Tails and Nicole met up with Sonic on a floating island above the sky. The trio looked around at the islands, they were like mini versions of Knuckles island, some big, some small, and some with things on them like trees and a waterfall.
"Whoa, neat." Sonic said.
"Yeah, though I do find it kind of weird. How are these islands floating?" Tails said.
"Beats me, but for now we need to get looking for that chaos emerald."
"Do you think it's going to be on one of the islands?" Nicole asked.
Sonic looked out in the distance. There was a shiny emerald coming from an island with an old windmill on it.
"I think that could be it." Sonic said, pointing to the island. "I'm almost positive. When I 1st saw a chaos emerald it had a shiny reflection like that."
"Well then, let's go check it out." Tails said.
On one of the islands behind them however Naugus watched closely.
"Well, well, think you're going to get that chaos emerald huh?"
Naugus with his hand started spinning up a giant tornado. It struggled a bit, and Naugus felt a bit weak as he tried.
"Come on, just a little bit more…" he said, trying to hold back the pain. The tornado formed into a giant one picking up some of the islands with it as well, spinning quiet quickly.
Sonic and the gang turned around to see the tornado heading towards them.
"Oh jeez!" Nicole said.
"Brace yourself guys, I hate to say it but I don't think there's anything we can do to run from it!"
Indeed Sonic was right, by the time he finished the sentence the tornado had gobbled the trio up. Naugus looked on in glee.
"How do you like that hedgehog?"
Sonic, Tails, and Nicole held onto the ground for dear life. Tails accidently let go, but to his surprise didn't go anywhere. The strong winds did blow though him though.
"Sonic it's ok!" he said.
Sonic got, following him Nicole. To their surprise they weren't getting sucked up and blown away. The islands seemed to all combine a bit to form some sort of way to escape from the top of the tornado.
"Nice." Sonic said. "Come on follow me guys!" he said shouting over the loud wind.
The trio tried their best to jump up the other islands, but it was hard to do with the wind almost knocking them all different directions. Tails tried helping out by flying the two up, but he could barely do it due to their weight.
"Sorry." Tails said disappointed in himself.
"It's alright Tails where almost there!" Sonic said, staying positive. The gang where indeed almost there, as there were only a few more islands to get to before they reach the top.
The trio jumped up 2 more islands. On their second jump Nicole almost fell off, but Tails grabbed her and pulled her back up. Finally, they made it to the final island, with one big jump, the gang where tossed high above the sky. Tails jumped into action and grabbed the two.
"You sure you got us Tails?" Nicole asked.
"The island with the windmill is just right over there, I should be able to fly us there, though our landing may be a bit rough."
With all his might Tails flew towards the island as best as he could. He flew quickly hoping to get there before his arms gave out.
"Come on Tails you just a little more." Sonic said, motivating Tails a bit.
Finally the gang where over the island, Tails landed a bit quickly, but stopped to fly for a second, just to slow down so the landing wasn't rough.
"Not bad." Sonic said.
"Thanks."
The gang faced the windmill on the island. The shiny thing however wasn't there.
"Where'd it go?" Sonic asked.
"I don't know, are you sure we're on the right island."
"Yeah, I'm positive!"
It didn't add up to Sonic how the shiny thing was now suddenly gone. Looking at the island closer it seemed quiet and nice. A patch of flowers with everything from roses to daisies was near the edge of the island, and there seemed to be a deck near the top of the island.
As the trio was looking around, the door slightly opened. This caught Nicole's attention.
"Hello?"
The door quickly shut.
"What is it Nicole?" Tails asked.
"I think there's someone in that windmill…" she said, pointing to the door. After finishing her sentence, the door once again slowly opened, to show a girl there. The girl slowly walked out, she wore a purple dress, long brown hair, and kept her head down, too shy to look up. In her hand was the chaos emerald the gang where looking for.
"Hey." Sonic said walking over to her. The girl looking up slowly.
"Names Sonic, what's yours?"
It took her a while to say something; she just stared at Sonic, not out of shock or confusion but more of just studying him and his friends.
"Lizzy." She said.
"Cool name, mind if I ask what you're doing up here?"
Lizzy took some time to think, eventually though she did nod her head, and started walking over to the flowers. She sat down with her legs dangling from the side, still holding the chaos emerald and in fact, looking into it.
"I used to live down there. Down in the city, but I couldn't anymore…" Lizzy began.
"I was shy, but a nice person. I had lots of friends and people who cared about me. I guess some were jealous however, because rumors started to spread about me in the city."
Lizzy sighed, holding back tears.
"The rumors were very nasty…I'd rather not go into detail. All you need to know is that my friends started believing these rumors, and not matter what I did to come out with proof that they were wrong, people wouldn't believe me."
Sonic sat next to Lizzy.
"Hey listen, I'll tell you what, the emerald were holding, we need it for something. If you give it to us we'll let you stay in our world."
Lizzy smiled and hugged Sonic.
"Thank you." She said.
"By the way, how did you get here?" Tails asked.
"Oh right." Lizzy said breaking the hug from Sonic.
"After a nasty run in with the offenders in question, I ran away to hear. I spent my days looking around and staying with the researchers until I found the wind tunnel. From there I found myself on this island, and in the windmill was this emerald."
Lizzy held out the emerald showing everyone it. The silver emerald shinned brightly.
"I usually hold onto it when I'm depressed, I don't know how or why but it seems to make me feel better."
"Interesting..." Sonic said. "Come on, let's get going." Sonic said.
Chaos spit out Knuckles and Julie-Su, sending them flying into the giant rock wall with a loud thud.
"You see why I'm so mad at you and your race Knuckles? Probably one of the only ones of your kind left and she chooses to fight you. I couldn't make that sound any more pathetic if I tried." Chaos said in a snarky tone.
Knuckles slowly got up, clenching his fist in anger. He was tired of both the chaos creature and the disrespect he was getting from Julie-Su.
"You're really asking for it you freak!"
Chaos grabbed Knuckles with his liquid arms and sent him flying the other way. Knuckles body hit the floor and rolled a bit.
Knuckles tried getting up but just couldn't, his now double vision didn't help things either.
"Face it Knuckles, I win, you lose, end of story, goodnight." Chaos said. Just then, Shade came down and punched the creature right down the middle.
Chaos's liquid flew about before coming back together.
"Well, well, who's this now?"
"Shade the echidna…" Shade said standing in front of Knuckles.
"And let me guess, you want to pick a fight with me don't you?"
"Only because you hurt my friend…"
"Friend huh?"
Chaos seemed to be taken back a bit, and before long turned into a puddle and wondered off. Shade helped Knuckles up.
"You ok?" Shade asked.
"Yeah, a little bit shaken up but not in too much pain. Let me guess, Sally sent you?"
Shade nodded her head yes.
"I hope you don't have a problem with me begin here."
"At this point I could use all the help I can get." Knuckles said with a sigh looking to the ground. Julie-Su started slowly getting up, her head pounding and a bit wobbly.
"Wha-what? Another one?"
"Who's that?" Shade asked.
"A real nutcase…"
"Who are you…" Julie-Su said making a fighting stance.
"I'm Shade the echidna…"
"And let me guess, your friends with that monster aren't you?" Shade said pointing to Knuckles.
"The only thing you are is as insane as I was." Knuckles responded back. Julie-Su ran towards Knuckles and jumped in the air ready to attack, only to get kicked in the jaw by Shade. Julie-Su got sent flying back and hit the ground with a sick thud.
"Remind me to never get on your bad side…" Knuckles said looking at Shade, surprised and impressed by the kick to the face she sent Julie-Su.
"I'll be glad to…" she said winking at Knuckles in a flirty way.
"So what exactly where you doing before your encounter with Chaos?"
"Looking for this guy named Naugus. At this point though I mind as well catch up with Sonic, knowing him he's probably found the next Chaos emerald already."
"Good point." Shade said. The two headed back to the station, leaving Julie-Su there knocked out cold.