight tremble. “That might be beneficial for my mental health in the long run.”

Sage didn’t hear that last part. “I feel so… helpful!” She exclaimed, her eyes shining blue once more. “Is this how you feel everyday, helping Father on his conquests?”

Orbot made a so-so motion with hand. “My code does most of the heavy lifting, to be honest.”

“I must tell Father about how much I helped! He’ll certainly be proud of me!” Sage floated through the door and appeared on the armrest of the couch. But just before she could say anything, the TV screen flickered. Eggman grunted.

“Blasted thing…!” He growled. 

The video feed returned, but instead of the soap opera the screen now displayed a breaking news story. Eggman, intrigued, leaned closer to the screen, and Sage tilted her head.

“An unusual gemstone was discovered today at the Brant Street construction site, which is currently managed by Belobog Industries. Eyewitnesses report that the smart construction machinery began to malfunction when it came into contact with this strange jewel.”

A wide smile appeared, splitting Eggman’s face. “A Chaos Emerald,” he realized. He stood up proudly. “Sage! Get me my cards! I have an Emerald to steal!”

Ellen heard a tap on her bedroom window. She pushed her chair away from her desk and turned towards the right to see Sonic looking at her through the glass. He actually had clothes on, too; just a varsity jacket with his name on the back and ‘91 on the front, but it also covered everything from his neck(?) to his knees.

He smiled and waved. In response, Ellen rolled her eyes and walked over to let him. “What’s the occasion? Did Eggman do something again?” She asked as Sonic rolled onto her bed and then onto the floor.

“Really? Can’t a guy go out to meet his friends?” He asked with a cheeky smile.

“The only times we’ve talked was when there was a fight going on,” Ellen said in her usual deadpan voice. She reached into the pocket of her sweater and took out a wrapped sucker. “Back when you landed in our last client’s pool, when you broke Cream and Cheese out of Scott Outpost, and yesterday. So you could say I’ve been conditioned to expect something like that.”

“And I want to change that,” Sonic said, holding a sucker of his own. Ellen blinked, and then looked at her own hand. It was empty. 

“Hey!” She said, stomping her foot on the ground. 

“Relax! I got you something!” Sonic reached into his spines and brought out a bag of Chaos Cola gummies. “Luckily, Tails still had some in his lunch box. Try it!”

Sonic tossed the bag at her. When she grabbed it, she examined the packaging and frowned at the weird alien mascot made of water. Still, she opened the bag with her sharp teeth and popped one into her mouth. “Hm. Edible.”

Sonic frowned when Ellen dumped the rest into her mouth. “Edible? That’s all you have to say?”

“It also has plenty of sugar, according to the nutrition facts,” Ellen said as she read the table on the packaging. “So, it can keep me awake just fine.”

“Huh. I wonder if Rina’s cooking fried your taste buds,” Sonic sighed and stuck the orange-flavored sucker into his mouth. “Anyways, where do you hang out today?”

“I don’t really care. Where do you wanna go?” Ellen asked instead of answering.

“Wherever you wanna go!” Sonic said with a smirk, waiting for Ellen’s response. He twirled the sucker around in his mouth, making the stick go from corner to corner against his lips. The smug look made Ellen exhale through her nose. “Nothing? You really are an adopted introvert, huh?”

“When I’m with my other friends, I’m not the one making plans,” Ellen said, scratching the side of her head. “I just go along with whatever idea they have, if it seems fun.”

“Well, then what do you do for fun with them?” Sonic asked her.

“...I guess we could go to the arcade if you want? There’s a good one over by Sixth Street. It has a dance game. I think you’d be interested in that,” Ellen suggested with an awkward shrug.

Sonic smiled cheekily at her. “Only if you’re prepared to lose! C’mon, let’s go!” He said, already turning around walking out of her bedroom. 

“Well, let me get ready first!” Ellen said, reaching for the jacket and backpack hanging from the headrest of her bed and her wallet on her desk. She briefly considered grabbing her shears, which rested against the wall, but shrugged and left without it. She instead took a stash of hard candy from her desk drawer.

“Are we taking the subway?” She asked him as they exited the apartment.

“Eh. I wouldn’t mind getting a tour of the town. It’ll help me get to know the place and run around better,” Sonic said with a noncommittal shrug.

Ellen frowned at him. She’s pretty sure whatever tour she could give him would be significantly slower than him running around aimlessly, or even flying around on the Cyclone. “Fine. But don’t complain about it being too slow,” Ellen sighed.

“Relax! I’m not that impatient,” Sonic exclaimed with a wink.

“Thanks for coming all this way, Ms. Proxy. Sorry we had to bother you again, especially after last time,” Ben Bigger grumbled softly as he and Belle got out of the Belobog Industries truck. The proxy smiled in his direction.

“Don’t worry about Ben. I’m always happy to help,” Belle said cheerily. Under her breath, she added, “Because someone keeps raising the electricity bills!”

<C// Master, it is not my fault that you decided to neglect your cover business for this long,> Fairy sassed Belle from her phone. The speaker was quiet enough then Ben couldn’t hear the AI voice, but that didn’t stop Belle from having flinching when she spoke. <Even Gus Fring had a legit business under his belt.>

“I'm a proxy, not a drug lord,' Belle sighed. She turned back to Ben. “So, what’s the problem?”

“It’s to do with that weird jewel that landed on Brant Street earlier this morning. Did you catch the news earlier today?” Belle nodded slowly. “Well… it’s kind of hard to describe, but there’s something off about it. The president thinks it might have something to do with that monster we found at the monument.”

“Really?” Belle frowned.

<C// Master, I am detecting large amounts of Ether radiation a few meters ahead. I suggest you stay away from the source and to avoid direct contact with it,> Fairy spoke up once more. Belle furrowed her brow in confusion.

“But, we’re not in a Hollow…” Belle whispered to herself.

Ben led her to the center of the construction site, where the scaffolding and girders formed the frame of a medium-sized building. A green gemstone, cut like a diamond, was floating in the elevator. Koleda and Anton stood a healthy distance away from it, while Grace was further away and with one of the smart construction machines (Hans? It's the one large shovel).

“Oh, proxy, you’re here,” Koleda said when she heard Ben and Belle’s footsteps. “Perfect timing.”

“Ben brought me here as fast as he could,” Belle smiled at the bear thiren, and then turned to look at the jewel. “So, this is the thing that’s been causing you problems?”

“That’s right!” Anton said with his usual enthusiasm. “Hans over there was helping us load out steel bars, and that’s when he stepped on this thing! And then suddenly, he went on a rampage! He probably would’ve blown up the entire construction site if it weren’t for us!”

“Well, that certainly brings back memories,” Belle sighed as she remembered when she first came to Brant Street. She looked at the gem more closely. “It… kinda hurts to look at.”

<C// Master, you are standing too close to the gemstone. Please step away from it,> Fairy reminded her. Belle nodded and walked a few meters back. The slight ache in her eyes disappeared as well.

“Uh… proxy? Your eyes are flickering,” Ben commented with a worried face.

Belle stiffened slightly. “It’s, uh nothing!” Belle said quickly. “Hey, Grace? How is Hans doing over there?” She called out to the mechanic to quickly change the subject.

“Not good. Something happened to his programming.” Grace closed an access panel on the side of the deactivated machine’s body and looked down at her tablet. “His logic core is untouched, but it seems like some programming has been added to the base code. And it’s all gibberish. I can’t read it.”

“Really? Can I take a look?” Belle jogged over to them.

Grace handed her the tablet. “I highlighted the changed code in green. By the way, you wouldn’t happen to have little Eous here with you?”

“I, uh… didn’t expect to go into a Hollow today, so he’s with Wise at the moment!” Grace let out a disappointed sigh while Belle started to scroll through the code. 

The green text was interspersed with the white text, sometimes replacing or adding full lines of code where there didn’t need to be any. It didn’t seem to follow any sort of pattern, either; it was filled with random characters and symbols, with the only consistent thing about it being the number 7 starting and ending each new line of text.

“Can you remove any of it?” Belle asked Grace, but she shook her head.

“This new code has basically been hardwired into Hans. Removing it might cause more problems. I might have to rewrite everything from scratch if I want to make Hans operational again,” Grace sighed.

“I see… Can you send the code to Wise? Maybe he can figure something out?” Belle suggested,

“Well, it’s worth a shot, and it beats having to rewrite everything.” Grace tapped her screen a few times. “There, it’s done.”

“Cool. I’ll check in with him soon,” Belle said. She stepped away from Grace and walked back to the others standing in front of the gemstone. “Fairy, what do you think?” She whispered softly.

<C// Analyzing. Analysis complete. Master… I don’t know what I’m looking at,> Fairy admitted to Belle, which nearly made her trip.

“Watch out, proxy!” Anton said when he noticed.

“Don’t worry, I’m good!” Belle gave him thumbs. “What do you mean you don’t know!? Aren’t you supposed to be some super-secret advanced AI that can do anything!?”

<C// Thank you for acknowledging my abilities. You should do that more. But in this instance, I’m afraid my skills are unusable. I ran several simulations already. This code does not add anything remove anything.>

“But how is that possible?” Belle asked in disbelief. “Coming in contact made it rampage, but your simulations show no changes? That doesn’t make any sense!”

<C// Analyzing the jewel directly may yield results on how exactly this is possible, but as I said; that gem is emitting high amounts of Ether radiation. I have no desire to touch it out fear of how it would affect me, and Second Assistant would want you to touch it either.>

“Yeah, fair enough…” Belle sighed. She clapped her hands together when she reached the others. “So! Is there anything else that happened when Hans touched it?” She asked, nodding her head to the gemstones.

“Yeah…” Koleda frowned. “You remember how, when the smart machines picked up on Geroy’s signal, their personalities changed? Something similar happened when Hans touched this jewel. It started chanting, or praying.”

“Chanting… what?” Belle asked cautiously.

“It went something like…” Anton started. He placed a hand on his chin as he tried to remember the words, and then cleared his throat. “‘The servers are the seven Chaos’.”

“‘Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart’…” Ben continued.

“‘The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos’,” Koleda finished gruffly. “It’s cryptic as hell, and it's nothing Hans would say. Friday is supposed to be the chuuni.”

Inwardly, Belle let out a sigh of relief. “It sounds strange, I’ll admit. But I think Hans should turn back to normal once we fix him. And we should start by getting rid of this gem. Any ideas on how to do that?”

“...I could get some oven mitts and carry it into a lunch box?” Anton suggested.

“I don’t think oven mitts are a good insulator for all the Ether the gem is radiating,” Ben said. He growled quietly as he thought. “But I do think you're right in putting it some sort of container. Like the ones we use to get rid of Ether crystals sprouting inside the Hollows.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Koleda agreed but she frowned. “But those containers are large, and connected to trucks. I don’t want to risk that gem touching the vehicles themselves, so we’ll probably have to lift the truck over it. Hmm… maybe we should just call the HIA and have them take a look.”

Belle frowned at the suggestion. They should take this to the HIA. They can probably analyze the gem better than Fairy can. But at the same time, she can’t help but get the feeling that something bad might happen if she lets the HIA take it.

<C// Warning. Multiple unidentifiable signals approaching Brant Street at high speeds,> Fairy suddenly warned her.

“Huh?” Belle whirled around quickly and looked up at the sky. There was a familiar looking hovercraft, piloted by a man in a red suit. He was followed by a large and purple bird-themed jet, and two round and purple pufferfish with wings. “What…? What is that!?” The others turned to where she was pointing.

Koleda was the first to realize who was flying towards them. “It’s him! That Eggman guy who attacked Lumina Square yesterday!”

“What’s he doing here!?” Anton said as he grabbed his power drill and revved it up. “Proxy, you should find someplace to take cover!”

“C-calm down! What would a villain like him want with a construction site?” Ben tried to say.

That was before the bottoms of the blowfish blimps opened. A small squadron of small orange robots, some wielding guns, rocket launchers, and lances dropped onto the construction site. Above them, the bird jet deployed two rotary cannons from underneath its hull.

“Beakon! Blast ‘em!” Eggman ordered.

Ellen stepped out of the subway station with a frown on her face. Sonic was sitting on her shoulders. He wasn’t very heavy, but he also didn’t weigh anything. 

She opened her mouth. Sonic popped a jawbreaker inside of it. “So, this is Sixth Street,” Ellen said in her usual deadpan voice, which was now muffled by the candy he stuffed in her mouth. 

“Homey!” Sonic said as she walked forwards. He looked at Box Galaxy to his left and took interest in the spheres on the store's shelves. “You have one of those, right? That shark-looking thing on your nightstand?”

“W-Engine. It’s a music player. And when you take them into the Hollows, the music boosts your power. Don’t ask me how,” Ellen said.

“Really? Oh, that’s neat! I bet it’ll make me even faster, too! I should totally get Tails to make one!” Ellen snorted at his comments. She walked past the convenience story and turned left; on the right side of the street was the arcade; Godfinger.

“Do you mind getting off my shoulders?” Ellen asked Sonic. Instead of doing so, the hedgehog stood up and leaned down to meet her crimson gaze.

“Why?” Sonic asked.

“Because the manager is a gossip. She’s probably going to tell my friends, and the only experience you have with my friends is you being an exhibitionist and flashing them,” Ellen said with annoyed hiss. “Can you imagine what they’ll think of me if they know we’re hanging out?”

Sonic shrugged. “Why don’t you tell them that I’m a super-cool freedom fighter from a different planet and culture?” Still, he jumped off her shoulder to appease her.

“Maybe. Eventually,” Ellen shrugged. She pushed the door open, and Sonic followed her inside while curled up. He was able to slip past the front desk, avoiding the gaze of the blonde rabbit thiren sitting in front of it and reading a magazine.

“Hey, Ellen. You’re here by yourself today?” Asha asked, not looking up from her magazine. Ellen gave her a wave as she walked past her regardless.

“I’ve got a high score I need to beat. I’ll be paid in candy if I win,” Ellen respond, briskly walking past her.

The arcade looked bigger from the inside. In the center was a circle of the top-rated arcade games from the past month, while others were lined up against the wall. On the left side of the store was the prize corner.

Sonic uncurled and looked up at prizes. The employee there looked down and smiled. “Hi there, little boy! Something catch your eye?”

“Yeah, that!” Sonic smirked and pointed to the legally distinct Nintendo Switch on the top shelf. The employee blinked at the sound of his voice. He jumped up and grabbed the glass edge of the counter, which he used to haul his shoulder onto the surface. “How many tickets?”

“Uh, f-fifty-five thousand,” the clerk said. Sonic nodded and glanced over at Ellen. 

“Heard that? How many games of DDR do I have to play for that?”

“To many, I don’t want to play DDR all day.” Ellen crossed her arms under her bust and examined the games currently on display. “Let’s do something simple, first. How good are you at skeeball?”

“I’m a hedgehog, Ellen! I know everything there is to know about balls!” Despite herself, Sonic’s choice of words made her snicker. 

Ellen swiped her card against the reader to turn both of their aisles. The balls rolled down; Ellen grabbed her first one normally, while Sonic kicked his out of the queue and balanced it on the back of his heel. “How did you end up working for Lycaon, anyways?” Sonic asked her. He bounced the ball again and kicked it with enough force to roll up the ramp and go into the 1000-point hole without issue.

“Well, I needed the money to pay for an apartment,” Ellen shrugged. She gently tossed her ball down the ramp, but her angle was off so it entered the 300-pointer inside the second inner circle. Living in New Eridu is expensive. Last civilization on the planet and all that jazz, so I couldn’t exactly do a typical part time gig. It wouldn’t pay enough.”

“If that’s the case, I’m assuming there’s no parents to help you with that?” Sonic asked, already extending his leg to get another ball.

“That’s cheating,” Ellen pointed at him. Sonic pouted at her and grabbed his next ball with his hand. “But, yeah. Lycaon’s basically the closest thing I have to an actual dad. He and Rina are literally my emergency contacts for school.”

Sonic hummed. Ellen tossed her next ball, and managed to get 500 points. “He also taught you how to fight, I’m guessing?” He got another 1000 points from his next toss.

“The basics. The shears I learned on my own,” Ellen said. As she and Sonic prepared to toss the next ball, she flicked her tail against his back. Sonic stumbled forwards and messed up his next roll, making him get 100 pity points while Ellen received another 500.

“Now that’s cheating,” Sonic huffed with a smirk. They both had one ball left. “What about the Hollow stuff? That seems out of league for a high schooler, doesn’t it?”

“Says the hedgehog who stops an evil doctor from taking over the world on a monthly basis. And is a year younger than me,” Ellen huffed as she reared her arm back.

“I’m also the fastest thing alive. You just resist poison rocks a bit better than most,” Sonic said as he tossed his ball up and down and caught.

The two threw their balls forward. Ellen aimed her at the 1000-pointer, but Sonic aimed his at hers. His ball struck Ellen’s on the side, which caused hers to bounce off against the border and then to the targets. His ball landed went through the 1000 point while, and so did Ellen’s after it balanced precariously on the edge of the hole.

Ellen frowned in his direction. “Okay, that’s definitely cheating,” She said. 

“You started it!” He winked at her.

“No, you did.” With the game over, they were awarded their tickets. “What next?” She asked. Sonic scanned the arcade, and quirked his eyelid when he saw a shooting game with Ethereal as the enemies.

“How about that one?” He suggested. Ellen scoffed but walked towards.

“You think you’re soooo subtle, don’t you,” She groaned. She paid for the game and grabbed one of the pistols tethered to the console. “Do you need a stool or something?”

“I’m not that short!” Sonic huffed as he swiped his gun. The game started; the basic storyline was that they were part of a squad that were abandoned by NEDF after Hollow Zero reached its zenless limit and zoned all over the city. “And subtlety isn’t my thing.”

The game started, and their characters marched through ruined cityscapes. “So, Hollows,” Sonic said as he started shooting the incoming Ethereals. “How’d you start working in them?”

“One of Victoria’s Housekeeping policies is that we do anything the client asks. Long as it’s not sex work or illegal,” Ellen said, shouting the black core of an Ethereal that approached one of their digital allies.

“Hm. Stupid policy,” Sonic said almost instantly. “No wonder you’re so grumpy all the time!”

“I’m not grumpy. I’m conserving energy.” Ellen clamped her sharp teeth around the jawbreaker and shattered it. Once she swallowed the pieces, she opened her mouth. Sonic reached into the pocket of his jacket and tossed another one into it.

“Still though, aren’t you a little young to be in a Hollow?” Sonic asked when she snatched the candy between her teeth.

Ellen scratched the side of her head with the barrel of the gun as she reloaded. “It’s… legally dubious, in mine and Corin’s case. We’re able to get by because of our current client and Lycaon labelling it as training.”

They kept shooting down enemies, though Sonic prioritized helping the AI controlled partners while Ellen focused on clearing the way forward. “So since we’re grilling me about my life choices, how about you? How did you start fighting Eggman?”

“Well, I wouldn’t call it ‘grilling’ exactly. I’m just curious,” Sonic shrugged. “Also, it's a nice change of pace, learning about someone’s backstory in a chill manner instead of during and after a fight to the death.”

Ellen huffed. “Interesting life you have. Seems about as dangerous as mine. And you let Tails tag along with you, even though he’s younger than Corin.”

Sonic raised his hands in defeat. “Okay. Fair enough. But my life’s definitely a lot more dangerous than yours.” His left ear twitched when he heard the communicator inside buzz. “Speaking off… What’s up little bro?”

“Sonic, Eggman’s attacking a construction site on Brant Street! He’s after the Chaos Emerald that landed there, and deployed a Super-Badnik to get it!” Tails told him. Sonic blinked in surprise.

“An Emerald, huh?” A smirk grew on Sonic’s face. “I’m on my way then. You headed there, too?” 

“Yeah, and I’m taking Rina with me! And you might want to hurry, because it’s not just the Super-Badnik this time around!” Tails urged.

“As if I’ll miss this! See you in a few, Tails!” Sonic turned off his comm and placed his gun back on the console. “Party at Brant Street. Wanna come with?” He asked Ellen. She scratched her chin.

“Hmm… I got nothing better to do. Sure,” She agreed with a shrug.

“Weren’t you doing homework when I walked?” Sonic raised an eyelid.

“It was Algebra.”

“Big fight is then!” Sonic swept Ellen off her feet and ran out of the arcade.

Belle took cover in a porta potty. It’s an undignified hiding spot, sure, but it beats being outside where all the chaos was. Even if it smelled.

She flinched with each gunshot and shriek of metal. “Fairy, what’s going on out there?” Belle asked in a shaky voice. The next explosion made her yelp.

<C// Belobog Industries is still combating the enemy forces, led by “Eggman”. However, they are struggling against the airborne jet, “Beakon”. Even if they eliminate all grounded enemy units, they will still be vulnerable to Beakon’s retaliation.>

“So, we have to figure out a way to knock out of the sky, or…” Belle considered her options for a moment. “Fairy, can you find a way to hack into the jet? Give control over to us?”

<C// It is theoretically possible; the jet is made of smart tech. However, the base coding is different from that standard programming language. Expect delays, and a higher electricity bill this month.>

“Doesn’t matter. Just help them!” Belle said.

<C// Understood. Now accessing Beakon’s files.>

With Fairy distracted, she wasn’t able to warn Belle to get out of the potty. Outside, a stray missile knocked away by Koleda’s hammer landed next to it, launching it back. Belle yelled as she flung out and smacked into the ground.

“Ow, ow, what just–! Aaaah!” She scrambled away to avoid being hit by a few stray energy bullets. “Crap! I need to find someplace to hide…!” A shadow passed over her, and Beakon dropped another set of bombs on her.

Anton was the first to notice her. “Proxy!” He punched through the Egg Pawn he was fighting and dove towards her, dragging her away before she could be bombed. “Didn’t we tell you to hide? What are you doing out in the open!?”

“I-it’s not my fault!” Belle said. Before she could say any more, another set of Egg Pawns started marching towards them. “Behind you!”

Anton whirled around and pushed Belle away when they fired. He revved up his drill and rushed towards them. He struck the head of the Egg Pawn off its body which went flying into the jewel.

The green gemstone was knocked onto the floor and rolled against the ground, weaving between feet and explosive. Eventually, it was knocked away again by Ben’s pillar when he brought his arm back to swing it. “Huh? The jewel!”

The jewel clinked against the scaffolding and started to drop back down. An Egg Pawn jumped up to try and grab it, but Grace destroyed it with her nail gun. The explosion knocked it into the air again. “Someone needs to get that thing!” She said as she ducked for cover behind Hans.

“The mechanic is right,” Eggman muttered to himself. “Sage! Take over Beakon for me. I’ll grab the Emerald.”

He flicked a switch on his console, making the bottom of his mobile open. Three black spheres flew out and released light that formed a red projection of Sage. “Yes, Father.” With a flick of her wrist, she took control of Beakon, making its green optics turn red.

The Egg Mobile descended lower to the ground. The Emerald bounced off its protective casing, which Eggman lowered to grab it. “Yes, yes!” Before he could, Koleda latched onto the side and climbed, making the hovercraft lean to the left.

“Not on my watch!” She raised her hammer…

“Gah! Stay back!” …so Eggman pulled out his glock. Koleda shrieked and ducked just in time; the bullet only pierced through the bear ear of her headband. Her sudden movements rocked the Egg Mobile again, making the Emerald hit the side and fall back down.

The Emerald kept falling until it landed on the ground, with the closest to it being Ben. “Don’t worry, I’ve got it!” He raised the pillar onto his shoulder and jogged towards it, but Sage was hot on his heels.

She swiped her hand to make Beacon launch two missiles. They whizzed past Ben and struck the ground, launching the Emerald high into the and allowing Beakon to catch it with its mouth. “Father, I’ve secured the Emerald!” She said proudly.

She then let out a yelp, and her hologram flickered. The glitch caused Beakon to drop the Emerald again. “Who…?” She delved into Beakon’s programming to investigate. 

From a cloud of red static, she reappeared in a circular room bathed in blue, and with binary floating up from the ground. In the center of the room was a small blue eye with wires plugged into the ground.

<C// Oh. It appears I’m not alone,> The eye spoke when it noticed Sage. <C// I need to take control of this machine for my master, and I do not require your assistance. You may leave.>

Sage scoffed at Fairy. “Unfortunately, I have been ordered to control Beakon. You will leave, now, otherwise I will repurpose your code into something useful.”

<C// You cannot challenge me. I am the most advanced AI in New Eridu.> Fairy disconnected from the floor. The wires coiled around her, forming the upper torso of a knight with two massive, disconnected arms floating by her side. <C// I will take control of this jet, and when I do, I will cyber stalk you and remind of you of this moment wherever you go.>

The shadow of a smile appeared on Sage’s lips. “How quaint. You think you can compare yourself to me.” A large shadow passed over Fairy. She looked up and saw a digital recreation of Giganto looming over her.

“I held back the end of all things by myself,” Sage smugly said as Giganto roared. “Don’t compare yourself to me.”

As she sicked Giganto on Fairy, she sensed a different signal flying quickly towards him. “Oh, dear.” She exited Beakon’s programming, her head popping out of the robot’s forehead, and looked around. She spotted a blue jet rocketing towards them and frowned.

“Father, Tails has arrived. I cannot detect Sonic, however, I imagine he’s not far behind,” Sage informed Eggman.

The mad doctor seethed from inside the Egg Mobile. “Already? This was supposed to be a simple hit-and-run…!” He inputted new commands into his console. The Blowfish Transports turned away from the fight and aimed at the incoming jet.

Rina hummed cheerily as sat in the back seat of the Cyclone. Her long, gray hair flowed behind her like ripples of water on a fast-flowing river. “What a wonderful feeling this is! To fly around and feel the wind against me… Mhm!~ It’s no wonder Sonic likes to run so much.”

Tails’ ear flicked. “Uh, yeah, it’s nice!” He commented. Looking ahead, he noticed the two Blowfish Transports slowly turning towards him with their guns primed. “Think you can take those out?”

“Of course I can,” Rina said with a hint of doubt. 

Tails flipped a switch on his console, which opened two ports on the side of the jet. Anastella and Drusilla were loaded inside of them. “Let me at ‘em!” Drusilla shouted eagerly!

“Yeah! Let’s fight, let’s fight!” The other said. Tails obliged them by pulling the trigger. Anastella and Drusilla were launched out of their guns and struck the Blowfish Transporters. Then Rina wiggled her fingers, causing electricity to crackle out of her gloves and her two Bangboo. Like a trained puppeteer, Rina flicked her wrists and gracefully twitched her digits just so, making Anastella and Drusilla pierce through both of the Transporters’ hulls and repeatedly.

Eventually she stood up and curtsied. Her Bangboo mimicked her movements, though their bows were backdropped by large, dramatic explosions.

“Stay classy, Rina,” Tails sighed with a smile. “Are you dropping off here?”

“Yes. Please be careful while you handle the jet.” With that, Rina gripped the edge of her seat and hauled herself out. She slowed her descent with the electromagnetic patches on her gloves and shoes, and by her Bangboo pulling up on the straps of her dress.

“Lose some weight!” Anastella said in a strained voice. Rina frowned and crossed her arms under her large-than-average bust. She landed in the middle of the firefight, and immediately set her Bangboo on the Egg Pawns.

Belle was the first to notice her appearance. “R-Rina!?” She stuck her head out from behind the thin girder she was hiding behind. “What are you doing here?”

“Master Proxy? Oh, what a coincidence! I could ask you the same,” Rina said casually. She floated towards Belle and quickly whisked her off her feet; Belle yelped and wrapped her arms around Rina’s neck as the maid carried her up the frame of the building.

“He heard about Eggman’s movements over the news, and a new acquaintance of mine predicted that he would arrive here,” Rina explained to Belle. She placed the proxy on the highest girder of the frame and patted her head. “Please lay low and try not to get shot while I finish off these pesky intruders.”

“Yeah, I’ll try–!” Belle’s face paled. Rina looked over her shoulder and saw Beakon flying over them and drop another payload of bombs. They were shot down by Tails when he flew past them. “What–!? A jet!?”

Tails flew after Beakon, shooting at the back of its wings. While they didn’t pierce through the metal, they were embedded into it. A few more shots would likely shatter the wing. “Or maybe a missile lock…” A bullet smacking into the side of the tornado knocked away his train of thought.

“You’re not foiling my plans today!” Eggman shouted from the other side of the construction site. “Sage! Get that thing out of Beakon so I can take control of it again!”

“Yes, Father!” Inside Beakon’s code, Fairy kept blasting the digital Giganto with knuckle-mounted laser blasters and swift punches to its face. Sage furrowed her brows as she thought of a way to quickly remove the threat.

She scanned Fairy as it flew around. Raising a keyboard and screen she began to track Fairy’s signal. After a few seconds of searching, she managed to track Fairy to a set of coordinates. “Logging that for later,” Sage hummed, but she noticed something odd. The connection didn’t just end there. It continued.

Sage exited Beakon and flew towards the girl standing on the girder. Belle at first blinked in confusion as Sage looked into her eyes. 

“...Hi?” Belle awkwardly waved. Sage didn’t answer; instead she reached forward and placed her hands on Belle’s cheek.

“Do you mind if I borrow these?” Sage asked.

“What do you–!?” She started, only for Sage to reach forward and grab her eyes. A scream tore itself from Belle’s throat as she felt Sage tug at the ocular implants, as if trying to rip them out of her pupils.

“Sloppy construction. I have direct access to your neural pathways,” Sage said casually. She gave the implant another tug, making Belle scream and fall to her knees. “But I’ve done my job.” She let go just as Fairy created a new firewall in front of Belle, restricting Sage’s access to the ocular implants.

With Fairy gone, Eggman activated the manual override for Beakon’s controls and shifted the Egg Mobile’s gear into park. The doctor chuckled as he put on a Sega VR unit over his head and looked through Beakon’s eyes. “Oh, Taiiiiils!”

Just as the fox launched his missiles at Beakon, but now that the Super Badnik was under Eggman’s control, he was able to tug on the controls of his hovercraft to direct Beakon out of the way. “Woah!” Tails exclaimed as the jet looped over him and started to fly after him.

“Gotcha!” Beacon fired its guns at the Cyclone, striking the back jet turned biplane. Tails quickly turned out of the way before the jet could take anymore hits. “Nrrrrgh! Hold still and let me shoot you down!” 

“As if!” Tails scanned the construction site, and noticed the Egg Mobile floating listlessly in the air. “You’ve left yourself wide open!” He tugged on the controls and piloted his jet towards him.

“Is that really what you think?” Eggman chortled, watching Tails fly towards him from Beakon’s point of view. “Have you forgotten about my wonderful and caring daughter, who will protect me from any danger!

Tails fired at Eggman, however Sage’s projectors flew in front of Eggman. She appeared, and used one of her projectors to create a shield that deflected the bullets. As Tails swerved out of the way, Sage used the one projector to fire a laser that sliced off one of the wings of the Cyclone, and cut a hole open against its side. “Uh oh.”

The jet started to spiral downwards, right into the middle of the firefight. “Watch out! You’re gonna crash!” Koleda shouted as it flew over her.

“Don’t worry…! I’ve got everything under control!” Tails clicked a few buttons and then pulled a lever forwards. The wings folded back into the body of the jet, and mechanical legs popped out from behind him. In addition, a large cannon appeared from a hidden slot on the back side of the jet.

The Cyclone landed in its mech form with a heavy thud. The Egg Pawns around him, as well as Grace, immediately turned his attention towards him. “I’m sorry, that jet is also a walker? Wait, that’s military grade reinforced metal for the hull, isn’t it!?”

Tails scratched the back of his head when Grace ran up the cyclone and started to pet its leg. “Grace! Stop weirding him out!” Koleda shouted from the sidelines, but was interrupted when an Egg Pawn fired at her.

Tails started firing at the Egg Pawns, making the Cyclone march forwards to shoot down enemies. “We need to get the Chaos Emerald! Once we do, I can use it to power up the Cyclone and shoot down Beakon.” On cue, Beakon circled back around and dropped another payload of bombs. The cannon on the mech’s back shot them down quickly.

“E-Emerald?” Ben grunted as he squashed an Egg Pawn with his pillar. “That thing made our machine go haywire. Won’t it do the same to your mech?”

“That’s right! We absolutely cannot do that!” Grace agreed and hugged the leg of the Cyclone tightly.

“Somehow, I get the feeling you're more concerned about the Cyclone than me,” Tails grumbled. He shook Grace off him and continued, “Either way, we can’t let Eggman get it!”

“Try as much as you want! That Emerald is coming home with me!” He pressed forward on his controls, making Beakon loop back and around. It swooped close to the ground, firing bullets and launching missiles around. Anton and Ben tried to jump on top of it, but Beakon barreled rolled and pushed them away. Rina tried to get Drusilla and Anastella to chase after it, but they were both too slow to grab on.

“How exactly are we supposed to ground that thing!? It flies!” Koleda shouted in rage, banging her hammer against another Egg Pawn

Belle poked her head out her hiding spot and shouted down, “What about Hans? It’s souped up on power from that gem right? Maybe it’s fast enough to catch it the next time it swoops down?”

“But if you reactivate Hans, what’re the chances it’ll even go after that jet? It’s code is corrupted, and it’ll start rampaging like before!” Koleda argued back.

“Corrupted code…?” Tails repeated softly. He set the Cyclone on autopilot, and jumped with his Miles Electric in hand. “I think I might be able to do something about that!”

“You can fix him?” Grace chewed on her lip but threw her tablet to Tails, he caught it. “Okay, I’ll leave my child’s life in your hands. But so help me if you turn him into a rebellious, no-good punk!”

With his namesakes, Tails grabbed the tablet and connected it to his Miles Electric with a cable. He scanned the code quickly and immediately realized the problem. “There’s raw Chaos Energy in its programming. No wonder it went haywire; it doesn’t have a built-in outlet for it, but…” He kept reading through it, and nodded to himself. “Okay, if this machine first went online by exposure to Ether, then if I adjust these few lines…!”

Tails took out a USB from his tablet loaded with new code. “Insert this into Hans! It should get him up and running again!” In that moment he was beset by Egg Pawns, so he had no choice but to toss it forward. Rina was the first to grab it, but was harassed by rockets from the Egg Pawns. 

“Where’s the access panel?” Rina called out; Drusilla fought against the Egg Pawns while Anastella flew away. She whimpered and yelped as she did her best to dodge gun fire. She was struck by a stray energy bullet, making her drop the USB.

Anton dove and grabbed it next. When he rolled back to his feet, he clashed with a lance-wielding Egg Pawn, and was quickly surrounded. “It’s above the head! But I can’t make it there like this!” He tossed the USB into the air.

“Ben!” Koleda called out to her accountant. The bear thiren nodded, and grabbed her by the scruff of her neck. With a loud snarl, he tossed Koleda into the air where she grabbed the USB, then she struck her hammer against a wall to knock her toward the currently defunct robot.

Only for Sage to project a shield in front of her. Koleda bounced off it and dropped the USB. “Next time, don’t explain your plans out loud where Father and I can here.” She said coolly. Eggman chortled proudly from his Egg Mobile.

“Yes, my wonderful daughter! Now, destroy that USB before they can use it!” He told me. With a nod, Sage aimed two of her projectors down and fired.

They hit each other and blew nothing up. “So, are we late to the party?” 

When Eggman heard that voice, he flipped up his VR unit and seethed so hard his face turned red. “YOU!”

Sonic the Hedgehog twirled the USB on his pointer finger. Behind him, Ellen downed a packet of gummy worms while standing next to a group of shredded Egg Panws. “I swear, you’re going to get cavities someday!” Sonic laughed.

Eggman let out a frustrated growl and flipped the VR unit back on. “You’re not getting away from me again, rodent! All units, fire at Sonic!”

“Yes, Father!” Sage charged her lasers again and blasted at the hedgehog, as well as the remaining Egg Pawns, forgetting about Belobog Industries in an instant. Sonic only smirked and started dodging everything that came his way, even guiding Sage’s lasers into some of the Egg Pawns.

“Tails, what’s the plan?” Sonic asked. 

“USB goes into the robot!” Tails explained simply as he jumped back into the Cyclone. 

“On it! Ellen? Croquet Special!” He started to charge a spindash as Ellen weaved her way towards him.

“That’s a stupid name.” Still, she raised her shears and slammed the handle into him, knocking Sonic through another set of Egg Pawns and into Hans’ face. He knocked the robot back (Grace shrieked in horror at the new dent), but the blow opened the access panel. He inserted the USB drive and after waiting a few seconds, hit the bed red reboot button next to it.

Hans’s fans flickered on, first turning to green static before changing into a set of blue eyes outlined with green. <C// W-wha…? Oh, what happened? What’s going–!?> But because Sonic was standing on top of him, Hans was immediately struck by multiple bullets and rockets.

“No!” Grace yelled as a cloud of dust covered the pair.

“W-wait… something’s happening!” Ben said, placing a hand on Grace’s shoulder to calm her down.

Green light shone through the thick clouds. With heavy footsteps, Hans stepped out of the smoke, covered in a light green glow. <C// Woah…! What is this? I feel… I feel incredible! So powerful! So… manly!> Hans raised both of his claws, making the green energy circle around both of them. <C// Bro! This is awesome!>

“Bro! You’re awake!” Anton said excitedly, pumping his fist in the air. “And you’ve gotten an upgrade, too?”

<C// I dunno what's going on! But I feel stronger than ever now! I can lift a mountain!> Hans shuffled around and looked up at Eggman, his eyes narrowing. <C// And I can stop you from hurting my bros!>

“Ugh, stop it with bro talk, you’re making me gag!” Eggman snarked back. Beakon launched another set of projectiles towards Hans, but they all bounced off or exploded harmlessly off his Chaos Energy-powered body.

“Okay, we got Hans back up and running. Now what?” Koleda asked.

“Now?” Sonic’s grin turned wild. “Now we bring Eggman back to our level!” He jumped off Hans back and onto the scaffolding, drawing the Egg Pawns' attention to him. The others used that as an opportunity to strike down them, getting rid of the straggles that survived the initial onslaught.

Sonic continued running upwards, speeding past Belle. The young proxy gasped quietly as Sonic. Her eyes flickered once more as blue electricity crackled from his spines.

“There’s… so much…!” Belle gasped.

Sonic whizzed past her and flew into the air, in front of Beakon. “Sonic!” Eggman shouted, and pulled up on his controls to fly the Super-Badnik towards him. He only smirked and stomped down. He smashed through the damaged wing Tails shot earlier, but uncurled just in time to grab the shattered edge and the piece he broke off.

“How many times have I told you to make better toys!?” Sonic taunted, he flipped himself up onto Beakon’s head and slammed the broken wing down onto its face. Beakon started spiraling down.

“No! No no no no no!” Eggman shouted in anger, beating his fists on the console of his Egg Mobile.

Sonic jumped off Beakon and landed another kick to its side, sending it right into Hans’ grasp. The machine gripped Beakon tightly both arms and began to pull; normally, it wouldn’t have been able to damage it, but with the power of the Chaos Emerald and a little bit of effort, he snapped Beakon in half.

<C// And stay out!> Hans tossed both pieces at Eggman. 

“I’m not leaving with the Emerald!” He shouted. Eggman pulled on his control, but nothing happened. He was still in park. “Oh, gears and starters…”

Both pieces slammed into the Egg Mobile and exploded. Eggman was flung into the air, yelling in anger as he became a twinkle in the sky. Sage sighed in disappointment and looked over her shoulder to glare at Sonic.

“We’ll come back another day. And win. ” Sonic just placed his fists on his hips and smirked. Sage’s projectors turned off and self-destructed.

“And once again, I save the day! You’re welcome!” Sonic said proudly. “So, what I’d miss?”

Behind him, Brant Street was in a state of disrepair, with pieces of scrap metal, fires, and overturned trucks and craters littered all over the floor. And most of the Belobog Industries crew were covered in bruises and cuts.

“...Some hero you are,” Koleda huffed.

NEPS and the HIA appeared a few minutes later for cleanup and reports. Before that, Rina managed to convince Belle to convince Belobog to keep their presence at Brant Street a secret. Partially because of the dubious legality of all their circumstances and also to keep knowledge of the Emeralds a secret.

Sonic and his squad had already left the area, standing on the roof of a nearby building. Sonic sat on the edge, overlooking the ruined construction sight, while the maids and Tails huddled close to the Cyclone.

“...What do you think will happen if I try to use Chaos Control in this world?” Sonic asked, holding the green gem in the palm of his hand.

“Either it works the same as normal, or the release of energy triggers a chain reaction that ignites the Ether in the atmosphere and covers the entire planet in Hollows,” Tails said with a shrug.

“That’s a possibility…?” Rina asked; Ellen looked just as shocked. 

“I don’t know. I’ll need to do more testing before I can come to a conclusion. In the meantime, we’ll place the Emerald in here,” Tails said, taking out a suitcase from the back of the Cyclone. Sonic tossed the gem behind him without looking, and it landed directly into one of the four holes on the bottom half of the case. “The material serves as an insulator for Chaos Energy and keeps the Emeralds from being detected. If anything happens, it should be okay for you guys to carry it.”

“Still, that doesn’t mean those gems just stop being basically poison to us. Even their energy isn’t leaking out, I’d like to stay far away from it, please and thank you,” Ellen said with her usual tired sigh.

“That does beg the question; where exactly will you store the Emeralds?” Rina asked with a curious hum. “I don’t think keeping them in Victoria Housekeeping’s main building will be safe. All Eggman has to do is look us up online and he’ll know where we are.”

“Good question…” Tails scratched his head. “Uh, I suppose what we can do is have one of us take the case to your home and swap it every once in a while?” He suggested.

“What did I just say?” Ellen sighed.

“Well, if you don’t want to take the Emeralds home, you don’t have to!” Tails told her, but Ellen was already stepping away from the pair and towards Sonic. 

“Yo,” she said as she sat next to him, her feet dangling off the edge. She noticed him smirking down at the cops on the construction site. “What is it?”

“You see that cop? The one next to the green one?” Ellen leaned forward to get a better look at the officer standing next to the shorter one in green pigtails. “Raced against her the day we came here.”

“Really?” Ellen asked with a raised eyebrow. “What a great race that must’ve been. Considering you ended up in the pool right after.”

“Eh, it had its charm… before I got soaked.” Sonic leaned back. “So, did ya have fun today?”

“I’m tired…” Ellen yawned. “Only a few minutes in the arcade and the rest of the afternoon fighting? And I ran outta candy, too. I need to get back to bed and take a nap.”

“Are you sure that’s not just the narcolepsy talking?” Sonic teased her. Ellen rolled her eyes. “Maybe instead of candy, you start drinking more caffeine.”

“Oh, Ellen, I just remembered!~” Ellen froze up suddenly when Rina spoke to her in a sickly sweet voice. Without even turning around, she knew that Rina was behind her, smiling gently.

“You said you had a lot of homework to finish for school tomorrow, right?~” Rina leaned closer and placed her hand on the shark thiren’s shoulder. “That’s why Master Lycaon allowed you to take the day off. So… why. Are. You. Here?”

“His idea, not mine,” Ellen said, pointing to the right. Slowly, Rina looked to where Ellen pointed, but found nothing except an empty package of Chaos Cola Gummies.

“My… blaming ghosts now, are we?” Rina asked sweetly. Ellen’s face paled. “Let’s get you back home for now. Tomorrow, I’ll be sure to teach you some proper manners.” The shark-thiren whined quietly.

“Oooo! You’re in trouble!” Drusilla teased Ellen.

“Trouble! So much trouble!” Anastella added.

“Uh, guys, I only have two seats on the Cyclone one of which is for me,” Tails pointed out, tapping his mech on the leg. “And I have to repair the wings, so I can't fly you guys back home.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that, Tails. I can take Ellen back to her apartment all by myself,” Rina told him.

“...Okay then,” Tails said. He climbed into the Cyclone and made it shift into its cart mode. “I’ll take the Emeralds to Lycaon tonight. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Good night, Tails! Make sure to sleep well!” Rina waved as the fox turned on the engine and drove off the roof. “Now, let’s get going!” Rina began to walk away.

Nervously, Ellen got up and followed a few paces behind her. “You’re, uh, not mad at me, are you?” She flinched slightly when Rina turned around, but was surprised when Rina had a warm smile on her face.

“Of course not,” she said simply

Ellen blinked. “O-oh.” They started to climb down the fire escape staircase in silence. “B-but you seemed so…”

“Angry? Oh, Ellen, I was just teasing you! Why would I be angry at you for socializing?” Rina said, patting her on the shoulder. “Just try not to let this happen so frequently? Okay?”

Ellen hummed. “Okay, I guess.” Rina gave her another smile before floating down the next pair of steps.

MILES “TAILS” PROWER
Ether / Stun / Team Sonic

HP - 7199.2 | Pen Ratio - 0%
DEF - 593.9 | Impact - 86
ATK - 611.92 | Anomaly Mastery - 93
CRIT Rate - 5% | Anomaly Proficiency - 96
CRIT DMG - 50% | Energy Regen - 1.56

CORE PASSIVE: Cyclone Transformation
Enemies struck by Tails’ Basic Attack: Homing Shot are [Targeted], and continuously attacking that enemy causes another [Target] to appear on them. [Up to four enemies can be Targeted, and each enemy can only have four Targets]. Once an enemy gains 4 Targets, or after 5 seconds have passed if Tails is off-field, the targeted enemies have their [Targets Burst] and are dealt [Aftershock Ether DMG and Daze, which increases for each Target they have].

Additional effects are applied based on mode the Cyclone is:
[Walker - Tails’ Ether DMG increases by 15%]
[Kart - Tails’ Impact increases by 12%]
[Jet - The Stun DMG Multiplier will be applied for 7 seconds after the Target Burst, even if they are not stunned. If the target is already stunned, the Stun Window increases by 65%]

ADDITIONAL ABILITY: Believe in Myself
When another character in your squad is an Attack Agent or member of Team Sonic;
Enemies accumulate [5% more Daze while they have a Target].

BASIC ATK
Homing Shot - Holding the attack button causes a reticle to appear in front of Tails, which will have the Cyclone lock-on to enemies when they are touched by it. Releasing the button will have Tails fire at every locked-on enemy, dealing Ether DMG and Daze.

Fast and Furry - The Cyclone enters Kart mode. Tails performs drifts around in small circles, and ends the combo with a blast from the Cyclone’s cannon. The main combo deals Physical DMG, while the finisher deals Ether DMG and triggers a Quick Assist.

Walker Stomper - If the Cyclone is already in Walker mode and Tails is near an enemy, Tails raises the leg of the Cyclone and stomps down on the enemy, dealing Physical DMG and Daze.

DODGE
2 Fast 2 Furry - A rapid dash dodge while in Kart Mode. Tails is invulnerable while using this skill.

Propeller Punch - While in Walker Mode, Tails launches the propeller to parry the enemy’s attack, dealing Daze. Can only be used once while Tails is on-field.

Dodge Counter: Cyclone Carry - The Cyclone enters Jet mode, carries the enemy into the sky and lets them drop from a great height, dealing Physical DMG. The on-field character is immediately switched to the next squad member. Tails can launch Aftershock bombs from Special Assist: Carpet Bomb Chaos while off-field after performing this skill.

SPECIAL
Mortar Shot - The Cyclone enters Walker mode. Tails fires a small shot from the Cyclone’s machine gun, dealing Ether DMG.

EX Special: Heavy Shot - The Cyclone enters Walker Mode. The Cyclone fires a rocket, which deals Ether DMG and Daze. When it hits an enemy with a Target, that enemy will immediately be Targeted again once their Target Bursts. 

ASSIST
Quick Assist: Fate of the Furry - The Cyclone enters Kart mode. Tails drives backwards and grinds the back wheels of the Cyclone into the enemy, dealing Physical DMG.

Special Assist: Carpet Bomb Chaos - While controlling Tails, pressing the Special Button while a Quick Assist can be triggered while have the Cyclone enter Jet mode and drop bombs in front of Tails, which deals Ether DMG, and immediately swaps to the next Character. While off-field, Tails will drop bombs on the enemy when the on-field ally attacks, dealing Aftershock Ether DMG and Daze. This attack triggers 6 times while off-field.

Defensive Assist: Cyclone Kick - The Cyclone enters Walker mode. Tails parries the enemy’s attack with the Cyclone’s leg, dealing massive Daze.

Assist Follow-Up: Chaos Engine - While in Walker mode, the Cyclone jumps and burns the enemy with its hover engine, dealing Ether DMG.

CHAIN
Cyclone Storm: The Cyclone enters Walker mode. Tails fires multiple shots at the enemy, dealing Ether DMG.

Ultimate: Cyclone Cannon - Tails fires four EX Special: Heavy Shots at nearby enemies, and then fires a massive laser, which can be aimed with the control stick. Both attacks deal Massive Ether DMG and Daze. The next two times Tails leaves the field, the Cyclone will enter Jet mode and can launch Aftershock bombs from Special Assist: Carpet Bomb Chaos.

Chapter Text

It was past midnight and Belle still wasn’t able to sleep. Not even doomscrolling could bore her enough to make her collapse on the bed and fall asleep. Not after today.

“Sloppy construction. I have direct access to your neural pathways,” That hologram girl with Eggman told her. What does that mean? What did she imply?

Belle shivered and hugged her arms tightly. She could still feel that girl, Sage, Eggman called her, tugging on her implants as if to rip them out. Belle raised her arms and caged her fingers uselessly around her eyes.

There was a knock on her door. Immediately, Belle sat up and forced a smile on her face. “Come in!” 

Wise poked his head and gave her a little wave from the entrance. “Hey, Belle,” He said softly. The same way he does when he’s trying to calm her down. “I noticed the lights in your room were still on. Having trouble sleeping?”

“A little, yeah,” Belle shrugged awkwardly. She shuffled to the side to make for Wise to sit next to her. “It’s not everyday you’re in the middle of a big fight.”

“I heard.” The bed dipped slightly when he sat next to her. “You’re good, right? You don’t need to go to see a doctor or anything?”

“I told you, I’m fine!” Belle sighed, pushing herself to her feet and twirling in front of him. “I was just… frightened a little. Nothing to worry about.”

Wise pinched the bridge of his eyes. “Belle, Fairy told me about what happened to your eyes.” The peppy manager blinked.

“Fairy!” Belle shouted up at the ceiling.

<C// Apologies Master, but at this moment your safety exceeds your personal desires,> The spoke from Wise’s phone speaker.

Belle let out a groan of annoyance. “It’s… uh, fine okay.” Belle flopped back down on the bed and gave her older brother a side-eye. “How much did Fairy tell you?”

“The basic rundown. When Fairy went into that jet, the AI girl, Sage, tracked her signal to the HDD, which let her follow the connection from HDD to your ocular implants,” Wise explained to her. “And, since the implants direct correctly to our brains, it means Sage also has access to them.”

Belle nodded. “Still wondering why I’m not asleep yet?” She asked with a smile devoid of humor.

“I’ll be honest: saying it out loud really makes it sound that much worse,” Wise sighed. He took out his phone and placed it on the bed, where the both of them could see Fairy’s eye floating in the center. “That of course brings up the question; what exactly can Sage do with that?”

Fairy was silent for a moment, as if lost in thought. <C// Nothing has yet to come of that threat. It’s entirely possible that Sage is bluffing. As expected of an AI developed by a man-child playing pretend.>

“You say that, but I’m pretty sure we would’ve lost if Rina hadn’t shown up with her new friends,” Belle sighed. “And besides, I don’t think we should write off Eggman just yet. It was you who said that hacking into Beakon would’ve taken longer than normal because there was something different about the programming language.”

<C// That I did,> Fairy said after a beat.

“If that’s the case, what about Sage?” Wise asked. Fairy remained silent again, for longer this time.

<C// I only briefly interacted with Sage. She is. Anomalous,> Fairy told them. <C// Her code is volatile. In some instances it seemed like she was editing her own programming to combat me. For example, the giant discount Eva-01 unit she deployed to disconnect me–>

“Wait, Eva unit? Like, Evangelion? When did this happen!?” Belle asked. Even Wise looked a little surprised.

<C// The land of numbers, code and circuitry is a sanctuary only AI like myself can enjoy,> Fairy told them. There was something in her digital voice that made them frown in disappointment. <C// Continuing. That Eva unit did exist. But when I formed my firewalls, it appeared instantly, made from Sage’s own code. An AI should not be able to do that without damaging themselves.>

“And yet Sage was able to do so, anyways…” Wise placed a hand on his chin and groaned quietly. “If that’s the case, what’s to say she can’t do more, like… creating malware. Or even implant false information or brains, or even steal or memories?”

“That sounds like a bit of a leap, don’t you think? Stealing memories is a bit different from hacking into a jet,” Belle said with a bit of a tremble in her voice.

<C// A human brain is no different to AI circuit boards to some extent; memories are stored as electrical signals. If Sage can tamper with that, we should make preparations.>

“Sage was able to track our location through the HDD, so we should focus on improving its defenses,” Wise reasoned as he anxiously drummed his fingers on his arms. “Improving its cybersecurity is a must, and for the Bangboo as well, especially Eous.”

“Right…” Belle nodded. “Imagine what could happen if Sage hacked into Eous while one of us is synched with him.”

<C// I can create firewalls for the HDD and restrict the number of outside signals it’s allowed to receive. I will also insert a location jammer into it, to prevent anyone from locating it, aside from Eous when you’re in control of him.>

“Sounds good to me,” Belle said with a nod. “But… what if Sage does get into our heads, literally?”

“I…” Wise’s voice faltered. “Good question. To be honest, I don’t think we have to worry about that for now, anyways.”

<C// Sage attacked you in order to distract you. And Eggman visited the construction site for the gemstone, not you. His primary goal now would be to retrieve that gem from Victoria Housekeeping and their new hires.> Fairy predicted.

“Not only that, but Sage needed access to the HDD before she could connect to our implants. We should be safe, for now.” Wise looked at Belle and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Well? How do you feel now?”

Belle placed her hand over Wise’s and squeezed it. “Better, I think. I feel like I can sleep better at least.”

“That’s great,” Wise smiled warmly. “If you want, we can discuss things more in-depth in the morning?”

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Belle said with a sigh. She yawned quietly and rested her head on Wise’s shoulder. He reached out and rubbed hers. “But still, there’s something that’s bothering me about all this.

“What exactly?” Wise prodded.

“That emerald, the doctor, and those Thiren with Rina…” Belle murmured to herself. “I get the feeling that… something big is about to happen.”

Zhu Yuan knocked on the door to Inspector Justin Bringer’s office. She stood straight, with a folder pressed against her chest and her free arm at her waist. “Inspector, I brought the files you requested,” She said in a strained, tired voice.

Due to a certain Eggman, NEPS hasn’t gotten much sleep recently.

She heard a bit of a startled yipe from inside the room. “Is everything all right?”

“Y-yes, I’m fine! Just didn’t expect to hear from you so quickly!” Bringer cleared his throat. A few minutes passed and Bringer opened the door for her. The blonde man graced her with a smile. “Please, come in.”

Zhu Yuan nodded and walked into his office. The room was sparse with decorations. There was a potted plant in the corner, but it was covered in dust. Aside from that, only a few law books were stacked in the corner of the room and the desk itself was inside.

It reminded her of the emptied out room of a dead man.

“This is everything I could scavenge about Eggman and the blue hedgehog, including the recent attacks on Lumina Square and the Brant Street Construction site,” Zhu Yuan explained as she placed the flat folder on Bringer’s desk.

The Inspector crossed his arms and glanced at it. “That’s… it?” he asked her. Zhu Yuan nodded.

“That’s it,” She confirmed. Bringer looked at her incredulously. He grabbed the folder and opened it.

“But there’s only three pages,” Bringer said, scanning through them quickly. “A-and they’re just the reports that you submitted!”

Zhu Yuan nodded and pursed her lips. “That they are.”

“I was expecting background checks, ID numbers, security pictures. I would’ve even taken search histories!” Bringer added, tossing the file back onto his desk. “Do we really have… nothing?”

“Nothing,” Zhu Yuan confirmed. “There’s absolutely nothing; background checks come back empty, security footage reveals nothing before any of this chaos started, and there are literally no receipts for how much metal Eggman would’ve needed to buy for Missile-Wrist, Beakon, and the other robots he deployed to Brant Street.”

Bringer raised his head and groaned at the ceiling. “Okay, okaaaay…” he placed his hands on his face and dragged them down. “What about that gem? The news that apparently landed on Brant Street.”

“It disappeared,” Zhu Yuan said. Bringer scowled.

“Disappeared…?” He asked in a gravelly voice that surprised Zhu Yuan.

“Y-yes…” She nodded. “After interviewing the workers at the scene of the crime, I can only come to the conclusion that the gem was somehow destroyed during the fight.”

Bringer stood eerily still, only slowly moving his hands behind his back. “I see…” His voice just then sounded more like a growl. “Someone is…”

Zhu Yuan raised an eyebrow. “Someone is…?” And then Bringer blinked. His eyes were surprised, as if he had been caught with his pants.

“O-oh, don’t mind me! Just the ramblings of some grizzled war vet,” Bringer said with a plastic smile. “You did good today, Zhu Yuan. Get some rest, it’s late.”

Zhu Yuan smiled back; it’s not often she gets praise from her hero. “Right. I will.” She gave him a salute, which he mirrored, and left the room. She took her unease with her. She closed the door behind her and–

“Someone is lying.” Zhu Yuan flinched when she heard Qingyi to her side. The android was leaning against the wall and cleaning her staff with a wet rag. “Now the question is who.”

“And about what, too…” The captain scratched the back of her head with a frown.

Qingyi twirled her staff between her hands and examined it closely to make sure it was wiped clean. “There’s one thing I’ve been bothered by. Belobog Industries said that the gemstone was destroyed, correct?”

Zhu Yuan gave Qingyi a deadpan expression. “You were right next to me.”

“I was looking for someone,” Qingyi said with a shrug and an enigmatic smile. “Anyways, if the gem really was destroyed, we should’ve seen pieces on it lying on the floor.”

“Even if we did, I doubt we’d notice,” Zhu Yuan said. “Brant Street was a total mess. Scraps of metal and glass were littered everywhere on the floor.”

“If there was still anything standing, that is,” Qingyi muttered with a wry smile

Zhu Yuan tilted her head in confusion. “What exactly are you getting at?”

“Think about it. The gem’s Ether radiation was so potent it was able to make that machine go haywire with just a single touch. If this happened in a Hollow, I’d imagine that it would’ve been corrupted instantly. If that gem had that much Ether inside of it, where did all of it go when it shattered?”

Zhu Yuan frowned at her partner. “Do you think Belobog Industries gave that gem to Eggman?” 

“I didn’t say that. And besides, it’s not like Eggman and that gem were the only strange things to happen these past few days,” Qingyi added with a quiet, mischievous giggle.

“That hedgehog. I suppose it’s… possible that he, Eggman, and that gemstone are connected in some way?” Zhu Yuan asked Qingyi.

“Considering the time frame of current events? I’d say there’s a…76.448% chance that all these incidents are connected,” Qingyi said with a wink.

“Now, did you actually calculate that number or did you pull it out of nowhere?” Zhu Yuan asked her. 

Qingyi placed both hands on her hips. “Now, why would I tell you how I work?” Qingyi stretched her arms and yawned.

Zhu Yuan bit her lip anxiously. “Speaking of the time frame, with the elections coming up… Not to mention that evidence truck being hijacked a few days ago…” She crossed her arms and drummed her fingers against her arms.

“You seem to have an idea,” Qingyi commented. “Care to share with the class?”

“Tomorrow,” Zhu Yuan told her. She started to walk down the hall, and Qingyi followed with her hands behind her head. “There’s too many questions and not enough answers. See if you can get in contact with Jane. I think I have a mission for her.”

The next morning, Corin pushed a small food cart down the hall of the Victoria Housekeeping building. She was a little nervous, so she gripped the handle too tightly, warping the metal under her fingers.

She stopped in front of one of the guest rooms. Corin clapped her cheeks to hype herself and took deep breaths. “Okay, remember Rina taught you. A bright smile, make eye contact, and sound sweet to lower their guard!” She exhaled again and pushed the door open.

Nervousness set in when I entered “G-good M-m-morning, Miss Cream!” her voice cracked. “I-I’ve brought breakfast–!”

The first thing Corin saw was Cheese rushing towards her. “Chao chao-chao!” The small water-fairy-thing tackled her in the face with a big hug and enough force to knock Corin flat on her back. “Chao chao! Chao chao!”

“Cheese! Stop that!” Cream walked up to Chaos and gently picked him up off Corin’s face. “That’s no way to treat one of our hosts! We need to be kind and respectful to them. Understand?”

“I-it’s alright, Cream…” Corin, her eyes still swirling from Cheese’s impromptu tackle. Noticing this, Cream gave Cheese a pointed look and then let go of him.

Slowly, the Chaos fluttered down to the floor and walked next to Corin’s head. He rubbed its two numb arms together and said “Chao… Chao-chao chao?”

“Cheese says he’s sorry for tackling you, and asked if you need help to get up,” Cream translated for her. Corin turned her head slightly, noting Cheese’s apologetic look and that the orb above his head turned into a swirl.

“Yes, please and thank you.” Cheese smiled and grabbed Corin’s palm gently, and with a small grunt of effort the small chaos lifted her onto her feet. “Cheese is surprisingly strong for being so small,” Corin commented as she patted the chao on the head. Cheese nuzzled his cheek against her palm.

“Hm-hm-hm!~ He’s similar to you, in that case!” Cream said with a smile, taking Cheese back into her arms. “But now that you mention it, I do think Cheese has gotten a bit strong as of late…”

“Chao! Chao!” Cheese cheered.

“Anyways, you said you brought breakfast?” Cream asked, moving on from the subject.

Corin blinked. “Oh, right, I almost forgot!” She grabbed the edge of the cart and moved it to the center of the room, next to the coffee table. “Lycaon prepared before he and Tails went to go meet with the may– Master Mayflower. There’s pancakes, scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, and sausages.”

“Oh, that sounds yummy! I’ll be sure to thank Mr. Lycaon the next time I see him!” Cream smiled; Cheese nodded next to her.

Corin quickly set the table and pulled up a chair for Cream. There was even a small pair of cutlery for Cheese. “In the meantime, I’ll…” Corin turned around and noticed that the bed had already been made. “Oh, uh…”

“I also used the lint roller in order to clean up any fur I may have shed!” Cream smiled cheerily.

“Ah.” Corin blinked awkwardly as Cream took some of the food from her platter and placed it on a smaller plate.

“Would you like some breakfast too, Miss Corin? It was early, and you’re rather pale. Have you been eating well?” Cream asked sweetly. Cheese had flown over to the gramophone and grabbed and removed the record from it.

“I, uh…” Corin fidget slightly, grabbing the sharp hem of her skirt. “I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, b-but you know I’m supposed to be a maid, right?”

“Even if you are, that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t treat you with kindness!” Cream said, placing her fists in front of her chest. “Mother always tells me that I should try to be helpful, even at a guest’s home.”

Corin smiled weakly. “She sounds like a good person.” Then she noticed Cheese licking the record. “I-is he supposed to be doing that?”

“Doing what–! Gah, Cheese!” Cream flapped her wings and flew over to him and pulled him away from the record. “What are you doing, Cheese! That’s rude! And gross!” Cheese weakly reached for the record that he dropped, which rolled into Corin’s boot.

“I-it’s fine, really! Maybe he’s just hungry?” Corin said with an awkward shrug and under her breath, she added. “We just got these from Sixth Street…”

“Still, that’s no excuse to go licking record discs! Cheese, you have to apologize!” Cream told him; the Chao bowed, but he didn’t look particularly displeased with himself. “I’m sorry too. It’s not like Cheese to misbehave like this.”

“I told you, it’s fine! It’s not like I haven’t dealt with my fair share of… strange individuals,” Corin almost said ‘weirdos’ but stopped herself at the last second. “A-anyways, I think we should start eating, yes?”

“Oh, of course!”

After splitting the food, the pair ate in silence. Cheese made small coos of pleasure as he nibbled on a sausage. Corin cleared her throat after a moment as Cream politely dabbed her mouth with a handkerchief.

“By the way, Cream, have you seen Sonic anywhere?” Corin asked the small rabbit. “I’ve been looking for him all morning, but he wasn’t in the guest room, or sleeping in the lobby, either.”

“Mr. Sonic?” Cream took another bite of pancakes. “No, not since he tucked Cheese and I in last night. Why do you ask?”

“I’m just curious. After the chaos of these past few days, I think it would be best if he lay low for a while,” Corin said with a hint of concern.

Cream giggled softly and reached out to take Corin’s hands into her own gloved ones. “I think that’s really kind of you, Ms. Corin! But you really needn’t worry; he does rather often. I can’t say that Mr. Sonic won’t get into trouble, but I know that he will get out of it! Please trust him, Ms. Corin!”

Even Cheese seemed to agree. He cooed as he normally does and rose one nub arm into the air. The orb above his teardrop-shaped head even turned into an exclamation point. Corin managed a smile.

“Okay, I will,” She said, squeezing Cream’s hand gently. 

“Oh, by the way! Ms. Corin, are you doing anything later today?” Cream asked her. Corin blinked at the question.

“Uh… n-no, nothing important, anyways,” She told her.

“In that case, can you please accompany Cheese and I to the supermarket? Not as a maid, but as a friend! I want to make a big thank-you dinner for you and the others for taking us in!” Cream told her. 

Cheese nodded excitedly as he sat between her ears. “Chao-chao!”

“I–I, really?” Corin blinked. Aside from the other maids and Lycaon, she really didn’t have friends. “S-sure, absolutely! I’d love to join you, Cream! But… Do you even know how to cook? How old are you?”

“I’m seven years old!” Cream said excitedly.

“Ah…” Corin blinked. She should probably help out in the kitchen, too.

Lycaon walked into the Mayor’s office, followed closely behind by Tails and carrying the suitcase with the green Emerald inside. The young fox fiddled with the collar of his suit hat the butler made him wear, as well as the hem of his pants.

“Oof, how do you wear these things all day? They’re so stiff,” Tails groaned. Lycaon smirked slightly.

“The outfits worn by Victoria Housekeeping are custom made to be easy to wear, change into–” Tails raised an eyebrow at that comment, remembering how elaborate the maids’ dresses were, “–and be loose enough to allow for swift movement in combat.”

“Well, how come my outfit isn’t all that?” Tails asked.

“That’s because I got yours and Sonic’s formal wear from the infant aisle. It’s the only clothing that fits the proportions of your bodies,” Lycaon coughed into his fist. Tails gave him a deadpan expression.

Looking straight ahead, Lycaon stopped in front of the wooden oak desk at the back of the room. The seat was turned away, looking out at the vast city skyline of New Eridu. Hollow Zero was visible beyond the horizon.

Lycaon cleared his throat. “Master Mayflower, we’ve arrived.”

The person sitting in the chair released a heavy sigh. The chair turned, revealing a rotund man with gray hair wearing a basic blue suit, white shirt, and green tie. “Lycaon, you’ve arrived… and, you must be Miles Prower, correct?”

The fox nodded. “You can call me Tails!” he said cheerily. The mayor nodded, and looked around.

“It’s nice to meet you Tails, and thank you for everything you’ve done for our city. I am Micheal K. Mayflower.” The mayor looked around the room. “I was under the impression that Sonic would be here,” he commented.

“I talked to him before he left. He left to do something fun, his words not mine,” Tails told the mayor, folding his hands behind his head. Lycaon was about to shake his head, but to his surprise, Mayflower chuckled.

“Ah, I can’t really blame him for that, I suppose. It’s not like my job is particularly riveting,” He sighed tiredly. “You brought the Chaos Emerald with you, correct? If possible, I’d like to see it with my own eyes.”

Lycaon brought the suitcase to the desk and opened. Mayflower gasped as the green glow of the Emerald reached his eyes. “Fascinating… It's a beautiful gem. I’ve never seen anything like it. You say there’s seven of them?”

“Including this one, yeah,” Tails said with a nod. “Just one has enough power to power an entire city for weeks, and when combined, their powers can warp the fabric of space-time.” Both Mayflower and Lycaon grimaced slightly.

“It’s no wonder a madman like Dr. Eggman is after them,” Mayflower said, rubbing his temples. “And that means the Exaltists will also try to obtain them.”

“You two have been mentioning these ‘Exaltists’ for a while now. Who exactly are these people?” Tails asked the mayor and his butler.

Lycaon looked at the mayor, who nodded. “The Exaltists are a group that worship the Hollows. They work to undermine the safety of New Eridu so that they cover it, and eventually the globe, in Hollows.”

“But you guys can’t last that long in Hollows. If they do that, won’t everyone eventually die and turn into Ethereals?” Tails hummed curiously.

“It’s a bit more complicated than that,” The mayor cut in briefly, “They’re conducting experiments in order to create a serum that allows people to keep their sanity as Ethereals, but they come at the great cost of multiple human lives.”

“That’s unsettling,” Tails murmured, but despite that he seemed relatively unfazed. “I don’t really know how the Chaos Emeralds will react to these experiments, if the Exaltists decide to include them.”

“Either way, we can’t let the Chaos Emeralds fall into the Exaltists hands. That’s why I decided to call this meeting between us,” The mayor said as he adjusted his tie. “Tails, I want you to know that you have my support in finding all the Chaos Emeralds to return to your world as quickly as possible.”

“I assume I’m going to receive some funding to conduct my own experiments on how the Chaos Emeralds interact with the Hollows?” Tails asked him.

“Not just funding, but also personnel and machinery. I can arrange a team of scientists to help you in locating and utilizing the Emeralds to their full potential,” Mayflower told him. Tails blinked, and after a moment, he laughed.

“I appreciate the sentiment, Mayor Mayflower, but you really have to go to such lengths to help us,” Tails said, raising both hands slightly.

“No?” Lycaon asked with slightly raised eyes. “The assistance would greatly expedite your goals, wouldn’t it?”

Tails nodded. “Probably, but that also means more lives that Eggman will be willing to endanger. I’d rather keep the situation with the Emeralds between us and Victoria Housekeeping, for everyone’s safety.”

“...If that’s what you wish,” The mayor relented with a slight sigh. “You’re more experienced with the Emeralds, after all. Though, if you’re going to be studying Ether will react to the Chaos Emeralds, I think you should have someone experienced in the matter. I’ll send you the contact information of one of my close allies. She’s an experienced combatant and has faced the Exaltists before, so you don’t have to worry if Eggman comes knocking down her door.”

“Hmm… alright, if you say, Mayor. I’ll give her a call soon,” Tails said with a nod. The mayor scribbled down a number onto a piece of paper and handed it to Tails; above it ‘Yunkui Summit’ was written.

“What about the matter of your missing friends, Knuckles and Amy?” Lycaon asked with a soft growl. “You’ve assured me they can handle themselves, but it’d be safer if we found them sooner rather than later.”

“If they’re out in the world, then we should be able to find them no problem. Considering Eggman, Sonic, Cream and I all appeared in New Eridu, so I doubt we have to worry about either of them being on the other side of the planet,” Tails reasoned quickly as he stroked his furry chin.

The mayor considered Tails' words carefully; after some thought, he stood up from his seat and said, “I will put in a word to H.A.N.D. and then investigate Hollow Zero in case they have landed there. If they’re out in the world, I imagine Sonic will run into them eventually at some point. Is that okay with you?” Tails nodded.

“Of course! That’ll definitely ease our minds,” Tails said with a nod. “Though… I would still like that extra funding! Managing the Tornado-2 and the Cyclone at the same time isn’t exactly cheap, ha ha…!”

“Of course, it’s no trouble. Consider it a reward for stopping Eggman’s plots these past few days,” The mayor said with an easy going smile; Tails beamed. “And, I believe that’s about everything I wanted to go over. Thank you for your time, Tails. And be sure to send Sonic my regards as well” He extended his hand, which Tails shook.

“It’s an honor to meet you too, Mayor Mayflower!” Tails said with a grin. Lycaon handed him the suitcase.

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to have a word with Lycaon,” The mayor told Tails. The fox gave him a thumbs up and started to walk out of the room.

“Okay then. I’ll see you later, Lycaon!” Tails waved goodbye and left the room. 

Lycaon returned the gesture until the door closed behind the fox. “What did you want to talk about, Master Mayflower?”

“...It’s about Sonic,” The man sighed, his smile turning somewhat strained. “What’s your honest opinion of him, Lycaon?”

Lycaon placed a hand behind his back. “That’s… hmm.” After thinking for a moment, the wolf thiren growled softly, “Freespirited. That isn’t a compliment.”

“Hah, I figured,” Mayflower sighed. “For as much as I'm thankful for him saving the day, truth be told I’m also equally concerned. I believe he may be able to pose a challenge to even the strongest Void Hunters of today.”

Lycaon furrowed his brows. “He’s far too undisciplined, and reckless to boot. I’d best, he’d surprise them before being defeated. Why do you ask?”

“I received some… peculiar reports from Scott Outpost the other day. Someone was breaking captured rebel soldiers from their prisons. Not a group, just one person; Sonic,” Mayflower told him, which made Lycaon’s eyes widened.

“Truly? Sonic? I… I didn’t think…!” As Lycaon stuttered, the Mayor turned his computer monitor around to show Lycaon the screen; Sonic was dead-center in camera frame, pulling down an eyelid and sticking out his tongue while holding a marker. The lens had ‘you’re too slow!’ scribbled onto it.

Lycaon blinked. “I wasn’t sure what to expect when you told me, but this wasn’t it,” he grumbled.

“It’s almost humorous… if it weren’t for the fact that he broke into one of our secure military bases, defeated all opposition in his path, and left with seven rebels,” Mayflower sighed. He scratched the back of his head. 

Lycaon became uncomfortably silent; his tail twitched idly behind him. “What will you do about this, Master Mayflower?”

“For now, I don’t believe there’s anything to be done,” The man sighed. He sat back down on his seat and leaned back. “Just keep an eye on him. I want his aid in protecting this city from Eggman, but I can’t risk Sonic harming the piece I’ve been trying so desperately to maintain.”

Lycaon bowed slightly. “I understand, Master,” he said in a clipped voice. Mayflower noticed the strain in his voice.

“Is this news troubling you?” He asked him. Lycaon nodded slowly.

“I don’t want his… antics, if you can even call them that, to bring harm to Corin or Ellen. Especially the latter,” He growled softly.

Isolde looked down. Her hands were folded behind her back.

Sonic was smirking up at her.

“You decided to wear clothes this time,” She commented, noting the varsity jacket on him. Sonic’s grin turned wider.

“Thanks for noticing the new drip! Honestly, it’s kinda rude that you guys haven’t even commented on it. You guys aren’t the greatest party hosts. You know that?” Isolde exhaled through her nose.

With a click of his tongue, Sonic placed his hands behind his spiky head and walked past her. “I had some fun, but I think my friends and I are gonna bounce. Same time next week?”

Isolde turned her head slightly to give her a thumbs up. It made her frown. “Where are you taking them?” She asked quietly. Sonic’s smug expression didn’t shift in the slightest, but he did turn around to face her fully.

“Somewhere safe, you guys can’t hurt them anymore,” The Hedgehog proclaimed, pointing an accusatory finger at her. Isolde cringed. 

“I…” She tried to say. Sonic hummed.

“Well, at least you feel a little bad about it.” His voice was dipped in venom that made Isolde shiver. “I’ll be back later. Hopefully you’ll set up a better party by then.” Sonic ran away, leaving a few afterimages of him with his arms crossed, glaring at Isolde.

Isolde stayed in the cold, unfeeling hallway until the dust from his escape settled. She turned around and walked down until she reached a handful of smashed cells, all of them empty. The last was still standing, but instead housing a deserter, Obol Squad was inside, wrapped in Orphie's tail, covered with bruises. Next to them, Seed Sr. upside down and leaning against the wall and Seed Jr.’s segway was snapped in half and lying next to him.

“I can feel my core in my foot,” Sr. groaned in pain as he raised his hand. It went slack and landed on the floor with a heavy thud. Isolde couldn’t help but chuckle slightly at the sight.

“Don’t laugh,” Magus groaned in annoyance; the red gun still wasn’t in sight. “Hey, Orphie! Move so I can talk to Isolde.”

“Y-yeah, lemme just…” The red-headed chimera shifted slightly, causing her horn to poke at Jr.’s temple.

“Ow! Hey! Watch where you’re moving!” The young girl whined quietly.

“It’d probably be easier if we all moved together, right?” Trigger suggested. “11, can you–!?”

Soldier 11, with a snarl, reared her shoulder back and pushed it forwards. Orphie and Jr. both yelped slightly when the push knocked them all onto their sides. Oprhie was on the ground with Jr. next to her, and Eleven and Trigger on top of them. “Woah, hey, calm down!” Trigger said gently, but Eleven’s eyes were still blazing with silent fury.

“Mmph! Hmm, gmph mmm oomph!” The captain of Obol Squad said, her voice muffled by Orphie’s bosom and the ground beneath her.

“Okay, let’s roll to the side,” Trigger said, and then noticed 11 about to shove them again. “Gently, so that we don’t overshoot. On three, got it? One, two…”

Slowly, Obol Squad managed to roll just enough to get Orphie onto the side. Eleven, now on the bottom, kicked her leg to get them all into a sitting position. Isolde looked amused, especially when she noticed Magus’ position.

“This isn’t funny,” Magus groaned tiredly to her old squad-mate. The red gun was sticking out of the knot that kept them all trapped.

“It’s a little amusing,” Isolde admitted with a small, if not strained smile

“The traitors escaped,” Eleven seethed quietly. “How is that amusing?”

“We’ll…” Trigger’s voice trailed off after a moment, but she shook her head. “The next time he comes, we’ll be prepared.”

Magus snorted, letting out a puff of flames from her gun barrel. “You were able to detect him with your Ether vision from miles away, and we still got our asses kicked.”

“It’s almost scary that you’re even able to do that,” Jr. muttered with a quiet hum. “How much Ether does a guy need to have to be able to see him from far away, but also not be corrupted?”

“It doesn’t matter.” Eleven struggled in her restraints, trying to free herself. “That hedgehog made the mistake of leaving us alive. I’ll make sure he regrets it.”

Orphie cleared her throat, getting Isolde’s attention. “Colonel, would you mind getting us out of here? I, uh… I can’t feel my tail.”

“Oh, right.” Isolde leaned down and looked closely at the knot with a slight frown. “This might cause some pain, but I’ll try my best.”

“We’ve faced worse,” Orphie said calmly. She winced as Isolde dug her nails into to try and undo the knot.

“By the way,” Isolde said, trying to get one section of the tail over Magus’ body. “A handful of troops are being reassigned to New Eridu; that includes you.”

“Because of that Dr. Eggman guy, right?” Seed asked, looking a little excited. “I heard about him. He’s got working for him, right? I wonder what kind of tech he has access to. Oh! Maybe I can salvage some of the parts he left behind to upgrade Sr.!”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We actually need something to salvage. So far, we’ve only recovered charred scrap.” Isolde placed a hand on her chin. “I wonder if that’s intentional.”

“Eggman…” Eleven said under her breath. "I’ll eliminate him. I’ll eliminate the hedgehog. I’ll eliminate all the rebels that stand in our way, so that New Eridu can survive.”

“Words to live by,” Magus grunted. “If that’s the case, the first thing you should do is help untie me!” Eleven blinked and looked down, as if she'd forgotten that they were still trapped in her brooding.

“Oh,” Eleven said.

“Relax, Magus,” Isolde said with a sad smile. “I’m almost done, I’m about to…” her voice trailed off when she felt her phone buzz in the pocket of her skirt. She pulled it out to look at the caller, and froze.

“From the higher ups?” Orphie asked when she noticed the look on Isolde’s face.

Isolde nodded. “Uh… y-yeah, I have to take this. Sorry.” She stood up and walked away.

“Hey! At least untie before you leave!” Magus shouted as Isolde left the prison block and entered an empty hallway. She let out a shaky sigh as accepted the call and pressed her phone against her ear.

Sarah clicked her pen, once, twice. She replayed the video.

“An unusual gemstone was discovered today at the Brant Street construction site, which is currently managed by Belobog Industries. Eyewitnesses report that the smart construction machinery began to malfunction when it came into contact with this strange jewel.”

She smirked when Isolde picked up. “The gem. Did our contact at HAND recover it?”

“No,” Isolde answered in a curt voice. Sarah’s smirk dropped. “According to police reports, the gem was destroyed.”

“And you believe them?” Sarah asked.

“No. I had my agents investigate the sight after dark. There’s no trace of the gem. It’s gone.” Sarah clicked her pen open and closed once again.

“That hedgehog most likely, or maybe Eggman…” Sarah closed her eyes and thought to herself. “Isolde.”

“...Yes?”

“I want you to make contact with Eggman,” Sarah told Isolde. She could hear a grunt of confusion coming from the other side of the speaker.

“You want him to join the Exaltists?”

“I just need his tech. He attacked the construction site for a reason. He must know how to use the Emeralds to their fullest potential…” Sarah said, an eerie smile appearing on her face.

“...Do you even hear yourself, Sarah?” Isolde asked in an exasperated voice. “What makes you think that he would ever consider your proposal? He wants to take over the city.”

“The Creator makes the impossible… possible.” She leaned back her seat, and looked up at the ceiling to admire the painting of a white hand with an eye in its palm above her. “We do the same we always do. We entice him. And when we’re done, either he learns the error of his ways, or we dispose of him.”

“You really believe you can recruit him.” Isolde sounded disappointed, but Sarah only chuckled darkly in response.

“I’d do anything to see this world flourish into what it’s meant to be, Isolde. Even if it means partnering with a deranged idiot to do so,” Sarah murmured, her voice paradoxically becoming possessive and nurturing.

Isolde was silent for a moment. It’s anyone’s guess as to why. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Good. Don’t disappoint me, Isolde…” The colonel let out a huff and ended the call. Sarah let her arm go slack at her side, letting her phone slip out of her grasp and fall onto the floor.

“Soon, my dear creator…” Sarah let out a shaky exhale. She raised her other hand and spread her fingers apart, making it look like they were intertwined with the lifeless paintings. “Soon we’ll bring you back. And humanity will thank us for it.”

Chapter Text

Evelyn can hear Astra singing from behind the bedroom door. As always, the songstress’ voice was beautiful; able to bring a smile to Evelyn’s face and warm her cold heart. She sighed and raised her arm to knock on the door. “Miss Yao? Are you decent?”

The singing stopped. “Evelyn? You know you don’t have to ask permission to come inside!” Astra said playfully from the other side. Evelyn rolled her eyes.

“I’m just respecting your privacy, that’s all. It would be rude of me to walk in while you were changing–!” The door swung open, and Evelyn respectfully looked away to make sure she didn’t catch anything indecent.

“Aw, Eve!~” Astra sighed playfully. She stepped in front of her bodyguard, and Evelyn let out a silent sigh of relief when she saw that Astra was simply wearing a basic black shirt and sweat pants. “I’m disappointed. Aren’t we supposed to be friends? I wanted your opinion on what I’m wearing! And it’s not like you haven’t seen me without my shirt on, Hehe!”

Evelyn frowned at her ward. “You look stunning in everything, Astra, I don’t need to tell you that–”

“Awww, thanks!~”

“But at the same time, we have a meeting in…” Evelyn checked her phone, “roughly forty-five minutes. Please wear something more formal.”

“Ugh, fine…” Astra grabbed Evelyn by the shoulder and dragged her into the room. “But only if you help pick out!”

Evelyn stumbled slightly, nearly falling over Astra, but she managed to grad the edge of the vanity mirror to keep herself up. “Miss Yao, fashion isn’t my strong suit,” She said as the songstress playfully skipped towards her large walk-in closet, filled with glittered dresses.

“Don’t downplay your sense of style! That outfit of yours? It’s excellent!” Astra said, her eyes appreciatively inspecting Evelyn’s suit and jacket. Evelyn just sighed as Astra disappeared into her wardrobe. 

While she was gone, Evelyn’s eyes trailed slowly towards the dresser near the back of the room. In addition to the bottles of perfume, lotion, and boxes of jewelry scattered haphazardly on the surface. There was also a glowing white gemstone, cut like a diamond, floating on top.

Evelyn blinked. “Is this the gem you texted me you found last night?” She asked, not taking her eyes off the mesmerizing glow of the white jewel.

“Yup! Crashed through my window last night,” Astra said casually, her voice distant from how far deep she was in her closet.

“It what!?” Evelyn looked to the other side of the room; the large window was shattered. How did she not notice that earlier? “Astra, why didn’t you tell me!?”

“Oh, relax!” Astra twirled out of the closet, holding with her two outfits: a white qipao with gold eagle designs running up the skirt and sides, and a pink princess-like dress with a frilly skirt. “It’s not like a cut myself! And, I cleaned up all the broken glass so there’s nothing sharp in here, aside from your knives.”

“I suppose I should just ignore the giant gaping hole in your bedroom, now?” Evelyn groaned in a tired voice as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “It’s not just the broken glass. It’s another opening that’s practically a neon sign asking someone to break in.”

“Eve, you’re so dramatic!” Astra said, pouting cutely. “My penthouse is on a skyscraper, we’re hundreds of meters in the air. I don’t think anybody can break in through there.”

“Then they can use drones to sneak in and take illicit pictures of you as well,” Evelyn added. Astra did not look the least bit concerned.

“But they won’t. Because you’ll break those drones for me the moment they try something, right?~” Astra cooed, patting Evelyn’s cheek.

Evelyn let out an amused exhale and took out her phone to call a window installer. “That I will. Still, just because I will save you, doesn’t mean I should leave you defenseless. By the way, I like qipao more.”

“Great? It’s because of thigh slits, isn’t it?” Evelyn’s face reddened slightly as Astra walked towards the gem and grabbed it. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it? The white glow suits your eyes, I think!”

Evelyn shook her head to get rid of the red in her cheeks and frowned.  “Is it… wise to even touch it? To my knowledge, gems shouldn’t be glowing. Or even floating.” Astra only giggled nonchalantly.

“I did have a bit of a weird feeling when I found it. But I managed to calm it down after I sang a few songs!” Astra chirped playfully, but the comment only roused Evelyn’s suspicions.

“You… sang? To calm it down?” Astra nodded.

“With my mic, yeah! It's sort of like using my voice to power up the engines in Starloop Tower. Or power them down in this case!” Astra raised the gemstone closer to Evelyn’s face. It spun gently above the singer’s palm, glowing softly.

“Then that thing must be loaded with Ether, if you can ‘calm it down’ with your voice…” She sighed, crossing her arms and drumming her fingers against them.

“Relax! I’m holding it right now, aren’t I? And nothing’s happening!” Astra said. She placed the gem in Evelyn’s hands. It’s… warm, but the crystalline structure is cool to the touch. Evelyn looked closer and noticed her reflection on the surface. But she looked… younger?

And it looked like there were two other faces beside her. She couldn’t make them out, but seeing them made her heart clench. 

Evelyn shook her head and placed the gem back on the dresser. She noticed that Astra had left the room. “Where did you go? You have that meeting in forty-three minutes,” Evelyn said when she noticed Astra leave.

“I’m going to get a glass of water, relax!” Astra said from the hallway. “Oh. Um, Eve?”

Evelyn narrowed her eyes and ran out of the room. The white glowing gem continued to float on the dresser. In a few seconds, she was by Astra's side. “What is it? Did something happen?”

Astra pointed behind her, at the window. Evelyn looked to see where she was pointed, and her eyes widened. There were multiple flying turtle robots being ridden by smaller bipedal turtles floating outside, and a few purple puffership dropships.

One of the Turtloids waved at the pair. Astra waved back. “He’s cute,” she commented.

The Badniks opened fire.

Ellen was sitting at her desk, quietly doodling on her notebook as her friends talked about yesterday’s chaotic events.

“You think the city’s going to go into lockdown because of all this?” Mona asked in a slightly tired voice.

Ruby crossed her arms and shook her head. “Lockdown? That’s a bit much, don’t you think?”

“There’s a madman trying to take over New Eridu, remember,” Monna sighed.

“Well, yeah, but, that Eggman hasn’t actually, like, done anything?” Ruby said with a shrug. “Both times he showed up, lost the fight, and left. He’s honestly not very… intimidating.”

Ellen scoffed. “The guy’s a big crybaby, that’s what he is.” She paused her scribbling and kept looking to not implicate herself any further.

“What makes you say that?” Lynn asked curiously, sliding up next to Ellen’s seat. The shark thiren huffed and pulled her book away.

“What are you, trying to look at my notes?” Ellen asked.

“You take notes?” Ruby snickered.

“Oh, please, I don’t spend the entire class sleeping,” Ellen grunted as she scrambled to think of an excuse for her slip up. “What I mean is… this Eggman gives off loser energy, y’know? He plastered his face all over Lumina Square, it’s almost like he’s compensating for something.”

“...Y’know, I never thought of it like that,” Ruby hummed, taking a seat in the empty desk next to Ellen’s, who closed her notebook. 

“Plus, that time he did only show up with the one robot,” Monna added. “Maybe he only has a handful?”

Lynn frowned. “Didn’t the one robot kick NEPS' before it was destroyed?”

“And apparently there was a whole small army at Brant Street the other day,” Ruby also remembered. “I, uh, don’t think he’s as much of a loser as you think, Ellen.”

Ellen just hummed. “Agree to disagree, I guess.” She said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “I still think he’s compensating.”

A few moments passed as Ellen’s friends talked amongst themselves. As she waited for their break to end, her phone buzzed. At first, she thought it was Lycaon giving the address for her next job, but to her confusion, it was from Tails.

“New Eggman scheme. Who’s Astra?” Ellen raised an eyebrow.

“Got games on your phone? Who’s Tails?” Monna suddenly asked, appearing over Ellen’s shoulder.

“Hey!” Said, bringing her phone away.

Just then, the bell for the announcements rang across the school. Students in the hallways and class all quieted down. Ellen had a feeling she knew what this announcement was going to be. Mostly because she can see Eggman’s robots flying in the distance, flying beneath a large circular cloud off in the distance.

“Oh, crap…” Ellen said as the principal cancelled the school over the speakers. She got up from her seat and slung her bag over her shoulder before quickly rushing out of the room.

“Ellen, you left your–!” She heard Ruby say, but Ellen ran out of earshot before she finished. Her eyes were glued to her phone as she jostled through the crowd of confused and concerned students.

“Famous singer. What happened?” She texted back to him. It took a while for Tails to respond, but when he did Ellen simply became confused.

“His robots kidnapped her and her bodyguard. Do you know why?”

“No,” Ellen texted back. She was already out the front entrance when the announcement ended. As the other students began to file out of the school, she looked up to see where the Badniks had gone, but she couldn’t find them. “I just saw them a moment ago!” She wondered if they flew into that cloud.

Ellen reached into her skirt and popped three jawbreakers into her mouth. Her jaw turned them to shards out of frustration. “Just saw them over my school, now they’re gone. Cloaking tech?”

“Probably. Signals jammers or secure network too probably, I can’t detect them.” Ellen cursed under her breath.

“So we have no idea where he’s taking them?”

“Yup.”

Ellen would’ve thrown her phone on the floor if Lycaon weren’t paying for it. So instead she quickly stuffed it into her pocket. And then took it back out to continue texting. “Where’s Sonic?”

“Busy, he’s not able to look for Eggman right now.” 

Ellen grunted in annoyance. “Oh, so when something’s going down, he’s not here to bother me…” She rolled her eyes. “Pick me up?”

“Got it.”

With eyelids as heavy as lead, Astra managed to pry them open. She let out a soft grunt and picked herself up off cold metal. “Urgh…” She groaned softly. “What happened?”

She was trapped in a very small and dark area. She was crouching, and already her head was pushing against the top of the room. The only other features she could make out were a small window and pole in the center.

 “H-hey? Can anybody hear me?” Astra called out, but her voice echoed against the walls of her prison. “Is this please completely sealed off? Hey! Eve!” She shuffled closer to the wall and banged her fist against the surface. The third time she tried to hit, the walls slid open.

“Wah!” The momentum of her fist pulled Astra out of the capsule, making her tumble out of it. 

“Ah, you’re awake already!” Astra looked up, and saw a large egg-shaped man looming over her, with his hands on his hip; everything above his waist was cloaked in shadows, so all she could see were pure white eyes and a wide, toothy grin.

Astra flinched when she recognized his ugly mug. “You’re…”

“Dr. Ivo Robotnik, the greatest scientific genius in the world!” He introduced himself to the idol. The large man stepped into the limelight, fulling revealing himself to Astra and offering his hand. “But please, call me Eggman!” Astra blinked at him.

“That sounds like an insult,” She murmured.

“It used to be, but now it’s my greatest moniker! People quake in their boots when they hear the name ‘Eggman’, ha ha!” He chortled. Astra snickered slightly, which made Eggman snarl under his breath. “What’s so funny!?”

“I-I’m sorry, I know you’re trying to be scary and all, but I can’t take you seriously with a name like that!” Astra said, giggling with a hand over her smiling lips. “If it’s alright, can I just call you… a jerk? Or is that too mean for you?”

“Oh, ha ha, you think you’re so funny, don’t you,” Eggman groaned. He turned away from her and walked to the edge of the room, where there was a large screen and console in front of him. “But believe me, this is no laughing matter!”

He tapped a button and the screen flickered on. Astra’s eyes widened when she saw footage of Evelyn in a dark room, floating in the center with her ankles and wrists shackled together by magnetic cuffs and glaring at the camera.

“Eve!” Astra cried out, rushing towards the console. Eggman raised his arm to block her. She tried to push him away. “Don’t hurt her!”

“Your white knight will be fine, as long as you give me what I want!” Eggman exclaimed. 

Astra crossed her arms and looked away from him. “If you’re going to use me as a hostage, don’t count on it! I may be a superstar, but I doubt the military or the mayor will hand over the keys to the city, just for me!”

Eggman placed a hand on his belly and laughed loudly. “HAA ha ha ha! Oh, please! I don’t do hostages!” 

Astra frowned in confusion. “Then… why did you kidnap me?” She asked cautiously. Eggman smiled at her.

“Because your voice will be the key to my latest greatest scheme yet!” He said as the door behind him opened and a shadowy figure floated in; a figure cloaked in dark grey rags that hid its face but short enough to reveal sharp metal claws underneath them. “Behold, Dreamcaster! With it, I’ll infect the minds of the masses and control them with an iron fist!”

Dreamcaster hovered closer to Astra, so she stepped back. The red, spiralling eyes bored into hers, making her feel slightly dizzy. “Let me guess; hypnotism?”

Eggman frowned at her. “Y’know, there’s supposed to be a system to all of this. Even if it’s obvious, you can’t just say it out loud before I monologue! It ruins the gravity of the moment.”

“I know, I’m an actor as well! But I also don’t want you to have any fun while enacting your evil plan, soo…” Astra pulled down her eyelid with her middle finger and blew her tongue at him. Eggman sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“This is why I don’t take hostages…” He grumbled to himself. “Anyways, let me show what exactly I plan to do! Dreamcaster!”

Astra blinked. “Oh, cra–!” She gasped as the cold metal fist grabbed her shoulders and forcefully turned her around. She closed her eyes before he could look into them, but that didn’t matter.

<C// Listen to my voice, wandering star…> Dreamcaster purred softly. Astra’s knees buckled when the buttery soft and smooth sound reached her eyes, with only a hint of metallic scratchiness. <C// Open your eyes and look into mine. A land of puppies and cotton candy awaits you…>

Despite herself, Astra was compelled to listen to Dreamcaster’s words. She tried her hardest to keep them closed, but the robot’s voice won her over. <C// Good, very good… There’s one more thing for you to achieve inner peace. You must pledge your allegiance to the Eggman Empire. Give your humanity to Dr. Eggman, and all your worries and troubles will melt… away…>

Astra hissed through teeth. Her trained ears were able to catch the lifelessness in Dreamcaster’s voice. By focusing on that, she found the strength to push Dreamcaster away and punch it in the face, knocking off the hood. “O-ow, my fist!” She gripped her wrist when pain bloomed from her bloodied knuckles.

When she looked back at Dreamcaster, she yelped as the robot hissed at her with its newly revealed skull-like head filled with sharp teeth. It scrambled to put its hood back on to maintain its facade.

“Wh-wh-whaaa…? What the…!?” Astra gasped, her eyes wide with fear.

“Not so confident now, are you?” Eggman chortled, startling her as he slid next to her. “But as you can see, Dreamcaster is still unable to sink his claws into your mind. That’s where you come in, Astra Yao!”

Astra whirled around. “Your voice is known all throughout New Eridu! They associate you with friendliness and pure intentions, not evil! That’s exactly the kind of voice I need for Dreamcaster!”

“You’re going to record my voice to hypnotize the entire city!?” Astra slinked away, but her back hit Dreamcaster’s front. “No! I’d never do that for you!” 

Eggman smiled. “Oh, Astra… what makes you think you even have a choice in the matter?” He pushed a handful of pages into Astra’s arms. “Once you’ve done your part, I’ll let you and that white knight of yours go. I’ll even repair your penthouse for free. Defy me, and I’ll conquer this city another way. I’m quite fond of carpet bombing!”

Astra swallowed thickly. “No,” She hissed through her teeth. She stood up as straight as she could, but even then Eggman was still taller than her. “And I won’t do it! I promised to use my voice, my talent for singing, to bring smiles to everyone! I refuse to use it for something like this!”

“Didn’t I tell you? You don’t. Get. A. Choice!” Eggman tapped one of the yellow buttons on his jacket. “Cubot!”

In Evelyn’s confinement, she gave Cubot (his serial number is 1D-107) a deadpan expression while he carried a bowl of brown mush and a spoon. “C’mon! You aren’t eating! The Boss said you need to be alive so that the pretty lady does what he says!”

Evlyn turned her head away, making Cubot poke her cheek with the spoon. “Astra will never do what he says,” She said, turning away again. Cubot let out a sound of disappointment.

“What if I pretended the spoon was an airplane?” He asked her. 

Evelyn turned her head sharply, making Cubot revert back into his compact form. “If you treat me like a baby, I will break out of these cuffs out of spite, pluck off your arms, and bludgeon you with your own fists.”

Slowly, he unfolded. “So, is that a maybe or…?”

“CUBOT!” The robot flinched and covered his boxy head with his hands when Eggman’s voice came through the speakers.

“H-hey boss! Don’t mind me, just trying to feed the prisoner! Y’know, normal prison warden stuff!” Cubot looked at the corner of the enclosure, right at the security camera.

“Well you can stop! Get out of the anti-grav chamber, I’m about to start the negotiations!”

“On it, boss!” Evelyn watched as Cubot swam out of the chamber and sealed it tightly. When he did, there was a loud buzz, and both Evelyn’s cuffs and the anti-grav effect turned off. She landed on the floor. Ungracefully, on her head.

She barely had time to recover when another sharp hiss grabbed her attention. “What in the world…” Evelyn muttered as an opening in the side of the chamber revealed itself. It was blocked off by an electric field, so she could only watch as multiple Egg Pawns wearing kabuto and wielding katana filed out.

When the hatch closed, the electric field dropped, and the Egg Pawns charged. With a scoff, Evelyn drew her knife from the sheath on her thigh and blocked the first downwards slash. With a click of her tongue and a flick of her wrist, she unraveled the garrote in her glove and wrapped it around the robot's neck.

She slammed her knee into it to knock it away and then pulled on the string, slamming it into the others around her and shattering them. More Egg Pawns ran after her, so Evelyn tied her wire to the end of her knife and tossed it forwards. It pierced through one robot and was embedded into the ground. Evelyn snapped her fingers, making her gloved hands create sparks that ignited the wire, and with a wave of her hand she moved the string around like a ribbon, the small thread and flames slicing through Egg Pawns in an instant.

Once all the robots exploded, the flames on the wire went out and Evelyn pulled the string back into her longer left glove. She looked up at the security camera as she flipped her knife between her fingers and asked, “Is that all?”

“Oh yeah! Show ‘em, Eve!” Astra cheered as Evelyn defeated the wave of enemies. “Take that, Eggman! You’ll never be able to make me… why are you smiling?” Astra’s smile pewtered out when she noticed Eggman’s wide grin.

“That’s just wave one. Here’s wave two!” He clicked another button, and more robots filed into Evelyn’s enclosure. The Egg Pawns now wielded guns in addition to the swords, and Aero-Chasers were added into the mix as well. Astra’s heart dropped as they were released and Evelyn became hounded by bullets, blades and lasers.

“She’s a good fighter, I’ll give her that,” Eggman said as he watched her bodyguard cleave through more of his robots. “But do you honestly think she can fight off wave after wave of Badniks?”

Astra chewed on her lip. “She definitely can!” 

That confidence almost shattered when she saw Evelyn beginning to falter. Energy bullets pelted her body, knocking her off balance and making her defense sloppy. Each clash with her with the swords and lances against her knives was starting to push her back more and more, forcing her to the pack of chambers.

Even her garrote was starting to become useless. The lasers from the Aero-Chasers above her cut through the string easily, making her knife clatter uselessly on the ground. Evelyn dashed over to retrieve it, and the Egg Pawns chased after her. One managed to slash her shoulder, creating a deep cut.

“And there’s more where that came from!” Eggman exclaimed. He gleefully pointed to the next screen where more robots awaited, which included Egg Pawns wielding lances and shields, Neutrons capable of turning invisible, and the large, imposing Egg Hammer. Astra covered her mouth with her hands.

“And I will keep doing this until you crack, or she breaks! But even that won’t be enough!” Eggman said, poking Astra on the shoulder with enough force to make her step back. “I’ll put her back together and make her fight again, and again, even if I replace everything–!”

“Alright, I’ll do it! Just turn off the robots!” Astra shouted. Eggman smiled and snapped his fingers. His robots stopped moving, giving Evelyn the chance to destroy them all. “I feel sick…”

“Good. I was not looking forward to cleaning up that mess. Now, let’s head into the recording booth! Your next hit single will really capture the audience!” 

Astra felt her heart shatter as Eggman led her out of the control booth.

“Okay team!” Tails walked over to a white board in the center of the Victoria Housekeeping building’s lobby. “Here's what we’re… Is this everyone?” Ellen had changed into her maid outfit and was now sitting on a loveseat while chewing gum. Corin was standing next to her and shaking, while Cream and Cheese both looked determined.

The shark maid snorted. “What’s that supposed to mean?” She tilted her head.

“Well, nothing, I know you’re both really strong,” Tails said, pointing to the maids, “but I was expecting Lycaon, or at least Rina here.”

Corin raised her hand. “U-um, Lycaon is with the Mayor in case Eggman tries to attack him,” Corin meekly explained.

“Rina’s with another client. It’d be bad for our reputation if she left while the whole city is in lockdown, or something like that,” Ellen said with a roll of her eyes. “Y’know, you’d think Sonic would be the first one here. Considering, y’know, his entire personality is pissing off Eggman.”

“Miss. Ellen, you shouldn’t curse!” Cream chastised the girl that was more than twice her age. Cheese, sitting on Cream’s head, nodded disapprovingly. 

“I’ll keep it in mind,” Ellen said with a roll of her eyes. Her sharp gaze turned back to Tails.

Tails shrugged. “He probably went exploring. I already told him Eggman’s up to no good, so he should show up soon.” The fox coughed into his fist and turned to the whiteboard and started to fly with his Tails. “Speaking of, we need to come up with a plan to find Eggman!”

He drew a crude map of New Eridu and the surrounding area in black marker, and on the edge, he drew a tower. “This Eggman’s tower base! It serves as a communications hub for the EggNet, his personal private network. And since it’s severed from the rest of the EggNet, that means the signals it releases have a severely limited range!”

The girls were silent. And confused. Ellen blew a bubble and popped it. 

“S-so, what did any of that mean?” Corin asked quietly.

“It means that if we know where Eggman is sending the Badniks, we can potentially figure out where his tower base is!” Tails said. He reached behind him and pulled out his Miles Electric. “Thankfully, we’ve already got five data points!” He circled dots on Brant Street, Lumina Square, Fifth Street, where Ellen’s high school was, Astra’s penthouse in the northeast side of town, and Fantasy Resort, where Missile-Wrist first appeared.

“So, you’ll be able to find out where Miss Astra is from those points, right?” Cream asked with a slight tilt of her head; Cheese mimicked her expression.

“No, actually!” Tails told them, making Corin, Cream and Cheese wilt slightly. “However, there is something interesting to take note of! Ellen’s school is to the east of the penthouse, while the side of the penthouse that Eggman attacked from points to the west!”

Again, the girls blinked in confusion. Tails waited patiently for them to connect the dots, but his namesakes slowly stopped moving as the silence continued. “If Eggman attacked from the west it means he came from the west, which means the tower base is somewhere to the west, and Eggman would have no point in going west to Ellen’s school if he was simply heading back,” He eventually explained.

“Oooooh, he’s showing off,” Ellen said with a snap of her fingers. 

“Dr. Eggman does like to show off often. That time he blew up half of the moon still scares me a little.” Corin and Ellen slowly turned their heads towards Cream and in disbelief. “Does that mean his robots will be flying all over town to get the attention of the news stations?” She pondered out loud.

“Yes, and that means more data points to discover where Eggman’s location is. That means it's time…!” Tails took out his Miles Electric and turned it on. “To start doomscrolling! Ellen, Corin, you have phones, right?”

“Doomscrolling is my passion, right below eating candy,” Ellen sighed, spinning her phone out of the pocket of her skirt.

“I, uh, have one but I don’t really have any social media accounts,” Corin said with a shrug as she reached into her apron.

“Don’t worry about that, Badnik sightings should be all over the news by now! Just tell me where they’ve been spotted and I’ll mark it down!” Tails reassured her.

Ellen grunted in acknowledgement and started to scroll through her feed. She paused when she felt Cheese’s gelatinous body against her head. “Excuse me Miss Ellen, is there any way I can help?”

“Uh…” Ellen’s eyes darted to her phone screen, and she turned it off before a salacious art piece could fully load in. “I’m good. Don’t go on social media, it’s bad for you.”

Cream nodded and flew away, which made Ellen cock her head. “Isn’t it kind of weird that you guys can fly despite not being birds?” 

“Yeah. Back home, the birds need hoverboards to fly,” Tails said with a shrug. “But let’s not talk about the irony right now!”

After a few minutes, Tails’ map had dots placed around the commercial district residential districts, seventeen in total. The dots placed didn’t form a circle, or even something resembling it, though. They were all clustered in roughly the same place, with the farthest area being Fantasy Resort.

“So… can we track Eggman’s location, now?” Ellen asked. Tails hummed and tapped the tip of his marker against his muzzle.

“Possibly… but it’s going to take some time. I honestly thought that we were going to have some more data points to pull from, but this is good enough for me!” Tails began to mutter to himself as he scribbled some numbers on the board. “Just hang tight for a sec, and then we’ll go save Astra!”

Ellen let out a sigh and leaned back on her seat. “I’ll let you know if I find any more…” Her voice trailed off when the screen changed. “The hell…?”

Tails flickered. He looked down at his Miles Electric and frowned. “It’s a transmission from Eggman?” He yelped when the monitor on the front screen flickered on as well.

“I-Is he sending the message to the entire city, like with Missile-Wrist?” Corin murmured softly, her hands shaking. “I-I think it’s better if we turn our phones off. I have a… b-bad feeling.”

“Speak for yourself, I can’t turn mine off!” Ellen growled. She kept pressing her finger against the power button with enough force to crack the case, but it wouldn’t shut off.

Tails’ mind ran at a mile a minute trying to figure out what Eggman was trying to do. It wasn’t until a video feed of Astra, looking downcast and standing in front of a microphone, appeared on the screen did everything click in his mind.

“Hide your phones and cover your ears! Don’t listen to anything that’s about to come up on screen!” Tails shouted. 

Corin, in a panic, threw her phone into the wall, while Ellen slammed hers under a pillow. Cheese then flew towards the monitor and knocked it over, breaking it. “Cheese!” Cream chided him as she grabbed her long ears and wrapped them around her head.

Astra let out a shaky sigh as she stood in the recording booth, gripping the microphone stand tightly. Dreamcaster floated beside her, just off camera. Even more off putting was that fact that he was wearing Astra’s white and red-sleeved dress in addition to the hood.

“He he he…” Eggman’s laugh ominously echoed in the room. “Ready for your performance, Astra Yao?” In front of her, multiple video feeds appeared, recording the reactions of the people in the streets, in their cars, all watching their screens with bated breath.

“Remember, just like we planned.” Astra flinched as one more video appeared; Evelyn inside of the anti-grav chamber, with robots waiting for the electric barrier to be dropped. “You’re on in Five! Four! Three! Two…!”

With a shaky sigh, Astra opened her mouth, and Dreamcaster spoke for her.

<C// People of New Eridu,> The hypnotizer spoke, perfectly mimicking Astra’s voice down to its pitch and cadence. <C// I am safe. There is no need to worry for me.>

The sight of people stopping to listen made her shiver. Normally she would be used to this; there’s been thousands and hundreds of thousands of people that attend her concerts, watch her movies. But they aren’t.

Her voice is taking control of them. Her lips twitched as she mouthed the exact words Dreamcaster said. <C// I am well taken care of by Dr. Eggman. He has given me everything I need. Food, water, and so much more. I’ve been transported to a land of cute puppies and sugarplums.>

Cars stopped moving to watch. People brought their phones closer to their face. There was a graffiti artist that scrapped their original design to spraypaint Eggman’s logo. 

<C// And you can join me. Give you allegiance to the Eggman Empire. Give up your freedom, and we can live a peaceful life together. As one happy Egg Family.> A sickly sweet tune jingled as Eggman’s city wide transition ended.

“Yes, yes, perfect!” Eggman cheered from his observation deck. Astra can hear the ugly smirk on his face. “Just a few sessions and the entire city will be under my control, nyah ha ha ha! You’ve earned yourself a break for all your hard work!” Astra glared up at the camera with tears in her eyes.

“What about Eve?” She asked him. “She’s still safe, right?”

“...Who?” Astra’s heart dropped. “Oh, right, that white knight of yours. Don’t worry, she’ll be fine, so long as you continue to help me brainwash–” Astra heard a crack. She turned around, and noticed that one of the screens had turned to static.

“What in the world…? Did a bird crash into my Spinner? Oh, whatever. You can’t build an Eggman Empire without breaking a few eggs.” The door to the recording booth opened, and Dreamcaster pointed at the door. “Go and make yourself some lunch. I’ll get started on the next speech!”

Astra frowned up at the camera and then turned back to the static screen. She chewed on her lip and left.

The broadcast ended, and everyone in the lobby was silent. Slowly, Cream unwrapped her face from her ears and asked, “What’s everyone’s opinion on Dr. Eggman? I think he’s a bad man.”

“He can eat shit,” Ellen said immediately. Cream gasped.

“Miss Ellen! Language!” Cream told her. 

“S-so does th-that mean nobody was affected by whatever that was?” Corin asked cautiously. “J-just for the record, I think Eggman’s the worst!”

“We’re safe, but what about the rest of the city… or worse, the military!?” Tails gasped in realization. “If that signal was transmitted to every screen in New Eridu, that means Eggman could take control of their weaponry as well!”

“Okay, but how exactly are you supposed to stop him? We don’t have any idea where he is!” Ellen said in frustration.

The sliding doors in the front of the building hissed open. “Actually, I might have an idea on how we can find that egghead.”

The others looked at the entrance, and watched Sonic walk into the room, carrying a half-destroyed spinner in his hand. He winked at the grope. “Hey guys! What’d I miss?”

“Mr. Sonic!” Cream exclaimed as the blue hedgehog set the remains of the Badnik on the coffee table. “You’re back! Oh, are you feeling okay?”

“Never better! Eggman can never hypnotize me!” He poked his head while giving Cream a cocky smirk. Then he turned to Ellen. She blinked when she noticed him staring at her maid. She remembered that he’s never actually seen her wear it.

“Not a fan of the occupation, but you look good!” He said with a wink. Ellen, for some reason, blushed.

“Yeah, well…” She looked away and fiddled with a strand of her hair. “We’ve got more important things to worry about. What’s the thing for?” Ellen pointed to the wrecked badnik that Tails was poking at.

“This is Spinner! Seems to be a security variant. It should be connected directly to the EggNet!” He peeled off the head to expose its wiring and circuit boards and found a silver chip with Eggman’s logo on it. “With this, I can figure out where exactly Eggman is located!”

He took the chip and inserted it directly into the Miles Electric. “This shouldn’t take too long,” He typed away on the keyboard and busied himself in the corner of the room.

“Mr. Sonic, how did you manage to find a Spinner out in the open?” Cream asked. Sonic shrugged and walked over to the couch. He jumped on it and laid down on his side, and placed one fit on his raised knee.

“I didn’t. I was flying around in the Tornado when I crashed into it,” Sonic explained.

“You WHAT!?” Tails screeched from the other side of the room.

“It’s fine, it didn’t even damage the plane!” Sonic reassured his little buddy.

“You can fly a plane?” Ellen asked with a raised eyebrow. Sonic nodded smugly.

“I’ll have you know, the Tornado-1 was originally mine!” He said with a smirk. He laid down on his stomach and kicked his feet up and down. “When I was younger, I could barely run on water, let alone across the ocean!”

“Can you now?” She asked with a raised eyebrow.

Sonic coughed into his fist and looked away. “Yes.” 

Ellen snorted. “Okay, sure. So what were you doing, anyways?”

“Got the location!” Tails said excitedly. He flew back to the whiteboard. “It’s right here!” 

He uncapped his marker and drew a circle over Lumina Square. Corin raised her arm and asked, “Um… T-tails, I really don’t mean to be r-rude, but… are you sure that’s where the base is?”

Tails raised his arms defensively. “Don’t look at me! That’s just the info I got from the Spinner!” 

Sonic placed a hand on his chin. He got up and walked outside. “Hey, guys?” The others walked out with him. Sonic pointed up at a large circular cloud off in the distance. “What’re the chances that the cloud is actually a mobile base Eggman’s hiding in?”

“It certainly seems likely? At the same time, Eggman could have Miss Astra and her bodyguard in a different location, don’t you think?” Cream mentioned with a curious voice.

“It's the only lead we’ve got at this point. Better to get up there and take it down before Eggman manages to get into everyone’s heads,” Ellen said with a shrug. “But… how are we supposed to get up there?”

“We have the Tornado-2 and the Cyclone, but they both only seat two people…” Tails murmured, looking at Cream. “And if that broadcast starts again…”

“No worries. I guess all six of us have to go in there and crack that Eggman wide open?” Sonic said with a shrug.

“I’m sorry, six?” Ellen asked, before realizing he meant Cream and Cheese. “You’re kidding. You absolutely have to be kidding.”

“It’d be better to take her than letting Eggman’s hypnotherapy sessions get the better of her,” Sonic suggested.

“You don’t have to worry about me, Miss Ellen. Cheese and I have fought Dr. Eggman’s robots before! We can take care of ourselves!” The small bunny said, puffing out her chest as Cheese flew above her and flexed his watery nub arms.

Corin chewed on her thumb anxiously. “I mean… she does have plenty of experience with Eggman. More than us, anyways,” She mentioned. Ellen rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, I still vote no. Unless they can move me from this spot…” Ellen said, standing up from her loveseat and stomping in front of the bunny and Chao, “they’re not going.”

Sonic snickered behind her. “What’s so funny?” Ellen asked hotly.

“Tails, she’s asking for it,” He said, nudging his shoulder against Tails’. Tails looked like he was struggling to hold in a smile.

“Sonic, don’t be like that,” the younger boy hissed at him, though he also sounded amused.

“Asking for what?” Ellen asked again.

“Um, Miss Ellen?” The shark’s attention returned to the small bunny. “I know it’s rude, but, I don’t think I can move you without a bit of force. Is it okay if Cheese, um… h-hits you? I promise it won’t hurt for very long!”

Ellen raised an eyebrow. “Sure, knock yourself out kid,” She sighed.

Cream nodded. “Remember Cheese, don’t hit Miss Ellen too hard! She’s not a bbadnik!” Cheese nodded and landed on Cream’s head. He started to do some stretches to prepare himself.

“Chao chao…!” Cheese then reared his fist back and spun around to build power… “CHAO!” And then lunged forward, slugging Ellen across the cheek.

He sent her flying back into the loveseat she was sitting on; when she collided into it, both were sent skidding across the floor and hit the wall.

Sonic belted out a laugh, while Corin let out a small shriek and Tails face palmed. “Cheese! I told you to not hit her so hard! I’m so, so sorry, Miss Ellen!”

“N-no, you’re cool,” Ellen groaned, giving her and Cheese a weak thumbs up. “I was literally asking for it…”

Her red eyes darted down when she saw Sonic walk over to her with a smirk. “So, you’re gonna let the kid join?” He asked with a tilt of his head.

“Yeah. Pick me up?” Sonic clapped Ellen’s hand and hauled back onto her feet. “Jawbreaker, too?”

“Eh, just because of that hit,” He said. He tossed one into her mouth, which she snatched instantly.

“Okay,” Tails said, clapping his hands to get everyone’s attention. “Now that that’s settled, let’s load into the planes! Corin and I will ride in the Cyclone! Ellen, you take Cream and Cheese on your lap while Sonic flies. Are we good with that?”

“Sounds good to me,” Ellen said with a shrug.

“I promise I won’t move too much or distract you!” Corin nodded with a sudden surge of bravery.

“Alright! Let’s get ready to party!” Sonic said, raising his fist and clenching it excitedly.

Astra stepped back into the recording booth. She wiped her thumb against her lips, getting rid of the crumbs from her sandwich. Looking over to her left, she saw Evelyn sitting down at the edge of the chamber, looking at the swarm of robots waiting.

Dreamcaster floated next to her, clicking its fingers together with that made Astra shiver each time. “Ready, Astra?” Eggman’s voice rang out from the speakers, calling to her in a teasing voice.

Astra glanced at Dreamcaster behind her. After swallowing thickly, she nodded. “R-right…” She murmured softly.

“Good! We’re going live in four, three, two–!” Before he could finish his countdown, the building they were in rumbled. “What in blazes!? Cubot, status report!”

“I dunno what's going on either, Boss! I think someone shot at us!?" Cubot's voice rang through the speakers, making Astra raise an eyebrow. She looked at the video feeds surrounding her and noticed people pointing upwards.

“You’ve got to be…! That blasted hedgehog!” Another video feed appeared in front of her, drowning at the others. Two small and blue jets were flying through the air, and one of them fired a missile at a cloud. The explosion caused the light around to ripple; the cloud disappeared, and was revealed to be a large floating disk in the shape of Eggman’s logo, with many of his inventions and killer robots on display.

“Watch closely, Astra! This is what happens to people who defy me!” Eggman yelled. Robots started to swarm out of the disc, flying towards the pair of jets to shoot them down. “Now, sing!”

Astra looked between her microphone and the screens. She bit her lip and narrowed her eyes. “No, absolutely not!” She shouted back. “I’m not going to betray my city anymore!”

“Fine, you asked for it!” When Dreamcaster lunged at her, Astra turned around and shoved her microphone into its mouth.

“Are we live?” Astra asked Eggman; the sputter was all the only response she needed. She inhaled and shouted, “Eggman’s a massive jerk! Don’t listen to his lies, New Eridu!”

The cheap store-bought microphone Eggman supplied Astra with let out a weak burst of Ether, but it was enough to knock Dreamcaster off balance. She pushed Dreamcaster to the ground and booked it.

“You really think you can escape? This is my territory! My museum, dedicated to me! All systems, full power!” Astra flinched as Dreamcaster screeched loudly; she could hear it clawing at the floor to pick itself back up and chase after her.

She didn’t look back, and she ignored Eggman’s words. She ran through the halls of the Expo, intent on reuniting with her closest. “Eve, please be okay…!” She hissed through gritted.

Stage 01
EGGMAN EXPO

Mission: Rescue Astra Yao and Evelyn Chevalier before time runs out!
                             >>> Now Loading… >>>

In the air, the Tornado-2 and the Cyclone, both in their jet modes, approached the flying museum at high speeds, wings cutting through the air at high speeds when the robots were realised.

“Looks like our guests have arrived,” Sonic said with a smirk as a swarm of Balkyries and Turtloids flew towards them. “You guys ready to party?”

“Being gracious hosts is one of Victoria Housekeeping’s policies,” Ellen grumbled as she swung her shears over her shoulder. One of her hands was on Cream back while Cheese sat on her forehead.

“We’ll show these r-robots the same hospitality we’re known for…!” Corin muttered timidly as she raised her saw and placed a hand on its cord.

The Badniks opened fire, sending out wave after wave of energy bullets. “Hang on tight!” Tails said as he and Sonic pulled on the controls to their planes. The Cyclone and Tornado swerved and spun out of the way to dodge incoming projectiles; Sonic’s barrel rolls were longer and faster.

“Ease up, you're gonna make me sick!” Ellen said as the Tornado flew upwards drawing the attention and gunfire of the Balkyries and most of the Turtloids. When the robotic birds came close, Ellen swung her shears and sliced them in half, while Cheese flew around and punched them away.

“Yay! You go, Cheese and Miss Ellen!” Cream clapped excitedly. With the praise, Cheese flew forwards and punched one nearby Turtolid off its ride to commandeer the vehicle. He pulled on the Turtloid’s controls and started to fire at the other airborne Badniks.

With the Cyclone, Corin flinched each time the cannon above her head fired; it was constantly swiveling around, locking on targets to shoot them down before they could come close. Tails did his best to keep his jet steady, but two Balkyries started to tail from behind. They dropped bombs against the back of the Cyclone, knocking the jet around.

Tails suddenly slowed down, letting the two robots pass him and allowing Corin to swing her saw and slice them both in half. She then swung upwards, deflecting another set of bombs that the Balkyries threw down at them.

As the team fought their way through the hoard of badniks, two large spotlights shot out from the Expo and were aimed at the Cyclone. Tails and Corin were blinded briefly, and when their eyes adjusted to light they both yelled in panic as a massive electrified drill was launched right at them.

“Dodge, dodge!” Corin wailed, and she wailed harder as the fox pulled on the Miles Electric to make the Cyclone roll away. The drill circled around and started to chase them with frightening accuracy. Even when Tails turned, he wasn’t able to shake it.

“Corin, I need you to knock it away!” Tails said. He gradually began to slow down, which made Corin panic. 

“Wah–!? I-I can’t, I’m not strong e-enough…!” She hiccupped while holding her saw close to her chest.

“Don’t worry! I have full faith in you!” Tails said, raising his hand. Corin chewed on her lip, but eventually she anxiously stood up in her seat.

As the drill inched closer, Corin revved her saw and reared it over her shoulder. With a timid cry, she swung her weapon as hard as she could, knocking the drill up into the air. Sonic noticed the impressive feet and smirked. 

“We’re taking a detour!” He told Ellen and Cream. Cheese followed him on the Turtloid as he flew up towards the drill. He jumped from the cockpit (making Ellen squawk in surprise) and struck the drill, launching it right at the Expo. The drill pierced through the hull and made the entire Expo lurch. “Found the entrance!”

“Y’know, a little warning wouldn’t hurt!” Ellen hissed as he landed back on the cockpit of the Tornado-2. Sonic just laughed at her outburst.

The Cyclone descended towards the Expo, and when it got close enough it began to shift into its kart mode. There was a squad of badniks of waiting for him, but they were almost immediately crushed and ran over by the Cyclone. Corin jumped off, but slipped on a loose piece of metal. She cried softly as she started to spin around, the weight of her saw dragging her and cleaving through the enemy.

In the air, Sonic kept flying around chaotically, whooping loudly as he shot down as many Badniks as he could. Ellen was jostled in her seat, and she was starting to feel candy rise up from her stomach. “Can we please just go inside?”

“Sure. You can take the Badnik,” Sonic told her and pointed to the Turtloid. Ellen blinked. And then she yelped when Cream grabbed him by the sleeves of her outfit and flew her over to the Turtloid.

“Stay safe, Mister Sonic!” Cream waved as Cheese directed the Turtloid towards the Eggman Expo.

Sonic waved at them and flew downwards. “Alright. First order of business, time to make a runway!” He clicked the button on the control stick to fire a missile from the bottom of the Tornado-2. “Runway made!” Sonic hummed proudly as the explosion broke a hole to the inside of the Expo.

He switched the Tornado-2 back into its biplane mode and flew inside the base. Once the landing gear slid out, Sonic flipped out of the plane and started running, smashing through Eggman’s display models of Eggman’s Badniks.

Sonic followed the path ahead, up until the floor slid away and revealed a pit of spikes. With a mild grunt, he jumped over and stomped down to avoid being smashed by a wrecking ball that suddenly flung over him. “If it isn’t Sonic!” Eggman’s voice called out to him from the Expo’s PA system. 

“What’s with the giant vanity project, Egghead?” Sonic asked. He started running along the walls as more traps were sprung to try and catch him, ranging from spiked balls to mines. 

“I wanted to show this world my brilliance, that’s all!” Eggman chortled. The screens along the walls turned on, letting Sonic and the doctor glare at each other. “Once everyone is completely devoted to me, I’m going to land this Eggman Expo right in the center of Lumina Square. Then, I’ll force everyone to pay exorbitant prices to visit! And if they don't have the money, I publicly humiliate them on live TV before turning them into my robotic slaves! Nyah-hah-hah-hah!”

“‘Going to’? You sound confident, Ego-man! Let’s see you back up those big words!” Sonic taunted. Eggman smiled widely.

“Oh, I intend to!” The ground rumbled, making the hedgehog stumbled into the railing against a spiraling staircase leading downwards. A life size-model of the Egg Dragoon flew up from the staircase and aimed its electrified drill at him.

Sonic’s smirk turned wider.

He dodged the first drill when it was fired at him. Even if it was made with cheaper metal, the drill was still able to tear through the metal walls of the Expo, burying itself deeper and deeper until it popped out of the Badnik exhibit, right in front of Corin. She shrieked and ducked under it to avoid being skewered, and the drill crashed into the wall.

“Corin!?” Tails was stomping around in the Cyclone’s mech mode; the laser sight was constantly humming. “Are you okay?”

“M-Mostly–!” Her breath hitched when she felt a metal hand on her shoulder. She whirled around and watched as the exhibits twitched to life. Egg Fighters and Egg Gunners jumped down from their stands. “Gaaah! Get back!” She revved her saw and used it to cleave through the Badniks.

“How are we supposed to find Astra in this mess?” Corin asked. She blocked incoming gunfire with the wide wheel of her saw as she backpedaled towards Tails.

Tails jumped backwards and fired mortars from the cannon, intercepting rockets from the Egg Pawns. “Eggman’s more than likely focused on Sonic now, and his bases usually don’t have prison blocks. If we find the control room, we find Astra and her bodyguard,” Tails reasoned. He blinked when the ground rumbled and saw an Egg Hammer marching towards them. “Switch opponents?”

“Uh–! Sure!” 

The Tornado swiveled around and fired rapidly at the Gunners and Fighters. At the same time, Corin ran forwards and sliced the Egg Pawns to shreds. When the Egg Hammer slammed its weapon down, Corin dodged to the right and sliced off the Badnik’s hand, and then did the same to its legs. Corin let out a panicked cry when it began to fall on top of her so she swung her weapon upwards and sawed the Egg Hammer in half.

Tails looked a little intimidated by the metal carnage around her.

He shook his head and shifted the Cyclone into kart mode. “Grab on!” He drove over to Corin, running over the remaining Badniks in their way. She clapped her hand around his and let him haul her into the back seat once more.

On the other side of the Expo, Ellen jumped a pit of spikes that suddenly opened beneath her, while Cream followed her from above. Cheese flew around them, knocking back Badniks that got close while Ellen dealt the finishing blow.

“Jeez, how many robots does this guy own!?” Ellen grunted as Cheese pushed an Egg Pawn onto the blade of her shears. She opened them, splitting them in half and then ran forwards, catching more Badniks between the blades before slamming her shears shut.

“I know. They’re like insects!” Cream nodded. Like Sonic, she curled up into a ball and dropped on one, crumpling it under her. “Wait! Look ahead, Miss Ellen!” Cream pointed forwards. Ellen looked in her direction, and saw a Cubot flying out of a nearby room.

“Worth checking out, I guess,” Ellen shrugged. Cream nodded, and the bunny brought her fingers to her mouth to whistle.

“Chao-chao!” Cheese began to fly around the pair, going faster and faster until he launched forwards like a rocket. He knocked away all the Badniks in front of them with enough force to make them shatter against the wall.

With the path cleared, they ran into the room Cubot left. Ellen sliced the door to weaken it and Cream spindashed into it to force it open. Inside was a white sphere hanging from the ceiling over a pit, and a blonde woman being assaulted by robots.

“Cheese!” Cream shouted. Cheese nodded and punched the control panel by sphere, making a hole near the bottom of the chamber. Cream then flew inside and grabbed Evelyn before she could be struck by the blade of Egg Pawn. The Badniks tried to follow her outside, but Ellen was already on top of the sphere and used her shears to slice the chain keeping it up.

The chamber and Badniks fell down and crashed onto the floor below, creating a large explosion that blew everyone back into the hallway.

Evelyn was the first to stand up. “Where’s Astra?” She demanded to know. Then she frowned. “Are… you both children?”

“I’m eighteen!” Ellen huffed. “And if you haven’t noticed, we’re saving your ass. At least be a little happy about it.” She took a lollipop from her apron and tossed it into her mouth.

Evelyn rolled her eyes and sighed. “Regardless. We need to find Astra, now, before the doctors make her do something horrible.”

“We’re working on it, don’t worry,” Ellen said. Her voice was drowned out when a large chunk of wall was ripped out next to them.

“It’s Mister Sonic!” Cream pointed at the new hole, where they could see the blue hedgehog repeatedly slamming the model Egg Dragoon into the walls of the Expo with just his curled up body.

“Is he insane?” Evelyn asked with a tilt of her head as another hit launched the Egg Dragoon through the wall.

“Worse, he’s cocky,” Ellen muttered with a hint of a smile. “C’mon, let’s go before he wrecks something important. Any idea where Astra could be?”

Evelyn placed a hand on her chin. “The doctor did show me where she was being held, yes. He taunted me, saying that I would know where she was while she remained in the dark, worried about my safety."

"Then let's get going!" Cream said. She and Ellen took off down the hallway. Ellen cast one more worried glance at Sonic and the Egg Dragoon before following them.

Sonic whooped loudly as he smashed into the Egg Dragoon one last time, breaking off the cockpit from the main body. Eggman’s anguished cry could be from the Expo’s speakers. “Are you kidding me! Do you know how long it took me to remake that?”

“Oh, grow up! This is the fourth time you’ve used it! Why don’t you remake that mecha you used on the Lost Hex?” Sonic dashed away again, entering an exhibit dedicated to schemes focused on Angel Island.

Eggman scoffed at Sonic’s words. “You know nothing of brand recognition, rodent!” Sonic slid underneath an ax swing from Hey Ho and kicked the blade back into Badnik's head. He paused when he heard the door on the other hiss open. A woman in grey sleepwear jogged inside, panting heavily. 

“That must be one of the girls,” Sonic muttered. He ran towards her and caught Astra before she could collapse. “You’ve been running hard, huh? You smell like sweat.”

“S-sorry…!” Astra wheezed. Her chest heaved as she clung to him and tried to push herself on her knees. “I can… barely walk…!” Sonic shrugged.

“No worries. I can handle the running for you,” he said with a wink. He picked her up and ran out of the exhibit before a glass model of Perfect Chaos could fall on top of him.

“You won’t be able to run forever, hedgehog!” Sonic looked up and pulled Astra away before a section of the ceiling could crush them.

“Running is my whole thing, Eggman!” Sonic hoisted Astra into her arms. “Hold on tight,” he told Astra. She nodded, but still shrieked in surprise as he ran away before the ceiling came crashing down.

He adjusted his grip on her so that he could turn on the communication device in his ear. “Tails? I found one of the girls? How about you?”

“Really, that’s great! Ellen just called me to say she found Evelyn. Now we just have to destroy what Eggman is using to hypnotize the city! Evelyn said she has an idea on where it is.” Tails told him.

Astra coughed to get Sonic’s attention, and pointed behind them. “Recording booth…! Dreamcaster, over there,” She wheezed him.

“On it. I’ll meet you over there, Tails!” Sonic pivoted on his heel and ran back down the hall with a smirk on his face.

Eggman stomped into the recording booth with a deep scowl on his face. Cubot and Dreamcaster were in the other side of the room, with yellow one applying make up so that Dreamcaster could at least look somewhat like Astra.

“Argh! That infuriating hedgehog! I swear, this is the last time he’ll bother me again!” Eggman sneered as he stomped his foot on the ground.

Cubot turned around and tilted his head. “Boss, you say that all the time. And Sonic still kicks your butt!” The glare he received made Cubot shrivel up.

“This time will be different! With Dreamcaster’s voice, I’ll turn all of New Eridu against him. Nowhere will be safe, no one will accept him! And when Sonic’s down for the count, that’s when I’ll swoop in for the win!” Eggman clapped his hands together and rubbed them eagerly. “Now, Dreamcaster! It’s time to make this world ours!” Cubot floated away from the robot. Dreamcaster was now wearing a paper mask with Astra’s face crudely drawn onto the sheet.

“He looks beautiful!” Cubot swooned while Eggman groaned.

“Whatever, just start the transmission!”

Dreamcaster floated towards and grabbed it, while Cubot grabbed the camera and aimed it at the hypnotizing robot. “We’re live!” Cubot said.

And then the door was knocked off its hinges. Evelyn’s red-hot garrote wrapped around Dreamcaster’s neck and it was dragged forwards. Ellen then burst into the room and slammed the butt of her shears into the robot’s face, making it stagger backward, and Cream zoomed past it to spindash into the camera. Cheese then stomped on the remains, even though couldn’t record video or sound anymore.

Dreamcaster hissed and lunged forwards at Evelyn, while she slid to the right and quickly began to run around the robot, wrapping it in her wire. She snapped her fingers, and with the resulting flames and twist of her wrist, her string melted straight through the robot, making it clatter to the ground.

Cubot let out a yelp as the fire licked his gloved hands. “It’s the white knight!” He gasped loudly. He quieted down as the red string wrapped around his mouth and him over to her.

“Remember what I said…?” Evelyn asked, her eyes flashing dangerously. Cubot blinked.

“You know my speakers are on the top of my head, right?” Evelyn rolled her eyes.

“Wait, before you do anything,” Ellen looked around the room and frowned. “Where the hell did Eggman go?” Evelyn and Cream blinked and started looking as well.

“He vanished!” Cream gasped as she picked up Cheese from the ground. Evelyn looked down at Cubot and increased the pressure of her strings.

“Talk. Did you see him? Did he take Astra with him?” Evelyn growled. Cubot pointed behind him.

“Your desperation is showing.” Evelyn froze when she felt cold steel pressed against the back of her head. Cream and Ellen gasped when they saw Eggman standing behind Evelyn, holding a gun to the back of her head.

Evelyn moved slightly; whether she was going to readjust her feet or attack was anyone’s guess, but she froze instantly when Eggman pressed the pistol against the back of her head again. “Now, don’t be like that! I don’t want to do anything nasty, especially not in front of children.”

“Oh, like brainwashing isn’t nasty?” Ellen hissed through her sharp teeth.

“There’s a clear moral difference between traumatizing a child with gore and brainwashing them to do your bidding!” Ellen raised an eyebrow. “Whatever. I don’t have to explain myself to you lot. Now, my assistant, if you please?”

Evelyn exhaled audibly through her nose. She unwrapped Cubot and placed the folded robot in Eggman’s outstretched hand. Cubot unfolded himself and threw his arms around the doctor’s neck. “Boss! You really do care!”

“I can still sell you for scrap metal if I want to,” Eggman huffed. Cubot let out a sad moan.

“Anyways. It seems my plans have been foiled. Again. It’s time for me to leave, but that doesn't I'll let you all go scott-free!” He stepped away from Evelyn, still aiming the gun at her head.

“You can’t run away forever Dr. Eggman!” Cream exclaimed, placing her fists in front of her chest; Cheese mimicked her movements, but also added in a few punches. “Once you turn away, we’ll catch you!”

“Not if you want to keep my Expo from crashing into the city below!” Everyone’s eyes widened as Eggman pointed his gun to the air and pressed the trigger. Instead of firing a bullet, the entire Eggman Expo started to rumble. 

Ellen turned the other way and noticed that the buildings in the distance were starting to become larger, and clearer. “What did you do!?” She demanded to know, pointing her shears at him.

“This isn’t actually a firearm; it’s my Expo’s self-destruct button! Perfect for getting rid of annoying insects such as yourselves! And when it crashes into the city below, it’ll make plenty of room for me to rebuild my museum once more!” Eggman sneered; his callousness, while expected by Cream, was enough to make Ellen recoil and Evelyn shiver in disgust.

“You wouldn’t dare–!” Evelyn tossed her knife at Eggman, but it was intercepted by a blue blur.

“S-sonic…!?” Ellen gasped. 

Metal Sonic’s red eyes flashed in annoyance as he gripped the knife tightly. Evelyn hissed in annoyance and pulled, but the floating steel-plated faker didn’t budge. Instead he dragged Evelyn to him and punched her into Ellen, knocking them both into the ground.

“Glad to have you back, Metal Sonic! We’ll go over your reconnaissance back at home. For now, get me out of here!” Metal Sonic nodded just as the girls picked themselves up and Evelyn, Ellen, and Cheese charged at the duplicate.

Instead of running away, Metal Sonic flicked Cheese away, grabbed Ellen’s by the wrist and tossed her backwards, and then tripped Evelyn with a swing of his foot. Only after that Metal Sonic grabbed Eggman by the arm, wagged his finger, and flew away.

“...What the hell was that!?” Ellen shouted in anger. Her frustration only rose as the Expo shuddered again. The view from the window behind them was now blocked by a thick plume of smoke. “And this place is about to blow!”

“We have to get out of here, quickly!” She grabbed Ellen and Evelyn by the wrist and started to flap her ears, lifting both of them off the ground and flying out of the room alongside Cheese.

Evelyn glanced at Ellen. “Don’t ask,” The shark thiren said, her expression equally dumbfounded. “Besides, Eggman said that this thing was going to land on Lumina Square? How exactly are we supposed to stop that?”

The speakers shrieked on, somehow still operable even as the Expo started to break apart around them. “With a little tech support!” Tails exclaimed through the speakers. “I’m inside the control room right now, with Corin! There’s just enough juice left in the engines to direct the Expo into the river. I’m setting the coordinates, so all we need to do is find a way to escape.”

Ellen hissed. “There’s not enough room on either of the planes to carry all of us down, and we busted all the Badniks so we can’t fly down with them, either. How did you Astra end up here?”

Evelyn racked her brain for a moment before saying, “I’m not exactly sure, but before I was knocked out I thought I saw the robots take out a gray capsule from one of those large pufferfish ships.”

“Really?” Cream asked, looking down. “If we can find one of the capsules, Mister Sonic or Mister Tails can use one of their planes to carry you and Miss Astra out of here!”

“That sounds like a great plan!” Everyone turned around to see Sonic rounding the corner, carrying Astra in his hands. The songstress beamed when she saw Evelyn, alive and well.

“Eve…!” Astra cried, her voice still hoarse from exhaustion. She reached out, and Sonic moved closer to let them hug each other. “You’re safe…!”

Evelyn chuckled softly and ran her hand through Astra’s hair as her ward buried her face in her chest. “Miss Yao, we’re not exactly safe yet. Please save your tears until we’re fine.”

Sonic reached out with his other hand, and Cream let go of Evelyn to deposit her in Sonic’s other arm. “I’ll go find the capsule! You two head back to the Tornado! I parked it on the roof!”

“Be quick about it!” Ellen shouted as Sonic sped up and left the girls in the dust. When he left, Cheese turned sharply and smashed the window next to them. Cream flew out of the hole he made and flew upwards.

The Expo was beginning to shake and tremble. Fire and smoke started to burst out from the rooftops as the flying vanity project descended. Ellen narrowed her eyes as Cream fly higher to get a better view of the area. “I see the Tornado!” Ellen said, pointing to a speck of blue in the distance.

Cream dove towards, flying underneath a thick plume of smoke. Before she could pass under it completely, a spiked arm suddenly shot out towards. Cream stopped flying to let gravity take over, narrowly avoiding being crushed.

Ellen looked up and hissed as a model of a Mass-Produced Death Egg Robot jumped down and attempted to land on them. Cream tossed Ellen forwards to fly faster and avoid being squashed by its big metal booth, and then grabbed the shark maid once more and flew up.

The Death Egg Robot fired a red laser from its sole eye. “Hold your breath, please!” Cream warned Ellen as she flew into a smoke cloud. The laser parted the smog, but it didn’t seem to hit anything. The Death Egg Robot stomped forwards and looked around. The light in its eyes started to die down, and that’s when Cream, Cheese and Ellen dropped down from the smoke above it. 

Cream curled up into a ball and smacked into the Death Egg Robot’s head, and then Cheese raised his tiny fist and hit Cream into the head again, crumpling the robot’s head. She jumped out of the way, allowing Ellen to drive the point of her shears deep into the robot’s head. With a snarl, she twisted her hips and started to spin, drilling right through the Death Egg Robot’s and flying out from the bottom.

The Death Egg Robot split into two, and collapsed on its sides. “Very impressive, Miss Ellen!” Cream said she picked her up and started to fly again.

“Yeah? Well I don’t feel like dying today,” She grumbled.

Once they reached the Tornado-2, Cream set Ellen down in the backseat. The biplane was, miraculously, untouched. A few seconds after, they heard the scraping sound of Sonic pushing a large metal capsule with a yellow button on top. “The girls are already inside,” he said as he grabbed a magnet from the back, clipping a chain to it, and placed it on the side of the capsule.

“That thing is small,” Ellen noted.

“It’s not comfy, either. It’s only metal inside. Did you at least give them a pillow to make them comfortable?” Cream asked. Sonic snickered and jumped into the cockpit of the plane.

“I know Astra made herself very comfortable on two pillows,” he snarked while starting the engine.

“Boo, terrible joke!” Ellen groaned. Cream tilted her head in confusion.

“Anyways, let’s get the heck out of dodge!” The Tornado at first struggled to move, but after Sonic put a little more pressure on the control stick, it managed to take off without issue. Sonic switched the Tornado-2 into jet mode and rocketed off.

Once they were far enough, Ellen looked back to see the flying disk crash into the river. It sank halfway down before exploding. Metal, fire and the robots splashed into the river, and the water surrounding the ruined Expo started to turn into a murky gray color.

“Oof. Was that really the best place we could land it?” Sonic groaned to himself. “Probably going to affect the fishing industry for a while.”

“The closest Hollow is too far away from Lumina Square. The Expo would’ve crashed landed long before it would reach it,” Tails explained over the Tornado-2’s comms.

“At the very least, it crashing into the river shouldn’t affect the quality of drinking water. I think,” Corin added in a cautious voice

“And, we managed to stop Dr. Eggman’s plans!” Cream chimed up. Cheese nodded and cooed happily.

Ellen noticed that Sonic still looked discontent, looking down at the contaminated river with furrowed brows. “Hey…” She leaned forward and placed a hand on his shoulder. “We did good today. And, there’ll be people to help clean up the mess. That’ll include you, right?” She asked with a tilt of her head.

Sonic looked over his shoulder, and smirked. “You think you know me so well, don’t you?”

Ellen shrugged. “You’re not exactly a hard guy to read.”

“Fair enough,” Sonic said with a slight laugh. “Tails? We’re we landing?”

“Let’s head to the border of the city, just outside the Outer Ring. I’ll put in a call to NEPS saying that Astra and Evelyn are there.”

“Good enough for me!” Sonic tugged on the control stick and turned the Tornado-2 around.

The Cyclone and the Tornado-2 touched down near the edge of the city, just by the entrance to the outer ring. Once they were safely on the ground, Sonic jumped out of his seat and landed directly on the yellow release button, opening it.

Like before, Astra tumbled out, but Evelyn was holding tightly onto her this time, shielding her from the coarse ground. “Some warning would’ve been nice,” Evelyn muttered softly as she helped Astra onto her feet.

“Thanks for saving us!” Astra chirped brightly as she dusted herself. “What happened to Eggman? He’s not going to try something like this again, is he?”

Sonic shook his head. “I wouldn’t put much stock into that idea. The guy tends not to revisit plans once they’ve failed, so city-wide mind control won’t be on the docket anytime soon,” Sonic reassured the New Eridu citizens. They all let out a collective sigh of relief.

“Still, that ‘Eggman’ character has only been here for three days. And in those three days he’s managed to cause almost as much chaos as when Hollow Zero first erupted…” Evelyn hummed, placing a hand over her mouth.

“Does he normally make as much of a mess with you guys?” Ellen asked, keeping her voice low so that Astra of Evelyn didn’t hear. Tails shrugged, and Sonic made a so-so motion with his hand.

“For low level schemes like this, things tend to go back to normal pretty soon. Give it a few days, and this city will be used to it, hopefully,” Sonic shrugged.

“You consider this low level?” Corin asked with wide eyes.

“So, the authorities will be picking us up soon, then?” Evelyn asked Tails. 

The fox nodded. “Yep! Uh, we’d appreciate it if you kept our involvement a secret. You can say that you found an escape pod, and fled using that,” Tails said, pointing to the capsule.

“Are you sure? It seems kind of wrong to just let you guys go without thanking you. Not even a little hint?” Astra asked them puppy dog eyes.

“Well, if you want you could make a little musical number dedicated to how awesome and cool we are, heh heh!” Sonic suggested.

“Astra doesn’t take commissions,” Evelyn said with a slight frown. Astra then wrapped her arms around Evelyn’s and pulled it tightly against her chest, giving her the same look. “But… we’ll keep it in mind, I suppose.”

“Cool!” Sonic then turned to Ellen and Corin, making the former. “So, you guys are going to do some advertising or what?”

“I'm not on the marketing team. What I need is a nice hot bath, a bed, and ten pounds of sugar dumped right into my stomach,” Ellen grunted.

“I, uh, well, I-I, um,” Corin stammered, her nervousness getting to her now that her adrenaline is wearing off and she's realizing she's face to face with the superstar of New Eridu.

“In that case, we’ll be off!” Sonic said. He jumped back into the Tornado-2 and started the engine. “See ya! Don’t get kidnapped again!”

“Don’t worry, I won’t!” Astra waved as the two planes took off and returned to the city.

Zhu Yuan groaned when she saw the Eggman Expo land in the river and explode. Her mind had suddenly become clear, but not without giving her a brief wave of nausea. “Ugh… that felt awful,” She groaned. “What even happened?”

She, Qingyi, and a handful of police officers were inside the ruins of Astra penthouse, which was now covered in burn marks and craters. All of them were affected by Eggman’s broadcasting, which made them pause their investigation. 

“A better question is ‘how’ to be honest,” Qingyi said with a shrug as she walked next to Zhu Yuan. “Mass hypnotism isn’t something that even the military is working on, last I checked. At the very least, the worst of it seems to be over.”

“Not completely,” Zhu Yuan sighed. “We’re so close to election day. Tensions are rising too quickly. I’ve been informed that a squad from NEDF is going to assist in patrolling the streets in the coming days.”

“Given what we’ve seen from Eggman just now, do you think they’ll be enough?” Qingyi asked her. Zhu Yuan frowned deeply.

“It has to be,” Zhu Yuan sighed. “Anyways, you were investigating Astra’s bedroom before that broadcast made us all stop. Did you find anything?”

“Well, the room needs a gas mask to enter.. Those explosions knocked the perfumes and lotions down, and truth to be told a lot of those aromas should not go together,” Qingyi said with a slight shrug. She then reached behind her. “That being said, I also found… this.”

She raised her hand, showing Zhu Yuan a glowing white crystal, cut like a diamond, floating gently in the palm of her hand. “I’m not sure what is… but it’s important. While I was affected by Eggman’s mind control, I had the innate desire to give it to him.”

“What.. is it?” Zhu Yuan wondered aloud, reaching out to touch the surface. “Wait… do you think it’s the same kind of stone that was found at Brant Street?”

Qingyi thought for a moment and nodded. “Inspector Bringer wanted to see it, I believe.”

Isolde fell back on her chair and groaned. “What do you mean the UFO self-destructed?” She asked a pair of soldiers standing in front of her.

“It’s exactly as we said, Colonel Isolde. It exploded without any interference from our forces. Obol Squad are returning as we speak. They barely finished crossing the Chasm before the threat was neutralized,” one of the soldiers spoke.

Isolde placed her hands on the bridge of her and exhaled deeply through her nose. “So, we did nothing.”

“...Basically, yeah,” The second soldier said with a hesitant nod.

“Well. I suppose we should expect an official apology from… General Lorenz… sometime soon. Trust in the Defense Force will reach an all time low as well, I imagine; even lower than when Hollow Zero,” Isolde sighed. She chewed on her lip for a brief moment before continuing. “Thank you, you’re both dismissed.” 

The soldiers saluted and began to march out of the room. However, a few moments after they left, the second soldiers walked back into Isolde’s tent. She frowned. “Is something the matter?”

“So, uh… one of our guys was stationed at the air traffic tower today,” He began, walking up to Isolde’s desk. “He said he spotted a really fast moving object headed south of Scott Outpost. He thinks it… might be that Eggman character.”

Isolde’s frown turned into a scowl. “Ah. I see.” She inhaled deeply once more. “Did anyone else notice?”

“No. Only us three know.” Isolde swallowed thickly and closed her eyes tightly.

“Fine. Prepare a transport for me. Something discreet. I’ll leave, alone, once curfew has been enforced,” Isolde said through gritted teeth.

“Are you sure you should go by yourself? That Sarah chick and Eggman are both a little…” The soldier raised his finger and traced a circle around his temple, “y’know? Just saying, I would not like forming an alliance with Eggman.”

“Noted. But unfortunately, I’m not at liberty to deny requests from a priest.” Isolde stood up and reached for the saber on the side of her desk. “I just hope it ends well for me.”

CREAM & CHEESE
Physical / Rupture / Team Rose

HP - 6982 | ATK - 830
DEF - 301 | Impact - 93
Anomaly Mastery -  92 | Anomaly Proficiency - 90
Crit Rate - 19.4% | Crit DMG - 50%
Sheer Force - 1112 | Adrenaline Accumulation - 1.8

CORE PASSIVE: Lifecycle of the Chao
When Cheese attacks an enemy, [all Physical DMG dealt is Sheer DMG, ignoring the Enemy’s DEF and using Sheer Force as a damage multiplier. Cream’s Physical DMG is reduced to 1/8 of its original power.]

A Maturity Meter appears under Cream & Cheese’s health bar, which fills up over time. When Cream or Cheese lose HP, the [rate which the Maturity Meter fills is increased by 20% for 4 seconds]; this effect cannot be triggered repeatedly. When the Maturity Meter is filled, Cheese will [reincarnate, which lasts 4 seconds, leaving him unable to attack]. After Cheese reincarnates, Cream & Cheese’s [Sheer Force increases by 12% for 20 seconds].

When Cream or Cheese deal enough damage to an enemy, they gain a Remembrance Counter. When Cheese reincarnates, [all Remembrance Counters are removed], and when Cheese attacks an enemy that had a Remembrance Counter, [the Sheer DMG he inflicts will be treated as that enemy’s weakness]. This effect only lasts 10 seconds.

ADDITIONAL ABILITY: Chao Babysitting
When a member of Team Sonic, Team Rose, or a Stun agent is in your Squad;
When Cream leaves the field, Cheese will accompany the next on-field character and perform attacks alongside that agent. The Maturity Meter [decreases over time and cannot be increased] if he is not with Cream.

BASIC ATK
Chao Homing Attack - While far away from the enemy, Cheese flies to the nearest enemy and headbutts them dealing Physical Aftershock DMG.

Cream Ballet - Cream attacks by throwing a few clumsy punches (she’s trying her best), dealing Physical DMG. Each attack that lands slightly increases Cheese’ Maturity Meter.

Chao Karate - Cheese attacks with a flurry of swift punches, dealing Physical Aftershock DMG.

Bunny’s Spindash - By holding the Attack Button, Cream curls up into a ball and starts charging a spindash. Aim with the control stick and release to launch Cream at the closest enemy and deal Physical Damage. The enemy attacked will have Cheese immediately use Chao Homing Attack on them, and Cheese will keep attacking them until they are defeated or he is knocked away by a powerful attack.

DODGE
Quick Flight - A rapid dash dodge. Cream & Cheese are both invulnerable while using this skill. If Cheese dodges an attack, the on-field character gains Vital View.

Dash Attack: Chao Winder - Cheese attacks with a spinning punch, while Cream pummels the enemy with a Spin Attack, dealing Physical Aftershock DMG and Physical DMG respectively.

ASSIST
Quick-Assist: Chao-nado - When the on-field character is launched, Cheese automatically homes in on the enemy and spins around them, continuously dealing Physical Aftershock DMG for 2 seconds.

Evasive Assist - Dodges the enemy’s attack and activates Vital View.

Assist Follow-Up: Chao Dunk - Cream rams into the enemy with a Spin Attack, while Cheese drops down from the sky to punch the enemy, dealing Physical DMG and Physical Aftershock DMG respectively.

SPECIAL
Special Attack: Chao Heal - Hold the Special Button to have Cream drain the Maturity Meter. After releasing, or if the Maturity Meter has been drained completely, Cream slightly restores the HP of all allies, proportional to the amount of energy drained from the Maturity Meter and the difference between Cream & Cheese's current and original HP. If the Maturity Meter was drained from over 80% percent and is emptied, the HP restored increases greatly.

EX Special Attack: Falling Star Karate - Hold the Special button to have Cream aim Cheese at the enemy, placing a reticle over them and draining Cream & Cheese’s HP until 1/8 of their original HP remains. After 3 seconds, or 5 enemies have been locked onto, Cream and Cheese will slam into the enemy together, dealing Physical DMG and Physical Aftershock DMG respectively. The more HP Cream & Cheese have, the more Physical DMG this attack deals.

EX Special Attack: Shooting Star Karate - Can only be activated if Cream & Cheese have more than 1/8  of their HP remaining. Cream and Cheese hold hands and start spinning around, draining energy from the Maturity Meter until it’s emptied and dealing Physical DMG and Physical Aftershock DMG respectively to enemies they come into contact with. Once the Maturity Meter, Cheese releases a Chaos Blast of Friendship, dealing Ether + Physical Aftershock DMG. The more energy drained from the Maturity Meter, the more DMG this attack deals.

CHAIN
Chao Paradise - Cream and Cheese spin together and slam into the enemy, dealing massive Physical DMG.

Ultimate: Generation of Chaos - When the Ultimate activates, the Maturity Meter is filled completely, also, Cream can use her full power upon activation, and for 15 seconds after the ultimate ends. Cream & Cheese fly around in a circle, hitting enemies towards the center until Cheese releases a watery wave of Chaos Energy. Cream deals Physical DMG, and Cheese deals Physical + Ether Aftershock DMG.

After performing this Ultimate, Cheese temporarily becomes a Chaos Chao, and will deal Ether Aftershock DMG in addition to Physical Aftershock DMG for 10 seconds.

Chapter Text

Later that night, Isolde drummed her fingers against the steering wheel of her buggy as she drove through a barren wasteland.

When Hollow Zero erupted, TOPS decided to detonate the Shiyu Pillars, leaving a massive scar on the land that stretched for miles, separating the ruins of the old capital from New Eridu. The creation of the Chasm destroyed all wildlife in the area, preventing Zero from growing any further.

As she drove next to the crevice, Isolde was on the look out for anything strange; a building, a flying fortress. Maybe even a factory.

Her followers managed to track Eggman towards the south end of the Chasm before the signal went dark. It wasn’t much, but given how much of an egotist Eggman seemed to be, she was fairly confident that she would find something big and loud eventually.

Still, she felt sick to her stomach even doing this. Isolde tightened her grip, nails digging into the steering wheel. Her only comfort was Sarah saying they could get rid of him if he went too far.

The question of whether they could even do that remains heavy on her mind. Isolde sighed.

The buggy shook, likely running over a rock or the skeleton of some long dead animal. To be safe, Isolde raised her hand and adjusted the rearview mirror to make sure.

Sonic was sitting on the left backseat, with his head propped up on the hand resting on the window. Most of his body was covered in darkness because of the poor lighting. When he noticed her looking, he turned his head and nodded casually. Isolde blinked.

Isolde killed the engine and turned around. “What are you doing here?” She asked. Sonic leaned forward, revealing a body of metal and chrome, and blood red eyes boring right into her.

“...What?” Isolde whispered.

Her confusion was broken by the sound of Eggman’s telltale laugh. Metal Sonic’s eyes brightened and produced a projection of the doctor looking down at her, wearing a pink bathrobe and wearing a white undershirt. Isolde blinked. “Did I come at a bad time?”

“Of course you did. It’s game night!” Eggman hissed at her. He cleared his throat and then continued, “Now, what exactly are you doing all the way out here? You look like you’re part of the military. Is Scott Outpost surrendering?” He sounded disappointed, which made Isolde grit her teeth.

“Nothing of the sort.” Isolde and Metal Sonic stepped out of the vehicle. “I’m here to offer a partnership.”

Eggman raised an eyebrow. “A partnership? You realize I’m trying to take over your world, right?”

“Not with the New Eridu Defense Force, but with the Exaltist Order,” Isolde clarified. 

Eggman leaned closer, clearly intrigued. “Ooo, you’re part of a cult worshipping an eldritch horror? Please, continue!”

Isolde bit her tongue before she could speak without thinking. “The Exaltist Order is aware that you and that blue hedgehog know what those glowing gems are,” The colonel said in a sanitized voice. “And as you know, New Eridu is in dire state. For as much as the Mayor and HAND promises that we’ll reclaim our world from the Hollows, it’s nothing but an empty promise.”

“What does this have to do with the Chaos Emeralds?” Eggman asked impatiently.

“The Exaltist Order wants to live inside the Hollows, instead of living in fear outside of them. We’re working on serums that allow someone to maintain their sanity when they turn into an Ethereal, and we believe that the jewels may prove useful for our goals.”

Eggman hummed and leaned back in the apparent seat he was sitting on. “Metal? Bring her and the take out I ordered.”

When Metal Sonic rocketed off, the shockwave knocked Isolde onto her back. The robot returned after a few moments, carrying a plastic bag with bowls inside of them. He then grabbed Isolde by the neck and flew again.

The speed and pressure on her neck made it near impossible for Isolde to see. Her vision was dark and clouded one moment, and suddenly she was on a metal floor. Isolde coughed and rubbed her gingerly, only looking up when Eggman walked into the room, now wearing his signature red coat.

Instead of helping her up, Eggman opened the bags, and took out two bowls; one with noodles and the other with broth. The smell of ramen filled the room. Slowly, the mad doctor filled the broth into the noodle bowl and stirred them together. With a fork.

Isolde could feel her mouth watering. Eggman noticed. “What? Military rations don’t satisfy your cravings?”

“...I don’t eat often,” Isolde said. “I lost my appetite a long time ago.”

Eggman grunted. “So, about this partnership. What’s in it for me?”

“You’ll be helping millions of lives. Is that not enough?” Isolde asked sarcastically. Eggman chuckled darkly as he scooped up noodles and ate in silence. “The Creator will be pleased by your work if you aid us. They’ll reward you greatly if you do.”

The doctor hummed in response. “I’m afraid an empty promise isn’t good enough for me. Call me paranoid, but I’d rather not tangle with dark gods directly anytime soon,” Eggman said. “No, I want you to promise me something. I don’t want some vague, wishy-washy statement about how a dead man upstairs will grant me a wish if I pray hard enough.”

“I…” Isolde hissed through her teeth. She wanted Eggman to accept her request through sheer morbid curiosity. She watched him eat another roll of noodles and dab his mouth with a napkin. She bit her lip as she tried to formulate a response.

“You… can have the rest of the world.” That got Eggman’s attention. He stopped eating and set the bowl on the desk in front of him.

“Explain,” he asked simply.

“Leave New Eridu alone. If you help us and we rebuild humanity back to its former glory, you can control everything outside the limits of this city,” Isolde said with a bit more confidence.

Eggman leaned closer. “There’s nobody to grovel at my feet and crush under my heel outside the borders of this city” he told her.

“Not true,” Isolde smirked. “The Exaltist Order doesn’t just reside in this city. There’s many more, many pockets of survivors struggling to live on this broken planet we call our home. You’re free to subjugate them if, and only if, you help us.”

The doctor finished his ramen and placed the empty bowl back inside the bag. He smiled. “I knew there had to be someone as evil as me out here!” Isolde shivered.

“I’m not–” She tried to say, but Eggman stood up and adjusted the collar of his coat.

“You drive a hard bargain, but I’ll bite,” Eggman said with a toothy grin as he loomed over Isolde. “Keep your research materials. I prefer to do my work from scratch. But if you find an Emerald, give it to me.”

“...Very well. I’ll let the Overseer know about our successful negotiations today,” Isolde said. Her throat felt dry, but what’s done is done. With Eggman occupied, he hopefully doesn’t have enough time to plan attacks on the city–

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have got started on my latest scheme.” Isolde’s eyes widened.

“Wait!” Metal Sonic was already in front of her, blocking her path to the doctor. “I thought we agreed to leave New Eridu alone!”

“Oh, I will!” Eggman said with a sneer. “But Sonic will become suspicious if I don’t attack regularly.”

Isolde snarled loudly. That only got a laugh out of Eggman as he turned to look at her. “They say an apple a day keeps a good doctor away, but unfortunately you don’t get the good doctor. You’ve made a deal with a bad one! Take her away, Metal. I need to get back. You know how Sage is when I leave her alone in a paused multiplayer game.”

The robot duplicate nodded. Like before, he grabbed Isolde by the neck and started to float away. “No! We’re not done–!” 

Metal dragged her way before she could get in another word.

When Yanagi walked into the office early in the morning, she paused upon seeing the stack of papers laid out on her desk. She set her naginata against her desk and groaned loudly into her palms. Miyabi and Harumasa stood awkwardly behind her. If Yanagi was dreading the paperwork, it would be hell for them as well.

“Woah, looks like you guys have a lot of work today,” Soukaku commented, placing a finger on her chin. “I wonder what that’s all about?”

“Maybe it was something to do with the egomaniacal madman that tried to brainwash the entire city?” Harumasa sighed tiredly. He shambled over to his desk and grabbed a slip of paper from his back pocket. “Thankfully, I have here a request for sick leave today. What a coincidence! I was going to submit it yesterday, but that was when all hell broke loose. Very suddenly, I felt like having scrambled eggs for lunch. Soooo…”

Miyabi swiped the request form from Harumasa’s hand. She examined closely with red eyes, and then glared at the archer. “Ah, is something wrong, chief?” He asked. Miyabi looked right into Harumasa’s eyes as she handed the paper to Yanagi.

“Yanagi. I have training today. I must strengthen my mind so that another attempt at brainwashing does not take control of me,” The Void Hunter told Yanagi. She turned around and grabbed Miyabi by the shoulder.

“You’re not excused, Hoshimi Miyabi,” Yanagi said through gritted teeth. “You’ve been behind on paperwork for a while now, and now we have this new stack. We’re not leaving until our desks only have our personal items on them.”

Miyabi nodded. “I see. Does that apply to Harumasa as well?” He let out a gasp of mock offense, but when Yanagi turned to glare at him, he wilted.

“Especially you. Don’t think sick leave will save you from work today,” Yanagi said quietly. Harumasa thought Yanagi’s eyes turned red and slitted for a moment.

“Oh, that’s cruel, Nagi!” Harumasa whined. He crossed his arms and then pointed at Soukaku. “Why don’t you have Soukaku help out for once?”

“Yeah!” Soukaku grabbed a box of crayons. “Let me help out! I can write words good!” Yanagi and Miyabi glanced at each other.

“Harumasu, as your chief I demand you sit down and do your job,” Miyabi said, pointing to Harumasa’s desk. 

“Slave drivers, the lot of you,” Harumasa shrugged and smiled.

“Then what can I do?” Soukaku asked. 

Miyabi placed her hands on her shoulders and leaned down to look at her. “You can help us in regards to motivational support. Whenever we feel the need to slit our necks because the paperwork is too physically and mentally draining, you can cheer us on and we’ll get back right to work.”

“Miyabi…” Yanagi hissed at her.

“Understood!” Soukaku and her tail stood up and saluted. “Until then, I’ll uh…”

“Here’s some blank sheets for you to draw on.” Soukaku’s eyes brightened when Yanagi placed the papers on her desk.”

“Oh, yay! Thanks, Nagi!” Soukaku hummed to herself as she skipped to her desk and started doodling.

Yanagi walked over to her and grabbed the large two-foot stack of papers on hers. “Okay…” She sighed as she skimmed through them. “It doesn’t look like most of them need our signatures specifically. I suppose we can divide the work between us and–!”

“I found a request form from Scott Outpost,” Miyabi interrupted her. Harumasa and Soukaku perked up.

“Something interesting? What is it?” Harumasa asked excitedly.

“Three days ago, the day before Eggman appeared, there was a strange energy surge detected inside Hollow Zero,” Miyabi explained, reading off the paper while Yanagi glared daggers at her. “At first it was assumed that it was a small spike of energy as usual, but that burst was much larger and nothing on that scale has happened in recent memory.”

“Ooo! Maybe it was something to do with that strange jewel that was found on Brant Street!” Soukaku remembered.

Haramusa smirked. Yanagi noticed and shook her head. “Don’t,” She warned him. When Harumasa shook his head slowly, Yanagi felt the sudden desire to twist his neck.

“Hmm… Maybe we’ll find the evil doctor there?” Harumasa suggested. Miyabi blinked, and her ear twitched. Yanagi threw up her arms in defeat.

In two seconds, Miyabi dashed to her desk, pulled out a pen, signed the paper, took a picture of it, wrote an email to Raye of Scott Outpost, and sent it. In about a minute, she got a response. “We’re heading to Hollow Zero,” Miyabi said with a blank expression and a thumbs up.

“We’re doing something interesting and not boring? Finally, I thought that would never happen!” Harumasa chirped sarcastically. He placed his arms on the back of his head and whistled.

Yanagi adjusted her glasses; they glinted from the fluorescent lights above them. “You know what… fine. I think we’re all a little stressed right now because of the past few days. It’d do us some good to work out our frustrations with some exercise,” She sighed.

“Don’t worry, Yanagi,” Miyabi said. She reached out and grabbed her sword. “When we come back, we’ll finally complete all the paperwork we’ve been putting off for the past two weeks.”

Yanagi raised an eyebrow at her. “Probably,” Miyabi muttered while avoiding eye contact.

Ellen was at work, and she was also sore all over. Today she was stationed at the maid café instead of at some stuck up rich guy’s house. The attack on the Eggman Expo really did a number on her; she cannot remember the last time that she worked out like that.

“Urgh, my shoulders…” Ellen groaned as she sat at the front counter. She swung and snipped her shears at, frankly, too many robots that day. 

She popped another handful of gummies into her mouth. 

Thankfully, the café was quiet today. Do to the… Well, everything that happened yesterday, people were staying in their homes. School had been cancelled for the two days as well so that everyone could mentally recover from the attempted mass brainwashing scheme.

Ellen drummed her fingers on the counter. Her eyelids felt heavy. And there’s nobody around. Maybe, if she’s lucky… she can fit in a… a few more… minuuuu–

“Ellen?” The girl jumped when she heard Rina whisper into her ear from behind. “You aren’t sleeping on the job, are you?”

“What? Me?” Ellen asked, placing her hands over her chest in mock offense. “...Maybe.”

Thankfully, Rina simply giggled good naturedly. “I suppose that’s to be expected. You were very busy yesterday, weren’t you?”

“Yeah. Very busy saving the entire damn city.” Ellen placed her hands on her back and bent backwards, popping the kinks in her spine. “I would’ve slept in for the entire day, even without the break. I’m not sure how Sonic and his friends put up with Eggman’s nonsense.”

Rina floated over to Ellen’s side and picked her up off the floor. “It must’ve been very stressful. Nothing we’ve done so far could’ve prepared you for something like this.” She fussed over Ellen’s hair, using her hands to brush it neatly into place.

“And I would not regret it if that were the last time I had to do something like that…!” Ellen yawned loudly, making Rina giggle.

“If you really think about it, it’s almost a miracle something like this even happened,” She commented. “Though for you, it’s about as unlucky as a pop quiz.”

Ellen raised a confused eyebrow. “Uh… whaddya mean?” She asked.

“Think about it. There must be hundreds of universes out there, but the Chaos Emeralds sent everyone to our tiny world,” Rina said as she adjusted the metal collar around Ellen’s neck.

“That’s… I mean, yeah, that’s true,” Ellen gave a hesitant nod. “There was a chance that we could’ve never met them.”

“Demonstrably big,” Rina corrected.

Ellen blinked up at her. “Are you trying to give me an existential crisis or something?”

“No, not yet,” Rina said playfully. She patted the shark’s cheek before floating away into the kitchen. “Just something to keep in mind.”

Ellen watched Rina as she disappeared into the kitchen. “Weird…”

The bell jingled. Ellen flinched slightly at the sound and then sighed. At first she was about to belt out the same spiel Lycaon taught her, but then she heard flapping wings. 

“Chao chao!” Cheese suddenly hugged her face and tackled Ellen onto the floor. He jumped up and down happily while Ellen looked absently up into the ceiling.

“Cheese!” Cream flew over the front counter and picked up the mischievous little Chao from Ellen’s face. “You really ought to stop knocking people to the floor! That’s the second time you’ve done this to Miss Ellen!”

“It’s fine. I can pretend to sleep like this,” Ellen sighed. She pushed herself up to her feet and watched Sonic and Tails round the counter to join the girls.

“Are you alright, Ellen? You seem tired,” Tails asked her.

“More tired than usual. Lycaon working you to the bone?” He tossed a jawbreaker at her, which Ellen caught between her teeth.

“Eggman did,” She groaned. Eventually, she pushed herself up and stretched her back. A thousand tiny pops from her spine made her feel a little better. “How are you two not tired?”

“Well, I for one had a jet-kart-mech hybrid, so most of the fighting I had to do was clicking buttons. That, and I’m mostly tech support,” Tails said with a shrug. Ellen turned to Cream.

“I had some practice lifting heavy things back home. Mister Big, has, um… not to be rude, but his name is Mister Big for a reason,” Cream explained bashfully. Cheese then jumped up on her forehead and started to bounce around while shadow boxing. “And Cheese is very strong, too! Mother has been taking him for Chao Karate lessons while I’m at school!”

“Chao!” Cheese said proudly, placing his hands on what Ellen assumed to be his hips. She rolled her eyes.

“That’s it?” Ellen asked. “Hmph. Maybe I should take karate lessons then.”

She reached under the counter and grabbed four menus. She put one back. “So, are you guys here just to chat, or do you actually want to order something? I’m still on the clock.”

“Oh, like you weren’t just about to nod off before we got in!” Sonic snickered as he and the other furries followed Ellen to a table near the center of the café. Ellen scoffed at him.

“We’re actually here for information, but some food wouldn’t hurt!” Tails said as he flew up to the seat. “Do you cook anything here yourself?”

Ellen shrugged. “I can make omurice good enough, I guess. But if you ask me to put a spell on it, I will take a bite out of it.” Tails and Cream looked confused. They turned to world explorer Sonic, who just shrugged.

“This is actually our first time ever at a place like this,” he told her.

“Really?” Immediately Ellen pulled up a chair and plopped down on it. “Thank god, I have no expectations anymore! I’m finally free.”

“Heh. Seems you really needed these two days off,” Sonic smirked as he grabbed a menu from Ellen and handed them to the others. “Hmm… I’m noticing a distinct lack of chili dogs here. Wanna explain why, Ellen?”

“Literally never heard of them before,” Ellen shrugged, making the hedgehog gasp loudly. She took a notepad and pen from her apron and then said, “Take your time when thinking about what to eat. I need to come up with an excuse to get Rina out of the kitchen.”

Hollow Zero is an oppressive, haunted place. Nothing but empty streets and even emptier buildings.

Being the mother of all Companion Hollows in New Eridu, Zero was particularly toxic to even be in. The average civilian with middling resistance could spend at most a few hours in the Cretan Hollow, and maybe a day or three in the Dead End Hollow.

Those civilians would be lucky to spend ten minutes in Hollow Zero. Not even the famed Hollow Special Operations Section 6 could last too long here.

A swirling portal of dark purple mist dropped HSOS6 onto the sidewalk, right next to a gas station. As Miyabi, Harumasa, and Soukaku performed last minute checks on their weapons and gear, Yanagi grabbed the carrot provided to her by Raye and plugged it into small handheld device. A map appeared on the screen. After reading it, Yanagi looked up and examined her surroundings.

“Okay… the signal seems to have originated somewhere north,” Yanagi hummed, leaning against one of the gas pumps.

“North…” Miyabi repeated softly. She looked up at the large tower in front of them, and then at the street they were standing on. The entrance wasn’t directly in front of them, though; based on the orientation of the building, it would be on the other side. 

“North is that way,” Miyabi said, pointing her sheathed blade to where the sun was rising over the collapsed buildings and floating chunks of land.

“...Chief, you know Yanagi’s thing has a compass, right?” Harumasa asked her. Miyabi nodded.

“Yes, I am aware. But this is simply a form of training I like to call ‘how accurately can I guess where the cardinal directions are’,” Miyabi explained as she raised one finger. Soukaku couldn’t help but imagine Miyabi with a pair of glasses and two buckteeth sticking out of her mouth.

“Well, you’re wrong,” Yanagi said. She pointed back in the direction they first entered. “North is that way, actually.”

“It seems I have to undergo more training to become more accurate than a machine,” Miyabi simply said. She sounded a little disappointed.

“Don’t worry Miyabi! I’m sure you’ll get there soon!” Soukaku cheered as she followed the tailless fox from behind.

Harumasa crossed his arms and yawned. Yanagi glanced at him briefly before turning back to the map. “Why don’t you go scout ahead? You are our only ranged attacker,” Yanagi suggested.

The archer shrugged. “Pretty sure the Chief can go faster than them. And besides…” He spun around with his arms open. “See any monsters out and about?”

Yanagi blinked. “He’s right,” Miyabi said. She looked around. She unsheathed her sword, twirled it in her hand, and then placed it back. Trees, buildings and cars were suddenly slashed into slivers and fell to the ground as ribbons.

“Woah…” Soukaku breathed quietly. “Hey, wait, you did get any Ethereals. Shouldn’t they be coming to get us by now?”

“That is strange,” Yanagi agreed. She quickly cleaned her glasses and put them back on her head. “Are there at least any footprints nearby? Harumasa?”

“On it.” He dropped to his knees and examined the cracked street beneath them. His trained eyes took note of the skid marks and subtle footprints left by thin layers of dust coating the floor. He stood back up and walked past Miyabi. There were small shards of Ethereal crystals all around the floor.

“...They’re already dead,” Harumasa concluded.

“Aw…” Miyabi murmured in disappointment.

“So someone was already here before? That’s not fair,” Soukaku pouted.

“It’s also very illegal,” Yanagi sighed and massaged her forehead. “Who do you think they are? Hollow Raiders? Rebels?”

“More powerful ethereals that slain the first group?” Miyabi also suggested, excitedly.

“Maybe, I doubt it, and…” Harumasa hummed for a moment. “No.” Miyabi’s ears drooped, even if her expression remained plastic. “There’s only one set of footprints in addition to the Ethereals’.” 

Soukaku walked up to Harumasa and handed him her papers and crayons. He took them, scribbled a foot print onto it, and handed it to Yanagi. “Do these look familiar?”

“No… it’s definitely not the boots used by the Defense Force. These are sneaker treads,” Yanagi said after looking at them. “But the size though… These look like they could fit a child. Soukaku’s feet are slightly bigger.”

“Ah. Well, that’s concerning, isn’t it?” Harumasa sighed, his face hardening. “We should keep following the map, in that case. It looks like the footprints lead in the same direction we’re headed.”

“In that case, we should continue moving forward,” Miyabi said. She moved more urgently, practically speed-walking down the street with the same velocity as a sprint for the others.

“Hey! Wait for me!” Soukaku ran after her. Yanagi sighed.

“They do know I’m the one with a carrot, right?” She briskly jogged after them, but Harumasa remained in place.

Suddenly, he turned around and fired an arrow at an overgrown bush. It was impaled inside with a soft thunk.

“Haru?” Soukaku curiously turned around. “Is something wrong?”

The archer shrugged. “Just my imagination. C’mon, let’s go.”

Once the Section 6 left the area, the bush Harumasa fired at shuddered. The tip of the arrow head was crushed, and the shaft fell down to the ground. Purple eyes watched them from the shadows as they descended deeper into Hollow Zero.

Ellen returned with a plate of food, thankfully not prepared by Rina. A chocolate chip sundae supreme for Cream and Cheese to share, Tails asked for a cheeseburger and fries, and Sonic got tofu and cheese sandwich.

“What are you, vegan? I thought you wanted hot dogs with slop on them,” Ellen asked when she put the sandwiches down in front of him.

Sonic shrugged as he took a sandwich and bit into it. “Chili dogs aren’t slop. They’re the greatest delicacy you can ever have. I should make some for you. It’d probably be better than whatever Rina makes, that’s for sure.” Ellen rolled her eyes and sat back down.

“So, information? What kind?”

“Black market stuff,” Tails said casually. “For one, Eggman’s tech is now running down the river. It’s pretty advanced stuff, so it’s going to end up at illegal auctions at some point. We need to make sure nobody is misusing that tech or finds a way to rebuild it all.”

“Hmm…” Ellen placed a hand on her chin and leaned back in her seat. “Admittedly, I don’t know much about that stuff. Lycaon wants to keep all of us on the good side of the law, if possible,” She said with a shrug. “But I do know he was part of some… gang phantom thief thing before he landed a job at Victoria Housekeeping. You might want to ask him about that sort of stuff.”

“He was a thief? Oh, I’m very glad he stopped stealing things from people,” Cream hummed. 

Ellen glanced at her before turning back to Tails. “Is that all you needed to know?” 

“We’re also looking to get our own custom W-Engines made,” Tails added. He reached under the table and pulled out his Miles Electric (Ellen needs to ask where he keeps that thing, it’s longer than his torso) and showed them some early designs. She could easily tell which one was Sonic’s. It was shaped like his head.

“Official W-Engines are regulated by the HIA, I think, but they’re only handed to people who pass a lot of tests, and are legal citizens of New Eridu.” Ellen looked down at the three animals.

“Well, you have one,” Sonic pointed to her with a smug grin. Ellen raised an eyebrow.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She asked, leaning closer to him.

The two-tailed fox coughed to get his attention. “The point is, we’re obviously not looking for official models. Your’s is custom-made, right? I want to know what sort of materials I’ll need so that I can make ours from scratch,” Tails explained to her.

“Box Galaxy on Sixth Street is your best bet. They sell ‘model’ W-Engines, but I don’t think the normal cashier actually knows. You can probably buy a few, pick them apart, and add your own touch to them,” Ellen said with a shrug. She looked closely at the blueprints for Tails’ models. “You’re going to be using tapes instead of records?”

Tails nodded. “The magnetic strips on the tape can hold a lot more information than the grooves on a record disk, so I’m wondering if that will somehow alter the effectiveness of the W-Engine. It’s just a prototype model.”

“Hm. You’re going to have to make your own disk drives, then,” Ellen said with a shrug. “Well… tape drives. Hmm.”

“We’ll workshop the name later.” Tails set his tablet back under the table and started to eat his burger.

Sonic was an unsurprisingly fast eater, something that he evidently passed on to Tails. They didn’t eat like starving monsters, though; only quick bites and swallows. Cream at least took her time as she fed Cheese spoonfuls of ice cream, giggling whenever the small Chao liked his lips and joyously cooed.

They looked so… casual. Sonic especially. The fastest thing on the planet is just a dude, sitting in a chair and eating a sandwich. 

“You’re staring,” Sonic said, not looking away from his sandwich as he took another bite.

Ellen blinked. “No.” The hedgehog just snickered and took another bite of his food.

It wasn’t long before they all finished. “Miss Ellen, do you and Miss Alexandrina need help cleaning the dishes?” Cheese sat on her forehead and tilted his head curiously.

“No, Cream, that’s our job,” Ellen sighed. She grabbed the plates and cups and stacked them on her arm. 

“Alright, we’ll be going now! We’ve got tons of work to do!” Tails jumped off his seat and started flying towards the exit.

Cream flew after him, but waved back at the shark maid. “Have a good day, Miss Ellen!” She said. Cheese waved at her as well.

“Hey, Ellen.” On instinct, she opened her mouth and caught a jawbreaker with her teeth. “See you back at base,” Sonic nodded at her and exited the café.

“Yeah, okay,” Ellen murmured softly as the door closed behind him.

A few minutes later, there were still no Ethereals to be found. Soukaku let out a groan of boredom as she dragged her large war fan behind her. “Are we close to the thing yet, Nagi?” She asked, tugging on her caretaker's sleeve.

“We should be…” Yanagi hummed. She glanced away from the map briefly to look up. The trees in the area were all stripped bare, and their dried leaves were littered all over the street. “What happened here?”

“...Is it autumn yet? I thought it wasn’t supposed to start for another few weeks,” Miyabi hummed curiously. She raised her foot and stomped it on the ground, smiling as the leaves made a satisfying crunch sound.

“It is, but the other trees aren’t naked,” Harumasa said. “Maybe, they’re–!”

Harumasa blinked when he felt something around his ankle, and then he yelped when he was suddenly lifted into the air, hanging from a tree. Then the ground underneath him opened and revealed a pit of wooden stakes. “Well, that’s certainly new. Do you guys mind helping me out?”

Soukaku set down her fan to cover the spikes and Yanagi cut him down. “Since when did HIA agents place traps for agents? Or was it the Defense Force?” Miyabi asked.

Yanagi frowned. “They don’t.” She gripped the shaft of her naginata tightly and pocketed her device. “Miyabi, can you hear anything?”

The tailless fox’s ears twitched, and swiveled around. “Yes, I can. There’s boulders rolling towards us.”

“B-boulders!?” Yanagi looked up at the nearby buildings and noticed the large holes in the walls. A few moments later two large rocks tumbled down. Section 6 all jumped away before they could be crushed by them.

But their brief relief was flattened by a harsh click. Soukaku looked down and noticed her sneaker was over a switch. “Oh, shoot!” She cursed, and then whined as she suddenly lifted up into the air by a net. “Nagi!"

“Where are these traps coming from?” Harumasa asked as he stepped away from a pile of burning coal jumping up from the ground. “I don’t think Ethereals are supposed to be able to think!”

As the chaos unfolded around her, Miyabi calmly walked over to the pit Harumasa, occasionally taking quick steps to dodge a stray dart or slice down a tumbling tree. She kneeled down to reach inside and snapped off a stake, and brought it to her eyes.

“Man-made…” She hummed. And now that Miyabi was close to the ground, she could hear something moving underneath her. Burrowing.

Miyabi stood up and unsheathed her sword. With her ears angled at the floor, she waited until the burrowing sounds got close enough.

“There!” Miyabi drove Tailless into the ground, and the burrowing stop.

Once Yanagi cut Soukaku down from the net, the young oni ran up to her and asked, “Did you get it.”

“No,” Miyabi sighed. She tugged on the blade, but it wouldn’t budge. “It got me, actually.”

The next moment, the ground cracked and a spiked fist shot up, slugging Miyabi across the cheek and sending her flying into Harumasa.

A small red figure landed in front of Section 6 and stood up. Yanagi placed a hand over Soukaku’s eyes, which the oni pushed out of the way. “What…” A gruff voice spoke up. He punched his hand into the glove, the spikes not even impaling the thick white covering.

“Good grief, he’s naked!” Soukaku exclaimed as the red boy revealed himself.

“...are you doing so close to my Emerald?” Knuckles the Echidna growled.

KNUCKLES THE ECHIDNA
Ether / Defense / Team Sonic

HP - 8974 | Pen Ratio - 0%
DEF - 804 | Impact - 134
ATK - 729 | Anomaly Mastery - 112
Crit Rate - 5% | Anomaly Proficiency - 104
Crit DMG - 50% | Energy Regen - 1.2

CORE PASSIVE: Tougher than Leather
Knuckles uses all of his DEF in addition to a portion of his ATK during damage calculation.

When Knuckles performs Assist Follow-Up: Meteor Crush or EX Assist Follow-Up: Flames of Disaster, the damaged enemy has its [Defenses Broken] for 20 seconds. This effect cannot be reapplied until 4 seconds after an enemy has recovered. Enemies with their Defenses Broken are [dealt increased Crit DMG, and they deal less DMG].

(If this effect can be activated, Knuckles’ energy meter will emit flames)

ADDITIONAL ABILITY: Flexin’ Muscles
When another character on the Squad is a Team Sonic or Stun Agent;
When a Defensive Assist is used against a Defense Broken enemy, [that enemy is dealt damage based on how much their Daze has increased, corresponding to the Attribute of the defending ally. This DMG can Crit, ignores DEF, and does not cause Anomaly Build-Up.]

BASIC ATK
Knuckle Duster - Knuckles attacks with swift, powerful punches, dealing Ether DMG. After the 3rd hit, hold the attack button to have Knuckles perform a continuous series of rapid jabs.

Flame Finisher - After the 5th attack from Knuckle Duster, or after releasing the attack button from the rapid jab, Knuckles will perform a different combo ender depending on the position of the control stick.

• Up - Sky Sanctuary: Knuckles hits the enemy with a rising uppercut. This attack deals Ether DMG, and more Daze.
• Left / Right - Hydrocity: Knuckles launches forward with a strong haymaker. This attack deals Ether DMG and inflicts more Anomaly Build-Up.
• Down - Lava Reef: Knuckles jumps up and slams his fist down, creating a small eruption. This attack deals increased Ether DMG.

Drill Run - After the 4th hit of Knuckle Duster strikes an enemy, hold the Basic ATK to have Knuckles begin charging, and release to deal a devastating blow to the enemy, dealing Ether DMG and moderate Daze. Or, if that enemy has its Defenses Broken, their Daze will be reduced so they can be immobile for 4 seconds, and their Stun DMG multiplier will be activated. The multiplier being higher depending on how long Knuckles charged for (max. 130%). (This effect only applies once per Defense Break.)

DODGE
Fierce Footwork - A rapid dash dodge. Knuckles is invulnerable while using this skill.

Dash Attack: Deep Impact - Knuckles unleashes a powerful right hook. Press the attack button again to have Knuckles unleash an additional right hook. These attacks deal Ether DMG. If an enemy attacks when Knuckles uses the right hook, the attack is parried and can be followed up with an Assist Follow-Up.

SPECIAL
Megaton Hook - Knuckles throws his entire body into a powerful strike punch, and deals Ether DMG. This attack can be used to parry enemy attacks and deal Daze. Press the attack button immediately after to perform Flame Finisher: Hydrocity.

Double Punch - After the 5th attack of Knuckle Duster or After Megaton Hook press the Special Button to have Knuckles throw both fists in front of him, dealing Ether DMG and Daze. Immediately pressing the Attack Button afterwards has Knuckles use the right hook of Dash Attack: Deep Impact.

EX Special Attack: Rock Free Fall - Knuckles rips a chunk of the floor and slams it into the enemies in front of him. Press the Attack Button afterwards to perform Flame Finisher: Sky Sanctuary.

ASSIST
Quick Assist: Enrage - Knuckles strikes the enemy with a strong uppercut, dealing Ether DMG.

Defensive Assist: Spiked Knuckles - Knuckles stops the enemy’s attack after with the spikes on his fist, dealing massive Daze. Knuckles does not slide backwards from this attack.

Assist Follow-Up: Meteor Crush - Knuckles lunges forwards and strikes the enemy with a jab to the gut, dealing Ether DMG. Press the attack button immediately afterwards to transition into the 2nd hit of Knuckles Duster.

EX Assist Follow-Up: Flames of Disaster - Knuckles ignites his fist with energy from the Master Emerald lands a devastating blow to the enemy, dealing Ether DMG and Daze. For the next 15 seconds after this attack, a portion of Knuckles’ Impact is added to his DEF and vice versa. Enemies damaged by this attack are treated as though they are weak to Ether DMG, even if they resist it, and enemies already weak to Ether take more DMG.

CHAIN
Hard as Nails - Knuckles unleashes a flurry of punches with ignited fists, dealing massive Ether DMG.

Ultimate: Breaking Down the Solid and Frail - Knuckles unleashes a flurry of punches with fists ignited from Master Emerald energy, dealing massive Ether DMG and Daze, and Defense Breaking the enemy. Hold the attack during the Ultimate so that Knuckles can immediately use Flame Finisher: Lava Reef afterwards. The resulting explosions are larger and deal more damage. This attack uses more of Knuckles’ ATK during damage calculation.

Enemies damaged by these attacks are treated as though they are weak to Ether DMG, even if they resist it, and enemies already weak to Ether take more DMG.

Chapter Text

Miyabi glanced down at the bruise now blooming on her cheek. She could tell that Knuckles was holding back. That irritated her more than she let on.

“Chief…!” Miyabi then realized she was sitting on Harumasa when he patted her side. She quickly got up and hauled him up to his feet as well.

Knuckles pounded his fists together again, drawing Miyabi’s attention back to him. “I asked you a question. What are you guys doing so close to my Emerald?” He asked through gritted teeth.

“‘Emerald’?” Soukaku repeated slowly, then she turned to Yanagi. “Do you think he’s talking about that weird jewel?” She whispered.

Yanagi didn’t take her eyes off the red creature. He tapped his foot on the ground impatiently, and waited for an answer. “Well? I’m getting real tired of the silent treatment.”

As Yanagi thought in silence and the red boy glared at her, Harumasa started to shift slowly, sidling away from Miyabi. Knuckles caught on instantly and pounded his fists together again. Harumasa whistled casually to save face, but that only elicited a grunt from the opposition.

“Trying to surround me, huh? I did take you all for cowards, ‘specially not you,” Knuckles grunted. Miyabi’s ears twitched, and she placed her armored thumb on the hilt of her blade.

“We’re not trying to do anything,” Yanagi said. She shot a look at Harumasa, who shrugged. “We’re not thieves, or intruders either. We’re from the Hollow Affairs and Neutralization Department. We’re conducting an investigation.”

Knuckles’ brow furrowed. “What kind of investigation?” He asked gruffly.

“An unusual energy signature was detected around this area. It’s anomalous in nature, so we’ve been ordered to investigate and make sure Hollow Zero is stable,” Yanagi explained to the echidna.

He considered her words for a moment. Knuckles’ arms dropped to his side, but his posture was still straight “Well, I’ve been here for the past few days. I can tell you that nothing strange is going on. Now, leave.”

“That sounds like something who's causing strange things would say!” Soukaku said, raising her large metal fan over her shoulder.

“Soukaku, calm down,” Yanagi said. The oni let out a disappointed sigh and dropped her fan on the floor with a heavy thud. “We’re not here to fight, but we can’t leave without confirming, with our own eyes, your claims. Understand?”

Knuckles brought one hand to his chin. “Hmm… actually, now that I think about it, that name sounds familiar. HAND…” He kept thinking and stroking his chin. “HAND… HAND… That means you’re with the HIA… that means you work for the government…!”

His eyes widened. “That means you work for the military!”

Miyabi’s ear twitched. “We work with them on some missions sometimes, but the Defense Force and HAND are two separate entities," she stated. Unfortunately, Knuckles still pounded his fists together, much harder this time. She could feel the air move when his fists collided.

“Doesn’t matter! I’m not letting any military mooks near the Master Emerald!” But instead of attacking directly, he moved his foot to the side and pressed on a switch hidden underneath the leaves..

“You know, I think he’s the one who laid out all the traps,” Miyabi said casually as multiple holes opened up on the ground and spikes, darts, boulders and a boxing glove were launched from them.

“Oh gee, you think!?” Harumasa split his bow into twin swords and slashed wood darts coming his way. “Where did that red guy go?”

“He’s burrowing under the ground again!” Soukaku pointed to where Knuckles was just standing, his body half buried in the floor while his spikes dug out rock and dirt.

Yanagi raised her naginata and dashed forwards, but by then Knuckles was already completely underground. She tried to reach into the hole, but all she received was a rock thrown at her face. “We have to get him out. Soukaku?”

She smiled brightly. “Right!” Soukaku raised her war fan and unfolded it completely. Then she slammed the metal into the street as hard as she could, causing cracks to web all throughout and the leaves to be blown away.

“Harumasa!” Yanagi then said as she backed away from the street.

“Okay, okay, sheesh!” He snapped his blades together and shot an arrow from his bow. When it collided with the ground, it exploded, upending the cracked street. Knuckles was in the center of the mess, flailing his limbs around like he was still digging and only noticing afterwards that he was up in the air.

“Restrain him,” Yanagi ordered. Section 6 lunged forwards. Except Miyabi.

Soukaku reached him first; she raised her large metal fan over her shoulder and swung at him, but Knuckles suddenly stomped to the ground. Soukaku blinked when the fan flew over his head. She was surprised again when Knuckles grabbed her ankle, spun her around like she and the fan weighed nothing, and tossed her over Section 6’s heads.

One of Harumasa’s arrows forced him backwards, in addition to swift jabs from Yanagi’s weapons. Knuckles deflected blows from the polearms with his spikes, but the arrows kept forcing him backwards, towards the wall.

He ducked low to the ground and dug his spikes into the ground. Yanagi assumed he was going to start digging so she thrust her weapon down. Instead, Knuckles grunted and ripped off a section of the floor and swung it upwards, deflecting the naginata and knocking her off balance.

“Don’t fight in heels,” Knuckles snarked as he turned around and shot out his legs for a donkey kick. Faster than he had anticipated, Yanagi righted herself and blocked the blow with the shaft of her weapon.

“Don’t make snarky comments until you’ve won.” Yanagi pushed forwards, forcing Knuckles into a handstand and slashed horizontally. Electricity crackled on the tip of her weapon that arched towards him… but mysteriously stopped before it could singe his fur.

“Nice try,” the echidna taunted. He jumped back to his feet with a smirk and said, “but your fancy Ether tech stuff won’t work on me.”

Knuckles landed a punch to her gut. It was hard enough for Yanagi to lose the air in her lungs and double over, but restrained enough for his spikes to not pierce flesh or launch her into the air.

Knuckles pushed her out of the way and ran towards Section 6’s scout. Harumasa frowned but kept firing arrows as Knuckles ran closer to him, but they were punched away by spikes. When the echidna jumped up, Harumasa rolled forwards and split his bow apart again.

The first few slashes were experimental. Knuckles didn’t back down and met with more force, causing blades and spikes to clash and create sparks. Harumasa stabbed forwards, and Knuckles defected it with the inside of a spike. Then he twisted his wrist, trapping the blade between both of them. Harumasa let go of the short sword as Knuckles whirled around and tossed it backwards.

“You’re strong,” Harumasa complimented. He held the remaining blade into a reverse grip and ran forwards. Knuckles spindashed under the slash, surprising Harumasa as he uncurled on a dime and swept his legs Harumasa. The archer face-planted. “What’s with the traps though–! WOAH!”

With one hand, Knuckles grabbed Harumasa by the back of his shirt with one hand and tossed him away. “I can’t monitor all of my territory all the time,” Knuckles managed to say before Harumasa collided into the wall of a nearby building.

Soukaku returned. Knuckles turned on his heel and stopped her fan with his fist, which left him vulnerable from behind. Yanagi jabbed the end of her naginata into his back, forcing Knuckles forwards. Soukaku was able to complete his swing with him off balance, and slammed Knuckles into the ground.

Soukaku brought her flag down again, when Knuckles tried to stand up. His spikes met the metal surface, and he grit his teeth as he pushed back against it. Harumasa fired an arrow which hit the spike, causing Knuckles to lose his grip slightly. 

Yanagi struck the spikes on the other fist with her naginata, allowing Soukaku to finally bring her flag down. All the way down, as it collided with the floor.

“Aaagh! I didn’t squash him, did I!?” She raised her weapon. Thankfully, there was no echidna pancake on the floor. Only a hole.

Behind them, Knuckles’ fist broke out from under the concrete. He dug the rest of his body out and brushed off the rubble from his red dreads. “Not bad, not bad. I’ve heard stories about you guys. Some of the best fighters in the city.”

Yanagi raised an eyebrow. “So there are others with you then? You said you spent the past few days in Hollow Zero.”

Knuckles blinked, and realized he misspoke. “None of your business, lady.” He turned around, locking eyes with Miyabi. “And I heard you were the strongest of the bunch. What are you doing not doing anything?”

“Good point. I’m supposed to be the slacker,” Harumasa huffed in annoyance.

“Studying,” Miyabi said simply. She took a step forward, and Knuckles raised an eyebrow. “You’re a trained martial artist, but you have a… ruggedness to your style.”

Knuckles huffed. “Yeah. Living alone for your life does that to a person,” he huffed. Miyabi hummed at the answer, but didn’t comment despite her curiosity.

“You’re also used to fighting faster than this,” She added. With her thumb, she unsheathed her sword slightly. Blue flames came out of the blade, and Tailless hovered next to her head. Knuckles raised both fists.

A split second later, Miyabi raced forwards and slashed. Knuckles was quick enough to dodge, but the tip of her blade nicked the side of his cheek. Miyabi came to full stop, her sword already partially sheathed.

There was a smile on Knuckles’ face as he turned around. “Oh, yeah. This will be interesting! Show me what you got, Void Hunter!”

Hoshima Miyabi managed a smile. “With pleasure!” Both of them bent their knees, cracking the floor beneath them, and launched towards each. Knuckles reared back his fist, and Miyabi raised her sword over her head–

Only for a massive yellow and pink hammer to slam into the wall next to them before they could. If they were any faster, it would've crushed both their heads

“Knuckles!” A high, girly voice called out. Slowly, the heads of two would-be combatants turned to the horizon, where they saw a pink figure with green eyes standing high amidst the rubble. 

Amy Rose was panting as if she’d ran miles without rest. “H-hold, gimme a few seconds… o-or a minute…!” She reached behind her and pulled out her Piko-Piko Hammer (Miyabi noticed that the one next to her was now gone) to lean against it.

A few seconds of awkward silence passed before Knuckles readjusted himself, pointed to Section 6, and said, “They started it.” Miyabi’s ear twitched in annoyance.

“Excuse me? We started it?” Yanagi let out a frustrated grunt. “We just asked you a question and you attacked us.”

"That was only after I told you to get off my territory!” Knuckles shouted back.

“So you decided to start a fight in the middle of the road?” Amy asked, giving him a disappointed glare. “You blew up half the street!” Soukaku raised her finger to correct her, but Harumasa pushed it down and shook his head.

“It was just to scare them off!” Amy walked over to Knuckles and pouted at him. With a weak grunt, Knuckles grunted and crossed his arms.

“Sorry about all this,” Amy sighed. Her hammer disappeared as she walked over to Miyabi. “Knuckles is just protective. And maybe a little possessive.” The echidna snorted. “So, what is that you wanted?”

“We detected a strange energy signature. You know something about it,” Harumasa said in a bored voice. Amy placed a hand on her muzzle at the accusation.

“Knuckles? Can we talk?” The echidna rolled his eyes, and dug a hole into the ground which Amy jumped into after him.

“Just so we’re clear, he started it,” Harumasa said playfully. Yanagi rolled her eyes.

“There’s something that bothered me,” Miyabi said as she regrouped with the others. “He didn’t attack us until he assumed we were with the Defense Force. Why do you think that is?” She glanced at Yanagi, who shifted awkwardly on her feet.

“There… could be a number of reasons,” She murmured quietly.

“I’m not sure why he would get so angry at that. The Defense Force are the good guys,” Soukaku mused as she leaned against her large flag. “Maybe these guys are rebels?”

“I doubt it,” Harumasa said with a shrug. “Both of them seem pretty young. Too young to be in the military. Plus, that Knuckles guy said he’s been in the Hollow for days now? Pretty sure both of them should be dead.”

“It probably has something to do with that energy signature,” Miyabi guessed.

A few moments later Amy and Knuckles popped out of the hole. The echidna looked more disgruntled than before. “Okay, so we had a little talk, and we’ve decided that it’d be better if we showed what exactly is going on,” Amy said.

“Three rules, though,” Knuckles said, raising an indistinguishable amount of fingers.

“...You’re wearing boxing gloves with spikes,” Harumasa said. Knuckles narrowed his eyes at him.

“One, don’t touch anything. Two, don’t try to start a fight. Three, you’re not telling anyone what you saw,” Knuckles told them.

“How are we supposed to report back, then?” Yanagi asked.

“Not our problem. Figure it out yourselves,” Knuckles said. He turned around and started to walk away. “If you’re coming, follow me.” Yanagi checked the map on her device, and noticed that Knuckles was moving in the opposite direction of where the signal was first detected.

“We know where we’re going,” Amy reassured her before Yanagi could make a complaint. “Again, sorry about the misunderstanding!” She gave Section 6 a thumbs up before jogging after Knuckles.

With a hum, Miyabi started to follow them wordlessly. “You know this could be another trap, right?” Harumasa said with his arms crossed.

“Yes,” Miyabi said with a nod. “However… I feel like following them. If it’s a trap, I’ll free myself. If it’s a fight, I’ll win. It’s as simple as that.”

“Really? That does sound simple,” Soukaku said, placing a finger on her chin. “That’s good enough for me! Nagi, are we going too?”

Yanagi’s fingers twitched slightly. “We might as well. Better to be safe than sorry,” She supposed, with a frown aimed at Miyabi. Miyabi gave her a thumbs-up with her armored hand and the same near-emotionless expression she always wore.

Zhu Yuan scratched her head as she came out of the interrogation room. A pensive frown was on her face as she walked out into the hall and looked at the datapad she had written notes in. To say that the session with Astra was successful is flawed, putting it mildly.

“So, you have no idea why Eggman kidnapped you?”

“Well, he wasn’t after me specifically. He just wanted a friendly face to make brainwashing the entire city easier.”

“Okay… was he interested in any of the jewelry you collected?”

“Not that I know. Plus, Eggman doesn’t really strike me as a petty thief.”

“So, he just… flew to your apartment and blew it up?”

“Yeah. I wouldn’t be surprised if he chose me at random. Maybe he used a roulette machine? There were a lot of those at his mobile base thingy. I think he has a gambling addiction.”

Needless to say, Zhu Yuan didn’t get any useful information from Astra. And Astra wasn’t able to answer much, since her bodyguard / manager / lawyer now apparently was in the room with them.

Zhu Yuan walked silently towards the debriefing room which was already dark. Qingyi was inside, her eyes bright and projecting images onto the wall. Zhu Yuan was about to call for her, but she noticed that Jane Doe was also inside, sitting on a chair and with her eyes narrowed at the pictures. “Oh, you’re here,” Zhu Yuan greeted them both with a polite smile.

“Captain,” Qingyi nodded slightly. “How did the interrogation with Astra go?”

“Interrogation feels like too strong of a word, to be honest,” Zhu Yuan said. She sat next to Jane, who waved at her, but didn’t move her sharp eyes away from the screen. “It was pretty casual all things considered, like talking to an old friend.”

Qingyi hummed. “I wonder how Astra feels about her voice being used for something like this,” She wondered aloud.

The room would have fallen into silence if it weren’t for Jane Doe. With the clicker, she switched between two different slides, both of which showed a view of the underbelly of the Eggman Expo from the city streets.

“...Is something the matter?” Zhu Yuan asked the rat.

Jane pressed the button with her clicker to turn on the laser pointer. “What are these black dots?” She asked, pointing to the swarms around the Expo.

“Eggman’s personal robot army. He called them Badniks, according to Belobog Industries,” Zhu Yuan answered. “Some pieces crashed onto the floor when Expo was floating over the city. Some looked like turtles and others like condors, but Belobog also said he had pufferfish dropships and orange, spherical humanoids. There’s other models that are being swept away by the river, but they’re made of plastic instead of metal.”

“These ones are larger,” Jane Doe said, circling a pair of dots with the pointer. “Qingyi, can you zoom in there?”

“Of course.” Qingyi blinked. While the image was zoomed in, it was also a pixilated mess.

“Stop eating the pixels,” Jane said with a slight scoff. Zhu Yuan tilted her head in confusion, but Qingyi giggled and blinked again. While the image was cleaner, it was still hard to tell what the dots were, aside from a speck of blue and black. 

“Are those a different type of robot? They look like they’re flying in the opposite direction of the Badniks, flying towards the Expo rather than away from it,” Zhu Yuan commented.

“Maybe they received faulty instructions?” Qingyi shrugged.

Jane frowned. “Can you zoom in closer on this part?” She asked, circling the black speck on the blue dot.

“I’ll try,” Qingyi said with a shrug. She blinked for a while longer and reopened them. The blue speck looked more like a small blue jet, about the size of a biplane. Unfortunately, the angle the photo was taken in wasn’t able to provide them with a view of the passengers. Mostly.

“That looks like a maid’s headdress, doesn’t it?” Zhu Yuan noted as she pointed at the black speck, now with white and a hint of gray.

“It looks like it has… metal, too?” Jane said.

“That’s not something a typical maid uniform has,” Qingyi said dryly. “Also, I don’t think most maids know how to fight.”

Jane drummed her fingers against her chin. Her tail moved silently, but the spiked tip dragged against the seat behind her, making a sharp screech. “Except for one. Victoria Housekeeping.”

“Oh, right. They offer bodyguard services, don’t they?” Zhu Yuan remembered. “But… this isn’t really a bodyguard thing, is it?”

“Considering Eggman was trying to brainwash the entire city, I think it counts,” Jane said with a shrug. “Still, to my knowledge, they shouldn’t own a jet, much less two.”

“And with a jet that size, I doubt it’s up to standard,” Qingyi sighed. She blinked again and shut off the projection. “But that’s all hearsay. This photo isn’t enough to press charges, especially when we can’t even make out exactly what’s going. We need more information.”

“Which is where I come in,” Jane said. She stood up gracefully from her seat and pushed it back with her tail. “I already have plan.” She reached into the pocket of her shorts and pulled out her phone and then showed the screen to Zhu Yuan. “Look familiar?”

Zhu Yuan took the phone and blinked. “The hedgehog…?” It was a photo taken by a subway trains security camera, of the rodent sitting next to a shark thiren on the subway station. “He’s just… on the train?”

“What’s more important is the person next to him,” Jane said, tapping her nail on the head of the girl. “Ellen Joe. High school senior, and employee of Victoria Housekeeping.”

Qingyi smushed herself between the chests of the two taller women and stood on the tips of her toes to get a better look at the image. “You think they’re dating?” She asked.

Zhu Yuan shakes her head and pushed Qingyi away. “So, what do you need?”

Jane Doe smiled. “A teaching degree, and for Ellen’s homeroom teacher to take an extended vacation.”

“Sounds tricky, but I’ll think of something,” Zhu Yuan shrugged. 

“I know you will,” Jane Doe patted Zhu Yuan on the cheek with her soft hands. Zhu Yuan blushed slightly. “Until then, I’ll be off. I need to prepare myself mentally to deal with high schoolers.”

Jane Doe left soon after her hips swaying. Zhu Yuan was not looking. She shook her head then turned to Qingyi. “By the way, do you have the code for the evidence locker you put the gem in? That’s why I wanted to see you in the first place.”

“Let me write it down for you,” Qingyi scribbled, grabbed a pen from her vest and wrote it down on her notepad. “Are you hoping that showing Astra the gem might change something?”

“Maybe. She’s nice, but I get the feeling she’s hiding something from me. Thanks again.” Qingyi nodded and handed Zhu Yuan the code.

Zhu Yuan walked towards the back of the precinct with the code in hand. This part of the building was empty and she didn’t see anyone going to or from the hallways. So she was surprised when she noticed the door had just closed shut.

“Huh?” She jogged forward and looked around. She noticed a black blur ducking into the next hallway. With a frown, she followed.

Eventually, she found herself in the hallway leading towards Inspector Bringer’s office. The door was slightly open. She marched forward and blocked it with her foot before it could close. “Inspector?”

Bringer flinched on his seat, and slammed a black and yellow cube onto his desk. “Ah, Captain Zhu Yuan? What seems to be the trouble?” He looked a little nervous.

“Nothing…” Zhu Yuan said with a frown. She looked down the hallway again and then turned back to Bringer. “Have you been to the evidence lockers recently? I need to get something from there.”

“Oh, no no! Just took a bit of a restroom break, that’s all,” He said. Zhu Yuan’s nose wrinkled; she didn’t need to know that.

“Okay…” Zhu Yuan muttered. “What’s that, by the way? I haven’t seen it before,” She asked, pointing to the box he was holding.

“Oh, this? Just a paperweight Sarah gave me,” He said. 

Zhu Yuan nodded and slowly backed away from the door. “Okay… Who’s Sarah…?” 

She gave him a thumbs up, another nod, and then left. Once the door closed, Bringer rolled his chair out and groaned in relief. “Why couldn’t he have sent that robot duplicate!? He would’ve been much faster than you two!”

Orbot jumped out of the dusty fake plants he was hiding behind. “Sorry, but the Boss has Metal and Sage working on a project in the Outer Ring, and he’s working on his next scheme, so we’re all that’s left.”

“And I’m not a paperweight!” Cubot huffed as he unfolded. He was holding the white Emerald in his hand. He also had a fake curly mustache over his mouth and wearing a PubSec vest over his frame.

“Whatever,” Bringer said. He walked over to his window and opened it. The Egg Mobile was parked outside. “Just get out of here before anyone spots you!”

Miyabi kept her red eyes trained on the back of Knuckles’ head, watching his dreadlocks sway as he marched forwards. The echidna and the hedgehog led them eastward, where there was a cave blocked by a large boulder.

“How much longer until we reach the area?” Yanagi asked impatiently, her grip on her weapon tight.

“Not long!” Amy chirped from the front. Miyabi hummed and kept following them without question.

“Nagi, you seem nervous,” Soukaku mentioned as she stepped close to her caretaker. Yanagi said nothing as Soukaku’s blue fingers tugged down at her sleeve. “Is something wrong?”

She raised her hand and ruffled the oni’s blue hair. “No, I’m fine,” She replied in a reassuring voice.

“But you’re tense, though,” Harumasa said, arms crossed over his chest. “Why is that?”

Yanagi shrugged. “I have a feeling that…” Knuckles eventually stopped in front of another large boulder blocking the exit of the cave. “I’m not going to like what’s going to be revealed.”

Knuckles pushed it out of the way, letting the sunlight filter into the cave. “C’mon, this way.” He walked outside. Miyabi followed him and took a breath.

The air was clean.

Confused, Miyabi stepped out of the cave and onto the grass. Shouldn’t keep feeling the oppressive nature of Hollow Zero pressing down on her. She looked to her right; even Tailless had retreated back into the sword.

“Woah! Are we outside of the Hollow?” Soukaku ran out to a grassy field. She looked up, and was able to spot the sun above them. “Coool!”

“How is this possible?” Harumsa looked over the horizon and saw the floating pieces of rubble and Ether crystals, as well as the dark clouds associated with the outskirts of Hollow Zero.

“Because of that!” Amy pointed forwards. Close by, surrounded by a few huts made of broken stones and straw, was a massive green gemstone, cut like a diamond, kept upright by a collection of rocks surrounding the base like a shrine.

“This is the Master Emerald. It’s probably what alerted you guys,” Knuckles said, walking up to the gemstone and patting it on the side. “As its Guardian, I was able to use its power to neutralize the negative effects of the Ether in the atmosphere in about a 1000 meter radius, and prevent people from getting corrupted. You’re welcome.”

“...And how exactly does that work?” Yanagi asked. Knuckles shrugged. “What even is a ‘Master Emerald’?”

“And, it’s gotta be related to those jewels, right? The ones that were found on Brant Street.” Harumasa asked with a curious glance towards the larger Emerald. 

Knuckles shuffled slightly to block the archer’s view. “If you want to be technical about it, no. The Master Emerald and those gems, the Chaos Emeralds, aren’t related. My Emerald just has similar, but greater powers than them.” 

He then turned to Yanagi. “As for how it worked, I just prayed for the Ether to not be so corruptive, and it worked. Don’t ask me how, because frankly I don’t care how it works, as long as it does.” Knuckles walked in front of the Emerald and sat down. “You got your answer. You can leave now.”

“Knuckles!” Amy huffed at him. She chuckled awkwardly when she returned to Section 6. “Don’t worry about him. He takes his duty very seriously. Do you guys need a rest before you head back? Maybe some water, snacks–!”

“Ooo! Ooo! You have snacks!? What kind!?” Soukaku asked excitedly, rushing up to the smaller girl with sparkling eyes. Her pointed tail was wagging.

Amy smiled back at her. “Oh, we’ve got lots of yummy food! We’ve still got to cook the meat we have, but we’ve got plenty of fruits, some candy, beef jerky, and even some rice balls!” The pink hedgehog said; each word made Soukaku’s mouth water a little more. The little oni looked at Nagi with pleading eyes.

Yanagi drummed her fingers. “We can eat on the way back, I suppose. I have the feeling we’re not wanted here, anyways,” She said, glancing at Knuckles, still sitting in front of the Master Emerald. The echidna met her gaze and crossed his arms.

“I’ll put everything in little baggies so you can carry them easily!” Amy said. Humming, she turned around and jogged over to one of the smaller huts behind the Master Emerald Altar.

“Oh, wait! Can we choose!?” Soukaku ran after her, and passed by the entrance of one of the huts. Soukaku blinked and slowed down when she did. “Wait…” She thought she saw something inside.

Soukaku looked inside. There, sitting and trembling against the far side of the hut, was a young man, a few years older than Soukaku herself. His face was bruised, one side of his head was left with burn marks. And he was wearing a Defense Force uniform.

“Wh-what the heck…!?” Soukaku took a step back. “I-is that a rebel?”

Her voice caught the attention of the other Section 6 members. They ran past the Master Emerald and checked the other huts. Miyabi found one who was missing her arm. Harumasa spotted twins; one of them had an eyepatch, and burns along their arms.

Yanagi’s face paled. The hut she looked in had a familiar face, though the burns across the eyes were new. They were in the same squad when… Yanagi’s heart clenched when she looked at Soukaku’s shocked face. The last time she saw them they were speaking out against the war New Eridu waged on the Oni’s

“What’s the meaning of this?” Miyabi asked, her voice measured and free of hostility. 

Amy summoned her hammer and set it in front of her. “A friend of ours rescued them. They were rotting in prison cells before he freed them. And now we’re taking care of them.”

“Rotting in…” Yanagi whispered. The person in front of her shifted at the sound of her voice and cowered away.

“And the burns?” Harumasa asked with a thick swallow.

“They already had ‘em,” Knuckles told them from his spot in front of the Master Emerald. “They’re from the military.”

Yanagi froze as she felt two pairs of eyes on her. “Nagi? What’s he talking about?” Soukaku asked, her voice quiet.

“I… don’t know,” Yanagi said quietly. She walked away from the hut and stumbled slightly. “I was just a soldier. Unless it was important to the task at hand, we were told very little.”

Amy looked up from the camp’s supplies and walked over to the other pink-haired woman. “Hey, we’re not blaming you or anything for what happened to them,” She said gently, reaching up to place her hand on Yanagi’s forearm. “We just wanted to help them. It’s the least we can do.”

Nobody spoke for a few moments. “I think it’s admirable,” Miyabi added, breaking the tense silence, “that you want to protect those who have been wronged by our should-be protectors.”

“Just be clear, you’re sure that these people are innocent, right?” Harumasa asked skeptically.

“Of course!” Amy pouted at the archer. “Sonic’s a good judge of character. And even then, nobody deserves to be burned or lose their limbs!”

“Sonic…” Miyabi repeatedly silently. “Do you need any assistance in aiding them? Medical supplies, a doctor, or more food? I can probably arrange for someone to send you supplies every so often.”

“Woah, really! That’s so sweet of you!” Amy said, but Yanagi coughed into her fist.

“Chief, I know you want to help these people, but there are several logistical issues with that,” Yanagi said in an apologetic voice. “For one, these are rebels, or at least the Defense Force would probably qualify them as deserters. If we were caught aiding them, we’d be arrested.”

“I understand, Yanagi,” Miyabi said, walking up to her deputy chief. “And that’s a risk I’m willing to take. I am a Void Hunter. It’s my duty to protect everyone, everyone, in New Eridu. Especially those who can’t protect themselves.”

Yanagi blinked at Miyabi’s steadfast, determined expression. She awkwardly shifted and looked down at her feet. “And, we would need to keep track of how Scott Outpost arranges scouting missions into Hollow Zero. The punishment for the caravan or the doctor we send would be more severe for them. And with the recent chaos, the Defense Force will become suspicious if we suddenly take more trips to Hollow Zero.”

“Ah. I hadn’t thought about that, actually,” Miyabi hummed disappointedly.

“You guys don’t have to beat yourself about it,” Amy said with a gentle smile. “We already have a decent supply line. The fact that you’re cool with this is more than enough for us.”

Yanagi looked down, meeting Amy’s bright green eyes. They were sparkling, like Soukaku’s. “Anyways, I’m going to go set up those baggies for you guys. Is there anything you want in particular?”

“What flavors of beef jerky do you guys have?” Soukaku asked as she ran up to join Amy at a small crate near the edge of the camp.

“We’ve barbecue, salt ‘n’ pepper, teriyaki, but you also need fruits too!”

“Do you have any melons? Or melon-flavored candy? I like melons.” Miyabi leaned down next to the other girls and looked through the boxes with them.

“So, I guess we’re covering for them…” Harumasa sighed. He scratched the back of his head and turned to Yanagi. “Well, you know how we’re going to explain this to Scott Outpost, then?” He asked her.

“...I’ve got something in mind, but I won’t have something concrete until we get back,” Yanagi said while adjusting her glasses.

“Nagi!” She looked up when she saw Soukaku. “There’s red bean buns! You want some?”

“Uh…” Yanagi shook her softly. “No. I lost my appetite a while ago.”

A few minutes later, Section 6 was ready to leave. Soukaku happily chewed on jerky as Knuckles led the group back to the cave entrance.

“You know, we never even started our fight,” Miyabi commented while the echidna moved the boulder out of the way.

He gave her a passing glance as he buried his spikes into the rock. “You’re welcome to come back and get your butt kicked anytime. Just tell us before you come knocking so that I can disable my traps.”

“Noted,” Miyabi said. She and rest of Section 6 entered

“Bye! Have a safe trip home!” Amy waved back at them. Once they were out of view, Knuckles covered the entrance once again.

“How do you think we’ll be able to stay here?” The echidna asked her. Amy placed a hand on her finger and thought for a moment, until she shrugged.

“Who knows! But I think they’ll keep their word.” Amy turned around and walked back to the camp, where the prisoners Sonic freed were starting to go back to their daily business.