Last time on Sonic the Hedgehog, Queen Aleena and Rei prepare to jump into the fray after hearing that Sonic and his friends had been arrested at Meropis. Though not before trying to understand the circumstances behind Undina's leaving, only guessing what the events could have been. Meanwhile, Titania was brought to Angelica's throne and offered a chance to become a member of the royal guard, even against her will if necessary, with Striker acting on his own whims behind the scenes. A dark storm was brewing in the walls of Meropis Castle…

Several years ago, at Meropis Castle's training yard, a shark Mobian in the royal guard's uniform was seen commanding some new cadets, among them being a younger Echo, who was comparatively nervous. As the line of cadets were dismissed, Echo didn't hear the order, causing her to jump as the shark called her name.

Shark: "Echo. Did you not hear me dismiss you?"

Echo: "N-No, Captain Borea, m-ma'am!"

Borea: "...Do I scare you?"

Echo: "Yes! NO! …Um…"

Echo was sweating bullets, unable to keep her stride as Borea leaned in closer. This eventually causes her to faint, leaving the captain to just scratch her head.

Borea: "...Sigh… Good grief."

A little while later, Echo wakes up in the barracks, a little startled before sighing at where she was. That is until another cadet called her name.

Cadet: "Echo! The captain needed to see ya!"

Echo: "M-Me?"

Echo started to hyperventilate as she walked out of the barracks, thinking she was in trouble.

Borea: "Yo."

Echo: "GAH! C-CAPTAIN!"

Borea: "...You're way too young to be having heart attacks. Look, if you're done wetting yourself at the sight of me, I want you to come with me."

Echo: "C-Come with you."

Borea walked ahead, with Echo following close behind.

A short while of walking, the two come to the city itself as Borea invites Echo to the arcade. Echo was… understandably confused.

Echo: "...Why are we here? Aren't we supposed to be training?"

Borea: "While you're a nervous wreck around me? Hah! My own daughter's got serious backbone compared to you!"

Borea starts to laugh, causing Echo to lower her head in shame, thinking she was getting kicked out of the military. But then what came next shocked Echo.

Borea: "But me? I'm hardly brave; I only act brave because of her. Because I have someone to protect."

Echo: "Wh-Wha? N-Nah, you're lying…"

Borea: "Eh, maybe a little today, but back when I was your age. Hardly. Sharks like me have a reputation. Stop me if you've heard 'em. 'Sharks are bloodthirsty killers. They'll eat your bones and snack on your remains.'..."

Echo: "Y-Yeah… That's why I'm scared…"

Borea: "And it's those exact rumors that I fear. Truth? I'm no different from you. A creature who likes to chill while serving her kingdom. A girl who just wants to live peacefully with her daughter and protect the royal family. And one day, you'll be doing exactly that too. But only if you stop believing in such ridiculous rumors."

Echo: "Um… O-Okay… H-How?"

Borea: "Well, ask me anything. I'll be an open book to you."

Echo: "O-Oh. Um… What's your favorite color?"

Borea: "Green. I love grass; the surface's full of them and it's so soft to lay on."

Echo was quite shocked to hear that, given her eye color was a shade of green. The young dolphin continued to ask an assortment of questions, getting progressively more comfortable with the shark until…

A slam on the table caused the present day Echo to wake up, startling her as she looked around. She saw a royal guard glaring at her as she was, seemingly, slacking off on the job.

Echo: "Oh. Uh… Ahem. I got a little hungry and-"

Soldier: "Nevermind that. Captain Striker requests your presence concerning the pirates."

Echo: "Pirates? What pirates…?"

Soldier: "What rock were you living under? Captain Striker went out to deal with a hardy group of pirates those Freedom Fighting phonies were teaming up with. The captain of those pirates is a real doozy; able to go toe to toe with him."

Echo: "Oh? And who is this pirate captain?"

Soldier: "That's the best part. It's the former captain's daughter, Titania!"

Echo's casual demeanor completely dropped as her eyes widen in shock. She quickly shoves the soldier aside as she runs out of the building, putting her helmet back on on the way.

Echo's Thoughts: "Th-The captain's own daughter!? I knew she and her mom left Meropis years ago, but… to come back like this… I hope it's not too late…"

Meanwhile, in the Meropis Castle's dungeons, Sonic and his team all share a cell as everyone but Sonic, who's been awake for a little while, come to.

Tails: "Ugh… What storm hit us…?"

Amy: "Storm… More like electro-therapy…"

Sonic: "Yeah, I wish it was a storm, but it wasn't. It was Angelica playing us for chumps."

Julie: "But… Why? Why would she send her soldiers at us? And not let us handle the situation?"

Sonic turns to his friends as he shows cuffs on his legs to restrict his speed, with Tails having cuffs on his tails and hands, while Amy and Julie only had cuffs around their hands but their weapons were gone.

Sonic: "Can't say. But you know what? It doesn't matter. If she wants to play us like a bunch of saps, then she better be ready for what comes after."

Tails: "But how do we get out? We're cuffed up."

Amy checks the cuffs before getting a sneaky idea.

Amy: "They didn't cover my weights."

She says, showing her golden bracelets. Tails and Julie stare at her before nodding to each other.

Tails: "So what's our plan, Sonic? Once we break out, what then?"

Sonic: "We find those pirates. Honestly, they have it way worse than us. So we find them and bust them out. Then we charge the queen's throne room."

Julie: "Heh. Overwhelm her with numbers. I like it."

As they spoke, Amy takes off her bracelets before snapping the chains of her cuffs effortlessly, then doing the same for everyone else's. Once they were freed, Amy pulled at the bars, opening them up to allow her and her friends to escape. And wouldn't be long before they were met with resistance as guards charge in to arrest them again.

Julie: "Looks like the calvary is here."

Amy: "Sonic! Tails! We'll keep them here!"

Tails: "A-Are you sure you two can handle it?"

Julie: "Need you ask? We've got this."

Julie and Amy turn to the boys, giving them a thumbs up and a smile respectively. Sonic smirks back before grabbing Tails' shoulder.

Sonic: "They'll be fine, Tails. You and I are fast so we'll be in and out in no time to help them out if they need it."

Tails: "Ah… Alright, Sonic."

The duo then start dashing, with Tails looking back as they see Amy and Julie pulling out their weapons.

Amy: "Ready?"

Julie: "When you are."

In another part of the dungeon, Rotor is seen with the pirates in a cell; the wall behind him was cracked, indicating he tried to smash his way out in order to escape, but to no avail. His thoughts then raced as he worried over their captain, but more important than that, his worry over the growing brine situation.

Rotor: "Grr… If we weren't behind bars, I'd build something to deal with the brine, but…"

As he talked to no one in particular, a noise catches his attention; the sound of people getting clobbered. He then sees a guard get kicked into the room and slam onto the bars before going limp as his eyes become swirls. Rotor and the pirates looked at the soldier before then looking at the doorway to see Sonic swinging a key ring around his finger.

Sonic: "Did someone call a prison break?"

Rotor: "S-Sonic? You came to help us?"

Sonic: "That's what heroes do."

Sonic unlocks the cell doors, releasing the pirates of their cuffs.

Sonic: "Everyone here?"

Rotor: "Not the captain; she hasn't returned since that jerk Striker came to collect her… I fear for what's happened to her…"

Tails: "We can't leave without her, Sonic! What do we do?"

Sonic: "I can cover the most ground on foot. Tails, Rotor. You two lead these guys out of here as fast as you can. The faster, the better."

Tails: "Right!"

Sonic then speeds out of the room the same way they came in, leaving Tails to do the leading. But before he could, Rotor stops him.

Rotor: "Hold on. Before we start moving, I still need to do one important thing - deal with that trench before the entire Mobius Ocean gets consumed by brine."

Tails: "Wait… What's this about a trench?"

Rotor then explains the whole situation about the trench and brine to Tails, and what leaving it unattended could potentially do. Tails was naturally wide eyed by the news.

Tails: "And Queen Angelica's not doing anything about it?!"

Rotor: "Either she hasn't noticed or she's too prideful of her city to think of such a danger. Even if the brine doesn't cause direct harm to her city, it's still fog-of-war tactics - anything that doesn't breathe the stuff can just enter the city and slaughter everyone here!"

Tails: "Hmm… Then let me help. With two brains, we can get your contraption done in half the time. I can even help adjust the Sea Fox to act as an extension for it."

Rotor thought about this, then saw the immediate logic to it.

Rotor: "You're a genius! Alright. You get the Sea Fox, I'll start working on the machine!"

Tails: "Alright! Free two birds with one Spin Dash! Come on everyone!"

Tails then starts running ahead of the pack as Rotor takes a different path once they exited into the halls, ready to do their parts.

Sonic ran through the halls, turning corner after corner, occasionally stopping to deal with royal guards that tried to stop him. He then decided to question one.

Sonic: "Yo. I'm looking for a shark lady. Wears a nice purple one piece with a skull pattern on it. Seen anyone like her?"

Soldier: "And why would I tell you, cretin?"

Sonic: "...Ever went as fast as I've gone?"

The soldier is then grabbed and used as a "dance partner" as Sonic starts spinning him around in such speed that the soldier was left dizzy and sick from the dancing.

Soldier: "S-Stop! I-I'll- urp -talk… Sh-She's in… the lab sector of the castle… One floor up.'

Sonic: "Lab sector…?"

The idea of a lab sector wasn't necessarily a shock to Sonic, but the idea that Titania was there didn't exactly give him a single reassuring thought. Dropping the soldier so he could throw up, the hedgehog immediately sped to the stairs, climbing them to the next floor. He then ran down the straight hall… only to be met by an invisible wall.

Sonic: "...Ow… Yeah, running mach 10 into an invisible wall is gonna hurt… a lot…"

After peeling himself off the wall, he glares at the wall before then seeing a map next to the stairs. He looks at the map and traces his finger to the nearest lab. Once he had his path set, he dashed down that path, making sure to avoid hitting any invisible walls. He then slammed into the lab he pathed towards and found a few scientists, startled by his presence.

Sonic: "Sup, nerds. Tell me what I want to know and I won't have to turn this place into an Eggman base - blown to bits."

Scientists: "Surely you must be insane."

Sonic shrugs before smashing into the nearest machine he saw, causing the scientists to freak out over their hard work being destroyed.

Sonic: "Sooo?"

Scientists: "Ah! Please, not another machine! Fine… We'll tell you…"

Sonic gets directions to the 'Reprogrammation Lab', which he finds doubly worrying as he sped off towards that lab. Once in there, he found Titania strapped to a table with a helmet on her head, being shocked by the helmet as a variety of phrases were fed into her mind. The scientists stationed there all look at Sonic with surprise before trying to demand that he leave. Emphasis on trying. Sonic was quick to not listen and smash the machine holding the helmet and the computer for it. Titania goes limp, causing Sonic to pause as his expression turned to worry.

Sonic: "Titania! …Oh no… Whatever they were doing… Was I too late…?"

Scientist: "For our sake, I hope you were. I've just contacted the captain of the guard. He'll be here to deal with-"

The helmet is tossed at the scientist, knocking him out in an instant. Sonic looks as Titania smashes the strap holding her other hand before giving one of the deadliest death glares to the other scientists in the lab. Without so much as uttering a word, she stands up from her seat and immediately goes on the attack, leaving the scientists on the ground, unconscious.

Sonic: "...Whoa… Okay, they deserved it, but… A little rough?"

Titania: "Yeah… Maybe… But I'm well beyond too pissed to care."

Titania walked out of the lab before bumping into the invisible wall herself.

Sonic: "Yeah, don't worry. I got a path mapped-"

Titania: "Get out of my WAY!"

Titania punches at the wall, completely shattering it… and the floor under the rest, destroying them as well, much to Sonic's stunned silence.

Sonic: "...You and Amy should hang out. I think you two would get along great."

Titania: "Maybe another time."

Sonic: "Yeah. For now though, we need to get out of here."

Titania: "You go. I'm not leaving yet though."

Sonic: "Huh?"

Titania: "...I'm heading for the bitch queen herself to give her a complaint… personally."

Sonic pauses as he stares at Titania, unsure of how to register that statement. Just what exactly does Titania have in mind? Is it as bad as Sonic fears? And what of the brine situation?...

To be continued…