Star Light

The sky is dusk as the stars surface above, in the city motorway as the vehicles are moving past the construction site that is a closed road.

Inside a limousine, Clutch is watching the view as he patiently waits for the big event to happen.

Before drinking a bottle of Chaos Cola, he stops after seeing a shooting star that is blue and is heading towards his limousine.

"Stop the limo." Clutch orders.

"Yes, sir." The driver stops the limo until a loud crash hits the road as some vehicles at the front are being totaled.

Outside in the middle of the road, Sonic pants as he grins, lifting up the white chaos emerald and wipes his nuzzle with his thumb.

"5 emeralds, 2 to go."

"You thieving hedgehog! Give it back!" Fang fires his revolver gun as Sonic dodges, even the cars are being bent by a different kind of bullets.

To Sonic's surprise, those out of a gun are bottle corks.

That means the revolver Fang carries is written 'Popgun,' making Sonic think that they're no less painful than a real bullet.

When Sonic enters the construction site, Fang follows with his Marvelous Queen boosting above as Fang fires his popgun with Sonic dodging and runs on an unfinished building.

"Why you! Why bother collecting all the chaos emeralds when they're just colourful gemstones!?" Fang asks while still pointing his popgun at Sonic.

"I should be asking you the same. But I need them to stop Eggman!" Sonic said his reason.

"Seriously!? Think of the money I can make! I can't have you ruin my moment of glory!" Fang yells while revving his Marvelous Queen as it charges towards Sonic.

As Sonic leaps down, he can still feel the pain, but is able to stand and fight a jerboa that's been circling around him.

"Come here!" Fang finally boosts down as Sonic jumps over and lands on the front of the aero bike, causing him to exclaim. "Hey! Get off!"

"Nah!" Sonic is pulling his eyelid while sticking his tongue out, mocking his opponent that was dead set on getting the emerald off of him.

As Sonic messes with the bike's controls, Fang exclaims as he missed Sonic's jump.

"Oh no! Woah!" Fang then crashes down on the ground as he groans and coughs.

Then he sees Clutch in front of him with a sinister smirk.

"Clutch! I did the best I could and that blue hedgehog took the emeralds from me!" Fang yells while pointing at Sonic, leading Clutch to widen his grin.

"Excellent. All according to plan." Clutch chuckles.

"What?" Fang stops, shocked that Clutch Is all for Fang's loss.

"I had to get Nicky to reflect on his own actions, just to see how he approached things differently. It turns out, the plan is all set in motion." Said Clutch.

"You mean you set me up!?" Fang points his popgun at Clutch's head, only for Clutch to hand over a wad of cash to Fang as a reward.

"Take the cash and be defeated, Nack the Jerboa."

After Fang took the cash, anger surfaced as Fang growled and lowered his popgun.

"Fine, but I won't be defeated, you piece of-"

Abruptly, Fang has been booted by Sonic as he crashed into an unfinished building.

"Hey, gramps, you better leave this place." Sonic said while letting Clutch go.

"Oh don't you worry, young Nicky. You've shown who you truly are. When you beat Fang, I'll admit my mistakes and prove that you're the real Sonic." Clutch closes his eyes as he's impressed.

"No, gramps, I am Sonic. I don't need to prove to anyone who I am. Because I play by my own rules." Sonic concludes his own personal identity.

After that, Sonic curls into a ball while jumping and landing his quills on Fang's back.

"GAHAH!?" Fang exclaimed while feeling stinging pains on his back.

"Huh. Why didn't I think of that earlier? Meh." Sonic shrugs his shoulders and continues dashing on Fang repeatedly by being a bouncy ball, leading Fang to scream.

"WILL YOU QUIT IT!" Fang explodes as he jolts up with blue quills stuck to his back as Fang points his popgun, seething with rage. "I have had it! Screw the money, I want the emeralds now!" Fang snapped.

"Mmn. But you don't know where the 6th one is at." Sonic points out.

"Well, smartypants, if you hadn't destroyed my Marvelous Queen, then I would've gotten it by now!" Fang growls while preparing to shoot Sonic.

"It's with Dr. Eggman." Clutch reveals the emerald's whereabouts.

"Huh?" Sonic and Fang stop as they turn towards Clutch, who was walking and standing in between both opposing fighters.

"Since the doctor knows about Sonic's escapades, it's safe to say that he's waiting for you." Clutch added the description of what Eggman is doing.

"Did you say Eggman?" Fang gasps after recognising the name of a madman that caused the suffering of innocent people.

After Clutch nods, Fang lowers his popgun and then raises his hand towards Sonic.

"You know what, how about we work together?" Fang asked.

"After trying to kill me and my friends? Not a chance." Sonic refuses to accept Fang's offer.

"Wait! This is serious, I hate Eggman, you hate Eggman, maybe we could cooperate." Fang pleads.

"I'm listening." Sonic stands while looking back.

"Heh. I knew you'd listen. Okay, when we infiltrate Eggman's base, we can snag the last 2 emeralds and you can get revenge for all your lost friends and family. That way I get the emeralds and you get your happiness back. Deal?" Fang raised his arm.

In Sonic's case, he only fights by himself, so having someone like Fang is a risky play.

Then he lowered his hand and backed away from Fang.

"What? You scared?" Fang asked.

Sonic shakes his head and points his thumb to his left.

"Huh?"

Afterwards…

A red ball crash lands on Fang's face as Fang rolls and slowly pushes himself up.

"Ow… What the-"

"HIYAH!" Ray appears by swinging his fist onto Fang's face while gliding down with his thin skin.

Another red ball smacks Fang as the ball reveals to be Mighty as he and Ray uppercuts Fang's chin.

After that, Bunnie and Sally divekicks Fang's back as the quills are getting deeper, leading to Fang scream out of excruciating pain.

"What the!? Why!?" Fang cries while raising his arm.

"This is for my kingdom, you crook!" Sally spits and then kicks Fang's face.

"Take this! And that!" Bunnie shouts while jumping on Fang's back.

"Trying to hurt our friend, are ya? Too bad, mate!" Mighty shouts while kicking Fang's left.

"Yeah! You deserved that!" Ray kicks Fang's right while yelling.

Sonic is speechless about his friends showing up to save the day, even though Sonic told Sally to get Mighty, Ray and Bunnie to run for their safety.

"Okay, now this is bullying." Sonic sighed, shaking his head out of disappointment.

A hand is placed on Sonic's shoulder, making Sonic look up.

"Eggman's base is in front of you. Get the emeralds and defeat him." Said Clutch while letting Sonic go on ahead.

Sonic nods, crawls on all fours like an athlete, then spins his legs while charging and then zooms off, leaving Clutch, his friends and Fang while heading straight towards the building.

After beating Fang to the point that he's unconscious, Sally is seeing Sonic zooming past as she along with Bunnie, Mighty and Ray are walking while watching.

"Where is Mr. Sonic going?" Bunnie asks.

"I don't know, but we should follow him." Sally said.

"Then what are we waiting for!? Let's go!" Mighty rushes forward, desperate to save Sonic's life.

"Yeah! We can't leave him like this!" Ray agrees and then runs towards the tracks Sonic left.

Finally, the 4 are rushing through Sonic's tracks, chasing him down while leaving Fang and Clutch behind.

As Clutch approaches Fang's body and drops another wad of cash for Fang's pitiful moment.

"You did well, Fang. Now it's time for the proper introduction to the fairytale protagonist himself."

Despite failing to take the emeralds and cooperate Sonic, Fang at least earned another payment, considering how betrayed he felt.

Scrap Brain

Charging forward, Sonic barges through a couple of Caterkillers which frees a squirrel and a pig, leading Sonic to rush through the entrance of a large factory base.

The base is huge and mechanical, even many pointed out it's causing some sort of a pollution with the dark smog through the chimneys, purple water coming out like a waterfall and the noise is uncanny, especially when it's outside.

Inside is a factory building with more badniks waiting for Sonic to get ambushed on, 2 Buzz Bombers fire out of their tails as Sonic zigzags to avoid the bullets.

Sonic then curls up while jumping, destroying a Buzz Bomber and then kicking another to a Caterkiller, freeing a chicken, a rabbit and a bird.

A pig that releases a ball called Ball Hog is dropping more down the slope as Sonic hop on different black balls and dropkick by freeing a pig.

The mechanical base summons a giant buzzsaw as Sonic jumps with a backflip and then dodge and duck from a chained mace as they're Eggman's deathtrap.

Sonic then kicks a ball as it hits another Ball Hog as it frees another pig.

Sonic grunts, knowing Eggman is setting up a trap for him.

He finally runs and leaps as he destroys more badniks and frees the animals, making Sonic question why Eggman did something like this.

No time to waste as the last 2 chaos emeralds are somewhere in Eggman's factory.

Finally, Sonic is near while clenching his fists and approaching the door.

"Eggman." Sonic called calmly.

"Nicky!? You made it this far!? All by yourself!? How!?" Eggman is shocked to see how Sonic was able to go through something after their first encounter.

"Heh. Nothing important. Now give it up, Egghead." Sonic points at Eggman while pulling a smirk.

"Not so fast, boy! Since you've arrived here, I have a surprise for you!" Eggman presses the button, covering the room with white smoke as Eggman releases his new weapon.

To Sonic's shock, he bears witness to a hedgehog that looks familiar as his body is robotic, his strand of hair is silver and his eyes are red from a black screen and without a mouth.

"Meet Jules P the Hedgehog, or should I say your father, Paulie the Hedgehog! The former member of the G.U.N! Let the fun begin."

"You… No way… Dad?" Sonic gasped while walking backwards, realising the man who was gone was alive and is now Eggman's robot.

"TARGET: SONIC THE HEDGEHOG. OBJECTIVE: DESTROY." Jules finally speaks out, boosting as he charges towards Sonic as Sonic himself rolls over as he dodges.

"Dad! Wait! It's me, Nicky!" Sonic tries to call his father as he keeps on dodging Jules' swings and leap backwards as fear starts coming back to him.

"That's right, Nicky, your fear proves that you're just a kid that's just trying to be the fairytale hero! Ohohohoho! I'm so excited I managed to get your data recorded as well as your father's history!" Eggman laughs while dancing around with joy.

"You…" Sonic growls until he's caught off guard. "Gah!"

"Yes! If you hadn't fallen from Resort Island, maybe you would have a better time staying with me rather than being a nuisance to my plans!" Eggman widens his grin while rubbing his hands together.

As Jules clenches his fist onto Sonic's neck, choking his own 'son,' Sonic is struggling to breathe as he raises his hand.

"D-... Dad…" Sonic is losing consciousness as he's done for by the thing he calls him by his father.

Sonic realised that the people he knew were right about him and Eggman.

In the end he accepts the harsh truth as if Sonic is never Sonic to begin with.

He's just Nicky.