After a long hallway and some particular comments about hourglass doors, Sonic and Arc finally saw the light of the sun from the open ceiling where the hedgehog remembered an obnoxious key being hidden. To their luck, the dead-end had been converted into a monitoring station for the power generators. A quick test showed that they had finally received service again.

Sonic: "That was a cake walk!"

Amy: "Oh, you found it! I don't know why I was even worried."

Another voice suddenly joined their conversation, though static indicated that he was in need of better reception too.

Silver: "Guys, it's him!"

Sonic: "Yes, it's me! You surprised?"

Silver: "What? That's not- No! I meant the other him, the Red Mask!"

Sonic: "What?! How?! Where?! When?!"

Amy: "You slept through the briefing this morning. Eggman launched an attack inside the Mystic Jungle, so we sent Silver, Tails, and some others to stop it. It didn't seem like much, but there's clearly more to this than we know. Just hurry!"

Sonic: "I'll head over as soon as Ledge arrives. I want a second round with this guy."

He felt a nudge from his partner. "What about me?"

"No. I need to do this myself."

"But–"

He cut her off with a stern look. The Blue Blur rarely got serious, but the Red Mask was a monster that used any means necessary to win, and the one who condemned him to six months of pointless torture without a hint of remorse. He couldn't risk even one of his friends being subjected to that fate. And, well, losing like that made it very personal for him.

Sonic looked down on the Mystic Jungle from the cruising altitude of the shuttle. He hadn't visited this tropical archipelago since he travelled to the town of Adabat when Eggman tore apart the planet (the second time, that is), in a way more literal than the chaos he's created now. It shouldn't be surprising why: Islands meant water. Adabat was built on the water, and inland was still plentiful with rivers and waterfalls from all the rain they got. Sonic hated water. He could drink it just fine, thank you very much, but in anything larger than a puddle, he sank like Eggman's dreams, and then he had to deal with the fear of becoming stuck on top of the fear of not being able to breathe. That was probably why the Red Mask had picked this particular locale as its battlefield of choice.

The shuttle had made the trip all the way across the world in record time – only a couple of hours. That meant it was night time in the area, which was a huge step up from the dry heat of the desert and the probable humid heat if it were day. He much preferred the cold, because he could just run to stay warm. It was also nice because the last time he was here at night, he was transforming into a slow, hulking, very furry beast.

Already, he could see wildfires blazing in several locations across the forest. A whole fleet of Eggman's ships were floating above the treetops. The least he could say was that staying warm wasn't going to be a concern.

Sonic: "Alright, guys, I'm closing in. What on earth is happening here?"

Knuckles: "Eggman's forces are scattering bombs like confetti!"

Tails: "We can't go on like this!"

Sonic: "The whole place is going up in flames… Not the kind of fireworks I like. I don't have time to wait!"

He hit the release on the shuttle door and winced as an ashy wave of heat washed into the cabin. He needed to stop this as soon as possible.

Amy: "Sonic, what are you doing? You're not thinking of jum–"

Her voice was cut off by raging winds as Sonic jumped out of the airborne shuttle. He went straight into a nosedive, curling up into a Spin Attack as he approached the tree line to saw through any branches in his way. Tightening his form to increase his rotational speed, he shot off the moment he hit the ground in a Drop Dash before returning to running form.

Sonic: "Mission control, the hedgehog has landed."

Amy: "Sonic…!"

The obvious frustration in her voice gave him a chuckle. It's not like this was the first time he'd jumped out of an aircraft.

He sprinted along a cliffside lit by some old torches. Below, one of the fires raged uncontrollably. It didn't take long before he encountered some Badniks, and admittedly not a model he had seen before. They were shaped like purple ostriches, except instead of their useless wings, they had two missile launchers. They had their attention focused on the fire, so when they noticed his approach, they turned and ran instead of fighting.

It was surprising how fast they ran. Not as fast as he did, of course, especially not once he activated his Boost and plowed through them. But he imagined that Silver would have had a hard time with them if he found any, even though he could deflect their missiles. Speaking of which, Silver hadn't spoken at all since his initial warning. The Red Mask seemed to cause radio interference with its powers, so he could only hope that the other hedgehog was doing okay against it. Two hours was a long time.

Eventually, the path turned inward from the cliff and met with a bunch of ruins. They weren't just any old ruins, though; they were distinctly identified by many glowing strips of rock covered in runes, glyphs, symbols, and the like. There were pillars, signs, ledges, and even a few artificial trees illuminated in the night. It was a lot prettier before, without the fireworks show Eggman was putting on.

Ahead, he could see even more ground forces. From the looks of it, a lot of them were Motobugs, redesigned in that same slick gray that many of the other Badniks were in. Not wishing to waste any time, he sought any opportunities to climb higher in the ruins. He couldn't fly like Tails or glide like Knuckles, but with enough speed he could skip across a lot of gaps. He jumped up ledges and ran up any safe-looking walls he could find. Some Egg Pawns and Buzzbombers were scouring around up there, paying him no attention as he ran over most of them.

Sonic: "For such a big raid, these robots don't seem to be putting up much of a fight. What gives?"

Tails: "That's not what the front line is reporting. Maybe they're trying to defend the Red Mask?"

Knuckles: "Like that freak needs defending! Silver… what's going on over there?!"

Sonic was forced to slow down when he reached an insurmountable gap in the mansion-like structures. They were connected by some rotating platforms, and a few careful and vaulting jumps should have let him clear them without much difficulty. However, something caught his eye as he approached the ledge, forcing him into a hard slide into a crevice in the roofing. A large bomb sailed just over the gap, and he heard it explode behind him. Climbing out of the hole, he peered to find the source of the projectile. Despite the light from the ruins, nothing appeared to him in the night. At least, not until another bomb flew at him. Sidestepping it, he traced the path back to one of the stone trees. He could barely make out a silhouette of a monkey clinging to its side. With this realization, he could now see that all of the nearby trees had Kikis on them, throwing bombs to add to the destruction.

The stupid monkeys at least made for good targets for his Homing Attacks so he could bypass the rotating platforms. Speed was of the essence; waiting for a rock to move around in a circle wasn't on his to-do list.

Landing back on the ground, a set of stairs led him up to what looked like a big entryway to something. It was huge, decorated in the glowing stones, and had a circular hole in the middle. It ran through the middle of a small hill, and the pathway beyond kept the curved structure of it, barring a collapsed section indicated by roadblocks.

There was a change in the behavior of Eggman's troops, too. The Egg Pawns had carefully lined up along the road, using more roadblocks and thorn-covered fences to make barricades. Sonic found that this ramp-thing curved back and forth, so he curled up and drifted along with it to knock everything out of his way. The road ended with another collapsed section, with the probable culprit right above it: a fleet of balloon-shaped enemies dropping bombs indiscriminately at regular intervals. There wasn't time to deal with them, so he chained a few Homing Attacks to get over the gap and continued on his way.

He became less sure about that decision once he saw a set of tents not too far up the road. The camp was marked as friendly by a single flag sticking out of the ground, carrying the Resistance logo that had apparently been made during his captivity. It was a pale golden five-point star on a dark red background, but the upper left point on the star was instead another star. Now, Sonic wasn't an artsy fellow, so he didn't know any of that symbolism stuff Amy probably made them put into it, but it sure looked cool.

A soldier flagged down the speedster as he approached. He made sure to hide his grumpiness at being asked to slow down at this particular moment, because that would be bad for morale. The soldier was fairly generic, wearing standard navy gloves, boots, a helmet, and gray body armor. Probably the only interesting thing was that he or she was a Mobian. It looked like everyone here was Mobian. Were they all volunteers from the City?

"Sonic, thank goodness you're here! We can't hold any longer!"

"You've done plenty!" the hedgehog replied with a quick pat to the other Mobian's back. "Great job."

Tails: "Sonic, I've located the Red Mask. They're in the ruins up ahead."

Sonic: "Great, Tails! I'll make sure everyone's efforts weren't in vain."

As he started ahead, he let out a loud whistle. The other soldiers looked back and stepped out of the way as he came through, cheering him on as he went. It felt good being appreciated like this again, and it boosted his determination to take down the Red Mask no matter what.

That road took him through another curved pathway, but soon the blockade became too thick for him to speed through. He scanned his surroundings and noticed a cave in a hill nearby, that looked reachable. With a quick turn, he Boosted sideways to make an impromptu ramp out of the curve of the road, sending him up right up to the cave. He emerged on the other side, having cleared Eggman's forces, and rushed forward to a clearing.

Tails: "Unidentified life-form on the radar!"

The earth began shaking, causing Sonic to skid to a stop. From the ground, a massive black serpent emerged. Even with just its head and a little neck showing, it was already reaching the treetops. It announced its presence with a guttural hiss that vibrated his skull, baring its fangs that were larger than he was.

Tails: "Is that something from the jungle?!"

The snake continued to bring its body aboveground, quickly filling most of the clearing without showing much sign of stopping. As it leered down at him, the blue mammal Homing Attacked its cranium and began to run down its back, which formed a tight loop at one point.

Sonic: "I guess all the explosions riled it up. Doesn't look like we'll get past without a figh- ah!"

With a flick of the snake's body, he was popped up into the air and promptly got eaten by the snake.

"You're so gonna regret that! Hedgehogs don't make good snacks!"

Curling into a ball, he played passageway-pinball on the snake's intestinal tracks, bouncing around until he could feel its gag reflex push him back up. He tumbled out of the snake's mouth, hurdling through the air but landing on his feet. He looked back to see that the serpent had collapsed unconscious on the ground.

Tails: "The enemy readings are closing in on you, Sonic!"

Sonic ran up a glowing ledge, and he could see the ruins up ahead being cast not only in yellow light, but red and cyan as well.

Sonic: "All right. Time to beat down this troublesome foe!"