A New Year a new Chapter, I hope you enjoy it.

Within a canyon a passed-out man was lying down unconscious with his right arm clutched tightly. The mysterious individual was none other than Jack, who was pulled out of Null Space by the Phantom Ruby in an attempt to save itself from its own destruction. Jack woke up clutching his right arm as he stood up. The Ruby began glowing lightly as the cracks on his arm began to envelope on the Ruby's colors and healed his arm. He then heard a voice speaking to him through his mind.

'Jack, that was a really risky move my darling,' Jack nodded as he responded, "Yeah, I didn't actually think the emerald would overflow the Ruby with power, good thing you told me to drop it before it got worse." He looks down at his arm, but feels a shaky feeling, as if the damage on his arm still linger within him, 'Yes, while the Emerald did damage you, it does seem that the Ruby has gained a higher limit of power, meaning you'll have a larger amount of stamina than what it used to be,' the voice says trying to keep Jack's attention away from his arm's strange feeling. "Yeah, I wonder…" Jack says as he begins to think deeply, 'What's the matter darling?' Jack looks down at his clutched hand as he felt power built up within it, he opened his hand as the Ruby began creating a small pulsating energy ball. Jack closed his eyes as he concentrated on a mental image of Classic Sonic, he recalled the hedgehog's movements and abilities.

After a while of concentration he opened his eyes and grasped the pulsing energy ball and threw it in front of him creating a portal leading to nowhere. Jack crossed his arms as he patiently waited, 'What is that darling?' asks the voice, Jack smirks as he tells the voice to wait. After a while various red and black particles start coming from the portal and begin to form three Classic Sonics with blank looking eyes (imagine the Copies of Shadow from Sonic Forces and how their eyes look very different.)

'Oh my, Jack this is a very impressive ability you've picked up, the ability to create illusions,' the voice said with an impressed tone, Jack smirked as he began walking up to the three fake hedgehogs. The portal began letting out even more particles creating three more Classic Sonics, "If I want to beat that hedgehog and take over the real world, I have to learn how to properly control the amount of energy I use when attacking," Jack tells the voice as he glares at the illusions. "By managing my energy, I'll be able to at least prolong the amount of time I have before the Ruby needs to recharge again." Jack clutches his fists as he begins floating up in the air and commands the fake hedgehogs to attack him, "And I'll do so by practicing my power against these fakes."

Items added successfully

NOW SPAWNING ITEMS:

Those were the words that the black command box showed before it disappeared, a portal then opened near the club members as the weapons that Nathan asked for were spat out into the room. Meanwhile Nathan was still being scolded by Monika, "WAIT WHAT?! WEAPONS?! ARE YOU CRAZY!?" Monika shouted angrily. Nathan held his hands up defensively as he began trying to explain himself, "W-Wait! H-Hold on now Monika," Nathan says in a shaky voice, but goes quiet and frowns as soon as Monika begins glare at him. Sayori notices that Nathan is beginning to get depressed, and decides to cut in, "Uh?! Hold on Monika!" she shouts getting everyone's attention, "I think you're being a bit too harsh on Nathan, right?" she says worriedly to the rest of her club members.

Shay nods in agreement, "Sayori is right, besides, you saw how much of a threat Jack is, he's just far to powerful." Natsuki nods in agreement alongside with Sonic, "Their right Monika, when it comes to Jack we don't stand a chance against him, he kidnapped me, and I couldn't do anything to defend myself," she says in a serious tone. Yuri begins to chime in also to defend Nathan, "Y-Yes Monika, I'm sure Nathan is only doing this because he's worried about all of us, and considering that Jack has grown so strong that not even Sonic can stop him, we should probably consider this option," Yuri says calmly to the president. Meanwhile Nathan seems to get more confident, making his frown disappear. Monika's expression turns to one of guilt as she turns to Nathan with a sad look, "um… I'm sorry Nathan, I guess I just wasn't thinking right, I didn't realize that you were trying to help us," she says with a shaky voice.

Nathan notices Monika starting to get sad and decides to cheer her up. "No Monika, I'm sorry," he says with a warm smile, Monika perks up as she looks at Nathan, "W-What do you mean? They're right, I was being way to har-" she cuts herself off as she shakes her head, "No, I was being a jerk to you, both when you got to the club and now," she said as she looked down at the ground sadly. "It's just… I've been so used to having everything repeat in a cycle, you know? Me being in control of the game's events, and now I don't even know what to expect from the future, and it's really scary," she said shakily. "I've just been under a lot of stress lately with all of this Nathan, and I'm just worried about you, about all of you," she says as she looks up to Nathan.

Nathan smiles as he tries to cheer her up. "It's okay, I forgive you Monika, I get how you feel, but I promise that we will fix this mess, you just have to trust all of us," Monika feels a strange knot in her stomach as she nods, "I-I will, t-thanks, Nathan," she says quietly as she feels her face get a slight blush. 'Eh? Why do I feel embarrassed?' Monika thought to herself as she felt her blush disappear.

After a while Nathan focuses his attention back to the spawned weapons. The group walks up to the colorful weapons as Nathan picks up an orange drill looking weapon. "What are those? They look like toys," Natsuki asks as she eyes them. "They're wispons, in Sonic Forces the Phantom Ruby was used by Sonic's enemy Dr. Eggman, he successfully took over 99.99% of the world forcing the resistance army to fight back using these," Nathan explained to the group, "each wispon has its own abilities, I'll take this one," Nathan says as he shows the drill wispon, "This is the drill wispon, allows me to rev up the drill in order to travel at high speeds and break through anything in my way, I'll use this to destroy that annoying spike attack of Jack, but it'll leave me wide open to those blasts he shoots."

Nathan notices Yuri grabbing the purple wispon in curiousity, "that's the void wispon Yuri," Nathan tells her, "that wispon acts as a vacuum and sucks up anything in its path, that could definitely be useful to suck up those energy blasts from Jack," Yuri nods as she decides to take the wispon. "OH! OH! Nathan, what does this one do? It looks cute," Sayori says excitedly as she picks up a blue wispon. "Eh? Oh that's the hammer wispon Sayori, by slamming the hammer down a shockwave will go around the floor and turn any enemies around you into blue cubes, essentially freezing them and destroying them, but we could use it to also destroy the spike attacks," Nathan explained to which Sayori was very intrigued by. "Hey Nathan, what about this one?" Shay asks as he picks up an indigo colored wispon with a ring around it, "that's the asteroid wispon, it has an auto lock on feature, so you can shoot at your targets, it breaks them or it's atoms turning them into blocks that follow you, that should work on Jack's blasts and spikes, so it's very useful" Shay smiles as he takes a liking to the description told by Nathan. "Say Nathan what about this one?" Nathan turns to Monika who is holding a green wispon, "That's the hover wispon, it can shoot strong gusts of winds in the form of a blast that is strong enough to break through metal, so it should be good enough to also break spikes and stop blasts," Nathan explained, Monika smiled as she told him she'll use the wispon.

"H-HEY! WHY DO I GET LAST PICK?" Natsuki shouted with her wrists on her hips. Nathan chuckled a bit, "Hey c'mon you got the lightning wispon, to be honest it's one of my favorite wispons, though I picked the drill one since it's the most difficult one to use in my opinion," Nathan explained. Natsuki smirked as she stood proud with the lightning wispon, "UWA?! Well if you say it's your favorite wispon, then it must be a good wispon." she said with a smug smile. Nathan nodded as he explained the wispon, "well the wispon allows you to use an electric whip to destroy various enemies, though I don't think it could work on the spikes attack, but it should work in order to destroy the energy blasts," Natsuki grew a smirk on the abilities that the wispon had.

"Say Nathan," Shay called out, "What's up Shay?" Nathan turned to the other boy. "Well I was wondering; can't we spawn in rings? You know to turn Sonic into his super form like you mentioned?" Nathan's eyes quickly go wide as he begins stammering, "Y-Yeah, why didn't I think of that?!" Nathan shouts, he quickly turns to Natsuki and guides her on the retrieval of the file that contains the information about Sonic's rings. It takes about 20 minutes, but they eventually finally place all of the information into the item folder causing the black box to appear again.

os,add item/ring,chr

Item added successfully

NOW SPAWNING ITEM:

A portal then opened and spat out a single ring in front of the group, the portal then closed leaving the group in dumbfounded, the ring rolled over to Nathan's feet like a wheel and fell flat. "Oh, you got to be kidding me," Nathan said in an annoyed tone, "All this time, and it only spawned one?" Sayori looks at him and starts giggling uncontrollably, "That sucks! And we need 50 of them for him to turn into his super form," she manages to say quickly before continuing with her laughter. "S-Sayori, I-I don't think now is the time to laugh," Yuri says shyly, but seems to also be slightly giggling. She tries to hold her laughter back, but gives up as soon as Shay begins to laugh alongside Sayori. Meanwhile Natsuki starts laughing alongside with Sonic, who's body language shows him chuckling at the misfortune of the single ring. Nathan can't help but smile at the group while clutching the one ring in his hand, he turns to Monika. He notices that her face is red, and she is covering her mouth with both her hands while giggling quietly to herself, trying really hard not to burst out with laughter. Nathan smirks mentally and gets an idea, "Why are you guys laughing? It's not funny," Nathan said with a joking tone while maintaining a serious face. The howling group start laughing louder than ever at Nathan's joke. Nathan looks back at Monika who starts getting even redder and buries her entire face deep into her hands trying to keep herself from laughing, but in no time she completely succumbs. She removes her hands from her mouth and puts them on her stomach as she starts laughing loudly. Nathan smiles as he starts chuckling a bit too at his own misfortune. In between laughs Monika tries to apologize, "I-I'm S-Sorry Nathan… I-It's just y-your reaction… it was just really priceless!" she says that last part with a higher pitch as she starts laughing louder.

After a while Monika regains a bit of her composure, and is still giggling lightly while everyone else but Nathan is laughing loudly still. Nathan can't help but smile at her to which she notices, "W-What? Is something wrong?" she asks him. "Eh? No, it's nothing, it's just the first time I've seen you actually laugh at something," Nathan says with a chuckle causing Monika to blush lightly, "O-Oh r-really? S-Sorry, I didn't mean to make fun of you," she says quietly looking down. "Eh?! No, that's not what I meant, it's just…" Nathan trails off as he looks away, "it's just you were kind of cute," he said quietly, causing Monika to grow a deeper shade of red and look down at the ground in embarrassment 'Eh? I don't understand, why am I embarrassed, during our last run I wasn't feeling like this,' Monika thinks to herself as she mentally ponders this new feeling.

Back with Jack

Jack had blasted over many of the fake hedgehogs and had only one left to take down. The illusion hedgehog ran away in fear from the man, Jack quickly zoomed in front of him causing the hedgehog to bump into him and fall back. The fake hedgehog looked at the man in fear, as Jack held his hand in front of the hedgehog and blasted him. "That's the last of them, and I feel that this is a good stopping point," Jack said out loud, 'Very well dear, I shall prepare a portal to renter Null Space' the voice said while Jack nodded 'Say are you sure it was a good idea to leave those kids in Null Space?' Jack smirked and said, "sure, it's not like they can tamper with the files, not without the Phantom Ruby or any privileges which they both lack," he said with confidence. The portal finally appeared, and Jack entered it.

Within Null Space the group finally stopped laughing and regained their composure Nathan noticed a small portal forming and expanding in Null Space, sending a chill down his spine. "Oh no! GUYS WE ARE LEAVING NOW! GRAB ON TO ME!" Nathan shouted as he pulled out his Chaos Emerald. Everyone sees the portal and run up to Nathan. Monika and Shay hold on to his shoulders, while Sayori, Yuri, and Sonic hold on to each other while holding on to Shay. Nathan quickly concentrates and is just barely able to warp everyone out of there with Chaos Control as the portal began visibly forming Jack's shadow getting closer to it.

The group was warped back into the club room, they glanced around and sighed in relief at the sight of familiar territory. "Oh yes we're back," Sayori chanted, "Oh my favorite chair, I've missed you," she shouted with glee as she hugged the chair making everyone laugh. Nathan looked down on his wispon and looked back at the group, "Well, now since we've got these wispons, how about we meet up tomorrow on Saturday to learn how to use them? I'm sure it won't take that long to learn how to use them," Nathan asked the group. Everyone nodded in agreement saying that they'd be down to meet up.

"Well, we should probably leave now," Monika said as she looked at her friends, everyone nodded, got their stuff packed, and put the wispons away in their bags. Meanwhile Natsuki was helping Nathan with hiding Sonic in the gym bag again, Nathan made sure to not zip all of the bag up in order to let air in for the hedgehog. After that everyone walked out of the club room and waited for Monika to lock up the room. The group exited the school, and as they left the gates Shay spoke up, "Say now I can say this is truly the first time we all walk home together," Shay told the group, "Eh? That's right, last time we were all warped to Monika's house," Sayori said cheerfully with a smile. The conversation was broken by the sound of a growling stomach, Shay turned to Sayori giving a grin, "W-What?! It wasn't me this time!" Sayori stammered trying to defend herself, while everyone quietly giggles. "Uhm… Actually, that was me," Nathan said quietly, Monika turned curiously, "Really? When was the last time you ate?" Monika asked worriedly. "W-Well," Nathan said shakily as he scratched the back of his head, "Me and Sonic haven't eaten anything since this morning," he says with an awkward smile. An unzipping sound is heard as Sonic pokes his head out of the gym bag nodding in agreement to Nathan's statement.

Monika and Natsuki give the two a stern look, "Skipping meals is not very healthy you two," Monika says seriously as she crosses her arms, to which Natsuki nods in agreements. "It's true, if you skip your meals you'll suffer from malnourishment," she says while putting her wrists against her hips. "Well we were going to eat… but after the whole powerplant fiasco we were kind of more concern about our injuries," Nathan explains, "But since we didn't really find anything for our injuries well… let's just say we may have lost track of time and had to rush to the club when we realized we were late."

Monika sighed, but smiled as she looked at Nathan, "Well then, guess we'll just have to go stop somewhere to eat on our way home," Monika chimes with a cute smile. Nathan flinches lightly and retorts, "B-But, I don't have any money to pay for me and Sonic's food," he says shyly to which Monika shakes her head. "Don't worry about it Nathan, I'll pay for you two," Monika says happily. "Uwah?! No fair! Can we go too?" Sayori whines to Monika who smiles happily. "Sure, let's all go together," Monika answers, her voice getting more excited, to which Nathan begins to perk up in curiosity towards Sayori.

"Hey, hold on, if I remember the events of the last game correctly," Nathan said as he put his hand on his chin. "You don't have any money on you right now Sayori," he said with a grin to which Sayori flinches. "Eh? N-Nathan what are yo-" she gets cut off by Shay who calls her out, "SAYORI!" he shouts as Sayori freezes up. "You were planning on guilt tripping me into buying you something weren't you?" Shay says glaring at his best friend. Sayori goes red in embarrassment as she twirls her two index fingers in her usual manner, "m-maybe…" she stammers quietly. Everyone laughs except for Shay who sighs and smiles, "Okay, I'll pay, but you owe me Sayori," he says as Sayori beams up with a bright smile thanking him.

While all this is happening Natsuki blushes lightly to which Yuri notices, "Is something wrong Natsuki?" Yuri asks the pink haired girl. Natsuki perks up and states, "Um… I don't have any money either…" she says in an embarrassed tone. "Don't worry about it, I'll pay for you also," Shay casually offers while Natsuki blushes at the offer.

After the discussion the group reached a street that contained various restaurants, Monika pointed to one of the nearby buildings, "Hey what about this one?" she chimed with excitement. It was a burger place that had just opened, and Monika seemed excited to check it out. The group agreed and entered the building, upon entering Nathan noticed that the interior was normal, but in the back of the place there were various separate rooms that had a sign. "Hey Nathan," Monika chimed getting his attention, "I'll take care of the order, go ahead and find a seat for us okay?" Nathan nods as he leaves the group to check the rooms in the back. Upon checking on the sign, he reads that the rooms are actually study rooms for students who wish to dine in and have a solitary room for studying. He decides that its best to dine in this room so that Sonic can freely eat without getting caught.

Nathan decides to wait for the group in front of the rooms and is approached by Monika who is holding a tray of 2 burgers, fries and a kid's meal which Nathan assumes is for Sonic. "So, Nathan where should we eat?" She says excitedly which makes Nathan smile, "We can use these study rooms, that way Sonic can come out to eat," he says that last part silently. Monika beams in delight at Nathan's decision, Nathan holds the door for her as she walks in. "Oh, this room is pretty big," she says in awe as she takes a seat on the large table. Nathan sits down next to her and unzips the gym bag in order to let Sonic out

The hedgehog hopped out of the gym bag and stretched out his sleeping muscles. "Here you go," Monika said happily handing the him the kids meal box. Sonic grabs the box, his eyes beams at the sight of the colorful box with various kid designs. He opens the box and the aroma of the food enters his nostrils, completely enticing him as he pulls out his burger and fries and munches happily on them.

Nathan smiles as he turns to Monika who is still smiling, "You seem pretty excited," Nathan says. Monika nodded as she smiled and looked at Nathan, "Is it that visible?" she chimed Nathan chuckled, "Yeah, you're acting kind of like Sayori right now." Monika giggles lightly, "Well I'm just excited because this is the first time I've ever actually done something like this," she explained to him, "Eh? Really? I would have figured that you'd do this sort of thing all the time since the game said you're the most popular girl in school," Nathan said curiously. Monika shook her head, "Well, the fact since I apparently am the quote on quote most popular girl," she says while making air quotes with her two hands, "I didn't have many friends because of that since everyone just assumed I was out of their lead." Nathan chuckles lightly at her statement while she goes on, "there is also another reason, my parents were very strict while raising me, so I couldn't go out past my curfew or hang out with friends in general, I was just forced to study and be a good kid, heck now I was allowed to live on my own since our home was so far from the school," Nathan let out a sympathetic sigh, "I totally know what you mean, my parents were also really strict, I couldn't hang out with friends and was also put to constantly study, heck I only got to hang out once with my friends, and I had to lie saying that we were going to have a study session."

Monika perks up with a smile, "Eh? Really? I actually did the same thing myself, that's why I made the literature club," she says casually to which Nathan takes interest in, "Oh really?! Do tell," Nathan says gaining interest. "Well I was forced to join clubs during my high school years which is why I was stuck on the debate club, heck I was able to sway their opinion by saying I would host my own club, which is why I chose a literature club in order to make it sound very educational, but at the same time have it be fun unlike the debate club." Monika continues to ramble on, "That's why I always described the club as a place for people to hang out and have fun, which is why I am constantly pushing for the festival," Nathan perked up at the mention of the festival. "What do you mean? Don't you already have enough members for the school to keep the club up?" Nathan asked curiously, Monika nodded as she went on, "Yeah, but my parents are insisting for the club to have many members, and if it doesn't get many I'll be sent back into the debate club," she said as her smile turned into a frown, "I… I don't want to lose the literature club, especially after this run, I've never had as much fun as I've had now, I've never laughed or smiled like I have before," she said sadly. "Well you don't have anything to worry about," Nathan chimed, causing Monika to perk up, "You're very talented Monika, and I have no doubt that you all will easily gather enough members for your parents to reconsider." Monika's smile returned as her eyes gleamed with hope, "You think so?!" she asked to which Nathan nodded, "I know so, with Natsuki's cupcakes, Yuri's atmosphere set up, and everyone's performances there's no way you won't have enough members." Monika begins to cough abruptly as she sips on her soda.

"You okay?" Nathan asked as he patted her back. "Yeah, it's just I'm not used to being supported and cheered on," Nathan tilted his head curiously, "Really?" Monika nodded as she explained, "Well even though I try really hard with my studies and try to be a good daughter, my parents still criticize me at every chance they get," she says with a light glare as she crosses her arms. "It's always," Monika pauses as she does an impersonation of her parents, "Monika, why don't you play any sports like your cousins, Monika, you shouldn't lie lazily in your pajamas like that, Monika, why don't you have a boyfriend yet," she says that last part in a more annoyed tone, "I mean, how am I going to get a boyfriend if my parents don't even let me hang out with my friends," she complains causing Nathan to chuckles. "Man, I totally understand how you feel Monika, that's exactly how my parents act every day," Nathan says as he also mimics his parents, "It's always, Nathan, why don't you like going out, Nathan, why don't you read a lot like your cousins, who mind you I've never seen pick up a book in my life," Monika giggled as she began to chime in, "Monika, why can't you take summer classes, you know even though you already work hard all year," they then decided to alternate, "Nathan, why didn't you take a college class during high school, even though you already have 3 right now," Sonic smirked at the two's discussion, "Monika, why don't you hang out with the family more often, because you know it's not like we've committed you to study hard every day," they continued on quoting their parents, "Nathan, why aren't you as smart as all your other relatives, you know the ones who are college/high school dropouts who thought it be a great idea to impregnate their girlfriends without a stable job."

The two went on for quite a while quoting their guardians, "Nathan, why can't you speak English as clearly as everyone else?" Nathan chuckled as Monika was intrigued by his statement, "Wait what do you mean by that?" she asked curiously. "Oh right, well you see my family isn't of American or Japanese culture," Nathan explained while Monika nodded as she listened, "Actually my parents are Mexicans, so I'm of Mexican decent making me fall under a Hispanic ethnicity since I was born in America," he went on while Monika was really engrossed on the subject. "REALLY?!" she said excitedly, she pauses to compose herself "So does that mean you can speak Spanish?" she asked with amazement Nathan simply nodded as he remembered how Monika had told him in the previous game run that she really adored other cultures. "That's really cool Nathan," Monika chirps getting closer to him causing him to slightly blush, "Hey Nathan… I know you don't go to our school… but do you think you could also perform something for our literature club in Spanish?" Monika pleads to Nathan shyly. Nathan smiles at Monika, but begins to question the idea, "I can, but don't you think people won't understand what I'm saying?" Monika nods as she ponders the question, "Well, we could write a translation of your poem, on the pamphlets that me and Sayori will make," Nathan nods at the idea.

"Okay, I'll perform, and I'll do you another favor," Nathan says as Monika looks up curiously, "I'm no Natsuki, but I sure can bake a dessert that's popular in the Mexican culture," he says as Monika's eyes beam at the idea with excitement. "YES! LET'S DO IT," she shouts as the others enter the room.

"Let's do what?" Natsuki asked as she entered the room and took a seat next to Sonic. Monika smiled and explained the plan they came up with excitedly to the group. She tells them about Nathan's ethnicity and how he will make a poem in Spanish for the club, along with a dessert, everyone agreed to her idea.

Meanwhile Sonic had finished his food and was digging through his kid's meal box he pulled out a toy tugged in plastic wrapping, his eyes beamed as he saw it was a whistle with a kid police cap and a fake badge. He put on the hat and put the badge on his fur and began blowing on the whistle. "UWAH?! SO CUTE," Natsuki and Sayori shout in unison as they hug the hedgehog who continues to blow the whistle in a panic as he's being squished by the two girls. Everyone chuckles at the three while happily eating.

Well I think that's a good stopping point for this, hope you enjoyed this chapter, I'm going to start writing more moments like these since I've focused a lot on Jack and the Ruby lately.