Hey everyone, welcome back to another Chibi/Classic chapter! I know that many of you eagerly wait for Volume 3 and I can't wait to write it myself, but this sub-story is also important, because this is where things in it take quite the turn.
Oh, one thing that I probably should have noted sooner… I am now aware that in the canon Sonic Mania game, the Hard-Boiled Heavies were originally five basic Egg Robos before being exposed to the Phantom Ruby and transformed. That was a mistake on my part. But here, things are changing only slightly, they have the same design as the Hard-Boiled Heavies, but all their abilities are robotic-based. Other than that, nothing for the plot of this sub-story changes. I hope that makes sense.
Now then, let the chapter begin.
A Chibi Rose in the Classic Wind (Part 3)
"Get off my island!" Knuckles exclaimed as he decked Metal Knuckles across the face, who retaliated with a swing of his clawed fist, which Knuckles ducked under to avoid the slash, which just so happened to cut down the tree that was behind him. "Ugh! If there's one thing I hate, it's deforestation! Respect the environment!" Knuckles demanded as he and Metal Knuckles collided their fists.
"That is because commercial corporations only care for money!" Pyrrha said in agreement as Metal Sonic zoomed at her, only for her to raise her hand and catch Metal with her Polarity semblance, halting him in his tracks. "Hmm. I guess I have a 'magnetic' personality." Pyrrha joked, the only response she got was a nearby cricket chip. "Everyone's a critic." She pouted.
Suddenly, Tails Doll crawled up onto her shoulder and gazed up at her with its soulless and frightening gaze.
Pyrrha's high pitched scream echoed throughout Angel Island as she ran away in fear of the evil abomination that slithered after her.
"See? I'm not the only one who screams like a little girl!" Jaune said as he and Ren were back-to-back, facing off against Heavy Rider and Heavy Shinobi respectively.
"Pyrrha at least has the excuse that she is a girl." Ren pointed out, causing Jaune to pout before Heavy Rider charged forward on its trust Motobug steed, Jimmy and bashed the pair with its mace, forcing them to separate. Jaune soon found himself running for his life as Heavy Rider rode Jimmy in pursuit of him, the blonde screaming like a little girl the whole way.
Ren quickly got up and drew StormFlower as Heavy Shinobi drew a pair of shuriken. The two glared at each other dramatically like a pair of ninja before Ren moved first, firing StormFlower at Heavy Shinobi, who quickly and rapidly dodged all the gunfire with masterful expertise. It then threw its shurikens at Ren, who limboed underneath them as they flew over him, with everything moving in slow motion all around them.
Heavy Magician waved its hands as it faced Nora and sprayed sparkles all over, causing her to look in awe as if she were a child watching a magic show. Heavy Magician then showed her its top hat and showed her that it was empty, which only made her giddier and more excited before reaching in and pulled a rabbit out of nowhere.
Nora's eyelids lowered, clearly unamused. "Meh, seen in it."
Heavy Magician then looked enraged as it reached into its top hat again to pull out a giant hammer and tried to smash Nora, but she jumped backwards to avoid the smash before she pulled her own hammer from out of nowhere.
"Ha! You're not the only one who's got Hammerspace!" Nora proclaimed proudly. "Get it? Hammerspace? Cause we both got hammers? See, Pyrrha! That's how you do a joke!"
"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha apologized as she was still being chased by both Tails Doll, who rode on Metal Sonic's back, in the background, while passing by Jaune who was still being chased by Heavy Rider in the opposite direction.
Knuckles had managed to deliver a solid punch to Metal Knuckles with enough force to send him crashing into a tree. "Hmm, can't beat the genuine article." The red Echidna said with confidence, only to get blasted by an explosion on the ground, one that knocked a series of rings from his person, all thanks to Heavy Gunner from behind.
"So, you think you're a king, huh?" Mighty said, looking unimpressed as he and Ray faced off against Heavy King. "Let's see you act like a responsible one and stand down before you're reduced to a pile of rubble." He proclaimed as he cracked his knuckles.
"Yeah! What he said!" Ray added.
Heavy King's response was to wave his scepter and throw out bolts of lightning at the pair. Ray quickly took to the air to dodge the bolts, while Mighty curled himself up into a ball to tank most of the hits with his shell before delivering his own spindash right into Heavy King's chest, but the leader of the Hardboiled Heavies batted him away, sending him crashing into Ray.
"Sorry little buddy…" Mighty said as they both had swirls in his eyes and flickies flying around their heads.
"Not your fault, big guy…" Ray said in the same dazed manner.
Meanwhile, Robotnik, Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald all laughed as they continued to watch the fights from the Egg-Mobile. "Now this is a good fight. Way better than all that fake pay-per-view wrestling Mercury makes us watch." Emerald said.
"Hey, that stuff is real!" Mercury pointed out.
"Who still has pay-per-view nowadays? Today, it's all about streaming." Robotnik said as Cinder took out a bag of popcorn and used her own fire powers to pop it up in a manner of seconds.
"Popcorn, my dear doctor?" Cinder offered.
"Why don't mind if I…" Robotnik was just about to reach for it, when suddenly…
*SWOOP!*
A blue blur had snagged the bag of popcorn, much to Robotnik and Cinder's wide-eyed surprise. The bag was now in the hands of the blue blur himself as he helped himself to its contents.
"Hmm, not bad. Could use a little butter though." Sonic said.
"Sonic?!" Robotnik exclaimed in shock.
"And…" The Tornado had arrived on the scene, Tails at the pilot seat before Amy, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang leapt out and took heroic poses. "Team RWBYSAT!"
That caused everyone to look at her with confusion. "Uh… Team what?" Blake asked.
"Ya know? Team RWBYSAT! Because we got Sonic, Amy, and Tails as part of our team now!" Ruby proclaimed.
"I did not agree to that!" Weiss stated.
"Yeah… sounds kinda weird." Yang admitted.
"It sounds like you're trying to sit on a ruby." Tails said.
"That could hurt. Who would want to sit on a sharp rock?" Amy asked.
"You guys have no sense of creativity!" Ruby criticized her own team.
"New friends, huh Sonic?" Knuckles asked as he, Mighty, Ray, and Team JNPR all regrouped around them.
"Yep, and it looks like you made some new ones too." Sonic said, referring to the company he had. He also spotted the Hardboiled Heavies as they too gathered together with Metal Sonic, Metal Knuckles, and Tails Doll. "And Eggman's built himself some new toys."
"Be careful, they're highly dangerous." Pyrrha warned.
"Yeah, well so are we!" Yang grinned as she pounded her fists together.
"Great, the goody-to-shoes are here." Mercury rolled his eyes as he, Cinder, and Emerald jumped off the Egg mobile.
"Told you Sonic likes to make friends." Robotnik pointed out.
"We can take em." Cinder said confidentially.
"Are you sure? The got us out numbered." Emerald replied.
Suddenly, a certain vehicle came crashing in near the group, landing in a smoking heap. This vehicle was none other than the Miraculous Queen with nearly all of its passengers in a daze upon impact.
"Whoo! New record time!" Bean cheered as he had been the one driving, while Fang, Torchwick, Neo, and Bark all had swirls in their eyes, even Neo held up a sign that said 'ow'.
"I'm never letting you drive my bike again." Fang said as he pulled himself up.
"Ugh, not these guys again." Weiss groaned.
"Um, Ruby… a little context please?" Jaune asked.
"They're jerks who teamed up with Roman and Neo!" Ruby stated.
Robotnik sneered as he saw the Hooligans and their friends join the fray. "Ah, perfect timing Fang. Tell you what, if you and your gang help me out here, you'll be handsomely rewarded."
"Reward?!" Torchwick perked up as Neopolitan grinned wildly with dollar signs in her eyes. "I'm in!"
"Alright Doc, you got a deal." Fang spun his cork-gun in his hand with his own band of allies siding with all of Robotnik's machines and Cinder's gang. "Let's get to work, you mooks!"
"Looks like we got a battle royale on our hands." Sonic grinned as he, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Mighty, and Ray all stood together with Teams RWBY and JNPR.
"CHARGE!" Ruby pointed Crescent Rose forward as both opposing parties charged and clashed at each other, creating a large smoke cloud with the sounds of fighting erupting from the middle of it.
As the fighting erupted, Robotnik's sensors picked up an unusual energy reading, the very same one he traced here to Angel Island. "Hmm… looks like the source of the dimensional disturbance is nearby. Heavy King!" Upon hearing its master's command, the Heavy King quickly made his way towards Robotnik and stood up straight in attendance. "There is something special nearby, I want you to excavate it! Get to work while I sit by and enjoy the show." He said as he handed the robot a hand-held device while Robotnik himself sat back in his personal hover vehicle and kicked his legs up to watch the ongoing fight. Heavy King nodded as it followed its creator's orders and looked at the readings on the device it held to find the source of the unusual energy.
Sonic and Metal Sonic both sped at each other, colliding their foreheads as they kept pressing against each other with their respective speed, neither budging an inch.
"Brings back memories, huh Metal?" Sonic kept his titular smirk. "So, what'll it be? A high-speed race? High-speed battle? High-speed battle-race?" The two broke off and dealt homing attacks to one another rapidly.
Ruby looked at Sonic's battles with stars in her eyes but was blown away by an explosive fireball thrown at her by Cinder. "Oh, you want a high-speed battle-race too?" Ruby asked as she got up.
"I'm not fast." Cinder replied.
"Too bad, cause I am!" She sped into Cinder and tripped her up. "Now give me my high-speed battle-race!"
"How about a game of super-fast hot potato, instead!" Cinder got back up and threw multiple fire balls at Ruby, who dodged, danced, and sped away from all of them.
"Hold still you two-tailed rat!" Torchwick aimed his cane and fired at the flying Tails, but every single shot missed until Tails delivered an airborne homing attack onto Torchwick to knock him down.
"I'm not a rat, I'm a fox!" Tails said as he stood over the beaten Torchwick. "Rats are rodents, and foxes are part of the Canidae, so we're more like dogs."
Suddenly, Tails Doll slithered up onto Torchwick's shoulder and eyed Tails, causing the young fox and Torchwick to scream as it stared at them with its soulless eyes.
Heavy Magician reached into its top hat and pulled out a flame-thrower and unleashed an inferno onto Weiss, who thrusted her sword to conjure a Glyph and shield herself.
"I got some magic tricks up my sleeve too!" Weiss thrusted her sword, causing the Glyph to reflect the fire back at Heavy Magician pushing it back.
"YAAAH!" Amy gave a battle cry as she tried to bring down her hammer toward Emerald, who suddenly disappeared and reappeared behind her. "What the…?"
"I'm over here." Emerald waved with a smirk behind Amy, who tried to swing her hammer once again, but Emerald disappeared and reappeared on her right. "Nope over here." Amy swung again, and Emerald vanished and popped back up on the left. "Too slow!"
"Quit being a meanie!" Amy pouted as she continued to swing her hammer, with Emerald disappearing and reappearing to avoid all her swings.
Blake had Gambol Shroud drawn as she blocked the thrust from Neo's umbrella-blade, the two eyed each other as Blake glared while Neo just smirked, right as she pulled a fish out of nowhere. The second Blake saw it, she was already drilling and followed the fish like she was hypnotized. Neo extended her foot over the absent-minded Blake, causing her to trip up.
Neo pulled out a sign that read 'Ha, ha!' and pointed toward Blake while she was down. Only to look in surprise as Blake held up Gambol Shroud, with its extended ribbon tied over Neo's foot before Blake pulled, causing Neo to trip up and land flat on the ground.
"Ha, ha, to you!" Blake gloated as she claimed her precious fish and held it close to her person like a teddy bear.
"Long time no see, Bark? Ready for a rematch?" Knuckles challenged as the Polar Bear walked up to him. Bark wordlessly threw out a punch to Knuckles, which the red Echidna caught with one hand before he threw out his own punch, which Bark caught. The two grappled with one another, pressing their own strength before Bark tried to haul Knuckles over and slam him on the ground. But Knuckles kicked himself from the ground to slam his head into Bark's belly and push him back.
"That all you got?" Knuckles challenged once more as he and Bark collided their fists once again.
Meanwhile, a near identical clash was taking place between Yang and Metal Knuckles as they too pounded their fists together. Despite the explosive power behind Yang's punch, Metal Knuckles took it before swinging his clawed fist at Yang, which she avoided by jumping up, giving herself an extra boost via a shot from Ember Celica.
"Ha! Can't hit me from up here!" Yang was just about to fall down and lay an attack from above on her metallic opponent, only to look in surprise to see Metal Knuckles already flying and hovering in the air across from her. "What?! You can fly!? No fair!" Yang exclaimed but suddenly blinked in confusion before realizing she was still airborne and looked down. "Ah nuts." She fell to the ground with a scream while Metal Knuckles just stared at her blankly, while still hovering in the air.
"Could you hold still? You're making my aim look terrible." Bean requested as he tried to throw yet another bomb at the flying Ray, who was able to just barely avoid the explosion.
"Could you stop trying to blow me up then?!" Ray replied.
"Listen pal, I maybe you should take some advice from a veteran fighter and just surrender." Mighty offered in a serious tone of voice. "You got spunk, but it's not enough."
"You can't tell me what to do! You're not my dad!" Mercury leapt to throw a kick dramatically, only for Mighty to curl himself up into a ball and use his shell to protect himself from the kick. Mercury then proceeded to try and kick the shelled-up Mercury "How is this even fair?!"
"Don't worry, I'll blow him out of there!" Bean threw a bomb towards the curled up Mighty, but Ray flew in to catch and snatch the bomb with his tail.
"Leave my friend alone!" Ray used the momentum from Bean's throw to toss the bomb at both him and Mercury's feet, sending them both up in an explosion as a series of rings erupted from their bodies.
"Thanks partner." Mighty smiled as he unfurled himself.
"Anytime." Ray smiled back.
At the same time, Jaune was running around screaming as he was once again chased by Heavy Rider and the trusted Motobug steed, Jimmy. "Why am I being chased by this guy?! Can somebody trade partners with me?!"
"I'll trade!" Pyrrha offered as she ran from Fang while he tried to shoot his corkscrews at her. Jaune and Pyrrha ran towards each other and shared a high-five before running to face off against their new opponents with Jaune against Fang and Pyrrha facing the charging Heavy Rider.
"Red means stop!" Pyrrha held out both her hands to use her Polarity Semblance to catch Heavy Rider and Jimmy and render then unable to move. "Get it? Because I wear red! And my hair is red!"
"That was actually pretty good…" Jaune told Pyrrha as he used his shield to block the crocks shot at him by Fang and closed in to swing his sword at Fang's gun hand to knock it out of Jaune's hand before he extended his foot to trip Jaune over, causing him to trip and fall, dropping his sword and shield to the ground.
"Ha, let's see you fight with your fists like a man, kid!" Fang proclaimed as he held his own fists up like a boxer.
"Ready when you are!" Jaune accepted as they both charged at each other but stopped just short of each other and what resulted were both just throwing slaps at each other.
"So, we meet again." Ren said as he squared off against Heavy Shinobi once more. Ren had drawn StormFlower once more just as Heavy Shinobi drew his shurikens and threw them at Ren, who responded by running directly at his robotic adversary, swiftly dodging and swerving around the shurikens before closing the distance, leaping in the air just as Heavy Shinobi did, drawing another set of shurikens for close-ranged slash. Both flew and slashed past each other before landing on the ground, akin to samurai.
Ren gasped as he saw the hair on the left side of his face fall off, while Heavy Shinobi had a piece of its own scarf severed.
"You think you're tough just because you got a big gun!?" Nora exclaimed, facing off against Heavy Gunner. "Well, I got a big gun too!" She drew Magnhild and converted it into its grenade launcher mode. "So, let's see who makes the bigger boom!" Nora fired a grenade from her weapon, while Heavy Gunner fired a missile from its own bazooka, both met and caused an explosion in the air, one that was witnessed by the downed Bean.
"So beautiful…" The green woodpecker cried in pure joy.
"Come on, they ain't so tough! Put your backs into it!" Robotnik called to his robots and allies as the fights continued to wage all around him, while he sat in his Eggmobile, keeping at a safe distance. "Are you just going to let those heroes beat you?! You give villains a bad name!"
Meanwhile, as the battle royale went on, Heavy King continued to follow its creator's instructions, having used the device it held to locate the source of the dimensional anomaly. The device then beeped rapidly as Heavy King pointed it towards a certain area in the ground beneath it.
The source had been located.
Heavy King raised its scepter and fired a bolt of lightning at the ground to clear much of it away, exposing the magenta-colored gemstone that was known as the Phantom Ruby. However, one of the bolts happened to strike the Phantom Ruby, causing a trail of the same-colored energy to travel up the bolt and into the scepter, and by extension, into Heavy King, creating a brief shockwave of energy that expanded outward, energy that was oddly shaped like countless cubes of different sizes, including microscopic. All the fights came to an abrupt halt as everyone, hero and villain, found themselves staring at the source of the phenomenon.
The leader of the Hardboiled Heavy's optics shined the same kind of color as new sensations flowed through its… or rather… his circuits. The king-styled robot then gazed down at the Phantom Ruby with curiosity as he heard the continuous pulsating sounds of the mysterious gemstone.
"Ha, ha! You found it! The source of the dimensional disturbance!" Robotnik laughed with joy as Heavy King picked up the Phantom Ruby in his free hand.
"That's the same glowing rock that sent us here!" Weiss pointed out.
"This can't be good…." Sonic gulped as Tails pulled out his own device to scan the gemstone, as well as the robot holding it as he saw the same kind of energy flowing into Heavy King.
"Now then, Heavy King, give it to me!" Robotnik ordered.
"No."
All eyes widened in shock the second that word was uttered. Did that robot just speak!? Heavy King just spoke! But none were more surprised than Robotnik himself as he couldn't help but stare in disbelief.
"Y-you… you can talk?! Since when can you talk!? I didn't program you with a voice box!" Robotnik pointed.
"This gemstone… This Phantom Ruby… the power it wields… it is too much to be wasted in the hands of such a fool." Heavy King said to his maker, stunning him even further.
"Who are you calling a fool!?" Robotnik exclaimed. "I made you! You obey me!"
"I am a king, am I not? A king answers to no one. So why should I listen to you any further?" Heavy King threw another bolt from his scepter at the Eggmobile, blasting it to pieces and sending Robotnik flying and crashing on the ground in front of the heroes and villains much to their shock.
"What the…?" Knuckles stuttered.
"Plot twist!" Ruby gasped.
"Whoa!" Jaune's eyes widened in surprise.
"Didn't see that one coming." Fang pointed out.
"I think one of your robots his malfunctioning, Doc." Cinder said.
Heavy King then placed the Phantom Ruby directly onto his scepter, causing the energy of his weapon to shift to its magenta color as more energy began to expand outward around him.
"I am free! But it is not just me! Come my Hard-Boiled Heavies, my fellow machines, be free of your creator!" He raised the scepter, bolts shooting out from the recently installed Phantom Ruby as they struck all seven of the robots.
Heavy Gunner, Heavy Rider, Heavy Shinobi, Heavy Magician, even Metal Sonic, Metal Knuckles, and Tails Doll, they all felt the same kind of energy that flowed from the Phantom Ruby into Heavy King flow through all of them as well. The new sensations they all felt, the incredible power, it overwritten any programming that their creator had previously installed into them as they broke free. Each of their optics turned the same magenta color as they were all given sentience, with the exception of Tails Doll as it was his antenna that glowed instead of his eyes.
"That can't be good." Mighty gulped.
"I don't know, it could be cool." Bean said. Neo shook her head at that response and held up a sign that read 'we're boned'.
One-by-one, the Hard-Boiled Heavies, the Metals, and Tails Doll, they all bowed to Heavy King as he raised the Phantom Ruby even higher. "Yes! This power is mine, now! And I will use it to conquer the world! Behold my power!" He slammed the end of his scepter onto the ground, blasting everyone in a bright flash of dark magenta energy that expanded in every direction throughout all of Angel Island and even well beyond.
Ruby's eyes slowly craned open. "Am I dead…?" She said in a daze as she pulled herself up, with all her friends and enemies scattered around her in a similar state as they too tried to push up with groans.
"Ugh… what was that…?" Sonic asked as everyone was standing up.
"Kinda looks like Robotnik's mechs turned on him thanks to that… whatever it was…" Mighty guessed.
"Uh… guys… What's happened to all around us…?" Jaune asked as everyone looked around in genuine shock to see that the lush green forest of Angel Island was no longer lush and green, but rather completely metallic. Everything appeared to be made out of a dark metal, from all the plants to the rocks, the mountains, even the water from the lakes and waterfalls had turned into crude oil. But what stood out the most was the shrine where the Master Emerald was previously housed was now replaced by a giant metallic statue of Heavy King.
"What the heck happened to my island?!" Knuckles exclaimed.
"Holy..." Ray breathed in shock.
"This is horrible!" Amy gasped.
"Everything's… made of metal…" Blake looked in disbelief.
Nora went to a nearby metal rock and knocked her hand on it, creating an odd metallic sound to verify it. "Yep. That's metal alright."
"That… that shouldn't be possible…" Weiss stuttered.
"It must have been what that one robot had." Pyrrha assumed. "What did he call it… the ghost Ruby…?"
"I'm a ghost?!" Ruby screamed.
"Not you, Ruby." Weiss pulled her by the ear. "The gemstone that is known as a ruby."
"The Phantom Ruby." Tails said. "That's what that one robot said the stone was. And I think it was responsible for all of this."
"This is all your guys' fault!" Yang pointed to the villainous group that consisted of Robotnik, Cinder's gang, Torchwick, Neo, and the Hooligans.
"Our fault?! We didn't ask for this!" Mercury exclaimed.
"Yeah! We were only trying to use that thing to take over the world!" Emerald proclaimed. "Not turn it into metal!"
"If anyone's to blame, it's Brushface over here!" Fang pointed to Robotnik. "He built those robots!" Bark even crossed his arms and glared at the scientist in agreement.
"Yeah, keep a leash on your bots, fatty!" Torchwick also pointed to him.
"I'm not fat!" Robotnik shouted back, to which Neo replied by pulling out a sign that read 'yes you are', to which she nodded.
"Alright, alright, that's enough everyone." Mighty got in-between the two opposing groups. "Look, we're all stuck here, so let's try and find a way of getting out of it instead of fighting each other. Okay?"
Cinder crossed her arms and looked away. "Fine."
"How did one small rock even transform the whole island anyway?" Ren asked.
"Whatever it was, it was very flashy and pretty!" Bean smiled. "Though I would have added an explosion or two…"
Tails had pulled out the device that he had previously used to scan the Phantom Ruby and looked at the data. "If that gemstone is the same one that brought Ruby and everyone else here… then I'm guessing it has some kind of trans-dimensional reality warping powers. That's how it was able to transform Angel Island."
"So how did that robot get his own free will from that?" Sonic assumed.
"If the Phantom Ruby can warp reality, it must have altered Heavy King's inner systems to grant him a form of sentience, which he then used to do the same for the rest of my robots." Robotnik theorized.
"Uh…" Ruby, Yang, Blake, Knuckles, Jaune, Nora, Ray, Mercury, Bean, and Torchwick all looked with blank stares as they had absolutely no idea what any of that meant.
Weiss rolled her eyes as she explained it simply for them. "The Phantom Ruby basically turned the robots alive and it magically transformed this island."
"Oh…!" They all said at the same time, finally understanding.
"Well why didn't you just say that?" Yang questioned.
"So, how do we reverse it?" Mighty asked.
"I'm thinking of two theories…" Tails explained. "One, we get the Phantom Ruby ourselves and use it to change everything back. Or, we get the Chaos Emeralds, which can also warp reality if all of them are brought together and cancel out the Phantom Ruby's effects."
"But we don't know where the Chaos Emeralds are." Ray pointed out.
"What about the Emerald Radar?" Amy asked.
Tails took out a small hand-held radar-like device. "It'll give us a general location, but only if we're close. Maybe we'd have better luck if we tried getting the Phantom Ruby…"
Suddenly, the massive statue of Heavy King began to glow, particularly the scepter part of it, drawing all their attention. Four beams of magenta energy, which comprised of countless microscopic cubes, all shot out before creating four large portals in the air. The second those portals popped open, the remaining four Hard Boiled Heavies, consisting of Heavy Rider, Heavy Shinobi, Heavy Magician, and Heavy Gunner, each flew into one portal.
"I think Heavy King's getting the same idea." Robotnik said. "If I were in his shoes, I'd get the Chaos Emeralds to make sure they can't be used against me!"
"How do you even know he's after those fancy rocks?" Cinder asked.
"I think he's right." Tails looked at the Emerald Radar in alarm as it beeped, showing four arrows that pointed in opposite directions. "According to the radar, each of those portals leads directly to one or two Chaos Emeralds!"
"Alright, if we're gonna do this, we all need to work together." Sonic said to everyone.
"That's right." Ruby agreed. "If we don't, then Heavy King will rule the world and none of us want that!"
"Grrr, I hate it when that Hedgehog is right." Robotnik growled.
"I feel the same way about little red." Torchwick sulked.
"Alright." Fang accepted as he shook Sonic's hand. "Looks like we're working together for now, Fleet-Feet."
"Sure, if you can keep up." Sonic grinned.
"Time for a hero-villain team up!" Ruby proclaimed as she shook hands with Cinder.
"Can't rule the world if somebody else is ruling it. We're in." Cinder accepted.
"Then let's split into groups, one for each portal! We'll meet back here and take the fight to Heavy King!" Tails stated.
With that, the alliance of heroes and villains had split into four different teams. One team consisted of Sonic, Ruby, Weiss, Cinder, and Eggman. The second team was made up of Knuckles, Yang, Blake, Torchwick, Neo, and Fang. The third team consisted of Mighty, Ray, Ren, Nora, Emerald, and Bean. The fourth and final team had Tails, Amy, Jaune, Pyrrha, Mercury, and Bark.
One-by-one, each of the teams went into their respective portals, all except Sonic's team as they stopped to see Eggman pushing his Eggmobile back up and got back in the driver's seat. He tried to kickstart the engine, only for it to fail as smoke popped out of the exhaust port.
"Uh… a little help here?" Robotnik requested.
Weiss rolled her eyes as she conjured a Glyph under the Eggmobile, causing it to catapult into the portal, Robotnik screaming the whole way. Weiss walked into the portal next with a confident strut while Sonic, Ruby, and Cinder jumped in after wards.
Meanwhile, in his own recently constructed fortress, Heavy King sat on his own throne that was sitting on top of the Master Emerald, with Metal Sonic, Metal Knuckles, and Tails Doll all standing guard around him, as he gazed at the Phantom Ruby attached to his scepter.
"Such a remarkable gem… The ability to manipulate one's perception of reality… even those of machines… I would love to know more about where you come from." Heavy King spoke aloud. "But you are just the beginning… once those fools deliver the Chaos Emeralds to me… then nothing will stand in my way! This is the era of Heavy King!"
Done.
So, there you have it! The sub-plot of the Chibi/Classic story has taken its sudden turn as the Phantom Ruby is now in the hands of the sentient Heavy King, who has sent his empowered Hard-Boiled Heavies to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds, with the alliance of heroes and villains racing to do the same. This is going to be a fun sub-plot. I'm sure you've noticed that the plot is somewhat varying from the Sonic Mania game, but this just seemed to make the most sense story-wise for me to write it this way. It still has the same sort of premise to it.
But now with that done, once I round through my other updates, I'll finally get started on Volume 3 of my main story, and trust me, I've got some special surprises planned there that I have just been dying to write!
Thanks for all your patience. I will see you soon. Until then, stay safe and stay healthy out there.