DISCLAIMER: Still don't own a thing except for my OC. If I actually owned anything in SEGA, I would've wasted my allowance on something I don't know what to do with (statement 'borrowed' from another author whom I forgot).
A funny thing happened at Tails' workshop the next day: the Chaotix Team showed up at the front door at the exact same time the young kitsune began 'work' in his lab. Espio was the first to speak up when his teammates arrived, "How'd it go, guys?" The team leader replied first, "Mission 'partly-accomplished… we still have more emeralds to find, but I found one." Charmy then pitched in, "Not only did I find my chaos emerald, but I also found something interesting where I found it: a scepter of darkness that contains an ancient evil that, when fused with another ancient evil, creates a deadly, doomsday-like entity. I was told to take that scepter to the bank there for safekeeping." The ninja member then breathed a sigh of relief at Charmy's unusual behavior since he knows that the bee is usually reckless when given a mission. Espio then concluded, "Ok guys, I guess we're halfway done our mission. We might as well cash in the emeralds we have so far, and then continue our search."
Knuckles was asleep on a couch in Tails' workshop until he heard a knock on the door. The knocking on the door was enough to wake up the echidna from his slumber, and he groggily walked to the front door. He wasn't surprised to see the Chaotix Team outside, but he was surprised to see that they each had a chaos emerald in their hands. The Chaotix Team explained what happened on their ends of their search, and where they found it before handing their gems over to the master emerald guardian. Knuckles then said, "Thanks guys, I'll be sure to let the others know about your progress. Here's a little bonus for the moment." At that moment, the red echidna pulled out a TV screen that showed a picture of rings with a little number on the bottom; it contained 300 rings. "Thank you for your business, but now we must be off to finish our original assignment." Espio said after accepting Knuckle's bonus, but before he and the Chaotix Team raced off in search of the rest of the emeralds.
The feeling of success in Knuckles quickly dissipated when he heard a female's voice coming from behind him saying, "Long time no see, Knuckie." That was enough to send chills down the echidna's spine and turn around. In front of him was the jewel-obsessed bat, Rouge. "What do you want now, Rouge?" he said after regaining posture. "What are you talking about? I just heard about your emerald dilemma and dropped in lend ya a hand" She replied with a grin. Knuckles noticed the grin on her face and decided to question the detail later.
The echidna told Rouge the basic idea behind the new emerald situation, and sure enough she had sparkles in her eyes that meant one thing: she was daydreaming about how much money she could make selling them. "Rouge! Pay attention! These 'gems' aren't supposed to be sold, they're not even worth anything to any jewel store on this planet. I made sure that any stores handling gems, jewels, and antiques don't pay a cent for the chaos emeralds." Knuckles stated with pride. Rouge huffed at the echidna's cleverness and said, "Clever, but not quite clever enough. Let me just cut to the chase; I'll help you find the other set of chaos emeralds, and we can discuss the reward later. Sound fair enough?" Knuckles pondered her plan for a moment, then replied, "Sorry, Rouge, I'm not sure if I can trust you enough. I know you love jewels, but these chaos emeralds aren't the type to keep; they're the kind that contain immense power if used correctly." The jewel-obsessed bat sighed a breath of defeat, knowing that she can't win an argument with the echidna when it comes to gems with great powers, so she flew off without another word.
Ozone was getting bored in the 'house' and thought he might as well look for the chaos emeralds as well since he needed something to help him pass the time. He told Tails that he was going to help the Chaotix Team scrounge up some of the chaos emeralds. The young fox acknowledged his intentions and the alien took off to look for them.
As Ozone left the workshop, he saw a blue object flying overhead and noticed that it was carrying something pink. When he observed the overhead blur closely, he saw that it was none other than Metal Sonic carrying an unconscious Amy Rose. Ozone immediately knew that the robotic anthro was up to something big when he saw him carrying an unconscious female. With those thoughts in mind, he zoomed off in pursuit of Metal Sonic.
Metal Sonic landed in an unexpected place that made Ozone wonder why the robotic menace would stop there. They landed in the capitol of Soleanna. What surprised Ozone even further was the fact that Metal Sonic raced off for Princess Elise's castle. It then became clear to the alien about the robotic menace's plan: to place a heavy burden on Sonic to choose between two people to save; he chooses one, but the other perishes, leaving Metal Sonic to continue his plans more easily while Sonic rescues the girl he chooses.
At Elise's castle, she was busy filling out paperwork for taxes, legal issues, etc. passing the time while doing her job. She was distracted momentarily by the thoughts of a certain blue hedgehog that she swears she could've met before. Those thoughts were quickly interrupted when she heard screams coming from the throne room. Elise stood up and walked towards the door leading to the danger, only to feel a wet cloth covering her mouth and nose. Before she passed out, she saw a glint of metal on the hand holding the cloth.
Metal Sonic discarded the cloth in a nearby waste bin and grabbed the unconscious princess in his now free hand. Once his captives were securely under his arms, he took off for the bank of Soleanna. Once there, he walked up to the bank teller and said, "I'm here for the scepter of darkness! I know it's here, so you'd better retrieve it if you want the princess to be safe." Noticing Princess Elise in the robotic menace's arms, the bank teller backed off towards the high-security vault that was only used to store life-changing items. The scepter in question was inside a glass case surrounded by red lasers. The glass container itself was actually made of diamond with titanium coating. It was called a glass container because the materials used were crystal clear*.
Moments later, the teller came out of the vault with the Scepter of Darkness in hand. The bank employee simply placed it on the desk waiting for the worst to happen. Metal Sonic extended the hand carrying Amy Rose, grabbed the scepter, then retracted it. With the three things in hand, Metal Sonic darted off towards the Ruins of Soleanna.
Ozone the Hedgehog saw what the robotic doppelganger did, and made a mad dash towards the ruins hoping to get there before the villain could. He knew one thing for sure: it was the most recent place known to hold the flames of Iblis. From the research done so far on Soleanna, he concluded one thing: Metal Sonic intends to recreate Solaris!
Seems like Metal Sonic is in for a HUGE surprise when he gets to the ruins. No one was able to control Solaris before, but what makes Metal Sonic believe he can? What do you think Ozone will do if the worst actually happens? The answer to all those: stay tuned.
*I know titanium isn't crystal clear in color, but Soleanna's scientists found a way to make it happen.