The basic rule of all magic stems from one thing: the concept of Faith. In order to understand magic, you must be able to believe in it, pure and simple.

From thereon out, pure willpower and the elements around you are what bring out the best in Magic. The problem with magic is that you can only do so much with it and only if you follow it's rules. Life Magic is the most sacred of all, and for those who are not "chosen" to be given free rein over it, the consequences for attempting it...

Can leave eternal scars.


OPENING CREDITS-SEASON TWO


(Sonic and Tails stand together in a white abyss. They bow their heads, eyes closed.)

Masshiro na keshiki ni ima sasowarete!

(Then they whip around and slap each other high five as the title appears above them.)

Boku wa yuku yo mada minu sekai e!

(Sonic and Miles are sitting underneath a tree, Miles going over some notes on a little clipboard as he puts the pencil to his mouth, Sonic simply looking up at the sky, reaching out with his hands longingly.)

Maigo no mama...tabishiteta

nezumi iro no sora no shita!

higawari no chizu ikutsu mo no yume ga nijin de itaaaa!

(Shadow and the others at central all salute Eggman as he walks by, but the minute he leaves, they all look at each other, nod, then place their hands together, raising them up into the air in a fist.)

Itsukahasa!

Chippoke na boku no kono hohaba demo...

ano kumo no mukou made yukeeeeru kana!

Tsuyogatte, kizutsuita,

kokoro sukashita you ni...

furidashita ametsubu tachi ga...

ranhanansha kurikaesu!

(Sonic and Tails run side by side in a field as the vague outline of soon-to-be-revealed characters are seen, with the supporting cast running after them.)

Massugu na hikari ga chirabatte

ameagari no gogo ni

taba ni natte furisosogu!

Mugen no guradeeshon ga ima mazari atte!

(An image of the two brothers holding their hands up into the sky is shown as they try to grasp the sun.)

Kono sora no shita donna toko ni ite moooo...

Kanarazu todoku hazu sa mada minu sekai eeee!

Episode Six:

Homeward Bound and Hidden Truths!

帰省と隠された秘密!


CHOO-CHOOOO!

"Welcome to Central Town! Next stop...East Town!...as soon as the engine's repaired." The conductor remarked nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "So, uh...everyone just...take a break for an hour, alright?"

"Crummy-ass railways." Somebody complained.

"It's better than FLYING." Another person spoke up.

"I hate planes, trains and automobiles, I can't get the feelin' of the wind in my face and-" Sonic muttered, letting out a loud sneeze. "HAH-CHOOOO! There's so much dust on them. And then my brother collects all that dust." He mumbled. "...sigh. I can't BELIEVE you stuck him in "luggage" without his disguise!" He snapped at Knuckles.

"...I'm not gonna cry..." Tails thought to himself as he lay atop several boxes, squished underneath a trunk somebody had thrown on him. The contents, a man's private garments, had spilled out onto him and he didn't dare move or the solitary guard standing watch over the place would freak out and shoot at the "possessed doll". "I'm not gonna cry, I'm not gonna cryyyy..."

Knuckles rolled his eyes. "Hey, look, it was cheaper than sticking...huh?" He suddenly shoved Sonic's head down, ignoring the hedgehog's protest and looking out the window of the train that had just come. He gasped at the sight of a dark violent Maine Coon cat with yellow eyes, long ears, a big white muzzle and a very hairy white chest. He was wearing a plain coat with fishing tackle dangling out of his pockets, and was very tall...

And frickin' FAT. As he walked by a nearby Chihuahua that was about to whizz on a fire hydrant, the small dog began to circle through the air around the cat before finally being tossed into a nearby bush, moaning.

"B-BIG?!?" Knuckles called out. "Big, is that really you?" He asked, purple eyes widening.

Big heard his voice called out. He turned his head, saw Knuckles, and shrieked, running off into the town. Knuckles immediately dragged Sonic after him.

"Hey! Wh-what're you doing? Who are we going after?!" Sonic wanted to know.

"That was Big, the Lifeline Metallurgist! He's an old war buddy from the Shanazaran campaign!" Knuckles told him, rushing into luggage, grabbing Tails and running out, leaving the guard stunned. "The government told us he'd died YEARS ago!"

"You wanna check up with old war buddies-wait...died?!" Sonic was confused. Now he and Knuckles ran through the town with Tails in his other hand's grasp. "Why would they lie about that?"

"That's what I'D like to know!" Knuckles muttered. "He used to be one of the best medical alchemists around...he was a "Chosen", capable of using Bios!"

At THAT, Sonic's eyes glittered, and he grinned. "Now THAT'S more like it! What're we waiting for? Let's go find him!"

...

...

...

...well...they found his home. It was a small little shack by the beach, and he sat out on the porch, arms folded, head bowed. His eyes closed, taking deep breaths, he tried to speak up.

"Mr. Knuckles, I'm happy to see you're alright, but...I don't want to leave this place." He mumbled.

"What?" Knuckles blinked a few times.

"I have to stay out here where I can do some good n' stuff." Big murmured. "I did bad things." He held his gloved hands over his face and Sonic realized that he was on the verge of crying. "...what they asked me to do back in...back in that...that HORRIBLE war...I HAD to take what I could with me...make sure nobody else could do the terrible things I'd done."

"...what exactly did you do?" Sonic wanted to know, blinking a few times, looking over at his own decayed, cursed arm.

"They wanted me...oh..." Big finally began to cry. "I never WANTED to get involved, but I got drafted! And Momma said to go and do the patriotic thing and...and then I ended up workin' on...on that HORRIBLE little..." He wiped his eyes on his arm. "I want to stay here and fish the rest of my life away. I never wanna go back ta what I was doin' before..."

"What were you DOING?" Sonic asked again.

Big bit his lip, then motioned for them to step inside. They found themselves in a very small room with a bed in the far corner and a small desk near a bunch of strange jars that held various pickled fish. One jar had a cover over it that prevented them from seeing exactly what was inside. Moving past a small table that had some foodstuffs on it, Big picked this jar up and cleared the foodstuffs off the table, placing the jar down.

He opened it up. Bright green filled the room, making Knuckles, Tails and Sonic gasp. He poured out what appeared to be a liquid onto the table...but it didn't dissolve into the wood. Instead, it accumulated into the form of a small, green gem.

"A Chaos Emerald?!" Sonic whispered.

"The Chaos Emeralds. Capable of turning thoughts into power. They can make anything become real." Big murmured. "It's like somethin' from a dream. These are fake 'n stuff, but...still got a lotta bang, y'know?" He told them all.

Sonic nodded, remembering how Snivelley had used one of these fakes. And it had no doubt proven it's use in the Shanazaran campaign. But if something as powerful as that could be made...the chance was possible. A real, genuine, chaos emerald. Something that had the potential to get their old forms back...to make everything right.

"Big, I gotta see your research!" Sonic insisted, clenching his fist and holding it up.

"...I can't." Big said, picking up the gem and putting it back in the jar, then placing the jar back in it's place as Sonic blinked stupidly a few times.

"...well why NOT?!" Sonic wanted to know, an angry glare on his face.

"Don't you know how dangerous-" Then Big looked over at Tails. REALLY looked at him. His eyes quickly widened as he looked at the "doll" who was in Knuckles's grip...who nodded sadly.

"...so you...you did "it"." Big remarked quietly. "...no wonder ya want the Chaos Emerald. I..." He looked away. "...I'm SORRY." He told them sadly. "...I...I can't. I just..."

"...Sonic..." Knuckles held a hand up. "...let's go. He needs to be alone, I think."

"...fine." Sonic muttered, as he, Tails and Knuckles headed out the door, leaving Big alone in the dark shack. Big bowed his head, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists. Finally he reached out and grabbed ahold of the jar that held the emerald, opening up the top as the bright gem cast it's rays of light around the shack. Big's brow furrowed...

"WAIT!" He called out, rushing after them. Sonic turned around to see Big panting heavily, holding onto a small manila envelope. "Listen...here..." Sonic took the envelope as Big rubbed the back of his neck. "That's...where you'll find all you wanna know. If you're as smart as I thinks you are, ya might learn the truth...ALL of the truths." He told Sonic firmly, his eyes becoming like glittering yellow gems.

Sonic nodded firmly. "Thank you." He told Big. "I really do appreciate this." As he, Knuckles and Tails turned to leave, he turned to Knuckles. "Are you gonna blab to your bosses about this?"

"Me? Talk to them about a plain, ordinary fisherman?" Knuckles rolled his eyes, and Sonic and Tails laughed.

Big stood there for a long time at the beach, watching them head back to the train. He sighed slightly, then headed back for his shack. He stepped inside, turning around to close the door...

Then stiffened. He'd seen something...somebody...in the corner.

A familiar being with eggplant-colored hair.

"Hello kitty cat." Sonia commented cheerily, stepping out of the shadows.

...

...

...

... "Doo-dee-doo-dee-doo..." Amy was wiping off the top of her Piko-Piko hammer, singing to herself. "Wild thang!" She laughed, swiping the rag around and spinning it in the air. "Ya make my heart sang! Da-da, da-da-da! Ya make every-thang! Da-da, da-da-da!" She slapped the rag against the hammer, finally finishing up the last pieces of it. "Groovaaaay!" She sang out, holding the finished product up in the air as the gold and red-painted hammer glistened in the light of her workshop.

"Amyyyyy! Guess who's baaaaaack!?" Tiara called out, making Amy's eyes widen. It...it couldn't be...but it was!

"Hey there, Tiara." Sonic spoke up, walking down the path to her home as Knuckles walked after him, having hoisted Tails onto his shoulder. "What's happening?"

"What's happening with YOU?" Tiara wanted to know, placing her hands on her hips and giving him a look. "You never write, you never call, you only come when you want something fixed. You're worse than an ex-husband and just as fat!" She commented.

"Call...me...fat...ONE...MORE...TIME..." Sonic growled, his eyes glittering as he and Tiara took up battle poses, flames rising up from them.

"Bring it, blue britches." Tiara whispered, eyes glittering evilly. "I'll take you on ANY TIME!"

"I won't hold back cuz you're a girl!"

"Well if I don't mind hitting a girl, why should-"

PIKO-POWER!

Amy's hammer whizzed through the air and struck Sonic square on the noggin. He groaned and fell t the ground as Amy planted her own fists on her hips. "You big JERK! You haven't called us in AGES!"

"Are you TRYIN' to get me killed! THAT COULDA KILLED ME, WOMAN!" Sonic yelled, shaking his fist at Amy.

"Oh, Sonniku, you make me laugh!" Amy laughed, giggling happily as Knuckles smiled politely at Tiara.

"Tiara's the name." Tiara said, nodding her head firmly. "And you are?"

"Knuckles the Echidna. Very nice to meet you." He said, taking her hand and kissing it as they all headed inside.

As Sonic held up the rings, Amy looked them over. "Auuuuuuuhhhh." She moaned. "Look at all of thiiiiis." She whined, hanging her head. "These were a gift from Chaos himself and you expect me to just...up and PATCH THEM TOGETHER?!" She asked, a dark glint entering her eye.

"Yeah, and if you can do that in twenty minutes or less, that'll be swell." Sonic wisecracked.

PIKO-POWER!

"One of these days you're gonna kill me with that thing!" Sonic moaned as he nursed a very large bump atop his head.

"And YOU got yourself screwed up too, huh!?" She asked Tails.

"Ohboy." Tails whimpered.

PIKO-POWER!

"Ow-ow-ow-ow!" Tails moaned, holding HIS head. "Amy, it's not OUR fault!...most of the time it's just SONIC'S!"

"HEY!" Sonic yelled, shaking his fist.

"Ohhh, the things I do for love." Amy mumbled to herself. "We'll do this."

"Can you have it done in a week?" Sonic wanted to know.

Tiara took out a small cigarette and lit it up with a small Mario-shaped lighter from her pocket, flipping the hat off so a small flame popped out of Mario's skull at the top. "...three days." She remarked. "We'll have to make those rings we used on Tails from scratch and get some specially-crafted ones for you with His blessing, but give us some credit. Three days at the most." She commented with a grin.

"Which means three nights of fasting, praying, studying the texts..." Amy thought to herself, rubbing her chin.

"I'm sorry putting all this weight on you." Sonic admitted, hanging his head in shame.

"It's fine, really." Amy laughed, shaking her head. "But YOU...owe me a date in exchange for when this is over."

Sonic gulped. "Ohboy."

...

...

...

... "HIYAAAAAAH!" Knuckles roared out, leaping into the air and bringing his fist down on a large log. It cracked into pieces and he quickly delivered a harsh and mighty set of blows to the chunks that flew up, carving them into big slabs. "Perfect!" He commented cheerily, bowing at Tiara, who caught all of the logs. "The patented Knuckles Clan method for success: everything can be solved by using your fists just the right way!"

Tiara smiled as she leaned against the nearby railing to the front steps to the door, arms folded. "Not bad, not bad." She told the echidna in an approving manner. "...but...why are you covered in pink sparkles?"

"That too is a passed-down tradition of the Knuckles Clan. Only real men wear pink, you know." Knuckles informed her, looking proud. He then rubbed his chin. "Say, where's Sonic gone off to?"

"He said he was going to his mother's grave." Tiara said. "...sigh. Reminds me of the day he burnt their old house down."

"Why'd they do that?" Knuckles wanted to know, raising an invisible eyebrow.

"I suppose so that they could keep moving forward...never have any home to go back to. It was meant to force them to look to the future. At least, that's what Tails said." Tiara told the echidna.

"You really care about them, huh?" Knuckles remarked as he and Tiara walked inside and Tiara headed for the living room, walking past Amy's door as she sat Indian-style on the floor, hands clasped in prayer, sweat pouring down her brow.

"I've been watching over them for a long time." Tiara admitted. "Almost half of how long I've been living here. Their dad was the one who delivered me when the doctor couldn't come!" Tiara laughed.

"Oh, you...you look rather young." He admitted.

"Ah, I know. But I'm older, really. I'm 35." Tiara laughed. "I only look young cuz I've got skill in Zoe, the same way Amy does." She informed Knuckles.

"...this reminds me...where are Sonic and Tail's father? And Amy's parents?" Knuckles wanted to know.

"...they died in the Shanazaran campaign. My son...he and his wife were Metallurgists as well. They had Bios skill in them and were gifted mechanics to boot. They were sent to the front lines and healed up ANY patients they got. It didn't matter if they were Shanazar citizens or our own men. But...they died out there." Tiara murmured. "...they were very...I..." She bit her lip. "...I miss them very much." She whispered. "But Amy's managed to endure the loss...and so must I. Just as Sonic and Tails have to endure the loss of their mother."

Knuckles closed his eyes and folded his arms. "...yes. It...it was a terrible war. A terrible, terrible war..." He whispered.

...

...

...

... "Hail Mary, Mother of God, Hail Mary, Mother of God, Hail Mary, Mother of God..." Tiara prayed over and over as she stood underneath a waterfall, hands clasped together in prayer, wearing the plain white clothes of an acolyte.

"...so THIS is what goes into it." Sonic commented as he rubbed his cursed arm.

"Could be worse. She could have to flagellate herself like Amy does." Knuckles told him.

"WHAAAAA!?!?" Sonic screamed.

"Kidding." Knuckles laughed.

"Well what DOES she do?" Sonic wanted to know.

"Eee-may-pay-soo-doh-mee-nay! Doh-mah-pay-ees-ray-quee-em!" Amy chanted, whacking her head with a bible over and over as she walked in circles around a small ring that was beginning to glow brighter and brighter every hour.

"Sometimes I HATE magic's cost. I really, really hate it." Tails decided. "Amy, you keep doing that, you're going to, to quote Mighty, "Bust your head until the white meat shows."

Mighty suddenly sat up from the dinner table, and his wife and daughter gave him a concerned look. "What's wrong?"

"I sense...a disturbance." He whispered.

...

...

...

... "It's aaaaaaaall finished!" Amy said, placing the new rings on Sonic's wrists. "Now listen, I did all the steps correctly, but Chaos appeared to me last night and said he wanted to test you. There's gonna be something of a handicap to your abilities." She informed Sonic as Tails, who had returned back to his normal appearance, looked himself over in the mirror, as Knuckles held a thumbs up in approval.

"Feels good...what's this "handicap"?" Sonic wanted to know as he did a few hand-stands in front of them all.

Amy brushed some of her hair out of her eyes. "You'll be able to heal faster from your wounds, but unfortunately some of your power had to be be sacrificed." She informed him sagely, waving a finger in the air. "So BE-CAREFUL-OUT-THERE." She insisted.

"Heh." Tiara thought to herself as she blew another ring of smoke from her cigarette. "Too bad it's gonna get so quiet around here again." She thought to herself as Sonic ran outside to go test out his arm.

Tails then motioned for him and Amy to go into the next room, and the two sat down, with Tails folding his hands in his lap.

"Listen...Amy..." He sighed. "...I want to thank you. For everything you've done for us. You've treated Sonic and I like we're your real family."

"You guys ARE totally like my family. Well...Sonniku might be something else..." Amy admitted quietly, twirling a lock of her hair.

"Sonic's got kind of an ego problem. He hates looking weak in front of others." Tails told her. "But I know how grateful HE is to know somebody like you." He added. "You're...you're so good to him."

"It's okay." Tiara remarked, stepping into the room. "He doesn't need to say it. I can see it in his eyes...and yours too." She added. "A will to keep moving forward...that same will that helped pick you up when you fell before."

...

...

...

... "You..." Big whispered in horror, his entire body shaking. "...how...how did you..."

"You know, Big...I am very, very disappointed in you." She said in a condescending tone, waving her finger in the air. "Makin' me go aaaaall the way down here to the STICKS." She rolled her eyes. "But I followed you with my heart, Big. And the heart..." She placed one hand upon her chest, speaking ravishly. "THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER!" She proclaimed.

Big backed up against the wall. "I thought you woulda just forgotten about me...you stinking, lousy-"

Sonia snapped her fingers and suddenly the hair atop her head shot out like snakes, wrapping around Big and bringing him close. She whispered darkly in his ear, eyes narrowed. "You just made a BIG mistake, big-boy. If some NORMAL schmuck saw that info you handed out, no biggie. But somebody as smart as Sonic and his brother...that's trouble. I WON'T let him bring down the whole operation."

"Oh, you WON'T, huh?!" Big muttered angrily, eyes glittering as he reached with one hand into the fishing tackle in his pocket. "Too bad I'm sayin' differently! HA!"

His hand rushed up and slashed at her throat, and a large fishing hook found it's way into her throat, as blood splurted out and she was forced to let go of Big, stepping back as Big grinned proudly, seeing her hold her throat. "HA! Betcha weren't 'spectin'..."

His eyes widened in horror. "...that..." He gasped out.

Her throat was stitching back up right before his eyes, returning to normal as she moved her head back and forth like she was on a string. "How RUUUUDE." She commented. "You made me DIE once. Naughty, NAUGHTY kitty. Now I'm gonna hafta punish you!" She whispered.

The door to the shack opened. "Big, I caught you your favorite fish just like you always like-" A young human girl spoke up, stepping into the shack.

"Ah, no, Kerry-" Big shouted.

THWAM! Kerry was slammed to the wall as Sonia walked over to her, her hair holding the child in place as she caressed the girl's cheek, the fish the girl had caught for Big flopping on the floor. "Bringing him a present? Such a sweet little girl you are. Oh big-bad-putty taaaaat." She cheerily sang out, turning to Big, wrapping one hand around the girl's neck. "You KNOW what will happen if I squeeze, don't you?" She whispered.

"Leave her be! She ain't done nothin'!" Big tearfully begged.

"That's not what I want to heaaaaaaar!" Sonia sang out. "...TELL ME, "puddy tat"." She whispered darkly.

"...I...I hid everything in...in..." Big whimpered.

...

...

...

...well...at Central City's library...

"SONOFABIIIIIIITCH!" Sonic moaned, holding his arm over his face as he screamed to the heavens, a shocked/horrified Knuckles and Tails standing by him. "All the research nooooootes!"

"Was that all you did today?" The Biolizard asked Sonia as they sat atop a rooftop diner, looking out over the city. "I mean, I like to see things burn too, but..."

"We couldn't have him finding out about those notes, Biolizard." She told him kindly, shaking her head before patting him on HIS. "Now that that's good and outta the way, we can go back to takin' care of business...huh?" She noticed Biolizard's feral eyes had turned to slits and he was sniffing the air. "What is it?"

"I smell him...that metal warrior drenched in blood..." Biolizard whispered darkly, eyes widening in awe.

"Well...isn't THAT a treat!" Sonia giggled, holding one gloved hand over her mouth. "That is like, SUCH a pleasant surprise!"

"Can I eat him?" He asked.

"Don't leave one strand of HAIR." Sonia commented calmly.

Meanwhile, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles were being accosted by two more of Shadow's men. Or rather, one man and one woman. One was a green-feathered hawk with bright blue eyes, a pair of goggles on his head and a sharp yellow beak. He had a cocky grin to his features and red and white boots. Standing next to him was a purple-feathered female swallow with two long trails of hair going down from the white cap she wore atop her head, with a pair of tinted orange sunglasses at her forehead and the same bright blue eyes as her partner. These were Jet and Wave, two of a trio of Avian sapients who worked in Central.

"Good to see you, Jet...I guess." Sonic remarked. He kind of felt that Jet was a pain in the ass. And Tails frowned at the sight of Wave. She had a bad habit of pointing out how Tails couldn't properly shake hands with anyone...or eat. Or drink. Or sleep. He was unsure how much of that was done with...what was the term...oh, right. "Malice aforethought".

"Hello. Wave." Tails commented, folding his arms.

"Soniiiic." Jet said with a big grin. "We've been assigned to take you to somebody who can help you out with all of this." He said, motioning for them to head towards a grouping of things that rather much looked like...surfboards. Only they had unmistakable glowing engines beneath them and were hovering in the middle of the sidewalk.

Mounting their respective "Extreme Gears", all of them headed down the road as Wave began to explain the situation. "Luckily for you there was somebody who's been working at that Library for YEARS." She told Sonic and Tails as they jumped over a car whose owner angrily honked at them. "He lives down the street."

"We found him ourselves." Jet added.

"So we're...in your debt?" Sonic asked.

"Yes. Yes you are." Jet laughed, sniggering.

"Stinkin' chicken." Sonic muttered.

"Wanna run that by me AGAIN?!" Jet demanded to know, slowing down his Extreme Gear so that he and Sonic could be floating side-by-side.

"KENTUCKY-FRIED! BUK-KAAAAAW!" Sonic screamed in his face, pretending to wave his arms like he was a rooster.

"Knock it off or I'll knock YOU off!" Knuckles admonished the two.

...

...

...

... "Pleasure to meet you sir. Absolute pleasure." The blue-haired human insisted, adjusting the sunglasses he wore before shaking Sonic's hand thoroughly. "Robbie Dennis's the name. But call me "Wax"." He insisted, adjusting the shiny black leather jacket he wore.

"Why "The Wax"?" Sonic wanted to know.

"Do I LOOK like a "Robert"?" The Wax laughed, shaking his head as he headed over to a nearby bookcase in his enormous living room, taking out a key from a nearby mason jar and leading them over to the basement door. "Now...prepare...TO BE AMAZED." He informed them all, opening up the basement door and flicking the light on.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

"Woah." Sonic gasped. There, in the enormous basement below, which appeared to stretch on for hundreds of feet, were tons and tons of notebooks and various tomes. Tails walked down to one pile, looking over the top. "...is...is this?"

"I spent so much time in the library I decided to just copy down everything. Some magic helped, but mostly it was long nights. Not like I had a social life!" The Wax said, laughing so hard he actually began to cry.

"Well, uh...let's...get looking through this, huh, Tails?" Sonic asked his brother, who nodded eagerly.

The others sat upstairs as The Wax got to work on pouring them all some different drinks. "So what do you think it is they're looking for?" Knuckles asked The Wax.

"Well, you said they were interested in Mr. Big's research, right?" The Wax thought out loud, sipping a forty as Sonic began to comb through a large notebook, his eyes widening slowly but surely.

"Yeah."

"Well, I don't know DIDDLY about religious texts, but from what I gathered, it had something to do with the importance of the soul." He took another long sip. "Maybe some...I dunno, some magic spell that has to do with one's purity? Isn't that how a "Chosen" is picked to wield Life Magic? You can't be evil AND a white-"

"JESUS CHRIST!" Sonic's scream bellowed out from the basement.

The others looked at each other, then ran downstairs to see Sonic had slammed his fist into the wall and Tails was holding his head in his eyes, his eyes widened in horror.

"What's wrong, guys? You ain't fightin', are you? Did Big write so illegibly you can't figure it out?" The Wax wanted to know. "I mean, some of these big-shot textbook writers are-"

"No, we...we understood the code he put down. We "got" the writing." Tails murmured. "...we know what's needed to make a Chaos Emerald."

The other's eyes widened in awe...save for Knuckles, who blinked a few times. "What's...wrong with that?" He wanted to know. "...isn't this a good thing?"

"...to make one chaos emerald..." Sonic whispered darkly, resting against the wall, clenching his fists and slamming them into said wall as he grit his teeth. Silence now reigned supreme throughout the room.

"All you gotta do...is simply take...the souls of innocent people!" Sonic screamed.

Author's Note:
I dedicate this particular season to "TheWax70", who founded the sonic cartoons that so inspired me. Check his work out on or on Sonic Paradox.