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Chapter Text

In the middle of a bustling city, a crowd gathers around an impact crater that has filled the center of a four way intersection. The cracks of this impact reach the edges of the road all the way to the sidewalk, where the ocean of people stare on at the intersection in awe.

The smoke from the impact gives way to a blue humanoid creature, who has fur in the shape of large hedgehog spines and wears bright red shoes and white gloves. The crowd sees his emerald green eyes open as the 3 foot tall hedgehog opens his eyes after making it past the smoke.

“Ugh, my head …” The blue hedgehog says groggily, using his hand to wave away the dust around him. “The doctor always knows how to make a bad situation worse. Now where am I?" 

As he begins to look up, the hedgehog sees that he is in a metropolitan human city, filled with tall office buildings, various colorful shops, and billboards on all sides. He doesn’t stop to read them as he glances around himself. He sees that he is surrounded by rubble from the road he is standing in the middle of. Turning to his left, he sees the remains of a blue biplane laying upside down, front propeller completely dislodged. The wings of the plane are dented, its yellow accents scratched off, and the tail fin has been completely severed. One of the landing wheels was completely broken off and laying on the ground. Then he hears groaning coming from underneath the crashed plane.

“Sonic?” Calls out an even smaller creature, this one with yellow fur, big fox ears, and a pair of twin fox tails. He struggles to pull himself out of the cockpit of the crashed biplane.

The hedgehog reacts quickly to his name being called, rushing over to extend his hand out for him. “Tails!” Sonic exclaims. The fox responds in kind, grabbing Sonic’s hand to be helped up properly.

Standing for himself, he begins to brush the pebbles out of his tails. “Did you see anyone stuck down there with you?” Sonic asks.

A female voice then chimes in, “I’m here, I’m here.” With a grunt, the owner of this voice manages to push the remains of the plane up from underneath, then pushes it to the side as she stands up for herself. Now in full view, the pink hedgehog, whose quills are held down by a red hairband, begins to straighten out the ruffles of her red dress. She frowns as she sees the damage it has. “So, do either of you know what just happened?” She pauses for a moment before continuing, “Or … at least where the others are?”

“The othe- oww,” Tails cuts himself off, clearly dealing with a headache, “Give me a minute, Amy, my head is spinning.”

“I don’t think we have a minute, bud.” Sonic states, glancing around the area.

Sonic’s friends, Tails and Amy, now getting to look around for themselves, are in awe of how colorful the city around them is. The trio’s attention manages to focus on the largest billboard, which seems to have a photo of a popstar with long black hair, a white hairband, and piercing red eyes that shine as she sings into a microphone. The attention grabbing billboard reads ‘Astra Yao’s Concert Tour is coming here, to Lumina Square’.

“Lumina Square, huh? Never heard of that city before!” Sonic says with a bit of excitement. “It seems pretty nice here.”

He turns his head down to look at the crowd around the trio, which has now covered every part of the sidewalk around them. While no one is talking to them directly, there are hushed, confused whispers going around, along with the many phone cameras that are currently flashing in their direction.

“Could do without the cameras, though. It really hurts the tourist experience.” Sonic says sarcastically.

“Sonic-” Tails starts.
“Sightseeing later, Sonic!” Amy comments with a huff, brushing the dust off her dress, “We need to know what happened to Eggman and the others. This wasn’t where his base was before he sent us away, was it? How did we make it to … wherever this is! And how do we get back?” She speaks in a rushed, panicked tone.

“Amy-” Tails starts again.

“Doesn’t matter if we are on the other side of the planet,” Sonic smirks as he begins to stretch his legs, “I can be back at Eggman’s base in a few seconds.”
“Guys!” Tails shouts.

The two hedgehogs turn to Tails in surprise, “Woah, what's wrong?”

The fox points slightly above the two of them, and as Sonic and Amy turn, they see three people looming over them. The shortest of the three is a green haired lady with long pigtails, who is just slightly taller than Sonic. She is currently holding a notepad, writing things down as she takes glances at the three animals. Then there is a young man with cat ears and white hair, who is looking at them with a confused expression, one hand on his chin as the other holds a large metal shield. The tallest of the three is a lady with black hair with red highlights, which is up in a ponytail. All three wear matching blue uniforms with the insignia ‘N.E.P.S’ and are wielding police badges.

“Captain,” says the white haired man, “What are we looking at?”

“Not sure, Seth,” the tallest among them replies. She squats down so that she is eye level with the three animals. “Did you kids see who was in this strange plane?”

“Kids?!” The three exclaim in unison.

“I mean, Tails is a kid for sure … but do you not know who he is?” Amy asks, pointing to Sonic. Sonic chuckles, grinning at the three officers.

The officers look between each other, then back at the blue hedgehog.

“I feel like I’d remember seeing a blue cat Thiren with a weird hairstyle like you.” the green haired officer points out.

“Cat?” Amy questions.

“Thiren?” Tails repeats in confusion.

“Weird hairstyle?!” Sonic says in frustration.

The shortest of the three officers raises an eyebrow. “You don’t know what a Thiren is?” The short officer then points to her white haired coworker, Seth. “A human with varying degrees of animal traits. Like him and yourself. You know what a human is, right?”

Tails and Amy give the officer with green pigtails a frustrated look, while Sonic is too busy focusing on his quills to get angry and her condescending tone. The captain then steps in between the two groups.

“Be nice, Qingyi,” the captain says in a scolding tone. She turns back to the trio, still squatting. “I’m Zhu Yuan, captain of the Special Response Team. Sorry we don't recognize you, I’m sure you are popular at the playground. Do you mind stepping out of the way so we can continue our investigation?” She gives them the most polite smile she can.

Sonic folds his arms as he stares back at Zhu Yuan. “I’m not some kid, I’m Sonic the Hedgehog. World class hero? Destroyer of robots? Do you not watch the news?” He points a finger at himself as he talks.

“Why do you want to destroy robo-” The girl called Qingyi begins to say, though pauses when Zhu Yuan holds her hand up to stop her.

“Please just step away from the plane, ‘Sonic’.” Zhu Yuan says in a defeated tone.

“But this is my plane?” Tails interjects. “I’m sorry for crashing it, but we were in a big fi-”

“This is your plane?” Zhu Yuan asks.

“You were flying it?!” The white haired guy named Seth says in surprise.

Tails shyly nods.

Qingyi quickly takes out a pair of handcuffs, then clicks them open as she clasps one side of them onto Sonic’s free hand.

“Hey!” Sonic yells.

“You three are going to need to come with us.” Qingyi says calmly. “It’s clear you are going to continue to hinder this investigation.”

Zhu Yuan sighs, standing up as she walks toward the other two. “Sorry kids, I tried to be ‘good cop’, but Qingyi is right.”

Qingyi begins to move the cuff towards Sonic’s other hand, but in an instant he is gone. She feels the wind pick up as he speeds away from her and in front of Zhu Yuan. The force is enough to flip Zhu Yuan’s ponytail onto her face. 

“Did he just teleport?!” Seth asks aloud, grabbing his baton from his side.

“My sensors say he ran, actually. Just too fast for you to see.” Qingyi refutes.

“Did I forget to mention?” Sonic begins, “I’m also the fastest thing alive. Amy, Tails, we’re out of here.” 

“But Sonic, the Torna-” Tails is cut off as Sonic wraps his arm around him, doing the same to Amy with his other arm, then using his hands to hold onto each of their heads. Then he speeds off at full force.

The three officers look at the empty space where the animals used to be, watching as the dust that was kicked up from Sonic’s speed slowly falls back down to the ground. They both stand in silence. Seth’s jaw is wide open due to his shock, with Qingyi watching stoically. Zhu Yuan breaks the silence as she reaches for her walkie talkie. “All Units, we have an escape in progress! Be on the lookout for a group of three Thirens; blue, yellow, and pink, all running on foot at incredible speeds. Inform me when you engage, I repeat, inform me when you engage. Over.” She then clicks off her microphone. “Let's go, you two. You drive, Qingyi. Be ready to detain as soon as we catch up.” Both officers salute Zhu Yuan and rush to their car. 

Zhu Yuan looks around at the crowd, knowing that the whole incident was definitely recorded. ‘The paperwork on this case is going to suck.’ She thinks to herself as she follows behind her coworkers.

-

A blue blur speeds across the streets of Lumina Square, stopping on a particularly empty sidewalk. Sonic then lets go of them, letting the two stand on their own and catch their breath.

“Sonic! Give us more of a warning!” Amy scolds him. Sonic chuckles nervously as she glares.

“Sorry you two, it looked like things were gonna get dicey.” Sonic says back, holding up his hand that is cuffed. “Mind helping me out Amy?”

Tails looks around skeptically as Amy grabs the cuffs. He winces as he hears the metal shatter from her breaking it. “Sonic, did something about the fall feel … familiar to you?”

Amy looks at Tails confused, while Sonic puts his hand on his chin, wearing an inquisitive expression as he nods to Tails’ question. “Now that you mention it … I am getting a bit of deja vu.”

Sonic goes silent for a moment, and the trio of animals begin to slowly look around once more, paying attention to the people and location. Signs talk about brands they have never heard of. Some of the people walking the street are part animal, with tails, ears, snouts, or even complete bodies of fur. Strangest of all, glowing black domes that seem to fractal light can be seen in the far off distance.

“I think I know what happened!” Tails proclaims, getting a look from his two companions. “The warping, falling through the sky, completely new surroundings. This is just a theory, but, this could be just like when we got stuck in Blaze’s home dimension."

Sonic smacks a fist onto his other hand in realization, while Amy gives them a worried look. “Are you saying we aren’t even in our home dimension anymore? That’s just great.” The last part comes out more annoyed than worried.

The group’s examination of the situation is cut off by the loud sound of police sirens.

Sonic breaks the silence with a chuckle. “Looks like they aren’t gonna leave us alone,” He says.

“Without the Tornado, I don’t think we can ditch them that easily …” Tails informs his friends.

“Well, we don’t need to ditch them.” Sonic replies. “Only you and Amy need to.”
“Huh?!” The yellow fox and pink hedgehog say in unison.

“Well, you’re already on the track to figuring all this out, I just need you to take that big brain of yours and use it without any distractions.” He turns to Amy. “And with Amy around, no one is gonna stop you from solving this.”

“Just me?” Amy says worriedly, “Why are you saying all this like you won’t be there, too?”

Sonic turns around and begins adjusting his gloves. “Because, someone has to give these losers the run around.”

“So you’re going to give me and Amy the real work while you get to play with your shiny new toys.” Tails says, rolling his eyes with a smile.

Sonic looks back at the duo with a grin. “What can I say? I’m selfish.”

Amy runs up and hugs Sonic from behind. “You jerk … do you have to sound so smug even when you are being heroic?” She says softly. She hears Sonic chuckle in response.

Tails looks at him worriedly and says, “But, how are we going to find you?”

Sonic puts his hand on Amy’s head, giving her a smile, then turns to Tails. “Look for the place with the most action, obviously.” Tails laughs in response to the remark. “If my hunch is right, the real hard part is going to be finding the others.” Sonic adds.

Tails begins to spin his tails, propelling himself upwards. Amy lets go of Sonic and grabs one of Tails’ hands. “You think, if they are here, that Eggman ended up here too?” Tails asks.

“I’d bet all the chili dogs in the world on it,” Sonic answers. “Now get out of here, those sirens are getting louder.”

The yellow fox begins to fly higher as his tails pick up speed. He makes sure to hold Amy’s hand with both of his own hands as he lifts her into the air along with himself. Sonic’s gaze follows the flying fox as he takes the pink hedgehog with him above the buildings nearby. Amy waves down at him with her free hand, and he waves back with a smile. He then hears tires screeching as the sirens get even louder, and he smiles to himself. ‘Ah, fighting off the cops with Amy and Tails, this is nostalgic.’ Sonic reminisces.

“Freeze!” Someone shouts from behind Sonic. As he turns around, he sees four police cars around him. Each of them have turned themselves to wall Sonic off of escaping, surrounding him against the wall of a building. Various officers stand in front of him, with some of them pointing their guns at him, while the others look at him confused. “Put your hands in the air!”

Sonic looks at them, tilting his head. He puts his hands in the air. “This isn’t going to go how you think it is, you know.”

The officer chuckles as he gets closer, holding handcuffs. “Says the kid with their hands up. I can’t believe the captain described you like some-” In a blur, Sonic is gone. “-kind of speed de- huh?!” The cop’s gun and cuffs are gone, and then immediately he falls over, unable to move his legs. In front of him, the guns of all his officers are thrown on the ground, broken. He looks back at them to see his legs already cuffed. The man grunts as Sonic lands on his back, looking down at him and taking a seat. “What is this?!” He asks, flabbergasted.

The crowd of officers look on in bewilderment. One of them puts their hand on their walkie talkie. “Captain, uh, the blue kid you wanted us to catch has just subdued Officer Larry … and also taken all our guns. Over.”

“He did what?!” Sonic hears from the walkie, recognizing the voice of the lady from earlier. The officer beneath him starts struggling to get up, and shouts. “Don’t just stand there, men, get him!”

The crowd of officers, save for the one talking to Zhu Yuan, rush toward the currently sitting Sonic. They dogpile him one after another, making sure to use as much force as possible. “Not on me, you idiots!” the officer at the bottom shouts. The area goes silent, with nothing but the sound of officers grunting in pain.

“Did you get him?” Sonic asks, standing on the hood of the car right next to the only standing officer. The man jumps in surprise, falling over.
“H-h-how are you-”

Sonic cuts him off, “So fast? It’s what I do.”

“Hold him there a bit longer! We are almost to your location! Over!” Sonic hears over the walkie, while also recognizing the distant sound of police sirens getting louder and louder.

“Well, I guess that's my cue.” He jumps down and pats the head of the frightened officer. “Nice meeting you.”

Sonic walks over to the middle of the road. He stretches his arms in the air, then reaches down to touch his toes. He then turns to look behind himself, holding his hand over his eyes to block the sunlight for a better view. Then he sees it, just at the end of the road, several blue police cars racing towards him, sirens blaring. He sees the leading car, and holding her head out of the side and taking aim is the lady from before. “Freeze!” She shouts. As the cars are about to reach Sonic, he turns around and rushes forward. Zhu Yuan doesn’t even get to fire a shot before he is too far away for her to aim at.

-

From a rooftop overhead, a large wolf man with well groomed white fur, who is wearing a classy suit watches the blue blur rush off. He glances at his pocket watch with a calm expression decorating his snout before putting the watch back into his breastpocket. He then places two fingers to his ear, “Benefactor, it is as you said. The creature has rushed off, with the cops in high pursuit.”

From the other end, a regal voice begins to speak. “Very good, Von Lycaon. I take it you have gotten a good look at it?”

“Yes, sir. Though, I can’t truly say if it is just a superpowered Thiren child or … something else.” Lycaon sighs. “My apologies.”

“That’s not a concern, at the moment. We need this thing detained, and then questioned. And I don’t trust Public Security to do either of those properly with something as unique as this.”
“You can count on Victoria Housekeeping. I already received your detailed guide of Public Security’s current strategy.” Lycaon looks at his phone, examining the map as he speaks. “I’ve stationed my people at two different checkpoints, and I will be using the rooftops to survey the entire scene. We will catch it.”
“I’m sure you will!” The voice at the other end chuckles. “The day you fail me, I’ll retire as Mayor.”

“I perish the thought.” Lycaon replies deadpan. He then begins charging energy in the engines on his metallic legs. They serve as thrusters, allowing him to run at incredible speeds, almost as if he glides across the rooftops. As he heads in the direction of the chase, he leaves a faint trail of ice on the rooftops he passes.

-

“I see him, I see him!” Seth shouts from the back seat of one of the three cars currently chasing the blue hedgehog. He sticks his body partially out of the vehicle, holding out his baton and shield.

To Sonic’s right is another police car, this one with one driver and one passenger, who both appear to be normal officers. Behind him is the exact same type of car, with one officer inside. To his left are the three officers that he first met, Zhu Yuan, Qingyi, and Seth. Qingyi is driving with focus, both hands on the wheel. Zhu Yuan is currently glaring at Sonic, aiming her gun directly at him, while Seth is trying to reach him while sticking out of the back seat.

“Stand down!” Zhu Yuan shouts while taking aim, “If not, we aren’t afraid to use force!”

“I can tell,” Sonic remarks as he runs, “Boxing me in like this to get me alone? Seems pretty forceful already.”

“He’s mocking you, Zhu Yuan.” Qingyi says dryly.

The Officer scowls at her friend’s statement. “I know that!” She doesn’t look back at Qingyi as she replies, instead closing one eye while taking aim with her weapon. With Sonic properly in sight, she quickly switches out the regular bullets for condensed Ether ammo, then takes the shot.

The Ether energy fires in a perfect line right for the blue hedgehog. Sonic is unfazed at first, but quickly realizes that the projectile is moving much faster than a normal bullet. He jumps into the air just in time, seeing the energy hit the asphalt and crack it slightly as it releases a small blast of energy. Now in the air, Sonic sees the police car behind him speed forward, as he is losing momentum after the dodge. He quickly tucks and spins in the air, releasing his spin just as he passes over the car, and uses his hands and feet to skid to a stop on top of the vehicle.

“What the heck was tha- YOUCH!” Sonic is interrupted by a blunt force slamming into his side, He takes the hit and tumbles over, managing to grab the side of the car before falling off. Now hanging off the side, he looks up to see the white haired officer with cat ears looking down at him while pointing his baton aggressively.

“Good work Seth!” Zhu yuan shouts over, still holding her weapon, ready to take another shot.

Sonic pulls himself up with full force, using his legs to kick off the side of the car and sending himself into the air in front of Seth. The cat Thiren takes another swipe at him, his baton now crackling with electricity. Sonic manages to dodge in mid-air, ascending over Seth, and using his hand to leverage on top of Seth’s head and go around him, landing behind the officer. Both of them are now standing on top of the police car staring each other down.

“No matter how fast you think you are, you can’t escape justice!” Seth cries out, his shield extending and charging with electricity as he slams it down on the car’s hood, immediately breaking through it and making a hole where he impacted.

“Seth! That is official Public Security property! Be careful!” Zhu Yuan shouts.

“We might have a bigger problem,” Qingyi says, pointing her finger while putting her arm past Zhu Yuan.

She follows Qingyi’s direction, looking at the officer driving the car that Sonic and Seth are standing on. The shield’s impact through the car’s hood causes the young lady to panic in fear, and the car begins to swerve as she loses control of the vehicle. “Look out!” Zhu yuan yells, reaching out to the two cars of her officers in front of her as Qingyi slows down their vehicle to prevent becoming part of the incoming accident.

“Huh?” Seth asks in confusion, the instability of the vehicle causing him to lose his balance and begin to fall backwards. “Oh no-” Seth’s voice is interrupted by the sound of the car the two are standing on slamming right into the other police vehicle next to them.

-

“Yes, Boss, we are at the intercept point. Corin is finishing setting up the spike trap now.” A young girl with shark teeth and a shark tail answers lazily. She is sitting on the curb, spinning a lollipop in one hand while holding her phone to her ear in the other.

“Good, remember to work fast. Everything Public Security has thrown at him so far has been nothing but a game for him,” On the other end of the phone, Lycaon pauses with a grunt, and Ellen can hear him slightly out of breath from running, “He will be there as soon as he is done toying with his food so you need to clear out the cars for Rina to-”

Ellen interrupts him. “Stop nagging, it’s Rina who has the hard job, not us. There's no way we mess this up, right Corin?”

A nervous, green haired girl with large pigtails fumbles around with a line of spikes, and jumps as soon as she hears her name. The line of spikes falls out of her hands, landing upside down on the ground and completely tangling itself. “Y-yes Ellen?” She replies, looking down at her newest mess with tears forming in her eyes.

Ellen rolls her eyes. “Ugh, nevermind. I’m helping Corin, call you when our speedy guy is caught.” She hangs up the phone and shoves it into the pocket on her skirt. Then she pushes herself up lazily, leaning forward in exhaustion after standing. “What a bother …” She mumbles to herself, sticking her lollipop back into her mouth before walking over to her bumbling coworker.

Corin is crying slightly as she sits on the road and attempts to untangle the knot she made in the spiketrap without scratching herself. She looks up to Ellen who looms over with an annoyed expression. Corin continues to cower as she lets go of the spike line. Ellen bends down to pick it up and begins untangling it while squatting next to Corin. As she works, Corin looks at her and begins to calm down. Then, looking past her, she sees and hears the sound of multiple cars skidding and people shouting. Behind Ellen, two Pubsec vehicles are about to slam into each other, and after that will continue forward and hit both Ellen and Corin. Corin immediately screams “Ellen!” and holds onto her skirt while cowering behind her in fear.

“Corin. I know you get scared easily but this is even more than usual-” Ellen begins to hear the sound of skidding cars behind her, and she turns around, seeing the destruction that is about to take place in front of her. “Oh … crap.”

The swerving police car has turned almost ninety degrees, and without slowing down, the front of it rams into the other police car. Sonic holds onto the hole made in the hood of the car by Seth to avoid getting flung off, but Seth isn’t as quick, and the officer is launched forwards as he flails his arms in distress.

Sonic begins surveying the scene at superspeed. He sees that the airbags of both cars have just begun to activate, with the car that was hit having two officers inside and the one Sonic is standing on having one. In front of him, he looks at Seth, who appears to be both flailing and falling in slow motion to the blue hedgehog. Then, Sonic notices the road in front of him. Two girls in maid outfits, who appear to be doing something on the ground, are in the direct line of the impact. He knows he has to move right now to save all 6 people that are going to get hurt in this crash. 

Sonic launches himself from the roof of the car as it begins to turn, then as soon as he is lined up with the right window, he performs a spin attack to break right through. Carrying his momentum forward, he releases his spin and grabs the driver, holding her with both arms as he kicks the drivers side door out of place. He then bounces off the door as it falls to the ground, landing on the road before it or the car does. He runs to the sidewalk as he puts the lady down. Then, the blue hedgehog looks up to get a good idea of where Seth is, quickly jumping forward and catching him before landing back back onto the car. He kicks off the roof of the car and heads straight for where he placed the previous officer, leaving a dazed Seth there with the same expression as he had in the air. He rushes back to the crash spot, opening the door to the car that was hit and grabbing both officers one at a time and taking them to the sidewalk before their airbag could finish releasing. He then rushes back into the middle of the road and grabs the two girls who are sitting in the middle of it, holding them each in either arm as he runs straight into a nearby alleyway.

Zhu Yuan and Qingyi watch in horror as both vehicles in front of them crash, with the car Seth was on spinning in midair before landing upside down and the impact causing the remaining car to slam right into a lamp post on the sidewalk. The two put their car in park before rushing out to the crash on foot.

“Officers? Officers! Seth?! ” Zhu Yuan cries out in a panic, looking at the destroyed rubble in front of her and attempts to move some debris to find anyone. “Qingyi, where are they?!”

The short officer simply grabs her partner’s shoulder. “Zhu Yuan, calm down. I can hear Seth screaming softly nearby.”

Zhu Yuan quickly stands up, grabbing Qingyi’s hand and pulling the Automaton past the destroyed vehicles. “Bless you and your cybernetic ears. Now where are they?”

Her question is answered as the two see that just up ahead, all four of their fellow officers in this chase are sitting next to each other on the sidewalk with different levels of panic. The two look for their teammate, Seth, who is currently still screaming and has his eyes closed.

“Seth.”

“Qingyi? It’s too late for me! I’m sorry- I failed as an officer!” Seth dramatically exclaims. He breathes in before continuing, but is interrupted by a slap to the face. “Ow!”

“You aren’t falling anymore, dummy.” Qingyi states coldly.

“Oh.” The young man looks around to see the destruction, his team, and the other officers. “Neat!”

“Not that I’m not relieved,” Zhu Yuan starts, “But how did you all get to safety so fast?”

“Hm …” Qingyi closes her eyes and puts her hand on her chin as she begins to think. “I have a hunch.” Both Seth and Zhu Yuan look at the robot expectantly. “Open your phone and let me connect my optic unit to it for a second, Zhu Yuan.”

The officer does as she is told, and Seth gets on his tippie-toes to peer over her shoulder. They watch as Qingyi’s POV of the crash plays on Zhu Yuan’s phone. Then, it rewinds and plays again in slow motion, and the duo see a blue blur repeatedly rush in and out of the accident before the Car ever hits the ground, and one by one each person disappears from view as they are taken to safety.

“He … saved me?” Seth says questioningly.

“He went out of his way to save everyone caught in the crash.” Zhu Yuan says matter-of-factly. “This kind might be a trouble-maker, but he clearly doesn’t have any bad intentions. At least, nothing beyond destruction of property and obstruction of justice.”

“But,” Qingyi continues in Zhu Yuan’s place, “Knowing how fast he is, he clearly intentionally antagonized us. He could have left any time he wanted.”

The three remain silent for a moment, and Seth walks to the officers to start helping them reorient themselves.

“Zhu Yuan, you know this isn’t the last time we’ll see this ‘Sonic’. We need to figure out where he came from.”

Zhu Yuan sighs as she puts her hands on her hips and looks back at the crash. “I know. Lets just hope that the guys in analysis are having better luck with the plane than we are with its passengers.” She and Qingyi then walk back to the car.

“Wait for me!” Seth exclaims, jogging up to the duo while radioing in for a car to come pick up the officers who don’t currently have a vehicle.

-

“Are you ladies ok?” Sonic asks, dusting some debris off his arm as both Corin and Ellen look at him. Corin immediately runs away, running past Sonic. “Well, I’ll take that as a yes.” He says with a chuckle.

Ellen looks at him unamused. “She’s like that.” She stops, looking down at him. The blue hedgehog is different from anyone else she’s encountered in this job, though she can’t tell why. Nonetheless, she’s now curious. “Why’d you save us anyways?”

He shrugs in response, looking up to meet her eyes. “Eh, it’s what I do.”

“So you’re some kind of super hero?”

“Super hero?” He thinks for a second. “I guess? People around the world know me for saving them, but it’s not like I make it my job.”

“You say around the world, but last time I checked the only place in the world is New Eridu, and no one seems to know you here.”

“I noticed.” Sonic says, slightly annoyed. “Currently trying to figure out why.”

Ellen begins to smile as she listens to the near oxymoronic explanations Sonic provides. “So you’re an animal person, but not a Thiren.” She starts, using her fingers to list things off exaggeratedly. “You’re a hero, yet all I’ve seen is you getting chased by Pubsec. And you’re famous, yet no one has ever heard of you. Can you help me out here?”

Sonic walks a little closer as he continues to try to explain himself. “Look, I don’t know what you want from me. What you see is what you get! I’m just a gu-” A metallic clang interrupts the blue hedgehog, as he gets dizzy and his vision goes black. He then falls to the ground, knocked out.

Ellen looks on as Corin stands over the now knocked out hedgehog, shivering slightly as she holds her comically large chainsaw over him. She had slammed him over the head with the flat side of the weapon. Her nervous expression changes to that of an awkward smile. “I-I did it! Ellen- Ellen,” Corin struggles to contain her excitement, “I actually did what Mr.Lycaon n-needed from me without … without messing up! I’m not a useless maid!” She jumps up and down with glee as Ellen looks down at her target, who is now out like a light.

Ellen walks up to Corin and gives her a playful noogy. “Good job. I’m sure Rina will be excited to hear all about it, too.” She then picks up the hedgehog, logging him over her shoulder. Corin skips ahead of her as she follows slowly. ‘I wish I could have talked with him a bit longer,’ the shark thinks to herself as she lags behind the other maid, ‘I was actually enjoying that.’ Ellen holds her free hand over her mouth as she yawns. ‘Whatever, I can think about that after I take a nap.’ She then begins to dial Lycaon’s number on her phone.

-

Chapter Text

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As the sun sets on a calm neighborhood, the light bounces off of a street sign that reads ‘Sixth Street.’ Around the sign, people make their way out of various stores. A brown shop with oak wood walls and a large sign that reads ‘Coff Cafe’ closes its doors, with a metallic mustached robot with a head in the shape of a coffee maker turning the sign from open to closed. The convenience store across the street has three adorably tiny robots with tall ears who are all putting away inventory. As people continue down the street to their homes, the local arcade is turning off its lights while the vinyl records store, with a large lit up sign reading ‘Bardic Needle’, next door to the arcade has its last couple of customers exit from within, the tune of jazz being cut off by the closing door.

Across from the vinyl shop and beyond a local newsstand, a small shop’s lights are still on. The store is on the first floor of a two story building, with the brown bricks being contrasted with the bright yellow walls of the store itself that sticks slightly further out than the walls of the rest of the building. A sign that reads ‘Random Play’ in black text and a white outline rests above the door. A bell then chimes as the door of Random Play opens, and a high school couple, still wearing their uniforms and holding their backpacks, walk out of the store with smiles lining their faces. Both of the students are holding one VHS tape each while waving back at the residents of the store with their free hands.

“We hope to see you again at the Random Play Video Store. Have a nice night!” The man behind the counter of the store calls out. He is tall and has messy, light grey hair. He wears a black graphic sweater under a navy blue jacket with orange accents. He has greyish blue eyes, but their color is contrasted by the eyebags beneath them. He speaks to the two exiting customers with kindness and warmth in his voice. As the door closes behind them, he looks down at his feet to see a small robot that is barely a foot tall. The robot stares at him with bright green circular eyes that rest along the screen that rests where their face should be. While it has no mouth, its long ears droop down while his eyes have a tired expression.

The young man kneels down, putting his hand on the robot’s head. “Eous,” he gives him a smile, “You’re an amazing Bangboo, but you don’t have to overwork yourself. Go recharge for the night, Bangboos Six and Eighteen can help us for the night.”

The tiny white robot wearing a scarf that has ‘01’ on it nods happily at its owner, then turns around and waddles its way to the staircase on the other side of the room, repeating the phrase ‘En-ah’ happily as it leaves.

As the man watches Eous climb up the stairs, he hears a crash as a box falls over near the shelves of the store. “Wiseeee!” A high pitched female voice calls out, causing the man’s head to turn to the sound. 

He sees a woman who is both shorter and slightly younger than he is. She has deep blue hair and matching greyish blue eyes to the man she is calling out for. Unlike him, however, her face lacks the same tiredness. She has on a black long sleeve shirt with an orange and white jacket, and a grey skirt.

Wise looks at her, seeing her picking up all the video tapes that fell out of the box she was emptying. There are several other empty boxes around her, and she has two white Bangboo helping her, with one having an orange scarf that reads ‘06’ helping her with the fallen tapes and the other with a matching scarf that reads ‘18’ off to the side, taking the now empty boxes and folding them to be thrown away. He gives Eighteen an affectionate pat on the head as he walks up to his sister, folding his arms.

“Belle, please don’t tell me you damaged the new stock.” Wise remarks.

“It’s not damaged,” She says with confidence.

A robotic female voice intrudes on their conversation, echoing across the room. “Master, I estimate an eight hundred denny profit loss from the second assistant’s blunder.” Both people in the room are left speechless for a moment, before Wise sighs.

“Tsk- stupid tattletaling AI assistant.” Belle says in annoyance. “I will permanently unplug you, Fairy!” she raises a fist in the air, vaguely in the direction of the speakers the female voice was coming from.

“Illogical.” Fairy replies in the same monotone speech pattern. “The probability that Master would let you shut me down is lower than that of him kicking you out of the house.”

“What?!” Belle shouts angrily. “I am his sister, and co-owner of the business! There isn't a world where he would choose a stuck up, idiotic, usel-” She is cut off by Wise’s hand blocking her mouth.

“Belle, Fairy, that's enough. No one is choosing anyone over anything.” His sister pouts as she goes back to picking up fallen videotapes. The AI assistant simply goes silent at the command.

“I’ll never get why you two beef so much.” Wise muses as he starts helping Belle recover the items she dropped. She doesn’t respond to the remark, but after a minute she stops pouting and they work like the efficient team they are. After finishing putting up the last tape, Belle and Six begin double checking the inventory, while Wise starts brooming and Eighteen heads upstairs to gather more trash. The Bangboo comes back down with two bags of trash just as Wise finishes tying up a third bag with the trash he just swept up.

Belle squats down and holds out both her hands. “Dawww, who are Belle’s little Bangboo helpers!” She says affectionately, as the two small robot companions rush over and give her a high five on each hand.

“Go join Eous and rest up.” Wise says, with both bangboo giving a salute while saying ‘En-ah En-ah’ in as serious of a tone a bangboo can talk in. They then happily waddle up the stairs.

“Let me help you take those out, Bro!” Belle says, taking one of the bags as Wise grabs the other two. 

She holds the backdoor open for her brother as he steps into the parking lot of their shop. The area is shrouded in the darkness of the nightsky, with only a few distant street lamps illuminating the area enough for them to see. She puts the bag down within Wise’s reach as she looks up at the sky absentmindedly.

“‘Help’ she says,” Wise remarks sarcastically, putting the last bag of trash into their garbage bin. “You done stargazing?” He then says.

“Wise … Can stars be purple?”

Wise looks at her confused. “What?” The brother follows her gaze to look up into the sky. There are barely any visible stars, so he quickly notices the especially bright purple one. “Well, I guess they can be.”

“It’s so much bigger than the others,” Belle says in astonishment, “I’m glad the light pollution didn’t drown it out.”

The two stay silent for a moment as they let the wonder of nature wash over them for a moment. The purple light illuminating the sky is more pronounced than any of the other more distant stars it shares the space with. A small trail of light matching the hue of the star seems to trickle behind it as the light expands before their very eyes.

“Is it just me, Belle, or is it getting bigger?” Wise says, breaking the silence.

“Huh?” She squints, attempting to get a better look. “Dang, it really is getting much bigger. Or maybe … it’s getting closer?”

Her question is answered as a glowing purple streak rockets down and lands in the siblings’ parking lot, leaving a tiny crater as its purple light shines off the ground.

“Closer,” Wise says, “Definitely closer.”

The duo attempt to approach the purple light that has landed in their parking lot, with Belle kneeling down to look closely while Wise simply leans forward to examine it from a distance. The two see that resting in this crater is a glowing purple gemstone. It has a near perfect cut resembling that of a diamond, and its size is enough to fill the palm of the hand while still being comfortable to hold. The light shining from the gem appears to come from within.

“I’m gonna touch it.” Belle states.

“Wait-”

Her brother doesn’t get the chance to refute her as she picks up the gem. She holds it for a second, standing up and letting her brother get a better look. After hesitating, he pokes it with his finger. The gem doesn’t react anymore than a stone would.

“See, nothing happened you worrywart.” She says, sticking her tongue out at him. He rolls his eyes.

From within the store, the sound of the bell that is hanging above the front door rings out, alerting the siblings that someone has entered Random Play.

“A customer, at this hour?” Wise asks.

“Money is money,” Belle says cheerfully, carrying her newly acquired gemstone with her as she opens the door.

Inside Random Play, a young lady is browsing their collection of romance movies, her eyes hidden by circular tinted glasses. She has long black hair and flat bangs that are held back by her white hairband, and is wearing a brilliant white dress with red sleeves, a short skirt, and gold accents. When the back door opens, she turns to the two managers of the store with a frown that doesn’t seem genuine.

“New stock with two Monica films … but not a single one of mine?” The extravagantly dressed lady says with a dramatic tone. She stands up straight before putting her hand on her forehead and looking away from the duo. “I thought we were friends!”

The room is silent for a moment after this remark, however that silence is broken by the lady in the white dress as she starts laughing playfully. It isn’t long before the two siblings join in on her laughing.

“Astra!” The two exclaim. Belle rushes over to her and nearly jumps as she gives her a hug. The woman reciprocates the enthusiasm, and her glasses fly off her face as she catches Belle and spins her for a moment before closing in the hug.

Wise manages to awkwardly catch the glasses before they hit the ground, fumbling with them for a moment. He approaches her with a large grin, and she frees up one of her arms so she can pull Wise in for a hug of his own.

“Careful with your ‘disguise’, Astra,” Wise says, exaggerating the word disguise.

Astra lets go of the two as she gives Wise a glare, still unable to hold back her smile. “I heard the way you said that, Wisey. The glasses work!” She says in a huff. She puts the glasses back on in an attempt to prove her point.

Belle and Wise give a glance at each other as they try not to laugh. “Sure, sure.” Wise manages to say.

“Forget about that,” Belle interjects, waving away her brother. “How are you here? I thought you’d be practicing for your concert at Lumina Square?!”

“Oh, I was supposed to, but practice was cancelled due to, get this,” She pauses for dramatic effect, causing both Belle and Wise to lean in expectantly. “A high speed chase across the city!” The duo gasp as she continues. “From what people are saying on online, it seems like some kids crashed something in the middle of the intersection near the HIA, and when Public Security went to investigate, the group of kids ran away on foot.”

“Huh?” Belle interrupts her. “You said this was a chase? Did these kids outrun cars?”

Astra pauses as she puts a finger on her chin. “I’m not sure. All the photoage people are posting on Inter-Knot have been incredibly blurry, and the roads were closed during the chase. But they did report a crash involving two Pubsec vehicles.”

“A crash? I hope Zhu Yuan is ok …” Wise says in passing. Belle then jabs him with her elbow and coughs. “Seth and Qingyi too! I hope they are all ok- obviously.”

“Smooth, bro.” Belle says sarcastically.

“Oh?” Astra perks up for a moment. “Friends in Pubsec I presume? I knew you both had friends in high society and in the shady underside of New Eridu, but I’m always shocked at just how well connected my favorite video store managers are!”

“Favorite?” Belle starts, “We’re the only video store you even go to!”

“Hm, I don’t know …” Astra begins to give Belle a playful expression. “I’m sure I can find a store that appreciates me more than you do.”

“Hmph-” Belle huffs, pausing for a moment before giving Astra a grin in return. “Well, can you name a video store with an item as cool as …” The girl has her hand hidden behind her back, and the two other people in the room look at her with curiosity. “This!” She reveals the purple gemstone that the siblings had seen falling from the sky. Its perfect surface lets the light of the room shine off of it and mix with the purple glow, leaving Astra in awe.

“Oh my god!” She starts squealing as she looks at the gemstone. “This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen!” Her hands hang over the gem, not daring to grab it without permission.

Belle is surprised at the popstar’s excitement. “Oh! Well, I mean, you can hold it if you want.” Though attempting to stay calm, the joy in her eyes fails to stay hidden.

Astra takes the purple gem into her hands and stares at it intently. “Where did you find this? It's even brighter than an ether crystal.” She looks back at the two of them.

Wise shrugs for a moment before answering. “In all honesty? It fell from the sky just when you got here.”

Astra’s eyes shine with excitement. “It must have been fate! I was destined to see this beautiful stone.”

“You can have it!” Belle says before realizing what she said. While Astra looks at her with happiness, she turns her head slowly to see if she has her brother’s approval. He smiles at the suggestion.

“We probably would have just let it rot on a shelf, anyways.” Wise states. “We thought it was a star, so who better to have it than New Eridu’s best superstar?” Belle nods in agreement at what he says.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Astra exclaims, spinning around in excitement before holding the gem close to her chest. “I can’t wait to show Eve!”

“Speaking of,” Belle says, interrupting Astra’s cheers, “Why isn’t Evelyn with you today?”

“I was wondering that too, actually.” Wise adds.

Astra chuckles nervously. “W-well … you see- about that.”

-

As a train skids to a stop inside of a metro station. From the speakers, a voice says “The train has now stopped at Sixth Street. The train will depart for its next stop in 10 minutes.” As the sound of the microphone clicks off, the sliding glass doors of each of the metal train cars open up, and a flood of people pour out. As the various families, office workers, and salarymen make their way up the stairs that lead out of the metro and the people who had been waiting at the station begin to board for themselves, the station becomes still with its emptiness. 

Just as the train's doors begin to close, someone quickly steps out. This blonde haired woman in formal attire glances around the station, making sure it’s empty before she takes her gloved hand off of her phone’s speaker and lifting it up to her ear.

“Sorry about that.” She says calmly. “Had to make sure it was safe to talk about Miss Yao without any nosey fans listening in. Please continue.”

“Ahem, As I was saying Evelyn,” A stern voice says from the other end of the phone. “Odeum’s record team was waiting for Astra at the rescheduled concert practice. You and I both know that she didn’t show up.”

Evelyn then cuts the voice off by saying, “Which is why I am currently on my way to find her. She doesn’t have many options on where she can hide out to avoid work, so I’ll have her soon.”

“Well, make it fast.” The response sounds disgruntled, and Evelyn can hear the person on the other end of the line breathe in sharply, preparing to give a scolding lecture. In that moment of silence, the woman hears the sound of two hushed voices. She can tell they are on the younger side, but it still draws her attention. The person on the other end of the line continues before she can finish her thought. “As her only personal bodyguard, it is your duty to make sure she doesn’t miss imp-”

“I’m going to have to call you back. I’ll have Miss Yao back at her home within the next hour.” She then hangs up before she even hears a response. Then she turns her attention to the hushed voices she heard before.

Evelyn approaches the edge of the train tracks silently, her heels not even making a sound when they come into contact with the floor. She stalks the area above the tracks, glaring down to the cement below to see nothing of interest. Then uses her hand to cup her ear as she tries to listen in even closer, hearing a part of the conversation.

“Did we really have to ride on top of the train?” A female voice says in frustration.

“Yes, I wasn’t sure if those police officers would chase us, too!” Refutes the voice of a boy, no doubt on the younger side. 

‘Police?’ Evelyn thinks to herself. She begins to slowly tip toe her way past the train platform, walking along the edge of a protrusion in the wall just a few feet above the track.

“Ok but, I still think getting off early and waiting for everyone to leave was a bit excessive, Tails.”

“Sneaking onto a train is a crime!” The male voice says in annoyance. “I don’t want us to get caught and stuck waiting for Sonic to save us.”

The two remain silent for a second, and Evelyn finally spots them. She stares at the two short animal creatures, both of whom not even reaching above her waist. They are slowly walking across the track to the train's main platform. ‘Are they … Thirens? Their proportions are off, but they do appear and act like kids.’ Her thoughts stop as she continues to listen.

“Sorry.” The pink one states. Evelyn takes notice of the damage her clothes have sustained. “I’m just tired. We left Sonic hours ago and all we’ve done is sneak around and sit on top of a train. I just want to be able to go home.”

The yellow fox, she heard the girl call him ‘Tails’, sighs. He stops walking and glances back at her. “It’s ok. We’re both tired.” The duo look down at the ground. “Amy … Do you- do you think we’re going to have to sleep outside tonight?” The sentence makes Evelyn’s heart drop down to her gut.

Amy tries to reassure the young fox. “It’s ok! Think of it like camping!” She tries to sound cheerful, but her smile is clearly forced. “Sonic sleeps outside all the time, right? We can do it for a day or two.”

Before she knows what she is doing, Evelyn has already dropped down in front of the two tired animals. With more sternness than she intended, she says, “No one will be sleeping outside.”

Instantly, the pink one gets on the defensive. She uses her left hand to act as a barrier in between the fox and the lady that just interrupted them, while her right hand flicks upwards and instantly spawns a bright red hammer with yellow rims, whose head is significantly larger than Evelyn’s entire face. Both the boy and the girl give her a serious expression, neither actively showing fear.

“What do you want?” Amy says with anger.

Evelyn realizes how she appears in that moment, and attempts to lower her guard a bit. “I’m sorry for eavesdropping …” She attempts to pick her next words wisely. “But, I heard you don’t have a place to stay for the night.”

Amy lowers her hands slightly, and both her and Tails share a glance for a moment. “And?” Tails asks.

“There is a place you two can go to. I know the owners personally,” Evelyn then kneels down so she can be at eye level with the two. They flinch for a moment, but she hopes this will make her seem less intimidating. “They are kind and are always ready to help anyone they can. If I ask them, I’m sure they’ll take you in for at least one night.”

Tails and Amy seem to have a silent conversation, and Evelyn looks between them expectantly. After a bit of silence, she decides to add, “I know you have no reason to trust me, but-”

“Ok.” Amy responds. “We’ll go.”

“Really?” Evelyn says in surprise.

“Not like we had a better plan.” Tails says. “Where are these friends you mentioned?”

“They are actually at this stop,” Evelyn says, standing up straight and readjusting her jacket. “I was already going there to pick someone up. So just follow me.”

The blonde woman begins to make her way back to the metro station’s exit, but now she has two new companions following behind her.

-

“Astra …” Wise says in disappointment.

“You did have practice today- and you ran away from it?” Belle exclaims before gasping. “And you lied to us about it!”

“Guyyyyyyyys,” the singer whines gracefully, “I didn’t lie, I just told an untruth so you guys wouldn’t be mad at me …” She trails off at the end of her sentence.

Wise puts hand on her shoulder. “Astra, we love having you around, but you can’t use us to skip out on your job.”

“But why nooooot,” she pleads in response, “Aren’t we besties?” She gives the siblings the biggest puppy dog eyes she can manage.

Belle instantly notices her brother’s gaze begin to soften as he stares into Astra’s eyes, so she cups his face and turns his head 90 degrees which shocks him back into focus. She doesn’t move her hand, leaving  her brother stuck looking at the front door. “My brother may be susceptible to your trickery,” She says, pointing accusatorily at the popstar, “but my love of spending time with you is overpowered by my knowledge of what Evelyn will do to us when she finds out you are here!”

“Eve is a sweety,” Astra replies, “She wouldn’t do anything to me~!”

“But she would do something to me and my brother!” Belle says, raising her voice. Wise attempts to tap on his sister's shoulder to get her attention, but she is too focused. “I don’t know what they taught her in super-secret-spy-school, but I don’t want to get knocked out, or karate chopped, or stub my toe, or get wet socks, or,” Though Belle is speaking seriously, Astra can’t but help but begin to chuckle the more Belle lists potential torture methods. Wise is still tapping Belle’s shoulder, getting Astra distracted. She turns to follow Wise’s gaze, leading her to see the open door, which a well dressed blonde woman is currently blocking.

Astra immediately cuts off Belle’s tirade. “Eve!” she exclaims, rushing to hug the woman.

“Eve?” Belle questions, sweat beginning to form on her brow.

“Eve.” Wise says, slumping in resignation.

“Didn’t mean to interrupt,” The lady herself states, “Please, manager, continue to give me ideas.” She smirks at Belle.

“Evelyn! Y-you know, funny story, but that rant made a lot more sense in context! We- we- we uh … we were talking about things you would never ever do to me! Yeah. That's it.”

“While I’d love to indulge that,” Evelyn says, her tone getting serious, “I have a favor to ask of you two.”

Both brother and sister look at her with curiosity, noticing the tone shift.

“Eve?” Astra asks, “Is everything alright?” Astra looks over Evelyn’s body for a moment. “Did you get in some kind of fight?”

“No no, nothing of the sort,” Evelyn states in an attempt to soothe the worries of the room. “Look- it’s just better if I show you.”

Astra stands back as Evelyn begins to open the front door once again. Once it is open two humanoid animals that are half her height walk through the door, one being a two tailed yellow fox, while the other is a hedgehog with a beaten up red dress. They both look nervous as they enter.

“Children?” Wise asks.

Astra immediately puts a hand on each of their heads, taking a good look at both of them as she squats down. “You poor things! What happened to you two?”

Amy looks away awkwardly, not wanting to answer, while Tails stares back at the sunglass wearing songstress with recognition. “Amy! It’s the lady from the billboard we crashed in front of today!”

Tails stating this causes Amy to glance back at the woman. She gives them a slightly confused expression, while from behind her, Belle can’t help but begin to laugh.

“Hahaha! He saw your billboard once, and your ‘perfect disguise’,” She says with airquotes, “has already fallen apart! Ha!” 

As his sister laughs, Wise can’t help but chuckle himself. Evelyn approaches him in the commotion. “I’m not sure where they came from,” She whispers to him, “but I found them sneaking through the metro. They don’t have anywhere to sleep.” She gives him a worried look.

“Say no more.” He replies instantly. “Me and Belle can help watch them in your stead, well we figure out a good place for them. Our friend Nicole is knowledgeable on good orphanages.”

Evelyn sighs in relief after hearing this. “Thank you, Wise. You and your sister have been nothing but amazing to both Astra and myself.” 

The two then bring their attention back to the four other people in the room.

“You already know Astra,” Belle says, “but let me introduce you to the owners of Random Play!” She points from herself to Wise quickly, whispering, “that’s me and my brother, by the way.” The two animals don’t give much of a reaction, but are definitely paying attention. “I’m Belle, the fun one! And that’s Wise, the tired one.” That gets a small chuckle from Tails, with Wise rolling his eyes in the background.

“So.. do you cuties have names~?” Astra asks sweetly after Belle finishes her introductions, still squatting down. Both the hedgehog and the fox blush at the compliment.

“I-I’m Miles. Miles Prower. Everyone just calls me Tails, though, because of my tails.” He waves his twin tails for the others to see. 

“So cool!” Belle says with excitement.

“Thanks.” Tails with nervousness in his voice.

Astra then looks at the pink hedgehog. “What’s your name?”

“Amy Rose.” Amy states firmly.

“Amy,” Astra exclaims, “I love your hairband!” 

Amy can’t help but giggle at the compliment. “Thanks, yours is just as pretty.”

With both of the guests Evelyn brought finally hosting smiles on their faces, she walks up to the two herself, getting their attention. “I failed to mention it before, but my name is Evelyn Chevalier. I’m Miss Yao’s bodyguard.” She puts a hand on Astra’s shoulder, then nods her head to the door. Astra pouts, realizing what Evelyn is saying. “Sadly, Astra and I have to leave. She has multiple appointments she needs to make up for.” She gives the star a glare with her last sentence.

“But Eveeee-“

“No buts, Astra.” And with that, she begins to drag Astra away by her shoulder.

“Evelyn, right?” Amy asks as the bodyguard reaches the door. “Thank you.” The hedgehog and bodyguard share a smile with each other, and then the door closes behind her.

Tails and Amy look around the shop they were left in.  Amy speaks first. “Belle and Wise, we appreciate you letting us stay for the night … and I know you two want to help us … but the situation we’re in might be too dangerous for normal people to deal with.”

Belle and Wise look at each other knowingly. “Normal people, she says.” Belle says in faux disappointment.

“Amy, we appreciate the worry, but I think we’re more capable than you’d expect.” Wise refutes. “It’s clear you two are tired and need help. So sleep for today. If you feel comfortable sharing tomorrow, me and my sister will do what we can. If not, then at least you’ll have energy.”

Tails and Amy nod in agreement, and as if on queue, they both let out tired yawns. The siblings chuckle at this.

“You know, maybe you’re on to something.” Tails says back to Wise.

“Sleepover!” Belle exclaims, picking up both Amy and Tails before they can react, and then immediately running up the stairs. Wise calmly walks behind them, smiling as he sees Tails and Amy’s surprised faces turn to smile.

-

Sonic the Hedgehog grunts as he opens his eyes, the light in the room he is currently in disorienting him after being knocked out.

“Ughhh … two knockouts in one day? If Knuckles or Shadow hear about this …” he sits himself up, noticing immediately that he has an iron ball and chain on his leg. “Yeah, let me just keep this to myself.”

Sonic then looks around the room he is in. It resembles a Victorian era bedroom, with black walls and the wooden framework of the bed he is in also colored black. There is a royal blue carpet and various other more desaturated shades of blue adorn the decor around the room, which is admittedly pretty lacking. The room has no windows and one door, which has no knob on the side he can see. The bed is perfectly made, save for the ruffles in the blanket he made by sitting up. Besides the bed, he sees no other furniture.

Sonic whistles in amazement. “This is the most well kept cell I’ve ever been put in.” As he finishes his sentence, the door opens.

“Victoria Housekeeping appreciates the compliment.” An elegant male voice replies. At the door, Sonic sees four people enter one by one. First, the man who he just heard, who is the tallest of the group. He is a wolf man with incredibly wellgroomed fur, a suit vest, and most interestingly, robotic prosthetics where his legs should be that seem to have engines on each calf. Once he enters, he stands in front of the hedgehog, his arms behind his back. 

Next up after him is a woman who is just slightly shorter than the wolf. She has long grey hair that goes down to her waist, and is wearing a maid outfit with a long skirt that goes past her legs. She is floating just above the ground, with electricity crackling from where her skirt ends to where the floor begins. She does a curtsy bow, and two little robots with long ears who are dressed like ghosts spin around her before she moves to float next to the first guest. Her robots stay on either shoulder.

Lastly, two other maids enter together. Both clearly the youngest of the group. They both seem awkward at the approach, but then Sonic’s eyes flicker in recognition as he notices the taller one’s shark tail and teeth alongside the shortest one’s bright green pigtails.  “Oh! It’s you two,” He starts, directing his attention to the two familiar people in the room, “I guess the cops weren’t the only ones after me.”

While his words aren’t malicious in any way, The shark maid has a hard time returning his gaze. Sonic catches that, and continues. “Did I do something, I dunno, bother a butler’s workers union or something?”

“I can assure you, sir,” The wolf man says, “Us capturing you was not personal in the slightest.”

Sonic rubs a mild bruise on his head. “You know, I’m not sure what hit me, but it sure felt personal.” He looks at the organized group of four before continuing, “You wanna clue me in on what actually made you grab me?”

“Simply business,” The wolf replies.

“When our benefactor asks for a task to be completed,” The grey haired woman continues in a regal voice, “We complete said task without fail.”

“Though the circumstances aren’t the best, our master told us to keep you here, at least for tonight.” The wolf pauses, as if deciding what specific words would be best for the situation. “Tomorrow, if you can tell us what you are and where you came from, he will decide if you are free to go.”

“So, I’m trapped. Great.” Sonic says dryly.

“Please, to avoid your stay being unpleasant, you are free to call upon us at your leisure.” The wolf says before taking a bow. “I am Von Lycaon, the leader of Victoria Housekeeping.” He then stands up straight and waves his hand towards the grey haired lady who is floating. “This is the Head Maid, Alexandrina Sebastiane.”

“You can just call me Rina, dear guest.” She says sweetly.

Lycaon continues, pointing to the two most silent maids in the room. “I believe you are already familiar with our other maids, Corin and Ellen.”

The smallest one, Corin, flinches before looking at the hedgehog, she waves and attempts to smile. “H-hi. Sorry for hitting you …”.

“It’s good,” He replies, “You were just doing your job.” Corin’s smile becomes a bit warmer after hearing that. He turns to look at Ellen, who doesn’t look at him or say anything.

After the room falls silent for the moment, Lycaon decides to continue. “Well! You must be tired. We offer you the best comfort we have to offer, and Head Maid Rina has prepared a dinner for you.” As Rina takes the plate out of the hands of one of her robot companions, both Sonic and Lycaon glance at it. The plate is covered in a purplish brown goo, which appears to be both burnt and wet. Lycaon turns his head while putting his mouth over his snout to avoid anyone seeing him gag. Sonic, on the other hand, simply cannot look away from the abomination of a meal that was just placed on the bed he is sitting on.

“However,” Lycaon states firmly, getting Sonic’s attention once again. “We will have someone watch over you for the entire night, to avoid your potential escape. I do hope you can forgive us for the lack of privacy, Mister …?” Lycaon ends his sentence inquisitive, hoping the blue hedgehog will continue it.

“Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog.” Sonic answers.

“Well, Sir Sonic, I do hope you have a good night.” Sonic chuckles to himself after hearing Lycaon refer to him as ‘Sir Sonic’.

Each member of the group of maids begins to leave one by one, with Rina floating away the fastest, followed closely by Corin. As Sonic thinks to himself, Ellen lingers in the room longer than the others. Lycaon puts his hand on her shoulder.

“Ellen,” He whispers, “Though it is rude of me to ask this of you, may you take the first watch?”

Ellen looks at him in annoyance, her sharp teeth showing with her scowl.

“Please, I can’t bear the thought of being in a room while watching him eat Rina’s cooking. My stomach cannot handle it.” He pleads to her.

“Fine, whatever.” Ellen says, rolling her eyes.

Lycaon then makes his way out of the room, mouthing the words ‘Thank you’ to the shark maid as the door closes.

Ellen leans against the wall next to the door, an annoyed expression resting on her face. After spending a few minutes keeping her gaze away from the blue hedgehog, she finally turns to see what he is doing.

Sonic is sitting on the bed he was provided with, his right leg hanging off the side due to the iron ball currently chained to him. He is using a fork that was on the tray given to him along with his food to poke at said aforementioned food. When poked, the unidentifiable blob jiggles slightly, while a piece of it flakes off.

The maid watches as he holds back a gag. Without a word, Ellen walks up to him. Sonic turns to the Shark looming over him nervously. “O-oh! I was going to eat it-” He starts trying to formulate an excuse, but is cut off as she reaches past him, grabs his plate, and holds it over her mouth as the entire meal slides out of it. She chews for a moment, then swallows without any strain. Sonic looks at her, dumbfounded, before sighing in relief. “Oh thank god, I thought you were going to force me to eat … whatever that was.”

Ellen doesn’t respond, turning away from him in embarrassment as she obscures her face.

“What’s wrong?” Sonic asks, “Food poisoning?"

Ellen mumbles something that Sonic can’t quite hear.

“Could you repeat that?”

“I’m sorry, ok?” Ellen states loudly, catching Sonic by surprise. “I didn’t know Corin would knock you out after helping us … and I feel bad. That's all.”

“Oh, so your stomach is fine then.” Sonic says as the worry leaves his face and he lays back, crosses his legs, and rests his hands behind his head. “Thats good.”

Ellen is shocked by his un-botherness. “How can you not be mad at all?! You saved us and were rewarded by being knocked out and kidnapped.”

“Eh, this kind of stuff isn’t new to me. I can honestly leave whenever I want.” Sonic says, his eyes now closed as he relaxes.

“What?” Ellen asks in confusion. “If that's the case, then why the heck are you even still here?”

“One,” Sonic says, putting one finger up, “I want to know where here is. Two,” he puts a second finger up, “I’m waiting for my friends to figure out how to get home. Three, and this is the most important one,” He puts a third finger up and Ellen looks genuinely invested, “You guys offered me a free bed. Even if you guys happen to be bad guys, I’m tired.” She rolls her eyes at his third reason.

“We are not the bad guys,” She says back.

“I mean, it's fine if you are. I had to duke it out with a lot of my friends before we became friends, anyway.”

“You say that like we’ll be friends.” Ellen says sarcastically.

“I mean, why not?” Sonic opens one of his eyes and gives her a grin. “You seem like friend material to me.”

Ellen blushes slightly at the remark, not having a response. She stops looking at Sonic and just looks at the ground. Sonic doesn’t say anything either, and he closes his eyes again in an attempt to rest.

“You know,” Ellen says, breaking the silence, “Tomorrow, Lycaon is probably gonna ask you where you came from. You should be honest with him.”

“Hm? Why is that?” Sonic asks.

“Well, you said you were waiting for your friends to figure out how to get you home.” Ellen fidgets with her fingers nervously. “Lycaon doesn’t really want to keep you unrightfully. So- if you convince him to let you go … then you have a friend right here who can help you, too.” She steals a glance at Sonic, who is sitting up and giving her a warm smile. “T-thats if, and only if, you pass Lycaon’s background check. Maybe.”

“Your face is looking a little red there.” Sonic says jokingly.

“Shut up!” Ellen says in retaliation, stomping to the other side of the room and keeping her eyes away from the hedgehog. He smiles to himself, lays back, and drifts off to sleep.

Chapter Text

The morning light shimmers brightly through the skylight of a bustling mall. Within, several stories of various shops, restaurants, and item stands are all surrounded by foot traffic. Lining the walkway of the top floor, visible from every floor below it, is a long blue sign with white text reading ‘Lumina Galleria Mall’. A young child pulls on his father’s arm, begging him to go to a toy store that rests just under the sign. Three floors below, two girls are trying out different perfumes from a pop out stall as the cashier waits for them impatiently. The entirety of the six story mall is filled with the lively sounds of foot traffic.

The sunlight shines several floors down, covering the bustling food court that rests in the mall's center. 

Most of the various fast food options are lined up with customers, with the exception of one. Instead of having a long line, it has just one person. A white haired woman, who is wearing a puffy green outfit and a large metallic backpack with multiple batteries. She has a braid on one side of her hair, and headphones resting on her ears. Within the backpack, the handle of a blade sticks out, electricity surging through the backpack and into the blade passively. She waits for her order patiently, her right hand on the handle of her blade while her left hand is holding the headphones as she hums along to some rock music. 

Just a few meters over, sitting on a bench, is a group of three individuals. A short, dark skinned girl with puffy cat ears who is wearing a mostly red outfit with mechanical elements is sitting with her knees on the bench. She is spinning two swords in each of her hands, a combination of boredom and annoyance on her face as she looks up in the air. 

“Where is Anbyyyy?” The girl says impatiently, her two cat tails furiously wagging back and forth.

Besides her is a much taller robot, who’s metallic exterior is contrasted by a bright red jacket and white hair. His hair goes out in all directions, while his jacket has a detailed depiction of a boar on the back with metallic accents. His face is a screen, with orange eyes in the shape of triangles and no other features. “Comeon Nekomata- We already finished for the day! We don’t really have to rush the girl when she is just getting herself a burger for a job well done.” He says brightly with no roboticism. He turns to his left to look at a lady, who has pink haired pigtails and is dressed in a white crop top with thin black sleeves and jean shorts and is currently passionately hugging a briefcase to her chest with the kind of smile that a mother would give to her newborn child. There is a second, larger metal suitcase sitting beside her on the bench. “Right, Nicole?”

“Yeah …” Nicole answers absentmindedly, “You’re right Billy- this briefcase is very beautiful.”

“Huh?” Billy lets out in confusion. “That- isn’t what I said at all, boss.”

“Forget her, Billy!” The twin tailed cat exclaimed. “She won’t be hearing anything except ‘Dennies, lots and lots of Dennies’ for the next few hours now that she saw what was in that case.” Nekomata rolls her eyes as she continues to look up at the skylight.

“Dennies? Like … money?!” Billy says, his hand going over where his mouth would be on his face in surprise. “Is that why we are getting Anby the nice burgers from the mall instead of the cheap ones from Sixth Street?”

“Billy,” Nicole says, interrupting him, “You think way too small.” She turns to her two subordinates, dramatically showcasing the briefcase and giving it a smack with her free hand. “With the amount of dennies I’m going to make off of this, we can stock up on everyone’s favorite foods, get those creditors off our back, and-”

“Pay off our debts to the managers, right? nyah~” Nekomata interrupts, unmoving but carrying a smug smile.

Nicole begins to sweat at the remark, her confidence wavering. “Oh- yes! I was definitely g-going to say paying them off too!” She chuckles nervously, while Nekomata looks unamused.

“Bossss,” Billy whines, “you seriously didn’t forget our backlog of debt to Belle and Wise, did you?”

“Look, guys. The managers have so many agents helping them out now, and it all started with our commission! If you think about it, we’ve paid them back tenfold in advertising alone.” Nicole retorts.

“But we’ve paid them back zerofold in dennies!” Billy exclaims.

“Zerofold is not a thing, Billy!” Nicole says in annoyance.

As the white haired robot and pink haired woman argue next to her, Nekomata continues to look at the skylight. ‘It always ends up like this,’ she thinks, a smile on her face, ‘Nicole getting a big score and using it on everything but the managers. If it was me, I don’t think I could be as lenient as Belle and Wise are … but that's our boss Nicole for nyah!’ As the two next to her get louder, she begins to tune it out. ‘I guess I can wait a bit longer before dragging Anby back …’

From above, a flash of rainbow-colored light covers the sky above the mall, its shine refracting straight through the skylight above the trio. “AH!” Nekomata shrieks, covering her eyes from the sudden flash quickly, dropping her blades on the ground in the process.

“Whu-” Billy asks.

“Nekomata!” Nicole exclaims.

A crash is heard as the glass above them gets absolutely shattered, its shards raining down upon them from all directions. With their quick reflexes, both Billy and Nicole begin to move. When Nicole turns around, she realises that the younger cat is still disoriented from the flash, and is about to be showered in razor sharp shrapnel. With only one story of distance between the glass shards and the twin tailed thiren’s demise, Nicole rushes right back into danger. “What are you- Nicole!” Billy cries, his hand extended out, but Nicole just barely avoids him.

Nekomata finally opens her eyes, taking a look above her to see glass dangerously close to reaching her. With no time to move, and her blades no longer within reach, she immediately goes to cower, hoping to avoid a fatal cut. Before she can get slashed, however, a shadow looms over her as pink hair drapes over either side of her vision. She looks up to see her boss, Nicole, using her body to shield Nekomata. The lady smiles warmly to her subordinate, before bracing for impact.

Instead of hearing the sound of slashing skin, the two girls instead hear the crackle of electricity, and the clashing of metal and glass. Looking up, they see a green streak above them, dancing through the air as it slashes every piece of glass that was falling towards them, the shards hitting the ground cleanly or getting thrown against nearby walls. This blur continues for several seconds, before finally ending its movements by landing next to the pair. Standing up from a kneel, the white haired girl dressed in green sheathes her blade as the crackling of electricity in both her eyes and her blade stops. She looks at Nicole and Nekomata with a completely neutral expression, moving her headphones off her ears and resting them on her neck.

“Anby!!” The two shout in unison, going to hug their savoir. “What took you so long, you dummy!” Nekomata says with both relief and frustration mixed into her tone.

“Sorry,” Anby replies, no emotion in her voice, “I asked for a double quadruple burger tower today. They did not have the facilities to make it in one go.” She turns to look at her robotic companion in red, who is holding a plate with an eight patty, nine bun beef burger with every vegetable known to man scattered in between the patties and buns. He wipes his brow in relief as he uses his free hand to hand back Anby’s burger. “Thank you, Billy.” She says with a tiny smile, though her tone is as monotone as before.

“You’re lucky I just got a sensor upgrade, Anby.” The robot says, “You didn’t even warn me you were going to leave the burger with me before you sped by!”

Nicole stands on her tippy toes in order to flick Billy in the head. “Focus, you two!” She commands. “One, what just happened? Two, where are my briefcases?”

“Oww!” cries Billy.

Anby mindlessly stuffs her mouth with the absurdly large burger as her eyes gaze at the ground, looking for the two briefcases. She sees them unscathed on the ground where Nicole had stopped to protect Nekomata. Before she can go to grab them, her attention is grabbed by one of her friends.

“Guyyyyys!” They hear Nekomata exclaim, all turning to face her. She had just picked up her blades, and was sheathing them. “I think I found the answer to Nicole’s first question ~nyah!” Her glance is currently facing the ground, where a red body that is just slightly shorter than her appears to be laying on the ground. Both Billy and Nicole rush over to look, while Anby stands in place, taking the last bites of her burger and watching the scene from where she is.

The group looks down at the 3 foot tall figure, who is lying face first on the ground, making an indent in the tiled flooring the same shape as its own body. Its arms and legs are spread out snow angel style. It has red fur all over its body, long dreads that pass its shoulders, and massive gloved hands, with the structure of boxing gloves with two spikes on the knuckles.

“ … Is it dead?” Nekomata asks, poking the creature with her finger. After the third poke, it groans loudly with a low voice, causing the three of them to take a few steps back and get into defense stances.

“Ugh,” The mysterious red creature starts, picking himself up and shaking its head to get the debris off of himself. “Damn robot, can’t even let me fall in peace.”

The creature stands on his legs and looks around, his dreads going still after he finishes shaking his head and his purple eyes taking focus on the damaged mall around him. Everyone in the food court area had already scattered, so he can only notice shards of glass, empty tables and benches, and the group of people that are currently staring him down. “What?” he says in frustration.

Nekomata clenches her dual blades tightly and hisses aggressively, while Billy simply keeps his hands close to the holsters of his guns in silence. Nicole, who is standing in front, speaks first.

“You- you just fell through like- several stories! How are you not concussed?”

The red creature tilts his head up, using his gloved hands to block some sunlight as he stares at the hole he made in the windowed ceiling above. “Huh, I guess I did.” He brushes it off as he walks out of the him-shaped crater he is currently standing in. He winces for a moment, his left knee slightly bruised. He ignores it, choosing to stand closer to the trio of defensive people. He looks at them inquisitively as he folds his arms. “You guys see a robot land near me?”

Nekomata and Nicole both turn to their android companion, glancing at him then back at the smaller figure in front of them. “You mean like him?” The twin tailed cat asks as she lifts up one of his arms and points at it.

“No,” Knuckles replies with a facepalm. “A blue robot.” He gets no response. “Really? It's my height?” He holds his hands near himself, using them to showcase his own height. “Thin limbs and clawed hands? Looks like Sonic?”

The people around him shake their heads at the questions, and Billy interjects with one of his own. “What's a ‘Sonic’?”

This causes the creature's eyes to widen in surprise. “You’ve never heard of Sonic? You live under a rock or something?”

“I didn’t think that I was that out of tune with the shows kids liked these days …” Billy said in disappointment. The red furred creature’s eye twitches slightly at the word kid.

“Look,” Nicole puts a hand on his shoulder sympathetically. “I can see you are very injured, maybe we can talk about this robot or whatever after we get you to a doctor?”
“You can trust her, kid!” Nekomata says, popping out from beside Nicole. “Our boss here always treats children as her top priority, nyah~!”

“Kid?!” He says in frustration. His outburst makes Nicole and Nekomata flinch. “My name is Knuckles the Echidna, got it? I’m not a kid!” He waves his fist at the two aggressively. “Now get out of my way, you guys are clearly not gonna help me.”

As Knuckles starts walking past the trio, they look at each other with confusion. Billy is lost in thought as Nekomata shrugs towards a slightly dejected Nicole.

“Nicole,” calls the voice of her monotone friend, “Here you go.” Anby walks up to her with two briefcases, one in each hand. There is a complicated metallic one, and a much thinner leather one. Knuckles’ head turns as she holds the briefcases up to her boss, with him having a shocked expression.

“Hey! Green girl,” he begins, “Why does that case feel like it has a-”

Within an instant, the ground cracks from the impact of the red stranger’s head hitting the floor, leaving shards of tile scattered around. Holding the back of his head down is a metallic hand with clawed ends. Its thin blue arm connects to a circular torso with a currently winding down rocket engine sticking out from its back. The Robotic figure has one of its knees down on Knuckle’s back while its other hand and leg rest on the ground. It rises, standing to face the others with glowing red eyes, no mouth on its metal muzzle. The shining royal blue that covers its body gleams off its three Blue quills that surround the head of the robot. Its face is built with the eyes in a default angry expression.

The white haired girl quickly draws her blade, with it crackling with electricity. Her android and cat companions follow suit as they draw their guns and blades respectively. Billy points the barrel of his dual revolvers at the robot in front of him. “Guys … I think I found our new friend’s ‘Sonic’ robot.”

“I couldn’t even see him coming.” Anby says with slight frustration.

“Huh?” Nicole looks at her in surprise, now holding both the briefcases, “Anby don’t scare me with a sentence like that!”

“Guys- look!” shouts Nekomata.

Before any of them could react, they turn to see the robot grab Knuckles by the back of the skull, dragging his face along the ground as the robot flies away from the group while leaving a trail of damage in his wake. Then he lifts his face out of the ground and uses it to slam him into the nearest wall, immediately throwing him into the hole that was made, which leads into a fashion store. The blue robot then flies in after the red echidna.

“That robot is going to murder him!” Billy cries while putting both his hands on his head.

“We are not going to let that happen,” Nicole states with determination. “Anby, chase him down.”

“Nicole.” Anby states calmly. “The robot is much faster than I am.”

“I know. Me and Billy will cover you.” Billy gives his emotionless companion a thumbs up at Nicole’s comment.

“Nekomata, you need to get the people there to safety, that robot is going to hurt them just to get to that ‘Knuckles’ kid. I don’t know what he is about, but I’m not letting anyone get murdered while the Cunning Hares are on the job.” The cat nods with a serious expression, getting ready to move.

“A stranger falls from the sky, is attacked by an unknown force, and then is saved by an odd group of hollow raiders, who then add the stranger to their ranks.” Anby says matter-o-factly. “Belle just showed me a movie like that the other day.”

“W- we are not saving him just to get a new member!” Nicole says flustered. “Go do your job.” She says at the others, pointing towards the hole in the wall. They then rush forward, Anby first in a blur of green and lighting, followed by the quickfooted Nekomata on all fours. Billy enters just after them, with Nicole next to him until they pass the opening, scattering when they have more room, then taking the chance to survey the room.

“Cheap … shot …”  Knuckles gets out, currently being choked out by the Blue robot, its eyes unwavering as it holds him against the wall of the store.

There are cracks from a powerful impact where Knuckle’s body is being held against. Next to him is a slightly damaged store counter and several knocked over shelves. Behind the shelves are several cowering customers, while ones that were closer to the exit have already started running and screaming.

Knuckles gasps for air as the grip of the robot overtakes him.

His flailing is interrupted by the release of his throat, as the robot that was holding him down takes a powerful impact from two powerful green sneakers. It goes flying, tumbling on the ground two times just before it lands inside a nearby shelf. Anby does a sideways spin while flipping out of her drop kick, landing with one hand on the ground, one hand holding her sword, and both feet planted firmly on the ground.

“Tsk,” the red echidna lets out in annoyance while massaging his neck. “I had that, you know.”

Anby looks at him inquisitively without replying to his comment.

“What?” Knuckles says, clearly uncomfortable from her staring. “Are you antisocial or something?”

Anby still stays silent, getting closer and putting her hand on her chin. “Are you an alien?” She then asks.

“Excuse you?”

“The stranger in the movie was an alien from another dimension who lost his f-” Anby’s ramble is cut off by the explosion of an engine.

The two look back to the shelf that the blue robot had landed in, and see it floating out of the destroyed furniture, the engine in its back roaring with flames. It crackles with energy, then starts flying forward. Anby and Knuckles both hit the ground before they get hit by the robot-turned-projectile.

It doesn’t stop, however, and as it hits the wall on the other side of the room, it begins to bounce around the room with increasing velocity. Each impact leaves crackles of electricity and a crater in the wall it impacts. The blur of blue and electricity surrounds the duo, and both get into a fighting stance. Knuckles takes a step forward, getting ready to take a powerful jump in order to get the robot out of the air, but winces as the pain in his leg flares up. With his guard broken, he is immediately rammed into by the robot, and is knocked onto the ground. Anby rushes to help him, and isn’t ready for the robot to ricochet off the wall and right into her back, sending her to the ground as well. 

From the ground, Anby and Knuckles then look onward as the robot heads straight for a half knocked over shelf that's leaning onto a wall so it doesn’t fall. The two look on at a woman who is holding a kid and cowering behind the shelf. A mother and her young daughter, both of whom have tears in their eyes. “No!” They shout in unison, Anby trying to stand quickly to rush over while Knuckles simply reaches his hand out in desperation.

Two gun shots ring out, one tagging the robot in the chest and the other perfectly on the head. Both bullets bounce off, but the second one leaves a dent in its head. With its momentum impeded for a moment, Nekomata jumps in front of the shelf, intercepting the torpedoing robot with her twin blades and parrying it backwards by slashing her blades forward. She lands on top of the shelf, then looks down at the two people under it.

“I know it's scary,” She starts, “But I need you two to get to my android friend over there. She points at Billy with one of her swords, whose guns are smoking from the shots he just made. We’ll make sure everyone gets out safely.”

The mother nods at her, and as she runs off holding her daughter, the little girl looks back, giving Nekomata a bright smile.

“Sorry I took so long to get that shot in,” Billy says to Anby, jogging up to her as she helps Knuckles back on his feet. “My sensors took a while to get locked on, and I had to aim for where he was going to be since he’s w-”

Knuckles holds up his hand to stop the rambling robot. “Can you hit him again?” He asks.

“Oh! Probably.” Billy says, causing Knuckles to grin.

“Let me get one punch on the guy. Slow him down enough for that, and we should be in the clear.”

“Lookout!” The trio hear Nekomata shout from the other side of the room, where she is helping an elderly bystander get to safety. All of them turn to see the massive ball of orange electricity barrelling towards them. None of them can move fast enough to avoid the overcharged robot, so they brace for impact. Then an even greater surge of energy appears behind the robot, one that immediately sucks away the color around itself leaving a small black hole that sucks in everything around itself, and begins to pull the robot backwards. It resists, releasing the energy it was charging and putting its power into the engine on its back.

“Focus, you guys!” Nicole scolds the group, both hands holding her mechanical briefcase like a minigun, and out of its side is a blaster that appears to be releasing off the energy that is making the black hole protecting the group. “Scatter before it breaks free!”

As if on cue, the black hole disappears and the robot rushes forward with incredible speeds. Anby, Billy, and Knuckles all scatter in different directions, Billy and Knuckles jumping to the side while Anby does a tactical roll.

The robot slams into the wall, catching itself on the side of the wall with its hands and legs. It then charges quickly rushing towards another wall and bouncing from wall to wall to regain its momentum. 

Anby sheathes her blade for a moment, letting it charge with electricity, then runs forward in an attempt to intercept the robot. It then rushes at her, and she slides underneath. The robot then uses the wall to bounce towards the ceiling then rebound over to her from above. Anby quickly rolls, avoiding the hit, and as it bounces off the ground she slashes her sword forward to land a hit, however it flies past her before she can land it.

Billy is pointing his dual revolvers at the fight, his hands shifting to try and aim at the robot and its sporadic movements. Knuckles stands next to him, cracking his Knuckles as he starts walking forward. “Careful, little guy. He’s fast.”

Knuckles looks back at the android. “Trust me, I’ve fought the real Sonic, I can hit his copy.”

“Wasn’t this guy Sonic?”

Knuckles facepalms. “No. This is Metal Sonic. How do you not know this?”

“I think we’ve been over the fact that none of what you’ve been explaining has made sense to us.” Billy’s eyes quickly flash. “Got a lock! We’ll continue this later.”

Knuckles nods and runs forward, surprising Billy with his speed. With each step, Knuckles feels a sharp pain in his leg, but he ignores it.

A combination of orange and blue electricity surges as Anby and the Metal Sonic clash once again. Anby is pushed back from the impact, her feet sliding across the ground, and she stabs her sword into the floor to catch herself. Metal Sonic flies backwards in the opposite direction, hits the wall, and speeds forward in a blur. Anby, with her sword still in the ground, struggles to pull it out so she can block in time. Her sword begins to budge as sweat drips from her head, but at this point, his clawed hands reach out from the blur and straight at her face.

The sound of a bullet hitting metal rings out in front of Anby, as the claw that was aimed at her face is sent to the side, simply grazing her hair instead. A immediately, a spray of bullets hits Metal Sonic’s entire body, the impact of the projectile sending the robot away from Anby.

Metal Sonic attempts to get his bearings, spinning his head towards the downed Anby in order to finish the job. Instead, he is met with Knuckles, who is currently winding up a punch. 

“Not who you were expecting?” The red echidna asks.

Knuckles lets out a powerful shout as he sends his gloved fist towards Metal Sonic. Before the robot can react, the spikes of Knuckles’ punch collide with his head. The swing is curved downwards, and the robot’s head becomes sandwiched between the punch and the ground. Knuckles pushes the punch further, cracking the ground and causing the floor to cave into a crater fit for Metal Sonic. He then pulls back and stands over the robot.

Nekomata immediately gets close and has her blades ready over the small crater. Billy and Anby show up next, having the robot surrounded by four directions. Metal Sonic begins to attempt to stand back up, sparks flying out of some of his joints due to the damage. Everyone gets into a fighting stance, with Billy pointing his guns right at the robot and Anby doing the same with her swords.

Metal Sonic glances between each opponent rapidly, eyes darting from Nekomata to Knuckles, and so on. As he analyzes the best possible escape route, he looks past Billy and focuses on Nicole. She is holding her weapon in one hand, using the other to help the last civilian get through the opening he had made during the start of this battle. On the floor next to her rests a non-robotic briefcase significantly different to the weapon she is holding. He tilts his head forward as he analyzes it.

Anby recognizes his motion and turns to follow his gaze. “Nicole!” She shouts, feet already running towards the robot with her blade mid swing. By the time she slashes, he’s gone, and she turns to see that Metal Sonic has already flown past them, with both Knuckles and Nekomata slam into each other as they jump at the robot from either side.

“Huh?” Nicole says, turning back to see Metal Sonic flying towards her and causing her to flinch. After a moment, she puts her hands down and begins to pat herself to find an injury, but she is unable to. “How did it miss?” She says confused.

“Boss …” She hears Billy say, and she follows the finger he is pointing past her and to the robot, who is holding a briefcase not too dissimilar to the one she just earned. She looks down, seeing her metallic briefcase, but a distinct lack of her new moneymaker.

“My Dennies!” She shouts, with the entire group running up to the exit and standing around her. All of them look on in confusion, weapons still drawn.

Metal Sonic lifts up the briefcase, and then takes his freehand, straightens it so the claws point at the case, and holds his clawed hand close to the case. Then he stabs through it with maximum force.

“No!” Nicole yells, “Anything but that, please!”

Metal Sonic ignores her, letting a soft green glow shine through the holes of the case for a moment. Knuckle’s eyes go wide in recognition. Pulling his hand out, the robot reveals a green, diamond cut gem that is radiating light.

“I knew I sensed it earlier!” Knuckles said. “We can not let him-”

As Knuckles begins to move forward, Metal Sonic is already in the air. He looks down at the echidna rushing at him one last time, before flying straight up through the same hole Knuckles fell down, several stories in the air. Knuckles hasn’t even taken 3 steps before the robot is just a speck in the sky.

Nicole falls to her knees. “B-b-but … the payday …” Nekomata is already at her side worried, while Anby and Billy are putting their weapons away.

“Payday?” Knuckles says, turning to Nicole. “This is so much worse than whatever money you  think … you think …” 

As he stumbles over his words, the echidna trips over himself. Knuckles feels the world get blurry as he falls to the ground. He can’t make out the words around him anymore, but lifting his head slightly, he sees the blurry figures of the group that just helped him fight Metal Sonic. The robot looks to be trying to help him up, while the pink haired girl is standing right above him. He tries to see what else is going on, but his eyes betray him as they close shut and he loses consciousness.

-

“Please calm down, sir.” Captain Zhu Yuan says politely, one hand holding a notepad while the other is held up to signal the old man she is talking to calm down. “Can you explain it to me one more time, a little bit slower?”

“It was terrifying!” The man says as his loud voice echoes through the now emptied mall. Caution tape surrounds the area, with several officers brandishing the Public Security logo stationed across the tape to guard the current crime scene. The man is sitting on a bench, looking up at the black haired police captain as she tries to note down all the details of the event. “The wall was burst open by those rowdy youngsters! I was simply looking for a stuffed animal, something I could get for my grandson’s birthday. He loves animals, you see, and I knew I couldn’t-”

Zhu Yuan sighs as she uses her fingers to massage the bridge of her nose. ‘This isn’t getting me anywhere,’ She thinks to herself.

She turns to her left, seeing Seth smiling as he comforts a young girl who was also a part of this catastrophe. “Thank you for your co-operation!” he says enthusiastically, waving at the girl as her mother takes her hand and pulls her away. He turns from them to look at Zhu Yuan, making a serious expression to get her attention

Zhu Yuan glances at Seth, then back to the man. She slowly starts pacing backwards, careful not to make a sound. The man doesn’t notice, as he isn’t looking at her, and continues talking anyway.

“Captain! You have to hear this.”

“What did you hear, Seth?”

“The girl said that the store was attacked by something.”

She sighs. “We already know that.”

Seth puts up a finger to stop her. “Ah ah ah, that's not all. While her and her mom couldn’t make out the thing that attacked them, they do know that it is blue and about three feet tall, only a bit taller than the girl herself.”

“If you are trying to connect this to the open case from yesterday,” Zhu Yuan replies, “You are going to need more than that.” Seth’s cat ears droop slightly in disappointment at the statement.

“Zhu Yuan, Seth,” The two officers hear their names called out from the damaged store, and they turn to see Qingyi standing there, leaning on the doorframe of the damaged store. “You should come see this.”

The two follow the pigtailed automaton into the decimated scene that was once a store.

“Did you figure out what happened here, Qingyi?” The captain asks.

Qingyi bends down, reaching for an impact crater on the ground, then dragging her hand across the scratches left across it. “Look at these. I found them on almost every point of impact in the store.” She walks up to a similar looking piece of damage on the nearest wall. “Like a game of pingpong, my sensors mapped out a near-perfect path from one to the other, with only two breaks in the motion.”

The two other officers look at her confused. “Can you say that for the non-robots, please?” Seth asks.

“I’ll put it this way,” she folds her arms, “None of the witnesses could help ID the attacker- because the attacker was moving too fast for anyone to see.”

“I knew it!” Seth pumps his fist.

“Then it can’t be a coincidence.” Zhu Yuan says with her hand going to her chin. “It has to be our speedster from yesterday. There is no vehicle or technology they could have fit in here to let someone move that fast.

“But … Why did he save Seth and the others yesterday, just to attack civilians today?” Qingyi inquires.

The trio go silent in thought.

The sound of sharp footsteps, clearly heels, break them out of their silence. They look at the open doorframe, and while it is empty for a moment, the light from the outside is then blocked by four figures.

“Oh, Zhu Yuan. Good.” The shorter woman in the front of the group says. She is wearing only one sleeve of her blue coat, showing her button up shirt, black skirt, and black tie. Her unsleeved arm has a black arm guard that goes up her entire arm and ends with a gloved hand, which is holding a sheathed sword. Her eyes are sharp and her pupils are a striking red, though the shadow of her bangs covers them slightly as the light of the mall shines on her back. Her long fox ears make up the difference of her height compared to two of the taller ones in her group that stand behind her. “I wasn’t expecting to work with you again so soon, my old friend.” She continues.

The three officers stand there stunned at the sudden arrival. “Miyabi?!” Zhu Yuan says in surprise.

“I see your ‘state the obvious’ training is going well.” Miyabi says without a hint of sarcasm, walking up to Zhu Yuan. Behind her, a girl the height of Qingyi with blue skin and white hair cheerfully skips up to the group. She is wearing a similar outfit to Miyabi, but her uniform is on properly. Most notably, she has two horns on the top of her head. Then, a lady with long flowing pink hair, glasses, and just slightly taller than Zhu Yuan speed walks up to the blue skinned girl. She is wearing the same uniform, albeit with a large black shoulder guard and blue cloth instead of the blue jacket of her coworkers.

“Sokkaku,” The woman begins, “don’t just rush into an active investigation.”

The blue skinned girl sulks at the scolding she received. “Sorry, big sis.”

“Aw comeon, Deputy Chief, you shouldn’t make little Sokkaku look bad in front of our friends at Public Security!” Says the last member of this group. With black hair, a choker, and a white button-up uniform with his blue jacket being tied around his waist. He snickers as he says his comment, causing Sokkaku’s cheeks to puff up in frustration and fold her arms.

“W-what are you doing here?!” Seth interjects into their conversation.

“Oh, well if it isn’t my favorite academy junior,” Harumasa says smugly, walking up to Seth as the two glare at each other, with Harumasa grinning as Seth scowls.

“Don’t treat me like I'm still in training, Asaba!”

“Careful Seth,” Qingyi says, “Your personal connections don’t matter when we're on the clock.”

“What she means is, that's Executive Officer Harumasa to you.” Harumasa says with his grin getting wider. The pink haired woman then flicks his forehead. “Oww- Yanagi! What was that for?”

“Ha- now who is forgetting to use titles.” Seth says, sticking his tongue out at Harumasa.

“Stop it, both of you,” Yanagi and Qingyi say at the same time, causing Harumasa and Seth to shut up. Sokkaku giggles at this.

Zhu Yuan and Miyabi look on at their respective teams, with Zhu Yuan sighing as she turns back to the completely indifferent Miyabi. “I take it that Hollow Special Operations is taking over this case, Chief of Section 6?” She asks.

“Please, Zhu Yuan. Unlike Yanagi, you know I hate formalities.” Zhu Yuan chuckles at Miyabi’s statement. “And no, we aren’t taking over this case like we did with the Bringer case.”

“Then why are you here, Miyabi?”

“Because we have some intel that your team could use, and a proposition that I don’t think you’ll want to refuse.”

Miyabi slowly reaches into her pocket, and from within it she pulls out an object that is practically irradiating a cyan light, to the point where Zhu Yuan’s eyes have to take a second to adjust. She then looks down to see a perfectly cut cyan gemstone.

“What am I looking at?” She asks.

“According to the science division,” Miyabi says, “the key to solving your blue pest problem.”

Chapter Text

Wise glances out of Random Play’s backroom, looking on at Eighteen who is currently standing on a stool to reach the front desk. As he watches the Bangboo set up the cash register for the day, he gives him a thumbs up and a smile. Then he slams the metallic door that leads into the backroom before the video store can open.

As he turns to look into the room, he is met with his sister and the two new guests they have in their house. The pink hedgehog girl, Amy Rose, is eating cereal while sitting on the couch, and Eous is sitting beside her while changing out VHS tape that they were both watching. The other side of the room has a large series of screens connected to several different power sources, cords running across the ground and various devices scattered. Sitting at the chair is their other guest, a yellow fox with two bushy tails who is practically glowing as he looks at the technology in front of him. Belle is standing over him as she leans onto the back of his seat with her arm. Her freehand is holding her phone, which she is holding sideways so she and Tails can hear the speaker.

“And you’re telling me that you have eye implants that let you use this … uh-”, Tails stops as struggles to get the right word.

“Hollow Deep Dive System.” Fairy, the sibling’s AI system answers for him.

“This Hollow Deep Dive System! It lets you control technology,” He points at the Bangboo that is chatting with Amy, getting both of their attention, “like Eous and the other bangboo, remotely?”

Belle chuckles, “Just call it the HDD. But yes, it does let us do that.”

“Aren’t they just the coolest!” A bubbly female voice says from Belle’s phone, but even with the cellphone interference it is clearly Astra.

“It’s beyond cool, I’ve never seen a normal human that can interface with tech like this!” Tails stands in his seat, looking back at Belle with excitement.

Another voice comes from the phone. “Miles,” The more serious voice of Evelyn says from the phone. “Why do you talk like you have no relation to humans? Aren’t you a thiren?” She asks.

Both Tails and Amy share a knowing look, causing the room to go silent. They nod at each other.

“Wise, Belle, Astra, Evelyn. This might come as a shock, but I don’t believe me and Amy are from your world.”

Wise stays silent as Belle and Astra gasp in shock. Evelyn speaks through the phone first. “Are you claiming that the two of you are aliens?”

“Like the movie me and Anby watched …” Belle says silently, causing Wise to nudge her with his shoulder.

“No, not exactly.” Tails replies, thinking for a moment. “Here, let me borrow something.”

Tails hops off the chair that rests in front of the HDD, and walks to the corner of the room which has various office supplies. The group watch him sift through items, with Belle taking the seat for herself, Wise standing next to her, and Amy now standing up and leaning on the couch as she waits. Belle fiddles with her phone for a moment, before switching the voice call to a video call, letting both Astra and Eve get a full view of what is happening, and resting the phone on her lap. After a minute of searching, he finds two handheld whiteboards and a marker, then walks to the middle of the entire group.

Tails starts by drawing a circle in the middle, then labeling it ‘Your World’. “Think of this as your world.” He draws another circle in the center of the other whiteboard, labelling it ‘Our World’. “And then think of this as the world me and Amy come from.” He holds them both up with each hand. “These whiteboards represent our universes. If I were to, for example,” Tails then takes the whiteboards and overlaps them perfectly on top of each other, “Place them like this, you could see that they actually exist in the same place, just on different layers.”

“What the fox is trying to explain is the concept of multiverse theory.” Fairy says. “Though there is no proof that the theory is true.”

“For you guys, maybe,” Amy interrupts, “but we have seen it in action. In fact, we have friends from other dimensions.”

“Travelling between entire universes is unfathomable,” the AI retorts, “It would require a level of power that simply doesn’t exist.”

“Fairy. Please. Let them continue.” Wise says in exasperation.

Evelyn interjects first. “The AI isn’t wrong, Wise. I’m familiar with that scientific theory, myself, though only on a surface level. The various scientists I've dealt with in my old line of work dropped interest in exploring fields that didn’t connect to the hollows in one way or another. Tell me, you two, if we did believe your story, then how could you have possibly ended up here from another universe?”

“Well …” Amy says. “That’s a long story.”

“Oh!” Belle says excitedly, “This is gonna be good.”

“I’ll try and make it short.” Tails promises. “We had been chasing our old enemy, Doctor Ivo Robotnik-”
“We call him ‘Dr. Eggman’.” Amy states matter-of-factly.

“Oooo,” Astra lets out, “that has a nice ring to it.”

“Ahem!” Tails coughs loudly to get everyone's attention. “We had been chasing Dr. Eggman across the world in order to stop his latest plot. See, our world has a set of seven gems called the Chaos Emeralds.” He draws seven gems around the picture of his and Amy’s world.

Amy continues for him as he draws. “Just one of them can provide near unlimited power, allowing you to bend time and space.” Then she points back at the picture of all seven of them. “But all together, they can turn your very thoughts into power, allowing you to do whatever you dream of.”

The room is filled with gasps, and Wise is the first to speak. “I take it, this ‘Eggman’ doesn’t have the best of thoughts.”

“Definitely not.” Tails replies. “He wanted to use them to remake the world in his image, completely controlled by him and his robot army.”

“And the two of you fight him … often?” Evelyn asks.

“Oh, we’ve been at it for years. He rarely wins, and the few times he’s gotten the edge over us, it’s never stuck.” Amy stuck. “But it isn’t just us, we have friends who’ve been with us through every battle!”

“The hotheaded guardian of the emeralds, Knuckles!” Tails exclaims.

“My best friend, Cream!” says Amy.

“Heroes from the future and from another dimension!” Tails then says. “But none of them have fought back against evil longer-”

“Or get the job done faster-” Amy quickly adds.

“Than Sonic the Hedgehog!” They both shout in unison, causing their audience to smile and laugh.

“I heard you mention him last night,” Evelyn states. “You two must really look up to him.”

“Look up to him? He’s the best friend a fox could ask for!” Tails happily lets out.

“Theres no one in the world like him.” Amy says with a blush, turning her head with a bit of shyness.

“Ohohoho, I know what that means.” Astra says through the phone, causing Belle to giggle.

“W-we are getting off track!” Amy nervously states.

“Right!” Tails takes over, letting the room fall silent in listening once more. “Yesterday- at least, for me and Amy it was yesterday- Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, and I managed to make it to Eggman’s base after weeks of fighting over the Chaos Emeralds. Eggman got all seven of them, but we weren’t going to let him get away with anything. Knuckles stalled for us while I came up with a plan, but Eggman wouldn’t let it go that easy, so Sonic went to fight him by himself and Amy stayed with me. That was when I heard …”

- [Yesterday: Sonic’s home dimension] - 

“Get back here you rotten rodents!”

Tails can hear a man shouting from some distance away, which causes him to look over his shoulder from the seat of his blue biplane, the Tornado. He raises his hand to a communication device on his ear that connects to a pair of green goggles that covers his eyes, and as he presses a button on it, they lift and rest on his head. Looking up, he sees the sky is a mix of crimson and a deep purple, blending together in an unnatural calamity of colors all around him. The plane is resting on a metallic deck, which is resting on a large grey battleship of some kind with thrusters that have them flying through this unfamiliar layer of reality. The ship is massive, with several canons looming over them from all sides, all of which are currently erupting smoke with different degrees of damage covering their surfaces. The other structures that lay across this battleship are buildings, all of which carry the logo of a man with a large mustache and an evil grin. These buildings are spilling out robots in waves, most of which resemble various animals and insects. 

As two bee-like drones approach the fox, both charging some kind of energy in their stingers, the fox doesn’t move from his seat. He goes back to the device resting in his lap and continues to work, and as the enemies close in, a red hammer smashes one of them directly into the other in one swing. As their shattered remains collide into a mess and hit the ground, the pink hedgehog wielding the hammer grabs the ball of scraps with her free hand and throws it into the direction of several other robots in a powerful motion. She then brings her hands up to her head and wipes away some sweat.

“Tails, how much longer till you’ve gotten through?” Amy says while taking a breath. “Eggman has way more badniks than usual … not that I thought that was possible.”

“Getting through his firewalls isn’t as easy as it looks, Amy,” Tails says in frustration. “Eggman is channeling the power of all seven emeralds through the entire ship, allowing for a near limitless production of robots using the emeralds ability to warp space and time, but also putting all his servers in overdrive! It’s almost like they are adapting to my hacking before I even finish typing. On top of that, I don’t have much access to most of my best stuff, because if you haven’t noticed-” The fox raises his hands in the air in frustration, “We are currently not home right now!”

“Well, we have to figure out something soon- lookout!” Amy shouts interrupting herself as a blue projectile is thrown her way. Amy goes to block it from hitting tails, but it instead hits the side of the plane, and with a thud is then on the ground, only leaving a large dent. The two then hear coughing as they look down to see that the so-called projectile was in fact a certain blue speedster.

“Sonic!” Both Amy and Tails shout in unison, with Amy quickly moving to his side to help him up.

“I’m good, I’m good,” He says as he takes Amy’s hand and stands up. “Sorry about the dent, bud.”

“The Tornado will be fine, but more importantly, I still haven’t broken into Eggman’s systems yet, Sonic!”

“Well,” Sonic begins to stretch his arms, “That’s fine. Just keep at it while I work on our plan C.”

“C?” Amy asks, “Don’t you mean B?”

“Nah, plan B is being covered by our favorite jewel thief.” Sonic says, now stretching his legs.

“You don’t mean …” Tails starts, but is cut off by interference in his communicator that rests on his ear.

“He means me, sweety,” A female voice says from the device.

“Rouge!” Tails exclaims.

“A pleasure, as always. Now, you keep doing what you’re doing, but focus your efforts on the emerald’s physical defenses. We’re turning this hacking into a heist.”

“You can’t mean you are inside of the ship right now, right?!” Tails says in shock.

“No need to worry, Omega is watching my back. Oh, and of course, Eggman using most of his badniks to throw you all a welcome party up there helps too. Thanks for that, sweetie!”

Amy sighs. “Of course, she used us as a distraction.”

“What can I say? I’m an opportunist, darling. Speaking of opportunity, big blue, Shadow jumped in the moment you got thrown away, but you should probably get back in there.”

“Shadows here too?” Sonic says with excitement. “I wondered why Eggman hadn’t chased me down, yet.” He cracks his knuckles.

Before anyone can react, Sonic is off, dashing across the deck of the battleship without ever breaking pace. A group of robots block his path, and he rams into each of them hard enough to make them all explode. He wipes debris off his quills as he keeps running. Looking to his side, he sees an explosion, and getting launched in the air is a certain red echidna, who breaks out of his daze and immediately catches himself in the air, gliding back down with more force than he was thrown. ‘Is Knuckles still fighting Metal Sonic? I’m sure glad we brought him along this time, that really would have slowed me down.’ He refocuses as he increases his speed forward. ‘I’m sure that knucklehead will be fine.’

The blue hedgehog reaches a large platform, almost like a stage on the wide deck. It has several smaller turrets on it, some of which have already been broken, while others are currently shooting at another hedgehog. This one is black, with red highlights in his quills and a white tuft of fur on his chest. He has crimson red eyes and wears a scowl on his face. The black hedgehog dashes in between the missiles fired by the turrets, and uses what appear to be rockets on his shoes to fly into the air as two missiles head at him from either side. 

The moment he is in the air, there is a flash of light from behind him that causes him to cover his eyes. As if instantaneously, a two story tall humanoid mech looms over him. The mech has a glass dome where the head would be, and wears a yellow cape that hangs just off the ground. It has spiked shoulderpads, a rotund body with a mostly red color palette. There are spikes around the waist, and heavily reinforced legs and arms, with two hands that both hand spikes all around the wrists. The robot teleported in mid-punch, and as it finishes the motion it slams its fist right into the floating hedgehog, who doesn’t have time to block as he is launched across the platform and hits the ground, sliding to the edge of the platform before catching himself.

The mech starts running towards the downed hedgehog, but a blue blur speeds into its front leg, causing it to stumble as it catches itself.

“I leave for a minute and you already have a new dance partner?” Sonic says in faux disappointment. “I thought what we had was special?”

“How are you back so quickly?!” shouts a man from inside the mech. From within the dome resting on its head is a man with a large mustache, bald head, and wearing a red uniform with gold accents. Anger can be seen on his face as he fixes his round glasses. He straightens his uniform as his frown turns into a grin. “No matter. Multiply as much as you want, hedgehog. I’ve already won this time!”

As the mech’s head spins 180 degrees to face the hedgehog, the man inside realizes that he isn’t behind him anymore.

“You good, Shadow?” Sonic says, with the villain turning again to see that Sonic is now next to the black hedgehog that was just downed, holding out his hand to help him up. He grunts in annoyance at his help, but still accepts his hand.

“Sonic, I didn’t need you to save me.” Shadow says to him with a scowl as he adjusts the gold rings around his gloves.

“Don’t ignore me!” The man shouts aggressively, opening the glass dome he is in while pointing up at the sky. “Look at the sky of the world you love so much, rodents! As it shifts, know that the next time it is blue will be when it is a world solely controlled by me, Doctor Eggman, the greatest mind in-”

A green flash of light appears in front of the Doctor, as Shadow uses his air shoes to hover while winding up a punch right at him, with nothing separating the two due to him previously opening the glass that sealed his cockpit. Then, before the punch can connect, the Mech that he was standing in also warps away, now behind both Sonic and Shadow, as Eggman falls back into his seat and the glass dome closes.
“Do not interrupt father when he is monologuing.” A new voice states in annoyance, this one sounding like a little girl. As the hedgehogs turn around and look up, they see that the voice is coming from a white haired young girl. She has a round face with a serious expression, and there is a curl in her short hair that reveals that she is made up of a blue holographic form. She wears a long dress that is purely white, and it ruffles slightly as she floats around the head of the mech.

“Sage!” Eggman calls out to her. “Fantastic work preventing that cheap shot. Make sure they can’t double team the Egg Bruiser!” He begins to reorient himself in his seat to properly control the robot.

“Yes, father.”

“Sage?” Sonic looks up at her, a smile on his face. “Long time no see!” He waves at her as he speaks.

“Hi Sonic.” She floats down lower to talk to him, her expression remaining neutral. “It is pleasurable to see you again, though I must warn you that there is a zero percent chance that I let you get away without my father killing you.”

“Charming as ever, huh?” Sonic begins winding up his arm. “Well, no hard feelings when I prove your odds wrong, ok?”

A blue blur rushes past Sage, though she remains unfazed. Sonic begins running circles around the Egg Bruiser, causing the large mech to slowly get absorbed into a blue tornado. Eggman, controlling the mech, begins slamming its fists down in Sonic’s path, attempting to punch the blue hedgehog, but he misses every shot as he slowly gets lifted into the air. Shadow then seizes the opportunity to warp directly into the heart of Sonic’s blue tornado, standing on top of the floating robot, and charging green energy into the form of a spear. He then stabs it right into the center of the mech, aiming for its power source. As the green chaos energy disperses throughout the mech it goes still. Then Shadow grabs the gap in the metal, grunting slightly as he peels the metal like tissue paper.

“Alright!” Sonic exclaims. “Get those emeralds back so he can’t use chaos control!”

“I’m not an idiot.” Shadow says in annoyance as he looks into the inside of the robot. “No … Impossible-” Shadow is cut off as the mech warps once again, leaving Shadow in the air for a moment before he begins to fall. He hits the ground just as Sonic stops running and the Egg Bruiser respawns in front of them.

“Shadow!” Sonic shouts, rushing to his side. “What happened?”

The two then hear Sage snap her fingers, and both Sonic and Shadow are blinded by a flash of light, and suddenly, they cannot feel the ground beneath them. The two open their eyes and are now mid-air and directly in front of the Egg Bruiser. It grabs them both, holding each of them in one hand.

The two hedgehogs scream in pain as the Doctor begins to crush both of them in the massive metal hands of the mech.

“You think you’re smart, don’t you, Shadow,” Eggman mocks, “I know that you could easily take the emeralds away from me in a one-on-one confrontation. The emeralds don’t power this mech … they power the entire base!” Eggman begins to laugh maniacly. “Why have one unbeatable robot when I can have an unending army of badnik, with assembly lines unbound to the constraints of time!”

“Then- Urg!” Shadow attempts to speak, but Eggman’s grip gets tighter and causes him to wince in pain.

“Then how can I use Chaos Control, you ask? It’s really simple when you think about it.” Eggman pauses for a moment. He then looks towards Sage, who is simply looking back at him with amazement. “Sage! This is where you explain what you are doing!”
“Sorry father! Your monologuing was simply too incredible. I didn’t want to speak, lest I miss even a moment of it.” She shyly looks away.

“Oh, well of course. I know that even for an AI as great as you, it’s impossible to not get absorbed in the speech of a genius such as myself.” He smugly states. “But, I’m sure you will monologue near my level with a bit of practice.”

“Really?”

“Of course!” He proclaims. “You are my daughter, after all!”

“G-get- Ow!- to the point!” Sonic struggles to let out as he uses his legs to stop himself from being completely crushed by the Egg Bruiser’s closing hand.

“Shut it, rodent! As you were saying, Sage.”

“W-well. Father, in his genius, made sure the emeralds would be out of your reach. He left them to power the entire base, and since I have control over all the technology, I can use the Emeralds straight from their powersource to use Chaos Control however I see fit.”

“Of course,” Sonic says with a sigh. “It- Urgh!- it’s never as simple as ‘punch the robot’.”

Eggman chuckles as he watches the hedgehogs struggle. “I think we’ve done enough explaining, don’t you, Sage?”

“Of course.” She simply replies.

“I think it’s about time I end this charade.” The mad scientist states.

“I was thinking the same thing.” Sonic says, follows him up. “Ready to rock, Shadow?”

Shadow grunts in response. “I was waiting for you to get serious.”

The two hedgehogs both begin spinning with the condensed space they each have, and Eggman holds his ears in pain as the sound of scraping metal echoes around the entire area. He manages to look on as both hands glow due both due to the energy coming off of the two hedgehogs and the heat of friction being felt on the hands that hold them. Then, the fingers of the Egg Bruiser explode off both the robot’s hands. Standing on either of its smoking palms are the now freed Sonic and Shadow. Sonic is grinning as he glows blue, while Shadow has a scowl and is glowing an Orange-Red.

“Well Sage, let's see if you can Chaos Control your pops out of this.” Sonic says defiantly.

“Sage- move daddy now!” Eggman fearfully demands. He sees them both begin to take a step, then lets out, “Now now now now-”

The doctor and his mech instantly disappear, reappearing on the other side of the platform. As the mech stands up straight and looks back to where it was, the two hedgehogs aren’t there anymore. Then, an explosion rings out from the elbow joint of the robot. Eggman rushes up to the glass, looking down to the damaged limb and seeing a trail of blue light separating the forearm of the robot from the rest of its body. Both blue and red light swirls around the Egg Bruiser as it is repeatedly bashed by the two speed demons.

“Light speed … they are both moving at light speed!” Sage says desperately. “They can be on the offensive before I can ever defend you!”

“Well then forget about the fight and get me out of here this instant!” Eggman commands her.

-

“All Eggman robots are neutralized." A robotic voice says. The owner of the voice is a 5 foot tall black and red robot with massive wingspan, broad metal shoulders, and the greek symbol for ‘Omega’ detailed on each shoulder in red. Rather than have a face, it has two red eyes and a yellow visor. Its hands, which are currently both machine guns, both shift into large metal hands with clawed fingers. “Rouge, where is the next wave that I can violently disassemble?”

“Patience, Omega.” Responds a feminine voice. On the other side of the room is an anthropomorphic bat who is wearing a black jumpsuit, with a pink heart on her chest and long white gloves and boots. She has white fur, cyan eyes, and purple bat wings coming out of her back. Her gloved hands are typing away at the keyboard in front of her, and she is looking up at a massive computer screen as the larger robot looks up at it alongside her.

Rouge then puts one hand onto the communicator in her ear. “Hun, you heard what our friend Eggman said to Shadow and Big Blue?”

From the other end of the line, Tails’ voice can be heard. “Yes! I’ll always be thankful for Eggman’s megalomaniacal tendencies. Aaaaand I’ve just about broken through the last firewall!”

“Perfect.” As the computer screen is covered in static, a logo showing Tails’ twin tails appears for a moment, and then the static disappears and the screen displays the text ‘Input Eggnet password:’. “Eggman’s password should be-”

“‘Hate that hedgehog’,” Rouge says, interrupting the yellow fox, “all capital, with no spaces, and numbers replacing all the vowels. I know.”

After she types ‘H4T3TH4TH3DG3H0G’ into the password, the Eggnet opens to her, and she pulls up the building controls. “Omega, I’m about to open up the Emeralds. They should be here in the control room, and once we grab them, our powerhouses should be able to finish off the doctor.”

“Affirmative.” Omega replies. “But I want the final hit on Eggman, not Shadow.”

“Yes, yes, I know.” Rouge brushes him off, then presses a series of buttons on the controls. After she does this, a glowing pillar begins ascending from the ground in the center of the room. From within, all seven emeralds radiate with chaos energy as wires are attached to each one of them and run through the pillar into the ground. “Jackpot.”

-

A trail of destruction passes through the entirety of Eggman’s fortress, as the Egg Bruiser repeatedly teleports around the area. Every time its feet touch the ground, it is instantly attacked by either a glowing blue trail or a glowing red one, with Sage then instantly teleporting the mech away before a second hit connects.

“Sage! Don’t just teleport me around, slow them down!”

“That’s what I am doing, sir.” Sage replies as she floats next to the mech.

“What?!” Eggman shouts in confusion

“This is their speed after I used Chaos Control to locally slow down time around them. I’m sorry, but they are somehow still moving too fast for me to react!” Sage desperately apologizes.

“Of course, this is just how absurdly strong these two are.” Eggman says in annoyance, using his hands to stabilize himself as the Egg Bruiser is shaken and battered by both the teleportation and the hedgehogs. “Pop quiz, Sage. What is the best way to stop a hero?”

“I don’t know, father.”

“Being cruel.” He begins to laugh. “Sage, drop me on top of his precious little friends.”

Sage quickly follows his command, and as both hedgehogs are about to hit the robot’s head, it is instantly gone. They don’t stop moving, and both trails begin circling around the massive fortress in different directions, both looking for the mad doctor.

A flash appears in the sky, and both hedgehogs look into the air to see that the Egg Bruiser is now falling straight down, both its feet completely straight in a perfect double dropkick. They both rush to its landing spot at lightspeed, following the sound of manic laughter being made by Eggman.

Tails and Amy both open their eyes, having been momentarily blinded by the flash of light in the sky. A shadow covers them completely, and as they look up, they see the massive feet of the robot eclipsing the sky above them as it gets closer and closer. Tails struggles to get out of the seat of his bi-plane, dropping his hacking device. Amy gets on the defensive, using both her hands to hold her hammer over herself and Tails, and bracing herself to try and block the hit. Then, in the sky, a glowing blue hedgehog and one that is glowing red both hit back against the robot’s attack. They spin with incredible speed, but as they stop moving to block the attack, the glow leaves their body. Eggman then is pushed back, his Mech landing on the ground and regaining its balance. Sonic and Shadow, now no longer moving at light speed, fall back down. Sonic lands in the backseat of the plane, with Amy immediately going to check on him, while Shadow lands directly on the ground.

“Sonic!” Tails and Amy both shout.

“Close one …” Sonic says tiredly, “we almost didn’t make it in time.”

“Ha!” Eggman triumphantly exclaims. “Like moths to a flame. Isn’t that right, Sage?” He looks around, and realizes Sage is not next to him. “Sage?”

-

As Rouge and Omega walk closer to the emeralds, Sage immediately spawns in between them, blocking their path. The two both instantly get into a defensive fighting pose.

“A little girl?” Rouge says in confusion. “Who are you supposed to be?”

“I am the daughter of the great Dr. Eggman, and you two are getting too close to stopping his plans.” She responds, clearly aggravated.

Rouge’s eyes go wide with surprise. “... Daughter?”

“You are Eggman’s daughter. Therefore, you are his creation, correct?” Omega asks.

“Yes,” Sage replies, “What of it?”

Rouge’s surprise instantly turns to worry as she predicts what's about to happen. “Omega wai-”

“I will destroy all creations of Dr. Eggman.” Omega proclaims, turning both of his hands into machine guns, and unloading all of his ammo directly at the girl standing between him and the chaos emeralds.

Sage, being a hologram, simply watches as all the bullets fly through her, and behind her, the sound of them hitting metal objects rings out. “Fool, I have no body for you to destroy-” She is then interrupted by her form fizzling slightly, and she turns back in horror to see that the pillar holding the emeralds was completely destroyed, and the Emeralds dangle from the broken wires that connect them to the base. “No! What did you do?!” She teleports away as the room crackles with chaos energy, which is being dispersed as rainbow colored lightning. 

Rouge immediately ducks for cover behind Omega. “Tails! Come in Tails!” She shouts into her earpiece.

“Huh, Rouge?” Tails says from the other side. “We are kind of in the middle of something right now.”

“Just listen, something bad is about to go down.”

-

The Egg Bruiser stomps down where Shadow was, and he quickly dodges the attack. Eggman looks around him, seeing Sonic and Amy standing next to the Tornado, with Tails inside the pilot's seat currently talking to someone using his communicator, while Shadow is on the other side of him, already charging chaos energy for an attack.

“You got lucky, but it’s no matter! Even without Sage here, I can use Chaos Control remotely!” Eggman exclaims, “Yohohohohoho, it's time for you all to die!”

Sage then reappears next to him in a panic. “Wait!” She shouts too late, watching in horror as her father slams his fist down on a button that is glowing the same colors as the seven emeralds.

At first, nothing happens, causing both hero and villain alike to look around in confusion.

“I don’t … feel any different.” Amy says in confusion.

“You all are supposed to be completely stopped in time!” Eggman says in frustration.

Sonic grins. “Huh, see, it's funny. I don’t feel frozen in time.”

“Guys! Rouge says we need to move, now!” Tails shouts.

Sonic, Amy, Shadow, and even Eggman and Sage all look at him in confusion. “What-”

Then, the floor below all of them begins to be filled with a bright white light. It begins to cover everything, and blinds each and every one of them. Before a single one of them could even finish a sentence, let alone try to move, They are all surrounded in the same light.

- [Present Day: Random Play Video Store] -

“... And after that flash of light, Sonic, Amy, and I began falling through the sky in my plane, the tornado, and crash landed in the city.” Tails concludes.

“So that plane that crashed in Lumina Square … that was you guys?” Wise asks.

“Pretty much. It was an accident, though!”

“You poor things have been through so much.” Belle says, rushing forward to give both Tails and Amy a hug. After she lets them go, she then says. “But wow, all your friends sound so cool and strong! I hope they are all ok.”

“I don’t know where to even begin when it comes to finding them …” Tails laments, and Amy puts her hand on his shoulder out of sympathy.

The room goes silent as they ponder the information.

“Eve! Comeon, you can’t seriously be on your phone after a story like that.” Astra shouts.

Eve ignores her as she speaks to the group through the video call. “Belle, you should turn on the television, there's something our new friends should probably see.”

“Oooookay, that was totally not ominous.” Belle says back, grabbing the remote to turn on the TV. Amy and Tails glance at each other in confusion.

A female newscaster sits at the table of ‘New Eridu News’, and she has a map of the city as a backdrop as she talks. “- And after several interviews with both witnesses and Public Security we can confirm the unidentified blue thiren, being referred to as the ‘Blue Blur’ in online spaces, was the one who attacked and destroyed two Public Security vehicles yesterday in a police chase and was also the one who attacked Lumina Galleria Mall this morning, destroying several smaller businesses and having the mall shut down indefinitely.”

The woman scoots to the side slightly, then uses her hands to gesture behind her as several images of Sonic the Hedgehog running appear behind her, most of which being very blurry, with the one in the center being a perfect close up of his face as he grins. “Be on the look out for this ‘Blue Blur’, as he is now Public Security’s most wanted criminal.”

A tangible silence fills the room now, as all the humans look at the screen with their jaws open. In contrast, Tails and Amy simply both facepalm.

Chapter Text

“... and once Eggman tried to use Chaos Control again, everything went white, and I landed in your world.” Sonic concludes, immediately lifting a slice of french toast off the plate in front of himself and lazily eating a piece of it.

The blue hedgehog is sitting at a large circular mahogany dining table, with incredibly fine details stretching from the rims of the table down to the legs. Around him are four other seats besides his own, which circle the table. The seats on either side of him are empty, and across the table and looking at him are the four members of Victoria Housekeeping. The green haired young maid Corin and the half shark Ellen are both sitting down in their seats, with Corin currently nibbling a slice of french toast she is holding carefully with both hands, while Ellen has a completely empty plate, and is rocking her chair back and forth. Standing in between their two seats is Lycaon, who has both hands firmly on the table and is looming over it, as if to intimidate the hedgehog. Rina is standing behind him, holding a tray with several more plates of breakfast on it.

“Astounding.” Lycaon says after a moment of pause. “So to summarize, Sir Sonic, you are from another world entirely, and you came here as the result of a battle between you and this mad scientist. Did you follow along with all of that, Mayor Mayflower?” Lycaon then asks, looking down at the phone that rests on the table in between himself and Sonic.

“I certainly did.” The man on the phone responds. “Sonic, are you trying to tell us that your world has these stones-”
“Chaos Emeralds.” Sonic corrects the mayor.

“-Chaos Emeralds that can be used to power technology in order to warp time and space?”

Sonic puts a finger up, so as to get everyone’s attention. “Well, that is one way to use them, but not the main way. The Emeralds, you see, turn thoughts into power. Someone like the egghead couldn’t use them without forcing his machines to do it for him. But me?”

Rina then interjects. “Sir Sonic, are you saying that you could use that level of energy yourself?”

“With the seven emeralds together, then yeah.” Sonic leans back in his seat and rests his shoes on the table. “I turn golden, usually punch some giant robot or monster, then I undo whatever terrible calamity it was going to cause. That's probably how I’m getting out of my current situation, too.”

“How can you be so sure that they followed you here? You seem to have landed with just the friends that were closest to you.” The Mayor questions.

“Oh, I’m certain that they are here. Trust me, the emeralds always turn up when we need them. I’m sure all my friends and Eggman are here, too. We’ll fight over the emeralds, I’ll get them, and then send all of us home.” Sonic then pauses, before adding. “Once you guys let me go, of course.”

“Can I finish eating now?” Sonic asks, stuffing his face with the last of his current slice of french toast.

“Of course,” The Mayor responds, “Lycaon, let's allow the man to enjoy his meal now. I need to talk with you and Rina privately for a moment.”

“Of course, Benefactor.” Lycaon responds immediately. “If you would excuse us, Sir Sonic.” He nods at Rina, who then wordlessly rests the tray she was holding onto the middle of the table. Both the wolf and the lady then take a bow in Sonic’s direction, then step out of the room. Lycaon goes out first, while Rina picks up the phone that rests on the table on her way out.

The room stays silent as the two exit, with the only sound being made being that of Sonic’s chewing as he enjoys the last of his french toast slices. 

Ellen watches in amusement as Sonic struggles to reach for the tray Rina left at the center of the table due to his small stature. She stands up and leans forward so that she can lift it for him, then places it down in front of him.

“Oh, Thanks!” He simply states.

She thinks for a moment, before softly replying, “No problem, what are friends for?” Sonic looks at her with a grin as soon as she finishes her sentence, and she immediately pulls away. She curls in her seat so her face is covered by her knees, but the redness on the edges of her cheeks and her ears is still visible.

Sonic hums in response to her recoil, clearly unbothered. He reaches for a bagel, and throws it in the air as he catches it with his mouth, going back to laying in his seat.

Then, a very loud screeching sound can be heard from Corin’s side of the table, as she pushes back her seat and stands up quickly.

“Uhm- excuse me. Sir …  Sir Sonic?” The green haired young maid asks, stepping forward to stand next to the seat of the laid back hedgehog. She clutches the hem of her skirt with both her hands as she looks down on the ground.

“Corin, right?” The hedgehog turns his head to look at her inquisitively. “What’s up?”

“It’s- uhm. Well …” Corin fumbles her words, unable to get her statement across.

Sonic waits for a moment for her to finish. As he realizes she won’t express what she wants to say, he takes his legs off the table and then bounces down to the ground in front of her. He lowers his posture, and seeing as he was already slightly shorter than the girl, it allows him to finally make eye contact with the nervous girl. “You know, kid, hedgehogs don’t bite.”

She clutches her skirt tighter, and closes her eyes as she musters up her courage. “Master Lycaon said that I need to get you dressed in actual clothes!” Her volume is enough to make Sonic do a double-take, and Ellen looks up from her seat. Sonic then lets out a chuckle which begins to spiral into full blown laughter.

“Oh- that was a good one.” He says, wiping a tear from his eye as his laughter subsides. He looks to Corin, who is frowning, then to Ellen, who is now standing and looks unamused. “Oh. you’re serious.”

Sonic immediately turns a full one hundred eighty degrees, and lifts his foot to rush away, but his back quills are grabbed by Ellen before he could start running. She lifts him off the ground and holds him in the air.

“Sorry, Boss’ orders.” She says matter-of-factly.

-

“So … what are we looking at, again?” Asks the Pubsec officer Seth, as he looks on at his Captain, Zhu Yuan, and the Deputy Chief of Hollow Operations Section 6, Yanagi.

“Excellent question, Officer Lowell.” Yanagi says in response to Seth’s confusion. Both her and Zhu Yuan are standing in front of a large computer monitor which is being suspended on the wall behind them. That wall is covered with multiple bulletin boards, several of them having mission assignments and maps of New Eridu. The screen itself also displays a blueprint-like map, but most of the map is covered by a large black sphere that cuts off the buildings adjacent to it. Zhu Yuan is currently writing on a movable whiteboard that is just slightly taller than herself, while Yanagi is directly addressing the small crowd that is watching the two of them. The group consists of the blue-skinned Sokkaku of Section 6, who is coloring in a coloring book excitedly while chewing on a red crayon, her senior Harumasa, whose head is hanging off his chair as he sleeps through the meeting, their chief Miyabi, who is leaned forward slightly in her seat as she focuses on her Deputy Chief’s words, Officer Qingyi, who is sitting in her seat with perfect posture as she also focuses on the topic at hand, and Officer Seth, who is looking up from a notebook that he is using to take notes on the current meeting.

“This is a newer companion hollow, one that has recently sprung up in the northern part of the Janus Quarter, just beyond Lumina Square. Section 6 had been called in to investigate the hollow, and this is everything we know about it from our recent carrot data.” Yanagi then presses a button on her remote, and it shifts the map slightly to zoom in on the sphere, and the inside of the circle is made visible with a corrupted, overhead landscape of that same city with the map constantly shifting. The title ‘Lesser Companion Hollow’ appears below the map.

“They called you out to clear a Companion Hollow?” Qingyi questions. “Hoshimi Miyabi is one of the Void Hunters. That is like using a gun to kill an ant. Wouldn’t her skills be better utilized in Hollow Zero or the Dark Wall?”

Miyabi shakes her head at Qingyi. “I go where my blade can cut through evil, no matter how big or small it may be.”

“But you do have a point, Qingyi.” Yanagi replies. “But this case was different. Look at the edge of the Hollow on a real time video feed.”

The monitor switches from the blue prints of the city map to a bird’s eye view of the city itself. The hollow isn't stationary, but rather it is expanding. The group watches as every building around it is covered in minutes.

“That hollow is growing at a rate of several meters per second!” Seth shouts. “That is unreal!”

“I see, this abnormality is something that only the skilled operatives of Section 6 could handle safely.” Qingyi states.

“Uh huh!” Sokkaku interjects, now having looked up from her coloring book and using rubber bands to play with the sleeping Harumasa’s hair. “Thats exactly what the boring guys in the suits said!”

“Don’t call them boring,” Yanagi scolds her, “but yes, that was the H.A.N.D. staff said as well. When we attempted to enter, however, we were immediately sent out of a different part of the hollow. It was as if the fissures of the hollow were changing in a way so as to perfectly deny us entry.”

“I sensed something different with these fissures, and after returning to H.A.N.D. and informing them about what was going on, they managed to help me match this new energy I sensed to the Cyan Gemstone I showed you all earlier.” Miyabi says, taking out the glowing gem from her pocket.

“Ok so,” Seth interjects, “As much as I’m happy to learn new things, what does this have to do with us?”

“Because,” Zhu Yuan finally begins speaking, looking away from the whiteboard she was writing on, “Forensics managed to match the energy of that gem to the two cases we’ve been dealing with. It’s the same stuff that the crashed plane gives off, and it’s all over both places that the blue menace we can’t seem to catch has been trashing.”

“So, what? He’s from this new, abnormal hollow? Some kind of ethereal that can both talk and exist out of the hollows like the sacrifice that Bringer became?” Qingyi asks.

“No,” Yanagi replies, “both our teams are pretty confident this thing isn’t an ethereal or a sacrifice. Instead, we think that whatever brought all these items and creatures here, it all has the energy signatures of this stone. After some testing, we are confident that we can enter and investigate this new, chaotic Companion Hollow if we use this gem.”

“And this is just a hunch, but after reviewing your case, we also think your suspect is going to want and need to get their hands on this stone.” Miyabi says.

“Which is why Section 6 and Public Security are performing this joint search and seize operation.” Zhu Yuan says, smacking her hand on the board to get everyone’s attention on what is clearly a detailed strategy. “Our primary goal is information gathering. We know there is some kind of human-run operation going on inside this hollow, and we have an operative on the inside in deep cover. Qingyi, Seth, you two will be able to recognize her, so I want you to take Harumasa and figure out everything you can on what is going on inside the hollow. Prioritize escape and retrieval of the undercover agent.”

“I have to work with him?!” Both Harumasa and Seth yell, jumping up from their seats.

“Wow, Masa woke up really fast!” Sokakku says with a laugh.

“Is. That. A. Problem. Hm, Executive Officer?” Yanagi says with anger as she glares daggers into Harumasa’s soul, and both him and Seth immediately cower in fear as they go pale.

“No, Deputy Chief!” They say in unison as they stand in attention. They glare at each other as soon as Yanagi looks away, and Sokkaku continues to chuckle. Qingyi then pulls Seth to sit back down in his seat.

Zhu Yuan coughs to get the group’s attention. “... Moving on. Miyabi and Sokakku, to put it bluntly, can not be subtle.”

“Thank you.” Miyabi replies, while Sokakku tilts her head in confusion.

“We can use that to our advantage. The two of them, alongside me and Yanagi, will be clearing ethereals. Partially to shrink the Hollow, but mostly for two purposes. One, to get attention away from our infiltration squad, and two, to get the attention of the blue hedgehog. From what we observed, he tends to go wherever the most action is, so we can lure him to us, overpower him, then bring him in for questioning.”

“I like this plan of yours, Zhu Yuan.” Miyabi states. “It’s rare that I hear of an adversary like him, and I’ve been itching for a real challenge since our last mission together.”

“Great. So with the teams out of the way, is everyone re-” Zhu Yuan is interrupted as soon as she tries to continue.

“Three moves.”

The entire room looks at the Void Hunter in confusion.

“Three moves … what?” Zhu Yuan asks.

“I want no help or interruptions for my first three moves. If I can’t beat him in those, then the rest of you can step in.”

-

“Benefactor, what do you make of Sir Sonic’s story?” Rina asks, holding the phone out with her hand in between herself and Von Lycaon, who are both standing in one of the long hallways of the Victoria Housekeeping Manor. She floats just above the red carpet that lines the ground, and her two ghostly bangboo companions are playing with the un-even ruffles on one side of the carpet.

“Well I can’t speak on the accuracy of his narration of events,” Mayor Mayflower says through the phone, “I do believe he is telling the truth on how he got here.”

Lycaon gently pushes the two playing robots to the side, then stands as he uses his metal leg to smooth out the carpet to be flush with the ground. “I concur. This one doesn’t seem like the lying type.”

“It’s not just that, Lycaon. His baseless assumptions are spot on. H.A.N.D. has already obtained one of these ‘Chaos Emeralds’. Though they don’t know its name, the design and power level Sonic described is perfectly one-to-one with what they have tested.” The mayor pauses for a moment. “Though, there is one other thing we should check. Lycaon, please bring up security footage of Sonic from yesterday, specifically from afternoon to sunset.”

“Of course, sir.” Lycaon says, taking out his own cellphone. Him and Rina begin watching the footage, with Lycaon holding his finger on the screen so it moves at a multiplied speed.

“Was there anything out of the ordinary?” Mayflower asks.

“No, it appears to just be me and Corin’s shifts, with no issues at any point.” Rina remarks. “I’d even go as far to say that he is the most pleasant prisoner I’ve ever had to guard.”

“I thought as much.” The mayor states. “Yesterday, Lumina Galleria Mall was attacked by a 3 foot tall blue speedster, and several stores were destroyed.”

“That description sounds …” Lycaon begins before stopping himself.

“I was thinking the same thing, but now we know he has an alibi. It also does not match his motivations in the slightest. Not that it matters to public security, who already has Sonic down as current public enemy number one.”

“Oh dear,” Rina says with a sigh, “That puts a damper on our plans. We already had Corin and Ellen preparing Sir Sonic for a trip to that companion hollow.”

“Not to worry, I believe you should proceed with the mission.” The mayor replies.

“But Benefactor, I know H.A.N.D. has found a connection between the energy left at his point of arrival and the anomalous hollow, but surely Pubsec will know about that too and be ready to intercept.”

“I’m well aware of that, in fact, I know exactly who they are sending to this hollow to lure him out. Which is why I think it’s the perfect chance to test the truthfulness of the hedgehog’s boasting, see how well he can handle ether, and determine how to get him home.”

“Test?” Rina questions.

“They are sending Hoshimi Miyabi and Hollow Operations Section 6 after him, and I want you to let them fight.” He demands.

Lycaon and Rina both are stunned into silence.

“On top of that, going forward, Sonic is no longer to be held captive. Your newest mission and top priority is to investigate a way to get Sonic home, locate any items related to his home dimension, and protect him and his allies from threat. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Benefactor.” They both respond with a bow, though he cannot see it through the phone.

“Excellent. Lycaon, I leave the planning in your care. Well I do not know Section 6’s plan, I do have detailed records of the nature of this new hollow, and will be sending the data your way. Good luck.”

The mayor then hangs up the phone. Lycaon hears a notification coming from his own phone, and begins to open a document filled with hollow data, with Rina looking over his shoulder as the two start thinking up a strategy.

-

“This is worse than locking me in a room.” Sonic states, frustration evident in his tone.

He is currently standing in front of a long, full body mirror with his arms crossed. Ellen is standing just behind him, currently fixing the collar on his white dress shirt. Over the shirt, he has a black suit vest, with three large silver buttons that are currently closed. Under the vest is a red tie. Sonic’s white gloves have been replaced with black ones, and his sleeves are rolled up slightly to make the gloves fully visible. He also has black dress pants, which are held up by a belt with a silver belt buckle. He’s traded his white socks for black ones, and his classic red shoes are now off to the side of the room.

“Is all of this really necessary?” He asks.

“Yes.” Ellen states bluntly. “You’ve asked ten times, I’m tired of answering you.”

“That’s because you keep saying it is necessary. No one bats an eye at my fashion choices back home.”

Ellen rolls her eyes. “Well, we really don’t want to add indecent exposure to your list of crimes.”

“But then- why do you gotta switch out my shoes? They’re classic!” Sonic whines.

“Well, those ‘classics’,” Ellen lets go of his collar to do air quotes, which Sonic sees through the mirror, before continuing to adjust the parts of his collar that go under his quills, “Don’t match the suit in the slightest.”

Corin stumbles her way into the room, holding up black dress shoes with red accents that are the same size as Sonic’s old shoes.

“S-sorry! I couldn’t find where Mr. Lycaon left them.” She says with both tiredness and nervousness in her voice. “H-here you g-go, Sir Sonic!”

She bows as she holds up the shoes with both hands in Sonic’s direction.

“Nah- I think I’m good with my u- ack!” Before Sonic can finish turning down the nervous maid, Ellen uses his collar to choke him by pulling it back with full force. “T-thank you- Thank you Corin!”

Ellen releases Sonic as he finishes his sentence, and he immediately grabs the dress shoes from Corin’s hands. He uses his hand to massage his neck, and turns to Ellen, who is giving him a malicious grin that shows off her shark teeth, as if to threaten him. This terrifies him enough to make him look away, and he sees that Corin is giving him a warm smile, clearly pleased at herself for doing a good job.

“I really have no choice, huh?” With that remark, he sits in place and begins to put on the shoes.

The three of them then hear strong footsteps approaching the large closet’s door, and look back to see Lycaon enter with a bow. He steps to the side and allows RIna to enter after him, and she does a brief curtsy at the trio.

“Sir Sonic, I hope you’ve found our wardrobe to your liking.” Lycaon says.

Sonic glances at Ellen, seeing her glare at him. “O-of course.” Sonic responds, holding onto his neck nervously. She smiles at this.

“Oh, wonderful!” Rina says, clapping her hands. “I picked it out especially for you, and it’s designed to not slow you down on the field.”

“The field?” Sonic questions.

Lycaon responds to his question first. “Prepare yourself, Sir Sonic. You’re about to experience your first hollow.”

-

A large, armored van with a slightly blue hue drives through the empty alleyways and backroads of now evacuated northern Janus Quarter. It skids to a stop, rotating so the vans backdoors are in front of the outer shell of the hollow. The hollow looms over the vehicle, like a black wall that touches the sky. It is approaching, but not fast enough to cause alarm. Then the vehicle's doors swing open, letting both Section 6 and Zhu Yuan’s criminal investigations team exit out of it. Harumasa, Sokkaku, and Miyabi start stretching, as if preparing for a workout. Qingyi is looking on at the hollow, her eyes glowing blue as she scans, and she is telling some information to Yanagi, who is standing next to her. Seth and Zhu Yuan both are doing last minute adjustments on their equipment.

“What, not gonna stretch?” Harumasa asks smugly, directing his question at Seth.

“I prepared myself just fine before I got to the field.” Seth retorts.

“Well, I’m not your brother,” Harumasa states, “So don’t come crying to me if you pull something.”

Seth growls at the mention of his brother, his fangs showing as he gets up close to Harumasa. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means- don’t slow me down, Lowell.”

“Enough.” Yanagi says as she walks in between the two, making sure to aggressively bump into both of them.

She walks up to the driver's side of the armored van, and the windows descend to show a younger H.S.O. member who is wearing a similar blue and white uniform to Yanagi and the rest of her team. The woman has grey hair, tan skin, and large round glasses.

“Thanks for the ride, Ferrier.” Yanagi says.

The woman's face is practically glowing at the praise, and she immediately salutes. “Of course, Deputy Chief, Ma’am! It was my pleasure!”

“At ease.” Yanagi replies. “You should leave before the Hollow gets any closer. It's impossible to communicate through the hollow, so don’t come back until you get a message from either Section 6 or Officer Zhu Yuan’s team.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” She responds hastily. She then closes up the window and Yanagi hears the van’s engines starting up. With that, she turns back to the group.

“Now, once we get inside, we’ll instantly split up.” Zhu Yuan says to the group. “Remember, we need the infiltration squad to remain undetected. Once they have gained some distance from us, we make as much noise as possible.”

“Thats what me and the chief are for!” Sokkaku chimes in excitedly.

Yanagi walks up behind the blue oni and gently pats her white-haired head. “Exactly.”

“Big sis Nagi, you’re with me and the chief, right?” Sokkaku asks her, leaning back and looking up to meet her eyes.

“Sokkaku … we said as much in the meeting. You were paying attention to more than just the part where you destroy ethereals, right?” Yanagi says worriedly.

“Uhhhhhh … yes?” Sokkaku attempts to answer. Yanagi shakes her head and chuckles.

“We should enter soon.” Qingyi says, interrupting the moment. “The hollow will cover us in less than a minute. Miyabi?”

“Ready.” She responds, pulling out the Cyan gemstone. It is glowing brighter than it has before, and the energy looks as if it is being drawn to the hollow’s walls. “Strange. I feel that the gem is calling to something within the hollow. Or maybe … something is calling for it.”

“Ominous.” Harumasa says, raising an eyebrow at his chief.

“We’ll worry about that later.” Zhu Yuan says. “Everyone, hold onto Miyabi!”

Zhu Yuan, Qingyi, Seth, Yanagi, Harumasa, and Sokkaku each grab onto a different spot on Miyabi’s body. The group then close their eyes as the hollow passes over them. They feel energy surrounding their bodies for a moment, then the group open their eyes to see themselves inside the warped landscape of the hollow. The atmosphere is darker, the hollow being cloudier than the world outside. Buildings look damaged, roads are cracked, and most plant life is covered with jagged crystals. Sokkaku looks back to where the wall would be after it passed over the group, and she just sees more ruined city, with no end to the hollow in sight.

“Qingyi?” Zhu Yuan says questioningly.

“According to the carrot data, we are deep in the hollow. In fact, the fissure seems to have dropped us near some of the strongest of the energy fluctuations.” Qingyi then turns her head sharply. “Seth, Harumasa, we need to move this way. Pay attention to anything out of the ordinary.”

Both of them nod, and the trio then moves out, heading towards a road that slopes downward.

“That means the four of us should move the opposite direction.” Yanagi states, looking at her phone. Miyabi and Zhu Yuan give each other a nod.

As the group begins to start moving, they hear the screeching of metal against the concrete road. A large ethereal, with a wide frame, large arms, and wielding a massive metal club, approaches them. Its black core rests where its head would be, as several crystals protrude from across its body. The entire group gets into defensive stances.

“Careful, everyone. A Goblin-Type ether mutant is dangerous, but the infiltration squad is still close by. We can’t afford to draw any a-”

Zhu Yuan’s warning is interrupted by Miyabi, who disappears from her position and reappears behind the mutant. In the silence, the only sound that is heard is the click of the Hoshimi family blade, as the young swordswoman sheathes it once again. Then, the beast's body is sliced to ribbons, and the remains fall over themselves onto the ground, before disintegrating into ether dust without any fanfare.

“Oh, that won't do at all.” Miyabi says in disappointment. “Quickly, Zhu Yuan. We need to continue onward so I can start my ‘Cut a target travelling at inhuman speeds’ training.”

-

“That’s a ‘hollow’? Are you sure that isn’t like- a black hole?” Sonic asks, his hand over his eyes to block the sun from his vision as he gets a good look at the massive black sphere that is expanding across the city in front of them. “Cause I’ve seen a few black holes, and that looks like one.”

“You’ve seen black holes?” Ellen questions, taking the lollipop she was chewing on out of her mouth and tossing aside its remains as she leans against the heightened ledge of the roof the group is currently on. Sonic is standing on that same ledge, and he turns away from the horizon to make eye contact with her.

“Yeah, I've even been inside ‘em once or twice.” He replies nonchalantly.

“Are you bragging? This sounds like bragging.” Ellen says, holding back a smile.

“Is it working?” Sonic asks.

“Sir Sonic,” Lycaon interrupts the two of them, “I hope you’ll try to take this seriously.”

Sonic jumps down from where he is standing, and begins to walk closer to Lycaon. “I am, don’t worry. What do I need to know?”

“Corin, if you'd please?” Lycaon says in Corin’s direction.
She quickly shuffles forward, looking downwards because she is slightly nervous. “Here you go.” She puts a mechanical sphere in Sonic’s hand. It is black and white, with several orange parts. It has a small lever on the side and a handle on the top. Underneath, there is an opening which seems to show a very dull circular blade, which makes the device overall look like a chainsaw condensed into a sphere.

“... What am I looking at here?” Sonic asks.

“You guys don’t have W-Engines where you are from?” Ellen asks.

“No, that makes sense, actually.” Rina interjects, getting Ellen’s attention. “His world doesn’t have hollows, so there would be no reason to make these.” 

“This device is essential for hollow navigation. To shorten a very complicated explanation, it uses sound waves to help the user both increase their ether resistance and amplify their specific talents in combat.” Lycaon explains.

“Amplify my talents?”

Lycaon continues in order to clarify for the hedgehog. “Well, it’s typically a W-Engine catered to the user, but for the sake of time I simply had Corin lend you a spare of ‘Housekeeper’, her personal engine. Your combat style relies a lot on that spin attack of yours and generally speedy movements, so I believe it should be an ok-enough analogy for Corin’s chainsaw wielding combat style.”

“Neat!” Sonic replies simply, throwing the device up and down as he examines it. “How do I use it?”

Immediately, Rina catches the W-Engine from out of the air, and in one swift motion, she clicks a button on the bottom that opens up the sides of the device, sticks several music discs into the new openings, and closes it and lets go, before it lands safely back in Sonic’s hand. “There you go, sweety. Just keep that on your person, and the drive discs will do the rest while you are in the hollow.”

Sonic looks at her in slight shock, letting out a whistle, “Wow, you are fast.”

Rina responds with a chuckle. “High praise from the fastest thing alive.”

“The discs ‘Woodpecker Electro’ and ‘Fanged Metal’, I assume?” Lycaon asks in Rina’s direction, to which she responds with a nod.

“What’s that mean?” Sonic says in response to Lycaon and Rina’s interaction.

“Oh, simply the names of the songs that those discs are based on. I mentioned sound waves, correct?” Sonic nods in confirmation. “While, the sound waves are typically music, tuned to refine the W-Engine’s specialty focuses. You just got some pretty standard discs for a speedy attacker such as yourself-”

“Boss,” Ellen interrupts, “I know you are explaining stuff and all, but our ride is here.”

“Perfect.” He responds. “I was finishing up, anyways.”

Lycaon walks past Sonic, and the rest of Victoria Housekeeping follows behind, all of them lined up at the heightened ledge. It takes a second for Sonic to realize what they are doing, and rushes to stand alongside the group. He looks down to see a massive black semi truck carrying a silver trailer behind it, with a large logo that says ‘Porcelumex’ on the side. Just as it is about to pass the group, they all jump off the building. Rina swiftly catches and holds Corin as they descend, slowing their fall with her floating. Ellen uses her scissor blade to stab into the wall, and holds onto the handle as she slides down it. Lycaon matches her pace, simply using his hand and legs to slide down instead, doing less damage than Ellen does with her fall. The two then jump off the wall and land on the back top of the truck’s trailer, with Rina floating down just beside them. Then the group look up to see where Sonic is, and realize that he is not on top of the building anymore.

“Down here.” They hear Sonic’s voice, and look down to see him sitting down next to them, holding a hotdog in his hands, with it already being half eaten. “What took you guys so long?”

Ellen squats down to match his eye level and squints. “Where the heck did you even get a hotdog?”

Sonic shrugs. “You guys took so long to get down, that I ran back into the city to find a chilidog. Had to settle for a hot dog, though.”

Ellen gives him an annoyed look, then takes the uneaten half of the hot dog out of Sonic’s hand and eats it in one bite. She gives Sonic a grin that exposes her shark-like teeth. “Thanks for the food.” He frowns, then sticks his tongue out at her in response.

“We don’t have time for this. Rina, Corin, get us in there.” Lycaon commands.

“With haste, Lycaon.” Rina responds, with Corin next to her quickly getting her large circular sawblade ready.

Rina floats down to the twin doors on the back of the 18 foot trailer. It has a keylock, with chains wrapped around the metal door handles. Rina holds out both her hands as she stands on the small ledge at the edge of the doors. Her two index fingers release a stream of electricity, and she uses it to carefully melt and slice both sides of the chain that has the lock on it. The lock falls out of place, and she swiftly catches it before handing it to the two robotic companions on her shoulders. “Drusilla, be a dear and hold onto this for me.” She says to the blond ghostly bangboo on her left shoulder. “Corin! Get down here!” She calls out.

As she says that, Corin stumbles her way to the edge of the truck, looking down at Rina. “I-I’m ready.”

Rina floats up to the top of the truck, leaving the brunette bangboo behind to pull off the now loose chains. “Careful there, Anastella, sweety.” Rina says to the hardworking robot. It floats back up to her with the now released chains, leaving the doors unprotected. Rina then pats Corin on the back. “You’re up, Corin dearie.”

Corin nods aggressively, clenches her saw with her left hand, then uses her right hand to grip onto the top of the truck’s frame. She then forcefully swings herself downward, in an arc that allows her to perfectly kick through the double doors with her feet, and then jump inside the enclosed trailer.

“What in the-” The group hear a confused male voice say from beneath them.

“Intruder!” A gruff sounding woman shouts.

“It’s just a girl, kill her!”

“I-I’m sorry about t-this …” Corin says softly.

Sonic looks between Ellen and Rina in confusion. “Is she really going to be fine alone down-”

Gunshots ring out, repeated fire, with screaming from several people being heard from below the team. Louder than the screams and the gunfire, however, is the whirring of a chainsaw and the scratching of that blade hitting metal, with the screech it makes being enough to make Sonic wince at the sound. He turns to find Lycaon, but sees him standing on top of the semi truck’s driver’s side and currently pulling out an incapacitated man in a military style uniform. Then, all the gunfire, screams, and screeching from below come to a stop.

“Sonic, Ellen, Rina, you guys will hop off the truck as soon as I drive us into the Hollow. Me and Corin will continue following their carrot data to wherever they were planning on stopping.”

“Got it, Boss.” Ellen responds, opening up a new lollipop from out of one of her pockets.

Sonic then looks down to the inside of the trailer, closing one of his eyes in anticipation of something he wouldn’t want to see. Inside the vehicle, he sees the remains of a warzone, with bullets covering the walls on either side, several unconscious bodies scattering the floor, and one green haired girl in the center of them all who is in the process of pulling metal chunks off her large chainsaw.

“I- was not familiar with your game, kid.” He says to Corin, who immediately gets excited by the praise.

“T-thank you! This was nothing, Sir Sonic.” Corin responds, clearly extremely happy from being complimented.

Ellen then grabs Sonic’s shoulder to get his attention. “Brace yourself.” She points forward to the massive black wall that the truck is rapidly approaching.

As they pass through the hollow’s entrance, Sonic braces for impact. When he feels no resistance, he opens his eyes to see that everyone is still exactly the same, and the truck is now driving through a warped landscape. Buildings are damaged, strange neon green monsters scatter the landscape, and the sky has gone from sunny to cloudy in an instant.

“Dang, I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this.” Sonic states in astonishment. “Let me go take a quick lap.”

“A quick wh-” Ellen starts to comment, and instantly sees a blue blur jump off the truck and speed off into the distance before disappearing. “Wait!”

“Oh dear …” Rina says while holding her hand to her mouth, using her other hand to comfort Ellen who just stares in shock at the horizon line.

“What happened?” Lycaon asked.

“It seems we never fully explained how hollows work to Sir Sonic.” Rina states. “He’s run off on his own, which I'm noticing might be a pattern with him.”

“He ran off?!” Lycaon shouts.

-

Sonic speeds through the ruined cityscape, jumping over rubble, and sliding under collapsed buildings without slowing down. “Oh man- the city was just fine before,” He comments as he runs. “This doesn’t make any sense.”

Sonic skids to a stop as he glances at some purple sludge that covers the side of a bent over street lamp. 

“And what the heck is this?”

He reaches down to touch it, but instantly reels back before making contact. “Nope! My gut is saying don’t touch that.” He sees it ooze in place slightly, as if it is attempting to approach him, and he takes several paces back.

Sonic then hears several unnatural footsteps from behind him, and he turns to see three humanoid monsters turning the corner of a building. They are white but covered in neon green cuts and openings. One of them has no arms, the other two have arms that have green blades at the end of them. All of them have crystals protruding out of their bodies , and instead of having heads, they have black empty cores of some kind.

“Disturbing …”

As soon as he speaks, the three creatures turn to him and screech. They run at him, stumbling over themselves as they do. Sonic chuckles at this.

“Oh- a fight, huh?” He jokes. “It’s not fair to gang up little ol’ me.”

He then immediately blinks out of sight, too fast for these monsters to react. As they stop in their tracks where the blue hedgehog used to be, One of the three immediately falls to the ground as Sonic stands on top of its body. He wags his finger as he mocks the other two beasts, and they both use their bladed hands to rush some furious swings at him. Sonic catches both blades with his hands, then pulls the two creatures together, their cores hitting each other. They crack slightly and the two let out pained screeches. Sonic then curls up as he charges a spindash, and with him still being over the third monster, it gets sliced in half by the spin attack before he launches himself at the other two. Aiming his spin attacks at their cores, he repeatedly bounces between the two before both their cores shatter and they fall to the ground. Sonic then uncurls and lands on the ground, turning back as he sees the three monsters turn to dust and scatter in the wind.

“Cores are their weak points- that was easy to figure out.” Sonic states to no one in particular. He takes out the W-Engine that Corin gave him and looks at it as it releases small soundwaves. ‘I see what they meant about the amplification now, wow. My spindash felt way more forceful than normal.’ He puts it away as he looks around. 

“Whelp, nice detour, but it's time to head back to the others. I’d hate to be late to the party.”

In a blur he speeds off, aiming for the direction he had come from. He slows down as he sees a completely different building, then a road that wasn’t there before. ‘Huh … that’s odd.’ Shaking his head, he ignores the differences. ‘I just need to find a landmark or two.’ 

Taking a variety of different directions, Sonic attempts to find the collapsed building he slid under, or any familiar looking debris. After minutes of searching, he skids to the stop wearing an annoying expression.

‘Ok, that's it. Nothing is the same as it was before. What kind of funhouse mirror reality am I in right now?’

He looks around and sees a larger building that has only partially collapsed, with it resting at a 45 degree angle against the ground. He quickly runs up the building, then attempts to survey the area. Monsters scatter the ruined landscape, but not a single clue on where the truck that he was on with Ellen and the others could have gone. ‘Face it, Sonic. You’re absolutely lost.’

As Sonic continues to look around as he taps his foot in annoyance. Then he hears a young girl’s voice from below, cheering excitedly. ‘Corin?’ Sonic thinks, ‘I’ve never heard her that excited before. Maybe someone gave her a really good compliment.’

The hedgehog springs off the slanted roof, landing on a large crystal with glowing green chunks, making sure to avoid the protrusions as he runs down the massive object. The voice is getting closer, along with the sound of smashing. Through the broken windows of a fallen office building, Sonic sees several more monsters that bear a resemblance to the creatures he fought previously.

‘She must be in a fight! Let me go help her out!’

He jumps into a spin, going right through one of the windows. He spindashes as he lands inside of the ruined office building and he instantly barrels through the room, shattering a window that wasn’t previously broken as he breaks through it. Immediately, he carries that momentum onto the ground as he speeds behind the monster. Then, he laps it. Again and again, he circles the group of enemies until they are surrounded by a blue tornado. It lifts them off the air and as soon as they are pulled out of its center, they disappear into a blue blur.

As the tornado dissipates, Sonic skids to a stop. He looks around at the ground to see the scattered remains of the monsters he defeated, then turns.

“Hey Corin-” Sonic pauses as he looks at a young girl in a blue jacket and wearing an office uniform, with short white hair, horns protruding out of her head, and blue skin. “You … are not Corin.”

The girl looks at him in astonishment, before jumping up and looking at him with excitement in her eyes. “You’re the guy! The blue guy!”

“You know me?” Sonic asks. 

The girl nods furiously. Then she stops and puts her finger on her chin. “But … Why did you save me? We’re here to beat you up.”

“Oh- Kid, saving people is wh-” He immediately stops himself as he processes the entire sentence. “... We are here to beat up who now?”

“Sokkaku duck!” Sonic hears a woman’s voice shout, with the girl in front of him responding by immediately crouching on the ground. As soon as she does, Sonic turns back to look at the building he ran through to see its tilted remains sliced in two by a gigantic blue slash. The slash pierces the air, and any part of the building it cuts is immediately frozen over in deep blue ice. He instantly leans back, barely getting his body low enough to dodge as blue snowflakes land around him. Jumping back up into place, he sees a woman in a skirt, dress clothes, and blue jacket with one sleeve unused. Her long black hair flows in the wind as her fox ears twitch. The light shines off her pristine blade as she sheathes it carefully, her eyes never leaving the blue hedgehog standing below the remains of the building she just sliced. She walks through the remains as she looks down at him.

“I am glad you dodged that, blue hedgehog.” She states. “I would hate for my ‘destroy evil speedster’ training to have been unwarranted."

Chapter Text

“Ellen, dear,” Rina says worriedly, turning her head away from a humanoid ethereal that is twice her size. She flicks her wrist as a web of electricity encases the creature from below, and a massive wave of blue lightning shoots upward that leaves nothing but a pile of ethereal ashes. “Slow down a bit. You are moving carelessly, and I fear you may get an injury.”

The grey haired maid floats off the ground as she approaches another group of green monsters, small jolts of static electricity crackling off her skirt and down to the ruined road just one foot below her. She stops moving when she sees two curved blades with shark-like patterns stab through two of the ethereals in the crowd. Then, they rapidly approach each other, slicing a third monster that was standing in between the two that had been standing between the two. All three creatures' top halves float in the air for a moment, before they all dissipate into glowing dust that gets blown into the mild winds of the hollow.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The sharkmaid replies, now fully visible thanks to the opening made by her scissor blades. She is wearing an angry scowl that is pointed at no one in particular, her hair is slightly unkempt which leaves more of the red in her hair visible, and she has sweat coming down her brow. “Behind me.”

Ellen stabs her blade into the cracked asphalt, then she grips onto the upper handle of her weapon as she jumps in the air and kicks one of the monsters that was about to take a swing at her. Then, bouncing off its chest, she spins around her weapon, making sure to use her feet to slam into every ethereal that surrounds her. As they hit the ground, each of them landed on a trail of electricity that encircled Ellen. Then, Rina claps her hands and all of them explode from a massive transfer of energy that goes straight into their bodies.

As the scattered remains of the ethereals disintegrate around them, Ellen leans against the long handle of her weapon and wipes away some sweat with a sigh. Rina floats closer to her with her arms folded. “You’re over exerting yourself.” She says matter-of-factly. “You almost never go overboard like this.”

“Shut up!” Ellen says aggressively, struggling as she pulls out the tip of her blade from the ground beneath them.

“You’re scared, aren’t you?” Rina says, ignoring Ellen’s outburst. “Sir Sonic is a tough cookie. I’m sure he can handle himself till we find him.”

“But he’s never been in a hollow before!” Ellen retorts, managing to remove her weapon from the ground and now giving Rina her full attention. “You saw how clueless he was- he doesn’t even have the carrot data like we do! Hell, he probably doesn’t have the slightest idea what carrot data even is!”

Rina calmly puts her hands on the shark girl’s shoulders, getting lower to be face-to-face with her. “I’m sure we’ll find him, dear. But you need to be at your best for us to do that. Now- breathe in …”

Ellen averts her gaze from Rina at first, but she brings the shark back to attention by cupping her cheek in the palm of her hand and refocusing her gaze. Ellen then reluctantly complies, breathing in for a moment and holding the breath.

“Good … now breathe out with me.”

The two then both let out a long breath, and Ellen’s heart rate begins to calm down. Rina lets go of Ellen as she calms herself, and turns to look at her phone. 

“Now, the activity is picking up this way. All of these ethereals have been fairly simple to deal with, I’m sure your new friend has been having a blast testing his abilities on them, and won’t even realize how lost he really got.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re right.” Ellen says, a small smile growing on her face as she gets ready to follow Rina, “I’m freaking out for nothing. What in this tiny hollow could possibly hurt him, anyways?”

-

A blue blur breaks through the first story window of a half-collapsed apartment complex. The blue hedgehog that caused the blur uncurls from a midair somersault before landing on the chipped sidewalk outside the building. He stands up straight and turns to look back at the hole he made, and sees the building get sliced completely in half, the two sides freezing over before the entire building collapses on either side.

Thanks to the slice that split the building, it parted with no rubble landing in the center. Footsteps can be heard as the swordswoman calmly walks down the path of her own design. Her sword is unsheathed, with glowing blue frostfire lighting up the shadowed walkway. Floating behind her is a black sphere, with one large eye, blue pupil, devil horns, and the same deep blue fire as the sword she wields. It gives the hedgehog an angry look, while the woman remains calm.

“Looks like my first move was wasted.” Miyabi states with no signs of disappointment. “Next time, I won’t hold Tailess’ power back.”

“Comeon,” Sonic says in annoyance, keeping a defensive stance, “I know I’m popular, but I have more important things to do than fight you, Ice Queen. Can this wait?”

A different woman’s voice chimes in, “More important than the law?”

Sonic turns his head slightly, looking at the rubble just behind his current attacker. “I know that voice …”

From behind the rubble, a tall woman with black hair in a thick pony tail that has red highlights and wearing a police uniform rushes into the scene. Her gun is drawn, and she instantly takes aim at the hedgehog. Next to her is a pink haired woman of near identical height and wearing an office uniform similar to that of the swordswoman. The second woman pulls a long and thin blade out of a sheathe that rests on her back, and its handle extends into a spear as she gets into a battle stance. Lastly, the blue skinned girl with white hair that Sonic just met enthusiastically skips up to the group, twirling a massive metal banner that is twice her size by its handle like it’s a baton.

“Hmph,” Zhu Yuan lets out. “I don’t know why you are in a suit now, but at least you are looking more presentable.”

“It’s you!” Sonic exclaims. “The cop lady- Zhu Yuan, right?” Sonic greets her with a smile, though there is a bit of arrogance in his tone. “Glad you noticed the new outfit, I got it from some new friends. You hanging with a new crowd, too? Last time there were the other two cops, uh …” Sonic takes a second to ponder, putting his hands on his temples as he thinks. He snaps his fingers in recognition. “Seth and Qingyi, that's it! Where’d they go?”

“They have more important things to deal with than a trouble maker like you.” Zhu Yuan replies, unamused.

“Harsh, I remember us at least talking to each other last time we did this dance.” Sonic says with a bit of disappointment.

“That was before you destroyed a quarter of the mall and injured several civilians.” Zhu Yuan states, her weapon and gaze never leaving the hedgehog. “You think I’d forget that cause you look a bit fancier?”

“Huh?” Sonic looks at her confused. “I don’t remember doing that …”

“Enough!” Yanagi interrupts the conversation. “Don’t let him distract you, Zhu Yuan.”

“Right.” Zhu Yuan replies. “Sonic the Hedgehog, you are under arrest for destruction of public property, resisting arrest, destruction of government property, assault, battery, and illegal exploration of the hollows-”

Sonic yawns loudly, cutting off the officer. Sokkaku chuckles at the exaggerated motion he makes, but stifles her laugh when Yanagi glares at her. “Look, I’m usually one to stop and smell the roses, but I don’t have the time to play cops and robbers right now.” He says. Sonic pulls back as he lifts one foot in the air, preparing to speed off. 

“Wait.”

Miyabi holds her now sheathed sword in her left arm as she uses her right hand to pull an item out of her pocket. Extending her hand outward, she reveals a glowing cyan gemstone. The perfectly cut stone shines as etheric matter radiates off of it.

“A Chaos Emerald?!” Sonic shouts, eyes wide in shock.

“So that’s what it’s called.” Yanagi mutters to herself.

“So we were right,” Miyabi says with a smile, “You do know what this stone is.”

Sonic sighs, leaving his running stance and relaxing himself. “Well, you have my attention now. I’m gonna need that Emerald, lady.”

“You may refer to me as Miyabi of the Hoshimi family.” Miyabi states as she returns the gem to her pocket. She shifts her stance, letting her right leg extend outwards as her left bends to allow her to lower her body. She puts her free hand onto the handle of her blade. “And you may have this ‘emerald’ if you manage to best my blade in battle. But I warn you-”

Her blade begins to leave its sheathe once again, and as it does a blaze of blue fire streams out of it. The light that is emitted by the fire spreads so much, it makes Miyabi’s companions break their formation to step away from her, and is even enough to make Sonic cover his eyes with one hand. As soon as he does, he hears the sound of a single step and moves his hand away to see the front of the blade directly in front of his face. He squats to his maximum ability, managing to get low enough to avoid a full force slash, though it does shave off a few quills from the top of his head. 

Without moving her sword away from its position, the Fox-eared woman finishes her previous sentence. “My blade doesn’t fall to villains.”

She flicks her wrist, spinning her blade in her hand so that it swings to where Sonic is currently positioned. He instantly notices the motion, leaving an after image with how quickly he gets out the way. Sonic gets behind her and winds up a kick, but without turning around Miyabi uses the sheathe of her blade that is in left hand to strike Sonic in the gut. He is sent back several feet but catches himself. By the time he turns back to look at Miyabi, she is already preparing a thrusting attack in his direction. Rather than duck,  Sonic quickly jumps into the air, doing the splits so that his legs aren’t caught in the attack. He somersaults, then uses his hands to put his bodyweight onto the back of the blade so that he can spin his legs, doing a spin kick in an almost breakdance-like motion.

Miyabi is sent backwards by the impact of Sonic’s sole onto her face, tumbling before stabbing her sword into the ground to stop herself from going further back. She pushes herself off her knees and back onto her feet as Sonic talks to her. “Maybe try to be a little more careful, Miyabi. I just got this outfit- I wouldn’t want to stain these new shoes with your face.”

“I’d be more worried about those gloves.” Miyabi says, unfazed.

“Huh?” Sonic lets out in confusion, glancing down at his hands to see the black gloves he got from Ellen and Corin earlier in the day now starting to burn from the same blue fire of the blade he just touched. Under the fire, they begin to freeze into dark blue ice. “Woah- bad touch bad touch!” Sonic yelps, ripping off the gloves and throwing them to the side.

“Bad touch, indeed.” Miyabi says while nodding. “The Foxfire of my blade shows no mercy to any who come into contact with it. Not that I will, either.”

She looks on as Sonic is replacing his previous pair of gloves with white ones that are more baggy that he pulled out of his pocket. “Yeah yeah, catch the bad guy and all that. You guys said I destroyed a mall?” Sonic shakes his head and chuckles. “I haven’t even been to any malls.”

Miyabi is already back in a fighting stance, with Sonic getting into a running pose at the same time. “The store I saw in ruins was a clothing store, and here you stand in attire that doesn’t match the footage I saw from the police chase.” She replies, and they both immediately dash at each other.

Miyabi’s blade is already swiping at Sonic, and he slides across the ground to avoid the blow.

“Ok, I can see why that might be suspicious.” He says in response to her previous sentence.

The swordswoman ponders without stopping. “You say that like you didn’t actually do it.”

Miyabi immediately performs several slashes in quick succession, with Sonic rapidly avoiding each one. With every failed slash, Sonic leaves an afterimage while he himself moves several paces back. Dust rises from the destroyed asphalt Miyabi leaves from her attack, and as it falls, she sees Sonic charging up a spindash in front of her, already in a curled position that is moving fast enough to send the dust away in every possible direction. 

He launches forward in her direction, almost breaking the sound barrier with that alone, and as she moves her blade to block the blow, Sonic curves his spin attack to hit the ground instead. It instantly bounces off the road and hits her right in her side. She gets staggered immediately as Sonic bounces off of her, and sheathes her blade so she can free one of her hands. While she does this, Sonic’s spin attack is already barrelling across the ground and slams into her again, throwing her backwards as she tumbles across the ground. She uses her hands to stop herself, and looks upwards to see Sonic’s attack descending from the air above. She turns her body to let her back rest on the ground and uses both hands to brace her blade for Sonic’s attack, using the solid sheathe to block his attack.

Miyabi winces as sparks fly from the friction of Sonic’s spinning on the sheathed sword that is blocking it. “That’s because I really didn’t do it!” Sonic says as he continues his strike.

Miyabi manages to overpower the hedgehog enough to push him off of her, then while he is briefly disoriented, she pushes off the ground with her arms to kick him in midair with both legs. Sonic flies back several meters before he hits the ground. While he begins to pick himself up, Miyabi continues to speak. “The witnesses recounted a blue three foot figure with the proportions of a young thiren, and it moved at speeds fast enough to leave nothing but a blue blur.”

Sonic holds his head as he stands, the last fall clearly hurting slightly. ‘Dang, that does sound like me,’ he thinks to himself, ‘Don’t tell me …’

“Let me add, Sonic the Hedgehog, I have never met someone as fast as you in all of New Eridu, myself included.”

“Thanks, I try.”

“Of course.” Miyabi bows briefly at his thanks, then she continues her point. “But you can see why that talent makes you the only possible suspect.”

Sonic continues to ponder for a moment, before his face lights up. “Haha!” Sonic lets out a brief laugh, confusing his opponent. “I see what happened now!”

“What?” Miyabi asks with genuine curiosity.

"You're getting me confused with my robot double, Metal Sonic. He must have got sent to this dimension with me along with everyone else.” Sonic shrugs as if it’s no big deal. “Don’t worry, you’re not the first one to confuse me with a faker. No hard feelings.”

Miyabi gives him a deadpan expression, causing the hedgehog to get slightly nervous.

“You … You don’t believe a word of what I just said, do you?”

“Not in the slightest, no. Harumasa has better lies when he wants me to give him paid time off.” She raises her weapon up, holding it vertically as she uses her hand to slowly unsheathe her weapon. “It's ok, though. I’m not good at lying either. That tells me you don’t do it very often.”

“But I’m not lying now! I really do have a robotic doub-” Sonic pauses as he thinks about his sentence. “Ugh, forget it.” He grins, putting his arms up and widening his stance. “I’m too invested in this fight, anyways.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.” Miyabi says, her sword fully unsheathed once again, Blue flames radiating off both her and her blade, and a small smile on her face. “I’d hate for anything less than your best during my third move.”

-

“Ugh, can you believe they have us on security detail for the security room.” A man with a rough voice and clad in high tech militaristic armor states with annoyance.

He is standing to the right of an average door that rests at the end of a long hallway. The room the door leads to causes a fork in the hallway, meaning that there is a corridor on either side of the room that continues through the facility. On the other side of the same door, a woman wearing the same armor continues to look down the hallway, merely rolling her eyes at her coworker’s remark.

“Look, just do your job. I don’t want you causing me to lose my place.” She continues to not look at him and remains at attention, her scowl being the only form of a response he can gather.

 “I know, I know.” He says, holding his arms up defensively. “Do your job, and the prophet will lead us along the real path to the-”

The woman twitches for a moment as she processes what the other false soldier said outloud, and then aggressively uses her hand to cover his mouth, now giving him her full attention and glaring. “Shut up! You know we have to keep ourselves hidden. Not everyone sees the truth like us.” She has him pinned against the wall next to the door, and he is struggling to break out of her grip. “If I hear you speak out in a way that could get me expelled again, I will-”

“U-uh. E-excuse me … I was wondering if you two c-could step away from that door there? Please?”

The two armored guards slowly turn to look down the hall, and draped in shadows is a young girl, no older than high school age. She has green hair, with two long pigtails. She is wearing a maid outfit, with its rounded skirt going up to her knees and her entire outfit being covered in larger-than-average metal screws. She cowers slightly as she talks, and is leaning against a large polearm or staff of some kind, though its upper half is unseeable due to the darkness.

“What the hell am I looking at?” The woman says, starting to let go of her coworker and looking at the girl. She immediately points her pistol in the girl’s direction. “You have two seconds to explain yourself before I open fire!”

As she finishes her sentence, she hears a thump come from behind her, and glances down to see the other guard slumped on the floor, droll coming out of his mouth. Before she can turn to do something, her neck is in a chokehold, and she feels the powerful biceps of her assailant begin to crush her throat. The hand that rests on her head has claws that she can feel, but that are being used just delicately enough to not pierce her skin. The arms that wrap around her are covered in white fur and leather.

“It’d behoove you to treat the young lady with more respect.” An elegant male voice says to her just as she is about to black out from lack of oxygen.

Lycaon lets go of the woman and lets her hit the ground. He uses his leg to scoot the two bodies to the side, and begins to re-adjust the cuffs of his sleeves as he does so.

“Mr. Lycaon … was I not polite enough?” Corin asks, looking embarrassed as she carefully steps around one of the two soldiers Lycaon is moving.

The large wolf lowers himself slightly so that he can pat the maid on the back. “You were perfect, Corin. These ones here just don’t have any manners.” He goes back to standing straight and turns to face the door. “You don’t need to bother with the niceties with the ones inside, I doubt they are any better.”

Corin adamantly nods in response, and prepares her chainsaw as Lycaon takes a step towards the door.

He lifts his foot so that it is flush with the door, then lets the engine in his metallic leg activate as he shoots a powerful kick with very little wind up. The door cracks at the point of impact, but its form holds as it is launched off its hinges and into the room behind it and it bounces off the desk that rests in the middle of the room. The duo then immediately rushes in, Corin’s chainsaw already spinning and ready for an attack and Lycaon with his claws and fangs visible as he stays close to Corin.

They are met with silence, and they look around the room to see that it is filled with various large computers, and on the wall parallel to them is a network of smaller screens that all have security footage of various areas in the facility they have infiltrated. A groan can be heard from the ground, and the two look down to see several people on the ground, unconscious. The only one still making a sound is the one who the door fell on top of.

“What … h-happen here?” Corin asks as her chainsaw slowly stops whirring.

Lycaon kneels down and lifts the arm of one of the knocked out personnel of the security room. He puts two fingers on their wrist. “Pulse is steady, but someone was here, and they were efficient. We aren’t the only people infiltrating.”

Corin walks closer to the security camera grid. She examines the screens from bottom to top, and as she looks just above the last screen, she sees a large air vent in the ceiling. Its covering is partially unscrewed, and it dangles off its hinges by a single remaining screw. “Mr. Lycaon! I-I think … s-someone came in using the vents.”

Lycaon stands back up, walking closer to the middle table, which is mostly clear of items. There is an open box of donuts off on the side closest to the security grid, with several half eaten donuts inside. At the center of the table, is a single card, with a design and some cursive writing. He lifts it off the table and examines it closer. The card is plain white, and in the center there is a logo of a bird flying in the air. Across the card, the single word of cursive is written in purple ink. It says; ‘Mockingbird’.

“No-” Lycaon’s face drops slightly, and as soon as he finishes reading the card he turns to look at Corin. As soon as he moves, the fur on the back of his head raises in alarm. Instinctively, he curves his body to allow himself to kick directly behind himself, and before he can look, he can feel his metallic leg clash with another metal of equal strength. He glances backwards while not losing any ground on his clash, and manages to catch a glimpse of a tall man in a blue suit. Both him and his assailant jump backwards at the same time, with Lycaon standing in front of Corin.

Taking a good look at this new enemy, Lycaon’s eyes shine with recognition. The man in front of him is the same height as him, pale skinned, and has two different colored eyes, with one being off-grey while the other is a piercing shade of red. His ears are sharp like an elf’s, and his long blond hair is held in a low ponytail. He wears a royal blue dress shirt and has a black blazer with only one sleeve being worn, while the other hangs off his shoulder. He is wearing black dress pants that go just below the ankles, and his shoes of choice are oxfords. He has a black leather glove on the hand that is not sleeved, and it is holding a thick, high tech, metallic briefcase with three parallel openings that are currently closing up after the attack he just performed. The man is made mostly of lean muscle, and stands with grace to match Lycaon’s posture. The wolf man growls at the man in front of him.

“What’s wrong, Lycaon?” The man asks mockingly, “It almost seems like you aren’t happy to see me.”

“Hugo.” He says with dread in his voice. “What could you possibly gain by being here?”

The blond man, Hugo, approaches Lycaon, dramatically leaning against him while he continues to talk. “Can I not just visit you, My oldest friend?”

Lycaon does not turn to face him, and his expression remains deadpanned. “No. We hate each other, remember?”

“Ugh, that’s all water under the bridge.” Hugo refutes. He pushes himself off Lycaon, and sits on the table in the center of the room, crossing one leg over the other. “But fine, be that way. Now you asked what I could gain by being here, correct?”

Corin pops her head out from behind Lycaon in curiosity, attempting to see what is going on between the two other people in the room. She really only manages to see Hugo’s cocky expression, due to Lycaon’s tail moving erratically.

“Tell me, my dear ex-partner,” The pale man begins to ask, “have you heard of the Chaos Emeralds?” Both Lycaon and Corin gasp.

“You cannot be serious,” Lycaon says with anger, grabbing Hugo’s tie and pulling him in to intimidate him. “Hugo, you cannot seriously be considering grabbing that gemstone to boost Mockingbird’s reputation. Do you know what power they possess?”

“Tsk,” Hugo makes an annoyed expression, pushing Lycaon away. He puts his arms on his hips as the two glare at each other. “Do you still just see us as petty thieves?! I know what these Emeralds can do, which is precisely why I …” 

Hugo cuts off his own sentence as he looks towards the young maid standing next to Lycaon, who is raising her hand while also closing her eyes in nervousness.

“Yes Corin?” He asks, with Lycaon getting distracted and turning to look at her as well.

“I- uhm- I-I- was ju-just wondering …” She stumbles over her words for a moment before continuing. “H-how could Mr. Hugo know about the n-names of the- uhm … stones Sir S-Sonic needs?” She finishes her sentences with her eyes still closed.

The two pause for a moment, with Hugo breaking the silence with genuine laughter. He walks up to Corin and gives her a pat on the head. “Very perceptive, Corin! Even your tired old boss didn’t say anything about that.” He turns to Lycaon and sticks his tongue out at him, with Lycaon rolling his eyes.

“T-thank you!” She replies, finally opening her eyes.

“Are you going to answer the question?” Lycaon says.

“Hm. Fair enough, I figure we might as well play nice.” Hugo states, then he snaps his fingers with the hand that isn’t holding his briefcase.

Corin yelps as she hears the sound of heels stepping behind her. She slowly turns to see a woman who is a bit taller than herself. The woman has long light purple hair with white highlights. She walks with elegance as she holds an umbrella over herself, keeping her face shrouded in shade. He white dress has black frills that sway as she walks, and her legs are covered by black tights. “Ugh, I thought you two would never stop flirting.” The woman says with a glare. She shifts the umbrella slightly, letting Corin get a look at the woman, seeing that she has sharp ears, similar to that of Hugo. Her eyes are ruby red with hints of purple, and she has a small beauty mark just below her left eye.

“Ah, Miss Banshee,” Lycaon states, recomposing himself, “I knew I smelled you in the room.”

“Just Vivian is fine.” She replies simply.

“But,” The wolf holds his snout in the air, as if attempting to scout the area, “there's someone else too, isn’t there?”

The group hears a thump on the table, with only Corin being startled, as she jumps in the air in fear. Vivian catches her with little effort, letting her umbrella rest in her elbow to avoid it falling on the ground. With their attention on the table, the group sees a woman, close to Sonic’s height, who is wearing a black and purple jumpsuit with pink accents, and a smaller pink heart at her chest. She has white gloves that go up to her elbows, and purple boots that have more hearts at the end of each of them. She has dark purple bat wings, large bat ears, white fur, and green eyes that are accented by her blue eyeshadow. In her arms is the head of some kind of machine with red eyes that is covered in yellow plating. “Wow, you are good, hon.” The lady states, clearly impressed.

“Lycaon, Corin, allow me to introduce Mockingbird’s newest ally, Rouge the Bat.”

“A pleasure.” Rouge says, taking a graceful bow.

“Attention. I am here as well." A robotic voice lets out, coming from Rouge’s dimension. Vivian groans in annoyance when she hears this, having just put Corin down and now helping her pick up her chainsaw.

“Ahem, our two newest allies,” Hugo adds, chuckling slightly, “That is Omega.”

“I may not have a body, but I would not have bowed even if I did have one.” The robotic voice adds, Lycaon now recognizes that it is coming from the machine in Rouge’s arms.

“Charming.” Lycaon says, deadpanned.

“Mr. Lycaon!” Corin exclaims. “Sir Sonic mentioned these two in his s-story!”

“That he did, Corin.” He says with a nod. “Looks like this is the second hunch of his that is right.”

“Oh, Big Blue already got you up to speed,” Rouge says to the butler and maid duo, using her wings to fly off the table and slowly float to the security console behind them, “He’s always been good at that.”

The group watches as Rouge begins to hook Omega up to the console, resting him on top of it as she works. Corin stays close to Lycaon, while Vivian looks away from the group, disinterested. “Rouge here arrived weeks before her compatriots.” Hugo starts. “Her intelligent construct companion, Omega, was alongside her, but its body was way too damaged to be operational. However, as fate would have it, this one here can continue to operate with just a head.”

“We were at the epicenter of the blast when it went off, and Omega had to use his body to shield me from the energy wave that sent everyone from my world to yours.” Rouge says, continuing for Hugo. 

“Chaos Control, Sonic called it.” Lycaon adds.

“Correct.” Rouge replies. “Did Sonic explain how the emeralds work?”

“Only vaguely. Something about them being a power source, and him turning golden and stopping calamities using all seven of them.”

Rouge rolls her eyes, typing away at the keyboard before turning to face the wolf. “Of course he’d explain it like that.” Omega, on the console, stays silent as his eyes turn black. Blue slowly begins creeping up them, and he begins to repeat the phrase ‘downloading’ over and over.

“The Emeralds are more than just a power source. They allow for the complete manipulation of time and space. Teleportation, spatial distortion, slowing down or even stopping time. Those all can be done with one or two of the emeralds.”

“Quite the powerful trinkets.” Hugo says matter-of-factly.

“Which is why you want them, I presume.” Lycaon says, anger starting to set back in.

“No.” Hugo says in defiance. “I told you, we are not so petty as to attempt to obtain the Emeralds for selfish gain alone.”

“Well,” Rouge interrupts, “I certainly am.”

Hugo ignores her and continues. “Tell me, Lycaon, what are Hollows?”

Lycaon answers immediately. “Simple. Hollows are supernatural disasters that appear due to the condensation of ether in the air, and form into black bubbles which contain a dimension of distorted … space …” Lycaon ponders as he speaks, realization appearing in his expression.

“Now you are getting it aren’t you.” Hugo says, expression remaining serious. “With just one of these ‘Chaos Emeralds’, you can have full control over a Hollow and how it distorts space.”

Lycaon stays silent as he processes what he is hearing.

“Sadly, what you are realizing now, another group figured out nearly two weeks ago, when the first Emerald was discovered.”

“But … H.A.N.D. only got their hands on an emerald a few days ago?” Lycaon states, confused.

“They weren’t the first group to find one, dear Lycaon.”

“Then who?!”

“It was The Exaltists.” Vivian says, keeping her gaze away from the others. The room goes silent, with the tension in Vivian's words being enough to give everyone goosebumps. She lets the air sit before she continues. “We noticed a faction shoot from The Exaltists about 8 days ago, and it was during that investigation we ran into Rouge while she was already in the process of hunting down her world’s sacred gemstones.”

“The only good thing about being so close to the blast is that me and Omega seem to have ended up here much sooner than the others.” Rouge adds.

“We had an, ahem, brief scuffle,” She looks slightly embarrassed before she regains her composure, “but managed to realize we were after the same thing. Her skills rival mine and Hugo’s, so it became obvious that we should join forces to stop them.”

“Well, dear, I’m just trying to go home. I leave the hero-ing to Sonic and Shadow.” Rouge says, waving her hand as if to shoo away Vivian’s sentiment. “If someone benefits from me taking my gemstones back home with me, well, that’s just a bonus.”

“The point is, you can trust us on this one, Lycaon.” Hugo concludes. He then extends his arm outwards, hand open. “What do you say about being partners again, for this? You know the Proxies would love to know we are getting along.”

Lycaon ponders for a moment, fixating on Hugo’s hand.

“Well?” Hugo says.

Lycaon takes Hugo’s hand, gripping it tight. He gives it a firm shake, then smiles at his old friend. “It’d be my honour.”

“Glad you finally got your boyfriend in on this,” Rouge says, causing both Lycaon and Hugo to glare at her, “because we are going to need all the help we can get. Omega just finished, come look at this.”

The group all walk up to the security grid, looking up at the network of screens, which are currently displaying nothing but static.

The screens all light up at the same time, displaying the same camera feed. The perspective comes from the upper corner of a room, which seems to have a circle on the ground and an altar in the middle of it. The circle is made of some kind of glowing purple sludge, and around that sludge are several people in pure white robes who are all bowing down towards the altar. Resting on it is a glowing dark blue gemstone, its perfect cut is clearly that of a diamond.

“Well, that gem in the middle is clearly a Chaos Emerald,” Rouge states, “I’m assuming the cultists in white are your Exaltists.”

“Tsk, that’s them.” Vivian says, nothing but malice in her voice.

“W-what is that purple stuff? The s-sludge that looks like M-miss Rina’s cooking?” Corin asks.

“Miasma, Corin.” Hugo states. “You can tell by its texture and the way it glows.”

“What is Miasma doing outside here of all places?” Lycaon asks. “Isn’t it native to Lemnian Hollow?”

“Shush.” Vivian says, holding a finger over her mouth. “Something is happening.”

The group continues to watch as a tall figure in a white robe walks into frame. They have a white and gold helmet, though its features are covered by their hood. The robe has gold edges and accents, and the person’s hands have seven rings, with each ring having a different colored gemstone.

“Is the ritual ready?” The hooded figure asks.

“Yes, our prophet. The gem is now subservient to you, and will do as you command.” One of the cultists states.

“And what do all of you have to say about your roles in my ascension?” The hooded figure asks, walking over the miasma and standing in front of the gem, their hand outstretched to touch it.

“May the Creator refine us!” The group all chant in unison.

“Very good.” The hooded figure says, grasping the dark blue gemstone in their palm. “Now for your reward.”

They exert some effort, with a very audible grunt being made, but when they do, the room is shined in a blinding blue light. When the light subsides, the altar and miasma are now no longer around them, and from out of frame, the altar comes crashing down onto the ground and the miasma lands on all the cultists that surround the ritual. They all immediately begin screaming, the room being filled with their shrieks as they shift into something unnatural, corrupted flesh turning white and purple and growing off of them while crystals form around their bodies.

“My god …” Lycaon lets out, while Corin cowers while covering her eyes and Hugo looks on in disgust. Vivian doesn’t speak, but she is forming a fist with such force that her nails dig into her skin. Rouge manages to keep her composure, pausing the recording.

“Look.” She states simply, flying upwards and pointing at a point on the screen. “Omega, replay that.”

“The group then rewatch the footage, paying attention to where Rouge was pointing. This time, they manage to spot one of the cultists in the ritual begin to move just as the flash of light subsides, and uses her robe to protect herself from bits of miasma, tossing it to the side as she quickly moves into the shadows and out of frame. The woman wasn’t very visible thanks to both the robes and shade, but she has a rat's tail.

“Incredible. That rat thiren managed to get out of the way when the heretic did … whatever that was.” Lycaon says.

“That, hon, was Chaos Control.” Rouge states. “And I’ve never seen it reposition a room like that.”

“What does that mean for us?” Hugo asks.

“It means that the Chaos Emeralds might be able to do more to the hollows than we first suspected.” Rouge says seriously.

“Then we need to get the emerald way from them as soon as possible.” Lycaon states.

“Hold on now,” Hugo interjects, “We need to know more. Vivian, does this ritual seem familiar?”

“I … I  don’t know.” Vivan says, exasperated. “I never saw anything involving a so-called ‘Prophet’ or this ritual when the Exaltists had me as a child.”

“So a new sect, then?” Lycaon asks.

“Maybe.” Hugo responds.

“Attention.” Omega interrupts. “There is more that I believe might be of interest.”

“Well don’t keep us in suspense, Omega. Play it.” Rouge responds.

Omega does as he is asked, and the video continues from after the group of Exaltists begin being corrupted.

“Hm?” The hooded figure asks, directing his question to the stone. “Are you pulling me somewhere, O great gemstone?” The gem shines, almost in response. “Hahahaha! Glorious! You must surely be smiling upon me. I will follow your wisdom!” He then shouts like a madman in a room full of monsters, and the creatures begin to slowly approach him.

“Ether … Control!” He lets out loudly, now floating off the ground while holding the emerald in the air, and a flash of blue light once again covers the room. When the light subsides, the room is empty. No so-called 'prophet', no ethereals, no miasma, and no Chaos Emerald. The only thing left in the room is a destroyed altar. Omega then ends the video feed.

“Oh.” Rouge says, the rest of the room silent from shock. “Well that can’t be good.”

-

“Is her third move still not over yet?!” Zhu Yuan asks, running along a road that lies parallel to a fully collapsed high rise building. She glances up to see dozens of waves of solid blue ice being launched downward towards the other side of the building, with a certain fox-eared swordswoman in the middle of the air, slashing multiple times in a second and sending another wave downward with each slash. While Zhu Yuan cannot see it, she can hear the concrete ground being destroyed on the other side.

“You’ve known the Chief longer than us, is this really a surprise?” Yanagi answers her, running just behind the officer with her spear already drawn.

Zhu Yuan continues her sprint with her gun drawn, but turns her head to look at Yanagi. “Not really, no.”

“Go Chief!” The two hear the voice of a younger girl shout from above, and glance up and see Sokkaku following them while running on top of the currently-sideways building. She is dragging her metal banner along the bricks with both arms, but it doesn’t seem to be taking much effort to do so.

“Sokkaku! Get down from there before-” Yanagi shouts in a panic before being interrupted.

The two women look on as the building is sliced in two vertically, with Sokkaku jumping forward to avoid the attack. Then, the building is split into fourths with a horizontal slash. Each slash leaves the building slightly frozen over, and the now iced over building shatters under its own weight. “Sokkaku!”

Zhu Yuan stops in her tracks as the pink haired deputy chief turns on her heels and runs towards the now falling blue oni. For a moment, the officer notices her companion’s red eyes crackle with blue energy, and after she turns, her entire body is emanating a blue aura as electricity crackles on the ground with each step.

Yanagi, now approaching where Sokkaku will fall, briefly spins her spear along her arm to reposition it. The clock that rests just beneath its blade begins turning backwards as the electricity grows larger and stronger. Then, the world slows down around her. Yanagi sees each piece of frozen debris fall in slow motion, and leaps into the air, using the near-still debris as platforms to ascend higher. She then reaches Sokkaku, who is falling so slowly that Yanagi can pluck her out of the air, and then holds her close as she uses one more piece of the building as a stepping stone to safely land on the ground, bracing the Sokkaku for the landing as she does so. Then, time catches up with her, and Zhu Yuan watches as a blue afterimage of  Yanagi goes through all the motions Yanagi did in real time, not even taking a second for it to happen from her point of view.

“Big Sis!” Sokkaku exclaims, hugging Yanagi as the two hold each other. Yanagi puts her down as Zhu Yuan jogs up to the two of them. “You caught me!”

“You need to be more careful, Sokkaku.” Yanagi scolds.

Sokaku hangs her head in shame before Zhu Yuan speaks to the two of them. “You might have to save the scolding for later, it seems like this is far from over.”

The three look on as a certain blue hedgehog stands in the rubble of the destroyed building. His back is turned to the group as he stares down his opponent. His entire outfit is covered in scratches and small ice fragments, and his vest is almost entirely ripped apart.

“You almost got me that time!” Sonic exclaims. “You definitely got my outfit, that's for sure.”

“With all due respect,” Miyabi responds as she walks through the destroyed landscape, her sword still blazing with blue frostfire, “If you got away from my Shimotsuki with nothing but tattered clothes, I’d say you have nothing to complain about.”

“I’m not complaining,” Sonic states, dropping the destroyed vest on the ground and unbuttoning the tattered dress shirt. “Leaving that on was so uncomfortable.”

Miyabi waits for Sonic to finish taking off his shirt without moving.

“I appreciate you waiting, but you’re creeping me out with how still you are.”

“Well, once I’ve sheathed my sword, I’d have concluded my third move.” Miyabi states, starting to put her sword back in its sheathe as she talks. “You’re one of the strongest opponents I’ve ever faced, and I figured I’d show my respect by giving you the chance to get ready before the real operation begins.”

“The … real operation?” Sonic questions.

The lock on Miyabi’s blade clicks into place, and as soon as it does, Sonic’s quills immediately stand on end in an instinctual anticipation. Sonic ducks forward and goes onto all fours as he feels the air sliced above him, and he glances up to see the pink haired woman from earlier using a spear to complete a slashing attack. He goes for a sweeping kick, which the woman jumps over, and as soon as she does, Sonic sees Zhu Yuan several meters away with the barrel of her weapon pointed directly at him. He is blasted by condensed purple energy before he can get himself off the ground, and the impact sends him flying backwards into a larger piece of debris. He holds his head in pain, and looks up to see the horned blue girl waving her massive banner in his direction. It releases a massive gust of freezing air, with its radius being twice as tall as Sonic himself, and the blue hedgehog jumps out the way and curls into a roll to avoid the blow. He uncurls and uses his feet as brakes, turning back to see the rock that caught him before now completely frozen over by the girl’s attack, with the ice reaching several meters in the air.

“I have had enough ice for today, thank you.” Sonic says in surprise and frustration.

Zhu Yuan sends several blasts of ether energy his way, which Sonic manages to swiftly dodge. While he does so, the four assailants group together.

“Suddenly, this is feeling a lot less fair.” Sonic says, his expression dropping slightly.

“Worry about fairness after we arrest you.” Zhu Yuan states.

“Sorry Sonic, our training is over.” Miyabi states, disappointment in her voice.

“Chief … Do you have to be that disappointed to do your job?” Yanagi says, watching Miyabi’s ears droop slightly. “What about ‘eradicating evil’?”

Miyabi looks at Sonic one more time, who is currently stretching as the group talks. She doesn’t say anything.

“Big Sis, Big Sis! The Chief has that expression- the one you don’t like!” Sokkaku exclaims.

“Chieeeef …” Yanagi whines, making Sokkaku chuckle.

“It’s just, while we were fighting, I detected no malice coming from him. He doesn’t feel like your average criminal.”

Zhu Yuan sighs, not taking her eyes off Sonic. “Miyabi, please don’t tell me you want to let him go so you can fight him later.”

“Well, personally, I like that idea.” Sonic says, chiming in.

“Shut up!” Both Zhu Yuan and Yanagi yell in unison.

“Woah woah, I know you guys have this whole ‘Anti-Sonic Squad’ thing going on,” Sonic says mockingly, “but there's no need to be so aggressive.”

“That’s not our name!” Zhu Yuan retorts.

Sokkaku hums in satisfaction. “But it does sound really cool, right?”

“No it doesn’t.” Yanagi states.

“Yes it does.” Miyabi counters.

“Stop it, Chief!” Yanagi says in exasperation, watching Miyabi give Sokkaku a high five as the girl giggles.

Sonic looks on as the group bickers, contemplating his options. ‘This is clearly getting me nowhere. If it was anyone else, I could just run up and take the emerald out of her pocket.’ Sonic thinks. ‘If I do that, though, I know she will get me. She’s caught me trying to take it out of her pocket multiple times this fight. And if this group manages to be as coordinated as they were at the start … they could actually catch me.’ The hedgehog turns his head to look at the landscape. ‘Running isn’t an option, either. Clearly there's something stopping me from traveling normally, it would be stupid to leave the only people I’ve managed to find, even if they do want to catch me. Better to get stuck with them than be lost in this place till I croak.’ Sonic looks up in the air as he ponders, using his hand to massage his chin. ‘What did the big bad wolf say? Something about eventual corruption. That engine thing I got is supposed to slow that down, right? Slowing down is very different to stopping. I’ll just turn myself in and break out later. Heck, best case scenario I’m locked up wherever they took the Tornado, I know Tails will be happy about that.’ 

As Sonic continues to look up, he sees purple matter begin to materialize in the sky. It immediately starts falling, and after it does, Sonic sees that there are new monsters, ones with purple crystals instead of green ones, that are falling with the glowing purple substance.

“Look out, everyone!” Sonic shouts, immediately cutting off the bickering group in front of him. Zhu Yuan, Yanagi, and Sokkaku all immediately get defensive, pointing their weapons in Sonic’s direction, but instead see him grab a large piece of the destroyed building and use it to shield his head from above. They look confused, but finally glance up when they notice the shrieks of the falling ethereals. 

Just as the glowing miasma is about to fall onto the three of them, a blue slash freezes it over and lets it shatter into air. Then, a second slash blocks another wave of miasma without leaving her position, Miyabi manages to slash away at every strand of the purple matter that was about to fall upon her friends.

She takes a few steps forward, now standing in front of the startled group. “A sneak attack. How shameless.” The ethereals all land on the ground, snarling. Unlike the green monsters that scatter the desolate landscape, there are hints of human beings scattered along their bodies, most of their clothes on even corrupted, making their white robes very visible.

“Phew,” Zhu Yuan lets out in relief. “That was a close one. Thanks, Miyabi.”

“Are those … Exaltists corrupted by miasma?” Yanagi asks.

“Looks like it.” Miyabi states. “They already have cores, which means they are beyond saving. Let's put them out of their misery.”

“Right!” Her three companions reply, springing to action.

‘Miasma, huh?’ Sonic throws away the rock he used to shield himself, with it now being covered in that same purple matter. ‘Yet another thing to not touch around here.’ He looks on as Zhu Yuan blasts her way through one of the corrupted monsters. She does a tactical slide as one takes a swipe at her, and while it is disoriented, she switches out the shells on her gun and sends a massive wave of energy right through the monster. Behind her, Miyabi and Yanagi are slashing away at several of the creatures, each of them being able to handle multiple at the same time. ‘Where's the blue one?’ Sonic says, trying to find the last member of the ‘Anti Sonic Squad’.

Sokkaku, on the other side of the battlefield, is using her metal banner as a bludgeoning weapon, crushing one of the monsters down into the ground. It disintegrates as it dies, and as it disappears, the girl wipes sweat off her brow. “Phew! These guys are a bit tougher than the thin ones.” Sokkaku says, slightly winded.

As soon as she takes a moment to rest, a flash blue light blinds the area. As the light subsides, a tall figure in a white robe looms over. They have a white hood, and their entire outfit has gold accents. Their face is covered by a white and gold mask, with that mask having a fake face on it that only has eyes and a nose, no mouth. Their hands are adorned with seven rings, each of which has a different colored gemstone. They are holding a dark blue gemstone in their left hand, while their right hand is extended outwards, their palm open and facing the blue skinned girl in front of them.

“You are in my way.” The figure says, their voice being enough to freeze Sokaku in fear for a moment as she tries to turn around.

Purple energy matching that of Zhu Yuan’s attacks flickers around the hooded heretic’s body, and, and the emerald in their other hand glows as the energy changes to match the color of the emerald.

Every other person in the area finally manages to regain their vision after being disoriented, and watches as a massive wave of energy begins to form several feet in front of Sokkaku, with the girl helpless in fear. Each of the three women in the area rush towards her, with Yanagi moving faster than her companions as she slows down time, blue energy trailing behind her. Even with her increased speed, she sees that the figure in front of Sokkaku has not slowed down, along with their energy. She grips her spear tighter, the clock rewinding even faster and blood beginning to drop from her nose as she exerts herself. ‘It’s not enough.’ Yanagi thinks to herself. ‘I need to move faster.’

“Not today!” Sonic’s voice says, a blue blur cutting through the crowd of fallen monsters and panicked fighters. He manages to get in front of Sokkaku, pulling her close to himself so that he can lift her up to pull her away. He puts himself in between her and the energy, but as he tries to lift her, he gets weighed down by her massive metal weapon, which she has gripped so tightly that he can’t take her without it.

The grin he was wearing immediately disappears from his face “Oh no.”

A massive sphere of blue energy engulfs both Sonic and Sokkaku, with both of them screaming out as they disappear in the blue light. When the energy disappears, there is nothing but a perfectly spherical crater where the two of them once were, with both Sonic and Sokkaku having completely vanished, along with their screams.

Zhu Yuan, Miyabi, and Yanagi stop in their tracks, all three of them in complete shock.

Yanagi falls to her knees, dropping her spear and letting the blood pour out of her nose as tears form in her eyes. “Sokakkuuu!” She wails in agony.

Chapter Text

Hey guys! A bit unorthodox, but I wanted to update you all. So ... this week SHOULD have been the final Chapter of the 'Trials and Trainings' Agent Story. Key word being 'SHOULD'.

See, I might have taken my original outline and expanded on it. Then expanded on it again. And again. So- what should have been a 6k-8k Chapter has ballooned into a 13k+ Chapter. That's twice the length of my other chapters, and I really didn't account for this. So I'm gonna be blunt, you guys are gonna have to wait one more week while I keep on cooking.

So, here's the good news: You guys are gonna get the longest chapter yet. Bad news: You have to wait an extra week. But you're basically getting two chapters at once so I'm prettyyyyy sure it evens out.

In other news, I'm gonna take a one week break AFTER the end of 'Trails and Trainings' to prepare for the next Agent Story, 'Three Geniuses Walk into a Hollow' . I also plan to (hopefully) have a beta reader back in business for the next agent story! As much as I love going back into the chapters a day later and catching a bunch of small mistakes (Went in and edited the last chapter two times catching typos, boooooo), I really don't want to ruin people's reading experiences with my silly mistakes.

So TL;DR

No chapter this week. Double length chapter next week. No chapter after that, then back to normal.

Thank you all so much for your support, and I'm sorry for the delay. Have a nice morning, afternoon, and night, wherever you are!

-

P.S. Yes, I did give you all the name of the next agent story so that you guys can start thinking about it, you're welcome ^^

Chapter Text

“Qingyi,” Seth says, grunting as he exerts himself, “How much longer?!”

Seth bashes his shield into a large purple ethereal that is twice his size, and as the impact lands, the shield releases a massive wave of electricity that goes into the beast’s body. It twitches before it stops moving and its four limbs, two monstrous purple ones and two much smaller humanoid ones, go limp. Then, Seth’s baton releases a massive charge of electricity and he stabs it into the creature's abdomen. It yells unnaturally in pain, before it explodes. Seth uses his shield to block the shockwave, but the several other monsters behind the behemoth all get launched several feet backwards.

Then, Seth hears two more monstrous cries, and turns around to see two more smaller ethereals with their sharp claws suspiciously close to the back of his head. They each are no longer moving, and the cat-eared officer sees that there is an arrow in the back of each of their heads, and the mechanical whirring of an engine can be heard as the arrows spin in place. Each arrow then shoots out a massive surge of electricity that completely fries their respective target, and the two monsters both collapse behind Seth before disintegrating.

Seth looks in the direction of where the arrows came from, and he sees the calm and collected Harumasa holding his high-tech bow out with his yellow-gloved hand having just released the blue bowstring he used to fire off those lifesaving arrows. “Yeah, Qingyi,” Harumasa begins to say, reaching for his quiver. “I only have so many arrows to save Lowell with.” Seth glares at Harumasa, who simply grins at him in return.

Squatting down next to Harumasa, Qingyi can be seen with her hands deep in the wiring under a control panel that Harumasa is standing in front of. Next to that panel is a massive, military grade door which spans nearly the entire width of the hallway. It has a horizontal line along the middle, where it had closed. The center of it has some kind of locking mechanism, and the door is surrounded by yellow and black hazard tape.

“Just a bit longer.” Qingyi states, clearly focused as she struggles with some wiring. “The door is made of Porcelume, which is the strongest alloy that can be used in a hollow. Me opening this gate is our only shot of making it through this.”

“Why are these ethereals so strong, anyways? ” Seth asks, kicking away two more of the frenzied creatures as they attempt to swarm him. “I’ve never seen the small ‘tyrfing’ types be this much of a threat before-” Another larger one brings both of its massive limbs down on the officer, but he quickly moves his shield to parry the blow and push the beast back.

While it’s staggered, an arrow passes by Seth and goes straight into the ethereal’s chest, electrocuting it and causing it to fall over. “They’ve been energized by miasma. You’re still new, so I doubt you’ve encountered the stuff.” One of the smaller ones rushes for Harumasa, and he pulls his bow apart and spins the two halves in his hands, shifting them to act like dual blades as he then slashes at the creature that rushed towards him. “These things are only in Lemnian Hollow, so they don’t feel the need to include it in our classes at the academy.” He then lets the handles of the blades click back into place and reforms his bow, the bowstring automatically reconnecting after being severed. “Maybe you should have taken more extra-curriculars with me, Seth.”

“Tsk.” Seth lets out a sound of annoyances as his baton classes with the attack of a monster. He can’t see Harumasa’s face, but he can surely imagine his expression. “I’d rather be fighting this endless horde on my own than reminiscing about the ‘good old days’ with you, Asaba.” Harumasa’s family name comes out with a level of frustration that Seth doesn’t normally express.

“Boys,” Qingyi interrupts, just as the two are about to start arguing, “I’m about to open the door. Stop fighting and regroup, this thing will relock itself in thirty seconds.”

The two instantly stop their bickering, and Seth lifts his shield up so that he can slam it into the ground. A wave of electricity is launched down the hallway, enough to shock and stagger the front line of the ethereal horde. Then, he dashes for the door. Harumasa closes one eye to get better vision with his other, and holds his bow towards Seth, aiming to take out any stragglers that will stop Seth from reaching the two of them.

The room shudders as the massive metallic doors begin to shift. Half of the door rises into the air, while the other half descends down to the floor. As if on cue, several of the ethereals gain a second wind and recover from Seth’s shockwave, making a mad dash for the group.

“Get down!” Harumasa yells, startling Seth before he instantly dives for the ground. The archer of Section 6 is pulling back on his bowstring with more force than before, and the arrow he is using is glowing before he even releases it. The technology inside is using up so much power it can be heard charging by everyone in the room. As soon as Seth hits the floor, Harumasa releases the string, causing the arrow to launch forward. Once it flies through the air for a moment, it releases a massive wave of electricity, one that continues to surround the arrow as it flies through the air. The energy passes just above Seth’s head, and any monster that comes into contact with the arrow’s wave is left completely fried. Seth looks back to see only charred remains of the monsters that were once attacking him.

“Stop gawking, Seth, we need to go.” Qingyi says to him, having already gone through the opening. The large doors are already starting to close, and Harumasa steps over the bottom half of the door as he makes it through. Seth frantically gets off the ground and runs forward, managing to jump through the opening mere seconds before it becomes too small for him to pass through.

“Why did it start closing up so fast?!” Seth asks, picking himself up after landing on the ground from his second midair dive.

“The real question is; why were you so slow?” Harumasa says, sticking his tongue out.

“Ugh! You are insufferable.” Seth replies. “We wouldn’t have even needed to worry about speed if you used that super-powered arrow from the start!”

“I obviously would have if I could,” Harumasa rolls his eyes, “but I only carry two of them with me, and who knows when I’ll need them. I have to be absolutely sure I don’t have another option! Besides, you actually did pretty good back there.”

Seth looks back at him with surprise. “Really?”

Ignoring the two of them, Qingyi takes several steps forward into the dark room. The area they are in is massive in scale, with the Ceiling being multiple stories above them. The room doesn’t have any lights, meaning many areas of the room are shrouded in shadow. The only source of illumination comes from massive glass tubes that extend from the ceiling down to the ground level, with each one of them entering some kind of round cylindrical chamber that is about seven feet tall. While the tubes are made of glass, the chambers themselves are covered in a material that obscures what is inside. The tubes are filled with remnants of some kind of glowing purple matter that falls in between a solid and a liquid. There are splotches of the stuff in every tube, implying that substance either filled them or passed through them at one point. There are hundreds of these scattered around the room, which is large enough that, thanks to the shadows, the walls of each other end of said room remain unseen by Seth, Harumasa, and Qingyi.

“Don’t let one compliment go to your head.” Harumasa says to Seth, who looked as-if he was patting himself on the back for a job well done.

“Harumasa,” Qingyi starts, grabbing the attention of both the guys adjacent to her. “I need you two to be quiet right now.”

The two of them look at each other confused, before shrugging. Both Harumasa and Seth watch as Qingyi walks forward, and they follow her lead as they remain silent. The automaton officer puts her hand on one of the chambers, and her eyes glaze over it with blue light as she scans the material. ‘Porcelume,’ She thinks to herself, ‘Every single one of these is made from it. I don’t know what scares me more, how they managed to get so much or why they would even need it.’

Her thoughts are interrupted by the faintest disruption in the chamber, which her hand notices. She immediately places her head against the material, waiting to hear the disturbance again. Then the echo of an ethereal’s screech echoes through the massive room. She sighs as the disruption interrupts her investigation.

“That was an ethereal!” Seth exclaims, with both him and Harumasa preparing their weapons once again. “It came from above.”

“I see some kind of upper level.” Harumasa says, squinting as he looks in the air. “There might be some ethereals there.”

The group hear the sound of shoes running on metal and more ethereal  screams, and it’s clear something is going on up there.

“Tsk,” Qingyi lets out, “We’ll investigate these later, let's go.” She pulls out her three section staff from its holster, pushing each section into place and letting its chains go into the sticks to form it into a full staff. The three of them then run into the dark crowd of porcelume chambers as they look for a way to get higher ground.

-

Yanagi slumps as she sits on her knees, the sudden fall causing scrapes on her legs that she ignores. She hangs her head in shame, and falls over while catching herself with her hands. Puddles of blood from her nose and tears from her eyes form on the ground beneath her, and as the clock on her spear accelerates back to normal time, Zhu Yuan and Miyabi’s vision catches up to where Yanagi is. Both of them dash forward in order to group up around the pink haired deputy chief, with Zhu Yuan crouching down to give her a brief check up while still holding her weapon as Miyabi stares down the tall man that floats over where Sonic and Sokkaku once were.

“What did you do to Sokkaku?” Miyabi says, an edge in her voice that she hasn’t had for the entire mission up until this point.

“Hoshimi Miyabi?!” The man exclaims. He clutches the blue gemstone in his hand and floats ever so slightly backwards, but the golden mask he is wearing masks any fear as he recomposes himself. “Was the ant I just sent away one of your underlings, Void Hunter?”

“She was my friend,” the void hunter replies, lowering her stance as she prepares to attack, “And I asked you what you did with her, fiend.”

Before he can reply, she is already rushing towards him, swinging her blade with such aggression that the blue foxfire of her blade trails the ground behind her and freezes over the ground which she treads with each step. Just as she is about to slash into his neck, there is a flash of light, and she looks on to see she is now facing and about to slash at the ground. She instantly pivots her motion, using the impact that her attack makes on the ground to push herself upward and quickly reorients herself with a somersault and lands on her feet, looking around quickly to see that she is now standing several meters behind the original target of her attack.

“Don’t rush in so quickly, O great Void Hunter.” The hooded man says mockingly. He is holding the part of his neck Miyabi targeted with one hand, and the other has the emerald. He extends his hand outward to point the stone in her direction as he turns to face her. “Someone could lose their head.”

Miyabi ignores the taunting and repeats her previous sentence. “What. Did you do. To Sokkaku.” She prepares to attack once again, but stops when the dark blue emerald shines brightly in her direction.

Miyabi instantly gets defensive, but before she can move, condensed ether surrounds her. ‘A fissure, moving?!’ she thinks in surprise, but by the time her thought finishes she is in a completely different location. She is surrounded by an office space, clearly in ruins. Through the broken windows around her, she sees the dark, clouded sky of the hollow. Then her body begins to feel light, and she looks down to look as her feet rise from the ground. ‘Zero gravity? Impossible.’ She glances back to the windows, and sees the clouds moving upwards. ‘No, not upwards. I’m falling. This building is falling.’

Miyabi, even while falling through the air, manages to make her blade still as she holds it inside its sheathe. She closes her eyes, and the moment she begins to lift it, the blue foxfire of Tailess flares around her. She, in one motion, slashes upwards, then back down behind her, making one circular slash vertically across the entire room. Her sword returns to its sheathe, and when the lock clicks back in place, the entire building parts down the middle. The perfect cut leaves a small trail of ice along the edges of both halves of the building, and Miyabi is left looking on at the cloudy sky. She glances down and sees the battleground she was just at, noticing the hooded exaltist. He is looking up at her, but he is too far away for her to make anything else out. Just past him, she also spots her friends, Zhu Yuan and Yanagi. Seeing them reinvigorates her, and she turns her body to dive through the air while pulling out her sword once again.

“Incredible!” The exaltist in a golden mask proclaims. “It’d have been a shame if one mere building would have been enough to end you, Void Hunter!” By the time his sentence is finished, Miyabi is already above him, her blade ready to attack. Then, another fissure appears in front of him, and Miyabi’s momentum is maintained as she passes through it and looks on to see she is heading right for Zhu Yuan and Yanagi. She stabs her sword in the ground to attempt to slow herself, but is still moving fast enough to hit Zhu Yuan and cause both of them to fall over.

“Hm … that's twice now.” He says with a bit of disappointment.

“Ugh …” Zhu Yuan lets out in pain, looking on top of her to see Miyabi is already lifting herself off the ground and reaching for her sword.

“Twice what, exactly?” Miyabi asks, pulling her sword from the asphalt it’s currently stabbed into.

“I’ve tried to send you miles away from here, to the other side of the hollow, even, but it won’t let me.”

“It … meaning the gemstone in your hand?”

“Yes!” He exclaims. “It's telling me that you can’t leave my presence yet.”

“That is a rock. You are clearly more delusional than other exaltists.”

As the two talk, Zhu Yuan begins to pick herself up. She glances to her side to see Yanagi unmoved, still in shock. She gives her a worried look, then shakes her head. ‘Sorry, Yanagi. I can’t focus on you right now.’ She thinks.

“You call it delusion, but you can’t deny what I’ve done.”

Miyabi looks at him, deadpanned. “You mean corrupt all of your followers, drop them on us, and attack us unprompted.”

“No,” He replies, extending his arm in the air to lift up the emerald. “I mean this. Ether Control!”

As soon as he says those words, he is surrounded by massive purple and green glowing crystals that form upwards from the ground. The crystals launch outwards and all go straight for Miyabi. She dodges by jumping into the air, but then goes through a fissure that was directly above her. 

“Predictable!” She hears him shout, the sound shifting from being distant to being much closer when she passes through the other side of the fissure. Not that she has time to react, as while she processes the sounds she is hearing she also slams face first into a wall of crystals that is on the other side of the fissure. She is disoriented, losing her balance from the impact and falling over, and right below her is another fissure. When her body hits the ground, it has already passed through this portal, and her body falls through the air for a moment before she is caught by the neck by the exaltist in the white hood.

Miyabi’s cursed blade hits the ground, with both her hands occupied in resisting the grip of the man who is beginning to choke her. “H-how-” She winces in pain, unable to finish her sentence.

“How, you ask?” The man laughs as he grips the emerald in his other arm tightly. He floats in the air, making sure to hold Miyabi up and not let her get any footing. “This ‘rock’ is how! I control space! I control ether! This stone lets me do what was thought to be something only those of the highest faith could … what?” 

The man interrupts himself as the chaos emerald in his hand shines. He looks away from the swordswoman he is holding up to glance at the emerald. As it glows, his grip loosens slightly. “W- what are you trying to tell me?” Miyabi immediately takes advantage of the opening, swinging both her legs up and wrapping them around the arm of the man, then uses the momentum and her own strength to tear his hand off her neck. While she does this, her jacket pocket shines as it gets closer to him, the glow matching perfectly with the emerald in his other hand. “It can’t be!” He says in shock.”

He moves his arm to pull Miyabi closer while she is still latched onto him. Before he can do anything else Miyabi shouts out, “Zhu Yuan, now!”

On cue, a blast of purple energy hits the back of the man, launching him forward as the energy dissipates. He tumbles forward, leaving Miyabi to fall after she releases herself from him. She doesn’t hit the ground, as the black haired police captain rushes to catch her. She slides on her knees, quickly picking up the sword that was cast aside before holding out both her arms to catch the smaller woman before she hits the ground.

“Thank you.” Miyabi says calmly as Zhu Yuan’s slide stops. She slips out over her arms as she begins to stand up. “I’m glad you haven’t forgotten the moves we practiced together back in school.”

Zhu Yuan lifts herself off her knees, then holds Miyabi’s sword out for her to take, giving her a smile. “With how much you made me train back then? My muscle memory will never forget all that.” Miyabi takes her sword as the two two of them chuckle.

Their moment is interrupted by a surge of energy coming from the direction of the emerald-powered exaltist. “I see now,” He shouts, causing both women to get into a defensive stance, “so that was how you resisted me, Void Hunter.” As energy crackles, new crystals begin to rise from the ground as the ether particles in the air solidify. Surges of dark blue energy flash as the man rises into the air. “You have another, don’t you?”

“Another what?!” Zhu Yuan asks, confused.

“He’s referring to the gemstone.” Miyabi replies, pulling it out of her pocket as its glow only intensifies.

“You feel it, don’t you? The call. These two gems want each other.” He states.

“... I’ve felt it pull to something since we entered the hollow.” Miyabi replies reluctantly.

“So what- these gems, they have an attraction? Like magnets?” Zhu Yuan asks, confused.

The man laughs, almost mocking Zhu Yuan’s thought process. “You don’t see it, do you? You don’t feel their connection. This is more than a magnetic attraction. The very essence of these gems calls to each other. That is why, even though I tried to send you away, the great emerald wouldn’t let me.”

Miyabi looks lost in thought, glancing at the gem in her hand as it glows brighter. Zhu Yuan glances between her and the figure in front of her. “You know a lot about these stones.” She states, grabbing his attention for a moment. “Who are you? Did you make these stones- are you connected to the blue hedgehog?”

“Blue hedgehog?” he tilts his head in confusion. “Well I’m not sure what that creature has to do with this conversation, I can tell you emeralds as great as these were not my creation.” He chuckles, before continuing. “These stones, Emeralds of Ether, were sent to us by the great hollow, so that we may use them to further our faith! With these, we can show the non-believers the truth- the light! You asked who I am? I am but a simple Cantor for these Emeralds of Ether-”

“Tsk,” Zhu Yuan says, interrupting his tirade, “That’s the second time you’ve said that. I don’t know where you got that name, but I’m pretty sure they are called Chaos Emeralds. Where are you getting your information from?”

“I-”

“Zhu Yuan, clearly, the ‘Emerald Cantor’ is delusional. He believes these stones are talking to him, yet I’ve had one in my possession this entire time, and it hasn’t told me anything once.” Miyabi states, interrupting the Cantor. “But this emerald is certainly pulling the one he is holding. Once we take his emerald, we’ll need to research both of them ourselves.”

“You say we, but you really mean me, Qingyi, and Yanagi …” Zhu Yuan says in annoyance, while also switching out the loadout of her gun with the ether shells on her belt as she talks.

“It’s impressive, your ‘state the obvious’ training never ceases.” Miyabi says with not a single hint of sarcasm in her voice.

Their banter is cut off by a shockwave of energy, causing both of them to get pushed back slightly as they attempt to regain their balance. “I grow tired of your mockery!” The Emerald Cantor shouts at them in frustration. “I’ll be taking that emerald from you.” He clutches his own emerald tighter, and more crystals begin to form.

“You’ll have to kill me, first.” Miyabi replies.

“You’ve seen what I can do with this emerald, yet you still act confident?” He rises higher and the crystals match him, fissures forming from his use of the emerald. “Very well. When I bring the corpse of a Void Hunter to the Overseer, they’ll know to regret shunning me.” He points the glowing blue chaos emerald at the direction of the duo in front of him. “Ether Control!”

-

Two women, both in maid outfits, travel across a ruined landscape. The destruction here is worse than anywhere else they’ve been to up until this point, and beyond just the damage they take notice of the ice scattered across the area. The shark-tailed maid is careful to avoid the ice as she runs across the concrete, while her older companion simply floats above the ground, matching pace with the shark maid.

“I see someone up ahead.” Rina states. “They are flanked by two ethereals.”

Ellen gasps. “It’s gotta be him!” She rushes forward, not waiting for Rina to catch up.

Ahead, Yanagi sits in defeat, still crying as she stares helplessly at the ground. Behind her, the sound of scratching gets louder and louder as two humanoid ethereals with bladed hands drag their arms across the floor. They approach her slowly, snarling as they prepare to attack. Then, their snarls turn to painful screeches as a massive blade slices through each of them in one motion. Two sections of the scissor blades then surround the core of one of the ethereals, and that core is sliced in two as the blades close. As the other ethereal shrieks in pain, a bolt of electricity shoots through its core, shattering it.

Ellen doesn’t give the monsters a second glance as their remains disappear into the wind, instead turning herself to look at the person they were preparing to attack. Her excited expression instantly leaves her face when she sees the pink haired woman. “Oh.” She says in disappointment. “You’re not Sonic.”

“Ellen!” Rina says with frustration in her tone as she catches up. “Don’t be rude, this woman is clearly distraught.” Rina lowers herself onto the ground and squats down as she attempts to look at the woman in the eyes. She immediately recognizes the woman, then notices the blood and tears that are pooling on the ground, gasping. “Oh my- Miss Tsukishiro?”

The name causes Ellen’s originally bored expression to perk up, and she turns to look back at Rina and Yanagi. “Woah- like the second-in-command for Section 6?”

Yanagi, realizing she is being talked to, finally manages to pick her head up and look at the woman squatting next to her. “I- I- I failed h-her …” She sniffles as she struggles to speak, causing Rina to see that there is more blood still in her nose.

“Shhhh, it is ok.” Rina says, soothingly. She pulls out a handkerchief and begins to use it to clean up the woman in front of her. “Ellen, stand guard. Miss Tsukishiro … What do you mean ‘you failed’? What happened to leave you in this state?”

“The exaltist … the gold masked exaltist. He appeared out of nowhere in a flash of light. He moved- even when I slowed down time. That shouldn’t be possible …” Yanagi looks as Rina gives her a sympathetic look, and after struggling for a moment, she continues. “He had a blue gemstone, a ‘Chaos Emerald’. The moment he pointed its energy at Sokkaku- she … she.. S-she …” Tears begin to reform in her eyes, and Rina pulls the woman in for a hug.

“Oh dear … poor Sokkaku. I’m so, so sorry.” Rina says with sadness.

“He- he defeated a member of Section 6 that fast?” Ellen says in shock. “Wait! Sonic told us that he always undoes all of the problems on his adventures with the emeralds. If we can take it away from the guy and get it to Sonic, he could undo whatever they did to Sokkaku!” She states.

“Sonic? He- he can undo this?” Yanagi asks, still in Rina's arms.

“You already met Sir Sonic?” Rina asks, slightly surprised.

“Yeah.” Yanagi replies. “We were supposed to capture him- but … he was a bit more than we could handle.”

‘So, the mayor was right to test his strength against Section 6.’ Rina thinks to herself.

“He is here?!” Ellen exclaims. “Where?”

Yanagi pulls away from Rina, looking into Ellen’s eyes and seeing her excitement and anticipation.

“We can get him, convince him to help, and get Sokkaku back. Everyone wins!”

“He’s … gone.” Yanagi says in defeat.

“Gone … oh- that's ok. We were already looking for him- if he kept running then me and Rina will just have to keep looking.” Ellen looks towards Rina expectantly, only to get a worried look in return.

“He tried to save her.” Yanagi says, causing Ellen’s face to drop. “Both him and Sokkaku they- they- they-”

Yanagi is interrupted by Ellen slamming her scissor blade into the ground with enough force to crack it. She looks away from Yanagi and Rina, but with how low both of them are, they notice tears dropping from her face to the ground.

“Where is he? The one who did this.” Ellen asks, malice in her voice.

Rina rushes to stand as she grabs Ellen’s shoulders. “You can’t be serious- you heard what he did to Sokkaku and Sonic! Please, Ellen.”

The three are interrupted by a massive pillar of ether crystals shooting into the air, and as soon as they do, a blue slash slices perfectly through the crystals that tower over them. Yanagi and Rina look on as its top half hits the ground, a massive dust cloud rising up from its impact.

“See, that is beyond-” Rina turns to see Ellen is long gone. “Ellen- Ellen!” She looks around to see no one around, except for Yanagi, who is starting to pick herself up.

“Are you going after her?” Yanagi asks, wiping away the last of her tears.

Rina sighs. “I have to, don’t I? She’s going to hurt herself.”

“Let me help.” Yanagi says, reaching for her spear that she left on the ground. “I can’t let her avenge Sokkaku and I sit back and do nothing. I mean, what would Sokkaku say if she saw me wallowing instead of fighting?” Yanagi chuckles to herself, finally forming a smile as she thinks of Sokkaku.

“I’m sure she wouldn’t want you going there injured.” Rina says with worry. “You lost quite a bit of blood.”

Yanagi touches her nose, wiping away the small amount of blood that remains. “It’s just from over exerting myself. I’ll stick to supporting the Chief, but I just need to be in this fight. For Sokkaku.”

“For Sokkaku, I suppose I can let your injuries slide.” Rina says with a nod.

“Good,” Yanagi states, starting to walk past the grey haired maid, “Then lets go.”

-

“I found a ladder!” Seth exclaims, his two companions close behind him. As he puts one hand on the ladder, Qingyi jumps over him and grips onto it with one hand as her staff holds the other. Seth looks up, slightly annoyed. “Show off …”

“Hurry up, Lowell.” Harumasa says in annoyance, standing behind the officer while he waits for him to climb.

Qingyi doesn’t wait for the duo, as she already reaches the top. When she does, she stops for a moment and pays attention to the sound of the fighting, realizing that it is coming from her right. She dashes in that direction, as Seth manages to reach the top of the ladder. “Wait for us, Qingyi!” He says, to no avail.

As Qingyi runs across the platform, she passes by the disintegrating remains of several ethereals, and several small puddles of miasma, and she is careful to avoid them both. When she spots what looks like a single dangling light bulb, she knows she’s made it. She stops herself just before making it to some kind of center platform.

Before her, a tall woman with black hair that stops above her shoulders and bangs is using one leg to pin down an ethereal. She has a grey jacket that is cut above her waist, fingerless gloves, red nails, and short pants with leggings that are riddled in holes. Her most distinguishing features are her ears, which are those of a rat, and her tail, which is not only a rat tail but also holds a knife that is pointed at the currently downed ethereal’s core. The woman turns her head to look at Qingyi, letting the robot notice her greyish eye color and devilish smile. The woman seems unfazed as she stabs the knife through the ethereal’s core and lets it disappear beneath her. “Qingyi!” She lets out. “Hate to spoil the rescue, but I already took care of these ones.”

“It’s fine.” Qingyi simply closes her eyes and begins to put away her staff as she relaxes. “You didn’t spoil anything.”

“You came alone?” The woman with rat-like features asks.

Answering her question, footsteps can be heard just behind the officer, and both Seth and Harumasa jump into a defensive position on either side of Qingyi.

“Don’t worry, Qingyi! Whatever this threat is we-” Seth pauses as he sees the woman in front of him, putting away a knife and waving at him sweetly. “Jane?!”

Harumasa lowers his bow. “I take it we aren’t fighting this one?”

“No,” Qingyi responds, watching Seth rush up to Jane while pulling out something from his pocket, “This is the undercover agent Zhu Yuan sent us to extract. Jane Doe, our infiltration and disguise specialist.”

“Had to ditch my disguise, by the way. Not that it really matters.” Jane says with a shrug while she looks back at Qingyi. Seth is next to her, currently examining her and holding a pocket-sized first aid kit in his free hand. “And Seth,” Jane says exasperated but with a smile, “I don’t need a check up, I’m fine.”

“I just have to be sure!” Seth replies.

“I know, I know,” Jane says, putting her hand on Seth’s cheek softly, “You’re far too kind for the job you’re in.”

Seth pulls back, flustered and blushing. “What are you talking about?! Do you have to tease me for worrying?” He avoids her gaze as she chuckles from his reaction.

“Jane,” Qingyi says, getting her attention, “give us a report on the operations here. What is this place?”

“Of course.” Jane says seriously. She walks forward, leaning against a railing as she looks at the three other people with her. “I’m sure you guys have figured it out, but this isn’t just the base of some random militia or stray hollow raiders.”

Harumasa folds his arms. “I saw the clothes of the corrupted people, those were exaltists infected by miasma.”

“Correct.” Jane states. “The exaltists got a tip from someone in the T.O.P.S. alliance about a strange artifact that was messing with the hollows. Would you believe it, but some hollow raiders found the item first. The captain sent me in, disguised as one of the hollow raiders, and I was supposed to extract the item from their clutches and lead you guys straight to their base.”

“But we lost communication with you days ago.” Seth says. “What happened?”

“The exaltists happened. They overran the entire network of hollow raiders, only sparing the ones that converted into their sick cult, while imprisoning the rest. They took all their military-grade gear, then turned their base into some kind of holy site to worship that damn stone. I managed to pivot, securing a place among them as an exaltist convert while I tried to figure out how to get that thing out of here. Then I saw what it could do.”

“All this over some artifact?” Seth asks. “What could it do that was so dangerous?”

“They managed to use it to manipulate the hollows. Turns out, one of their lower rank priests had a high aptitude for ether manipulation, and the gem reacted to him and allowed him to fundamentally change the hollow. That was why I couldn’t escape, because if that gem got out of my reach it would have spelled disaster for all of New Eridu.” The group each look at Jane in shock, and Jane recognizes some kind of recognition on their faces. “What?”

“Jane, that gem you are talking about, it wouldn’t happen to be cyan, about this big,” Qingyi gestures the size of the gem with her hands, “Perfectly cut like a diamond, and glow unnaturally, would it?”

“Well, it’s more of a deep blue, but that was scarily accurate to what I saw.” Jane said, both surprised and confused. “How did you know?”

“The Chief had one just like it.” Harumasa answers on Qingyi’s behalf. “It’s what let us get through the weird barrier the Hollow had that was forcing us out.”

“...” Jane is speechless for a moment, but recomposes herself. “I- I don’t know how I feel about there being more than one of these things, but that just means I need to work even faster.”

“Work even faster?” Harumasa asks. “I thought we were leaving?”

“Not yet we aren’t.” Jane says, hopping off the railing. “Tell me, do you guys know what is below us?”
“Well, they are chambers of porcelume, but I couldn’t figure anything else out.” Qingyi replies.

“Those are coffins.” Jane states, causing the air around her to chill. “The hundreds of hollow raiders that the exaltists managed to capture were stuck in there, and then doused in miasma.”

“T-thats … So the room is filled with ethereals?!” Seth yells with worry.

“Corrupting people en masse … How sadistic …” Harumasa manages to say, stressed and clutching the back of his neck.

“No wonder the hollow expanded so rapidly.” Qingyi states with the same monotone as always. “Between direct manipulation through these artifacts and the addition of hundreds of ethereals, of course it would immediately be at risk of becoming a great hollow.”

“Whats worse, the exaltists did a ritual where they inverted the miasma in every room, dropping it on every single person that wasn’t their new priest. The misguided fools basically sentenced themselves to corruption just to expand the hollow for some religious ritual.” Jane states with disgust. “Which is why I’m collapsing the hollow.”

“Huh?”

“What?”

“I beg your pardon?”

Harumasa, Seth, and Qingyi each express their confusion as Jane gives them a smug look.

“Collapsing the hollow would mean taking out nearly every mutated ethereal in this facility.” Qingyi states matter-of-factly. Then she points down to the open hall filled with porcelume chambers below. “How do you plan on getting rid of all of these things? If we free them, we’ll be overrun in seconds!”

“Obviously.” Jane says, rolling her eyes. She then walks past all of them, letting the trio turn to follow her with various levels of skepticism. She doesn’t lose her grin as she spins to face them. “Just follow my lead, I’ll explain my plan along the way.”

The group glances at each other, then all give Jane a nod as they go to catch up with her.

-

Outside of the hollow, citizens of the Throne Quarter are driving away in a mass panic. For those on the streets, they simply run. The Hollow that has formed in their city has now passed the original perimeter, overreaching into the active city as people of all demographics do their best to not get absorbed into the massive black sphere of spatial distortion.

Above the Hollow, a news chopper’s rotors cut through the air as it circles the supernatural disaster. “While isn’t this f*ing perfect?!” A particularly crass newscaster yells out to the cameraman broadcasting him as he sits in the helicopter while using the hollow as a backdrop. “The H.I.A. reported this as a lesser Companion Hollow, yet we are witnessing in real time as this god damn sphere of destruction does nothing but f*ing expand in the depths of Throne Quarter. This motherf*er might as well f* us in the a*hole and let us wail in agony as it takes a s* on our entire way of life!”

“Do you really have to curse so much while we live-” The cameraman attempts to interject, slightly nervous.

“Shut the f* up and let me work!” The caster yells. “We have it on good accounts that H.A.N.D. sent in Hoshimi Miyabi, youngest Void Hunter in all of New Eridu, alongside the rest of her team. Now why the hell would those b*es send in someone with her resume for a f*ing ‘lesser’ Companion Hollow!? Wake up, sheeple of New Eridu!”

“Sir, behind you!” 

As he finishes his sentence, he can hear the faint sound of screaming coming from behind him. When he turns to look out the window, he sees two figures being launched out of the hollow, but the only thing he can make out is the color blue.

“You, whatever your name is! Zoom in!” He yells at his cameraman.

The camera tracks the movement of the two figures as they arc through the air. It takes a second for the camera to focus as it zooms, and when it does, the cameraman gasps.

“What is it? spit it out!”

“Sir … I think that it’s the Oni, Sokkaku! And … someone else? They are blue, maybe a thiren since they seem to be covered in fur or quills or something. They are surrounded by rubble, it looks like whatever caused them to go flying sent a chunk of the ground out with them- though it's breaking apart in mid air!”

“... What the f* is happening here?!”

Sonic manages to focus his vision as he flies through the air. He glances in his arms to see he is still holding onto the girl he attempted to save, and looking behind himself he sees that they are flying away from the hollow. Then he feels the pressure of gravity as the two of them begin to descend, causing Sokkaku to scream even louder. Bracing himself in advance, the two of them then hit the ground after a few more moments of falling through the air.

When they land, the two cause enough of an impact to push the dirt away and barrel through the grassy terrain, leaving skid marks in the earth that eventually lead to their crater.

Neither of the two make a sound, both laying in the dirt, eyes closed. Then, Sokkaku’s eyes open and she pushes herself upwards into a sitting position, sitting into the dirt as she uses her hands to shake dirt out of her white hair.

“Ouch, that kind of hurt …” She says to herself, looking around. She sees her weapon sticking out of the ground a few feet away from her, handle upwards. She also notices that the ground has vibrant green grass, a small swingset, and several outdoor toys scattered around. The small area of land is fenced off, and Sokkaku finally sees that behind her is a two story suburban home. “That's odd. Who lives in a hollow? They must be silly!” She chuckles at herself as she imagines the scenario.

“Ughhhhhh …” The young blue oni then hears a pained sound come from beside her, and looks down to see a certain blue hedgehog face down in the dirt. His suit vest and dress shirt are long gone, but his dress pants still remain, even though they are tattered.

Sokkaku pokes at his quills, attempting to see if he’ll move. “Hello? Are you alive, uh … Sonic guy?”

“Yeah, I’m ok.” Sonic replies, muffled by the dirt in his face. He uses his hands to push himself out of the ground, struggling a bit before he is free. He jumps up and spins, tossing away all the dirt that was on him as he does, before landing on his feet. “That one stung quite a bit, how’re you holding up?”

“I feel fine! It hurt a little, but it felt like going on a rollercoaster!” She says with a laugh.

“Durable, aren’t you. What was your name again?”

“You don’t know me?” She says slightly confused, before chuckling. “That's weird, usually everyone knows me- I’m Sokkaku! And yeah, I’m very strong- it’s cause I’m an Oni!” She replies excitedly, standing up herself. “Big Sis says that once I grow even more, I will be ever stronger!” Sokkaku then gasps. “Big Sis Nagi! She’s still over there with that strong guy!” Sokkaku looks around, growing more and more panicked.

Sonic then reaches up to put a hand on her shoulder. “Woah, woah! Slow down for a minute there. You’re almost talking too fast, even for me!”

“Sorry …” Sokkaku says, looking deflated.

“You’re fine,” Sonic says, “But we need to work together if we’re gonna figure this all out. First, let's figure out where we are.”

Sonic glances at the surrounding area, recognizing it to be some kind of backyard. Then, he glances at the roof of the house. “One second.” He  then is gone, dashing up the side of the building and scaling it all the way to the roof.

“Wow!” Sokkaku says in amazement, watching him go by and now looking up to see him on the roof and looking around.

Sonic looks at the trail in the dirt from Sokkaku and his impact, then follows that trail’s direction to spot the massive, space-warping black sphere that is growing along the skyline. The city in between them and the hollow is slowly disappearing into its event horizon. Sonic nods, then yells down to Sokkaku, “Ok, kid, I see the hollow!”

“Great!” Sokkaku yells. “Let's go save Big Sis and the Chief!”

Sonic runs down the house and back to Sokkaku, with her being just as excited at his speed as the first time, clapping to herself before Sonic puts his hand up to stop her from going forward.

“We can’t go in yet. Last time I tried to run in with no plan, I got lost immediately.” Sonic says, pausing to think. “Which was weird, because I tried to take the same path back the way I came but everything became completely different.”

“Well of course it did, it’s a Hollow.” Sokkaku states. “You can’t just walk through a Hollow, that's stupid!” She says, starting to laugh at him.

“Well I figured that out!” Sonic retorts. Then he looks at Sokkaku with realization.

Sokkaku stares back at him. “Why’re you looking at me like that?”

Sonic then grabs her shoulders, catching her off guard. “You know how those Hollow thingies work, don’t you!” He shouts excitedly.

“Of course I do, I gotta beat up ethereals nearly everyday with Big Sis, the Chief, and Harumasa!” She says, beaming with pride. “That way, the hollows don’t grow and hurt people.”

Sonic, still holding her shoulders, sits her down and then sits right in front of her.

“Hollows grow because of the monsters, got it.” Sonic says to himself before giving his attention back to the blue skinned girl that's sitting in front of him. “That’s already something I didn’t know, perfect. Tell me, kid, how do we go through a hollow without getting lost?”

“Oh! With a carrot, duh.” Sokkaku responds, speaking as if what she is saying is common knowledge.

“And … a vegetable helps us, how?”

Sokkaku starts laughing at Sonic’s comment, and she wipes a tear from her eye before continuing. “No, silly, a carrot is this map-thingy we use to tell us where the ‘space a-nom-a-lees’,” the girl struggles with the words, clearly talking from memorization and not understanding, “will be so that we can go where we want to go.”

Sonic facepalms, realizing this conversation isn’t going anywhere. ‘I don’t think I appreciate Tails enough.’ He thinks to himself.

“Ok, let's try something else. How do you understand hollows?”

“Uhhhhhhhhh … I’m not sure,” Sokkaku tries to think, before opening her eyes and exclaiming, “Wait, I know! See, a hollow is like a picture puzzle.”

“What?”

“Shhhh,” She says, putting a figure over her mouth to silence him. “Just listen.” She then continues. “In a picture puzzle, you have all these pieces and they are jumbled and stuff. Even though there is a way that the pieces are supposed to be put together, they aren’t actually put together. A hollow is like if we were in that puzzle, and someone else is changing the pieces while we are in there.”

“You know, that actually made some sense!” Sonic says, making Sokkaku beam with pride. “This is just a more complicated way to make a maze, I don’t understand why brute forcing it didn’t work.”

“Brute forcing it? Why would punching the hollow help?”

“No,” Sonic replies, “Like just forcing my way through very quickly.”

“Welllllll,” Sokkaku says, thinking as she talks, “the place you were running to wasn’t in the same way. In the manual the boring people in suits made me and Harumasa memorize, it says that if lost without a carrot, we are better off not moving and waiting for rescue, cause the ‘a-nom-a-lees’ could make us go through the same places over and over and we’d never know! Isn’t that funny?” Sokkaku says, beginning to laugh yet again.

“So our problem is no matter how fast I run, I'd have no way of knowing if I'd been somewhere or not?” Sonic asks, with Sokkaku nodding.

‘Ok, so I need to figure out how I could map out where I’d been … break the ground?’ Sonic shakes his head as he thinks to himself. ‘That won’t work, the entire landscape is already in ruins, I wouldn’t tell my damage from any of the other damage. If I could just avoid repeating areas, I could definitely move fast enough to get back there, given enough time.’

Sonic once again looks around the yard that Sokkaku and he fell in. He takes note of the scattered toys, the miniature playground with a swingset, and the kid sized cars and red wagon that rest near the backdoor of the house. Then he turns back to Sokkaku, who is grunting as she struggles to unlodge her metallic banner from the crater the duo fell in.

“Hey, kid,” Sonic starts.

“Stop calling me kid! I’m Sokkaku!” She shouts, interrupting him.

Sonic gets apologetic “Sorry- Sokkaku. How much ice can you make?”

“I dunno.” She shrugs. “However long I can swing my banner, I guess. Why?”

“I think I have an idea …” Sonic says, a grin forming on his face.

-

“Right turn, 20 meters.” The robotic voice of E-123 Omega states, his head acting as a speaker while tucked under the arm of his winged partner, Rouge.

The two are flying off the ground, quickly speeding through a corridor. Miasma is scattered on the walls and floor, and in the distance is a fork in the hall. Just below them, the well dressed Von Lycaon runs at a pace that matches the bat. His metal legs crashing into the ground with each step and the engines in the back of them releasing icy air as they propel him with every step. His arms are behind his back as he holds up a green haired young maid in a piggy back. Corin is looking around nervously as the sound of unnatural snarling begins to sound louder than the powerful footsteps carrying her. Running along the walls are two small ethereals, barely larger than basketballs. Their pointed, spiderlike legs cling to the walls on either side of the corridor as they attempt to catch the speeding wolf. “Aiyeeee!” Corin shrieks, covering her eyes as the two jump at them from both directions.

Before they can land, two figures speed into view from either direction, and in a quick motion, both manage to stab their weapons through the cores of the monsters with perfect precision. The blonde haired man continues to run, flicking his scythe back so as to throw the monster off of it, then letting it transform into an easy to carry briefcase. His purple haired comrade matches his pace, running on the other side of the wolf and letting her umbrella open for a moment which bursts the monster from the inside, and then closing it again. 

“Careful, Lycaon. I can’t save you forever.” Hugo says, smugly.

Lycaon grunts. “I had it under control.”

“Shut it, you two.” Vivian says, frustrated. “We are about to hit the next turn.” Corin manages to open her eyes while she hears them talk, and looks to her side to see Vivian, who lets her frustration subside so she can smile at the young maid.

As the group makes it to the wall at the end of the path, Rouge curves her flight path to turn right, just as Omega instructed. The others are right behind her, all turning to run. Only Corin looks at the other path, glancing down the left path. Her eyes are met by at least dozen ethereals of various sizes, all of them having human limbs sticking out of their incomplete mutated forms. She immediately looks away and tucks her head into Lycaon’s back.

“What is it, Corin?” Lycaon asks her, continuing to run.

“B-b-b-b-be-” Corin struggles to speak through her nerves. “B-behind us!”

Lycaon, Hugo, Vivian, and Rouge all turn to look at their backs, now noticing the swarm of ethereals that have begun chasing them.

“Detected spacial fissure is only 15 meters away.” Omega says, ignoring the danger.

“Thats great, Omega, but us making it to our destination is pointless if these freaks can follow us there!” Rouge responds in annoyance.

“Well, this can work.” Hugo says in thought. “If we can disrupt the fissure after we pass through, we might just be able to get these guys off our tails.”

Vivian points her umbrella at the horde while she continues to run, releasing several small bursts of ether energy in an attempt to slow them down. “Could one of my attacks work?”

“Negative.” Omega responds on the group's behalf. “Your measly attacks wouldn’t do enough damage, none of you would. If I had my body, I could easily cause an explosion that would disrupt the fissure. 2 meters.”

Lycaon rolls his eyes. “Your suggestion is heard, but pointless without the body you mentioned.” The group are then met with a large purple surging portal that appears into view as they get close to it. Particles of ether radiate off of it. “Times up, if anyone has any other suggestions, now's the time.”

“I have a little something,” Rouge says with a grin, “Go in before me!”

The group doesn’t hesitate, Lycaon’s engines powering up more for a burst of speed as he passes through first with Corin on his back, Vivian and Hugo following just behind. After they make it through, they skid to a stop and look back at the fissure, seeing Rouge fly through just after them. As soon as she does, she turns in the air to face the portal, and presses a button on a circular device on her waist. The device dispenses tiny spheres onto her hands, all of them having pink heart buttons. She presses all the buttons then throws them in a fluid motion. As they fly through the air, they expand into larger white spheres covered in a big pink heart. A ticking sound can be heard from them, and as they pass through the portal, the sound disappears.

The group looks on in anticipation, and after an extended pause, a powerful explosion can be heard from the portal, smoke and a shockwave passing through it before they watch the ether energy collapse in on itself. Once it's gone, a blank wall takes its place.

Once the fissure is gone, Vivian walks away from the group, heading towards the locked door that sits behind them. While she leaves, Rouge descends down to where the rest of the group is. She is holding the device she just used in her hand. “Phew, this thing sure is handy. I can’t usually carry many of my heart bombs, but this W-Engine assembling them for me solves that completely.” She gives Hugo.

“A bomb crafting W-Engine?” Lycaon looks surprised. “I haven’t seen one like that before.”

“Well of course,” Hugo says, clearly smug, “It was custom made for the newest member of Mockingbird.” He takes a dramatic bow in Rouge’s direction, to which she does the same. “What kind of gentleman would I be if I just gave our wonderful spy here some spare gear?”

Corin looks up at the wolf. “M-Mr. Lycaon … didn’t we give Sonic my spare w-” She is cut off by Lycaon putting a hand over her mouth, startling her.

“What was that, Corin?” Hugo asks, earning him a glare from Lycaon.

“She was going to say we gave Sonic some spare socks cause he needed new ones.” Lycan answers on Corin’s behalf.

“No, I asked the young maid, not you, old man.” Hugo states.

“We are the same age!” Lycaon shouts in frustration.

The two are interrupted by the rumbling of the locked metal door. The entire group turns to Vivian, who is leaning against the wall next to the terminal she just finished hacking.

With one last glare at each other, Hugo and Lycaon decide to put their argument on hold as they, along with Corin, Rouge, and Vivian, all walk through the opened door. Inside, the group are met with a massive room that goes three stories up. Each level has multiple computer panels that extend around the entire room, and there are four ladders, one in each corner, that extend all the way up to the third level. Each level has railings so that people don’t fall off the sides, yet their open design allows each floor to remain open. This is because, in the center of the room, is a massive glass cylinder that is covered in tubing and wiring that connects to the floors, ceiling and the various computers. Inside is some kind of green coolant liquid that is bubbling. Suspended within the liquid are thousands upon thousands of gold rings, that all have a faint glow.

“They have their own selfmade powerplant inside the hollow?” Lycaon asks, walking up to the massive chamber of rings in the center of the room. He touches the glass with his hand.

Hugo is standing next to him. “Of course. These guys were trying to act under the radar, especially after the recent media traction the Exaltists have been getting after the Bringer Incident. Any chance we can break through the glass?”

Lycaon takes his hand off the chamber with his hand and shakes his head. “No. This material looks like glass, but it’s definitely something else. It’s at least partially porcelume.”

“I figured,” Hugo states, disappointed, “It’s never that easy.” The two then look into the glass to examine the items inside the three-story tall stasis chamber. “What are those rings?”

“The thing actually powering this facility, probably.” Rouge interjects, her arms crossed as she is looking up examining the other floors of the room. “Those gold rings are from my world.”

“How did the Exaltists get their hands on them?” Lycaon questions. “And why these specifically?”

“Those rings aren’t just shiny, they are chaos energy condensed. Similar to the ether crystals that rest around hollows.” Rouge flaps her wings as she gets a better look at the second floor. “I imagine they attempted to power the facility with the Chaos Emerald, but they accidentally handled it wrong and ended up using a massive amount of chaos energy to make those rings. Then, realizing those things hold a fraction of the power an emerald does with none of the flashy abilities, they just decided to use them as a rudimentary power generator.” She finally stops looking as her eyes reach one particularly large computer. “Ah- found it!”

She flies up to the second floor, standing in front of the biggest computer in the room, and goes down below the main console to mess with the wiring.

“Corin, stay here and tell us if anything comes, ok?” Lycaon asks the young maid next to the entrance, as Vivian and Hugo are already scaling up to where Rouge went. She gives him a nod, and Lycaon runs up to meet his comrades. When he gets there, Rouge has managed to connect Omega’s head to the wiring and his eyes are glazed over as he scours their data.

“Make sure to download everything.” Rouge commands.

“Affirmative.” Omega responds.

“Forgive me for asking this so late, but what are we even doing in their generator room?” Lycaon asks. “From what we’ve observed, every resident in the facility has turned into an ethereal. What will messing with their power do for us?”

“Oh, I forgot we made our plan before we teamed up.” Rouge states simply.

“It’s simple, Lycaon.” Vivian responds. “We are going to overcharge their generator..”

“What?!” Lycaon exclaims. “Are you all mad?! You’d be blowing up the entire facility!”

“Lycaon.” Hugo says, getting his attention. “I know you saw the rapid growth of the hollow with your own eyes. What do you think the hundreds of unchecked miasmic ethereals that roam this facility are doing to its expansion.”

Lycaon ponders for a moment, giving Vivian a chance to speak. “The Exaltists are cruel and vile, but never do things without a purpose. You think they turned their own people into ethereals during that ritual for nothing? This entire hollow is being artificially expanded by the chaos emerald, and the already massive hollow is now expanding more rapidly than ever with the huge uptick in ethereals. If we don’t do this, we could be dealing with another great Hollow!”

“Yes … I suppose you’re right.” Lycaon says, composing himself. “There is no better way to stop a fire than removing its fuel. Even if the method may be a bit … violent.”

“Yes, violent. All plans involving me must have maximum carnage.” Omega proclaims, his voice being loud while still keeping its robotic tone. “It is a shame that none of Eggman’s creations are here to feel my wrath.”

Rouge rolls her eyes as everyone else is silent as they get caught off guard by the robot’s extreme remark, but they don’t have time to be disturbed as the ground starts rumbling, causing the flooring they are on to shake and the railings to clatter. Then an “Aiyeeeeee!” can be heard echoing throughout the room.

“Corin!” Lycaon shouts, the others all having their attention pulled to the scream.

“We’ll check it out.” Rouge states, then turning to Omega’s head. “Omega, keep working on the plan.”
“Affirmative. Plan ‘Maximum Carnage’ will continue.” Omega responds.

“Don’t call it that!” Vivian shouts at the robot, using her umbrella to slowly descend as Hugo, Lycaon, and Rouge all jump straight down to the floor below.

As Lycaon looks around, Corin trips in front of him and hits the ground. He is already by her side, helping her up. “Corin? What happened?”

“A-an e-e-ethereal …” Corin says, tears welling up in her eyes.

“One ethereal?” Lycaon asks, picking her back up to her feet and watching as she picks her Chainsaw up again. “Surely you know you can take on one ethereal.”

“Lycaon …” Hugo says nervously. “Look at the door.”

As the wolf turns to look at the door, he sees a massive ethereal core, one with a radius that matches the length of his arm, and its black surface is covered in miasma. Then, the beast's jaws clamp down, as the core is protected by teeth that are as sharp as blades. Its body doesn’t fit through the door, and the many humanoid limbs that scatter its body are clawing at the doorframe. It cracks as the monster pushes against the relatively small opening, before the entire wall begins to collapse from its repeated impact from its many limbs. It looms over them, its body an amalgam of the flesh of exaltists, ether crystals, and several different types of ethereals. It has four massive main arms and two small legs, excluding the aforementioned amalgamated limbs. While it has no head, the full view of the ethereal lets Lycaon realize that the core he saw was in its miasma-drenched stomach, and the large mouth he saw runs along its entire body. As all of them look up at the creature, it finally growls for the first time, causing the entire room to tremble.

“Oh. I see.” Lycaon states, his ears and tail all drooping in fear.

-

The Emerald Cantor raises his hand into the air, three massive crystals rising with him. Then, he points his hand down, all of the crystal towers immediately then break off the ground and are launched forward like hulking projectiles.

“Move!” Zhu Yuan shouts to her left, where a fox swordswoman and a sharkmaid stand. She jumps out of the way before the tower lands on her, and then turns back to shoot the various shards of crystals out of the air before they hit her. Her peripheral vision is covered in a wave of ice as Miyabi holds her ground and uses one powerful slash to part the crystal projectile that came at her in two. She holds her sword up as the two halves hit the ground, but when she turns to face the attacker once again, she instead sees her view blocked by a shark tail. Ellen Joe is currently running up the crystal structure that was meant to crush her, both hands holding on to the two handles of her scissor blade as she prepares to attack.

“What did you do to him?!” She shouts in frustration, jumping off the pseudo-ramp and opening up the blades over her weapon so that she can cleave the gold-masked figure. 

“That’s the third time you’ve yelled that at me.” The Cantor replies. “I killed that wanna-be hero just like I did the pest from Section 6.” He points his hand straight down.

“You did not!” Ellen attempts to finish her attack, but before she can close the blade, the air around her begins to feel heavy, then her body begins to feel heavy, and suddenly, she feels the ground pull her down and she begins speeding to the ground. Then, two purple blasts hit the white-cloaked man in rapid succession, causing him to lose focus and fly backwards, making the pressure Ellen felt disappear. She is still falling, however. Before she hits the ground, Miyabi is already in the air, holding her, then back on the ground gently.

As soon as they are on the ground, Ellen pushes the woman who caught her away. “Don’t be rash, this villain is powerful.” Miyabi says scoldingly.

“I’ll do whatever the hell I want.” Ellen retorts.

“Ellen, right?” Zhu Yuan asks, jogging up to the duo. “We’ve met at Random Play with the Managers a few times.”

“I know you. You’re the officer that makes goo-goo eyes at Wise.” Ellen states.

Miyabi glances at Zhu Yuan confused as the taller woman’s face goes red like a tomato. “I-I- do not!” She stops herself. “Ahem.” She regains her composure. “I’m glad you remember me. Why do you keep rushing at him on your own?”

“Because I need to beat him myself!” Ellen yells.

“No. He is mine to beat.” Miyabi states. “He has to pay for what he did to Sokkaku.” The other two ladies can feel the malice in her voice as she said that second sentence.

“Well clearly you can’t. If you could have beat him the first time, then Sonic wouldn’t be gone!”

Both Zhu Yuan and Miyabi’s eyes go wide. Miyabi scowls. “What did you just say?”

“You heard me. That Void Hunter title doesn’t mean anything, does it.”

The two of them glare at each other as Zhu Yuan stands in between them. A large blue flash of light gets her attention. “Guys!”

The three are instantly faced with the Emerald Cantor, who teleports in front of them with a massive sphere of ether energy held over his head. All three of them attempt to pull out their weapons before he can use the massive attack, but his hand flicks down before any of them can react. The massive sphere of energy crashes down into the ground in moments, covering the area that the three of them were standing. His eyes however, catch a powerful surge of electricity that trails through the blast, and when his eyes follow it, he sees that behind him is the group he just attempted to destroy, now joined by the pink haired second in command of Section 6. Before he can do anything, hover, he feels a surge of electricity flow through his entire body. He falls down to the ground from the shock.

“Rina!” Ellen exclaims as she looks at the surge that downed the Cantor.

The grey haired maid floats behind Ellen then spins to appear in front of the group.

“You followed me?”

“Of course, Ellen dearie. I can’t quite sit this one out, can I?” Rina responds.

Yanagi huffs as she holds her knees, clearly tired, and the clock on her spear spins back to catch up with the present. Yanagi shoots her chief a smile as she wipes some more blood from her nose. Miyabi then rests a hand on her shoulder. “Thanks, Yanagi.”

“Why must you all continue to evade me! Can’t you see that it’s all pointless!” The mad heretic shouts as he rises over them once again.. He immediately raises more crystals from the ground, with several fissures forming around him as he throws the crystals through the dozens of fissures.

“Scatter!” Zhu Yuan yells.

Ether crystals rain down from all sides as the group all go in different directions. Miyabi is the only one who stays in place, letting the attacks fly at her as she uses her blade to slice down each projectile before they hit her. Zhu Yuan and Yanagi use flips and slides to avoid the crystals, using their weapons when necessary to block or parry. Rina elegantly flies around the danger, looking around for Ellen as she does. She hears the clashing of metal as she sees the shark-tailed maid running through the attack and approaching the epicenter. She is spinning her blade with her hands to parry each and every projectile, moving it fast enough to block the maximum amount of crystals at once.

“Ellen, no!” Rina cries out, but when she attempts to fly closer, several crystals fall in front of her that she is forced to avoid, and she is unable to dodge and approach at the same time.

Ellen ignores Rina’s shout as she  slices away at the largest crystal yet, jumping into the air as she stares down the back of the Emerald Cantor, who currently has attention focused on Miyabi. She raises her weapon into the air, aiming the sharp edge downwards so that she can land right on the unsuspecting foe. “A sneak attack. Cute.” She hears him say, without turning around. Suddenly, she is no longer looking at his back, but instead is several feet closer to the ground with her blade hitting nothing but air. Then, a hand grabs the back of her collar, and pulls her back up. The shock from the change in momentum causes her to let go of her scissor blade involuntarily. As it clatters to the ground, she grits her teeth and attempts to swing her shark tail as a form of attack. Before it lands she is teleported several feet forward in the air and her swing misses. Then, as she begins to fall again, the gold mask of the Cantor fills her vision as he flies right up to her. “But ultimately, it was pointless.” He grabs her face with his hand so that his palm covers it completely, and Ellen’s muffled wailing can be heard across the area as he begins to apply pressure on her with his hand.

The four other combatants look in in horror as the crystal raining down on them clears, seeing Ellen in peril. Rina grits her teeth and flies forward. “Not on my watch!” She yells as she approaches him. Yanagi runs up next to Rina, giving her a nod to show her support, the curves her motion so she can approach from a different side. Zhu Yuan does the same, and Miyabi’s sword burns with blue fire as she runs up to him, each of the four women approaching from a different side.

“You aren’t ending anyone else’s story today!” Miyabi cries, pulling her sword back as she runs, charging up a powerful attack.

The Emerald Cantor takes a moment to look around, before chuckling. “Predictable.” He continues to clutch Ellen with one hand, raising the emerald in the other as it quickly flashes with blue light. In response, the ground all around him glows as well, and his distressed attackers don’t have time to react before the cracked road and asphalt of the ruined cityscape around them rises one foot higher than it was before, excluding the exact spots that Miyabi, Yanagi, Rina, and Zhu Yuan were currently above. This makes the ground absorb all of their feet, even the floating Rina’s, into itself as they run, all the way up to their ankles. All of them are locked into place as they attempt to get their bearings, with Yanagi, Zhu Yuan, and Miyabi stumbling due to their forced stoppage, while Rina catches herself by floating.

“This won't hold us!” Zhu Yuan yells at him, As Miyabi and Yanagi are already using their weapons break away at the asphalt holding them. The Cantor doesn’t respond, simply holding the emerald in the air as energy begins to charge in a sphere around him. “What are you … No-”

Zhu Yuan doesn’t get to finish her sentence as a blue shockwave is shot out in all directions. No one can move out of their place, so they are all immediately hit with its full force. The force is enough to break the ground beneath them, but that doesn’t matter as all four of them hit the ground, and none of them get up. Zhu Yuan’s grip releases on her gun, the same for Yanagi and her spear, and Rina’s two electrical bangboo companions that help with her attacks are both unresponsive as they fall off of her shoulders. Miyabi’s blade spins in the air as she loses her grip, and clatters on the ground along with her body. Then, the cyan chaos emerald rolls out of her pocket.

“HA! This was the great Section 6?” He boasts, floating back to the ground so he can stand over the downed group before him. As he takes a second to admire his work, he notices the bright glow of the cyan emerald that rests near the fallen void hunter. “Finally!” He exclaims, extending his open hand for the gem and watching as the concrete underneath it is lifted up, along with the emerald itself, and it flies in his direction. The concrete lands on the ground as the cyan emerald rests in his hands. Then, both emeralds rise from his hands and begin to float around him, his body glowing with both blue and cyan. “It was pointless to even try and keep this holy stone from me! Even when you brought allies along, you still fell to the power of my faith- Ow!” He yelps in pain as the shark in his clutches uses her teeth to bite his palm. Blood drips off his hand as he lets her go, and as she hits the ground he immediately kicks her in the side. She tumbles several feet forward as she holds her side in pain. “Disrespectful blasphemer! You bit me!” He says with disgust in his voice.

Ellen glances around, ignoring the Cantor. She stops her gaze at her shark-themed scissor blades, which lie on the ground a meter in front of her. She begins to crawl in that direction, struggling to get distances as a shadow looms above her. She grits her teeth as she feels the pain of the hair on the back of her head being pulled up, but doesn’t manage to brace herself before her head is slammed back into the asphalt, cracking it with the impact. “You signed your own death warrant, and for what?” The Emerald Cantor asks her angrily as he pulls her back up to talk to her. He throws her to the side when he finishes his sentence, and with his now two free hands he begins charging the ether particles around him and pulling them together into a ball of energy that continues to expand. “So that you could avenge one of the ants I squashed? Was he worth it?”

Ellen grunts as she pushes herself up through the pain, her vision covered with the massive amount of ether that is about to be released in her direction. “Yes.” She manages to let out, tears welling up in her eyes as she slumps back down, resigned to her fate.

“Then, go meet him.” He says as the energy he is charging is finally stopping. “Consider it an act of mercy.”

Rina opens her eyes first. She uses her arms to push herself off the ground as she quickly surveys the area. ‘Ellen, Ellen, where is she?’ She thinks to herself. She ignores the groaning of Yanagi and Miyabi as they start to get up, the fallen Zhu Yuan next to her, and finally lets her eyes be drawn to the sphere of ether energy that the Emerald Cantor is holding that is twice his own size. He looks to where he is pointing the blast, and sees a tired and defeated Ellen looking up at the attack from the ground. “No- Ellen! Get out of there!” While the yelling gets Miyabi and Yanagi’s attention, it is helpless to do anything to Ellen and the Cantor. ‘W-we can’t do anything. Ellen is going to get attacked and all of us are …’ 

Rina stops her self pity as she feels the air around her chill. ‘Of course- Miss Hoshimi will-’ She turns to look at Miyabi, only to see her struggling to stand up, sword not in hand. ‘What?’ She looks back at the large ball ether energy with both worry and confusion as the air around them gets even colder, several snowflakes scatter the area.

“Goodbye, pest.” The Cantor says, releasing the massive wave of ether forward. He laughs maniacally as the energy barrels down at its target. “Hahaha- Argh?!” the sound of clashing metal rings out in his ears as a red wagon hits him in the head and cracks his gold mask. “What in the-”

Ellen closes her eyes just as the blast is about to hit her, but feels two arms wrap around her and the G-forces of moving incredibly fast surround her as an explosion of ether energy can be heard getting further away. When she brings herself to open her eyes again, she is met with the emerald green eyes of a certain three foot tall blue hedgehog. He is setting her down on the ground, kneeling to meet her gaze. “Phew, that was a close one. Was almost late for once!” Sonic says, chuckling as he gives her a grin. “You ok?”

Ellen is left in shock as the previously thought-to-be-dead Sonic stands in front of her, alive and well. “Y-you … you’re alive? But- I t-thought …” Ellen stammers through her words, a smile forming in her face as tears pour out.

“It’ll take a lot more than a maniac with a Chaos Emerald to kill m-” Ellen doesn’t let the hedgehog boast as she tackles him into a hug. “I’m ok, I’m ok!” She pats her back as he lets her let out her emotions, reciprocating the hug.

As the dust settles on the explosion, Rina is already up and trying to look through the smoke with anticipation. ‘Please, please, please!’ she thinks to herself, holding her mouth as the dust dissipates. Instead of seeing a looming villain, she is met with the frozen pillar that shoots into the air, completely encasing the Emerald Cantor in ice. The two emeralds are frozen along with him, along with a dented red wagon that is in the middle of hitting him in the head. Yanagi and Miyabi are helping up Zhu Yuan as they look up as well. The group glances at each other, all of them confused at the sudden incapacitation of the powered up heretic.

Their awe is interrupted when the group hears the sound of a girl giggling. “Hehe, that's what you get for sending me away from big sis and the chief!”

“I-It can’t be …” Yanagi lets out.

The group take their glances down to look at the pillar’s base, seeing a white-haired, blue-skinned Oni sticking her tongue out to taunt the enemy encased in ice. She is leaning against the handle of her massive banner, and its edge rests in the ground and is covered in shards of ice. Sokkaku turns to look at the group that is looking at her. “Nagi!” She beams at them as she waves.

Yanagi lets go of Zhu Yuan, with Miyabi quickly picking up the slack to help her back on her feet. In an instant, the pink haired woman is tackling her adopted oni sister as they hit the ground. “Sokkaku! I thought you- y-you-” Yanagi stops as she looks down at the laughing girl in confusion. “Wait- how are you ok?”

The group walks up to Sokkaku and Yanagi, with Zhu Yuan looking relieved as Rina continues to look around for Ellen. Miyabi ruffles the blue skinned girl’s hair as the two smile at each other. “Well I’m happy to see you unharmed, I was wondering the same thing.” Miyabi says.

Sokkaku sits up, the smile not leaving her face. “Well- I thought I was a goner! The big bad guy was all like ‘pew’ and then I was like ‘Aaaaaaa’ and suddenly we were thrown out of the hollow and not dying? But now we were falling through the sky.” Sokkaku uses her hands to show the arc that she made through the air when she fell. “And we went ‘wooooooosh’ then ‘boom’! And we were in some old backyard.”

“We … Who?” Zhu Yuan asks the girl.

“Well, me and Sonic of course!” She says, excited.

“Miss me?” The titular hedgehog responds, a blur appearing behind Sokkaku as Sonic stands there, Ellen in her arms. He sets her down for the second time, the rest of the group looking at the two of them, astonished. He disappears for a moment, then reappears in the same place in a flash, holding Ellen’s blade that was discarded across the battlefield. She nods at him, before Rina rushes up to her and cups her face in her arms.

“Ellen, dear! You’re ok!” The grey haired maid turns her head to examine it, and uses a handkerchief to wipe some blood off a few scratches on Ellen’s face. “It’s a miracle! I don’t know how you are here, Sir Sonic, but thank you for coming to Ellen’s aid.”

Sonic grins, but shrugs like it’s no big deal. “Eh, don’t mention it.”

“Saving Sokkaku and Ellen and Sokkaku in one day,” Miyabi states, putting her hand on his shoulder before glancing back at Yanagi and Zhu Yuan, “I think we misjudged you, Sir Sonic the Hedgehog.”

Sonic groans “Ugh, don’t you start with that ‘Sir’ stuff, too.” He then puts his grin back on. “But, thanks.”

“Ok wait wait wait, I’m so lost!” Zhu Yuan exclaims, getting the entire group’s attention. “How did you survive? We saw you and Sokkaku get completely absorbed by that blast- then nothing was left!”

“Oh- well that's easy.” Sonic says, starting to answer her. “The chaos emeralds are absurdly powerful, can control space and time, yada yada yada, but,” He holds up his hand, as if to say stop, “They can’t just erase people. That ain’t something one emerald just does by default. What he is doing, what he has been doing this whole time, is called Chaos Control.”

Rina’s eyes go wide in recognition. “That thing that you mentioned in your anecdote?”

“Yup. What the chaos emerald newbie,” He points at the Emerald Cantor that’s encased in ice in the air, “actually did was send me and Sokkaku out of the Hollow. That was probably the closest thing to ‘erasing us’ he could have actually done. If it was just a blast of energy, we wouldn’t have been killed in one shot like that.”

“But then- how did you get back? We didn’t give Sokkaku her own carrot … did you have one?” Yanagi asks.

“Definitely not.” Ellen states. “We wouldn’t have had to run after the guy if he did.”

“Oh- oh- I know how we got back!” Sokkaku says, raising her hand and waving it, getting the group’s attention. “So basically, when we fell to the ground, Sonic was all confused on how we would get back, because he couldn’t just run straight here. So- after I explained to him how a hollow works, he had this smart idea. So- Sonic put me on this toy wagon- right? And I would use my banner to turn the ground behind us to ice as he ran. As long as we didn’t go in the same direction as my ice, we could keep mapping out the hollow manually without repeating areas and then get back to everyone!”

“Like leaving a string in a maze …” Miyabi says in thought.

“But that can’t be possible- mapping a hollow like that could take a person weeks- even months! H-how … just how?!” Zhu Yuan asks in pure astonishment.

The group looks from Sokkaku to Sonic, who is simply stretching his arms. He doesn’t say anything at first as he lets the attention rest on him. Then he smiles cockily. “Honestly- I could have done it faster if I pushed a little more.”

That sentence breaks the black haired cop, and she just has her jaw agape. Yanagi closes her mouth for her as Sokkaku giggles.

The reunion of the group is cut off by the sound of ice cracking. All of them stare up as light pours through the cracks of the ice pillar. “Oh- I almost forgot about that guy.” Sonic remarks.

The ice shatters, and the Cantor floats in the air once again, huffing from exertion. The two emeralds in his possession glow as they float around him once again, and he holds the red wagon that hits him for a moment before throwing it away to the side. “You! I thought I killed you both!” He shouts.

“Our deaths were … greatly exaggerated.” Sonic replies, cracking his knuckles.

“Then I’ll just have to kill you properly this time!” The Cantor begins to raise more ether crystals, letting several ether fissures form around him. “You guys don’t stand a chance now that I have two Emeralds of Ether.”

Zhu Yuan attaches several shells onto her blaster. Ellen grits her teeth and opens up her blades. Rina’s two robotic companions float around her as she rises off the ground, static crackling on the ground beneath her. Yanagi, Miyabi, and Sokkaku all get into a practiced group formation. Sonic watches all of this as he gets into a runners stance. “So, Miyabi, what move are we at now?”

Miyabi doesn’t hesitate with her answer. “The final move.”

-

“How much longer, Omega?!” Rouge shouts across the room, curving her flight around the wide downswing of the amalgam ethereal.

The massive beast has its body halfway through the opening it made where the door used to be, and is thrashing violently as the 5 agents in the room attempt to stop its advance. As its swing is about to hit the ground, Hugo jumps into the air and grabs the railing of the second floor to keep himself suspended. Vivian is floating just next to him. “Where is Lycaon?” The duo glance down to the impromptu battlefield to see Lycaon stumbling from the tremor the ethereal just made.

“Lycaon!” Hugo shouts in panic. He looks on as the amalgam creature uses a free hand to pick some of the debris of the wall and launch it at Lycaon. Before it can hit, the powerful spinning of a sawblade can be heard and Corin jumps in front of her boss. She swings her blade down, slicing the massive boulder in two before it can hit either of them.

Lycaon sighs. “Thank you, Corin.”

Corin responds with an energetic nod, and the duo then rush forward, Lycaon using his engine to take the lead. He jumps into the air, letting the momentum enhance his kick as he lands an impact right on the flesh of the beast, just below its giant mouth. It opens its mouth for a moment as he does this, then uses its various humanoid limbs to push the wolf back down to the ground. Corin takes advantage of the opening, letting her spinning blade hit one of its teeth, and as they clash for a moment, Corin manages to cleave the tooth down its base, before she is also pushed away. The two falling members of Victoria Housekeeping don’t hit the ground, as Vivian catches Corin and Hugo does the same for Lycaon.

As the fight goes on, Rouge lands next to Omega’s head at the main computer. “I said how much longer- Omega! We are barely holding out back there!”

“Unknown.” Omega replies bluntly.

“What do you mean unknown?!” Rouge asks.

“These firewalls are designed completely differently to the systems in our home dimension. I am having trouble cracking them.”

“So you can’t do it.” Rouge says, frustrated.

“I can do it. Just not right now.” Omega states.

“Well we don’t have time to learn another dimension’s computer systems!” Rouge exclaims. “We are gonna get crushed by that thing!”

“Rouge, look out!” Vivian shouts from the air. Rouge looks back to see another massive piece of the wall being thrown in her direction. She flaps her wings to move away, but looks at Omega’s head and stops. ‘Damn it!’ Her hesitation lets the projectile close the distance, and she stands her ground as she prepares to block the attack. Yet, as she winds up her kick, the massive projectile shatters by an unseen impact, electricity crackling as the destruction of the chunk of the wall causes Rouge’s vision to be obscured. When she opens her eyes again, she sees a short woman with long, dark green pigtails and wearing a police officer’s uniform standing on the railing in front of her. 

She stops spinning her staff and turns her head to look at the bat. “Officer Qingyi, at your service.” 

Before Rouge can say anything, footsteps can be heard from the floor above her as three more figures jump down to the platform she is on. One is a young man in a matching police uniform with white hair, cat ears, and a tail. Another is a black haired man wielding a bow. And the last one is a taller woman with rat-like features. “Oh? Was there a party we weren’t invited to?” Jane Doe asks.

“It appears that various friends of the Managers are here- fighting a massive ethereal and attempting to do our plan before us.” Qingyi states.

“Those guys are friends of Belle and Wise?!” Seth exclaims, leaning over the railing to point at Lycaon, Corin, Vivian, and Hugo, who are all still battling the massive ethereal.

“Yup, I’ve definitely seen them around Random Play recently.” Harumasa says. “And it looks like they could use a hand.”

Seth and Harumasa nod at each other, with Harumasa drawing an arrow from his quiver as he runs across the platform on the second level, and Seth leaping over the railing with his shield in hand as he jumps down to fight.

“Excuse me, hon.” Rouge says, getting Qingyi and Jane’s attention. She uses her wings to fly a few feet off the ground to stay level with Jane. “Your little quartet wouldn’t happen to be closing this hollow, would you?”

“Oh, we certainly are.” Jane says, her interest clearly peaked. “Does your group have the same plan?”

“Well, I don’t think I could go about my business if the city was engulfed in this hollow, now could I?” Rouge remarks.

“If you two are done with your pleasantries,” Qingyi interrupts them, walking past as she makes her way to the large terminal, “We have a hollow to destroy.”

“Negative. I have tried everything, and am unable to get through the computer’s defenses.”

“An intelligent construct?” Jane asks. “Where is his body?”

“Indisposed.” Rouge says with a sigh.

“Are you currently hooked up to their network?” Qingyi asks Omega.

“Yes.” He replies bluntly.

“Perfect.”

The android places both her hands onto the robot’s head, then places her forehead in between his eyes. Their eyes both then glow the same shade of blue as Jane and Rouge watch the computer’s systems flash on and off and various parts of the screen crackle.

“You know, when we do this, the building will explode, right.” Rouge states to Jane as the two wait for Qingyi and Omega to break through the computer.

“Of course- that's our only shot of clearing out the ethereals.” She glances back at the fight as she says this, watching Seth block a swing from one of its massive arms, as Hugo slashes his scythe down on the same arm Seth parried, slicing it off the creature causing it to shriek in pain. When its mouth opens, Vivian uses her umbrella to launch several ether blasts into its mouth, while harumasa releases a bow that hits the abomination’s core.

“You say that like we don’t also have a chance of getting caught in the blast.” Rouge says.

Jane grins at her. “Well of course I don’t.”

Rouge looks at her stunned. “Wh-”

“We are in!” Qingyi shouts at the two of them. “The two of us can keep the safety system down, but you two need to force the self-destruct from here!”

Jane winks at Rouge. “Just follow us.” Rouge takes a moment to process, but then the two go up to the computer and get to work.

Across the room, a winded Hugo clutches his knees as he takes a breather. The snarling mass of ether that looms over him launches a chunk of miasma in his direction, and as soon as it does he rolls out of the way. “Phew- This thing won’t let up for a second, will it!” Another mass of miasma drops down on the pale man, but before he can dodge, a metal shield covers him as Seth blocks the ethereal’s attack. “I don’t know when you got here- but thanks for the help!”

Seth nods at him. “Any friends of Belle and Wise are friends of ours.”

Vivian’s ears perk up at the mention of the sibling duo, and she looks out from the umbrella that is covering her from a projectile of the monster to see who mentioned them.

Vivian quickly floats down to get up in Seth as she gives him a glance up and down. “So this is Seth Lowell …” She mutters.

Seth stays silent for a moment as his eyes go wide with recognition. “Wait- how do you know my name?!”

Vivian doesn’t even look back at him as she begins to float again. “No one can be in their lives without me without me knowing about it.”

“... What?” Seth looks distraught as the purple haired woman floats away.

Hugo puts his hand on the officer’s shoulder sympathetically. “Sorry about that … She ‘cares’ a lot about the managers.”

Lycaon jumps down in front of the two of them, snapping his fingers at them. “Focus, you two.” Two of the ethereals arms close in on them from either side, with Lycaon and Corin each rushing to parry one arm to protect Hugo and Seth.

The room rumbles again as the beast in the broken doorway snarls, causing the ground to tremble. Then, more of the wall comes down as it finally begins to bring more of its mass into the room. Everyone begins to bring down their attacks on the amalgamated ethereal in order to slow it down. Vivian floats towards the computer where Jane and Rouge are working.

“We are out of time!” Vivian shouts at them.

“That's fine because …” Rouge and Jane both turn around, pointing up to the large screen. A timer appears on it. Two minutes and dropping. “We gotta go, anyways.”

“You did it!” Vivian celebrates for a moment, before realization sets in. “Where do we go now?!”

“Don’t worry, Jane here has a plan.” Rouge says with a smile. “Mind rounding everyone up?”

Vivian floats away as Rouge quickly disconnects Omega from the terminal. Qingyi and Jane both jump onto the railing, looking down at the chaotic battlefield. “Everyone- get up to the third level, now!” Qingyi yells down at them. She then quickly turns to Harumasa, who is much further down the platform of the second level. “Harumasa, you have one more of those energized arrows, correct? Make us an opening.” The two give each other a nod in affirmation.

The crowd of agents below all look up when they hear Qingyi yell. Hugo immediately jumps up to the railing, using it to pull himself up and get to the second floor, as he prepares to leap to the third. Lycaon scoops up Corin as the engines in his legs start, and he dashes up the side of the wall. Being close to the ethereal angers it, and it uses its closest arm to swing at the two of them. Before it can land, Seth is already in the air and using his shield to parry the blow. With no footing, he is launched back with nothing to grab on.

“I got you, sir.” Lycaon says calmly, shifting Corin over his shoulder as he uses his now free hand to grab Seth out of the air without breaking pace on his ascent. He makes one last leap and gets to the third level, with Vivian, Hugo, Qingyi, Jane, and Rouge all having just gotten there themselves. Before they can move, the ground rumbles again as the ethereal makes one more final thrash. Everyone braces themselves, then Harumasa pulls himself up the ladder with one last jump. While in the air, he takes the chance to turn in the air and aim an energized arrow at the beast’s open mouth. The engine of the arrow echoes through the room as he releases it, letting a massive wave of electricity radiate off the arrow as it lands right in the ethereal’s core, letting the room get filled with the sound of its pained shrieks.

“Everyone- this way!” Jane shouts, pointing at a corridor that leads out of the third level. “The way our group came in!”

All of them follow the command immediately, exiting the generator room with haste and running down the hall as Omega begins to count down.

“Five seconds.”

“What?!” Seth shouts.

“Just keep running, idiot.” Harumasa scolds.

“Four seconds.”

“Move, move, move!” Jane commands.

“Three seconds.”

“Can you stop that, Omega?” Rouge asks in annoyance.

“No. Two seconds.”

“Almost …” Qingyi mutters

“One second.”

“W-we aren’t g-gonna make it!” Corin shrieks in fear.

The chamber holding the rings glows brightly- and as the glass cracks- the energy implodes in on itself, leaving the entire room silent for a moment before a massive explosion shakes the entire Hollow, its blast radius capturing the entire facility.