Chapter 11: The Battle's End

Tails and Sonic looked out the window, sighing. Amy was sitting behind them, head hung down, Pikachu right beside her. They'd lost track of time in their grief, but Sonic and Tails, finally coming to grips with their loss, turned around. Sonic pulled out a walkie-talkie and looked at it somberly.

"We did it, Ash," he whispered. "Thank you...for everything." With that he dropped the walkie-talkie to the ground and started out, his friends slowly following.

That was when they heard a sudden beeping coming from that walkie-talkie. Perking slightly, they rushed back over to it, curious.

"Awesome job, guys!" came a familiarly gravelly voice that even the static couldn't prevent them from recognizing.

They couldn't believe their ears. "ASH!" Tails cried. Amy looked up in shock, as did Pikachu.

"Look outside!" came the voice again. They did so and watched as the Eclipse Cannon opened up, preparing to fire. Suddenly, an explosion rocked the cannon, stopped the blast, and caused it to shut down.

In their excitement, none of the Sonic heroes noticed Eggman's formerly limp form struggle to its feet and grab the Chaos Emerald from Tails' machine.

From a corridor in the ARK, Knuckles and May witnessed the same spectacle as Eggman's plans were foiled once again. As she watched, May noticed a peculiar shimmer come from the base of the cannon. She pulled out some binoculars and smiled ear to ear at what she saw:

Ash was standing there, smiling, holding up half of a ribbon. She held a hand to her heart as she let the binoculars down and pulled the other half of that ribbon out of her pocket, letting its shine reflect off of Ash's half.

Even though Ash couldn't see it with his own set of binoculars, he could tell from the shimmer from above that May was holding up her half. We're going to be okay he thought. Yes...we're going to be okay.


So is that the end? They stopped Eggman, right? It looks like an epic ending, doesn't it?

Yeah, right. All of you who have played the game know full well that this isn't the end, and even if you haven't played the game (I pity you), you could tell just by reading this that it's not over. Why is Shadow still insistent that his promise will be fulfilled? And remember: Eggman has the last Chaos Emerald! Will the ARK fire after all?

The fate of the world is still hanging in the balance, it seems. But for but a brief moment, our heroes seem content to celebrate their victory, even if their "victory" is nothing but a setback to Eggman's plans.