"What do you mean we can't fight Scourge?" Sonic practically spluttered.
"It's only if he manages to achieve his goal!" Zonic defended.
"Which is?" Sonic eyed him. Zonic removed his helmet.
"To achieve power not even we could imagine. By fusing the powers of the Chaos Emeralds, Sol Emeralds, the rare Anarchy Beryl embedded within his throne and the Master Emeralds power within himself – which has already made him a hundred times more powerful than yourself I add – do you know what kind of transformation he would undergo?"
"A really powerful one?"
"Unbelievably so. Do you know how wrecked the timeline would become if you or Silver or Shadow died? Even I don't know what would happen, and I don't want to imagine it. I mean, haven't you played Sonic 2006?"
"Wait, what?"
"Oh, uh, never mind."
"Aren't you supposed to be the all-knowing, omni-present, adjacent-to-all-other-realities version of me?"
"I don't know everything! What am I? Solari- Never mind." Sonic was beginning to look suspicious. "All I know is that you, Silver and Shadow can't fight Scourge if he reaches that amount of power."
"What about the others?"
"The others aren't usually playable characters so it's not that bad if . . ." Sonic was looking more confused than ever. "You know what, forget I ever said that."
"You seem to be making an awful amount of 'slip-ups'. What are you hinting at?"
"Hinting? I'm not hinting. See ya Sonic." A portal appeared and Zonic started to disappear into it.
"Wait! What are you trying to tell me?" Zonic was just about gone.
"Just play it through!" He yelled.
"Play it through . . . Wait, how do I," Sonic looked up but Zonic had already disappeared, "get out of here? Play it through. That's what he said, and that's just what I'm going to do." Sonic decided and zoomed for the finish ring.
Knuckles followed the robots from a fair distance as they slowly headed towards the centre of the island. 'What are these 'bots after? Is there a Chaos Emerald around here somewhere? Sonic said that there used to be, but that it was destroyed.'
"Are you positive your databanks recorded Emerald energy readings?" Metal Tails requested of his partner. 'Requested, not demanded,' Knuckles thought, 'these robots are capable of some kind of feeling and emotion.'
"Affirmative, I am reading high amounts of Chaos radiation." Metal Knuckles confirmed.
"Very well, we will continue." Metal Tails seemed to be in charge. Knuckles took a little offence at this. 'Why does he get to be in charge? I-'
"Woah!" Knuckles accidentally gasped aloud at the sight before him. The robots immediately spun around and began firing.
"Kill him!" Metal Tails almost screeched. "No one must know of this! Not even Knuckles."
"Hey, hey, hey! I didn't come here for a fight." Knuckles yelled while dodging bullets. Metal Knuckles stopped his fire but Metal Tails continued. Metal Knuckles put a hand on his partner's shoulder to stop his firing.
"What do you want, Knuckles?" Metal Knuckles inquired.