KOSMRLD

by Tom and Blaze Hedgehog

After EndGame,before Eggman,there was Snively,and a chaos emerald the size of a stone in a ring. One little emerald set off a chain reaction that would destroy and rebuild a hero,open a hidden world,and awaken a savior. By the power of three...the twelve

In a world that's not so far away, not so rare of a problem existed. Tyranny ruled, and battles ravaged the land. It was easy to take power from the trusting king and country, but to keep it, was a whole other story. The tyrannical ruler found much resistance from the local inhabitants. Children, not adults, mind you, but children found the courage to stand against this hopeless situation. They grew up in war and learned from the mistakes of their elders. As young adults, they set out time after time to thwart the tyrant's evil plans succeeding each time but getting no closer to his actual destruction. Finally, the tyrant managed to create a plan so evil, so vile, that he actually won the battle. With the death of their princess, their hopes were crushed, and worst of all, their hero was framed for her murder. But through his determination, he proved his innocence, and fought the evil tyrant, and won. His fight was hard and the battle was long, and though he left with injury, he came back with strength. As the hero returned he found his princess was alive and well, and a brave new world had begun. And so it is written...

"Stupid old fool," complained a high pitched voice, "he lost sight of his goals just to chase after that half-witted hedgehog." Snively was working on his escape. Since his sentence to the Devil's Gulag he was deemed as no longer a threat, or even a possible threat. What the Freedom Fighters didn't see was that he was much more intelligent than Robotnik and the others made him out to be. It seemed logical to them that Robotnik's nephew could not ever be as bad as him. "Almost there. All I must do now is get back to Robotropolis," he paused for a moment, "but is it still Robotropolis?"

Meanwhile, the Freedom Fighters had set their determination on rebuilding the once beautiful city of Mobotropolis, now reduced to ruble. Mobians had gathered from all over the world to help. As Princess Sally lead the others in the birth of the new nation, Sonic the Hedgehog was dealing with problems of his own. He had just been told by his uncle that his parents were still alive. During the first days of the war with Robotnik, Sonic's parents and his Uncle Charles had been roboticized. When Chuck had been recovered by Sonic and his mind was freed he told him that his parents were "casualties of war". Now, he had to deal with the fact that Chuck had lied to him, and that the two people he loved most and had thought dead were alive.

"Son? Where are you, son?" Jules, Sonic's father, called. He had been searching for him for the last half-hour. The cold, rain soaked ground showed his deep footprints behind him as he searched. After turning a corner, Jules found an old dark building that only had one garage type door letting light in. His metal boots clanked loud on the concrete floor inside Robotnik's storage shed, or more appropriately, Robotnik's failed experiments shed.

Sonic flinched at the sound of the metal clanks, and he clenched his teeth from the anger he felt. He looked down at the steel pipe he held and put all his anger into bending the pipe in half. It was easy. He just imagined that it was Robotnik's head. He took a deep breath and relaxed for a moment. "I'm over here, dad." Sonic was half behind a failed robot standing in front of a desk with many papers strewn about on top.

"Finally, I found you. I was beginning to worry. Would you like to help me make some chilidogs for dinner tonight? It's down to me and Chuck and we could use an extra hand." Jules walked over and waved.

"Sure, dad. No problem," he turned around and smiled, leaning up against the desk.

"Great! I'll see you down at the campfire in an hour, okay?" he gave a thumbs up to his son.

"I'll be there!" Sonic finished off with a casual salute. Jules turned and walked out. Sonic sighed. It was very hard dealing with the idea that your parents will never be back to their normal forms. This was all because Robotnik decided to make each roboticizer have a different way of rearranging its victims' DNA. Now, unless they find and rebuild the original roboticizer with it's original parts... He turned back to the desk and slammed his fist onto the table. "It's not fair."

"Hey, Blue! Is this a private party, or can I join in?"

Sonic spun around to see Knuckles the Echidna standing in the doorway. "Red! What's up? It's been a while." Sonic jogged up to the high five that was offered by Knux.

"Yeah, I haven't seen you since you all took on the task of fixing up Mobotropolis." He smiled. In a slightly more serious tone he added, "how are you doing, anyway?"

"Well, we've found some of the original stone work of the palace and we-"

He was cut off by Knux, "no, no, no. I mean how are YOU doing."

Sonic looked at him kind of confused. Not many people actually ask how he personally is doing. "Well... I guess I'm okay. I..."

"How are you getting along with your mom and dad?"

Sonic sighed, "Fine. It's just really hard getting to know them again, you know? It's like they're total strangers to me. I feel really weird about it." He looked toward the ground.

Knuckles nodded and put his hand on Sonic's shoulder. "Yup. I know how it is. I've just recently found my mom. I thought she was dead, too." After a moment, Knux grinned and said, "at least we know something about your parents," Sonic looked up with and eyebrow raised, "they had the strangest idea to name you Maurice." Knuckles laughed and ducked as Sonic threw a punch towards his jaw.

"Hey! Only my parents can call me that! Err!" Sonic gritted his teeth and swung again.

"Now, now, you should play nice!" Knuckles started to run out the door, knowing perfectly well that Sonic could catch him if he wanted to.

"Come back here, traitor!" Sonic laughed and ran after him, keeping his speed down to a "slow-mo" level.

In the dark tunnel, Snively trudged through muck and mud as he climbed towards the surface on his hands and knees.

"I knew we should have kept this tunnel in better repair." Suddenly, his arm sank a foot into the mush underneath him. He pulled his hand out, which was now covered in glopping moss and mud. He said disgustedly, "uhk! How he always overlooked the details."

He knew he must have been nearing ground level because he was hearing the sounds of rats squeaking up ahead. As he neared them, he noticed that roots were poking threw the ceiling now. The mud steadily grew firmer.

"I can't wait to get back to my dry lab. It will be very interesting seeing their reaction to me when I return to claim uncle's thrown." He laughed to himself as he thought of the Freedom Fighters and their would-be shock. A small spec of light shown forth from the far end of the passage. "Excellent!"

The sun was almost setting, and the campfire on the outskirts of Mobotropolis was beginning to show bright. It was sad, in a way, those who gathered at the campfire could not see the blazing glory of the sunset; the smog above the city had yet to completely clear. Even though most of the Mobians were warming by the fire, two of them just happened to be in the perfect spot to see it.

"Wow! Hey, Sonic! Check it out!" Knux pointed to the west as he reached the top of the cliff and leaned over to catch his breath. "Is that cool, or what?"

Sonic finished his climb, "way past." He walked over to Knuckles and stood with his hands placed firmly on his hips. Suddenly he remembered, "Oh-my-gosh! I totally forgot! I promised my dad I'd help with dinner!" He turned and was about to start a speed dash back to base when he caught Knuckle's gulp.

"You mean, I have to run all the way back there?! No way, dude. I'll wait for a taxi."

Sonic shook his head. "Don't you ever learn? It's impossible to catch a taxi during Mobius rush hour."

Knux looked up at him with a slightly annoyed look, "and you suggest?"

Sonic grinned and said in a Robin Leach style accent, "the fastest, most convenient form of travel around," he grabbed Knux's arm, "Sonic the Hedgehog." And off he went, towing a yelling echidna.

Moments later, they arrived. Sonic slowed down so as not to hurtle Knux though the air and crashing into a building. He stopped and stood fast as he swung Knux around once so as to slow him down too. At the end of the circle, Knux ended up sitting in a nice puddle of mud, covered head to toe. Sonic was still holding onto his arm.

"It you ever do that again," Knuckles performed a double glare between Sonic and his hand. Sonic promptly let go. "If you ever do that again, I'll--"

"You'll what?" Sonic goaded him. Knux grimaced and growled, then swiftly grabbed Sonic's wrist, sweep kicked out his left leg, and yanked. He added a little twist, which made Sonic land flat on his face.

"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!" Knuckles doubled over in laughter as Sonic glared upward spitting out mud.

"Oh, that's veeery funny. Really mature." He promptly scooped up a handful of mud and planted it in Knux's face.

Now seemingly devoid of humor, "who are you to talk?" Splat!

The fight was on, slush was flying everywhere. Mushy brown projectiles were splatting into buildings and into anything else that happened to be nearby.

Antoine D'Coolette was walking in an alley when one of the brown projectiles splatted onto a wall. "Eww! I can't believe my eyeballs! Zat es vary disgusting. Whoevair it is zat made zis mess must be reported immediately!" He raised his fist into the air and started off in the direction the blob came from. As soon as he turned the corner, one landed right in his face. He walked to the end of the side street and stood and gapped at Sonic and Knuckles, who were thoroughly enjoying themselves and laughing hysterically, until he was about to bubble over. He snapped. "How dare you insult me in such a way! You stupid 'edge'og! You will pay for zis humiliation!!!"

The two turned around and just grinned.

"Uh, Sonic?" Knux said, "I think we should get out of here, before we get attacked!"

Sonic grinned larger, "sure thing, but not before we get the last word."

Knux caught on, "no problem. Ready?"

"And waiting."

Antoine charged them screaming furiously.

Sonic started the countdown, "Five...four...three...two...one...BLASTOFF!!!" Slush pounded Antoine. The two speed away to the campfire.

"It's about time you two showed up! And what in the world have you been up too? You're all covered in muck!" Sonic's mother, Bernice, began to rant.

"Now, now, dear. All that matters is that they're here now. Boys, go clean up, then come to the kitchen," Jules said. He shook his head, "oh well. Boys will be boys."

Sonic and Knuckles cleaned up in a hurry and returned.

"Do you want to help, Knux?" Sonic asked.

"No problem, man. I'll get some plates. How many are there anyway?"

"Well, I've never actually counted. It usually gets bigger every night. Just grab a big stack."

"Back in a sec!"

Tonight's menu, chicken a-la-king (Ant's fave) or chilidogs. Dinner is served. (Hint-hint! Go get food! This story hasn't even started yet!)

Snively had made it to the surface. By this time, it was already dark and it took him a few moments to recognize his surroundings, he was in the middle of the first quadrant of the city. The chilly night air made him shiver uncontrollably. Of course, it didn't help that he was soaked.

He sneered, "I better get to my lab b-before it gets any c-colder." He started walking. He passed many buildings that barely looked familiar. He had rarely ever walked through Robotropolis, and he rarely ever paid attention to what the place looked like. Fortunately, he saw a soft glowing light up ahead. As he neared it, he heard voices. The closer he got, the louder, and more numerous they became. He walked up to the corner and peeked around.

A gigantic bonfire blazed high and wide. Around it, the Freedom Fighters ate and talked. The hedgehog was carrying a plate overflowing with chilidogs through the groups. Directly in front of Snively, about twenty yards away, sat Princess Sally Acorn and the rest of the Knothole Freedom Fighters. Snively listened as carefully as he could to their conversation. Although he could not directly see who was talking, he could easily recognize the princess's voice, and the hedgehog's.

"Sally girl, Ah just don't know what yall are gonna do."

"Well, Bunnie, I'm not too sure either. It seems we're running into problem after problem with this project."

Good, Snively thought to himself, at least they haven't made too much progress. The hedgehog walked over to the group and sat down for a moment.

"But Sal, we've already cleared a huge section!"

Scratch that.

"I know, Sonic, but I'm really starting to worry. The winter is setting in, and we haven't even made permanent housing yet. We're all going to freeze!"

"Couldn't we just bring all of them to Knothole?"

"I'm afraid not, Bunnie. We don't have enough room, either.

Someone yelled from the other side of the fire, "Sonic! We have hungry people to feed."

"I'll be right there, Knux." He left.

Great. That retched echidna is here too.

"We need fast and easy housing. I just don't know how we're going to get it."

"Aunt Sally?"

"Yes, Tails?"

"I've found some old buildings that are underground. I'm not just talking about under the surface, I'm talking about WAY under the ground. It'd be warm, and there's plenty of space for bunks and equipment until we get things fixed topside."

The princess paused. "Good work, Tails. Tomorrow, I want you to show me your buildings, then me and you will start making plans. We might not be so bad off after all."

Snively shrunk away from his corner and went on his way. I wonder what buildings they're talking about... A while latter, he came to a large, solid steel building that appeared to have no easy access on the ground level, or any other level, for that matter. He ran up to it when he saw it and pressed his hand to the front. A few creaks and clicks were heard inside until a voice was heard. It seemed to come directly out of the wall.

"Hand print identified and acknowledged. Dr. Snively, Lab is awaiting."

Snively smiled, "Excellent. All is in good condition?"

"Lab has not received any intrusion or damage."

"Excellent! Transport me there, immediately."

"Teleport sequence has been initiated...please wait...teleporting."

A green light surrounded him and began to take shape. It formed itself into an oval with the long ends spiked. Snively crossed his arms and grinned. It's such a pity Uncle Julian never attempted scientific teleportation. The oval started to get thinner and thinner until Snively physically disappeared and the light flashed out of existence.

"This way, Aunt Sally, the opening to the tunnels is right around here, somewhere." Tails scratched his head in thought for a moment. "Oh! Now I remember. It's right here by this rock. I forgot that I found so many entrances. Only this one actually leads anywhere, though." Tails ran up ahead. He had on his favorite jacket, and it was a good thing to, because the wind began to blow cold.

Princess Sally Acorn was bundled up in a black winter coat that had a strip of imitation fur around the collar. She had a two-way headset on as well. She shivered as the cold wind whipped across her nose and chilled her ears. "Boy, I'm gonna be glad when we get down there."

"What did you say, Sal?" Sonic asked. He was on the other end of the headset. While Sally and Tails were searching for housing, Sonic was racing around the city hunting for anything he might find useful to their tasks.

Sally smiled, "I just said I can't wait until I get underground, out of this wind."

"Is that all?"

"Is that all?? I'm freezing up here!"

"Aw, come on! It's not that cold!"

Sally was annoyed now. She decided to put Sonic the Hedgehog in his place. "Gee, Sonic, I guess your right. Or maybe... nope. That's impossible. Even for you."

"What? What's impossible? Nothing is impossible when I'm the one your talking about. I can do practically anything. Face it, Sal."

"Oh, really?"

"Try me!"

Sally went off, "Well I thought the reason you're not cold is because you're moving so fast that the air is causing friction, which is what's keeping you warm."

"Nope."

"Why not?"

"Fine. I'll prove it. You do a count down, and I'll stop as soon as you say so. Then we'll see who's cold and who's not."

Sally knew what was about to happen, "Fair enough. Here I go. Five... four... three... two... one... STOP!!!" Sally heard the screech stop and waited for what was about to come.

A few milliseconds had passed when, "Wow, it's cold!!! I'm f-f-freezing out here! Oh-my-gosh it's C-COLD!!!"

Sally burst out laughing. She laughed so hard that she had to sit down until she caught her breath. But that didn't do her any good because Sonic was still howling about the cold. As soon as she calmed down, she just started laughing again. Tails ran over to see what was so funny.

"What's wrong, Aunt Sally? What's so funny?"

Sally handed him her headset and he held it up to his ears.

"This isn't f-funny, Sally! I'm g-g-gonna f-freeze!!! Stop laughing!!!"

Tails just looked at the princess kind of confused. "I don't get it."

When Sally caught her breath, "I just managed to deflate Sonic's ego by probably ten notches."

"Tails? I-is that you? I'm f-freezing! Where are you guys? I'll come join you! By the way, d-do you have an extra c-coat?" Sonic had started to run again and was beginning to warm up.

Tails put on the headset, "No, but it's really warm underground. We're in the middle of Red sector. You know, by the big rocks?"

"Yeah. I'll be there in a minute. Over and out, bud."

"Over and out."

Sally couldn't help but grin. Once more she had put Sonic's ego in major shock. She stood up and walked with Tails over to the hole. She felt much warmer now that she had a good laugh.

Sonic sped up to the group. When he stopped, they noticed he had grabbed his black bomber jacket from the camp. The jacket itself was specially made for him by Rotor to withstand his fastest speeds and to keep him extra warm when needed.

Sally looked at him and sighed, "Now who's cold?"

Sonic sneered at her and mumbled mockingly, "Now who's cold?"

The room was huge, and very dark. It was rectangularly shaped, and had many computers and labs set up around it. There was a main desk in the middle of the back wall which had several file cabinets behind it, some drawers were spilling out their contents onto the steel floor. A few lights blinked on and off eerily above. Some of the labs had chemical equipment set up that still had chemicals in them. Many of the chemical substances glowed softly still. To the right, there was a mainframe computer built into the wall.

A green oval shape of light appeared in the middle of the room and disappeared to reveal Snively. He turned and began to walk toward the mainframe. It clicked into an automatic startup. On its screen flashed system startup data and then READY... BEGINNING LAB START SEQUENCE... A moment later, every computer began to hum, and every light and robot clicked and whizzed into full automation. LAB COMPLETE... WELCOME BACK DR.

"Computer, have the cycles I requested been performed?" Snively asked as he stood in front of the console.

CHECKING... YES.

Snively typed in a command and asked, "have they been performed on their schedules?"

"Yes, Dr.," the computer spoke this time instead of using its screen.

"Good. I need each computer to give me a list of readouts for their labs." Snively walked away and went to his file desk and sat down in the heavily padded chair.

While each computer began to access and print their data, the mainframe began to access its own lab. "Dr., do you also request data from the chaos emerald?"

Something snapped in Snively's mind. He forgot about the chaos emerald. Although Robotnik only had his hands on this particular crystal once, Snively had found it and stowed it away for future study. He had no idea the mainframe had started experiments yet. Even though he typed the program a long time ago, it was not intended to start until much later. "Yes, computer," he stood and rush-walked back over, "please show me your findings."

The mainframe opened a panel on its lower right, revealing the tiny emerald hovering and encased in a glass tube. Although it was small, about the size of a jewelry ring, it still had enormous power. At three points on the crystal the computer had attached suction cup wires which lead back into the mainframe.

"I have concluded that with the use of the chaos emerald, fission-fusion can be, and has been, reached."

Snively's eyes widened with the mere thought of the once theorized fission-fusion process. "Please show me, computer."

Another panel opened just to the left of the first one. A small case appeared. "Unfortunately Dr., I must have the container inside in order to show you my data."

"Go ahead."

"Inside the case are random atoms. By isolating one atom, I can show you the process. Do you want to proceed?"

"Proceed. Show the process on screen."

The computer, which had an entire laboratory built in, took a sample, isolated an atom and began to pump energy from the emerald into it. Snively watched amazed as the atom flashed in high speed.

"Computer, slow down the image."

With a whir and whistle the image slowed. The atom was actually exploding and then reconstructing itself at a speed that was unbelievable.

"Fascinating..." Snively muttered as he watched. He began to think of the possibilities of this discovery. What could be achieved with this? Unlimited power with one atom. The mere energy alone it produces! And most importantly, it's channelable. It can be directed anywhere... even at high speed hedgehogs... "Computer, I want you to create a weapon out of this new technology."

"I have already done so, Dr."

"Please display."

An image flashed onto the screen. The gun was small, but it was effective. It had a pinpoint scope that could calculate where to shoot ahead of a moving object. It was made of a light but strong metal, adamantium. The barrel looked as if it was a lightning rod... that was retractable. It had a place to carry the crystal, and a chamber for the atom to be kept. With that much power, only one atom was needed, anyway.

"I want you to start construction immediately."

Another panel opened and a shelf pushed out. The gun rested on a small stand. "Already completed, Dr."

Snively glared at the mainframe, "how did you manage to do all this?"

"All other systems were busy. I searched my old files to find a possibly useful experiment and ran it. It was your chaos emerald program I found."

"Excellent!" Snively grabbed the gun, "computer, please release the crystal." The glass tube lifted and the wires retracted. Snively took it and inserted it into the weapon. "You have to much spare time on your hands, computer. I'd like you to get started on the cloning project."

"Yes, Dr."

As Snively smiled in awe at the gun, his brain worked rapidly. I know the hedgehog will be a problem if I don't get rid of him. Now that I have this, it'll be a piece of cake. Maniacal laughter echoed through the room as he realized the possibilities.

Walking through the tunnels to Tails's building was not an easy task. At certain points, the tunnel narrowed so drastically that the group was literally forces to crawl on hands and knees. They managed through them with a few cuts and bruises. Other times it was large enough for all of them standing on each other's shoulders. It took nearly half an hour in order to make it to the door. Tails, who was the smallest of the group, had led the way and was waiting with his arms crossed in front of the door.

"This is what I wanted you to see most," said Tails.

The others stood in awe as they admired the door. It stood at least ten feet high and was made of pure silver that seemed to glow softly blue, like a minthral metal. The doorframe itself was made of woven crystal threads that sparkled softly in the dark. The door was split in the middle to actually have two doors. Each half held a piece of an image, when closed, there was an engraving of a fox. But this was not an ordinary fox; it had seven tails and held a star in its hands high above its head. The fox itself looked strange. If you looked at it from one angle, it appeared more human. At another angle, it appeared more fox. Its tails were spread out like a cape curling up at the ends. It was not surprising to the group that when the door was touched, the light flickered in response.

"Wow..." Sonic muttered.

"Tails, I've never seen anything like this before. Its... its magnificent," Sally managed to get out. She ran her fingers over the engraving and the crystal.

"Isn't it cool?" Tails beamed with pride.

Sonic turned to him then looked back at the fox on the door, "way past..." Sonic seemed more shocked than awed. I wonder if this is where Tails came from?

"Come on! You've got to see what's inside!" Tails pushed open the door and ran in.

Sonic and Sally exchanged a disbelieving glance and then entered. The room that they found themselves in was gigantic, and very dark. With Tails's enthusiasm, they expected it to hold great treasures and passageways. But that was not what they found. Its walls were seemingly a plain steel alloy with nothing too fancy on them. The ceiling, however, was entirely different. It arched up to a center point, where a great crystal hung.

"Watch this!" Tails yelled at them. He flew up to the crystal and touched it. Immediately, light filled the room as the crystal blazed bright.

"Yeow!" Sonic yelled out as he covered his eyes.

Sally looked around and noticed again that it was very plain. "They must have had decorations or something. I mean, they would have gone mad if they didn't have something in here." She walked over to the wall and touched it. Instantly, the wall responded with a coat hook just above her hand. Sally screamed, "IT CHANGED!!!"

Sonic and Tails ran over to look.

"I think it wants your coat, Aunt Sally."

Sally looked at it for a moment and then took off her coat and hung it up. The wall seemed happy to produce the hook, in fact, it produced two more for the other coats.

Tails and Sonic promptly hung up their coats and stood back. Sally thought for a moment.

"It seems that it wants to give us whatever we need. I wonder..." she put her hand on the wall again, "could you give me another room?" The wall produced an additional door. Sally smiled. "Guys, I want you to bring me some supplies and get a crew working on that entrance as soon as possible. I'm going to stay and do a little remodeling."

"No problem, Sal." Sonic took his and Tails's coat down to put back on. As soon as the wall realized the two hooks were no longer needed it retracted them.

"Oh, Sonic?" Sally asked.

"Yeah?"

"Bring Charles and Rotor down here too."

Sonic and Tails started back to the surface.

"Okay, walls. I've got a pretty hefty order for you to fill. Can you do it?"

The walls glowed in response.

Meanwhile, Knuckles was out on a hike through the Great Forest. He decided he needed some time just by himself. His life was getting more and more complicated. So many villains to fight, so many allies to keep track of, so many new discoveries. It was time for a well-deserved vacation.

He noticed several times as he walked through the forest that it had changed somehow. It looked stronger. The last time he was there was just before the defeat of Robotnik. Since the factories had been shut down, the air was cleaner, and the plants loved it.

He smiled to himself, and zipped up his jacket. This was going to be the best weekend he will ever have...

As Sonic and Tails speed to their destinations, Snively was on the move. He had donned a light suit of metal to keep him protected from any back blast that might come from the gun, which was securely grasped in his hand.

He teleported out of his laboratory and had started hunting down the hedgehog. He slunk back to the campground he had found earlier. Here is a good place to wait, but it's too risky to shoot. Some fool might get in the way. I better find another place. He backed away and turned around, heading to an unknown destination.

His wanderings brought him to the North side of a large opening that was covered with scrap metal, mainly destroyed SWAT bots. He looked over the scene quickly and decided that it would suit his purposes.

Suddenly, he heard the sounds of the racing hedgehog coming towards him. "Perfect! This will be an excellent test of the weapon's power." Quickly he ran out to the highest point in the opening. The ground was still muddy, but his footing was sure. He was not going to let a little mud get in his way, not this time. "All right, gun, lets see what you can do." He put his protective goggles on, held the gun up, and looked through the scope at the beginning of the dust cloud that was rapidly approaching. He noticed then that the two tailed fox was with him. He smiled.

"Okay, where should I aim?"

Once the scope pinpointed the target, it quickly lined up cross hairs to a specific point and started a countdown of five seconds until Snively should shoot. He quickly repositioned the gun and put his finger on the trigger...

Tails, who was at least thirty feet up, saw him first.

"Sonic! There's somebody up ahead!" he yelled down from above. "I don't know who it is from here, but he has something in his hands!"

Sonic merely gave him a thumbs up and continued his course.

Only a microsecond later, Tails realized the object was a gun. It wasn't pointing at them, however, so it was probably harmless. But, "Sonic! I think it's a gun or something! Watch out!"

But the warning came to late. They were already on top of the clearing and there was not enough time for even a thought before Snively's countdown had ended and he had fired.

Sonic suddenly caught sight of Snively to his right, but could not escape the blast that was coming from the gun Snively held. He had just enough time to see the blazing white flash.

"SONIC!!!!" screamed Tails. He was blinded by the light, and he began to lose control.

When the beam actually hit him, the shear force of it caused Sonic's scream to be mute. Unconscious practically on impact, Sonic was thrown by the beam across the clearing. His flight was suddenly halted when he collided with a three-foot thick, heavy steel wall. But the force of the impact punctured the wall and he landed on the other side.

When the light faded, Snively removed his goggles to watch Tails crash.

Tails literally was blind. The flash stunned him so much that he lost control over his tails and they just spun wildly causing them to tangle up. He knew he was headed for a hard hit, so he put his arms in front of his head, and just let himself fall. It seemed that the free fall lasted forever. All he could think about was Sonic and if he was still alive. All thoughts stopped when he landed in a large pile of scrap metal.

"Ha, ha, ha! I have done it! I've gotten rid of those stupid fools! Sonic is obviously destroyed, and no one could have survived that crash from such a height! It's time to celebrate!" Snively jumped and skipped away back towards his lab. He was not watching where he was going and tripped on a pipe, falling flat on his face. He stood up and looked around. No one was there so he just started to skip again.

At this time, Knuckles had made it past Knothole, and had stopped for a snack. He sat down on a nearby stump and pulled off his backpack. He fished around in it for a moment and pulled out a sandwich. He peeled back the wrapper and was about to take a big bite, when something just didn't feel right. He looked around, expecting to see someone, but no one was there. He dismissed it, and held his sandwich back up to his mouth. Again, something bothered him.

He couldn't place it. There was no reason for him to feel as if there was danger nearby, because there was none. Again, he looked around him. This time, he looked at the sky, too. When he glanced up, he saw a brilliant flash of light.

At that moment, a fierce pain started up in his stomach and he bent over. "Oww!" After a deep breath, he looked at the sky again, then in the direction of Mobotropolis. The pains worsened. "Something is very wrong." He stood up, and dropped his bag. "I've got to get back to Mobotropolis. Something is very, very wrong!" Knuckles took off running as fast as he could.

Although the other Freedom Fighters saw the flash, they were not concerned with it until Sally checked in on the headset nearly an hour later. The radio in front of Rotor crackled and buzzed as Sally's voice came in.

"Sally to Home Base, come in Home Base. Can you read me?"

Rotor was startled from his nap. Quickly, he twisted dials and re-linked hook-ups. "This is Home Base, your transmission sounds like your underground, or something. What's up, Sally?"

Again, the radio static came in, "Rotor? What are you doing there? Didn't Sonic or Tails tell you and Charles to come here?"

Rotor was confused. He hadn't seen Sonic at all that day. "What do you mean, Sally? I haven't seen them all day. I figured they were with you, checking out those buildings."

Immediately, Sally began to worry. It was not like Sonic to just forget something this important. Or Tails for that matter. Something must be wrong. "Has anything weird happened up there?"

After thinking for a moment, Rotor replied, "not anything major. There was a really big flash of light in the sky, but no one seemed to pay it any mind."

Sally yelled, "WHAT?!?!"

Uh oh, Rotor thought, I'm in trouble now!

Sally's voice was very upset. "I want you and the others to start a search right now! I'll meet you as soon as I can!"

"But-"

"No buts! This is an emergency! Sonic has never been late in his life! Now get going!!!"

"Yes'm!" Rotor grabbed a headset and ran out the door. Fortunately, he didn't have far to go because Chuck, Bunnie, and Ant were all standing outside the tent talking. "Chuck!" he yelled, "Sonic and Tails are missing, we have to start a search. Sally's orders!"

Bunnie asked, "what do ya mean, Rotor?"

"He was supposed to bring me and Chuck to where Sally was, but that was an hour ago!"

Charles was clearly alarmed. "What? My nephew late? That's impossible! Something is definitely wrong! Let's go!"

The four ran to the end of the camp and began searching Robo/Mobotropolis.

Slowly, Tails came to. He had landed in a small depression in the scrap metal pile. Metal loomed around and above him. His head and his limbs felt too heavy to lift, so he just opened his eyes. He was greeted by a harsh headache pounding throughout his mind, his vision swaying, and flashing rainbow spots. His lungs felt as if an anvil sat on his chest. He squinted as he looked over himself. Fortunately, he was on his back, which made checking easier. Besides his jacket being ripped to shreds, he had several cuts, a few deep, and too many bruises to bother counting. He did not notice any pain though, only a slight annoyance from each injury. After a moment of confused thought, he realized he might be paralyzed. As this possibility worked its way up to his consciousness, he panicked. His eyes grew wide with worry.

Frantically, he looked around, expecting to find someone there to help, and say it was okay, but knowing there was not going to be anyone. His head was so clouded that he didn't even here the voices that were yelling his name. He called upon his arms and legs to work, but the muscles didn't want to respond. Again and again he tried, but he was too weak and his attempts were half hearted. He did not want to find out.

Okay, one more time... he thought to himself. This time, he mustered all the strength he could possibly have and concentrated hard on his goal. Slowly, he raised his right arm, which seemed to be less damaged than the other, and planted his hand firmly on the ground. He knew what was coming and so he gritted his teeth. As he pushed down on his arm in order to sit up, the soreness, the aches, and the sharp pain caused tears to well up in his eyes. Next, he tried to move his left arm. His shoulder was to stiff to turn and bend, however, and when he did move it a small whimper escaped his mouth. After a few deep breaths, he tried to move his legs.

He was not prepared for what was to come, however. His right leg was broken, and his left ankle and foot had been caught under a heavy piece of metal, twisting his ankle badly. Also, his left leg was deeply cut just above and to the left of his knee. When he tried to move them, nothing short of a scream rang through the opening, and blackness swept over him again.

"Sonic! Tails!" voices called from just past the clearing. Rotor and Chuck had taken this sector to search. So far, nothing had come to their attention. But that was soon to change. As the two started to move over the scraps, a blood-curdling scream came from the other side of the pile.

Rotor gasped while Charles jumped forward. He broke into a run and he leapt over to the other side of a large pile. There, in a small pit, he saw Tails. "ROTOR!!! I found Tails! He's hurt! Badly! Call Sally!" He knelt down and felt for a pulse. Even though he was a robot, he still had incredibly accurate sensors on the tips of his fingers.

Rotor opened his mouth, about to speak into the headset, but he was interrupted.

"I heard the scream!" yelled Sally. She was running as fast as she could through the metal. She stopped at Rotor and caught her breath. "Where?" was all she could get out.

"Over here!" yelled Chuck. He was kneeling over Tails. "I've just found him now. He won't make it unless we get him out of here, soon."

Tears trickled down Sally's face as she steeped into the pit and began to look over his wounds. She muttered to herself, "broken leg, twisted ankle, a few cuts nearly a centimeter deep..." she then noticed a severe gash on his head, "severe concussion..."

The shock had finally passed Rotor, and he went into action. Yelling into the headset, he said, "Home Base! Home Base! We have an emergency! Get a medical team ready to receive a critically wounded patient in the new hospital. We have possible broken limbs, muscle trauma, concussion, and deep wounds. Stand by to receive!" Quickly, he radioed Bunnie.

"Bunnie! Come to the large clearing in red sector, we found Tails!"

It was now time for Rotor to put his knowledge to work. He grabbed two long poles. Though each one was bent horribly out of shape, there were no others around. He took firm holds on them and began to straighten them out. After a minute or so, he had two nearly straight poles. They would have to do. "Sally! I've got the poles for a stretcher here! All I need is cloth to go between them!"

Sally stood up and took off her parka and tossed it to him. "Use that. We'll work on getting him out of this pit."

"His leg is pinned down by that big piece of metal. I'll go lift it while you free him," Charles said. He walked over and pushed up on the gigantic slab. Sally picked up Tails's left leg carefully and put it down by his right. When Charles dropped the metal, the noise jarred Tails out of his semi-coma.

Tails opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

"Shhhh, it's going to be okay," Sally said, "I promise." She knelt beside him and pet his head. "We're getting you out of her and back to camp." Even though the tears were flowing freely, and her heart was near to breaking, she smiled.

Tails smiled back up at her and closed his eyes.

Sally began to choke.

Rotor had finished the stretcher and brought it over. "I think the pit is big enough for it to go down there."

Charles looked up and motioned him down. When the stretcher was put down, Rotor steeped over it to Tails. Charles motioned for Rotor to lift Tails's upper body, and for Sally to carry his head, while he lifted his legs. The moving must have been painful, but Tails remained unconscious. Once he was on the stretcher, Charles and Rotor carried it out.

Sally whipped her eyes with her arm and sniffed. When she looked up, however, something familiar caught her attention. Something was hanging on the edge of a jagged hole in a steel wall that was at the edge of the clearing in front of her. She climbed out of the pit and started to walk towards it. As she did, Bunnie and Ant arrived and started to carry Tails back to the camp. After a few more steps, she knew what it was. A battered and broken headset hung limply, snagged on a sharp piece of metal...

"NO!!!" cried Sally in terror and anguish. Her heart shot up to her throat and her knees felt as if they were going to collapse. She reached out towards the wall as if she could grab hold of something and make Sonic come back.

Sally bolted to the wall, each step a fight to remain upright. Just before she reached the wall, her knees gave in. She fell face first into the dirt and skidded. She stopped just inches away from hitting steel. Sally pushed herself up and sat on her feet. She reached up and picked up the headset, pleading that it was not the same one. As she brought it closer to her face, she knew that it was his. She clenched it tight in her fists and started to weep uncontrollably. She dared not find out what was on the other side of the hole. Not yet.

Charles walked over to her and laid a hand on her shoulder. He didn't expect her to see what might be there. "I'll look, princess." He sounded as sad as she did. Even though he suspected the worst, neither he, nor anyone else for that matter, expected this. (Hint, hint! Get ready for a plot twister!)

He walked slowly over to the hole and looked in. But he didn't see his nephew, per se, he saw a dark blue version of his nephew. In fact, he was almost midnight blue. 'Sonic' was lying face down on the ground with his face hidden behind his right arm. The jacket he had had on earlier was nothing more than scraps now. Charles gasped as he noticed there were no cuts or bruises or anything visibly ailing him. Indeed, the only thing that was wrong with our hero was that his quills looked as if he had stuck his finger in a light socket.

"Sally..." he started, "your not going to believe this."

She stopped choking for a moment and looked up.

Charles shook his head disbelievingly, "I don't know how it happened, but somehow, Sonic managed to come out of this without a scratch on him."

The princess stared at him as if he was telling her some cruel joke.

"I'm serious, Sally, take a look for yourself." He decided to let Sally wake him up. He started back over to Rotor, who was still shouting commands through the radio, to get his help.

Slowly, Sally stood up. Her eyes searched for Sonic among the dust. Once she found him, she almost lost her balance again. Seeing him alive after such a tragedy was a miracle in itself, but to see him without a scratch was unbelievable. She couldn't hold it back any longer.

"Sonic!!" she cried out as she leapt over the lower edge of the hole and ran to his side. Once there, she knelt down and shook his shoulders. "Wake up, please, wake up!"

After a moment of mumbling, Sonic came to, sat up, and held his head as the pounding steadily decreased. "What? What happened?" he asked.

"You were attacked by someone and nearly killed. Tails is in the hospital and... and..." suddenly she just hugged him hard and cried, "and I'm so glad your safe!"

Sonic pulled away from her and asked frantically, "who are you?!"

Sally sat back and stared at him, totally shocked, "you don't know?"

He shook his head, "no. Should I?"

Dumbfounded, she replied, "I'm Princess Sally Acorn." After a moment of thought, she added, "I'm your girlfriend."

"Since when would somebody as cool as me go out with somebody as uncool as you?" he said as he dusted himself off.

Anger boiled up inside her and she let her hand fly, making a great SLAP noise which echoed throughout the building. "You arrogant, self absorbed, ego hog!" she screamed and turned her back to him. "If I thought you didn't care about me, then I would have left you to the rats! But I didn't, did I? No! Because I care!"

Gee, she does look cute when she's angry, and she really dose care about me. Hm. This requires thought. He thought to himself as he rubbed his stinging jaw. Maybe I should play this game. For now. "I'm sorry, Sally."

After a minute, Sally turned back around. "Fine. Come on, we have to get to the hospital. Tails is hurt pretty badly."

"Who?"

"I did it! I did it! I killed the hedgehog!" Snively cheered. He was standing in front of his strange building, celebrating. He had gotten lost earlier during his track back and it was actually two hours latter. He kissed his gun and started to twirl it around his finger.

Just then, he heard someone walking behind him. He looked over his shoulder and vaguely saw a light blue creature coming towards him.

The creature asked, "Sir? Could you direct me to the nearest populated area?"

Snively jumped five feet up when he recognized the voice as the one belonging to none other than Sonic the Hedgehog. He spun around. What he saw was not Sonic, though. He looked like Sonic, but he was light blue. "Where did you come from?" he asked suspiciously.

'Sonic' answered, "I don't really know. The last thing I remember was waking up about an hour or so ago next to a scrap metal pile."

Snively asked, "do you know who you are?"

"No. I can't figure it out. I seem to know way deep down, but every time I think I've got it, I've lost it again." He shrugged.

Snively smiled, "well, I might be able to help you. Come with me..."

They both teleported to Lab.

Back at the hospital, Tails was in stable condition and pumped full of an anti-pain drug. Doctors were writing in their note pads and walking around and around his bed. Bunnie and Ant were waiting patiently outside the door when Sally, Chuck, Rotor, and 'Sonic' walked up.

Sally went up to Bunnie and Ant and asked, "how is he doing?"

Bunnie sighed, "well, the doctors have got him cleaned up and drugged up so the poor little darlin' won't feel any pain. They've sewn up his big cuts, and treated the small ones, but..." she paused.

"But what, Bunnie?" Rotor asked. He walked up to them, his face covered with distress.

Again, Bunnie sighed, deeper than the last time, "part of the bone in his right leg is shattered, and they need to operate."

A gasp of shock echoed throughout the recently arrived group, except for 'Sonic'.

"Woi," Antoine said, "they are waiting until zee stable conditions have passed five hours. After zat, they said there should be no risk."

Chuck came next, "can we see him yet?"

"Not until after surgery," Bunnie said. Something clicked in Bunnie's head. She looked at 'Sonic' and raised a concerned eyebrow. "Sugar hog, what happened to you?"

'Sonic' was startled with the question. What was wrong with him? He felt fine. "What do you mean?"

"You look as if you've been barbecued!"

"Eh? Where's a mirror?" 'Sonic' searched around in the hall for a moment and came across one. He took a good look. "Geez! My quills are everywhere!" He began smoothing them down. When he was finished, he turned around. "Better?"

"Sugah, you missed my point. You're five shades darker than Ah've ever seen ya!"

Once more, 'Sonic' checked the mirror. After another assessment of his looks, he said, "you're loopy! Those robot parts must be draining your brain! I've always been this color, and if you don't like it, you can just go short a circuit!" He turned around and stormed off.

Bunnie sat there speechless. She had never expected to ever here Sonic say such rude and heartless things. When she looked to Sally for an explanation, Sally just shrugged.

"The first thing we must do, Mr. Hedgehog, is find out how fit you are." Snively was hooking up small electrodes here and there on 'Sonic.' When he was finished, he led 'Sonic' over to a treadmill. "Now, I want you to run on this as fast as you can."

"Uh, okay, I guess. I don't see what good it will do, though," 'Sonic' said as he stepped onto the treadmill. He switched it on and began running.

Snively figured he might be a little suspicious about it, so he explained, "well, you look very fit. If your an athlete, we can use your stats in order to find out who you are."

"Oh." 'Sonic' ran faster, and faster, and faster. He started to hit a zone. He could almost remember… almost…

Snively quickly typed up something on his computer while 'Sonic' was running. What he typed was a command to his main computer to make up a fake ID for 'Sonic.' Snively turned back to his subject and looked as if he was in deep thought. "Well, Mr. Hedgehog, you are definitely an athlete. Your speed is getting faster and faster. I think if you don't stop, you'll break the treadmill."

'Sonic' snapped out of his zone, and slowed down steadily. He turned off the treadmill. "Any luck?"

"I'll access my computer banks and see if I can come up with anything."

While Snively typed, 'Sonic' noticed the gun he had. It looked fairly harmless, but usually the seemingly harmless was the most dangerous. The more he looked at it, the stranger he felt. It was like the gun was so evil he could feel it. The feeling kept getting stronger and he had to fight to get his eyes off of the gun. When he managed to, Snively voiced his success.

"I believe I've found it. Take a look at this, friend." The word friend was a definite struggle for Snively. He loathed the hedgehog, and calling him friend was way to strange for him.

On the computer screen, a picture of a light blue hedgehog appeared and a listing of his personal statistics. His name was Fleet Kit. His occupation was political assassin.

When 'Sonic,' a.k.a. Fleet Kit, saw this his reaction was... let's just say it was surprised. "A political assassin?!"

"Well, Mr. Kit, you do have marvelous traits that would fit that occupation. Your speed alone is remarkable." Snively grinned devilishly.

Fleet stuttered, "but... but..."

"Come to think of it," Snively started, "Fleet Kit does ring a bell. I don't know why I didn't recognize you before. I have some footage of your latest attempt." Quickly, he typed in a video file and a color change code and brought it up to the screen. "Here we are."

The tape began to role. What Fleet saw was the incident when Hershey Cat had disguised herself as Sonic and unknowingly cut Princess Sally's rope, with her costume colored in as light blue.

"No! I can't believe I did that. It's unthinkable!" Fleet covered his eyes and turned away. After a moment, he asked, "who was she?" his voice a little shaken.

Snively said disgustedly, "she IS Princess Sally Alicia Acorn. Your attempt failed."

Fleet sighed in relief, "thank goodness."

Knuckles arrived at the camp so out of breath that he was about to fall over. After a quick pause, he found the nearest familiar Mobian, which happened to be Hershey.

"Hey!" he yelled, "Hershey! What's going on? Where's Sonic?"

Hershey stopped long enough to answer his questions. "Sonic and Tails were attacked. They are both in the hospital. I've got to go, the doctors need nurses and I'd promised I'd be one."

"WHAT?!?!"

She started running to the hospital, "no time to explain, follow me!"

Oh, great. More running, Knux thought to himself.

When they arrived, Knuckles burst through the front door, running straight into Sally. No doubt about it, both fell to the floor.

Knuckles started, "why don't you watch where I'm going next time, you..." he noticed that it was Sally, "oops." He stood up and gave her a hand. "Sorry, Sally. I didn't see you."

"That's okay, Knux."

He cleared his throat and asked, "I know Sonic is in here somewhere. Is he hurt? What about the kid? Is he okay?"

She started to say something but changed her mind and said, "come see for yourself." Sally walked off to Tails's room. By the time Knuckles had made it back, the surgery had already been completed and they were just about to let visitors in. She opened the door slowly and they both walked in.

Tails was sleeping soundly. He was covered head to toe in bandages and his right leg was elevated with a cast on it. His left foot was slightly elevated for his ankle. The transfusions had already been completed, and all that was hooked up now were the monitoring systems. His heart was beating steadily.

"Oh, no..." Knuckles said as he walked to the right side of the bed. He pulled up a chair and sat next to him.

A timer went off in the back of the room. This signaled that the sleeping drug had completely worn off. The doctors had told Sally and the others to try and wake him up when this happened. Their presence would encourage his spirit.

Sally sat on the edge of the bed and whispered, "Tails, honey?" She reached over and picked up his left hand, careful not to move it to much so as not to hurt his shoulder.

Tails yawned. He blinked a few times and yawned again. "Aunt Sally?" he asked softly.

"I'm here, honey. Are you feeling any better?"

He swallowed, then said, "yeah, but my leg still hurts."

Sally smiled. "It will for a while. Knuckles came to see how you were doing."

Knux leaned forward. "Hey, kid. It's good to see you okay."

"Thanks," Tails said and yawned again.

"Is there anything I can get you, Tails?" Knux asked.

Something began to bother Tails. He looked around the room, and saw no one else. One main person was missing. "Aunt Sally? Where's Sonic? Is he okay?"

"He's fine, honey. He'll be in soon."

A little urgently, he asked "can you get him?"

Sally stood up and motioned Knux to follow. She leaned down and kissed Tails lightly on the forehead and said, "get some rest, and I'll bring him in later."

Tails yawned again, then disappointedly he said, "okay." He closed his eyes and was soon asleep.

Once they were outside the room, Sally closed the door and they walked down to the small cafeteria they had recently built. She found a table for them and sat down.

"Knuckles," she began, "Sonic is not himself. There is something defiantly wrong."

"Like what?"

She sighed and looked at him seriously, "besides his color, he's become extremely arrogant."

"And this surprises you?"

She shook her head, "it's worse than that. He's just down right mean. You wouldn't believe what he said to me, or Bunnie."

"Hmm. That bad, huh?"

Sally nodded.

"I'll go talk to him." Knux got up and went in search of his friend. First he checked the recreation room. Not here. Next, he tried the doctor's office. Not there. Finally, he went to the large waiting room, and there he sat, right in the middle of the couch, flipping a coin. He noticed the odd color of the hedgehog. "Yo, Sonic! What's up?"

'Sonic' looked up and grimaced, "so your the one they told me about. I thought you might be coming."

Knux walked over and asked, "what do you mean?"

'Sonic' rolled his eyes and shook his head, "the goody-two-shoes told me you're supposed to be one of my best friends, next to that pitiful fox."

Knux's mouth dropped. "Man, something really is wrong with you."

The hedgehog's eyes flashed an evil glare at him.

Knuckles gulped hard then tried to jog Sonic's memory, "come on! Don't you remember? I helped you trash Robotnik. I was covering your back while you were inside!"

For a moment, 'Sonic' thought, then asked, "what, who?"

"I can't believe you don't remember."

Fleet Kit just didn't understand it. He didn't feel like an assassin, but then, what did an assassin feel anyway? He replayed the tape Snively showed him several times. The more he watched the stranger he felt. It was as if some other personality was trying to creep out from the back of his mind. He had had enough.

"Dr.?" he asked.

"Yes, Fleet?" Snively was admiring the gun the mainframe had built.

Fleet stood up and walked over to him. "Do you have any more information on the Princess?"

Snively smiled. "Good boy. I see you want to know more about your mark." He turned to the nearest computer and typed up a profile. "Here you are."

"Thanks."

As he read through her file, he came across a name that sounded so familiar, it began to worry him. It was Sonic the Hedgehog. "Can I please see the file on the hedgehog, Dr.?"

Snively jumped, "why do you want HIS file? He's dead."

Fleet gulped. "Dead? ...Did I?"

Before he could finish Snively cut him off, "no, no. I did that. About time, too. He always managed to stop our plans."

A strong feeling started in Fleet. It took him a minute to figure out what it was, but he realized that he could not believe Sonic was dead. Something about that name just gave him a strange feeling. "Well, if he's dead, can I see the other files?"

"Of course. I expect you to wipe out all the Freedom Fighters eventually so it's probably a better idea if you know them now anyway."

Fleet scrolled through the files. None of them sparked anymore strong feelings though, that is until he reached the last file. It was Tails. The minute he saw his picture, Fleet got the feeling of terror. It wasn't terror of him, it was terror for him. He felt as if something was dreadfully wrong, and there was some urgent reason for Fleet to track him down. He decided not to read the rest of his file.

Fleet turned from the screen to look at the gun Snively was still admiring. Again, the gun seemed to give off evil. It was like it radiated it out like a beckon. He had to turn from it back to the screen. But there was Tails's picture, waiting for him. He couldn't stand it any longer. Fleet slammed his fist into the table.

When Snively looked over in alarm, Fleet said, "Dr., this is not right. I am not Fleet Kit. I don't know who I am, but that's not me. I didn't try to kill the Princess, and I can't even THINK about harming any of these people. I'm sorry, but I have to go." Quickly, he stood up and walked to the middle of the room.

"You can't leave!" Snively yelled, "your mine now. Besides, there's no way for you to get out of here except by teleport and my computer won't teleport you without me." He broke off into a short burst of laughter.

"What?" Fleet asked, "I thought you were trying to help me!"

Snively sneered, "help you? Of course I was helping you. I'm trying to make you what you were! Can't you be a little more considerate?"

Anger rose inside of Fleet and he felt the sudden urge to just rip through the wall and run. "You can't keep me here. And there's no way I'll stand being here another minute."

"Oh really? Why not?"

Fleet's eyes narrowed, "because you are pure evil, Dr., and I'm not." He began to run, faster and faster. He was going so fast that he was now running around the walls. As his speed increased, Snively ran to his mainframe and hung on tight, otherwise he would have been caught in the whirlwind that was forming in the center of the room. Finally, Fleet ducked into a spin and cut through the wall, out into the earth and headed straight up.

Although the recent events kept Sally extremely on edge, she still had to get every one into the underground buildings before the first winter storm came. She had set teams of workers in place to widen the entrance almost as soon as Tails was stabilized. She, Charles, and Rotor began there work inside.

"Charles," Sally asked, "could you hand me that box of books? I'm going to set up a small library down the first hall."

"No problem, Sally." Chuck lifted a large box that was overflowing with books and reports and followed her down to the room she had created. "This is some place, Sally. It's simply amazing how the walls just create whatever you need."

"Yeah. It took practically no time at all to make. These beings must have been a highly advanced race in order to have such technology."

Chuck nodded. Suddenly, he remembered some scrolls that he found before the Great War. He never had the time to work on deciphering them. Maybe they had something to do with this place and the beings that created it. He made a plan to go and retrieve them before all of the Mobians moved into the buildings down here.

When they reached the chosen room, the door slid open and a ceiling crystal began to glow. Charles set the box next to a group of shelves the wall had produced.

"Is that all you want me to bring you?"

Sally nodded. "Yes. That should be all of our original collection. We'll get the surviving books from my father's library latter. Do you want to help me stack them?"

"No, that's okay, Princess. I should probably be helping Rotor set up the computer room."

Sally smiled, "you two are doing marvels with those beaten up computers of Robotnik's. Will everything be ready by the time we start moving people in?"

"Should be," he said.

He turned and started to walk out of the room when suddenly the walls began to flash with white light. The two looked around expecting the room to suddenly shrink, or the shelves to disappear. Instead, a swirling circle started in the center of the floor. It grew to about three feet in diameter and then it just disappeared. The hole was very deep, and it seemed to go on forever.

"Oh!" yelled Sally. She jumped to the wall that was closest to her. When it was obvious that nothing else was going to happen, she crept forward to inspect it. "Why did it do that?"

"I don't know. Maybe something scared it."

Sally shrugged and peered down the hole. She heard a soft sound in the depths of the hole. "What's that noise?"

Chuck walked up and peered in as well. The sound got louder and louder until it was all to clear what it was. "Oh my gosh, I think it's Sonic!"

A second latter, the hedgehog ran out of the hole. Once he realized the tunnel had ended, he stopped running and landed in front of it.

Sally was so startled she fell down and gasped, "it can't be!"

But it was. Standing before them was Sonic the Hedgehog. Or rather, the light blue version.

He dusted himself off and then looked at Sally. Once he recognized who she was, his eyes got large and he started to back away. He got to the edge of the hole and almost fell in before Chuck grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

"Sonie, is that really you?" he asked.

Sonic gulped. "I... I..."

Sally stood up and cautiously walked up to him. She reached out her hand towards him, but he leaned back. "Sonic?"

Oh no! It's the Princess! What if I really did try to kill her? What will I do?! 'Sonic' frantically thought. Finally he managed to say, "please, I don't know who I am! Princess Sally, if I'm who the Dr. said I was, then..." he paused and worry spread across his face, "then I'm sorry." He dropped his head and his shoulders slumped. He's knees gave way and he hit the floor, "please forgive me."

Chuck let go of Sonic's arm, "what do you mean, Sonie?"

"Well, I..." again Sonic paused. He was afraid of what would happen if he told them, but if he didn't, then nothing would be accomplished. "I was told by Dr. Snively that I tried to assassinate you, Princess. I don't remember it, if I did. I'm so sorry!"

Sally grabbed his shoulders and shook him slightly. "Listen to me, Sonic Hedgehog, you are not the one responsible for that. I can't believe Snively tricked you like that. Can't you remember anything?"

"No, I..." he started, but something donned on him. They weren't calling him Fleet Kit, they were calling him Sonic. The same Sonic that Dr. Snively had supposedly killed. "What did you say my name was?"

"Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog. Can't you remember?" Sally said.

Sonic shook his head sadly.

After a moment of thought, Chuck said, "I bet a power ring would jog his memory. Lets get him back to Knothole!"

"Great idea! Let's radio Bunnie and Knuckles and have them come help Rotor."

"Good thinking, Princess. I'll get right on it." He turned around and began to signal them.

Sally took Sonic's hand and helped him up. She led him out into the main room. "Don't worry," she said, "I'll help you."

"This is where you used to live," Knuckles said to the midnight blue Sonic.

"Really? Looks pretty dumpy if you ask me."

Knux sighed. This was harder than he thought. Sonic just kept insulting every thing that used to be important to him. Knux didn't think he was completely serious, but he just couldn't be sure. "Why do you hate every thing so much?"

"What kind of a stupid question is that?"

"Geez. Okay. I have one thing left to show you. If this doesn't snap you out of it, I don't know what will." He started walking in the direction of the power ring pool.

"Lead the way, oh fearless leader," Sonic said sarcastically.

When the three arrived at the power ring pool they were just in time to catch the latest ring. Sally climbed out onto the log that hung over the pool and hooked it with a stick. She took it off and walked back.

"Here we are. One power ring. Okay, Sonic, I want you to hold this. It can either give you knowledge or power. It worked when we were trying to find father's sword, it'll work for you to find out who you are. Just think about what you want to know." She handed him the ring and crossed her fingers.

"All right. Here goes nothing." He closed his eyes tight and began to ask the ring. Who am I? Who am I?

The ring answered with a bright glow. Sonic could feel the energy traveling up through his arms and into his mind. The ring flashed and began to produce a strong wind that pushed on Sonic causing him to stager backwards.

Chuck remembered that the ring had thrown Sonic across the room the last time he had tried it, and he was not about to let his nephew slam into a tree and get amnesia again. Quickly, Chuck grabbed Sonic's shoulders and braced him. The wind grew stronger and stronger until Chuck was pushing as hard as he could just to keep standing.

Sally ran over to a tree and held on, afraid she would be swept away if she didn't.

Sonic yelled out as images flooded his mind. They were of who he was, who he is, and who he will be. The pictures of what was were faded, as if they hadn't been looked at for some time. The pictures of what is were strong, bright, and clear. Those of who he will be were as if he was in a dream. Some of the picture was sharp and greatly detailed, other parts were misty. But that was only the beginning. Next, the ring focused on those around him, giving him full recollection of everything, including the shot from Snively's gun. He remembered it all too clearly. He was running, he looked to his right, and suddenly... "Ahhhh!"

The wind and the light died down, and the ring itself faded away. Sonic grabbed his head and fell to his knees, out of Chuck's grip. Sally ran over and helped him up.

"Sonic? Are you okay?" She put her right arm under his shoulders, allowing him to lean on her.

Once he was fully standing, he said softly, "Sal, what happened?"

She gave him a hug. "Finally, your back."

"It's good to see ya, my boy. We've missed you." Chuck patted his shoulder and smiled. Then he frowned. "However, we still have one major problem to fix."

Knux was trudging through the forest with Sonic in tow heading for the pool. As he neared it, he heard voices. "Hmm. No one is supposed to be here, I wonder who it is?"

"If you're so curious, why don't you go and find out, genius?"

Right about know, Knux kept thinking how much he would like to pound Sonic. His stupid insults were just stupid enough to really get on his nerves. And worse, he had had to put up with it ever since he decided to take Sonic back to Knothole. (Gee, what fun, right?)

"Sonic, I swear, if you don't shut your big yap, I'm gonna have to close it for you."

"Ooo! Big threat! I'm so scared, I'm loosing my sneakers!"

Knux just rolled his eyes, and kept walking. When they were just about to reach the pool, a bright light flashed and a fast wind wiped over the bushes. After a moment, it was gone. "Whoa! What was that?!" He ran over to the bushes and looked over. He saw Sally supporting Sonic and Sir Charles standing nearby. "Man. It must have been a power ring. I guess Sonic used one up." After a moment of thought, "wait a minute. If he's Sonic, and your Sonic, then..."

The midnight blue Sonic stormed over and pushed Knuckles aside. "Get out of the way, slow-mo! Hedgehog coming through!" What he saw was Sally giving a light blue hedgehog a hug. "What?! I thought Sally liked me, and now she's with some other hedgehog?! No way!" He stepped through the bushes. "Sally! What are you doing?!"

Sally looked up to see Sonic. "Sonic?"

Sonic too looked up to see a hedgehog that looked remarkably like him standing at the edge of the clearing, except, of course, he was way too dark. "Who are you?"

The way back to Robotropolis was slow, and confusing. Everyone had there own story, and everyone's was different. However, through the course of the evening, one story made it's way to the top. That was Sonic's story. Er, the light Sonic's story. He remembered everything that had happened before the accident thanks to the power ring. And, because of the power ring, there was no doubt in anyone's' mind that the light Sonic was the real Sonic. But, there was another problem. If the light Sonic was the real one, then where did the dark Sonic come from? And why the color changes?

Eventually, it was concluded that Sonic must have actually split in two when the concentrated energy beam hit him. This was very easy to say, but to actually explain it was another matter. It was now obvious that the energy came from the gun, but what made the energy?

While everyone pondered these questions, the light Sonic had one of his own. Can I ever be the same again?

Finally, the conversation turned to a different topic. Actually, it was quite by accident. Light Sonic had just finished describing the attack when he suddenly remembered Tails's picture and how it made him feel.

"Sal?" he asked, "where's Tails?"

After a moment of trying to find the right words and coming up empty handed, she said, "he's in the hospital."

Sonic stopped and looked down at his sneakers. Again, worry spread across his face. "Sal, I've got to get back."

She nodded.

Before Sonic could speed away, Knux said, "do you mind if I tag along, Blue?"

"No," he smiled, and off they went.

Sonic was very glad for the company on the way to the hospital. It kept his mind off of Tails. When they arrived and had walked down to Tails's room, Knux stopped him.

"Do you want me to wait outside?"

Sonic nodded and gave a thank you smile. He took a deep breath and walked into the room. All the lights were off except the green monitor lights. Slowly, he stepped up to the bed and sat down. For a while, he just sat and thought of what he would say when Tails woke up.

Tails yawned and opened his eyes. "S... Sonic? Is that you? I can't see you."

Quietly, so as not to startle him, Sonic said, "it's me. I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner. How are you feeling?"

Tails had lied to Sally. He wasn't feeling nearly as well as he had lead her and the others to believe. In fact, he felt much worse. He said very distressed, "I feel really bad, Sonic. Worse that when I first woke up. Much worse. My head hurts so bad I can't think straight. And I feel like I can't move!" His voice got high at the end.

Sonic took another deep breath and swallowed to hold back his tears. "It's okay. I'm here. It'll be okay." Sonic reached down and took his hand tightly.

He squeezed Sonic's hand hard. His voice was higher now and very shaky, "Sonic, I'm scarred." He was crying.

Outside the room, Bunnie had walked up. She saw Knux standing by the door. "Hey, Knuckles. Is Tails awake?"

"Yeah." Bunnie reached for the door knob. "I'm sorry, Bunnie, but you can't go in."

"Huh? Why ever not?"

"Sonic is in there right now. He needs some time with him."

Bunnie nodded and sat down on a nearby bench.

Back inside, Tails had calmed down some. "I'm glad your here, Sonic. You won't leave, will you?"

Sonic shook his head, "no. I'll stay here until you feel better."

"Promise?"

"You bet." Sonic grabbed a piece of tissue paper and wiped Tails's tears away. "I think you should sleep some more, big guy. You'll need your rest for our next mission."

Already following Sonic's advice without knowing it, Tails yawned and said sleepily, "...mission?"

"Don't worry about that now. Just get some rest." Sonic found a chair in a nearby corner and sat down to think. For the rest of the day, and far into the night, Sonic kept watch over him.

Knuckles was still outside the door, now sitting next to Bunnie, when Sally and the others arrived. He yawned. It was now very late, and he was about to fall asleep. "Oh, hi, Sally."

Sally walked up to the pair and pushed her hair out of her face. "Is Sonic still in there?"

Knux nodded.

"He's been in there since," said Bunnie while she looked at a clock, "since this afternoon."

"Why don't you two go get some sleep. We'll all come back in the morning."

Knux smiled, "you read my mind. Come on, Bunnie, let's go." They stood up and started to walk away when Knux turned back. "How about you, Sally? Aren't you going to go to sleep, too?"

Sally looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, "no. Not yet, anyway. I'm going to go in and check on them. I'll sleep much better knowing that they're okay."

"Alright," Knux said, "I'll see you in the morning." He yawned and walked towards his temporary room in the other wing.

Sally opened the door to Tails's room and went inside. Quietly, so as not to wake Tails up, she closed the door behind her and turned the light on to low power. A soft golden glow illuminated the room. She looked up and saw both asleep. Sonic had slid down in the chair and had propped his feet up on a short stool. He had his arms crossed, his head bent down, and was snoring softly. Sally smiled then tip-toed forward. She picked up the extra blanket on Tails's bed and put it over Sonic. She caught herself yawning and decided she needed some rest too. She walked back to the door, but on her way, she hit a small tray sitting on a push cart and it fell to the ground and made a clang.

Startled, Sally looked back around to see if she had woken them up. Tails hadn't budged. She turned to see if Sonic was still asleep.

He blinked sleepily and half looked up. Sally bent over to pick up the tray.

"Sorry," she whispered.

"That's okay," he whispered back, then yawned, "what time is it?"

"Way past midnight. Go to sleep. I'll be back in the morning. Goodnight." She opened the door, and was half way out when she reached in to turn the light off.

"Goodnight, Sal," Sonic said as she closed the door. Soon, Sonic was asleep again, and his mind filled with dreams. But were they dreams?

Sonic was standing in Tails's hospital room. It was morning. Sonic walked over to a small sink that had been plugged so it still had water in it. He bent over and looked into the water.

What he saw was far from the bottom of the sink. It was a star-scape with thousands of stars and comets and nebulae swirling around and around. His attention was caught and he watched the universe pass before his eyes.

Eventually, one star with a green twinkle shown brighter than all the others. When he began to watch that one star, it grew steadily bigger until all the other stars disappeared and the shape of the one star was unmistakable. It was a chaos emerald.

Suddenly the room faded and Sonic found himself hovering above his Uncle Chuck's lab. Below him, Charles was working on the machine that produces the power rings. Chuck picked up the energy rock, put it inside the machine, turned it on, and lowered the machine into a small pool of water. After a moment, the machine produced a power ring. The ring floated to the surface and hovered just above the water. Instead of reaching out and taking the ring, Charles let it fall back to the water. The instant it touched the surface, everything around Sonic froze except the water that was inside the ring. It had created a little whirlpool.

The whirlpool grew bigger and bigger until everything in the room got sucked into it, including Sonic. Instantly, Sonic found himself in the middle of Snively's LAB. Everything was misty except the gun that sat on a desk by his mainframe computer.

The outer shell of the gun became invisible, and so, Sonic saw what was inside. A small chaos emerald sparkled in front of him. He picked it up and turned it around in his hands. Inside of the emerald, a vision appeared.

It showed Tails in his hospital bed, with Sonic sitting next to him. Sonic put his hand on Tails's forehead and closed his eyes. A soft glow covered Tails for a few seconds. Once the glow was gone, the vision was also gone.

The room drifted away again and he was back in Tails's hospital room. This time though, Tails was not in his bed. He was running around laughing and smiling. Sonic then realized that he still had the emerald. He held it up so he could look at it again, but it was gone.

Sonic woke up and looked around, startled. "Whoa, what a dream," he said. He looked down at his watch and noticed that it was three o'clock. "Gosh. I didn't get much sleep." He paused for a moment, then realized that he wasn't tired at all.

Still sitting in his chair, he looked over at the sink, remembering what he saw in it in his dream. Many times Sonic's dreams were premonitions of things to come. Sometimes, his dreams were sent by the ancient walkers. To him, this dream definitely seemed like an ancient walker's creation.

Well, if that's the case, then maybe I should do what I did in my dream... he thought. With that, he stood up and walked over to the sink. Sure enough, it had been stopped up so that it had a little pool of water in it. There was no star-scape in it, however. It was just water. He turned around, somewhat disappointed.

He looked over to see Tails shifting in his sleep, uncomfortably.

"Well," Sonic said, "if that didn't work, than maybe something else will." He walked over to Tails and slowly reached out his hand and placed it on his forehead. He closed his eyes and thought about what he saw himself doing in the vision in the chaos emerald. After a minute or so, and nothing had happened, he pulled his hand away. His shoulders slumped down because he was now more disappointed then ever. "That's totally uncool."

He gives up too easily...

"WHAT?!" Sonic yelled when he heard the faint voice in his head.

And he yells too much...

Sonic stood with his jaw dropped and his eyes wide. He had never heard anyone talk inside of his head before.

Quiet, brother. He is the one we seek... another voice said.

Sonic finally managed to say something, "excuse me?"

Precisely... said the first voice.

I said quiet! Now listen, defender... the other voice chimed in.

"Wait a minute! Who are you and what are you doing in my head?!" Sonic said, slightly panicked.

There is no need to fear, defender... We will not stay long... Our time is short...

I say we go now and leave him...

We will not! Quiet! The other voice now sounded angry with the first. This gave the voice a greater volume, and now Sonic could discern that it was female.

"What do you want?"

Listen closely, defender... Chaos has awakened us... We sense our savior is in danger... You have the power to save him... Concentrate... Feel the energy... Find the symbol and your power will grow... But take head... Pain follows power... Be strong... Defender, we trust in you... The voice started to fade then.

"Wait! Wait, please! What chaos? What symbol? What power? Hey! I've got a lot of questions to ask you!"

No time, defender... The voice was now almost gone.

"And that's another thing, why do you keep calling me defender, and who is the savior?"

You know...

"Great. I love mysteries." Sonic huffed. "Well, there's no need to wait." Again, he walked over to Tails and he placed his hand on Tails's forehead. "Here goes...," he paused here because 'nothing' just didn't sound right, "...everything." He took a deep breath and visualized power inside of him that was not his own, but in a way, it was. Suddenly, he could feel a great force deep in his soul. He grabbed a hold of it in his mind and kind of pulled. He could fell it moving through him now. It kind of tingled. Then he set his mind on focusing it out into his hand and into Tails. Slowly and reluctantly the power moved. It reached his hand and hummed impatiently. Instead of diminishing when it went into Tails, it grew bigger and bigger. Finally, the energy stopped moving and actually pushed back into Sonic. This made Sonic blink and snap out of his concentration. He looked down at Tails to see him sleeping soundly now. Then, without any warning, a headache of gigantic proportions hit Sonic.

"Wow! Where did this come from? Ow!" He grabbed his head. "I guess I'm just tired." Sonic walked back to the chair and sat down. He barely put his head back when he was out.

"Good morning, honey. How are you feeling today?" Sally was carrying a breakfast tray into the room. She walked over to Tails's bed and put it in front of him.

Tails was cheerfully smiling. "I feel great, Aunt Sally!"

"Wonderful! Did you and Sonic have a good time together?" Sally sat down on the side of the bed now.

"Yeah. I felt much better once he was here."

Sally nodded and smiled understandingly. "So when did you get up?"

"Oh, I've been up for an hour or so."

Sally was startled, "why didn't you call one of us in?"

Tails thought for a moment, "well," he started, "I felt good so I decided not to bother you guys."

Confusion ran across Sally's face. Finally she asked, "has Sonic been asleep all morning?" as she pointed to the light blue hedgehog.

"Yup. He's really tired," Tails said matter of factly. "Do the doctors have to give me x-rays again?"

"Umhm. There're going to come after I give you breakfast. What would you like to eat first?"

Tails looked as if he was in very serious thought for a moment. "I think that I want to eat by myself."

"What?" Sally knew that this would be impossible for Tails because he could barely move yesterday. She didn't want to disappoint him like that. She had figured that the reason he felt so much better was because the pain killers had finally drowned out all of his pain. "Are you sure, honey?"

Tails nodded, "yup."

Sally watched in amazement as Tails started to sit up, and reach for his plate. Her jaw dropped when she saw that he could lift it without a wince of pain or stiffness of movement. His left arm moved as freely as ever and it seemed as if his strength had fully returned. "You really are feeling better!" She watched dumbfounded as he gobbled his food up hungrily.

"All done!" Tails looked up at Sally, "I'm ready for the doctors, Aunt Sally. Aunt Sally?" he said curiously as he noticed the way she looked.

She snapped out of it. "Oh! Sure, honey. I'll go get them. Be back in a flash!" she said as she walked out of the room.

Tails looked over at Sonic. It was obvious that loud noises wouldn't wake Sonic up so he had to think of something else. He looked around the room for inspiration. After a moment, he looked at his tray. He saw a big stack of napkins sitting on the corner. "Hmmm." He reached up and snatched one. Then, he crumpled it up into a little ball. He grinned mischievously and threw it at Sonic. The first one missed. "Oh well. Try, try again!" He made another one and this time he took careful aim. Bullseye! He hit him right in the forehead. "Yes! Next!" He started to make another one.

Sonic shook his head and looked up. The first thing he saw was a napkin ball fly past his nose. "Hey!"

"Your awake! Yes! It worked!" Tails said triumphantly.

"So you're the wise guy!" Sonic said as he stood up. Tails tossed another one at him and hit his shoulder. "You wanna play tough, huh?" Sonic bent over and picked up the four napkin balls. When he was standing again, he said, "prepare to fight!" and began tossing the napkin balls back at Tails.

Tails laughed as he batted at them. He got a hold of one and threw it back at Sonic.

Sonic dove behind the end of the bed laughing and just missing it. He threw the last one he had but he missed and it bounced off the wall back at him.

"It's not over yet!" Tails said, "I've got a whole stack! He he!" Suddenly, dozens of napkin balls were flying through the air at Sonic.

"Oh yeah?! Well I've got 'em now!" Sonic began to fling them back.

Sally and the doctors literally walked into a battle zone. She opened the door and walked in to see little balls flying through the air. "What in the world...?"

Tails looked over and saw her. "Intruder!" he laughed out.

"Eeeee!" Sally yelled as she was suddenly pelted with napkin balls. When the assault finally stopped, Sally looked very angry. Bunches of napkin balls were piled around her feet, and one stubborn napkin ball was stuck in her hair.

Tails looked at her and started to look innocent. Sonic peered around the edge of the bed and began to snicker to himself.

"This is not funny!" Sally yelled. Tails innocently pointed to her hair but he couldn't stop a smile from breaking. Sally looked across the room into the mirror and batted it out of her hair.

Sonic tried to stop the laughter by putting his hands over his mouth. It didn't work. He broke out into hysterical laughter. Tails couldn't help it either.

Finally, Sally realized exactly how ridiculous she must have looked and shook her head and laughed a little. "Okay, guys. The doctors are here to get the X-rays done, so quite fooling around."

Sonic quieted his laughter down to a little chuckle. Tails shook himself out of it and just smiled.

"Well," said Dr. Quack, "he seems to be doing much better! And he's in such good spirits, too. You must have done this, Sonic. Good job! Tails needed a boost."

"Anything for the way cool big guy," Sonic said as he gave Tails a thumbs up. "Well, I guess I better go so you can do your job, doc. I'll see ya' latter, Tails!"

Tails waved, "bye!"

Sonic walked out with Sally who closed the door behind them. Both of them were in good moods.

"Sonic?"

"Yeah, Sal?"

"What exactly did you guys talk about yesterday?"

"Well," he began, "it's a long story."

Sally said sort of disappointedly, "oh."

"No, no! It's not that I don't want to tell you, 'cause I do. I really need to talk to you. I was just preparing you." He smiled.

"Oh. Well, I guess you better get started then, if it's that long."

Sonic looked around and saw that there were a lot of people around that morning, and he kinda wanted to talk to Sally alone about what happened. "Can we go somewhere else to talk?"

"Sure. Where too?"

"How about the Great Forest? It's sunny out, as far as I can tell, and it's not too cold to take a walk."

Sally looked at him, "you want to walk to the Great Forest? That's a long ways away, Sonic!"

"Oh, no. We'll run to it, then walk through it."

"Oh. Okay. That makes sense."

Sonic looked around to make sure the path was basically clear to the door, then he picked Sally up and speed off.

Dark blue Sonic looked around the corner. "I wonder where those two are going? Hmm. Maybe that hedgehog is trying to steal Sally away from me. Well, that's not gonna happen while I'm around! I can't believe Sally would choose him over a hansom guy like me! That guy is gonna get it!" He speed off in hot pursuit.

Sonic and Sally reached the edge of the forest and stopped.

"Well, here we are." Sonic let Sally down and they started to walk.

"I guess you better get started."

Sonic nodded. "This gets kinda complicated, especially after the dream." Sonic took a deep breath and dove into the story, "it starts like this. When I went in to see Tails..."

"Hmm," said Dr. Quak, "these X-rays must be wrong. Nurse, will you please take another X-ray of patient 33? Use a different machine this time."

"Certainly Dr."

Dark Sonic speed through the outskirts of Mobotropolis following the dust trail left by light Sonic. It was easy for him to do, seeing as how he can run just as fast. When he made it too the Great Forest, the trail of dust stopped.

"They must have walked from here. Ha! They won't get far! And I bet I know where they're headed too! I'll get the jump on 'em and take that hedgehog out." He grinned maliciously then speed off in the direction of Knothole.

"I simply can't believe it!" said Dr. Quak, "it looks like Tails's injuries have simply disappeared! There is still evidence of them, but compared to how they were after the surgery..."

"That's it?" Sally asked.

"Yup," said Sonic. However, he didn't tell her everything. He skipped the part about the voices. They said he knew the answers, and it didn't seem right to let someone else answer them for him. He had to figure it out. He also skipped the part about the power going into Tails. He didn't want to scare Sally. He continued, "pretty weird, huh?" He kicked a stone that was in his path out of his way. "What do ya think, Sal?"

"I think it's amazing. The energy you felt, I just can't begin to imagine where it came from. It certainly seems like it worked, though. Tails is feeling so much better."

"Yeah. I wish I was there when he woke up." Sonic sighed, "I wish I was there to say everything was okay."

Sally put her hand on his shoulder, "don't feel bad. You had your own problems to deal with." With a smile on her face, she added, "like a splitting headache."

Sonic frowned at her, "not funny, Sal." They turned a corner and were standing in front of the magic ring pool.

Sally said in deep thought, "yeah, I know. What are we going to do with your darker half?"

Suddenly, a voice came out of a bush that was next to the pool, "you're not going to do anything."

Sonic said, "who's that?"

Dark Sonic stood up and walked over to them with a look of pure anger. "What do you think your doing with my girlfriend?" he asked while he pushed Light Sonic.

"Excuse me?" said Sally, "since when was I your girlfriend?"

"And," said Light Sonic, "since when do you have to get such an attitude?"

"Errr! Since you decided to come along and steal Sally away from me!" (For the rest of this section, I will refer to Dark Sonic as D.Sonic and Light Sonic as L.Sonic.) D.Sonic swung at L.Soinc but missed as L.Sonic dogged out of the way and in front of Sally.

"Hey! If you wanna fight, let's at least let Sal get out of the way!" yelled L.Sonic.

"Ha!" laughed D.Sonic defiantly, "she's the one who dumped me, what do I care?!" He swung to fast for L.Sonic to move out of the way without running over Sally. Just before the punch hit, L.Sonic pushed Sally away from him.

L.Sonic flew backwards and slid along the ground. When he stopped, he felt his jaw for a moment then said, "now that's fighting dirty!" He stood up and glared at D.Sonic as he charged.

Sally, who had fallen next to a line of bushes, pushed herself up and watched the battle, slightly scared of what the outcome would be. "I can't believe this," she whispers.

L.Sonic gets a perfect punch into D.Sonic's stomach and he speeds around to get another charge.

"Not so *cough* fast!" yelled D.Sonic.

"Ha! Not so fast?! Not fast enough!" L.Sonic dashed in with another punch but this time D.Sonic was ready and he quickly dodged. For some time, neither managed to hit the other again.

This method of fighting brought them away from Knothole. Sally had followed as best she could until they reached a huge field. Now she just stood and watched as they had run across the field, into the trees on the other side, and practically out of sight.

Finally, D.Sonic got tired of the game and decided to get some real action going. Even if it meant a new target. He turned and ran as fast as he could in the direction of the tree line across the field. After a moment, L.Sonic turned to see D.Sonic was gone. He heard a sonic boom...

Sally looked up and saw a cloud of dust heading her way. After a moment, she could see which hedgehog was the source. Sally gasped as she realized that D.Sonic was headed straight for her, and he wasn't slowing down. "Sonic!!!" she yelled as she tried to run. She tripped almost as soon as she started, and sprained her ankle.

L.Sonic realized where D.Sonic was going and what he was going to do.

"No!" L.Sonic ran in their direction, but because D.Sonic had a head start, he knew he wouldn't make it unless he really juiced. The problem was that he didn't have a power ring to give him a boost. "Gotta make it..." He reached deep and found the power he had earlier and he could feel his speed increasing. He hit the sound barrier micro-seconds latter and went faster, and faster...

Suddenly, he was ahead of D.Sonic. Much farther ahead. In fact, he had almost reached Sally. He didn't need to slow down, he just stopped right in front of Sally, causing the dust to kick up. He had amazing control over his speed now and he glowed with light. "You okay, Sal?" he asked hurriedly.

"Y-yes." She stuttered in shock of L.Sonic's speed. As D.Sonic got closer, she inched herself away from him.

"Stop!" L.Sonic yelled in vain, "I won't let you come any closer!"

But D.Sonic only laughed as he got faster and faster, closing the gap between them.

The anger built up in L.Sonic and he couldn't risk waiting any longer. The closer D.Sonic got, the more dangerous he was. I have to protect Sally, he thought. Again, he reached for the power to help him. "Got it." He didn't know exactly what he was doing, but he knew it was the only thing he could do. Energy built up in him until he could no longer hold it. With a cry of pain, the energy burst out.

"Nooooo!!!" yelled D.Sonic as the energy hit him. He tripped and fell into the light...

"Blast that hedgehog." Snively sat in his chair looking at the gun that had failed to eliminate Sonic the Hedgehog. "Computer, why did you not foresee this?"

The mainframe answered, "the chaos energy was to unpredictable to predict."

Snively raised an eyebrow. Makes sense. "So there are an unlimited amount of possibilities this gun's power can cause?"

"Yes Dr."

So that means, if I shoot the hedgehog again, it could disintegrate him, or it could mutate him further. Hmm. This opens up a world of opportunity.

Suddenly, the mainframe computer started to beep in warning, "Dr., there has been a massive force of energy unleashed in the Great Forest."

"What?!" Snively shot up out of his chair, and ran to the computer. "What kind of energy?"

"Chaos emerald energy."

"Can you find the source?" Snively typed in a map control to show him where in the forest the energy came from.

"Checking source… completed. The energy came from a life form."

"That's impossible! You must mean the energy hit a life form. Check it again!"

"Rechecking… completed. No, Dr. The energy came from a life form. However, it did hit another life form."

Snively stepped away from the computer screen and looked at the map. "Hmm. This could only be caused by three people that I know of. Ixis Naugus, who no longer exists in this world, Knuckles the Echidna, who happens to be away from any chaos emeralds at the moment, and Sonic the Hedgehog, who always manages to spoil everything. My guess is Sonic. He must have absorbed some of the energy from the emerald when I shot him. Oh well, it will soon run out, especially if he uses it like that." He thought for a moment. "Computer, I want you to work on an energy shield that can withstand the power you just recorded."

"Yes, Dr."

He thought again and added, "I also want you to improve the chaos emerald gun."

"Yes, Dr."

"Hey, kid!" said Knuckles. He had just walked in to the room Tails was staying in. "How ya doin'?"

Tails grinned, "I'm doing great. I feel awesome. Wanna go outside?"

Knuckles, a little shocked, said, "will the doctors let you?"

Tails shrugged, "don't know. I don't see why not, though."

Again, Knux was shocked. He couldn't believe Tails could move his shoulders enough to shrug. He shrugged. "Lemme go ask Dr. Quack." Fortunately Dr. Quack was on his way to the room, looking worriedly at the X-rays and scratching his head. He opened the door just before Knux came through.

"Oh! Knuckles, my boy, I didn't see you there."

"That's okay, doc. Hey, can Tails go outside today?"

Dr. Quack looked at him confused for a moment then replied, "let me do some quick tests then we'll see." He walked over to Tails. "How are you feeling today?"

"I feel great, doc! Can I please go outside?"

"First, I want to see your cuts." He reached up and took off the bandage around his head. His jaw dropped when all he could see was a small patch of missing fur. "My word! There is no cut at all!"

Knux ran over to inspect Tails's head. His jaw also dropped.

The doctor went to the next bandage, and the next bandage, and was greeted by the same result. Finally, he decided to try moving his limbs. He lifted Tails's right arm. "Does this hurt?"

"Nope."

He tried the left arm, "how about this?"

"Nope."

He went to his ankle and flexed it fully, then looked to Tails for an answer.

"Uh-uh."

He moved both legs in turn. "Nothing? Nothing at all?"

"No," after a moment, "can I go outside now?"

Dr. Quack shook his head quickly, "my boy, I don't see why not, but I don't want you up and running about. You must stay in your wheel chair with Knuckles. I'll be right back." Dr. Quack left to find a wheel chair.

"Yes!" Tails sat up and anxiously awaited the doctor's return.

Knux just looked at him dumbfounded and asked, "so what's your secret?"

Tails just grinned.

Dr. Quack returned and brought the wheel chair ready and waiting. "Up we go, my boy!" He lifted Tails into the chair. "Here you go, Knuckles, take good care of him."

"You got my word, doc!" Knux pushed Tails out of the room and towards the main doors.

Sally rubbed her eyes from the flash of light, and looked around. "Sonic?" She saw him laying on the ground in front of her. His color was back to normal, and there was no sign of D.Sonic. "That blast, it must have put them back together..." Her ankle hurt to badly to walk, but she managed to crawl over to him. She sat down next to him and checked his pulse. Extremely relieved, Sally sighed. She didn't know how long it would be until Sonic woke up so she leaned up against a nearby tree, and closed her eyes.

Sonic was only partially unconscious. He was running questions through his mind that slowly began to come clear. Everything that he was originally like, before the split, that the darker Sonic possessed seemed to dwindle from his personality. Finally, everything was clear in his mind again. It was like his other half had never existed. He could recall him vaguely, but it was as if he was an entirely different person, not in the least bit connected with him.

The voices that were in his head the other night ran through his mind once more. 'He is the one we seek... defender... no need to fear... our time is short... defender... chaos has awakened us... our savior is in danger... you have the power to save him... concentrate... feel the energy... find the symbol... your power will grow... take head... pain follows power... be strong... defender... we trust in you... defender... you know...' Again and again, he heard the name defender. He thought, I am the defender. I protect my friends. I protect my home, my world. The voices were not frightening to him anymore. He could now tell that they had been through something as horrible as what he and his friends have been through, if not worse. Again, he thought, the savior? I must protect the savior as well. Who do I protect that was in danger? Sally... but Sally wasn't in danger then. Tails... Something struck him. He got better after I used the 'power.' I had the 'power' to save him. Tails is the savior. The savior of what? The voices had not sounded as if they belonged to this world anymore. In fact, they sounded as if they were trapped somewhere. 'Chaos' had awakened them. The chaos emerald's energy? No doubt the energy released would stir something. Could the emerald be the 'symbol' as well? Possibly. Another conclusion stirred in his mind. The emerald's 'energy.' Is my new power part of the emerald's energy? If I had the emerald, my power would grow. Makes sense. His mind shifted uneasily as he came across another answer. Pain and power, the two go together. That would explain the headache and the blackout... His subconscious mind began to spin from answer to answer, trying to piece them together in some logical conclusion.

After some time, the sun started to set and the sky lit with brilliant streaks of color as it hit the horizon. Sonic was slowly awakening.

Sonic blinked and squinted as he opened his eyes to see Sally leaning over him.

"You okay?" she asked, reaching down to help him sit up.

When Sonic was up, he said, "yeah, I think so," he remembered the battle and turned towards her, concerned, "are you okay?"

"I sprained my ankle kinda bad, but otherwise I'm fine." After a moment she added, "thank you for saving me."

Sonic looked at her kinda funny, "Sal, why wouldn't I save you?"

"I didn't mean it that way!" she said frustrated.

Sonic smiled at her knowingly. "Anyway, we need to juice. It's gonna get cold out here soon," he looked over towards the Eastern horizon, "and it looks like were in for a big storm." Clouds had begun to roll in fast, and distant lightning flashed ominously. He stood up and stretched to make sure he could still move. There didn't seem to be any problems. "You ready?" he asked.

Sally was still sitting next to him. "I don't think I can get up just yet." Sonic leaned down and lifted her into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and shifted slightly. Sally said jokingly once she was comfortable, "well, this solves that problem."

"Hold on tight, cause we're goin' warp seven!" Sonic revved up then shot off.

"Sooonnnniiiiic!" she yelled as they sped away.

"Bunnie!" Dulcy yelled as she walked about the area where the campfire was being set up. "Hey, Bunnie! Where are you?"

"Dulcy?" asked Bunnie from behind, "what are you yellin' about?"

Dulcy turned around to look at Bunnie hard. "I've been looking everywhere for you! We finished Sally's tunnel, and I need you to take a look at it. It's getting kinda stormy looking, and we need to move people down as soon as possible. Are you doing anything now?"

"Why Ah just happen to be free, sugah-dragon. Lead the way." The two walked off in the direction of the opening to the tunnels.

Sonic was nearing the hospital when he saw someone waving at him. He slowed down as he neared them. Sally saw them too.

"Sonic! It's Knuckles and Tails!"

Sonic smiled to see Tails was his old energetic self. Before he reached them, he asked Sally, "is your ankle still hurting?"

She answered, "yeah. I don't think I can walk on it."

"I'll carry you to the hospital. Hold on, where comin' in to a stop!" He stopped a few feet from his friends. "Hey, Knux! Hey, big guy!"

"Sonic!" yelled Tails, overjoyed. He started to get out of the wheel chair when Knux, who was waving to Sonic and Sally, pushed him back in.

To Tails he said, "not until the doc lets you out," then to Sonic and Sally, "where have you guys been? And why did you change color again, Blue?"

Sonic carried Sally over to the two. Sally said, "we went for a walk when the dark Sonic attacked us. They fought each other until Sonic won. Er, the lighter Sonic won. I sprained my ankle trying to get away, and Sonic protected me. When the battle was over, they were back together again. This is the real Sonic." She looked up at Sonic and said, "I hope you never leave me again," and kissed him on the cheek.

Sonic smiled. He looked at Knux and Tails, "so you guys are on a field trip?"

Tails answered, "sorta. Dr. Quack let me go outside. But it's getting kinda cold and stormy so we were about to head in."

Knux nodded. "Yup. You guys want to join us?"

"Sure," said Sonic. They walked together as the sun set behind them to the West.

While Knux was seeing Tails back to his room, Sonic brought Sally into an examining room where a doctor or a nurse could look at her ankle. Carefully, he set her down on the examining table.

"Thanks, Sonic."

Dr. Quack came right in as soon as she was seated. "So, you've sprained your ankle, Sally? Well, I can fix it right up." He bent down to examine it.

Sonic moved over to a chair and sat down. He watched Sally intently.

Dr. Quack moved her ankle a little. Sally flinched, "Ow! That still hurts."

"Well, my dear, I think you've really done it this time. It looks pretty bad. However, if you stay off of it for a while, maybe two or three days, it should heal well and be back to normal in about a week," he wrapped it up thoroughly. "But you can't put any wait on it at all, and I mean it young lady. No walking, no standing. It might be a good idea to take a wheel chair, crutches are too much of a nuisance."

"But-"

"No buts. You can't be on it if you want it to heal fast. Unless you can think of something better than a wheel chair or crutches, you've got to live with it for two days." He stood up. "I'll be back in a minute with some ice and a pain killer."

After the doctor left, Sally moaned.

"Does it really hurt that bad?" Sonic asked, as he stood up and walked over to her.

"That's not it. How am I supposed to be everywhere when I can't even walk to get somewhere? A wheel chair or crutches just aren't fast enough."

Sonic smiled and shook his head.

"What?" Sally asked.

"Sal, all you have to do is ask."

She looked at him trying to figure out what he meant. She blushed a little. "Sonic, I couldn't-"

"Why not? Sally, look," he took up her hand, "you are the most important person to me. Can't you see that?"

"But-" she began to protest.

"Sally, if your worried about getting places fast, I can take you. You can't stand or walk for two days, let me help you. Please?" He looked into her eyes for a moment and smiled.

"Okay," she finally said.

Dr. Quack came back in. "Well, Sally, have you come up with an alternative yet?" he said jokingly.

"Dr. Quack," started Sonic, "I'll make sure Sally stays off her ankle for two days. I'll bring her back on the third day for you to check on her."

"Good boy. You see to it that she gets plenty of rest, too."

"No problem." Sonic picked Sally up again while the doctor handed her ice, and a small package of pain killers. "See ya later, doc." He walked out the door as Sally waved to Dr. Quack over his shoulder.

"Sugah, you and the others did excellent work," Bunnie said to Dulcy when they had made it back to the surface.

"Thanks, Bunnie. Do you know where Sally is? I think she should see it too."

Bunnie shook her head, "nope. Last Ah heard, she and the lighter Sonic went out somewhere. It is gettin' pretty dark out, so Ah suspect they'd be back soon."

"I'll go over to the hospital and see if they've been by. Could you wait here for us a little while?"

"No problem, sugah." Bunnie waved as the dragon lifted off and flew to the hospital.

Dulcy arrived within minutes. She circled around once checking the outside grounds high above the building. She spotted Sonic and Sally below her coming out of the hospital. "Sally!" she yelled, "Sonic!"

Sonic looked up as Dulcy glided in.

"Get ready! I'm commin' in for a landing!" Smoothly, she glided closer and closer to the ground until she was only a few feet above it. Quickly, she pulled up and slid to a halt just three or four feet from where she touched down. "All right!"

"Way to go, Dulc! Three points!" Sonic said as he walked over.

Sally clapped while Dulcy grinned.

Dulcy said, "hey, Sally, hey, Sonic. My crew and I finished the tunnel. It's ready for people now."

"Oh! Excellent!" Sally was overjoyed at this news. They could start moving people in immediately. "I was hoping that you'd be done before that storm hits. Perfect timing, Dulcy. Go ahead and send out the call for everyone to start moving to the tunnel." She looked at Sonic to clarify. "I finished the underground rooms up and I had Bunnie and Rotor get all the equipment ready for transportation while Charles and Antoine told everyone to be ready at a moment's notice. We should be completely transferred in five hours or so."

Sonic frowned, "I don't think we have that much time if we want to be down before that storm hits. Dulc, how long do you think we have before that cloud gets here?"

"Well," she began, "I'd say maybe three hours, four hours max. And I can tell you that it is going to be a really bad storm. Lots of wind, which we should start feeling in another hour or so, and lots of rain and lightning, maybe even a blizzard if the temperature drops enough."

"Hmm." Sally thought for a moment. "None of the tents we have up could sustain such a heavy storm. Maybe some of the buildings, but most of them are about to fall apart as it is and I don't want to risk putting Mobians in them."

"Sal," started Sonic, "I can move all of the equipment down while you get the people to move. The problem is, if I do that, then you'll have to be in a wheel chair or someone else will have to carry you."

For the first time, Dulcy noticed that Sally had her right ankle bandaged up and was being carried by Sonic for a reason. "I could carry Sally on my back for a while. It would be almost as quick as you, and she wouldn't have to strain herself."

Sally smiled, "that sounds like a good plan."

Dulcy leaned down and Sonic reached out his arms a little reluctantly as Sally climbed up.

"Okay," she said when she had finally seated herself. "Lets get going, Dulcy."

Dulcy turned and leapt off into the sky while Sonic waved. He sped over to the building where Rotor was working.

"Hey, Rotor. Sally's giving the word to get the equipment and stuff into the underground buildings."

"Oh, hi, Sonic." Rotor was working on some gadget or other when Sonic walked in. "I'm almost done... there! It's finished." Rotor held the thing up for Sonic to see. It was very small, nearly the size of a golf ball, and about as interesting.

"So what's it do?" Sonic asked.

"Well..." Rotor began, then he remembered what Sonic had said just a moment ago, "Sally said it's time to move?"

Sonic nodded.

"Oh! Then we better get going. These boxes over here need to be put in storage room three. There not to heavy. Do you mind taking them first?"

"No, but what about the rest of it?"

"While you bring these over to the tunnel entrance, I'll load these big ones up on a trolley device so we can pull it easier." Rotor ran over to a closet and pulled out a nifty little invention of his that turns into a platform with wheels in any size you need.

Sonic shrugged and began to haul boxes to the tunnel.

The first hour of work went by quickly for Sonic, Sally, and the rest of the Mobians. The equipment was brought to the entrance and carried down by the tunnel crew, the Mobians began to descend with them and claim bunks and rooms of there own. Patients of the hospital were brought down as soon as possible. But the storm grew closer. The wind was starting to pick up and was making moving difficult for everyone. Another hour or two went buy and the thunder rumbled in the distance.

The wind had now grown to a gale force.

"Sally!" Sonic yelled against the wind when he emerged from the tunnel.

Sally was still perched on Dulcy's back, outside the tunnel entrance, watching for any more Mobians that might be passing by.

"Sal, have you seen my parents or uncle Chuck? I was looking for them with the others but I can't find them."

Sally shook her head. "I think they're still out there!"

"The storm is close! You and Dulcy get down with the others. I'm going to look for them. Just don't lock the outside tunnel door before I come back, okay?"

Sally nodded.

Sonic ran off in search of his family.

Sonic's mom and dad were still getting the last of the supplies packed.

"Dear, it's starting to get bad outside, we should go now," said Bernice.

Jules looked outside to see a huge bolt of lightning strike the ground a few miles off. "I think you're right, but Charles still hasn't made it back yet. We shouldn't have let him go for the scrolls alone. I don't know why he thought they were so important, we couldn't even decipher the language." Jules finished the packing.

Sonic rushed in the doorway just as his dad was closing the box. "Dad! Mom! Why are you still here? Where's Uncle Chuck?"

"Son! I'm glad to see you're back to yourself again. Help us with these boxes."

Sonic looked at the boxes but didn't pick them up. "Dad, I don't know if you have time to walk to the tunnel. The storm keeps getting worse! Let me take you to the tunnel, then I'll come back for the boxes."

Jules looked at all the things he packed. "Well, I guess we could do without them for now. Okay, son."

Sonic motioned for them to hold on. "This might get a little tough, so whatever you do, don't let go! I'll get you there safely, mom, dad."

Jules grabbed Sonic's shoulders and Bernice grabbed Jules's shoulders. "Ready? We're goin' warp seven!" It only took him seconds to make it back to the tunnel.

When he stopped, Sally was waiting by the tunnel entrance with Dulcy.

"Sonic! Hurry!" She yelled to him.

Jules and Bernice made there way to the entrance when Sonic stopped him, "dad, where is Uncle Chuck?"

"He went to get some scrolls… I'm afraid I don't know exactly where, although he did mention the old library. I'd check there first, son."

"Thanks, dad. Back in a split second!" He turned over to Sally. "The weather isn't going to hold up any longer, Sal. You and Dulc should get inside and lock the doors."

"But how will you get in?" asked Dulcy.

"The same way I came in earlier." He sped off towards the library.

"Okay, Dulcy, get these doors open. We need to get inside, and fast!" said Sally.

Sonic raced against the wind, trying to cover as much ground as he could before he had to duck behind a building. Just before he reached the library, the storm let loose its fury. He jumped at least five feet when a bolt of lightning hit a nearby building.

"Yikes!!!" He made it to the broken and crumbling library. "Uncle Chuck!" He called out for his Uncle hoping for a quick answer. Fortunately, luck was with him.

"Sonie, my boy! Over here! I'm so glad you came, I need your help."

Sonic sped over to see what his Uncle needed. "Unc, we've got to go! This storm is starting to get bad!" Just then, the rain started to pour. "Correction, is bad!"

"Not just yet. I have only one more scroll to retrieve."

Sonic started tapping his foot. "Unc, we don't have time for this. If we don't get back now, I don't know if we'll make it back." Chuck looked at him sternly. "Okay! Okay. Where's this scroll? I'll get it."

"It's buried right there." Charles pointed to pile of rubble. "To my calculations, it should only be ten feet under or so."

Sonic whistled as he looked at the mountain of debris. He shrugged and set to work. "Oh well, here goes." He ducked into a sonic spin and cut his way into the hill. After a minute or so of digging, Sonic yelled out, "I found it!" He jumped out of the hole and landed near Charles holding the old, tattered scroll in his hands. "Now can we get out of here?"

"Yes, let's go, Sonie." Chuck took the scroll, adjusted his backpack quickly, and grabbed Sonic's shoulders.

"Hang on really tight, Unc, 'cause the wind has really picked up, and in order to beat it, I'm gonna have to go super sonic, if I can." He set off, but once he turned the corner, strong winds almost pushed him over. He ran headfirst into the wind, but it seemed he just couldn't get any ground. Man, I knew this was going to happen. Gotta trust the power. It's worked for everything else so far, maybe it'll work for this, too. I hope I still have it. Reaching for the power, he found it, just waiting to be released again, even stronger than before. He felt it stretch and cover he and his Uncle. Suddenly, running became easier. The force field around him pushed against the wind for him. He quickly made it to his regular speed. The rain no longer fell on him and the wind's force didn't bother him at all. Pieces of buildings started to fall, but he easily dodged them. Halfway to the tunnel, he started to feel the strain of sustaining the energy. He concentrated even harder.

"How are you doing this, Sonic?" Uncle Chuck sounded dumbfounded. He didn't know what he was seeing or why Sonic could create it.

Just then, a bolt of lightning struck the sphere. "Ahhooo!" yelled Sonic as he pulled harder to keep up the force field. Finally, they made it to the entrance. Despite Sonic's concentration, he said, "hold on, Uncle Chuck, we've got to go down!"

"Oh boy! Now were really in for it! Be careful!"

The glowing sphere around Sonic and his Uncle began to spin. Sonic jumped up ready to slice the ground below him with the shield. When he landed, it was like a hot knife cutting through butter. He disappeared into the ground below him, which actually seemed to swallow him. As the seconds passed, so did Sonic's ability to hold the energy consciously.

Chuck felt Sonic's shoulders slump, tiredly. When they made it to the building, Chuck noticed that Sonic wasn't running anymore. The wall opened for them. When they came into the large entrance room, the shield stopped spinning, and they stopped in the center. It let them down easily onto the floor. Chuck was glad to have his feet land on something firm. Sonic looked up to see everyone's shocked stares as they realized he had created the shield and he seemed to glow. He closed his eyes and started to fall to the floor when Tails, who had found a way to remove his caste, rushed up and caught him. Sonic was too heavy for him, so Tails had to set him down.

Knuckles ran into the room carrying Sally in his arms to see what had just happened. "Sonic!" they both yelled out. Then Sally and Knux realized Tails was out of his wheelchair. "Tails!" Finally, they noticed Charles breathing a sigh of relief.

"Oh no, not again. Sonic must have used that power of his to get you both here. Sir Charles, what happened?" asked Sally.

"It's a long story, princess, I'll tell you later. Right now, our boy needs some assistance."

Tails stood up. "Aunt Sally, we should take Sonic into his room for some rest, I think he'll be asleep for a while."

"Knuckles, put me down, please." Knuckles set her down so that she was standing on her one good foot. "Sir Charles, Knuckles, will you carry Sonic to his room? Tails, if you want to help, I don't see why you can't now. It's very obvious you don't need any more medical attention. I'll get Dr. Quack in to see Sonic."

Knuckles picked up Sonic and started to carry him away, while Chuck and Tails followed. Sally noticed the scroll Chuck was carrying, "what is that scroll for?"

Chuck turned his head, "that's also a long story."

Sally nodded. However, she wasn't going to be put on the sidelines again. She wanted to know, and she was going to. She noticed everyone was still standing around, confused. "It's okay, everybody, we'll get it straightened out. Go back to setting up your bunks and rooms." Everyone shrugged their shoulders and turned back to their tasks. Sally started off towards the other side of the main room, where Dr. Quack's office was located. Her ankle still hurt her, but she managed to limp across the floor without a lot of difficulty.

When she reached the door, she knocked lightly. Almost immediately, Dr. Quack came to the door. "Yes, princess? Oh! You shouldn't be walking around on that ankle, young lady. Where's Sonic to carry you? That boy is going to get a piece of my mind when I get a hold of him."

"Please Dr. Quack, Sonic is the reason I'm here."

"Eh?" Remembering recent events, Dr. Quack ran back into his room and grabbed his medical bag. "Show me the way, Sally." He remembered her ankle. "But not limping. I'll be right back." Again he ran into his office only to come back with a wheelchair.

"But Dr. Quack-"

"No buts young lady, SIT!" Sally sat down reluctantly. "Now, where to?"

"Tails, get the lights, will ya?" Knux put Sonic on his bed. Tails touched the wall, and the ceiling crystal started to glow. Charles went over to the wall across from Sonic's bed, and created a table to set the scroll and his bag down on.

"He used his power again. That's why he's so tired. He's gonna be hurting a lot tomorrow," Tails began.

"What's this, Tails?" asked Chuck. "Please tell us what you mean."

Tails opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. He looked very confused. "I don't know."

"What were you just talking about?" asked Knuckles.

Tails thought for a moment, "I… I don't know. I can't remember."

Another few minutes passed, as Tails tried to come up with another answer for them, but all he could come up with was just what he said before. "All I know is that he's going to hurt a lot tomorrow, and he'll be sleeping for a long while."

"But what was that you said about the power?" Chuck had started to rummage through the scrolls, looking for one in particular. "You remember, 'he used his power again'."

"Hmm. I think that's what's causing Sonic to sleep and to hurt tomorrow. I don't know where it came from, or why he has it, or really what it is."

"Well that helps us a lot," commented Knuckles.

Dr. Quack walked into the room, pushing Sally in the wheelchair. Dr. Quack went immediately to Sonic and began to examine him. Sally turned to Tails.

"Are you feeling okay?"

"Yup. Sonic helped me get better. He used his power."

"What?" Sally's eyes widened. "He used his power to help you? How?"

"That's just it, I don't know."

Sally remembered her conversation with Sonic about his dream. He must have tried to follow what happened in his dream. I wish he was awake now, I could use a good long talk with him. "Well, it's obvious that when he uses his power he gets drained of a considerable amount of energy. That must have been why he slept so long that morning in the hospital, and why he was unconscious after the battle with his dark half, and now."

"Uh hu. He's really going to hurt tomorrow, so we should let him rest."

But why didn't he feel any pain after the battle?

"Well, Sally," Dr. Quack began as he stood up and turned away from the bed, "he's fine, health wise. Tails is right, though, he is totally exhausted. It will be a while before he fully recovers. Also, he seems to be experiencing some kind of pain. There is nothing wrong with him, yet I know he is dealing with considerable discomfort. I recommend leaving him to sleep it off. However, I believe it is wise to check in on him."

"Thank you, Doctor." Sally smiled and waved good bye as Dr. Quack left the room. "Do you know anything else, Tails?"

"Not really. It's kinda hard to explain, Aunt Sally, I just know about it a little, and I don't know how." Knuckles nodded in agreement.

Sally thought for a moment, "if Sonic is in some kind of pain, I don't really feel comfortable leaving him by himself." Everyone nodded. "Will you all help me watch him?"

"Sure, Sally," agreed Knuckles.

"Certainly, princess. After all, he is my nephew," said Sir Charles as he smiled. "However, I think Tails should take first watch. He does seem to know something about what Sonic is going through and maybe he could help him. I know you would like to go first, but I also know how many people are depending on you right now."

Sally nodded in agreement. "Would you, Tails?"

"Sure. Besides, I owe it to him." Tails sat down in a nearby chair.

"If you need anything, don't hesitate to come get one of us," Knuckles said. The three left the room to go back to helping the Mobians.

"I am finished with the shield, Dr." Lab said as it displayed the design on screen.

"Excellent! However, the storm outside will not let me make use of it. Now I would like you to look into your memory banks and find anything you can on a system of underground buildings. Give me maps and dimensions if you have them. Also, I want you to monitor any enemy movement in the city and tell me if any thing odd comes up." Snively smiled as another plot crept into his mind.

"Right away, Dr."

Sir Charles sat down in his workroom. He had not been able to find the scroll he was looking for in Sonic's room, so when he got back, he immediately set himself to the task. Finally, he found the scroll he was looking for. He unrolled it, and began to examine the diagram. The picture showed the star that the seven tailed fox on the entrance door was holding. There were words below it, but he couldn't decipher them.

"I know this scroll has to do with their culture. If only I could see what they meant by this star." He sighed. Suddenly, the walls glowed in response, and the image of the star started to change. Sir Charles gasped in shock as he watched the star move on the paper. "I can't believe it!" He sat there in shock for a moment, but soon snapped out of it. The star turned into a 3-D convex dodecahedron. The points dropped to the sides to join at the bottom. They formed a huge chaos emerald that slowly spun on the page. "Amazing," was all Chuck could manage. The walls in his room stopped glowing, and the star was back to normal.

Charles shook his head, "I wonder… walls, I want to see these words in the present Mobian dialect." Again, the walls glowed in response and the words changed on the page before his eyes. The words below the crystal showed mostly mathematical data. When Charles unrolled another nearby scroll, he saw a different scripture, more like a letter. Unfortunately, the walls didn't show him everything that was on the page. Most of the words were blurred on purpose. Only a small portion of the scroll was readable at the bottom although some parts were missing there, as well.

Hasu had foreseen a problem concerning this and made a prophecy… 'When the Fox Star shines too bright to be seen… too strong to hold… for a seven, our race will disappear… the crystal… Many decades will pass… a savior… the power of the Fox Star… stronger in him than of any other before or after him. He will be marked by two…. A defender, marked by light… protect him… his courage will overcome... One other will join… a guide and trusted friend… marked by wisdom, guiding… Our savior will set us free… By the power and the strength of three, the twelve will fall… releasing us.' I only wish I could live long enough to see that day.

Vehmu Fox

Charles stared at the scroll, a million thoughts running through his head. "Who is this savior? The defender? The guide? Why can't I read the rest? Walls, I want you to clear up the rest." The walls didn't glow anymore. Charles slammed his fist into the table.

Tails had been sitting in the chair by Sonic's bed for nearly an hour now. With his best friend out cold, and nothing to do, he was extremely board. He started to yawn, when suddenly his stomach began to growl.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot! I didn't have time for a snack." He got up from the chair and walked to the door. He peaked around the corner and caught Bunnie and Rotor walking by. "Hey, Aunt Bunnie, Rotor, would you guys do me a favor?"

They turned around. "Sure, sweet heart, whatcha' need?" said Bunnie.

"Could you bring me back a snack? I'm getting hungry."

Rotor said, "no problem, Tails. Would you like a chili dog?"

"Yeah! That would be great! Thanks!" Tails walked back into the room to Sonic. He felt so bad for him. He wished he could help the pain go away faster. He looked down at his friend and thought to himself. Sonic must have felt the same way when I was hurt. I hope he wakes up soon. I know I can't do anything for him now, but I will be able to, soon.

Again, Sonic was dreaming. This time, he found himself standing at the front door of the underground city, but it was stone and wood, not bluish silver and crystal thread. There was no fox creature carved in the door, and the earth around the entrance was different from Mobian soil. The ground began to shake around him. The door cracked, and he heard people yelling. All of the ground around him started crumbling away…

Dulcy had taken the first storm watch. The city had provided a periscope to the topside, so that she and the others could monitor what was happening out there. The storm had turned into a furious blizzard.

"It's gonna be a while before we can leave," she said to herself, "oh, well. There's plenty of hot chocolate here, and I think it's time for a nice big cup."

Sally knocked on Chuck's workroom door. "Sir Charles? Are you in there?" She had abandoned the wheel chair and was sort of limping.

"I'm coming, Sally," she heard him say. He opened the door for her.

"I saw that you had some scrolls and I wanted to know if I could see them. I might be able to help you decipher them."

"Well…" Charles began, "okay. I could use another mind grinding away at this." He showed her to the table that was covered in scrolls. The first one he showed her was the one containing the prophecy.

…Sonic found himself stumbling through the dark. When he took a step forward, he fell down a hole that seemed to go on forever. Finally, he landed on the ground. When he looked up, he saw the door to the underground city glowing softly blue. This time, it was the city he knew. He opened the door and walked in. Across the large entrance room was a door with another fox creature carved on it. As he walked over to it, the room changed into a forest. The door opened and Sonic walked in…

Sally read over the prophecy again. "Hmm."

"Do you have something, Sally?" asked Charles.

"Well," she began, "from what Sonic has told me, and concerning recent events…" she thought again for a moment, "my guess is that Sonic is the Defender."

"How so?"

"When he was protecting me from Dark Sonic, he let loose a huge burst of energy. It was so bright, I couldn't see what had happened to Dark Sonic. Also, he glowed with light every time he used his power. That would certainly make me think he is marked by light. He also protects all of us. And when you think about it, he certainly has overcome a lot."

"Good point, Sally. Do you have any idea who this Savior is?"

She thought some more and then it dawned on her. "Tails is the Savior. He's the only one I know who is marked by two… two tails that is. Sonic certainly protects him. However, I'm not sure who the guide would be."

…Suddenly Sonic stood on a green hillside, looking down at another city. This city was built out of stone and stood in the middle of a huge hilly field. The stone was amazingly cut. Suspended sidewalks circled the large hill that he saw to his right. It had a huge tower on the top. No one was in the streets, though, and no one seemed to be in the houses. He looked up at the sky and saw ominous dark clouds billowing furiously. Lightning streaked across them, causing the ground to shake, but not actually hitting it. When he looked closer, he saw a pair of eyes gleaming evilly out at the city, and he heard a laugh that sounded like a hurricane… he heard voices crying out… so many voices…

Tails yawned. He looked over at Sonic and noticed that he was dreaming. I know it's almost time for my shift to change. I could use a nap. Sonic won't be waking up any time soon, and I'll be here when he does.

Knuckles stepped in the room. "Hey, kid. How's Blue?"

Tails yawned again. "He's still sleeping. Thanks for coming, I'm getting really tired."

"No problem. Go get some sleep. I'll be here until morning."

He got up and walked over to the door, "see ya later, Knuckles."

Tails walked down the hallway and saw Sally sort of limping. "Aunt Sally?"

Sally looked over, "oh, hi, Tails."

An important question sprang to his mind. "Um, I heard you were researching the underground city. If you find out anything, would you let me know? I need to know if the fox on the door is related to me in anyway. After all, it has multiple tails, and so do I. I just thought maybe the foxes who built this city may have been ancestors of mine, or something. I just kinda wanted to know why I had two tails, and a bit about my family. Kinda silly, huh?"

She shook her head. "That's not silly at all. And I think it's a very reasonable request. I'll let you know if I come up with anything."

He smiled, "thanks, Aunt Sally." He walked off toward his room.

Sally turned and started to walk very slowly to her room. She couldn't put to much weight on her ankle yet. She decided to go get some sleep before her shift with Sonic in the morning. She kept running the prophecy through her head. She said deep in thought, "I know Sonic is the Defender, and I know Tails is the Savior. First of all, it makes sense, and I also just know it's right. I just don't know who the Guide is." She sighed, frustrated.

Very correct…

"I know every thing fits except the Guide. Who is he?"

You know… look inside yourself…

"But how am I supposed to know? There aren't any defining characteristics given in the prophecy except for the fact the he's a trusted friend and marked by wisdom. That could be anyone!" She shook her head.

The answer is right there… look harder…

"Is it Knuckles? He's a trusted friend."

No… He is not the Guide… look harder…

"Maybe Charles? Or Rotor? They are both very smart."

No, no, no… Only the Guide can tell you who the Guide is… She is the one who knows who the Savior and the Defender are… look harder…

"Hmm." She thought for a moment. "If only the Guide can tell me who the Guide is then I must know him very well. But the guide is a she not a he. She also knows who…" it hit her. "I'm the Guide?!"

Very correct… Guide…

"But why didn't you tell me that in the first place?!" It also hit her that she was talking to voices in her head. She spun around to see if any one else was there. "Who are you? Why are you talking to me?"

You are the Guide… Read the scrolls… they will give you the information you seek…

"What information?"

The Fox Star… find it…

"Oh, boy."

The next day passed very uneventfully. The storm raged on the surface, Sir Charles studied the scrolls, Sonic was still sleeping, and Sally kept thinking. That evening, however, was taking a turn. Tails was back on his shift with Sonic.

Tails was sitting in the chair again. He waited patiently for what he knew was about to happen. Sonic shifted in his sleep restlessly. He was slowly waking up. Tails quickly hopped off the chair and stood by Sonic as he began to open his eyes. "Sonic?"

"T – Tails? Is… is that you?" He tried to sit up, but found it to painful and laid back down.

"It's me," he said, "I wanted to be here when you woke up. How are you feeling?"

Sonic moaned, "I feel like I've been hit by the Ultimate Annihilator five times over. Is every one okay?"

"Yup. Everyone's fine. We're all down here safely."

Sonic sighed, relieved. "Good," he said quietly.

"Do you want anything?"

"No…" he started, but he was drifting back to sleep again, "…that's okay."

Tails nodded. He knew Sonic was going to be out for another long time.

Sally sat in front of the scrolls. She flipped through them again and again, but she just couldn't decipher them. "There has to be a key in it somewhere. Maybe I'm not supposed to look at them one at a time. Maybe… maybe I should lay them all out and see what I can see in the group." It was worth a try so she took the scroll with the Fox Star on it and the prophecy and put it down first. Next she laid down all of the other scrolls around it in a large rectangle. She sat back and studied it. "I don't see anything more now than I did a few minutes ago!"

She remembered Sir Charles telling her about the walls. "Hmm. Walls, I would like to see what these scrolls are supposed to show me." There was no response. "Okay, we'll try a different tactic. Walls," she said again, "show me where the Fox Star is." The walls glowed in response and the words on the scrolls formed pictures.

She saw a door that looked like the city's entrance. A great fox creature with the star was carved on the front. The surrounding area was thick with foliage. Ferns and large trees were predominant. Suddenly, the scene changed. Now, a tall stone spire stood atop a great hill. She could see light coming from the windows in the top. A bright light that seemed too strong to look at.

After the scrolls were finished, Sally knew where that entrance was, and she knew where the Fox Star was and how to work it. She blinked in awe. It was time to talk to Sonic.

It was Knuckles's turn to stay with Sonic. Tails had told him that Sonic had woken up earlier and he was pretty sore. Knux had decided to bring a few pain-killers as well as some munchies. He was snacking on a chili dog when Sonic started to come too again. "Hey, Blue, you awake?"

"Man, my head's still ringing," said Sonic.

"I'll take that as a yes." He brought over the plate of food. "Are you hungry?"

Sonic glanced over as he held a hand to his forehead trying to stop the headache. "Yeah, I'm starving," he muttered, "but I hurt to much to eat." He had to close his eyes because the headache started to pound.

"How 'bout a pain-killer?"

Sonic nodded and put out his other hand. He gulped down the pill.

"It's not the same place around here without you're big yap," Knux commented.

"Gee, thanks." Sonic half smiled.

"Get some more sleep. You'll feel better when you wake up and then you can eat something."

"Good idea." Sonic yawned and was out again.

Snively read over the data sheets on the gun and shield. "Lab, do you have the updated chaos gun finished yet?"

"70% complete, Dr."

"Good. Have you worked out the variables?"

"Yes, Dr. The gun will now only have a laser like power emission."

He grinned. "Excellent. Keep me updated. Have you discovered anything on those underground buildings yet?"

"Yes, Dr. I have found a myth about a race known as the Kitsunes. Would you like the report?"

He nods, "proceed."

"It was once believed that a powerful race was being persecuted because of their differences. Instead of fighting back, they decided to move underground. Their original location is unknown, but they are said to have moved to our sector. These Kitsunes had amazing power and are said to be able to shape things to their will."

If that's true, I may need to keep track of Sonic for a while. Snively thought for a moment. "If those blasted freedom fighters have discovered this information, their next move after the storm would be to find their original location. They always go looking for anything suspicious, and if they could get some of these powerful beings on their side, I'm finished. Lab, I want you to inform me the moment the storm has let up."

"Yes, Dr."

Sally knocked quietly on Sonic's door. A brief moment later and Knuckles opened it.

"Sally? Your watch isn't for another few hours yet." He moved to the side so she could enter.

Sally started, "I know, but I need to talk to Sonic. It's very important. Has he been up at all yet?"

"He woke up a few hours ago, but that was about it." He watched as Sally went and sat down in the near-by chair. "If you don't need me, I guess I'll be going. Oh, there's a little food left on the tray, help yourself."

"Did Sonic eat at all yet?"

Knuckles shook his head. "He was in too much pain earlier. Hopefully the pain-killers have kicked in. You might want to try to get him to eat."

Sally nodded as Knux left the room. This could be a long wait. He's been in and out of consciousness for some time. Sonic began to stir a bit. Or he could wake up right now.

Sonic breathed a heavy sigh as he opened his eyes, grateful that the pain was finally lessening, only now it was a persistent ache.

"Sonic?"

"Sal?" Again he tried to lift himself up only to find he couldn't quite do it yet. "Could you help me sit up?"

Sally helped him up. "How are you feeling?"

Sonic winced as Sally leaned him back onto a pillow she had propped up. "Okay."

She frowned, "seriously, Sonic."

He smiled, "aren't you supposed to be off that ankle?"

"That's not important right now. I need to talk to you about your power. I think I know what's going on right now. Do you think you can stay awake for a while?"

"Yeah..." Sonic grimaced as another headache hit him. "But just in case, we'd better talk fast."

All the worry Sally was feeling finally showed on her face and she leaned forward to put a hand on his forehead, feeling for a fever. She sighed. "Okay, don't talk, just eat something. What I need to talk to you about can wait for that."

"Sal... I don't think I can eat right now..."

"At least try, for my sake. You need to eat in order to get your strength back."

Sonic nodded slightly. While he tried to work through a bowl of soup, Sally told him what she found in the scrolls. She also told him about the voices she heard and the prophecy.

After Sonic swallowed, "so I was right. Sal, there's even more to it."

"Did you have another dream?"

He nodded, "Yeah... I think these people went through something horrible."

Sally nodded. "I think we should go to this place in the Mobian Jungle as soon as the storm lets up and you get better."

Sonic closed his eyes as another headache passed by.

Sally searched his face for any signs of relief. "Are you going to be alright, Sonic?"

"After this heavy metal group leaves my head, I'll be fine."

She looked around and found the pain-killers on the table, "do you want another pain-killer?"

"No... it's not helping... only sleep is..." He laid back down. "Sal, will you stay a while?"

"I've got the next shift, so I'll be here if you wake up again. It's okay, get some rest." Sally bent down and kissed his forehead, "goodnight, Sonic."

Over the next few days, the blizzard lessened, and Sonic continued to recover. Sally and Sir Charles worked more on the scrolls, uncovering more of the location of the city and even floor plans.

Sir Charles was working on the complete deciphering of the scrolls with Sally helping in his study.

"It seems," he began, "that these Kitsunes are extremely powerful. After all, they created this city with their power, which is remarkable enough."

"Hmm," began Sally, "I wonder if it was their power that was their downfall."

A knock sounded on the door, and an echidna called, "Sally? Charles? I've got a visitor for you!"

Chuck opened the door and there was Knuckles and Sonic standing in front of it. "Sonie, what are you doing!" he gasped.

"Awe, come on, Unc. I'm feeling a lot better, and it's about time I started getting some exercise," he looked over Chuck's shoulder to see Sally in shock, he smiled, "oh, hi, Sal!"

"Sonic, I swear you're worse than Tails." She pushed past Chuck to look him straight in the eye. She frowned at him then promptly hugged him, "but I'm glad you're okay."

"Don't worry, Sally," said Knuckles, "I've got a good eye on him. He won't wear himself out, I promise." He grinned.

"Alright, but if anything happens, I'll hold you responsible, mister. And Sonic, you won't hear the end of it."

"Yeah, I know, I know. I'm being careful, right, Red?"

Knuckles nodded. "Come on, Blue, I'm starving. Lets go to the mess hall for some chili-dogs. Want to join us?"

Sir Charles turned to Sally, "you go ahead, Princess. I'll keep working on the deciphering. Besides, I'd greatly appreciate it if you were also looking after my nephew."

"Are you sure? Okay then." Sally headed out to follow the two, watching as Sonic carefully made his way down the hall, occasionally requiring support from Knuckles.

After they reached the mess hall, Sally brought up the plans for the Mobian Jungle.

"Seeing as how your doing so much better, Sonic, we'll head out as soon as the blizzard ends."

"Sure thing, Sal."

Knuckles watches as Sonic downs chili-dog after chili-dog, and chuckles. "Well, he certainly has his appetite back."

Sally roles her eyes, "he sure does."

Sonic looks at them, "what?"

They both just shake their heads.

Another two days pass by and the blizzard ended. Sonic, Sally, Tails, and Knuckles pack their bags and prepare for an icy trip. Dulcy readies herself by warming up and putting on earmuffs, gloves, and a scarf. They all meet up at the entrance to the tunnels.

"Okay, everybody, lets open up these doors and get going!" Dulcy says cheerfully as she pushed open the heavy doors. They all walk out and are greeted by the shinning sun and nearly four feet of snow and ice. "Well, this will make taking off interesting."

"Don't worry, Dulc," Sonic said, "I've got it covered. I'll do a sonic spin and cut out a runway."

Tails looks at him, "do you think you should, Sonic?"

He smiled, "no problemo, big guy." He starts off cutting into the ice. When he's done he stops near Knux and Sally. He swings his arms as he starts to fall backward.

"Woah!" Knuckles grabs Sonic just in time, unfortunately throwing himself out of balance and causing him to start slipping. Sonic reaches out to Sally and she catches his hand. Knuckles skids on the ice and knocks both Sonic and Sally down.

"Well, I think I need to work on my balance."

Sally yells, "OW! That hurt."

"Way to go, Blue."

"Hey, you're the one who fell first, Knux."

Tails begins to laugh at them. "Okay, guys, we need to get going."

They get up and brush themselves off as Dulcy tests the wind. "Okay everybody! Time to board!" They all climb onto her back and she takes off from the runway. Once in the air, Sally looks down at the beautiful white landscape.

"It's been so long since we had snow like this, especially in spring."

Tails looks wide-eyed at Mobotropolis, "Aunt Sally, look! You can't see any of the debris in the city. It looks so pretty."

Sally nods as Dulcy flies higher into a jet stream.

"There is enemy activity on the surface, Dr." Lab reported.

Snively jumped out of his chair and ran over to the view screen. "I want you to track their every movement and prepare my shuttle."

"Yes, Dr. They are headed towards the Southern Continent, into the Mobian Jungle."

"Excellent," he says as he puts on his armor, "someplace warm for a change."

"Your shuttle is ready."

Snively picks up his chaos gun and shield, "continue with all the programmed labs until I return." He teleported to the shuttle port and blasts off, following them on radar.

Dulcy began to circle in for a landing. "Hey everybody, heads up! We're coming in for a landing."

"According to the scrolls, we should land in area two and head East to the waterfall." Sally pulled out a map she drew from the scrolls to go over it again.

Sonic leaned over her shoulder to take a look. "So, we hike all the way, huh?

"Yup. We'll take a few days to enjoy the scenery. After all, Mobotropolis is in good hands, and we could all use a real vacation."

Knuckles chimes in, "I'm all up for that. After all, my vacation was cut short."

Dulcy made the final approach, and zoomed in cautiously. Dodging a few trees, and about to touch down. Dulcy was concentrating so hard on getting the landing down right, she forgot to look straight ahead of her.

Tails looked up just in time, "Uh, Dulcy, I think you should look up..."

"Not now, Tails, I'm concentrating..."

Knuckles looked up, "Dulcy! Tree!"

"Huh?" She looked up, "oh... that tree... Hang on!!!"

Sally grabbed onto the saddle, "Oh-my-gosh!"

"Oh, man!" Sonic held on to Sally.

Tails and Knuckles jumped off just in time. Tails flew upward, and Knuckles safely glided off to the side.

Dulcy dropped onto the ground approximately ten feet in front on the tree and began to spin around on the moist ground, "woah!!!" The centripetal force was amazingly strong.

Sonic started to lose his grip, "Sally! I can't hold on!" Dulcy still spun wildly.

"Sonic!" She reached out to grab his wrist but had to go back to the saddle or she would have flown off as well.

Sonic couldn't hold on any longer and flew away from the dragon. "Aahh!"

"I'm coming, Sonic!" Knuckles yelled as he glided up to catch him. "Gotcha!" He landed and put Sonic down.

"Thanks, Red."

"No problem."

"Unfortunately, Sal's still in trouble."

Dulcy finally stopped spinning. "I'm okay, mom....really..." she said dizzily.

Sally waved unsteadily. "Oh... my..."

Sonic walked over a little unsteady himself. "You okay, Sal?"

"Sure, once the jungle stops spinning."

The radar on the shuttle blipped. "Ah, they've stopped. I hope it's not far, I'm really not fond of walking." Snively steered the shuttle in slowly, making it a point to stay out of the view of the freedom fighters. The ship touched down lightly and he began to pull out his hiking supplies.

Dulcy had left soon after she regained her vision and balance. The others set up camp. Soon the sun began to set, and a small fire was built. As the four companions sat down, they began to eat some of their rations.

"What a beautiful place this is," Sally commented.

Tails nodded, "yeah, but I've got a weird feeling."

"Like what?" Sonic asked.

"I don't know..." Tails thought for a minute, "kinda uneasy."

"I wouldn't worry about it right now, Tails," said Knuckles, "it's probably just being away from the cold."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." He shook off the feeling and decided he was getting a bit tired. "I think I'm going to bed, goodnight everyone."

"Good night, sweetie," Sally said as Tails got up from the fire and went over to his tent.

"So what's our first plan, Sal?" Sonic asked.

"Well," she pulled out her map, "we'll head out tomorrow morning, taking it slow until you're back up to speed."

Knux started to laugh, "good one, Sally."

"Oh funny, funny." Sonic rolled his eyes at Knuckles.

The rest of the evening was chatting, joking, and relaxing. But while the three friends were deep in discussion, Tails began to dream.

Tails... Come home, Tails...

Tails was walking through the jungle when he heard the whispering voice. "Hello? Who is this?"

Come home, Tails...

"Hello?" He started to follow the voice. He struggled through vines and thick underbrush until he reached a ravine. "Are you down there?"

Tails...

He peered over the side of the ravine and gulped. "That's a long drop."

Come home...

He gritted his teeth and readied his tails for the treacherous decent. "Alright, here I come!" Steeping off the ledge, his tails spun at full force, but he steadily dropped in altitude. Finally nearing the bottom, he called out again. "Where are you?"

Here...

The voice was coming from a dark cave to the side. As Tails came closer, red eyes began to glow.

Come here, Tails...

Tails stopped and his eyes got wide. He backed away as evil laughter echoed around the ravine. Tails desperately tried to fly away, dodging branches as he went, but a shadow reached up and snatched him out of the air causing him to fall into the black depths.

"Huh!" Tails woke up with a start, panting heavily.

Knuckles was preparing his backpack. "You okay, kid?"

"Yeah..." he said shakily, "just a bad dream."

"It's a good thing you woke up when you did, we'll be heading out soon."

Tails nodded and began to pack up.

Meanwhile, Sonic was thoroughly involved in his stretching. His eyes were closed in concentration, and he focused on maintaining his balance. Suddenly, Sally walked up behind him, startling him.

"Morning, Sonic."

Breaking his concentration, Sonic fell over, "Whoa!" Looking up, "gee, thanks, Sal."

"Oh, sorry."

"That's okay."

Helping him up, "so how are you doing today?"

"Great! I feel fine. No headaches, no muscle aches, and no speed drains. I'm pretty sure my speed is back up to norm. I've just got a little balance problem, if you hadn't noticed." He started to stretch again.

"I did notice you were concentrating really hard on your stretches. Are you ready to go?"

"And waiting. Just give the word."

Sally began to gather the last of the supplies. Moments later, everyone was packed, feed, and on their way out. As the group steeped into the deeper foliage, the sounds of jungle creatures greeted their ears. The morning dew was evaporating into a light mist that mingled with the sunlight. Sally led the way with the map, Sonic followed, carefully picking his way through the underbrush, Knuckles was close behind, admiring the plants and assisting Sonic when required, and Tails brought up the rear, occasionally jumping at unfamiliar sounds, and keeping a vigilant watch for danger. The trail they followed was hard, thick with ferns, branches, and clinging vines. Finally, they reached a small clearing with a stream leading to a pond and a waterfall. They all stopped to take a rest.

"Hey, Tails!" Sonic called to the young fox who was looking slightly on edge near the pond, "would you mind spotting me? I'm gonna do a few dashes."

Tails shook himself off, "sure thing." Tails flew over to the other end of the field and waited as Sonic stretched a few times, then began to rev up.

"Are you ready?" he called out.

Tails called out the starting sequence. "Ready! Set! Go!!!"

Sonic shot straight towards Tails, keeping his speed down so as not to loose control. He carefully judged the distance and began a long skid stop. Normally, Sonic had no problem stopping just in front of Tails, but he wanted to make sure he wouldn't run the fox over. He skidded to a stop only inches in front of the waiting fox.

"How's that?"

"Great, Sonic! I'll go to the other end of the field so you can dash back, okay?" He started to fly over.

"Cool." He stretched again, and as soon as Tails was ready, he was off. During the next half hour, Sonic was getting a good workout. He had perfected his sub-sonic speed, now it was time to go faster. "Okay, Tails! I'm going to go near sonic speed, so be ready!"

"No problemo!" Tails waited patiently as Sonic went through more stretching. Each time he increased his speed, he made sure he wasn't over doing it. Suddenly, Tails heard something behind him.

Tails…

He stiffened as the voice from his dreams started to call him. He couldn't bring himself to turn around. "Who… who is it?"

Tails… Come home…

The voice stopped but a vision came over Tails. He saw a door made of wood, similar to the one of the underground city. The door creaked open, and the eyes glowed back at him. He heard the same laughter. He took one step towards the door and found he couldn't stop. He turned around, but the door started to suck him in. He looked up and saw Sally and Sonic being attacked by the shadows.

Tails covered his eyes, "no! Go away!" He shook his head to clear the vision and when he looked up, Sonic was nearly upon him. Tails leaped into the air trying to get out of his way.

Sonic, not expecting the sudden move by Tails, began to lose control of his speed. "Tails!" he yelled and desperately tried to throw himself into a skid stop. Making it just in time, he skidded up to the tree line, turning himself around as he did, and then falling backwards into a tree. Rubbing the small bump on his head, "well that could've been a lot worse. Few! It's time for a break, anyway." Getting up and dusting himself off, he walked over to Tails who had landed not too far away and was doubled over, gasping for air. "So what gives? I almost became hedgehog pancakes."

Tails was shaking, "s-sorry, Sonic. I…"

Sonic picked up that something was wrong, "hey, it's okay. Don't worry about it. I can tell something has been bothering you. Let's go sit down and we'll try to fix it, okay?"

Tails looked up. He was glad Sonic didn't get mad. "Yeah. I think that'd be a great idea."

They joined Sally and Knuckles who had been looking on.

"Blue, are you okay? That was a close call." Knuckles had started to get up but Sonic waved him back.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Nothing like a little exercise. But the big guy here needs to talk. Something is up."

Tails nodded. "I've been getting weird dreams and stuff ever since we entered the jungle."

Sonic looked over at him concerned, "like visions from the Ancient Walkers?"

He shrugged. "Kinda, but it's not the same. I remember what those were like. They had meaning hidden all over. These are different, scarier."

Sally spoke up, "what happened in them?"

Tails explained everything. Making sure to note the red eyes and the laughter that sent shivers down his spine.

Sonic was the first to comment. "I don't think this is good. The visions and voices I've heard so far have all been friendly and helpful. I don't think this one came from the same source."

Sally nodded. "I think you're right, and I think Tails's visions are warnings."

Knuckles leaned forward to speak, "so you're telling me that something doesn't want us down here?"

"In a way. I think it wants to get rid of us and get Tails. But don't worry, honey. While we're here nothing is going to hurt us or you."

Tails nodded uncertainly.

"Tell us if you get anymore visions, okay?" Sally put her hand on his shoulder, "we're right here for you."

Again, Tails nodded.

The group then decided that camping there for the night would be a good idea. Tails finally began to relax and he spent his time working on a small gadget to fix. Knuckles explored the surrounding jungle and Sonic worked on his balance. Sally spread out her map and pulled out here computer, Nicole, and began plotting their next path. The rest of the day passed fairly uneventfully.

Snively hacked away at some vines. "Curse those Freedom Fighters, they would choose the most difficult route." He came upon the clearing but stayed well out of sight. "Hmm. I should go back a bit, so if they get the urge to explore they won't ruin my plans. It wouldn't matter if they did anyway. After all, I do have the chaos gun and the shield. Hah! They wouldn't stand a chance. Pitiful, really." He grinned, and began his journey back to a suitable campsite.

As the days passed and the freedom fighters neared their destination, Sonic completely recovered. Unfortunately, Tails's situation worsened. He was now plagued by nightmarish dreams and terrifying visions. Sally began to worry that maybe they should head back and Knuckles became a little uneasy every time Tails mentioned another vision. While inside Sonic couldn't help but feel on edge, he made no physical signs of it. Always cool and collected, he kept the team going and worked hard to keep Tails's mind off of the visions. He hated seeing his best friend so nervous and fearful. When they reached the door, it happened to be in the early afternoon, but they decided to camp nearby and make plans to enter the zone in the morning.

"Tails," Sonic asked, "are you okay?" He walked over to his friend who was sitting on a nearby fallen log, starring at nothing.

He blinked and replied, "I'm okay," quickly. He didn't look up.

Sonic searched his face for any signs, but he couldn't tell what Tails was feeling. He had started to get angry at the fact that only bad visions came to Tails. Not once had the good voices come to help him understand anything. He wished he could take the bad ones for him, but he knew there was no way he could do that. "Are you sure you can do this tomorrow?"

"I'll be fine," he said softly.

"If you need anything…" he paused, "tell me." He turned and walked back to the group not quite knowing what to do for him.

That evening Tails went to bed early, but he tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Nightmares kept plaguing him. When he managed to dose off, another vision jolted him. The worst and most vivid one yet.

He found himself flying over a dark and stormy hillside. He saw a flash of light and something passed in front of him so fast it looked like lightning. On the hill a mass of billowing clouds swiped at a streak of light that flew around it. The clouds finally managed to stop the streak of light, but when the clouds surrounded it, the light seemed to scream. He watched as the light was thrown with incredible force into the ground, flickering as it went. Then red eyes glowed from the clouds, and they swept towards him. Tails turned and flew to a city that was built into the hillside. He went to the top tower and hid inside. Suddenly, the city broke away from the ground and was flying trough the air. All Tails could see was black clouds. He distantly heard Sally yelling for help, but when he tried to get to her, he saw Sonic, standing there in front of him. Tails ran up to him. Sonic turned and was gone, as if he was never there. Then Tails heard the laughter again. This time he also heard Sally and Sonic yelling for help. He looked out the window, and he saw the clouds crushing them. Suddenly, the clouds stopped. Sonic and Sally weren't moving. Then they dropped down past the city, and it began to fall apart. He was trapped inside about to be crushed when the shadows attacked.

He woke with a cold sweat. He tried to cry out, but he couldn't make a noise because of his panic. After several minutes, he calmed himself enough to look around. Sonic, Sally, and Knuckles were still sleeping peacefully. It was still dark, and the sky twinkled with stars. For the rest of the night, he sat in his sleeping bag, jerking to see any movement and straining to hear any sounds.

Morning came, and the others woke up from a restful sleep.

"Tails honey? How did you sleep?" Sally asked.

He whispered, "I had another dream…"

She knelt down in front of him and looked him straight in the eye, "do you still want to do this?"

He nodded. Even though the visions terrified him, he needed to know where they were coming from and if that place was where his ancestors had once lived. His life was still a mystery. He didn't know his mother or father, or even if they were still alive. He also needed answers about his two tails. Why was he the only one? Was there a special reason? He needed to know. However, he couldn't let his friends walk into unknown danger without informing them of what he saw.

"Aunt Sally… I don't know if you'll still want to come after I tell you…"

She reached out her hand and patted his head. "I'm with you all the way, honey. Tell me what happened." She motioned Sonic and Knuckles over.

He tried to remember it all, but every time he tried to speak, he just couldn't. "I… can't remember all of it. But I do remember that what was after us was the same thing. It was coming after me, then it decided to go after you and Sonic. All I know is," he shivered, "it... it…"

"It what?" Sonic was listening intently, trying to figure some of this out.

"You didn't make it out… it… Sonic, it killed you and Sally!" He started to cry.

All three gasped. The visions had never been that bad until now.

Sonic grabbed Tails's shoulders, "don't worry, Tails. It's going to be okay. If you think we shouldn't continue, we won't."

He sniffed, "no, I need to find out. This may be my only chance. You don't have to come with me if you don't want to."

Sonic shook his head. "I'm behind you one hundred percent, big guy. Even if we run into that thing, I'm with you all the way."

Sally nodded in agreement. "Don't worry about us. We can take care of ourselves."

Knuckles said, "besides, you haven't had any bad visions about me, so that means I'll be there to cover everybody."

Tails smiled. He was glad they were going to be there with him, but inside, he still had an undeniable dread for their lives.

Snively stirred out of his sleep. The night before he had almost stumbled into the Freedom Fighter camp. Luckily, he arrived at the South of the camp and found the door. Instead of unpacking his supplies that night, he just left them in, only taking out what he needed. Within minutes he was heading toward the campsite. He was confident that the Freedom Fighters would take an early start.

Sally lead the way to the door, but before they pressed on, she stopped to examine it. It had the image of the seven tailed fox with the star on it. It was made of a heavy hardwood that had grayed and cracked with time giving it an appearance of petrified wood. She brushed the vines away from the door for a better look, then slowly opened it.

Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails watched as she stepped in. A moment later she called back.

"It's okay. It's a kind of a tunnel."

The others followed.

Tails stopped at the entrance and could barely move. "It's dark… just like in my dreams…"

Sonic turned around, "Tails, are you okay?"

Tails gulped down his fear and stepped in after him.

Sally was examining the walls. "Hm. These walls are smooth, like the ones in the underground city. I wonder if there is a lighting system." Almost as soon as she had said it, faint crystal orbs of light began to glow on the ceiling. What they were in was not just a tunnel. In front of them, about ten feet away was a staircase leading down. A faint noise similar to a rush of wind came from the stairs. "I guess we go down."

The group started down the stairs. As they did the noise from the bottom steadily got louder. They were unable to see very far in front of them or behind them, but they kept going, waiting for any danger in front of them. Unfortunately, they didn't see the danger from behind them. Snively was hot on their trail.

The finally reached the bottom of the staircase and discovered what the noise was. The zone portal was like a small tornado laying on its side, with the larger end facing them. The mist flying around it was illuminated by the crystal orbs, sparkling in the dark.

Sally hesitated, wondering if it was a trap or a diversion, Knuckles looked on in awe, Tails gasped, and Sonic stepped in.

Sally yelled, "Sonic! Wait!"

In an instant, the tornado swallowed Sonic.

Tails looked over to Sally uncertainly then followed Sonic.

Sally and Knuckles watched as Tails disappeared. They looked at each other, shrugged, then stepped in after them.

Moments later, Snively arrived. He raised an eyebrow as he looked on.

"Interesting. I've never seen a zone portal like this before. If my Lab was correct, it is more than likely Mobian made. Very interesting in deed." He edged closer to get a better look, but the tornado sucked him through.

The passage through the zone portal was long, lasting several minutes. The way through the portal was like the inside of a tornado. Sonic noticed the feeling of zoning was different than usual. He didn't get that weird feeling of falling. Instead it was like flying. He thought to himself that it was probably the wind pushing him.

Suddenly, the tornado bent sharply. An instant later the tornado touched ground. Sonic flew down from the center and landed on a grassy hill. He looked up and the tornado lifted up, leaving where he landed. Just a few feet away it touched down again. This time when it pulled up Tails was crouching on the ground.

"Tails! Are you okay?" Sonic yelled out to him.

Tails stood up and looked in awe as the tornado hovered just above him then touched down again about ten feet away, depositing Sally and Knuckles. "What a ride."

Sonic watched as the tornado drew back into the clouds.

Sally stood up and began to straighten her hair that had been blown into a mess. "I hope that's not the way out of here."

Knuckles chuckled, "awe come on, Sally, it wasn't that bad."

She sniffed and began to look around. The clearing they landed in was about fifty yards across. Around the edge great sandy colored stone structures stood, and beyond that, some trees and plants had sprung up close together creating the illusion of a forest surrounding the travelers.

They regrouped and began to move out of the circle. They passed through the stone structures and picked their way through the dense ring of trees. When they made it passed the trees they stepped into a huge hilly field of thick, long green grass that seemed to go on forever except for the faint outlines of mountains to the West and the occasional tree standing alone. A light breeze rippled the grass as it passed over the Freedom Fighters.

"Where do we go from here?" asked Knuckles.

Tails stepped forward slowly, "I think we should go this way," he pointed to the North, directly in front of him. When he did, a mirage began to appear in the distance. It was a high hill, covered with a city made of the same stone from the clearing.

Sally nodded, "I think you're right."

They started off, but they didn't go more than a few hundred yards when they heard a rumble from the sky. Knuckles looked up, "hey! The sky is getting stormy, and fast!"

Sonic looked back over his shoulder to the clearing. Sure enough, the tornado was spiraling out of the clouds. It touched down in the clearing, then was gone a moment later. He said to the others, "I think we have company! Stay here, I'll be right back." He sped off towards the clearing. When he arrived at the trees, he peered in.

Snively dusted himself off, rather annoyed. "I must have arrived just after that blasted hedgehog and his friends. He can't have gotten far. I better be prepared anyway. Activate energy shield." A sphere appeared around him, glowing a purplish red. He rummaged around in his camping pack until he found the gun, then tossed the pack aside. "No use in bringing that." He started towards the trees.

Sonic took one look at that gun and made a quick retreat to the others. He stopped on a dime, back to his old self, in front of Sally. "Man this is bad, Sal!"

"Who is it?"

"I'll give you three guesses. He's our favorite evil scientist's nephew."

"You're kidding, it can't be Snively!"

"Got it in one! And he's got that chaos gun and some kind of an energy shield. He's headed in this direction."

"Say what?!" Knuckles barked. "So what are we going to do?"

Sonic shook his head, "I don't know. That gun is very dangerous. I mean if it can track a faster than sound blue hedgehog, and hit him than that is not something we want to mess with."

"I hear ya, Blue, but we can't let him come into an unfamiliar zone shooting that thing off. Who knows what kind of damage he could do!"

"I know, I know!" Sonic said rather distressed.

Sally was deep in thought. Finally she came up with an answer. "Sonic, you said that the voices said if you found the symbol you're power would grow, right?"

Sonic nodded as he glanced back to the clearing.

"The symbol we decided was the chaos emerald in Snively's gun. You are linked to the emerald because of the blast. I'm willing to bet that you can gain power from it if you are within close proximity to it. I also think you could control the power coming from it."

Sonic thought for a moment. "I think you might have something there. Either way, it's to dangerous for you guys to fight him. Keep going to the city. You might be able to find someone there to help."

"Sorry, Sonic, but we don't have that option now. Look!" Knuckles pointed at Snively who was running towards them.

Snively stopped and aimed his gun towards them.

Sonic snapped into action, he grabbed his friends and sped away from the blast. "Either Snively's gun is broken, or he's going to play with us first." Sonic stopped and put his friends down. "No time to wait. I've got to go distract him for you all to get away." He turned but Tails grabbed his arm.

"No way, Sonic. We'll go distract him for you. Try to touch that chaos emerald he has. Stop the gun and we can stop Snively. Deal?"

"But-"

"Good idea, Tails. Sonic do what he said. Then we'll get Snively." Sally began to run towards Snively, followed by Knux and Tails.

Knuckles called back, "don't let us get fried, Blue!" He smiled then charged off. The three split up to confuse Snively.

"But what if it doesn't work…" Sonic closed his eyes and concentrated on the emerald.

Sally was trying to hide in the grass. She circled around Snively and was trying to get to him from the back. Fortunately, Snively wasn't paying any attention to her.

Tails was zigzagging through the air and taunting Snively. "Come on, Snively! You couldn't shoot the broad side of a barn!"

Knuckles was charging him one moment then breaking off in another direction, trying to confuse him.

Snively didn't really care. He smiled and shot just above the fox, causing Tails to momentarily lose control of his tails and drop nearly ten feet until he regained control. Then he turned to Knuckles and shot the ground just in front of him, scaring him practically to death. Knuckles fell down and panted, wide eyed.

Suddenly, Sally jumped at him from behind. He laughed as she hit the energy shield and was thrown back.

"Man, this isn't working!" Knuckles called over to Sally as she stood up shakily.

She coughed, "I hope Sonic can do it."

"Look out, Aunt Sally!" Tails yelled as Snively aimed his gun.

Sally jumped away as the shot just missed her. "Great."

Sonic was still concentrating, and not getting much of anything. He growled, "why isn't this working?!" He tried to calm himself, to find the power. Once he had gotten a hold of himself the power sparked his mind with its presence. Sonic smiled and focused his thoughts on the chaos emerald.

Suddenly, it just came to him. He had control. He pulled power from it, siphoning it out of the gun and into himself. The green energy surrounded him. His mind was clear, and his reflexes were finely tuned. It was time to go meet Snively. He began to walk towards his friends who were beginning to get very badly beaten. He noticed Snively was having too much fun blasting at his friends. A shot came out of the gun, and Knuckles was stepping right into it. Sonic wouldn't let that happen. Quickly he drained the energy out of the blast.

The bolt hit Knuckles and he yelled out as he fell to the ground. Sally cried out as she saw him fall. Then, he opened his eyes. The blast didn't hurt him at all. It was like it had been reduced to nothing but light. "Huh?" He stood up and turned to see Tails rushing to Sally who was being targeted. She ran as fast as she could but she couldn't out run the gun. Fortunately she didn't have to. The blast stopped a few feet from her. Quickly Tails flew her out of the way.

"What?" Snively was shocked. "What is wrong with this thing?"

Sonic decided to make his presence known. He knew he would probably pay for showing off later, but he decided to take the risk. He waved his hand and a wind parted the grass before him and he started to walk towards Snively.

Snively noticed him and turned with his gun about to fire but he stopped, frightened by what he saw. Sonic stopped and just stood there. He glanced over at the energy bolt that was hanging in the air. He waved his hand and it turned into nothing more than a sprinkle of light. Snively panicked and shot three times at Sonic. Sonic snapped his head back to the blasts. The green energy around him grew into a sphere and swallowed the bolts.

"No more games, Snively."

Snively gulped and then said defiantly, "I'm not afraid of you! My energy shield can withstand any thing you can throw at me!"

Sonic smiled, "is that so?" Sonic pointed at the chaos emerald in the gun and began to build energy.

"That's not going to work! Ha ha ha!"

Sonic just kept on smiling as the gun in Snively's hands began to glow with green energy, then red hot.

"Yeow!!!" Snively dropped the gun at his feet as he tried to cool his hand by waving around.

But Sonic didn't stop. The gun melted and the chaos emerald was free. When Snively realized what was happening he tried to grab the emerald but it shocked him. Then, Sonic realized where the shield generator was. A bolt of lightning shot out of the crystal and destroyed the object attached to Snively's belt. The shield flickered and went out. Snively looked up and gasped. He turned and began to run.

The energy started to fade from around Sonic and the chaos emerald dropped to the ground. Sonic turned to his friends, "your turn," he said as he began to sit down before he fell down.

Sally, Tails and Knuckles rushed after Snively, cornered him and captured him. He was no match for them. On the way back to Sonic who was gasping for breath on the ground, Knuckles picked up the chaos emerald and carried it back to him.

When he reached Sonic he knelt down, held out his hand with the stone and said, "I think this belongs to you."

Sonic nodded but didn't move to reach for it. He was fighting to stay conscious. He used a lot of power to control the emerald. Fortunately, the emerald used it's own power after Sonic told it what to do, so his side effects weren't nearly as bad.

Tails rushed over and took the emerald from Knuckles. "I have and idea. Sonic is the only one of us who gets hurt when he uses the chaos energy. If we tried to use it, maybe we could help him get better."

Sally was leading Snively over to them. "I say it's worth a try. Either we try this or we wait until Sonic is better, which could be a while. But it should be ultimately up to Sonic. So what do you say?"

Sonic nodded slowly for them to go ahead.

Tails stood near Sonic and put his fist clenching the small stone above Sonic. "Okay, Aunt Sally and Knuckles, I have a feeling this is how it'll work." They both nodded and put their hands on top of Tails's. "Now concentrate on healing energy coming out of the crystal and into Sonic."

They all closed their eyes and concentrated. Tails could feel something happening. Something was trickling out from between his fingers. A few minutes passed by and the trickle stopped.

"I think it's over," said Tails. "Sonic, how do you feel?"

Sonic leaned back, "great! That was amazing, I could feel the energy tingling through me, fixing the aches."

Snively had started to sneak away when they started but when he turned and looked at what was happening he was transfixed with awe. Sally walked over to him. "Well I think it's time for a trip back to the Devil's Gulag. Wouldn't you agree, Knuckles?"

Knux grinned, "yup! And I would be happy to take him back," he grinned mischievously in Snively's direction.

"That would be great. Thank you Knuckles."

"No problem. After all, I'm not in the prophecy, and there is no reason for any of you to go back when you are so close. Good luck, and I'll see you when you get back."

"See ya, Red."

"Keep cool, Blue." He waved to Sonic.

"Bye, Knuckles!" Tails called over.

"Later, Kid."

Sally waved, "thanks again, Knuckles."

"Don't mention it," he smiled back. "Come on, Snively." He lead him off to the clearing. A short time later the tornado came.

After some regrouping time, the three headed off towards the city. As they neared it, they noticed the amazing structure and planing. All made out of sand colored stone, it stood out majestically from the tall hill it sat on. Parts of the hill had been carved into terraces, supporting various structures. However, most of the buildings were coming straight out of the ground, no matter what angle the ground was. There were farming sections that had overgrown from neglect, pools of water lined with amazing tile mosaics where fountains used to pump clean water. Arching around the hill in various locations was a sidewalk of sorts, but it was several feet in the air, supported by stone columns and arches. The most amazing feature of this city was the tall spire in the center. Sitting directly on top of the hill, it seemed to reach the clouds. There was a room at the top with open windows. When the sun hit it just right, something sparkled inside.

"That's where we need to go," said Tails, pointing to the spire.

When they reached the city, it was mid-afternoon. The sun had warmed up the stones around them and the cool breeze that occasionally whistled by was very welcome. They decided to try the sidewalk instead of heading straight through the city. They managed to get a remarkable tour of the surrounding area. For a city that had been abandoned some time ago, it was in spectacular shape. The sidewalk split in some sections and they always took the ones that lead further up the side. Finally, they reached the base of the spire. It was larger than they had thought. The base was nearly twenty yards in diameter. There didn't seem to be any openings.

Tails said, "maybe they didn't put a door because they were afraid someone would steal what's up at the top."

"Sounds logical to me." Sally was looking up at the spire and scratching her head. "Tails, do you think you could fly Sonic and I up to the top of the spire?"

He suited up, "I think so, but it'll have to be one at a time."

"No problemo, Sal. I can take the faster way up." Sonic put his hand on the spire's base. The spire tapered up to the top. Sonic figured there was enough of a slope to let him run almost all the way to the top. "I'll get most of the way up there if you can give me a boost at the end, Tails."

"Sure thing, Sonic. I'll go ahead and take Aunt Sally up." Tails lifted off and grabbed Sally's hands. He started the climb up. The first half was not a problem, he climbed it easily. Unfortunately, the winds started to pick up as he got higher, making the strain on him much more.

Sonic watched from below. He saw Tails beginning to loose his grip on Sally, and he decided it would not be a good idea to wait to go up. He revved up, went into a figure eight and began climbing as fast as he could to help.

"Hang on, Aunt Sally!" Tails yelled as he struggled against the wind. If he didn't have to pull Sally up, he could have easily maneuvered to the top. His grip slipped and Sally was dangling by one hand.

"Tails! I'm slipping!" she yelled. Another strong gust of wind came and Sally completely lost her grip and she started to fall.

"Aunt Sally!" Tails flew to catch her but just in time Sonic jumped out from the building and caught her.

"I've got ya, Sal!" Now Sonic was falling with Sally in his arms. "Hey, Tails! Slingshot! Hold on tight, Sal!"

Sally held on with all her might as Sonic raised one arm up. Tails flew down and slowed his decent enough to swing Sonic around and throw him towards the building. Sonic landed facing up, and skidded his sneakers trying to stop and get a good start. He managed to start up again and was soon at the top. Tails was flying right beside him making sure nothing else happened. Almost at the top, Tails took Sally and lifted her into the window. Finally being on something firm Sally let her heart beat as fast as it wanted to. She slumped against the stone wall and took long deep breaths. Sonic jumped up as far as he could and Tails caught him. He flew over to the window and they both went inside.

"I'm really sorry, Aunt Sally… Please don't be mad…"

Sally looked up, "it's okay, sweetie. I'm not mad. A little terrified, maybe, but not mad." She smiled up. "Nobody got hurt, so it's okay. After all, I knew you or Sonic would save me from falling." She stood up and hugged Tails. Her heart had finally slowed down. She looked out the window and gulped. Falling just brought back to many unpleasant memories. She turned around, a little sick.

Sonic pulled her away from the window and hugged her, "don't worry, Sal. I won't let you fall."

Hugging him back, "thanks."

The three turned and looked at the room they were in. It was very plain. There was no furniture to speak of, only one small alter in the middle. On top of it, however, sat the most amazing stone they had ever seen. It was the Fox Star. It was the color of jungle foliage, a deep and dark green. The twelve points on the star were perfect, not one chip or scratch after all these years. Sally walked slowly towards it and touched one of the spikes lightly. When she did a familiar voice greeted her.

"Welcome, Guide…"

"What was that?" Sally asked as she backed away.

A ghostly form appeared near the crystal. She was a young Kitsune with seven tails. She wore ceremonial robes similar to a skirt, tunic and cape. Bracelets dangled from her wrists and ankles. Earrings were worn on each ear and her hair was done up in a braid and bun with only bangs and the occasional wisps hanging down.

"I am Hasu."

"You're the voice I kept hearing," Sonic started.

"Correct, Defender. But there is no time…"

"Time for what?" Tails asked.

"Savior…" her image began to fade, "an evil is coming from the mountains… I can not stay… you must defeat him…"

"Him who?" Sonic stepped towards her.

"The Sorcerer…" She pointed to Sonic, "you must stop him from getting to the Fox Star at all costs… the Savior must have time…"

Tails said again, "time for what?"

"You'll know…"

Sally looked confused, "what about me?"

"Look inside yourself… please… I must go… good luck…" Hasu faded from the room and a rumbling similar to that of the tornado was getting closer and closer.

Tails looked out the window and saw a huge storm coming towards them with red glowing eyes. "Oh-my-gosh! Sonic look! It's like what I saw in my dream! I didn't realize it until now, but it's just like in my dream! That means… Sonic… you're going to…" He couldn't bring himself to say the last word.

"Don't think about it, Tails. Bad visions only have power if you believe in them, and I'm not going to. I'll be fine." Sonic tried hard to believe the words he just said. "Hand me the chaos emerald. I'm going to have to use whatever I've got to defeat that thing out there."

Sally took out the stone and hesitantly handed it to Sonic. "Sonic, I…"

"Shh. I'll be fine." He kissed her as he took the emerald then turned and jumped out of the window, running down the side. He glanced at the large mass of clouds and concentrated on the power. It instantly surrounded him. He looked at the chaos emerald and focused on absorbing all of its power into him. Moments later, as he neared the base of the spire, the crystal faded, and he had become one with all of it's power. He felt it merge with him, and he became Super Sonic.

Sally glanced out the window and saw the familiar flash as Sonic went super. "Be careful, Sonic," she whispered.

Tails was pacing, trying to figure out what he was supposed to do. Sally sat down and began to pick through the information she had absorbed from the scroll, hoping to find some answer to their problems.

Sonic reached the base of the storm. The terrifying laughter surrounded him and a mass of dark clouds swiped at him. He managed to jump over them, but another 'arm' came out from above him and hammered him into the ground. The laughter got louder.

Sonic spit dirt out of his mouth, "great, just great. I'll have to be faster." He focused the energy he absorbed and went to a level above Super Sonic, far above Super Sonic. Again an arm of clouds rushed towards him, but he easily dodged it. He was running as fast as the speed of light.

Sonic couldn't believe it, he had never been this fast before. His one small dash took him nearly a mile away from the clouds. When he stopped he had sharp pains as he was catching up with himself. In a few seconds it was gone. "I wonder what that was." He looked up and the clouds were nearly on top of him again. He made another dash, but this time he dashed straight up. He found himself just above the dark mass. Then the pain hit again. A few moments and it was gone. He glanced behind him and saw he was very close to the city. Too close in fact. The clouds had sent out runners to the city and they were slowly ripping parts of it away. There were too many arms for a dash to take care of. He had to go full power until the Sorcerer was stopped. Only for another moment did he hesitate. He thought about what would happen to him if he went full power, then he thought about that thing getting a hold of Sally and Tails. He revved up with new determination and sped down to the runners. He was only a blazing light as he worked on fighting back the runners. It was easy. He could easily come at the clouds several times within a few seconds, not giving the clouds much slack. Now all he had to do was keep going.

Tails looked outside. He saw a flash of light zooming around the mass of clouds. He knew it was Sonic, and he knew what was about to happen. "Sonic!" He yelled out desperately. "Don't go up! Stay on the ground!" Sally rushed over to see what was happening. Tails turned to her with tears filling his eyes, "Aunt Sally make him stop! If he goes up into the clouds… I've got to go help him!" He started to go to the window.

"Savior! No!"

"Hasu?" Tails turned around and saw the Kitsune standing by the Fox Star once more.

"You can not leave! Please! If you go, you doom us all! Only you can stop it. Look inside yourself! Please!"

"But what about Sonic?" he cried.

"In order to help him you must find the key. The key will save us all!"

"She's right, Tails. If you're the Savior, only you can do it, but you have to find it first."

"But it's so hard!" He stared out of the window in horror, mad at himself for not finding the key sooner. He turned to Sally and ran into her arms and cried.

"It's okay, honey, I'm sure he'll be fine…" she knew he didn't believe her. She couldn't even believe herself. She hugged him as they watched what they knew was about to happen.

Sonic felt as if he was winning the battle. He had beaten back all of the runner clouds. Now all he had to do was defeat the main mass of it. Somewhere in there he would find the Sorcerer. He only had one chance to get in and out before the Sorcerer would figure out what he was doing. He hit one more runner then blasted up into the clouds. For a moment he thought the Sorcerer was just in front of him until he hit a heavy cloud mass. The water in the clouds combined with the wind stopped him in his tracks. Then masses from each side of him slammed into him. The force was enough to make him scream out in pain. Then he caught up with himself. The force was similar to that of a whole mountain falling on him. The mass of clouds threw him into the ground. As he fell, the light around Sonic's lifeless body flickered and went out as he crashed into the ground faster than the speed of sound.

"SONIC!!!" screamed Sally as she collapsed, crying hysterically.

Tails felt sick. He turned and stumbled to the Fox Star. He whispered, "it's not fair… it should have been me… Sonic…" He closed his eyes and began to weep. As he did, a force built inside of him. He cried until he felt the key inside him. It was there all along but now he unleashed it. He looked up at the Fox Star, the tears flowing freely. He picked it up, "No! I will not let it end this way!" Suddenly, power surged into him. He grew stronger than ever before. He didn't even need the Fox Star to help him. He put it back on the alter and walked over to Sally who was completely delirious. He put a hand on her shoulder, and she fainted. "It's going to be alright, Aunt Sally."

By now the mass of clouds had started to tear at the city again. The evil eyes searched for Tails's powerful presence in the rubble. When it looked up, it saw Tails hovering in the air without the use of his tails, which had now gained seven others, giving him a total of nine tails. Surprised at this, the clouds retreated and there before Tails was the Sorcerer hovering and smirking. He was a Kitsune, like Hasu, but his features had been twisted with evil. Unlike Hasu or himself, the Sorcerer only had one tail.

"So a little kid like you was chosen to defeat me." The Sorcerer laughed.

Tails said nothing.

"The quiet type, huh? That won't win you any popularity contests, brat!" The Sorcerer sent out a wave of fire magic.

Tails easily dodged it, letting it fly off harmlessly into the air.

"Tricky, aren't you? Well I'll fix that for you." He grinned. "Oh, I hope you weren't planning on leaving." He summoned a huge fireball and threw it towards the gate, destroying it.

Tails watched as the clearing was demolished then turned back to the Sorcerer and grimaced.

The Sorcerer growled. "So are you here to make the big bad Sorcerer pay for hurting that pitiful little blue hedgehog?"

Tails's eyes narrowed. "That hedgehog's name is Sonic."

"I think you mean that hedgehog's name was Sonic." He laughed.

"He's my best friend!"

"Oh, I think I hit a sore spot. He he he! Too bad for you, he didn't put up much of a fight. I didn't even break a sweat defeating that weakling."

Anger boiled up inside of Tails, and he let lose the power of the Fox Star around him. "You'll pay for what you have done!"

The Sorcerer frowned. He hadn't expected the fox to master calling the energy so quickly. This was going to be an amazing battle.

The energy around Tails sparked and fizzed. He rushed the Sorcerer, trying to tackle him, but the Sorcerer easily dodged him.

"Ha! You're naiveté will be your down fall!" The Sorcerer waved his arm in front of him and a wide sweep of fire exploded from nowhere and engulfed Tails.

The flames died down and Tails floated with a protective energy shield around him. "I'm not as naïve as you may think!" Clenching his fists, he sent out a wave of explosive energy balls that began to home in on the Sorcerer.

"Hah!" he yelled as a wall of fire sprang up before him, stopping the energy balls. "You'll have to do better than that!" Once again, he sent out a wave of fire, but missed as Tails took their battle to a higher altitude. "Er!" He flew up after him, preparing his next spell.

Meanwhile, Sally woke up a little dizzy. "Wha… what happened? Where am I?"

Hasu appeared near by. "Guide, can you hear me?"

Sally turned to look at the ghost, "Hasu?"

"Yes, I have come to help you."

"What happened?" She shook her head as recent events started to come back to her. "Oh… no! Hasu, is it true? Is Sonic…" she gulped.

"The Defender is no longer with us, but we can help him."

"I don't understand…"

"By facing the Sorcerer, by sacrificing himself, the Defender has succeeded in giving our Savior the strength he needs to defeat him. Unfortunately, our Savior does not fully understand his powers and what he can do with them. He must have complete knowledge in order to use his power and the Fox Star to win. Only you can give it to him."

Sally nodded, "but how?"

"I must tell you everything. Then you will know."

Sally took a deep breath, "I think we got ourselves into more trouble than we bargained for."

Hasu disappeared and her spirit entered Sally, putting her into a deep trance.

Sonic awoke as if nothing had happened. He was several feet from where the clouds had thrown him into the ground. He stood up and looked up to see Tails battling the Sorcerer.

"Man, I've gotta help!" He tried to run to the city, but he could only walk. "Wait a minute, what's wrong with me?" He looked down at himself to realize he was transparent, a ghost. "Oh-my-gosh! This is way past uncool! That fall…" he paused, "I guess I didn't make it." He looked down in despair. "I can't help my friends…"

The Sorcerer had reached Tails and began to throw fire-balls at him. Tails dodged or blocked all of them. This frustrated the Sorcerer.

"All right, brat, you want magic?! I'll give you magic! Lightning Storm!" He yelled out at the clouds above him and they darkened and lightning bolts shot down barely missing the Sorcerer each time. Several bolts struck Tails at once, catching him of guard.

"Yow!" Tails started to fall, but he soon righted himself. He looked up towards the Sorcerer and saw him smirking. "Think that was funny?"

"You haven't even seen half of my magic yet. Prepare yourself, Savior! From here on in, were playing for keeps."

Sally was deep in the trance, listening to the story Hasu was telling her. What seemed like hours passing by in her mind only seconds passed in the waking world. She listened intently as the story unfolded.

"A long time ago, we all lived in a community, much like your Mobotropolis. In fact, we lived in that exact location but on a different plane. One day, a group of scientists discovered the Fox Star. My Great Grandmother, Vehmu Fox, was one of the scientists on the project of studying this unique stone. Unfortunately, when she touched it with her bare hands a bolt of energy went into her body, causing a minor heart attack. The stone was considered dangerous and was locked away while she recovered. What no one else knew was that the energy she absorbed was not dangerous. In fact, it gave her powers the others couldn't even imagine.

"Her husband, my Great Grandfather, saw what was happening to her, and decided to try touching the stone as well. They slipped into the lab, and touched the stone. He didn't get a bolt of energy like she did, but he did get powers. Not another person in the lab obtained these powers. Vehmu decided to experiment and ask another of her fox friends to try it. Her idea was correct, only foxes absorbed the power. Soon all the foxes in the community had powers. Others began to get suspicious.

"They decided to build an underground city to escape from the jealousy and hate. That lasted for only a short time, however, and they decided to leave. Just before that, Vehmu had a daughter. Her daughter was born with two tails instead of just one. The group began to call themselves Kitsunes, and they prepared to leave. The Fox Star was discarded by the lab, and one of the Kitsunes brought it back to the city.

"During this time, plans to travel to another zone were set and about to be fulfilled. However, when the zone portal opened within the city walls, and the Fox Star was brought through it, the city came as well. The zone they went to was Mobius Prime. Unfortunately, where they landed was already inhabited by Mobians. The city you found had been transformed by the Fox Star, giving it the ability to created almost anything you needed, except for food and water. They remained in the city for some time, trying to hide, but it soon became apparent that they couldn't do that successfully. Again, they decided to leave, this time without the city. One night they slipped out of the city and flew to a zone portal that took them here.

"By now their powers had significantly grown and building a new city only took one day. Many of the Kitsunes had multiple tails. About this time, the Fox Star began to glow. This is when I made the prophecy. Soon, another child was born to Vehmu's line, my father, who had four tails upon birth. When he became of age, he married and I was born. With only one tail at birth, no one expected me to have any power. However, I gained tails rapidly as my magical ability increased. In total I had seven tails. No one else had ever managed to gain six tails in their lifetime, and no one else had seven. Most didn't even have six. As a young girl, I was appointed priestess and leader. You may not believe it, but before I died I was several hundred years old. The more powerful the Kitsune the slower the aging process.

"Several years before that, another Kitsune had been born with only one tail. However, as he increased in age, he did not gain any more tails. To be truthful, he had no Kitsune magic at all. He was the first and only ordinary fox born to our tribe. In an attempt to become normal, he traveled the zones finding any magical spells he could. He studied them continuously. With his magical arts, he has defied the aging process and become amazingly powerful. One night at a ceremonial ball, he sprung his plans on domination over the Kitsunes. He was too powerful for me to battle at that time because I was with child, nearing my ninth month. He had as much power as a seven tail. My husband, Jaycen Prower, and I fled with our people to the gate. Soon after arriving, I gave birth due to the excitement. I had a son, named Marcus. After a short recovery time, I took up the battle with the Sorcerer.

"Unfortunately, my people's loyalty to me worked against the battle. They tried to help, but some of them were killed, and others lost their powers by giving all they had. My husband was one of them. My son, who Jaycen held in his arms lost his power as well. In a moment of desperation, I told my people to flee. I was loosing the battle. They refused to leave, but my husband managed to rally those who had lost their powers and take them to safety near the gate.

"The battle went for the worse. The Sorcerer flung one more energy blast at me, killing me instantly. The blast continued to travel towards the Fox Star. The extra energy caused it to glow so brightly it was like the sun. It imprisoned all of the Kitsunes inside. Those without power tried to reach the gate, but only my husband and son made it through. Soon everything was quiet. Only the Sorcerer remained, and my ghost. I am the only force keeping him from traveling through the gate into other worlds.

"My husband and son arrived on Mobius and began a new life. They still had power, but it was dormant, waiting for when it must be unleashed in full force to defeat the greatest evil we know. Our Savior is a direct descendant of Vehmu, and me. Miles 'Tails' Prower is our Savior. He was born with two tails, marking him with power. He has always had the power.

Hasu broke Sally's trance, "do you understand?"

"Yes." Sally stood still with her eyes closed. "I must tell Tails what to do."

"Concentrate… he has more power than he knows…"

Sally focused on reaching Tails. She began to think towards him. Tails. You have more power. Focus your energy and you can do anything!

Sonic walked over to the city, watching the battle that ragged on above him. "At least Tails found his hidden power. If only I could help him." He reached the base of the spire. "If I'm a ghost, then I must be able to fly." He looked uncertainly up to the top of the building. "I have to see Sally one last time. I have to." He began to fly up, slowly but surely. He pondered on his only regret. He failed his friends.

The battle with the Sorcerer was dragging on. Tails would be hit by his magic and the Sorcerer would be blasted by the Kitsune magic.

"I was right!" Laughed the Sorcerer, "you don't even comprehend what you are! One final blow should do it…" He summoned dark shadows from the city below him to attack Tails. The shadows took the forms of black beasts with wings and long claws. They pulled Tails out of the sky.

"No!" Tails screamed as the beasts tried to claw him as he fell.

"Now to take care of you're other friend down there…" he grinned as he summoned a storm to attack the city.

As Tails feel fighting off the beasts, he heard Sally's voice in his head. Tails. You have more power. Focus your energy and you can do anything!

"Aunt Sally?" He asked confused.

The storm struck at the tower with bolts of lightning and he heard Sally crying out. Instantly, he snapped, and the energy around him demolished the beasts. He stopped his fall and zoomed up to the Sorcerer, who was furious. Tails's eyes glowed green as he faced off for the last time with the Sorcerer.

"No! It can't be! You couldn't have mastered all the Kitsune magic! Argh!" He flung energy bolts at him, desperately trying to destroy the nine tailed Kitsune hovering before him in full power.

Tails didn't even blink as he sent the energy bolts careening off in other directions.

In a last desperate attempt to break the Kitsune's concentration, he used the last bit of his magic to lift the city and the hill from the ground. "Don't come any closer or I'll destroy it!"

Tails stopped and growled, "NO YOU WILL NOT!" The energy blasted from him in a gigantic ray of light, hitting the Sorcerer squarely. He writhed in silent pain and astonishment as the light engulfed and destroyed him. When the light faded, the Sorcerer was no longer there. Tails looked over to the city that was still flying upward into the storm, falling apart as it went. He was about to return it to the ground, but he remembered Sally's cry and he rushed over towards the top of the spire.

As Sonic neared the top, he heard Sally cry out in pain as a bolt of lightning struck through the window. He reached the top and landed inside. Desperately he looked for Sally in the rubble. She lay with a piece of stone on her.

"Sal!" he went over to her and knelt beside her. "Sally, it's me, Sonic. Wake up! Please wake up!" He tried to lift off the stone but his hand just went straight through it. Without thinking he tried to touch her shoulder. Again, his hand passed through. It suddenly hit him. He bowed his head and buried his face in his hands. "Oh… Sally… I can't help you…" he cried.

Hasu appeared nearby and put a hand on Sonic's shoulder. "Do not worry, she will be fine. Our Savior is returning victorious. He will help her."

Sonic looked up at Hasu, "I've failed them."

"No, you haven't. By bravely facing the enemy you gave strength to our Savior. Do not look on your death as a failure, it was a sacrifice for the greater power. For that we are all eternally grateful."

Sonic looked at Sally again, "I'll miss you, Sally."

"Do not despair. There is hope for your life. Our Savior will help. Look, here he comes."

Tails flew into the room, his immediate power had faded to just a light glow around him. He saw Sally under the stone immediately and waved his hand to remove it from existence. He bent down to Sally and woke her. "Aunt Sally, wake up. It's over."

Sally stirred and sat up. "Tails?"

He nodded.

"Sally? Tails?" Sonic steeped forward.

"Sonic?" Tails gasped.

Sally looked up to see Sonic's ghost, "OH! Sonic!"

"Yeah, it's me. I'm sorry I couldn't help more. I…"

"No, Sonic," Sally started to cry, "you did all you could."

"Savior, only you can save him." Hasu bowed to Tails.

"How, Hasu?"

"Tails!" Sally started, "as a nine tailed Kitsune you have the power to do anything. You could go back in time and save him!"

"Correct." Hasu agreed with a smile.

Sonic started wide eyed at the possibility.

"However," Hasu began, "you will only have a few seconds of time. You're power is very low, but once you change the one event, the future will change permanently."

"No problemo! I'll be back in a minute…" Instantly Tails vanished.

Suddenly Tails appeared below Sonic as he ran into the clouds. He only had enough power and time to make one correction. The energy trail following Sonic that would inevitably be fatal to him if it caught up to him was Tails's target. He waved his hand and the energy turned into positive light.

"Good luck, Sonic," he said as he disappeared.

The clouds stopped Sonic and slammed him. Again, he screamed out in pain, but then the positive light hit him, surrounding him with an energy orb. The clouds threw him into the ground but the orb protected him from the full impact. He lay unconscious as the clouds roared their victory.

The battle between Tails and the Sorcerer began. As it neared its end, Sonic awoke, completely intact. He looked up and saw the storm clouds rip at the city. The lightning flashed and he heard Sally's distant cry.

"Sally! Hang on! I'm coming!" He raced to the city as it ripped apart from the ground.

"Gotta hurry, or I'll get thrown off!" He said as he jumped from the edge of ground that was falling out from under him. He looked down and saw the green grass below him. He looked up and saw the spire getting closer and closer to the storm.

He sped off, dodging pieces of falling sidewalk and building. Jumping on a large stone that was sticking out of the ground, he paused only a fraction of a millisecond to judge his next leap across the breaking ground. Finally, he reached the base of the spire.

He raced up to the top of the spire as Tails defeated the Sorcerer. He jumped into the window and ran over to Sally who had been pinned by a stone from one of the walls.

"Sally!" He knelt down to her and removed the stone, "Sally, are you okay? Wake up! It's me, Sonic!"

"Oh…" she moaned as he helped her up. "Sonic?" she took a good look at him. "Sonic! You're alive!" She hugged him fiercely and began to cry.

"It's okay, Sal, I'm just fine." He smiled. "Are you hurt?"

She shook her head no.

Just then Tails entered the room. "Sonic! You're alive! Are you okay?"

"True blue, pal. However, we've got bigger problems. The city is falling apart as we speak."

"You must fulfill the prophecy. The gate has been destroyed, and there is only one other exit from this world back to Mobius. In order to open it, you must first fulfill the prophecy."

Tails nodded. "Okay."

Sally began, "the last part of the prophecy says by the power of three, the twelve will fall releasing the Kitsunes trapped inside. Let's see… there are three of us, and we are each powerful with respect to the prophecy, so I think we're the three. Now for the twelve…"

"Sal, we don't have a lot of time." Sonic glanced over to the window but saw nothing but dark clouds.

Tails looked over at the Fox Star and noticed something strange, "Aunt Sally! The Fox Star! It has twelve points! And the Kitsunes are trapped inside! I bet that if the twelve points fell, it would release the Kitsunes!"

"You're right, Tails! That's it! Sonic, Tails, stand in a triangle with me. Join hands everybody." She took Sonic's hand in her right, and Tails's hand in her left. "Now, everybody look deep inside yourself and then focus on the crystal. Imagine the points falling and the power inside you going into it."

Hasu could only stand by and watch as they tried to complete the task set before them.

Sally closed her eyes and thought. I am the Guide. I have come here to fulfill the prophecy by helping the Savior and the Defender understand their purposes. I release the power within me to free those imprisoned within you, Fox Star. Sally felt something stir deep inside of her, trying to make its way to the crystal. The path was made clear in her head and her energy touched the Fox Star, causing it to levitate above the crumbling alter.

Sonic also closed his eyes. I am the Defender. I have fought my way here to protect the Savior and the Guide. I have sacrificed myself to bring the Savior to power. I release the power within me to free those imprisoned within you, Fox Star. Sonic felt the power from the emerald flow freely to the Fox Star, causing it to spin slowly.

Tails squeezed his eyes shut. I am the Savior. I have come through challenges great and small to free my people. I release the power within me to free those imprisoned within you, Fox Star. Tails found his connection to the Fox Star and felt the crystal tug. His newly acquired power reached it, and caused it to glow green.

Together, Sonic, Sally, and Tails spoke, "by the power of three the twelve will fall!"

The points of the Fox Star began to pull downwards, forming a single point. It took on the shape of a true chaos emerald. It pulled at each of them, sucking in their power in order to free the Kitsune clan trapped inside. Sally felt her power and strength drain out of her and she was getting lightheaded. Sonic was relieved and alarmed that the Fox Star was taking his chaos emerald energy. He hadn't expected it to do that, but smiled when he realized all the trouble the power had caused in the first place, not to mention the aches and pains. Tails lost his extra tails slowly but surely as the Fox Star drained him of all the power it had bestowed upon him. He kept his own original two, however.

A flash of light burst from the crystal and pushed everyone away. They opened their eyes and saw the Fox Star land gently on the ground as Hasu stood by it. Swirls of glittering light flowed from the stone, filling the room. Suddenly, they heard voices, thousands of voices, all singing in joy. The sound of pleasant rain greeted them from outside the spire as the clouds began to clear.

"Amazing…" Sally whispered as she watched.

"My people are returning…" a tear came to Hasu's eyes. "I can't thank you enough…" her tear fell onto the crystal and suddenly the swirls of glittering light spun around her like a whirlpool. She held up her hands to try and shield her face, but when she did she was once again solid. The power of the Fox Star and all her people had brought her back to life. Her reddish orange fur shone like fire. Her eyes blazed with the emerald green of the Fox Star.

"Oh!" She stood and watched as the swirls went from her to outside the window and they materialized as her lost friends and relatives. "I can't believe it!" Finally calming herself she ran over to Tails, took his hand and knelt down to him, bowing her head, "thank you so much…" She turned to the others, "all of you did this. I never dared to hope that I would return to this world." She stood and stepped back. Opening her arms she exclaimed, "not only your power went into the stone, but your love and courage. By giving us the greatest gift you could offer, our freedom and all the prices you paid and suffered for it, you gave us back power as well. And with that power, my people wanted to do something in return. The have brought me back in order to fulfill their wish."

"What is it, Hasu?" Sally asked after the shock was gone from her face.

Hasu smiled warmly, "they wish to tell you themselves. But first, we must get you home. Our city is almost gone. As we speak, the spire is crumbling. My people are outside recovering on the ground, and they can not help us. I can open the gate for you, but you must get there. I only have enough energy at the moment to spare to see you safely out and return unharmed to my people below. Behold!" She pointed out of the window at the blue sky. The storm had disappeared and now only pleasant white clouds could be seen. As the three looked, a huge ring appeared in the sky. The outside was made of stone and on the inside there was a track made out of the same minthral metal that the underground city was made of. "That is the gate. Defender, only you can see your friends safely home. You must reach the ring, and spin the track inside as fast as you can in order to create the tornado portal that will take you home."

"But I don't have light speed anymore, how can I reach it form here?" Sonic said rather confused.

"Time is short, I will give you the speed you need, but it will only get you to the ring, no further." Hasu stood in front of him. Hasu summoned a bit of her remaining energy. She placed her hand on his forehead. Just enough power was given to him to complete the journey. "Now go, the spire is almost gone. Savior, you must fly the Guide after the Defender goes."

Tails nodded and prepared himself.

"Safe journey, Defender," Hasu said as she waved.

Sonic nodded and smiled as he stepped up on the ledge. "Keep cool, Hasu, and thanks." He saluted as he jumped out of the window. He began to run. "Wow! It's almost like I'm flying!" He streaked towards the ring like a blue comet. The Kitsunes on the ground cheered while Sonic zoomed to the ring. When he landed, he felt the special speed drain away, and he set to the task of starting the tornado. The inner track was hard to move at first, but he soon got it up to speed and a small spiral started in the middle.

Just after Sonic left, Tails said his good-byes to Hasu. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Hasu. I'm glad I got to help you."

Hasu bowed and smiled. "Please, Savior, the pleasure was mine. Safe journey to you."

"Will I get to see you again?"

"In due time, Savior. In due time."

Sally said, "I hope all goes well with your people, Hasu. Being a leader of my own people, I know how hard it is."

"Yes. You have ruled and guided your people well. Take courage and hope as you face the challenges to come."

"Thank you, and I wish you all the best."

"Safe journey, Guide."

Sally waved and Tails picked her up. They flew out the window towards the spinning ring. Sally looked back in time to see the spire crumble and Hasu concentrating to bring herself and the Fox Star safely to the ground.

Sonic saw them coming and called, "come on, guys! I can't keep this up forever!"

Tails was laughing as he flew through the tornado portal with Sally. Sonic made one last spin of the track and somersaulted into the portal.

The tornado portal had brought them back to Mobotropolis, still covered in snow. The initial trip to the portal took nearly a week, but while inside the Kitsune country, even though they only spent a day there, a week had passed at Mobotropolis. Knuckles had returned and successfully brought Snively back to the Devil's Gulag. He was about to start a rescue mission when they arrived in a swirling snow tornado. Needless to say, there was a lot of explaining and story telling.

A week had passed since their arrival.

Sally sat in her room in the underground city, working on piecing together architectural blue prints for the palace. She planned on rebuilding the once beautiful building as soon as the weather permitted and housing for the Mobians had been completed. She sighed as she found another mismatch in the diagrams. She sat back and started to wonder.

"Hmm. I wonder what the Kitsunes are doing now. I wonder what their wish was? Was it for us to return safely to our world? Hmm." She daydreamed of the beautiful hill city being rebuilt. Then her mind was brought back to rebuilding her own city and she started in on the blue prints again. But a voice creeping into the back of her mind broke her attention.

Guide…

"Hmm?" She mumbled as she continued to look at the blue prints.

Guide… Can you hear me?

Her head snapped up, "huh? Hasu? Is that you?"

Yes. Go to the main door of the city…

"Why, Hasu?"

Hurry…

Sally started to worry as possible problems that could have occurred with the Kitsune tribe popped into her mind.

Meanwhile, Sonic and Knuckles were working out in their recently created gym.

"So Blue, you're telling me that you ran faster than the speed of light, right?" Knuckles was flexing while Sonic was working with the leg weights.

"Yup."

Knuckles glanced over to see Sonic's reaction, "I don't believe you."

Sonic looked at him and said, "you calling me a liar?"

Knux crossed his arms, "whatcha gonna do about it?"

"So much for best buds!" He turned back to focusing on his leg weights. "Don't believe me, see if I care," he grumbled.

Knux laughed, "man! I had you going! Of course I believe you, Sonic! We've already been through that."

Sonic stood up and moved away from the weights, picking up his towel with his back to Knuckles who was still laughing. With a smirk on his face, he threw the towel at Knux.

Knuckles removed the towel from his face and started after Sonic, "why I oughta…!"

Sonic laughed as he dodged a punch from Knuckles. They started to square off in the gym. Then a voice started to creep into Sonic's mind.

Defender…

Sonic froze as the familiar voice came to him, "huh?"

Unfortunately, Sonic froze at the wrong moment. Knuckles tackled him knocking him down.

"Oof! Quit it, Knuckles!" Sonic yelled as he shoved Knuckles. "I think I hear something."

Knuckles dusted himself off.

Defender…

Sonic stood up in a start, "it's Hasu!"

Go to the main door of the city…

Sonic nodded, ready for action. "Sorry, Red, but I gotta go. Hasu needs me, and probably the others too. Bye!" He jogged out of the gym, making his way to the door. He could only go so fast because there was always Mobians in the hallways.

Tails was enjoying a day of playing in the snow with some of the other kids. His time with the Kitsunes was always fresh in his mind and he constantly found himself wondering what they lived like. He didn't realize it while he was there, but Hasu was his Great Grandmother. Of course, she was his Great Grandmother several times down the line of Grandmothers. He also realized that Hasu was the only family he knew. He never really knew his Mom or Dad. He often wished to return to get to know her.

Dulcy was also out in the snow today. She was determined to cream Tails with a snowball. She had finished making a dragon size snowball and was now sneaking up on Tails the best a dragon could. Fortunately, Tails had plopped himself down in a snow drift. Dulcy was behind him and she dropped the snowball down on top of him. "Got you!" She laughed.

Tails climbed his way to the top of the drift and spit out snow. "Oh yeah? I'll get you, Dulcy!" He scooped up snow, making several snowballs, and threw them at Dulcy as fast as he could.

"He he!" Dulcy giggled as ducked behind a large rock. She worked on making a huge pile of snowballs in retaliation. She finished with a small pile and threw them at Tails who dodged and laughed. The occasional snowball hit him and he just laughed harder. Dulcy finished with her pile and set about making another one.

Suddenly, Tails heard something and he stopped.

Savior…

"What was that?"

Savior…

"Hasu! Is it really you?" he asked.

Come to the main door of the city…

"Sure! I'll be right there!" He dropped what he was doing, took off, and raced to the city entrance.

Dulcy popped back up, "here they come, Tails!" She looked around, but couldn't find him. "Tails?" She shrugged and looked for another person to toss snowballs at.

Sally reached the door, panting. "Hasu? Are you there, Hasu? What's wrong?" She didn't get a reply. She looked around the door but couldn't find anything out of place or wrong. She scratched her head. She turned around and saw Sonic rushing over. "Sonic! Did you hear Hasu too?"

He nodded. "Yeah. What's the problem?"

"I don't know. She told me to come here, but I can't find anything amiss."

Sonic shrugged, "she told me to come here too."

Just then they heard a knock. Sally opened it and Tails stood there. "Aunt Sally! Is Hasu here?"

Sally shook her head. Then they heard Hasu.

Stand outside of the door…

They all walked to the outside of the city and closed the door.

Wait a moment…

They watched and the door began to glow a faint blue green.

Now open it…

Sally looked at Sonic and Tails, then turned her attention to the door. She carefully opened it, not knowing quite what to expect. She peeked inside, not believing what she saw. "Guys, you're not going to believe this."

"Sal, after all that happened, I'm willing to believe anything."

Sally flung the door open to reveal a beautiful stone room that had columns at the end and was open with stairs leading down. There was tapestries hanging from the wall and torches set in the stone to light it. It was dark outside and the stars were twinkling. She walked in, followed by Sonic and Tails. They closed the door behind them. Sounds of drums greeted their ears from below the room. They stared in awe.

"Aunt Sally, this must be the Kitsune city! Wow!"

"Wait until you see it from the outside," Hasu walked up the stairs towards them. She was even more beautiful than when they first saw her. "Please, join me. There is a celebration in your honor down below." She lead them down the stairs.

They all looked around at the new city. It was larger than before and had more amazing features than just the spire in the center and the skyline sidewalks. There were statues and balcony like rooms that stretched out from the hill side as well as beautiful fountains that poured and squirted crystal water. Gardens of all shapes and sizes graced the city.

Sally's breath had been taken away, "amazing…"

"I'm glad you approve." Hasu smiled in return. Kitsune children were running on one of the walkways. They stopped and looked down as the group passed below them. They giggled and waved.

Sonic waved back, "hey, kids!"

They reached the bottom of the staircase. The Kitsune tribe mingled about in the field. Some were steadily beating the drums and others were working instruments of their own. Before them, great statues stood in a circle. Most of them were Kitsunes, but at the very end, a statue stood of Tails, Sonic, and Sally.

"Wow! Will you look at that!" Tails jaw dropped. "Is that what you wanted us to see, Hasu?"

"That is only the beginning." Hasu raised her arms and the drums stopped. "My people, they have arrived!" A great cheer rose up from the crowd. Hasu clapped her hands and they started to rush into a sort of circular pattern. "Please, follow me." Hasu lead them to a royal box of sorts where a fountain spilled water into a blue pool. Torches lit their seats. "Sit," she directed them, "we have a special treat for your honor." She started to walk away when Tails asked her a question.

"Hasu, where are you going?"

She smiled back. "I'm joining my people. They are not the only ones who wish to do something in return. After all, I am the only one who can complete our wish for you. There will be much celebration tonight." She went out to her people and got in the center of the circular formation. She clapped her hands and all was perfectly silent. She closed her eyes and all of the Kitsunes looked directly at her waiting for her cues. A flick of her wrist and a soft rain like sound filled the air along with other light sounding instruments. Another flick of her wrist and the drums began. The Kitsunes knew exactly what to do. They began a chorus. The whole group started at first, then separate sections started singing a harmony. The dance seemed tribal in a way but beautiful to watch, like a well performed waltz. Each Kitsune added a bit of magic to the dance. One of the sections added bits of dancing light like fireflies. Another section called the winds to come and dance with them. Hasu was working the magic from the other Kistunes in the middle and directing the dance. She was smiling as she sang.

The three were mesmerized.

"I've never seen anything so wonderful in all my life," Sally said.

Then wind instruments started and the chorus stopped for a moment. During this time, some of the Kitsunes left the group and came up to them.

They said as they bowed, "please join us!" Sonic and the others stood up and the Kitsunes laughed as they led them to the circle.

"But we don't know what to do," said Tails.

The Kitsune nearest them leaned over, "follow me, I will teach you," and smiled. The chorus started again, and the Kitsunes began the dance. Tails laughed as he tried hard to follow exactly what the other Kitsunes were doing. Sonic picked up the dance rather easily and helped Tails. Sally was completely enjoying herself. She smiled as bits of dancing light surrounded the group and the wind seemed to help her follow the motions.

The dance all too soon ended. The crowd of Kitsunes cheered as Hasu released the wind and one bit of dancing light landed on each and every Kitsune. Some of the lights traveled a little ways up the city side to reach the little kits who were trying to mimic the dance on the walkway. Sally, Sonic, and Tails each had one light land on their noses. Tails sneezed.

"That was fun!" Tails laughed.

Hasu walked over through the parting crowd. "Now for our gifts to you." She led them back to the royal box and stood before them. All of the Kitsunes gathered in front of her, even those who could not participate in the dance. She turned to them. "My people, it is time for our guests to receive their gifts." She turned back to the three. "The statue that you see at the end of this field was built to honor you, but it will never compare to the love, respect, and honor we have for you three in our hearts. You have risked perils beyond imagination and triumphed. By bravely facing all the challenges that were ahead of you, it has become clear to us how much you have done for us and each other. Please accept these gifts we are about to bestow upon you."

Hasu walked up to Sally first. "Guide, your knowledge was the key to triumph. The pains that were put on your heart were tremendous. You are true to yourself and true to others. Please accept this gift of knowledge, a glimpse into a possible future." Hasu closed her hands. A green light began to glow inside. Then she opened her hands and she held a small pendant that looked like a miniature Fox Star. "I am not the one to decide what you will see. Only you can ask the question. This pendant will answer any question you have about the future, but you must ask wisely. It will only work once. Then the magic will be gone. Do you accept this, Guide?" Sally nodded. "Please kneel before me." Sally got out of the chair and went to one knee as Hasu put the pendant around her neck.

Next, Hasu walked over to Sonic. "Defender, without your courage and selfless acts none of this could have been possible. The trials and danger you had to endure were beyond comparison. You are loyal and ready to give up anything for your friends. Please accept this gift of light." Again, Hasu closed her hands and a blue glow came from her hands. When she opened them, a blue sphere of light hovered above her palms. "The light I hold is the key to light speed. Unlike the speed you obtained from the chaos emerald, this will not harm you in any way. However, it will only work once, so use it wisely. Do you accept this, Defender?" Sonic nodded. "Please kneel before me." Sonic knelt down and Hasu released the light which traveled into Sonic's heart.

Finally, Hasu went over to Tails. "Savior, only your inner power could have defeated the evil that stood in your way. The horrors you faced were unmatched. You are just and the love for your friends is clear. Please accept this gift of strength." For the last time, Hasu closed her hands. This time an orange glow came. When she opened her hands, a flame hovered. "The flame I hold is a flame of power. It is the source of your Kitsune magic. It will give you the strength of a nine tail, but only for a limited time. This power can be used if called upon. Take heed, for it will only work once. Choose to use it wisely. However, do not forget that you still hold amazing power inside, without this. Do you accept this, Savior?" Tails nodded. "Please kneel before me." Tails quickly knelt down and Hasu placed the flame in the air in front of him. It broke into thousands of tiny pieces and covered Tails, traveling down to his soul.

"These gifts were given to you for another reason. You have faced much in your young lives, and there is still much more to face. These gifts will aid you in your quests. Know that you may return here anytime you wish for you are always welcome."

The Freedom Fighters remained kneeling until Hasu raised her arms. "Rise, my friends." Then a cheer broke out from all the Kitsunes and the drums and instruments started. The other Kitsunes began small dances of their own.

Tails walked over to Hasu, "are you my Great Grandmother, Hasu?"

She smiled, "yes, as a matter of fact I am several times your Great Grandmother."

Tails had a tear in his eye. He hugged her. "You are the first one in my family that I've actually gotten to know."

"Savior, you have more family than just me. Look at your friends. I know that the Defender is like a brother to you, and I know the Guide is like a mother in a way. They have been there for your entire life. They too are your family."

Tails looked up at her, "thank you, Hasu." He stood back and wiped the tears out of his eyes. Hasu smiled in return.

Sally had a question on her mind. "Hasu, when we returned home, nearly a week had passed during the short time we were in this zone."

"I know what you are thinking. While the Sorcerer had control, the passage of time here slowed down. Now that the Kitsunes have regained control, the time shift is back to normal. Only the amount of time passed here will pass in your zone."

"Thanks for clearing that up," Sally smiled.

Sonic watched the crowd in front of him for a moment then turned to Hasu, "Hasu, how did you know it was us?"

"How did I know it was you?"

"I mean, how did you know we were the ones who would fulfill the prophecy?" Sonic asked.

"When I made the prophecy, I had been working with the Fox Star. It had started to become bright. The other Kitsunes were alarmed, but it passed a vision of the future on to me. I saw the battle with the Sorcerer. I knew who to contact when it was time. Fortunately, the first part of the prophecy was fulfilled by you. When you were linked with the emerald, I knew it was time. The Fox Star also knew it was time. The second voice you heard when I first contacted you was another wandering Kitsune spirit that was killed in the initial battle. He was very brave, and stood against the Sorcerer with amazing courage. The Fox Star gave him enough of a voice to join me when I spoke to you. Unfortunately, he is still a spirit, but at least he now rests in peace."

"So it was us all along. You knew what was going to happen even before we got here."

"Yes. I also knew you would succeed. I could not tell you what would happen because everything had to go according to the vision. If only one thing had been different, our lives could be forever changed."

"What if one of us had been killed because we didn't know what to do? Wouldn't that have done something too?"

Hasu nodded. "More than you know," she said knowingly. Hasu's vision had been very clear, even about the time traveling done by Tails to save Sonic. Even though the event was changed, she still knew it had happened.

Sonic shrugged. "I'm glad we were able to help you and your people, Hasu. And I'm glad things worked out as they did."

Hasu sighed. "I too am glad." She turned towards the crowd of happy Kitsunes, "enough of this talk of the past. Let us rejoice in the present, and may our futures bring as much joy. Now it is time to dance!" She led the three into the crowd and the rest of the night was spent dancing, laughing, and enjoying the evening. When it got too late, Hasu showed Sally, Sonic, and Tails a place where they could stay for the night.

In the morning, Tails got up early. He walked around the city, meeting as many Kitsunes as he could and learning as much as he could. Every where he went he heard music in the air and each Kitsune bowed to him. He finally decided to sit down and watch the activities around him. He stopped on one of the suspended walkways and looked down. The fields stretched out before him. He saw a group of Kitsunes leading a group of heard animals through the grass. When he looked below him, a Kitsune father had just laid his young kit in the grass wrapped in a blanket to sleep. He pulled out a piece of cloth and began to sew. He was making clothes for the kit. He took pride in what he making. He began to whistle the tune the crowd had danced to last night. Tails looked around and saw all sorts of different Kitsunes doing all sorts of different things. Some were swimming in the pools, others were tending the gardens, some were cooking, others were gathering food, and still others were doing different tasks. He noticed that everyone was working together. He wished he could learn more.

Sonic walked up to him and yawned. "What's up, big guy?"

Tails smiled up, "hey, Sonic. I was just watching the Kitsunes. There is so much to learn here and this city is so interesting. I wish we could stay longer."

"I know." Sonic put his hands behind his head and gazed out towards the mountains.

Tails leaned back and said, "this place is where I came from. Well, sort of. It's like I've found a whole new family."

Sonic nodded, "I know how you feel. Kinda overwhelming at first, isn't it?"

"Uh-hu."

"Don't worry, we'll come back to visit."

"I'd like that."

Sonic had a good idea, "hey, lets go find Sal."

"Okay," Tails got up.

"I'll race you," Sonic grinned.

"You bet!" yelled Tails.

They sped off in search of Sally. They were very careful not to run into any of the Kitsunes who were amazed to see them speeding by. Shortly after they started, they found Sally relaxing in one of the gardens.

"Good morning, Sonic! Good morning, Tails!" She waved when she saw them approaching. She stood up as Sonic and Tails came to a stop.

"Morning, Sal!"

"Do either of you know where Hasu is? I haven't seen her all morning." Sally dusted off the bits of grass that clung to her fur.

Sonic shook his head. Tails said, "I think she's in the room where we came in the other night. We should probably find her."

"Good idea, Tails." They walked up to the top of the hill where the open room was, just at the base of the spire. As Tails had thought, Hasu was inside.

"Good morning to you," she said when they arrived, "have you eaten yet?"

They all said no. Hasu pointed to a nearby table with fruits on it and some sort of roast bird. "Please eat. The fruits are native to our zone as well as the roast fowl. I think you will find them too your liking."

"What, no chili dogs?" Sonic said jokingly as he and the others began to eat. Hasu joined them. When they were finished Hasu took them over to the door.

"This door will take you home. You are welcome to return anytime. Just call my name, and I will make it possible." She opened the door, and they saw the main room of the underground city.

Sally waved, "thank you, Hasu. I had a wonderful time here. If you ever need me please don't hesitate to ask."

"Farewell, Guide. We shall meet again."

Sonic also waved. "Thanks for everything, Hasu. We'll visit often."

"I look forward to it, Defender. Farewell."

Tails hugged Hasu, "bye, Hasu. I'll miss you."

"As I will you. Farewell, young Savior."

The three walked through the door and were back in their own zone.

The next few days were once again spent explaining. Slowly, things in Mobotropolis began to be normal. Spring came, and the city was once again starting to be rebuilt. Shops opened and the people lived happily. For the Freedom Fighters things couldn't be better. But only time will tell if things stay as good as they are. The road ahead is always a challenge…