Chapter 30:

When I got into Castle Soleanna to see the others, Elise looked relieved while I also noted that not only was Shahra and Merlina very concerned for the two girls, but that three other girls were here in the form of Cream, Tikal, and Chaos! And Chaos looked like she was currently in a mix of her Chao form and her watery form with her two hands being in her Chaos 0 forms while the rest of her looked like a Chao. And she looked very concerned. And I also noted the complete absence of Blaze, but that meant she had to go back to her own world, lest she have issues with the Sol Emeralds.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"They've been acting strangely ever since last night and only at night," Merlina said as I also saw that Cream looked like she was getting a bit of purple above her head... but she didn't look to be acting any differently.

"Miss Cheryl? Why do I hear a creepy voice telling me that you're evil? I know you're not evil, so why is it trying to say that?" Cream asked, me seeing that she was still extremely mature, to the point where the darkness evaporated above her head... only to go into Tikal's head instead!

"Rgh... g-get... get out of my..." she gasped before I saw her eyes turn purple. "My people were right all along. The Chaos Emeralds need to be controlled through strength and brutality!" she said, that making Chaos gasp as I frowned.

"It's as I expected. Dark Gaia is influencing Sticks, Maria, and now even Tikal. It's making them extremely negative in their worst assets. Sticks is anger, Maria is sorrow, and Tikal is repressed memories," I said, that making Shahra gawk.

"What do we do to free them?" she asked as Sticks then shouted.

"YOU GOVERNMENT SCUM! YOU SAW ME THROUGH THE SCREEN DOING NAUGHTY THINGS! I'M GONNA RAIN MY FIRE INTO YOUR BLOOD!" Sticks shouted as I saw she was starting to bust out of her restraints, me then resulting to one thing.

"Red Ring of Anger!" I shouted as I then forced the light to blind the room, us then seeing the darkness leave the trio before manifesting into Dark Gaia minions!

"WHAT THE?! What the hell is going on?!" Sticks asked in shock as I then proceeded to pummel the daylights out of the Dark Gaia creeps with the Green Ring of Hate using illusion powers to drill them with numerous fake knives until all of them were completely dead and evaporated into nothingness.

"Hoogh... I feel... what was I saying?" Tikal asked in confusion before then looking at me. "And what the hell happened to you, Cheryl?" she asked, pointing out my new look, courtesy of Dark Gaia. But then, before they could inspect it any further, the sun started to rise up, me then losing my transformation in a snap, which made them even more confused.

"When Eggman split the world apart to free Dark Gaia, he did so when siphoning the powers of the Chaos Emeralds, which were currently infused with me, Sonic, Amy, and Cosmo when we went to confront him. Cosmo insisted to come for the ride because she knew that, since I'm half-mobian, I wouldn't survive in space without help. And this forced all four of us to become infused with some of Dark Gaia's powers. It only comes out at nighttime, but it gives a big strength boost at the best of times," I said, Cream smiling at me.

"Thanks for being awesome again, Cheryl," Cream smiled, me smirking and giving her a small hug and pat on the head.

"You're welcome, Cream," I smirked back.

"So what do we do now?" Elise asked.

"Now we need to go to the nearby area of Spagonia. I know for a fact that there's a temple there that can help restore power to the Chaos Emeralds, it's all a matter of asking around to see if they know-" I was about to finish before Elise spoke.

"Oh, I think I know where that temple is! It's right on the border between Soleanna and Spagonia, but on Spagonia's side. I know where it is because my mother took me there when I was a kid. If you hurry, you could probably get there and then join up with the others before they get back to Spagonia," Elise smiled.

"How did you know that I was somewhere else?" I asked her.

"Your caller ID said you were in Chun-Nan at the time," Merlina said, me smirking at that. Sure, she'd only been living with us for a few months, but she had since become accustomed to modern life. She did refuse to being in a relationship with me for the time being, since she was still feeling the pangs of grief from her husband, but she did say that she'd let me know when she was ready. "And so you know, I know what you're thinking about in your head," Merlina said, me sighing at that. "And I'll say this much. I'll join your harem after you defeat the threat of Dark Gaia, since I could feel it was some of the darkest magic I have ever seen... I'm coming with you to slay this beast, too," she said with a smirk.

"I will, too. I don't want a horrid monster to hurt the world!" Cream said with seriousness.

"Then count me in, too! I need to get my revenge against that punk for making me almost hurt Elise and Shahra!" Sticks said as she grabbed her boomerang with a smile. As for the rest?

"I'll stay here for the time being. I don't like dealing with dark magic, because just being near the stuff makes me sick," Shahra said as she then looked a bit pale in the face before then sitting down instead of floating.

"I have to go to work for GUN in a few hours, so I can't go either," Maria said.

"And the kingdom needs to have their queen to keep them safe, so I will also stay behind. Just promise we can have some time for all of us after you save the world, please? Like get all of us and take us on a date someplace?" Elise asked, me nodding at that.

"And I'll include Tikal and Chaos into that, then," I smirked, the duo looking at me in surprise before then looking at each other.

"You're serious? You think of us as potential suitors?" Tikal asked, me nodding at her.

"Can I ask how it'd work for me?" Chaos asked, me seeing that she could still talk, but I could tell why she hadn't until now. Her voice was much higher in pitch in her current form of a slightly mutated Chao.

"I could always ask Shahra to grant a wish to have it be possible, right?" I asked, her smirking at that.

"It depends on what the wish would be," she admitted.

"The same as with the others? Fertility magic?" I smiled, her then smirking.

"So long as you don't mind a Chao being the result," she smirked.

"I'd love that, actually," Chaos smirked "Just go and save the world and get those Chaos Emeralds restored, please? I don't like change," she admitted.

"Same, Chaos. Same same," I said as we then proceeded to leave out the castle window and proceeded to the area that Elise described. And since I knew that Spagonia was west of Soleanna, that's where we ran to.

"First, I need to get Chip with us, since he's the only one who can get into the pedestals in the temples," I said as I then focused powers with the green ring and the white ring together. What was the result? I combined their powers to directly warp him to our location, which I could tell surprised the little deity!

"WHOA! W-What the, how the.. what happened?" he asked as I then looked at him with seriousness.

"I had you teleported here so we could get the next emerald restored, since I know that it's in Spagonia, right on the border of Soleanna," I smiled as I saw that we had to go through the Kingdom Valley of Soleanna as well as a little across a lake before we could finally reach Spagonia's border, where we saw that the temple was halfway across a long bridge that went in a spiral and down to a lower route to Soleanna.

"So are we going to fly there or... or what?" Cream asked as I saw that, though she had grown up to be a 10-year-old teenage rabbit, she could still easily fly with her humongous ears.

"We're going to cheat our way there," I smiled as I then proceeded to use the powers of the green ring of hatred and I had a flying rowboat appear that looked like a Viking boat, but with automatic rowing powers. "Hop on, it'll be safe," I smirked, the girls then doing so and Cream looking at it in awe.

"Whoa... so this is that secret power that miss Merlina said you got? Cool as ice cream!" Cream smirked as I actually noticed something. Cheese was completely missing.

"Cream? Where's Cheese at?" I asked, Cream smiling at me.

"He's uh... um... well..." Cream said, me seeing that she was concerned, me looking in her mind to see what was going on. And when I did, I simply smiled. Cheese had turned back into an egg and was currently growing back at the castle under Tikal and Chaos's care.

"Don't worry, Cream. It's completely natural for a Chao to revert back to an egg after awhile," I smirked, Cheese sighing.

"I know, Chaos already told me... I just don't know if he'll remember me... Chaos said it'd take a week for Cheese to hatch again and he only reverted to that state roughly 4 hours ago... I don't know if he'll recognize me, so I'm very worried, y'know?" Cream said with a couple tears in her eyes, me smiling at her as our boat started to move on its own towards the bridge.

"Hey, no crying, Cream. I can tell you this much. Though Cheese may look different, he will remember all the kindness you've ever shown him and he will recognize you. That's a promise," I said, her looking at me with a small, sad smile.

"Really?" she smiled.

"Really really," I smirked, her then hugging me tighter as we then finally reached the bridge and proceeded to disembark and run towards the temple... only to get stopped by something I didn't expect. Something fast. VERY FAST! It zoomed across me faster than I could see and then zoomed around us to the point you could see sparks of blue and yellow around us before the sight then made itself known by stopping directly in front of me. And who was it?

"Metal Sonic. I honestly didn't expect Eggman to rebuild you after that last stunt you pulled," I smirked at him with a cocky grin as he then simply snubbed his nose at me.

"But of course, Cheryl the Shapeshifter. I have been meaning to make you pay for the pain you inflicted onto me back then. And now with the upgrade to the Gaia Drive Eggman has installed into me, I can effectively fight for ages without need for rest. You will not survive this," he said, me then looking at him and smirking.

"Very well, then let's dance. Just you and me. My friends are not your concern," I smiled.

"On the contrary," Metal Sonic said, me then gasping as, out of nowhere, he then rushed forward and grabbed Chip, me gasping and immediately flashing the bright light of the red ring in Metal Sonic's face, him then managing to short-circuit for just long enough to release Chip from his grasp, him then hiding in my outfit with a shiver as I then proceeded to smack my fist into his face, him then looking at me and grabbing me with his hand, me gawking at how he then looked at the rings on my hand.

"Those rings on your body seem imbued with power. How would you fare without them?" he asked as he then looked ready to slash his robotic claws against my skin, me barely having enough time to send a deluge of water at him with the blue ring, him then short-circuiting again as I got it into his center hole.

"Just snap out of it! That Dark Gaia stuff is dangerous!" Cream shouted at him, Metal Sonic growling as he then tried to activate it, but I saw that my flash of light had did the trick and got it out of him.

"What... why isn't it working?" he asked as I simply smiled.

"Darkness hides from light, plain as that," I said as I then punched him in the face one more time and then did something different. I grabbed the yellow ring and proceeded to engulf his body in electricity... but then, while doing so, I did something else. I combined the power of the yellow ring and the aqua ring to see if I could rewrite his code! And after a bit of work, I changed the codes within him to make him a much more calm and good person, me finishing within a minute and 39 seconds. And when I did, Metal Sonic fell down and took a knee, him then speaking after.

"This feeling... what did you do to me?" Metal Sonic asked as I simply smiled at him.

"I gave you free will, got rid of the kill codes within you, and rewrote hate "Sonic and Cheryl" to "Hate Eggman." You're welcome," I smirked, him looking at the others and then at me again.

"I still feel anger at you... why would you do this?" he asked.

"Consider it a second chance from my end. It'd be wise to have you on the side of good rather than the side of evil. Also, I got rid of the Gaia Drive, since it was exceedingly dangerous to you," I said, him grumbling at me before simply looking at the others.

"I feel I should say this now... while you fought me, Eggman collected the data that was going on. He now knows about those rings on your person and knows you are powerless without them. He will most likely try to steal them from you," he said, me sighing at that.

"And that is something I don't want. Not because of how strong he'd become, but because that, if he were to try and hold onto them whenever they're off my body, the things those rings could do to him may end up killing him. I was barely able to handle getting the power of the Green Ring of Hatred or the Red Ring of Anger. Imagine how much hatred Eggman has. He'd die within a second from the rings, no matter which ones he uses. It's for his own good that he never tries to steal them from me," I said, me knowing something, since I could hear a humming from nearby with my mouse ears. "And I know you can hear me, Eggman," I said, him then growling as he then flew down to me and I turned to face him.

"And how did you hear me without seeing me?" he asked, me pointing at my mouse ears.

"Ask me again," I frowned, him frowning at me with angry eyes. "And I'll say this again. I'm not giving you these rings. Not because of how strong you'd get, but because of the fact that you couldn't handle what would happen after. Each ring has the embodiment of an emotion within them. And if you grab it without anything else touching it, the result would be that the ring would force that emotion out of you. All the instances of feeling that emotion in your entire life, plopped on you all at once. Even if the effects wear off after ten seconds, falling asleep at all after that happens within the span of 5 hours would kill you. So. You still want to take them? Or would you rather die from a ring instead of a person? That sounds like such a wussy way to go out," I said, him growling at me and then looking like he was going to do something... but he wasn't moving.

"Ey, boss? What's goin' on? Git that varmint!" Cubot said, Eggman then looking to push a button, but hesitating.

"Just fly off, please, Doctor Eggman? I don't like fighting people, but I've gotten a lot stronger since we last saw each other," Cream said, Eggman then finally leaving in an instant, making me look at Cream in surprise.

"Huh... you managed to make him fly off. Must've been the cute factor. Nobody, not even I could say no to cuteness from a literal bunny girl," I smirked, her smiling at me.

"I overheard you saying that stuff while you were in Chun-Nan, by the way," she said, me gawking at that. "Yes, my ears are that good at hearing, before you ask. But, you know what? I accept. I can wait for a year until I come of age, then we'll talk," she said, me looking at her in surprise.

"Rabbit mobians mature at age 11?" I asked.

"Well, regular rabbits can mate at less than a month, so of course it'd be early for rabbit mobians, too," Merlina smirked.

"Let's go in there... by the way, Chip, you can come out, now," I said, him then poking his head out of my armored top and looking at me in concern.

"O-Okay," he said, me looking at Cream and seeing she had a chocolate bar.

"Hey, Chip? You wanna meet chocolate for the first time?" I asked, him looking at me in confusion.

"Who's Chocolate?" he asked.

"It's not a who, mister Chip. It's a what. And this is it," Cream smirked as she handed him the whole uneaten chocolate bar.

"Mmm! Looks tasty!" he smirked as he then proceeded to eat it as we went into the temple, Metal Sonic reluctantly following us with his jet boosters, but at a leisurely pace. We then got to the pedestal and Chip then activated it. And when he did, I then placed the emerald into the recess, it being the blue emerald. And after it got placed in the spot, it then shined brightly and then we felt the shaking of the continent as we then exited the temple.

"Whoa! Look!" Cream gawked as we saw something awesome, yet scary. Though we were still roughly 19 miles away from it, we saw that, over the horizon, a piece of continent was still high in the sky and we could see the earth's crust from underneath it!

"That is certainly something to think about. We need to get this planet restored before people get more scared than they already are, particularly any that suffer from fears of heights," I said.

"Let's go to Spagonia proper, then. We'll need to meet up with the others," Sticks said with seriousness, us then doing so... before I got a call on my GUN communicator from Agent Miles.

"Yeah, yeah, start squawking," I frowned into the communicator.

"Where the heck did you go, Ch-er... Agent Martinez? And why did the ground shake the moment we touched down?" Tails asked.

"I got the third continent restored, it being the one we stand on. Now we need to get going to another place, which is one that I know will be freezing cold," I said.

"You still haven't answered the first question. Where are you?"

"I'm on route to the university along with a bit of extra firepower. We'll need all the help we can get to find the Super Emeralds and defeat Dark Gaia and Eggman," I said with seriousness.

"Super Emerald? You mean like the one Eggman installed into my Gaia Drive?' Metal Sonic asked, me gawking at that.

"Wait... Eggman did that? Installed a Super Emerald in you? Why didn't you say anything?!" I asked.

"I was unaware you needed them," he stated. "Unfortunately, the area of the Gaia Drive is inside of my internal designs. In order to reach it, you'll need to open me up and get rid of numerous parts, thus turning me off forever," he said, me smirking and simply using the powers of the rings once again and immediately teleporting the Gaia Drive out of him, which I could tell made Metal Sonic surprised, me smirking at him.

"I saw you didn't need it to operate, so I simply turned off those cords that connect to it while I reprogrammed you, and then warped the Gaia Drive out of you and only that part," I smiled as I also saw that, right in the center of the Gaia Drive was a red and blue-striped Super Emerald. "And whaddaya know, we got Super Emerald number 6! Only one more, and we got enough to save the day!" I smiled widely.

"I think I know where a Super Emerald would be, but it won't be easy to get it," Sticks said, me looking at her in confusion.

"Where is it and why won't it be easy to get to?" I asked her.

"It's in a secret jungle in a place called Adabat. Hard to get to, because it's an island surrounded by shallows filled with rocky crags. Only way there is by swimming or small aircraft. Only I know the location, as it's where I used to live. I left when I came of age and got duty of protecting the Echidna rainforest and their mansion... before Mistress Tikal relieved my duties," Sticks explained.

"Well, sounds fun," I smirked before I then used the Rings' power to speak to her mind. "So you know, we'll need to go there in the near future, as it's one of the places where there's a shrine for the emeralds," I said, Sticks gasping at that before looking at me, me seeing the others in the group were smiling. "I'm only speaking in your heads with the dream ring because of one reason. One very fat and very hairy reason... well, aside from his scalp," I said, that making the group laugh out loud as we finally reached the location we needed to, that being the university of Spagonia, where we saw the others were waiting impatiently, particularly Sonic.

"Ugh, you took your time. We've been waiting here for 20 minutes," Sonic complaiend.

"No, it's been exactly 13 minutes and 20 seconds. For the fastest thing alive, you're terrible at keeping track of time," Amy said, throwing some SERIOUS shade at the blue blur, me whistling at that.

"Whew! Savage! This is what you missed out on, Sonic!" I smirked, him frowning at me.

"I'm afraid of commitment, not her," he admitted.

"Well... it's not a lie," I frowned, knowing that much thanks to the rings. "Now, we're going to be going to the frozen north to the location of Holoska. And lucky me, I know that it's actually where Alaska is... right?" I asked, Tails then showing me via his Miles Electric, where we saw that the village that we had to go to was in the exact location of a town that I went to when I was in my world, which also had a movie made about it... involving vampires. It was stupid.

"So, we're going for Utqiaġvik, huh? It'll be nostalgia for me, since I went there far in the past," I smirked.

"Past as in your timeline, past as in your last adventure, or past as in this timeline?" Sonic asked with annoyance in his voice.

"Sheesh, take a chill, Sonic. Past as in my own timeline. I went there for a family outing when I was 8 years old, since my dad wanted to show me the sights. When he first showed me the place, it was called Barrow, Alaska, but they changed the name to the native tongue name about four years before I was sent through time against my will," I said.

"Blame your descendent on that one... and also a bit of me, I guess," Merlina sighed.

"Ahem, can we get going, then? And please tell me that some of you will fly some other way, because I don't have the space in the Tornado for all of us," Tails frowned.

"Don't worry, Miles, I got my own mode of transport," I smirked as I then used the green ring's powers to form a large unicorn with wings and a rainbow design, but also having a dragon and a Siren (Aka, Mermaid with wings). And Cream gawked at the sight as her eyes lit up with wonder and Miles frowned at me.

"Point Cheryl. Now it's even on the scorecards of revenge," I smirked at Tails as me and the girls boarded the ride with the numerous conjured seats and seatbelts. Hell, even Amy joined in on the fun.

"I feel like I should be mad, but I'm also very impressed," Tails pouted.

"Oh, it's not mad you should feel. I'd say jealousy is the more apt term," Merlina giggled as Chip got in the driver's seat with me and I looked at Tails with a shit-eating grin.

"Let's get going, tornado boy. Not even Eggman can predict the Siren-Unicorn-Dragon Stampede," I smiled at him.

"That's a lame name," he frowned.

"Better than the pun yours is based on, OOOHHH!" I smirked as I then had us gallop into the skies while Tails had to fly after us in the boring plane.

"This is both epic and awesome! And sick burn on Tails, haha!" Cream giggled at the feeling of being on a giant unicorn, me smirking at her. I wanted to show off for her as well. Hopefully she could keep secrets galore and be useful for information stealing with those impressive ears. But first thing's first, gotta save the world.