"THE MESSAGE OF THE IRON DOMINION IS CLEAR. THE CHOICE IS YOURS!"

End of transmission.

The office building for X-Treme Clean Energies was currently experiencing a hostile takeover. All the workers were forced into a room towards the top of the building, a room usually used for breaks and enjoyment amongst themselves turned into the area of their possible demise.

The Iron Dominion was a United Federation-born terrorist group. Though they hate being referred to as "terrorists," they quite literally fit the term. Although many different cells and groups have taken on the name of the Iron Dominion around the entirety of the planet- from assassins to guerilla groups- this one in particular was a cell of anti-environmentalist incendiaries.

What are anti-environmentalists? Well, if they're anything like these members of the Iron Dominion, they hate actually keeping the Earth healthy for some dumb reason. Usually greed.

The cell had taken over the office building, located just on the outskirts of Station Square, making the workers their hostages to deliver a message to the mayor of the city it belonged to- reinstate funding directed towards factories instead of more clean and efficient means of production.

They sent out the message to the public via social media. It was time to play the waiting game.

Down in the front lobby of the offices, one of the criminals was walking around alone, checking out through the glass of one of the front doors of the building to check when the police would arrive. They had sent out the video only ten minutes ago, you'd think there would be some kind of speedy send-off to get people out there.

Nobody was out there from what he could see.

He took a few steps away from the door, trailing further into the lobby to see if he could find something to do in order to kill time before the police got to the building.

A few steps away, there was a knock at the door.

"Knock knock." A voice said on the other end.

The criminal was tense… but intrigued. He stepped towards the door.

"Who's there?"

The door came off of its hinges, the spiked fist of a red echidna knocking it off. The door hit the guy on the other side, knocking him over and making him drop his gun, which slid across the ground and away from its owner.

"It's Knuckles."

Getting back on his feet, the guy only had a split second before a blue blur came into the room, wrapping around him. Suddenly, this terrorist's jacket was on backwards, zipped up and the arms tied up, forcing the man's arms at his sides.

Team Sonic (& Knuckles) had entered the building. Right now, nobody knew they were there- they liked it that way. At least until they could come up with a game plan.

They lined up in front of the now restrained man. Honestly, with how short they were compared to the average human, it was a pretty funny sight to behold.

Amy leaned against her hammer, chin resting on the back of her hands. Tails pulled out his Miles Electric, using that handy dandy x-ray feature to detect how many people were on the next floor. Knuckles studied the jacket restraint.

"How did you know to do that, Sonic?"

"He's done that dozens of times. At least, putting on a jacket backwards." Amy replied for her fellow hedgehog. "Also, I did the same thing to him when he refused to watch the Glittery Immortals film series with me. Couldn't get out until the third movie."

"Those films sucked. Did you see the CGI baby in the fourth film?"

"Part one or two?"

"Does it matter, Amy? It's all one movie."

"I have to disagree, Sonic." Tails spoke up. "The parts are drastically different in terms of plot. That's probably why they made it into different parts."

"Tails, I'm begging you, please don't tell me you enjoyed those movies."

"Watching isn't always enjoying, Sonic." Tails turned the tablet to the others. "Twenty-seven workers are up there. I can see they have at least a dozen bad guys keeping guard. There's some kind of weird device they're setting up."

The trapped criminal started chuckling, before laughing lightly at the mention of the device.

"...anything you'd like to share?" Sonic asked.

"You're far too late. Even if the police don't come, the destruction of this company will be enough to dissuade even the biggest believer in these 'better' technologies."

"Destruction?"

"It's a bomb." Tails spoke up. "That must be why it had so many wires…"

"You're going to blow up an office building and you still don't think you guys are terrorists?"

"No! We're not! This attack is simply to make people see the consequences of attempting to change the nature of our most efficient creations!"

"...That's basically what terrorism is, to my knowledge." Knuckles spoke up.

"Don't argue with crazy people, Knux. It'll just make your brain hurt." Amy patted his shoulder.

"I'm not crazy! It doesn't matter, now you and those fools at NASA will both see just how powerful this crazy person can really be!"

"NASA? Wait… Let me guess," Tails replied. "Flat Earther?"

"Of course! Do you see the world for what it really is, too?"

"Knuckles, sock this clown."

At Tails' command, the echidna punched the man, knocking him onto his back and making him go unconscious with one swift hit to the stomach.

"Ugh, thank you for asking Knuckles to do that, cause I am dead tired." Amy said.

The group started walking through the lobby, going into the elevator and pressing the button to head to the second floor. Amy leaned against the wall with a sigh.

"Must be hard reading fortunes all day."

"Besides that, having to bail you boys out of trouble. Now there's three of you." She chuckled a bit. "I've been trying my best to have a psychic vision about Chaos, Bud, Ivo, anybody. For the last week I've been trying to focus on getting a vision with everything I've got, and Rouge's constant messing with me certainly doesn't help."

"I think you could definitely use a vacation, Amy."

"Thanks, Knuckles. After all this stuff with Chaos is done though, I might just retire."

"Retire? Puh-lease." Sonic replied. "Station Square, without Amy Rose to protect it? It'll be in ruins within a day."

At that, the pink hedgehog smiled a bit, standing up straight again, letting her hammer rest around her shoulders.

"Thanks, Sonic."

"Uh, guys?" Tails spoke up. "Hi. Yeah. Remember me? We're trying to stop this building from exploding right now."

"Right, right." Sonic nodded slowly. He cracked his knuckles.

The elevator, as slow as to be expected in an old building like this, finally reached the second floor. With a loud ding, the doors pulled apart, revealing the two criminals that were standing guard outside of the elevator doors.

Sonic gave Amy an eyebrow wiggle- she knew what it meant. He jumped into the air, curling into a ball in time for Amy to hit him with her hammer, launching the blue hedgehog across the room and into one of the criminals. After Sonic hit his guy, Amy threw her hammer at the other criminal with an overhead throw.

With the rebound of his assisted homing attack, Sonic flew upwards into the air. As he was reaching the apex of his bounce, Tails fired an energy ball into the criminal, knocking him backwards.

Unfurling in the air, Sonic reached out in time to grab a dummy ring fired from Tails directly at him. Tails created a ring tether, pulling Sonic towards him. As he was falling, Sonic grabbed the back of the criminal's head, slamming it down into the ground and knocking him out.

Amy managed to grab her hammer in time to hit her criminal in the chest again, making him stumble backwards. She spun around to get behind him, giving Knuckles room to slide in and wind up a punch.

He hit the guy hard enough to knock him back. Amy hit the criminal in the back, knocking him forwards again and directly into an uppercut from Knuckles, knocking the man out and making him crumple to the ground.

"Why did they pick this place specifically? There's green energy places all around the city." Sonic asked, dusting his hands off.

"This office building used to be a factory for HexAECO." Tails replied. "Since Vanilla is introducing newer, cleaner forms of production and mandating the use of a new age polymer in all of the company's news contraptions, this place was shut down and given to that energy group."

"Let's make sure it's still standing in the next hour. Knuckles, if you could?"

Knuckles nodded at Amy. He got to the double doors leading into the hostage room and punched it right where those two doors met, knocking both of them open at once. Sonic slid in under Knuckles' arm, assessing the room at super speeds.

Twelve bad guys. The workers of the office were all huddled up against the far wall to Sonic's left. Across the room, directly in front of him and a few yards away, the bomb device was placed on a table. There were large windows to his right and far behind where the bomb was.

Tails fired an energy ball, hitting one of the bad guys and knocking him across the room. When another one of them tried aiming a shotgun at the group, Knuckles reached out, grabbing the barrel and bending it upwards with a grunt. Tails whipped around his ring tether, hitting the shotgun felon with the dummy ring at the end.

As the man stumbled backwards, Knuckles grabbed onto the tether, pulling it as Tails did, creating tension in the tether. After a second, the fox stopped pulling, flying forwards and kicking the shotgun guy in the chest, making him fly into a cubicle set up nearby.

"Thanks, Knuckles."

"No problem, little buddy. I gotta get me one of those." The echidna grinned a bit.

Nearby, Amy swept one of the bad guys off their feet, slamming her hammer down into their back and sending them crashing into the floor. Two more began charging towards her, one holding a baseball bat and another holding a sledgehammer.

She put her hammer into bag mode, getting it around her chest.

"Sonic, ever play soccer?"

"I dabbled once or twice. Nothing olympics-level just yet."

Amy jumped up into the air, curling herself into a ball and spinning. Sonic got the message, diving towards where she was in the air with haste. The blue hedgehog brought his foot back and kicked Amy's spindash in midair.

The balled up pink hedgehog hit one of the bad guys, rebounding off and knocking into another, making both of them fly backwards and hit the ground hard. On the second bounce, Amy uncurled and landed on all fours, sliding across the ground before she stopped herself.

"Ugh. Not used to that yet." She murmured.

Amy suddenly felt a pit form in her stomach, a bad feeling growing in her gut. Nearby, as he kicked another criminal away from him, Sonic sneezed, covering his mouth.

A beeping suddenly filled her ears. Amy saw the bomb from across the room. It only had seven seconds left on it.

"SONIC!" She yelled, pointing at it.

The blue hedgehog's attention was now on the bomb. In front of him, leading to the bomb, seven of the terrorists were all lined up, almost like a zigzag to keep him away from it. They were holding various weapons.

Six. Five.

Sonic's eyes darted from person to person, then the bomb. He felt something arise within his stomach, almost like butterflies, but butterflies on fire. He felt something pulling him towards the criminal closest to him, like a magnet of some kind.

Four. Ready?

He hit supersonic speed. No wait… he hit something more.

Go!

Leaping off the ground with blue energy crackling off his quills, Sonic rolled into a spindash. He was pulled forwards from something, bouncing off the terrorists in front of him, making a trail as he formed a path from each criminal leading up to the bomb.

He moved at lightspeed, getting to the bomb just as it counted down to three.

Since he was in midair, he wasn't really able to stop his speed, flipping and grabbing the bomb as he uncurled from his ball form. He crashed into the window at the far wall within a second, getting outside of the office building.

Using his momentum, he threw the bomb upwards as hard as he could, getting it high into the air before it hit zero on the counter. The explosion pushed Sonic down towards the earth, shattering the other windows in the office building but hurting absolutely nobody.

Except Sonic, who again, came crashing to the ground. He had gotten hurt from falls higher than just two stories, so he wasn't really hurt. Just really, really sore. He groaned softly as he picked himself up from the ground.

"Nineteen years alive and I'm still learning stuff about myself…" He grumbled.

"Need a hand?"

Suddenly, in front of him, a woman was there. She was human, with long dark hair, a sweater, an opened vest jacket, and sunglasses hanging around her neck. She was somewhere around middle aged, and looked like a soccer mom who forgot where her kid's field was at.

She wasn't giving off any bad vibes, so Sonic accepted the hand after a second.

"Uh… thanks. Misses…?"

"Miss Vickie Park. It's so nice to finally meet you. I'm a huge fan." She said, shaking Sonic's hand while she still held it. She eventually did let go.

"Thanks. You usually hang out around office buildings currently in a hostage situation?"

"Oh no, of course not. I followed you here." Vickie waved her hand. "Sorry, that was blunt. I've been trying to get in contact with you for the past few weeks or so."

"Man, those car warranty guys are getting more obsessive…"

"Ha! Good one. Not why I'm here." She rubbed her hands together. "I figured I'd be able to find you around a crime scene. I have a proposal for you, on behalf of Casinopolis."

"The casino near the diner?"

"That's the one! I own it."

Sonic blinked in surprise.

"Huh! Good for you!"

"Thank you! I've been wanting someone to say that. Well, besides my son, but he only does that so I'll keep paying for his QuickFit services. Anyway!" Vickie continued. "I have something that'll help you put those skills of speed to the test. It's a security job, but I guarantee you'll enjoy it by the end."

"I dunno. The casino is a little… much. Besides that, I'm kind of trying to stop a water god from flooding the city and the entire world, so…"

Police sirens filled the air. Vickie reached into her vest and pressed a business card into Sonic's hand, shaking it again with a big smile on her face.

"Think it over and call me when you have an answer. No harm, no foul, but… I could really use someone with your speed. Then again, I hear there are some plumbers around here who could do your job a bit better than you can…"

Sonic tensed up, frowning.

"We'll just see about that!" He said with a huff.

Flicking her sunglasses open, Vickie Park slid them on before strolling off, just in time for Tails to fly down, holding Amy and Knuckles under him. They all landed, Amy looking at Vickie in time to watch the woman get into a sports car and drive away through a back way.

"Sonic! All those bad guys are tied up. We're all good!" Knuckles said.

"That's great, Knuckles… Hm…" Sonic looked over the business card.

VICKIE PARK - CEO OF CASINOPOLIS - PERSONAL TRAINER

All the police cars skidded to a stop in front of the office building, Sonic letting the sirens fill his ears as he thought about Vickie's proposal.

"So all this woman wants is to let you work a security job?"

Sonic hopped down from the wing of the Tornado II, hitting the sandy shores of Angel Island. They stopped by to give Moss a visit- ever since the incident with Metal/Mecha Knuckles, the real-life Knuckles worried about his father a lot. Understandable, Sonic would be the same way.

"She said she wants to use my speed to act as security or something." Sonic said to Tails. "I have no idea what it entails, but… she did track me down to ask me if I could do it."

"Ew, creepy stalker. Can't relate." Amy replied, rolling her shoulders. "Boy, Angel Island feels really good this time of year. When it's on the ground, anyway."

"It's always cold when it's up in the air. I'm glad I can finally feel some heat around here."

Knuckles led the group through the shrubbery and trees of the island. As they continued to walk through the island, the sound of high-pitched singing slowly grew louder. It was the singing of chao, and once they got past all the leaves, they ended up right inside the chao garden.

It always seemed that the chao were in a good mood ever since Tikal started hanging around there. As expected, she was a natural at caring for the chao, even in her spirit form. Tikal had been hanging around the garden ever since her ethereal comeback- it wasn't like she could do a lot for them outside of trying to compel to Chaos… if only they knew where he was right now.

Though she was feeding chao, once she noticed Team Sonic (& Knuckles) Tikal perked up. She floated across the ground towards the group and stopped right in front of them, hands folding in front of her skirt.

"Team Sonic and Knuckles." She spoke. "It's very nice to see you all again, and in one piece. Have you all gotten any closer to finding Chaos?"

"I've been working my psychic muscles to the bone trying to see where he is." Amy replied. "Any luck on your end? I'd think being around chao would help stir up some visions."

"Unfortunately, spirits like myself getting psychometric visions is very rare. I've mostly been keeping the peace between the groups of chao here… helping out the Guardians whenever they need me. Mostly Sticks. She likes talking a lot."

"Does she think you're a hologram?" Knuckles asked.

"Why, yes, she does."

"Unsurprising." The echidna nodded. "She thought I was a hologram at one point. Then she thought there was a clone made of me? I was very confused until I realized we were standing in a pool of water and she didn't know what she was seeing."

"Wow! She really needs help." Sonic concluded.

The leaves rustled again. Pushing past them, Moss stepped into the garden. A smile came across his face as he saw Knuckles and the others, and he came over immediately. Since he was still fairly sore from the attack, the father and son simply gave each other a fist bump, with Moss firmly placing his fist in Knuckles' spike-free palm.

"It is nice to see you all in good health." Moss finally spoke.

"For the most part. That explosion nearly ruptured my eardrums…" Sonic rubbed his head. "Good to see you, Moss. How are the others?"

"Ray, Mighty and Sticks are well. They're currently on patrol! It takes all three of them to do what Knuckles could do just by himself."

"Sounds about right!" Knuckles swelled with pride. "The safety of the Master Emerald is imperative to keep Chaos from ever escaping!"

"I sure hope that Chaos will willingly go back to sleep soon," Tikal spoke. "Once he does, I hope all the Guardians on this island can start living their lives as they choose… not how Chaos dictates. Though I don't wish to speak ill of him…"

At that, the echidna deflated a bit. His eyebrows furrowed, really thinking about what Tikal said. Outside of protecting the Master Emerald? That was his tribe's entire identity…

After a second, Amy turned to Tikal, smiling.

"Tikal," She began. "Would you like to play with the chao? I really want to see if you've named any of these little guys anything. Besides, I'm sure you need a physical touch for some things."

"Help is very appreciated!"

The psychics left, surrounding themselves with chao. While Knuckles was still in thought, Sonic took the moment to lead Moss away by his arm, stepping away from his friends for a moment to speak with him.

"Moss, you're like… mega old, right?"

"I am immortal, yes. Much like the slowness of the animal I belong to, I like to think that slowness transferred over to my aging process instead."

"Right, right. You know about chaos energy and stuff?"

"Yes."

"Okay, hear me out here." Sonic let go, stepping in front of him. "Is it a possibility for, say, a speedster to move between multiple objects at once? But super, super, super fast?"

Moss' face changed to one of thought. He tapped his chin with one of his claws.

"Hm. Gathering up enough chaos energy may cause this… speedster… to reach various areas where other energy is gathering. Chaos energy, much like the Emeralds it belongs to, attracts each other. A speedster could pull themselves to each spot where chaos energy materializes, whether it be rings… maybe the residual energy within living beings."

"But only if uh… if they gather up enough energy?"

"Minor amounts of chaos energy don't attract one another. Beacons of energy attract any energy it can get to. The speedster would be moving at the speed of energy, the speed of light."

"A lightspeed dash, almost."

"If you want to name it, then yes. A lightspeed dash to each spot where chaos energy exists."

"Interesting. Thanks Moss!"

Sonic walked off as quickly as he came, going back to Tails and Knuckles. As he gathered the two up to play with some of the chao, he didn't notice Moss staring at him blankly.

Nearby, however, Amy and Tikal were sitting with chao. Amy was petting the chao in her lap, smiling down at it. She felt a twinge of something in her body… maybe it was guilt, maybe it was sadness. She really missed Bud.

"I wish Bud were here to enjoy this." Tikal said.

"You know, I was just thinking the same thing." Amy nodded. "He'd definitely be safer, maybe even happier here. Not in the city, where danger happens every day."

"I certainly am a firm believer in chao communities staying together, but… Amy, if I may," Tikal tilted her head. "I wanted to talk about… that. Your life in the city, as a hero."

"What about it?"

"Well… I…" The echidna spirit fiddled with her hands. "I'm a bit jealous of it."

"Wait… for real?"

"Absolutely. I love it here, I love the chao more than anything, but… I'll have to admit, I've gotten a bit stir crazy being trapped on this island. I've gotten crazy in general because I've had to talk to Sticks all the time about being a hologram…"

"Hero work isn't all it's hyped up to be, trust me. Guys like Sonic love the speed, love the skill, love helping people. I'm a simple girl who wants to run a fortune shop."

"But you choose to help people. I think that's just so spectacular." Tikal replied. "Even if it's a boring adventure, I'd love to partake in one of them."

"Even after the thing with King Boom Boo?"

"Especially after that one! May Chaos rest his soul, but… My father really killed the mood at the end of that little adventure. I want an adventure that's exciting, interesting. Maybe not world-ending, but… something small. Just to tie me over."

"You can have it. All of them." Amy chuckled a bit. "Look, I love being the team's 'it girl' but I need a break. A real break. I went from being trapped in a dream with you, to being chased by ghosts, to being chased by a robot. I need a day to myself."

"...then why don't you stay here and take a day?"

"Here? Tikal, I dunno…"

"It's the perfect tradeoff!" Tikal floated into the air. "I go on an adventure, probably a small one. You stay here and relax with the chao! Besides, you can make Sticks go away better than I could."

"Hm… I guess being around the chao could help me get a vision about Chaos."

"Take the vacation, Amy!"

Amy jumped a bit. She looked behind her to see the boys standing there, with Sonic smiling widely down at her. Tails waved a bit with a small smile.

"How long?"

"Whole time. C'mon, Aims! Take a little break." Sonic crouched beside her. "Who knows how long we have until everything goes absolutely bonkers. Take a day off! It won't kill you."

"Hmmm… But who will Knuckles pair with? You got Tails, will Knuckles be with Tikal?"

"It's only fitting!" Tikal floated over to the echidna guardian. "The two members of the Knuckles
Tribe. Together we'll truly be Team Knuckles!"

"I like this arrangement already!" Knuckles smiled widely.

"Are you sure you'll be alright, though?"

"We'll be fine, Amy! If not, we'll just call you." Tails waved his hand. "I'll even tell Vanilla you have the day off!"

"Oooh, say less." Amy leaned back on her elbows. "Total day off. What a wonderful time."

"Alright then! Now that that's settled, let's head back to the city to give Amy her alone time!"

"What? But we just got here!" Knuckles whined. "Do you guys always do this? Show up to places, talk for a moment and leave?"

"Yes we do. Bye!" Amy waved without looking at any of them.

Everyone started walking off. Knuckles dragged his feet, though waved goodbye to his father. Moss, standing near the shrubbery, waved back with a smile before his eyes flicked over to Sonic, thinking silently to himself.

"To save the past… it's time to save the future. Pre-Order Adventure-06 Episode One today to receive an exclusive look into Adventure-06 Episode Two. Rated T for Teen."

Walking towards Station Square's biggest plaza, Tikal was watching a television playing through the window of an electronics shop. It was an advertisement for a new video game, a first-person shooter where you get to travel through time.

The boys passed by a second later, with Knuckles gesturing for the spirit to follow. Tikal quickly followed after one more look at the television, floating along behind the group.

"Ugh, games being episodic. If I ever have video games, I'd never separate them into episodes you'd have to pay for each." Sonic said. "Maybe I'd have all the episodes in one game, but never separate episodes to purchase."

"Episodes only really work for point and click video games nowadays either way." Tails said flippantly, shrugging.

Though they were headed to walk inside the plaza, they passed by the opening to the SS Central Station- which was seen more or less as an extension of the Station Square shopping plaza itself.

Sounds of yelling and chanting caught Tikal's interest. They could see, in the lobby of the train station, multiple employees were chanting and marching together. They held signs, they looked very angry. It appears they were on strike.

When the others peered inside through the glass doors as well, they could spot that all the train rides were postponed for that day. No doubt because of the workers deciding to strike.

"Such strife within the hearts of those people." Tikal commented.

"I read about this!" Tails said. "The workers are protesting the shotty work conditions. They said none of them are going to work again until they get a pay raise, and better working conditions."

"Everything that they want to change is decided by Mayor Velox. Last I checked, he didn't seem interested in buckling under the pressure of train station workers. He's too worried Governor Pickle will be disappointed in him."

"...Who's Mayor Velox and Governor Pickle?" Tikal murmured to Knuckles.

"Velox leads the town, like Pachacamac in the village. He's this really weird looking guy who doesn't like doing anything to help us. I don't know a lot about Governor Pickle, but I think he's the leader of this area and all around Station Square. Kinda like how Chaos was."

"Ooooh…" The spirit nodded sagely.

Heading through the shopping plaza, Tikal got to take in the sights of each store. The various articles of clothing, new technology… plastic clogs with holes on top of them. There were a lot of amazing things in just one area.

Part of her wanted to be able to purchase something, but another part of her was content just visiting. She was just helping out for an adventure.

Past the plaza, down a road leading away and towards the north side of Station Square, they finally passed by the Station Square diner, a signal that they were finally in the North End.

The casino was hard to miss. It was a giant building with a flashy, gold and red canopy out front with "CASINO" in lit up letters on top of it. A red and yellow sphere flashed, like a beacon or some kind of calling flare, attracting people to it. Behind that were a bunch of metal stars hanging on the brick wall behind it.

As they walked down the street towards the casino, they witnessed a young man holding onto his mother's sweater, clearly attempting to slow down her walking as she was headed towards the casino with a determined look on her face.

"Mom, stop! We talked about this! You can't go there every night!"

"I'm sorry, honey! When the sun sets I just automatically head to the casino! It's not my fault, my feet have a mind of their own!"

"Moooom!"

The group continued to walk, trying to ignore the situation between the parent and child nearby.

Walking under the neon-lined overhang, they headed into Casinopolis, the automatic doors opening as soon as they stepped in front of them. The doors closed as Tikal was halfway through- she phased the rest of the way without even noticing.

Before they could get a proper view inside, Sonic and Knuckles were suddenly grabbed by their collars, picked up and off of the ground.

"Hold on, the casino only lets in people at night… Sonic?"

The security guard holding them was the large, very large form of an emperor penguin. He looked familiar to the group- he totaled Amy's car not too long ago after getting fined for picnicking in a graveyard.

"Whoa, it's Giga Thomas!" Sonic grinned. "How's it going, man?"

"Good… who's this guy?"

"Thomas, this is Knuckles. Knuckles, meet Thomas Pen. He wrecked Amy's old car."

The large penguin put them both down. He gave a small wave to Tails, who waved back with a small smile. Thomas eyed Tikal after.

"...is that a ghost?"

"It's complicated. You work as security here, Thomas?"

"Yeah, I've worked here for a while. I'm happy the boss lady didn't fire me after I barely got off paying a fine for wrecking your friend's car. Sorry again about that, by the way."

"Amy's over it, we're fine." Sonic waved it off. "We came here to see Vickie Park! She gave me her business card and told me to come visit."

He forked over the card from his jacket for proof. Taking it and looking it over for a moment or two, Thomas eventually hummed and handed it back.

"I'm not supposed to let people into Miss Park's office during non-business hours, but… I can do it. On one condition."

"Name your price."

"...I get a selfie with the ghost. Desdemona loves supernatural stuff."

"Deal! That's okay, right Tikal?"

"I don't know what a 'selfie' is exactly, but I'm willing to give it a try!"

Thomas got his picture, with Tikal learning very soon that it was an instant self-portrait. He even got to send it to Sonic's phone, who decided to keep it on hand in case Tikal wanted to see it anytime soon.

After that, he led the team up to the office. They took an elevator in the corner of the information area, headed up to the third floor.

There was a single room, like a lobby, and a single room. Thomas knocked on the door and opened it slowly.

"Miss Park, Sonic and his friends are here for you."

Vickie said something on the other end of the door. Thomas looked back at the group.

"Come on in."

Team Sonic (& Knuckles) (Without Amy) (Now With Tikal) shuffled into the office. The boys took a seat, Tikal not needing to sit anywhere in her ethereal state. She studied the different objects on the wall, including a picture of Vickie with her son as a teenager. Tikal noticed that the teenager was a bit familiar, but couldn't place where. Sonic would probably know.

Closing the door behind them, Thomas stood in front of it, guarding it like it was his job… well, that's because it was.

"...right. Right. Just until the contest is over… Yes, I'll make sure to renew your AthleteIllustrating subscription honey." Vickie waved at the group to tell them she was almost done. "I'll see you tomorrow. Stay safe, don't take any more of those supplements. Right… Love you too, sweetie. Bye."

She hung up the phone.

"Sonic! Plus Tails, Knuckles, and… some kind of ghost?"

"It's complicated." Sonic said, repeating what he said to Thomas. "She's harmless though."

"No Amy Rose, then?"

"Tikal's filling in for her spot right now. Amy needed a vacation." Knuckles replied to her.

"Hm. Shame. Anyways, I'm glad to see you!" Vickie leaned back in her office chair. "Sonic, I trust you've come up with a decision about my proposal?"

"I have. I think I wanna do it."

"Excellent! And on the same day I got to meet you too! This spells excellent news for the contest coming up this thursday." Vickie grinned. "What made you change your mind?"

"Well, Amy's going on vacation. I figured I could have some fun too!"

"That's the spirit! No offense, Tikal."

"Hm? Oh, none taken." Tikal said to Vickie, before looking over the objects on the wall again.

"So what exactly will Sonic be doing?" Tails asked. "You said you want him to use his speed for a security job. What exactly is he going to be guarding?"

"I'm so glad you asked. Take a look at the screen behind you."

Vickie pressed a button. Thomas stepped out of the way in time for a projector screen to roll down in front of the door. A projector lit up from Vickie's desk, showing a live feed of the vault inside of the casino itself.

It was completely empty. The walls and floors almost looked like they were made of porcelain, and the top half of the room sunk in to create a form of shelf, housing exactly what the big special prize was.

Within a metal canister, with a window to show what was inside, was a glittering silver emerald. The gray Chaos Emerald.

Everyone was interested to see that. The group quickly turned back around to Vickie.

"Sonic's going to be guarding a Chaos Emerald?!" Tails asked.

"It will be the prize of the upcoming contest, yes." Vickie nodded. "I need Sonic to keep it safe so nobody will get their grubby little hands on it early- in particular, a nasty little fiend known as the Dark Ghost. He's been bugging me for years."

"Not to be… ungrateful, or anything, but…" Sonic moved his hands around as if trying to get his words out. "We really need that Emerald."

"I'm sure you all do! As do the citizens of Station Square."

"No, like… we need it."

"Yes yes, like everyone else participating in the contest. I'm so happy to see the prize is already getting some people interested." The woman grinned. "We nearly had the prize as these three glowing green shards I found a week or so ago, but they disappeared on me. Apparently they're somewhere in the casino."

Knuckles and Tikal perked up at that.

"You're giving away a Chaos Emerald as a prize for a contest? What's the contest?"

"The players have to get five thousand coins, or rings, and use them in the vault. Three thousand is just enough to gather up and allow the person to climb up to the canister- then, they have to scan their special wristband to open the canister and retrieve the emerald."

"What if they try to break through it?"

"If I detect any suspicious activity on my cameras, which I will be watching closely here… I'll send the emerald directly back to me via the pipe system the emerald is connected to. If anyone cheats, if anyone tries to get there early, I can just send it right back to me and start again another week."

Sonic and Tails eyed one another.

"So what do you need me for?" The hedgehog asked.

"Security, silly! You're the fastest thing alive! If anyone tries pulling a fast one on you, you can easily just stop them and throw them out. That is if Thomas doesn't get to them first, seeing as the two of you will be guarding the doors to the vault."

"...right."

"Would there be any way for Sonic to get the emerald in the contest?" Tails asked.

"Absolutely not. He's the security, that wouldn't be fair." Vickie shook her head. "Although, you and Knuckles here could easily partake in the contest. The only rule is that you can't cheat on any of the games, and that includes getting help from Sonic."

"I dunno, this contest seems… weird."

Sonic thought to himself for a moment. This was their only real chance of getting a Chaos Emerald and staying ahead of Ivo, and ahead of the missing Chaos. They needed this emerald.

He eyed Tails again, before reaching over and patting him on the arm.

"I have faith in you, buddy. I think you should join the contest."

"Really?"

"Yeah! You got this, man. I know you can do it." Sonic grinned.

"...I'll join the contest as well." Knuckles spoke up. "I might as well… Since Tails is joining."

"Oh, great! The contest will start at sunset on Thursday, the rules will be listed out there." Vickie rubbed her hands together. "Sonic, I can trust you'll work as security?"

"You can count on me, Miss Park."

Though the group continued to chatter, Knuckles kept watching Sonic and Tails. It was odd- when Sonic went to Tails specifically and said that he could do it, Knuckles felt something… eating at him. He couldn't exactly describe it.

Something about him felt smaller. Knuckles didn't like that. He wanted to feel important again, and especially important to Sonic. But he couldn't really figure out why.

The day after the next, as soon as the sun was setting, everyone was gearing up for the big contest. A crowd had gathered up in front of the casino, which included Tails and Knuckles in the back.

"You don't have to leave, Amy, we'll be just fine."

"I still think it's dumb of her to hold a contest for this thing instead of just giving it to us. Didn't you tell her you needed it to save the world?"

"Sonic did at least once. If Mayor Velox has shown us anything, people won't take anything seriously if it comes from the mouth of an anthropomorphic hedgehog. Even if they have saved the city a bunch of times."

"Yeah, yeah… is Knuckles with you?"

"Yeah, he's here." Tails eyed Knuckles, who was staring at the casino thoughtfully.

"Tell him and Tikal I say hi."

"Amy says hi." Tails said, moving his phone away from his mouth to say it.

That got the echidnas' attention, both of them looking at Tails with intrigue.

"Oh… Tell her I said hi back." Knuckles spoke.

"Me too!"

"They both say hi back." Tails immediately talked into his phone. "Stay safe out there. Don't let Sticks or any of those guys get on your nerves."

"They've been pretty nice so far. Mighty only wants to talk about some detective book he's read a lot though… he's lent it to me to read, so I have that going on for the next few hours." Amy sighed. "Keep safe, I hope you win the emerald. Or Knuckles! Or at least somebody who would be willing to fork it over."

"I'll be sure of it. I'll see you, Amy."

Knuckles returned to thinking to himself when Tails hung up the phone. The echidna guardian tapped his chin in thought, which piqued the interest of the spirit nearby.

"Ring for your thoughts?" She said softly, floating into his view.

"...I've been feeling weird. For the last day or so." Knuckles replied. "I don't think it's fatal, but it might be some kind of tumor… I don't know if Moss can heal tumors."

"When did the weird feeling start?"

"While we were in the office the other day. I dunno, it kinda started after Sonic told Tails to get that emerald from this contest."

"What does it feel like?"

"This sinking feeling… almost like I'm smaller. I don't think I've ever felt it before… or if I have, I don't remember it feeling like this."

"What you're feeling might just be a nervous reaction to this contest!" Tikal replied. "I myself haven't had a physical feeling in quite some time, but… I can understand and relate to nervousness. If we find these emerald shards, I'm sure we can both put our troubled minds at ease. You just have to focus!"

"...right! Right."

With a flash of light, Tikal transformed into her glowing red orb form, fluttering around Knuckles and floating right above his shoulder. The echidna guardian cracked his namesake, steeling himself to be ready for the contest.

Nearby, someone took interest, having heard what was said with super hearing. A smirk came across this mystery woman's face as she continued to keep hidden in the haze of the crowd.

Once the doors opened, it was a sight similar to an electronics store on black friday. People piled inside and rushed to every game they could get to. Tails was also one of those people- though he was thirteen years old, the casino somehow let him inside. Maybe gambling wasn't that big of a problem for teenagers or something.

He trailed through the games, watching people playing the slots like madpeople, shoving in change and flipping the lever to get more money.

As he passed by one, Tails spotted a patron score three black colored human characters on the slot machine. The entire machine beeped loudly, but the sound of it wasn't exactly happy or cheerful.

"Oh no! Not shadow-mania!" The patron at the slots cried. No coins came out of the bottom.

Getting to one end of the casino, Tails came across a section full of pinball machines. He smiled, feeling a bit of excitement as he realized he could actually have some fun with this contest. He went to one of the machines and entered a coin.

From the other end of the casino, standing in the red carpet-lined hallway leading to the vault, Sonic stood in front of the door, arms crossed as he kept an eye on Tails. Next to him was Thomas, who also had his arms crossed.

It was a little awkward in that hallway as they watched the customers pile into the casino. The hall was silent, with both guards keeping an eye to make sure nobody would get into the vault early.

Sonic spotted Knuckles trailing into the casino, with Tikal following along in her orb form. He knew that Knuckles would be getting up to finding those emerald shards somewhere in the casino- Sonic watched the echidna flip his sunglasses down to follow the energy trail to where the shards were located.

Knuckles looked upwards- the shards were somewhere up above. He'd have to climb up to get it, but he was in plain sight of Sonic and Thomas.

The hedgehog quickly turned to the large penguin beside him.

"So, you're still dating that Desdemona woman? How is she? She's still your girlfriend, right?"

"She's my fiance."

"Oh, congrats! Glad to see you two are still together and happy… you're not having the wedding in a graveyard too, are you?"

Thomas snorted.

"She's considered it. I think we settled on it being in a funeral home."

"Whatever makes the two of you happy!"

"Yeah, yeah. Right."

When Sonic looked back for Knuckles, the echidna was gone. He let the hallway go silent again.

Up above, Knuckles was using his namesake to scale a wooden beam to the areas above the casino floor. There was a neon sign of a cowgirl, a ruby red lion whose paws kept going up and down, two pirate ships and a neon recreation of the outside of the casino as a decoration.

The wooden beams made small catwalks above the entire open area of the casino. As he got to the top of one pillar, Knuckles slid his sunglasses back to the top of his head- all the light in the casino was getting in the way of using them. He could barely see the chaos energy signatures.

Further on the wooden beam, just in front of him, a shard of the Master Emerald floated in the air, gently glowing. It wasn't enough for anyone down below to notice, but right in front of him, Knuckles could see it clearly.

"There it is!" Tikal said.

"Yeah, I see it. Just gotta keep safe walking to it…"

Knuckles tried to keep his balance, walking across the figurative bridge to get towards the shard. He stared down at the beam, only barely seeing the two-story drop to the world below. He's flown higher than this, that wasn't the issue. He just didn't want to fall over, glide around and climb back up again.

He was within a few yards of the glowing shard when it was snatched from him.

A dark figure flew into the shard, soaring around and landing on the area where the wooden beams suspended from the ceiling met in the air. A white-furred hand held the shard, and large teal green eyes reflected the shine of the Master Emerald's power.

"Looking for this, red?" Rouge smirked over her shoulder.

"Rouge? What are you doing here?" Knuckles exclaimed.

"Did you expect me to not participate in a contest with an emerald as the prize?" The bat turned, still smiling. She tucked the shard in her jacket. "I've needed a pick-me-up since that debacle with Amy and her little team at Carnival Island. Then I overheard you and Tikal talking about these emerald shards, and I knew I wanted to have a little fun… That is Tikal, right?"

"Hello, Rouge." Tikal said.

"Rouge, this is serious. I need those shards for the emerald."

"I know what they're for, Knucky. C'mon, loosen up a little! We're on the same side here. What's the harm in a little friendly rivalry between teammates?"

"You getting thrown into the water beside Carnival Island?"

"...Yeah, well, I've had a lot of time to think that over. I know I was wrong, I apologize." Rouge dusted off her jacket. "Can't save the world if you antagonize people all the time."

"Like you're doing right now?"

"Come on, Knuckles, think of it like a contest. I promise I'll give you the shards after we see who gets two out of the three."

Knuckles grunted, huffing in minor annoyance.

"Promise?"

"Agent's honor. I'll keep this one though."

With that, Rouge's treasure scope flipped over her eye. She looked around for a moment before gliding off, spreading her arms and wings to soar above the casino.

Knuckles couldn't use his sunglasses due to all the light pollution. If he was going to find the next shard before Rouge, he would have to do it the old fashioned way- he would have to listen for the shards themselves and guide himself to it.

"Anything, Tikal?"

"I can feel the shards pulling me in the direction of those ships. Try searching there."

"Right."

The echidna leapt off the wooden beam, letting the air pass through his dreads and carry him through the air, gliding towards the double pirate ships, Rouge currently out of his line of sight.

It had been barely half an hour before Sonic had something to deal with.

Standing outside the door of the vault with Thomas was… pretty uneventful. It was a little awkward as the pair didn't really have anything to talk about. All seemed well though, it appeared that Thomas was content with just standing by himself in silence, clearly in thought. It reminded Sonic of Big, in a way.

As he was peering over at Tails trailing through the casino to continue trying to get more rings, Sonic felt something vibrating in his ear. It came from behind the thick door of the vault, and it made him turn his head, his eyebrows furrowing.

"Sonic? What is it?" Thomas asked.

"I hear something. I think there's something going on inside the vault room… lemme check it out." The hedgehog replied, putting his hand up to keep the penguin where he was.

When Sonic opened the door behind him, the inside of the vault room was dark for only a moment. The automatic lights came on, revealing what was making the noise on the inside- someone standing on the ledge where the emerald was being kept.

Up above, nearby, a vent was opened. Clearly that was the way this guy got in. This man seemed to be human, having the same look as a human, and was wearing all black. The hood of his sweatshirt was up- when he turned to look down at Sonic, the hedgehog could see that he had on a Halloween mask of a skull.

"Hey!"

In the second that Sonic took to shout at him, the mysterious man jumped up to step off of the top of the emerald container, trying to reach the opened vent nearby. Sonic sped up the ledge within a second, reaching up and grabbing the ankle of the man's tracksuit pants, pulling him down and making the burglar land on his back with a grunt.

As the figure started stirring to get up, Sonic's arms were crossed, a parental scold on his face.

"Sonic…" The figure spoke, his voice muffled slightly by the mask. "We finally meet again."

"...again? I have no idea who you are, dude."

"I'm… I'm the Dark Ghost!" This thief said, waving his arms similarly to someone trying to act like a ghost, or Frankenstein's monster. "I won't stop until I get this emerald!"

"No you won't."

"Yes I will! SMOKE BOMB!"

Reaching into the pouch on his hoodie, the "Dark Ghost" pulled out a small smoke bomb, throwing it to the ground and obscuring Sonic's view. The hedgehog coughed and waved in front of his face to get the smoke away from him.

When the smoke cleared, Sonic saw the hanging vent cover swinging slightly, indicating that this Dark Ghost figure had escaped the way he came in.

"...meet again. Huh."

"How spooky! I sure hope you can stop that guy from taking the emerald!" Thomas said, having stepped inside the vault for a moment. Once he was done, he turned around and started standing guard in front of the entrance again.

Sonic stood in the vault for a moment, looking at Thomas and back at the spot where the smoke bomb was thrown into the ground. He soon hopped down the ledge and strolled out of the vault to stand guard once more.

That guy's voice sounded familiar… where was I?

Staring down the hall of the vault room again, Sonic leaned to the side to look for Tails again.

The fox was trailing through the casino again, having moved away from the simple games and starting to pass by the actual card games that casinos were known for. Tails looked all of them over, coming over a flock of semi-circle tables with people crowded around it.

He finally managed to step up to one with an empty seat. There were three other people sitting around at the table, with one stool open for Tails to slide into. There was a card dealer at the flatter part of the table, flipping the cards from hand to hand.

It was Dave. Or, rather, one of his clones.

"Hey, Dave."

"Tails? Aren't you a little too young to be playing Blackjack?"

"Yeah."

"...well, you've saved the city before. I guess I owe you this pass." Dave shuffled the cards between his hands. "Ever played?"

"I haven't, but I've heard about it. What's the deal here?"

"I give you two cards, I get two cards. You need to get closer to twenty-one than I am by the end of the round, but you can't go higher. Say hit if you want another card, stand if you don't want any more cards, surrender if you give up- but that one means you give me half of your stuff. You in?'

"Hm… This shouldn't have any lasting effects on a teenager in the beginning years of his extreme developmental and hormonal phase. I'm in! Two rings."

Tails pulled them out with a hand trick- they were real rings, not dummy rings. Tails wasn't stupid- in fact, he was literally the exact opposite.

Dave shuffled the cards again and again, eventually passing out the cards one at a time. Tails wasn't anywhere near twenty-one, and Dave had a jack. He surrendered, with Dave revealing he had an eight card underneath. One ring went to the coypu while someone else got double their amount by winning.

With the rounds being rather quick, Tails was able to understand what the game was about within a round or two. As he was given the cards in his seventh round, his mind automatically started running different equations in his head about what the cards meant.

He was truly the casino's youngest Blackjack player at that point, but come round eight, he was starting to win again and again. It wasn't consistent, but the different probability equations that the fox was thinking about guaranteed he lost the least and won the most of the group. Some people at the table left, and some tried staying to face Tails, as if they had something to prove.

Slowly reaching three-hundred rings, a smile tugged at the teenager's face as he continued his game of counting cards.

This was getting annoying. Knuckles couldn't track down where the next emerald shard was, and it was starting to eat at him.

It was hard to focus on the ringing with the sound of loud slot machines and chatter down below, and it was hard trying to find where the energy path leading to the shard was, as it completely tangled the deck of the ship.

Tikal helped as much as she could, but could only get a general sense of where the shard was. Knuckles was grateful for his ancestor helping him, but every time he asked for help, she went "this way" and flew off in some random direction that Knuckles barely caught.

That sinking, small feeling was coming back as he continued to look over the ship. He picked up a barrel and looked underneath it, a frown on his face.

"Is the shard under there, Knuckles?"

"No… but I can feel that we're getting closer." The guardian replied, standing back up straight.

As he turned around, there was a small gust of wind as Rouge landed nearby, her arms' patagium kicking up wind as she landed on both feet. She put her hands on her hips, her head tilting curiously.

"You know, I thought watching you would be fun, but… It's honestly a bit sad." Her treasure scope flipped upwards again, leaving her eye exposed. "What's the matter with you, big red?"

"I don't know. I've been so unfocused recently and I don't know why." Knuckles was quiet for a moment. "Why am I telling you this though? You're competing with me!"

"C'mon, it's not fun if you can't respond to the teasing. You're acting like you did back when we first met you, and that version of Knuckles wasn't fun. You've changed to just the right amount of fun around here, big red."

"Change… maybe that's the issue. I've changed too much of myself… Now I'm feeling things I've never felt before." The echidna rubbed his knuckles with a thumb. "Feeling small… almost insignificant in a way."

"Insignificant? About what?"

Tikal floated over, still in orb form, hovering beside Rouge.

"He says it started after Sonic told Tails to get the rings and not him." The spirit said. "He wants to get the emerald shards to make that feeling stop."

"After Sonic…" After a second, Rouge scoffed, laughing lightly and running a hand over her face.

"What? What's so funny, Rouge?"

"You're just jealous that Sonic asked Tails to get it and not you, red. It's so obvious."

"Jealous? I've never been jealous."

"You're the strongest Mobian on the planet, having lived your entire life with four other Mobians you barely even talked to." Rouge replied. "Of course you haven't felt jealous before, nobody could even touch you. Now you're facing something worse than Chaos."

"Worse? What can be worse than Chaos?"

"Failed expectations."

Knuckles' eyebrows furrowed.

His ear suddenly picked something up nearby, making him turn his head from the conversation. Rouge looked in the same direction, her treasure scope flipping down in front of her eye again as she scanned for anything nearby.

The captain's quarter's doors opened open, allowing the animatronic inside to step out onto the deck. Through the torn fabric of the robot's shirt, the green glow of the Master Emerald could be seen, the shard of the gem lodged within its chest.

"There!" Knuckles spoke.

"Finally." Rouge grumbled.

They both pounced to retrieve the emerald piece, both of them crashing into the captain animatronic. As she grabbed onto the animatronic's arm, Rouge pulled her leg back and kicked the echidna in the chest, sending him back and into the arms of another passing robot on a track, bringing him around the deck.

Rouge began to reach into the shirt to get the emerald shard, but was halted by the sudden bright glow of Tikal, the spirit using it to prevent the agent from retrieving the piece.

Spotting the scenario from across the deck, Knuckles barely missed the other robot rushing towards him, intent on rushing to the end of the plank protruding from the side of the ship. The guardian pushed off the robot, rolling to his hands and knees and narrowly avoiding the robot.

He scurried over to get to the captain animatronic, just barely missing a swing of his sword as Rouge's movements to block the light made the robot react suddenly. Knuckles grabbed Rouge by the back of her collar, pulling her away from the animatronic. He reached into the body of the captain and grabbed the shard, pulling it out and making the robot glitch out momentarily.

Knuckles tossed the bat across the deck, letting the previous robot intercept her to shove Rouge off the plank, making her land on the second floor a story or so below.

After a second, Knuckles floated down to land beside the faceplanted bat, Tikal floating beside him.

"I got the next shard! Now we're tied!" He said.

"...you're so needy." Rouge said as she pulled her head up.

The echidna frowned.

"You'll never get me this time, Sonic!"

The hedgehog tilted his head to the side as a bola was thrown at him, letting it land somewhere behind him. He was facing off against the Dark Ghost again, having noticed him trying to infiltrate the vault once again.

"Do I know you? I know I'm a public figure, but…" Sonic trailed off, walking towards the mystery man calmly. "Since I am, you have to know what I'm capable of."

"It won't help you! I'll get that emerald!"

"Uh huh."

Sonic zipped forwards, leaping up and curling into a ball, hitting against the man's chest and making him slam against the back wall of the vault. The hedgehog unfurled in time to land on his feet, skidding back slightly but immediately rushing towards the Dark Ghost again.

This Dark Ghost had been anticipating something like this. He reached into his pocket and threw another smoke bomb, managing to get it to hit the ground in front of Sonic. The hedgehog came to a stop, coughing at the sudden puff of smoke in front of him.

Breaking through the haze, the Dark Ghost suddenly appeared in front of Sonic, shoving him with both hands in a move that made the hedgehog fall onto his back harshly. He shook his head to regain himself quickly, blinking to get any irritants out.

The Dark Ghost was climbing up the side of the vault, trying to get up to the ledge with the emerald on it. Sonic got up quickly, rushing around and getting on top, looking down at the mystery thief with his arms crossed.

He tapped his shoe impatiently.

"Don't come back." He said simply.

Sonic pressed one of his sneaker-clad feet against the man's face, pushing him off of the ledge with all the might he had in his leg. The Dark Ghost fell back, off the ledge, but managed to drop a smoke bomb before he hit the ground.

Footsteps filled the room. Sonic dropped down, boosting downwards to slam into the ground, the wind created from it bursting the smoke cloud. He spotted the Dark Ghost's foot as the man was leaving the room, and began to give chase.

This Ghost guy knew this was going to happen. When Sonic got to the door, it slammed close, making Sonic crash into it. Though dazed for a second, Sonic opened the door again and stepped out into the vault's hall- but the Dark Ghost was already gone.

He sighed, rubbing his aching face. Sonic looked over to the side of the door, seeing Thomas standing there, looking at the ground.

"Thomas. Thomas!"

"Huh? What?"

"That Ghost guy was just around here. Weren't you even paying attention?"

"Oh… he was just too ominous for me. His vibes were rancid."

"I don't think that's how that saying works."

"I couldn't catch him. I don't think I was fast enough." Thomas shrugged.

Sonic huffed, walking away from the vault for a minute. He stood at the end of the hall, looking out to the game floor, peering around as much as he could to try and find this nuisance hiding anywhere.

He heard someone approaching him from the side. Sonic saw Vickie walking up to him from the information booth, looking happy.

"Hey Miss Park."

"Vickie, please. Just because you're working for me tonight, doesn't mean you need to be incredibly formal. Though sometimes I wish my own son was as polite as you were."

"You bring him up a lot."

"He brings you up a lot! He pushes himself to be the fastest, like you do."

"...do I know him?"

"Yes, actually! He…"

Vickie trailed off as she heard something, turning her head slowly to the area of the slots. She swiftly walked off, and an intrigued Sonic decided to follow.

They reached the area of one slot machine with an older gentleman at it. Vickie slowly walked over, stepping to the man's side and looking at the game. It seemed that the slot was spitting out tokens, dozens of them, and the man was happily accepting his payout.

Sonic eyed the scenario suspiciously.

"Wow! What a play." Vickie said to the man with a smile.

"Yeah! I'm glad I managed to get it right."

"Very interesting. Quick question- is the jackpot three chilidogs, or two chilidogs and a seven?"

Vickie pointed to the slots without looking away from the man. The patron visibly began to sweat a bit at that, hurriedly gathering his coins in a cup to get up.

"I don't know what you're implying."

"Uh huh. Lemme see your arm."

"Don't you touch me!"

The woman didn't comply with that request, moving in and grabbing his elbow before he could step away from the machine. She yanked back the sleeve of his shirt, exposing something thin that was hidden there. It was a metal rod connected to a pack of batteries on the bottom, and a small light at the end.

She yanked it away and smacked the cup of coins out of the man's hand. The patron was frozen, eyes wide in shock as he was found out.

"A light wand." Vickie said softly. "You use these to trick the machine into paying you as many tokens as you want, yeah? Hold up the light to the sensor underneath."

"Ma'am, I…"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Vickie tucked the wand away into her vest. "This casino doesn't tolerate cheaters of any kind, sir. You know what I do to cheaters in my casino?"

"Call the police?"

"What? No."

Vickie clapped twice. Suddenly, from the ceiling, a touchscreen remote connected to a wire hanging from above dropped down into her hand. She scrolled on the remote for a second, looking at the slot machine for a second before she got to her spot.

"This."

She pressed whatever was onscreen. Suddenly, the part of the floor directly in front of that slot machine opened up. The man screamed as he was dropped somewhere down below, these screams muffled by the floor folding up back to normal.

Sonic was left staring with a shocked expression. Vickie pulled the remote down slightly before letting it get pulled back up to the ceiling.

"I only accept the best. That doesn't mean cheating." Vickie said to Sonic, stepping towards him. "They'll be fine. Once they find their way out, they're usually swiftly removed from Casinopolis."

"Are you sure they'll be fine down there?"

"For the most part. The only real danger is how often the high-powered fans go off."

The woman pat the pot of her vest where the light wand went. She smiled at Sonic again.

"Carry on."

Vickie strolled off to keep checking around the game floor. Sonic watched her leave the area before quickly striding off to return to his post.

Across the floor, back at the blackjack table, Tails was getting win after win.

He owed it all to his handy dandy system in playing blackjack. By using mathematical equations, he was able to make a probability of what kind of luck he'd have with the hand he's dealt. Sure, he didn't win every time, but he managed to maximize income and minimize any loss of his.

Dave hit the cards on his side again, landing on a seventeen- the max count he could hit. The guy to Tails' right had already surrendered, while the one on the left went over with his cards. Tails was at eighteen. He won.

To his left, the big purple cat tilted his head. He had wandered into the casino while out on the town, and still didn't get this game any more than he did before he came to the table.

"Gee, Tails…" Big said. "You're really good at this game. I don't have any more coins…"

Tails slid the tokens he received back to his side at the table. He paused for a second, before grabbing a single token and handing it over to Big.

"Here. You can keep playing if you want."

"Oh! Thank you, Tails! Froggy says thank you too!"

The amphibian ribbited from between Big's ears. Satisfied with the singular token he received, the cat got up from his seat and walked away, letting someone else slide into his seat to play next.

"Another round?" Dave asked.

"You know it!"

The cards were shuffled again. Dave had his eyes on Tails this time around as he started passing around the cards. The fox had his eyes on his cards.

A four and an eight. A four added probability, but an eight kept it neutral. So far, he had a positive chance of getting a card that would help him reach twenty-one.

He tapped the table to get another hit. Dave slid out another card, giving Tails a nine. Compared to the cards the dealer and the others had, Tails had bested all of them.

The fox grinned as he got double the amount he had offered. He would reach the full amount in no time.

"That's amazing! How'd you figure that out?" A woman asked from beside him.

"It's simple mathematics. Depending on the card I get, I have a better or worse chance at getting a card I need." Tails replied, watching Dave start shuffling the cards again. As Dave did so, he slowed down as he heard what Tails said.

"So, you're counting the cards."

"In a manner of speaking."

A hand tightly squeezed Tails' shoulder. The woman walked into the teenager's view- it was Vickie Park herself, a small scowl on her face.

"So you're admitting to cheating in my casino?"

"Wh-What? I didn't cheat."

"Counting cards is cheating, Tails." Dave said.

"How was I supposed to know that? I'm thirteen years old! How many thirteen year olds do you see traveling through casinos and playing card games?"

"I was playing card games when I was eleven." Vickie said.

"Okay, how many normal people play card games at thirteen?"

Sonic had come over at this point, stopping on the other side of Tails to look at Vickie.

"What's going on?" He asked.

"Your little friend here has been found cheating." Vickie clapped her hands twice. The remote dropped down and landed in her palm.

"I didn't know I was cheating!"

"Vickie, please, I'm sure he's telling the truth."

"I can't give special treatment, even to the cities' best heroes. Sorry, Tails."

Vickie found the button she was looking for and pressed it. The floor opened up, making the stool flip backwards to fling Tails into the metal tunnel below. In shock from the moment, Sonic wasn't able to reach out in time- the fox disappeared into the darkness below.

"Tails!" Sonic yelled.

The floor slowly folded upwards, closing. Another patron quickly sat in the emptied stool.

"He'll be fine." Vickie let the remote go. "He'll find his way out and quickly be escorted from the premises. It just depends how long it takes for him to find the exit. Carry on!"

The woman left nonchalantly, striding away with her hands in her vest pockets.

Sonic looked back at the part of the floor that had opened up a minute before. He wrung his hands, clearly distraught about what was happening.

Dave cleared his throat, making Sonic look over.

"I'm sorry about Tails."

"He'll be fine. He's fine… Right?"

"I'm sure he will be." Dave replied, shuffling cards again. "He'll be able to get out of those tunnels and have a nice, long, hot shower."

The coypu was staring at Sonic, his eyes widened but face neutral, clearly trying to tell the hedgehog something. Sonic blinked in reply, surprised by the sudden emphasis on the statement.

His ear flicked as he heard water running nearby. He turned his head, spotting the entrance to the locker rooms nearby. Sonic perked up, realizing what Dave meant.

Sonic quickly gave Dave a thumbs-up before running off towards the locker room. As he was running, he looked over at the entrance seeing nothing out of the ordinary in the hall or the vault itself. Thomas was standing idly, not paying attention to anything.

That Dark Ghost guy might be back soon, but he was just an ordinary guy. Thomas would hopefully be able to take care of that. Right now, Sonic had to go find Tails.

Rushing through the locker room and into the showers (luckily nobody was in any of them) Sonic discovered a giant grate on the floor. As he approached it, the grate lifted upwards like on a hinge, revealing the head of the older patron that Vickie had sent into the tunnels not too long before.

"I did it! I found the outside!"

Sonic pushed the grate open, yanking the man to the tile floor of the showers before heading down the ladder to the dilapidated ways below the casino.

"Yay, I learned nothing!" The man's voice got faint as Sonic slid down.

The tunnels below Casinopolis were… grody, to say the least. It definitely felt like it was the trash disposal area of the casino itself, maybe even the sewers. Sonic kept running though, focusing on finding his friend somewhere lost in the tunnels.

As he ran, he passed a few stray tokens and rings on the ground. He stepped on one of the latter, a small ringing echoing through the area as he took it within himself.

There were branching paths on every side. Sonic took his chances with the one ahead of him, jumping up and rushing through the winding tunnels under the casino.

After turning a wide corner, he skid to a stop, standing at a high opening within a massive air vent. Looking down, he saw how giant and open the vent room was, and the dormant fan resting beneath the grate below. Above him, there was an overhang that stuck out above this opening- all around him, he saw similar openings.

It was dead silent in the room, and in the tunnels.

"TAILS!" Sonic yelled, his voice echoing out across the metal walls.

Though he heard the remnants of his yell, after a moment of silence, he heard something out in the distance.

"SONIC!"

It was Tails. The hedgehog turned his head slightly, trying to listen in as much as he could.

"TAAAAILS!"

Another moment of silence after the echoes were done.

"SONIC!"

Sonic turned and looked at an opening to his right, an opening that was close to the same level as he was on the wall. With a lean back, Sonic rushed forwards, using his speed to walk along the wall and zip into the opening, hoping to follow Tails' voice to it.

He chased the echo through the tunnel, running as fast as he could (without the use of the boost) hearing the reverb of Tails' voice get stronger around him.

After getting around a corner, and heading around a loop in the tunnel, Sonic rushed towards the light he saw ahead.

He came to a complete stop at the edge of the opening this tunnel led to. He looked down at the vent below him.

"Sonic!" Tails was down at the bottom, spotting his friend.

The hedgehog zipped around the wall of the vent, running down to the bottom and sliding to a halt in front of Tails.

"Are you alright buddy?" Sonic asked.

"I'm fine. This place is disgusting, though." Tails looked around at the trash, tokens and rings that lined the edge of the vent room. "Miss Park really throws her cheaters down here?"

"Well, she probably thinks cheaters are all trash, so…"

"That's a little on the nose, Sonic."

"No, the stench of this place is inside and outside my nose at this point."

Tails snorted a bit in amusement.

"How are we gonna get out of here?"

"You can probably just fly us into the vent I came out of. I think we can find our way out from there."

Before Tails could open his mouth or agree or disagree, the room nearly shook with a loud hum from below them. Both of them looked below, seeing the giant fan below slowly starting to turn.

"Oh crap." The hedgehog commented, before the sound of the fan drowned out any other statements.

A powerful gust of air made the pair, as well as everything around them, fly upwards through the vent. Sonic and Tails flipped around in a daze, unable to collect themselves while flying upwards.

Tails tried to fly around with his tails, propelling himself upwards, but got lost in the haze of trash and tokens around him. He thrashed through the garbage and pulled it off of him, still flying upwards.

He finally stopped when he hit the overhang of one of the openings, a loud clang heard by even Sonic as Tails hit his head into the metal.

"Tails!" Sonic said, still spinning.

It was hard to get focused as his body was flailing through the powerful gust of wind upwards. He was disoriented from the dizzying sight of flipping and the stench of trash in his nose.

Sonic forced himself to focus, almost making the world move slowly around him as he flipped backwards and got Tails in his sights.

Alongside the trash and tokens that were pushed in the air, hovering along with the power of the fans, Sonic also spotted rings positioned in front of him.

They were placed in such a way that they formed a path directly from him to Tails, upwards towards the opening that the fox was right next to.

Ready?

Sonic felt his muscles go staticky, blue energy coursing through his body and crackling between his quills. He almost felt an automatic pull towards the rings, and could just barely spot the gold energy of the rings reaching to him, stretching out like a hand inviting Sonic towards them.

He waited until his position was perfectly upright, with the first ring only a yard or two right in front of him.

Go!

Sonic rushed forwards, performing another dash at lightspeed, allowing each ring to be a spot for him to zip towards. It was just like Moss said- the rings were a circuit, and Sonic was the electricity going through it.

Going from each one at insane speeds, Sonic reached Tails in an instant, tackling the fox and flying into the opening to the tunnel.

They both landed on the ground, tumbling across the metal floor and coming to a stop beside one another.

Sonic got to his feet, dusting his jacket and pants off.

"You okay, Tails?"

Tails put his thumb up, face-down on the floor. Slowly, he picked himself up as well.

"My head still kinda hurts. Let's get outta here so I can get some ibuprofen." Tails grumbled.

The hedgehog nodded before gesturing to him to follow. They ran down the tunnel, heading around a loop before reaching a sudden drop.

Tails reluctantly hovered Sonic down, still feeling his head hurt, getting to the bottom of that tunnel and out of the other side.

When they dropped down, Sonic and Tails were back at the corridor leading down to the ladder.

"…man, I wish I knew about that tunnel first."

Sonic didn't continue groveling. He pulled Tails along to the ladder, climbing up with his friend to the locker room above.

They slid into the showers, luckily still empty, finally free of the disgusting tunnels below.

"What now, Sonic?"

"Let's see if we can find Knuckles to get him to play. It's our only chance left… Maybe you can help him at the card tables."

"Isn't that cheating?"

"It's a freaking Chaos Emerald as the prize, man! We have to try something!"

They left the locker room, but soon stopped as they were confronted with the massive form of the emperor penguin that worked with Sonic.

Thomas crossed his arms with a scowl.

"Hold it right there, you two. I have to escort Tails off the premises for cheating."

"I didn't even know I was cheating! Can't I get another chance?"

"Rules are rules."

"Thomas, please. We have to get that Chaos Emerald, it's literally life or death."

"If I don't get this paycheck to help pay for my wedding, it's life or death for me at the hands of my girlfriend and mother-in-law! I'm sorry Sonic, but I can't risk it…"

The penguin started to descend on the pair.

"Thomas, no!"

"Knuckles! I see where the other shard is!"

It had been a while since the last shard was found. Rouge still had one, and Knuckles had one. This one was for all the grapes.

He perked up at that, turning around from the area where he was standing- staring at the large, neon sign of a cowgirl laying on her side. He wasn't staring because it was a cowgirl, but because he was in awe of the sign itself. Such a wonderful piece of craftsmanship.

"Where?"

"There! This way!"

Tikal twirled around, the red orb flying off somewhere else. Knuckles stood still and watched, the spirit soaring over the bustling game floor and towards a large statue across the way.

It was a massive red lion, shining red almost like a ruby. Fake fire, made of strips of orange plastic being blown by a small fan below, wiggled around the statue of the lion.

Every few seconds, the lion lifted its right paw, then slammed it down, then it's left paw, and slammed that down as well. After both paws were slammed, the maw of the red lion opened up with a roar, a roar drowned out by the people chattering below.

Within the jaws of the giant lion, Knuckles spotted Tikal floating next to the floating shard of the Master Emerald inside it. The jaws snapped shut a second or two after the roar finished.

The echidna watched Tikal teleport back beside him, before watching the lion moving with interest.

"Be careful, Knuckles. Those jaws are super powerful, made of metal. They could really hurt you."

"This is what I do, Tikal. I think I'll be alright."

"If you say so."

Knuckles cracked his neck, readjusting his sunglasses on top of his head. He missed his hat a bit, but honestly, he felt like it was better to keep it safe at home.

…the apartment. Not Angel Island. He's been staying in Station Square long enough that it's become something of a home to him.

He shook his head to jostle those thoughts away. Now's not the time for that. He had to get this next shard to imprison Chaos. It was his duty.

Knuckles sprinted forwards before gliding away from the cowgirl sign, soaring towards the opening maw of the red lion. He timed it right when the lion was starting to roar for efficiency.

Letting the air glide him across the game floor at increased speeds, ready to grab the emerald shard as soon as it was close.

Soon enough, he reached the shard. He grabbed it with one hand, and sent his fist into the back of the lion's mouth with the other to hold him in that spot. He grinned at the shard, enjoying the hum of energy it gave off.

He tried pulling his fist out, but found it was stuck. He punched a little too hard into the back of the lion's mouth, and now his entire fist was submerged in the back.

Knuckles pulled again, but soon found the lion was closing his mouth, the top and bottom around him closing in to crush him.

When he reached out to try and stop it, the mouth stopped just shy of Knuckles, creaking loudly as something kept it from closing.

Knuckles looked behind him- Rouge was standing at the edge of the lion's mouth, holding the maw open with her entire body. Slowly, she lifted one leg up, and kicked upwards to put one foot on the top lip of the lion's mouth.

She was using her legs to hold the mouth open in a vertical split, leaning into the mouth and looking towards Knuckles. She held her hands out to him.

"C'mon!" Rouge said.

Knuckles was hesitant, looking between the emerald shard and Rouge.

"Not the shard! I'm trying to get you out of here, you big dummy!" The bat said.

Regardless, after a moment, Knuckles held out the shard towards Rouge- mostly because it was his only free hand. Knuckles managed to yank his fist from the wall in time for Rouge to pull him out of the lion's mouth.

They fell to the ground in front of the lion as its mouth snapped shut with a loud slam.

After the two crashed to the ground, Tikal floated towards them, transforming back to her echidna form to hover nearby.

"Are you two alright?" She asked.

"I'm good." Rouge got up.

"I'm fine. Just a little… too much." Knuckles grumbled, turning to sit on the ground. "Thank you for helping me, Rouge."

"Hey, we're on the same side, like I said. Wouldn't be fun out there without someone to be the cat to my mouse."

Knuckles stay seated, sliding a knee up to rest his arm on it. He stared down at the shard he collected, thinking to himself.

"I nearly died to prevent myself from feeling that… feeling. A simple emotion." Knuckles sighed. "How did I become this way? Why did I let my feelings of Sonic's companionship dictate who I am?"

"You say that like it's a bad thing. According to Sonic, friends are his superpower or something." The bat shrugged.

"I've never had friends before. I don't know if I like it, really. I'm getting sloppy because of these feelings I've never had."

"You aren't getting worse because of those feelings, Knuckles! You just don't know how to process them!" Tikal said. "At least that's what I'm observing."

"I agree with ghost girl." Rouge said. "Look, I'm not the hokey 'my friends aren't my weakness they're my strength' kinda person. I get that having friends makes you feel and experience things you're not used to. Trust me. But… from what I've seen, you've gone from a guy who wanted to kill Sonic, to wanting to help him at every point and turn. In a way… Sonic's changed you. For the better."

Rouge offered her hand to Knuckles. The echidna took it, getting to his feet. He clearly had a lot to think about, but was interrupted by Rouge handing him a shard from the inside of her jacket- the third shard he needed.

"…you're giving me this?" Knuckles took the shard. "Why?"

"Well… maybe he's changed me too." Rouge shrugged noncommittally. "…besides, I want the full emerald. Not just the pieces."

Knuckles scoffed, clearly not taking her seriously.

"You're not getting the emerald."

"But maybe I wii-iiill!"

"No. You won't."

"But maybe, just maybe… I will."

Rouge walked two fingers up Knuckles' chest before pushing his jaw away to turn him around, wanting him to get back on track.

"Now go get your friends in order, Knucky. It's a pleasure to see you and your emerald as always."

"You're not getting the emerald, Rouge."

"We'll see, big red."

"Bye Rouge!" Tikal said, transforming back into her orb form.

"Goodbye Tikal. Keep that knucklehead in line for me, would you?"

"Sure thing!" The spirit replied.

Knuckles heard Sonic talking. Making sure he had all three shards in his hands, Knuckles stepped to the edge of the ledge and dropped, headed down to the game floor.

As he got to the floor, he caught the last few lines of a conversation between Sonic and someone else.

"I'm sorry Sonic, but I can't risk it."

"Thomas, no!"

The bad part about not looking where he was leaping meant that Knuckles could land on someone- and he did. Knuckles crashed into Thomas, making both of them collapse onto the ground.

Knuckles quickly got to his feet with all three shards of the emerald.

"Knuckles!" Sonic and Tails said at once.

"Hey guys!" The echidna said with a smile. He held out the shards. "I got all three shards!"

"That's radical, dude! But right now, we really need your help." Sonic replied. "…is Thomas alright?"

There was a groan from the penguin, but it seemed that he was absolutely fine.

"You need my help?" Knuckles asked.

"Yes! We have to get those rings in order to get that Chaos Emerald. We have to try to—"

Before Sonic could finish, all the lights above them flashed. Sirens and bells rang, and repeatedly over the intercom, a robotic voice repeated "winner" over and over again.

The trio went to the vault hall, along with a few more people (most of them left when the winner was announced out of anger) to see who won the major prize.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Vickie's voice was over the speakers. "Your winner of the contest! The collector of thousands of tokens and rings…"

The vault doors opened. With thousands of rings piled behind him, the winner stepped out- a giant, purple cat in fishing waders.

"Big?" Tails asked.

"Hi Sonic, hi Tails. Hi Sonic and Tails's friend." Big said, waving to each of them. Froggy croaked a greeting.

"You won the contest?" Sonic asked.

"There was a contest?"

"Yeah, that's why everyone was getting the tokens and stuff." Tails' eyebrows furrowed. "How did you win? You barely had any tokens when I last saw you."

"I used the token you gave me to play those slot machines. I got triple chilidogs five times, and got a bunch more tokens." Big replied. "I thought this was to keep your tokens so your pockets wouldn't get heavy, but this machine shook me up and all those rings appeared. What do I win?"

"Well, my feline compatriot!" Vickie slid in with a microphone. She snapped, the robotic claws that shook Big before grabbed the containment device that housed the Chaos Emerald.

The claws brought the device over to be placed right between Big and Vickie.

"You're now the owner of a lucious, beautiful, sparkling Chaos…!"

She pressed the button to open the front, to reveal the emerald inside. However, when she pressed the button… no emerald was inside.

The crowd gasped.

"I met Chaos before. He wasn't really lucious." Big commented, head tilted curiously.

"MUAHAHAHAHA!"

With a puff of smoke, the Dark Ghost appeared in front of Team Sonic (& Knuckles) between them and where Big and Vickie were standing.

In his hand was the gray Chaos Emerald. He held it up triumphantly.

"I did it. I got the emerald!" He announced.

Vickie gasped, but Sonic felt it was a little over exaggerated.

"Sonic, you were supposed to stop the Dark Ghost! What have you been doing this entire time?!"

"I have the emerald now! Your precious Sonic the Hedgehog has failed!" The Dark Ghost said. "Now there's absolutely nothing you all can do about—"

Knuckles delivered a simple punch to the Dark Ghost, knocking the man backwards and onto the ground. The emerald bounced across the carpet and landed next to Big's foot.

As he landed, the mask of the Dark Ghost flew off of his face, landing nearby. The young man under the mask sat up with a frown, reaching into his hoodie and pulling out a familiar pair of sunglasses to put them on.

"Ugh! Mom, you said Sonic's friends weren't going to get involved!" Titus said. "Make them leave!"

"…Mom?" Sonic looked at Vickie.

"Sonic, you've already met my son, Titus." The woman said. "I hired him to act as the Dark Ghost for this event to test your skills, seeing as he's a master at parking."

"Parkour, mom."

"That too." Vickie waved her hand. "Clearly, you failed, sorry. That means you don't get paid."

From behind them, Thomas rushed up, breathing heavily and getting close to Vickie.

"Oh no… the Dark Ghost has been unmasked as Vickie's son… how could this have happened?"

"The jig is up, Tommy." Vickie pat his back. "Go ahead back to your office. You can take an extra long break today."

"Ugh, thank you."

Thomas trudged off.

"Bye, Giga Thomas." Sonic waved his hand.

"Bye, guys." The penguin replied.

"He'll be fine." Vickie added. "Look, you all may have failed to protect the emerald, but… I still saw what happened in those tunnels. I have to say, it's pretty cool to see someone move that fast."

Vickie grinned and winked at Sonic. She turned around and helped Titus up to his feet, putting a hand on his shoulder to escort him away.

"Anyway! I suggest Tails leaves the premises and never returns, for your own safety. Thanks for playing, have a wonderful day!"

Vickie and Titus left. As he was leaving, Titus looked over his shoulder.

"YOU WIN THIS ROUND, SONIC! I'll see y'all later!" Titus waved as he walked off.

It was silent between the trio as they watched the mother and son leave the area. The other patrons left the game floor, leaving the casino as well.

"That was… an interesting development."

"Good to see Titus is doing well now that he's off those supplements though." Sonic added. "…mostly. Maybe the Dark Ghost can be used for good, though."

"Let's not encourage him." Tails replied.

As they still stood there, Big trudged up to stand in front of them, now holding the emerald he won in the contest.

"Thank you for those tokens you gave me earlier, Tails." Big said. He held out the emerald. "You can have this because of that."

"Really? Big… this is a Chaos Emerald."

"Yeah, it sounds really important. You should probably have it anyway." Big shrugged. "Besides, Froggy likes eating anything shiny. It reminds him of fireflies, and that's his favorite food. I'd hate for him to eat one of those emerald things."

Tails hesitantly took the emerald.

"…thank you, Big!"

"Don't mention it. I'm gonna go home now. Bye."

Big walked away, reaching up and picking up Froggy, holding him in front of his chest and petting the frog as he left into the night.

The group watched, before Tails handed the emerald to Sonic, who looked it over.

"Huh!" The hedgehog said. "What a nice guy. I'm glad Cream has someone like that as her uncle."

"I thought he was her godfather?" Tikal spoke, appearing next to Sonic.

"She kind of just adopted him as her uncle. Like how Moss is Knuckles' dad, but not his dad." Sonic replied. "How have you been, Tikal? Fun adventure?"

"No stakes, a calm and relaxed resolution. An adventure truly for me and me alone." The spirit surely sounded happy.

"And we got a Chaos Emerald from it! And three of the Master Emerald shards!" Knuckles added. "There's only a few left, I can feel it. We're so close to finishing the emerald!"

"This is awesome! Nothing can break our stride now!"

There was a sound that filled the game floor as the intercom was turned on.

"SONIC AND FRIENDS LEAVE THE PREMISES NOW OR I WILL BE CALLING THE POLICE TO REMOVE YOU." Vickie spoke over the intercom.

The group didn't need another warning, quickly scurrying out of the casino together and into the dead of night.

They returned to Angel Island the next day. They were keeping the emerald and their shards at the apartment (in Bud's old containment cube) as they were only here to pick up Amy.

Pushing through the brush to the chao garden on the island, they spotted Amy sitting at the edge of the pond, watching the chao swim together and have fun.

She noticed them immediately, hopping up to her feet with a smile.

"Hey guys! Happy to finally see you."

"Hey Aims. Ready to end your little vacation to get back to working?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." Amy rolled her eyes. She looked at Tikal. "How was your little adventure in the mainland, Tikal?"

"Short, average. Just what I wanted. Nothing too menial or stressful… not with the stuff with Chaos happening soon." Tikal hummed. "Amy, would you like to help collect fruit for the chao? The guardians aren't here all the time to help me and I want to make sure they're fed before you leave."

"Yeah! I've been dying to hit a few trees with this hammer." Amy grinned, switching her purse to its hammer mode before following the spirit to different fruit trees.

The others watched together, standing in a row.

"Where are the other guardians, Knuckles?" Tails asked.

"Most likely on patrol, knowing what time it is right now. If Ray sees us, he'll probably swoop in to say hello. Maybe Moss if Sticks tells us that we're here."

"How are you feeling?" Sonic asked the echidna.

"…fine. I'm glad we got the shards. We just need a few more, I'm sure we can find them in time to imprison Chaos."

"Well, even if we can't… I wouldn't think anything less of you, Knuckles. You do get that, right?"

"…Tikal told you about the thing in Casinopolis, didn't she?"

"Told me in a dream." Sonic replied. "I didn't know that was happening to you, Knux. I didn't mean to make you feel insecure by relying on Tails, it's mostly just muscle memory."

"I know. I guess… I've never had someone rely on me this much before. Feeling like someone doesn't believe in you is awful."

"Amy went through a similar thing a while back. She felt like she wasn't an adequate psychic and was being really hard on herself."

"How'd she get over it?"

"I dunno if she got over it exactly, but… I let her know that she isn't reliable for only one thing. Neither are you, Knuckles." Sonic replied. "You're more than just a shard-tracking machine. You're the muscle around here. You're my friend, man, and I trust you as much as I trust Tails or Amy."

"Even with the both of them being your best friends and me… not being that?"

"Well…" Sonic shrugged a bit. "Look man… you're not the same guy I flip-kicked into a tree like, almost three months ago. Maybe less. We really couldn't do this without you."

"So, what're you saying?"

"I dunno man. Maybe… you're my best friend, too."

Knuckles perked up at that. The echidna blinked to think about it, staring in the distance for a moment. He readjusted his stance after, beginning to smile at himself at that. He never really experienced that before. It felt… nice.

He looked back over at Sonic and Tails. The fox gave him a thumbs up with a smile, making the echidna keep smiling as he thought about what just happened.

Sonic chuckled a bit, shaking his head before returning to watch the ladies from afar.

With a hammer swing into another tree, Amy got a few more fruits down to the ground. She gathered them up into a neat little pile near the water- the chao already began getting fruit to eat as she was stacking it up.

"There we are. That's a dozen bananas. I think." Amy hummed. "It's part of the big pile of fruit I got for you, Tikal. All good?"

"Yes! Thank you so much for your help, Amy."

"Thank you for taking my spot for a day or two… or three. It's nice here, I can see why you don't help us out more often."

Tikal held her hand out, palm facing Amy as if she was telling her to stop.

"…uh… Tikal?"

"Am I doing this right? I've seen you all do it before. The other person puts their fist into your palm, right?"

Amy smiled as she got what was going on. She did the special hand gesture between the teammates, moving her hand in to fist-bump Tikal's palm as she said goodbye.

As her hand sunk slightly into the ethereal hand of the echidna spirit, Amy felt a shock go through her body. She let in a giant gasp that dropped the mood immediately, making everyone turn.

Before her very eyes, various images popped in front of Amy. Sonic beaten, Chaos transforming, Ivo next to a missile and buildings exploding from water filling them up.

It was a lot for her to handle. She stumbled forwards, Sonic zipping over to catch her and hold her up.

"Amy? Amy, what happened?" He asked.

"It… Sweet Mobius… it's happening tomorrow."

"What's happening tomorrow?"

"Chaos. Chaos is coming… he's supposed to become Perfect Chaos… tomorrow. It's all happening tomorrow!"

The mood was surely sullied from that. Knuckles and Tails looked at each other before looking at Tikal, who was still watching Amy with a look of remorse on her face.

Sonic was quiet for a moment, before pulling Amy in for a hug. He patted her back, letting his companion hug him tightly. Away from the others, only seen by the chao, was the look on his face of a hedgehog who didn't know what to do.

UP NEXT: Metal Sonic Chaos!