Using the titan he was piloting, Ian had chucked Sonic a pretty fair distance away from where they were previously. However, they were able to locate Sonic near the mountain as he was recovering.
"Sonic! Glad you're alright, man you are one tough mammal." Connor said.
"Still, all that came outta nowhere, huh? The big titan and everything?" Zephyr said. "Looks like the Universal Villains have been pretty busy setting up shop."
"Though it seems obvious Sonic doesn't stand a chance unless he has all seven Chaos Emeralds." Simon said.
"You're right, Simon. Don't think I stand a chance against what Ian's got up his sleeve now…" Sonic said. "But, I bet I could match him as Super Sonic."
"All the more reason to gather up the Chaos Emeralds. But, what if Ian tries to get in our way?" Leanne asked.
"Don't worry. Odds are, Ian probably thinks he chucked Sonic as far as he could and we ran away right after him." Ragna said.
"I put a tracker in the bullet Zeo fired at Ian. He's all the way back at the rear of the island with his new toy." Kokonoe said. "Once we're ready, we can take the fight to his ass and that toy of his."
"Wait, you did?!" Zi-O gawked. "Wow, you're sneaky, yet clever. As expected of the genius from Sector Seven."
"Then we know what we have to do, follow the process. Beat Guardians, collect portal gears, race through cyberspace, open up vaults for Chaos Emeralds, repeat as necessary." Leonie said.
"We've only got two of them. We need 5 more." Ranma said.
"Plus there's Amy to…wait…where is Amy?" Lucy asked as they noticed she was gone.
"She's over there." Klonoa said as the group saw Amy with a small creature. "What is that?"
"It's a Koco. One of the creatures that inhabit the island." Connor said. "They're mostly harmless."
"And you know about them how?" Ragna asked.
"While I was exploring the island my first time here, I ran into some of the little guys." Connor said. "They popped up after the collision happened. But it doesn't seem like they have any ill will."
"So…what's up with your little friend?" Yumi asked as the Koco spoke to Amy.
"This Koco says they need to reunite with their one true love before it's too late. They've been too shy to express their feelings and if they don't do it now, they'll never get the chance." Amy said.
"And you…understood that?" Revali asked.
"I think the dimension I'm stuck in is translating for me. It's strange but feels natural." Amy said.
"Speaking of true love… I suppose I owe Tulin some tutoring." Teba said.
"Yeah… You had a lot of great moments with us, didn't you Teba?" David asked.
"Yes, and to think it's been so long since we first met in Hyrule." Teba said. "From time to time, I go back and see Tulin whenever we're not exploring the multiverse. Heh… he gets a kick out of all the stories his old man comes back with. Though…it won't be like that forever."
"I understand, Teba. You were a stalwart ally to us, nothing is going to change that." David said. "But, it's understandable that your new position means you won't be out and about as much."
"Wait, position?" Law asked.
"Kaneli has been thinking it's time for me to take up the position of Rito Village Elder soon." Teba said. "It's an honor, don't get me wrong."
"But it means you'd have to leave the active roster, right?" Mark summarized.
"Yes. So it would seem." Teba said. "But… I'm okay with this. I believe that it's high time I pass the torch down to Tulin."
"That sounds great, Teba. And who knows, maybe Tulin might find himself with us someday." Adora said.
"Whoa now, don't get ahead of yourself, Adora. He's still a kid, so it might not happen right away…. But it could be sooner than we think." Hope said.
"That is why when that time comes… I'll be counting on you to watch over him, Master Revali." Teba said.
"Well of course. I want to see if he truly can live up to the promise he made when he came back in time with you." Revali said.
"Wait, he snuck into the rift with you? Why didn't we see him?" Mayumi asked.
"We were probably too busy beating up Calamity Ganon to notice." Glimmer said. "But anyway Revali, what did Tulin promise?"
"He declared that one day, he would be just like me, and even master my own great eagle bow. I'll admit I expressed interest in the thought, but then he had the nerve to imitate me when he said it was only a matter of time." Revali said.
"Besides, there are lots of adventure stuff that we don't always see. Like stuff we do when we're split off." Jexi said.
"Well, you know what they say, Revali: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." Emo said.
"Suppose that is true. And he couldn't pick a more impressive warrior." Revali said.
"Yep. We'll see how he has grown for ourselves one day. For now, though…" Vera said. "We have our own business to take care of. Couldn't picture a better send off, don't you think, Teba?"
"I happily agree." Teba said.
"Still though." Lana said. "Ganondorf's incarnation in that era… are you sure you didn't see him at all?"
"No, there was only Calamity Ganon, we didn't see Ganondorf in either timeline. Which is weird, because he's always wherever Link and Zelda are."
"Well not always…but there were records showing Ganon existing as both Calamity Ganon and Ganondorf." Twilight said.
"So even though we beat Calamity Ganon in both past and present… Does that mean Ganondorf could still be waiting for his moment to strike somewhere in Hyrule?" Glimmer said.
"The war Ganondorf fought took place millions of years ago. If he were still around, he'd be nothing but a mummified corpse." Twilight said.
"I wonder if he's at some kind of underground cave hidden within Hyrule Castle?" Starlight pondered.
"Well, we'll cross that bridge about the King of Evil in the Wild Era or not when we come to it." Hope said. "Right now, let's focus on what's in front of us."
"Yes. While you all were talking…" Amy said standing near another Koco. "This mother lost her children. Could you all maybe…"
"Sure. We'll get on it." Teba said.
Refocusing, the group spread across the area and started gathering the scattered children towards the mother until all 50 were brought to her.
"Well…that was a waste of…" Lancer said before looking into the air as the Green Chaos Emerald materialized. "Huh…nevermind."
"Still, 50. I had no idea families can even get this big." David said.
"That's 40 more than my fam." Luna said. "But they look happy."
Taking the green emerald into their possession, the group watched as the Mother Koco and her family reunited happily. But then all of a sudden, two orbs of light flew out of the mother and one of her children into the sky before they both fell to the ground, lifeless.
"What the…" Vashryon said before the Red Flower Koco jumped to get their attention.
"Okay, okay. We'll keep looking." Amy said as the red flower koco happily rolled away, the other children Koco not even sad about their mothers life being put out. "Guys, they act like none of that happened."
"Do we even know what "that" was?" Ignatz asked.
"Huh…it's like they're ghosts. We finished their unfinished business…and now…they're done." Denji said.
"Their souls passed on." Ace said.
"We should keep going." Sonic said as they continued onward. "You know…parts of this island are really lovely. I should bring Cream here sometime."
"Sounds good. Oh, and Cheese, too." Zi-O agreed.
"Yeah, the island's pretty beautiful, huh?" Gemini asked.
"If you completely disregard it being mostly populated by killer robots." Mermista said.
"Yeah…and those ruins. Heh. Tangle would love climbing around those." Sonic said.
"Tangle? Who's that?" Genis asked.
"She's a friend. Fellow freedom fighter like myself." Sonic said. "I met her after we beat Eggman and Infinite back then. A pretty strong lemur with a tail that packs a punch."
"Interesting." Mari said.
"Tangle…" Starlight repeated. "Does she also happen to have a very long flexible tail?"
"Oh yeah. That thing can bend and stretch." Sonic said.
"Yep." Starlight chuckled. "She has potential to be a great fighter if she trains more."
"Anyway, guys, we should keep moving to find all the Chaos Emeralds. And then, we can take the fight to Ian." Hope said. "Let's collect some more Portal Gears and Vault Keys so we can get the other two emeralds in the vaults."
"Lucky for us, I think I see a Guardian flying around right now." Kaibara said as everyone looked to the sky to see a Guardian flying in the air. It swooped down and gave everyone a good look at it. It was half the size of the Asura, and though it looked like a cephalopod, its body plan is somewhat reminiscent of a crayfish, although it has several flexible spines or tendrils resembling the arms of its namesake. These spines are arranged around its rounded upper body, which also has a "face" consisting of three thin yellow visors arranged vertically. Its primary limbs include two large, flat arms ending in lobster-like claws, and a lower body resembling a stylized dolphin tail or a high-tech floor scraper.
SQUID
(Cue: Guardian: Squid- Sonic Frontiers)
As soon as it got close to the heroes, it immediately tried to fly away, leaving some sort of black and purple path behind it.
"Running away already?" Erica asked.
"GV, Houki, chase it down!" Geiz ordered.
"Roger!" Gunvolt and Houki nodded with the former jumping onto the path and running after it while the latter followed behind Gunvolt in her IS frame.
"Why does this guardian look like a squid? Shouldn't it be underwater or something?" Joule questioned.
"For once, I don't mind if it doesn't stay underwater." Gunvolt replied. "Can't use my Septima underwater, remember?"
"Incoming!" Houki shouted, noticing projectiles heading straight for them. These were energy blasts from the Squid's own tentacles, fired at different angles.
"GV, fire back with your long range weaponry! Houki, you get in close and use your Blade wings to do damage up close when it's slowed down!" Ogami advised.
"Alright, we'll try that!" Gunvolt noted, pulling out his Dart Leader and X-Baton Blaster, used his Septima to speed up, dodged the projectiles, and fired shots at the guardian when he's in range, with the former gun leaving tags on it, prompting the Azure Striker to unleash his lightning onto the tagged target, slowing it down. "Houki, go for it!"
"Hai!" Houki nodded, deploying her wing blade bits on her back and used them to attack the guardian at multiple angles. Her attacks were enough to stop the Squid from moving as it created a circular platform around it with its arms stretched wide.
"Now's your chance to take it down! Wait for the right moment to strike!" Joule advised.
"Right!" Gunvolt and Houki nodded, preparing a stance and awaited movement.
The Squid then coiled back its longer tentacles and then lashed out with both at its challengers, but Gunvolt blocked it with his Flashfield, prompting Houki to fly up, plunge her katanas onto the guardian's head, and fired lasers from her katanas, causing said lasers to erupt all over the Squid before exploding, leaving behind the Portal Gear that was then caught by Gunvolt before safely landing to solid ground with his Flashfield with Houki following behind with her blade bits returning to her IS frame. "Over here, guys!" Gunvolt called with the gear in hand.
(end song)
"Nice job! Let's use this gear right away on the next cyberspace portal we find." Hope said.
"Houki, have I ever told you that I find yours and your friends' IS frames to be ingenious pieces of technology?" Entrapta asked.
"My sister was the one who made Infinite Stratos, but we rarely see her much. A lot of people wanted to find her for her tech, but no one was able to." Houki answered.
"So, there's no way we can ask about the infrastructure? That's too bad.." Bow said.
"Perhaps it's for the best… considering we knew the truth about the IS frame's cores." Cecilia replied.
"While the scientists of Team XDR examined our IS frames… they discovered something after checking the IS cores… they're made with Time Crystals." Charlotte revealed.
"Time Crystals?! That's terrible!" Entrapta said.
"You don't know what those are, do you?" Hitomi asked.
"No, I absolutely do not, but they sound bad." Entrapta admitted.
"Ja, they are indeed bad." Laura confirmed. "Anything involving the powers of time can be considered dangerous, and Tabane has been using these behind everyone's backs, including Chifuyu and Ichika Orimura."
"Trust me, we know how dangerous messing with time is, we've done a lot of time traveling." Hope said. "We still got work to do, but it sounds like these crystals are bad news."
"It also made us potential targets to the Neo Time Jackers." Lingyin mentioned. "All the more reason we need to get back to our world before they could discover this info."
"We'll think about that later, Rin." Copen stated. "Come, we should be near a portal somewhere."
"There it is!" Iida said, seeing the gate not too far away.
"Alrighty. Who wants to go in next?" Miu asked as Gunvolt placed the portal onto the gate's open slot.
"Anyone?" Zi-O asked the teams.
"I'll give it a try." Ajna said.
"You sure?" Yuzuriha asked.
"Yeah. I'm actually faster than I look. My Heruka form lets me speed up when I dash." Ajna said.
"Alright Ajna, you're up then. For this one, in addition to finding the red star rings, you have to reach the goal with 20 rings, and get there in under a Minute-15. Think you can do that?" Vashyron asked.
"Yeah, I can do that no problem." Ajna said as she touched the portal and entered cyberspace.
"Best of luck, Anja!" Regina cheered.
(Cue- Tricky Maze *Lost World*- Sonic Adventure)
She found herself in a small garden like area before she began dashing down a long hallway before falling down a tunnel that had pillars and spouts of fire popping out from time to time before running through another long tunnel as she then went through the mouth of a stone snake and found herself in a large room where she had to activate three switches. After activating all three, she used her Divine Wheel technique to rocket up to the upper level before soon reaching the goal as she exited cyberspace.
She collected all 5 Red Star rings along the way, had more than enough rings, and finished with a time of at least 40 seconds as she reemerged with several keys.
"Nice going, Ajna!" Gemini complimented.
"At our pace, we'll get the rest of the emeralds in no time flat." Ichiro said.
"Speaking of, let's go and grab one of the other ones in the vaults. I think the Yellow one was close by." Mai said.
The group headed to the vault's location and opened it, letting them collect the Yellow Emerald.
"Still that place I was in was weird, it looked like a temple with really long hallways and the head of a giant stone snake with a hidden passage in its mouth." Ajna said.
"That sounds like that Lost World temple I went through back when Eggman was using Chaos to threaten my world." Sonic said.
"Oh, that one." Geiz remembered. "That thing flooded Station Square after obtaining the seven Chaos Emeralds' negative energy. No wonder it's called that."
"It wasn't always evil though." Ace remarked. "It only lashed out because Knuckles' Clan hurt the Chao it was protecting."
"Yeah. If only they'd leave the Chao alone, then none of that wouldn't happen." Geiz agreed. "Though that also means we wouldn't be able to meet the Knuckles we all knew now."
"Fate works in mysterious ways…" Mei remarked.
The group continued onwards around Kronos island, battling any robots under Sage's command they saw. Eventually, they ran into Amy and the Red Flower Koco again.
"What's up, Amy? Why isn't your new friend going forward?" Hilda asked.
"She says her Amore was stationed on the far side of the field in front of us." Amy said, directing their attention to a large field of overgrown grass and weeds. "This is the field."
"Not seeing a lot of farming going on." Sonic said.
"Looks like the plants in this field overgrew. We're gonna have to thin the crop so our lover here can get through without getting lost." Connor siad.
"Are you serious? It'll take hours to clear all this foliage." Hilda said.
"Not unless we have people who can cut down a lot of the stuff at high speeds. Which we do." Connor said.
"All right…let's get to work." Zoro said as the swordsmen of the groups started clearcutting the grass. "Huh…look what I just found." he said, holding the cyan Chaos Emerald after clearing some grass.
"Great! Only two more to go!" Leonie said.
"Acquiring keys from one more Cyberspace Portal should net us enough to grab both the White Emerald, and the Purple Emerald, wherever it is." Sakura said.
"So let's get to it." Hope said.
The group managed to defeat one other Asura and Squid on the island, grabbing their portal gears before heading to the closest Cyberspace Portal and Activating it.
"Any takers on this portal?" Kaibara asked.
"I'll go for it." Ruby said as she stepped forward before entering the portal.
"Best of luck, Ruby Rose." Seele said.
(Cue- Lost Jungle- Sonic Heroes)
She crossed through and entered a frog filled jungle as she zoomed across the jungle using her Semblance as she collected the 5 red rings and a number of regular rings before she went and crossed back to the finish in under 30 seconds and returned with a few keys.
"Ugh…frogs…so many frogs." she shivered after making it back.
"Frogs, huh…" Starlight repeated. "Ah, I think it's that one jungle stage in Sonic Heroes. Lots of frogs there… and that one alligator."
"Hated the black frogs too." Geiz added.
"Zeo, Gaius, Akira… you three wouldn't happen be from a world that features all of our worlds as pop culture, right? A Real World, in a sense?" Adora asked as they made their way to the white emerald Vault.
"I was wondering when you're going to mention that, She-Ra. But yeah, you're right. We're from the real world. Prime Earth from our multiverse, to be exact." Akira confirmed. "That's how we have knowledge of other worlds through games, anime, manga, that kind of stuff."
"I thought so. Lan came from our version of it, believe it or not." Adora said. "But that's something we can talk about another time."
The group reached the White Chaos Emeralds vault and unlocked it using a few keys, acquiring it and leaving only one remaining.
"One more to go. But we haven't been able to detect the Purple Emerald's location since coming to the island." Kendo said.
"I think I know where it is." Miu said.
"Miu, are you saying that the final emerald is in the same place as the big bad robot Ian's piloting that could easily squish us with one foot?" Hilda asked.
"That's exactly what I'm saying. Think about it. We scoured the whole island. Where else could it be?" Miu asked.
"Guess taking on a titan can't come without a little risk, right?" Frosta asked. "But I think we can rise to the challenge. We've taken on things that were Giganto's size."
"Giganto? What?" Picoletta said.
"What? We have to call it something. And since it's so huge, I called it Giganto." Frosta said.
"But there's no way he's just going to let us run up there and take it." Jexi said.
"So, we're just gonna have to swipe it from him somehow." Sachiko said.
"Agreed. Won't be easy, but we'll find a way." Hope said.
"Actually, Geiz and I do." Zi-O spoke up. "But we'll save that as a surprise."
"Trust me, you're gonna enjoy it." Geiz added.
The group headed back to meet up with Amy and the Red Flower Koco as they followed her across the island. Suddenly, Red Flower got all excited and ran towards something.
Just then, in a flash of red light from above, the group was then caught in some kind of realized flashback, and Amy was back to her old self. An explosion got the group's attention as they then saw someone different where the Red Flower Koco was. It had the Koco in the center, but its body looked like a feminine, slender version of Chaos.
"Unbelievable… so that's what the Ancients looked like!" Entrapta said.
"They looked…like Chaos." Dan said. "But…maybe they're like…relatives or something."
"Or maybe distant ancestors." David said.
"Well, the Ancients lived a long time ago, so that theory does seem plausible." Sachiko said.
The female ancient was running in slow motion among the constant explosions. Despite the danger, it pressed on.
"Don't! It's too dangerous!" Amy called out, though the ancient didn't hear her.
The ancient soon reached a male variation, who was more than likely the lover the Koco was after. The male noticed the female, and soon enough, after a minute of suspense among the blasts… they embraced, just a large explosion wiped them both out and brought everybody back to reality. Amy was digitized again, and both Koco that portrayed the ancients were lying peacefully on the ground, their final desires fulfilled.
"Wow. That, was…" Betty said.
"Tragic. And yet… so romantic." Sonia said.
"They were reunited…right before the end…" Amy said, sorrowfully.
"They're together now." Sonic assured her. "You take a minute. The rest of us will keep moving."
As they left Amy alone, Kiana pondered as she recalled what happened earlier. "(What the heck happened in this island?)" She thought. "(But whatever it is… I don't like this feeling one bit…)"
Meanwhile, Sage was in Cyberspace with Eggman and Photon, while also having a direct line to Techno and the others.
"How goes your progress, Sage?" Techno asked.
"I am extending the range of my control, but I can still only allow us to command a few of the Ancients' relics at a time." Sage said.
"Commendable. But what about finding Photon and I a way out of this digital dimension?" Eggman asked.
"...I have run one million seven hundred thousand and fifty simulations. There is no safe way to remove the both of you from Cyber Space." Sage said.
"I see." Photon said. "Well, hopefully new opportunities will present themselves in time."
"Photon's right." Eggman said. "Keep looking. Make it your number one priority."
"Hey, guys! Next shipment's in a few bytes away!" DaDan's voice could be heard saying in the background.
"Perfect." Sage said.
"I should remind everyone present in this meeting, that while we're all working here on the islands, the Hero Alliance is still roaming around Kronos Island collecting the Chaos Emeralds Sage worked so hard to obtain." Techno said.
"No kiddin', they've got six of 'em already!" Spinel noted. "At this rate, they're gonna go for Ian and Giganto before you can do the hokey-pokey!"
"Giganto?...Huh, that's a good designation. Thank you, Spinel." Techno said. "And she's correct. Fortunately, Ian has already obtained one of the emeralds. He's been notified of the situation, and has assured us he will take appropriate measures."
"It was the most optimal choice. Even if the heroes do collect any number of emeralds, what they seek is within the titans presence. They won't succeed in getting it." Sage said.
"Have you already calculated the odds of them beating Ian?" Photon asked.
"If Ian doesn't hold back and operates the Titan to its full potential… I calculate a 99.5% chance of victory for him." Sage replied.
"Beware that 0.5% chance, Sage." Eggman cautioned. "It's led to failure for me more than once. Anyway, if that's all, Photon and I will get that new shipment. Remember, make getting us out of here your first priority." he said to Sage as the two scientists took off.
"Protecting you and everyone else is my priority…" Sage said to herself.