Music for Chapter 4

Shikokou - Tropical Resort map from Sonic Colours

January 5, 2015
Shikokou, Kyukai

"Whoa, you're thanking me for saving the world with a chilli dog feast?"
"Sonic?"
"Man, you guys are the best!"
"Sonic! Wake up!"

Sonic slowly opened his eyes with an unenthusiastic moan. "Oh great, it was just a dream." He looked up. "Tails! Wow, I haven't seen you in ages!"

The two best friends greeted each other with a fist bump.

"Where am I?" Sonic looked around. He was in a big room with computers, a pile of blueprints and tools for machines. But the thing that caught his attention the most was a big robot in the corner of the room. "Tails, what's that thing?" He approached it to take a further examination. It was a blue-purple sphere-shaped robot about twice the size of Sonic. It had a cockpit with three seats, a second cockpit on the bottom, feet which act as jets and two hands – the left hand had fingers, while the right hand had none.

"Do you like it, Sonic? I've been working on it for the past four years."
"Wow, it must be pretty tough if you've been making it that long!"
"I had nothing else to do, so I decided to build that in my spare time. I've been putting a lot of effort into it to make it my biggest machine yet. I was gonna show you when it was finished, but I had to take you into my lab when I found you unconscious."
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that! Did you find me?"
"I went to Shikokou to look for some parts for my robot, then I heard a building collapse to the ground. I saw what looked like a hedgehog fly by, so I went after him to see where he was heading. Then I saw you chase him, and then when he hit you with that punch, I thought I'd help, but I decided to wait until after he left. And that's what you're doing here!"
"Did you get any parts?"
"I bought a machine gun arm for 36,000 rings and a flame thrower arm for 50,000 rings. They were the exact same arms I was looking for, so I had to buy them."
"If it was the exact same arm, why would you modify it?"
"Those were the strongest two arms in the shop I could afford, but I decided to modify them to make them even stronger than the most expensive parts, both in firepower and energy."
"So, is it ready?"
"Yep, just gotta put this in…"

Tails went over to the coffee table to get a yellow coloured gem in an brilliant cut.

"That's a chaos emerald!"
"Sure is! It needs to run on a high power to use it at its full potential."
"Where was it from?"
"I had it in my workshop all the time! I went searching for it when I first decided to build this robot."
"Oh, so it's not the one that guy was after…"
"I overheard the conversation between the two of you."
"Hey, this is like the perfect robot right? And he's going to find the seven chaos emeralds, so…"
"Alright, let's do it!"

Tails put the chaos emerald in the back of the robot. He stopped for a moment. "Wait a minute… I saw how he made you collapse to the ground with just one punch… If we're not careful he could destroy this!"

Sonic smashed his fist into his palm in anger. "Well I can't just stand here doing nothing!" Sonic turned away from Tails. "Hear me out loud! I don't know who you are, but you will pay for what you did to me and the city last night!" And without thinking it through for a moment, Sonic rushed out the door.

Tails let out a sigh of annoyance. "You're still as impatient as ever, aren't you Sonic?"

Music - Tropical Resort map - Sonic Colours

"All right, where am I?" Sonic scanned his eyes across the city. "I'm still in Shikokou, by the looks of it. He can't have gone far!" Sonic stretched his legs, touched his toes and then breathed in the fresh air. "Alright, here I come!" He started running through the city, exploring every nook and cranny. The people watched as he passed by. Some were excited about Sonic's presence in Shikokou, others were wondering where he was off to.

"Have you seen…" Tails asked a young man, holding up a photo of him and Sonic, "…him?" as he pointed to Sonic in the photo.

"You mean Sonic the Hedgehog? He went that way." The young man replied, pointing forward.

"Thanks!" Tails took off in the skies to search for his friend.

Meanwhile in Shikokou, a vortex suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Suddenly Yuki came flying out on his back, then Kaori followed shortly afterward face first. They both opened their eyes and saw the awkward position they were in.

"AHHH, GROSS! GET OFF OF ME!" They both shouted at once, leaping up. Then, they looked around.

"What is this place?" Yuki asked looking around.
"Beats me. I've never seen anything like this before…" Kaori replied softly.
"Well, it ain't the year 1515, that's for sure."
"I guess it's the future…"
"So, when we followed that guy into the vortex…"

After five seconds of awkward silence, Yuki snapped out of it. "Alright, I've just about had it with you! Whatever you've brought me into, I don't like it one bit!"
"What I've brought you into? I had nothing to do with this!"
"What about walking up to me in the first place and ask me if I wanted to go play treasure hunt?"
"Don't start blaming all of this on me!"
"I should've never unwillingly jumped into that vortex!"

As they started bickering in the middle of the city, Sonic came across them. "Who're those two? They look like they might know something. I think I'll go ask 'em which way he went!" He walked up to them, then tapped Yuki on the shoulder. "Yo! I need your help!"

Yuki turned around to see Sonic's trademark smirk. "I'm Sonic. You've heard of me before, right?"
"No… I never knew you until you just walked up to me and acted like we know each other!"
"Geez, you've got quite an attitude, huh?"
"And you ain't got an attitude yourself?"

Kaori turned away from the two bickering hedgehogs and let out a deep sigh. "Boy, he's really friendly, isn't he?" She sighed to herself sarcastically.

Tails spotted all three of them up in the sky. "Hey, three animals. Is the blue one Sonic?" He squinted his eyes to see closer. "Yup, that's him alright!" He lowered himself down to the ground. "Sonic, there you are!"

"Tails! Alright, I just made two friends I wanna show to you!" Sonic greeted Tails as he wrapped his left arm around Yuki.
"Friends? You just met us half a minute ago!" Yuki shouted as he pushed away from Sonic.
"And you are?" Tails asked Yuki as a sweat drop rolled down his head.
"Hey, he hasn't introduced himself, has he?"

Kaori turned around to see who just showed up. "Oh, are you this guy's friend?"
"Sure am! I'm Miles Prower, but everyone calls me Tails."

Kaori walked up to him and slightly bowed. "Hi, I'm Kaori!"

Yuki watched with irritation. She doesn't wanna introduce herself to me but she'll introuduce herself to this kid the moment she meets him?

"Hi Kaori. This is Sonic the Hedgehog. He's a world famous hero!" Tails stretched out his arm to Sonic.
"Really? Then you'll know about Emakarou, right?"

Sonic and Tails both looked at each other with strange, confused faces, then looked back at Kaori. "E-ma-ka-rou?" They both asked together.

"That purple demon with red eyes? He talks in this creepy voice."

Sonic's eyes opened right up. "I saw 'im last night! He had a chaos emerald, and he was looking for another. He said he needed all seven."
"Bingo! That's him alright!"
Sonic hunched forward with angry eyes. "Which way did he go? What's he doing? Tell me? I'll re-arrange his face a little!"
"We dunno… We followed him into a vortex, and the rest is history…"
Sonic lowered his head in frustration. Darn it! He thought to himself. I could spend days and nights running around the city and never find him!
"We're both after him, right?" Kaori let out her hand to Sonic. "Let's make a union. If you really are a hero, the four of us can put a stop to him once and for all!"
"You mean the four of us?" Tails asked. "You two look pretty strong, so it should be exciting!" He turned his head around to Sonic. "How about it, Sonic? Let's team up with your new friends!"
"Well, I didn't think I'd be teaming up with any new faces, but y'know what they say. The more the merrier!" Sonic let out his hand to Kaori. "Let's do it!"

Suddenly Yuki slapped Sonic's hand away. "Hey, what's up with you?"
Yuki turned around to Kaori. "Don't trust these guys. It's bad enough I have to team up with just you, I don't want any more trouble." Then he turned back around to Sonic. "You're no hero. You're just a cocky, rude jerk. So beat it, and take your little friend with you!"

Sonic turned away and walked a few feet in the opposite direction, then stopped. "C'mon Tails. We're wasting our time." Then, he bolted off, and Tails took to the skies again.

Yuki and Kaori watched as they left. "Happy with yourself? They could've helped us out! Why do I have to pair up with such a stubborn hedgehog?"
"That's karma for you. Now there's no way we can get back to our time."
"What'd I say earlier? Don't blame everything on me!"

Yuki walked away from Kaori, blocking out everything she was saying to him. She stopped when she realised that getting anything through to Yuki was hopeless.

I can't believe this guy. He's so inconsiderate!

She's just driving me crazy. It's not like I hold the key to the fate of the world.