Chapter 1: The New Beginning
It had been 2 years since the war with the Metarex had ceased. A lot of damage had been done during the fight with the ruthless robots; planets were destroyed, people were killed, and mysteries remained unanswered. The haunting visions of the tragic events that took place still remain with its survivors. The reconstruction process of the galaxy was underway, but would prove to be a very difficult task in the long run. While the chilling aftermath continued, a miraculous revelation had come just in time, as we continue our story on Planet Mobius. From this day forward, everything would change.
Sonic and the gang looked back on the adventure they had, but were satisfied to be back home. Everything had just about been back in place, but still needed major work. Everyone gathered at Cream's house, or just about everyone; Knuckles was on Angel Island watching after the Master Emerald and Sonic hadn't been seen since he departed a few months after the defeat of the Metarex. No one had known of his whereabouts or what he had been doing, but today everyone was excited. Why you ask? Because today would be the long awaited return of their beloved blue friend. Sonic had made rare visits to check on everyone, but never told them what he was up to, it was nostalgic feeling, but today would be the day of his promised return.
Everyone sat there waiting in excitement. The most excited and anxious was Amy. She loved Sonic so much and had spent days crying when Sonic left without saying anything to anyone. Her heart had been aching ever since. Tails, on the other hand, had spent his time helping to rebuild the damages done to the planet when he wasn't in his lab. It had been a while since he'd seen his childhood friend and it was very hard coping with the loss of Cosmo, but he managed. Knuckles, of course, was Knuckles. While he didn't show it, he had missed the annoyance of his blue rival. The planet had been slow ever since, even Eggman hadn't done any evil deeds since Sonic's disappearance, but today seemed like the day that things would go back to normal.
As Knuckles stared out towards sea, he stood and looked in deep thought. He had spent everyday guarding and meditating on Angel Island continuing his duty of watching after the Master Emerald. He even spent some of his time training his fighting ability, in the case that he'd one day have to use it. As he stopped and closed his eyes, he suddenly heard a footstep behind him on the Emerald Shrine. "So you've finally returned." Knuckles said solemnly.
"Long time no see, Knuckles!" Sonic answered.
"Indeed." Knuckles said as he reopened his eyes.
"I figured it'd be no surprise finding you here, you don't seem like the social gathering type," Sonic said.
"I'm just not as "excited" as the others are," Knuckles retorted.
"So I see," Sonic answered.
The two stood in silence for a bit as the wind blew. Knuckles never turned around to look at Sonic. Sonic stood there with a smile on his face and turned around. "It was a nice reunion, Knuckles, catch you later," Sonic finally said as he departed. In a blur, he was gone and with Sonic gone, Knuckles closed his eyes and looked down with a content expression his face. "It's nice to finally have you back," he thought in meditation.
Dashing in the wind and light on his feet, Sonic quickly got an adrenaline rush. "Woo! This is great! Just like old times!" Sonic exclaimed. "Everything is as I remember it." he said as he stopped on top of a cliff to enjoy the scenery. "I can't wait to see the gang again!" he yelled at the top of his voice as he continued his run to Cream's house. He ran through fields, forests, and even deserts with his great speed and he enjoyed every second of it. "Don't worry guys, I'll be there soon!" He thought to himself as he continued on with a smile on his face.
"Where is he?!" Amy yelled as she sighed and paced back in forth. "It's just like him to be late!" She continued.
"Don't worry, Amy, Sonic will be here pretty soon. I know it," Tails encouraged.
"He better be!" Amy snapped back at Tails,"It's always like this! First he goes off to who knows where without saying goodbye to anyone and we haven't seen him in so long! And now the day he promises to come back, he's nowhere to be found! Ooh! He makes me sick, that lousy good-for-nothing...".
"Who's a lousy good-for-nothing?" Sonic interrupted happily. Amy quickly turned around and her eyes shined as she saw Sonic standing behind her.
Everyone spirits immediately lifted at the return of their great friend. "Sonic!" everyone exclaimed with huge smiles. Amy hugged him very tightly.
"Oh Sonic! I've missed you so much! I knew you'd return!" she yelled.
"Yeah, I can see that." Sonic said as he couldn't breathe.
"It's been a long time," Tails said as he walked up to Sonic.
"I know, Tails, my...you've really grown since I've last seen you," he answered as turned him.
"It's so nice to have you back, Sonic," Cream said as she hugged Sonic.
"Chao!" Cheese exclaimed with a happy smile.
"Wow, it's been a long time," Sonic sighed as he took a step back to get a look at everyone. Everyone's appearance had changed. Tails had grown a little taller and his fur was more prominent in his appearance now, his bangs were bigger. Amy still retained her style, but was a little more free with the way she dressed, her hair had grown out a little more as well. Cream was beginning to look more like her mother and Cheese still had grown a little bigger in size.
"Well mister, you've got a lot of explaining to do!" Amy yelled as she tapped her feet on the ground, "You can start with why you're so late!"
"Hehe, I had to pay a visit to an old friend," Sonic replied jokingly.
"Old friend? Ah! He means Knuckles, I'm sure," Tails thought.
"Mhm, sure! More importantly, where have you been and what have you been doing all this time?! I've been worried sick about you!" Amy shouted.
"It's a secret!" Sonic teased much to the dismay of Amy. "Hey Cream, do you think we could move this little party inside? I'm a little beat," Sonic asked as he quickly tried to get off the subject.
"Sure Sonic, we have some refreshments waiting inside! Everyone make yourselves at home. We can use this time to catch up," Cream said happily.
"No mister! Don't think you're getting off this easy!" Amy yelled angrily as she took out her hammer, "You WILL tell us everything, got it?!"
"I guess some things never change," Sonic laughed.
Everyone made their way inside and enjoyed their servings of fresh tea and homemade cookies. Sonic took this time to talk with everyone about what had been going on since he was gone. Tails told Sonic about how he was experimenting with new projects in his lab. Cream told Sonic about how she was taking over the household like her mother had done for so long in the past and Amy, of course, only told Sonic of how long she had spent waiting and missing him. It was a fun-filled atmosphere of great happiness for Sonic's return, but you couldn't help but feel a little tension as well.
"Alright Sonic! No more stalling! We've told you about everything we've been doing! Now it's time for you to spit it out! What's the big deal with you running off?!" Amy interrupted.
"Not to sound mean, but Amy is right Sonic. I mean, you did leave without leaving any signs. We were kind of worried," Tails added. Cream and Cheese looked on with worried, yet agreeing expressions on their faces.
"So I guess it's about time to tell you guys then," Sonic responded as he stood up. "I was on the Great Chao Planet!" Sonic declared.
Tails, Amy, and Cream all looked at each other in bewilderment. "The Great Chao Planet? What the heck is that?" Amy questioned, "Is this a joke Sonic?" Cream looked over to Cheese. "Cheese have you ever heard of that place?"
"Cheese?" Cheese responded with a confused tone.
"The Great Chao Planet? I've never heard of that either," Tails said after much thought. "Well not that many people know about it. Even I didn't know about it when I appeared there. It was almost like a heaven," Sonic continued, "Everything about it was so serene, so perfect. The weather was always beautiful, clear skies, and nothing but great scenery as far as the eye could see. I honestly didn't want to leave it, it was too amazing." Sonic continued to explain his story about his visit to the mysterious planet. The details that he gave only seemed to confuse everyone even more than they already had. It got even more confusing when he told them that he was only on the planet for a mere two weeks.
"Wait a sec! So you mean to tell me you were only there for two weeks?! For peak's sake! It felt like you were gone for 2 whole years!" Amy shouted.
"And you said the Chao that you met there looked different from the ones here. What exactly do you mean?" Tails added.
"Haha! I'm guessing 1 week on the Chao Planet is equal to one year in Mobius," Sonic laughed, "And yes, Tails, I met a group of unbelievable, elite Chao who guard the planet and are actually in charge of watching over the galaxy."
"Wow! That really sounds interesting, right Cheese?" Cream said.
"Cheese!" Cheese answered happily.
"And you said these Chao talked to you about a mission or something, right?!" Amy asked. Sonic paused. "Come on! Out with it! What did they say?!" Amy demanded. "Well...it wasn't exactly a mission, " Sonic answered as he looked down with a serious expression, "it was more of a prophecy."
"The ultimate power is coming soon," Sonic whispered to himself.
"Ultimate power? What does that even mean?" Amy questioned.
"Beats me," Sonic answered, "But they told me that I'm going be given a big responsibility." Tails secluded Sonic away from the group. His mood had completely changed. "Sonic, I have something important I've been wanting to talk to you about back at the lab," Tails interrupted with a more serious tone.
"Hey! Wait just a minute! You can't just up and leave me! You just got back here!" Amy argued.
"Relax Amy, I'll be back soon, I take it a lot has been on Tails' mind in my absence," Sonic said with a smile.
"A lot has been on my...," Amy started.
"Amy! This is important!" Tails interrupted as he opened the front door, "If you don't mind." The happy mood that had filled the room earlier, had now vanished. With that, Sonic and Tails slowly made their exit as Amy and Cream sat in shock. "What on earth's gotten into him!" Amy shouted.
"I don't know, Amy, but it must be something really important. I've never seen him react that way." Cream solemnly responded.
Sonic and Tails hastily made their way to Tails' lab. Running alongside Tails, Sonic could clearly see he was concerned about the news of the "prophecy." "So Tails...how have you been holding up?" Sonic asked to break the silence.
"Oh...I've been okay..." Tails answered with a smile, but Sonic could easily see past it. Tails' emotion immediately switched back to serious. The two continued most of their run in silence. "Tails, you know if something's wrong, you can tell me right?" Sonic said, "I know you've been dealing with a lot." Flashbacks of the Metarex came to the mind of Tails. It had taken an unbelievable toll on him. With Sonic gone, Tails had to cope with not only the rebuilding of Mobius, but the absence of his close friend. It was already hard enough for him to accept the sacrifice of his close friend, Cosmo. "I can't...let this happen again," Tails thought to himself. The lab was finally on the horizon and the two continued to move along at the same pace. Suddenly, a more focused Tails took a lead much to the surprise of Sonic. Just when it looked like Tails would arrive to the lab first, Sonic immediately gained an incredible burst of speed, passing and shocking Tails at the same time. "Did you really think I'd let you beat me?" Sonic said jokingly.
"Heh, some things just never change do they," Tails responded. The two entered the lab and Tails led Sonic to a room he called the "Prower Chamber."
"Whoa Tails! You've certainly made some changes since I've last been here!" Sonic said as looked on amazed.
"Well it's been 2 years, a lot has changed then. I had to make additions to the lab in order to deal with the demand of rebuilding Mobius," Tails responded, "Which also brings me to the purpose for bringing you to this specific room. Look around and tell me what you see." Sonic glanced around the room and noticed that Tails had collected 6 of the Chaos Emeralds and placed them each in a chamber pod.
"So you've collected the Chaos Emeralds. It's good to know they're in good hands." Sonic said happily.
"While that may be true, I'm sure you've noticed that there's only 6 emeralds here. I've looked everywhere for the last one and I couldn't find it anywhere," Tails said as he got frustrated in thought,"You see, when you disappeared that day, I set out to find the Chaos Emeralds. I figured with you gone, it'd be the perfect time for Eggman to strike, but for some reason, ever since you left, it's as if Eggman went AWOL on his mischief. It actually worries me that this may have something to do with that 'prophecy' you were told about."
"That Eggman is always up to no good, there's no telling what he's planning. Who knows? Maybe he just wanted a challenge to his no-good schemes," Sonic bragged, "But I don't think the Chao were talking about Eggman."
"Maybe not, but that still leaves the mystery of 7th Chaos Emerald, you said you went to the Chao planet, surely you must know where the last emerald is, right?" Tails questioned. "You mean this emerald?" Sonic said with a smile as he took out the last emerald.
"So you mean to tell me you had the last emerald this whole time?!" Tails shouted anxiously.
"Well, of course, it's actually how I got to the Chao planet in the first place," Sonic admitted. A reluctant Tails was still worried, yet now he was a little more relieved to know that his precautionary actions weren't in vain. Now with all 7 Chaos Emeralds, everything seemed to be under hand, but something was different.
"Wait Sonic! Why is your Chaos Emerald black?! There are no black Chaos Emeralds!" Tail screamed in panic, "Something's wrong! I've collected every emerald except the white one!" Within the emerald Sonic held, was a disturbance that continued to generate what looked to be a constant flow of chaos and lightning. "This might be what they were trying to warn me about!" Sonic thought to himself. "Sonic! Your emerald! It's starting to crack!" Tails yelled as he pointed. As the black emerald began to break, the pods containing the other emeralds began to break as well. The glass began to crack and soon shattered on the floor. An unbelievable glow from the power of the emeralds together filled the room and neither Tails nor Sonic could be seen in the blinding shine.
Elsewhere on Angel Island, Knuckles stood at his post looking out at the sea. The sky around him began to turn dark and the a strong burst of wind struck the shrine. Knuckles began to get an ominous feeling about this. "Something isn't right...what's going on here..." Knuckles thought to himself bewilderingly. Suddenly he felt an extreme disturbance behind him. As he quickly turned, he shockingly saw a powerful glow from the Master Emerald as it began to crack. "WHAT!" Knuckles shouted. "The Master Emerald is breaking?! What is the meaning of this!" The sky around Knuckles was completely pitch black and the wind continued to blow strong. As he ran to the Master Emerald he was absorbed by its tremendous light of energy.
Elsewhere in darkness, two voices could be heard talking as they looked on at the events taking place on Mobius. "That's the signal! Now it's time! Go!" A voice a said. The shadow of the other nodded. "I'll leave no one standing!" The other voice said affirmatively as the vignette of a dark figure stood forward with clenched fists sparked with lightning.