"Where are those two," Rouge asked as she waited in front of a cave miles away from New Mobotropolis. Before she could walk into the mouth of the cave, Josh and Manik ran up to her.
"You two sure took your sweet time. What happened that you're both late?"
"Sorry, Aunt Rouge. I was busy painting Sonia's likeness. It's not easy putting a vision of beauty on a blank canvass," Josh said.
"My best friend, the romantic," Manik said, jerking his thumb towards Josh.
"What? It's true. Sonia is a pure vision of beauty, Manik."
"Would you can it, Van Gogh? We have a treasure to find," Rouge said before she and Manik walked into the caverns.
"'Would you can it, Van Gogh?' What a bat," Josh said before following Rouge and Manik into the cave.
"So what is it that we're looking for, Aunt Rouge?"
"Just the Speed Stone."
"What is that?"
"A stone that can grant anyone the best kind of speed there is. A speed that counter that of a cheetah and pretty much everything else on Mobius," Rouge answered.
"Even Uncle Sonic," Josh asked.
"Even Sonic."
"So I'm supposed to believe that someone could be granted the same kind of speed Uncle Sonic has because of some stone?"
"Pretty much," Rouge said.
"Well, I don't believe it. There's no way Uncle Sonic's brand of speed could be given to someone because of a stone," Josh said before his voice echoed.
"Stone! Stone! Taco! Stone," Josh's echo said as it reverberated through the caverns.
"Is it me or did my echo sound a little broken?"
"Come on, Jo. We gotta get a move on if we wanna that Speed Stone," Manik said as he and Rouge walked through the caverns.
"I swear my echo is seriously broken," Josh said before he followed Manik and Rouge.
"This is great." After walking through the caverns, Rouge and Manik stopped at a section of the cave that broke up into three different paths.
"Which way, Manik?"
"How am I supposed to know? I may be Sally's son, but that doesn't mean I think like her," Manik said before Josh walked up to him and Rouge.
"What's going on?"
"We're lost because Manik doesn't know which way to go," Rouge answered.
"I just can't decide which tunnel to take."
"That is a problem. The easiest solution that I can come up with that each of us take one of the tunnels and see where it leads," Josh said.
"That's not a bad plan, Jo. Nice job," Manik said.
"Thanks, Manik. I'm glad I came up with it."
"OK. I'll take the left, Josh takes the right, and Manik takes the center path. Sound good to you two?"
"It actually does," Josh said before he, Rouge, and Manik went their separate paths.
"Gaining speed because of a stone. Total BS." Josh was using a flashlight to guide his way through the dark caverns. He didn't believe that a simple stone couldn't give someone extraordinary speed just by touching and he wanted to disprove it.
"A stone that can give someone the speed of my dad. Interesting." Manik, like Josh, was using a flashlight to light his way through the caverns. While he was walking around, he heard a low rumbling a few miles from his location.
"What was that? I guess it was nothing. Better keep looking for that Speed Stone," Manik said before the same low rumbling from before repeated itself.
"Whatever that was, I'm getting far away from it before I become its next meal." Manik dropped his flashlight before breaking out into a mad dash for the exit.
"Thanks a lot, Aunt Rouge. I was going to get some breakfast, but you had to pull me away from my Frosted Toast Crunch," Josh said before his stomach started growling again.
"I know you're starving. I am, too, but you don't hear me complaining."
"Speed Stone, come out wherever you are," Rouge called out as she walked through the tunnel she had picked to go through. She stopped when she saw a strange glow coming from ahead.
"I'll bet that's the Speed Stone I'm looking for. I gotta get before someone else does." Rouge then ran over to where the glow was coming from and saw a beautiful blue stone resting on a stone pedestal.
"It's even more amazing than I thought," Rouge said as she walked up to the stone. She grabbed it off the pedestal, held it in her hands, and felt the surge of power course through her.
"So the legends are true. I have the same kind of speed as Sonic. Incredible."