I was running through the Great Forest, bordering the Kingdom of Acorn. Ruby was flying next to me, Lily on her Extreme Gear board. We were investigating the attack on Isaac and Sally a few days ago, believing Eggman was involved somehow. The snow was still a present obstacle, slowing me down while we traveled to the suspected site of attack.
"How far are we away from the site?" Ruby asked Lily. Lily was looking around, surveying her surroundings.
"From where we are, we should be about two hundred meters." Lily answered.
I stopped suddenly, feeling myself skid in the snow. I winced, feeling as if my head was about to split open! Lily and Ruby stopped as well, seeing me in pain.
"John? You alright?" Ruby asked.
I felt my prosthetic eye freaking the fuck out, before it focused on an area near a broken tree! I walked towards it, my eye soon stopping once I reached a certain spot. I began digging through the snow, before reaching a strange sphere. I lifted it out of the snowbank, seeing it was simple in design.
"What is that?" Ruby asked, seeing what I was holding.
"Don't know. It looks like a cannonball." I responded. The object soon moved in my hands, before it suddenly hit me in my chest, sending me sprawling to the ground! The object was hovering, moving erratically, almost as if it had a mind of its own!
"Quick! Evasive actions!" Ruby yelled out, grabbing Lily and diving behind a boulder!
I quickly dove behind a large oak tree, the sphere thudding against the tree! The snow from its branches came tumbling towards me, creating a natural smoke screen! I took advantage of the confusion, equipping my axe! It turned into a Warhammer, quickly running from my cover, and swinging at the sphere!
A well-placed hit displaced it from its hover, sending it back down to the ground! I retaliated with another strike, managing to smash it into pieces!
"Alright… it's dead." I said, before tossing my weapon away from me, tired. Ruby peeked out from behind the boulder, holding onto Lily, tightly.
"Are you sure?" Ruby asked, walking out from the boulder, still holding onto Lily. Lily tried to get out of her grip, but Ruby was unrelenting.
"Can you let go of me?" Lily asked. Ruby shook her head.
"Not a chance. I'm holding onto you like Velcro." Ruby responded.
I approached the remains of the attacking entity, before seeing some still-active components. I brushed them away, before seeing a SIM card. I carefully picked it up, inspecting it.
"A SIM card? Why would a weapon have a SIM card?" Ruby asked, still holding onto Lily.
I opened the panel on my arm, before sticking the SIM card into a slot. The components in my arm began to read the information on the card, the information appearing on the HUD of my bionic eye. And, surprise, surprise, it belonged to Eggman.
"It's a surveillance drone. Outfitted with titanium plating to resist damage. And it looks like Eggman has been following us for a while." I answered.
I suddenly got flashes of surveillance from Chun-nan, Holoska, and as we were flying in Spagonia's airspace. Soon, I got a picture of when it was attacking Isaac and Sally.
"Can you get a reading on where it came from?" Ruby asked. I nodded, my brain beginning to decrypt the location of origin.
"Just a minute… and… got it." I said, seeing the decrypted location being out towards Glacier Peaks.
"It seems to have come from North-East of Glacier Peaks. It's almost a mile out from Glacier Peaks' shores." I explained.
"That far? But we're on the other side of Mobius. How has it been tracking us for that long?" Ruby asked, before Lily managed to wrestle her way out of Ruby's arms.
"I mean, we haven't been that quiet about where we went. And it's no secret the Sonic Team comes here pretty often. Eggman could've reasoned that we would be found here, eventually." I said, before I felt a splitting headache!
I groaned, feeling someone speak inside my head!
"Unit 4567, report." A voice said. A few seconds passed, before the voice announced itself again.
"Unit 4567, report!... Uh, hello? Er, is the microphone broken again?" The voice questioned, myself recognizing who it was.
"Eggman!" I exclaimed, Dr. Eggman hearing my voice.
"What the… you again?! Don't you have anything better to do than destroy my bots?!" He questioned, angry.
"I'm still coming for you, Eggman! And once I get to you, I will silence you, once and for all!" I responded.
"Hohohoho! You really think you can get to me this time? After that close call back in June, I've been keeping myself out of the fight! My robots will whittle you down in time! And once the time is right, I'll be releasing a new protocol I've been working on!" Eggman explained.
"Protocol?" I asked. I could practically hear him smiling!
"It's called Protocol Downfall! I've been working on it for a while, and I'll be more than happy to use it by June! Let's see if you can find me by then! Hohohoho!" Eggman taunted, before his communication went silent.
I was smacking the side of my head, trying to knock something loose to hear more about Protocol Downfall! But there was only silence, back to where we were.
"What happened?" Ruby asked.
"Eggman was talking to me. Said that he's been watching us. He said he's been working on something called 'Protocol Downfall'. Said he's planning on implementing it come June." I answered. Ruby's eyes widened, realizing the significance of that month.
"That's when everything goes down! Johnny, we're running out of time!" Ruby realized. I nodded, keeping track of the days.
"I know." I replied, still not knowing how we were going to pull this off.
Lily reactivated her Extreme Gear board, hopping onto it.
"Can we go home now?" Lily asked. Ruby nodded, before hovering above the ground. I stretched out my calves, before turning back to where we came from.
"Let's go." I said, before taking off.
As we ran back towards the Kingdom of Acorn, the sky lit up, almost as if a second sun had just formed! I stopped dead in my tracks, looking towards the source of the light. I could see Sonic fighting Isaac, him having gone Super, while Isaac was fighting in the Angelic Form we had seen when we saw him in Spagonia!
"Holy shit… is that what they meant when they said they were sparring?!" I exclaimed, not thinking it would escalate to such an extreme!
As they fought, each hit and strike illuminated the mid-afternoon sky, waves of energy surging throughout the island! Soon, Ruby and Lily caught up, stopping and watching the fight.
"They're gonna kill each other!" Lily exclaimed, seeing the brutality in their fighting!
"Damn! I think I felt that punch!" Ruby said, before seeing Isaac launch himself into Sonic, hurtling towards the ground!
The island shook from the force of impact, Ruby and I quickly looking towards each other! We soon began running towards the source of impact! We soon arrived at the source of the impact, seeing that Sonic and Isaac weren't there anymore. We looked around, seeing that they had landed relatively close to the Kingdom of Acorn, the impact having happened next to the docks.
"Guess they walked back to the castle. I don't think I could walk away from a fight like that." I observed.
"I'm surprised anyone can walk away from a fight like that! I mean, the dude survived a fight against the literal Greek God of Thunder!" Ruby responded.
Three Hours Later:
Ruby and I were relaxing in their room, having had dinner just a half hour ago. Ruby was wearing her nightgown, relaxing on the bed. I was still messing with the data I had obtained from Eggman's SIM card, trying to triangulate the exact location where Eggman was hiding. But after ten minutes of trying and getting variances of up to five miles in each direction of the possible location of origin, I gave up for the night.
"I'm taking a break for the night. If I keep trying to find him, I'm just going to keep myself up all night." I said, before retiring for the night.
"Good. You know, I worry about you sometimes, Johnny." Ruby responded, before reaching into her pack.
"I worry about myself, too." I said, flipping the covers open.
"You know, it's a bit early, but I have a gift for you." Ruby said, my gift in her hand.
"You don't want to wait until Christmas?" I asked. Ruby shook her head.
"It's kinda… important." Ruby explained. I nodded, sitting up in bed.
Ruby smiled, before handing the gift to me. I took it, seeing that it was a silver chain, a single golden ring hanging off of it. I took no hesitance in putting it on.
"Wow! What are the chances?!" I wondered, before reaching into the pack next to my bed. I pulled out her gift, being a similar silver chain, a similar golden ring hanging off of it.
"I guess we got each other the gift we wanted, huh?" I questioned, before Ruby practically snatched it out of my hand, hurriedly put it around her neck, smiling widely!
"John…" She said, not elaborating further.
"Yeah?" I asked, feeling warmer than usual. Her eyes fluttered, her smile still evident.
"I have another gift for you… but only if you turn the light out." Ruby implied. I felt my heartbeat against my chest!
"Right now?" I asked, beginning to get out of bed. She nodded, myself quickly running towards the wall to turn out the light!