Chapter 2: Ancient Acropolis Zone

As the Little Planet maintained a speedy orbit around Mobius, Sonic saw Never Lake above his head soon replaced with ancient ruins that caught his eye. At the sight of this, Sonic returned to the Tornado and started it up. Once it was started, he flew it down to the surface.

Once Sonic reached the ruins, he recognized them. The crumbling purple stone had become duller and fallen apart more over time, and some of the abundant lava had solidified and formed new rock surfaces, but Sonic still recognized the area he once knew as the Marble Zone. Despite the fact that the area was recognizable, some of the passages were blocked off by solidified igneous rock. Sonic took out one of the Rings he had grabbed before and used it to attempt a spindash into the rock face. Despite his best efforts, the rock wouldn't move, and would only barely scratch.

Discarding the spent Ring, which no longer glowed of its own accord, Sonic took out another and tried again to drill into the impediment of basalt. The rock cracked far enough down that Sonic could dig in a few inches deep. Seeing that even this didn't lead to the other side of the rock, Sonic gave up and sat for a while in deep thought.

Dr. Robotnik was flying away from the beach in his slightly damaged hovercraft when he noticed that the constant background of Earth had vanished and was replaced by a place he was also familiar with. It took a few seconds for Robotnik to realize that he had landed on his old home, Mobius, but once he did, he sent new orders to Metal Sonic. "Great Egg to Steel Hog, Steel Hog come in."

"Yes, Great Egg?"

"The planet has moved through time and space. I need you to track down Sonic the Hedgehog on the surface above us. He's probably gone down there; he'll be more familiar with the landscape than I am, but you have advanced search equipment that he won't be counting on. Tell me when you find him."

Metal Sonic saw a flaw in the plan. "What if he has stayed on the planet in anticipation of you making this move?"

"I'll scan the surface in case he's stayed here. If he's here, I have sufficient forces to either defeat him or force him to the surface, where you'll be waiting."

"Copy that. Steel Hog out."

Sonic was still thinking when he opened his eyes and looked around. If he could find something holding back a lava flow, he could try to melt through the rock. With this in mind, Sonic looked out across the area around him. Not much out of the ordinary…a pile of rocks, another cave that was blocked off, a past sign like the ones on the Little Planet, a vertical cliff covered with slippery limestone—A past sign! Sonic realized as a new idea overcame him. He could use that sign to warp into the past, and once he was there he could navigate the area he was more familiar with.

Sonic ran through the sign and was surrounded once again by the energy he was by now readjusted to. Keeping a steady pace across the field, Sonic ran across mineral deposits that had once been pools of lava without thinking twice. As he sprinted down a slope, he felt like he had just been launched into the air and was surrounded by flashing lights and intense energy once again. When he "landed", he was in a place he was considerably more familiar with. There was a slope behind him that he was sure would send him up to a series of lava pools; a ledge above him that held nothing of interest; and immediately before him, a gaping pit loomed. Sonic jumped down into the pit, confidant that he would know the way around once he got down there. Indeed, Sonic felt as much at home here as he would have felt back in his house on the outskirts of Station Square. He was reminded now of his friends. What would they think had happened to him after the time warp?

Back on Earth, Tails and Knuckles were slightly confused by Amy's thoughts on the situation. They tried to understand, since Amy had more experience on the Little Planet than any of them, but Amy's best explanation was that, "when the planet is about to go away it spins and flashes, then it goes away to somewhere else. I remember watching it whenever it came by." Despite the fact that this lent some interesting insight onto Amy's past, it didn't help Tails and Knuckles come any closer to figuring out where the planet went.

Tails was at a loss. If he had one of the Time Stones that Sonic was talking about, he could trace their energy signature to the Little Planet. Then, Tails remembered something else that Sonic had mentioned while explaining the Little Planet. "…the Time Stones, which are much like the Chaos Emeralds…" If the two types of gem were similar enough, Tails could try to use one to trace the other!

Sonic continued to fight his way through the underground ruins of Marble Zone. There were just as many robots there as there ever was, and Sonic was determined to find the place they were generating from. When he reached a second pit, he looked down it and saw himself again, a bit younger than he was before, start to run frantically away from the pit. Mere seconds later, the older Sonic realized what his younger form was running from. A large wave of magma had started to flow through the tunnel after him! This, Sonic realized, was how the tunnel in the present had been blocked. Yet, older Sonic's situation had not improved; his path was now blocked by molten rock instead of solid rock. At the realization that he was at a dead end, Sonic headed for the surface again.

Once Sonic found the open air, he looked up the ledge he had seen before. There was nothing up there, but maybe it could help anyway. Sonic jumped up to it, then tried to jump to the ledge above that, but he couldn't reach. He tried to climb the wall, but that didn't help either. Picking up a sharp stone, Sonic had yet another brainstorm. He leapt into the air and jammed the rock into the dirt wall, then shoved in another a few inches to the left of the first one. With the rocks in place, Sonic grabbed them and climbed up, supporting one of his feet on each one. From his new platform, he jumped up and reached the ledge, where he found Robotnik's factory. He destroyed it and continued on, when the ground below him began to collapse.

Sonic fell through the open ground and hit the floor in the cave a couple stories down. The fall caught him off guard, and he was slightly dazed by the impact, but he soon recovered and found a Future sign. The ground he had fallen in on was slowly sinking; it had landed in magma and was slowly melting away. Sonic took the opportunity to run across the temporarily level ground and catch enough speed to warp through time.

Once he was back in the present, Sonic found himself underground in the crumbling ruins. The shaft of basalt that he had tried to break through was behind him, though Sonic couldn't see it. Sonic couldn't see anything because all of the magma had solidified since his last visit, removing the glow of molten rock. Out of what seemed to be nowhere Sonic's Time Stone appeared in front of him and glided into his hand. Sonic's hand, holding the Time Stone, then raised itself as if it were guided by the Time Stone itself until the gem was casting radiance onto the dry rock surface below. Then, the Time Stone cast a green beam of light over the rock, causing it to change. It was drying in reverse, turning back into a liquid! The magma directly under the shine of the stone was going back in time to when it was a glowing liquid, and the lava cast its light throughout the cave. Sonic now noticed the igneous wall that was an impediment to him before, and that the cracks formed from outside ran all the way through to his side. None of them were large enough to let light through, but Sonic was still impressed, since he now knew that the wall was several yards thick, formed from the lava wave.

With the machine destroyed, Sonic had an easy time getting through the underground area. Despite this, he found no exit. All he found was a Future sign. Sonic thought for a moment, unsure how to proceed, but decided that he should pass the sign and try to go to the future. Unfortunately, the area that lay before him was a row of swinging platforms over a short channel of magma. Sonic decided to let timing and luck carry him through, so he ran out and made a long jump for a platform. He landed right on it, but at the pace he was moving at, he barely had a second to spare before jumping again. Before he hit land on the other side, Sonic felt the energy surround him again. He was going to the future.

When Sonic arrived in the future, he saw that he was surrounded by high-tech machinery. A sturdy metal bridge led across the magma behind him, and Sonic could see that geothermal energy was being collected from every magma pool. Some of the original walls remained intact; however, some were supported by metal structuring and others had been completely replaced. Climbing a small shaft, Sonic saw that a floating block that he had once used to cross the magma stream before him was replaced by a pulley lift. Sonic couldn't figure out the controls, so he just jumped up and grabbed onto the pulley cable.

This method of transportation was working well until Sonic got about halfway across the magma, when it began to lower. As Sonic's feet dangled dangerously close to the magma below, Sonic saw that the cord was breaking. Sonic panicked, but then he remembered that he still had one Ring left. At first not seeing how they could help, Sonic realized that he could use it to propel himself back to the platform he started on. Once Sonic was there, he summoned the Time Stone from its dimension and used it to cast a beam onto the magma. Sonic hoped to use it to speed up time and form rock to walk on, but the Time Stone seemed to only reverse time, not speed it up. Sonic was surprised when he saw the floating block that he had remembered materialize in the magma in front of him. He used it to cross, and it was not long after that until Sonic reached the surface. Seeing a sign in the distance, Sonic ran for it and watched another giant warp ring appear. Sonic jumped into it and was taken to another alternate dimension.

Sonic saw that this time the water was bright red. The area was not familiar to him; this was a new area. Sonic ran around, destroying UFOs again, and this level proved no harder than the last. Sonic was once again able to reclaim a Time Stone. This one was orange, and Sonic figured that it would have an effect different from that of the green one.

Robotnik looked toward the screen of his machine. It indicated that now two of Robotnik's six Time Stones were missing! All of the news wasn't bad, though. Systems indicated that the seventh Time Stone had been found and stored, and Sonic was entering Metal Sonic's radar range. Fortunately, one of the Time Stones had been equipped to Metal Sonic, so he could warp at will between time frames. Finding Sonic—and escaping if the fight got out of hand—would be no problem.

Sonic was running away from the technology behind him when he almost ran into something that seemed to appear from nowhere in front of him. Looking ahead, Sonic was struck with a bit of surprise at the sight of Metal Sonic. "So, that crazy doctor rebuilt you again? How many times do I have to show him that you're no match for the real Sonic?" Sonic taunted.

"That is merely the past," Metal Sonic replied. "This time, I have been given direct orders and a few interesting modifications. It should be more than enough to handle something small and insignificant, such as you, for example."

Sonic grinned and accepted the challenge. "Well, then, maybe you won't be as weak this time!" Sonic then prepared a spindash. Metal Sonic saw and did the same. They launched against each other and bounced in opposite directions. Metal Sonic unrolled and skidded to a halt, while Sonic made a U-turn while spinning and hit him from behind. Metal Sonic was sent reeling back a few feet and landed hard on his face. "That's what I never understood about you," Sonic heckled in victory, "You could never hold a spindash for very long."

"We'll meet again," Metal Sonic promised. After that, he disappeared in a flash of light.

"What a coward—he couldn't even stick around and chat!" Sonic exclaimed as he ran off toward a bright light ahead. The sky was darkening and Sonic would need a place to rest.