Author's Note: We are finally at the one-shot story I've been wanting to write and post for Sonic In Between for ages! It is also the last Seaside Island adventure for the time-being for Sonic and his friends.
Let's get to it for a...rather sleepless episode, lol.
Summary of Story 12: During their last few days on Seaside Island before departing for Station Square, Sonic and his friends must deal with the return of the legendary Granifer Giganticus who was accidentally awoken and now must be put back to sleep.
I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog. All rights belong to Sega. I only own the OCs.
Slumber of the Rock-Titan.
Things were relatively peaceful at the moment on Seaside Island, with two days having passed since the Mech Suit incident, to which, surprisingly enough thanks to the efforts of Sonic and his friends, the Thunder Risk Squad, while still reckless, began to mellow down their stunts after realizing the value of friendship.
As such, even the attacks from Argo Tobrokin was fairly calm, and since Seaside Island wasn't that far from the Soumerca Continent, the Sonic Heroes decided to keep in contact with Manny, Kairi and Sophia while planning to head back home in the next few days, Sun and Star would be heading back out and Knuckles would be moving Angel Island as he felt it's been floating still long enough.
However, just because it was calm for two days, it wouldn't be calm today. A large drilling machine along with construction workers of humans and Mobians alike were busy drilling away rocks and removing large boulders to make the path of this canyon much more safer.
"Okay, this should be the last pile of rocks to remove." The head of the construction crew. "Remember, slow and steady."
"Right away, boss." The driver of the drilling machine saluted, pulling at the lever which powered up the vehicle once more and began to drill at the wall very slowly and carefully, before a claw made to grab at the smallest rock on the large odd looking pile.
But the moment it attempted to pick it up, there was a sudden loud roar-like scream which a few more tiny rocks rolled down, shocking the construction grew who gasped in shock, prompting the leader to shout at the driver to stop frantically. Unfortunately the moment the driver did and attempted to power down the machine, a large pile of rocks that formed a hand made to grab the claw and easily broke it off.
"HUH!?" The construction workers gasped in shock, while the driver screamed loudly, clumsily opening the side door and jumped out before running towards his fellow workers as they all gazed up in horrified awe.
All of them saw that it wasn't a pile of rocks as they originally thought, but an at least 89 foot tall giant rock monster who, with the top rock being it's head that was nearly pulled off, yanked the claw away and tossed it aside before standing up with a loud yawn, moaning and rubbing it's head in agony. It then glared down at the group of people who had, unintentionally, disturbed it's slumber and now really angry.
"AHHHHHHHHHH! Rock giant!" One of the construction workers, a human male with ginger hair, screamed hysterically.
"Uh...Guess we kind of accidentally woke it up." Another worker, who was a Mobian Ostrich, shrugged meekly.
"Forget that! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" The boss of the workers screamed hysterically, fearing in getting squashed by the now furious monsters who roared and made to stomp them.
Quickly getting the message over their mistake and fearing for their lives, all of the workers ran and abandoned the essentials and vehicles while running away, as the massive rock creature stomped and crushed the machines, bashing and smashing them like they were merely toys, before apparently giving chase to the men who ran as fast as they could.
Meanwhile, further up ahead in bit of a clearing between the canyon path and the Unnamed Village, Manny was teaching Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Sun how to ride the Extreme Gear and while the red echidna and orange hedgehog weren't too enthusiastic about it, the hero of Mobius and the fox cub certainly were, and taking turns while careful in not to damage the emerald hedgehog's spare gear, they were having a blast.
"YEAH!" Sonic cheered with a wide and excited grin, flung upward as he performed mid-air stunts like he would whenever he used a snowboard, and landed almost neatly with a bit of a wobble, but managed to stay in place, still gliding away. "Yahoo!"
"Alright, Sonic!" Tails celebrated excitedly as he and the others watched by the side.
"You almost got it, my man!" Manny called out, praising happily. "Before you know it, you'll be ridin' Extreme Gear with no problem!"
The blue hedgehog grinned confidently, pleased with himself as he has almost fully mastered in riding the hoverboards with ease while having enjoyed himself, coming to a stop and hopped off while holding the board under his arm, giving a thumbs up to other teen. "I love these things! It's more fun than riding on a snowboard!"
"See, what'd I tell ya? When it comes to Extreme Gear, it's so awesome that you feel like defying with gravity." The green hedgehog grinned proudly, turning to the other two teens. "Don't you guys think so?"
"Fun as it is, I'm actually a big fan of gravitiy." Knuckles waved off dismissively, and while he had to admit it was fun, and he can glide, he prefered to keep his feet on the ground.
"Same here. Riding on planes is one thing, but maybe if I could find a hover-bike or something it might be a little bit better." Sun shrugged before folding his arms, and the Guardian nodded in agreement.
Manny smirked knowingly, "Well, if you want Extreme Gear in Bike forms, then you're in luck. Future City has all kinds of them besides the boards. You can get them in board forms, bike forms, you name it. There are even tracks for Extreme Gear riders to practice on outside of the actual race courses too."
Sonic whistled, impressed. "Sounds good to me."
"Future City, huh? I'd love to go and explore there." Tails beamed, imagining the sights of it as though being transported into, well...the future. "Just think of all of the cool technology there for me to study."
"Well, then I guess in the near future, we'll be headin' to the City way ahead of the Future." The cobalt hedgehog jokingly declared, prompting his best friend/little brother and Manny to laugh with Sonic joining them while both Knuckles and Sun both rolled their eyes in exasperation, not finding the blue hedgehog's joke that funny.
Suddenly their fun training was cut short when they heard a loud roar in the distance and a crowd of screaming from their right and when the five young Mobians turned to see what was going on, they gasped in shock as their eyes widened at the sight of the construction workers running all running away to safety...with a giant rock monster stomping and seemingly now ignoring them.
"AHHHH!" Sonic and his friends cried out in fright, Tails waving his arms frantically, Manny jumping a foot in the air, and the others stood frozen.
"What the!?" Knuckles exclaimed, unable to believe what he was seeing. 'Is this some kind of nightmare?' He hoped he was dreaming, because a giant rock monster stomping around wasn't even normal.
"W-Where did that thing come from?" Sun spluttered, blinking dumbfounded.
Nope, it was definitely real. The red echidna's hopes were dashed.
The giant rock monster, not noticing the four teenagers and a two-tailed nine year old, stomped past them as the group screamed before running out of the way to avoid in getting crushed, yet it caught sight of them and stopped before turning it's daze at the bewildered heroes.
"Huh...Maybe it's a friendly gargantuan rock monster." Sonic half-jokingly suggested, a bit shaken as he began to think that Mobius really did have a lot of giants hiding from the world and only recently the blue hedgehog and the others have started noticing them.
"RWAAAARRRR!" The giant rock monsters leaned up close to the group and roared so much that the three hedgehogs, the guardian of the Master Emerald and the fox cub screamed while being blown to the ground, hitting the soul hard and winced.
"Nope...He's playing into the stereotype." Manny nervously corrected, sitting up while Sonic, landing on his front, pushed himself to his hands and knees and looked over his shoulder, the two teenagers sweat dropping.
"Yeah..." Sonic meekly agreed, before the two hedgehogs gasped and the former pushed his friend and himself out of the way to avoid in getting crushed by the giant monster's fist. The blue hero then carried Manny to safety nearby a tree before gently setting him down while telling him to remain here and then raced around the rock monster hoping to make it dizzy.
However, despite running fast, the huge titan attempted to squash him with it's fist to no avail, while Tails attempted to use a Spin Dash to attack it. But he was knocked away when the rock giant swatted him, screaming as he lost his altitude much to Sonic's horror.
"No, Tails!" The hero of Mobius screamed out and raced after his surrogate sibling, leaping up and caught the twin-kitsune in his arms, landing safely on the ground and cradling the dazed kit, all frantic and tried his best to remain as calm as possible. "Tails, are you okay!?"
"Well that...didn't work out accordingly as p-planned..." The nine year old cub responded, his eyes swirling as imaginary stars circled in his vision. Despite that the blue hedgehog sighed in sheer relief that his little brother was alright, it didn't help the current situation of the sudden invasion of a giant rock monster.
"Man. I tried to make the giant moving rock dizzy, but he ended up making my little brother dazed." Sonic grumbled in growing frustration, as the usual strategies aren't working at all right now.
Sun and Knuckles both attempted to try their luck with punches against the work with the tangerine hedgehog attempting to use the Homing Attack and crimson echidna giving out powerful punches. But the giant rock creature proved to be stronger than they were that not even their strengths which could and can break normal giant boulders could even give out a chip on this opponent. Likewise with Tails, the two were smacked away with Sun crashing into a bush with a loud, 'OMPH!' and Knuckles hitting his head against a normal boulder before sliding onto the ground, while the giant simply walked away, heading towards the village, much to the two remaining undazed Mobians' dismay.
The sixteen year old stood up wobbily, just as dazed. "Yes, Grandma. I will have another gingersnap."
"Oh, great! What is this guy made out of, unbreakable granite?" Sonic complained, gently setting the recovering Tails down and while hoping that all of his friends would be alright with Manny being left to look after them, the blue hedgehog quickly sped off to try and stop the rock titan from causing anymore damage while wondering what has happened.
Admittedly surprised that the giant was at the same pace of speed by simply walking, the fifteen year old then saw it kick another large boulder which was flown into the air and about to hit something or someone in the village. Softly gasping, Sonic increased his speed and narrowly scooped up a Mobian beaver who was pushing a cart filled with lemons saving the Beaver in the nick of time. The cart was crushed in the meantime and the sour flavored fruit were squashed so much that it sent lemon juice everywhere...and surprisingly the liquid landed into an empty barrel, creating freshly made lemonade.
"Sorry about your lemon cart. Are you okay?" Sonic said, feeling bad for not having stopped this sooner, gently settling the stunned beaver down after the duo saw what just happened.
"Well..when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Problem is, I already had the lemons." The beaver cluelessly pointed out, not getting the clear picture which made the hero of Mobius sweat drop once more dumbfounded, just as Tails, Manny, Sun and Knuckles, the latter duo having bruises on their chests and arms, the orange hedgehog having a black left eye, and red echidna having a right black eye, looking quite miffed.
Just then the five boys heard their names being called out by Amy, prompting them to turn to face her as she, Star, Kairi and Sophia, and even Gavin hurried over to reunite with Sonic's group, looking all frantic and worried.
"Guys, what's going on?" Sophia asked, panting a little.
"A giant rock monster's been chasing after some construction workers before heading straight to the village and is now causing mondo trouble." Sonic quickly explained, still uncertain how this really all folded out in the first place himself.
"It's not an ordinary rock monster, Sonic." Star breathed, with a mixture of awe, horror and disbelief on her expression. "It's a Granifer Giganticus!"
"What!?" Sonic, Tails and Sun all exclaimed in disbelief, while the rest of the group were confused.
"Wait, you mean...the Granifer Giganticus are still alive!?" The orange hedgehog, having heard of the name from his 'girlfriend's' father a few months ago, questioned. To think that he had dismissed them in the past, now he was shocked find that they were not only real, but still existed to this day...and having just lost to it.
Talk about crazy and humiliating.
Likewise he had told Sonic and Tails about it back in Clocksworth Town, who told Amy and even Knuckles who blinked confusion, and Manny, Gaiver, Kairi and Sophia stared out at the formally identified Granifer Giganticus. The rock giant in the meantime continued to cause trouble as many villages fled for their lives, like pulling out a lemon tree and flung it into the air straight towards the group.
"Incoming tree!" Manny screamed out, flailing his arms in panic.
"RUN!" Sonic shouted, navigating Tails and Amy away while he and everybody else ran to the side, the lemon tree thankfully missing them and amazingly re-rooted into the ground with lemons falling and landing in a large pile.
The beaver, who miraculously managed to avoid in getting crushed, ended up being in the pile before poking his head out and, still undaunted by this, simply said. "As previously noted: I already had the lemons."
"Where in Mobius did that big guy come from?" Manny asked incredulously.
"Hmm...I heard that there was supposed to be construction to make the Canyon Passage more safer. Perhaps one of the workers or diggers may have accidentally unraveled the Granifer Giganticus who has been in hiding for centuries." Gaiver theoretically guessed.
"That does make a whole lot of sense. But the question is, how did anybody not even notice?" Tails agreed in deep concern.
"I'm more worried about how we can stop it then the giant rock monster not being noticed." Sonic shrugged with feeling. He then turned to the lavender hedgehog and asked. "Hey, Star. What do you know about that thing?"
"As part of the research I helped to uncover, Granifer Giganticus is a proud race of mountain dwellers from the time of the Ancients. No one has seen one in hundreds of years." Star explained, shaking head. She couldn't believe that after thousands of years, that the Granifer Giganticus were still alive.
"Until now. To be honest, when your father told me and the Chaotix that, I thought it was just pure myth." Sun cringed. Now he felt like an idiot for not believing in the stories of rock giants, but then again given what Sonic and Elise had been through in the Dusty Desert Temple, he shouldn't be surprised.
Sonic and the others turned their attention to the Granifer Giganticus who by then was sitting on a hut only for the building to be crushed underneath it due to how heavy it was, seemingly much to it's irritation.
"He's ignoring the "you break it, you bought it" sign!" Sophia exclaimed angrily, shaking a fist in the air. "He really is a monster!"
Though as the Sonic Heroes and their friends gazed at the creature, some of them couldn't help but think that there's something very unusual about the way it was behaving. Like as though...it wasn't really set on destroying anything for evil. The way how it was sitting made it seem to be pretty lazy.
Meanwhile, the mad inventor Argo Tobrokin was watching the events play out on his monitor in his lair, similar to Eggman's secret bases only the walls were all white. Behind him were Hexbot and Elbot who hovered curiously and all three of them were shocked beyond words to see the Granifer Giganticus causing major damage to the Unnamed Village.
"Gah! There's a pitiless monster spreading destruction and horror across the land!" Tobrokin exclaimed, almost rendered speechless.
"Sounds like Dr. Eggman's kind of people." Elbot stated.
"Yeah, destruction to build a theme park is one thing, but that's really the main thing I like about the late good doctor. Everything else is nothing to my taste. Then again, that monster would be a good attraction to my beautiful park. I must make him my minion! He would be good to bring in good costumers!" Argo admitted and grinned evilly, before breaking the fourth wall and whispered to the readers/viewers. "And clean my rain gutters; they're hard to reach."
He then turned to his two robotic minions and stood up, ordering. "Elbot, Hexbot! Go capture him!"
"Why us? There's no way we could catch that behemoth." Hexbot complained, slumping.
"Well, not with that negative attitude! Now get going!" The evil thief ordered, before he began stomping like a military leader, forcing his two dumbots to float away in exasperated defeat. "Left, right, left, right!"
As the two robots floated away to get straight to work in doing what their creator commanded, Hexbot grumbled like a child to his fellow bot. "He always says "left, right", yet we have no legs. That's hurtful."
Yet little did the three bumbling villains know was that things were not going to go according to plan.
Back in the village, Sonic's group continued to examine the situation as the Granifer Giganticus was still sitting on the destroyed hut.
"That monster really needs to work on his attitude. If he's dangerous, why is he just sitting there?" Amy asked, frowning with her hands on her hips.
"You got me, dudette." Manny shrugged, before remarking in realization. "Though, he's kinda acting like how my Dad's best friend would get when he can't get any sleep sometimes. He can never get comfortable, so he's always fluffing his pillow, and if that doesn't work, he has a glass of water or milk."
As though predicting the future, giant rock monster stood up while groaning and knocking on the roof of another building, shaking it's head like it was uncomfortable or something. When that didn't work, the Granifer Giganticus stood up and walked over to the town's well, yanking it out all together which created a water sprout. The rock giant then gulped up the water, much to the group's surprise.
"...Like that." The green hedgehog blinked, blankly.
Finishing up his fill, the Granifer Giganticus then yawned widely before walking off while stretching, leaving the village behind as though he lost his interest all together. It was then that most of them realized what was going on.
"Now I get it! He isn't rampaging at all!" Sonic exclaimed.
"He's suffering with insomnia right now!" Tails agreed, snapping his fingers.
"Uh...what?" Sun blinked, once again confused. First he understood, and then the two-tailed fox just made things complicated as though it were a jig-saw puzzle.
"He's trying to get comfortable 'cause I can't sleep." The blue hedgehog translated, slapping his fist into his palm. "I bet that's why nobody's able to figure out why they haven't been seen isn't because they completely disappeared. At least not all of them. They were just sleeping and nobody even noticed."
"Because they can camouflage themselves so well!" Star realized, before slapping herself slightly on the forehead for her silliness. "Why didn't I think of that before?"
'Why didn't Tails just say that in the first place? I'm still new to the world, guys.' Sun thought to himself, now annoyed as his friends just translated on what insomnia meant.
"Well, that explains everything. For a rock monster, I'm impressed. It looks like Gaiver was right: The construction crew did accidentally waken him up because of his clever disguise." Kairi remarked, blinking.
"We've gotta help him get back to sleep." Sonic declared firmly.
His friends all nodded in agreement and quickly hurried to follow the Granifer Giganticus without getting attacked or cause the giant rock monster to turn around angrily since that was the last thing they wanted. The ten friends followed while the hero of Mobius made sure to run at casual speed, eventually finding themselves in another canyon where the rock monster, very sleepy due to the rude awakening, found a rock formation and slumped onto the ground, attempting to get some much needed sleep.
"I'm no giant-rock-monsterologist, but our guy looks overtired." Sonic stated, folding his arms in sympathy.
"Well, whaddya suggest we do, sing him a lullaby?" Knuckles shrugged with one arm with strong sarcasm.
Surprisingly, Amy and the other girls smiled at the idea with the pink hedgehog beaming. "I know you're being sarcastic, Knuckles, but that's a great idea." She clasped her hands together and sighed. "Nothing brings on sleep like a dose of melody sung by a sweet songbird."
"I agree. Whenever I had trouble sleeping when I was little, my Dad would sing to me every night." Star giggled, smiling fondly over the memories. "I always asked him to sing me Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."
"Why am I not surprised?" The red echidna chuckled over the silliness on that, considering that the lavender hedgehog was found on a starry night that prompted Professor Amathyst to name her Staria.
"Hey, I can't help it! I always loved that song because I love stargazing!" The soon to be fifteen year old girl pouted, causing the older Mobian to flinch in fright, worried that she must do what Amy would normally would whenever she got angry.
"I think it would work, either way. We'll each take turns to see which one of us our singing he'll like the most." Kairi nodded in agreement.
"Do you think it will work?" Gaiver asked, a little more doubtful about this, and Tails and Manny were in agreement.
"Only one way to find out." Sun shrugged.
"I'll go first. I love singing." Amy volunteered proudly, before clearing her throat and began to sing softly in a surprisingly beautiful voice. "~Hush, little Granifer Giganticus, don't say a word; Amy's gonna buy you a mockingbird~"
'Whoa...' Sonic thought, finding himself amazed as this was the first time he'd actually heard his self-proclaimed girlfriend sing. He smiled softly while whispering. "Wow, Amy. That was pretty good. You sounded beautiful."
Yet while Amy was on cloud nine as she beamed happily over the compliment from her 'boyfriend', seeing that he was completely honest, the Granifer Giganticus on the other hand moaned in agony while covering his invisible ears and ran off to find somewhere else more quieter to sleep. The group stared dumbfounded at the rock giant's sudden departure.
"I can understand Vector since he always sounds terrible, but Amy?" Knuckles remarked in disbelief, as even he thought the pink hedgehog girl sounded quite lovely.
"Yeah, if there's anybody the big guy should be running away from, it's him." Sun scratched the back of his head, cringing as he heard the singing from the green crocodile one time, and he understood why Sonic said that the detective couldn't sing to save his life.
"I thought Amy sounded great." Tails shrugged cluelessly.
"I thought she sounded very lovely." Kairi added.
Amy pouted, and while she was happy that her friends and 'true love' adored her performance, the pink hedgehog folded her arms in annoyance at how the Granifer Giganticus ran away. "Hmph! He's made of rock! What would he know?"
"Maybe he doesn't like beautiful, soft singing voices?" Sonic suggested with a shrug, as he couldn't believe what he just witnessed either.
Sophia, deciding to try her luck, cleared her throat. When her friends gazed at her, the young squirrel opened her mouth and...screeched a very terrible noise in her way of singing, making her sound like a granny having problems with her throat while singing a very painful version of Rock-a-bye-Baby.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Sonic and the rest of the group all screamed in agony, covering their ears in a futile attempt to block out the awful singing, cringing and wincing, some of them thinking that their hearing would be lost forever.
"That's no lullaby!" Manny exclaimed, wishing for Sophia to stop singing. "That sounds more like some idiot putting a bagpipe in a woodchipper for a stupid reason!"
While Sonic winced as he decided that, not to hurt Sophia's feelings, but the poor twelve year old squirrel sounded just as bad as Vector, he looked up and was bewildered when he saw the giant rock monster beginning to doze off. "Yeah, but it's working. He's falling asleep!"
True to his word as up ahead, the Granifer Giganticus ended up falling over and was lying in the middle of the road in the canyon, fast asleep. When the group of friends hurried up to a cliff overlooking the giant rock monster, they found that it ended up blocking the path where many Mobians were pulling carts full of supplies.
"It's one of the paths bringing in the fresh food supplies of potatoes from the nearby Town up the second Mountains." Gaiver explained, sighing in annoyance. "This is causing more problems than solving them."
"You know what? Giant rock monsters are a pain in the butt." The blue hedgehog declared, exasperated. Knowing what to do, he scooped up Sophia and carefully held her onto his back while mindful to not accidentally poke her with his quills. "Sophia, keep singing!..." He then winced and muttered under his breath. "Or, whatever it is you're doing."
Thankfully not hearing him say the last sentence, the young squirrel nodded and began singing terribly again while Sonic carried her and sped away to lure the rock monster from the road. It worked as the Granifer Giganticus, believing that the twelve year old girl's singing sounded lovely, began to follow in daze, and the rest of the group hurried as fast as they could.
"I can't believe the rock giant would fall asleep to a sound that's much worse than Vector." Knuckles grumbled to himself.
By the time Sonic and Sophia lured the rock giant away from the path, the three of them found themselves in a more decent and desolute area that was safe and perfect. Once the brown squirrel softened her singing, the Granifer Giganticus dozed off, slumping against the rock wall behind him, before she got off of the blue hedgehog's back.
"It's working!" Sonic softly exclaimed, before smiling as he whispered. "Sleep tight, big guy. Hope you'll have sweet dreams."
But just as things were already beginning to calm down, the victory and sweet slumber were cut short when all of the sudden they heard an evil laughter which made the Sonic Heroes and their friends to look up in alarm, gasping in dismay to see Tobrokin in his Frog Mobile, grinning away.
"Tobrokin!" The hero of Mobius softly hissed, not wanting to wake the sleeping giant rock monster up.
"Not him again!" Knuckles hissed in frustration, clutching his fist tightly. All of the times the evil inventor to show up, it had to be now.
Ignoring the Mobians below, Argo smirked and bellowed. "Release the Egg-Bee-Bots!" He then whispered to the readers/viewers. "I found them and fixed them up from Dr. Eggman's base near Westside Island a few months ago. Pretty cool designs."
Hexbot, having rode with his creator, emerged while strangely wearing a scarf and a hat, saying as though he was a flight attendant. "After you've returned your seat and tray table to the upright position."
Argo groaned while facepalming himself as he questioned on why he built his two minions with low intelligence in the first place. To the heroes' horror, a swarm of Bee Bots that were fixed up and slightly redesigned to suit the inventor's style(not that it was much different compared to Eggman's), all surrounding the now once again rudely awakened Granifer Giganticus who looked up wondering what was going on. Before the giant monster could move, the Bee-Bots activated multiple lasers which soon formed into a honeycomb like net made of red energy.
Unfortunately for the inventor who laughed evilly for the easy capture, the now furious rock monster snarled for it's sleep been having once again interrupted, and with little effort broke free while standing up, destroying the net and slapped and swatted away the smaller robots as though they were merely flies.
"Well, that works." Sun dryly remarked, admittedly a little surprised.
"Hey, that was a very expensive honeycomb cage!" Tobrokin, shocked and dismayed that his captive escaped so easily and had cost him a lot of money for destroying his net, shouted angrily. "If you and I are going to subjugate the island's profit of the Theme Park for a thousand generations, I need to see a better attitude from you."
"Forget it, Eggman Jr. !" Sonic shouted angrily, finally having enough of this and decided that, in order for the rock monster to go back to sleep, he and his friends had to do everything they could to help it. "We're not gonna let you kidnap our friend!"
Knowing what to do in order to prevent this from happening, the Mobians including Gaiver surprisingly enough, took action as the hero of Mobius charged, leaping and using his Homing Attack to bash and destroy the robots with his, bouncing away and jumping onto them with pure determination. Sonic grinned and, being more of his old self, chuckled while giving a raspberry at the quickly growing agitated robots, taunting them as a couple ended up hitting each other in failed attempts to destroy him.
Knuckles punched and bashed with his incredible strength, taking hold of one that attempted to vaporize him only for the red echidna to use it to destroy five other Bee Bots making their way towards him. The teenage Guardian then gave out a loud battle cry as he then tossed his 'weapon' towards another, causing a mid-air collision and explosion upon impact.
Amy bashed many in impressive speed and power as she grunted, hitting the robots like they were baseballs, sending them away while Tails flew up and did an air Spin Dash against others, uncurling himself and spun around giving out a kick at another Bee Bot who crashed onto the ground. Sun used a combination of Sonic and Knuckles' strategies and then gave out a loud yell while descending into two more robots, punching them in a Lower-Cut, Gaiver grabbed one of the robots and as hard as he could given he wasn't much of a fighter but had some training even while being mind-controlled by Starline, tossed it the same way Knuckles did and managed to defeat two of Argo's creations.
"Bring it on, Metal-Bugs! I don't have any spray, but this will do!" Manny taunted bravely, riding on his Extreme Gear and had three Bee Bots chase after him. Pretending to lose his altitude, he gave out fake screams while deliberately soaring straight towards a wall. He grinned and easily flew up at the last second, causing the robot trio, who saw this too late and actually panicked with their mechanical eyes widening comically in fear, failed to stop themselves and crashed into the wall, destroying themselves.
The green hedgehog laughed in victory, proud of himself while taunting the defeated robots. "Suckers."
Star leaped and kicked rapidly at three Bee Bots, before going for karate punches and leg spins in her perfect martial arts, and then gave another an upper-cut with a determined yell, and Kairi whacked another two with her club, grunting and hissing away.
"Hey, you dumbots! Come and get me!" Sonic taunted bravely, and ran off towards the rock peak with the remaining robots, taking the bait, chased after him.
Being a fast runner and having the ability to scale steep buildings and walls with ease, the hero of Mobius sped up along and around the rock formation. Once he reached the top, the blue hedgehog jumped and seemed to be aiming for Tobrokin who panicked with a loud scream and covered his head with his hands, bracing himself for impact. But Sonic instead seemed to have missed and spun past him, much to the inventor's relief when he saw this. The Eggman-Wanna-Be gave out a hugh sigh of relief while wiping his forehead.
"Urm...Boss?" Hexbot however, saw differently and shakily pointed a finger in front of both of them, as he immediately realized the meaning of Sonic's plan.
When Tobrokin turned to look, too late his Bee Bot army flew straight towards them and he screamed, panicking once more while his minion gulped and sank back into the Mobile.
BOOM!
The last of the Bee Bots crashed into the Frog Mobile and exploded, resulting in Tobrokin and Hexbot to be sent flying in dismay and once again humiliated defeat.
"Looks like we're blasting off again!" Tobrokin screamed, just before he and Hexbot disappeared into the sky in a twinkle once more.
"Is he supposed to be a fan of Eggman, or a fan of TV shows?" Sun sarcastically wondered, his hand over his eyes as he and the others witnessed the bad guys vanish while Sonic landed safely on the ground.
"It could go either way." Amy shrugged, not sure how to answer that question at all.
"Okay, Tobocan's gone." Sonic announced while dusting his hands off, turning to Sophia. "Soph', you can start singing again."
To his surprise however, the twelve year old squirrel girl wasn't there, making the others notice as well as the blue hedgehog blinked in surprise. "Huh? Where'd you go?"
"Sophia? Where are you?" Kairi called out.
"She's gone." Tails realized, frowning in great worry.
"The Granifer Giganticus isn't here either." Star added, and true to her word the giant rock monster seemed to have vanished. It was just them in the canyon with an usual piles of rocks that hadn't been there before, but the group didn't worry about that.
Horrified realization quickly dawned onto them as Sonic and his friends all exclaimed fearfully. "The rock monster's got Sophia!"
"He must have captured her because he loves her singing." Gaiver muttered in very deep concern, his chest heavy as, ever since he came to live on Seaside Island, he grew to care about Sophia, Kairi and Manny, and eventually over the last nearly two weeks, Sonic, Tails, Amy, Sun, Star, and Knuckles, more than just his friends.
They were like his own children, and despite that they can handle themselves, he felt responsible for their safeties due to having scared them in the past unintentionally and forced to try and kidnap at least two of them.
"While we were handling Tobocan and his robots." Manny added, worriedly.
"We've gotta save her, quick!" Sonic exclaimed while trying not to panic, his heart sinking as he blamed himself for not having paid attention. If anything happened to the young squirrel girl, he would never forgive himself, and the fact that the giant monster kidnapped her for it's own entertainment, it made things worse.
Nodding in agreement, the group quickly hurried throughout the canyon to try and find Sophia, hoping that maybe she managed to get away while the monster attempted to chase after her. Unbeknownst to them, however, the pile of rocks glowed purple, revealing to be the Granifer Giganticus who had cleverly disguised itself and made it's way towards the rock peak. Clasping both hands, the rock monster removed the right hand that carefully covered the left, revealing to be the terrified and struggling Sophia who was trapped in it's grasp.
"Hey, put me down! I'm not a toy, you know!" Sophia shouted, struggling to break free. She screamed a little when her captor then scaled up the rock before sitting on top of it, holding her in both hands with a hopeful and desired smile which made her shiver in fear, terrified beyond belief.
The Granifer Gigancitus, having loved her singing so much and that upon recognizing her while Sonic's group had been busy driving away Tobrokin's robots, decided to keep the twelve year old girl for itself and never let her go, because as far as the rock beast was concerned, she belonged to him now...Forever.
Back in the village in the Hotel Hut, Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Sun, Star, Manny, Kairi and Gaiver had split up into three groups, with Sonic, Tails and Amy in one, Knuckles, Sun and Star in another, and Manny, Kairi and Gaiver being the third. Unfortunately, by the time they came back, they had no success and began to fear for the worst.
"We checked Sophia's house. Nothing." Sonic announced, growing more and more worried and panicky, and his best friend/little brother and self-proclaimed girlfriend shared his feelings with the pink hedgehog clasping her hands together.
"Searched around the jungle: No sign of her there." Knuckles declared, frustrated. How hard could it be to find a squirrel girl and a giant rock monster?
"Checked the coastlines: Zero, zilch, zip." Manny concluded, shrugging apologetically while trying not to panic himself, with nearly zero success.
"Oh, where could she be? I hope nothing bad happened to her." Kairi murmured, fearing for her best friend's life. Guilt, fear and sorrow began to increase inside her heart and stomach. Having grown up with the young squirrel since they first met in the Youth Center, they had been like sisters for a long time.
Sure they had their disagreements, but like Sonic and Tails, and Amy and Cream, they were inseparable.
"Let's try not to panic, children." Gaiver wisely told the younger Mobians, trying his very best to calm them down as he could sense that they were all about to go into either a hysterical break down, yelling in frustration, or maybe cry a little. "We'll just have to keep looking."
The blue hedgehog however, really began to panic, yet he tried not to go hysterica and remain calm. He already had that nightmare more than once throughout the years, and for two months since the Dark Gaia Crisis, he hasn't been fully the same and for nearly three months he came close in losing his hard work in staying recovered from his traumatic turmoil.
Yet, so many terrible scenarios rang into his head: What if the giant rock monster attempted to keep Sophia all for itself? What if it had some kind of powers and turned her into stone? What if it killed her? What if...what if it would eat her alive? Even though the latter three scenarios made no sense and it was becoming clear that the Granifer Giganticus loved the squirrel's singing so much that decided that she was it's new beautiful song-bird and ultimately made the vow to keep her as it's prisoner for the rest of her life, the cobalt teenager still couldn't stop all of the terrible thoughts.
'Stop! Thinking like this and panicking aren't getting you anywhere!' Sonic mentally chastised himself, squeezing his eyes shut and shook his head to calm down and focus. While he felt guilty for failing to keep Sophia safe and not having predicted this, he refused to go down that path again.
Forcing himself shove down his panic attack, the hero of Mobius concentrated on thinking about how to rescue the twelve year old squirrel, because really, Gaiver was right. They had to keep looking and the island was huge, way bigger than the Granifer Giganticus who had her, and they had to rescue her fast.
"We still got a whole island to search around and if anything, like me, that giant rock can't swim because, well, rocks sink, not float, so he can't leave." Sonic declared once he successfully managed to calm down.
The group, realizing that he had a very good point, nodded in agreement as they quickly tried to think of ideas on how and where to find their missing friend.
"Let's see, what do we know so far? Sophia was with us in that canyon along with the giant rock monster, and he seemed to have disappeared with her without us even noticing." Tails theorized deeply, tapping his chin thoughtfully.
"You'd think that for a rock he'd be easy to find by now since he's noticeable everywhere else." Manny shrugged cluelessly.
That was when the final piece of the puzzle formed and connected into the group's minds, mostly in Sonic, Tails, Amy, Sun and Star who all gasped in realization.
"Easy to find in near trees and beaches, and even the village...But not in canyons!" Sonic softly exclaimed, feeling like slapping himself. "They've gotta still be at we last saw them!"
"Of course! Because the Granifer Giganticus can camouflage themselves with other rocks such as the canyons which is why they haven't been seen in hundreds of years, it's because of their abilities. He disguised himself while we weren't looking, keeping Sophia silent until we left." Star nodded in agreement.
"So he waited because he didn't want us to take her away again." Amy blinked, very surprised. She then admitted. "That's pretty impressive."
"Ugh, why didn't we think of that sooner?" Sun grunted in sheer annoyance, facepalming himself.
"And if theory is correct, he could be at a high place where we can't reach unless we take flight." Tails stated firmly, unintentionally ignoring the tangerine hedgehog. "This is where the Tornado 1 comes in."
"And we got Extreme Gears to help out for extra flight. They always come in handy." Manny added helpfully with a thumbs up.
"Yeah, but we're gonna need at least a distraction to keep the rock monster from kidnapping her or hitting us." Sonic folded his arms, cupping his chin under his right hand. "Lemme see...How can we do this?"
Gaiver, remembering his new power to grow into a giant in case of emergencies, suggested. "Perhaps I can be a help of that." When his younger friends turned to him, he added. "The fruit you gave me allowed me to gain a power to grow into my giant form for emergency uses. I believe now would be a good time for it."
"Huh!?" The group exclaimed in disbelief.
"Whoa, dude! You sure that's a good idea?" Manny cried out, wondering if the Mobian Gorilla had gone nuts.
"Gaiver, it's gonna be risky. Sure it can help, but, I don't want ya' to get hurt." Sonic gently protested, deeply concerned.
"I'll be fine, Sonic. What's important is saving young Sophia, and find a way to lure the Granifer Giganticus back to sleep in a more desolute area." Gaiver reassured, carefully placing both hands onto the blue hedgehog's shoulders when the younger Mobian lowered his gaze only to look back up to him. "It's going to be alright."
The more he spent time with the Mobian Gorilla, the more Sonic, and his friends, saw the more compassionate side of the former giant, and it was that compassion that had Gaiver keep himself from causing trouble in Abahat, and here on Seaside Island. Even at times when he seemed to be scary due to his size at the time, Gaiver had shown he could be very gentle and kind, having somewhat a fatherly instinct. Plus it was pretty much their only hope now to set this right.
After a moment of silence, Sonic nodded firmly with determination. "Then, let's do it! Time to save Sophia!"
Around ten minutes later, the Tornado 1 flew high over the canyon with Tails once again piloting, Amy, Star and Kairi in the passenger seats behind him, Sun and Knuckles both riding on the plane's wings while holding on, Manny and Sonic both on two Extreme Gears flying close to them with the blue hedgehog still getting the hang of it, and Gaiver, now in his giant form once more, following the younger Mobians on the ground, running as fast as he could.
"Any sign of Sophia or the rock monster yet?" Sonic called out to his friends.
Just as most of them gave out negative responses, a faint familiar and clearly very awful sound was heard in the distance which seemed like getting louder as they flew further in, before Tails' group spotted something and gasped.
"There's Sophia!" Knuckles cried out.
"She and that monster's up on that pillar!" Sun added.
True to their word, the Granifer Giganticus was spotted at the higest level where the trapped Sophia was still singing despite getting a sore throat, but she was, to her dismay, still forced to sing.
"JUST AS STAR HAS SAID. HE DOES HAVE HER FOR A SONGBIRD." Gaiver remarked bitterly, furious over the young girl being held against her will.
Narrowing their eyes, the two hedgehogs on the Extreme Gears shared a nod before they and Tails flew in quickly after the two-tailed fox cub told everyone else on the plane to hold on. Sonic and Manny successfully spun around the giant rock monster who was shocked to see them, before the teenagers swooped in and grabbed hold of the twelve year old who, yelping in alarm at first, smiled happily to see her friends having come to save her.
"Concert's over, Rocky!" Manny teasingly called out, carefully helping to have Sonic carry Sophia in the blue hedgehog's arms as they and the Tornado 1 flew higher. "You can buy a t-shirt in the lobby."
"Sorry, big guy. But we're taking our friend back." Sonic apologetically said.
But the Granifer Giganticus attempted to reach out for the hedgehogs and the squirrel, only to miss and roared so loudly that it nearly knocked everyone in the air over. They screamed in alarm as Sonic almost lost his grip on Sophia while he and Manny tried to regain their balance, the roar being like a powerful gust of wind. Tails grunted while straining himself to keep his plane under control, and Amy, Star and Kairi screamed just as Sun and Knuckles nearly fell off.
Fortunately the nine year old fox managed to regain altitude, though he and his friends all coughed and winced, groaning in disgust as they ended up smelling the rock monster's horrible breath.
"Ew! That just smells like dead jellyfish!" Amy complained loudly, covering her nose to rid the awful stench.
Unfortunately the roar was so powerful that Sonic and Sophia both ended up falling over and fell, screaming in alarm while the teenage hero's borrowed board flipped and fell with them just as the giant rock monster slid down the hill to catch them, much to the horror of their friends as Manny, and Tails, who along with the rest of their friends, screamed out to the duo, flew to try and save them.
"Hang on tight, Sophia!" Sonic screamed out, holding his young friend close in his arms, just as the twelve year old squirrel girl nodded, both of them squeezing their eyes shut while the rock beast made it to the ground first and held out his hands to catch them both.
"LEAVE THEM ALONE!" Gaiver, having reached to the point where his two young friends were falling, shouted before, feeling guilty for doing so, shoved the Granifer Giganticus back and causing it to stumble and crash against the ground.
The giant gorilla in the meantime caught Sonic and Sophia in his right hand while closing it briefly making sure they didn't bounce off, and the Extreme Gear in his left, carefully holding it so that he wouldn't crush it. He then opened up his right hand just as the teenage hedgehog and the pre-teen squirrel panted before they looked up hesitantly, and found that their fall has been broken by the softness of the giant Mobian's skin which felt warm, making them feel very safe. It was then that they realized they were in his hand and looked up in amazement, relief and soon gratitude.
He saved their lives.
"SONIC, SOPHIA. ARE YOU TWO ALRIGHT?" Gaiver asked, worriedly as he carefully brought the two normal-sized Mobians halfway close to his eyes.
"Yeah, we're fine, big guy. Thanks for the save!" Sonic waved with one hand, before turning to Sophia. "You alright?"
"Uh-huh. Thanks for saving me, guys." The young girl nodded happily, only for the moment to be cut off when another loud roar filled the air, causing all of the Mobians to look and saw that the giant rock monster was back up on it's feet and looked so angry it began to charge again.
"THIS MAY BE A LITTLE UNCOMFORTABLE, SO HOLD ON TIGHT, CHILDREN." The Mobian Gorilla instructed, and the duo nodded before he carefully closed his hand around their lower bodies while making sure he didn't squeeze them too tightly, and ran off higher above the mountain with his two passengers crying out in alarm, holding on for dear life. Both Manny and Tails both followed in mid-air.
Though both Sonic and Sophia were pretty uncomfortable as the former wriggled and squirmed to get into a better position without accidentally poking the latter with his quills. "No offense, but I really don't like being held like a toy."
"Me neither. Though at least this is more softer than being in our rock giant friend's hands. I thought I was gonna get skin scrapes." The young squirrel sighed, shaking her head a little.
Gaiver, feeling a little bad for that yet he knew it couldn't be helped, carefully brought brought the two small Mobians to his face while also looking where he was going. "I'M SORRY, LITTLE ONES. AT THIS POINT OF TIME IT CAN NOT BE HELPED."
"That's okay, Gaiver. We know that we can trust ya' in helpin' us out." The blue hedgehog responded, and while he did feel a little scared being within a giant grasp again, even during Kairi's movie production, at the same time he felt safe, as did Sophia who smiled warmly at the huge Mobian who smiled softly back.
Though as much as he hated to admit it and fought down the urge to simply keep the little ones which was a very wrong thing to do, ever since he met Sonic and his friends, Gaiver began to enjoy their company and in his giant form, he liked the feeling of holding them in the palm of his hands. To carry them to places, or simply to just gaze at them. But no, he would never keep them against their will as though they were his toys, collection or pets. They are his friends and he would never use his giant form to cause problems.
What the giant rock monster did to Sophia reaffirmed his suspicions.
"Now what're we gonna do with him?" Manny asked, worriedly with a sweat drop.
Sonic thought quickly, before nodding and called out. "I have an idea. Tails, do you have a back-up Miles Electric or somethin' that records sound?"
"I have at least four and I brought two with me, just in case." Tails called back, then realized what his best friend/big brother had in mind.
"Okay! When we get to a good place for Rocky to sleep without anymore rude wake-up calls, we'll record Sophia's singing and leave him with one of the devices." The blue hedgehog explained.
Fortunately, there was another added bonus to this idea since it also gave him the empathy which would solve another problem.
Following Sonic's directions, they raced around towards the deserted beach while Tails had his back-up Miles Electric to record Sophia's singing and since Gaiver was big enough to simply stand in the middle of the ocean from the main island to Tobrokin's, he waded his way in the water while the others flew overhead. Though this began to set off the teenage hero's hydrophobia as he shivered with a nervous sweat drop, praying that the giant gorilla wouldn't drop him or the twelve year old squirrel who blinked in confusion.
Though when Sonic suddenly realized the big mistake over this plan, he and his friends looked over to see the giant rock monster still following them and were bewildered to find that the beast was wading way through with no trouble.
"I can't believe it! The rock monster's wading through the water!" Tails exclaimed, while the others were completely speechless.
"That's...different." Sun blinked, dumbfounded.
"Guess the water's not deep enough around here for him to sink. I just got worried for a second there." Sonic remarked, unable to believe what he was seeing.
Well, he hoped that the plan will pull off once they reached their destination.
On Tobrokin's Fortress Island, a few hours after he and Hexbot crash landed there, the mad inventor was styling up a bush to shape it just like him, trimming the leaves to make it feel more like home. Though this really didn't dampen his foul mood of failing to capture the Granifer Giganticus, and his two robots hovered behind him.
"Hey boss, who's your leafy lady friend?" Elbot asked, stupidly thinking that the bush portrait was a woman and not Sir Argo Barry Tobrokin.
Growling in irritation, Tobrokin whirled around and threateningly snapped his branch cutter at them, causing the two robots to recoil in fear. "Stop flopping your hinges! Since you two botched the capture of the rock monster, I need the peace and quiet of my meditation garden to calm my nerves."
"May I say, sir, it's working like a charm." Hexbot nervously remarked.
All of the sudden, there was a loud stomping accompanied by the ground shaking, causing the three bumbling villains to stumble while struggling to keep their balance, crying out in alarm. This was followed by the sounds of an biplane and an Extreme Gear in the air, and Sonic's group arrived with Gaiver still carrying the blue hedgehog and Sophia before they came to a stop, and the huge Mobian loosened his grip on the hero of Mobius and the young squirrel, allowing them to sit on his palm, though Sonic stood up to see properly and witness what was going on.
The evil trio screamed in fright at the sight of the giant gorilla who by now carefully put his two passengers on the ground in a safe distance, and handed Sonic the burrowed Extreme Gear, while their friends landed close by.
"Ah! No, not the rodent brats and the giant monkey!" Tobrokin exclaimed in fear. Yet more stomping was felt and heard and surprisingly enough, the giant rock monster appeared...
And apparently trying to locate Sophia while trying to find a good place to sleep, while stepping onto one of the bushes and flattening it.
"Hey, do you mind? Don't stomp on the topiary!" The evil inventor snapped angrily. But to his concern and shock, the Granifer Giganticus then picked up a gazebo before tossing it away as though it was junk, which soon become as that when it smashed onto the ground. "Okay, I thought "Don't stomp on the topiary" also implied, "Don't drop a gazebo on it"."
The giant monster roared in tiredness and frustration.
"Tails, now!" Sonic quickly instructed, while he felt bad about the rock monster causing destruction of Tobrokin's home, he knew that unlike the times in the past, he didn't want to go through in having the inventor to follow Eggman's footsteps and become the new evil scientist to make history repeat itself.
"Oh, here we go..." Sun grumbled, as he and Knuckles, also not looking forward to hearing the horrible screeching again, covered their ears to brace themselves.
"I've put this on an endless loop, so it'll keep our friend here for a long time." Tails announced.
"I'd say that I feel sorry for him, but since he likes it, I kind of don't." Amy sighed, shuddering. Then again, she was glad that not only she hadn't been the victim, but Sophia was saved and she wouldn't be stuck being the Granifer Giganticus' songbird while it could hear her singing at the same time now.
The moment the two-tailed fox cub played the...music(?), the massive beast, sighing over hearing what it thought was a lovely sound, yawned before it promptly fell right over the topiary and fell asleep.
Sonic winced despite what was about to happen next, while Manny apologetically glanced at the dismayed Tobrokin. "Ooh...Sorry about the flowers, Toby."
"How long must I endure this!?" Tobrokin exclaimed, not only that his beautiful flowers were completely ruined, but he was stuck with a giant rock monster in the middle of his garden...and having to listen to what he could only describe as the worst and most horrible sound in the entire universe.
"It takes Granifer Giganticus about a year to fall completely asleep." Star explained knowingly, with an apologetic smile.
"A whole year!? I'm going to lose my mind in less than twenty-four hours!" The thief shouted, his hands on his head. If this is what he has to go through, then he would have to either figure out how to get rid of this monster and the singing recording, or move out of his Island and somewhere onto Seaside Island...
Or even the forbidden Island closeby. That thought terrified Argo to no end.
"Hate to break it to you, Tobocan, but you're in for more bad luck for a really long time." Sun grinned knowingly, his arms folded to his chest and his eyes closed.
"Hm?" When Tobrokin gazed at him quizzily, a large shadow loomed over him and he froze in growing fear. Shivering as he suddenly sensed that something huge that wasn't the Granifer Giganticus towered him, the mad inventor slowly turned around while Hexbot and Elbot both gulped and held onto each other in fear, gasping in fright to see that it was Gaiver who held a scary 'evil' grin, reflexing his fingers of his free hand.
Flinching, Argo turned his gaze pleadingly to Sonic, Tails, Sun, Amy, Knuckles, Kairi, Star, and Sophia hoping that they would help to get him out of this predicament. Unfortunately for him, to his horror, the young Mobians all held their own grins with chuckles, neither of them willing to take anymore chances.
Realizing that his days of attempting to build his theme park are over and that he was about to pay for his crimes, Tobrokin slumped in conceded defeat and dismay, muttering to the readers/viewers. "I guess this is what happens you are a fan of the infamous Dr. Eggman. Cursed with continuous karma."
"...Does that mean we're all goin' to jail?" Elbot asked, worriedly.
"From the looks of Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends, including the giant gorilla...Sadly that's the case." Hexbot muttered in fear and defeat.
"Awww! That ain't fair!" The other robot complained loudly.
Three days later...
Shortly after Sonic and his friends had lured the Granifer Giganticus to it's new permanent home where no one would come to disturb it ever again, they, with the help of Gaiver who caught the bumbling evil trio before they could escape, made it back to the main island where they called in for the authorities from the mainland to arrest Argo and his robots who were forced to wait in jail. It took about a few hours before a few agents of GUN, including Shadow, Rouge and Omega who had been searching for the Eggman-Wanna-be for months, came to collect the villains where they would be locked up in Area 51.
With all the troubles now finally sorted and dealt with, Seaside Island could return to it's fully peaceful times without the worries of Tobrokin or any kind of troubles and monsters that even the Thunder Risk Squad promised to behave themselves. Afterwards, the Sonic Heroes and their friends helped to clean up the mess the Granifer Giganticus caused, and soon things were back to normal.
Afterwards, Sonic and his friends, with Gaiver returning to his normal size once more, enjoyed the last few days of relaxation and now it was time for Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Sun and Star to return home. The six of them stood before Manny, Kairi, Sophia, and Gaiver on the shores of the beach, giving out their last goodbyes, sad as they felt, but knew that in the future they would be seeing each other again soon.
"Well, time of us to get goin'." Sonic announced, admittedly sad to be leaving, but he was looking forward for the next visit.
"Thanks again for everything you guys have done. We're really gonna miss you." Kairi gave out a sad smile. While she wished that they could stay, the young yellow hedgehog knew that they would have to go sooner or later.
"Come back anytime soon and don't take too long, 'kay?" Sophia said, waving as she had a lot of fun being with the Sonic Heroes who either smiled, chuckled or smirked back.
"Don't worry, of course we'll be back for more visits." Tails reassured. "Maybe next time I can teach you how to handle technology, if you want to."
That made the young squirrel beam happily. "I can't wait!"
"I have to admit, it was pretty relaxing in being here. I wouldn't mind coming back sometime." Knuckles remarked, leaving on his own since he would be having Angel Island move again.
"Maybe next time you guys can come visit us in Station Square." Amy suggested to the island girls, beaming. "I can show you all of the fun shops and areas!"
"That sounds like fun!" Kairi beamed, looking forward to that.
"We're really going to miss you." Star said, sad to leave but couldn't wait to visit her father again.
"You guys take care of yourselves, got it?" Sun smirked at the group who all nodded back.
Manny grinned. "Will do, dude. Maybe we'll be seein' each other in Future City to compete in the Grand Prix."
"Now that sounds way past cool!" The hero of Mobius grinned, looking forward to that as he would be training himself how to fully master in riding an Extreme Gear.
"All you take good care of yourselves, young ones. We will be looking forward for your next visit." Gaiver smiled softly, saddened but like his other friends, knew that this moment would have to happen sooner or later.
Sonic, while sad to leave Gaiver and the others, smiled warmly at the Mobian Gorilla with his heart healed up with the knowledge of his friend that not only was finally cured to live a normal life again, but also helped out to save the day a few times as well. He was going to miss him and the others of Seaside Island.
"Thanks, big guy. I'm gonna miss you." Sonic nodded back.
"And I'll miss you too, Sonic the Hedgehog." The Gorilla replied, sharing a fond smile with his younger friend. The two then shook hands, before embracing for the final time, then they were joined by almost everyone else except for Sun and Knuckles who smiled, and simply shook hands with their older friend.
With that and reluctantly departing, Sonic's group then shared a final goodbye before Sonic, Tails and Amy boarded the Tornado 1, Sun and Star heading over to another plane the tangerine hedgehog burrowed to head back to Clocksworth Town, and Knuckles hitching ride with the former trio to land on Angel Island.
The friends waved as the two planes took off to the skies, until the red echidna landed onto his home island, waving a farewell to his younger friends for the time being before he had the Master Emerald to move the giant floating land to fly away from Seaside Island, while the two planes flew, with Sun and Star's taking one direction and the Tornado 1 heading back to the mainland with Sonic once again on the plane's wings, with Manny, Kairi, Sophia, and Gaiver watching with sad smiles, already missing their friends yet knowing deep in their hearts that they would see them again someday.
"I'm gonna miss being on that island. It was so much fun, besides all the problems we've had." Amy sighed, sadly gazing at the disappearing Seaside Island.
"Yeah, but at least it was all sorted out, right? Everything's really back to normal." Tails pointed out, content that things were alright now. The pink hedgehog behind him giggled.
"Yep, you said it, li'l bro." Sonic grinned, his arms folded to his chest as he soaked in the breeze whipping at his quills and on his face. "Now that Tobrokin's in prison, we can enjoy the rest of our lives doin' whatever we want! Goin' on adventures, having some fun, and the best part of all..."
The blue hedgehog smiled happily with laughter, gazing at his little brother and self-proclaimed girlfriend. "Spending time together too!"
This made the two-tailed fox cub and the pink hedgehog smile happily back, very relieved that their heroic friend was finally back to his full and happy-self, much more so than ever before. Despite the few mishaps, Sonic stayed true to his real personality, having learned a lot while making ultimate full recovery, having done so many right things with his friends and family by his side and deep within his heart.
Never again would he allow guilt, fear, sorrow and regret overcome him, because one thing Sonic the Hedgehog knew, everything would be alright from now on.
"Aw yeah! Station Square and new adventures..." Sonic began.
"Here we come!" The blue hedgehog and his two friends chorused happily, making their way back home to the mainland.
Whatever new challenges and days awaited for Sonic and his friends, they were all looking forward to it. As friends...and as part of one, big, happy family.
Sonic's Next Adventure Awaits...
A/N: It took me ages to get this right, but finally the one-shot story I've wanted to post has been complete! I'm not sure when or if I'll be able to continue this story with future one-shots, but I'll do my best with it(assuming Fanfiction is still alive by the time I get back to this...Most likely not the way things are going).
See you later!