It was a bright sunny day in the Green Hill Zone. The sun was shinning through gaps in the clouds, the trees were gently swaying in the wind. The rivers flowed along underneath the many wooden bridges calmly, and the sudden continent sized land mass falling from the sky at great speed only served to ruin what was otherwise a picturesque scene.
"What in the name of Mobius was that?", a small yellow squirrel asked rhetorically. Getting up from his patch of grass, he watched chunks of debris fall to the ground. The sudden shock had woken Ray out of his slumber. Curiosity had got the better of him, and he made his way towards the island on a pair of green hover shoes. Jumping over fallen debris, Ray made his way towards what used to be the ocean, but was no a gigantic land mass. He looked onwards at it nervously, and thought for a moment what to do. Common sense told the flying squirrel not to go any further, but curiosity said otherwise. Scrambling up a nearby tree, Ray leapt off, and glided for the island, landing in some dense foliage.
Dashing along at speeds he couldn't possibly achieve on foot, Ray sprinted in a skating motion into the jungle. Something in his head told him he'd get his answers as to what was going on if he just kept going. Ray's natural curiosity took hold from there, and before he knew it, the edge of the island was hundreds of feet away. Peering through the foliage Ray noticed something glowing. He looked carefully, as a large green gem sat atop a platform, surrounded by seven other pillars.
Cautiously Ray edged closer. Sat atop two of the pillars were two much smaller gems. Out of the corner of his eye, Ray found a third, and his foot managed to find a fourth. To his left Ray saw what he assumed to be a fifth gem, shattered on the ground. Clearly this had been caused by whatever had caused the place to crash into what was once the coast of the Green Hill Zone. Ray still had no idea what this place was. Ray picked up one of the gems off the pillar it was sat on. Looking closely it had a faint glow to it, something which seemed to become ever so slightly brighter the nearer it was to the large green gem.
There was a loud thud, and a rustling in the foliage in front of him. Instinctively Ray leapt back into the trees from whence he came. From out of the foliage came a red anthro. Ray couldn't tell what species he was, and he wasn't too sure he'd ever seen such a species before. Ray assumed the anthro was male, and he was about the same height as Ray. Looking at him, Ray noticed he was wearing spiked gloves, and had red dreadlocks. The creature climbed atop the large gem sighing, and closed his eyes. Ray decided to keep watching for a moment.
"Argh!" The creature yelled as it rolled over, before getting up and launching into a tirade of insults that would offend even the most foul mouthed person. Leaping off the gem, the creature began shouting angrily for revenge, and kept mentioning something about emeralds. Ray assumed that the creature was after the gem he was holding in his right paw, and decided now would be a good time to hide it. However Ray was also aware of just how thick the foliage was, and he guessed that, for all the creatures yelling, he could probably hear any noise made in the immediate area.
Ray looked at the area again. In front of him was the little opening where the creature fumed, and the selection of gems sat. beyond that was a dense forest of palm trees, bushes, flowers, and all sorts of associated foliage. To his left sat a high cliff top, with a few tree's in front of it. Near to that lay a fallen Palm tree. To Ray's right was another cliff top, and a small cave sat just beyond another fallen tree. The red creature struck the wall to Ray's left, and it cracked slightly. Ray winced as it did, but stayed silent. Mentally, Ray cursed himself for picking up the gem. Chances are if he'd dropped it before the red guy had showed up, he would've never noticed Ray, and Ray could've got away without injury. As it was Ray had no choice but to hide, and hope that the creature didn't find him.
The creature had had enough of shouting now, and began to hack away at anything that got in its way. Boulders were smashed, trees were knocked flying, even chunks of ground shot free in his rage. The creature began to hack away at the foliage less than twenty feet away from Ray's current position. He couldn't help but jump as he did. Ray decided now would be a good time to move.
There was a loud snap from the cave to Ray's right. Ray watched the creatures attention become diverted. Another creature emerged from the cave, though Ray couldn't tell what it was, nor did he care. Ray was scared for his life now, and decided he'd use the break in the red creatures concentration to flee.
Ray sprinted away, climbing on a tree, and leaping from tree to tree to remain silent. After about two minutes of that, he was sure he was out of earshot of the creatures, and he leapt back to the floor. Kicking his heels together, he re-activated his green hover shoes, and glided along the rough floor with all the grace of an inline skater. Leaping of the edge of the jungle, he glided away from the fallen land mass, back to the Green Hill Zone. After a brief dash, he returned to where he'd come from. Many animals had gathered around the fallen mass now, eager to know just what was going on.
"It's gotta be Eggman," one of them said.
"Sonic had better do something about it then," another said.
"I hope we don't get turned to Badniks again," a third voice said.
"What do you think it is mister?" a small brown rabbit said to Ray. Ray looked to her briefly, she looked about five, and had an orange dress on. Beside her hovered a small blue Chao. It looked to the yellow flying squirrel intrigued.
Ray thought for a moment before answering, "I don't know." This was true, Ray didn't have the slightest idea what was going. All he knew was that if that red guy ever found out he had one of those gems, then he'd be on the receiving end of some serious trouble. Ray was at heart a coward, he admitted it to himself often enough. The bravest thing he ever did was escape from one of Robotnik's dungeons along with an armadillo, and Sonic the Hedgehog.
Ray slowly moved away from the gathering crowd, thankful no-one had noticed his escape from the giant land mass. Making his way away from the disaster area, Ray looked back taking in much of the catastrophe as he did. By the looks of it, the crash had missed the continents great bridge by the narrowest of margins. However, about a third of the zone had been crushed and the debris spread out right to the edge of the Green Hill Zone, and Ray assumed a bit of it landed in the Marble Zone.
Making sure he was alone, Ray looked again to the gem in his pocket. It glowed dully, and Ray spent several moments wondering why it glowed. Ray looked at the gem, he wasn't really sure what to do with it. There was something about the gem that made Ray uncomfortable. So much in fact that Ray immediately surrendered it to the first animal that held a gun to his face, before running off away from all the excitement.
Just what did cause the red creature to change its mind? Who took the gem from Ray? There's only one way to find out; keep reading.