Under the cover of darkness Sonic and Mighty snuck into the stronghold "Knuckles told me about you. You gonna be alright?" "I hope so". They sneak through and saw the President strung up over the oil tanker "Oh, Gaia. They're gonna light him up". Sonic used his lenses to see the president "Worse than that. He's got your power ring in him. That fire's gonna take a while to kill him" "Then let's go". They climb up the steps of the crane "Is your gun up". Sonic quickly put his gun up "Yep". A searchlight spots them and a bullet hit nearby. Mighty takes cover but Sonic shoots up hitting the glass of the searchlight. He got into cover next to Mighty "You see that? Nailed it" "Yeah, you really killed the glass" "You think I was aiming for the bulb? You can't hit a bulb at this distance". Mighty gets out of cover and hits the bulb first shot before going back down. Sonic rolled his eyes and looked out "We got three guys and one girl, all armed". Mighty banged his foot against the floor "Gaia, we're screwed" "You're right. We need backup" Sonic was smirking looking out to sea. Mighty notice and looks out as well "Is that". 36 Mecha Sonic's all appear and surround the ship. Sonic patted Mighty's shoulder "Merry Christmas, buddy". The mercenaries all look around at the robot hedgehogs. Sonic steps forward "Nicole, target Metal Virus carriers. Disable with extreme prejudice" "Yes, sir" all the Mechas said. Sonic raises his arm "What're you waiting for? It's Christmas. Take them to church".

All the Mechas fly in and attack the mercenaries. Mighty laughed "This is how you've managed your down time, huh?" "Everybody needs a hobby". Sonic sees one of the Mecha being overwhelmed by three mercenaries "Nicole, help that one out, will ya?". Another Mecha shoots off the two with spikes, the other Mecha then crashes into a container exploding and taking the final mercenary with it. The explosion spread to the lab knocking Amy over. A Mecha lands near Sonic and fires Rings at him turning him super. Mighty stood up "Can I have some". Sonic smirked "Sure. But you don't have shoes, so…". Sonic flew away and another Mecha landed in front of Mighty giving him a few power rings but only powers him up to normal instead of going super. The Mecha then wraps it's arms around Mighty and Nicole spoke through it "Good evening, Colonel. Can I give you a lift?". Mighty looked annoyed "Very funny". It flies him up, but a mercenary attacks and it drops Mighty on a higher part of the crane. Sonic enters the damaged lab and sees Amy under a pile of debris. He tries to lift it, but it shifts "Stop! Put it down". Sonic kneels down so she can see him "See what happens when you hang out with my ex-girlfriends?". Amy sighed "You're such a jerk" "Yeah, we'll talk about it over dinner".

Sonic reaches out to her "Come on. A little more". A metal arm breaks through the floor and grabs Sonic's chest pulling out a few of the power rings taking Sonic out of his super form. Geoffrey breaks through the floor now completely made of metal "Is this guy bothering you?". He easily grabs Sonic by the throat and pins him against the wall. His hand becomes red hot which Sonic cold feel through his remaining power rings "Let's see how much that energy can take". Sonic tried to struggle but Geoffrey was too strong. A Mecha suddenly burst through and fired a spike at Geoffrey's arm severing it. He screamed and stumbled back. The room begins to shake, and Amy falls onto a crane groaning in pain. Sonic runs out and follows the crane as it moves. He runs after it "Nicole, I need a ring, now!" "All Mechas are occupied at the moment, sir". Mighty meanwhile was being chased by two mercenaries. He slides down a cable onto the top of a cargo container. The two mercenaries jump down after him. Mighty steps back knowing they can't touch him. He then grins and breaks one of the cargo cables behind him causing the container to shake. Mighty jumps off and holds onto the other cable "Bye-bye" he breaks the cable causing the container to topple dropping the mercenaries. Mighty swings to the president but the container then falls onto the tanker setting it alight. "Brace yourself" Mighty brakes the cable around the President's right hand and the two swing away from the flames. Mighty jumps onto a platform and then shoots the cable freeing the President. "You don't look too bad, Mr President" Mighty joked. The President laughed, Mighty takes out a syphon "But I'm gonna need my stuff out"

Sonic climbed a railing towards Amy when he sees Mighty flying away from the area with the president. Sonic reaches over the edge to Amy "Ames, I got you. Just look at me". Amy tried to reach out for him but the floor under her started to shake. Sonic desperately tried to get her hand "Ames, I can't reach any further and you can't stay there. Alright? You've got to let go. You gotta let go! I'll catch you, I promise". A terrified Amy nodded ready to let go but suddenly the crane shook releasing her. She screamed and fell with Sonic reaching out for her "NO!". Sonic watches with eyes wide open as Amy fell into the fire while reaching up for him. Sonic looked away devastated when "A shame. I would've caught her". Sonic clenches his fists and climbs down onto the metal bridge where Geoffrey was waiting. A Mecha quickly flew past and fired power rings at Sonic making him super. Geoffrey charged forward and breathed fire at Sonic blinding him. He pulls out power rings and pushes Sonic off the bridge. Geoffrey leaps down but Sonic flies out of his way. He then charges back grabbing Geoffrey and throws him onto a higher platform. Sonic dives down trying to punch him but Geoffrey catches his fist "Well, here we are on the roof. He drains the power rings again and punches Sonic off onto a platform below them. Sonic lied there thinking he was done for but then "New Prototype Mecha, inbound". Sonic looks up and sees the Mecha flying towards them "I'll be damned. The prodigal son returns". Sonic gets up and crouches ready for the Mecha to deliver the power rings when it hits the railing behind him breaking apart. Geoffrey couldn't even laugh at how sad that was. Sonic sighed and shrugged "Whatever" "You really didn't deserve her, Sonic. It's a pity. I was so close to having her perfect".

Geoffrey jumps down and Sonic backs away "Okay, wait, wait. Slow down! You're right. I didn't deserve her. But here's where you're wrong. She was already perfect". Sonic gestures with his hands, the Mecha reassembles and flies straight for Geoffrey pinning him against the metal wall "Nicole, get every available Mecha to give St John a Power ring" "No!". Sonic jumps down a cable as three Mechas fly past and shoot dozens of power rings into Geoffrey. He screams and the energy builds up exploding. The crane begins to collapse and Sonic falls onto the top of the oil tanker. Sonic lies with a pile of debris ahead of him as a green burning scarf falls down next to him. Sonic rolls his eyes when he hears debris shifting. A figure rises from the flames, Geoffrey still metal was limping towards Sonic "No more false faces" parts of his body were reforming. Sonic tries to back away, but his leg was injured, "You said you wanted Enerjak. You're looking right at him. It was always me, Sonic". He raises his hands "I am Enerjak!". A metal pipe whacks Geoffrey like a hammer throwing him back.

Sonic sees that the pipe was being held by a metal Amy. Sonic stares at her speechless when a Mecha flies towards them. Sonic quickly stands up "Nicole, subject at my 12 o'clock is not a target, disengage!". He realises he must have lost his earpiece during his fight with Geoffrey. Amy turns to the Mecha as it gets close and hits it with the pipe. Geoffrey charges at her, Amy picks up the head of the Mecha and fires a spike at Geoffrey's neck going through it. Amy then hits him in the head with the pipe decapitating him. Amy stares at his body as it falls to the floor. She begins to breath slower realising everything that's just happened "Oh, Gaia. That was really violent". Sonic slowly walk towards her smiling "You just scared the hell out of me". Amy looks down at her metal hands horrified and backs away "No, don't, I'm…". Sonic hugs her "I don't care. You're fine". Amy slowly hugged him back "Am I gonna be okay". Sonic smiles at her reassuringly "Well, you're still with me so...". She laughs slightly, "We can figure this out, okay. That's what I do I fix stuff. Especially the stuff that's my fault". Sonic looked up at the other Mecha's flying about "Although if I am. I'm probably gonna have to shave down my distractions a bit". He picks up the Mecha's head "Nicole, you hear me" "All wrapped up, sir. Please give Ms Rose my apologies. Will there be anything else?" "You know what to do". There was a pause "The Clean Slate Protocol, sir?" "Screw it, it's Christmas. Yes". He chucks the head away and hugs Amy again; she looks up and sees the remaining Mechas self-destruct one by one. Sonic kisses Amy's cheek "Okay, so far? Do you like it?". Amy smiles touched by the gesture and the metal dissipates making her look normal. She closes her eyes and hugs him tighter.


"And so, as Christmas morning began, my journey started again. I'll learn from the last one, I started with something pure, exciting. Then, came the mistakes". The Vice President was being arrested as Mighty sternly watches. "The compromises". Dimitri was being led by police through a crowd of reporters who were all trying to ask him questions. Dimitri smiled loving the attention "We create our own demons". Sonic was now lying unconscious on an operating table with surgeons surrounding him. "As promised, I got Amy sorted out. It took some tinkering. But then I thought to myself, why stop there?". Mighty and Amy were watching nervously behind glass "Of course, there are people who say progress is dangerous, but I'll bet none of those idiots ever had to live with a chest full of shrapnel. And now, neither will I". A surgeon removed a piece of the shrapnel and was pulled by a magnet above Sonic "I'll tell you, that was the best sleep I'd had in years". Sonic was now on the roof of a building with Amy who was wearing a dress. Amy faces him and strokes his face. They lean forward and their foreheads touch as they dance. In the hospital Antione wakes up coughing, the nurse runs to his bedside and reassures him "It's okay".

Antione shakes his head "No, look". He points to the TV which had his show on. The nurse watches and smiles. Antione then looks her up and down. In Hill Top Chris walks home from school, he enters his garage and stops in surprise. The garage was now a high-tech lab. On the table was a potato gun with a sign saying "Potato Gun Mark II. Your Pal, the Mechanic" there was also a new watch for Chris' sister. Sonic arrived at the ruins of his home and stares out at the sea, but he now had nothing in his chest. He takes out the chaos drive that has been keeping him alive for so long. He stares at it for a moment before throwing it out into the ocean. He then turns away "So, if I were to wrap this up, tie it with a bow, or whatever… I guess I'd say my power rings, robots, everything. They were never a distraction". Sonic kneels down at a bush and finds an old damaged screwdriver "Or a hobby. It was a cocoon. And now, I'm a changed hedgehog". He gets into a car and drives away with a trailer carrying some salvaged equipment including DUM-E. "You can take away my house, all my tricks and toys. One thing you can't take away is…that I am Sonic the Hedgehog".