Chapter 7: The terrifying power of the Ruby

Mirage Saloon, an unexplored area of Sonic's home island, had everything needed to make a cowboy movie: an extended desert, mountains and rock formations, cactus, sand, totems made by ancient indigenous populations that inhabited the place before, and more sand. Except that this time Sun, Lillie and Hau were flying over the area on Sonic's plane, the Tornado Mk.1, which is piloted by Tails since the day he repaired the engine and added pieces of professional engineering, such as a turbine to increase the distance and flight time. Sun and Hau were on the plane, while Lillie took advantage of flying on Nebby's wings.

- "How awesome is that you have a plane!" - Hau spoke while carrying Raichu on his shoulders, so he could feel the breeze of fresh air.

- "Oh yes, since Sonic and I have been friends for so long, he has lent me his plan. I am fascinated by technology, and I have built many advances for the Tornado as a thank you for Sonic." - Tails smiled.

- "Hello? Is this heard well enough? Eh ... I'm Soraka... according to this screen, an enemy is approaching 500... 400... 300 meters... I think it's already very close to you. "-

Indeed, a group of robotic turtles was approaching quickly. Sun pointed out to his friends that, among the group of turtles, a yellow robot, dressed like an elegant magician, greeted them amicably.

- "Hey Soraka, does the computer have any information about this robot?" - Tails asked.

- "Be careful, he's taking something out of his hat!" - Lillie shouted, pointing to the robot's hat.

The robot was Heavy Magician, one of the transformed ones by the Phantom Ruby, specialized in using magic and creating illusions. Just like in an illusionist show, she took out of her hat a huge serpent robot, which in the world of Sonic they knew as "Caterkillar". The serpent was magically enlarged and then hit the Tornado, knocking it to the ground. Tails manages to fly away from the plane using his tails, and Nebby picked up Sun, Hau and Raichu before they fall. The plane is destroyed in an explosion after reaching the ground, and the team lands in a kind of improvised stage, with a box in the middle of this, that had drawings of Heavy Magician. The magician robot opens the box from inside, greets them by taking off her hat and closes the box, which begins to contort.

- "Very well, team, get ready. Anything can come out from that box, be ready to attack. "- Tails and the boys took a guard position.

The box opens, and from its interior comes an old acquaintance of Sun and Lillie. - "Guzma !?" -

Guzma, the leader of Team Skull, Alola's team of villains, carried a water pistol, with which, curiously, used to fire lasers while jumping from one side of the stage to the other. The boys of Alola were petrified to find Guzma in this universe and did nothing, but Tails suspected and decided to jump towards him with a revolving attack. The jump hits Guzma and he is thrown backwards by the impact, transforming again into Heavy Magician (and receiving damage).
- "OH, that cheating robot is using illusions to attack us! Sun, we must be more careful the next time! "- Hau reacted and ordered Raichu to prepare to attack. Tails returns to the boys, and the robot enters the box again. Another pair of contortions and, from the inside, emerged a Pokémon bird, a kind of red penguin with large areas of white plumage, which carried a sack loaded with things.

- "Delibird, the penguin Pokémon. Although it naturally prefers cold places, it is able to withstand the warm temperatures of Alola to a certain degree. And it seems that this desert too. "- noted the RotomDex. - "The only attack that this Pokémon knows is Gift" -

- "Except that is an illusion of that ugly robot." - Lillie corrected.

- "Be careful, he's throwing something!" - Tails shouted. Delibird started throwing explosive gift packages from his sack, while jumping around the place. Hau commanded Raichu to use a Thunder attack, which impacts the bird, which again becomes the robot, and flees quickly to the box. - "It seems that she has more tricks under her hat, let's prepare again for a surprise." - Hau said to his friends, while taking Lillie and Sun's arm. The boys return the gesture.

The box opens and a kind of sea horse with a terrestrial horse face appears, very muscular. His skin and muscles were brown and his tail was like the one of a seahorse, green.

- "It's an Aaron!" - Frisk exclaimed from the communicators - "They appear in Waterfall, and he is very muscular and strong! Be careful, friends, keep your determination. "-

- "Am I in a push-up contest? OK, but I don't intend to lose. ;) "- Aaron said to the group, while he started doing push-ups on the floor. Each time it flexed, rocks began to fall from the mountainous ceiling of the stage. Fearing for her life, Lillie ran scared to Aaron and gave him a strong kick, which caused damage and reversed the transformation of the robot, who returns to the box. - "Are you okay, Lillie?" - Tails asked after he approached Lillie. - "Yes, yes, only that it was a very ugly monster and did not want to die crushed, gave me bad memories." - sobbed the young lady. Sun and Hau ran to embrace her, while Tails watched the box carefully.

The box opens a third time. The stage darkens in a red tone and the music stops, then changes to a cheery tune that goes creepy in a record time. A school girl, in a gray uniform, blue skirt and brown vest, with pink hair and red braids, descends from the box. But, where her eyes should be, there were only black glitched holes. Blood came like tears from her "eyes", and her smile was phantasmagorical. Sun and Hau kept hugging Lillie, trying not to look at the creepy girl. Tails was horrified and only managed to see the communicators, who showed ERROR, and after that he shivers in terror. Even Nebby recoiled from the panic. The student spoke: - "Play with me and Surrender. SURRENDER. SURRENDER! SURRENDER! SURRENDER! SURRENDER! SURRENDER! SURRENDER! SURRENDER! SURRENDER! SURRENDER! SURRENDER! SURRENDER! SURRENDER!

Hau's Raichu electrocuted the girl with an attack. The girl spontaneously broke her neck as she kept bleeding and smiling and repeating "SURRENDER!". Her face was tilted to her right shoulder. Raichu again electrocuted her for the second time, and the girl came dangerously close to Tails while she kept repeating her cursed phrase. Tails shouted with all his might "Sooooniiiiiiiiiic, save me!" The girl whispered in his ear: - "Tell your friend Sonic to surrender. He will never save you. He will never save us. He will never save the Literature Club. YOU WILL NEVER SAVE ME! "-. After this, the girl recoiled quickly and returned to lock herself in the box, while the heroes were still sweating from the scare that had just happened. Heavy Magician appeared with a written sign that said: "I'm sorry. I don't understand what is happening, I did not cause that last illusion" and decided to flee in terror from the battle.

When the box is opened again, everything returned to normal and the normal music resumed. A blond young lady, with green eyes, and with a beautiful red and white suit, a long brown skirt with golden patterns, and a blue and red ribbon, adorned with decorations and Christmas bells, came out of the box. But she had the same spooky smiling like the one of the previous girl.

- "Is that ... Corin?" - Froid asked loudly - "Guys, I think it's better to get out of there as fast as you can ..." - Corin looked at the group and her cheerful expression changed to one of hatred.

- "You stole my Christmas decorations? I wanted to do a miracle for ALICE, but I can't do it without my ornaments. I only know how to work decorating things, but you stole my ornaments. Dirty thieves of gifts, you will have your punishment!"- exclaimed Corin. Raising her left arm, a gigantic snowball began to form. Tails tried to run to ram it, still frightened by the previous illusion, but Corin blocked the way with Christmas decorations and trees, while the size of the snowball continued to increase. Lillie hugged Sun and Hau more tightly, while Nebby spread his wings to try to protect them all. Tails could only watch in frustration as the snowball became bigger and bigger. Everyone closed their eyes ...

KABUM!

Corin's illusion shot out towards the box, which destroyed the stage with the impact and fell into a ravine. When they opened their eyes, the team saw a red echidna warming up with its arms. Tails recognizes him immediately, and at that moment he stops being scared for a while.

- "Knuckles! You saved us, what a joy to see you! "- Tails smiled. Knuckles turned to see Tails and the boys and also smiled back for a few seconds.

- "Tails! Long time no see! You know that I prefer to solve my problems alone, but this has been out of the ordinary. My island was again at sea level, and when I was patrolling, I saw a group of EggRobos escape with a pink gem. When I wanted to pursue them, a strange flower appeared with the Master Emerald. Naturally I was furious because I'm under the care of the Master Emerald, so I demanded that he released my gem and give me answers as to why my island was once again on the surface. The strange flower laughed and just told me he needed to borrow that shiny rock. The pink gem flashed, and the next thing I remember was myself being in Green Hill Zone. I went all the way to get here, and when I saw that the Christmas girl was about to attacking you, I decided to plane from the mountain and attack her"- Knuckles answered. - "I don't know if I'm right on this, but it seems that, before that blonde girl, there was another human girl with pink hair that gave me the chills. She approached me, her neck broken and her head bowed, and told me it would have been much better if I had stayed on my island, and that we would not save a book club or something ... By the way, who are those humans and those monsters that are with you? "-

Tails pointed to the construction that looked near the mountains: an oil refinery of Doctor Eggman. Then he pointed Knuckles to the communicator in his ear, and handed him a copy. The boys were still terrified and approached Tails to walk to the refinery. Nebby was flying near them, as a sign of protection. Tails mimicked being scared for Knuckles to understand, and the echidna placed the communicator in his ear.

- "Whoever is behind this communicator, my name is Knuckles, last of the race of echidnas, inhabitant of Angel Island and guardian of the Master Emerald. Those miserable robots and a strange pink plant stole my emerald, and I want to recover it. We recently had a terrifying experience and Tails and the kids can't talk because of it. I want you to find out what that famous "Literate Club" is, and Eggman's closest base, and I want it now! "- he ordered.

The next stop was Eggman's great oil refinery, called Oil Ocean by Sonic. From this place it was supplied all the fuel and energy necessary to start up all his bases and strategic places on the island. In addition, according to the latest information that Alphys acquired, if he was building a special base in the Little Planet, it would certainly require many resources ... or the help of a certain Ruby. Tails had to return to the ship to receive emotional support from Sonic, so Knuckles stayed with the Pokémon boys exploring the place.

- "Mr. Knuckles, do you think we can save the world, after the last things we just saw?" - Lillie asked, somewhat distrustful. Knuckles nodded and replied: - "If I learned something from Sonic, is that nothing is impossible, as long as we have friends to support us. While I like to work alone, since I'm the last of my kind, being with people right now is helping me a lot. "- Lillie smiled.

Sun and Hau slid down the oily pipes, while robotic sea horses and octopi fired small projectiles. The refinery produced enough oil to have an ocean from which the fuel was extracted. A few submarines served as a shortcut to advance between different parts of the plant. Knuckles told the boys that he would use one of the submarines as a shortcut to discover if they were hiding something useful for the mission. Sun, Hau and Lillie moved through the refinery, trying to turn off all the switches they found to stop the extraction process.

When Knuckles entered the submarine, the robot octopus and some animals like chicks and squirrels were trying to flee, scared, towards the entrance. Robots and animals made gestures to Knuckles to get away, but he decided to keep moving and found a closed door. - "What the hell is a door in the middle of a submarine? You are wasting my time, Eggman. I'll open this damn door with my fists, BUM, door destroyed, very easy. Hello! Is anyone there ... WHAT THE HELL? "-

A room with a half-made bed, two windows, a closet, two stuffed animals, a desk with school supplies and furniture with plants in well-kept pots appeared when the door was destroyed. In the middle of the room, a girl with brown hair with a red braid and dressed in pajamas, hanging on a noose. Dear readers, you already know that Knuckles was seeing Sayori's infamous scene. Knuckles shouted horrified: - "WHAT KIND OF BAD JOKE IS THIS, EGGMAN ?" -

The messages in the notes and papers hung in the room changed their content to "THE SAVE POINT WILL BE MINE ", and from the ship, a horrified Toriel responds to Knuckles: -"You can't imagine what the hell is happening outside. " - The music that Froid was broadcasting changed to strange sounds that she couldn't stop, and Sayori's head turns to the direction where Knuckles is.

The whole room shines, and when Knuckles opens his eyes again, the refinery is all on fire, with toxic gases covering the entire breathable atmosphere. The Pokémon boys rush towards Knuckles, and Lillie screams desperately: - "WHAT ARE THESE THINGS, KNUCKLES? LOOK IN FRONT OF YOU! "- Sun tells Knuckles to look ahead of where the submarine was. Was, because when Knuckles appeared on the main plant, the submarine disappeared, as if it never were there.

The machine that Dr. Eggman would use for the boss fight, a giant version of the octopus robot called Mega Octi, with tentacles that fired missiles and very angry eyes, was in front of them, but instead of being driven by the Doctor, in the cockpit there was another school girl, taller and with greater feminine attributes, with purple hair, with a bleeding cut in her belly, and a psychotic look. Contrary to everything they imagined, the girl, instead of dying, began to activate the robot and spoke: - "What's wrong, Knuckles, aren't you having fun? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!... Come and bring Sonic to play too! I even captured this robot for toying with him!"-

- "This is your Captain Turing calling all those who are on land! The Phantom Ruby has found us and is creating illusions of beings we don't know! We believe that these "girls" are from the alternate reality where the object that the Ruby is looking for is located, and this is a hint that somehow the Ruby knows the info! Don't enter into battle with these illusions, I repeat, DON'T ENTER IN BATTLE! Everyone flee to Little Planet, you will find a shortcut in that volcano on the island of Knuckles! The Star Guardians are being sent to contain this attack! I repeat: YOU ARE GOING OUT OF HERE, THIS IS A WITHDRAWAL, IT IS NOT A SIMULATION! "-

- "You have already heard the Captain, kids, go back to the ship! I will try to help the Guardians! "- shouted Knuckles. The Gaster Blaster descended to where the boys were, and the doors open. The Star Guardians Syndra, Janna, Poppy and Jinx descended from the ship in the direction of the robot, while Toriel and Asgore make desperately gestures to the Alola team. Sun is forced to call Nebby to his pokeball, and then runs along with Lillie and Hau towards the ship. The gates close and the Gaster Blaster takes off in the direction of the Little Planet. The last Hard-Boiled Heavy that was missing to face, Heavy Runner, appears running in a Motobug and goes frantically towards the mountain of lava, also scared of the Ruby's illusions. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles decide to follow it to avoid a major disaster. As they run, giant versions of the pink-haired girl from before appear in the sky, behind the structures of the refinery and the volcano, laughing and throwing spheres of energy that hampered the movements of both the heroes and the robot.

Syndra decides to command the Guardians who arrived at the place, following the orders of Turing. - "You, whoever you are, you are a servant of the Phantom Ruby, and the Prime Star is against you. Contemplate my power! "- Then she throws multiple copies of her spheres of power, the Multis, Syndra's magical relatives and those who give her their skills. The robot does not show even a break or a dent, and the girl inside laughs along with the giant illusions. Janna and Jinx shoot missiles from Shiro and Kuro, and tornadoes, but the robot keeps advancing and the girl continues laughing more and more ecstatic: - "I WILL TOUCH MYSELF WITH THIS PEN WHILE I DESTROY YOUR FREAKING HEADS!" - Jinx replied: - "Too much info my bad!" -

- "I love destruction, but this is scary, and the robot keeps moving forward, what will we do?" - Jinx asked. Poppy begins to flip her magic hammer and then throws herself, screaming, against the robot, hitting with all the force of her weapon and throwing the Mega Octi a good number of meters towards a fuel collector, leaving the machine trapped in oil. - "Poppy has bought us time, let's run to the volcano!" - Syndra shouted, and the guardians flew into the volcano.

Within the volcano, the entire surface of rocks, floors, roofs and structures had crystallized in precious stones of blue tones, the only thing that was still active was lava. Structures and bases of Eggman were seen at the bottom of the volcano, floating on the lava, but they couldn't take a longer time to appreciate the place, as the octopus robot made its way through the rock walls and continued the pursuit. Jinx and Janna continued to shoot their skills at the robot, while, on another route, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles tried to hit Heavy Runner with spinning jumps.

Turing forced the music mixing machine to send his battle song via streaming by the communicators to give moral support to all who were fighting, but instead received the song the purple haired girl was streaming from the Octi robot.

Poppy asks Jinx: - "Hey! Is it very difficult for you to throw me with your cannon at the robot? "- Jinx replies: -" Are you kidding? I was waiting all this time for you to ask me! "- Jinx prepares Kuro, and Poppy climbs into the canyon. Jinx shoots Poppy (supported by a breeze of wind coming from Janna to increase the launch speed), and Poppy goes flying towards the robot, while spinning her hammer. Poppy and her weapon again hit the octopus robot and throw it towards the lava, sinking into it. Lava currents rise from the rocks, which ends up slowing down Heavy Runner, giving Sonic enough time to launch himself and knock the robot down from its Motobug. Heavy Runner decided to withdrawal using an exit.

- "Sonic, we must keep running, look!" - exclaimed Tails. The octopus robot rose from the lava, even larger than before, with the purple hair girl still laughing and effectively touching herself with the pen. Giant illusions of the pink-haired ghost girl began to float from the lava, and the volcano began to erupt. Sonic took Tails and Knuckles from their hands and ran at full speed, as did the Star Guardians, climbing the giant metal chain that keeps the Little Planet chained to the volcano and Angel Island. The robot takes off and continues to fly, while the giant illusions look and laugh for the last time, sinking into the lava.

- "Why is this happening, Tails?" - Sonic asked. Tails replied: - "The Phantom Ruby. It can create very real illusions and alter reality. The flower must be doing all of this to delay and scare us, Sonic! And I believe that psycho girls are illusions of the real inhabitants of the dimension in which the Ruby is searching that infamous save point."-

Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and the Guardians arrived at the Little Planet in Eggman's abandoned base, Metallic Madness, a moss green base where the Doctor directed his operations for the invasion and capture of the Time Stones, according to the events of Sonic CD. In that place, one last distraction receives them: Heavy King, the commander of the elite robots of Eggman improved by the Phantom Ruby, of greater size and power than his other comrades. Next to him, the Master Emerald.

- "Welcome, Sonic. I was waiting to have a confrontation with you. I would like to see how much you can resist the power of the Master Emerald... "- said the robot, pointing his hand at the giant gem. Knuckles interrupted and shouted: - "First of all, that's my emerald, nasty robot! And second, we don't have time to lose with you, we are being persecuted by illusions of the Phantom Ruby! "-

- "Did you say illusions? But the Ruby was working with us, we had an agreement! "- Heavy King yelled, but before Heavy King could mention anything else, "Flowey" appears behind the robot and deactivates it. The robot falls sore to the ground, with a sense of betrayal, and then it goes off completely. - "Sorry, idiot robot, but I don't work with partners." - laughed "Flowey". After activating the Ruby one last time, the whole team of heroes appears outside the Gaster Blaster, and the Mega Octi robot is destroyed. The Metallic Madness base loses its green tones, changing colors to corroded and oxidized ones. Chara appears, tied to the Master Emerald.

- "RELEASE MY SON!" - Asgore yelled enraged.

- "HAHAHA. I was able to access your ship and find out, thanks to your computer, the location of what I have been looking for all this time. I hope you have liked my illusions of dead school girls, it is an omen of what will happen to the future when I conquer these planets. To be able to access the final zone, I need a power of great magnitude, and there is no power greater than Determination, and this giant rock. Next, I will recite those idiotic chants that your tribe performed to activate the gem, Knuckles." - smiled sarcastically "Flowey ".

After this, Flowey performs the ancient chants and activates the Master Emerald, which damages Chara and drains enough determination to open a green portal of enormous proportions. Chara falls to the ground and Frisk picks it up, handing him to Toriel and Asgore. - "You'll pay for this." - Frisk said defiantly to the flower, but it only laughed and said: - "I would love to spend time with you and see if you can do that, but I have better things to do. Now, I will leave you something that you can have fun with. "- The Phantom Ruby activates, and while "Flowey" enters the portal with the Ruby, a robot with a strange shape, similar to a kind of dragon, of red and black tones, appears. The funny thing is that Dr. Eggman was not in his machine, and appears in his transport ship behind Sonic.

- "Sonic! I don't understand what happens with this machine, it's a prototype, my Egg Dragoon, it should not even be working, help me! This Phantom Ruby is more than I can handle, and he has betrayed me! " - exclaimed Eggman, scared. Then, the girl with the purple hair appears in the cabin again, ready to handle the robot. Sonic looks in frustration as the portal starts to close, but before he can do anything, Turing takes the floor:

- "Listen to me, everyone! we have not come this far to lose at this point! This is the plan that we will take: the captains of the teams and myself will go through that portal to follow the flower. Sonic, Sun and his giant bat, the boy in the sky-blue vest, the girl of light and the cat girl will go with me through the portal. The others, do everything to stop that machine! You, the one in red, you are the strongest, I leave you in charge. "- exclaimed Turing, pointing to the dragon robot and Knuckles. Everyone nodded, and hugs were given before the captains left. Sonic, Turing, Frisk, Sun, Lux and Ahri launch themselves towards the portal of the Master Emerald. Eggman, furious at what has just happened, lights his escape ship and also launches towards the portal. Once Eggman enters, the portal closes fully.

Knuckles begins to give orders to shoot down the dragon robot, called by Eggman "Egg Dragoon", a prototype. This "Egg Dragoon" was capable of shoot fire beams from this tail, ice beams from his head, and it had machine guns which used to shoot rapid-fire missiles. The whole team shoots their best weapons and skills: the fire flames of Toriel and Asgore, Undyne with her magic spears, Sans and Papyrus fire bone projectiles and Gaster Blasters, Mobius and Bernoulli activate their special abilities and fire energy balls, Hau orders Raichu to attack with thunder impact while protecting Lillie, Tails and Knuckles are thrown with revolving jumps into the cockpit to weaken it, and even Eggman's robots and troops join the assault firing with the weapons they had installed.

The "Egg Dragoon" absorbed the attacks and it was ready to prepare an energy beam attack. Because the purple haired girl didn't know how to charge the attack in a faster way and she was still trying to touch herself with the pen, she forced the robot to be grounded to the base. Syndra decides then to invoke the power of the Prime Star and uses her strength to lift the robot with its attack of Willpower, and then throw it into the walls. Sans and Papyrus made mini Gaster Blasters appears and fire everything at the robot, which is destroyed in a spectacular explosion, and Little Planet is released from its chains and the illusions of the Phantom Ruby. Before disappear completely, the purple haired girl laughs one last time and shout: - "You will never beat the Phantom Ruby. The Dark Cloud will rise, you are delaying the inevitable!"-

The team of heroes appeared on the shore of the lake that surrounds the volcano, and the Little Planet begins its withdrawal from the orbit of Sonic's world, but not before creating a constellation of stars with the face of the blue hedgehog.

- "What will we do now, Sans?" - asked Papyrus, worried about the heroes who entered the portal.

- "What should we do, Commander Knuckles?" - Sans asked back, while his eye lit up blue.

- "We will go back to the ship, and we will wait to receive a response from Sonic and the others. While we wait, we will clean the islands of the influence of the Ruby, and the moment we receive signs of life from our friends, we will return to this place and try to find a way to meet them. "- answered Knuckles.

- "Sun, Nebby, be careful please." - whispered Lillie distressed.

- "My child, you saved us from the Underground and bring us back to the surface, I know that you can also help this world. Good luck! "- exclaimed Toriel, looking at the sky.

- "Captain Turing, you can do it! ALICE and us trust in your services! "- shouted Mobius, Fourier and Bernoulli.

- "Prime Star, I beg you to protect and strengthen our captains." - prayed Soraka.

- "Sonic! You can save the world as you always do! We count on you! " - exclaimed a cheerful Tails, confident in the abilities of his brother and friend.

Suddenly, the Chaos Emeralds escaped from the container in the Gaster Blaster ship and fly out into outer space. For the first time since the disaster began, the sky shines in a sunset of hope and salvation...