On Today's Episode: The trinity finds themselves on the first of the Starfall Islands, once home to an ancient civilization. Also on the island is, believe it or not, one of Nick's favorite old-school video game heroes, who is searching for his own friends here on the Starfall Islands. What exactly is the nature of the strange ancient technology on this island, and who is this strange girl who cautions Sonic to leave the islands?
For Today's World: Yup, I went there. Sonic Frontiers came out recently, and, well... I FREAKIN' LOVE IT. I actually had a bit of trouble deciding on what to use for this chapter, until this hit me. For newer Frontiers players, this chapter will only cover some of the events of the first island of the game. So no major spoilers will be had here.
Episode 14: All Across These New Frontiers
"Wow, this place is gorgeous," Maylin gasped when she, Nick and Haruka disembarked in the middle of a large and expansive field.
"It also looks very ancient," Haruka noted when she glanced towards what could only be ancient ruins in the distance. "I've seen a lot of worlds like this before."
"That just begs the question, where exactly did we land this time?" Nick wondered, bringing out his Gummiphone, only to see an odd sight.
Sophia appeared to be slightly glitching out, her 'avatar' warbling in a strange way.
"Whoa, Sophia, you okay?" Nick asked.
"I should be," Sophia answered. "Something in this place was trying to access my program without my permission."
"Wait, you mean you're getting hacked?" Maylin gasped.
"Thankfully, I was able to put up my firewall before anything could get in," Sophia responded. "The only reason I still appear to be glitch-y is because of the residual programming that surrounds this entire island."
"Guess that means there might be some ancient technology left on this island," Haruka quipped. "Why don't we go exploring and see what we can find?"
Nick looked around as rain started to fall on the area, noting that a lot of the different caves and structures around here reminded him once again of the caves at the park that he and Marie always used to play in when they were kids.
And once again, that only fueled his worry about what might have happened to Marie.
Nick was distracted from those thoughts when he noticed something at the end of a pathway between two cliffs.
It appeared to be a large, throne-like structure made of pieces of solid rock and undefined black material chunks of moss forming around it most likely due to a long time of not being used.
And lying unconscious in front of the structure was...
"...oh, no freakin' way," Nick gasped when he realized who exactly he was staring at. "Is that... is that who I think it is?!"
"Wait, do you know this guy, Nick?" Maylin wondered.
"Oh, come on, don't tell me you've never heard of Sonic the Hedgehog?!" Nick responded. "He's a famous video game character where I come from!"
"Relax, silly, of course I know who Sonic is," Maylin giggled. "I bet you're more confused as to why he's here, right?"
"I'm sure there are worlds out there in the multiverse where supposedly fictional characters are actually real people," Haruka stated.
The trinity's attention was drawn back to Sonic as he woke up, slowly getting back to his feet and wondering where his own friends were.
"I guess I'm the only one who made it out of... whatever the heck that place was," Sonic quipped. "That's a bummer..."
"Mortal."
"Who said that?!" Sonic exclaimed.
"You have done the impossible," the voice answered. "You have escaped from Cyber Space through your own power. That must mean that you are the key."
"The 'key', huh? Sure beats being called a rodent," Sonic chuckled. "Wait, does that mean I can rescue my friends?"
"If you wish to save them, then find the Chaos Emeralds, defeat the Titans, and tear down the walls between dimensions."
That last line certainly got the trinity's attention.
"Um, okay, sure, how about a little context?" Sonic asked, not knowing that he was being watched from high above. "Oh, well, I guess some direction's better than none at all."
With that said, Sonic sped out of the path and into the more open area, dashing right by the trinity at first, until he stopped and retraced his steps.
"I guess the three of you found yourself stuck here, too?" Sonic wondered.
"Eh, sort of," Nick quipped. "We're looking for our friends, same as you."
"Well, then what are we just standing around here for?" Sonic proclaimed, dashing off ahead. The trinity followed Sonic through the field and up the pathway that seemed to wind around this mountain, only occasionally stopping to activate a device that would cause a change in the scenery and allow them to proceed further.
Eventually, the four of them found themselves inside a small arena. The trinity brought out their keyblades just in case, and sure enough, they were swiftly surrounded by block-like Heartless. One variety was a black cube with red circuitry, a single, glowing yellow eye near the center of the front of its body, and four long, red, spider-like legs sprouting from its sides. The other was similar, only this one's body and legs were silver.
"Okay, not the kind of Heartless I was expecting," Nick quipped.
"Eh, they don't look too tough," Maylin replied as she cast Thundara to wipe out a few of the Blox Bugs before they could get too close.
Sonic sped around the arena, whacking as many Blox Bugs as he could with his trademark Homing Attack, until he tried to attack one of the Metal Bugs, at which point it turned to solid steel and knocked him back when he tried to Homing Attack it.
"Guess that means 'no touch'," Sonic quipped.
"Let's see how the metal guy likes a little fire, huh?" Nick responded, aiming Reverberating Abyss for the Metal Bug and blasting it with a Fira spell, punching through its defenses and destroying it.
Thankfully it didn't take long to get rid of all the Blox Bugs, but once they were gone, a dark red portal opened at the center of the arena to let something out. It was a tall robot with a vaguely humanoid shape, standing at about roughly three times the height of Sonic and the trinity, its body entirely composed of black metal with red lights, and sporting an overall sharp form, with thin limbs, sharp vertical shoulders, long and pointy legs with no feet, a narrow waist, thick thighs, and a head with three distinct points. Its arms were flat and shaped like straight blades, not physically connected to its body, but floating nearby it all the same.
"All right, that's definitely not what I expected," Nick stated.
"I think this thing might actually be something related to the island," Haruka answered.
"Yeah, but it's goin' down like all the rest!" Maylin proclaimed.
"Now you're all talkin' my language," Sonic laughed as the Ninja approached them.
The Ninja lunged forward, swinging its arm blades towards its opponent. Nick raised Reverberating Abyss into a parrying stance, and this deflected the swing and left the Ninja stunned for a brief moment. Naturally, Sonic took advantage of this and lunged forward to swipe at the Ninja, moving so fast around it that he looked like he was teleporting with each hit.
Eventually, the Ninja swung both of its blades to knock Sonic away, but this left it open to Maylin, who cast Gravity on it to bring it down to its knees so Haruka could hit it with a Blitz.
This did the trick, as the Ninja spun around before keeling over and exploding into chunks of glitchy red metal, leaving behind a gear-shaped stone that floated into Sonic's possession.
"Nice teamwork, everybody!" Maylin laughed. "Robot boy didn't stand a chance."
Just ahead of the arena, the group moved through a small stretch of mountain land until they reached an open field with another one of those throne-like structures like the one Sonic had been thrown out of after escaping Cyber Space.
"Return to the digital dimension once again," the voice from earlier proclaimed. "Use the Portal Gear to bridge the dimensional gap."
Sonic walked up to the portal and placed the Portal Gear they'd gotten from defeating the Ninja into the gear-shaped indent on the throne's control panel, causing the gate to light up with an eerie red light.
"Return to Cyber Space as many times as it takes," the voice stated.
"Well, I guess I'll be right back, huh?" Sonic quipped. "See you guys in a flash."
Sonic reached for the button on the throne and swiftly disappeared, transported into Cyber Space.
This left the trinity to pace the area for a bit, as the bridge ahead was broken, so they had no way of crossing over to the next area.
"This is weird, you know?" Nick quipped. "Has something like this ever happened to either of you?"
"You mean the whole 'fictional characters in my world are real people in another world' thing?" Maylin replied. "It's happened a few times."
"Honestly, we're used to it by now, being keyblade wielders," Haruka answered. "Ever since we became aware of the concept of multiple worlds, I figured it was inevitable."
"My fellow Phantom Thieves did something similar," Sophia chimed in. "They used their own powers to enter the Metaverse, a world in the collective subconscious."
"You're gonna have to tell us more about these Phantom Thieves once we find the rest of them," Nick replied.
Almost as if on cue, the Cyber Space portal started glowing and spat out Sonic, who was now holding what appeared to be a large key in his hand.
"That what we need?" Nick wondered.
"I think so," Sonic replied just in time to see a blue beam of light surge into the sky from just up ahead, at the top of the nearby cliffside. Once Sonic had emerged from Cyber Space, the bridge onward had been repaired thanks to the glowing pillars on either side shooting bright blue beams to create a new bridge.
The group crossed the bridge and up the side of the cliff, and when they reached the top, floating there inside a tall, three-pronged vault, was the blue Chaos Emerald.
Sonic ran up to the vault and inserted the key he'd obtained from Cyber Space into the keyhole, and the vault spun its prongs around before dispelling the force field around the Chaos Emerald. This allowed Sonic to reach forward and grab it.
"So, the Chaos Emeralds are here?" Nick wondered.
"Yeah, my friends and I were travelling here to find out why the Chaos Emeralds were being drawn to these islands," Sonic explained. "When we got close, we all got sucked into a strange portal and got separated."
Nick looked out ahead, towards the sweeping vistas and horizons of Kronos Island.
"Looks like we've got a lot of real estate to explore," Nick quipped. "Let's get moving."
With that, the group all set out into Kronos Island, hoping to find Sonic's friends and the Chaos Emeralds.
Occasionally, the creatures and machines of the island would attack them, like the towering Asura, which slammed its three legs onto the ground to send out shockwaves. When one of the arms hit the ground, Sonic ran up the legs to reach the top, where he started attacking one of the three control pillars to snap it off of the Asura before getting knocked off to repeat the process.
Eventually, with only one leg left, the Asura started creating more shockwaves and even summoning Bug Blox to get in Sonic's way. Maylin moved to attack the Bug Blox while Sonic ran up the leg to finish off the Asura, after which its leg joints all fell off before the whole thing exploded violently.
When the Asura had vanished, all that remained was another Portal Gear that floated down into Sonic's hands.
"Hey, Sonic, I think I see one of your friends over there," Haruka stated, pointing to the reverse direction they'd come from to fight the Asura, towards a small, hexagonal red globe.
Naturally, Sonic was right over there when he noticed Amy Rose trapped inside. He noticed a heart-shaped symbol printed on the cage, and wondered if he had to use those pink, heart-shaped gems he'd been collecting over the course of his time on the island.
Sonic placed a few gems into the slot, and eventually the prison bubble shattered and allowed Amy to fall to the ground, though the crimson energy from the prison itself flowed into Sonic's left hand.
"Whoa, Sonic, are you okay?" Amy asked when she noticed Sonic standing there.
"I should be asking you that, Amy," Sonic responded. "You're the one who's only half there."
Indeed, Amy's body was half-transparent and flickering, almost as if she was stuck between planes of reality, no doubt due to whatever had trapped her here on the island.
"I feel fine, but what about that energy holding me prisoner?" Amy quipped. "It went into your hand!"
"Eh, I've been infused with weird zappy stuff before," Sonic chuckled. "Actually, it feels like I got some kind of boost from it."
"Well, in that case, we'd better get moving," Amy responded. "I'm sure that Tails is trapped somewhere, if I'm here."
"All right, I'll scout around and find you later," Sonic stated. "That okay with you?"
"I'll be fine," Amy answered. "Just be careful, okay?"
"Careful? Where's the fun in that?" Sonic chuckled as he zoomed off to continue exploring the island.
"Hey, whoever you three are, please take good care of Sonic, all right?" Amy asked. "He means well, but he can be a little reckless sometimes."
"And on an unknown island where we have no idea of the dangers that are lurking, I can see that," Nick quipped.
"We'll make sure to keep him focused," Maylin responded. "Now here's hoping we can catch him."
"You, catch the fastest thing alive?" Haruka teased. "That'd be something."
"Ooh, just watch me!" Maylin retorted as she dashed off to follow Sonic, who looked to be grinding along airborne rails that led to the top of a nearby rock face.
As the trinity approached the rock face, however, more Bug Blox spawned around them, alongside a few Green Requiems and a trio of Soldiers.
"Oh, this looks easy," Maylin laughed as she rushed forward to swat the Bug Blox aside while Haruka dealt with the Green Requiems.
However, when Nick decided to attack the Soldiers, they suddenly vanished completely.
"Um..." Nick quipped, only to be knocked flat on his back by something colliding with his chest. Nick quickly jumped back to his feet, only to be once again knocked forward by a hit to his back.
"These little bastards just turned invisible!" Nick shouted. "How can I attack them if I can't see them?!"
"Try hitting them with Stop!" Maylin exclaimed as she crushed a Green Requiem underneath Spellbinder's blade. "Even if they're invisible, it should stop them from moving!"
Nick nodded as he switched to Reverberating Abyss and aimed it towards where he believed the Stealth Soldier was, waiting until he could hear it moving towards him before casting a Stop spell.
A clock face appeared over something and caused it to appear. Indeed, the Stealth Soldier had the appearance of a regular Soldier, only with slightly darker colors to its appearance.
"Gotcha!" Nick shouted as he ran forward and whacked the Stealth Soldier a couple times with Reverberating Abyss before the Stop spell wore off, and this was enough to disintegrate the Stealth Soldier.
Nick repeated the process for the remaining two Stealth Soldiers, Maylin even chipping in her own Stop spell to extend the time the Stealth Soldiers were frozen.
When the last Stealth Soldier had been defeated, it had dropped what seemed to be another Torn Page from the Pipo Storybook.
"Well, well, that's number five," Maylin quipped. "I wonder how many more pages are left?"
"Each page corresponds to a member of the Freaky Monkey Five, and there's only one of them left," Nick replied. "And I have a feeling the last page is gonna be what leads us to Specter."
Once the area was clear of Heartless, Nick looked up at Sonic, who was standing at the top of the rock face and looking towards a bright red beam of light that was shooting into the sky from far off.
"That must be where the next Chaos Emerald is," Nick quipped.
"But I didn't see Sonic go into a Cyber Space portal," Maylin replied.
"Actually, I saw him grab a Vault Key on the top of that rock face," Haruka answered. "It looks like those things are everywhere on this island, so maybe Cyber Space isn't the only way to access the vaults."
"Hey, Sonic, wait for us!" Maylin exclaimed as Sonic sped off in the direction of the red light.
While following Sonic towards the next Chaos Emerald, they eventually ran into what appeared to be a scientific outpost at the outer edge of a cliffside, complete with a UFO-shaped craft sitting by the bridges.
"Very sci-fi chic," Maylin quipped.
"That can only mean that Eggman's here," Sonic replied. "That's definitely one of his ships."
"I'm willing to bet that Eggman noticed the Chaos Emeralds finding their way here, too," Nick stated. "Either that, or he's interested in all of the ancient technology here on the Starfall Islands."
"I'm starting to wonder what all of this actually is," Haruka quipped. "All we seem to know for sure is that the Starfall Islands were home to some kind of ancient civilization, and that they left their technology here before they vanished for whatever reason."
"I cannot hack into the computers on Eggman's craft, sadly," Sophia admitted. "Their security system is too advanced for my code. If only Oracle was here... she could hack it no problem..."
"To be fair, not every A.I. is meant for hacking and controlling computers, right?" Nick responded. "You're just fine the way you are, Sophia, so don't worry about a thing, 'kay?"
Sophia looked down for a second before looking back up and smiling brightly at Nick.
"...thank you, Nick," Sophia giggled. "You really are quite the sweetheart. I really wish I could give you a hug, honestly..."
At that point, Sophia noticed Sonic staring intently at her. "Oh, it is nice to meet you, Sonic the Hedgehog," Sophia proclaimed. "I am Sophia, humanity's companion."
"You've got an A.I. on your phone, huh?" Sonic quipped.
"It's a bit of a story," Nick chuckled.
"She already looks like she could kick the pants off of anything Eggman could create," Sonic proclaimed. "I'll bet only Tails could create something more advanced."
"We'll have to ask him if we ever find him on this island," Maylin stated. "Just make sure he doesn't try to search too deep into Sophia's code. That'd be kinda awkward, methinks."
The group resumed their chase towards the red beam of light, eventually finding the vault by the side of a riverbank. Thankfully, Sonic still only needed one Vault Key to open the vault up and reclaim the red Chaos Emerald.
"That's two down, five to go," Sonic quipped.
"Hopefully it won't take too much longer to find the other five," Nick responded. "This is a pretty big island, after all."
And with that, the group raced off again...
...only for something to invariably appear right in front of their path. It was an enormous black-and-gray robot that dwarfed even the Asura in height, with a roughly humanoid stature, a broad torso and large shoulders compared to its thin limbs and lower body, its arms ending in three-fingered hands, its legs terminated in rounded stumps, its head consisting mainly of a massive mouth with multiple nested jaws of squared teeth, a pair of protrusions extending from its chin, and a somewhat long neck that gave it a slightly hunched or bestial appearance. Red energy coursed through various lines on its body, and it had several indentations resembling simple eyes, and its back and shoulders are covered with circular red pillars topped with silver discs.
As the Giganto stepped forward, Sonic had to jump out of the way before its foot came down on him. The trinity had already split off in different directions the instant the Giganto had appeared.
"I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that's one of the Titans keeping Amy trapped here," Sonic quipped as the Giganto turned to face them.
"Holy crapbaskets, it's enormous!" Maylin shouted. "How the heck are we supposed to fight that thing?!"
"We've fought big things before, Maylin," Haruka quipped. "Remember the Lance of Kresnik?"
"The Lance of Kresnik wasn't a Godzilla-sized monster like this!" Maylin countered.
Just then, a small figure teleported to the shoulder of the Giganto and waved her hand to seemingly make it docile before teleporting to right in front of Sonic. She resembled a young girl a slim body and limbs with white skin and a large, round head with a tall forehead, notable glowing red eyes and a red energy structure on the left side of her face, short white hair with a swirl in it on her forehead and a single red energy highlight inside said swirl. The rest of her body, however, especially her arms and legs, were completely black and seemed to have outlines of red computer code around them.
"You," Sage proclaimed. "Leave this island. Now."
"Wait, where'd you come from?" Sonic asked. "Are you trapped here, too?"
"Um, Sonic, I don't think she's friendly," Nick responded as he summoned Reverberating Abyss to his hands.
"Do not approach the Titan," Sage stated quite clearly.
"Sorry, kid, but I have a job to do," Sonic replied before speeding off towards the Giganto. Sage just shook her head in frustration.
"It will destroy you, if we're fortunate enough," Sage sighed before waving her hand to make the Giganto come back to life. It looked down at Sonic as he was approaching, raised its right leg, and slammed it into the ground, uprooting large chunks of the ground in the process.
These chunks flew into the air, the recoil taking Sonic up into the air with them, though he started using his Homing Attack to hop his way across the boulders and eventually to the Giganto's face, where he started wailing on it with multiple Homing Attacks.
"Is it me, or is that not doing anything to it?" Nick wondered.
Nick's suspicions were confirmed when the Giganto reached out to grab Sonic in the middle of another Homing Attack. The Giganto took a step back, wound up like it was a baseball pitcher, and chucked Sonic away, sending him straight through two large stone pillars and causing him to crash right into the opposite mountainside back by Eggman's ship, where he fell back to the ground, rolled a few feet, and fell unconscious.
"Come on, you guys, we gotta go help him!" Maylin shouted.
"Hold it right there," Sage proclaimed. The trinity looked up to see that the Giganto was now staring down at them. "Let us see if you will fare any better."
Sage waved her hand again, and the Giganto began to slowly march towards them.
"Oh, this isn't good," Nick quipped.
"Relax, Nick, 'kay?" Maylin responded. "We can handle this lumbering ninny."
"We've faced our fair share of super-sized threats," Haruka proclaimed. "This one is gonna be no different."
"Yeah, let's take down this Titan!" Maylin laughed.
And with that, the trinity began circling the Giganto, noting that it turned very slowly due to its size, which gave them plenty of time to search for a suitable way to attack it.
Occasionally, Nick would lash out to strike at the Giganto's legs, only to find that this didn't seem to work.
Every now and then, the Giganto would stomp the ground again, causing more boulders to fly into the air around it.
And that gave Maylin an idea.
"Hey, Nick! See if you can jump onto one of those rocks when the Titan sends it flying!" Maylin shouted. "That should give you enough height to reach its head!"
Nick nodded and continued to dodge away from the Giganto's attacks until it stomped the ground again, and this time, he jumped onto one of the rocks as it flew into the air, and when it reached the Giganto's head, he jumped off of the rock so he could land a few slashes against the Giganto's face, finishing with a Hurricane Period that actually seemed to affect the beast, if even slightly.
One thing Nick hadn't accounted for was how high up in the air he was, and now he was falling down pretty quickly. So, naturally, he was surprised when he landed on his feet without any damage.
"Um... that probably should have hurt a lot," Nick quipped.
"First time?" Maylin giggled. "That was pretty much my reaction, too."
"We think it's because of the power we get from wielding our keyblades," Haruka answered. "We've survived lots of falls that would probably hurt or kill a normal person."
"Guess we can use that to our advantage," Nick responded.
The Giganto grabbed one of the rocks it had uprooted and tossed it at Nick, only for Nick to slash the rock in half with Reverberating Abyss before running around to wait for more rocks to go flying so he could catch another ride to the Giganto's head.
This time, Nick stayed on the rock, given that it seemed to be floating in the air, no doubt due to whatever strange force was creeping over the Starfall Islands, and attacked Giganto's face with a ground combo that ended in a Ripple Drive, which seemed to do slightly more damage.
They didn't appear anywhere close to defeating the Giganto, but at least they seemed to be making progress, however small it was.
Just then, however, the Giganto seemed to freeze in mid-step. Nick looked up to see Sage extending her hand towards it and exerting her control over it.
"You have definitely exceeded my expectations," Sage admitted, throwing something towards Nick. "But do not think you have won. This was only a test. Do not expect to be so lucky next time."
And with that, Sage vanished, the Giganto disappearing as well.
"Man, what is up with this island, really?" Nick quipped once the area was calm again.
"That's a good question," Haruka wondered. "Back on topic, what did that girl throw to you?"
"It looks like another thumb drive for Yaldabaoth's Report," Nick replied as he inserted the thumb drive into the Gummiphone. "Sophia?"
"On it," Sophia answered as she decoded the data on the thumb drive so she could read the report. "Yaldabaoth's Report, Number 7."
I am studying material from the meteors that rained down that fateful night.
What a find! The material is foreign to our world. It is elastic to the touch, and when two pieces are combined, they bond easily. None of the records even mention such a substance.
Was it introduced to this world when I opened the door? I wonder how many other such materials drift through the atmosphere of this tiny world...
I wish I could soar off and find out! Could there be uncharted worlds up there? My curiosity never ceases to grow.
But I should stop speaking of such unrealistic dreams. For now, there is no way to venture outside this world. My people and I are all but prisoners of this tiny place.
"...wait, was he talking about Gummi Blocks?" Maylin wondered. "So Yaldabaoth was the one who discovered Gummi Blocks and allowed for inter-world travel?"
"There's probably more to this than we've got on hand right now, so maybe we should stop speculating until we find more reports," Nick quipped. "Right now, I think we need to go and make sure Sonic's okay."
"Oh, crapbaskets, you're right! He got spiked through giant stone towers by that thing!" Maylin gasped as the trinity re-traced their steps to Eggman's outpost, where Sonic was just waking up on a nearby outlook platform.
"Holy jeez, dude, are you all right?" Haruka asked once Sonic was back on his feet. "I mean, mister Giganto fast-balled you halfway across the island."
"I've been hit by worse, trust me," Sonic admitted. "I'll be fine, but I'm definitely not taking that thing down the old-fashioned way. I'm probably gonna need the Chaos Emerald, and maybe a little bit of luck."
"We all managed to do some damage to it," Nick answered. "Not much, but it was something. That strange girl warped it away before we could get any further, though."
Before Nick could ask any further questions, a bright light began to shine in the sky, said light eventually forming into a large keyhole hanging just above a nearby inactive Asura.
Nick turned towards the keyhole, summoned Reverberating Abyss, aimed it for the keyhole, and fired a beam of light from its teeth into the keyhole, sealing it off with a loud CLICK. Thankfully, the Asura didn't activate to attack them.
"Well, that fancy light show means that we've gotta get going," Haruka quipped. "You gonna be all right here, Sonic?"
"Yeah, just gotta stay away from the big boy until I find all of the Chaos Emeralds," Sonic responded. "Then it's going down. And I mean all the way down."
Struck by an idea, Sonic began running like lightning around the area, showing that he'd recovered quickly, and eventually came back holding a small jewel that resembled a Chaos Emerald.
"Take this with ya," Sonic quipped. "It's not actually a Chaos Emerald, but I think it'll be useful to you."
Knowing exactly what to do with it, Nick attached the little jewel to his keyblade and swung it horizontally, the weapon transforming mid-swing. This weapon had a handleguard that looked like the gold Rings that Sonic always collected and a long blade shaped like a Cyber Space gateway. All seven of the Chaos Emeralds were incorporated into the keyblade's design, the red one being the hilt, the blue one at the bottom connecting to the keychain, the yellow, green and silver ones placed in different spots on the blade, and the aqua and purple ones serving as the keyblade's teeth. As Nick studied this keyblade, the words Sonic Seven came to mind.
"Well, I've gotta keep looking for my friends," Sonic proclaimed. "Maybe we'll see each other again. You can introduce me to your friends once we find them!"
"That sounds like fun," Nick quipped. "Until we meet again, then."
Sonic waved two fingers in a salute before speeding off across the horizons of Kronos Island to continue his search for his missing friends.
"This has been quite the trip," Nick admitted once Sonic had disappeared into the distance. "But let's not get ahead of ourselves, right? We've got a pit stop in Traverse Town, right?"
"Don't we always?" Maylin chuckled as Haruka used her wrist device to return them to the Gummi Ship.
Meanwhile, inside of Cyber Space, in a section of the Eternal Highway where Eggman was currently trapped, Sage had materialized there to inform Eggman on what was happening on the island.
"Keep tabs on that hedgehog, and those three if they ever come back," Eggman proclaimed. "I want constant updates. Oh, and keep looking for a way to get me out of here!"
"I am evaluating all safe options," Sage responded. "If possible, would you..."
"Sorry, can't help you there," Ellen answered. "The corridors aren't exactly a nice way for normal people to travel, especially given how whacked this place is. Besides, I just came here to see if there was a princess here, and I guess there isn't, so I should beat it."
Before Eggman could argue, Ellen raised her free hand to open a corridor of darkness. "It's nothing personal, doc," Ellen quipped. "I'm just following my orders."
With that, Ellen walked into the dark corridor and vanished, leaving Eggman exasperated and Sage slightly confused.
"Sage, there's something else I want you to do, if at all possible," Eggman proclaimed.
"Anything, doctor," Sage replied.
"Do some research on the keyblade," Eggman stated. "Those people carrying it seem to have some very interesting powers. Maybe I could make it my own someday."
"Affirmative," Sage answered.
"Keep up the good work, Sage," Eggman proclaimed.
Unseen by Eggman, Sage slightly smiled. "Thank you, doctor."
Thankful that Prushka was once again keeping Maylin and Haruka entertained while he was away, Nick quickly stepped into the Travel Station where Natalie and the Professor were typing away at some coordinates.
"Ah, you're right on time," the Professor stated.
"Jimmy's already went on ahead," Natalie responded.
Nick just nodded, summoned Sonic Seven to his hands, and jumped onto the Warp Pad to send him to the location where Jimmy and the last member of the Freaky Monkey Five were waiting.
To Nick's surprise, the area in question was a wrestling ring situated near a prehistoric waterfall, and Jimmy was already facing down their opponent, a large, muscular monkey dressed like a wrestling-themed superhero with a space captain-themed Monkey Helmet.
"YOU'RE LATE!" Red Monkey shouted.
"Well, sorry if I had other things to be doing," Nick retorted.
"Anyways, I'm Red, the leader of the Freaky Monkey Five, and nobody keeps me waiting," Red Monkey proclaimed.
"All right, you, give Pipotchi back now!" Jimmy exclaimed.
"If you want him, you're gonna have to fight me first, ya crum-bums," Red Monkey taunted, flexing his muscles with every step. "You can have him back if you defeat me. We've already transferred the necessary data to the Laser, so we really don't care about the little munchkin."
"Are you serious?" Jimmy asked.
"You bet! I'm super-strong, considering I'm the leader," Red Monkey laughed. "These muscles are more than you can handle, little boys. Ooh, I'm burnin' up just thinking about it, and there ain't nothin' you can do to put this fire out. Now, then, LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!"
Just then, a bell rang, and Red Monkey went on the offensive, clenching his fist before lunging forward with a charging shoulder-tackle, then flying up into the air to crash back into the mat and create a shockwave around him. Red Monkey did this twice before needing to clutch his keester from the impact.
This gave Nick the opportunity to move in and slash a few times at Red Monkey with Sonic Seven. Red Monkey quickly picked himself up and did the charging tackle again, though this time, Nick parried the tackle and countered with a jumping spin attack, leaving him wide open for Jimmy to hit him with the Stun Club.
Red Monkey stomped the ground to bounce the mat and push Nick and Jimmy backwards, then started spinning around the arena like a tornado. Nick and Jimmy wisely stayed away from Red Monkey while he was spinning until he stopped spinning and got dizzy.
Nick wasted no time in using a Sonic Blade on Red Monkey while he was dizzy, eventually causing the light on his monkey helmet to change from blue to yellow.
Once Red Monkey had recovered, he flew out of the ring, actually grabbed one of the tyrannosaurus rexes that were walking around the waterfall, lunged high into the air, then came down and actually slammed the t-rex into the ring to create a massive shockwave before casually tossing the t-rex out of the ring.
"That wasn't real nice, you know," Nick quipped. "What did that t-rex ever do to you?"
"None ya business!" Red Monkey shouted as he continued his pattern of shoulder-tackle, then jumping dive, then spin attack. Occasionally, Red Monkey would mix it up by bouncing off the outer ropes of the ring and doing a much faster charge attack, but that seemed to be it.
The battle continued on until Red Monkey's helmet light turned red from all the attacks he'd been dealt.
"Ooh, now you're making me burnin' mad," Red Monkey proclaimed as he surrounded himself with flames, then began bouncing off the ropes to do multiple charge attacks, leaving trails of fire with each charge. Nick and Jimmy hopped over each flame trail, though Red Monkey quickly lunged forward to catch Jimmy off guard and knock him over.
"You okay, Jimmy?" Nick called out.
"Yeah, I've been hit by worse," Jimmy admitted as he jumped back to his feet.
Red Monkey continued to do his fiery charge attack until Nick raised Sonic Seven to parry the charge, then cast Blizzara on Red Monkey to extinguish the flames. This allowed Jimmy to deliver the finishing blow by way of a forward stab attack that sent Red Monkey crashing into the corner of the ring before bouncing to the ground in defeat. The victory bell even rang to signal his defeat.
"Agh, ya got me good, kid," Red Monkey admitted as Jimmy switched over to his Monkey Net so he could swing it and capture Red Monkey. No sooner had Red Monkey vanished than Pipotchi floated over to Jimmy.
"He must have been hiding while we were fighting that guy," Nick quipped. "And thankfully, it looks like he's doing all right."
"This is no time for celebration, you two!" the Professor's voice rang out. Jimmy glanced down at his wrist device, which was now displaying a video feed of the Professor back at the Travel Station. "Specter and his goons kidnapped Pipotchi so they could input their data on humans into the Lethargy Laser, and it probably won't be long until they fire it."
"There's still a page missing from the Storybook, though," Nick quipped, something he'd noticed before finding his way here. "And I'm willing to bet that I know who that last page relates to."
"Yes, it would appear so," the Professor proclaimed. "Once that last page is in order, we should be able to find Specter. Please hurry and retrieve it."
"I'll be back just as soon as I can," Nick responded as both he and Jimmy warped out of the ring.
"So, did you finish the storybook?" Maylin asked once Nick had returned from the storybook. She and Haruka were both clutching a shiny jewel in their hands, no doubt another reward for winning one of Prushka's hide-and-seek games.
"Almost," Nick answered. "I think there's only one page left, and that's most likely how we're going to find Specter."
"Well, then, if we've got all our business here squared up, let's head back to the Gummi Ship and set sail for the next world that needs our help?" Haruka quipped.
As the trinity made their way back to the Gummi Ship, they missed Ellen staring at them from the safety of a wall in the Third District.
Oh, how she wished things could go back to the way they used to be.
To be continued...
New keyblade acquired!
Sonic Seven
Strength: 8
MP: 0
Recoil: 10
Critical Rate: x2
Critical Bonus: 0
Ability: MP Hastega
Description: A keyblade representing a wandering soul who only lives life by his own rules. Has a long reach and the ability to deal a string of critical blows. Boosts MP recovery rate in battle by 75%, allowing more spellcasting. Equip more to increase the effect.
On the next episode...
Nick: Holy crapbaskets, it's cold as hell here!
Maylin: Well, we are in the Arctic, it seems like.
Haruka: ...wait. Why are there... oh. OH.
Maylin: Those... those are dead bodies.
Nick: And it looks like the only survivor's heading into that ominous-looking ice palace over there. What do you say, girls, should we render our assistance?
Maylin: Um, hell yes we should. No way is she handling that alone, even if she's who I think she is!
Nick: Well, then, let's go help her out, next time on Kingdom Hearts: Key to Her Heart re:Verse, "Finding Love By Moonlight"!
Nick, Maylin and Haruka: May your hearts be your guiding key!