One long week. It had been one long week since the attack on the castle. It had been one long week since they got the first Chaos Emerald. It had been five long days since tremors have become common all over the world. It had been three long days since everyone had recovered from the fight.

Today would prove to be a little more interesting than the past week ever had been.

The sun was shining over Toad Town. There was not a gray cloud in the sky. The villagers were bustling to and fro, because in less than two weeks time, would be the return of the 100 year comet. Banners were being hung, special treats were being made, lovers made plans, and children rejoiced in with their time off from school. However, not all was peaceful as they displayed it to be. Tremors that could tear buildings apart occurred twice within the same month. Rifts, not unlike the one in the Castle, appeared with the tremors, and existing ones grew wider. E. Gadd, Tails, and Prof. Frankly set up a lab to examine the rift and determine the cause of these rifts, where one will appear next, and what to do if the rifts grow out of control.

Sonic, Mario, Luigi, Silver, and Vivian had been helping others in anyway that they could. If a house fell down, they all worked together to fix it, or if it was beyond repair, they would help build a new one. If there was any sort of a threat, they would attempt to subdue it or get rid of it.

Princess Peach did her best to rule her people, as she gave speeches and encouraged them to not despair, even if the worry in her own heart grew. She had similar nightmares since the one she received not so long ago.

Since those black creatures appeared, everyone agreed that training up to fight against them would be best in case they ever came back.

"Sonic, I've got your back!" Vivian shouted, running from the blasts of electricity and fire.

Sonic nodded as he rushed into Mario and Luigi, knocking the former down and making the latter stagger. Vivian charged her fire and aimed it at Luigi, fortunately his staggering was enough to make her miss, and aim electricity back at her. She was unable to slink into the shadows fast enough and was hit with a blast of electricity, knocking her out.

Mario gave a smirk as he got up, whipping a fireball at Sonic. Sonic dodged the fire with ease, and using a Homing Attack, knocking Luigi out. Sonic turned to face Mario. After a stare off, the two charged at each other, Mario with a charged fireball in his hand. Just as the two were about to collide, Sonic faked out and kicked Mario around the head, knocking the plumber out.

Slowly the three fighters that were knocked down, got back up.

"Wow, Sonic, that was amazing!" Vivian said.

Mario gave a nod of approval, before helping his brother up.

"Oww..." was all Luigi could say.

All day they had been practicing, and almost every time the Mario Bros. lost although they put up an excellent fight as well. They still couldn't match Sonic's speed, no matter how hard they tried.

"Want to try again?" Sonic asked the group, stretching his arms out.

Mario was about to say yes, until he heard a voice calling them inside.

It was in the evening, after Peach commanded them to stop training for the festival, that everyone began to enjoy themselves. Everyone except Silver, that is. Instead he chose to stand away from everyone, looking at the sky instead, scanning it for things other than the Comet. It seemed everyone was having so much fun, that no one, except Vivian, noticed.

"What's wrong, Silver?" she asked the white hedgehog.

"It feels like something terrible is going to happen. I'm not sure what it is, but something bad is going to happen." he replied to the former Shadow Siren.

"I'm sure it's nothing, Silver." she commented, smiling.

Silver looked at her for a second, before returning her friendly gesture with a smile. And for a moment, Vivian's heart gave a leap, as she almost blushed.

"So, whacha guys up to?" Sonic shouted happily, as he embraced the two in a friendly hug.

"Ah! S-Sonic!" Vivian said startled.

"Y'know, maybe they're meeting in secret." Luigi said, approaching the group with bags in his hands.

Silver glared at the mustachioed man.

"Waaah! I-I was only kidding!" Luigi stammered, almost tripping.

"Hey, where's Mario?" Vivian asked

"He's with the Princess, making sure that she isn't kidnapped again." Sonic replied.

"Speaking of which, shouldn't you be there too?" Luigi asked

"Oh, right! See you guys later!" Sonic said before running to the center.

A hush fell over the crowd as, Princess Peach started her speech on the festival, and Sonic made it just in time to sit next to Mario.

"My loyal subjects..." she began.

"Where have you been?" Mario hissed through clenched teeth.

"I've been looking after your brother." Sonic whispered back.

"All evening?" Mario asked.

"Yeah, he asked me to come along with him since you were busy with guarding the Princess and all..." Sonic replied.

"I could of-" Mario began

There was a sudden, almost unanimous, gasp as the people looked upward. Sonic, Mario, and Peach looked upwards. To both of their amazement, there were two moons in the sky. They could hear frightened whispers in the crowds.

"Two moons?"

"Where did it come from?"

"Are those lights on it I see?"

"My loyal subjects, do not be alarmed," Peach spoke, her voice resounding over the crowd.

"Eggman." Sonic growled, recognizing on sight the Space Colony ARK.

"What?" Mario asked.

"That's the ARK," Sonic said indicating the second moon, "It's a space station that orbited my planet. We have to find Vivian, Luigi, and Silver, I'll explain more on the way."

"Wait." Mario said holding Sonic's arm, "Doesn't it look like the comet is going to crash into the ARK?"

As Sonic looked, he saw that Mario was right, and if he was right they had little time to find the others. A large tremble shook the town, sending it into a panic. Mario ran to the Princess as Sonic ran ahead, looking desperately for Silver and Vivian in the crowd. He shouted for the others, and soon found a teal light out from the corner of his eye. Turning he found Silver flying with Vivian, with Luigi running across the rooftops. They were headed to the square, where Mario and Peach were. Sonic tailed back to the square and saw Tails and E. Gadd there.

"Tails, do you have any idea what's going on?" Sonic shouted over the panicking crowd.

"We're not entirely sure but Elvin and I think that the arrival of the ARK might have something to with the tremor." he responded.

A large shock wave, knocked some people on the ground. The group of heroes looked up and saw that the comet was definitely on a crash course with the space station, and by that time, there was nothing they could do but look up and watch them both explode. However, instead of both exploding, it seemed that the ARK deflected the comet, unfortunately, straight towards the planet. Coincidentally, it headed straight for the town square. The people screamed, as they ran for shelter, and the heroes ran from the square.

As the comet crashed into the square, there was a flash of teal light. Sonic saw that Silver was just barely holding up what appeared to be a whole city. Sonic could tell he was straining from all the pressure, and would be crushed if he didn't move. Sonic ran under the city, and grabbed a now knocked out Silver, effortlessly. The city crashed as safely as it could into the ground, and it seemed no one was harmed, thankfully. Everyone could only stop and stare at this unusual sight. Was this really the comet that flew by every 100 years?

Then, out of some of the homes in the city, there came out chubby stars all different colors, the most prominent color were yellow stars. Then, a woman stepped forth from the city. She looked like Peach in many ways, but there were key figures that made her different. Her hair was lighter and less wild, she wore a simple mint dress and her eyes were more delicate. As she came out, she staggered for a moment, but then quickly recovered and looked around before setting her eyes on Mario.

"Mario, it has been a while." she said, as she walked towards him.

"It's nice to see you Rosalina, even if the Observatory did crash into the planet." Mario replied.

"A home can be repaired or replaced, lives cannot." she said, "I need to know if the all the Lumas are ok."

Sonic noticed a smell in the air, one that was very metallic-like, and made him sick to his stomach. Looking at Rosalina, he saw her dress was stained with red. Setting Silver down, he half walked, half ran to her.

"Rosalina? I think you're injured." he said.

"I will attend to that when I see the Lumas are ok." Rosalina said giving a small glance at her dress. She then hurried to the crashed city and started to talk to the stars.

Sonic shrugged, and went back to Mario, Luigi, and Peach.

"You know her?" Sonic asked Mario.

"I know her, too." Luigi input, "You never told her I found those Power Stars." he added, scowling at Mario.

"I told you I tried, but she talked over me!" Mario said defensively.

Luigi rolled his eyes in response.

"I've never gotten the chance to meet her in person, but Mario mentioned her." Peach said.

Sonic nodded. The heroes went to make sure that the Toads and the Lumas were fine. Afterwords, Lumas and Toads alike began to overcome the fear and help each other. Rosalina was brought to the hospital to have her wounds treated, they were only cuts and bruises, nothing too serious, and they brought her to the castle to explain her story. Mario and Luigi also told Sonic what they knew from their adventure.

"So... there were entire galaxies made of water?" Sonic said uneasily.

Mario nodded. "Now that I think about it, the surfing and swimming citizens of Delfino Island would have loved them." he added, thoughtfully.

Sonic looked ill for a moment, then quickly regained composure. At that moment, Rosalina, Peach, Toadsworth, and E. Gadd walked out of the conference room. They all looked very grave.

"So what's up?" Sonic asked the group.

"To make a long story short, Rosalina doesn't have any power to lift her ship off the ground." E. Gadd explined.

"And I don't know where the Grand Stars are..." Rosalina said, "They are hidden from me."

"At least theirs a bright side to this." Luigi said.

Everyone, excluding Sonic, stared at him.

"You're in good hands, Rosalina. Not to mention you crashed into us, no pun intended." Luigi explined, "Plus, you still have a home, the Lumas, and Mario."

"And if something happens to him, you still have the rest of us to count on." Sonic said smiling, "We'll help you through this, together." he added, giving a wink and thumb up.

"... Thank you, Luigi and Sonic." Rosalina said smiling.

"I think we should all get some sleep." Peach said, yawning and glancing at a clock. The hands were pointed at 1:49.

"Quite right, Princess!" Toadsworth said nodding in agreement.

"If it's all the same to you, I'd like to take a look at your Comet Observatory. Maybe Tails and I can fix it, or find the problem with it." E. Gadd said to Rosalina.

Rosaline hesitated, but agreed, but she would only allow it under her supervision.

After everyone had left the conference room, Sonic stayed behind. All week he'd been feeling a presence of another person, and he wanted to confront them personally.

"I know you're there." Sonic said calmly, not turning around.

A figure dropped behind him.

"About time we were alone." they said, "I've been waiting for days but, 'all good things come to those who wait'."

Sonic turned around to come face to face with a red-eyed, green and black hedgehog.

"Who are you?" Sonic said, definatly not liking the energy that came off of him.

"... My name is Ashura, and I challenge you to a fight Sonic the Hedgehog!"

Without warning, Ashura lept upon him. Sonic reacted and dodged the attack before being pinned to the ground, and counteracted with a punch to the face. Ashura staggered for a moment, before charging a spindash and launching himself at his opponent.

'N-No way!' was all Sonic could think.

A direct hit dizzied Sonic and made him vulnerable to another attack. Ashura kicked him, tripping him and uppercut him making the azure hedgehog soar. Sonic retaliated with a Homing Attack and knocked Ashura down. Both of them charged a Spindash and clashed, struggling for a moment. Sonic bounced Ashura off of him, and summoned a hammer that was given to him by the Mario Bros.

THWACK!

He used it to knock Ashura out of his attack, then came in for a second attack onto his head. With that both hedgehogs backed off, both breathing heavy from the fight.

"Ah... Ha... You're pretty fast." Sonic said.

"And... You're stronger... Than I thought." Ashura huffed.

The two stared at each other.

"You win this time," Ashura said smiling, "but next time you might not be so lucky." With that he went into the shadows and vanished.

Sonic could only look in confusion. Looking around he found no traces of Ashura. Giving up he went to go and get his bruises treated.

It was quiet in the lush forest. The Flickies were asleep in the trees, the Chao all cozy in their beds. In the distance, there was a small, cute house. Inside, was a Hero Chao with a bowtie and a teen rabbit, wearing a frilly tanktop and jeans. They were in the kitchen making a delicious surprise.

"Won't this cake be lovely for Amy?" the rabbit asked her Chao.

He nodded his head and said "Chao!"

"I'm glad you agree." she said, "She hasn't smiled in a long time. Not since..." she couldn't bring herself to say it, but instead put the chocolate confection in the oven.

"Anyways, she'll smile with this cake!" she said cheerfully.

A sudden quake shook the house. This one more violent that last.

"Oh no! Not again!" the rabbit said, gripping the nearest wall.

There was a bright flash of light and the quakes stopped. The rabbit looked around, and saw that not much moved around, thankfully. There was however, something in the backyard that wasn't there before. Grabbing a frying pan from the kitchen, she went into her backyard.

As the rabbit looked she found that there was a thing in her yard. Or six things to be exact. Two hands, two shoes, a head and a body. There were no arms or legs.

'Is it a toy?' she thought. Her Chao floated over to the thing on the ground and started batting at the brown blonde hair with a scowl on his face. Cream took a careful look at this thing.

It's head looked like an animal with the way the hair and the nose was. The hands were white, possibly gloved, and the shoes were yellow and white. The body looked like there was a sweater on, it was purple with a white ring and the hood was red.

"Ngh... Ow..." the thing grunted as the rabbit poked it with the handle of her frying pan. Her Chao was so startled, he flew back to the rabbit and scowled again.

It sat up slowly. She gasped as she saw it was moving without limbs. She also noticed the eyes were conjoined, and they were a deep blue.

"What happened?" he asked himself, "Who are you?" he added noticing the rabbit.

"I could ask you the same thing!" she snapped, raising her frying pan threateningly.

"Woah! Hey take it easy! I'm not here to do anything!" he said, in reaction to the frying pan, "And where is here exactly? How did I get here?" He added more to himself.

The rabbit saw that whatever this thing was, he wasn't here to harm anyone. In fact, maybe he wasn't supposed to be here at all, maybe something weird beyond her comprehension happened and he wound up here by accident.

"I'm Cream and this is my Chao, Cheese." she said.

"I'm Rayman." he said.