Tristan opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Tails, who came in with a first aid kit.

"Okay, I'm back!" Tails said, opening the kit and taking out a few tools, "Also, Sonic? I, um, called for some help."

"That's alright! You don't have to sound so worried. Who'd you call?"

Sonic's question was immediately answered by pounding at the door and a high-pitched voice screaming his and Tails's name. The color from his face drained a bit.

"O-oh."

"I'll—I'll go get the door," Tails said, leaving an anxious Sonic and confused Tristan alone in the room once again. Sonic peeked out of the room and watched Tails open the door to face the familiar pink hedgehog.

"Hi, Amy. I, uh, didn't expect you here so soon."

"Hi Tails! I was already on my way when you called. When I heard that big 'boom', I came over here to make sure you and—Sonic!" she yelled, as she spotted him down the hall.

He gasped, and turned back into the room and tried to find an escape route, but didn't get to one in time as Amy clobbered him from behind. Tails ran back in time to watch Amy attempt to suffocate Sonic, as he went from red to the color of his quills. Sonic made a variety of exaggerated faces at Tails, which all conveyed the same message: HELP. ME. Tristan snorted quietly as Sonic began turning purple. He had had his fair share of overly-attached girlfriends, but he had never had one this…clingy. Amy had been whining and crying to Sonic throughout the whole ordeal.

"Oh, Sonic! I got so scared when I heard that huge sound! I came right over to see you, and then I got Tails's call, and…" She spotted Tristan, who had been awkwardly standing in the middle of the room watching the situation unfold.

"Who's this?" she said, suddenly becoming aware of the situation. "And," she pointed at Sarah on the bed, "who's that?"

"My name is Tristan, and this is Sarah. I'm sorry if our…entrance frightened you."

"What do you mean, 'entrance'?"

"The noise you heard was our spaceship hitting the atmosphere. We were planning on a much safer landing, but, something happened…" he looked over at Sarah worriedly.

"Spaceship? What spaceship?" Tails asked.

"Right. As I was just about to tell Sonic, we are from a far off planet called Ciellus. We have come here to search for Sarah's lost power cell."

"What's a 'power cell'?" Amy questioned curiously.

"I'll show you."

Tristan put out his hand, the sudden movement making the trio jump back. A white stream, originating from the insignia on his chest, ran down to his arm and crawled up to the middle of his palm. A light appeared above his hand and an odd crystal-like object formed. It was jagged, and had a strange, cylindrical shape that came to a point on both ends. As the white light faded, the three Mobians looked in awe at the blue brilliance of the power cell floating above his hand.

"This is a power cell. On my planet, it is the equivalent to what you call a 'heart', and just like it pumps blood through your veins, it pumps energy through ours. But…"

Tristan paused as he brought up his other hand and put it right underneath his power cell. He held it there for a few seconds before moving it away, and another white line ran down his other arm. In that hand, there appeared to be a couple of fragments of a material similar to his cell.

"This is Sarah's power cell. Or at least, what's left of it. As you can see, her power cell was shattered, and we have been searching the cosmos to try and find the rest of it. Our tracker indicated homeworld energies on this planet, but it has lead us astray before."

"But, if her 'heart' is destroyed like you said, then how is she even alive?" Tails asked while Tristan absorbed the power cells and let the white lines retract into his chest.

"I was nearby when," Tristan paused for a brief second, as if to rethink what he was about to say, quickly catching Sonic's attention, "when her cell shattered. I was able to transfer some of my energy to her, so energy still passes through her, keeping her alive. It works a bit like what you call an 'artificial pacemaker', but not exactly. But it won't work forever. Eventually, her body will get sick of my energy because it isn't her own. And she will die…. But I suppose sharing energy isn't all bad. She gets to use some of my powers. Well, I have to initiate the act, but I think it's pretty cool. That's why we look like this. In reality, we look very similar to what you call Overlanders, but I was able to transform us. I can also sense how Sarah's doing, whether she's weak or strong…." Tristan trailed off, looking concernedly at Sarah while gently running his fingers over the two letters on his chest.

Sonic spoke up, "How did Sarah's power cell break?"

Tristan quickly snapped back to attention, turning pale as he slowly turned his head towards Sonic.

"What?"

"How did her power cell break?"

Tristan seemed…uncomfortable to say the very least. He became anxious and unsettled, running a hand through his new quills to calm himself. It was obvious that the answer to Sonic's question deeply disturbed him, and if Sonic didn't know any better, he would've thought Tristan was trembling just a tiny bit. Sonic was about to withdraw his question, but Tristan pulled himself together just in time.

"You see, there-there was—"

"There was a battle, and that's all there really is to it," a voice said from across the room.

There she was, Sarah, slowly lifting herself up to a sitting position on the bed.

"Sarah!" Tristan quickly paced over to help her. She put a hand out in defiance.

"I'm fine."

Tristan retreated a bit from the bed as Sarah sat up straight and tall.

"What happened? The last thing I remember was falling after you transformed me."

"You fell back onto the controls, sending us into the planet. We crashed, and Sonic here found us and brought us to his house to help you."

"The transformation must've used up most of the energy in my body, which means I am weakening faster than I thought," Sarah mumbled the last half of her sentence and turned to Sonic.

"Sonic, was it? I thank you for your kindness in trying to help me."

"Anytime! That's what I'm all about!"

Sarah looked across the room at the pink hedgehog and two-tailed fox.

"I don't think I caught your names."

Tails spoke first, "My name is Miles Prower, but you can call me Tails."

"And I'm Amy! Amy Rose."

"Well, it's very nice to meet you both. But pleasantries aside," Sarah said, moving the covers off and getting out of the bed, "we have a mission to accomplish. I'm assuming you left any and all trackers on the ship?"

"I mean, you weren't conscious, and the ship was kind of on fire—"

"Which means we need to get over there now and salvage what we can. So thank you all for your kindness but now we take our leave," Sarah announced, practically dragging Tristan out of the room with her.

"Wait! Don't you want our help?"

This stopped Sarah in her tracks. She turned around.

"What?"

"Don't you want us to help you?" Sonic repeated.

Both she and Tristan stared at him in a surprised awe. Rarely did anyone on any planet ever offer to help them after they discovered they were 'other-worldly'. Sarah shook the amazement off and replied to him.

"Thank you for the offer, but I can't ask you to do that."

"We don't mind! Right, guys?"

Tails and Amy shook their heads.

"Besides, don't you at least need a guide or something? Or a mechanic? You're looking for crystal shard things, right? We know a certain knuckle-headed treasure hunter who could help you!"

Sarah and Tristan shot each other a look.

"Could you give us a moment, please?"

Sonic nodded kindly. The pair pivoted away, with Tristan unfurling one of his wings to keep their conversation a secret. Tails and Amy, who had been reeling trying to keep up with everything, simply turned to each other and shrugged. Sarah and Tristan eventually turned back around.

"Very well, then. We will accept your offer, but we must hurry. I fear all of our belongings may be burned to a crisp."

The group agreed and headed for the door.

"Wait! One more thing before we go!" Tails said.

"What is it?"

"The thing on your chest. What does it mean?"

"It's two letters, A and G, it's the insignia that all warriors on Ciellus wear. It stands for 'Aura Guardian'.

XXX

Helicopters hovered above, pouring down water on the remnants of the fire. A semi-circle of black vans and men in uniforms surround the fire's source.

"What do you think it is?" one of the soldiers said.

"It's definitely a ship of some kind, but I've never seen anything like this before," another soldier replied.

"What about you, hedgehog?" he said, rudely butting the back of his gun into the hedgehog's black fur.

Shadow, who had been silently observing the ship for any clues, shot the G.U.N. trooper a dirty look and stepped forward. He bent down and picked up a burnt piece of debris.

"Well, it's not one of Black Doom's, that's for sure."

"Then where's it from?"

Shadow dropped the debris and stood up.

"I don't know…"

He looked up at the charred, crumbling ship towering over him.

To be continued…