"Alright guys, looks like Neo's relocated herself and Knight to someplace we can't reach yet." Kokonoe said. "She's placed herself and the titan smack dab in the center of a volcanic crater."

"We have to get to them before Sonic does. With his condition worsening from that corruption, maybe if we gather some of the Emeralds before he does, he won't have to risk himself." Sakura said.

"Easier said than done, Sonic's one of the fastest members of the alliance. Racing against him is not gonna be easy." Hitomi mentioned. "Especially when he's got something to fight for."

"But it can still be manageable, as long as we know where to look." David said.

"Right. We need to take out the guardians, brave the portals and then get there with the six emeralds." Jexi said.

"Spot a target right now." Blake said as flying past them was a flying robot that resembled the Squid but much more powerful.

FORTRESS

"That thing looks like a fighter jet!" Al said.

"We'll either have to grind on those rails it's leaving behind or fly straight to its core to destroy it." Ichiro said.

"I'll handle the flying fortress. Will get my mind off Neo. You guys focus on finding the other emeralds." Ruby said.

"Got it. Thanks, Ruby." David said.

Ruby just smiled as she chased after the Fortress.

"So what do we…" Mari said as she spotted Tails talking with a goggle wearing Koco. "Everything okay?"

"This Koco is asking me to help fix his cannon, but it's missing a few parts. I'm not sure if I should. I mean, their battle is long over. This feels sort of cruel." Tails said.

"I know, but if we don't fulfill their last wishes, they won't be able to ascend. But maybe we could use the cannon to reach the titan's location." Mari said.

"Well…okay." Tails said. "Just gather the parts for us." he said as the heroes went about gathering up these parts as Tails just stood there.

"Tails…you…you okay buddy?" Usopp asked.

"Guys…am…am I a burden on you all?" Tails asked.

"What? No way! What makes you say something like that?" DW typed.

"Whenever something big happens, I'm always sitting on the sidelines or following you guys and Sonic around. And when Infinite attacked, I just crumpled like paper." Tails said.

"Heh. Who was it who defended Station Square?" Jexi said. "Or went and broke Sonic out of Prison? Or even busted up the Deadly Six's trap?"

"Then…then I'm wildly inconsistent." Tails said.

"Jexi is right, Tails. Even if you aren't on the frontlines a lot, you're still a bigger asset than you're giving yourself credit for." David said.

"Yeah. You're smart like that egg guy, fast like Sonic, and you fly with your butt." Natsu said.

"That last part can be interpreted a lot of ways…" Kaibara said.

"The point is, no matter what role you have, you're always there to help us in your own way." Ace said.

"Ace is right. I mean, if it weren't for your brains, we wouldn't have the Galaxy King to venture the Color verse in, or have all our amazing tech on and off the ship." Makoto mentioned.

"Heck, you invented a time machine. An actual time machine!" Dan said.

"These doubts…these are all normal. So is asking for help. It's all part of growing up." Izuku said.

"Heh…when did a number of you get to be so insightful?" Tails asked.

"We have our moments." Pit said.

"Same for our team as well." Starlight added with a smile.

"Yeah, it happens to the best of us. Believe me, I'd know. I get insecure about pretty much everything." David said.

"Could have fooled us with the confidence you exude." Miu said. "But they're right. Doubting yourself is pretty normal. So, you need to ask yourself something. What are your doubts centered on, and what can you do to change that?"

"Hmm…" Tails pondered.

"Hey!" some of the group called out.

"Got the parts for the cannon…and we got a little bonus!" Vector said, holding the Green Emerald.

"But the bridge to the cannon is out so we can't reach it for repairs." Tanjiro said.

"What if we made our own?" Simon asked.

"Or found some way to get to the other side and lower the bridge from there?" Frosta also suggested.

"I'll go on ahead and find something to use. You guys focus on getting the Emeralds before Sonic." Tails said, running ahead. As he got out of sight of them, he was soon confronted by Sage.

"Miles Prower. You put so much faith in the Hero Alliance. In fact, you have known them and Sonic your whole life." Sage said.

"Yeah, and?" Tails asked.

"Your imprisonment within Cyber Space. The Defeat of the Ancients titans. Do you trust how they all are handling it? With your life?" Sage asked.

"Of course! I admit, most of the time we aren't perfect. But working together, we've overcome impossible odds over and over again. I know they'll save us all." Tails said.

"So you're saying you have faith in them?" Sage asked.

"It's not a matter of faith. I've got a lifetime of data to back up my observations." Tails said.

"Your loyalty is founded on empirical data. I can appreciate that." Sage said. "The feelings they inspire in you and others… is that a facet of being alive? And yet all your love and loyalty will amount to nothing. It cannot be prevented."

"What are you talking about?" Tails asked, Sage warping away and not answering his question. High above, IN-Fn8t was watching the conversation, both theirs and with the group.

"You won't know until it's too late… because it's something the Villains will do anything to prevent it themselves." He said to himself. "In the meantime, I'll keep watching, as your friends unknowingly do all the hard work for me."

"Phew…well that took longer than expected." Ruby said as she held onto the gate gear. "Hopefully the others are just as ahead on getting the Emeralds."

She soon saw some of the group ahead but they were in battle against a massive looking robot with a spider-like appearance.

SPIDER

"Ruby! Perfect timing, think you can give us a hand?!" Leonie asked, avoiding one of the Spider's legs.

"HORVUTAH!" Simon chanted, summoning Scolopendra as he wrapped his body around the Spider's legs.

"On it." Ruby said as she zoomed around the Spider before aiming Crescent Rose right at its head and fired, stunning the robot.

"Nice shot!" Simon said, dismissing Scolopendra.

"Thanks." Ruby said as she flew around the Spider and sliced off all its legs.

"No legs, which means you're done!" Lei K said, leaping into the air and coming down on the spider's main body and destroying it with a powerful dive kick. The Portal Gear was claimed right after.

"And with that, another gear in our grasp." Axl said.

"Anyway, you okay, Rosebud?" Hapi asked. "Looks like you still got Three Flavors on your mind."

"I'm actually feeling quite fine right now." Ruby said with a smile.

"Guess fighting the Fortress helped clear your head a bit." Leonie said.

"It sure did. Y'know…I really have a lot of respect for Jexi. I mean, if it weren't for him, after the Beacon Invasion, Weiss, Blake, Yang and I would all be separated. A lot of stuff happened on our world back then. But you guys helped us through it." Ruby said.

"Tell me about it. We took out Adam Taurus, reignited Yang's fighting spirit, and revived Pyrrha thanks to Jaune's clever thinking." Glimmer said.

"Yes…a lot of the tragedy that would have happened on your world has been avoided." Sheer said.

"Thank goodness for that. I saw the other volumes of RWBY and well… oh boy it got worse. WAY worse." Zi-O remarked. "So good on you guys for preventing the worst case scenarios."

"There's still a lot to do though. I'm still worried about Salem." Ruby said.

"Salem… you mean that witch from your world? It shouldn't even be much of a concern. I mean, she's never even made a move beyond that world." Catra said.

"We'll worry about her when we get to her." David said.

"Yeah, let's just focus on helping Tails and the others for now." Roy said.

"I spotted a Cyberspace Portal on the way over here…if anyone is interested in snagging some keys." Ruby said.

"Hmm… I think I'll take this one." David said. "I may not be as fast as Sonic, or Cheetah, or even Veevee, but I should be able to clear it without too much trouble."

"Go for it, David. Show us how fast Cooler's training has really made you." Leopardmon said.

"Got it." David said as he touched the gate.

When David got to the other side, he saw some sort of cityscape at night.

"Can you hear us? What do you see?" Revali asked on the comm.

"I see some sort of cityscape under a night sky. Right now I'm standing on top of some sort of bridge." David said.

"On top of a bridge? Let's see…" Mari said. "Got it. You seem to be in a place called Radical Highway."

"Hmm… Interesting. Sonic never mentioned a place like this." David said.

"That's because it's not from Sonic's data…. It's from Shadow's!" Entrapta said.

"Shadow? Oh… Now it makes sense." David said. "What's the time limit here?"

"You have to get to the goal in under a minute and 20 seconds, and the rings you have to have need to be 30 or more." Entrapta replied.

"Oh… This is gonna be fun." David said, with a bit of a giddy smile.

(Cue: Vengeance is Mine *Radical Highway*- Sonic Adventure 2)

David started grinding on the bridge's railing before he jumped and dashed all across the city, collecting as many rings as he could as he ran like a blur, his athletic background really helping him out here. He managed to make it to the goal in just under one minute, claiming more than twice the number of rings required, in addition to the 5 red rings scattered across the city.

"Wow, David! You killed it, and with 20 seconds to spare!" Bow said.

"Phew… Yep. I had to be on my feet the whole time in that city." David said. "Still, it was quite fun. Those dazzling lights, the breezy night air… It reminded me of back home."

"I'd imagine…a big cityscape like that would make any city dweller think of home." Ruby said.

David nods at the sentiment as he retrieved the Vault Keys.

"One more Portal to go through, and we'll be able to grab all the emeralds." Bow mentioned. "Lucky for us, we just got another portal gear to use."

"You can leave the next one to me." Simon said.

"Go for it, man." Ruby said, handing him the gear.

"Thanks." Simon said.

They made their way to the next nearby portal as it was activated, Simon making his way inside.

(Cue: Lava Shelter- Shadow the Hedgehog)

Simon found himself inside another one of Eggman's old bases as he began grinding on a set of three rails with Ignis Araneae Yo-Yo over lava while also passing by some badniks and what seemed to be duplicates of Shadow the Hedgehog as he made his way further underground, using a combination of grinding and masquerading with Phantasmaraneae before soon reaching the goal while fulfilling all the requirements.

"And that is that." Simon said as he skated out of the portal.

"We'll have more than enough keys to snag the Red, Yellow and White emeralds now. The only problem now is that bridge Tails mentioned." Entrapta said.

"Oh…the others already took care of that while we were handling the gates." Sheer said. "Managed to find the Cyan Emerald as well."

"Still no sign of Blue Blur?" Hapi asked.

"That's actually very suspicious… he knows what to do to grab the Emeralds too." Catra said. "Unless he's on his way to try and snag the one sitting on the Knight's head."

"That's crazy. Neo will tear him to pieces." Ruby said.

"And considering how she's tried to play mind games with us twice already, in the state Sonic's in, who knows how she'll try to toy with him." Bow said.

"We gotta get over there. And hopefully get them both out of their mindsets." David said.

"Yeah, let's get the other three emeralds. And then, save Neo and Sonic from themselves." Catra said.

"Mm." Geiz nodded in agreement. "I just hope we're not too late."