A/N: I realize that people have been eagerly waiting, so without further ado, here's the second entry in the Sonic Journeys series, my own personal reimagining of the Sonicverse. If you haven't already read the first story, then read it! Otherwise, here's a brief recap:

ON THE LAST EPISODE OF "SONIC JOURNEYS"...

JOHNNY LIGHTFOOT: "We're gonna be eatin' good in the 'hood tonight!"

(Bombs drop on Mobius. Sonny the Hedgehog escapes, and in the process, undergoes a radical transformation)

SONNY: "I'm Sonic...Sonic the Hedgehog!"

ROBOTNIK: "YOU...stop ME? I would love to see you try...Hedgehog!

(A battle breaks out between Sonic and Dr. Robotnik. Sonic appears to be on the ropes, but he destroys the Doctor's Egg-O-Matic Techno Body Shell Battle Suit.)

ROBOTNIK: "JUST YOU WAIT, SONIC!"

TAILS: "Will you be my friend?"

SONIC: "Sorry, kid, but I got no time for that."

TAILS: "You wanna see me cry?"

SONIC: (rubbing his head) "OK, OK, ya got me!"

TAILS: "...the name's Prower, Miles Prower"

SONIC: (snaps his fingers) "I'll call ya 'Tails'!"

(Sonic and Tails destroy more badniks. They take to the skies in the Tornado, where Sonic infiltrates Robotnik's Wing Fortress.)

SONIC: "Is this your grand finale, Robuttnik?"

ROBOTNIK: "Why heavens, no, Sonic! It's YOURS!"

(Sonic takes on Robotnik's Wing Fortress Robot and once again nearly gets pinned, but comes out victorious.)

ROBOTNIK: "I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG!"

A red-and-white biplane called the Tornado tore through the skies over the Mobius Ocean, with Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles "Tails" Prower continuing in their pursuit of the mad scientist Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik. Despite having defeated two of Robotnik's ultimate machines and a number of lesser machines, Sonic still had a ways to go before he liberated his home country – the Kingdom of Mobius – from the Doctor's iron grip. While Tails could fly on his own thanks to his two tails, he couldn't do it for super long periods of time, which is why he had the Tornado.

"Hey Tails, ya see anything yet!?" asked Sonic, riding in the observer's seat.

"Not yet, Sonic!" replied Tails. "I'll let you know if…"

Suddenly, Sonic's Hedgehog Sense started acting up pretty fiercely. As a result, he unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed up onto the top wing of the Tornado.

"Sonic, what's going on?" asked Tails.

"Call me crazy," replied Sonic, "but somethin's wacked here, and my Hedgehog Sense is tellin' me that it's comin' from that island!"

"What island?"

Soon enough, Tails spotted the island in question, which was lush with greenery and also had some ancient ruins, plus a huge mountain in the center.

"Hey, I've never seen that island before!" said Tails. "It doesn't look like it's on any of my maps, either!"

"Whatever the case, let's dig it! Get me in a bit closer!"

"OK, Sonic!"

Tails started descending. When they were flying near sea level, Sonic prepared to jump.

"OK, this is where I bail!" said Sonic. "Find a place to park this baby, OK?"

When he was approaching the shore, Sonic jumped off. Just before he hit the ground, he curled up into a ball and rolled a few ways before smacking into a pine tree. Fortunately, the Blue Blur survived the impact and got up.

"OK, remind me to tell Tails to improve his aim…" Sonic brushed his head off. "Juice time!"

Sonic ran into the forest, but after covering a little less than a football field's worth of yardage, he tripped on something and skidded to a halt. Nevertheless, he got up with only a minor scratch or two.

"Jeez, this island's full of bad luck! Just what did I…?"

Sonic trailed off when he caught a glint of light in the grass. Upon further inspection, he found a green gemstone on the ground, cut in the Tolkowsky Brilliant style with eight facets. Picking it up, he found that it fit perfectly in his hand.

"What is this thing?" said Sonic. "Whatever it is, I better keep it until Tails can give me some answers."
After stuffing the mysterious gem into a pocket on his M65 field jacket, Sonic kept running. This time, he collided with a bush that was more solid than it appeared, thereby knocking him backwards and causing the gem to fall out of his jacket pocket. Shortly thereafter, somebody emerged from the bush: a red echidna with dreadlocks and an upside-down, white crescent-shaped mark on his chest, plus the biggest set of spiked ham fists Sonic had ever seen. The echidna was also wearing a native-style dress with zig-zag lines on it.

"Hey, what's the big idea, man!?" said Sonic.

"Halt, intruder!" said the echidna.

"Intruder? What's with that jive?"

"Don't play stupid with me! I know ya came to steal the Master Emerald! For as far back as I can remember, I, Knuckles the Echidna, have been living alone here on Angel Island, serving as its guardian, and that means protecting it from creeps like you!"

"Master Emerald? Is that what that weird rock I found was?"

"A-ha, so you have come to steal it! That other stranger was right! Leave this place immediately, or I'll be forced to give you a knuckle sandwich!"

Sonic extended one hand towards Knuckles. "Hey hey HEY! Don't go bananas, man! I'm goin', all right?"

Sonic went to pick up the mysterious gem when Knuckles shoved him to the ground.

"Oh, and don't think you're getting away with this so easy! I'll be taking that Chaos Emerald, too!"

Knuckles took the green Chaos Emerald and laughed before running away.

"HEY, get back here!" Sonic ran after Knuckles. Despite his super speed, Ol' Blue still lost him, coming to a halt when he realized this.

"Well, it looks like it's a long way to the top if I wanna rock 'n' roll!"

Shortly thereafter, Sonic heard a familiar "putt-putt" sound and turned around to see Tails descending with his twin tails.

"Sonic, are you all right?" asked Tails.

"I'm all right, man," replied Sonic, "but this dude named Knuckles ran into me and stole this thing I found!"

"What thing?"

"Ever heard of somethin' called a 'Chaos Emerald' or a 'Master Emerald'?"

"Chaos Emerald…" Tails looked off into the distance. "I think I've heard of those before."

"Well, lay it on me, man!"

"I read in a book that there are these seven sacred gems in the world. Supposedly, if one were to collect all seven, they could unlock ultimate power."

"Ultimate power? What kind of ultimate power?"

Tails shrugged. "I don't remember, or if I do, the book was inconclusive. I'm blank on this 'Master Emerald' as well."

Sonic stroked his chin. "If this power is as ultimate as they say it is, and if Robuttnik gets his mitts on all seven, then we're gonna see some serious crap! Come on, let's roll, Cole!"

Sonic and Tails proceeded further into the depths of Angel Island, both equally in wonderment in regards to their new adventure. A few ways down, they encountered a robot that resembled a monkey hanging in a palm tree. Seeing that no good could come of leaving it alive, Sonic jumped up and trashed it, but not before it attempted to hit them by throwing a coconut.

"Sonic, you don't suppose…?"

"I do. Keep your eyes peeled, man!"

While venturing deeper into Angel Island, Sonic and Tails encountered yet another new robot: a gray robot with red stripes that resembled a rhino with a single wheel. Taking its mere form as a challenge, Sonic curled up into a ball and attempted to hit it with a Spin Attack. Fortunately for Sonic and Tails, this new rhino bot seemed more as if it were made of tissue paper than metal. After jumping off a ledge, they not only discovered another one of those monkey bots, but also a group of SWATbots. Tails took on the former, while Sonic took on the latter.

"Tails…"

"I know what you're gonna say, and I'm gonna ask why Robotnik's here."

"Your guess is as good as mine!"

Sonic and Tails kept going until they ended up inside a giant hollowed-out tree.

"What are we gonna do now, Sonic?"

"Hmmm…"

Sonic stroked his chin and looked around inside the tree. Then, he snapped his fingers.

"Can ya carry me up to that opening up there?" Sonic pointed to another opening in the tree.

Tails gave a thumbs up. "OK, Sonic!"

Tails started flying and carried Sonic up to the other opening, where they ended up on solid ground. Before they could run too far, however, they were enveloped by a ray of light. When the light had ceased, they found themselves in the forest still. Nearby, they saw a pale orange female echidna, who was wearing a white midriff-revealing tank top, a golden necklace and band-shaped tiara – both with a blue jewel in their centers – a beige, green and red skirt with a rhomboid pattern, white gloves with large blue bracelets, and white sandals with knee-high straps. Laying on the ground before her was a small, light-blue humanoid creature with a teardrop-shaped, yellow-tipped head, yellow-tipped hands with no visible fingers, elongated, yellow-tipped feet with no visible legs, and gray wings. Judging by the creature's limited movement, it seemed to have been injured.

"Who's she?" said Sonic.

"Why?" said the echidna. "Why did this have to happen? It's terrible! I must stop this now!"

Before Sonic or Tails could do anything else, they were enveloped by the light again and returned to where they were.

"That creature…" said Sonic. "I've seen a few like it in Emerald City, but I don't know what they're called…"

"They're called Chao," said Tails. "Not much is known about where they came from, but they're popular pets around the world. Their disposition and color scheme also changes depending not only on how their owner treats them, but also on their owner's heart."

"Pretty freaky stuff, man. Now, let's…"

Before Sonic could do anything involving his trademark super speed, him and Tails were confronted by a clear, water-like humanoid with two fin-like appendages on the back of its head, pointy flaps on each side of its head, disproportionately long arms that had hands with three long, pointy fingers each, and similarly long legs with large feet that had similarly large, pointy toes. In spite of its solid yellow eyes casting a threatening glare, Sonic was undeterred and attempted to speak with it, slowly:

"Hel-lo crea-ture! Me Son-ic! Do you un-der-stand?"

The creature responded to Sonic by extending its arm beyond its usual reach and attempting to punch him, but he jumped out of the way.

"Guess it don't respond well to friendship!" said Sonic. "Whatever! One water creature stew, comin' right up!"

Sonic charged up a Spin Dash and attempted to strike the creature, but in spite of it appearing to be made of water, it was actually quite solid, so Big Blue merely bounced off of it without even shaking it up.

"OK, that ain't supposed to happen," said Sonic.

"Sonic, let's aim for its brain!"

Sonic took a brief look at the creature and noticed that its brain was indeed visible.

"Right!" Sonic jumped and used a Homing Attack to strike the creature's brain, which seemed to do the trick as it melted into a puddle.

"Yeah!" Sonic pumped his fist. "That'll learn that turkey!"

"Uh, Sonic…I don't think that quite did the trick…"

"Huh…?"

As per Tails' statement, the puddle was moving around, and in relatively short order, the creature had re-formed itself.

"Whoa!" said Sonic. "That's some trippy stuff!"

This time, the creature tried to hit Sonic and Tails again, this time by spinning around and unleashing an energy-charged punch. However, they jumped to avoid the oncoming energy blasts, and Tails followed up by striking the creature's brain again. Once again, having taken such a damaging blow, the creature dissolved into a puddle and relocated before reforming. This time, when the creature reformed, it immediately jumped to one of the treetops.

"How are we supposed to get it now?" said Tails.

"I'll distract it!" said Sonic. "Fly up to the treetops and take it down!"

"Right!"

While Tails flew up to one of the treetops, Sonic waved at the creature.

"Hey, down here, ya moron!" said Sonic. "I'm open! Come on, hit me, sucka!"

Sure enough, the creature focused on Sonic and extended its arm for an extra-long punch, which he sidestepped.

"Ya missed me, lamebrain!"

The creature tried another swipe at Sonic, which he also managed to dodge. This time, he wagged his index finger at it.

"No no no! You're gonna have to do better than that!"

While Sonic was taunting the creature, he noticed that it had temporarily taken its eyes off of him. His ever-cocky smile faded when he noticed who it was focusing on: Tails, who was in mid-jump and preparing to strike the creature down.

"Tails…NO!"

Fearing that his best friend might get cut down in midair, Sonic headed for the tree and frantically climbed whatever branches he could, hoping to reach the creature before it could hurt Tails. Fortunately for the Blue Blur, his climbing jostled the tree enough that the creature was distracted from Tails, thereby allowing the little fox to strike its brain again. This time, the creature liquefied again, and Sonic jumped away from the tree before any of the liquid could fall on him. Once again, he landed safely, and shortly thereafter, Tails landed right beside him.

"Great shot, Tails! I thought that thing had ya!"

"Hey, if you hadn't climbed that tree, it woulda had me!"

"Well it didn't, did it?"

Tails nodded. "I guess not."

"Anyways…up high!"

Tails gave Sonic a high-five.

"Down low!"

Tails tried it again, but Sonic pulled his hand away.

"Oh, too slow!"

Tails and Sonic got a good laugh out of that one. However, Tails abruptly stopped mid-laugh.

"What it is, man?" said Sonic.

"Don't look now," said Tails, "but we're probably gonna get it this time!"

"Wha…?"

Sonic turned around, his Hedgehog Sense going off, and Tails appeared to be right: descending a few yards away from them was a round, dark blue unmanned craft with some sort of attachment sticking out from the upper center of the machine and four jets on the bottom corners. Sonic and Tails could only land a couple of hits on the machine before it and a fleet of others just like it started shooting cluster bombs into the sky, which split and dropped the resulting firebombs on the forest. In little time at all, Angel Island was a raging inferno.

"Tails…"

"Yeah?"

"We're gonna need some protection fast or we'll get cooked! Got any bright ideas?"

"Why not pull a couple of proximity suits out of your bag?"

"Say what?"

"A proximity suit is a special type of suit worn to protect against high temperatures. They used to be made of asbestos, but now they're made with vacuum-deposited aluminum. They're commonly worn by airport firefighters."

"OK, I think I get what you're talkin' about. Lemme see…"

Sonic whipped out his S.M.E.C.K. and fished around inside. After some fiddling around, he pulled out two sets of what resembled firefighters' turnout gear, but were silver in color, with helmets that had special hoods with big, reflective, fixed visors, matching silver gloves and silver/yellow knee-high "ARFF" boots.

"These what you're lookin' for?" asked Sonic.

"Perfect!" Tails gave a thumbs up.

"All right, let's get these on…"

Sonic and Tails put on their proximity suits, which included breathing apparatus, after which Sonic put away the bag.

"Flame on!" Sonic pumped his fist.

Sonic and Tails ventured deeper into the flames of Angel Island. After mowing down a few more SWATbots, they came across a robot that resembled a Caterkiller, but without the side spikes. Also, it was…flying? Neither hero stopped to question this, they simply busted its head open, being mindful of the electricity it was giving off, and moved along. Shortly thereafter, Sonic saw what appeared to be a crude zipline, so without question, he grabbed on and rode it past a nearby waterfall and over the water below before jumping off, and Tails followed him by flying. A few yards away from the zipline, more Buzz Bombers attacked, but Sonic and Tails were able to make short work of these. Encountering what appeared to be a dead end blocked off by a few boulders, they hopped up onto a nearby ledge. A couple of ledges later, they spotted another new robot, which resembled a large, robotic tulip. The tulip bot shot two spiked balls from its spiked bud, which Sonic and Tails dodged, destroying the robot in the process. Getting to a higher ledge, they found a nice stretch of ground, only to encounter a familiar foe…

"Sonic, isn't that the flame bot we saw earlier?"

"That it is! Let's trash it!"

Sonic and Tails jumped and struck the flame craft a few times, being mindful of the bomb launchers on its back. While it didn't launch any more firebombs at them, it nearly caught them off-guard with the flamethrower mounted on the front. Figuring that not even the proximity suits would protect them, they sidestepped the flames and continued their assault on the machine. In short order, the flame craft was nothing but another pile of scrap metal.

"Phew!" said Sonic. "Talk about hot stuff!"

"Speaking of hot stuff, we better get out of these flames soon; it's getting warm inside this suit!" said Tails.

"Don't worry! If our past success means anything, we should be outta this fryin' pan and the fire in no time!"

"I sure hope so…"

Criticism is gold. Negativity and nitpicking are pyrite.