With Metal hot on their heels, the group ran into the remains of the prison that were still standing. Claw quickly grabbed both of his daggers from his vest pockets and leapt into the air. While he was in midair, he quickly turned around and tossed his daggers at Metal Sonic. Metal, grabbed the daggers and threw them right back to the sender. Claw, keeping his cool composure, deflected both of the flying objects and caught them by the handles before he rolled on the ground. After he got back up, he took off into a mad dash, not even looking behind him once and not sure of how close Metal was to him. "I thought we lost him back at White Jungle!" Alex yelled as he fired off a couple of rounds at Metal. "Oh, you know Metal!" Fletch yelled as he grabbed a flash bang and tossed it behind his back. He was hoping the flash bang would mess with Metal's visual and audio receptors for just a few seconds to give the group a chance to hide. Sure enough, the flash bang went off and Metal was dazed for a few seconds. After Metal came back to his senses, the halls were empty. Metal walked away and didn't even think to do a full search. Whisper poked her head out from her hiding spot, looking for Metal. When she didn't see him, she crawled out and said "All clear." and the rest of the group came out from hiding. As Whisper was dusting herself off, the ground shook beneath them and then stopped. "Earthquake?" Alex asked as Fletch was doing his usual tech work on his DreamCast. "That's a negative, ghost rider." Fletch said as he showed Alex. "If this was an earthquake, the spikes on this graph would constantly go up and down before coming to a stop. These blips on the graph are way more sporadic with pauses between each spike, as if someone's trapped in a cell and trying to get out…" Fletch trailed off as Whisper stopped everyone. It's almost as if she heard voices not far off in the distance. But they didn't sound like anyone she knew.
Meanwhile, a few cells down the hall the group was walking in, Mighty took another swing at the wall. "Gaaaah! It's not gonna do us any good, dude." He said as he sat down in front of the wall. "We're not getting out of here." Ray walked over and simply said "We can't give up now! We need to go get Sonic because the three of us are basically the last hope everyone has from a Robotnik takeover!" Mighty got back up and said "Alright, stand back! I'm gonna knock this wall down if it's the last thing I…" Ray tapped him on the shoulder and said "Look out there! A rescue party!" Mighty looked at where Ray was pointing and he smiled. "I'll get their attention." Mighty said as he walked over and started tapping on the bar. Claw stopped and looked over. "Oh, hello." he said to Mighty, offering a friendly hand shake. "My name is Claw. And you are?" "I'm Mighty. Mighty the Armadillo. And this is my best buddy, Ray the Flying Squirrel. Nice to meet you." After they shook hands, Alex walked over and examined the two locked behind the cell. "And how did you two get trapped in there… Mighty, was it?" Ray said "Long story short, Metal Sonic caught us back in the White Jungle." Alex grabbed his backpack and set it on the floor at the same time Claw and Fletch did. "Alright, sit tight, guys. We're gonna get you outta there. Claw, you know how to do this." Claw nodded and grabbed his fire sword. Ray stared at it in awe. "Oh… shiny tools…" he said as Claw smiled and lit his fire sword up. "Thanks! They're powered by wispon energy. If it wasn't for Tails, these kinds of high tech tool weapons wouldn't be possible." After he had finished what he was saying, he put his goggles on. "Stand back, This gonna get messy."
Once he said that, Claw started swinging away at the bars. All everyone could hear was the sound of metal clanging and all they could see was a shower of sparks as the sword struck the bars of the door. As he swung at the bars, they melted, creating a hole big enough for Mighty and Ray to walk out of the cell. "Thanks, dudes. We owe you one. Now if you excuse us, Ray and I have to find Sonic." Mighty said as he and Ray stepped out of the hole.. "Slow down there, Mighty, did you say Sonic?" Alex said as Fletch and Claw kept watch for Metal. "Yeah, he did. Why? Did something bad happen to him?" Ray said with a concerned look on his face. Claw looked over and answered "As far as we know, nothing bad has happened to Sonic. But he's not here. According to Tails, Sonic got warped away to another dimension by the mad scientist himself. We got Tails back at resistance HQ trying to track down Sonic's whereabouts so we can create a portal to bring him back home." Ray, who was honestly shocked at the revelation, said to Claw "Wait, we aren't the last line of defense? Well, you guys are gonna need all the help you can get. Count us in!" Mighty nodded and gave a thumbs up as Claw grabbed his sniper rifle and took aim. "Here he comes… right on schedule." he said as he aimed his sniper rifle at the ceiling and let a shot ring out. His shot hit the light bulb dead on target and he aimed at the rest of the bulbs before Metal Sonic got there. One by one, the lights went out until the entire corridor was pitch black. For a solid 10 minutes, there was silence until Metal's robotic voice pierced the darkness. "There is no escaping this prison. Once the Overlord Robotnik finishes his conquest, all will know his might and feel his wrath should they disobey his orders. There is no escaping. Fear Robotnik, for a new mech will be built from the ground up. A mech like no other. Powered by a gem like none anyone has ever seen! All shall know the wrath of the Titanic Monarch!" After he had finished, Metal left the prison and was headed to Angel Island to search of the gem that Robotnik needed to power up his new mech-suit.
"Titanic Monarch?" Claw and Fletch said as they powered their night vision goggles on. "Just what is Robotnik planning to do?" Alex stared down the hall blankly. 'A gem like none anyone has ever seen? What was he even talking about?' he thought to himself as he turned around and turned his flashlight on. "I don't know what he's planning to do, but whatever he's planning, He's most likely going for the Master Emerald." Alex had finally said as he shined his flashlight around. Claw said "Highly unlikely, because we know what the Master Emerald is capable of. Not to mention, we've seen that gem before. Metal said, and I directly quote him, powered by a gem like none has ever seen." Alex simply shrugged and motioned for everyone to start moving.
They walked down the darkened hall until they stepped into the light of a new hall. Ally and Quinn had fallen asleep when Quinn had woken up to the sounds of footsteps. When Quinn looked, she raced over to the door of the cell and tapped on it. Whisper was trying to find out where that tapping was coming when she heard someone on the other side of the cell yelled at Quinn "HEY! WILL YOU KEEP THAT RACKET DOWN?! I'M TRYING TO SLEEP!" Whisper raced over to the spot where the voice came from and saw nothing. "Tangle?" Whisper asked as she looked into the cell. Suddenly, with no warning, that same voice shot back "Whisper, is that you?! OMG IT IS! Haaaaaai besite!" Tangle said as she ran over to greet her friend. Alex looked over at Tangle and asked "How exactly did you get roped into this? Tangle shrugged as she said "I have absolutely no idea. One minute, I was hanging out in my tree house, taking a nap, and the next thing I know, I wake up in this cell." Fletch was busy studying the lock when Claw went over to him. "Alright, what are we dealing with?" Claw said as Alex was talking with Tangle. Fletch looked at his teammate and said "This is like a lock that requires a card key. Very common, but these locks are high tech and ahead of the tech curve. So that means we gotta try and find one that works with this one. And that's not going to be easy. Luckily for you all, We have a tool that can bypass the card key and the backdoor… and Claw is the one holding it." Claw grabbed his flame sword and put his goggles back on. "Say no more. We'll have you all out in a jiffy!" Claw started swinging away at the bars. But unlike the bars to the cell that held Mighty and Ray, these bars didn't melt. Everyone stood there shocked. Okay, they did not just see these iron bars withstand an attack from a sword that could literally ignite into flames! Claw took a 2nd and 3rd try at the door with the exact same results. "Alright, whatever these bars are made out of can take the heat. Hey, Fletch didn't you say something about a back door?" Alex asked as he examined the writings on the wall.
Fletch replied to Alex by saying "Yeah, there is a backdoor, but I wouldn't trust it. You see, the backdoor is a fail safe pass-code that would be used by the security camera team when G.U.N agents needed to get into the cells for shakedowns and what not and were only used if the locks were malfunctioning and not recognizes the card keys. Which is great and all even when you take into account that the code for each section of the prison changed everyday as a way to prevent prison breakouts. That's not here or now. The reason I don't trust the backdoor is because Prison Island has been dormant for almost 2 years now, there's absolutely no guarantee that the code, which is the same code from the day of the explosion back in 2001, is actually going to work." Alex looked at Fletch and simply said "We don't exactly have a choice, bud. You're going to have to go into the camera room and use that code to unlock this door."
Fletch grabbed his laptop and headed for the camera room, dumbfounded by the decision the team leader had . Alex was the leader of the team, and yet he was banking on a pass-code that Fletch had just said was a fail safe from 2 decades ago and possibly wouldn't work, allowing them to unlock the door?! What kind of a mad cat would think THIS was a brilliant idea? Alex walked over to Claw and simply said "We're going to have to trust him to do the tech stuff. The only reason I'm banking on this fail safe is because we haven't seen any card keys." While the group was talking and getting to know each other , Fletch got to the security camera room and set to work. As he was setting up his laptop and hooking up the necessary cables, he stopped and saw something on the floor. When he picked it up, he found out he was holding a card key in his hand. 'Interesting.' Fletch thought to himself as he radioed Alex.
"Hey, dude, I got a card key for you to try on the lock for the cell." Alex radioed back "Well, that's great. I'll be there ASAP to pick it up." Claw looked over at Alex and said "Well, that's good news. Sure beats relying on that fail-safe that may or may not work." Alex nodded and started to head for the camera room when a very familiar voice came over the P.A system. It was like this message was prerecorded. "MWAH HA HA HA HA! Listen to me and listen to me good, rodents! If you're hearing this message, it means I have successfully taken over the world! There's no use in trying to fight me when I have my massive robot army at my disposal. And with that pesky blue rodent out of my way, there is nobody who can stop The Robotnik Empire from being built! And by the way, if anyone in your little resistance group tries anything foolish to overthrow my reign over the world, you ALL will be swept away like dust bunnies! Operation : World Takeover was too easy to execute! And look at you all : powerless without Sonic on your side. I relish at your defeat!" After the message, there was nothing but silence for a solid 5 minutes.
Alex was unfazed by the message from the mad scientist and he looked at Claw, finally breaking the eerie silence that came over them. "We're not going back to Resistance HQ until we free everyone in that prison cell. Nor are we creating a battle plan until we all are back at HQ. Am I CLEAR on that?!" Claw smiled and said "Heck yeah, dude! Spoken like a true leader!" With that, Alex headed off to the security camera room while Claw was on watch for Metal Sonic. Not long after, Alex arrived at the security camera room where Fletch had just finished setting up to get the failsafe code. "Just gotta connect this cable to my laptop and… finished! Oh, hey, Alex!" he said as grabbed the card key from the desk and handed it to the team leader. Alex took the card and said "When we get everyone in that cell out of there, we're leaving and headed back to Resistance HQ. Direct orders. Robotnik has taken over the world." Fletch replied with how he heard the message and that it must've been prerecorded as he had heard the line "if you are hearing this message." Alex nodded and agreed. After Alex left with the card key in his hand, Fletch radioed Tails to head to Prison Island and come in a helicopter because of the size of the group at the Island.
Alex held the key in his hand and arrived back at the front of the cell. Ally, who was asleep right up until the message from Robotnik woke her up, saw Claw and she was surprised. "Oh, hey! I didn't know a rescue party had arrived!" Claw looked over to where the familiar voice came from. "Ally?! You're in there too?! I thought we, as the resistance, sent you to Mystic Jungle!" Ally responded to what Claw had said with "Well, you guys did, but Quinn and I were following the journal of Robotnik back at his Mystic Jungle base. He left an entry in his journal that said there's a top secret project hidden here on Prison Island. And then Metal Sonic dragged us here into this cell. We woke up and we were surrounded by all these weird writings." While he was over hearing the conversation Ally and Claw were having, Alex inserted the card key. The door didn't open. So he tried flipping the card around and it again. 'This must take a specific card key.' he thought to himself. While Alex was thinking, the door opened. Was that the card or did his crazy plan of relying on the backdoor ACTUALLY work? Nobody was certain which one it was. Alex radioed over to Fletch "Hey, man, the door to the cell's open! You get that backdoor code you spoke of?" Fletch radioed back "I think so… lemme check and I'll get back to you on that." He looked at his computer and then replied with "Negative. My computer is still trying to find the code for the cell we're trying to unlock." Alex smiled and radioed back "Pack up your stuff and regroup on us. Cell's open. I'm sending Tails the cordenances to the rally point and we're getting the hell out of here!" A simple confirmation of Alex's orders coming through to Fletch ended the conversation and Alex let out a sigh of relief.
Tangle ran out the cell and hugged Whisper. Afterwards, Whisper smiled. "Good to see you too, friend." she said, and then gently pushed Tangle away with her staff. "Ha ha, sorry about that." Tangle said to Whisper as Ally and Quinn packed up their little tech base and walked over to Alex and Claw. Fletch packed up his stuff, left the camera room, and rejoined the group shortly thereafter. Ray soon heard the sound of Metal Sonic's jet headed their way and ran over to Alex. "What's up, Ray?" Alex said as Ray pointed towards the hall. "If we don't get moving, we're ALL going to be in that cell!" Ray said. Mighty caught on to what his buddy was saying and replied with, "Oh no… here comes Metal Sonic again!" It didn't take the gang long to make a mad dash out of the prison.
Once again, with Metal Hot on their heels, the group did whatever it took to lose Metal Sonic when they got out of the building and headed the other way down Metal Harbor. "How did Metal get back here so fast?!" Alex hollered as he fired his pistol at their pursuer. "Hell if I know!" Fletch answered he grabbed his drill sword and powered it up. As they ran, Fletch jumped into the air and dived into the ground and hid. Once Metal flew over the hole, Fletch jumped out, knocking Metal out before he rejoined the group. "Keep moving! I just bought us some time!" He hollered to the group, not even looking back to see if Metal got back up. As they approached the rally point, Ally heard the sounds of a helicopter. Alex hollered out "Our ride's here! Let's just hope he doesn't get taken out of the sky before he gets here!" Tails landed the helicopter as Alex, Fletch, and Claw got everyone else in the cargo space before they jumped in. Once everyone was on board, Tails took to the skies and flew away. Metal Sonic got back up moments later and saw the Helicopter fly away from the island, Once the helicopter was out of sight, Metal simply lowered and shook his head before he left the Island. He was headed back to Robotnik's base with a gem. But not just any gem, it was the gem that would power the Titanic Monarch.
Robotnik simply smiled and laughed. He had done it, he took over the entire world. He never knew the feeling of victory before this very moment and now it was here. He looked over at his latest mech-suit, the Titanic Monarch. "These Chaos Emeralds just won't do for this mech." He said as he tinkered away, putting on the last minute touches to the mech-suit. "This will require a much more powerful gem," he said to himself as finished up and was admiring his work. "One I can use to send the emeralds away…" he was cut off when he heard someone or something knocking on the front door. He walked over and opened it to see Metal Sonic holding an amethyst gem. Robotnik took the gem, gave Metal Sonic orders, and watched Metal fly away. Once Metal left to execute the orders of Robotnik, the evil scientist went back into his base to run experiments on the gem that Metal had given him.
After running experiments he was rather amused with his findings as the readings for the amethyst were all over the place. 'What a fascinating gem!' Robotnik thought to himself as he continued to monitor the computer readings on the gem. 'This one has power that exceeds that of the Chaos Emeralds! Since I can't get a solid read on it… wait, what is this?' His thoughts were cut off when saw the power this gem had. "What a discovery!" Robotnik exclaimed as he held the amethyst in his hand. "This gem has the power to warp reality and has dimensional powers! With powers like that, there is only one name fitting for such a gem : the Phantom Ruby!" With that he grabbed the 7 chaos emeralds and tossed them into a chamber. Orbot rolled in and Robotnik said, "I can assure my victory is sealed by sending the Emeralds away to another dimension!" Orbot shook his head "Your evilness, What are the chances the emeralds wind up in the same place as Sonic? It could be yet another hasty oversight in your plan!" Robotnik said "by the time Sonic gets back, even if he has the 7 emeralds, he won't stand a chance! Not only that, with the Phantom Ruby in my hands, Not even that sparkly gold hedgehog of invincibility known as Super Sonic could stop me! Observe the power of my latest source of power!" Robotnik tossed the Phantom Ruby into the chamber and locked the door. Orbot and Robotnik watched as a wormhole opened in the chamber and the Emeralds were binded into a group and then scattered across the chamber.
Robotnik was elated by this finding. "It's just as I thought," he said as he opened the chamber door and grabbed the ruby and quickly walked out. "The Emeralds and the Phantom Ruby do not go together. It's like trying to connect the same end of two magnets : they repel away from each other! Sonic won't even stand a chance this time, that is, IF he gets back!" Not long after, Robotnik put the Phantom Ruby into a slot in the control console of the chamber and pressed a button. He watched on as a wormhole opened up and the Emeralds were sucked into it. Once the last emerald was sucked into the wormhole, the strange portal vanished into thin air and without a trace of its existence. Robotnik grabbed the Phantom Ruby from the console and headed to his mechsuit that he would use to enforce his reign over the world : the Titanic Monarch. As he walked away, a menacing smile spread across his face. It was the feeling of victory, a feeling he had never felt before. After Robotnik had left, a rather ominous voice rang through the room where the chamber was, and it simply said "One ruby to rule them all." before it disappeared with no traces of its whereabouts.
Ruby and Yang were once again in the middle of a friendly sparring match. Just like the last time they had a sparring match back at home, Ruby was holding her own, but Yang was giving it everything she had. Yang was about to deal out the winning blow when she got bopped on the head and fell to the ground, rendered unconscious for the time being. Ruby picked up the object that hit Yang and with the help of Blake, got her to their dorm room. Sonic looked at Yang and the curiosity bit him. "Alright, what exactly happened to her and is she going to be okay?" he asked as Ruby and Blake set Yang on the bed. "Well…" Ruby started to say as she looked at the odd looking gem in her hand before she continued. "We were in the middle of a friendly sparring match when this odd looking gem hit her on the head." Sonic tilted his head. Okay, now he was curious. "And what would this 'odd looking gem' that you're talking about be?" Ruby simply put the gem in Sonic's hand and he looked at it. It didn't take him long to realize what he had in his hand. "Wait a second, this isn't any odd looking gem. IT'S A CHAOS EMERALD!" He exclaimed and immediately started jumping around in excitement.
Yang jolted upright because she was startled by Sonic's excitement. "Wait a minute," Ruby said as she held the Emerald in her hand and mused over how beautiful it was. "If we have one…" Sonic picked up Ruby's train of thought and said "Then the other 6 emeralds are going to be scattered around Remnant." Yang looked at everyone confused. "What's all the excitement about? Did I win?" She asked as Ruby simply nodded. "Yeah, you won, but our sparring match isn't important right now. What is important is we have one chaos emerald and there's a high chance the other six are scattered across the four kingdoms of Remnant!" Ruby said to Yang as she got up and walked over to the window. Blake joined Yang at the window and she asked "Hey, Sonic, since these emeralds are from your world, how easy is it going to be to find the other 6?" Sonic looked and said "We're not going to know how hard it's going to be considering we've only been hanging around Beacon. But finding the rest of the emeralds is a challenge I am not backing down from!" Once he said that, he jumped off the bed and was ready to make a beeline for the door when Ruby stopped him dead in his tracks. "Hold on, you're not going alone! I'm going with you!" she said as Yang and Blake stepped up and said they were going too. Weiss rolled her eyes and let out a sigh. "Alright, I'll come too. But just know I was against this whole idea." And with that, the group left Beacon and began their hunt for the other 6 emeralds.