The water skittered underneath his sneakers, spewing out a massive spray in his wake. Steam mixed in as the friction of his feet boiled the ocean's surface like a pot on a stove. He always wondered if he could go fast enough to run on water. Now he knew. But he knew as well that one fall would see him crash beneath the waves... and he still couldn't swim, but he had to push forward now on his own. He'd make it up to Tails for leaving the fox behind. He wasn't trying to do it all alone anymore, but he just didn't have a choice.
"Gotta go fast!" Sonic said as he pushed himself harder, covering the miles to that distant light in a matter of moments.
The wine-dark sea swelled angrily as he came closer and closer to the beacon. The green light poured out of the peak of a tiny rocky island. With the waves swirling around it, Sonic's tenuous balancing act was thrown for a loop. With each new step, his feet sunk just below the surface of the water before he launched off again. His balance became unsteady. The waters rose in violent waves. And just as he reached the edge of the island's whirlpool, he finally made a fatal slip. For the first time in his life, Sonic lost his footing underneath him. He hit the water at over 300 miles an hour, face-first! Like a skipping stone, Sonic skidded off the surface and into the air. His head took the brunt of the blow... until finally, everything went black. When he came to, Sonic was sure that he was at the bottom of a watery grave, thinking he probably heard his name called by two voices that sounded faded and echoey. But then he heard the gentle sound of water lapping at the shore. He opened his eyes, and despite a pretty major pain in his neck, he seemed okay. Sonic struggled to his feet only to realize that hard rock stood beneath him. He was on the island. He'd made it!
From this vantage point, he saw how the ocean created a massive bowl of space, and in the midst of it all was not just an island but a temple city! With the green light of the beacon bursting forth from its summit just behind Sonic's head, the temple seemed to go on forever deep into the earth below. And if that's where Robotnik and Knuckles had gone, it's where he would go, too. Sonic jumped down the closest hole he could and plummeted into darkness. His feet hit a slick patch of stone, and suddenly Sonic was riding down a chute of pouring water. He set out his hands and surfed his way down and out over the edge of a waterfall, launching off the lip of the spout just in time to avoid another swim trap. He landed in a gigantic room; clearly the entry to the labyrinth. A giant owl statue loomed above his head. Longclaw's tribe hid the Emerald here who knows how many years ago, but the real question was "Which way?" From the opening, Sonic could tell there were many paths. But he couldn't assume that all of them would take him to the Master Emerald.
"Sonic!" Two voices called out, sounding distant and echoey again, but closer than they had before.
Sonic then looked over and looked relieved. "Sonia, Manic, thank goodness." he then smiled at his siblings.
"I thought we might find you here," Sonia noted. "At least you didn't drown."
"Yeah, seriously... Water, why did it happen to be water?" Sonic groaned, taking a cue from Indiana Jones.
"Which way do we go now?" Manic asked their brother then.
"That's just what I'm trying to figure out," Sonic said as he looked over at the possible choices. "I don't think we should split up for this mission since we could easily get lost and separated from each other."
"Okay, trial and error..." Manic said, and sprinted down the first path. It immediately collapsed beneath him, and Manic hopped back just in time to avoid a pit of spikes! "That was an error."
Sonic would be more cautious on take two, feeling his way down another path. That is, he thought he could go easy, until his foot set off a pressure plate that launched a volley of arrows right at his head!
"Zero for two. Rough start," Sonic said after ducking out of danger. "Ugh, we don't have time for this!"
"Okay, here's a possible idea, especially for you, Sonic," Sonia spoke up. "How about we rush in as quick as possible and get killed?" she then suggested.
"Sure, that sounds easier said than done, Sis." Manic commented.
"Aw, surely it'll be fine. After all, we know how Sonic's supposed to be the fastest thing alive." Sonia reminded.
"Yeah, that's true, but what kinda booby traps await us there?" Sonic soon wondered.
"Guess we'll have to take the YouTube video game walkthrough path." Sonia suggested.
Sonic and Manic then looked at Sonia in confusion at first.
"And by that, I mean we should speed run it together." Sonia then explained to her brothers what she meant.
"Ohhhh," Sonic and Manic replied with wide eyes. "Okay, got it."
"Yeah, let's do it together." Sonia soon said as she took her brothers' hands.
"Right." Sonic and Manic both nodded.
What followed was a flurry of action as the hedgehog triplets made a speed run at every tunnel available. Some ramps collapsed halfway through their run, and the three had to spin jump to safety. Deep in the bowels of one path, they narrowly avoided a spiked wrecking ball. Down at the lowest levels, the stonework of the labyrinth fell sharply into rivers of flowing lava. The triplets could each ride them for a while until the blocks were eaten up by the hot magma. But even after all that, they still hadn't found the Emerald. Then, at last, they broke through. Swinging on a tangled seaweed vine over the worst of the booby traps, Sonic kicked his way through a crumbling wall and into a central chamber with Sonia and Manic following. The green glow of the Emerald and its beacon radiated in the room's center.
"Nailed it!" Sonic laughed before high-fiving Sonia and Manic. "Great plan, Sonia."
"Glad I could be of service." Sonia smirked and nodded.
"Whoa... Hold it, guys," Manic suddenly pointed out. "We aren't alone."
Across the chamber, Knuckles and Robotnik stood side by side. Apparently, they'd just made it through themselves.
"Isn't there always someone trying to ruin a bad thing?" Robotnik cried out.
"Oh, you guys are here, too?" Sonic said, squaring off against Knuckles as the Master Emerald shimmered just beyond the reach of them all. "You must've taken the long way, huh?"
"Enough!" Knuckles hollered in rage. "How many times must I destroy you three in one day?"
"I don't die so easily, Knucklehead!" Sonic laughed, but behind him, he felt a familiar rumble from his speed run with his siblings through the labyrinth's many zones.
Sha-Booooom! A giant spiked wrecking ball burst through the wall behind them, demolishing the support pillars of the room.
"Aw... Forgot about that." Manic remarked before leaping out of its path.
"Is everything a big joke to you?" Knuckles growled. "Why do you constantly insist on interfering with my destiny?"
"We don't believe in destiny. But we do believe in our friends. And our family. And more importantly... they believe in us." said Sonic.
Robotnik blanched. "I think I just threw up in my mouth."
The wrecking ball ricocheted off the columns of the chamber, breaking stone to rubble as it went. The room shook violently, and Sonia and Manic made a dash toward the Emerald, leaping from fallen stone to fallen stone, but just as Sonia was within reaching distance of the prize, Wham! Knuckles charged into her with full force and launched the female hedgehog across the room.
"Sonia!" Manic and Sonic cried out for their sister.
"Boy, you guys really want to hurt each other," Robotnik called. "Are you sure you're not related? Maybe you're hybrid quadruplets and not just hedgehog triplets."
Now it was Knuckles' turn to go for the Master Emerald. He rushed forward fists-first like an ape charging through the jungle. Sonic and Manic whipped themselves into a double spin attack and cut the echidna off midway, blasting all combatants back to opposite sides of the chamber. The hedgehogs steadied themselves, while across the cavern, Knuckles dug his fists into the ground, equally ready for a bull rush. The Emerald would have to wait until these four had settled the score.
"You've interfered with my destiny for the last time, hedgehogs!" Knuckles yelled.
"Aw, really?" Sonic said cheerfully. "That's too bad. We were enjoying kicking your butt."
As Manic went to go check on Sonia, Sonic dove into the space above, his chaotic speed energy rippling off him in electric blue waves. When Knuckles leaped up to meet him, an angry wave of red energy followed in his wake. The two met in a colorful clash of muscle and magic. The temple began to collapse around them from their battle, but they were too focused—and too evenly matched—to notice or care.
"Why don't you stand still and die with honor?" Knuckles howled.
"Lemme think about it. Okay, I thought about it and I pass." replied Sonic. "Another idea: How about we run around a lot, and you don't kill us?"
Knuckles wound up and punched Sonic so hard it sent him flying towards the entrance to the chamber.
Amidst the madness, a sneaking presence crept ever closer to the Emerald. Robotnik didn't have his army of drones on him now, but that didn't make him any less dangerous. "Hey there, beautiful," he said, approaching the gem. "You're the real deal, aren't you? Donde has estado toda mi vida?"
As Sonic looked up, standing overhead was Knuckles, hoisting a massive chunk of rock over the hedgehog's head. "Say goodbye, hedgehog." he growled.
"Knuckles, stop!" cried Sonic, seeing the danger too late. "Robotnik is stealing the Emerald!"
"What kind of fool do you take me for?"
"JUST LOOK!" shouted Sonia.
The echidna turned just in time to see his worst fears realized. An unworthy villain had latched onto the Master Emerald, screaming "Mine!" And with that single touch, the powers of all the seven legendary Chaos Emeralds of old were reborn in him. The Master Emerald embedded itself in Robotnik's chest, merging with the madman. His flight suit turned completely black, with green outlines.
"Wait!" called Knuckles. "That wasn't the deal. I trusted you. You were my friend!"
"Oh, you poor naïve creature." Robotnik laughed as green energy pulsated all over his body. " It's not your fault. A more advanced intellect would have seen this move coming a mile away. Or 1.6 kilometers."
"Wait!" called Knuckles. "That wasn't the deal. I trusted you. You were my friend!"
This sent Robotnik into a fit of howling laughter. "Sorry, that just caught me as funny," he stated, wiping a tear of mirth away. "Let this be my final lesson to you, you dim-witted celestial skin tag: friends are open, honest & vulnerable with each other...which means X² x the hypotenuse of Y², divided by the absolute value of friendship, equals DOOKIE! In other words, no matter who you think your new friend is... friendship as a construct is still PATHETIC!"
"...DISHONOR!" screamed Knuckles, enraged.
Now fully transforming into a glowing, giddy being of pure chaos, Robotnik lifted an arm and shot a force blast high through the ceiling. He flew skyward, no drones needed, and rippled with green energy that could remake the world, before he vanished. As his creepy laughter rang through the chamber, the columns began to collapse around Sonic, Sonia, Manic, and Knuckles...
"Now what do we do?" Manic asked as the stonework of the chamber was falling like rain now.
"Well, if we don't wanna be smashed to pieces, we better go down now," Sonia suggested. "We have no other choice."
"All the way into the water below," Sonic added before sighing. "All right, let's just get this over with."
Then suddenly, the hedgehog triplets splashed hard at the edge of the black waves, looking for a way out. Amid the falling debris, the three of them noticed the echidna had been pinned down by a massive stone column. He struggled to pull his leg free but couldn't make the column budge.
"He betrayed me." Knuckles grunted as Sonic ran up.
"Of course. He's Ro-Butt-Nik. That's what he does!" Sonic threw his arms up in the air. "And now he has the Emerald. I hope you're happy."
"Why would I be happy?" Knuckles scoffed. "This is a horrible outcome!"
The falling stones settled, but it was far from the end of their troubles. Without the Master Emerald in place, the labyrinth had no other option but to sink back into the ocean. As it sank, the chamber began to flood—bubbling water rising in every nook and cranny. Sonic started to speed around the perimeter, looking for a way out. Across the chamber, one hole opened up to the sky and safety. He could run out now, but even after all that had happened, he couldn't just leave Knuckles behind. "Let's get out of here!" he called.
Knuckles tried in vain to bench-press the column, but he finally dropped his arms, out of breath.
"What are you doing?!" Sonic yelped as Sonic kicked at the column in panic.
"I spent my whole life training for this," Knuckles replied. "And I failed." CRUSH! Another stone block fell on top of the column, double pinning the echidna down. The echidna then smiled weakly. "A fitting end for a failure."
"You're not a failure," Sonia said, trying to help comfort Knuckles. "You're a fighter. So fight!"
"Let me die in peace, pests." Knuckles groaned.
The murky liquid rose over the echidna's head. A few last bubbles floated to its surface as Sonic screamed, "Knuckles!" Sonic sucked in the biggest breath he could possibly hold and dove deep into the black water.
Sonic tried to push the stone. "Ugh! It's too heavy!" he then grunted and was about to lose his breath until noticed a series of large bubbles pushing up through the cracks in the chamber floor. The blue hedgehog soon took a drastic move and pushed his face into a bubble and it worked!
Sonia and Manic soon joined Sonic's sides again as they all agreed to help out Knuckles despite what happened before. The hedgehog triplets soon went back to their adversary a second time, pleading with Knuckles, who finally relented. The echidna put his hands on the column, and they pushed together. The force of all of the warriors together was enough to give an inch of room, and Knuckles wriggled free. He immediately pulled his arms up in a forceful paddling motion and began to rise to the surface. But Sonic still didn't know how to swim. Faltering in the water, he sank and saw the red warrior floating farther and farther away from him. In the end, Sonic felt that he was all alone... sinking to the bottom of the sea. But before the darkness settled in, a massive, knuckled white glove reached down and grabbed Sonic by the arm. It pulled him up, out, and to the water's surface. The sky was dark, and a sliver of moon lit the night. Around them, the space that had once been a massive whirlpool was now just dark, choppy water, and the craggy island temple that housed the labyrinth was once again fully submerged except for the simple stone peak that barely stood above the water's surface. A piece of rotted driftwood rose up from the depths, and they grabbed on for dear life.
"Uh, thanks for saving our brother." Sonia said to Knuckles.
"Think nothing of it, but why did you all save me?" Knuckles asked as he continued to swim toward the island's tip. "I've been trying to destroy you since the moment I laid eyes on you."
"Because... I don't know," Manic shrugged. "We couldn't just let you die."
"Why? You wish to destroy me, too." Knuckles reminded them.
"Uh... what are you talking about?" Sonic asked.
"You were raised by the murderous owls," Knuckles explained. "From the day I was born, I was told they were savages—Barbarians!—and that the fate of the world depended on stopping them and protecting the Emerald. Then the day came to fight them, but my father stopped me from joining the battle. He said my time to honor our tribe would come... but I was only a child."
"You were trying to grow up too fast..." Sonic shook his head.
"Those were the last words he said to me," Knuckles continued firmly. I never saw him again because your people are killers!"
"Ahhh!" Sonic found himself slipping off the wood.
"But you're not... are you?" Knuckles slowly realized how wrong he'd had it. It took him long enough!
"The only place we kill it is on the dance floor." Sonic laughed.
"Or Just Dance and Michael Jackson: The Experience on the Wii." Manic added with a chuckle.
But Knuckles was in no laughing mood. "My whole life has been a lie."
"I don't think so. Your whole life, you've been training to do the right thing.. .you just didn't know exactly what that was," Sonic advised Knuckles. "You thought we were enemies, but we're in the same boat."
"My punches must have damaged your brain," Knuckles chuckled at last. "We are not in a boat."
"No, Knuckles, what Sonic means is that we all want to protect the Emerald," Sonia explained. "And I think, if we work together, we can do it."
"Stop talking." The echidna shook him off.
"We're serious," Manic replied. "A wise old man with a breakfast-pastry obsession once told us that everyone needs help; that the way to be a hero is to find your team of people like you who can-"
"Hedgehogs, be silent for once in your life!" Knuckles glared. "I hear something..."
The hedgehog triplets all then stopped and heard it, too. It was an engine: an old-timey biplane buzzing along in the distance. And it was headed right for them.
"That sly little fox." Sonic said to himself as Sonia and Manic smiled knowingly.
Tails, decked out in aviator goggles and a flowing scarf, waved a hand as he circled close to where they were. The group looked to the utterly depressed echidna.
"Come on, Knucklehead," said Manic. "We're not beat yet."
"On the mountain, you told me you'd lost everything...the way I did. But you all seem so hopeful and free," Knuckles said. "How did you move forward despite failing again? And again. And again. And again. And again-"
"Okay, we did not fail that much," said Sonic, cutting him off. "But I didn't do this all alone. We found a new family. New friends. And you can too."
Off the back of the plane, a banner from the ruined wedding reception dropped and allowed them to climb aboard. Now all they had to do was chase down the most dangerous man in the universe.
The Toon Force continued to wait around, looking a bit on edge and worried about Sonic, Sonia, and Manic.
"Guys, don't think I'm trying to jinx anything or something, but... I have a really bad feeling." Atticus spoke up.
"...Me too actually," Patch replied as he spoke to his master. "And not just my brother Rolly following that Kanine Krunchies truck into the factory and we ended up getting in a lot of trouble."
"Chaos... IS... POWER!"
Robotnik's words echoed off the clouds in the sky like a prophecy coming true. He could see it all so clearly now. With the power of the Master Emerald absorbed into his body, he no longer needed satellites or drones or bootlickers to control the world around him. He could reach out and touch the world in a way no living being ever had. The universe itself was a brain. His brain. His big, giant, pulsating brain. Coasting over the Pacific Ocean, Robotnik hit the western United States with a vengeance. As he pushed his energized form past the dopey little mud huts mankind called civilization, the doctor called every bit of tech to him. Even the smallest circuits and spark plugs were his to command now. And he knew just where to start.
Crouching low in the bushes near the café was the chief mouth-breather of all creation, Deputy Sheriff Wade. The moron stammered as he called his big boss man hero for help.
"Tom! It's Robotnik! He's back!"
"Yeah, I know that already," Tom said from a plane still miles away.
"Oh. I wish you'd told me," said Wade with a shrug. "I guess you know he's got a secret lair inside the Mean Bean, too."
"He what?!" Tom shouted. "Wade, don't move, okay? I'll be there as soon as I can. Do NOT go in there!"
"What? You want me to go in there!" Wade misheard not because of high dropped call rates in Montana but because Robotnik created interference. Like a darling DJ, he skipped and scratched the audio track of Wachowski's call to dupe the dunderhead into danger.
"Wade, d—go in there! Do you hear me? Do—kshhh!—go in there!" Tom's voice garbled its way into the deputy's ear.
"All right... Sheriff for the weekend, going in!" Wade responded, and ran into the Mean Bean, weapon drawn.
If Robotnik was lucky, either he or Stone would dispatch the other. A terrific cosmic joke on the pair of them, but swatting at flies brought him no great pleasure. If Robotnik were to claim ultimate triumph, he'd need to smash the lawman even worse than he'd done to those drowning hedgehogs miles behind him. And so Robotnik zeroed his chaotic master mind on Tom's whereabouts, keeping one step ahead of the do-gooders. Bonnie, Rotor, and Antoine continued to travel around, looking very concerned, especially since Sally didn't get back to them as they called her again to make sure, but kept getting her voicemail.
"Do you believe me now?" Tom asked the commander of the high-speed plane they currently occupied.
"This is Commander Walters... Scramble every available piece of hardware to Green Hills, Montana, immediately!" The G.U.N. overlord ordered. "We've got a Code Mustache. I repeat: CODE MUSTACHE!"
"Maybe we should try to call Mr. Wachowski?" Rotor suggested.
"Maybe we should just wait at home and hope for the best?" Antoine suggested bashfully.
"This ain't the time for actin' all yellow-bellied!" Bonnie declared. "Whatever is goin' on, our friends need our help, and we've got to do whatever we can to lend a hand!"
"Oh, boy... I knew I should've just stayed home today..." Antoine groaned to himself and put his hand on his forehead.
"Come on!" Bonnie told him as she grabbed his arm and began to pull on him.
"Let's just hope that we aren't too late." Rotor remarked.
Let them try and come for him. Robotnik was not simply a man anymore. He was all men just as he was none of the men, and therefore he was... a god. (You might even say, Supreme.) It felt like a chorus of dancing girls were continually backing him up as he kicked off the shackles of mortality. It was funky. In the most insignificant instances between when Robotnik spied on his enemies and when he arrived in Green Hills, the sheriff's idiot partner had managed to hog-tie Agent Stone to a chair. But as Robotnik touched down in the parking lot of the secret base, he knew they'd soon be feeding his massive ego, or be crushed by it... as was intended.
"Doctor!" cried Stone like an infant as Robotnik glided to the ground, still surging with power. "...you're here."
"Yes, I'm here," droned Robotnik. "And yet I'm…not all there."
"Sir, are... are you feeling okay?" inquired Stone.
"OKAY?!" Robotnik swiveled his head unit to the right exactly forty-five degrees and beheld his inferior. "I am more than okay," he declared in glee. "I have upgraded. Sinister 3.0. I've taken my game to the next level. It's a hybrid of chess and quantum leapfrog. Wanna play?"
In a flash, Robotnik converted his body into energy and then reconstituted himself behind Stone like a bit of binary code flickering one to zero and back again. Teleportation was just a parlor trick to him now. "Check!" he called out as he undid Stone's handcuffs without touching them. "I can smell the electricity in your brain...a fine, robust meal for my new form," he said to his underling before turning to his idiot adversary. "You smell like a snack plate."
"Kinda my mom's specialty," Wade stammered. "I had a couple today."
"Sir, we have a problem." said Stone, before he pushed a button that folded the blinds back to reveal that the Mean Bean Coffee Café was now surrounded by an assembled battalion of commandos from G.U.N.
They were head to toe in bulletproof armor, packing the most technologically advanced blasters on this side of a sci-fi movie. And they were backed by a fleet of tanks, choppers, and cannons. In other words, they were easy pickings for the power of the Master Emerald.
"Incorrect, my trusty sycophant," Robotnik droned as the green energy flashed in his eyes. "After all these years, what I've finally got... is a solution."
A helicopter soon landed a few yards away. Walters, Maddie, and Tom came out of the helicopter, with one of the agents escorting them to the Mean Bean Coffee Café.
"Commander." A G.U.N. Mean Bean agent greeted.
"Status report." Walters commanded.
"Robotnik is in there with Stone and a hostage," The agent informed. "Possibly local PD. I'm not saying he's dumb, but if he is local PD, this town's in a lot of trouble."
"Wade." Tom and Maddie said knowingly.
The doors of the Mean Bean Coffee Café soon came with steam coming out. Robotnik came out, levitating up to everyone with green electricity emerging from him.
"Okay." Maddie noted.
"Rockin' that new spring collection, I see." Tom added.
"Well, if it isn't the Pastry King?" Robotnik greeted Tom mockingly.
"The Donut Lord. A real genius would remember the name of the guy who helped kick your butt off this planet," Tom corrected and added. "And I'll do it again if you mess with Green Hills."
"Congratulations on your oh-so-temporary sense of superiority." Robotnik retorted.
"You're finished, Robotnik!" Tom glared. "We've taken everything. Your lab, your drones, your funding! Let's see how big of a man you are without your silly little robots."
"Would you like to see... How big a man I can be?" Robotnik smirked and with a point of his finger, screws and bolts started unplugging from the tanks and vehicles as they started deconstructing themselves. "Welcome to the new norm." he then added as he started floating up in the air as black clouds started circling around him.
More G.U.N vehicles started deconstructing as they are levitated into the cloud, making it grow and swirl.
"My God!" Walters cried out.
"CORRECT!" Robotnik cheered. "I am your God!"
"Open fire! Light him up!" called the commander, but it was too late; the soldiers' guns disassembled in their hands, as their floating components floated into a sphere around Robotnik.
Stone soon rushed out of the Mean Bean Coffee Café and faced Robotnik. "Doctor, take me with you!" he then begged until some green lightning carried him by the leg into the cloud as it continued to grow and swirl until it became a black tornado that consumed more deconstructed vehicles.
"He's taking everything apart." Tom realized.
"He's building something." Maddie added.
Bonnie, Antoine, and Rotor finally made it to the two adults.
"Oh, man... This is worse than we thought." Rotor frowned.
"Tell me about it." Tom added until he and Maddie noticed something.
"Huh?" Maddie asked as she faced the teenagers. "What are you kids doing here? You better get out of here before you get hurt."
"We gotta help out." Bonnie said urgently.
"What can we do? We're just a bunch of kids." Antoine reminded her as things began to look grave in their world.
"We're Freedom Fighters, buddy. Remember?" Rotor told him.
"That may be so, but we're still young and we have nothing." Antoine defended.
"Young and have nothing?" Cherry scoffed as she walked by with her hands on her hips. "If I thought that way too, I probably wouldn't be alive today to tell the tales of my adventures over the years."
"It doesn't matter what you don't have," Lionel stated. "What matters is all that you do have, and if you're willing to stand up and fight for it."
"Erm... I... Uh..." Antoine stammered a bit.
"Believe it or not, we used to be a lot like you." Thor started to say.
Patch suddenly looked nervous in case Thor said too much to the Freedom Fighters.
"Hm... I'm sure..." Antoine pouted and rolled his eyes slightly.
"Listen, the point is you might not be fast like Sonic, but that doesn't mean you don't have your own ways of helping out, especially if your friends in need are in danger," Thor advised maturely before he picked up Lionel suddenly and held him out like a toy. "Take this little guy for an example. He's small, but he's awesome and mighty in his own right." he then added.
"What he said!" Lionel nodded. "We have to band together to save the day."
"But... Sonic, Sonia, and Manic-" Antoine started to say.
"They aren't alone either," Atticus reminded. "They have each other as well as Tom, Maddie, and even us occasionally."
"Even though we're supposed to be on vacation." Johan remarked.
"I guess not even we can take a vacation from something hectic or heroic." Johanna said to her brother.
"Sally's in trouble too, so she'll need your help too," Thor added. "Now are you a man or a coyote?"
"The phrase is 'man or a mouse', Thor." Mo whispered.
"I know that." Thor shrugged in defense.
"The important thing is that it takes everybody to come together even if we can't do much since it's their destiny, but it's just good to know and realize who your friends are depending on whether you help or not even if things become too grim," Cherry advised the Freedom Fighters. "No life is worth a kingdom. A very wise person once told me that and now I understand what it means, it won't be worth having a home to live in without those you can love, trust, and count on to find your own happily ever after." she then added.
"Well... that was mighty profound." commented Bonnie.
"And convincing," Rotor chimed in. "I say we go for it!"
Cherry smirked a bit proudly of herself while everyone else also looked proud.
"So what do we do now to help?" Bonnie asked.
"I'm... not sure, but we should be able to help out soon," Cherry replied. "We'll see what Sonic, Sonia, and Manic can do and then step in when the times get truly dire."
The sphere grew larger and more impressive. The little people below were horrified to see what he was becoming. An egg-like cranium. Arms of steel. Bone-crunching boots. And a body of pure robotic might. The Master Emerald let Robotnik be anything and everything, and what he wanted to be most in the world was an all-domineering Giant Eggman Robot.
"Stone!" the doctor called his henchman through the electronic ether. "If you want a chance of living through my impending re-creation of all existence, I demand you load up my World Domination playlist into my mech's earpiece this instant! I'm vibing!"
"I knew it," Wade exclaimed. "Just like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man!"
And with that, the Giant Eggman Robot started making its way through Green Hills as the citizens ran for their lives.
"If you are having any idea of how to help, NOW WOULD BE A GRAND TIME TO DIVULGE!" Antoine shouted.
"What do you guys think?" Atticus asked his friends. "Maybe a little Toon Force help just until Sonic, Sonia, and Manic can come to the rescue? I promise we won't take the credit for saving the day." he then added, knowing how that sometimes annoyed his friends like Cherry and Lionel.
"Better not," Lionel remarked. "Now let's hard-boil this rotten egghead!"
"All right then, let's do this," Atticus nodded. "Toon Force style."
Antoine looked very nervous and on edge while Bonnie and Rotor looked worried for their home. Thor brought out a magic wand when they weren't looking and then waved it, zapping himself and his friends into their Toon Force counterparts to help save Green Hills.