Hello, guys. Time for chapter 7.

Enjoy!

When all three woke up the next morning, they were all feeling well-rested.

And that was a very good thing, considering what had to be done that day!

There was just one small problem with this.

The remaining Chaos Emeralds clearly weren't on South Island!

If they had been, Sonic would already be able to sense their presence with the emeralds he had obtained so far.

Therefore, they could've only been somewhere else!

The hedgehog sat at the edge of a beach - after doing a little warm-up by running around South Island a couple times - staring in the distance, at the other islands on this planet.

On one of them - the biggest of all those seen from his position - behind the gloomy green nature, from the area closer to the sea, could be seen some sort of an industrial complex. Which a lot of smoke was coming out of.

Sonic was looking at this, and instantly - hated it!

To turn this beautiful piece of nature into some sort of factory...

"The hell has he done...?" the blue blur wondered, obviously referring to the deluded man that is Eggman.

But what he wondered more than that was - if Eggman really was there at the moment, how was he gonna get there from here?

Sure, Longclaw and Tails can fly their way up there, but this hedgehog - not so much...

And, a little ashamed to admit it - he wasn't a particularly good swimmer...

So he turned to Tails to ask him this.

"Hey Tails, have you-"

But he already got the answer.

Because on the one part of South Island he did not run through, laid a plane.

Like, a plane-sized plane!

"Whoa," Sonic first thought. "Did they bring that plane here just for me? That's very generous, but-"

"Hey, Sonic!" Tails interrupted him in his thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, hi," the hedgehog said back.

"You were saying something?" Tails asked him.

"...What?" Sonic said, a little confused.

"You wanted to ask me something," the fox cleared it up. "What was it?"

But the blue blur had already dismissed the question he was initially gonna ask Tails.

Instead:

"Yeah," he responded, "is that plane here just for me or..."

"The Tornado?" the kitsune answered. "Oh, no, of course not. How do you think I got here?"

"Oh, you're not from this island?" was Sonic's response to this, in a confused clarity.

"No..." Tails said, and then sighed, pointing out to the semi-industrialized island that Sonic was staring at earlier, "...I'm from there."

Sonic looked at the island again, it being rather clear to him why the fox was no longer exactly very proud of where he had come from.

"Westside Island," Tails added. "When he laid his foot on there, that's when I decided he took it too far."

The blur blur completely understood Tails' reasoning, but there was one thing he had to ask to this:

"So you came... here of all places?"

"Well... yes."

Sonic stared at the fox blankly for a second, until:

"Okay."

Just then, Longclaw also flew to the place where the two had been talking.

"How are you doing?" she asked them.

"Fine," Tails answered in a worried voice, while Sonic just put up his thumb.

"Alright then," Longclaw said to that, also sounding considerably worried.

How wouldn't she? Things might be getting more disastrous every moment!

Meanwhile, Tails jumped on the pilot seat of the Tornado, trying to figure out how he was going to put Sonic on this plane - since it only had one seat.

"Sorry Sonic, I still haven't thoug-"

"Don't worry about that, Tails," Sonic said, already having thought this up before the fox even jumped on the seat.

You see, he jumped on one of its wings!

Tails was a little taken aback by this.

"Are you sure this is gonna work?" he asked the hedgehog.

Sonic looked around the plane for a few seconds, going through a few thoughts in his mind, before saying:

"Yes."

Tails looked at him, still taken aback, and then:

"Okay."

After which he pressed the right buttons, turning on the Tornado!

As the propeller started rotating, Sonic and Tails found their way up to the air.

Beginning to fly their way to Westside Island.

Longclaw followed right after them, and she didn't need a plane, because, well, she's an owl, and... she can fly... on her own...

But somebody else was about to follow them.

Knuckles.

He was standing far away, behind a lot of bushes, but close enough to see them.

(Yes, he was unconscious all night. Don't tell me you find that hard to believe.)

So once he made sure all three of them were far enough not to notice him behind themselves - he took action.

He came to that same beach and looked far, in the direction of Westside Island.

Then, he jumped up in the air - and went on to fly...

As Sonic, Tails, and Longclaw flew over the enormous sea, Sonic - once again - looked around.

What he saw was the same beauty of this whole planet - only this time, it was from a much greater height.

Remember all the shiny lights at the fun fair, that Sonic still wasn't really amazed by?

Well, this view was on more or less the same level of visual striking. Yet this view was the one that had the blue blur a lot more astonished!

Because this one was emotionally striking!

All Sonic could do was smile at this!

...

Eventually, the trio finally arrived at the coast of Westside Island, landing safely.

When Sonic observed the exact place they had landed, it didn't seem all that strange at all.

That was because they hadn't come to the industrialized area yet.

"So... where now?" he asked the fox.

"Well," Tails answered with slight confidence, "of the other four Chaos Emeralds, there's at least one you shouldn't worry about."

He then put his index finger on his mouth, signaling to Sonic and Longclaw to be quiet - and then signaled them to follow him.

Sonic did as told, jogging right behind him, while Longclaw proceeded to fly at a low altitude - in order not to potentially get spotted by this Eggman person that Sonic and Tails kept talking about.

She hadn't seen him physically, but the way the hedgehog and the fox spoke of him made him sound intimidating in her mind, and not negligibly so.

Eventually, where the trio arrived was some kind of workshop.

"This is my workshop," Tails spoke as he proudly presented his workplace to Sonic and Longclaw. Before Sonic could have any time to observe the place, Tails continued: "I concluded I could hide it in plain sight."

"Wait," Sonic suddenly reacted, "what?"

"Yeah..." Tails paused for a moment, knowing how the blue blur would react. Then, he explained himself. "You see... I found one."

"Really?" Longclaw asked.

"Yes," the fox said. "I was running from a few robots that Eggman had made, and then I suddenly got stuck in some kind of checkpoint," he explained, while Sonic found his explanation very similar to what he himself had experienced twice before. "Then suddenly, there was a long track in front of me, with a lot of turns and a lot of little bombs, but somehow I completed it, and got my Chaos Emerald!"

Sonic nodded his head, understanding the kitsune.

Longclaw was surprised by this explanation.

"Where is it?" she asked him.

"Oh, right here," he answered, leading them to one of the shelves just next to the entrance, where the emerald really was, barely even noticeable!

Again, not much equivocating - Tails took the Chaos Emerald right off the shelf and put in his bag, with the other emeralds.

"I mean," he also added, "that's why I landed on South Island in the first place! I was sure at least some of them would be there!" which he finished with awkwardly telling Sonic: "Thank you, by the way."

"No problem, pal," the blue blur added, considering the other, obvious problem. "But where are the other three Chaos Emeralds?"

Sonic, Tails, and Longclaw looked at each other in deep concern, none of them knowing the answer to that question.

Then, all three looked in the direction of the industrialized zone!

Surrounded by a wall, the only thing in front of this zone was a giant sign saying "WARNING: CHEMICAL PLANT AHEAD".

"Well alright, then," the hedgehog said. "Hey Tails, could you please help me get over that wall?"

"No problem," Tails answered, instantly jumping to start floating in the air with the usage of his twin tails.

Sonic once again grabbed the fox's hands and the two flew upwards.

While Longclaw just flew up on her own.

Once they crossed the wall - they could see this whole industrialized complex, this Chemical Plant, from much closer!

Pipes, buildings, smoke coming out of literal tons of machines, the smell of gas - they were practically in a city!

Well... by some loose criteria, they were in a city!

Sonic stared at the series of pipes just in front of him, and as he inspected everything around them - he saw something in the distance!

It was something looking like a checkpoint, just like the one Tails was talking about minutes before this!

However, if he saw that checkpoint, he also saw a number of miniature robots before it!

It wasn't gonna be an easy task getting to it!

"Alright," he said out loud, "let's do this!"

Tails agreed to help him on his way there.

"I'm gonna go above all this," Longclaw said, to which both the hedgehog and the fox nodded, and the owl flew up.

Sonic proceeded to run straight forward - and Tails right after him - running straight on pipes, noticing little robots that were mostly tied to the walls, destroying them.

Some passages were even designed like the loop-de-loops on South Island, for some reason.

They even had to go inside some pipes and travel through them a couple times.

Then, they reached it!

That checkpoint looked nothing out of the ordinary (well, at least what seemed ordinary for Mobians).

But then, Sonic passed by it!

And some small shiny light appeared above it!

"Huh?" he said, jumping at that light - once again ending up in a completely different place!

Unlike the last two times, where he had to make his way through a spinning maze - the blue blur found himself at the apparent beginning of some sort of path.

Exactly the way Tails had explained it!

He could do nothing else but start running through it!

And exactly like Tails had been speaking, the path had all too many turns - and all too many small bombs!

Given how fast he went through it, Sonic did everything to be careful to dodge every single one of them. (I mean, that's how he had to survive going through here.)

This may have lasted for good two minutes, but it certainly didn't feel that short!

Eventually, Sonic reached the end of the path, and there, a Chaos Emerald really was situated.

Sonic grabbed the gem - and that got him out, back to Chemical Plant.

Feeling slightly dizzy, Sonic stood on the ground of Chemical Plant.

"You were right, Tails," he said to the fox, acknowledging the wildness of what he had just experienced.

"See?" was Tails' response.

What the two had to do next - before recklessly doing something stupid - was find Longclaw, let her know they've found yet another one of the seven gems they're looking for.

They looked around, and soon enough saw their guardian having landed on top of a relatively nearby building.

And she saw them too.

"Did they find one?" was the first thing she thought.

"Hey, Longclaw," Sonic yelled, waving at her so she could see them. "We found one mo-"

But then, SNAP!

Longclaw was suddenly caught in a net!

And it caused her to fall down.

"NO!" Sonic screamed to this, and he jumped in her direction to save her.

However, this one was reckless - because his guardian was too far, and there was nothing below him as he jumped.

So he fell, deep down.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH..."

"Sonic!" Tails screamed as well, jumping right where Sonic did, planning to have the hedgehog grab his arms so they can float to Longclaw.

But that was to no avail.

Because a large metallic hole opened deep down exactly where Sonic was falling, and he fell right through it!

But what's worse, the hole closed before Tails could catch him!

"No..." Chills were sent down Tails' spine. "No, no, no, no..."

The only thing he could do was fly towards Longclaw - if he succeeds at that - and try to rescue her.

But once he got moderately close to his trapped guardian - he realized that wasn't gonna be easy.

Because, surprise surprise, guess who caught her in this net.

Someone whose presence made Tails considerably angry.

"Long time no see," Knuckles spoke menacingly...

And the place where Sonic ended up?

Dark.

No, really.

It was literally just darkness around him; he couldn't even see anything in front of him; he literally only saw black!

And all that could be heard?

Him breathing.

Just moments before this, the blue blur was surrounded by hundreds of machines and pipe series and everything that could be associated with industrial, machinery work, and now - just suddenly - he was in pitch black.

He was too frightened to even let a voice out.

He had to premeditate that kind of action at this moment.

When he finally got ready to let a voice out:

"...Hello?"

It echoed.

Eerily.

"...Anyone there...?"

And he just kept breathing.

Even though even that seemed to be a very effort-inducing task right now.

But what else could he do?

Along with keeping his mouth shut.

Somehow he felt he should not utter a single more word at this moment.

And he just stood there...

Turning his head around to see at least some, any, slight source of light...

But nothing happened.

And the blue blur desperately needed something, anything, to happen...

And so...

"So, can anyo-"

"At last," came a voice out of damn nowhere, causing Sonic to just freeze in one spot, and his eye pupils to narrow massively.

And a light finally turned on!

But alas, that light shone directly at Sonic, from just above him, so he still couldn't see anything around him!

"Oh, come on..." he yelled at the darkness.

But the voice spoke again.

"You don't think you had this coming, do you?"

The hedgehog was not as frightened by these words as whoever the voice belonged to probably thought he would be.

But there was something else that concerned him.

That voice sounded nothing like his well-known human enemy.

But he was not gonna risk assuming it wasn't him.

"Eggman?" he therefore asked, as boldly as he could have.

But the only response he got to this was:

"You wish."

This was what frightened him.

This was where he somehow felt he was gonna have to choose his next words, as well as movements, extremely carefully.

"Well... if you're not Eggman... then who are you?"

"Oh, just the one," to which more lights turned out, but none of which showed anybody else being here, "responsible for all your tragedies."

This confused Sonic.

"What?" he asked, carefully. "You're the one who separated me from Longclaw? Or sent Eggman after m-"

"Well, somebody doesn't understand metaphors," the voice interrupted him, still speaking in a serious tone.

The blue blur was even more puzzled.

"Metaphors?" he said in full confusion. Then, he decided: "I can handle this better. Give me one reason why I shouldn't smack you the moment I see you!"

"Because..." the voice almost immediately answered, to which one specific light finally turned on, and some smoke started coming out.

But what this light showed - a robot, but nowhere near just any kind of robot - was something Sonic genuinely found horrifying!

"I am you."

A metal version of him.

That's chapter 7. Yeah, you guessed it right. But what will happen next? How will Sonic get out of this nearly pitch black place? How is everything else going to play out? Stay until chapter 8 to find out. Until then, leave reviews. See you!