The Galaxy King raced to catch up with Sonic as they crossed over the sea to the next Island on the Starfall Archipelago.
"Ares Island… kinda a fitting name for a Desert-based island filled up with run down weapons of war." Vashyron said.
"The desert huh…reminds us of when we helped fulfill a friend's last wish when he regained his memories." A2 said.
"That reminds me, are you three gonna be okay over there?" DW typed. "You mentioned sand gets inside your chassis' easily."
"If we stay there for too long, yeah. But we should be fine." 9S said.
"The desert also reminds me of when we met a version of Cereza." Simon said as he pulled out Simoon. "She was a princess of Cairo there. If it weren't for her sacrifice, we would have never made it out. Even though it meant her world being erased in the process."
"Guess we all kinda have history in deserts, huh?" Connor asked.
"I am so taking a shower after we're done on this island." Aya sweatdropped.
"We're coming up on the island now. Let's get ready to-" Sakura said before alerts went off on the ship.
"What's going on?" Lysithea asked.
"Maybe it's the welcoming committee." Erica said.
"Huh?" Ace said before spotting something in the distance. "Sonic, heads up! Lasers incoming!"
Lasers then started blasting out from all corners of the island, one of them hitting Sonic as he was knocked down towards the sand below, the others barely missing the Galaxy King.
"Dammit, we can't land while being shot at!" Zephyr said.
"No choice but to jump outta the ship!" Connor said.
The group then did so, filing out of the Galaxy King and managing to meet up with sonic who was forced out of his super form, the Chaos Emeralds scattering all over the Island.
"The Chaos Emeralds!" Gemini said. "We gotta catch em!"
"Nah, it's cool, Gemini." Sonic assured, though sarcastically. "I didn't want this to be easy anyway."
"And the vault keys we've gathered are gone too." 9S said.
"Well… that sucks." Kanade remarked.
"More like we're back to square one. Our collection of Portal Gears and Vault Keys must be different across each island." Lysithea deduced.
"It's possible. For right now we should see if either Tails or Knuckles are here." X said.
"Oh uh…that won't take long." Izuku said as he was staring right at a cage with Knuckles inside it.
"Wow, talk about luck." Hapi said.
"Hang on. I'll get you out." 9S said as he hacked into the cage before it broke open as more energy poured into Sonic as black spots with red outlines appeared on his right arm.
"Okay, Sonic. That energy is really starting to be concerning. Are you sure it's no big deal?" Sachiko asked.
"It's fine…just a side effect." Sonic said.
"(I don't like that side effect when you look like that, Sonic…)" Maria thought with worry.
"Well some rescue…I'm still half ghost." Knuckles said.
"What are you even doing here anyway? We left you back on Angel Island a week before Uta's show." Jexi said.
"I was investigating some weird ruins on my island. Then I ended up here." Knuckles said.
"How strange. Well long story short, we need to find the Chaos Emeralds, stop the Universal Villains, and some big bots." Mari said.
"Once this is done, you'll be free to go back to guarding the Master Emerald or whatever you wanna do in no time." Hope said.
"Sounds like a plan." Knuckles said.
"In the meantime, we first need to look for either a gate to the cyber world and portal gears to use said gate." Mei stated. "Did you see any of that anywhere, Knuckles?"
"How would…" Knuckles said before they saw something stirring in the sands.
"Uh…what was…" Yang said before jumping out was a large machine with a fin and sharp teeth as it dove in and out of the sands.
SHARK
"A robot sandshark?" Klonoa asked.
"Lucky us, looks like a Guardian came right to us first." Connor said.
"Careful. This one is a dangerous predator!" David said.
"I could show this thing a thing or two, but I'm kinda at a disadvantage in the desert." DW Typed.
Simon pulled out Mukude and latched the mouth onto the Shark's tail fin. "Gotcha!"
The Shark thrashed before it started diving.
"Watch out! It's trying to pull you under!" Terra warned.
"Well it's gonna have to do better than that!" Simon said as he began sand skiing across the desert.
"Keep holding on to it, Simon! Wear it down so you can pull it out of the sand!" Leonie said.
"This is going to take a while. But at least he's having fun with it." Ashe remarked.
"You call that fun?" Chris deadpanned.
"Some people find fun in the strangest of things. That's one of the lessons we tend to learn on our journeys." David said.
"What he said." Ashe agreed.
After skiing on the Shark's tail fin while it fired missiles to try and hit him, it leaped out of the sand a bit.
"Perfect timing! UPMEDANYDA!" Simon chanted as Hekatoncheir appeared and grabbed the shark with one of his hands before slamming it onto the sands, the other five soon pounded on it and obliterated it.
"And that's that." Simon said.
"Good going, Simon." Kiana praised.
Amber then ran up and dug the Portal Gear out of the sand from where Hekatoncheir pummeled the shark, intact and still in good shape. Unlike the previous gears which had a blue color, this one had a yellow hue to it.
"Now to repeat the rest of the process from before. Gears to keys, keys to emeralds." Glimmer said.
"Also…seems our little sharky friend coughed up more than just gears." Jet said, holding another memo as he played it.
"I don't believe this! I had Sage run a diagnostic on the recorded genetic data of the Ancients and then against the archives that I have. They're relatives of Chaos, the God of Destruction! After countless years, their DNA corroded to the point where they became an entirely new species. Some kind of radiation affected them, leaving them unrecognizable…except for a genius like me." Eggman said in the Memo.
"Sage… So that was her name, huh?" David asked. "All this time, and now we finally have a name."
"More to the point, Dan's guess earlier was right. The Ancients and Chaos really are connected." Entrapta said.
"Incredible…and the radiation that affected them, must've turned them into the Koco that we've seen." Mari said.
"Maybe but…." Sonic said, holding a memo of his own as he played it.
"The Ancients seem to have employed a set of strange icons as keepsakes and tokens. The same imagery is being used by the Koco running around the islands. Did the Koco inspire the Ancients? Or did the Koco adopt the leftovers once the Ancients were gone? Hmm..." Eggman said.
"So the Koco and the Ancients are separate. Another theory…the Koco were made to hold onto the light and spirit of the Ancients who made them until their problems could be fully resolved." Raine said.
"If only we had more answers to this." Dhar said.
"I'm certain we can find more answers if we continue to explore the islands." Robin said.
"Well for right now let's find those cyberspace portals." Yuri said.
It didn't take long before they were able to find a portal nearby.
"So…who's taking the shot this time?" Glimmer asked.
"I suppose either myself or Master Revali can take this one." Teba said.
"Nonsense, Teba. As you are going to be the next Elder of Rito Village, you should take an inaugural flight." Revali said.
"Very well, Master Revali. I thank you for this opportunity." Teba said as he stepped forward.
"Wait, I just thought of something. Isn't it cheating if somebody just flies all the way to the end?" Bow asked.
"I'm sure it's fine." Sonic said. "Tails did it a few times we raced each other in these areas."
"Really? That's a relief!" Rainbow-2 said. "In that case, I can jump in anytime I want."
"I'll return as soon as I can." Teba said, placing the Portal gear into the portal, and transporting himself into Cyberspace as soon as it activated.
(Cue: The Air (Windy Valley)- Sonic Adventure)
Teba found himself high in the clear blue sky above some islands as he soon landed on one and made his way through the area. Thankfully, 30 Rings weren't all that hard to get as he also collected the 5 Red Rings and made his way to the goal within 45 seconds.
Teba returned to reality with 4 vault keys, plus three additional keys for a total of 7. As he came back, the Vault holding the Blue Chaos Emerald on Ares Island was unsealed, making the emerald's glow shoot into the sky and revealing its probable location.
"Nice work." Sonic said.
"Yes. I seemed to be in a mountainous area." Teba said.
"Hmm…Sounds like Windy Valley. Nice place." Sonic said.
"Did it involve going inside a tornado, Sonic?" Starlight guessed.
"Something like that." Sonic replied.
"I think we can gather up a few more keys before we can claim our first emerald. But we'd need another portal gear." Adora said.
"I think I may have found another Guardian." Kabuki said as, in the distance, was a giant red and grey robot that towered over the surrounding landscape. It has four legs that bore resemblance to a Water Strider, connected to a tall central tower. Under the center tower is a set of movable red and white monitors resembling eyeballs. Suspended in air just below the eyes are three grind rails. The tower has several metal shapes moving on it, similar to a garden wind spinner. The top of the tower has several thin rectangular shapes spinning around what appears to be a power source. It has arrows on its two horizontal ends, similar to that of a weather vane.
STRIDER
"Another big one, it looks like." Miu said.
"Thankfully, its weak spot is manageable to reach." David said, pointing to the core on its trunk.
"It's gonna require some tricky maneuvers to get to it. Nothing too impossible for us, though." Hitomi said.
"Though it doesn't seem mobile. It'll probably attack when we get close." Sheena said.
"Well, it'll probably leave something in its attacks that we can use to reach that core." Kurochi said.
"What about those three rings under its body?" Klonoa asked.
"They look like… grind rails?" Gunvolt narrowed his eyes to get a better look.
"Think we should grind on those rings and see what happens?" Joule pondered.
"It's worth a shot." David said.
(Cue: Guardian: Strider- Sonic Frontiers)
The group made their way to the Strider, and once they were in its range, it immediately went into battle. It deployed a few grind rail circles below them.
"If we go around those grind circles, we'll be propelled up to the main rails." Glimmer noted.
"Leave the rail grinding to me!" Kiana volunteered, heading for the grind circles and jumped onto one of them. She leaped from one grind circle to another until she reached the three large ones near Strider. "Right… now all I have to do is to grind all the way before moving to the next circle. Uh oh." She then noticed projectiles on the rails, heading straight for her. "Heh, like that's gonna stop me!" She leaped above the projectiles on the rails before continuing to grind until the grind circle is fully colored blue, prompting her to leap and grind the next circle.
Eventually, she finished her task as all three grind circles are lit in blue, causing a magic platform to appear around Strider along with its core exposed. "There you are…" Kiana noticed said weak spot and immediately fired her guns at it, along with summoning her large neko paws from her created portals to deal large amounts of damage to the weak spot. Afterwards, she fused her guns into one large gun and unleashed Gungnir Fire onto it as the beam completely destroyed the core and the Guardian. A Portal Gear flew out of the core, prompting Kiana to catch it before flying back to the teams in her Wind Glider as the whole Guardian explodes to nothing.
(end song)
"Nice work, Kiana." Adora said.
"You're a heck of a fighter! Those giant cat paws of yours really pack a punch despite their cuteness." Scorpia added.
"Hehe, thanks you two." Kiana grinned. "You know, it's kinda weird you saw another version of me from one of your adventures."
"You're talking about the version of you that's with Siege's crew in his dimension, right? Yeah, we've had our fair run-ins with other versions of people we know." Hope said.
"I see." Kiana noted. "What really surprised me is that she managed to gain control of Sirin, the Herrscher of the Void. Currently, the Herrscher Core from inside my body was lost during the Dimensional Quake. But at least I still have a bit of its effects."
"I'm sure you'll get it back once you return to your world. It may take some time using the connective network of Gjallarhorn portals, but you'll get back there." Hope said.
"Maybe. Though that power can be a curse since it has the Will of the Honkai. Absorb too much of that, and you've basically destroyed your humanity, leaving you nothing but a monster that can control the Honkai." Kiana stated.
"But, as long as you have a strong will, you can break that curse." Mei added.
"Our powers don't make us good or bad, our choices do." Miriam said.
"She's right. A wise man once said that our actions determine who we are, not our backgrounds." David said.
"Did someone really say that?" Law asked.
"It has been said before. I just…don't remember who." David said.
"It's good advice though." Kiana replied. "Still, if I ever regain the Herrscher Core, or at least a few fragments of it, I wanna have a talk with Sirin, get to know about her past, and reach an understanding without the need to fight. That way, I should be able to control the power of the Void."
"And we'll be there to support you, Kiana-chan." Mei smiled with Seele nodding.
"The Bronya is surprised that the other Kiana never mentioned that part to you all." Bronya said to the alliance.
"It never really crossed our mind." Hope admitted as they came to the next Cyberspace portal, activating it with the gear they just got. "Who wants to take this next one?"
"No worries, Hope." Rainbow Dash-2 spoke up. "I'll get this one. What do I gotta do here?"
"You have to make it to the end within 55 seconds, and have 90 rings on you. And of course, get all 5 red star rings." Connor said.
"Heh, easy!" RD-2 said as she entered the portal. "Be back in a jiffy, guys!"
(Cue: Bullet Station - Sonic Heroes)
Rainbow Dash-2 found herself flying through a deeply carved out canyon, and Eggman's own western spin was all over it. As she flew around, she saw rails, trains, platforms, and even cannons of all types, including a large rotary version with 4 cylinders at the top of a rock spire.
"Jeez! When Eggman builds a base, he goes all-in." RD-2 observed as she sped through the canyon, collecting lots of rings and finding the five red rings. "How am I gonna find the exit in all this?! I'll never live it down if I don't make it through here fast enough…"
Rainbow then looked to the rotary cannon atop the spire, and she got an idea. A Crazy, reckless, and very stupid idea.
"That'll work." RD-2 said as she quickly flew to the cannon's main control room and entered it's battery inside. Within moments, she was launched out of the cannon and sent speeding across the canyon, flying through the portal.
Back outside, RD-2 flew out of the portal, which produced the corresponding vault keys, while the pegasus managed to stick her landing.
"Aw yeah! That was awesome!" RD-2 said.
"Where'd you end up that was so cool?" Krillin asked.
"I was in this decked out Canyon base set up by Eggman. I got all the rings I needed, and I had a little fun by shooting myself outta a giant cannon with four barrels on it. How's my time?" RD-2 asked.
"Oh yeah. Bullet Station." Sonic said. "Now that was a fun ride."
"Yes…but your fun is about to come to a stop." a voice said as Sage floated over them.
"There you are. Sage, was it?" David asked.
"Knowing who I am changes my stance very little about any of you." Sage said.
"Yeah, feeling's mutual." David said.
"Let me guess, trying to suede us from starting our emerald collection?" Hope asked, seeing that the vaults of the Red and yellow emeralds were unsealed, in accordance with RD-2s accomplishment.
"You all have no idea what you are doing." Sage said. "I ask you once more…leave…now."
"Sorry, but I'm afraid we can't do that. There's too much at stake already." Miu said.
"Yeah. And there's nothing you can do about that." Denji said.
"I beg to differ." Sage said as she held her hand high as a massive flying robot soared above. This was another of the titans, though this one was different from giganto in that it resembled a chinese dragon. Its body was mainly gray in color, with a body that was very narrow and thin, along with pulsing red streaks along its sides. It had two large arms and two sets of jaws.
"Already?! But we haven't even collected a single emerald yet!" Hilda said.
"Take this as another warning. Collect your first emerald, and we will direct its rage at you." Sage said as she warped away.
"As a certain thief said… when someone tells us not to do something, it just makes us wanna do it even more." Connor said.
And so, despite the threat, the group headed towards the Blue Chaos Emerald vault, unlocked it, and claimed their first emerald.
Up above on the highest canyon point, Boba Fett was watching with Priyan as they did so.
"And of course they don't listen." Boba Fett said. "Then again, considering the circumstances, of course they're not going to stop."
"So what do we do now? Use the Titan to threaten them physically like Ian did?" Priyan asked.
"...No." Boba said. "That won't work. We need to be smart about this. The last time I tried to take them on without a plan…I've been getting complacent. That stops here. What's the status on your soldiers?"
"I still have them patrolling. But…I have been learning to make new classes of soldiers…such as…" she said, holding a figurine of a man with a sniper rifle.
"...Alright, that'll work." Boba said. "If the Titan can't beat them in a fight…then we'll just have to level the playing field. Here's the plan…"