A secure hidden lair in an abandoned clothing store; Doctor Robotnik's minion former government agent Stone sighing in the lab that he had set up. Monitors; recovered Robotnik technology and a memorial of Doctor Robotnik was set up. He looked to his memorial and told himself "Still can't find any trace of you Doctor... If you are truly gone then I will carry on your work and take justice in your name..." Stone muttered as he then focused on a monitor showing satellite footage of the debris of Athena-1 along with the rat monster body.
He then got an alert that a pod sent from a Robotnik satellite was returning; he then pressed a button opening up the roof and allowing the drone to land safely in the lair. The pod then opened up the door and a drone came out carrying a cannister and the body of the rat monster. "What do we have here..." Stone asked himself smirking as he then activated a table machine to start an autopsy of the monster corpse while having a machine scan the cannister.
He then had the computer play Bad by Michael Jackson and then did a Moonwalk dance while the scans were being made; he looked at the results and said "not bad Energyne but it could always be made better..."
Inside the San Diego Wildlife Sanctuary; the Wachowskis, Davis and Ralph were looking at the cage inside the building where George had been moved to. Nelson one of the scientists at the Wildlife Sanctuary; stared at the 3 alien teens and then Ralph who was standing with them at the side. "So we are going to pretend that this is normal Davis... That there are 3 bipedal animals with colors of fur that shouldn't exist in the wildlife and there is a giant wolf standing there as well..." Nelson muttered as Ralph went up to him.
"I sense fear... I like sensing fear in prey because it means that they may run and I do find a good chase fun..." Ralph said as Sonic and Knuckles then pushed Ralph back.
"Sorry about our buddy here..." Sonic said apologetically and Nelson then chuckled before leaving the area.
"So here things how from where I stand on your end... These 3 animal kids are aliens that you adopted... Sonic is the 'Blue Devil' that Crazy Carl talked about in your home and caused that big blackout that had you framed as a terrorist..." Davis asked and they nodded.
"Pretty much yeah... We knew that you would never believe us but whatever happened with Ralph was a surprise..." Tom then said as Tails was scanning the cannister in a bag that Davis had collected from the crash site.
"The residual energy... It's the same from the material that Ralph eat and made him bigger and more aggressive..." Tails then said eyes widen.
"So; whatever happened to my friend George is whatever happened to your wolf friend?" Davis asked and Sonic nodded.
"Don't worry... I think that I got this..." Sonic then said showing the Master Emerald. "This helped calm Ralph down and I bet that the Master Emerald can help George. You would be able to have conversations with him as well... Go over your favourite movies because you look like an action movie guy and could even star in them..." Sonic then said going for the door but Tom and Maddie then stopped him.
"Are you sure you want to do this Sonic... George got into a fight with a grizzly bear and won... I don't want him to hurt you since he can't control it..." Maddie asked as Sonic gave her a thumbs up.
"Please be careful blue man; George is my friend and I have been with him for most of his life... Saved him from poachers... They killed his family..." Davis told him softly and Sonic then nodded slowly.
The door was opened and he went up to George and then focused the Master Emerald on him. The energy went off on George and he stared him down with Sonic looking nervous as he waved at him. George growled causing the humans to shout Sonic's name in worry and Ralph then growled at his direction.
George then stopped and started laughing as he rustled Sonic's head; "Davis... He... Friend?" George asked finding he could speak while also using sign and his eyes widened. Davis was in awe but started smiling and nodding as George then opened up the cage and hugged Davis who was taken aback and he hugged him back. "Davis's friends as well..." George then said looking at them.
"Yep but we could do without your little joke on Sonic... You had us scared..." Tom then replied as Maddie nodded.
"You were lucky because I would have gone in there and ripped your throat open if you went on for another 10 seconds... I feel funny knowing what seconds are..." Ralph snapped as George looked at him and Tails then put up his hand encouraging him to go back before things could escalate.
"He is also fortunate as I have defeated warriors much larger than him and with white fur as well... Warriors from a world that has come to this world as well... Responsible for what is known as 'abominable snowmen'... The Planet of the Apes would have been taken care off before it started if George and I fought..." Knuckles ended up saying as Nelson came rushing in with Kate.
"Davis... Dr Kate Caldwell here said that the cannister that we found was her's and she could engineer a cure and... There are people here who say that they are from GUN..."
"Oh great... This just keeps getting better and better..." Sonic muttered shaking his head as Tom and Maddie looked intense.
"Excuse me; did that blue hedgehog just talk..." Kate asked pointing to Sonic who waved at her.
The main offices of Energyne as Kate and Brett were still together as Brett was on the phone before ending the call. "Burke's men are going to pick him up but... I am sure that whatever that red talking thing was will have escaped by now... Did anything in Caldwell's research suggest that it was possible for that to happen?" Brett asked as Claire shook her head.
"Does it really matter Brett? Besides; when you are choosing to play god then you have to be prepared to adapt to some unforeseen events... Like if a snake convinces one of your creations to eat from the forbidden fruit or in this case... Our property advancing beyond our expectations..." Claire told Brett who took that in but then they saw a news alert on one of the monitors.
A rampaging rhino alert in Chicago; the news report showed footage of Stone riding on top of a rhino breaking out of the zoo causing civilians to scream while security were giving chase. He then had him charge at a stall selling lobsters and then stole one. He then got off and then took out the cannister from his jacket and then poured some of the mutagen inside over the rhino and the lobster. The rhino then looked enraged as it started attacking the buildings.
"That guy has one of our cannisters... We have to find him..." Brett then told her as she then saw a security feed from the front of the building.
"Will be easier than expected... Look..." Claire told him as the feed showed Stone looking up and waving at the camera.
The Stone story in the Sonic 2 Pre-Quill comic shows that Stone can actually be capable villain when acting alone (albeit following instructions left behind by Robotnik as a contigency). Plus you can see how much the plot of the actual Rampage movie has diverged so far.