"Sonia and gentlemen… I present to you… the pinnacle of Earthly cooking: chilidogs!"

Sonic presented the tray with the freshly made chilidogs to his family. It was around lunchtime in Green Hill, and Sonic had sweet talked his way into making lunch for his uncle and siblings. Longclaw would join them, but she was typically busy through the day with patrolling the district.

With help from Tails, Sonic cooked a batch of chilidogs using supplies that Tails kept in his backpack for "emergencies," aka a pack of hotdogs, hotdog buns, and two cans of chili. Since it seemed that meat was scarce around here, this would most likely be the only chilidog(s) Sonic would have until he somehow found a way to pull South Island out of The Underground.

But hey, a chilidog is twice as good when it's shared with people you love.

Tails pressed his backpack strap, allowing his magic hand to stretch out from under the pack and serve the chilidogs to plates set in front of Chuck, Sonia and Manic. Though Manic looked excited, Chuck looked leery and Sonia was apprehensive- she even flinched a bit as the chili-covered hotdog hit her plate.

"So messy…" She murmured. Sonia took out a knife and fork (from her jumpsuit that she knew was sanitized) to eat it without having to use her hands.

"C'mon Sonia, you're eating this taco in a lame way!" Manic teased.

"Taco?" Chuck was confused. "Manic, this is clearly a sandwich."

"How about we all agree it's just a chilidog?" Tails interjected, his magic hand passing a chilidog to both himself and Sonic beside him.

The blue hedgehog licked his lips with anticipation. "Triple triple with quadruple chili, extra spicy! Just how I like it! Bone app the teeth, Hedgehog fam!"

Sonic and Tails didn't hesitate to dig in, the former taking a bite of his chilidog that took out half of the entire chilidog at once. The others watched the brothers for a moment, before they all got their chilidogs together in different ways: while Manic picked it up normally, Chuck scooped the chili under the bun so he could pick it up sideways like a sandwich, and Sonia cut off a piece of the end to pick up with a fork.

All three of them took a bite of their chilidogs at once. All of them made the same face.

"Good golly… Sonny, Miles…" Chuck murmured after swallowing. "This is… incredible!"

"Who knew such a messy food could be so unbelievably delectable?" Sonia cut another piece of the chilidog and looked it over on her fork. "I'm at a loss!"

"You have this all the time? I barely want my favorite foods from South Island more than one day a week! I could get used to good food like this all the time!" Manic shoved the rest of the chilidog into his mouth and wolfed it down before finishing his thought. "Is there more food like this outside The Underground?"

"Oh, there's so many different options out there food wise! Multiple cultures, many spices, some fusion cuisine." Tails replied, still working on his chilidog. "I'm a big fan of mint myself."

"Mint…" Chuck hummed, pausing his eating for a moment. "You know, they make mint candies near Gigalopolis!"

"Can we get some?"

"I'm sure I can make some calls."

"Oh my god, Uncle Chuck," Sonic, who was already done with his chilidog, chuckled a bit. "You don't know the monster you just enabled. Tails is a mint maniac."

"Well, if it keeps the boy's breath fresh, I don't really see a downside!" Chuck patted Tails' arm with the back of his hand, smiling. "Especially after these chilidogs. They're delicious, but I don't think they're the pinnacle of keeping clean."

"On the contrary. I haven't gotten a bit of chili on me yet!"

Sonia's uppity attitude was soon squandered when her brother beside her flicked his hands, letting the chili that had leaked onto Manic's gloved hands splatter onto Sonia's side. The magenta hedgehog gasped in horror, dropping her fork and knife onto her plate.

She growled and glared at Manic, who wasn't even paying attention, instead looking through his fanny pack.

"Manic! Watch your manners!"

"What? Didn't you spray your jumpsuits with that polly-want-a-cracker thing Tails made?"

The drops of chili on Sonia's jumpsuit slid right off, adding merit to what Manic had asked. Regardless, she continued to glower at her younger brother.

"That doesn't matter! Wipe your hands!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

Manic reached for the tablecloth.

"With hand towels."

"Ugh, Sonia, you're killing me!" Manic scooted out from the table and got up, rolling his eyes as he left. "Fine! Look at me, going to wipe my hands with a hand towel! Being a good little Manic!"

"Good!" Sonia ate the last bite of her chilidog before pausing. She swallowed thickly. "Wait. Manic! Don't you dare use my hand towel! You know I set it aside for a reason!"

Sonia quickly got up and chased after her younger brother. Tails finished his chilidog, amused at the sight.

"Oh, kids." Chuck shook his head slowly, before taking another bite of his chilidog. He spoke after his mouth was cleared. "Miles, Sonny boy, what are you two doing today?"

"Well… We still have to build those beds we got for our new room." Sonic answered, leaning against the table. "And we should also probably decorate that room so we feel a little more at home."

"What kinda stuff are you two into?"

"Chilidogs."

"Planes."

"…huh." Chuck tapped the top bun of his chilidog. "You two are pretty open books, huh?"

"I'd like to think I'm more complex than meets the eye. Or at least more than journalists like to act I am…"

"What Sonic means is that… We kinda aren't used to hanging around and doing nothing. This is the first real vacation we've had in forever. At least since we started being superheroes." Tails said to Chuck. "Most of the time I slept in my workshop! When I did sleep, at least."

"When you did…? Sonny! Did you let my nephew make himself sleep deprived?"

"What?! Why are you blaming me? You can't stop Tails when he's working!"

"He's only fourteen!"

"Yeah, Sonic. I'm only fourtee-een…" Tails twisted his finger against his cheek, looking at Sonic with big, puppy dog eyes and a poked out bottom lip.

"Ah, shut it, you little twerp." Sonic shoved his brother, smirking. "Tails can take care of himself, Unc. He's the smartest guy I know!"

"Regardless, he's still a growing boy! And since you two are stuck here, and stuck on vacation, I expect you two to get a proper eight hours of sleep. Early to bed, early to rise." Chuck finished his chilidog, speaking with his mouth full. "No staying up. That is an order."

Sonic and Tails gave each other a look.

"And I mean it! No coy glances at each other either!" The old hedgehog stood, taking the plates off the table. "You two are worse than Aleena and Vanilla were."

"Seeing how much trouble Cream can get into, I don't doubt that Vanilla was a bit mischevious."

"…hoo, it's still hard to believe Vanny had a kid." Chuck blinked a few times to process what Tails said. "Still gotta get used to that. Well, at least she's safe and sound. It'll be nice to see her again… Boys, what're you gonna do with those last two chilidogs on the tray?"

"Two? That pack made ten dogs, there should be five left! What happened to the other… three…"

Tails turned in time to see Sonic shove an entire half of a chilidog into his mouth. The blue hedgehog noticed he was being watched, his eyebrows raising.

"…what?" He asked, mouth full.

"Well… It's good to know you weren't lying about being into chilidogs." Chuck quickly took the tray. "What am I doing with these two?"

"Pack them in a bag or something. Save it for later."

"Awww, but I want them now…"

"Sonic, we talked about this. Eating five chilidogs or more gives you cramps when running at mach speeds."

"It's so good though! The chilidogs, not the cramps. How can something so beautiful cause me so much pain… There is truly no rose without thorns…"

Sonic put a hand on his chest, turning his head away with closed eyes. Uncle Chuck glanced at his nephew, nonplussed, his eyes flicking back and forth from Sonic and Tails before he settled on just leaving in silence to head to the kitchen.

Tails snickered. "You're freaking Uncle Chuck out, Sonic."

"He'll get used to us." Sonic waved a hand, grinning. "So… What are we up to today?"

"We could hang with Manic here at the house."

"I love Manic, he's my brother, but… I think he stays at home because he needs his alone time. I dig that, so I don't wanna encroach on that. Let him have his space."

"Fair enough. What about Sonia?"

"I love Sonia too, but I'm not gonna keep myself from doing stuff that could get me dirty because my older sister's a germaphobe. Polymer-coated jumpsuits or not."

"We could always see what Longclaw's doing."

"I think that's the fast pass to getting scolded by Longclaw for messing with her business." Sonic sighed, leaning against the table again. "Man, it's so hard doing nothing. It's boring here! I'm bored!"

"That's kinda how vacations work, Sonic. We've been here for…" Tails checked his phone. "A little over two weeks already. The luster of this new place was bound to wear off sometime."

"I love Green Hill, but there's just… nothing here to do! No battle, no danger. I can't even leave Green Hill without being chased down by Uncle Chuck! And that man is faster than he looks…"

"We could ask Uncle Chuck if we can visit the other districts of the island sometime!"

"That could be fun. But that's later. What about right now? Ugh, I wish there was something here we could get involved with. Some debacle or scuffle. I'm even wishing for Ivo- can you believe it? Ivo would be great right now."

"Be careful what you wish for, Sonic."

"Yeah, yeah. I just wish we had something to do…"

"You boys need something to do?" Uncle Chuck appeared, walking back into the room, presenting a paper bag with the chilidogs in it to Tails.

The fox took the bag and put it in his backpack. "Something's better than nothing."

"Well, since you boys are keen on helping people, how's about you two actually enlist in helping with Mission Freedom?" Chuck asked, crossing his arms. "You've only been there once or twice since you landed here. It would put Miles' mind to good use, and ease some stress off poor Rotor."

"So like, a summer job?"

"Internship. You're not getting paid."

"Dang it." Sonic sighed. "Well, I do want to help get you guys out of here, and that's an objective Mission Freedom's working on. And it'll give me something to do instead of running around all day… and probably more people to talk to than just my siblings."

"And I want to get a good look at all the stuff you're working on up there!" Tails added. "I think it'll be fun!"

"Alrighty then! You boys can come with me when I head up there today." Chuck was pleased. "Get your shoes on and make yourself all pretty! Let's do it to it!"

"Mission Freedom, you all remember my nephews, Sonny and Miles."

"Sonic, please."

"And Tails!"

There was a general murmur amongst the small crowd that was gathered. At the forefront was Rotor, Bunnie, Antoine and Sally; for some reason those four seemed to hang out together a lot. Towards the back of the room was Dr. Starline, writing in a small notebook and not paying attention at all.

They were in the ground floor area of Mission Freedom HQ, above the testing labs. The offices were nearby, and right now they were situated in a lounge area that was made for casual meetings like this.

"I'm sure you all were guessing this was gonna happen, but effective immediately, Sonny and Miles are gonna be a part of the Mission Freedom initiative!" Chuck held both his nephew's shoulders, shaking them slightly. "Both of 'em bring their own unique skills to the projects we have lined up!"

"It'll be nice to actually have a bit more help around here." Sally commented, though her face was a tad averse. "Though I'm not sure what the two of them could do."

"Oh, Tails is actually really knowledgeable about machines!" Rotor said. "I'm real glad to have another engineer to help out with everything! It was hard doing everything on my own after Gadget left."

"I'll let you all ruminate while I put the boys into the system!" Chuck spoke up. "Don't be shy, boys. I'll jam on back once I'm done."

Uncle Chuck left. The others approached Sonic and Tails, some of them getting up from their seats. Starline still sat in the back, not even looking up when Chuck left, doing his own thing and scribbling in his notebook.

"Well, guess we're gonna be workin' together, sugar-hog." Bunnie put her normal hand out to shake, and Sonic obliged. "Pleasure to make your 'quaintance. And yours too, Tails."

Tails shook her hand next. "I thought you were just a testee, Bunnie."

"I gotta test out these fancy robot parts somehow, sugar. I can't leave all the heavy liftin' to Rotor, especially since he'd be too tired to keep workin' on all these gizmos and doodads after it."

"I appreciate all the help I can get. Which is why I'm happy I'm getting another smart guy on the crew!"

Following what Bunnie was doing, Rotor shook Tails' hand next, smiling. Sonic offered his hand to someone else in the group, but found the recipient simply gripped Sonic's thumb with two fingers and shook it that way, as if Sonic's hand was radioactive.

"Bonsoir." Antoine said, looking at Sonic with the same contempt he did when they first met.

"You're Antoine, right? What do you do around here, besides sleeping on the job?"

Sonic's barb clearly got to the coyote, making him frown deeper. "My dedication to zee princess is steadfast. I do not participate in these experiments as I am not here to participate in science."

"Sugar-twan's just being silly. He helps out every now and then." Bunnie interjected. "He's certainly helped me out by giving me company when I'm all alone in the lab."

"Y-Yes, well…" Antoine coughed and tugged his collar a bit, clearly flustered at what Bunnie said. He cleared his throat. "That is being besides the point. I am here to protect la princesse, and all else is merely being a, as they say, volunteer."

Speaking of, Sally was next on Sonic's radar. The hedgehog held his hand out for her to shake.

"Hey there. Uh… Sorry, again, about… the stuff that happened when we first met."

Sally looked at the hand, then up at Sonic, before sighing and shaking his hand. "It's fine. Like I said, I wasn't any closer to trying to de-roboticize anything than I was the other times. The turret idea was most likely a fluke anyway."

"Still, any development is better than none. Sorry I squandered that possibility."

"Have you started any other projects like the turret, Sally?"

"It's a long process, Tails. Mostly involving having to figure out ways to harness the energy that creates the robots in the first place. Nicole is currently gathering prototype ideas for me to sort through later, and I'll start experimenting with the concepts then."

"Nicole… That's the fancy phone assistant you've got, right?"

"It's not a phone, it's a device made specifically for her." The princess pulled Nicole's handheld computer, flipping open the top using the button on the side. "She's an artificial intelligence system, yes, but she was given to the royal family as a gift to help. My father… he isn't too keen on technology. So he gave me the pleasure of being responsible for Nicole."

"I'm here, Sally."

Sally looked at the screen, holding it closer to her. "Nicole, tell Sonic and Tails about yourself."

After holding Nicole's handheld computer to the pair, Sonic and Tails were scanned by the device from a camera that was on the inside of it. After a second of flashing buttons, it made a sound almost like a toaster finishing its cooking.

"Subjects Sonic and Tails logged," Nicole spoke. "NICOLE systems, current version v19.9.3- created by Dr. Phineas Ellidy, given to the Acorn Royal Family for assistance with all matters. Currently digitally connected to all cyberspace systems across South Island. It is nice to meet you."

"Does Nicole stand for anything?" Tails asked.

"Nicole is simply a name given to me by my creator."

"Dang, I wanted to see how they somehow made the name Nicole into an acronym. I always love to see how far of a stretch they go to do it in those action movies." Sonic frowned a bit. As he looked past Nicole, he could see Sally smile a bit in amusement.

"BA-HA HA-HAAA!"

The nice moment was interrupted with a loud, shrieking laugh, almost like a rooster crowing in the early morning. Sonic, Tails and the other members of Mission Freedom all tensed up from the sudden screech, and they all turned to see the source- the rooster walking into the room with a mole. The mole's feet dragged slightly, giving him the appearance of almost gliding across the floor.

They were carrying a few books and tossed it at the coffee table that was in front of Starline. When they slapped the surface, Starline finally looked up, closing the notebook he had in his hands.

"…What is this?" He asked.

"We got those books like you asked, boss!"

"Yeah, we got the books with the notes!"

"…these are musical notes." Starline said as he looked through the books. "I meant my notebooks! That I write notes in? How can you nincombolts be so stupid?"

After a second, the rooster pointed at the mole. "He's stupider than I am!"

"Nuh uh! He is, he is!"

"Quiet!" Starline barked. He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I'm never going to finish my research at this point surrounded by such imbecility."

"Don't be sad, doc!" The rooster was unperturbed. "I'm sure you'll find a way to finish the project and have the whole thing in the palm of your hands!"

"Yeah, like a TV remote!"

Starline was clearly thinking after what was said. He suddenly stood, snapping his fingers.

"That's it! I have an idea!" He said. "Your stupidity has finally paid off!"

"I'm stupidier than he is!"

"Nuh uh! I am, I am!"

With the rooster and the mole clambering in pursuit, Starline strided out of the room.

"…nice to see you, Starline." Sonic commented.

"I'm sure it was. Have fun wasting the town's resources while I do the important work. Like always."

After the platypus doctor and his cronies left, the room suddenly had a much… nicer vibe. Like the group was finally able to have fun.

"Who the heck were those guys?" Tails asked, looking at the others.

"Ugh. Scratch and Grounder." Sally rolled her eyes. "They're delinquents in Green Hill who are here as part of their community service. Starline keeps them as his personal lackeys because they do whatever he wants, no questions asked."

"Suck identifies suck."

"You can say that again." Rotor agreed with Sonic. "It's good Starline swept them up when he did- when they were helping out with the actual projects here, they kept messing things up and destroying entire prototypes with their antics."

"They nearly got a puddle stomped into their backsides after the last time they ruined one of those ol' prototypes, didn't they, Sally-girl?" Bunnie looked at the princess.

"They still will if they ever mess with my projects again."

"You don't get in the way of that girl and her work." The cyborg pointed a thumb at Sally. "Trust me. How'd ya think I lost my legs?"

"Bunnie…"

"It's just a joke, Sally-girl, I'm allowed to make that, aren't I? I earned it." Bunnie nudged her, grinning a bit.

From the hall down to the offices, Chuck poked his head in, looking around. He walked back in, clearing his throat, holding a pair of papers in his hands.

"I heard Scratch, just wanted to make sure it was all clear before I walked back in." He said. "You kids getting along? Nothing going wrong?"

"Physically? We're good. Mentally? Well… can't speak for the rest of these guys, but…"

Tails shoved Sonic playfully, interrupting his joke. Chuck came up to the pair, crossing his arms and handing them one of the papers.

"Here's the official contracts for working at Mission Freedom. Signing these means you're legally bound to Mission Freedom until a breach in contract occurs. Those breaches include, but are not limited to, intentionally causing harm to other members of our group and intentionally attempting to harm South Island or her people."

"Good to know the criteria for getting kicked out is so narrow."

Pressing the button on his backpack, Tails summoned his magic hand to come up in front of him, giving him a surface to write on. Upon seeing this happen, Rotor's eyebrows went up, and he whistled.

"Man, you really have a knack for making cool stuff, Tails."

"Thank you," Tails got a pen from Chuck to sign the contract. "I assume that's why I'm becoming one of the engineers here for Mission Freedom. Right, Uncle Chuck?"

"Yup, that's right! Tails will be joining Rotor to help develop and craft the prototypes we'll be using from here on out! So happy I got a nephew I can flaunt for his smarts. No offense to his siblings."

"None taken." Sonic said.

After he finished signing (Tails really needed to get better at his cursive) the contract was handed back. Sonic was up next, walking to the other side and setting his contract down for him to sign next.

"So Charlie, I'm not tryin' to be rude here, but… Sonic isn't tech savvy like Tails, I reckon." Bunnie said. "What kind of position would he be filling to suit his…"

"Shallow-wittedness." Antoine said to finish her statement.

"That was not what I was gonna say." The rabbit glanced at him sternly. "What would fit his own skillset?"

"Well, I thought it over, and I figure since he's been leading teams before, he'd be best suited in a role with more leadership. So I put him in a project supervisor role!"

Sonic just finished signing the contract when Chuck finished his sentence. He looked at his uncle with raised eyebrows, before looking at the others. Most of them were just as surprised as him… Except for Sally.

When he met Sally's eyes, all he saw was the princess' displeased expression. He recalled what Bunnie said not even ten minutes ago- don't mess with that girl and her projects. And here he was, now directly in control of those projects.

Oh boy.

"Uh… Uncle Chuck," Tails spoke up for his brother. "Don't you think that could be… Not great?"

"What do you mean? Sonny's a great leader! I saw those videos of him back in your old town." Chuck took the contracts. "Show the others here! I'm sure they'll be just as amazed as Sonia and Manny were. Anyway! I'll go file these away. How about the rest of you show Sonny and Miles the ropes of the place?"

"Yeah, alright." Rotor replied.

"Great! I'll check in later, I got paperwork to do. You kids be safe!"

Chuck left. Rotor patted Tails and gestured for him to follow- after a glance to Sonic, the teenager followed his fellow engineer out of the room. Sonic was led down to the labs as well, joined by the others.

They hung around in the dormitory area, where Sonic showed Bunnie and Antoine videos of his exploits back on Earth on his phone. Sally, on the other hand, hung out nearby, leaning against the wall and fiddling with Nicole's handheld.

Though Antoine was merely mildly surprised (clearly he couldn't let Sonic win him over) Bunnie was clearly enamored by the clips, watching very closely.

"Good golly!" She exclaimed. "Sally-girl, you gotta see this! Sonic and his friends have been fighting all kinds of freaks out there! And doing it real well, sugar-hog."

"Well thank you, Bunnie."

"I'm sure it's interesting." Sally deadpanned in reply, not looking up from the handheld. "Though I don't see how 'fighting freaks' out there translates to being put in a supervising position in here."

"I mean, at the very least, I'd love to see what kind of stuff you're working on."

"Well… It's all in the labs. I can show you if you're willing to go look."

"I'm more than willing! Show me something cool, princess!"

"…alright, fine."

Sally flipped Nicole's handheld closed by pressing the side button again. She walked past Sonic to reach the stairwell down, headed to the second basement level, the heels of her blue boots being the only thing heard in the room.

After watching her walk away, Sonic was smacked on the back by Bunnie, whose robot hand shuffled him forwards a little.

"Get to it, sugar-hog!" She said.

"…Oh boy."

Sonic followed where Sally went, leaving the rabbit and coyote behind.

"I should most definitively be joining them."

"Hold on there, sugar-twan. I need some help recalibratin' my robot parts. Care to give me a hand?"

"Uh… Well… Yes! I do care to! I mean… No I do not care? I am not sure how to be responding to this…"

"It's fine, sugar, c'mon."

The door to the stairway closed behind Sonic, ending the conversation between Bunnie and Antoine for him. Now he was certainly going to be alone… with Sally.

Sure, he's dealt with people he made bad first impressions with before to good results- just look at Knuckles- but it was certainly worse when it was a member of the royal family, and definitely worse when that royal family could completely destroy his uncle's reputation and make Chuck lose his job.

Now he got a job that could be considered her superior through nepotism. If there was two things Sonic didn't like, it was nepo babies and monarchies… Mission Freedom has been an absolute nightmare in that case, then.

Reaching the hallway in level B2, Sonic strolled past the testing room and observation room he had broken into when he first met Sally. On the other side of the hall, the walls to Sonic's left, there were also windows that were covered with shutter blinds. Light was peeking out through the cracks in the shutters, and the glass door leading into that room was open.

Sonic slipped inside, closing the door behind him.

"Hit the monitor, please."

The hedgehog paused in his tracks. He looked around, but found what appeared to be a small computer monitor on a table nearby. It was one of many that were on there, all put in neat rows on there. He pointed to it, raising an eyebrow and looking at Sally across the room.

"Yes, one of those." She answered a question he didn't get to ask.

Though bewildered, Sonic soon slammed a fist on the top of one of the monitors, shattering it instantly. He heard the sound of something similar to a spring bouncing, but otherwise didn't see anything different around him. The monitor he smashed crumbled further, before fading into dust.

He stepped further in, hands going into his jacket pockets. "What is that, some kind of high-tech guest book or something? Why'd I have to smash that thing?"

In lieu of answering, Sally picked up something that looked like a handgun- she fired at Sonic, the gun emitting a blast of white energy directly at him. The blast was stopped a foot or two in front of the wincing Sonic, who became aware of a green-colored energy barrier that was around him, in the shame of a sphere.

He looked around, and tried to touch the inside of the barrier, but found that his hand passed right through.

Sally tossed the energy gun on the nearby counter. "The barrier is one of the projects Chuck has been working on. He's currently experimenting with an auxiliary project that uses the power of the elements as a form of barrier too, so people like Rotor could use a water-based shield to visit the Red Volcano, and so on."

"Huh… Why's it in a computer monitor?"

"The container needed to house the barrier requires a contained energy field. We added the small stand underneath it so it wouldn't be affected by any displeasing surfaces. But with it…"

"It looks like a computer monitor, even though it's not. And that's why it's called that, got it."

Sonic walked over to Sally (usually he'd zip over, but he felt like everything was made of glass in here) and stood beside her, watching her. The princess pulled out the Nicole device, flipping open the top before placing it on the surface of the lab's counter.

"The barriers are to keep you safe, they can typically withstand a certain amount of damage, but I'm sure running directly into danger would pop it immediately. Knowing you, you'd be running right into a pit of spikes."

"Heh, pit of spikes. Like they have those here on South Island."

Sally was quiet, tapping the buttons on Nicole's handheld.

"…right?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, whatever you want to believe."

She reached down and opened a drawer on the front of the counter, which held a couple rows of rings inside, all placed in a neat row. Sally took one of the rings, closing the drawer before she returned to Nicole. Flipping up a special attachment on the top of the handheld's screen, Sally put the ring she collected within the clip attachment.

"You have rings here too?"

"Too?" The princess looked at Sonic curiously. "You have these outside the Underground?"

"Yeah! Though I don't really see them as much as I'd like to… That's what I get for living in the city." Sonic chuckled a bit, shrugging. "Does Nicole run off the chaos energy from the rings?"

"She's typically solar powered, but I use ring power in order to help her with more powerful tasks." Sally turned to Sonic, leaning on the counter. "So… you know about chaos energy?"

"Yeah! If you'd looked at those videos I showed Bunnie, you'd know I've interacted with the Chaos Emeralds before." The hedgehog continued. "Ring are stabilized chaos energy, right? That's why they're gold colored. The destabilized, raw energy is the rainbow looking one."

"That's correct." Sally seemed a tad astonished. "I'm sorry, you've interacted with the Chaos Emeralds before?"

"Yeah! They make me all golden and glowy."

Sonic took out his phone, turning it to Sally to show her his home screen background: a selfie Sonic took as Super Sonic as he and Super Shadow fought Devil Doom on the side of the ARK in space, with the Earth in the background.

"You've… harnessed the power of the Chaos Emeralds?"

"Twice! On record, at least." Sonic shrugged, putting his phone back in his pocket. "From my understanding, I'm using the stable chaos energy generated from the positive energies of Chaos, like when Chaos is happy or protective. If it was the negative energies… Well, I don't know what would happen. Maybe I'd turn purple instead of gold!"

"How do you know all this stuff about the Chaos Emeralds?"

"Mostly through osmosis on my adventures. That and Tails tells me about it. I can be a pretty good listener when I put my head to it."

"Could have fooled me." Sally paused, before continuing. "I've never heard of anyone using the power of the Chaos Emeralds before. The history books we have in Gigalopolis mention the Chaos Emeralds, but they don't talk about them at length. I don't even think they could show up here."

"The Chaos Emeralds have a tendency to kind of just… teleport and hover around to random places when left untouched. But to an entirely different zone? I think that's a bit of a stretch."

"If somebody could harness the powers of the Chaos Emeralds… then we could use that for the de-roboticization!" The princess continued, clearly thinking to herself as she looked downwards. "I've read before that the power of chaos energy turns thoughts into power, to create miracles. Maybe… What have you done with the Chaos Emeralds that could help de-roboticize someone?"

"Well, there was that one time where a significantly slower ally of mine and I both warped time and space to push a massive asteroid out of the atmosphere."

"…wow."

"Yeah," Sonic rubbed a finger under his nose, grinning. "Not really that big a deal. But still pretty radical."

"If it can warp time and space, maybe it could alter those of us that have become roboticized."

"…We call our kind Mobians outside the Underground."

"Mobians? Like the dark god?"

"It's a long story; but it kinda fits though, right? Certainly better than 'chaos blessed'."

"Right…" Sally fiddled with one of the glowing blue rings she wore as bracelets. She turned back to the counter, and the device on it. "Nicole?"

"Charged and ready, Sally."

"Can you run a simulation on the possibility of using chaos energy for de-roboticization? Use the ring energy you just absorbed as the basis for the test."

"Getting right to it. I'll be on standby until my test is completed."

"Thank you, Nicole."

Sally adjusted her vest as she passed by Sonic, who turned his head to follow her out. The princess pulled the door to the lab open, pausing to look at the hedgehog.

"I'm going across the hall to the observation room to get my notes," She said sternly, pointing at Sonic. "Don't. Touch. Anything."

She gave him a silent intense stare for a moment before slipping out of the room, the shutter blinds hanging on the glass door flopping and swinging as she closed the door behind her.

It was quiet. Sonic took a moment to look around the room, trailing through it. The lab was decently sized, with two walls lined with counters, cabinets above them and a sink furthest from the door. The room was illuminated by the windows under the cabinets, which looked over the side of the Green Hill that the Mission Freedom building was built on the side of.

There was a single counter island in the center of the room, clearly a workspace, where Nicole's device was currently sitting at. The handheld was in standby, as stated previously, its screen dark yet illuminated and the buttons on the handheld blinking at random.

Sonic looked over the Nicole device. As per her introduction, he recalled her statement about being connected to the cyberspace systems across South Island. That, and she was clearly intelligent enough to run very advanced and complex calculations.

He looked up and leaned over, making sure he couldn't see Sally through the cracks in the blinds, before returning to the workspace, leaning on it near Nicole to whisper to her.

"Psst. Nicole."

"Yes, Sonic?"

"Shhhh!" He shushed the device when it spoke at full volume.

On the small screen of the device, a meter labeled VOLUME appeared, and lowered significantly. At a lower volume, she replied again. "…yes, Sonic?"

"Would you… Be able to do a calculation thing for me?"

"I could calculate something upon request, yes. What do you need?"

"I was trying to figure out what kind of energy output we would need to transfer the entirety of South Island out of the Underground and back onto Earth."

"Hm. I've done this calculation before, but circumstances have changed since then… Would you like me to run the updated numbers?"

"Yeah! And if you could do it quickly, so Sally doesn't yell at me, that would be great."

"Activating expedited calculation process…"

Sonic took one more glance through the cracks in the door blinds from afar before looking back down at Nicole.

He hadn't noticed it before, but the ring placed on the top of Nicole's handheld was… slowly disappearing. It started from the bottom, but the ring started fading into gold energy bit by bit, going all the way around until it reached the bottom part again. It looked like one of those newfangled ring-shaped stamina meters Sonic had been seeing in a lot of modern video games.

The ring on the very top quickly dissolved until nothing was left in the holder on top of the screen, the ring fading into gold energy that quickly disappeared. When it was done, the screen lit up again with a dinging noise.

"It will take more than ten trillion electronvolts of energy to transport the entirety of South Island out of the Underground; this would ensure the island is completely intact, with only 0.0001% possibility of civilian casualty recorded via simulations." Nicole spoke calmly."Would you like for me to run a follow-up simulation of the best possible course of action for island-wide transportation, Sonic?"

Sonic spotted a flash of auburn and blue from outside the door. "Uh, no, we're good. Thanks Nicole!"

"You're welcome."

Sally opened the door, now holding a folder under her arm. She returned to Nicole's side of the workspace, passing by Sonic, who had his phone out to try and look nonchalant.

"…Nicole, I see the ring is gone. Did you finish the calculations already?" The princess said, looking at the handheld device quizzically.

"I'm sorry, Sally, but I had to place your calculations on hold while I ran a simulation for Sonic."

"What?" She whipped her head around at Sonic, who looked back with wide eyes. "I told you not to touch anything!"

"I didn't! I just… talked to her!"

"Those rings are hard to come by! Half the time I have to wait by a lake and wait for one to float to the surface, and they only come up every twenty-four hours!" The princess was heated. She yanked the ring drawer open and grabbed another one. She didn't let her anger make her handle Nicole roughly, carefully putting the ring back in the holder. "What could have possibly been more important than de-robiticization?"

"Uh…" Sonic glanced at Nicole, but saw the system wasn't responding for him. He had to improvise- he didn't want Sally to think he was wasting time on questions she already asked. "…How to make… The world's… Largest chilidog?"

"…A chilidog. I'm trying to fix the very few subjects we've roboticized to save their lives… And you're literally wasting our resources… Because you want to know how to make the largest chilidog in the world?"

The stare from Sally was enough to make Sonic shrink slightly. He wasn't the best at improv under pressure. This was just going to make it worse- nothing could make it worse than this.

There was another dinging noise. Both Sonic and Sally turned to Nicole. The handheld had used up the ring in the time the pair were distracted by talking to one another.

"Nicole," Sally called out to her. "Did you finish the calculation for de-roboticization?"

"No, Sally. I did the calculations on how to make the world's largest chilidog, as requested. What you will need is: twenty industrial sized hotdogs, fifty gallons of chili, one hundred bags of cheese—"

With a press of a large red button on the top of the bottom half of the device, Sally either muted or turned Nicole off entirely. Her back turned to Sonic, the chipmunk princess put both her hands on the counter, leaning onto it, her head hanging as she let out a deep sigh. Her hands opened wide and gripped into fists again and again.

It was quiet for a moment. Sonic looked at the door again- whether to make sure he had an exit or because he wanted to make sure nobody else was witnessing this not even he knew. Slowly, he walked over to stand at Sally's side, seeing that her eyes were shut.

"…Hey, I'm really sorry, Sal. I didn't mean to—"

Sally raised her hand closest to Sonic and slapped it on his shoulder, gripping tightly. She turned, eyes opened now to stare at him with dangerous intent. Her free hand raised, and after she gripped her fist tightly, the blue ring bracelet she had glimmered.

From the top of her blue ring, an energy blade appeared, sticking up perfectly to line up between her middle two knuckles, extending out. The blade curved so her fist wouldn't be touching one of the sharp sides of the blade.

She brought the ring blade towards Sonic. It sliced through his barrier, vanishing into bits of green around him, as the princess held the blade up towards his neck. Sonic's eyes widened, looking down at the glowing energy blade pointed towards his chin.

"Stop calling me that, Sonny." Sally growled, now gripping the shoulder of Sonic's jacket. "You might think you can walk in here, get a job from your uncle, and mess up my important work, but you're wrong. I don't care what kind of superhero or whatever you were outside of the Underground. Right now, you're nothing but a nuisance who got his job because he was related to the right people. You can slap the supervisor title onto yourself all you want, but until you do something worthwhile, you might as well be another volunteer."

The ring blade vanished. Sonic was harshly shoved away from Sally, skidding to keep on his feet.

"Now get out of my lab!"

After she yelled at Sonic, Sally returned to Nicole, picking her up and tapping her buttons again, eyebrows furrowed in a scowl.

Sonic opened his mouth, but closed it soon after. There wasn't anything left to say. He turned around and walked to the door, opening it before speeding off out of the lab, headed clear out of the Mission Freedom building.

As the door slowly closed, Sally glanced up at where Sonic was before, her eyebrows still furrowed. She sighed before returning her gaze to Nicole's handheld with a frown.

"Don't feel bad that Sally hates you, bro."

"Yeah, she's just like that, Sonic."

Somehow, Manic and Sonia's reassurance wasn't helping Sonic. After leaving Mission Freedom, Sonic trailed through Green Hill until he ironically ran into his siblings. Giving them a quick recap of what happened, the triplets were now sitting together on the grassy top of a string of buildings in the city's square plaza.

They bought food from the bakery in town, and they were currently eating what was called "cheese and potato turnovers," though Sonic knew them as samosas on the surface. He'd have to make sure they updated their menu eventually, probably when they got out of the Underground.

Watching the people below, Sonic gently kicked his legs, similarly to his brother, as he watched the people walk around and intermingle in the village square below.

"I was trying to make a good first impression."

"Hey, it's hard with Sally," Sonia shrugged. She gently bit into her samosa next, which was completely covered in napkins to keep the filling from falling out and onto her. After swallowing she continued. "I've known her for the last three years and I still feel like she doesn't like me."

"It's just her being anti-social." Manic added. "She's still nice to some people there."

"I know. She's nice to Rotor, right? How is he friends with her but not me?"

Manic suddenly went quiet, his eyes averting to the crowd below at his brother's comment. He stuffed the rest of the samosa in his mouth, keeping his mouth preoccupied.

"It's easier when you work as an equal with Sally. Getting that supervisor position signed your death warrant." Sonia interjected quickly. "You didn't hear this from me, but I'm pretty sure her work at Mission Freedom is actually overcompensating for something."

"Usually you'd hear that from guys buying massive cars back where I come from. What could Sally possibly be trying to make up for?"

"Well…" Sonia finished her samosa and patted her mouth with a handkerchief she had in her jumpsuit's pocket. She swallowed before continuing. "King Acorn isn't exactly the most understanding and lenient father in the world, as far as I've seen."

"What about her mom?"

"Queen Acorn… Passed on before Sally came to Mission Freedom." The magenta hedgehog was clearly uncomfortable telling this to Sonic. "Honestly, I think Sally joined Mission Freedom in order to get away from that. To work instead of feeling sad about it."

"…I know how that feels." Sonic grumbled. Similarly to Manic, he shoved the rest of his food into his mouth.

As soon as he stuffed his mouth, something shifted around him. Sonic suddenly sneezed, sputtering foodstuffs from his mouth and letting it fall into the plaza below.

"Gaia bless you!" Manic said.

"Oh, gross! Are you sick?!" Sonia scooted away from her brother. "Yuck, outside sicknesses!"

"No, I'm not sick. Man, I really wanted that samosa…" Sonic frowned. "Usually I sneeze when something bad is about to—"

There was a vibration across the air, as suddenly a shadow fell over the village square. The triplets looked up, seeing the massive flapping wings of a creature flying over head. It dove down in front of them- it wasn't too massive, maybe the side of a car, but it landed directly on top of a cart full of food crates, grabbing the top and picking it up to fly off again.

Sonic could hardly believe his eyes. It was…

"A DRAGON?!"

"Is it supposed to be here this soon?"

"I thought we had a few more days! This is way past not cool!"

"Wh— YOU GUYS HAD A DRAGON AND DIDN'T TELL ME?!"

Screaming pierced the air, turning the attention of the triplets back to the ground. A woman jumped out of the way of one of the food crates that fell off from the carriage that the dragon was carrying, which smashed in a burst of wooden splinters and bananas.

Sonic felt his blood run cold as he knew that more crates would fall, putting more people in danger. He remembered that promise he made to his uncle in the back of his mind: he would try to relax and have a normal vacation, free of hitting supersonic speeds.

Man, forget that, people need help!

With a shove off the edge of the roof, Sonic hopped off and hit the ground two stories below. His siblings watched him do that- after a glance to one another, they quickly followed suit. Sonia went down first, so she could catch Manic to make sure he wouldn't get hurt from the fall.

The triplets ran across the plaza as the dragon continued to fly above them. The creature was large enough that flying appeared slower to the people on the ground, only added with the crates of food that the dragon was currently stealing.

Two crates fell from the cart, bound to hit the ground and whatever was under it soon. In the chaos created from the dragon's appearance, people were rushing around, separating family members from one another. The shadows created by the two creates were closing in one a small turtle boy who was trying to find where his parents were.

On one of the forefronts of a plaza business, there was a stack of metal tubs that were being locked up by a Mobian cat.

"Well, looks like my metal bathtubs aren't gonna sell today with the dragon here…"

Someone tapped his shoulder.

"Huh?" The cat turned around. "Hello? Who did that? Why does that keep happening to me? I'm not gonna turn back around until whoever did that shows themselves!"

With the cat preoccupied, Manic slipped the key out of the cat's hand and used it to unlock the metal tubs. He kept the key in the lock for the cat to find later- he lifted one of the tubs with a small grunt and quickly hustled away from the business just as the cat turned back around.

"Hey!"

"Gotta borrow this, dude, I'll bring it right back! Sorry!"

Just as the two crates reached the turtle boy, Manic flipped and spun the metal tub around, placing both himself and the boy within the concave side of the tub, shielded by it. The crates slammed into the upturned bottom side of the tub, with Manic holding it up and protecting the pair from harm.

Manic pushed the tub off of them when the coast was clear, letting it flip rightside-up once more. A larger turtle rushed towards them.

"Tocky!"

With another grunt, Manic lifted the turtle boy and handed him to his father. "Go! Find shelter!"

Once the turtle boy was taken away, Manic lifted the metal tub again- both to find someone else to help, and because that Mobian cat was now in pursuit of his stolen merchandise.

More crates were falling from the cart. Sonia could see that the mobs of Mobians that were trying to reach the shelter in the plaza were put in peril- there were three crates that were falling concurrent with one another, each on the same level.

She looked around, only to see a makeshift sales stand nearby, with a crimson quokka behind it. They had one of those headband umbrellas on- clearly something that fell through the vortex to the Underground, now worn as if to block the falling crates.

There was a pole saw leaning against one of the beams of this makeshift stand. Sonia ran up to it.

"Barry!"

"Oh, hi Sonia!"

"How much for the pole-saw-thing?"

"Oh! Uh…" Barry tapped their chin. "I dunno, I never thought anyone would want that."

"Barry, I'm kinda in a hurry!"

"Well, maybe it should be ten rings… Oh what the heck, you're a friend. Five rings!"

"Deal!"

Sonia rummaged into her pocket and put the rings in Barry's hand. After a quick sanitizing spray of her hand that just touched Barry and the pole of the pole saw, Sonia picked it up and ran away from the stand. Barry waved after her.

"Pleasure doing business with you!"

After reaching a spot close to the falling crates (somehow that exchange took less time than she thought) Sonia threw the pole saw like a spear.

She hit the crates near perfectly- they didn't all hit the center of the crates, but she still got all of them, knocking all three crates out of the air and into the ground. The mobs of Mobians continued their chaos, but now left unharmed from what happened.

With supersonic speed, Sonic sped in front of the Mobians, freaking them out enough that Sonic was able to funnel all the stampeding civilians towards the plaza. He was still relatively unseen, so maybe Uncle Chuck would still be satisfied.

As he sped around to herd the Mobians into the village square, he stopped as he saw someone in the very back of the crowd- a fez-wearing chimp pulling along a cart of coconuts. Sonic looked up, seeing that a larger crate flopped out of the carriage that the dragon was carrying.

Sonic sped towards the monkey, pulling him away in time for the large crate to smash the coconut carts, creating a massive burst of coconut milk, coconut bits and whole coconuts.

"My coconuts!" The chimp, Coconuts, cried.

"It's alright, you're safe!"

"Ugh, get off me, you blue idiot!"

Coconuts slapped and shoved Sonic off of him, before using a finger to show how grateful he was that Sonic saved him. Taken aback from the unappreciative monkey, the bewildered Sonic raised his hands up defensively and simply let Coconuts go to his destroyed cart to mourn his fruits.

Sonia came up beside him. Manic joined them soon after, still apologizing to the tub-salesman that he stole the metal tub from, but joined his siblings as they watched the dragon fly off.

The dragon turned its head to look back, revealing the glimmering black metal nose ring it had. It turned its head back to look ahead, but was met with a Mobian owl that flew up right in front of it.

Longclaw let out a screech- it wasn't supersonic like Rouge's, but it still rang out like a banshee. The dragon let out a noise in return, but one that sounded fearful. The dragon dipped down under Longclaw, flapping quicker to leave Green Hill with haste.

With the dragon retreating, Longclaw swooped down and landed in front of the triplets.

"That's the last time I do an island-wide fly close to the dragon's visit. Are you kids okay?"

"We're okay, Longclaw."

"Oh, thank goodness… Wait, where's Tails and Chuck?"

"They're at Mission Freedom, they're okay too."

Longclaw sighed with relief.

"Okay, I think I've calmed down." Sonic finally spoke. "You guys… HAVE A FREAKING DRAGON?!"

He was clearly not calm. The yelling echoed through the nearby buildings and trees.

"…Yes." Longclaw nodded. "It usually visits us once a month. It actually came the day before you and Tails showed up to South Island, but the excitement of seeing Chuck's missing nephews completely wiped it out from memory."

"Same here." Sonia agreed. "It's been happening for… As long as I can remember, actually. Though the dragon didn't look like that way back when I was a little girl."

"Maybe there's two."

"I sure hope not, Manny." Longclaw continued. "No matter how many, the dragons are smart. They know that this is the industrial and manufacture side of South Island, where many supplies are produced."

"So they don't attack any other village on South Island?" Sonic asked.

"Just Green Hill. Like I said, most of the island's supplies are produced here. Including foods."

Sonic was left to think to himself after that. The exhilaration of the aspect of a dragon- a real, actual dragon- not only being real but also being so close… It was finally starting to die down as the dust settled after the dragon's assault.

The triplets parted as Longclaw walked by to go further into the village square, wanting to assess the damage done by the dragon's visit. Ever wanting to help, the siblings followed along, seeing what remained in the wake of the falling crates.

Minimal damage happened overall. There was only one person seriously affected by the falling crates- someone who landed weird on their arm after jumping out of the way. Longclaw helped walk them to the village's physician- a boar called Dr. Appladay- which pulled her away from the triplets.

Though there were murmurs and panicked whispers amongst the crowd of Mobians that remained after the dragon's destruction, it seemed that this has happened enough times that the villagers were used to having to clean after the large beast.

Sonic saw how the Mobians each helped one another through town, picking up debris and foodstuffs, helping put things like stands and things back up. People were checking up on one another, hugging each other, and just helping make sure everything and everyone was safe.

But there was the nagging feeling in the back of Sonic's head that this was still wrong. These people were used to this… used to constantly being stolen from and terrorized once a month. This was an injustice.

He heard sniffling nearby, which Sonic found came from a seal girl nearby. She was trying to get a mainly intact crate of potatoes off of something stuck underneath. Sonic zipped over, squatting down and grabbing the end of the crate. With his speedster legs, Sonic lifted the crate and flipped it back over, freeing the doll that was underneath.

Sonic picked up the small doll, which was a wooden one with hair, that had the name "Rocky" written underneath one of its feet. He handed it to the seal girl.

"You're Rocky?"

The girl nodded, wiping her eyes as she took the doll back. "Thank you…"

"You're okay, too? The dragon didn't hurt you, did it?"

"No…" Rocky sniffled. "But she stole our food cart…"

"That was your cart?"

"My mom and dad's… For the general store. That was supposed to be our month's shipment… I was gonna do the restocking for the first time with dad…"

The blue hedgehog was disconcerted at the young girl's solemness in reaction to the dragon's thievery. He frowned, though not knowing what else to say, watching the girl groom her doll's hair back to normal sadly.

"Rochelle!"

The girl turned around to see another seal nearby- clearly her father, standing in front of the general store.

Rocky looked back up at Sonic one more time. "Thank you for saving Tilly, Mister Sonic."

"Anytime. Just keep her out of trouble from now on, kiddo."

Sonic waved goodbye as Rocky ran back to her father, and watched her give her dad a hug as soon as they were reunited.

The Mobians around Sonic continued to help clean up the village square. Sonia helped lift crates from the ground and bring them to the general store, Manic assisted Longclaw with coordinating efforts to assess any further physical or mental damage done to the people affected by the dragon's assault.

Yet Sonic was still in one spot, stuck pondering what he should do.

"Well I'm glad you three stayed safe. And even I can say I'm happy you helped during the chaos."

It was another dinner at the Hedgehog household, this time they were enjoying a nice meal of creamy wild rice soup- Tails had a few recipes on hand in his Miles Thunderbolt, so both he and Chuck made dinner together. It was a hit, and Chuck even wrote it down in his personal recipe book.

Sonic stirred his soup, staring into it, watching the sweet potatoes, mushrooms and celery stir alongside the eponymous rice. He was in thought, though kept an ear out to hear what was being discussed.

"Dragons were always mythological creatures outside the Underground," Tails said. "Though I guess with this development, maybe they were simply historical accounts not taken seriously!"

"So they don't have any outside of the Underground?" Longclaw inquired.

"Not that I know of! This is the first time I've ever heard of dragons actually being real!"

"It must be surreal coming from a place where they're just myths," Sonia added, carefully eating her soup. "Though if any of us down here came back to Earth, we'd probably be just as confused that there aren't any dragons up there."

"I'd be asking to come back here! A place with no dragons sounds mondo lame." Manic chuckled.

"There are dragons on TV shows and movies."

"No offense, Tails, but that has nothing on the real deal."

"Yeah, I'll give you that, that's true."

They continued to eat, and Sonic continued to think to himself in silence.

That dragon has been taking resources from Green Hill for years, according to his siblings. It's been terrorizing the people and nobody's been doing anything about it. Besides the star post motion sensors and the patrols done by Longclaw, there wasn't anything really keeping that dragon from coming back more than once a month.

What could they do, though? The Mobians here didn't have special powers. They were essentially like the people back outside the Underground, where they couldn't do anything unless they arm themselves with some kind of technology, or weapon, or both.

Sonic wasn't like that though- none of his family was. They could do something.

"Sonny boy? You alright?" Chuck broke Sonic's train of thought.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm all good."

"You didn't get hurt during the dragon's attack, did you?"

"Not by the dragon, but I did see Coconuts give him a few slaps." Manic said, amused at the memory.

"Ugh. Coconuts." Chuck grumbled, shaking his head slightly. "Such an angry, sad little monkey."

With the focus off of him again, Sonic continued to think, though ate some of his soup.

It was just a crummy day altogether. He continued to disappoint Sally at Mission Freedom, and he was unable to prevent people from being terrorized by the dragon in Green Hill. It was so different back on the homestead- Sonic was consistently a ray of hope for people, even in the darkest of moments.

He'd like to think those moments where the citizens fought back against the destruction of Chaos and the invasion of the Black Arms was inspired by Sonic's own actions to save the world. But here, on South Island, he didn't have a reputation as a hero. He was just… Chuck's tumultuous nephew.

There was a notable hole where the lack of respect people had for him resided in Sonic's chest. Again, it was different when he was the worldwide superstar speedster Sonic The Hedgehog instead of Sonny C. Hedgehog.

He wanted that respect back, mostly so people didn't immediately think he was some kind of nepo baby screw-up. But also, simultaneously, he wanted to throw hazard to the wind and go after that dragon that's causing so much stress to the people here in Green Hill.

Maybe… There was a way to do that all at once.

As an idea suddenly came across Sonic's mind, the blue hedgehog's ears perked up and his back straightened. His eyes opened wide, and he looked around at the table. He saw that the others were having some private conversations with one another.

Except for Tails. When Sonic looked at the fox, all he saw was his little brother's eyes meeting his, because he was watching Sonic after seeing the hedgehog visibly change demeanor. Tails clearly knew Sonic well, and knew that something was very obviously up.

His eyes darted across the table- Sonic still had more soup than the others. At supersonic speed, Sonic ate the rest of his soup until his bowl was empty like everyone else's. It was easier when he imagined it was the soup form of chilidogs. Man, he missed chilidogs every night…

There was a ca-clink as Sonic dropped his spoon into his bowl, sighing contentedly. It was pretty good soup, he had to admit. Maybe not as good as chilidogs, but still.

"That was some good soup." He gave a thumbs up.

"I agree with Sonic!" Longclaw agreed.

"Yeah, that soup was outta this world, Uncle Chuck! Same kudos to you too, little bro." Manic kissed his fingers as if he was a chef.

"Happy to hear you all enjoyed it! It's definitely a keeper. Such a good use of vegetables I don't know what to do with too." Chuck smiled, his bushy quillstache curling upwards. "Alright, who's got the dishes tonight?"

"Sonic and I got it, Uncle Chuck." Tails said, standing immediately.

"Oh! Alright then! Glad to see one of the kids here is eager to help."

"I'm not getting anything on this jumpsuit. It's one of the ones I didn't get to spray with that polymer…"

"And I just don't want to."

Chuck scoffed at Sonia and Manic's respective responses, shaking his head.

"If dinner's all done, I think I'll be taking my leave."

"Before you go, Longclaw," Chuck stood just as she did. "I made a container for you to bring to your father. We had a surplus of the soup, and I'd hate for it to go to waste. The kids are pretty bad at leftovers… Though that's the pot calling the kettle."

"Thank you, Charlie, I'm sure he'll love it. Is it in the kitchen?"

"I'll get it for you. Let me walk you out."

"Oooo-ooohhhh…." Sonia and Manic crooned.

Chuck cleared his throat, looking sternly towards his niece and nephew, making the pair become serious.

"I'll see you kids tomorrow," Longclaw said, amused. "You all keep safe."

The siblings gave their own versions of goodbye before the owl walked out with the old hedgehog in tow. Both Manic and Sonia acted like they were doing something else, but snickered together after Chuck and Longclaw left. The two got up and walked out of the room together, still chuckling, most likely heading to their own rooms.

Sonic and Tails collected the bowls and went to the kitchen, getting started, with the hedgehog on washing and the fox on drying.

With a quick glance to the window to make sure they couldn't be seen, both started using their respective abilities to make the process quicker. Sonic scrubbed the bowls at supersonic speeds, while Tails spun his tails facing the rack of bowls after wiping them down to ensure they would get dry quicker.

"So what's up with you?" Tails asked, giving Sonic a side eye.

"Why do you think something's up with me?"

"I've known you for years, Sonic. You were my first best friend- pretty sure I was yours." Tails put another bowl on the rack to dry. "I know you. And I know you were sad about the stuff with Sally…"

"How'd you know about that?"

"She gets tea with Rotor after work. They invited me this time."

"…How is he on her good side…?" Sonic murmured.

"Besides that, I know you're probably torn up about what happened with the dragon."

"Yeah," The hedgehog sighed. He looked over the shiny bowl he scrubbed, seeing he washed it so well that his reflection shimmered in it partially. "I tried to help as much as I could, but… What am I supposed to do about a freakin' dragon flying around?"

There was a poignant pause. Tails side eyed Sonic again.

"I feel like you have a point."

"…unless…"

"Oh no."

"Unless a pair of superheroes go after the dragon and keep it from hurting people!" Sonic was grinning again, turning his head to look at Tails.

Tails wasn't upset, instead slightly shocked. "You want to fight a dragon?"

"Yeah! Think about it, Tails! I fight the dragon, I win, I bring it's head back to the village. Green Hill is safe from attacks, and people can finally realize I'm a cool dude!"

"What about the promise you made Uncle Chuck?"

"…That dragon is hurting people. It nearly hurt a bunch of people today," Sonic handed a bowl over to Tails, suddenly somber again. "I have the power to stop that. The people in Green Hill need someone with these powers to help them. I can't just stand by and watch them get hurt just because it's different."

"So… With great power, comes great responsibility?"

"Don't say that too loud, Tails, I don't know if any lawyers followed us down here…"

Tails snorted, the mood back to something positive. "Even assuming you could find the dragon, how are you gonna fight it? The last 'dragon' you fought was Chaos, and he… Ugh." The fox shivered at the memory of Sonic beaten, bruised and nearly dead at Chaos-6's hand. "Plus, have you seen Throne Of Ice & Fire? Those dragons are no joke!"

"Have you seen that show? You're not even sixteen yet, the stuff in that show is not for young teens."

"I just looked at clips of the dragons!" Tails was defensive. "All I know is that there's something called a 'red wedding' that I hope is just because they have red velvet cake, somehow, in that time period."

"That's a nice thought to have." Sonic replied, keeping his little brother in the dark. "Anyway, the dragon won't stand a chance against us!"

"Us?"

"Yeah! Sonic and Tails, just like up on the surface! Man, if only we brought Amy and Knuckles. That dragon would be running from us instead!"

"Sonic, this is nuts. Do you really want to risk it?" The fox turned more to look at Sonic. All the bowls were on the rack now, so turning was just to make sure his tails could face them better. "We could get seriously hurt, killed, or worse- get grounded on vacation."

"Come oooon, do you really think Chuck will ground us?"

"Yes."

"But seriously."

"Yes."

"…Man, I hate when you're the responsible one…"

"Amy's not here, somebody's gotta do it!"

"Tails, please? I wanna help the village! I know you want to help too!" Sonic clasped his hands together to beg to the shorter young man. (Though not too much shorter anymore… man, when did Tails hit a growth spurt?) He shook his hands. "Think of how cool it'll be to design a trap for a dragon! You'd finally get to design something new and not use already made designs…"

Sure, Tails knew Sonic well. But Sonic knew Tails just as well. That offer was enough for Tails' ears to perk up, as he was clearly now seriously considering it. He frowned a little, narrowing his eyes to Sonic.

"…what about Sonia and Manic?"

"Hmm… Better not to risk it. They might tell Chuck."

"So as long as Chuck doesn't find out, we're good?"

"Yeah!" Sonic grinned. "I'm happy to see you coming around, little buddy!"

"Right…"

The door nearby opened and close, Sonic and Tails giving each other suspicious glances still as Chuck passed by. He stopped in his tracks, leaning back a little as he saw his nephews staring at one another strangely.

After a second, he shook his head and sighed. "So much like Aleena and Vanny…"

He walked off. With the coast now clear, Sonic and Tails parted.

With that idea fresh in his mind, Sonic had a bit of pep in his step as he walked upstairs to the rooms for the siblings. He smiled, humming Green Hill's theme to himself (Sonia's room was next to Sonic and Tails', and she kept playing the theme on her piano to practice) as he reached his door.

Sonic and Tails had separate beds in their room here in Chuck's home. One with yellow covers, one with blue- it was clear whose bed was whose. They hadn't really decorated beyond that, but Sonic heard from Sonia that Gigalopolis had some cool stuff they could look at to decorate their tandem room.

As he stepped in, Sonic closed his door behind him with a smile. Tails wasn't in yet, but he'd be here soon.

Not even a minute after closing his door, someone knocked on it. Sonic paused, literally backing up to the door and opening it to see who was knocking.

On the other side was Sonia, Manny and Tails.

"Uh… Hey sibs." Sonic was confused.

With Sonia taking the lead, the three pushed in. She closed the door behind them, and then turned to Sonic, who was now in between all three of his siblings.

"You want to slay Green Hill's dragon?!" Sonia whisper-yelled.

Sonic was surprised, before shooting a glance at Tails. "Tails! Narc!"

Tails held his hands up at shoulder level in a comical shrug. It was clear this would be his plan- he didn't tell Chuck, he told a third party. Whether the siblings told on Sonic would be up to them. He wouldn't rat Sonic out directly, but he'd let it be up to fate.

"Snitching aside… Is this true, bro?" Manic asked, clearly intrigued.

"Well… Yeah!" Sonic nodded. "It's terrorizing the town! We were lucky we got out in the square, but imagine if we weren't there? Manic, imagine if that turtle boy was hit with those crates! Or if you didn't spear those crates headed towards that crowd, Sonia! Or if I didn't grab Coconuts!"

"Had us until the last one. Nobody was begging you to save Coconuts."

"Manic, have a heart."

"I have one, sis, it just doesn't beat for Coconuts. That guy's the worst."

"You're actually, seriously, completely dead set on going to slay the dragon?" Sonia asked her brother, staring at Sonic directly.

The intensity of the stare shocked Sonic. Not just because of the intensity, but because it looked a lot like Aleena. Looks like someone got that from her after all. "Yeah. I want to help people, and I have the power to do it. I'm gonna slay it."

There was a pause. Sonia crossed her arms tightly.

"…I want in." She said.

"Yeah! Me too!" Manic added.

"Wait, really?"

"Ay carumba…" Tails grumbled, rubbing an eye.

"I've been scared of that dragon ever since I first saw it." Sonia continued, speaking to Sonic. "It's been taking our supplies! A lot of time people need those supplies! We always try to make a surplus but it never works out. I want to use my super-strength to take it down!"

"Slaying a freakin' dragon sounds like one hell of a thing to put on future resumes." Manic added, grinning. "Plus, I need to do something out of the house before I become a real homebody. I wanna help out!"

"Well, looks like I'm out-voted." Tails said with resignation. "I'll join in too."

"You don't have to, Tails."

"What, and you and the sibs take care of it? Either you'll get hurt, or get all the glory, and I can't have that," The fox was back to smiling. "And do you really think you're going to get that dragon without one of my designs to trap it? You guys seriously need my help."

"Alright then! Looks like Team Hedgehog is set for business!"

"We're not…" Sonic chuckled a bit. "We're not a team, Manic. This is just… sibling bonding."

"But we could be a team…" Sonia singsonged.

"Sonia, no."

"One step forward, two steps back." Manic shrugged similarly to how Tails did earlier. "Oh, well."

"I'll draft up plans tonight." Tails took off his backpack and retrieved the Miles Thunderbolt. "I have a few ideas… Since the dragon's visit is fresh, do you think it'll still be in the area?"

"The dragon's been known to fly around the area the days after the attack." The magenta hedgehog tapped her arm as she thought. "We should head north. Maybe passing the district border to Great Turquoise but not too far that we end up in Knothole. You don't want the Wolf Pack finding you around there."

"Steer clear of Knothole, got it." Sonic nodded. "Probably nothing interesting over there anyways."

"We'll meet at the north border of Green Hill tomorrow around noon." With the Miles Thunderbolt out, Tails was clearly working on it. "I'll let you guys know if there's anything auxiliary you need to do before we leave. Just act natural and, for the love of mints, don't let Uncle Chuck know what we're doing."

"You got it, little buddy."

"I'm good at keeping a secret!"

"These lips are sealed, little bro."

"Great! Now get back to your rooms."

"Alright, break!"

Manic's words were the last things said before both he and Sonia left the room. Tails went to his bed, slipping under the yellow covers and pulling them over his head to work on his plans on his tablet in mostly solitude.

Sonic was left to himself, sliding onto his bed to relax and think about the next day.

He didn't expect his siblings to get involved… part of him didn't want his siblings involved. Being a part of Team Sonic was fun, but it led to a lot of danger, and usually Sonic being in danger stressed the people he loved the most.

This was just a single mission. His siblings could handle themselves… Well he knew Tails could. But Sonia and Manic haven't been on a super cool Team Sonic mission like this before.

Well, it wasn't a Team Sonic mission. They weren't a team. That's the main difference. It would be fine.

Man, is this how Chuck felt about him?

The blue hedgehog huffed as he made the connection. Reaching into the nightstand beside his bed, Sonic pulled out the earbuds he had packed and put them in his ears. With nothing left to do, Sonic settled on relaxing in bed with some classic rock playing.

Maybe tomorrow would go well. Only time would tell.

The districts of South Island included such spots as Green Hill, Blue Marine, Yellow Desert, Red Volcano and Silver Plains. Directly north to Green Hill, scaling the southeastern corner of the island, was Great Turquoise.

Great Turquoise was primarily trees, a very thick forest with foliage that was- you guessed it- a very deep turquoise color. Deep within the forests rested the community of Knothole, which had a proper name, unlike the village of Green Hill that was named after the district.

At noon the next evening, the siblings met up on Emerald Hill- the second largest hill in the Green Hill district- which overlooked Great Turquoise. Tails was there first, Sonic second. They both met Sonia as she pulled up on her motorcycle with Manic sitting passenger.

"You think your bike will still be here when we get back?"

"People know it's my bike, which means they know what I'll do to anyone that touches it." Sonia replied to Sonic as she got off.

"Did you bring the thing?"

"You got it!"

Manic reached into the storage compartment on the back of Sonia's bike, taking out a bundle of rope and handing it over to Tails.

"Wow! This looks cool! Where'd you get this?"

"Sonia made it!"

"Really?"

"Oh, it's nothing." Sonia waved her hand modestly. "It's all mostly weaving and crocheting and whatnot. All things I did with Longclaw growing up. Thought it barely took me an hour!"

The four started walking down Emerald Hill towards the forest.

"You know, I really wish you could meet Knuckles," Sonic said, leaning forwards to look at Sonia as they walked. "You two would get along really well."

"You think so?"

"Yeah! Knuckles does a lot of outdoors stuff. Mostly because he lives outdoors but…" The blue hedgehog shrugged. "Plus, you both are super-strong! I'd pay to see you two in an arm wrestling match."

"I'd pay to see that guy rip a phone book in half." Manic commented.

"I think we made him do that when he was living with us after Chaos." Tails thought for a second, but shook his head. "Anyway, Manic, can you help me get started on this?"

"What do you need me to do, little bro?"

"We're just making a net with this rope. Sonic, Sonia, you can join in once it gets long enough. I think we should have just enough rope to make a decently sized net. Just weave like this…"

Tails showed Manic what to do, leading to both of them starting on the net. Soon enough, Sonic joined, and Sonia joined- but only after a quick spritz of sanitizer to her gloved hands.

Eventually, the four held each corner of the net they made, walking together through the woods. It wasn't perfect, but it would most likely hold for the plan that Tails had in mind. They walked until they reached a decent sized clearing that the net could fit over.

At Tails' command, the siblings put the net down for a moment, and he started rummaging through his backpack.

"What's the play here, Tails?" Sonia asked.

"Well, we're in an area of the forest where the leaves cover up the sky. If we lure the dragon in with something, I'm sure it won't swoop in, but instead walk through the forest."

"We're using bait?"

"Yeah! From what I've been told, most of the time the dragon swoops down, it's to steal food. So I'm certain that using something incredibly delectable will lure that dragon in. Then, we do death from above- we're gonna bring the net down on top of it."

"Nice plan, Tails." Sonic said. "What kind of bait are we using? Fish? Vegetables?"

Tails paused. Slowly, he pulled the bait out of his backpack- one of the two remaining chilidogs they had. Sonic needed a second to fully realize what was being implied, but when it finally hit him, his eyes widened and his pupils retracted.

"Sonia, Manic, grab him!"

Before the blue hedgehog could speed towards Tails to grab the chilidog from him, his siblings instead held him back. Sonia grabbed onto Sonic's arms, and when the hedgehog tried to kick, Manic held both of his feet under his arm to keep them restrained.

"No! No! NOOOO—!"

Sonia clamped her hand down over Sonic's mouth to keep him from getting too loud.

Walking to the center of the clearing, Tails put down a plate before putting the chilidog on it. He took out a small device that looked like a hair dryer and fired it at the chilidog, blasting it with piping hot air and microwaves to cook it instantly.

The smell of chilidog filled the air. Tails took out a Gigalopolis mint candy and popped it in his mouth as the next part of his plan came into play.

"Sonic, c'mon, it's for a good cause."

"Yeah bro, the sacrifice of the chilidog won't go in vain. It'll help the village!"

After finally calming down, Sonic turned mopey after realizing that there really wasn't anything he could do in this scenario. Well he could grab the chilidog and run away at supersonic speeds, but he didn't want to hurt any of his sibling's feelings.

Tails walked up, rummaging through his backpack.

"Sonic, you still have on that Communication Crown, right?"

"Yeah…" Sonic sighed.

"I hope traveling to another zone will keep us from being heard by Amy and Knuckles." Tails pulled a small box out of his bag. "Sonia, Manic, put these on your back molar."

"Like in my mouth?" Sonia was revolted.

"Yeah. Don't worry," Tails opened the box, revealing this container for Communication Crowns had UV lights shining inside of it. "They're disinfected. Even I wanted to make sure of that."

Sonia and Manic each took one of the Communication Crowns. Though both were equally apprehensive, they put the crowns in their mouth on one of their back teeth.

"Touch the side of it with your tongue when you want to talk, then touch it again when you end your transmission." Tails told them. "This way we can chat even far away."

"What kind of battery does this thing even take?"

"It's nanotech, it runs forever. Though there's a 0.000007% chance it'll fuse with your tooth within five years." The fox lifted one of the corners of the net. "Now everyone grab a corner and climb a tree at the edges of the clearing."

Stretching the net over the clearing, each sibling climbed up a tree as instructed. The net was held up above the opening, though was still visible.

"Go higher!" Tails said over comms. "Try to hide the net in the trees up above."

The four went higher, pushing it up against the deep blue leaves up above and obscuring it slightly. Though in different positions- sitting or standing- all four of them were steady against the trunk of the tree they climbed.

It was quiet. The smell of chilidog was still in the air, which made Sonic sigh.

After a few minutes, the comms were turned back on.

"I'm bored." Manic said.

"Manic, stay quiet!"

"I'm not speaking loud, Sonia! I'm trying to keep it low."

"…I hope that dragon comes soon."

"I hope that dragon comes at all." Tails murmured. "I'm still not sure that this plan is going to work."

"It's your plan!"

"Having a plan doesn't mean it'll have results, Manic."

"Hey, it's still a pretty solid plan, little buddy."

"Thanks, Sonic."

"Don't know why you had to use a poor innocent chilidog as bait, but you gotta do what you gotta do."

Tails scoffed, rolling his eyes even if he was obscured. "It's good bait, Sonic."

"It belongs in a museum. Wait, no, wrong reference… It belongs in my stomach."

"Was he always like this, even back out on Earth, Tails?" Sonia asked.

"Unfortunately."

"Hey!"

"I'm just kidding, Sonic."

"Between you being a teen, and Sonic having a mind of a teen, was that hammer girl the only adult on your team?"

"Who, Amy? I mean… I'm not saying no, but she is the one that has two jobs while Sonic and I have… none."

"I get money from brand deals! I paid off the whole apartment!" Sonic was defensive. "Amy just pays for utilities. I still help around the apartment with chores and stuff!"

"But you didn't want to go for a better apartment after we saved the city from Chaos."

"Like I said, I paid off the one we have! Why leave when we're comfortable? Plus, Chaos literally flooding the city has turned Team Sonic into public enemies number one-through-three to all real estate agents in the area. You think they would give us a good deal after inadvertently causing those guys millions in water damage?"

"…touche."

"If we head back to that Station Square, are we gonna stay in that apartment?"

"You and Sonia can sleep in the living room. The sofa's a futon, that used to be Knuckles' bed and my bed before him. Besides that, I'm pretty sure we have sleeping bags too… Or maybe we can just bite the bullet and buy an air mattress."

"Ugh…" Sonia shivered. "So many germs…"

"It's that, or you can stay in one of those run down, shady, beds-possibly-used-for-something-other-than-sleeping hotels, Sonia."

"…I'll bring my sanitizer and make it work at the apartment."

"I'm just teasing though. Amy, Tails and I will make sure the place is all clean for you, Sonia."

Sonia sighed with relief. "I appreciate it, Sonic."

"What about Knuckles? What if he comes back around?"

"Well, if push comes to shove Tails, Knuckles can just bunk with me on whatever air mattress we get."

"Manic, that guy snores like a freight train."

"I'm prepared to make that sacrifice."

Sonia scoffed and chuckled, though Sonic and Tails were certainly still mildly concerned for Manic.

"…wait." Tails said over the comms. "You hear that?"

It took another few moments, but there was suddenly very heavy flapping nearby. It passed over them, making the siblings all hold their breath when it happened.

Though the flapping passed, it stopped. Then somewhere east, they all heard a few thudding sounds and the weaker flaps of wings as it seemed like something was trying to correct its landing. The four all got ready for whatever happened next.

Some trudging echoed out, heavy footsteps only getting closer. Eventually a snout broke through the trees, showing the black nose ring the four remembered that dragon had.

It stepped into the clearing. Without the havoc of it attacking the village, the four were finally able to get a real good look at the dragon. It was the size of a car, as mentioned, though it had a larger bottom half than its torso, and a long neck.

The dragon had teal scales, which they could see were matte, not reflecting any light. The beast's belly and the underside of the dragon's large wings were a salmon color, matching the color of a fin protruding from between its pointed ears, similarly to a mohawk; there was a similar fin on the back of its tail. The group was amazed to find that its back feet had small white wings on them, certainly there to assist with flying.

With olive eyes, the dragon looked at the chilidog on the plate in the clearing. It turned its head to check that the coast was clear; the dragon's extended neck allowing it to turn its head to even look behind them. The siblings were amazed to find that the dragon was emoting- it wasn't just some animal, it appeared to be sentient.

It trudged forwards, getting down lower, the dragon's smaller top arms touching the ground as she crawled forwards. She smelled the chilidog to make sure it was okay, before closing her eyes and her mouth over the food to eat it.

"NOW!"

Tails' cry signaled the others. All four of them jumped off their trees, pulling the net down from the foliage. The dragon looked up with wide eyes, able to suck the rest of the chilidog into her mouth before the net came down around her.

The siblings held the four corners of the net to the ground. Thanks to enhanced Mobian strength, each of them were able to keep the now thrashing dragon netted.

"Tails?" Sonia called out to him.

"Keep it down! If we wear it out we can move onto the next phase!"

The net that was created with the superpower of teamwork was good but, as stated, imperfect. It was so imperfect that many of the loops created to tie the net together at different places weren't as tight or well made as they would hope.

As a result, as the thrashing dragon continued to fight, one of the net loops unraveled, allowing one of the dragons' wings to lift up in the air.

"Uh oh." Sonic said.

"Sonia, grab its wing and hold it down before—"

It was too late. The net unraveled more in the middle, allowing both of the dragon's wings to become freed. With one powerful beat of its wings, the dragon was airborne again, and the siblings were dragged along with it as all four of them screamed.

The dragon busted through the foliage, leaving the four clinging onto dear life as the net was still wrapped around the frightened beast's body, though all four of them were now close together while hanging under the dragon. The dragon roared, maybe in fear or maybe in anger.

Close by, Longclaw was continuing her patrols in the skies above the island. She paused in midair as she heard the roar of the dragon, turning her head around to see it in the distance.

"The dragon's back around…" She murmured. "Hm. Someone must be trying to catch it. Heh, that's funny, those trappers look like the kids."

The owl continued to soar through the air peacefully. After a second Longclaw stopped again, now panicked.

"THOSE ARE THE KIDS!" She yelled, mostly to herself.

Turning her head back around, she watched as the dragon rolled and thrashed in the air to get the net off of her, with the four siblings continuing to hold on. Longclaw soon turned her head back, and started flying off towards Green Hill.

She couldn't go after that dragon alone. She needed someone who was capable of hurting something as large and powerful as that beast, and someone who could watch her back. What she needed… was Chuck.

While she did that, the siblings were still barely hanging onto their free dragon ride. The dragon wiggled and whipped around in the air, wanting either the net or the siblings off of her. Preferably she wanted both off of her.

The dragon corkscrewed, swinging the siblings around. The net under Tails' hand unraveled, causing him to slip off just as the dragon returned to being right-side up.

Before Tails could fall far, his hand was grabbed by the nearby Manic.

"I got you, little bro!"

Across the dragon's body, Sonia used her enhanced strength to pull herself up, climbing the net like a ladder to get to the dragon's shoulder. Sonia kept her grip on the net, and started to assess the situation now that she was at a vantage point.

From below, Tails had noticed his sister climbing up the dragon.

"Manic!" He called up to the green hedgehog. "Swing me upwards!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah! Don't worry, I got it!"

"Alright!"

Grabbing Tails' hand with both of his, Manic swung once, twice, and three times before swinging Tails upwards and towards the front of the dragon.

As he let go of Manic, Tails did two things: he activated his heel-mounted Jet Anklet, which let out a burst of stable chaos energy so the fox could replicate Sonic's boosts, propelling himself further upwards; secondly, he activated his Vulcan Cannon, aiming it at the magenta hedgehog.

"Sonia!"

She looked up in time for Tails to launch a ring tether at her, which she instinctively grabbed. Tails' momentum in midair was enough for him to swing in front of the dragon, down and around her neck, before he swung over her shoulder and onto her back.

The Vulcan Cannon disappeared, leaving the other end of the ring tether in Tails' hand. Now holding either side of the tether wrapped around the dragon's neck, both Tails and Sonia pulled back, as if pulling the reins of a horse to make it slow down- and it worked, as the dragon leaned back and slowed down in the air with beating wings.

Sonic noticed them slowing down. He spotted Manic nearby, his body entangled in the net and still hanging upside down.

"Manic!" He called out. "Think you can swing me up too?"

"Sure dude, got nothing better to do."

Swinging his legs, Sonic jumped off and grabbed Manic's arm, using the momentum and an extra boost from his back to swing upwards next. As Sonic launched upwards, Manic was untied from the net, though was still able to grab onto the net and keep against the dragon.

Reaching a peak in the air, Sonic let himself backflip in the air (gotta hit those extra style points) before boosting down while his head was pointed downwards. He crashed into the dragon, putting his hands on her body and boosting again to send the dragon hurtling towards the ground.

They all crashed through the branches of a few turquoise trees, the siblings each letting go of the dragon and tumbling on the ground as the dragon crashed down on her stomach. The power of the slam into the ground was enough to undo the net, making hand-woven rope fly off in many directions.

The four got back up. They all started descending on the dragon- chaos energy crackled across Sonic's quills, Tails summoned back the Vulcan Cannon, Sonia cracked her knuckles and Manic picked up a very intimidating stick.

Instead of getting ready to fight or fly, the dragon covered her eyes, neck curling so her short arms can reach her face.

"Stop, stop, I give up! Just please don't hurt me!"

Everyone stopped. Sonic, Tails, Sonia and Manic all shared glances with one another. They all discarded their weapons and battle stances and gathered in front of the dragon, clearly not wanting to fight anymore.

"…Did you just talk?" Tails asked her.

"…yes?" The dragon parted her fingers to peek out at the siblings.

"Well… This… Complicates stuff." Sonic said. "You didn't think to talk before?"

"Why would I talk to you guys? You attacked me!"

"Okay, that's fair. Sorry about that."

Sensing that the four no longer wanted to hurt her, the dragon slowly got back up, standing on her hind legs to tower over the quartet. She still looked worried, her wings wrapped around her slightly in defense.

"Who are you?"

"…My name is Dulcy." The meek dragon replied to Manic.

"…Hi Dulcy. I'm Sonic, this is my brother Tails, my brother Manic and my sister Sonia." Sonic gestured his respective siblings. "Why have you been attacking Green Hill?"

"Green Hill?"

"The village."

"Oh… I…"

A deep rumbling interrupted Dulcy's statement- it was her stomach. She was hungry.

"…that's why." She finished what she was saying.

"You've been taking food because you're hungry? Isn't there food out here?"

"No! There's barely anything out here!" Dulcy gestured around. "I can't find food for miles! Except for that village, Green Hill, that you just talked about!"

"You're a talking dragon, can't you just ask for food?"

"Would you give me food?"

"…Okay, yeah, walked into that one." Sonia grumbled to herself.

"I just wanted to get food for me and my mama…"

"Mama. So there is more than one of you." Tails thought to himself.

"Maybe you did what you had to, but taking things that don't belong to you and possibly hurting people in the process? That's no good." Sonic shook a finger at her.

"I just wanted to eat! I didn't mean to hurt anyone! I just wanted to scare them so they would leave me alone! That's what mama always told me to do. We can't eat any way else."

Dulcy was visibly distraught and sad. After a second, Sonic nudged all his siblings and made a circle with his finger. They all turned around and got into a huddle facing away from Dulcy.

"What're we gonna do, Sonic?" Tails asked.

"I don't know for sure, little bro, but I think we have to help her out."

"Help? A dragon? The dragon that's been terrorizing Green Hill?"

"She only did it because she needed food, Sonia, you heard her."

"What if she's lying? What if she's bringing us back to try and eat us herself?"

"I wouldn't do that!" Dulcy called out. "I don't eat people!"

There was another pause. Sonic turned around to look at the dragon.

"Could you give us a moment? We're having a private convo."

"Oh, okay…"

Dulcy lowered her head and covered her ears.

Sonic returned to the huddle. "You heard her. She doesn't eat people."

"Can we really trust her though?"

"We should at least give her the benefit of the doubt. Everything she's done it's to keep herself safe, and not fight us. I think she's just as scared of us as we are of her…"

"Why don't we just slay her and get back to town, bro?"

"Manic, if there's a way to solve an issue without the use of violence, you should try to take it. Always remember that. Also… That was a really dark suggestion after everything we just saw."

"I read fantasy books! I've always wanted to slay a dragon! Though I guess helping one out would be a cool path to take… Alright, I'm in."

"If there's a way we can help her get food so she doesn't attack Green Hill anymore, then we should do it." Tails concurred. "I'm in."

"I guess I'm outvoted, then." Sonia added. "Alright, I'm in."

"Alright, great! Let's do it to it!"

"Okay, Uncle Chuck."

Sonic rolled his eyes at Manic's comment before breaking the huddle, so all of them could face Dulcy again. The dragon saw them turn back around and uncovered her ears.

"We'd like to meet this 'mama' of yours."

"…are you gonna hurt her?"

"No, we're not gonna hurt either of you." Sonic replied. "We thought you were just some wild beast with no concern of us, but… You're clearly doing what you do out of desperation. We want to help, but we should meet the other dragon with you first."

"…I dunno…"

"Oh!" Tails pulled his backpack around. He pulled out the chilidog- the last chilidog he had. "How about if we give you this?"

Sonic felt the eyes of Sonia and Manic on him. The blue hedgehog took a deep breath, calming himself.

"Okay!" Dulcy took the chilidog. "I really liked the other one. I wonder if mama will like this…"

"You should give it to her," Sonic spoke up. "A chilidog is twice as good when it's shared with people you love."

"I'll have to see when we meet her."

Dulcy did something unexpected- she pulled open a pouch she had on her lower stomach and stuffed the chilidog in there. Sonic nearly felt a tear trickle down his eye as he watched his chilidog stored in a part of the dragon's body.

They walked, with two on either side of Dulcy's neck, as the dragon started leading them along to the hovel where her and her mother resided.

"This is so fascinating. Winged feet, kangaroo-like pouches…" Tails looked Dulcy over. "You're unlike anything ever recorded about dragons!"

"Mama says we were made to be protectors."

"The dragons?"

"Yup. There apparently used to be a lot of us, but… Mama said after the island ended up here, we lost contact with all of them."

"You both were separated from them when the island entered the Underground, it seems… Wait, you're centuries old?"

"Nah, just a couple decades. I only recently became a mature dragon. Mama's the one whose been around for a long, long time. Didn't want any kids until recently."

"Did your mom take from the village before you?" Sonia asked.

"Yeah… She's the one who taught me how to do it." Dulcy was sheepish. "I've been taking over for her so she can be sure that she can take care of her hoard."

"Hoard?"

"Well… You'll see."

They walked further northwest within Great Turquoise, weaving through trees and getting closer to the Silver Plains in the center of the island. As the land became more hilly, they started to slide and scale through small valleys made with the natural peaks.

Though they weren't sure how long it was since they started walking together, it certainly felt close to an hour, and the sun hadn't really moved in the sky. Then again, there wasn't a sun in the sky, so…

At the spot where the trees started to grow more spaced out from one another, the group slid down another hill together, with Dulcy up at the front to lead them along. As they got up, Sonia quickly wiped off the back of her jumpsuit's skirt, before pulling out a scrub brush from Manic's fanny pack and started to scrub it completely clean.

The area they walked into was a clearing that looked to be half the side of a football field. The trees at the end of the clearing opposite to the hill were spaced out enough that they could see the Silver Plains, and the outline of Gigalopolis in the distance.

To their side, nestled in the tall hill, was the opening to a cave. There were some boulders and trees toppled over the entrance, but enough space in the center of the rubble that the siblings could fit through it.

Dulcy continued to lead, walking over to the blocked off cave entrance.

"Okay, it's just a small squeeze…"

Dulcy slid her head into the space, with the only thing that caused discomfort being her backside. She stepped one leg inside, then the other, her tail slithering in after. The siblings simply walked through the opening, into the dim cave.

With a small breath, Dulcy created a puff of fire for a chain of hanging vines that were attached to the wall. The fire spread quickly, and the siblings watched it illuminate the cave. Along the way it brought light to the many objects scattered on the ground, piling up more and more until it made a massive bed of objects in the back of the cave many yards away.

The light silhouetted a figure on the massive hoard, but the dull green eyes of the beast shimmered through the shadows.

"Dulcinea," A husky voice came from the beast. "You… Have brought company."

"Hi, mama…" Dulcy was a bit perturbed again. "These guys… Well, they tried to attack me, but they mostly just wanted to talk with us about the whole 'taking from that village' thing."

"I see." Dulcy's mother replied. Her eyes traveled across the siblings, but settled on Sonic. "You may come in closer. I promise I won't bite."

"I'm not too sure from that tone." Sonia mumbled.

"We don't mean you any harm, ma'am." Sonic took the lead. "We just wanted to settle things so you won't have to steal anymore."

"Trust me, if I was truly frightened by you four, I would've thrown you out of this cave with a gust the strength of ten thousand winds. But besides that, I know that I remain well within the presence of the Hedgehog of Chaos."

Sonic blinked in surprise. He looked over at Tails, who had a similar intrigued look. Sonia and Manic gave each other a glance out of confusion.

The blue hedgehog turned back to the mother dragon. "You… Know that title? I haven't been called that for a while. How do you know about that?"

"Because…"

Dulcy's mother moved her legs, the items on her hoard shifting as she crawled down the side to reach the dirt floor. She returned to her two-legged stance, like her daughter's, as she walked into the light to show herself to the group.

She had deep brown scales, the underside of her body and wings a soft gold color, with fins on her head and tail that matched her daughter's, instead colored a rich, almost black looking brown. Her eyes continued to glow through the dimness, verdant irises flickering like flames. She had on a black nose ring that matched Dulcy's.

"I am the last original Dragon of Gaia." She finished. "My name is Sabina."

"You came from Gaia?"

"The light goddess?" Tails added.

"Yes. When she crafted the temples that peppered her Earth, she quickly discovered the deception of her brother Mobius, creating his Black Arms to try and weasel their way into the Earth. As she slept, she dreamt of a protector, the construct of her free spirit that would become born on the surface of the planet as a living and breathing being. This protector used Gaia's energy to bring creatures like dragons, phoenixes, all of them into existence. Creatures that can and will harness the elements to protect the temples at all cost."

Sonia leaned to Manic. "I am so confused right now."

Manic, in place of replying, offered her a small box of nuts he got from his fanny pack. After considering it, Sonia took a pair of chopsticks she had in her jumpsuit and took one from the box to eat it. She'll brush her teeth after the adventure is done.

Both of them noticed Dulcy's head leaning in above them to look at what they were doing. After a second, Manic tossed a nut to the dragon, who caught it in her mouth and ate with them as they watched what was happening.

"So if it's your kind's duty to protect the temples, what are you doing down here?" Sonic asked Sabina to continue the conversation at hand.

"The Gaia Temple that existed on South Island was destroyed. It was destroyed… By your kind."

"Mobians?" Tails was now beside Sonic. "What do you mean?"

"The temple was turned to ruin by the meddling of your… Mobians," Sabina replied, with contempt. "A fitting name for your kind given their actions. I have no temple to guard anymore. And over the years, due to the temple's disarray, the communities of this island have become unfamiliar of why they were even here, and why I am here. So you'll forgive me if the only way I can feed myself and my daughter is to take from the very Mobians who are willing to attack me at every point and turn."

"We haven't attacked you though!"

"You are the Hedgehog of Chaos. You are prophesied to save the innocent, not harm them." The mother dragon slowly turned around to climb her hoard pile again. "I trust you, as I know you are trustworthy. I would not trust this new society of Mobians if my life depended on it- and it does."

Sonic thought to himself. What a strange twist of events- his reputation preceded him now, but in all the worst ways. He was instead an ambassador between this dragon and the Mobians he so loved and protected.

He looked at Tails, then looked back at his siblings, all three of whom watched Sonic expectedly. His eyes trailed up to Dulcy, who was still chewing on the food offered by Manic, but raised her eyebrows when she noticed Sonic glancing at her.

After a moment of thought, Sonic got an idea. Ambassador.

"Why did you have your daughter?"

"…I beg your pardon?" Sabina asked as she laid on her hoard, looking puzzled.

"You only recently had your daughter, but you've been around for centuries. Why?"

Sabina's eyes narrowed at Sonic. "The birth of my daughter only occurred when I felt comfortable. When I felt it was right to. If you are attempting to imply anything negative involving the relationship I have with her…"

"No, not that at all. But…" Sonic pointed a set of finger guns at her. "You had Dulcy because you felt the world had changed, right? You said it felt right. You felt like maybe… It was safe?"

"I do not appreciate words being placed in my mouth, Hedgehog of Chaos."

"Look, Miss Sabina, I understand your reservations about my people back in Green Hill. I didn't live it, but I know you're upset, and from the sounds of it you're right to be! But it's been centuries. Why lean into what they think of you and your daughter? Why terrorize them?"

"Your kind forced us to take these measures."

"I know. I apologize for the mistakes of those that came before me. But I want to make it right." Sonic put his hand on his chest. "You said you trusted me. Trust me to fix things."

"…How?"

"Your daughter." The hedgehog held his hand out to gesture her, though didn't face away from Sabina. "You have your own judgments about Mobians, but Dulcy is only a few decades old! Newly mature, as she said. She hasn't lived through the same things that you did, so let her learn about the Mobians of today without the involuntary animosity you may have! Then, if she comes back, you two can compare notes and judge if modern society is the same or not!"

Sabina continued to stare at Sonic, but her eyes soon flicked to her daughter.

"Dulcy."

"Yes, mama?"

"How do you feel about this arrangement?"

"…Well… The stuff in that Green Hill village does look cool." Dulcy admitted. "And I would like to be able to get food for us without having to make people scared. I don't like it when the babies cry."

"Plus, if you keep sending your daughter after Green Hill, she's bound to get killed."

"Manny!"

"What, sis, am I wrong? I mean, we only stopped from slaying her this time because she talked to us. Other people aren't as nice or understanding." Manic said, only glancing at Sonia for a moment before looking back up at Sabina. "You're sending your daughter out there already. Instead of sending her out there to possibly die, send her out there so we can fix the mistakes you're still hung up on."

With a look of contempt still, Sabina gazed upon her daughter and the siblings that were before her. She took a deep breath before sighing, which was still strong enough to make a small gust through the cavern that made the siblings wince from the strength.

"Very well." Sabina said after. "I will agree to this compromise."

"Alright!"

"But," The dragon continued. "You must earn the privilege first."

Getting up again, Sabina stepped down from her pile to stand on the floor of the cave again so she could properly tower over them. Dulcy stepped away from the four, standing beside her mother, looking a little worried but otherwise staying supportive of what Sabina had to say.

"You must complete a set of trials." Sabina spoke. "Three to be exact. If you succeed, I will accept the proposal to allow my daughter to return to your community and live amongst them. But if you fail… If you fail even one… You must leave this cave, never speak of its location, and leave us alone. Forever."

Sonic put up a finger. "One moment."

"…okay?"

Sonic and his siblings turned for another huddle. Dulcy patted her mother's shoulder, making the motion of putting her hands over her ears. Hesitantly, Sabina matched her daughter, both dragons covering their ears to give the siblings privacy.

"We're doing the trials right?"

"We? As in together?"

"Did you or did you not say you were in, sis?"

"I mean I guess, but I didn't expect to be doing a dragon's errands. I thought I'd put a dragon in a headlock today."

"I'm down to doing the dragon's dirty work, dude."

"Yeah, Sonic, me too."

"Outvoted again, Sonia."

"Who said I wasn't for this? I was just giving some color commentary. Let's do this."

"Alright! Let's blast through with sonic speed!"

The four broke the huddle and all faced the dragons. Both Sabina and Dulcy uncovered their ears.

"We'll do it." Sonic nodded.

"Understood. Then for your first trial…"

Sabina stepped to the side, her arm swinging out to gesture the massive pile of junk she had in her hoard. Dulcy was in the way for a moment, but quickly sidestepped so the siblings could see it better.

"You will arrange my hoard."

"Arrange it?" Sonia asked incredulously.

"Did I stutter?" Sabina's voice did not waver.

With the task given, the sibs walked upon the many objects in the hoard. This was enough stuff and junk to fill a storage unit back on Earth, at least Sonic and Tails thought so.

Manic picked up a small object- a Mbira, a thumb piano. He gently plucked one of the metal chords.

"What even is half this stuff, man?"

"I like giving mama stuff I find on my… expeditions." Dulcy answered, her head leaning in next to Manic suddenly. "Sometimes I went out just to get stuff I figured she'd like. Though I always felt bad because I would be stealing…"

"Your mom is a serious hoarder."

"A dragon? A hoarder? Color me shocked, Tails."

"I gotta agree with Tails, though." Sonia replied. "Half of this stuff is serious junk."

Reaching under some stuff, Sonia pulled out an instrument- a blue and yellow guitar, with three necks, and a body that had spikes reminiscent of Sonic's own quills.

She winced and tossed it over her shoulder like trash. "Yuck."

"Maybe it just needs a little bit of organization. Just to help find stuff that sparks joy." Sonic tapped his chin. "Tails, you still got that list app on the Miles Thunderbolt, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I borrow it?"

"Alright, but don't drain the battery. I forgot to charge it last night."

"Don't worry, this will only take a sec."

After getting the tri-fold tablet, Sonic zipped away, and the sound of items being rummaged through filled the air. Sabina watched with interest as her hoard was fiddled with by a line of cobalt that weaved and sew through each item individually.

Before a minute even finished, Sonic was back, presenting the complete list to Tails.

"Everything here logged!"

"Incredible, Sonic! Now we just gotta organize it."

Before Tails could reach out for the tablet, Sonia plucked it away.

"I got this, little bro." She said. "I'll organize the heck out of this place in the name of cleanliness!"

"Set something up and point out where to go, sis."

"You got it, Sonic!"

While the brothers continued to rummage through items around the piles in the cave (Manic kept from stealing anything else, nothing else looked that interesting) Sonia continued to organize the items in the list according to different parameters.

She created a spreadsheet with the information after getting some help from Tails. Sonia opened the tablet completely and showed it to Sonic once she was done.

Manic gently ushered the dragons towards the entrance of the cave before Sonic got to work. A lot of dirt and dust was kicked up as he ran and organized at supersonic speeds, becoming a blue blur across the hoard that required Tails to slip on his flight goggles to block his eyes, and Sonia to fully cover herself with a (heavily sanitized) blanket from the pile.

Once it was all done, the hoard was organized by color, with the sizes of the objects going from big to small from top to bottom. It was piled up around a center spot filled with blankets and pillows that were collected, set up to be a spot for Sabina and/or Dulcy to sleep in.

"Oof, Sonia, a hand?"

The magenta hedgehog tossed the blanket she had into the bed pile and went to where Sonic was. He had pushed a bunch of large cages Sabina had to one wall, but it was hard to set them up right. After a quick spritz, Sonia picked up the cages and set them up neatly side by side.

"Why do you have so many cages, big mama?"

"Sometimes they have animals in them that I free." Sabina replied to Manic calmly.

"How's this look, Sabina?"

"Open the doors to the cages."

At her request, Sonic and Sonia opened the doors to the cages.

Once that was fulfilled, Sabina walked through the cave to her newly made bed. She turned around and laid down in the bedding, looking around at the items piled around her little nest.

"This is… Acceptable." She said.

"Yes! Trial one complete!" Tails grinned. "What's next?"

"What is next…" Sabina began, though it seemed like she was mainly thinking about it herself. "…The rocks and the trees that are blocking the cave are good for safety, but… I admit that they're quite the eyesore, and very difficult to pass through. I wish for them to be removed."

"Those boulders are pretty big… Sonia?"

"Ugh, do I have to? Who knows what kind of bugs could be, or have been, crawling on them!"

"Sis, c'mon. Can you say no to that?"

Manic gestured towards Dulcy. The dragon had tied a small blue handcloth to a stick she had, which she used to wave like a flag with a big smile.

"Go you guys!" She said cheerfully.

Sonia watched Dulcy root for them, and sighed with resignation. She marched up to the entrance of the caves, looking at the boulders blocking them. She touched it with a finger, before shaking that hand.

"Ew ew ew ew ewww…" She murmured with a cringe. "Okay Sony, just get it over with."

In place of pushing the boulders out of the way, Sonia decided the best course of action would be to destroy the boulders altogether. This way, there wasn't any possible way for them to roll back or be placed back in front of the cave anymore.

She punched through one of the boulders, sending the smaller rocks scattering across the clearing. Sonia gripped her fists together next, slamming through another boulder to the same results.

Closing her eyes so she wasn't visibly directly touching the gross rocks, Sonia punched through the rocks and turned them all into little stones on the ground. Light poured into the cave, making Sabina and Dulcy wince a bit from the sudden flooding of light in the otherwise dim cavern. The wind from the cross breeze extinguished the fire from the hanging vines.

The other siblings stepped out to see Sonia standing amongst the fallen trees that were once over the boulders. The trunks were intact, but Sonia wasn't going after them yet. After a moment, a shiver clearly went down her spine as she contorted suddenly.

"GROSS!" She yelled. Sonia scurried off and away from the rocks in order to properly clean her gloves.

The brothers were left, looking at the rocks in the clearing. Sonic tapped his foot and thought to himself.

"Still an eyesore. I got this."

As Sabina walked out of the cave with Dulcy beside her, she saw Sonic circling around in what could definitely be considered her front yard. Sonic set up the rocks at the edge of the clearing, creating a set border but also making it look a little neater.

Sonic soon skidded to a stop in front of the dragon.

"…This is acceptable." Sabina said to him.

The blue hedgehog grinned, shrugging in bashful pride as he rubbed his finger under his nose.

Their moment was broken with the sound of panicked chirping nearby. One of the pair of trees that Sonia hadn't messed with yet clearly had toppled over something. Sonic, Tails and Manic walked over to see the source of the noise.

It looked like a bird, but was smaller. It had a head larger than its body, and almost looked like a chicken.

"Whoaaa, it's a Flicky."

"A what?"

"That's a bird, Manic."

"A Flicky is a kind of bird, geniuses." The green hedgehog retorted. "Only native to South Island, clearly."

The bird's foot was stuck under the tree trunk that toppled over. It tweeted in fear, and was only more panicked then it was before after seeing three possible predators come across it.

"It's foot is stuck!"

"I don't think we can convince Sonia to pick anything else up after what we just had her do."

"We can use physics." Tails said. "Sonic, if you can get something to jam under the trunk, we can push down on it to make it roll off the Flicky."

"On it, little bro."

Sonic zipped off, soon returning with a rake from Sabina's hoard.

"Do you mind if we use this for a sec?" He asked the mother dragon.

Sabina was clearly in a trance watching the brothers at the tree. She took a second to answer: "I do not."

With a rock placed under it to prop it up, Sonic jammed the rake's round end under the trunk. The bird continued to cheep out of desperation and fear, trying to get away from the fox and hedgehog.

Manic saw how scared the bird was. Hesitantly, he took out the Mbira he had in his fanny pack, looking it over and plucking one of the chords again. He could see there were letters on the front- the musical notes of each chord.

It took a second for him to get a hang of the instrument, but soon Manic was plucking the thumb piano to the tune of Green Hill's theme, which is all he had on his mind at the moment.

He strolled in, slowly grooving his body as he played, and even audibly hummed along while getting closer to the Flicky. Soon enough, the bird was no longer focused on Sonic and Tails out of fear, but instead was now looking at Manic, enraptured and calmed by the tones created by the green hedgehog.

Pressing down on it together, Sonic and Tails got the trunk to roll off of the Flicky's foot, freeing it.

As the trunk rolled, it also revealed a quartet of smaller baby Flickies that were trapped within a hovel created in the tree, now freed. The big Flicky was their parent, and they cheeped happily once they were all free.

Still calmed, the parent Flicky stood up and looked at the brothers, before quickly flying off with its babies flying after them, headed out of the clearing to look for a new home that wasn't in a toppling tree.

Sabina was watching them. Not only did they do this on their own volition, but the green one even used his skills to calm down a scared animal- something he didn't even need to do. It almost made Sabina forget that the thumb piano was stolen.

The three were compassionate in the face of terror. That was new. Two of them weren't even listed in that little mural created across the Gaia Temples, but they were still helping… just because.

"Aw man, what'd I miss?"

Sabina's train of thought was broken as Sonia came back.

"We saved a Flicky! And the bros figured out what a Flicky is."

"Oh cool! Wait… Do I have to lift that too?"

"Don't worry, Sonia." Dulcy said, walking over. "This one's on the house."

Using her powerful jaws, Dulcy lifted the discarded tree trunks on the ground and set them up on either side of the cave opening, almost giving it the appearance of pillars set up in front. It made it look a little prettier.

With the siblings reunited, Sonic faced Sabina once her daughter was finished.

"What's the next trial, Sabina?"

"…trial. Yes."

The mother dragon turned and walked into her cave, followed by her daughter, and tailed by the four siblings.

They watched as Sabina climbed into her bed, looking over the color coded piles for something specific. Her tail trailed over the different piles, paging through the items.

"You've tested your problem solving skills… and your physical strength… but for your final trial, we shall see… the power of your intelligence!"

Sabina used her hands to pull out a box, which she dropped down in front of her bed before laying in it once more. She sucked in a deep breath before blowing it over the box, knocking the thick layer of dust off of it to show the siblings what was there.

It was checkers.

"Face me in this final feat." Sabina growled.

Tails put his arms out in front of his siblings.

"I got this, guys." He said, face steely and determined.

He walked up to the box, sitting down in a cross-legged position and opening it up to get the board and the pieces out.

"You want black or red pieces?"

"I would like… Black."

"Okay!"

Humming to himself, the fox set up the board. Then the game began, and Tails allowed Sabina to make the first move.

Secretly, Tails was happy that the game was checkers instead of chess. Tails could play chess- very well if his high spot in the online chess leaderboards had any merit to it- but he much preferred the very less complicated game of checkers. It was nicer.

He moved pieces with two fingers, and Sabina would move pieces with her tail. The green eyes of the dragon watched Tails with every move he made, watching especially intently in the moments that the teenager needed some time to think.

Tails got two of his pieces to the other side- two kings. Very soon he collected all black pieces from the board, and all that were left were reds.

"I… I did it!"

Tails won. The final trial was over! At least… They thought it was.

Before the fox's siblings could run over, Sabina's tail slapped against the ground, bringing everything to a screeching halt.

"Another round!" She said. "One more! We will decide the winner then!"

"Hey lady, you said—"

Tails held his hand up to stop Sonic from speaking out. It was clear that he would let this second round happen, for one reason or another. At the very least, he was having fun playing checkers.

He reset the board. They started anew.

Manic walked by, holding up the unfolded Miles Thunderbolt with a "ROUND 2" graphic on it.

"I like participating." He said with a small smile.

It was clear that Sabina had been watching what Tails was doing. Whether she actually played checkers before this was unknown to any of the Hedgehogs, but she managed to use the wits of a dragon to absorb the knowledge of the game over the course of one simple round.

She was focused, more than ever.

Nearby, Sonia and Sonic helped create a banner for Dulcy to hold over her head that said "GO TAILS" on it. The brother and sister waved small flags like Dulcy had before in order to encourage him too.

It was all in vain though. Sabina managed to make four kings before collecting- or, rather, hoarding all the red pieces on her side. Soon only black pieces were left on the checkerboard.

"Aha! I win!"

At the cheer, Sonic and his twins came over to the board to look it over with Tails, who was rubbing his chin as he studied the final results.

"Whoa, you got four of those king things?" Manic commented. "Excellently done, big mama."

"I know little about checkers, but the fact you kept most of your pieces has to say something."

"I can barely beat Tails at go fish! You must be real good at this to beat him."

The compliments took Sabina by surprise. Soon, she found Tails sticking his hand out across the board.

"Good game." He said. "You did well."

Cautiously, Sabina touched Tails' hand with her tail, letting him shake that. The tail soon returned.

"Well, I guess that means we lose. We're gonna have to leave."

"That… Won't be necessary."

Sabina stood up, walking back out after Sonic cleared out the checkerboard.

"Sabina?"

"You may have failed the last one… by technicality. But I was watching during these trials, and I must admit… You all have taken me by surprise. You are only a small view of what the world is like out there, but if you four are any indication, then…"

The mother dragon paused to find the right words. She opened her mouth, but before she could speak, a massive boom echoed out from somewhere outside the cave.

"What was that?!" Dulcy spoke.

"Oh no—!"

A streak of teal boosted out and rocketed from the entrance of the cave, directly towards Sabina. With a leap from the entrance for extra speed, Chuck delivered a supersonic punch that connected right above Sabina's nose ring, tossing her head back before sending her body flying into the back wall.

Sabina crashed into the cave wall and fell onto the bed area, the shockwave of the landing causing all the items collected around it to crash onto her and pile onto her.

"Mama!"

Before Dulcy could move, Longclaw appeared in front of her and shrieked, terrifying Dulcy just as she did before. The young dragon scampered back and hit her head against the back wall, tumbling over.

Chuck started moving towards the pile that Sabina was buried under, but his arm was grabbed by a cobalt blur that held him still, draining the kinetic energy from the old hedgehog's body.

"Uncle Chuck, stop!" Sonic yelled. "What're you doing?!"

"What am I doing?! Sonny, you made a promise to me, darn you!" Chuck was heated, stomping a foot on the ground for emphasis.

Longclaw went to land in front of the other siblings, but found herself pushed aside as Tails, Manic and Sonia all went to the dazed Dulcy instead of embracing the arriving owl.

"Dulcy!"

"Are you okay?"

Dulcy groaned as she rubbed her head. "Ow…"

"We were trying to help them!" Sonic continued his argument with Chuck. "They were helping us! They're not dangerous, they're just scared!"

"They've been stealing from Green Hill! They nearly took out a bunch of Mobians! What was I supposed to think?"

"I dunno, maybe anything except 'Let me become a human comet and attack the first thing I see'? That would've probably worked much better!"

"Sonny Charles Hedgehog, you watch your tongue before I tan it and make it jerky! Whatever is going on here can be settled later, we're going home right now!"

"I'm not leaving!"

"Sonic…" Longclaw stood beside Chuck.

"No! I'm trying to help Green Hill here, can't you see that? These guys aren't… Here…" Sonic suddenly stopped. "Uncle Chuck, Longclaw, look out!"

It was too late. Sonic had trailed off because he saw Sabina's tail snake around behind Chuck and Longclaw. After Sonic was done, the dragon's tail wrapped around Chuck and Longclaw, constricting them and tossing them aside. The pair landed in the open door of one of the cages, which closed shut.

The hoard pile burst, sending junk everywhere. Sabina was standing in the ruins of the pile, eyes angry and wings spread to make herself look larger.

"Enough games." She growled. "One final trial. Sonic the Hedgehog, you are meant to be an avatar to the people of your world… the new world. You defend how society is now… So as such, you shall face me in combat! If you believe in your world, then fight for it!"

Sonic was surprised at the proposal. He looked at his siblings, at Dulcy, at his uncle and Longclaw- all of them looked a mix of shocked and worried.

This was his final chance. He nearly had Sabina on his good side but it was ruined. He had no other choice.

"I accept."

"Sonny, no!" Chuck yelled from his cage.

"Then so be it. We shall begin…"

Sabina's tail quickly wrapped around Tails, Sonia and Manic, picking them up and flinging them into the cage right beside Chuck and Longclaw, the door closing after them. Sonic no longer had his siblings, and was forced to fight one-on-one.

"NOW!"

Sonic turned his head in time to see Sabina opening her mouth to snap it at him. The blue hedgehog boosted backwards, skittering away at super-speeds and booking it down the cave.

He would be a dead man if he stayed in this cave. An enclosed area was fine for a speedster, but it was unfamiliar territory- it wasn't unfamiliar to Sabina though. He had to take it somewhere he had a lot of open space to dodge in.

That's exactly what he did, speeding out of the cave with Sabina on his tail.

Left behind, Chuck grabbed onto the bars of his cage and shook it as hard as he could, almost trying to tear them out so he could escape.

"Are you kids alright?" Longclaw asked the three siblings.

"We were fine before you guys showed up!"

"Not cool, LC."

"I was only trying to help." The owl said defensively. "I see you kids being dragged off by a dragon, what else am I supposed to do?"

"You can make it up to us by helping us with getting those dragons accepted by Green Hill." Sonia replied to her.

She turned her attention to Dulcy, who was still rubbing her head after ramming against the wall.

"Dulcy! You have to let us out of here!"

"What? I don't think mama would like that… Wouldn't that disqualify your trial?"

"Forget the trials, our brother needs help!" Tails replied.

"I dunno…"

"Dulcy, do you think what your mom is doing is right?"

"She's scared. I think she's scared I can't take care of myself. I think she's right." The dragon shrugged. "I can't really land. I'm not that good getting supplies."

"It doesn't matter if you think she's right or not- do you want to get out there? In the village?"

"It would be nice."

"Then you should tell her that. You should let her know!"

Sonia and Manic watched Tails talk to the mother dragon. They looked at one another.

"If there's a way to solve an issue without the use of violence…" Manic mumbled.

"You should try to take it." Sonia finished.

The two of them joined Tails at the bars.

"Dulcy," Sonia spoke to her. "If you let us out, we'll get your mom to listen to you."

"Really?"

"Yeah, girl!" Manic replied. "You're her whole world! You're probably why she's so scared to get out there in the first place! Help her navigate those feelings!"

"Open your heart to her." Tails added to complete the thought.

Dulcy thought for a moment, taking a glance at the opening of the cave and the sounds of mayhem outside, before looking back at the cage the three siblings were in.

"You push, I pull." She said.

Together, with the strength of Dulcy's arms and all three siblings ramming against it, the door to the cage broke clean off of its hinges, opening the cell and letting the trio out of their imprisonment.

"Come on, let's help Sonic!" Sonia said.

"NO!"

Chuck's yelling went on deaf ears as the three siblings rushed out of the cave. Dulcy paused, before blowing ice cold air from her nostrils, freezing the door to Chuck and Longclaw's cage. It would help the pair escape, but Dulcy had bigger fish to fry right now.

Outside, Sonic spindashed out of the way of a swipe from Sabina's tail.

As the hedgehog sped off, Sabina took a deep breath, her chest swelling to twice its size, before she blew a super-powerful blast of wind that picked up the grass from the ground at the spot the stream hit soil.

Tails activated both of his Vulcan Cannons, firing ring tethers to both his siblings.

"Over the dragon! I'm on one side, you're both on the other!"

As Dulcy came out of the cave, she spotted her mother still going after Sonic.

Mimicking what her mother just did, Dulcy took a powerful inhale before blowing as hard as she could. The stream of air hit the ground, kicking up the dirt and creating a dust cloud around the mother dragon, obscuring her.

Sabina was distracted enough for Tails, Sonia and Manic to get the ring tethers over her. All three siblings leaned back and pulled down, their combined strength enough to make Sabina lay down on the grass.

She growled angrily, blasting air all around her.

"Cheaters! Cheaters!" She yelled.

Suddenly, the sand was sucked out of the area, all vacuumed into the maw of Dulcy. After a second, the younger dragon unleashed a powerful blast of fire upwards, turning the sand into glass and creating a sparkly flurry around them.

Sonic skidded to a stop near Tails. The fox undid the ring tethers, freeing Sabina.

"Mama, stop." Dulcy said before she could do anything rash. "You need to stop!"

"What? Dulcy…" Sabina's eyebrows furrowed. "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying… To talk to you. You have to stop. They beat your trials fair and square."

"They have to prove themselves."

"How many times? You nearly came around before."

"Then that Mobian attacked me. All of them ever do is harm our kind."

"You heard what they called him. He's their uncle. Are you gonna tell me you wouldn't do the same to someone else if I was in danger? If you heard I was trapped?"

Sabina was quiet for a moment, turning to see Chuck and Longclaw finally out of the cave. However, this time, the pair paused instead of rushing into battle.

"They could still harm you, Dulcinea."

"I'm a big girl, mama. I can take care of myself."

"…Do you really want to leave?"

"Mama, living here is no way to live. I don't… I don't like being a monster that hurts people. I don't like making them cry. I don't want to become what they think we are. If we're meant to protect them, and if they can accept this 'Hedgehog of Chaos' and stuff, don't you think they'd accept us too?"

Her mother was quiet once again. Sabina looked to the ground.

"Don't let fear overtake you, mama. You're the smartest dragon I know. Can we just try? Please?"

The question clearly prodded Sabina's mind. She looked at her daughter, then the reunited siblings, then back at Chuck and Longclaw at the cave.

What Dulcy was saying was true. She was letting her fear overtake her… Those Mobians back in the day ruined what was supposed to be her destiny, then became afraid of her and her kind. Forced her into a cave.

But her daughter was miserable. And she made a very momentary decision based on what that Chuck fellow did, but after recollecting herself she could admit that Chuck clearly loved those young ones much like Sabina loved her daughter so dearly. Her bias was working against her, and it left her blind to the most obvious solution.

Maybe Sabina was forced to become a kind of monster. But she couldn't let her daughter slip into the dark.

"…It appears… I was hasty in my judgment." She said. "Dulcinea, if you… Truly believe that these Mobians will accept you, and want to help you… Then you may go to them."

"Really?"

"My own fears have controlled me for too long. But you deserve to live a world I couldn't see."

"…and what if it goes wrong? Am I never allowed out again?"

"If anything goes wrong, if you ever feel like you need to come back, then… You can come back. You can always come back. The only thing that will be waiting for you is a hug."

Dulcy sniffled. She walked to her mother and gave her a hug- Sabina hugged her back, gripping her tightly.

"I love you, mama."

"I love you too, Dulcinea. More than you know."

They parted, and Dulcy walked back to join the siblings. Chuck and Longclaw walked up as well, though stayed a small distance away as it still felt awkward after everything that happened.

Sabina sighed.

"You should go before sunset. So you have time to figure things out."

"You don't want to come?" Sonic asked.

"I want my daughter to experience that world, but… The wounds I feel are too deep. Maybe someday, but not today. But I thank you, all of you, for opening my eyes."

She turned to walk back to her cave.

"Mama, wait."

Dulcy rummaged through her pouch and pulled out the only thing she had in there- the last chilidog. Dulcy offered it to her mother. Though Sabina was cautious, she took the food from her daughter, gave her a grateful nod, and retreated to her cave.

"It's the dragon!"

The yelling rang out over Green Hill- but this time, it wasn't out of fear, it was out of awe.

Riding Dulcy back to Green Hill, the Hedgehogs decided that the best course of action to introduce Dulcy back to modern society was just to rip the band-aid off. They had her land in the center of the village square, and the initial shock and horror from the villagers were calmed after Longclaw told them that Dulcy didn't mean any harm.

Now, there was a crowd around Dulcy, all of them looking over the dragon and even talking to her.

"Why did you steal our stuff last time?"

"My mama and I were hungry."

"Oh, I'm sorry… Hey, if you're still hungry, I can bring you some sandwiches from my shop!"

"Wow! That's really nice of you!"

"Might as well, they're gonna go bad tomorrow anyway. Who needs trash when I can give those foods to you? They're not expired, I swear."

"Thanks, I guess?"

The good mood was momentarily interrupted with a coconut hitting Dulcy on the side of the head.

"Ow!"

"That's for my cart, you big ugly bat!" Coconuts yelled from afar, shaking his fist.

Still close to Dulcy, Sonia picked up the coconut and threw it back at the monkey. Coconuts was hit on the very top of his head, making him stumble before falling unconscious on the ground.

A small seal girl, Rocky, was in front of Dulcy next. She held out her wooden doll towards Dulcy.

"You hurt Tilly." She said. "Say you're sorry."

"…I'm really sorry Tilly. I hope you'll forgive me."

Rochelle held the doll to her ear. After, she smiled.

"Tilly forgives you. And I forgive you too."

"Oh, yay!"

"You look kinda sad though."

"I'm… Really missing my mama."

"I miss her sometimes too. Mostly when she has to travel to Knothole. Do you want a hug?"

Dulcy smiled and nodded. Leaning down, Rocky gave the dragon a hug around her neck.

The crowd was still occupied with the dragon. Nearby, Longclaw was wringing her wings, feeling awkward still. At a moment she could gather all four of the siblings, the owl gently led them away to speak with them privately.

"I'm very sorry about what happened." She said in hushed tones. "About hurting Dulcy."

"Hey, it's cool, LC."

"Yeah Longclaw, it's alright. You were just trying to help."

"To be honest, it was pretty awesome that you were willing to fly into a dragon's den to save us." Tails added. "That screech was killer."

"My ears are still ringing! So much I can taste it!"

The owl's former anxious demeanor was wiped away, and she smiled again, laughing lightly at Sonic's comment. She continued to smile and reached out, bringing Manic and Sonia into a hug.

Though Sonic and Tails stood there awkwardly, Longclaw invited them in as well. Soon, all four Hedgehog siblings were in Longclaw's arms in one big group hug.

After they ended their hug, the group split up- Sonia and Manic hung around Dulcy, Tails hung around Longclaw to talk with her about the logistics of a spot for Dulcy to properly sleep in within Green Hill. Sonic, however, set his eyes on someone else.

A few yards away from the edge of the crowd was Chuck, watching the dragon with crossed arms. Sonic walked over, standing beside him to also watch the crowd.

"…I was thinking of bringing Dulcy to Mission Freedom. Dulcy's strength could help with our initiative. Since there are some heavy things even Sonia won't touch."

"Yeah, and those breath powers she has could come in handy." Sonic added. "Maybe for experiments involving your element barriers?"

"Mmhm."

It was quiet between them.

"…I'm sorry about going after the dragon."

"I know."

"I should have… At least told you. It was wrong of me to do it without you knowing. Especially if one of the sibs got hurt… I wouldn't have been able to come back and face you then."

"I knew you'd keep them safe. But… You promised me about this. You promised you wouldn't do this, Sonny."

Sonic was quiet for a moment. He knew what he had to say, but he didn't know if he had the strength to do it. Especially since it felt far too harsh for a conversation like this.

"…I promised I would try." Sonic corrected, looking at Chuck. He continued as his uncle met his gaze. "I said I promise I would try. I didn't abstain from doing this completely. These people… They need me. They're powerless, like you said."

"Sonny boy…"

"I know you're scared. I know what happened to mom makes you scared. But mom wouldn't sit by and let bad things happen if she knew she could stop them. I live by that. I have the power to help people, and I'm going to use it to help people. I won't… I won't go out looking for trouble like I did today. I won't do that anymore, that was wrong. But if someone asks me for help, or if something happens around me and I know I can help, I'm not going to hesitate to do so. Because whether I'm Sonic or Sonny… It's who I am. It's what I was born to do. I hope you can understand that."

With nothing left to say, Sonic took a deep breath and walked away from his uncle. Chuck watched him leave, eyebrows furrowed with thought at what was said.

Sonic joined his siblings, and after talking with Dulcy, began to walk with the dragon away from the village square. From the path they were on, it appeared they were taking Dulcy up to the Mission Freedom headquarters.

As the crowed died down, Longclaw joined Chuck beside him.

"Are you okay, Charlie?"

"I don't know." He replied. "…I don't get something."

"What's that?"

"Why did… Why did Dulcy's mom let her go? Why did she still let Dulcy leave after everything?"

"Well, you know what they say. If you love something, set it free."

"…But… She had good reason to make Dulcy stay."

"It goes beyond that, Chuck."

"She's miles away from her daughter now. What could possibly be good enough to separate them?"

Longclaw's own eyebrows furrowed, this time from confusion about how Chuck wasn't getting it. She sighed, rubbing her head.

"…Just think it over, Charlie. Are you… heading home?"

"I will soon, Lonnie. I think I just want to enjoy dusk alone."

"Okay, Charlie. Whatever you want."

With a flap of her wings, Longclaw flew off into the air, wanting a soar to clear her head. She got further and further away, leaving Chuck to continue thinking about why Sabina did what she did, the old hedgehog unable to connect the dots.

It was late in the Mission Freedoms laboratories. Sally was still stuck on her calculations involving chaos energy.

The energy from the rings that she used within Nicole appeared to have resonant transmutation properties to them, though the rings only had them at a smaller scale. It also appeared that the energy of the Roboticizer and chaos energy were pretty similar. There were some clear differences, but a lot of the same properties were there.

She was burning the midnight oil again as she tried to make sense of everything she was looking at. Even Nicole was confused at some points, and that was almost unexpected for the handheld.

Sally sipped a cup of peachy black tea- caffeinated and fruity, just as she liked. It helped to keep her awake as she reached the later hours of the night.

The door to the lab opened, making Sally look up. She saw a blue hedgehog step inside.

Sonic still looked a bit reluctant to be there, certainly because of what happened a little over a day ago. He broke open one of the barrier monitors, the sheen green shield covering Sonic's body.

After seeing Sonic, Sally returned to her work, not greeting him just yet.

"Hey Sally."

"…hello, Sonic."

Sonic walked over and stood across the counter island from Sally.

"How's the data going?"

"How's the data going? What kind of question is that?"

"Sorry, I panicked halfway through the statement."

Sally scoffed and shook her head, but mostly because she was amused.

"…I heard about the little scuffle with the village dragon. And how she's living here now."

"Yeah, she's staying down in the sub-basement until we make a better home for her." He nodded. "Dulcy was really looking forward to meeting you."

"Really?"

"Yeah, you're a princess and all."

"…Right." Sally sighed and looked at him head-on. "Why are you here, Sonic?"

"Can't I stop by to chat?"

"Chat about what? Do you want me to fawn over you for befriending a dragon or something?"

"No."

"Then what?" Sally asked, exasperated.

Sonic bit his tongue for a moment. It was clear she wasn't a fan of beating around the bush. He was going to have to come out and just say it.

"…I heard about your mom."

The response wasn't what Sally expected. Her face softened slightly before she huffed.

"Yes? Are you going to tell me you're sorry or something?"

"I want to tell you that you're not alone."

"What?"

"You're not alone. I know what it's like to lose your mom. Especially if it felt like your mom was all you had. But you're not alone, and I know you know you're not alone. And even if you want to try and be smart about it- I am sorry that she died. I know it had to be a shock."

"…it was an illness." Sally replied softly. "She was ill, it wasn't too shocking. It was just… Crushing."

"That must've been so much for you."

"Yeah. Yeah, it was." The princess gestured around. "And now I'm here with… This. The Roboticizer was introduced just a few weeks after she died. The miracle cure that could've possibly saved my mother: a device that could press pause on her failing organs, and it only came out afterwards. Now…"

"Now… It feels like you should make it all perfect so nobody else loses their mom?"

"…If I can help someone, I can help everyone. My mom believed in that."

Sally stared blankly into the screen of Nicole, almost as if trying to summon a vision of her mother in the reflection staring back at her. She could see specks of her mother in there- maybe her eye, maybe her nose, maybe her hair- but as soon as she grasped onto that glimmer, it was gone just as soon as it came.

She felt someone touch her hand. It was Sonic, of course, who rested his hand on top of her clenched fist. His face looked concerned and sympathetic.

"I believe that too." He said. "I know I'm not a supervisor. Maybe I'm an okay leader, but I can't run a lab. But I want to be someone you can talk to about this stuff and figure it out. I want to help."

"Then what do you want me to do?"

Sonic's hand left hers. He pulled up a chair and sat down.

"Teach me."

"Wh… What?"

"Teach me. Tell me everything you know about the Roboticizer, the barriers, all of it. No matter how long it takes." Sonic said, keeping a serious face. "I learned today that actions can only get you as far as you're willing to listen. I can't just do a cool flip and be a productive member of Mission Freedom. I want to learn."

"That'll take a long time. Are you sure you can sit still that long?"

"I drank ten energy drinks a few hours ago, so I should be hitting a sugar crash any minute now. I'll be lethargic and stuck in one place as long as you need me. Though I might fall asleep if you make it really boring."

Sally snorted and chuckled, actually finding that funny. Sonic smiled a bit at Sally's amusement.

After a second, Sally sighed and waved a hand. "Alright, alright. I'll teach you everything. But you better retain all of this, or you're gonna have to re-learn about this stuff again all by yourself. This is a one time offer."

"Sure thing, Sal." Sonic leaned back in his seat, still smiling. "Let's start lesson one, Professor Acorn."

"Do you ever call anyone by their actual name?"

"Where's the fun in that?"

The princess watched him for a minute before shaking her head again and chuckling again. Closing Nicole and getting out a notebook, Sally sat next to Sonic and started writing things down, explaining to him the intricacies and machinations of the Roboticizer, among other projects for Mission Freedom.

Though he was tired, Sonic listened to it all, even into the early hours of the morning.

Somewhere across South Island, in a cavern near the border of the Silver Plains, a dragon just got done organizing her cave. She returned to her newly made bed, which felt twice as big as it did other nights. As she laid down, the mother dragon pulled something from her pouch.

All alone, the mother dragon ate the gift she was left by her beloved daughter.

And it tasted amazing, because a chilidog is twice as good when it's shared with people you love.

UP NEXT: A Royal Pain!