"So, the Chaos Emeralds often come and go through the Flicky dimension?" Star was beginning to piece together all of the useful things the four Flickies knew.
"Yes," replied Diamond. "They travel to wherever they must go for our hero to use their incredible powers."
"'Our hero?'" Star asked.
"Yeah!" interrupted Percy as Diamond was about to speak. "Like Sonic! And Knuckles! Ooh, and Tails! Tails is awesome!"
"Who?"
Jet put his wing over Percy's mouth as Diamond began to speak again.
"Every few generations, a group of great evils, dangers to our worlds, will arise. We search the globe for those who may be able to stop the evil, although we are often captured and sealed in cages. It was because of a long stream of these capturings that we discovered out next hero."
Diamond took a quick breath and continued. "An evil scientist named Dr. Ivo Robotnik had captured many of our South Island Agents and trapped them in horrible little robots called badniks. Their purpose was to guard the evil doctor's base, but also to search for the fabled Chaos Emeralds, which were said to hold incredible power that he believed could be used to take over the world. Sonic came and released many of our Agents. They reported back, telling us of their savior, the blue hedgehog named Sonic. We tested him with special stages for six emeralds, as we could not yet trust him with seven—"
At "blue hedgehog," Star's ears had pricked up.
"Blue hedgehog?!" she gasped as Diamond took another breath. "The spirits told me to find a blue hedgehog who would take me to an island floating above the sea! Where is he?"
Jet released his wing from the mouth of Percy in a flap of excitement.
"He's to arrive on Flicky Island shortly. He's come back to check up on the Flickies. He's been doing this every once and a while ever since Robotnik's hostile takeover of the island ended. I'm sure he can give you more details later… anyway, he'll be arriving in Green Grove, to the south, any minute now!"
Eager to begin her quest to restore Atlantis, she hurried through the ruins, which soon ended and began to turn into a grassy terrain with palm trees and cliffs all around. She ran to the shore, as the four Flickies tried to keep up with her unexpected burst of speed. She followed a small stream to the shore and peered out onto the horizon. Approaching quickly from the south, she saw a shining glint of silver.
"That's them," said Vi. "It's the Silverstrike, Tails's new experimental plane. Most of the bugs are fixed, but it gets kind of out of control sometimes. Tails says it needs a better power source, 'cause Chaos Emeralds and bananas just don't cut it…"
Star stopped dead in her tracks as the waves hit her feet. While Vi rambled on, the spirits called all around her…
Blue hedgehog… the hero.
Star sat and waited. She meditated quietly as she had been taught to long ago in Atlantis to channel her energy. The seven Chaos Emeralds encircled her, spinning around and around and going inward and outward. As she prepared for her journey, Diamond, Vi, Percy and Jet waited silently by the shore some ways away, patiently waiting for the plane to reach them.
The shining silver glint grew larger very quickly. In just a few minutes, a blue hedgehog was stepping out of the plane and onto the sandy shore. Meanwhile, a two-tailed fox was turning off the power on his new invention.
Star blinked out of her meditation from the sound of a loud voice to her left.
"Hey guys! Everything good on the island?" asked Sonic. The Flickies nodded their heads up and down. "Nothing out of the ordinary?" this time, they nodded their heads back and forth."
"Not that anything bad has happened," began Diamond.
"But there's someone here who needs to see you…" continued Jet.
Vi spoke next. "It's urgent, apparently.
"Well with how fast she ran…" said Percy, wandering off into his own thoughts.
"What's wrong?" asked Tails as he stepped out of the plane.
"Well…" replied the Flickies in unison.
"Let me explain," called a voice from nearby.
Star walked over slowly. Sonic and Tails just looked at her with curious faces, while the Flickies stood back and let Star explain. After all, she knew the story better than they did.
Just as she was about to start, Tails asked, "Who are you?"
Star sighed as she began her story.
"I am Star Zenia Mystican, and I need your help. Long ago, the ruins to the west were a great city known as Atlantis. They were completely submerged underwater, but it seems that the ruins and some of the surrounding land have risen from the depths of the sea.
"I've heard of the rumor that they were the ruins of Atlantis," said Sonic. "But how can anyone know for sure?"
"Because," explained Star, "I am Atlantian."
"What!?" exclaimed the duo.
"How is that possible?" asked Tails.
Star took a deep breath. "When Atlantis was destroyed, an old friend of mine, trapped in the Chaos Emeralds years before by sacrificing himself to them to save Atlantis, used them to seal me in ice. Now the ice has melted…"
"And you're back," finished Sonic. "But how can we help?"
"I don't know," speculated Star. "The spirits told me to find a blue hedgehog… and travel to a floating island! That was it!"
"Angel Island!" exclaimed Tails. "We'll be there in no time with the Silverstrike's Special Speed Mode! I'll get it running!"
As the fox went to prepare the plane for their voyage, Star and Sonic looked at each other.
"Pretty nice clothes, even for an Atlantian," muttered Sonic.
"Well, I am a Mystican…"
Sonic shot her a quizzical look. Star hit her forehead with her hand, whispering, "Of course dummy."
"Huh?" asked Sonic.
"You wouldn't recognize the last name Mystican, would you. It's the Royal Family of Atlantis."
Sonic's eyes suddenly became very wide, while Tails stopped punching in codes on the plane and looked over slowly.
"So you're a Princess?" asked Tails.
"Did I forget to mention that?" Star asked, a smile spreading on her face.
Tails was nearly done with the final adjustments for the Silverstrike before their journey when Star realized she had forgotten yet another HUGE thing that her new friends DEFINITELY needed to know.
"Sonic?" she asked quietly, embarrassed.
"Yeah Star?" the blue hedgehog asked, turning to her.
"Umm," she began, "I forgot another tiny little detail."
Sonic sighed. "Like what? Did you forget to tell us that you're a goddess too?"
Star laughed, feeling a little better. "I'm definitely not a goddess. No goddess would be this forgetful after only a few thousand years trapped in ice."
Sonic laughed as she continued.
"Well… let me show you."
She took the seven Chaos Emeralds out of her pocket. Sonic was surprised.
"I didn't think you would've had time since you got out to through special stages to get those," he said.
"I didn't," she sneered. "I just sort of… got them. They just… came to me."
Just as Sonic was about to reply, Tails jumped out of the Silverstrike and came to the emeralds with a strange device in his hand. Star still couldn't understand what all this "technology" was and how the people of this time harnessed lightning and used it to power big hunks of metal.
Tails took the strange device and used it to scan over the emeralds, one at a time. As he passed over the silver emerald, the device beeped, and a strange voice coming from the "scanner" said, "Fake emerald detected."
"Just as I thought," said Tails as he put the device away. "There was something wrong with that emerald. I could tell that from the energy scanner on the Silverstrike, but that's not nearly as accurate as this scanner. All of the other emeralds are real, but this silver one is fake."
"So it's useless?" asked Star, disappointed that she wouldn't be able to find out what she could do with seven emeralds.
"Not completely," replied Tails as he got his scanner back out again. "According to this, it's not a Chaos Emerald, since its energy readings are almost completely different. However, there is a lot of energy contained in this gem. It could be a different Chaos Gem, or there could be something hidden inside of it. What's really strange is how bright and silvery it is. The missing Chaos Emerald is a lot duller, and is more of a gray color."
"So what do we do with it?" asked Sonic as Tails put the gems in the hidden compartment on the plane, which was designed specifically to keep the emeralds safe.
"Keep it with the others, I guess," he said as he locked the compartment. "Maybe the Atlantian spirits will tell Star something about it later."
Sonic tossed the silver emerald into the compatrment and went to check up on the rest of the flickies on Flicky Island. As Tails continued preparing the plane, Star looked out to the sea, wondering how an island could float. Nothing made any sense in this future.