Chapter 1: Whatever it takes

It's been 13 years since those events. A lot has changed in the past years but I think we should establish the physicalities of the dimensions. The events partaken in that kingdom happened within the Light Dimension: which by now is completely destroyed by that unknown being. This known to the Royals only meant one thing; if something went wrong, this dimension will be their hope. The Water Dimension. A home to a particular blue hedgehog.

Just like this dimension, it has a much more powerful version of the Chaos Emeralds. The Light Sapphires. Gems with amazing abilities, possible to make your wishes come to life and what prompted the King and Queen to name their firstborn daughter. Sapphire.

But, as mentioned, a lot has changed since then. For one, the King is long gone, having died of a heart attack when the girls were only 10 and 8 years old. It left the princesses and the kingdom's people entirely clueless as to how the kingdom shall go. Secondly, well…

Sapphire has been missing for 10 years.

Shortly after the father died, a carriage holding the princesses and a caretaker crashed off a cliff when they were on their way to his deathbed. They survived only by the Master Sapphire that Sapphire has sneaked onto the carriage, and its believed the Master Sapphire is the cause of her disappearance. Especially since the master sapphire after the crash was nothing more than broken pieces, and it's power seemed to miraculously disappear along with the princess.

We can only hope that she returns back…

It's July 16th 201X. The sun is glowing off the beaches waves and sandy shores. The sweet sound of a silent breeze swooshes' by the deck chair of our family hero.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Lying comfortably on the chair without a care in the world, he takes in the beautiful imagery before him. Don't get him wrong, he enjoys running by and taking in the view whilst beating some badniks, but he's also a guy who, every once in a while, enjoy stopping and breathing in the area. He does so, a feeling of tranquillity all over.

Immediately, he's disrupted by the ringing of a phone. His phone. He sighs and looks at the recipient.

"Tails? What's up?" he answers. "Sonic! It's an emergency! The city up north is being attacked by Dr Eggman!" Tails hammers down the phone. "Geez, he never gives up does he? Alright, I'll start making my way there. Just send me the location, k?". "Okay, I'll be with you shortly. Bye" Tails ended.

Sonic jumps out his chair and begins running north through the trees and fields. A message appears from tails showing the location on his phone. Odd? Isn't that the kingdom that randomly appeared 13 years ago? You'd think Egghead would have attempted to attack this place years ago, but it has become the talk of the town more recently. Word about a Legend soon coming? He couldn't remember, continuing to race down the hills. Tails appeared in the Tornado right beside him. "Hop on!" he shouted, Sonic doing so towards his wing.

Getting closer to the city, Tails explained the situation. "The princess has sent a distress signal saying that Eggman has taken her friend with vital pieces of information. Secrets about the kingdom!". "He took her friend but not the princess? It'd make more sense if he took her, right?" Sonic wondered. "I have no idea, but her friend is also her caretaker who's served the kingdom longer than she's been on the throne. Maybe they know something she doesn't?". Maybe.

They noticed they were there when they saw the fleeting battleship high above the grand castle. The city watched in shock hearing the familiar but devious laugh of the evil villain. Their faces light up, however, when they see the blue hero and the two-tailed fox. They cheer; children watching overhead in amazement taking in the support with wide smiles.

The intercom turns on from the battleship blasting out Eggman's powerful voice. "Ohohoho, don't think you can stop me this time, I've almost got everything I need and soon it'll be too late!". "Keep dreaming Egghead, I'll stop you like I always do!" Sonic chanted as he pursued the battle. A swarm of badniks fly over to the Tornado and Sonic begins to spindash one, home-attacking a pathway up to his ship. He's on, great! Now, he's evading the outer exterior's cannon fire with ease. It took only seconds for him to burst through into the interior. This rescue mission was going to be easy.

Tails catches up after boarding the Tornado on the ship. "Where to next?" Sonic queried. "I want to say he has the hostage elsewhere on the ship, but if he said he's almost got the information, I'm afraid he's got them on his control deck". "Then we gotta speed things up!" Sonic said, grabbing Tail's hand and reaching super-speeds towards the deck.

They broke through the doors with a mighty thud, glaring at the notorious doctor, laughing maniacally. They took a nano-second to notice the gem he was juggling in the air. To them, it looked like a Chaos Emerald but… different? Still, they put prioritizes ahead.

"Alright Eggman, what have you done with the hostage?" Sonic demanded. "Oho? Didn't anybody tell you? That friend of the princess is nothing more than a system. A computer. A robot, I'd say". What? This didn't make sense. Then Tails pointed to what he was talking about.

Bolted to Eggman's panel was a mixture of a female lion and a cyborg, wearing camouflage baggy trousers and a camouflage crop top. Half of her body represent her lion features whereas half resembled a metal shell of mechanical genius. Sonic couldn't help looking at Tails who stood in awe of her construct. It did kind of look like the two were put together, like a jigsaw piece.

"You'd better hurry; in 15 seconds I'll have all the data and she'll have nothing left!" Eggman chuckled, stilling flinging the gem in his hands. It was vital they needed to get her out. Now. The two try their best pulling and fighting to get the bolts off, but to no avail.

5 seconds.

"let's find out what secrets you hold" Eggman grinned, finger ready at the button waiting for the load screen to hit 100%. "No!" The two shout until-

BAM!

The control deck combusts, causing all the data to rid itself from Eggman and back into the cyborg. The bolts release causing the cyborg to fall to the floor. "NO! ONE SECOND AWAY? WHAT HAPPENED?!" Eggman screeches as Sonic and Tails attempt to recover the cyborg. "This chip in her arm, Eggman must have put this in to inhibit her power supply," Tails says, carefully pulling it out.

Soon as he does; the cyborg's eyes quite literally load up, like a system reboot. "ugh…" she utters. "You okay?" Tails responded. "I think I feel a virus coming on" she jokes, but unable to move. "I think your systems bugged. You don't mind if I f-fix it?" Tails says. Sonic chuckles at Tails asking for her permission, Tails' face turning slightly red as he pulls a hard drive with protection software.

As it processed, she snapped out of her comatose state and realised what Eggman was holding in his hands. A light Sapphire? She directs at Sonic still unable to move "The Gem, go get it!". Slightly baffled by her demand, Sonic took on her request. "The Chaos Emeralds not enough for you? Come on, you've lost, so hand it over"."You couldn't even fathom the power of this gem. Getting my hands on all four would make my dreams of Eggmanland become a reality!" he retorted. "Again with the Eggmanland project? I won't let that happen" Sonic says, building up his speed around the deck so he could easily catch the gem out of his grasp. The cyborg, now able to move her arm, conforms it into a blaster. Perfect timing for the the gem to fly in the air out of his hands and for Sonic to get it. Slow motion takes over. Eggman reaches out. Sonic reaches higher –

A third hand flys from above grabbing it out of both their grasps.

"What?" they both say in unison slowly falling back down to the deck.

Their eyes turn as they see a figure next to the window. Holding the Gem. A cat figure, currently unknown of its gender, wearing blue denim jeans and a blue non-sleeved hoodie. Their identity was undiscoverable because of the dark inside of the hoodie and the mask covering the majority of their face. Their gaze is locked onto nothing else but the light sapphire itself. everybody else then comes to notice the unthinkable. In their other hand; a staff as their weapon and on the end of it? Another Light Sapphire. They already have one?

"They have the other ge-" Eggman's cut off to the sudden realisation of his own ship implode on itself. Something was causing it to explode like his control deck earlier but what? Was it the strange figure before them? There was no time to think, as the mysterious figure was preparing their escape. Somehow, they moulded the two gems together to form a bigger gem at the end of their staff. With that done, they pointed the staff at the window. A light emitted from the Sapphire that turned into a powerful blast, shattering the window. The wind flushes in, a vacuuming force dragging everyone out.

Eggman escapes in the Egg mobile, a pure look of shock on his face as he watches the figure escape from the falling ship. Sonic gives chase but hasn't a clue how to stop the ship from crashing into the kingdom. "Tails, get to the Tornado!" he shouts. "But, the ship-""I'll take care of the ship. You get the thief!" The cyborg interrupts Tails and orders Sonic. Her feet change into mechanical thrusters and the duo watched surprised as the lion cyborg flies around the ship. Her arm canon ready as she shoots the debris away from the city, the people in an uproar of joy. She looked super cool.

Sonic keeps running to chase this random figure. They're fast and nimble; hopping across the pieces of the ship like this is standard for them. Sonic's finding it hard to keep up with them.

All of a sudden, the figure stops at the edge of the still falling debris and glares back at Sonic. A pair of crystal blue eyes stare directly at sonic. He knows. They're mocking him. As Sonic inches closer, the figure spreads its arms wide open and falls backwards plummeting to the ground. "Wait!" he shouts, concern overtaking. Until he looks over the edge, that is. Looking down, he's puzzled as to the sudden disappearance of the figure. They just disappeared into thin air? Where did they go?

And what do they know about those gems? Is it something we should know about? All Sonic can think is how to beat them. How he will beat them. Whatever it takes.