Last time on Sonic the Hedgehog, after meeting with Luna's younger daughter, Julie, Sally mentally prepares herself for a challenge against the Patriarch herself. Unfortunately for her, the challenge she walked into isn't quite the one she expected; Luna unleashes her power, seemingly ready to go all out.

The gong rings, initiating the fight. Luna strikes first and fast. Sally barely had a second to dodge a punch coming at her face. When she dodged, a pause. She looked back slowly to see where the fist was aimed at; a sizable hole was in the ceiling now. At the word "Go", Sally almost lost her head in a single move. Luna resumed after that moment of pause, swinging her foot at Sally's head, but Sally quickly pushes forward and lands a hard punch to Luna's side. Luna grunts before jumping back as Sally starts hopping back and forth.

Sally: "I may be a princess, but I don't restrict myself to just one fighting style. That said, wasn't expecting you to force punch a hole through the ceiling."

Luna: "I do apologize, Sally. I admit that I am selfishly taking my pent up aggression out on you after what happened last night. I'd explain… But quite frankly… I JUST NEED TO PUNCH SOMETHING!"

Luna reels back and fist before slamming it onto the ground, causing energy to erupt and a shockwave to send Sally flying back from the force. When Sally was recovering, she is struck by a hard punch to her gut, with the impact coming a full second later, causing her to cough out as she felt pain surge throughout her body. She's then kicked away by the Patriarch. Sally barely holds herself together enough to land back on her feet after a few forced backflips.

Sally: "Gh… Okay. She hits hard… Very hard… But… Strength means nothing if you're not fast too."

Luna jumps at Sally, aiming to slam a fist down on the princess. Sally jumps away, avoiding the following shockwave before retaliating with a drop kick to Luna's face, knocking her back with the force. Luna skids to a stop but Sally quickly takes advantage of the moment of staggering, getting behind the echidna to land a hard elbow thrust into Luna's back. Luna grits her teeth as she stumbles forward.

Luna: "Not bad… It's not often I get a foe who can use their speed to their advantage. But what I lack in speed… I can make up for with strategy."

Luna slams her fist onto the ground, sending another shockwave at Sally, though Sally jumps back before she's caught in it. As she gets some distance, she sees the Patriarch reel back a fist, glowing with her fiery aura, before throwing a punch, sending a ball of green fire at Sally. Sally jump to the side to avoid the fiery energy, starting to run to avoid more being tossed at her. As Sally runs, Luna fires off one more fireball just ahead of Sally, exploding the spot just in front of her, causing her to stop and cover her face from almost getting hit. As Sally was distracted, Luna rushes in low, closing the distance between the two of them. Once she was under Sally, Luna went for a hard uppercut under Sally's chin, jumping with the force as Sally was sent into the air and backwards, landing hard on the ground as if knocked out. Luna looked at Sally for a moment with a determined look. But as Sally did not move for a bit, her look softened a bit.

Luna: "Come on, Sally… Stand back up… I know I hit you pretty hard, but even a regular, everyday Mobian would survive that uppercut…"

Sally twitched before she slowly got back up. She found her footing before she rubbed away some blood coming out of her mouth. She then looks at Luna with a more determined look, taking off her jacket, tossing it aside.

Sally: "I didn't hear no bell…"

Luna looks at Sally with a bit of relief before smiling a bit.

Luna: "Nice. And here I thought I might have knocked you out too soon. Seeing you are still standing though… I think we can continue."

Sally: "And I thought you were gonna teach me some fancy things. I don't mind some good ol' fashioned sparring, but using me as a personal punching bag is not good showmanship."

Luna: "...You are right. And I do apologize. But… This is a test to see if you are worthy… Pay attention to my skills and abilities. Think about how I am using my Chaos energy… And see if you can make it your own."

Sally understood and got back into a ready battle stance. Luna quickly unleashed her Chaos energy and lunges at the princess, aiming a fist at her head. Sally avoids the attempted strike, grabbing the arm as leverage to jump behind Luna and go for a low sweeping kick. The Patriarch jumps over the sweep and goes for an elbow drop on the way down to strike at Sally once again, but Sally quickly moves aside. Luna gets back to her feet in time to block a punch from Sally, bringing the girl in as the echidna lands a knee to Sally's gut. Sally grunts but grapples the leg that struck her and tosses Luna across the large room, giving her some room to breathe and think.

Sally's Thoughts: "She told me to watch and analyze how she uses her Chaos energy… But without much to go off of, I can't say I can figure it out. She uses it to buff her overall strength and give her these abilities… Wait… Buff… And strange abilities… I've witnessed these before!"

Sally's mind goes back to the time she used the Chaos Emerald subconsciously. It reacted to her strong emotions then, but the second time when Sonic offered her his Emerald, she was a lot more concentrated.

Sally's Thoughts: "That's it! Concentration. Emotions. I need to keep my mental and spiritual state leveled. Luna may look calm, but given the destructive force she's letting out, she's quite angry. I need to counter that. Concentrate…"

Luna lunges at Sally, kicking and punching at Sally with swift attacks. Sally blocks and dodges these attacks, but gets hit in the face by a roundhouse kick followed by an axe kick to her head, knocking her to the floor. Sally grits her teeth as she quickly rolls away from a jumping stomp. Sally gets back up as she starts to breathe heavily, getting tired. Luna was starting to breathe a bit heavier too, but not as badly as the princess.

Luna: "Hm… If this is all you got, then perhaps you are not as worthy as I hoped."

Luna's hands glowed with fire once again before reeling them both back. Sally's eyes widened as she knew what this was. If one hand fired off a fire ball, then two would likely result in a flamethrower. She was half right, as a large stream of green fire came at Sally, too wide to avoid by running. Sally could only guard, hoping she could endure the blast. She closed her eyes, hoping for the best. But then… No fire struck her.

Sally: "...Huh?"

Sally opened up her eyes, which then widened at what she saw. A light blue shield, carrying the Acorn emblem on its front, had appeared in front of her, protecting her. Luna smirked, wondering if Sally had stumbled upon her unique form of Chaos energy. Sally looked at the shield before it vanished after a moment.

Sally: "Did I… do that?"

Luna: "Indeed. You conjured your own Chaos energy, focusing it into a defensive stance. It is a start and one I'm looking forward to seeing how you take advantage of it."

Luna gets into a fighting stance, smiling as she was starting to enjoy this. She takes a deep breath before unleashing her aura once more. Sally gave a serious expression, questioning how she conjured the shield in the first place. As she took a deep breath, she concentrated on defense. Luna jumps at Sally with an air kick, swinging with all the force she can muster. Sally blocks the kick, a shield forming on her arm as she blocks. Then upon impact, Luna is sent back by force of her own attack, causing her to reel back in pain.

Luna: "A counter too!?"

Sally: "Whoa… So my shield reflects physical damage? That's incredible…"

Sally starts to get confident as she dashes at Luna, slamming both of her feet onto Luna's guard as she protects her face. Luna grits her teeth as she grabs Sally's leg and slams her to the ground.

Luna: "Grabs beat guard!"

Sally grunts but keeps up the fight, slamming her free foot onto Luna's cheek, causing the Patriarch to spit out blood. Sally stands back up as she and Luna get into a close quarters fight. Sally's shield reflected damage back at Luna, but the Patriarch shifted to lighter attacks to reduce damage to herself. Every kick, punch, and grab had weight behind it. The two had completely forgotten what they were sparring for in the first place. Sally lands a strong punch onto Luna's face, sending the echidna bouncing back from the force before she skids to a stop.

Luna: "...Heh. To think I'd be pushed this far. You are truly a sight, Sally Acorn… But… I'm not done punching things."

Sally: "Thanks, Lady Luna. I wasn't expecting to get this far… But thanks to you… I really outdid myself."

Luna: "Don't stop aiming higher, Sally. Never stop aiming higher. For you, the sky's the limit."

Luna unleashes her aura as she concentrates it into her fist, causing it to glow bright and hot. Sally braced herself, wondering just what Luna intends to do to finish things. She didn't wait long as Luna lunged at Sally with her glowing fist.

Luna: "Apocalypse Strike!"

Sally gets into a guard and summons her giant shield from before, grunting as the echidna's attack lands onto the shield. But unlike the other counters up to this point, Luna was fighting back against the force. Sally held on as she felt the force of Luna's attack gaining traction; she tries to push back, but Luna's attack only got progressively stronger. The Patriarch lets out a battle cry as she pushes her power into overdrive, smashing through Sally's shield, sending the princess flying from the force. Then a sudden force of strength followed, causing the building's entire front half to get blown apart, exploding outwards with debris flying into the sky. Needless to say, the people who saw this panicked at such a sight. As the dust clears, Sally and Luna lay on the floor, exhausted, breathing heavily as they looked up at the sky. The noise of panic outside not disturbing their moment of rest.

Sally: "That… was awesome… You are something else, Lady Luna…"

Luna: "That's what… two hundred years of… training gets you… But I hadn't… used my full power… in so very long…"

Sally: "So… Did I… pass?"

Luna lets out a tired chuckle, smiling brightly as she looked up at the ceiling.

Luna: "With flying colors… Sally… You passed with flying colors…"

As the two lay on the ground, Julie and Aleena approach to stare at them both, Julie in particular looking quite annoyed.

Julie: "Mom… Did you have to blow up the whole training hall? You know how long it's going to take to get it repaired!?"

Luna: "...Oh. Hi, Julie… Um…"

Sally: "...Oops… We may have… gone too far…"

The two combatants share a laugh as Julie just face palms and Aleena just giggles with them.

At the hospital, after the doctors and nurses got over the initial shock of seeing their own leader injured and exhausted to all heck, Sally and Luna were given treatment as soon as they could provide it. After wrapping both girls in bandages, Julie and Aleena joined them as they recovered.

Julie: "Well I hope you're satisfied now."

Luna: "Very."

Julie: "And I hope you don't expect me to clean up your mess."

Luna: "I don't. Rather, I have something to announce."

Sally: "Do you… reconsider your decision?"

Luna shakes her head, looking at Sally with a sad smile.

Luna: "No… My mind is still made up on that… It will take more than a little brawl between a hard headed princess and a stubborn patriarch to change that…"

Aleena: "Then what is it, Luna?"

Luna: "While I cannot risk my entire city to fight in your war, I can provide an alternative… An emissary to join your fight… My own daughter, Julie."

Julie: "Oh that's dandy. Send a rando who can't do anything, compared to- …Wait what?"

Luna: "I'm sending you, Julie, as an emissary to see if Sally's friends and home can protect our people. I'm asking you to be my eyes and ears to the world outside."

Luna spoke seriously, but she did smirk a little, which gave Julie the hint that her role was more than just an emissary. She was a proper ally to Sally and her cause. Julie smirked before closing her eyes and turning away.

Julie: "Fine. I guess it's better this way. You'd just talk Sally to death with your stories."

Aleena: "But how will we get back to West Island? The port town we arrived at is likely guarded by Mordred's soldiers…"

Luna: "Ah. I never did reveal the newest addition to our city."

Luna simply giggles as even Julie stares at her with a raised eyebrow, along with Sally and Aleena.

Luna: "When I noticed trouble in Mercia, I had the forethought to build our own little pier in the event someone needed safe passage off the island. Once you are recovered, Sally, we'll send you back to where you need to go."

Sally: "Lady Luna… Thank you… For everything…"

Luna: "Just 'Luna' is fine, your highness."

The two share a smile before giving a friendly handshake. Though subtle, the heroes now had a new ally in the form of the echidnas to help in their fight. Their power only continues to grow… But so too do their enemies'.

On another island, far from Mercia, a boat drifts on the waves, closing in on the island. On this boat were two passengers - a pink hedgehog in a red dress, and a green bird in a black and red striped, short sleeved shirt and red skirt. As the boat reaches land, the pink hedgehog jumps out and takes a deep breath, shouting excitedly.

Amy: "HELLO, NEVER LAKE ISLAND!"

To be continued…