Author's Note: I'm really glad you guys like it so far, I try my best with my stories, and just to let you know the final battle won't take place quite yet, but we are getting there. Just have to go through this episode first and two others before we reach the climax point.

Let's do it to it!

I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog. All rights belong to Sega. I only own the OCs.

Episode 23: The Cruising Nightmare-Part 2.

Last time, Sonic and his friends were given a luxary cruise on the Thorndyke Family Yacht, but while most of them attempt to enjoy themselves, Sonic fears something could happen and it doesn't help with his fear of water, and when Chris calls in a helicopter take him home despite his protests, instead our hero is forced to stay by Tanaka, who has brought not only senior people onboard, but also Jules and Bernadette.

Meanwhile, the Iron Empire are edging closer in achieving their goal, and Dr. Robotnik has not only found the last Chaos Emerald, but also clues on what his brother Julius is about to do.

And just when the group arrived at Eastside Island, Julius attacks with his Tenta-Code-1 robot! Will Sonic be able to defeat this thing?

While things were going on out in the open sea and near Eastside Island, Bokkun, unaware of the departure from Sonic and his friends as well as being left at his own devices under Dr. Robotnik's orders, flew in to give them a teasing prank.

"Hey there! It's me! Long time no see!" Bokkun called out as he flew through the window and landed in the living room, expecting to see the annoyed and/or terrified expressions from his creator's enemies. "No big important message this time! I just dropped in to say hi!"

To his surprise and disappointment, the living room was empty. "Huh? Hey, where is everybody?"

He attempted to look around the entire mansion, but it was completely empty. No Sonic, no Tails, no Chris, no Amy, Chuck, Tanaka, or Ella, or Nelson and Lindsey...Not even sweet little Cream and her Chao pet Cheese. A sense of loneniess and utter disappointment filled the little annoying robot's A.I as he began to sniffle.

"Aw...There's nobody home..." Bokkun's lips began to quiver, just as he heard the sound of the front doors opening and turned just in time to see Ella who had come back home with groceries. But the moment the kindly housemaid saw him, she stopped in her tracks and was filled with mixed emotions of caution, annoyance and slight amusement.

"Well look who we have here. A little flying robot friend. You come to stir trouble today?" Ella questioned, and when the little robotic menance nodded, she smirked and explained. "Well, too bad for you cause nobody here now so you can just scram, you hear me?"

That only made Bokkun began to cry loudly, and while she wasn't friends with the naughty machine, even she hated seeing others cry and asked in slight concern. "What's the matter now?"

"Everybody's gone except me! I'm so lonely and I just wanted somebody to play with!" The small robot wailed.

'I...guess even robots have some personality.' Ella thought to herself uneasily, before she bend down to his level while gently putting the bags of groceries on the floor and patted him on the head to comfort the robot. "It's alright. There, there now. Don't cry, sweetheart."

While she was fully unaware that she had just fallen victim of Bokkun's plans to at least pull a prank on someone today, the little robot had to admit she was a whole lot nicer than Dr. Robotnik, kind to a fault just like Sonic and his friends. So, he decided to pretend to be nice in return just for the fun of it.

"Ella? You're much nicer than Dr. Robotnik, and I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused times before." Bokkun muttered, acting as though he really meant it. "To make it up for it, I have a present for you."

"For me?" Ella blinked, surprised by this 'gift' and wondered what it was...

Unfortunately she landed herself right into his trap and the next thing that happened, her screams were heard outside of the mansion as well as an explosion due to him having put out a bomb which went off.

"Ahahahaha! I gotcha!" Bokkun laughed hysterically as he flew away, his job done for the day.

But what he didn't realize was that he crossed the line to a woman's wrath...and Ella's was definitely up the charts because her hair, face and clothes were ruined, as were all of the food she spend money on to restock the house. Fury surged onto her face as she stood up, growling almost animalistic like.

"That...little...MENACE!" The housemaid screamed at the top of her lungs, before deciding to take matters into her own hands and stormed off.

Minutes later despite never having flown an airplane before, let alone the X Tornado that Tails left behind, Ella was determined to get her revenge and once she knew what to do, the aircraft took off and soared into the air to chase after him. When Bokkun was attempting to fly back to the Egg Fort, he heard the sounds of the familiar engines and looked over his shoulder, only to flinch in fright when he saw what it was.

"YOU CROSSED ME THE LAST TIME! YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THIS!" Ella screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Uh...oh..! Maybe teasing girls isn't such a good idea as it is to guys." Bokkun muttered nervously, before flying away as fast as his jet pack could take him, screaming in terror at the top of his lungs.

"COME BACK HERE!" Ella shouted.

Where they would both end up would give others a great big surprise.

Meanwhile, back out near Eastside Island, the yacht was forced to a stop as everybody could stare up in dismay and horror at the mere sight of Julius' latest creation, the Tenta-Code-1.

"Sonic the Hedgehog, we meet again." Julius greeted through the giant robot's intercom.

"Yeah, and I'm not really enjoying it, Juli-loser!" Sonic snapped back, standing ready to fight while making sure none of his friends, family or the rest of the people on the boat would get caught through the cross-fire. "Let me guess, you're after whatever's on Eastside Island and get to my friends, right? I was wondering when you'd showed up."

"On the countrary, boy. I know what's here, for it's the final piece of my plans. But yes, that little girl and her Chao belong to me now, so you are to hand them over and I will leave these people alone, or else." The evil Leader responded darkly, leaning forward in the cockpit. "Of course, your death will surfice as well, because you have gotten in my way too many times, you brat!"

The blue hedgehog narrowed his eyes, distrustful. "You think I'm gonna take in your lies? You'll just get rid of all of us no matter what, and there's no way I'm gonna hand over Cream and Cheese! Besides, I'm gonna bash that robot of yours into pieces!"

Julius just laughed. "Unlike my stupid brother Ivo "Eggman", I do not rant on my plans or how my creations work. That is how you are able to defeat his robots because he always opens his big mouth and you are just lucky to figure out the power cores. Well, this time, your demise will come to a cold, blue, end!"

"Everybody, get inside! I'll handle this!" Sonic quickly instructed, not wanting to take any chances. He then called up to the Captain. "Yo, Captain! I think it's time to turn this thing around before it gets ugly!"

"You heard him! Starboard to right!" The Captain, noticing the dangers of the giant robot, agreed and called out through the speakers. "Attention passengers, please return to your cabins until the danger has passed."

"Going somewhere?" Julius snickered, pulling a lever to which the Tenta-Code-1 lifted one tentacle up and began to form a light blue beam before it opened fire right near the ship and hitting the water.

"Look out!" Chris cried out, unexpectedly throwing himself onto his grandfather, Tails, Cream and Cheese, while Sonic did the same with his parents and everybody else ducked onto the deck, bracing themselves.

The impact caused the waves to hit the ship and nearly knock it over before it ended up tilted slightly to the left and remained firmly in place, while the water all around it froze up into a huge icy platform, connecting to the island and stretched out far too wide before the attack stopped. Once the beam stopped, everybody cautiously looked up uneasily.

"Is everybody okay?" Sonic asked, and was relieved to hear that they all were, before helping his parents and some of his friends up while the others did the same.

"Oh no! Look!" Chris cried out as he saw the ice formed all around them.

The hero of Mobius and the others looked to see what the young human boy was looking at and gaped in shock to see what happened. They were trapped!

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha! You see? I'm understanding that you didn't expect that to happen, now did you?" Julius laughed manically, having caught his prey off-guard and now he could use this to his advantage. "You all have nowhere else to go, except for my base where you will all become my slaves! Not counting the blue child since he is the thorn on my side."

"That's what you think! The fun's just getting started!" The fourteen year old smirked, as at least he had a surface to land on without worrying about falling into water, though the slippery ice could be tricky, given his experiences in the Ice Cap Zone years ago.

"Be careful, son. Thing could freeze you." Jules cautioned with concern, frowning as he knew that this was a challenge his son was going to have difficulties in.

"Leave it to me!" Sonic declared, before whispering to Amy. "Ames, when I say go, you bash the ice to free the ship with your hammer."

"Huh?" Amy blinked, surprised.

"Hey, c'mon, if you can bash away Eggman's robots with no trouble, breaking the ice berg will be a cinch for ya'." The cobalt teenager encouraged.

While worried for her 'boyfriend's' safety, her heart fluttered at the encouragement once more and with a heated blush and fiery determination, the pink hedgehog nodded while bringing out her hammer.

"You can count on me, Sonic!" Amy declared, swinging her hammer like crazy without hurting anybody else who shrank back a little with sweat drops, fearing that she could accidentally do more than just break the ice-Literally!

Once telling the others to head back inside anyway, Sonic leaped off of the ship and as the Tenta-Code-1 stomped onto the ice while forming a shocking snow-shoe mode so that it can walk on the ice with no problems which the teenager thought to be unfair, it opened fire at him once he was close enough. But Sonic leaped and Spin Dashed into the tentacles without getting hit by the ice beam lasers. He jumped and back-flipped while using the tentacles as landing pads, wobbling a bit while attempting to keep his balance, and avoided in getting hit or captured.

Though the more the giant robot fired and missed, the more it hit the ocean and froze the water even further, transforming the once sunny tropical area into a freezing tundra with the ice even going onto the Eastside Island itself. The palm trees were frozen, the beach turning white as though it had been snowing, and to make matters worse, the island was slowly succumbing to the Iron Empire's attacks.

"At the rate this is going, the Iron Empire is going to freeze the entire Eastside Island until it reaches where the citizens and their homes are located." Chuck remarked in deep concern, much to the horror of everybody else as they watched the battle unfold within the ship, safe for the time being.

"I hope Mr. Sonic and all of those people will be okay." Cream murmured worriedly. It frightened her that Julius would go through drastic measures just to get what he wanted, and once again she felt guilt increase. She blamed herself for putting everybody in danger because of something she and Cheese didn't fully understand.

"Hang in there, Sonic." Chris whispered, fearing for the worst while trying to keep his faith in his hedgehog best friend alive.

Sonic also noticed and as he punched and kicked the freezing tentacles while attempting to avoid in getting caught as well as figure out how to bash into the machine to destroy it's core since the Iron Empire's weapons were all built to restore themselves, not to mention without slipping onto the ice once he landed.

"What are you trying to do, Julius!? Turn this place into the next Ice Age or somethin'!?" Sonic shouted angrily, and yelped as he was almost hit by both another tentacle as well as the ice laser beam.

"You cannot simply hope to defeat me this time, boy! You are trapped regardless of your speed and moves!" The wicked man declared with a grin twice as terrifying as Robotnik's.

The teenage hero gritted his teeth in frustration, becoming increasingly desperate to win this fight. If he lost now, then everybody was in danger and Mobius was doomed. But he wasn't going to give up. Trusting in his skills and confidence, Sonic somersaulted in mid-air before performing his Homing Attack several times against the head once he managed to get free from tentacles, causing the giant robot to stumble back and Julius and his men to cry out in alarm at the unexpected attack.

Unfortunately this left one problem as Sonic descended to the icy platform. Flipping carefully and hoping to not slip, the blue hedgehog landed safely but made a near slip. Realizing his mistake, he glared up just as the Tenta-Code-1 repositioning itself while it's regenerative core reversed the damage he caused and was now beginning to tower over him, much to the horror of all of his family and friends who cried out his name.

"Oh no!" Tails cried out in dismay.

"My baby!" Bernadette exclaimed, terrified at the thought and reality of losing one of her two sons.

"No, Sonic!" Jules shouted, horrified. He already lost his brother years ago due to his own recklessness for not knowing where he and the other fifty people were, and even though Sonic could take care of himself, the older blue hedgehog couldn't lose his biological son too.

Knowing what to do even if it cost him his own life, the former soldier of Mobotropolis didn't care. His son's life is what mattered to him the most. Narrowing his blue eyes, Jules quickly hurried out despite that he had no speed skills despite his wife's, adoptive son's and Chuck's protests as they, Amy, Chris, Cream and Cheese noticed what he was doing.

"Prepare yourself for a deep icy sleep, Sonic. Perhaps I can put you into a cooler where you will wake up in say, a thousand years time and then the future generations will know how the great hero of Mobius has failed to save the world." Julius declared, taking full advantage with all of this.

Sonic could only hiss softly, trying to figure out how to get out of this without slipping. If only he could run on ice without ending up stuck in one place and/or falling over.

"Hurry up already! We don't have much time before Julius really does find us and steals my Chaos Emerald!" Robotnik shouted, as he, Decoe and Bocoe had been stuck on the island for hours, but they did use the opportunity to study on what the also found.

Plus given how they caught sight of Sonic fighting the Iron Empire's giant robot earlier and was still in the middle of the battle, it gave the evil scientist a safe chance to gather what he needed as well as get the heck off of the island before they ended up frozen as well.

"Please, Dr. Robotnik. We were nearly turned into robocicles by that Octoron-Freezer's ice beam attacks!" Decoe complained as he and his companion hurried to gather their things and make the hasty escape back to the Egg Fort as soon as possible.

"If we were frozen, our joints would become stiff that we'd need 50 gallons of oil to fully function again." Bocoe sighed, exhausted.

"I don't care!" The evil scientist roared. "Just hurry up already! The more we spend time here, the more of a chance those Iron Idiots use this to ther advantage!"

Eventually they were finally done and once they gathered the information, and now fully understood Julius' goals even though it left the question on how he can achieve it, Robotnik and his two dumbot lackies quickly packed things up before silently, and with stealth sneaked out of the tunnel, noticing the battle up ahead and then ran away towards their submarine that brought them from the giant vessel in the first place.

"Of course, now that they're distracted, whoever wins will surely be too exhausted and I can use this chance to use my new Egg Fort 2 to finish them off." Robotnik declared, grinning wickedly.

All he and his minions had to do now was wait until the moment came for them and then show off how he gotten the Chaos Emerald first before either one did. A flawless plan indeed.

...If he knew what he was really in for.

"Prepare to die!" Julius announced, as he got ready to open fire with all of the tentacles aimed at Sonic who stood his ground, attempting to leap away as possible except that it would result in him landing and slipping. "FIRE!"

The Tenta-Code-1 then shot out multiple ice lasers, forcing the blue hedgehog to dodge and was left vulnerable in the open air. He gasped in horror, his heart pounding in his chest when the Iron Empire was about to fire again and leave him as an ice-block.

"NO!" Jules shouted, and despite having retired and not been in active duty for years, he leaped from the boat since Sonic was close enough to do so. The adult hedgehog grabbed the teenager who yelped in surprise and the two fell straight towards the platform, narrowly avoiding in becoming frozen.

"What!?" The evil Iron Empire Leader snarled, not having expected to see this coming, nor did anybody else on the yacht.

The two blue hedgehogs descended before Jules cushioned his son's landing and rolled a bit as they came to a stop. The father and son were curled up in each other's embrace, with Sonic absolutely shocked that his own father had risked his life to save his.

"You okay, kiddo?" Jules panted, relieved to have managed to save his son just in time. Though he winced due to the hard landing which pretty much left him with possibly a slight concussion, and a sore rib.

"Dad!" Sonic cried out, panting himself. "Why'd you do that? You could've gotten yourself frozen!"

"Same as you and...Whether you like it or not, you'll always be my son. I'd never forgive myself if I lost you too." The older hedgehog firmly responded, before smiling softly. "I know you can handle yourself, Sonic, but sometimes a little help is necessary."

Stunned by his father's words, the cobalt teenager's eyes widened before he smiled back and nodded with a smirk, and the two hedgehogs helped each other to stand up.

"Now, whaddya' say you let your old man help you out this time, huh?" Jules asked, smirking back which was identical to the hero of Mobius'.

"I always wondered what it would be like to see you in action." Sonic responded, earning a nod from the older Mobian before the two glared up at the giant robot which loomed over them, with Julius now furious over the interference.

That, and how Sonic and Jules were closely bonded as family made the evil leader very jealous. Not once did he have that pleasure with his own father as a child, as Ivo was always the favorite kid of the family despite how the two brothers went on to become pure evil in their lives.

"So, the famous Sonic's father who was a soldier is joining in the action. So be it, it kills two birds in one stone." Julius growled darkly. "Get ready to destroy those hedgehogs!"

As the Tenta-Code-1 was preparing to fire again even though the machine's power was overheating, Sonic and Jules both stood ready.

"This is where patience is necessary, Sonic, as well as relaxing your mind and body." Jules began, earning a confused murmur from his son. "To run on ice, you have to feel with it, calm yourself, think about what's more important. Breath in deeply, focus on your goal, and feel the ice underneath your feet."

Not sure what to make of this advice, Sonic decided to do as he was instructed while also remembering what else his father said to him days earlier. Nodding to himself, the hero of Mobius focused and felt the ice carefully, relaxing his subconsciousness and his body. Closing his eyes, he smirked with his confidence fully restored, before focusing really hard while preparing to try it out without slipping or end up being stuck.

He also decided to try out another trick he taught himself in the last year and felt he could finally master it.

"Sonic, Dad! You can do it!" Tails cried out, sensing what was happening and cheered them on.

"Sonic's not going to run on the ice, is he? He just slip!" Chuck exclaimed, in deep concern.

Even though Bernadette felt worried for her husband and son, she too could sense that the turns had turned and clasped her hands together, saying. "Jules must be giving Sonic deep encouragement, just the way his own father did to him when he was a child."

"Huh?" Everybody else turned to the adult female hedgehog in confusion.

Using his senses and focusing really hard, Sonic got ready as though he were in a race, while Jules also stood his ground with his eyes narrowed. Then, as soon as the giant robot opened fire, the teenager snapped his eyes open and feeling the ice beneath him, he quickly took off in full speed ahead, this time successfully running and moving, not even slipping on the ice, while Jules leaped to the side and when one of the tentacles aimed at him, the older hedgehog punched it away, straight at the other tentacle and causing it to hit the other hard.

Sonic in the meantime just ran and easily dodged, surprised himself that he wasn't even slipping, feeling his Chaos Energy somehow giving him a boost, punching and even leaping over the other tentacles while avoiding the ice lasers with ease, careful to not lose his balance and once he focused on his goal, he continued onward. He quickly looked over his shoulder and smirked even wider to see his father, while not in a good shape in his retirement, was still pretty strong all things considered, using the similar moves the teenage hero would normally use in combat.

"WHAT!? This is impossible!" Julius shouted, dismayed on what he was seeing.

"No way! Sonic's running on ice!" Chris exclaimed, he and the others just as shocked, surprised and relieved on what they were witnessing.

"And look at how Mr. Hedgehog go!" Amy remarked, amazed. She then felt hope return to her as she thought with her heart leaping over what her 'possible' future would be like. 'No wonder Sonic's so cool. He's just like his father in combat and bravery. I'd love to call him my future father-in-law!'

"Come and get me, Juli-loser!" Sonic taunted, and leaped up while bashing at the tentacles again, and this time he focused on another skill he learned to use.

Concentrating really hard, the hero of Mobius surprisingly glowed an aura of blue before he literally air-boosted himself straight towards right at the Tenta-Code-1's chest, much to everybody's shock and Julius' horror.

"NO!" The Iron Empire Leader exclaimed in dismay.

Sonic grinned in victory, quickly going for his Homing Attack and crashed straight through the giant robot's torso, bashing at the core and all of the inside of the machine before emerging safely outside and landed near where his father was after Jules leaped away to safety. The Tenta-Code-1 on the other hand, with it's core destroyed, self-destructed in a big explosion and charring Julius who screamed in horror and defeat, flown into the sky in a similar fashion to his younger brother.

"YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE LAST OF ME YET, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG!" Julius shouted in fury as he was blasting off again, vanishing like a star blinking.

"Yeah!" Sonic cheered happily, sharing a high-five with his father who chuckled proudly. "Dad, that was amazing! You were fighting like a pro!"

"I may have lost my touch and haven't fought in a long time, but it felt pretty good for once." Jules said in appreciation. "But it was you who saved the day again, kiddo. I'm very proud of you."

The younger blue hedgehog chuckled, shrugging as he pointed out. "I couldn't have done it without you." He then smiled warmly with deep love and gratitude. "Thank you, Dad. For that and for saving me."

The older hedgehog smiled, before he and his son shared a loving family embrace, witnessed by the rest of their family and friends who cheered them on, relieved that they were all safe and sound once again.

"See? Everything is alright." Bernadette said happily, with Amy, Tails, and even Cream and Cheese nodding happily, while Chris smiled softly as he felt that Sonic was lucky to have great parents who supported him.

"Well, goes to show you moms are always right." Chuck laughed, amazed himself while rubbing the back of his head.

However, before the moment of celebration could continue, further out in the unfrozen parts of the ocean, something came splashing out which caught everybody else's attention which stunned Sonic, Jules, Tails, Amy, Chris, Cream and Cheese, Chuck, Bernadette and the rest of the people on the cruise as they all wondered what was going on now.

"What's going on now?" Chris asked, worriedly.

To their dismay, something huge and robotic emerged and revealed none other than Robotnik, Decoe and Bocoe who leered down before Sonic and Jules who glared up in annoyance.

"Thought you could take a pleasure cruise without me, eh?" Robotnik greeted evilly. "Well, think again!"

"Let's go get them!" Decoe declared excitedly.

"We can take on that tugboat any day!" Bocoe added.

Sonic simply rolled his eyes as he folded his arms, stating. "Looks like somebody's late for the party."

"We are incapable of corrosion." The shorter grey robot stated.

"You on the other hand are a rotten little hedgehog." The yellow robot added.

Robotnik, annoyed that his lackies were getting more attention, shoved them aside while snapping. "Stop all this yammering at once! You two tin heads are forgetting who's in charge here!"

He then turned his attention to Sonic and continued. "You may have saved me the trouble in taking out my brother, Sonic, but you're far too late because I am one step ahead of you and your vacation is about to end!"

"Oh yeah? I'd say the fun's about to really start!" Sonic smirked confidently.

"Heh heh heh...You have no idea what you're in for, hedgehog. Because while you were busy, I have found something that you will never get back." Robotnik chuckled, and reached into his pockets to reveal the familiar white glowing gem and as he predicted, the response he got were gasped of shock and horror from Sonic, his family and friends who couldn't believe what they were seeing.

"What!?" Sonic and Jules both exclaimed.

"A Chaos Emerald!" Tails, Amy, Chris and Chuck all exclaimed in disbelief.

"Dr. Robotnik found one of the last two!" Cream cried out in dismay.

"Chao, chao!" Cheese cried.

"Oh no!" Bernadette covered her mouth with her hands.

Realizing that the stakes were high and that they needed that Chaos Emerald before his enemy would find the now last one somewhere, Sonic quickly readied himself for another battle. "Okay, if you want a fight for that Emerald, you got a fight! Bring it on, Egghead!"

"I may be old school, Robotnik, but this time I'm going to join my son into this fight. Wouldn't want to miss out on it." Jules added, standing beside his teenage son who, blinking in concern for his father's welfare, earned a smirk from the older hedgehog which made Sonic relax a little and nodded with a smirk of his own.

"How cute. I'd say it's a pleasure to see you briefly again after the last time three years ago, considering your brat has stopped me from capturing you, but that would be a lie." Robotnik remarked with a groan, finally noticing his young enemy's father. "Now, let's mix things up a bit, shall we? Perhaps you seafaring simpletons would like to see what my new Egg Fort 2 can do! Get ready to be blown away! Alright, Egg Fort 2, combine!"

Suddenly two more smaller forts emerged from the ocean and at the countdown to three, all three vessels merged to become another larger battle airship, similar to the previous Egg Fort but slightly smaller.

"Egg Fort 2 complete!" Robotnik laughed. "Impressive, eh?"

Before he could get an answer, though, his intercom's phone rang and he answered. "Hello?..." Whoever it was talking to him made the evil scientist angry as he shouted. "No, I'm not going to change names!"

Just then the other phoneline rang, causing him to now have an arguement with apparently both Decoe and Bocoe who didn't like the name of the combined fort either. "How dare you say my Egg Fort 2 isn't all that?"

As Robotnik argued over the phoneline, Sonic and Jules both blinked in confusion before sharing a glance and the younger hedgehog just shrugged cluelessly.

"I'm getting an unlisted number!" The evil scientist grumbled after hanging up both robots, before declaring to his enemies. "Now then, let's see if you can run on ice, Sonic, without slipping!"

To his great confusion, however, Sonic just smirked confidently and placed his father's arms around his neck while taunting. "So, you want me to run on ice, do ya'? Alright, then. Your wish is my command!"

Repeating his new focus and ability now that he can run on ice, the hero of Mobius dashed off and leaped from one now broken ice burg to the next with his father safely secured, much to the shock and horror of Robotnik, Decoe and Bocoe who quickly joined him as the trio were unable to believe what they were seeing. The two hedgehogs then landed on an ice tower.

"How'd you like that, Eggman? Pretty cool, huh? No pun intended." The teenage Mobian grinned, rubbing his nose.

"Hey, that's not fair! Sonic's suppose to be slipping on ice!" Decoe cried out, ranting.

"I don't like it. A while ago nobody was able to run on ice without falling." Bocoe muttered, now starting to get worried.

"He certainly is cool all of a sudden, isn't he?" Robotnik remarked, before growling in frustration(not to mention embarrassment that he made a pun now himself). "Enough of this! Let's freeze up that brat and his old-coot!"

"Hey! My father's not old! You're the one who's already reaching your retirement stage!" Sonic snapped, angry over the insult while Jules glared harder. "You can taunt me all you want, but if you taunt the people I love so much, you're in for it!"

But before another battle between Sonic and Robotnik could actually begin, suddenly everyone heard a high-pitched scream and cry, prompting all of them to look up and saw Bokkun who, still trying to escape from Ella's wrath, flew over to the Egg Fort 2, and held onto the front windscreen window.

"What are you doing here?" Robotnik demanded, as he and his dumbots wondered what has Bokkun so spooked all of the sudden.

"He looks upset." Bocoe remarked.

"Please, let me in!" The smallest robot wailed, banging on the glass to be saved.

"Why should we?" The grey robot questioned dully.

"Sonic, is that the cry-baby of a robot that sends in exploding message TVs or simply just bombs for pleasure?" Jules questioned, dumbfounded over the message-bot's arrival, having heard of the stories over phonecalls and mail.

Sonic sighed, facepalming himself. "Unfortunately, yes. Why Eggman made him is a real mystery I'll never understand."

Just then, almost everyone heard the familiar sound of a plane's engines and once they looked up for the second time, Sonic and his friends and family were shocked to see the X Tornado come flying in.

"Huh!?" The group exclaimed.

"What the!?" The fourteen year old blinked, bewildered.

"It's the X Tornado!" Chris cried out, just as shocked.

"But, who's flying it?" Tails asked, not understanding how his precious plane had managed to get here.

To answer their question, a very furious Ella was almost reaching her target in her goal for revenge, anything but calm...!

"I'LL GET YOU, YOU BRAT!" The housemaid snarled with a terrifying expression.

"Oh dear! Who is that?" Bernadette cried out, surprised to see the unfamilar woman and more than a little worried.

"It's Ella!" Amy cried out, shocked that the kindly maid was actually piloting the X Tornado.

"But how can that be?" Tails was dumbfounded, while Chris, Cream and Cheese were speechless.

"Ella can do anything she puts her mind to...Except windows." The elder Thorndyke, seemingly used to the woman's wrath in very rare and scary moments, rubbed the back of his neck. Which prompted his grandson and the two-tailed fox to gaze at him dully.

Sonic, realizing what was going on, sweat dropped nervously as he too suddenly became scared. Once someone gets on a girl's bad side, it was very wise to stay well out of it. "Uh-oh..."

"Oh, boy..." Jules, also seeing the same thing, blinked uneasily with a sweat drop of his own.

"Waaah!" Bokkun, seeing Ella come in close, cried even louder to the point of tears. "Help me!"

"What are you bawling about, Bokkun?" Robotnik, he and the other two robots still not seeing the enraged maid, demanded in annoyance.

Ella then had the X Tornado transform into the X Cyclone, frightening almost everyone further and commanded the seven year old cub's plane to attack. "You see who's boss now! CYCLONE KICK!"

Realizing there was no way of getting in now, Bokkun screamed before running over the Egg Fort 2 to escape. Leaving Robotnik, Decoe and Bocoe to look what was going and, realizing far too late they were in the firing line, flinched and quivered in fear.

"OH NO!" The evil scientist screamed, terrified and sweating profusely.

SMASH!

The X Cyclone hit the Egg Fort 2 so hard that it suffered severe damage, sending Robotnik's group blasting off again themselves. Except one problem: They still had the Chaos Emerald.

"We didn't even get the chance to attack Sonic!" Decoe complained as he, Bocoe and Robotnik, who was screaming, held on for dear life.

"This is all Bokkun's fault!" Bocoe shouted hysterically.

"Well, there's always next time...! At least we still got the Chaos Emerald and what we also found." Robotnik pointed out awkwardly, and while he was terrified beyond belief over one crazy woman's wrath and questioning himself on why he built Bokkun on the first place, he decided to not let that get him down.

Because this was one small victory on his part.

"You may have survived, Sonic, but today I still won! Soon I'll find the last Chaos Emerald and get the rest from you and your friends! Then Mobius will be mine! Not even my brother Julius will stop me! Bwahahahahahaha! Ah ha ha ha ha ha!" The evil scientist grinned and laughed manically, before they all vanished like a star blinking as well.

Back to where they were, Sonic and Jules, disappointed that they could get the Chaos Emerald, the former deciding to not let that small loss get to him, landed back on the ship as the heat from the now gone Egg Fort 2 as well as the sudden attack from the X Cyclone melted the ice enough to free the yacht and everybody quickly joined the two hedgehogs, embracing them in relief.

"Jules! Sonic! Oh, my boys! I was so worried!" Bernadette cried out, hugging her husand and eldest son in tears of relief, kissing them on their faces while Tails and Amy joined them.

"Easy, Bernie. We're alright." Jules soothed, gently rubbing his wife's back as he and his sons attempted to comfort her.

"It's okay, Mom. Don't cry. Everything's alright now." Sonic whispered, gently wiping away his mother's tears.

"But, Sonic. Eggman's got the Chaos Emerald and Ella kind of didn't let us get to it." Chris pointed out, uneasily and deeply worried.

"Now it's become a race to find the last one, if the Iron Empire didn't get to it first." Tails added in agreement.

While Sonic was disappointed that not only he still missed out on his chance to get answers on where the Iron Empire's base is to rescue Vanilla, the Floral Forest Villagers, and get the Master Emerald, but now Robotnik had the sixth Chaos Emerald and fully unaware that Julius already had one, meaning that all seven were found, he decided that they were still well ahead of the two evil groups.

"I'm sure we'll get it back, guys. 'Cause there's no way I'm giving up that easily!" The hero of Mobius reassured with full confidence. "We did it before, we can do it again!"

"That's the spirit, kiddo." His father praised, placing a supportive arm around the fourteen year old's shoulders.

Even though the group were worried that gaining all of the Emeralds were once again going to be tricky since Robotnik now had an Emerald like before, Sonic's friends knew that he was right. It wasn't going to be easy, but they were not willing to let the evil scientist win.

They then looked up and saw the X Cyclone transform back into the X Tornado as Ella landed it gently, and everybody flinched in fright and terror when they saw her breathing heavily, like a monster having gone into a rampage.

"Uh...But first, I think Ella deserves a much needed vacation and relaxation." Sonic suggested, shakily. At the moment, he was too scared to even approach the enraged woman despite having gotten her revenge.

"That would be a wise idea." Chuck muttered in agreement.

Nobody dared to argue with that logic.

Welcoming Ella onto the yacht and getting her to calm down proved to be quite a challenge as she was still livid over what Bokkun had done to her, and nobody blamed the housemaid for the message-bot's prank, she eventually cooled down the moment she saw Cream who pleaded her not to get angry.

Freed from the frozen ice caused by Julius' Tenta-Code-1 with the aid with Amy's Piko Piko Hammer with any damages, the cruise continued sailing and was now on it's way back to the mainland where everybody resumed their vacation. Sonic in particular was calm and finally relaxing now that he didn't have to worry about Robotnik or the Iron Empire for a while.

Except now Cream, feeling guilty and believing she really is the cause of her older friend's anxiety in the first place and putting everybody else in grave danger, attempted to sleep with Cheese in her arms, except the poor little five year old shivered and shifted, moaning in distress as she was having a terrible nightmare.

She didn't know where she was, or what was happening. All Cream knew was that she was in a mysterious mountain town where people, humans and Mobians alike, were running away in fear with darkness sweeping across the land, Cheese in her arms, both of them frightened to the core.

"What's happening? Cheese, I'm so scared." The little five year old rabbit girl whimpered, hugging her Chao more tightly. She couldn't see Sonic, Amy, Tails, Chris, Ella, Tanaka, or Chuck anywhere. Not even her mother.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Another girl's scream filled the air, causing the young duo to jump before looking up and gasped in horror.

Towering over them was a giant figure of a man about 70 or maybe 100 feet tall, looking exactly like Julius but a bit different. He was more muscular, an outfit of black, grey and green like a suit of sorts, glowing red eyes with energy pouring out with the similar aura surrounding his body, clutching a girl who looked identical to Cream, in his left hand with a white and blue Chao.

It was Camelia, who was caught and now trapped. To Cream's horror, in the same name was Vanilla who grunted and moaned in agony. The one who was holding them was, unbeknownst to her, was Jonathan, the man identical to Julius.

"Oh no! Mama! And that ghost girl!" Cream screamed out.

"HEY! Whaddya doin'!?" A familiar young teenage boy's voice shouted, causing the child to look and her heart froze with her blood running icy cold...

Because in the giant's right hand was Sonic who was struggling to free himself, screaming. "Let me go!"

"Mr. Sonic! No!" The five year old girl cried in distraught, horrified beyond belief. Not them! Not her mother and her friend! This couldn't be happening, it just couldn't!

The giant, hearing her voice and peered down at her, grinned wickedly before stating in a huge, deep, dark and monstrous voice. "AT LAST. I FINALLY FOUND YOU. NOW MY POWER WILL BE FULLY COMPLETE."

"Cream!" Sonic, upon seeing his youngest friend and was horrified for her safety, reached out to her and screamed. "Run, Cream! Get outta here!"

But Cream felt frozen, whimpering in fear. She couldn't move, despite Cheese's protests. All she could do was stand in dismay and gave out a loud scream, all the while Sonic's voice continued to call out to her...

"Cream! Wake up, Cream! You're having a nightmare!" Sonic's voice cried out, as Cream felt his gloved hand on her shoulder, shaking her awake.

Gasping in fright with a soft scream, the five year old jolted upright with Cheese chirping in alarm. Blinking in slight disorient, Cream looked around before seeing, to her relief, the teenage hero of Mobian standing beside her.

"M-Mr. Sonic...!" Cream muttered, tearing up as memories of her nightmare still filled her mind, and whimpered before she leaped into his arms and wept. "It was awful! C-Cheese and I w-were in a strange place and...and a horrible giant got this girl...and Mama...and a white a-and blue Chao and...and even you...He-he looked like Mr. Julius and went a-after us...!"

Sonic, startled by this movement and frowning in deep concern and sadness, gently hugged his youngest friend and slowly swayed her side to side to comfor the crying child. Though in truth, he couldn't believe what he just heard.

The man who grew into a giant somehow, one that looked like Julius, the thought of him made the blue hedgehog's blood run cold. Could it be that Cream's nightmare involved the clues of what was happening? If so, then there was more to this Jonathan guy attempting to cause problems to Camelia and the mysterious White and blue Chao, which he remembered was named Clover?

He shook away those thoughts for now and focused on comforting the terrified little girl.

"Shhh...It's okay, Cream. It's okay. It was just a nightmare. I promise, everything's gonna be okay." Sonic whispered, carefully rubbing his friend's back.

"I-I was so sc-scared..." The five year old sniffled, nuzzling her face into the cobalt teenager's chest.

"It's alright, kiddo. I promise that the nightmare won't ever come true." The blue hedgehog whispered.

"B-But what if does? What if something really awful happens?" Cream asked, tearfully.

Sonic sighed, before smiling softly. "Cream, even if it does happen, there's no way I'm not gonna give up on you or let that big bully win. Let me tell you a little something: Sometimes even heroes need help once and a while, and today was the good example. But I'll always do my best to protect you and everybody else. I promise."

While she still felt scared over the nightmare, the youngest Mobian began to calm down with a hopeful look in her honey-coloured eyes. "You mean it?"

"Of course I do. Sure today didn't go so well, but we can handle things." Sonic smirked with a wink.

That made Cream become a little more better, smiling softly in return and shared a heart-warming embrace as she thanked her older friend for cheering her up, with Cheese, happy that Sonic the Hedgehog made his friend happy again, joined in on the embrace which made the fourteen year old chuckle.

"Mr. Sonic?"

"Hm?"

"Can you...sing that pretty song for us, please?" Cream asked, hopefully.

At first surprised by this request over the song he sang mostly to himself and a few times was caught singing it, thankfully only by his friend in his arms and even Chris, Tails and Amy, much to his embarrassment, seeing how she asked and loved it even though he still didn't consider himself as a good singer, Sonic nodded.

"Alright. If that's what you want. Though I'll be singing it without the guitar, if you don't mind. Wouldn't wanna wake up everybody else." Sonic responded.

"It's okay. I don't mind at all."

"Chao." Cheese nodded in agreement.

The blue hedgehog chuckled, before tucking the two youngsters back into bed and began to softly sing, feeling like a parent singing a lullaby. As he sang, Cream and Cheese loved it so much that it soothed their troubled hearts, as they slowly closed their eyes absorbing the lyrics, being lured once more into a much more peaceful sleep.

All three of them unaware that peering through the slightly opened door was Chris who, needing to use the little boy's room, heard what was going on and peaked to see for himself. The more the twelve year old boy listened, the more he smiled with his heart soothed, hearing Sonic's soft singing, and how he was comforting Cream and Cheese. It reminded him of how the blue hedgehog comforted Tails weeks ago, and really cared for all of them. Even when the young Thorndyke accidentally hurt the little girl's feelings, Sonic gave them both comfort over their troubles.

When the fourteen year old had been a bit of a wreck himself during their vacation on the cruise, and needed to be saved, his own father Jules had been there for him while his mother was also supportive to everybody. Chris felt a little bit jealous, but it made him happy none the less.

'I guess Sonic takes his personality after his parents after all. He's so cool.' Chris thought to himself, deciding to leave his Mobian friends alone and silently walked away.

Despite that Robotnik got away with the white Chaos Emerald and the Iron Empire's base location still remained a mystery, Sonic and his friends felt they were getting closer and closer towards the end of their goals even if the dangers were slowly getting worse.

Until then, they all enjoyed the reminder of their vacation before returning home to Station Square.

A/N: Not really the best of how this episode turned out, but I think after the next two episodes, that's when the beginning of the end of this arc will really start. It will take me a while to get there, but I still intend to continue.

See you later!