Tails´ Undercover Team was teleported in an alleyway between two of Metropolis' buildings by Shadow.
"Is this location close enough?" asked the black hedgehog. Tails typed a few things into his Miles-Electric and then putted it away.
"It's is. Thank you Shadow."
The Ultimate Lifeform gave the fox and his friend a serious look.
"You guys better watch out not to get caught. Everything depends on your success. I will cause some chaos alongside our troops from within the city. This should draw Infinite's attention to me."
Regognizing the tone and the tense posture of the black hedgehog, Rouge spoke up with a concerned voice.
"Please don't do anything rash, Shadow. I know you want to hold Infinite accountable for what he did, but..."
Before she could finish her sentence, her friend had vanished with a Chaos Control. Faintly in the distance there was a loud boom echoing from the city. Shadow didn't wait long to make true to what he had just told the duo. Rouge sighed.
"Always with the head trough the wall when things get personal." She turned to Tails. "So kid, are you ready?"
The fox thought about it. They could walk right into Infinite's arms out there and he wouldn't show them any mercy. Not letting them go like he let Tails go for whatever reason back then. But his friends were counting on him. Sonic, Ruby and many others risked their lives to give him, no, all of Mobius, a chance. Tails nodded. "I'm ready."
They walked out of the dirty shadiness of the alleyway. The bright white and chrome coloration of Metropolis being a stark contrast to it. Buildings and machines of varying architectures stretched high into the sky. Streets twisted between the skyscrapers or on bridges that stretched between the facades of different buildings. Mobians and humans rode in cars on these. Tails saw a platypus drive past them, luckily not noticing him and his companion, instead being busy talking with a smug smile into his phone.
"Strange, I didn't expect people to live freely under Eggman's rule."
"If my information is correct, Metropolis is home to a conglomeration of academics, scientists, and families with IQ prodigies. It is here were Eggman wants to accumulate knowledge, use it according to his ideas and raise the following generation his way."
Tails shuddered at the thought of children being practically brainwashed in schools to follow Eggman's agenda. He wondered if this fate would have happened to him had he remained a simple orphan and never met Sonic. A buzzing made him look up. A swarm of Buzz Bombers came flying toward their direction. Tails and Rouge hastily hid back into the alleyway. The machines flew past them without taking any notice of them. Rouge snorted.
"So much for the Doctor's security system," she remarked.
"I don't think it's Eggman's fault. They flew straight in the direction where one of our troops are attacking." Tails smiled. "The distraction works!"
"Seems like you doubted Knuckle's plan."
"Oh... well…"
Rouge grinned in a teasing manner.
"Yeah, I get it. Knuckles and the others are far from being dumb but this plan didn't appear as one of their most sound ideas. Or at least back then. Currently it seems to work…" She turned serious. "But that means we should make the best use of our chance while it lasts. Stay close."
They stepped out once again and wandered down the street. The duo tried to lingered in more secluded areas. They hid behind parked cars, weird fake trees and statues whenever robots or more aware looking civilians came passing down the street. Eventually, the two of them reached Eggman's main base inside Metropolis. It basically looked like a techno castle, painted the same white and chrome color as everything else in the big city, something which was starting to hurt the two mobians' eyes. The red and black Eggman logo brought little variety in terms of color.
Surrounding the building where some modified Egg Watchers that possessed jet exhausts on their underside, allowing them to fly in the air. The robots carefully patrolled and watched the surroundings. Whenever the glow of their artificial eyes went into their directions, the duo ducked behind the pedestal of another statue.
"How do we get in there?" Tails asked.
"Preferably through the ventilation shafts, but unfortunately the guards remain on their place. We need another distraction. Nothing as big as an army, but something that will definitely get their attention."
Tails thought about it before coming up with an idea.
"I think I may have a solution," the fox said. He pulled out his Miles-Electric and began typing something into it in rapid succession. Rouge eyed him with mild concern.
"You know that if you hack all the robots and take control, it can draw unwanted attention to us."
"That's why I won't take control of them. Instead, I'm just going to hack into their registration systems and give them a false signal of increasing Chaos levels. Eggman's robots are sensitive to Chaos Energy, so this will lure all the machines to a certain spot away from us. At least in theory."
Tails was ready, at the sign something was wrong, to quickly send a signal that would instead jam the sensors of the Egg Watchers to buy himself and Rouge time to escape. But his plan worked. All of the flying machines made beeping sounds of alarm and simultaneously flew south, where Tails had sent the source of the alleged Chaos Energy.
The way to the base was clear.
Rouge patted Tails´ shoulder
"Good work. Let's find a quick way in before our little friends realize they've been tricked."
Tails stowed his Miles-Electric away and swallowed nervously. The success of the entire Resistance depended on the next moments. Hopefully he would make it. And hopefully all of his friends would make it out of this mission as well.
Meanwhile, after their Chaos Burst, Sonic and Ruby lead the Resistance´s forces trough the border of Metropolis. They got information via their comms of similar results of the other groups. The troops were spreading through the city streets.
Unfortunately, because of the sudden appearance of the likes of Egg Hammers and other heavy lifting Badniks, they had also suffered some casualties.
Ruby held Crescent Rose tightly, expecting every second for combat robots to appear. Sonic walked right next to her. Trying to ease his friend a little bit up, he said, "Bland area, Egghead really has no taste when it comes to landscaping."
Ruby shrugged.
"I don't know. I kinda like the futuristic design, reminds me of some science-fiction comic books I had read. Could use some more color tough."
"Yeah, all that white burns in the eyes. And are you sure you like everything else? I mean look at that." Sonic pointed to one of the wrong trees. It was made of some pale plastic or metal with a twisted trunk and leaves of weird geometrical patterns. "Why not plant some real trees here? Give the whole thing a little more green and I wouldn't mind the place that much anymore."
Ruby put a finger on her chin.
"Now that you mention it, some of these buildings would go well with different kinds of plants decorating them."
Heavy metal foot stomps were tearing them from their musings.
Egg Hammers, lead by a single E-2000, were approaching them. Accompanying them was a swarm of Buzz Bombers.
"Well, if we want to bring some nature into this place, we have to take care of these guys first," Sonic said. He turned to Ruby. "Ready for another Chaos Burst?"
Silver eyes looked towards the horde of monstrous Badniks approaching them. The E-2000 was already aiming its canon toward them, charging it with energy to fire instantly once it was close enough to them. The Buzz Bombers were doing the same thing and the Egg Hammers eyes were glowing menacingly.
Determined, Ruby got into a starting pose.
"The more we take care of these guys, the better."
Over her shoulder she yelled to the troops: "Everyone, take cover. Me and Sonic will go all out, just like with the wall!" and then started running. With a smirk, Sonic ran right behind her.
"Chaos…"
The E-2000 and the Buzz Bombers started firing.
"…Burst!"
BOOOMM!
The enemies laser projectiles were pretty much obliterated by the powerful shock wave erupting from the speedsters´ special attack. It even send the Buzz Bombers flying away. The Resistance Members were luckily spared, they listened when Ruby had warned them.
Ruby and Sonic shot through the street with the Chaos Burst, closing in on the mechanical army. The E-2000 raised its shield and the Egg Hammers tried to swing at the buzzing and vibrating red and blue mass.
Of course it was all for naught and the Chaos Burst obliterated them. When Ruby and Sonic stopped, the powerful Badniks were nothing but scrap raining down from the sky.
The blue hedgehog waved towards his fellow Resistance members as they slowly came out of their hiding places.
"Look folks, there's no need to get scared from Eggman´s tin cans. Together there is nothing we all can´t achieve together!"
There was a loud cheer among the mobians and humans and they marched off to join Sonic and Ruby.
And that's when things started to go wrong.
With a piercing roar vibrating trough reality itself, everything flickered red and distorted. Open spaces between buildings became narrower, architecture and matter blurred into one another and when the redness faded, the street was closed of by a blockade of fused and twisted buildings. Ruby and Sonic had been separated from the Resistance.
A flash of red light made them look up. Above them hovered the masked entity, the Bane of Reality, Infinite.
Infinite eyed the speedster as he lowered himself towards them until he was flying a few feet in the air in front of the speedster duo. Thoughtfully he ran his claw across his mask. Between the gloved fingers, and trough a red visor, a golden eye stared at human and mobian in curiosity and amusement.
"It appears that heroism and recklessness really do go hand in hand. Did you really think you could sneak into the city and take over the Doctor's headquarters, just like that? With nothing more than brute force?"
Relief ran through the duo when they realized that Tails and Rouge actually went undetected by the efforts of their distraction, but of course they didn't let it surface.
Instead, they wore grim and determined expressions, Ruby having a tight grip around Crescent Rose and Sonic slightly crouched down, ready to respond to whatever the reality manipulator was going to throw at them.
"You're wrong Infinite. We don't fight with brute force, but with courage, heart and friendship!"
Sonic grimaced slightly. What he just said was a bit too corny even by his standards, but he wanted Infinite to believe the Resistance were a bunch of naïve optimists. Ruby on the other hand added something more genuine.
"We won't let people like you wreak havoc on the world at will, just because you think you have some fancy powers! You can be stopped and WE will stop you!"
Infinite´s glance focused completely on the huntress-in-training. He suddenly dashed right in front of her, which startled the human girl a bit, even if she tried her best to remain composed. The masked entity studied her face closely.
"Look at you, your eyes really are of a silver light. I see them radiance hope and the desire to preserve life."
Infinite hovered away from her a little.
"A hope I will break. I will show you how insignificant you and your dreams really are. Your silver light may shine as strong as a star… but even the brightest star will burn up to the nothingness of the darkness."
His gaze switched from human and hedgehog.
"I'll teach you fear first. Then I'll teach you pain. And after that…" Infinite chuckled, and trough his visor Ruby could faintly see him grinning. "…well then the fear and the pain will come to end."
Ruby glared at the entity. She quickly used Crescent Rose´s sniper mode to fire at the being responsible for ruining Mobius, taking her from Remnant, and causing her new friends so much pain.
Infinite merely deflected the shot with his hand and teleported away when Sonic tried to use a homing attack on him. The blue hedgehog and his human companion looked around anxiously, expecting the reality bender to appear behind their backs and attack them from behind. Instead, masses and masses of red cubes appeared, gathering together into a wave made of huge rotating things that filled the entire width of the street.
"I'd start running if I were you," Infinite's voice echoed out from nowhere. His constructs started moving towards them.
Ruby and Sonic looked at one another. They could reunite with members of the Resistance in other parts of Metropolis and during that, cause as much havoc as possible, keeping Infinites attention on them. So it wouldn't make sense to try to breach the constructs and the blockade the masked entity made from the Metropolis buildings to reach the people they got separated from. So Sonic and Ruby ran, with the constructs behind them.
"What do you think will happen if this stuff catches up with us?" Ruby asked.
"If Shadow´s to be believed, then some not-so-nice illusions. And the possibilities of what they could show us would be… well, infinite."
They ran through the city's street, dodging cars. Their drivers hastily turned and drove into side streets as soon as they saw what Ruby and Sonic were fleeing from.
Headlights turned red as they follow their escape and send Egg Cutters to block their path. Ruby slid under the swing of one, Crescent Rose raised as a scythe to slice the robot in two, before using her momentum to get back to her feet and keep running. Sonic jumped over the blades trust at him, using homing attacks to bash from one machine to another. Destroying them didn't bring the speedsters any trouble, but it slowed their escape from Infinite´s power. And just as if the glitching red mass behind them wasn't bad enough, certain parts of the ground in front of them started glitching and pillars made out of the same cubes shot out of the ground in front of them. The duo was now struggling to keep moving and dodge not only the Egg Cutters, but also Infinite's constructs.
And so it happened when Ruby dodged a sideways blade swing, she didn't realize she jumped right on a glitching spot. The cubes shot out and…
… there was nothing but ash and dust. That was all that was left of Ruby's world. As far the eye could see there was the gray mass covering gray rubble and ruins under a gray sky. Having survived the war on Mobius, only to be now greeted by nothing but destruction. Destruction... and Grimm. The soulless shadow creatures rose from the ashes, their red eyes glowing trough the mist of floating particles. They crawled toward Ruby, growling. A Beowolf leaped at her and, without being able to fully realize what was going on with all these things suddenly happening, she cut off the beast's head with Crescent Rose.
But it didn't dissolve. Instead, the exposed tissue pulsed and retreated. Pyrrah's lifeless face appeared in the dark mass, her eyes dull and murky with darkness.
"You failed me," she hissed. "You failed all of us!"
The heads of the remaining Grimm split apart, revealing the faces of Ruby's remaining friends. All pale, rotten and with hateful eyes. Ruby stumbled away in shock and fear.
"N-no... I w-wanted... I wanted to help, but-"
"You weren't good enough! You let us all down by not being fast enough, despite your Semblance! What does that say about you? You are a total failure!"
She tried to run from the hateful words, from the twisted caricatures of everything she holds dear but failed to protect. She ran and ran but she wasn't fast enough, just like back then when she couldn't save Pyrrha. The hybrids reached and pounced on her, grabbing the silver-eyed girl with their claws and suffocated her light with their darkness…
Until the illusion stopped. Ruby stumbled from the sudden switch in scenery, her head buzzing with a nauseating feel. She lost control over her speed and fell to the ground. Groaning and whimpering, she looked around with a heavy breath. She found herself in a quiet side street. Next to none cars where here and there didn't seem to be any red cubes or robots here either.
Ruby crawled to a wall and leaned against it. Gasping rapidly for air, she held her hand over her chest, the shock and terror of what she´d just seen made her heart pump rapidly. Ruby desperatly tried to calm down as she tried to remind herself that it had been just an illusion, not reality. When trapped inside that… nightmare, Ruby´s mind had felt like in a haze. She couldn't think clearly, but every emotion and sensation was much more intense. And as a result she must have actually used her Semblance to escape danger, even if it had all just happened in her head. Nevertheless…
Ruby was having trouble processing it all. Was this really just a fraction of the power she wanted to fight? The illusion had been horrifying enough, what would Infinite do to her if he was going to distort reality? Ruby tried to calm down, but she couldn't really manage it. She trembled slightly and she wanted her team back. Her sister Yang and her friends Blake and Weiss. She wished for someone on her side and help her not to go through this situation alone. Anyone. A friend like... Sonic!
The silver-eyed girl had actually forgotten about the hedgehog. She let her gaze wander once again trough the street. But she couldn't see her blue friend anywhere. He must have lost her when the illusion made her flee. Infinite must have separated them using more of these infernal cubes. The few cars that were here had crashed into buildings, lampposts or each other, their drivers unconscious and seemingly still under the influence of whatever their illusions were showing them, after coming into contact with Infinite´s cubes. They muttered in panick and fear. Similiar noises were heard from Crescent Rose, indicating that the Wisps were also still recovering from the cubes. Ruby grimaced in sympathy.
Having calmed down enough, she had enough strength to push the horrors she just witnessed, and the feelings they gave her, aside for now. People needed her, so Ruby had no time for her emotions when others had more urgent problems.
She went ahead, carefully opening the seat belts and getting the drivers out of their wrecked and smoking cars. With her Semblance, she sped from one wreck to another, repeating the process. Then she dragged the unconscious to a secluded side street and tried to wake them from their illusions.
"Curious."
Ruby instantly, as fast as Petal Burst allowed her, turned around with a fully unfolded Crescent Rose, Zen und Kurtis seemingly having recovered enough to activate their hyper-go-on energy, and faced the reality manipulator that had manifested behind her. Her grip around the weapon was trembling.
"These people are part of the Eggman Empire and yet your are helping them? Are you really that naive, to help your enemies?" Infinite spread his arms. "Would you even give me a little hug?"
Her troath felt tight, but the mocking words were enough to give Ruby some frustration and anger. Frustration and anger from which she could draw the strength to answer. "No. But unlike you, I don't enjoy other peoples suffering. So what if they life in a city ruled by a maniac? They probably didn't even have a choice but to join you and Eggman, otherwise you would have hurt them or worse!"
Ruby looked over her shoulder at the groaning people behind her. She turned back to Infinite.
"Not that it did any good to them now."
Infinite tilted his head. He raised an eyebrow under his mask.
"Oh? Just some mental scars and you think they will perish? And here I thought heroes believe in the strength of others."
"That´s not what I-"
"They will be fine. What is life if there aren't some sacrifices? Theirs is just temporary. But all these troops you send to death with this foolish mission. I´m afraid their sacrifice isn't temporary. Just like Pyrrha´s."
"You-"
"And wasn't there another fool who will never recover from her sacrifice? A certain other Rose. Summer Rose."
That name… hearing it said by the distorted voice of this malicious entity made Ruby feel like an icy hand closed around her heart. She took a step back, eyes wide as her frustration gave away to confusion and fear.
"H-how do you know…?"
"Aww," mocked Infinite with playfully false pity in his voice. "Is the child confused? Scared? Good. I told you I will teach you fear. But if you really want to find out on how I know that name, well…"
He snapped his finger. The gem inside his chest glowed as it created another wave of cube constructs rotating towards Ruby.
"… let us see which ruby will be the superior one: Ruby Rose or the Phantom Ruby!"
The huntress-in-training took a swing at Infinite, but he just disappeared with a glitch. The constructs started to close in. Ruby looked at the people behind her.
I can´t let them suffer trough more illusions. I need to lead the cubes away. Helping them is more important than letting my fears get me down, she thought.
She took a running start and ran up the side alley walls, past the cubes, and landed behind the constructs. Ruby immediately sped off down the street. The cubes followed her, growing in number and expanding the mass of their constructs, filling the entirety of the street.
This time, Ruby put her entire focus on staying ahead and dodging whenever pillars rose from the ground. With the lack of robots and other enemies it was fairly easy. But it all changed when the street moved upwards. It went higher and higher until it was a bridge that went over the roofs of most buildings in Metropolis. Ruby looked around, using the high view to search for hints on where some of her allies may be. She saw explosions and smoke rising from some locations. One was pretty close. Ruby decided to jump down from the bridge and use her Semblance to reach and run down one of its support beams, but then Infinite appeared once again!
Ruby was midair as a petal cloud, when the masked entity appeared in front of her and held out a gloved claw. Red energies surrounded her, made the silver-eyed girl feel like she was crushed. And suddenly she was no longer a cloud of petals, but in her human form. A look of shock went over her face before gravity took its toll and she fell. But Infinite didn't want to let Ruby get off so easily. The Phantom Ruby blazed brightly and everything flickered red. Ruby's fall stopped before it continued... but up! Infinite had reversed gravity for her!
She slammed on the underside of the bridge, taking away a good chunk of her Aura. She could have landed more elegantly, but Ruby's new condition took more than a little adjustment. Above her, cars roamed the streets, robots and drones patrolled, and below her the vastness of the sky yawned. One misstep and she would fall into the atmosphere and beyond.
Ruby was just regaining her bearings when laser cannons appeared from the floor...the ceiling?...and fired. Ruby jumped over the lasers and destroyed them with her own. She was walking along the underside of the bridge, still weird to her, when something gigantic materialized next to her. It was a huge monster that looked like a slimy, elongated version of Infinite. It destroyed the bridge with one swipe of its claw and the force of the destruction sent Ruby flying through the window of a nearby building. She found herself dazed on the ceiling of some sort of factory. She expected the Infinite Monster to grab her, but it just hovered in front of the hole Ruby had left in the wall. Starring at her with its eyeless, mask like face and blocking her escape.
Security cameras of the factory took sight of Ruby, and turrets emerged from the walls, firing relentlessly on the fifteen year old. Ruby was able to take cover from their assault behind a machine that pressed robotic parts out of metal. While the turrets could not reach her in this position, another set of heavier ones emerged behind her. They fired missiles at Ruby and she hastily dodged with her Semblance. Explosions popped up behind Ruby, burning some of her rose petals. A desperate idea struck her and she ran between the turrets. The plan worked and the machines destroyed each other. Unfortunately, her evasive maneuvers had landed her in an open space and the other turrets began firing at her again. She ducked back into cover, contemplating how to deal with her predicament. The turrets couldn't move, but they made sure Ruby couldn't either. She pondered a bit when the Wisps appeared. Kurtis said nothing and gave Ruby concerned glances, but Zen gestured wildly around.
"Uh... what? Do you have a plan?"
The light blue Wisp nodded. He pointed at the destroyed rocket turrets, then at himself and the regular ones. He made some wriggling movements. It took Ruby a few seconds before she understood.
"You want to use my tactic?!" Zen nodded and gestured at Kurtis before making chopping movements with his little arms this time. "And you want me and Kurtis to tear them apart during this. Okay, let's do it."
Said and done. Using his natural abilities, Zen swiftly zigzagged between the turrets, leaving a stream of bluish energy in his wake. The machines shot each other down or were cut from behind by a pink scythe blade. Eventually all opponents were defeated. Zen disappeared into Crescent Rose and Ruby looked around for a way out of the hall. The weird elongated Monster was still blocking the way out trough the hole, but maybe… there!
Ruby spotted a window on the opposite end of the hall, basically on the other side of the entire building. She rant towards it. The Infinite Monster growled and struck its arm trough the hole, the claw opened up wide to grab Ruby. But it wasn't fast enough. She jumped through the window. Shards rained around her and she fell towards the sky. Before Ruby could fly to a safe place as a petal cloud, Infinite reappeared and shifted gravity for her yet again. Ruby slammed feet first on the facade of a skyscraper. A facade peppered with laser cannons. They fired, but luckily there were also balconies on the skyscraper. The silver-eyed girl took cover behind them. Whenever the laser cannons stopped firing and needed to recharge their energy, Ruby peeked from behind the balcony with her sniper rifle ready. With precise shoots she destroyed the canons close to her, ran up and took cover yet again behind a balcony. Ruby repeated this tactic several times and got higher and higher on the skyscraper. As she reached the edge of the roof, reality flickered red and Ruby felt herself detach from the building and fall down. She quickly slammed Crescent Rose's blade into the concrete and grabbed the hilt. Her legs dangled freely in the air. She could of course use Petal Burst to land on the roof with ease, but she didn't want to use up Aura by constantly using her Semblance. The last few minutes had made it clear to her that she needed protection in this place.
So Ruby tensed her arms, pulls herself up on Crescent Rose and heaves herself over the edge of the roof. She drew her weapon from the concrete and took a short breather. Or wanted to, but several more of these bizarrely long Infinite Monsters materialized at the base of the skyscraper and began to climb up it, like a bunch of creepy killer geckos. Ruby ran across a bridge that connected the skyscraper's roof to other buildings. More creatures appeared and slashed at the bridge, trying to either smash Ruby apart or cut her way off. But the silver-eyed girl was too quick for them. Dodging their claws or lasers the creatures fired from the tips of their masks, she made steady progress. The bridge rose and Ruby reached the top of Metropolis' tallest skyscraper. A wide, round platform. The creatures completely destroyed the bridge behind Ruby before disappearing. She looked after them, then turned around to take a close look at her surroundings. The platform appeared empty.
Ruby's heart was pounding wildly, only now she had some peace to calm down from the constant barrage of attacks and tricks Infinite had pulled her trough. Had time to think what the illusion had shown her…
"N-no… don't think about it. It was just a fake. It w-wasn't real. Infinite just tries to mess with my head…"
The Wisps appeared from Crescent Rose. This time, both Zen and Kurtis wore concerned expressions. They said something in their language.
"Sorry, what?"
The Wisps pointed at Ruby and then at themselves, or rather their eyes.
"Wait, are you telling me you saw the same thing I saw inside the illusion?"
The Wisps nodded. Kurtis rested a limb on Ruby's shoulder and muttered something in his language again. From the tone of voice and the worry in his eye, Ruby could tell he was asking her if she was okay. Behind him, Zen was fidgeting in the air, unsure how to approach the human girl and her situation.
"I´m fine," she answered and gave them a tired smile. It didn't convince the aliens.
"Really, it´s not that important right now. Instead we need to-"
"Indeed. All the fuzzy stuff is not important right now." Ruby and the Wisps stiffened as Infinite's voice echoed from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. "What is important is that you remember what I told you and the blue buffoon. I would teach you fear and then pain. And then the pain would find an end. I have to admit I may have lied. Fear I´ve given you plenty, but your pain and your end I have promised to another."
Ruby's stomach twisted into a knot of anxiety. The scar on her back ached slightly. She could already guess who exactly Infinite meant.
"Then I guess it was Cinder who told you about my mom. But how-"
"Bingo."
The ache became worse. Ruby turned around. Where there ad been previously just an empty platform, there was now a person shrouded inside a cloak, teleported there thanks to Infinite. The hood was down to show the long black hair moving down her shoulders and covering the left side of her face. The uncovered side showed a sadistic smirk and an amber eye, slightly glowing with magical energy.
"Hello little Rose."
Done. Next chapter we´re going to have the rematch between Cinder and Ruby, with the latter getting some information about her mothers fate. We will also have the first and proper battle with Infinite being shown while at the same time Rouge and Tails will also face some problems.
I will try to round up the `Operation Big Wave´ Arc next chapter, but I can´t make any promises. The reason I´m mentioning this, is because I will go on vacation with my family and be of writing duty for the next two weeks. Or maybe I will prolonging it for three weeks. I really need a break…
To the two Guest Reviewers regarding Amy´s and Sonic`s characterization: I want to show them being mature and having developed as people trough all of their adventures. I am not a fan of their characterizations in the Meta Area. Also, there is a difference between mocking your enemy and making jokes about the near death situation of a friend to said friend.
To ArguableReader: Well, good think that Sonic and friends have gotten stronger over time and Ruby having gotten some hyper-go-on energy upgrades. Even then, the Egg Hammers and the rest are tough eggs to crack.
To Guest: I´m glad to hear it. I hope this chapter and the following ones will also not fail to deliver.
To Monster King: Thank you for your ongoing support.