Hi everyone, Happy Holidays! I hope you enjoy this extra special Christmas gift from yours truly.

You know what's funny though? Some of you might be aware already, but right as this chapter is being posted, the upcoming Sonic 3 movie is being released to theaters! I did not plan this in any way shape or form! This is totally a coincidence, but I'm rather happy for it myself.

But here's an extra dose of irony for you… despite the upcoming movie featuring Shadow the Hedgehog, which should cap off the year for the Ultimate Lifeform, this chapter does not feature Shadow at all! He may be mentioned once or twice, but he's not present in this chapter. Though instead, based on the upcoming holidays, half of this chapter's setting will take place in a rather cold and snowy environment, I'm sure you can guess what that means.

Anyway, enough rambling. Let's get this chapter started!

A Different Kind of Homecoming

It would be a long trip to Menagerie, it's already been a couple days since leaving Patch and parting with everyone, but that's alright. She was used to traveling alone. Alone…. Suddenly that didn't sound as appealing as it did before. She knew deep down though, that wasn't the case. This was only temporary, it was part of her mission, to rally allies to their cause, and search her home for any Chaos Emeralds. She would see them all again, the beloved friends that she had made, the people who have made a lasting impact on her life and helped to open her heart which was once closed off.

So why did it still feel so lonely?

Leaning along the railing of the wooden ship she rode on, Blake Belladonna stared out into the ocean, wearing only a white jacket over her normal clothes to keep herself warm from the chill air despite the sun hanging overhead. With nothing else to do, she pulled out her Scroll and began to skim through some of the photos on their…

Specifically, the photos that Ruby, Sonic, Amy, and Yang took with their own scrolls and shared with her and everyone else. She saw pictures ranging from their first group shot together as Team RWBY, she and Weiss weren't the only one smiling there, but it still looked good. She also saw some pictures of the food fight her team, Team JNPR, and Team Sonic all partook in, including the aftermath with everyone laughing in covered in slime, as well as the aftermaths of various battles against the Grimm and Badniks, with the likes of Sonic, Nora, and Yang flashing peace signs and Ruby cheering as loudly as she could. As she saw all these pictures, she couldn't help but smile…

Then she happened to scroll over a picture of an online news article she saved a while ago… one that showed the fuzzy image of Super Sonic flying through the night sky… with the headline 'Who is the Golden Hero?' written at the top.

The minute she saw that, so many feelings swept through her. She remembered seeing Super Sonic for the first time, the brilliant golden glow and shining red eyes… and yet despite his godly form… he still carried the same carefree disposition of the blue Hedgehog she had met. And yet, he performed the impossible and annihilated a continent's worth of Grimm and saw to it that all of Vale was forever Grimm-free…

She would never forget what happened that night; nor would she forget what she had learned before and after, about the teachers she had trusted being part of a secret conspiracy operating in the moral gray area against an immortal witch hell-bent on destroying all life on the world she called home; nor would she forget just how devastated Ruby and Yang in particular where upon learning that their own family was deeply involved in said conspiracy. On one end, she understood the secrecy and why they felt they had to abide such choices, but that didn't mean she'd have to like it. She thought she was done with all of the morally questionable stuff upon leaving the White Fang and finally on a force that was firmly on the side of good. She also hated just how hurt her teammates and friends were because of that. And as much as she wanted to be with them, to help support and get them through whatever emotional turmoil they are going through, she was at least content to know that Sonic, Knuckles, and the others were watching over them and giving them the help they needed. But that didn't mean she wouldn't miss them. But she knew her mission and what had to be done, and for all their sake, and the sake of her home… she would see it through to the end.

"The Golden Hero…?"

Being briefly startled, Blake quickly reached for her sheathed weapon on her back, only to see a rather large individual, wearing an old-style trench coat, a black fedora, and for some reason… an enormous scarf covering most of his face, including something over what appeared to be an elongated jaw with the individual trying hard to hide it.

"Whoa, sorry! Didn't mean to startle ya. Just… trying to check out the news. Don't have a phone or anything, so I can't tell what was going on." The individual raised his hands up.

Blake briefly looked at the man who was clearly wearing some kind of disguise to hide himself. She didn't recognize the voice, but she didn't pick up any hostility from him either, so she briefly lowered her guard.

"Kinda easy to be scared of a man covering his whole face." Blake commented.

"Sorry… not a creeper or anything if that's what you're wondering." The individual replied. "But my… face ain't exactly common around here, and I don't wanna startle some folks."

She raised a curious eyebrow. Was he a Faunus trying to hide his face? She certainly understood that, but it did seem a bit over the top. The most she'd seen were Faunus having lizard-like skin, or even one with a duckbill for a mouth but that was a rare oddity. Again though, she could tell that this individual was not trying to harm her, so she decided to leave it be.

"Didn't mean to sound insensitive. I'm sorry." She apologized.

"No harm done." He replied before leaning against the railing casually. "So… this Golden Hero guy… Sounds like a big deal."

"Only the biggest deal in all of Remnant. Everyone's talking about him." Blake said, looking back at her scroll and the image of the news article.

"Bet people don't normally see things like that around here, huh?"

"Nope. Not every day something wipes out an entire army of Grimm." Blake replied.

"Grimm… Yeah, I'm also a bit concerned about the robot army that apparently attacked that school. That's pretty big talk too." The disguised individual said.

Blake looked very serious at the mention of that. Eggman. The man who recruited the White Fang, only to quickly discarded the entire Vale branch and leave them all for dead! While Adam and his group of terrorists arguably had that coming, it still made her blood boil to know that someone took advantage of all her people's pain and suffering and aimed it at so many innocent people, including her, and even got them all killed so recklessly. More than anything, she wanted to make Eggman pay.

"Yeesh, sensitive subject I take it." The person next to her commented, noticing her growing anger.

"A lot of people died…" She practically growled.

"Anyone you knew?"

"A few…" She looked away. Though Blake was fortunate that none of those closest to her lost their lives, she still heard of a few casualties among her classmates, including Cardin's whole team. Even if she was at odds with them, she would never wish something like death upon them.

"I'm sorry." The person said sincerely, causing Blake's look to soften somewhat. "Sure hope that Golden Hero does something about it."

"He is…" Blake muttered before realizing what she just said. "At least… I hope so." Right as she said that though, she could feel this individual gazing at her, almost as if he was trying to analyze or ascertain her. She still picked up no hostility, but this didn't feel very comfortable.

Unbeknownst to her, two pairs of eyes had set their sights on her and the individual next to her from a partially open-storage compartment on the deck nearby.

"Uh oh… think he's caught?"

"I do not believe we have anything to fear from these passengers. A few may seem armed, but none carry any hostility."

"I'm hoping we can find out more about the others. Maybe they know what's going on here."

"One can hope… Wait."

"What is it?"

"Somebody else is listening in."

"Where?!"

"Look at the upper deck, close to the bridge of the ship."

One of the set of eyes looked upwards slightly towards the aforementioned direction, where they spotted an individual wearing a hooded robe to cover their whole body. And they were looking towards Blake and the disguised person next to her.

"Think he could be trouble?"

"I still sense no hostility, but I would be cautious nonetheless."

Back near Blake, the individual in the coat and hat looked towards the partially open door on the deck with a serious expression before noticing something in the water. A red fin that briefly breached the surface before sinking back down.

"So… The Grimm… they're everywhere… aren't they?"

"Unfortunately." Blake replied. "And with the attack on Beacon… there's a chance they might be more active."

"Does that include any that can swim?"

She looked at him somewhat questionably. "What do you mean?"

"Because I think there's one here in the water."

Looking out towards the sea with a serious expression, Blake's yellow eyes darted in every direction across the surface of the water, her cat ears underneath her bow stuck up as she listened closely for any sign of trouble. Unaware of the person next to her making some hand-motions towards the storage compartment where two other people remained hidden.

Only for the boat to suddenly and violently shake as if it had hit something underneath. Blake almost lost her balance, but the coat-wearing person next to her had caught her… just as a large shadow loomed over both of them.

Turning around slowly, they looked up to see an enormous Grimm that bore the appearance of a serpentine-like dragon with short arms along the side, and a large skull for its head. It set its soul-piercing glowing yellow eyes on the boat before giving a deathly roar. This was a Sea Feilong.

"Red alert!" One of the crewmen called out, causing alarms to ring all over the ship and the passengers to run back inside, while the captain and a few crewmen came to the upper deck just outside the bridge to see the Grimm for themselves.

"By the gods…" The captain muttered in fear. "All hands to battle stations!"

Blake was the first act, dashing to the front of the boat. "Hey… wait!" The coat-wearing person tried to call to her, but she had already leapt off the deck, and used her Semblance to create a shadow clone, which she grabbed before swinging herself at the Sea Feilong's face. She threw Gambol Shroud out, the blade piercing through its bone-snout while swinging herself via her weapon's ribbon to appear behind her before pulling her weapon back and shooting at the back of its head…

Only for the tail to bend in from behind and smack her to send her falling towards the ocean.

"Charmy! Grab her!" The coat-wearing person called out.

Something fast flew out through the storage compartment and intercept Blake before she could land smack-dab in the water.

The Faunus girl looked up with a gasp to see who had caught her and was keeping her in the air. It was a yellow-and-black stripped anthropomorphic bee orange amber eyes, wearing an orange zip-up fest with a bee emblem on the left side, orange and white sneakers cuffed with black rings, white gloves also cuffed with black rings, black shoulder pads, and a pilot's helmet and sliver flight goggles.

"Hey, are you okay?!" The bee said, sounding rather young, as he flew the shocked Blake down back to the boat.

"Uh… yeah." She answered instinctively. This bee… while she should be shocked by the appearance of a giant talking bumblebee, she was more shocked by how familiar his appearance was. He looked almost like…

The Sea Feilong's roar interrupted her thoughts as the giant Grimm shot itself towards the ship, evading the fire from the cannons that appeared on the boat's side and quickly making its way to the front. Blake was ready to take it on, drawing Gambol Shroud again…

Only for the same coat-wearing person she was just talking with to appear directly in front of her and the giant bee, pull back his fist, and give a vicious uppercut to its jaw with enough force to send it careening upward, much to her shock.

"Espio!" He called out.

Right as he did, a blur shot above him to meet the recoiling Sea Feilong up in the air, and quickly catch it by its boney face. The individual who held on was a fuchsia-skinned anthropomorphic chameleon with a yellow horn between his gold eyes. His attire consisted only of white gloves, purple shoes, and purple pads on his arms and legs. He drew a kunai in his free hand and drove it into the Sea Feilong's right eye. This caused the creature to throw itself violently to throw the chameleon off…

Though he was quickly caught by his bee companion and set down by the still-shocked Blake and the coat-wearing individual.

"I removed one of its eyes, so it's right side should be more vulnerable now. But I doubt it will fall so easily." The chameleon said.

"So much for being undercover, huh Vector?" The bee said to the coat-wearing person.

"Eh, kinda hard to hide this gorgeous face anyway." The tallest one in the group threw off his coat, hat, and scarf to reveal his full self, something that caused Blake to look in even further shock.

The individual who stood before her was a large, green-skinned anthropomorphic crocodile with spikey red spikes going down his tail, a light-green-skinned underbelly, and goldenrod eyes. His attire consisted of a pair of headphones over his head, a golden chain around his neck, white gloves, black wristbands with yellow stripes, and black boots.

"You fight pretty good, Miss. But we'll handle it from here." The crocodile apparently named Vector said as he cracked his knuckles. "Right, boys?"

"Right." The chameleon named Espio said seriously.

"Yeah, let's do it!" The bee named Charmy cheered.

"Avast, ye scurvy dog!" Vector pointed to the growling Sea Feilong challengingly. "You're about to face the wrath of Team Chaotix!"

The continent of Solitas, the northernmost continent on the planet, mostly consisted of ice and snow. At first glance, it seemed rather unpleasant for anyone to live in, and yet it was also the home of the most advanced kingdom in all of Remnant. And that was the current destination of the Cyclone as it flew straight through the frigid air, the cold wasteland down below.

The titular blue plane had a glass canopy over its cockpit as its pilot and passenger continued to make their way closer to the destination.

"Alright, I sent a message to General Ironwood that we'd be arriving soon, so we shouldn't be expecting all that much trouble." Tails said as he piloted the plane.

"At least not for arrival, anyway." Weiss replied, before gazing out the canopy at the cold environment around her with a hard expression, something the fox noticed as he glanced back.

"I… kinda figured you'd be at least a little happy to be coming back home." Tails commented. "I know you said how things weren't easy for you growing up… but there have to be some good memories here, right?"

"Some." Weiss confirmed. "There are people that I am looking forward to seeing again. They just so happen to be in the same place as the one person that I would much rather prefer not to see again."

Tails knew exactly who she was talking about. He never met the man personally, but based on what he heard, he could at least take a guess that the individual in question was not exactly father-of-the-year material.

"Do you think we can expect any trouble from your dad?" Tails asked.

"Depends on what you mean by 'trouble.'" Weiss replied, still looking out the window. "As in, someone who would be a physical threat or a danger to any individual in a life-or-death battle? No. But as an emotionally manipulative and abusive man who wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of those around him? Yes, absolutely."

Tails looked with sympathy. "You don't have to do this, you know. We could still…"

"I appreciate what you're trying to do, Tails. Really." Weiss stopped him. "But Eggman somehow has ties to the Schnee Dust Company; he's already acquired enough Dust to fuel his army, having already staged an assault on Beacon. We have to cut him off here, and I'm the only one who can get close enough to find out what those ties are. And if I have to swallow my pride…" She sighed before speaking again. "Then I'll do it."

Tails smiled towards her. "Well, if he tries anything with you, just let me know. I'm no Sonic, but I would be more than happy to put him back in his place."

Weiss chuckled. "Thank you, Tails. I have a feeling that I might need that help." Suddenly, the Cyclone was shook, like something had just hit it on all sides, rocking the two passengers inside. "What was that?"

The Cyclone's radar suddenly became active as multiple red dots appeared all over, with several shadows looming over them, followed by the sounds of buzzing, like what one would hear from insects, only much larger. Looking up and all around, Tails and Weiss saw a large swarm of Grimm, all resembling large hornets with rapidly flapping wings, and massive stingers at the end of their three-segmented bodies.

"Grimm! Hang on!" Tails took the controls and piloted the Cyclone straight down to avoid the rapid thrusts of the hornet-like Grimm before they all flew after the plane. As they flew in pursuit, the front most hornet-like Grimm thrusted their lower bodies, lunging their stingers to be launched which appeared to be tied to their bodies by some kind of organic tether, almost like harpoons. Tails did his best to avoid most of them, the Cyclone spinning and curving around to dodge the projectiles, though a few did skid the haul a bit.

"They're Lancers!" Weiss identified as Tails continued to pilot the ship. "But… they're not native to Solitas! They shouldn't be here!"

"We'll worry about that later! Right now, we need to move!" Tails flew the Cyclone closer towards the ground, going straight for a small mountain range, the swarm of Lancers being right behind them.

Weiss had created a black Glyph at her feet. "Open the cockpit!" She stated, prompting Tails to do so as she stood up, her feet being connected to the ground by her black Glyph as she turned to face the incoming behind them. She drew Myrtenaster, making sure it was loaded with Dust before attacking. She aimed her sword towards the swarm of Lancers, erecting three Glyphs around her, infusing them with Fire Dust, to launch a series of fire balls at the incoming swarm. A few of the front-most Lancers were taken down, but the rest were able to avoid it.

Tails saw what she was trying to do and accelerated the Cyclone faster towards the mountains. "It's gonna be a tight squeeze!" He flipped the Cyclone so that its wings were now vertical, but Weiss kept focus on her black Glyph to keep herself grounded in the plane before seeing all the Lancers clump together in the narrow space.

She saw Tails intent and smirked, reminiscently of a certain blue Hedgehog she knew, and erected a large Glyph in front of her and unleashed a large blast of lightning, which not only blew apart most of the Lancers at the front, but even created an explosion that shook up the rocky walls, sending multiple rocks flying to smash even more Lancers, eliminating half the swarm in one shot.

"Keep it as tight as possible, Tails!" Weiss told him. "We'll take them down in…"

However, something large had hit them from directly below, sending the Cyclone spiraling and crashing hard against the narrow cavern walls. Weiss had lost her focus on her Glyphs and would have fallen had Tails not reached out to catch her.

"I got you!" He exclaimed, having caught her with one hand, while still using his other hand on the controls.

"Tails! WALL!" Weiss screamed, alerting him to the incoming cliffside they were about to crash into. No time to think on it, Tails extended his dual namesake appendages to wrap around the controls and used all his strength to pull up hard, while grabbing Weiss with both of his hands to haul her back inside just as the Cyclone curved upward, moving at an angle before straightening out just before they made it to the top…

Only to hit the top of the cliffside with enough force to vault Weiss and Tails out of the plane, which bounced and rolled across the snowy ground before crashing hard. Tails held onto Weiss and hovered in the air while still holding onto her, his own tails acting like a helicopter's propeller.

"Are you okay?!" Tails questioned.

"I'm fine… but what hit us?" Weiss wondered.

She would soon get her answer as something large hovered directly over them. It was a much larger Lancer, which was maybe three times the size of its smaller variety, evident as the remainder of the swarm regrouped around it and it eyed the two with deadly intent.

"It's a Queen!" Weiss exclaimed.

"Of course…" Tails' eyelids lowered as he set himself and Weiss down, seeing how they were quickly surrounded on all sides. Even if they eliminated half of the swarm, there still appeared to be well over two dozen Lancers. They quickly came back-to-back. "Looks like we're gonna have to fight our way out!" Having already put on his backpack of Hurricane Gamma, Tails detached the wings and activated their light-sword mode.

"Not the homecoming I was hoping for…" Weiss muttered as she held Myrtenaster.

The Queen Lancer gave a call to its smaller brethren, commanding them to go on the attack. All of the Lancers lunged their harpoon-stingers at the pair, and they were more than prepared to fight back…

Only for a large cyclone of fire to appear around the young Fox and the Schnee heiress, the fire burning the stingers and forcing them to be retracted as all the Lancers backed away. Tails and Weiss looked in surprise at the sudden inferno that had protected them and found themselves looking directly up at where said inferno came from.

Or rather… Who.

Hovering just above them, with small flames at her feet to keep her airborne, was a slim, lavender-furred, autapomorphic cat with golden eyes, a long tail, and four plumes of hair with violet tips tied back at her head like a ponytail and a red oval gem on her forehead. Her attire consisted of a purple tailcoat with rose trim and a gold collar, white leggings, white gloves with white fluffy cuffs, and high-heeled rose ankle boots also with white fluffy cuffs.

Weiss looked up in surprise and awe, even as the fire died down and the cat landed to the ground with elegance and grace, all while Tails smiled as he recognized this cat instantly.

"Blaze!" He said with relief and excitement.

"Hello, Tails." The cat apparently named Blaze smiled as she turned towards him before noticing the young lady by his side. "I assume this is a friend of yours."

"Yep, her name's Weiss. I'd give you a proper introduction, but…" He gestured around him to the swarm of Lancers.

"I understand, you can fill us in later. For now, let us help you." Blaze accepted.

What she said however, caught Weiss' attention. "I'm sorry… 'us'?"

Suddenly, a large cluster of rocks and ice shards rained down from the sky, forcing all the Lancers back as a couple of them got crushed and skewered by the projectiles, all of which were covered by a cyan-colored aura. Several more objects were thrown out in all directions, forcing the Lancers even further back as the one responsible landed next to the group.

The one in question was a Hedgehog! Weiss' eyes widened as she saw him… her mind flashing briefly towards a certain blue Hedgehog, so much so that she almost mistook him. But one glance at his back, and the color of his fur, and she knew that this was not the one she was thinking of.

This Hedgehog was not blue, but rather had light gray, almost silver-colored and white fur. He hovered in the air as a light cyan colored aura encircled around him, turning around to reveal his golden eyes, as well as the five spines that flared up and back on his forehead, with two larger ones at the back of his head. His attire consisted only of white gloves with aqua-colored circles on his palms and lines that connected to par of golden cuffs on his wrists which also had aqua-colored rings on them, as well as black and white shoes with aqua-colored tips and golden cuffs on his ankles with aqua rings on them as well.

"Alright, Silver!" Tails smiled widely.

"Hey, Tails." The Hedgehog waved friendly. "So, what's the deal with these things?" He gestured around him to the regrouping Lancers.

"They're basically soulless monsters that live to kill and destroy." Tails summed up. "I'll fill you in on the details later."

"Ah, I see…" Blaze looked to Silver with a knowing smile as her fists were coated in flames. "So, if these things are soulless and not truly alive…"

"Then there's no need for us to hold back!" The gray-furred Hedgehog grinned as he was once again coated in a cyan-colored aura.

Meanwhile, back on the ocean, the Sea Feilong recoiled in several ways to avoid all the cannon shots from the ship, prompting Charmy to fly at it buzzing up and around the giant dragon-like Grimm that tried to bite down at him, but Charmy proved too quick for it.

"Ha! Missed me!" He taunted, leading to the Sea Feilong to snap at him again, but Charmy dodged it swiftly enough. "Too slow!" He blew raspberries at the Grimm, the monster biting towards him again, but the young Bee flew backwards, staying close enough to be within taunting range of the Sea Feilong, while moving quick enough to lure it closer to the ship where his teammates were waiting.

"Espio, let's reel it in!" Vector ordered.

"On it!" Espio had a rope attached to his kunai, which he spun around before throwing it outward. "Charmy, heads up!"

Hearing his teammate call to him, Charmy spotted the roped kunai and quickly zoomed in to catch it, avoiding another bite from the Sea Feilong before quickly flying up, over and around the Sea Feilong's head to entangle it in the rope before driving the kunai into the back of the Sea Feilong's neck, while also simultaneously, shooting through the serpentine-Grimm, stinger first, and piercing through its throat.

"I got it!" Charmy shouted.

"Let's go!" Vector grabbed the rope and pulled backwards with enough strength to reel in the Sea Feilong. Despite its enormous size and constant flailing about, Vector was clearly strong enough to pull it closer to the ship and hold it still, much to the surprise of Blake. The only person she saw with that amount of raw physical strength was Knuckles. "I'll hold em down! You make sushi out of that thing!"

Espio was about to move in, only for a hooded figure to leap on top of his head and use him as a catapult to launch himself towards the restrained Sea Feilong. "The one from before…" Espio recognized the robbed figure, only for the figure to discard said robe and reveal himself as a certain Monkey Faunus that Blake recognized.

"Sun?!" She exclaimed in shock before rushing forward, with Espio right behind her.

Drawing his weapons, Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang, in their combined nunchuck mode, Sun appeared on the restrained Sea Feilong's back and began to smash it, while also firing its shotgun mode. "Ha! You like that!" He flailed wildly with his weapon, smashing and shooting. Even as the Feilong tried to fling its body around, despite Vector holding it back, Sun barely held on.

"Hi there!" Charmy greeted friendly as he hovered close by.

"Hi." Sun greeted back.

"Sun what are you doing here?!" Blake questioned as she appeared on the Sea Feilong's back as well.

"Oh you know, just hanging around!" Sun answered as he held onto one of the Grimm's spines for support.

Charmy laughed at that. "Hanging around! That's funny!"

"Finally! Someone who appreciates my jokes!" Sun said with a smile.

"You can joke as much as you want, after we kill this abomination!" Espio stated as he appeared on the Feilong's back as well, a kunai in each hand.

"And any time you wanna do that might be nice!" Vector called out to them. "This rope isn't gonna hold for long!"

"You heard him! Let's go!" Charmy declared as he and everyone else moved in on the attack. The Bee flew up and around the Sea Feilong's body, zipping in every direction and slashing with his stinger. Espio, Blake, and Sun performed similar actions to one another, using their respective agility and abilities to move up and around the Feilong's body to slash and smash with their respective weapons, moving at such speed that all four of them seemed blurs. The more damage they did, the more its armor began to chip off.

But the harder Vector held, and the more it struggled, the more the rope began to tear. He only hoped they could finish it off before it fell apart.

However, he glanced slightly past the flailing monster and noticed the fins on its back expanding and taking the shape of something that only flying creatures had. His eyes quickly widened.

"IT'S GOT WINGS!" Vector warned, alerting everyone present.

The wings had quickly expanded outward, before flapping them to send a powerful gust of wind that knocked everyone else back. Though Charmy did recover in the air to quickly catch Espio, with Blake and Sun using their respective Semblances to boost themselves and leap back towards the ship even as the gust of wind reached it and Vector. The crocodile stood firm, but the already strained rope ended up snapping from the force, freeing the beast as it took to the air.

The Sea Feilong's mouth soon opened as a surge of lightning began to build up at the back of its throat.

"It has a breath attack of some sort!" Espio alerted.

"I'll stop it!" Charmy flew up to the now-flying Grimm as fast as he could and aimed his stinger, flying and smashing it in its blind spot on the right side of its head. The momentum Charmy brought with him was enough to force the Sea Feilong's head away, the resulting beam of lightning missing the ship and striking the water with explosive results.

"Tell me you guys did some damage to it!" Vector stated as he and the others regrouped while Charmy flew around the Sea Feilong to keep it distracted.

"We chipped off bits of its armor, but given how Charmy was able to pierce through its throat, I say it has a high pain tolerance." Espio relayed.

"You're not from around here, are you?" Blake asked.

"That obvious, huh?" Vector asked.

"You guys wouldn't happen to know a blue Hedgehog who can run really fast would ya?" Sun asked, much to their surprise.

"You know Sonic?!" Vector questioned.

"Oh yeah. We go way back." Sun smiled, only for Blake to push him away and get back to the situation.

"It's a long story, and I'll explain later. But you need to know, that thing doesn't feel any kind of pain at all!" Blake pointed to the campaigning Sea Feilong that was engaged in an aerial battle with Charmy. "It doesn't have any blood or vital organs for you to strike!"

"So how does one kill such a creature?" Espio questioned.

"Usually by smashing a big enough hole or by blasting its head off." Sun answered.

"Can it heal?" Vector asked.

"No." Blake shook her head.

"Espio, you said Charmy punched a hole through its neck, right?" Vector asked his teammate.

"Clean through." The chameleon confirmed.

Vector smirked. "Alright. You guys find a way to clip its wings and get it back into the water."

"The water!?" Blake questioned. "But it'll have a total advantage in there!"

"So will I." Vector maintained his smirk.

"Oh, I get it!" Sun snapped his fingers in realization. "You're an alligator! You guys love the water!"

"I'm a croc, not a gator. There's a difference." Vector's eyelids lowered.

"Sorry." Sun winced.

"And how are we supposed to get that far out?" Blake questioned, only to gasp as she and Sun were picked up by Vector's enormous arms.

"I saw what you guys can do. You seem like the improvising-type." Vector said as Espio clung onto Sun's back. "So, improvise!" He threw all three of them with enough force straight to the airborne Sea Feilong that Charmy continued to engage.

The Bee flew faster than the hovering beast could anticipate, striking his stinger wherever he could. 'Come on! Stay focused on me! If I stay close, it won't use its lightning breath! And if I fly around here, it won't get too far away from Vector and Espio and they'll think of a way to bring it down!'

A high-pitched scream caught his attention, turning and looking down somewhat, Charmy spotted the source of the scream, being Sun, as he and Blake soared through the air with Espio hanging on tight. They would have fallen into the water had Blake not used her Semblance to create a shadow-clone and boost herself forward, repeating the process until she got close enough to throw out Gambol Shroud, the blade piercing through the serpentine-Grimm's right wing.

Sun, who stopped screaming, followed a similar lead as he used his Semblance to create two glowing clones of himself. One caught his real form while the other caught Espio before throwing them towards the Sea Feilong's left wing. Espio acted faster, using one kunai to stab into the wing with one hand and catching Sun's hand with the other.

"Snap off its joint!" Espio threw Sun upward while he himself leapt up to pierce and slash at the Feilong's left wing repeatedly while Blake performed a similar action to tear through it.

The Monkey Faunus tossed out his weapons' nunchuck-mode to hook onto the wing's left joint which he used to swing himself before firing its built-in gun repeatedly to snap off its left wing, causing the Grimm to rapidly loose altitude. Charmy, seeing what they were doing, decided to help by speeding forward and thrusting his stinger to pierce through the right joint and completely sever that wing. He flew down to catch Blake before she could even fall before moving to Espio and Sun, who were already falling.

"Catch them!" Charmy said to Blake. While still holding onto Charmy with one hand, she reached to catch Sun's hand with the other while Espio clung to Sun's back again just as the Sea Feilong hit the water.

"Alright, my turn!" Vector dove into the water from the boat and gunned straight for the now-underwater Grimm. Despite his enormous weight, Vector swam like a torpedo underwater, his tail being swung in a wave-like motion to propel himself at rapid speeds. The Sea Feilong noticed his presence and shot straight for Vector, the two clashing underwater.

Charmy made it to the boat to set everyone down. They made it to the side to try and see what was going on but couldn't make out anything through the waves.

"Is he going to be, okay?" Blake questioned with worry.

"Vector will be fine." Espio assured with a smile. "The water is his domain."

"Yeah, and he's the strongest guy out there!" Charmy confirmed.

Back underwater, Vector continued to wrestle with the Sea Feilong, gripping onto its face just as it opened its jaw. Though it briefly shook him off, Vector treaded in that same spot and allowed the Sea Feilong to shoot itself at him with an open jaw, but Vector caught it by the jaw, his hands and feet extended outward as he used his own strength to keep the jaw from closing. He quickly pulled his feet up and slammed them down with enough force to completely snap off its lower jaw.

This did momentarily stop the large Grimm, allowing Vector a chance to see the hole in its throat that Charmy had made before. He shot himself straight at it with an open jaw. He bit down into the side of the hole and began to tear away at more of it, all while grabbing and holding on, even as the Sea Feilong shot itself up towards the surface to try and shake him off.

Blake, Espio, Charmy, and Sun backed away somewhat from the enormous splash as they saw the flailing Sea Feilong, but Vector had dug his hands into the open wound, which was now significantly larger from his recent bite.

"From Hell's heart, I stab at thee!" Vector exclaimed as he wrenched his hands upward to completely rip off the Sea Feilong's head, something that made Blake's jaw drop and Sun's eyes to widen with sparkles and a wide smile. Espio grinned with a nod and closed eyes while Charmy cheered for him.

"Alright! Way to go Vector!" The bee cheered.

The Sea Feilong's corpse was already dissolving as it fell back into the water and began to sink. The people and crew on the boat all began to cheer with the captain nodding in relief as Vector climbed back aboard to regroup with his team and allies.

"A bit messier than I'd like, but I'll take it." He brushed his shoulders and smirked with crossed arms.

"When has one of our jobs ever been clean?" Charmy joked, much to Vector's irritation.

"Ha, ha." He said sarcastically.

"And I believe Moby Dick was a whale, not a serpent." Espio said with a slight smile.

"Hey, beggars can't be choosers, am I right?" Vector shrugged before looking towards the two Faunus in front of him. "So, you know Sonic, huh?"

"I do." Blake nodded.

"And boy is that guy, awesome!" Sun grinned.

"Heck yeah, he is!" Charmy agreed as he and Sun shared a high-five.

"Then I believe it may be best for us to compare notes." Espio proposed.

Solitas

Weiss backflipped to avoid the extended stingers of two Lancers before landing on her feet and erected a pair of Glyphs above her while thrusting Myrtenaster to send a series of icicles forward, though one Lancer did get skewered, the other flew back to avoid it…

Only to get caught in the psychokinetic grip of Silver the Hedgehog and slammed hard to the ground to squash it. He flew up to reach four Lancers that were gunning straight for him, but before they could launch their harpoon-like stingers, Silver, reached with his psychokinetic power to catch them easily and throw them to the ground, where Weiss was waiting as she plunged her sword into the ground, creating a series of Glyphs where she predicted the Lancers would be as an ice spike appeared on each Glyph, and all five Lancers were impaled and killed off quickly.

"Wow, those are some interesting powers you got." Silver smiled as he flew down closer to Weiss.

"Thank you, your ability is impressive too. Telekinesis?" She asked.

"Psychokinesis." Silver corrected.

"Isn't that basically the same thing?" She questioned.

"Er… I guess… but my name for it sounds cooler!" Silver said after a brief loss for words, which caused Weiss to snicker a bit.

This power was almost exactly like the Semblance belonging to Glynda Goodwitch, though she used her power with more precision and finesse, this Silver character seemed to be using it mostly for brute force. But based on her experience with Hedgehogs, a part of her suspected that she'd only seen a glimpse of what this Hedgehog was capable of.

A flash of fire caught both their attention, as they turned to Tails and Blaze making quick work of the Lancers surrounding them. The young Fox had flown up to meet four Lancers in the sky, slicing his right blade from Hurricane Gamma upwards to bisect one Lancer while using the flat of the left sword to both block and slice the harpoon-stinger attack from the second before quickly zooming in to cut that one in half. Two were directly behind him and lunged straight for him, but Tails held both his blades outward and spun rapidly like a tornado to slice apart both Lancers as they reached him.

Blaze, however, is who Weiss focused on the most. She hopped and skipped, bouncing from one Lancer to the next, all while spinning like a ballerina and generating a wheel of fire around her, all while the tips of her shoes were also set ablaze, burning up each Lancer upon contact and landing gracefully on the ground after setting the fourth on fire. A fifth attempted to launch its harpoon stinger at her from behind, but she saw it coming and swiped her hand, which was now on fire, to completely sever the stinger from its cord… which she swiftly grabbed and set on fire with her palm before spinning around to throw the flaming stinger back at the lancer to pierce through and obliterate it with ease.

Weiss couldn't take her eyes off Blaze for an instant. She moved with such speed that it seemed to rival Sonic, and yet it was with elegance and grace… so much so that she was honestly jealous. And her mastery over her apparent fire power was nothing to scoff at either. One look and Weiss could tell that Blaze knew exactly how to use it. While she still knew nothing of her personality-wise, speaking from a combative standpoint… Blaze was everything that Weiss wanted to be as a fighter.

"Heads up!" Silver pulled Weiss out of the way with his psychokinesis, all to avoid the harpoon stingers of three more Lancers. She shook her head and mentally scolded herself for being distracted and watched as Silver grabbed all three of the Lancers with his powers, covering them in the cyan aura before he smashed them together and slammed them hard on the ground to finish them off. He then glanced up at the much larger Lancer that hovered in the air with the remaining six protecting it.

"Weiss, you said that big one is the Queen, as in the Alpha of this pack, right?" Tails asked the heiress as all four regrouped.

"Yes, it's the same principle." She confirmed. "And this one is clearly old enough to know to hang back and let its drones do the work."

"And have a number of others for extra protection it seems." Blaze commented. "I assume that this Queen should be our target?"

"Yes." Weiss nodded.

"I could bring it down." Silver said. "But those smaller ones might cause a bit of a headache."

"Then you focus on those, Silver." Tails told him. "I'll cut the wings off the Queen and bring her to the ground for you two to finish off. Sound like a plan?"

"Works for me." Blaze nodded.

"We'll be waiting." Weiss said as well.

"Let's go, Silver!" Tails stated as he and the psychokinetic Hedgehog both flew straight up.

"Right behind you!"

The Queen gave a command to the remaining drones, telling all six of them to intercept the two flying attackers. But Silver reached them first, picking up speed with his own powers to meet them half-way and allowing Tails to fly around and reach the Queen, who launched spikes from its face towards the incoming Tails, but he slashed with his dual blades to block them before engaging in aerial combat.

Silver delivered a punch, further enhanced by his psychokinesis, into the belly of one Lancer to completely obliterate it, but soon found himself stuck in the middle of the remaining five as they all hovered around him.

"Welp, looks like you got me." He raised his hands, feigning a surrender, just as the five Lancers launched their harpoon-stingers at him simultaneously. "Or I got you." Silver smirked as he caught the incoming stingers with his psychokinesis, and by extension, the Lancers themselves before pulling them all in and spinning them around at a rapid-moving pace. This ended up slicking and skewering the Lancers all by their claws, stingers, as well as smashing them against each other before he exploded outward to send their sliced up and splattered remains flying and crashing to the scattered ground to finish them off.

The Queen Lancer flew backwards as Tails flew after it, before it launched its own, much larger, harpoon-stinger at Tails, which he not only sliced with his blades, but even rode the organic tether while performing a spindash attack to quickly close the gap and spindash up its front, doing some damage to its outer armor before flying up and appearing directly behind it.

Tails then quickly pressed the button on his left wing, causing a cartridge of cyan-blue Dust to pop from Hurricane Gamma's back-pack form, which he caught with his energy-blades. The round cracked and surged with icy-blue energy in-between the wing-blades before Tails fired a cyan-blue energy beam straight at the Queen Lancer's back, specifically in the area in-between all of its wing-joints. This caused a massive cluster of ice to spread across the Queen Lancer's back, covering its wings in ice and rendering them useless. Tails even flew in to slice and shatter the wings to make sure, sending it falling back towards the ground, where Weiss and Blaze were waiting.

"Here it comes!" Weiss warned.

Blaze pulled both her hands back and brought them close together, creating a small fireball in-between them. But despite its small size, it was compact and building up with a great deal of heat and power. Once it fell close enough, Blaze thrusted her hands forward to send a condensed beam of pure fire and heat to completely destroy the lower and larger most portion of its body.

The head and its upper body flew directly over Weiss, who used a Glyph to propel herself straight upward as she lunged Myrtenaster forward, infusing it with Wind Dust to create a vortex-like effect around the blade and increase its cutting power, which not only pierced through its hide… but the whirlwind quickly expanded to further slice and blow apart the remains of the Queen Lancer from the inside before she landed gracefully on the ground, though she did fall a bit on her knees.

"Well done." Blaze smiled as she offered her hand. "Weiss, was it?"

"Eh, yes." Weiss accepted her hand, though a feeling of awkwardness and giddiness swept through her a bit as she was now face-to-face with this master fire-user who acted with such regality. "Thank you… Miss Blaze…" She stuttered somewhat.

"Just Blaze will do." She chuckled.

"Of course. My apologies, ma'am." Weiss then realized what she just said. 'Ma'am!?' She put her hands on her face in embarrassment. Gods is this how Ruby felt when she first met Sonic? At least Ruby had no shame at that time and acted like a giddy little schoolgirl practically on instinct, but Weiss could never see herself doing that. Though she did feel like that now that she was in the presence of this incredible warrior.

Blaze looked towards Weiss with some partial amusement and sympathy. Poor girl was embarrassed. She probably became enamored by her combat style and wanted to put on a good impression, but she probably felt that she failed at that and only served in embarrassing herself. It was kinda cute, actually.

"Hey, is everyone okay?" Silver asked as he and Tails flew down to meet them.

"We're just fine, thank you." Blaze assured.

"Thanks for your help. I'm really happy to see you guys, but what are you doing here?" Tails asked the pair.

"Well, I was visiting Blaze in her home when she said she had felt a disturbance." Silver explained.

"Specifically, the will of the Sol Emeralds." Blaze corrected, catching Weiss' attention.

"Sol Emeralds?" She looked in confusion.

"It's a bit complicated, so here's the short version." Tails began to explain. "Weiss, Blaze is the princess from a dimension that is parallel to the one where Sonic and I come from. You already know about the Chaos Emeralds from our world, well Blaze's world has her own set of gems called the Sol Emeralds, similar but different from the Chaos Emeralds. And she is their guardian."

"I… uh…" Weiss was at a brief loss of words as her head was overloaded with questions. Another dimension that was different from Sonic's and her own? How many other dimensions are there?! Not only that, but there is also another set of super-powered gemstones?! And on top of all of that… this Blaze… is a princess?! A literal princess?! "No… you know what… I'm not even gonna question it at this point." Weiss stopped all train of thought in her head before her brain exploded.

"Blaze, Silver, welcome to Remnant." Tails told the pair. "It's the name of this planet. Right now, it's currently under threat from Doctor Eggman, who's teamed up with a powerful sorceress in this world named Salem."

"I see." Blaze seemed to understand that simply enough. "Is Sonic here?"

"Yep, him, Shadow, and several of our other friends." Tails answered. "But everyone's kinda scattered. I'll explain the details in just a bit, but we should call for a ride." Tails had already pulled out his Scroll as he tried to call for help. "Silver, if you could help haul out Cyclone?"

"On it." Silver quickly moved towards where the Cyclone had crashed and began to use his powers to easily lift the damaged aircraft up from the snow and ice.

"So, what did the Sol Emeralds call you here for?" Tails asked Blaze.

"The Sol Emeralds are not particularly… chatty. But if they directed me here, it is for a purpose." The fiery princess answered. "Perhaps Eggman and his alliance with this Salem-individual may be worse than you may think."

"Well, we could certainly use the help if that's the case." Tails said seriously.

However, unbeknownst to everyone… they were presently being watched from a nearby cliff on a tall mountain that oversaw the whole general area.

A hooded figure stood at the top and observed everything that had taken place. After silently contemplating what they had just seen, the individual stepped backwards and out of sight, followed by a flash of orange light, leaving no trace of anyone there before.

Back on the ocean, Blake and the Chaotix continued to ride the boat as Sun talked with some of the passengers while comparing notes to one another.

"So, to summarize…" Vector began. "We're in a world inhabited by people, half-animal people called Faunus, who train as fighters to battle those Grimm-monsters that are drawn in by negative emotions instead of hunting and gathering like normal animals."

"Among other things, like terrorists and dangerous madmen." Blake confirmed.

"Such as Eggman, who has allied with the White Fang, a Faunus extremist militia." Espio said.

"Pretty much." Blake confirmed again.

"But Sonic totally went all gold and super in your last big battle and totally saved the day!" Charmy flew around excitably.

"However, as per the usual usage of his Super transformation, the Chaos Emeralds are now scattered across this world. So, you and friends of yours who allied with Sonic are now on a mission to gather the Chaos Emeralds before Eggman or any of his allies from this Remnant-world of yours can." Espio put in.

"Yeah." Blake nodded.

"And I'm tagging along too!" Sun put his arm around Blake, which she quickly shoved off.

"What are you even doing here, Sun?" She questioned, facing him.

"Tagging along. I literally just said that." Sun replied. "You guys heard me, right?"

"Yeah, we heard ya." Charmy confirmed.

"That's not what I meant. Have you been following me?!" Blake questioned. "Since when!?"

Sun looked away somewhat before answering. "Well… after that huge fight at Beacon, I saw you and all your friends board a ship and leave the academy. I looked for you in Vale, but you weren't there. That is until you showed up there and got on this boat."

"So, you disguised yourself and stalked me?" Blake questioned. "If you wanted to help, you could have just asked!"

Sun's eyes widened in shock at that. "Ask you… I… Kinda thought since you were usually the loner type…" Blake smacked her forehead with a groan. "Okay, okay. Yeah, maybe I could have just asked."

"For real, kid." Vector added. "That was kinda creepy."

"This coming from the giant crocodile who had probably the worst disguise ever." Sun snarked.

"Hey, it ain't easy to hide this humongous snout." Vector argued. "Especially since nobody's seen people like us before."

"So, is it just you here, Sun?" Blake asked. "Where's the rest of your team?"

Sun scoffed humorously as he hopped onto the railing. "No way I can get Neptune out on the ocean. He and the rest of the crew flew back to Mistral. I told them I'd catch up. Not the first time I left them to take a boat."

Blake shook her head somewhat. "So, what about the rest of you?" She asked the Chaotix. "If you're from Sonic's world, how'd you end up on Remnant?"

"You got me." Vector shrugged. "First we were at our office, waiting for our next potential client. Then there was this huge flash of light, and the next thing we know… our whole building got zapped in the middle of this ginormous city that none of us have ever seen before."

"Though we soon learned we ended up in the middle of downtown Vale." Espio added. "And based on your story, we can only assume that Super Sonic's use of Chaos Control is what brought us here."

"Sonic pulled us here?" Charmy asked in confusion.

"Perhaps not intentionally." Espio thought. "Sonic is not as experienced with Chaos Control as Shadow is. Nor was it used in such a powerful and precise manner, removing a continent's worth of those Grimm monsters."

"What happened, happened. We're here now, so let's try and make the most of it." Vector told his crew.

"So who exactly are you?" Blake asked.

"Oh right, introductions." The crocodile began. "The name's Vector, and these are my boys, Espio and Charmy."

"Hello." The chameleon nodded.

"Hi there." Charmy waved.

"Together, we're Team Chaotix!" Vector continued. "The best detectives anyone can ask for."

"You guys are detectives?!" Sun beamed with excitement, pushing Blake aside. "Well, so am I!" He put on a fake mustache and a pair of sunglasses. "Detective Wukong reporting for duty." He crossed his arms and put on a tough-cop persona.

Charmy smiled with excitement at that, while Espio looked unimpressed as Vector helped Blake back up. "So, if Sonic's looking for the Chaos Emeralds, we might as well tag along too. Blake, was it? Does seem a bit out of character for him to send you off on a mission like this all on your own."

"He didn't send me alone; I asked for it." Blake revealed. "We're going to Menagerie, my home. It's small and my family lives there, and I'm familiar with the territory. And if I need his help, I can contact him via my scroll."

"So, you're scouting the location. Makes sense, I guess." Vector said.

"That… and I got some personal matters that I need to sort out." Blake looked away at that. "We're also hoping to gather allies against Eggman, and… I'm hoping I can get my family on board too."

"Well if you're looking for allies, count us in." Vector volunteered. "We got experience fighting Eggman and looking for those fancy rocks. Plus, you saw us take out that giant Grimm sea monster, right? We can handle ourselves if a fight breaks out. Besides… we're kinda already on the boat." He said with a wince.

"Alright." Blake said, looking away somewhat, doing her best to hide a smile. Though she didn't know these guys all that well, she had the feeling they were at least sincere in their approach. She was more than prepared to tackle this part of her mission alone, but having some people around might not be so bad.

Atlas Academy

General Ironwood took a sigh as sat down in his own personal office as he let this new information sink in. Tails and Weiss were directly attacked by Grimm on their way to Atlas. Though he was glad to know that they were alright, what he was most concerned about were that they were saved by two new individuals who also happen to be close allies of Sonic. How did they get here? Why were they here? Where were they when Eggman attacked Beacon? So many questions ran through his head, but hopefully he would get the answer once they arrive.

"Sir, everyone is here and right outside your office." Winter contacted him.

"Bring them in." He instructed.

The door at the bottom of the stairs at the other end of his office opened up as Winter and Clover both stepped forward and just behind them were Tails and Weiss, along with the two new individuals, right beside them. Ironwood immediately set his eyes on the silver-furred Hedgehog, instantly thinking about the other two he had just met and their contradicting personalities but above all else… their power. Sonic and Shadow are, without a doubt, the most powerful beings he'd ever met, but he wasn't exactly in their good graces when he had last spoke with them, Shadow in particular. He could only wonder just how powerful this new Hedgehog was, and what kind of disposition he had.

"General." Weiss spoke professionally, though he could tell that she was not happy to see him. No doubt she was still angry over what he and the rest of Ozpin's group tried to do with her classmate.

"Miss Schnee… I heard what had happened. Are you okay?" He asked as Winter and Clover both came by his side.

"I'm fine, thank you." She replied.

"And Tails…?" He asked the young Fox.

"I'm okay, but my Cyclone is heavily damaged and could use some repairs." Tails said.

"I'll have my finest mechanics get to work on repairing it." Ironwood offered.

"I appreciate it, but I'd like to be in charge of that." Tails said. "No offense to any of you scientists, but nobody knows the Cyclone better than me."

"That's perfectly fine." Ironwood accepted before turning to the two new arrivals. "And you two would be…?"

"My name is Blaze, and this is Silver." The fiery princess introduced.

"Hello." Silver waved. "We're friends of Sonic."

"First off, allow me to thank you for helping Tails and Weiss when they were attacked." Ironwood said.

"No problem, just happy to help." Silver said. As he said that, Blaze caught the gaze of Winter and saw a grateful expression in her eyes, followed by a nod, no doubt thankful for her aid in saving her younger sister, to which Blaze smiled and nodded back.

"But might I ask just how exactly you two came here?" Ironwood asked.

"To answer that, I need to confirm something. You are familiar with the Chaos Emeralds from Sonic's world?" Blaze asked.

"Yes, I am." Ironwood confirmed.

"Well, I actually hail from a world that is different from Sonic's." Blaze revealed, much to the surprise of Ironwood, Winter, and Clover. "And in my world, we have similar gems known as Sol Emeralds, it is through them that Silver and I were able to travel here to Remnant."

"And these Sol Emeralds…?" Clover inquired. "Where are they?"

"Presently here." Blaze revealed as a ring of fire formed around her, and within that ring, were seven colorful gemstones appeared. These stones were of identical color to the Chaos Emeralds; green, red, blue, white, purple, yellow, and cyan, but they were emerald-cut, square-shaped gem as opposed to the diamond-cut of the Chaos Emeralds.

Weiss looked in awe as she saw the Sol Emeralds herself, with Tails being particularly nervous. He supported the idea of telling General Ironwood about them, if only to avoid causing any further tension with more secret-keeping, but at the same time, he remembered what happened when Eggman and Eggman-Nega brought the Chaos and Sol Emeralds all together when they first met Blaze and feared something similar could happen on Remnant.

The ring of fire then vanished as did the Sol Emeralds, leaving the general and his two subordinates more than a little surprised.

"I'm also aware of what happened recently in your world." Blaze continued. "Doctor Eggman sided with a dangerous enemy of yours, leading to Sonic to transform with the Chaos Emeralds to beat them back. But as a result, the Chaos Emeralds are now scattered across your world. Sonic and his friends, new and old, are presently searching across all of Remnant for these gemstones."

"So, you know of Salem, then?" Winter asked.

That took Weiss and Tails by surprise. When they last heard, Winter wasn't a part of Ozpin's inner circle, unless…

"You… told her…?" Weiss looked toward the general.

"Her and the Ace Ops." Ironwood confirmed, gesturing to Clover next to him. "As well as Professor Polendina." That also caught Tails' attention. "With Ozpin gone, I needed my own team of people that I can trust, one that can help me in searching the continent of Solitas for any Chaos Emeralds that might be here."

"Well, did you find any?" Silver asked.

"Not yet." Ironwood shook his head before looking towards the cat princess. "Blaze, was it? If what I understand correctly, these Sol Emeralds you wield are the same as the Chaos Emeralds?"

"Similar, but different." Blaze confirmed. "For instance, Chaos Control is not a power they can use. And if you are wondering if I can use them against Salem and Eggman, then I will say right now that I would rather not."

"What…?" Ironwood looked in shock at that, with Winter and Clover being especially surprised. "But if they have equal power to that of the Chaos Emeralds…"

"They may indeed eliminate your enemy, but there is a cost to using them in a world outside their own." Blaze explained. "They are tethered to my home dimension, so using them for their full power here on Remnant runs the risk of dragging my home into your own, essentially grinding two worlds together."

"…Is… is your world at risk of getting 'dragged over' to Remnant now with your gemstones being here?" Winter asked.

"There is, but it's minimal, so long as I do not use the Sol Emeralds for anything else other than travel between my home and here." Blaze said. "That being said…" She looked to Tails in particular. "If I have to return the Sol Emeralds to my dimension to avoid that happening, I will. But until then, I'll be holding onto them and will not use them for anything unless absolutely necessary."

Tails seemed to nod in understanding before looking to Weiss as she seemed to get it all. They then looked to Ironwood, clearly seeing a disappointed expression on his face. No doubt he wanted to use the Sol Emeralds to get rid of Salem, but at the moment, all he gained was an additional ally or two. But at this point, he needed all the help he can get.

"I suppose I'll have to accept it, then." The general said with reluctance, causing the tension to fade. "How much of the situation do you know of?"

"I know that you and a man named Ozpin, who has been cursed with reincarnation, are part of a secret society that is combating the sorceress and queen of the Creatures of Grimm from the shadows." Blaze began. "And that those Creatures of Grimm are drawn in by negativity, which is why you feel it is essential to keep said conflict a secret, which I understand completely. Though I also know there was recent tension between you and Sonic regarding… a female student making a rather… difficult choice. And in my personal opinion, there are ways that could have been avoided, much simpler ways."

"Perhaps you are right." Ironwood admitted.

"But Sonic wouldn't get too hung up on the past." Tails said as he stepped closer to the general at his desk. "We're here now and all in the same situation, so let's work together to make it through all this." He offered his hand to Ironwood.

Though there was a minute of hesitation, a small smile appeared on Ironwood's face as he stood up from his desk to accept and shook Tails' hand. "Very well."

"Since we're on the same team now, we have some questions that we need answered." Weiss began. "Where's the Winter Maiden?"

"And what's going on with Penny?" Tails asked as well. "I'd like to do what I can to help."

"We're also aware that you've captured one of Salem's associates and I would like to know what is going on in that regard as well." Blaze offered.

"Seriously, we'd like to help anyway that we can." Silver added.

Ironwood shared expressions with Winter and Clover before walking away from his desk to address them all. "Follow me."

The general and his two most trusted soldiers led Weiss, Tails, Silver, and Blaze deeper into the military base, specifically the research wing where they all saw uniformed scientists and researchers discussing and working on various projects. Though when the group passed by, several of the researchers stopped what they were doing, briefly finding themselves staring to the anthropomorphic trio. Blaze looked at all this somewhat questionably with a raised eyebrow but continued on following the others while Silver and Tails seemed a but concerned by this.

"They… know we're on the same side… right?" Silver asked hopefully.

"They all know." Clover confirmed as they continued walking. "But it's still an oddity to see. Even compared to the Faunus, you guys stand out quite a bit. I also imagine that another reason is that you, Silver, happen to look so much like the 'Golden Hero' that all of Remnant is talking about."

"They think I look like Sonic?" Silver questioned.

"There is a resemblance." Tails said. "Not enough to confuse the two of you, but still enough to turn some heads."

"Well, he was gold at the time and usually blue, while my fur is silver." The Hedgehog commented. "Our colors are so different, that only an idiot would mistake us." He happened to hear a snort coming from Tails. "What?"

"Nothing…" The yellow-furred Fox replied, thinking back to that whole mess with GUN when they had first encountered Shadow and mistook Sonic for him.

The group was soon led to a more secure area, with a pair of Atlesian soldiers guarding. The soldiers stood up straight in the presence of their general, who nodded to them as he slipped a keycard into a nearby terminal and in putted a few command keys before activating a rental scanner for his eyes, which finally allowed the door to open.

"Seems rather overkill." Weiss noted the intense level of security measures for that door as they walked inside.

"There is a sadistic and manipulative shapeshifter on the loose, one who has clearly allied himself with the enemy." Winter reminded.

"Right." Weiss grimaced, remembering said shapeshifter and the emotional turmoil he put her and all her friends through.

As they descended down a flight of stairs and began to walk down one hallway, the visitors immediately noticed the complete lack of any human presence. Researchers even soldiers, with the only guards being several Atlesian Knights that stood up straight alongside the walls, as well as the many cameras along the ceiling.

The group came to one door in particular as Ironwood opened inputted a few command keys on the terminal next to that door and allowed it to unlock and open, revealing a high-tech laboratory with only a select few people in it, one being Pietro Polendina, who was working at a console; the other being Ciel Soliel, who stood guard in front of a pod-like device…

Where the disremembered parts of an android girl were all being connected to each other via wires and cables, as well as a tube connected to the back of her head that led up to the ceiling.

"Penny…" Weiss muttered.

"Professor Polendina!" Tails called, bringing the professor out from his work, who looked to the source of the voice and smiled warmly.

"Oh my, Tails." He laughed as the young fox flew over to him and they shook hands. "It's so good to see you again! I wasn't sure if I ever would."

"Good to see you too, professor." Tails smiled as the man in the cybernetic wheelchair turned to the other visitors.

"Oh, Miss Schnee." He greeted fondly, to which Weiss smiled and nodded. "And… it seems we have other visitors."

"Professor, this is Blaze and Silver, good friends of mine." Tails introduced. "Silver, Blaze, this is Professor Pietro Polendina."

"A pleasure to meet you." Blaze shook his hand first, followed by Silver, and once he did, he also saw the female soldier standing next to the android girl.

"Nice to meet you." He offered her his hand, she just looked at it before standing up straight to introduce herself.

"Ciel Soleil." She said in a professional manner, much to Silver's confusion.

"Don't mind her." Pietro chuckled slightly. "She's on guard duty and treats her assignment very seriously."

Tails smiled before looking to the dismembered android as his own smile faded. "How's Penny?"

Pietro's own smile faded too before he answered. "Her central core, her memory unit, all her vitals remain undamaged. But the rest of her systems… are another manner." Pietro went to his lab station, with everyone else following him before pressing a series of commands to bring up some footage from Penny's recorded point of view, specifically her battling against a familiar and red-eyed machine.

"Metal Sonic…" Tails said uneasy with even Weiss looking somewhat nervous, with her eyes also setting on the footage of Metal wielding Crescent Rose, the weapon built and treasured by her partner.

"This is a memory file copied from Penny during the battle at Beacon." Pietro explained. "This machine knew exactly what it was doing. It disarmed her and then cleanly cut all her limbs as to not damage any vitals. No doubt this machine's maker wanted Penny alive for study."

"Which is why Pietro's laboratory is now under constant guard." Ironwood said. "Eggman more than likely knows about Penny, which puts a target on her back."

"I see…" Blaze seemed to understand that much at least.

"Repairing Penny alone is a simple task… but with such a dangerous madman on the loose, one who is capable of making machines like that…" He gestured to the footage of Metal Sonic again.

"You would want her better equipped and prepared." Weiss understood.

"Yes." Pietro confirmed.

"I'd like to help with that." Tails volunteered. "I've got experience studying Eggman's tech, so I'd say I know a thing or two about to counter it. I already got a whole list of upgrade ideas that I'd like to share with you Professor, if that's alright with you of course."

Pietro smiled to the young Fox. "Tails, my boy, I would love your assistance." He smiled genuinely, causing Tails to smile. "And I might seriously need it. I've studied Eggman's technology and I cannot make heads or tails of it."

"I hear ya." Tails chuckled. "His tech is notoriously weird. Oh, by the way, do you still have those blueprint designs I gave you? About that Gravity Dust generator we could use to mass produce more artificial Dust like that Plasma Dust we talked about?"

"I have, and I've already set the designs to the team to begin construction. I even have what we already made in storage, perhaps we could use them as base for more ideas." Pietro volunteered.

"I'm looking forward to it." Tails went on.

"Ahem." Ironwood coughed somewhat, getting their attention. "I… apologize for interrupting, and I will certainly be looking forward to any developments in your projects, be it Penny or the artificial Dust as you described… but you also inquired about a certain prisoner." He looked to Pietro at that, who looked very serious as he knew who he was talking about.

Without another word, Pietro moved his mechanic wheelchair away from his desk and towards a secure vault door on the other side of his laboratory. After inputting all the necessary command keys on a terminal, the vault door opened and allowed everyone entrance.

It appeared to be a medical room of sorts with two levels. All of them were currently on the upper floor with a bulletproof glass wall separating them from the larger and lower floor, where a pair of doctors worked on a certain patient as a pair of Atlesian Knights remained on guard.

Tails and Weiss both gasped somewhat at what, or rather who, they saw with Silver looking surprised himself as Blaze narrowed her own eyes.

It was Cinder. The would-be assassin and chosen vessel for the Maiden powers, now laid in a hospital bed, hooked up to several monitors and machines. Both her arms were gone up to the shoulders, with medical patches keeping them sealed. Her face was black and swollen as an oxygen mask covered her whole mouth and a medical patch over the socket of where her left eye would be.

"Is… Is that…?" Weiss stuttered.

"Cinder Fall." Ironwood confirmed.

"Yeesh, what happened to her?" Silver winced.

"Shadow happened." Tails answered, which only caused Silver to shiver somewhat. "What's her condition?" He asked.

"She is missing both her arms along with her left eye, obviously." Pietro began. "Her vertebrae is completely shattered, and nearly all the bones in her legs are broken. There's also a significant amount of damage done to her internal organs. All that damage has put her into a coma, and we have no idea when, or even if, she'll wake up. And even if she does, she is going to be crippled the rest of her life, unable to so much as feel anything below her neck. It's a miracle she's even alive."

"It's no miracle." Tails countered. "Shadow wanted her alive. Believe me, if he intended to kill her, he would have done it. Without any mistakes."

That caused Silver, Pietro, and even Clover to shiver somewhat, with Ironwood and Winter looking nervous themselves. Winter in particular remembered her sparring match against Shadow, as well as Qrow. Honestly… if Shadow was capable of doing this to someone who had the powers of a Maiden… then even if she and Qrow did work together during that match, they still would have lost. She was most fortunate that they were allies.

"All the good his so-called restraint did." Ironwood commented. "The only reason I'm keeping her alive right now is because of any potential intel to gain from Salem, but if she can't wake up…"

"Silver… could your powers do anything since they're mind-related?" Weiss asked.

"I can only move stuff with my mind, I'm not a telepath." Silver answered.

"Perhaps cybernetics, then?" Blaze proposed.

"We are looking to go that route right now." Pietro replied. "But we need to be careful as to not permanently damage her brain, arguably the only organ in her body that isn't damaged."

"Again, I can probably help with that." Tails asked.

"If you could, I would certainly appreciate that." Ironwood said gratefully. "And now… for the Winter Maiden."

With Pietro choosing to stay behind in his laboratory and continue working on Penny with Ciel by his side; Ironwood, Winter, and Clover had led Weiss, Blaze, Tails, and Silver to another secure room, one that had a similar design to the one they were previously in. Currently, they resided in an upper floor of a two-room chamber, with a glass wall once again separating them from the larger lower chamber.

While this room did have medical equipment, it didn't appear guarded and even had the furnishings of a home, such as cupboards and drawers, a sink, and there were even various paintings on the wall.

But what stood out was the sight of a hospital bed, and an elderly woman who appeared to be sleeping. She was attached to monitors that showed her heart-rate, indicating that she was still alive.

Silver and Blaze looked confused, before Tails and Weiss both realized what this was. "Is that… the current Winter Maiden?" Tails asked.

"Yes, Fria." Ironwood confirmed. "And as you can see, she's not long for this world."

"How long?" Blaze asked.

"Probably a year at the most." Ironwood answered. "Obviously, she is no condition to join the battle against Salem and Eggman. Which is why a potential replacement is currently being disguised." He said, upon looking towards Winter, who looked away with a complicated expression.

Weiss was the first to realize what the general was implying. "You… You want to make my sister the next Winter Maiden?!"

"This won't be like what we tried to do with Pyrrha." Ironwood quickly said. "There is no Aura-transfer machine involved, so the succeeding Maiden will only inherit the power naturally just like every other Maiden before."

"But to volunteer Winter…!" Weiss was already getting angry.

"He didn't volunteer me, Weiss. He offered me the choice; even told me I was free to decline." Winter said, still looking away. "And I haven't even made my choice yet."

"She was offered it only yesterday." Clover added. "And if she says 'no', both Harriet and Elm volunteered to take her place, of their own accord."

"What about her family?" Silver asked. "Any daughters or granddaughters?"

"Fria never had children." Ironwood shook his head. "She couldn't…"

"We were informed that these Maidens had to live in isolation for their own protection. I assume that's the reason." Blaze commented, looking seriously towards Fria's frail form before her expression softened. This woman clearly didn't have much long to live and pitied her for the end of her life soon.

"At first, yes. That was Ozpin's intent." Ironwood said and noticed the glare from Weiss, which he couldn't fault her for. "But that won't be the case here. Whether it be Winter or someone else, the next Winter Maiden will not go into hiding as before. She will join the war effort. If we can find the Chaos Emeralds and deliver them to Sonic… we can finally rid our world of Salem and the Grimm forever. There will be no further reasons for the Maidens to hide anymore, and they can live whatever life they chose." He spoke that last part specifically to Winter, who seemed somewhat conflicted. "And as I've said before, it is only a choice, Winter. I won't force you if you say no."

"I'm aware. Thank you, sir." Winter nodded.

"Hey uh… sorry if this sounds insensitive, but why not just make her into a cyborg if you're considering doing something similar to Cinder?" Silver asked.

"With the way Fria's body is, she won't be able to handle that kind of stress." Tails already knew the answer.

"Exactly." Ironwood confirmed. "But while this decision remains on hold, our priority must now shift to locating any Chaos Emeralds that may have ended up on Solitas. And I need all the help I can get, right now." He looked towards Tails, Silver, and Blaze with a humble and pleading expression. "Please."

"Of course, we're going to help, general." Blaze said firmly. "We already said that we would."

"Yeah, we've done Emerald hunts before, this isn't anything new." Silver smirked.

Ironwood let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you."

"On that note… there is something else I need to share with you." Weiss said, getting Ironwood's attention, along with her sister and Clover. "Someone under Eggman has infiltrated the Schnee Dust Company, so I'm going to infiltrate it myself to find the culprit."

"Weiss…!" Winter looked like she was about to protest.

"I'm the only one who can Winter, and you know it." Weiss interrupted. "As the heiress, I have near unrestricted access to the entire company, and I can do it without suspicion."

"That's… that's not my only concern…" Winter said with worry.

"You're worried about Father?" Weiss asked rhetorically.

"So, what kind of guy is Weiss' dad like?" Silver asked Tails. "Just curious."

"I never met him, but from what I hear, he's not a good man." The two-tailed Fox answered.

"That is a gross understatement." Ironwood said with a scowl. "Jacques Schnee is a greedy and immoral man who is willing to stoop very low to get what he wants. He has absolutely no shame whatsoever."

"Would that include something like treason?" Blaze asked.

"No." Clover quickly said. "Jacques is a terrible man, but he's loyal to Atlas, or at least he values the kingdom's monetary status. Eggman and Salem would probably see Atlas destroyed and that would cost him nearly all his fortune, and he wouldn't sacrifice a dime."

"Yeesh. I haven't even met him, but I already hate him." Silver groaned while Blaze looked with a scowl herself.

"Father may not be a traitor, but he's not above harming others to get what he wants." Winter said. "And we have no idea who this infiltrator is, or what they're capable of. And it might not even be a single person, it could be several."

"Which is why I have Sonic, Tails, and you as an emergency contact if something bad happens." Weiss said. "I can handle myself in a fight, but more importantly, I'm capable of asking for help if I need it. I promise, I'll be careful and be smart about this. But I have to do this."

"I think she can do it." Tails quickly said, specifically to Winter. "I've seen what Weiss can do, so I'm sure she's got this. And like she said, she'll call us if she needs help."

Winter understood all that, and she was grateful that her sister had people to rely on in case of an emergency, but the last thing she wanted was for her younger sister to go back to that horrible excuse for a home. Back into his clutches. But, she could tell by the look in Weiss' eyes, that she was dead-set on doing this and would not have her mind changed.

"Promise me, that you will call if you need it." Winter said, putting a hand on Weiss' shoulder.

Weiss smiled back as she wrapped her arms around her older sister "I promise." This was enough for Winter to smile back and embrace her sister, which caused everyone, and even Ironwood, to smile.

The boat horn sounded off as the ship reached its destination, the island-nation of Menagerie. The port was filled to the brim with Faunus of all shapes and sizes, along with several stands and markets selling fish and other similar products. Looking out past the dock, one could see several small buildings that decorated nearly every corner of the general area.

As soon as the ship reached port, and the bridge was drawn, all the Faunus passengers began to step out, which included Blake and Sun, as well as the Chaotix; the detective trio and Monkey Faunus looked around with Sun and Charmy being the most excitable.

"Wow! Look at all these people!" Charmy flew all around the area.

"Charmy, stay close!" Vector told the bee. "Don't go wandering off!"

"I've never seen so many Faunus in one place…" Sun looked around in amazement.

"This is the one place in all of Remnant where everyone can feel safe, no matter who or what they are." Blake said as they made their way through the port's market.

"Safe and crowded." Vector commented as he tried to squeeze in-between several people moving back and forth. "Scuse me! Sorry!"

"It's rather busy today, isn't it?" Espio observed.

"It's like that every day, here." Blake said, looking away somewhat. "Come on." She led them away from the port and the market and deeper into the island. But even then, it still seemed incredibly crowded, from all the people to the small buildings and various palm trees. The only open space was the road that allowed people to traverse, but there were no vehicles in this place, not even a simple bicycle.

Charmy tried to get a bit more space by flying up and above his friends, which gave him a bird's eye view of the general area. "There are so many people here. I wonder why…" His thoughts were interrupted as he accidentally flew into a laundry-line that was connecting between two buildings, with a towel being tangled up in his face. "Ah! I can't see!" Charmy flew around in a panic, only to get pulled down by his leg by Vector, who took the towel off his face.

"That's why I said stick close." He told the young bee.

"Sorry, Vector." Charmy apologized.

"Seriously, is it always so cramped here?!" Sun complained as they tried to navigate through a sea of people.

"Well, when you try to take an entire species and put them on an island that's two-thirds desert, then yeah. It tends to be cramped." Blake said with bitterness clearly evident in her voice.

"What? You guys have that much more space?" Sun went up ahead in front of Blake. "Why waste it? A little desert never hurt anyone."

"It's not like the desert in Vacuo, Sun." She told him. "The wildlife and Grimm out there are more dangerous than the rest of the regions."

"Unfortunate, but we may have to familiarize ourselves with said desert, if in the event a Chaos Emerald may have ended up here." Espio put in.

"Yeah, I know." Blake grimaced as she was not looking forward to going into those island-deserts, even if she had to.

"Why exactly is everyone living on this island again?" Charmy asked.

"I told you all on the boat, humans and Faunus don't always get along." Blake explained. "Faunus have been feared and hated for generations. We've tried to help people, we even helped in the Great War, the biggest conflict of our planet! We were promised equal rights, but all we got was this small island."

"So, they promised a better future, but just scammed you with this tiny island if only to shut you up." Vector summed up.

"Pretty much." Blake confirmed.

"Jerks." Sun grimaced.

"Yeah, that's so mean!" Charmy complained too. "Why would they do that?!"

"That's just how some people are here." Blake looked down as they continued down their path, walking up a flight of stairs that led to the top of a hill. "We've tried to make the best of things." They made it to the top of the hill which gave them a rather large view of a settlement that looked reasonably peaceful.

"Whoa…" Sun and Charmy looked around in awe while Vector and Espio just observed the area.

"This is Kuo Kuana, the largest settlement on the island." Blake told them.

"It looks really nice here." Charmy smiled.

"Looks can be deceiving." Espio commented with seriousness before looking towards Blake. "You clearly made the best here, but… it's not enough, is it?"

"No, it's not." Blake crossed her arms, looking down in grief and frustration. "We asked to be equals… but this island… this whole place… it's a constant reminder that we're not. And we probably never will."

A large hand was placed on her back, getting her attention as she looked to a smirking crocodile. "I wouldn't be so sure. The Faunus might have a new hero to look up too. See for yourself." He gestured to one building, causing Blake to look in surprise as she saw a bunch of Faunus children with spray paint, making a picture of Super Sonic.

"The Golden Hero is so cool!" One deer boy said.

"He's amazing!" A rabbit girl agreed.

"I wanna be just like him when I grow up!" An elephant boy said.

"Hey, you guys think he's a Faunus like us? He looks like one." A wolf girl asked.

"Maybe he's the God of Animals who came to save us." The rabbit girl guessed.

"Well, I hope he comes here! I really wanna meet him!" The deer boy said.

"Hey, let's play 'Golden Hero vs. the Grimm' again! I'll be the Golden Hero this time!" The elephant boy said excitably as he chased after his friends, all of whom were laughing as they ran down the street.

Blake was partially surprised by this before she found herself smiling. Maybe there is hope. If Sonic can get the Chaos Emeralds again and rid their world free of the Grimm, things could change… but it wasn't going to happen overnight. They had to work to make that happen, and she was going to do her part, starting right now.

"Alright, time to go home."

"Oh yeah? Which ones yours?" Sun asked as he pulled Blake in by the shoulder. "Can you see it from here?"

"Kind of…" Blake winced.

"Is that one?" Charmy pointed to a small house on the side.

"What about that tiny one over there? Sun pointed to another one on the other side of the street.

"Um…" Blake winced uncomfortably.

"It's actually the big one on the bottom of the hill, isn't it?" Espio assumed knowingly, gesturing to the rather large building at the end of the street.

"Yep." Blake confirmed shyly, causing Sun and Charmy's eyes to widen like saucers.

"Taking a wild guess here, but your family more-or-less run this island, right?" Vector guessed with a knowing smirk.

"My father's the chieftain of Menagerie, yes." Blake hung her head down.

Sun's jaw just dropped while Charmy flew up excitedly to her face. "So, you're like the princess of this island?!"

"I'd rather not think of it like that…" Blake backed away somewhat, with Vector pulling Charmy away.

"Well, let's go meet your folks."

The group of five made it to the rather large home, which essentially seemed like a mansion compared to the rest of the homes they've seen so far. It had several floors to it, a stone staircase that led up to the large front doors with large knockers on each door.

Blake reached for one but hesitated for a second. "What's wrong?" Sun asked.

"I… The last time I spoke with my parents… it didn't end on the best of terms…" Blake admitted with shame.

"Well, here's your chance to make it up with them." Charmy encouraged.

Blake sighed as she grabbed the knocker and gave only a single knock, which echoed throughout the whole house, alerting the visitors.

"No offense Blake, but that's not exactly welcoming." Vector commented.

"None taken." She replied.

The door soon opened, revealing an older cat Faunus woman with black hair that looked very much like the girl at the door. The second she saw her, her eyes widened with shock and emotion.

"Blake…?"

"…Hi… mom…" She gave a nervous wave and wincing smile.

Without another word, Kali came up to her daughter and wrapped her arms around her tightly. "My baby girl…!"

Blake's own surprise soon gave way to pure emotion and relief as she returned her mother's embrace with a teary-eyed smile.

"Kali? Who is it?" Someone asked from inside. The man was a male panther Faunus who had a large musucular build with black hair, a thick beard, and yellow eyes. He soon saw who his wife greeted at the door, with his own eyes turning circular as his face almost lost all it's color. "Blake…"

"Dad…" She stepped into her home for the first time in a while and couldn't even look him in the eyes. "I… what I said to you I…" She couldn't even find the words before running up to her father and wrapping her own arms around him, much to his shock, even as she buried her face into his chest. "I'm sorry…! I'm so sorry…!" She sobbed.

Ghira embraced his daughter back, as tears built up in his own eyes. He found himself looking towards his wife, who smiled emotionally too. But looking just past her, and Ghira found himself looking towards the Chaotix, their appearance taking him by surprise.

"Nice to meet ya, sir." Vector greeted, walking into the building. "I know we kinda look a little… odd."

"It's okay, Dad…" Blake pulled away, wiping the tears from her eyes. "They're friends… so much has happened and… I've got so much I need to tell you."

Atlas

After receiving a ride from a military transport, Weiss arrived at the entrance way of her enormous mansion. Stepping out of the transport, it drove back down the enormous driveway, moving past the three enormous pillars that kept up the Schnee family crest and leaving Weiss alone as she looked up at the doorway.

Being back here again felt colder than it did before, probably because being at Beacon, surrounded by all the friends she had made. But now, she was all alone… and back here. But she was here for a job, a mission that she had to do for the sake of her friends and the world, and she would see it done.

"Here we go." She muttered to herself before ringing the doorbell and waited for whichever servant would be there to greet her.

After a couple minutes, the door opened to someone that Weiss recognized immediately, and was actually happy to see.

"Ah, Miss Schnee." A short, slightly heavy-built, and balding man greeted.

"Klein…" Weiss smiled as she entered the main hall of her manor before hugging him, which he immediately returned.

"Oh my… this is sudden…" Klein commented as his eyes turned pink.

"Sorry…" Weiss pulled away, but still kept up her smile. "I'm just… a lot has happened and… I'm happy to see you."

Klein smiled as his eyes turned yellow. "And I'm happy to see you too, my little snowflake." He said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Weiss…?" Looking towards the side, the heiress was surprised to see her mother, Willow Schnee, stepping out with a surprised expression. But Weiss was even more surprised to see there wasn't a glass of wine in her hand.

"Mother…" Weiss wasn't quite sure what to expect from her.

"You're… you're okay…" Willow slowly walked up to her, making sure that she was actually seeing her daughter and not hallucinating from all the alcohol.

"Yes… I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" Weiss questioned.

Klein sneezed loudly, his eyes turning blue. "Pardon me, Miss Schnee. But Willow saw what had occurred at Beacon recently." He sneezed again. "And she was dreadfully worried about you… I was too." He sneezed yet again.

Weiss turned to her mother in surprise. "You… were worried about me…"

"Yes…" Willow looked away with a sense of awkwardness filling the room and her being. "But… I'm glad you're okay."

Weiss had felt that same kind of awkwardness her mother was no doubt feeling, but there was some joy to know that her mother was genuinely worried for her safety and relieved that she was okay. "Thank you, mother."

"Well, she wasn't the only one." A voice came up from the top of the stairs, leading Weiss to see her younger brother standing at the top as he stepped down. "Pretty much all of Remnant saw what happened at Beacon, so safe-to-say, things got pretty tense up here."

"Whitley." Weiss greeted somewhat coldly. There didn't seem to be any kind of relief or happiness in his voice, just the same kind of condescending attitude from their father.

"But while I am pleased to see you back here too, I'm surprised." Whitley said as he was at the same level as them. "I was under the impression that you never wanted to come back home."

She did pick up a bit of spite in his voice when she heard that. "I have some personal matters to attend to here." She said in a straight-forward manner.

"Oh? Well, if that's the case, I'd love to help." He offered with a seemingly sincere smile.

"I appreciate that, but I can manage." Weiss declined.

"Excuse me, Miss Schnee." A maid had stepped onto the scene, holding a folded-up dress in her hands.

"Yes?" Both Weiss and Willow said at the same time, before looking awkward at just that.

"Um… the younger Miss Schnee." The maid addressed Weiss, who stepped forward to greet the maid. "Your father… has asked to speak with you in his study. But before you meet with him, he would ask that you get cleaned up and dress in something he describes as… more fitting." She offered the dress to Weiss.

"Ahem." Klein coughed loudly as his eyes turned red. "I think Jacques can afford to wait. Young Miss Schnee only just returned home. I think she needs some time before…"

"It's okay, Klein." Weiss raised her hand to him. "To be honest, I have some things I'd like to talk with him about myself."

"Weiss…?" Willow looked in surprise. Was her daughter actually hoping to see Jacques? It couldn't be to have a heartwarming reunion with him. So… for what reason would she want to see him?

"Oh? You're wanting to see Father?" Whitley looked to his older sister in a teasing and somewhat mischievous manner. "What brought this on?"

"A personal matter that I need to settle." Weiss said as she took the dress from the maid's hands. "Thank you." She told the maid, who bowed with a smile as she backed away before looking at the dress in her hands.

'So, he sends a servant to greet me and asks that I doll up before even seeing him.' She mused internally. 'Glad to see that he hasn't changed.'

Menagerie – Belladonna Residence

Blake and her parents, along with the Chaotix and Sun all sat together in the dining hall, with Kali providing tea from everyone as Blake explained the entire situation to them all. All the details she had yet to tell Sun and the Chaotix, such as the existence of Salem and magic, Doctor Eggman's origins, in which the Chaotix helped to explain, as well as the Maidens and the Relics hidden underneath the four Huntsmen academies, and Ozpin's curse of reincarnation.

It was a moment of silence as her parents hadn't so much as said a word during the whole exposition, much to the concern of their daughter.

"Mom? Dad? Are you… still with me…?"

"Eh… yes, sweetie." Kali stuttered somewhat. "It's… it's just a lot to take in… Them being from a whole 'nother world aside…" She briefly gestured to the Chaotix. "…The Grimm having a master… a Grimm person that wants to destroy everything… magic… Maidens… ancient relics… and Ozpin being some kind of… reincarnated warrior…"

"I've… met the man more than a few times…" Ghira added. "I always sensed that he was keeping some things secret… but I never imagined it was anything like that. Though I can understand why such things have to be kept secret."

"Such revelations would cause mass panic." Espio said seriously. "Which in turn, would lead to a surge in those Creatures of Grimm, which are drawn to negativity like moths to a flame."

"It all sounds really spooky!" Charmy buzzed.

"Kinda wish we were here at the start of this." Vector said with a slight smirked. "Would have loved to solve the mystery our way. Why does Sonic get his own detective-work? That's our gig." He joked.

"And why wasn't I included in all this?" Sun asked Blake. "I'm a detective too."

"Beacon was infiltrated, Sonic and the others had their own plan, and we didn't want any info being leaked to Cinder or her team that could tip her off." Blake answered.

"You three… seem to be taking all this information quite well." Ghira observed the Chaotix.

"Meh, this is nothing new. We deal with stuff like this all the time." Vector waved off.

"You deal with genocidal monsters all the time?!" Ghira exclaimed in surprise.

"We've gone up against alien invasion, mechanical monstrosities, interdimensional threats, and the occasional deity." Espio listed off casually "Yes, this isn't all that new."

"Yeah, and we've kicked all their butts!" Charmy flew up in the air and pumped his fist with excitement.

Ghira and Kali stared at the Chaotix with blank expressions before the latter looked to her daughter. "You've… made some interesting friends, Blake."

The Faunus girl smiled with how true that was before getting serious. "And that's one of the reasons we're here. Pretty sure you two have heard about the 'Golden Hero'?"

"Are you kidding?! Who hasn't!?" Ghira exclaimed. "The whole world is talking about that! Some people here are even talking about how it is the God of Animals coming down to save us all!"

"Well, I've met him." Blake revealed, much to Ghira and Kali's surprise. "He's no god, trust me. But… he may really be the one to save us all." She took out her scroll and pulled up a picture of the blue Hedgehog himself and handed it to her parents to show them. "His name is Sonic, he's from the same world as all of them. He's the one who saved Beacon when Doctor Eggman and the White Fang attacked. Not only that… he wiped out all of the Grimm from the entire eastern half of Sanus!" That caused her parents to look in even further shock. "It's true. The Grimm in that entire region are gone, including the pools they all emerged from. Vale, and a bit beyond, are Grimm-free."

"H-how… how is that even possible…?" Ghira stuttered in disbelief.

"He used these." Blake took her scroll back and pulled up another picture, this one being of seven colored gemstones. "They're called Chaos Emeralds, gems of incredible power from Sonic's world. With all seven, he can transform into that golden form that you all saw."

"He's known as Super Sonic in that state, and he is essentially capable of anything." Espio added.

"Super Sonic, huh?" Sun said aloud. "Catchy… but kinda lame."

"Lame!?" Charmy went right up into Sun's face. "How can you say that! Super Sonic is awesome!"

"Oh, definitely! He's really awesome!" Sun quickly said, raising his hands up. "I meant the name is lame." He noticed the looks everyone was giving him with Ghira and Kali looking to him in surprise, while Blake, Espio, and Vector were unamused. "What? I mean… Super Sonic? Don't you think that sounds a bit… cliché?"

"Well, since you're the expert on cool names, what would you call him?" Charmy crossed his arms.

"The Golden Hero does have a nice ring to it." Sun began. "How about… 'The Gold'! Or… 'Golden Boy'! 'Light Storm'! 'Lightspeed'! Oh, that's a good one! Lightspeed Sonic!"

"Nah, 'Super Sonic' is better." Charmy dismissed.

"Oh, really? Bet you he would disagree if he heard me say all that!" Sun argued.

"Ahem!" Vector coughed loudly to bring the argument to an end before turning to Ghira and Kali again "So, yeah, whenever Sonic gets the Emeralds, he transforms and becomes near unstoppable. But the problem is, Super Sonic is temporary. And when his form wears off, the Chaos Emeralds end up scattered all over the world. Or in this case… your world."

"…And you believe one such Emerald is here on Menagerie." Ghira figured out.

"It is a possibility." Espio confirmed.

"And that's why I'm here." Blake said to her parents. "Salem and Eggman are looking for these Emeralds too, and if they find them before we do… I don't even want to think what that would mean. But if we find them first and get them to Sonic, he could wipe out all of the Grimm from Remnant forever! Stop Salem and Eggman permanently, something that Ozpin hasn't been able to for centuries! And we're not just looking for the Emeralds…" She looked directly at her father. "Dad… I… I know I only just got home… and I know you don't like to fight but… you haven't seen what these people are capable of, and what they're willing to do to get what they want. We need all the allies we can get. Sonic, and all my friends, they're all across Remnant right now looking for the Emeralds and trying to bring enough people together so that we can stop them, they're even trying to find Sienna Khan to get her on our side. I… we… need your help. Please, Dad…" She bowed her head, begging him. "I can't do this without you."

Ghira was completely stunned to say the least. All this information aside, the fact that his daughter was begging him for help is what really caught him off guard. She seemed so desperate… and he'd never seen her like this before. Even when it came to their disagreement about fighting back against Faunus discrimination, Blake never begged. But she was now… He and his wife shared expressions as they were still processing all of this new information being more-or-less dumped on them. But Kali was the first to nod with a serious expression, an expression that he knew all too well. Their daughter needed their help, and that's what she'll get.

"Alright."

Blake looked up with a slight gasp, her father smiling towards her. "This is clearly a lot to take in but… if any of it is true… then what happens next may impact our whole world, Faunus and human. I know I can't stop you from getting involved in any of this, you know I've tried. Even if I said no, you would still jump in without hesitating. So, if I can't stop you, then I'll be by your side the whole time." He put a hand on his daughter's shoulder and smiled lovingly towards him. "I promise Blake, you and all your friends have my support."

Blake honestly couldn't believe it. Just like that… her dad was onboard. A part of her was expecting another big argument like before, and just like he said, if he refused to join, she'd still jump in. But now, without any sort of argument, he openly stated his willingness to jump in with her. She found herself smiling with emotions as she leaned into his arm, purring the whole time.

"Thanks… Dad…."

Kali smiled lovingly as she saw her husband and daughter reconnect, with Sun and the Chaotix smiling as well before she turned to them. "Thank you all, for helping my daughter."

"You're welcome." Charmy beamed.

"Of course." Espio nodded.

"Anytime." Vector gave a finger salute.

"And you raised one heck of a daughter." Sun grinned.

Kali smiled before looking to said daughter. "Blake, by any chance, is this young man you're boyfriend?"

Blake stiffened at that, while Ghira looked questionable at that.

"Oooh! Blake and Sun, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Charmy sung and made kissy noises.

"Oh, no. No, we're not a thing." Sun said with a slight laugh. "I mean, she's cool. Blake's awesome, but we're not dating."

"Though he did stalk me before." Blake put in, causing Sun to stiffen like a statue.

"What?" Ghira questioned.

"Twice, in fact." Blake listed off, a slight grin forming on her face as she noticed Sun sweating up a storm. "The first being during my time at Beacon, even trespassing onto school grounds to do so."

"Uh… Blake…" Sun tried, his voice becoming weak as a dark and comedic shadow formed around Ghira before gazing with blood-red eyes at the young man.

"The second was on my way home." Blake continued, her smirk still present. "He even disguised himself so that I wouldn't recognize him."

"Hey…!" Sun tried as Ghira's shadow only grew.

"And he's also a known thief who would steal food for me, often breaking the law without a second thought." Blake finished off.

"I… I mean that's… okay a lot of that's true but…" Sun stuttered. "I got some standards… I mean I'm not some kind of creeper or anything I just I…" He soon found himself cowering over Ghira, who stood up from his spot and stood directly over the frightened Wukong, a dark and menacing aura radiating from him. Wanting desperately to avoid getting mauled, Sun quickly poured himself more tea from the pot, which he had picked up with his monkey-tail "This tea is really good!" He eyed the Chaotix. "Help me out here." He muttered.

"Nope." Charmy was a bit scared by Ghira's presence right now himself.

"You should take responsibility for your actions." Espio said seriously.

"Yeah, I'm not getting involved in this. Sorry." Vector said humorously, much to Sun's terror.

Blake giggled slightly herself as she let all this play out.

Kali looked to her daughter in slight surprise. Did she just hear her little girl giggle? She had also noticed the mischievous smirk on her face. Was this really her daughter? She had never seen this side of her before… Did she pick up any of it while she was away? Kali found herself smiling. Blake seemed so much more outgoing than before… Though many bad things clearly happened to her recently… there was clearly a lot of good happening in Blake's life that had just as big an impact as any. Maybe Blake leaving was probably good for her after all.

A loud knock echoed throughout the house, getting all of their attention. "Oh… perfect timing." Ghira commented, his dark aura vanishing, much to Sun's relief.

"Dad?" Blake asked.

"You said your friends were looking to get into contact with Sienna, well I've actually scheduled a meeting today." Ghira revealed, much to Blake and her friends' surprise.

"Sienna is here?!" Blake questioned.

"No, but representatives of the White Fang who have been in contact with her reached out to meet and speak with me, and today's the day." Ghira said as he stood up. "If we can reach out to her, and you speak with her directly, maybe we can bring her in sooner than you thought."

"Wait a sec…" Vector stood up, stopping him. "I though the White Fang sided with Eggman."

"The Vale branch and Adam's group, yeah." Blake confirmed. "But I know Sienna, and she would never side with a maniac like Eggman."

"Perhaps, but how do you know the Vale branch was the only cell he recruited?" Espio questioned. "Even if this Sienna wouldn't side with Eggman, can you be sure the same could be said for anyone else under her command?"

"You believe there might be spies in her cell?" Ghira asked seriously.

"I would be a fool to at least dismiss the idea." Espio replied.

"But spies aren't Eggman's thing, right?" Charmy questioned. "He's more the type to go all 'Oh, I'm gonna conquer the world and everything!' and then go all boom! Big explosions!" He waved his arms around for emphasis.

"For Eggman maybe, but that Salem-lady might be another story." Vector put in as he contemplated. "Hmmmm…"

"So… what should we do then?" Kali asked.

Vector thought for a moment, gazing around him before setting his eyes on Blake. "You used to be part of the White Fang, but you quit, right?"

"Right…?" Blake confirmed, not quite sure where he was going with this.

"So, all the crazy fanatics probably think you're a traitor to their cause, right?" Vector asked.

"Yeah, they think that." Blake said with a low growl.

A smile formed on Vector's face as he snapped his fingers. "I got an idea."

Ghira had opened the doors to greet his guests, a pair of Faunus wearing identical outfits including red hoods, black tunics, both with white trimming and white pants with black boots. The two looked almost identical themselves, both being male slightly tan skin, brown hair underneath their hoods, and light brown eyes. Though one was noticeably taller than the other with a fox tail coming from his rear, while the other had fox ears on his head.

"Corsac, Fennec, it's good to see you." Ghira greeted.

"And you as well, your grace." Corsac, the taller one with the fox tail, greeted back as he and his brother both bowed.

"Dad…!" Blake quickly came out to join her father, surprising the brothers.

"Miss Belladonna, we had no idea you'd return." Fennec, the shorter one with the fox ears said as he and his brother bowed once again.

"Blake, what's wrong?" Ghira asked.

"What's wrong?! Why didn't you tell me you'd be meeting with the White Fang?!" Blake questioned.

"What are you talking about?" Ghira asked.

"The White Fang sided with Eggman! They attacked Beacon, killed innocent people!" Blake exclaimed.

Ghira's eyes narrowed with suspicion as he turned to the brothers again. "Is this true?"

"In part, your grace." Corsac answered. "And that is precisely what we were hoping to discuss with you."

"Though it pains us to admit, but the Vale branch of the White Fang have splintered off from the rest of our organization." Fennec said. "They no longer answer to High Leader Khan but have elected to follow the will of one Adam Taurus."

"And it is Taurus who allied himself with this Doctor Eggman, who had promised to lend his technology to aid him in his… extreme methods." Corsac added.

"But because of those methods, the Vale branch has been completely wiped out in the resulting attack on Beacon Academy." Fennec put in. "Adam Taurus is now regarded as a traitor to the White Fang, though he remains at large."

"We were sent by High Leader Khan to try and re-establish contact between you and her, your grace." Corsac said to Ghira. "You of all people should understand how dangerous Taurus is. And if he still answers to this Doctor Eggman, who is clearly a threat to all of Remnant, the Faunus included, then it would be wise to confront this threat as a united front."

As the Faunus brothers discussed all of this with Blake and Ghira, they were unaware that just behind the closed door of the main hallway, were Vector, Charmy, Kali, and Sun, all of whom remained quiet as they listened through the closed door. The crocodile put his finger over his mouth, motioning for them all to be quiet, which they responded to with nods. And yet, oddly enough, Espio was nowhere to be seen.

"And how do we know this isn't some kind of set-up?" Blake questioned. "I know Adam and I know exactly what he's capable of." She said with a glare.

"We understand your skepticism, young Blake." Fennec replied. "As you say, you have a history with Taurus."

"But we also understand that you and your family have a history with High Leader Khan." Corsac added. "Even if you suspect us, I'm sure that you still have some measure of trust towards her."

"I would have preferred it if I heard that directly from her and not a pair of messengers that I've never met before." Blake glared.

"Completely understandable." Fennec assured. "If you wish, we will arrange a face-to-face meeting."

Ghira and Blake shared glances with each other before he answered. "Fine. Tell me the place and time and I will be there. For now though, I'd like to reconnect with my daughter."

"Of course." Fennec bowed.

"As you wish." Corsac bowed as well. "Good day."

The doors were then closed, prompting the fox brothers to step away and walk down the stairs in near-perfect unison. Unaware, that just on the overhang of the stairs that led to the front door, a certain ninja-chameleon was perched at the very ledge, completely camouflaged, and listening to every word as he saw the brothers step out.

"An interesting development, wouldn't you say?" Fennec inquired to his brother.

"Interesting indeed. The traitor has returned." Corsac said, which caused their eavesdropper to narrow his eyes.

"So, shall we inform Brother Adam, as well as the good Doctor?" Fennec asked.

"We shall." Corsac answered as he reached into his robe, pulling out a small communications device…

Only for a Kunai to knock the device from his hands and pierce it to the ground. "No." Espio turned visible in front of the surprised twins with a glare. "You shall not."

Acting quickly, the Faunus brothers reached into their robes to pull out a pair of identical weapons, looking like mixtures of daggers and wands as one glowed red and the other white. They pointed their weapons forward, unleashing a conjoined cyclone of wind and fire at Espio, who backflipped to avoid it all.

"VECTOR!" He shouted loudly.

Smashing from the window on the side, the large crocodile leapt straight to the shocked Faunus brothers and smashed them to the ground with his enormous hands.

"They're working for Eggman!" Espio stated.

"Knew it." Vector grinned as he looked to the glaring brothers that he still kept restrained. "Never doubt a detective's intuition!"

Fennec acted first, wrapping his legs around Vector's right arm and spun around to flip himself over onto Vector's back while thrusting his dagger, which glowed red, to strike him in the back with a burst of fire, stunning Vector somewhat and allowing Corsac a chance to lunge his own dagger, glowing white, to push Vector off with a point-blank cyclone and free himself. But as he rolled backwards, Espio had appeared behind him to thrust a kick into his face. While Charmy quickly flew out to smash his shoulder into Fennec side and push him down.

Corsac tried to retaliate by lunging his dagger at Espio, who parried it and the resulting whirlwind with his kunai in one hand and threw multiple punches into Corsac's stomach to disorient him before appearing directly above to land his foot into the back of Corsac's head and knock him to the ground.

"You can't catch me!" Charmy sung mockingly as he flew literal circles around Fennec, who tried aim his dagger and fire multiple flaming bursts at the bee, but he avoided every single one of them. "Not even close!" Charmy mocked as he appeared directly behind Fennec, who tried to swing his flaming dagger at Charmy, who not only zoomed under it, but also shot himself up, stinger-first, into Fennec's stomach and send him flying into the air…

Where Sun met him as he had leapt up, with some boost from a pair of glowing clones via his Semblance, spun Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang in its staff form, before raising it to smash him into the ground right beside his brother. The pair quickly got up, glaring at the regrouping Chaotix and Sun before combining their daggers together to unleash a large flaming whirlwind at the quartet.

"I think not." Espio brought his hands together, forming a ninja-sign and activated his Leaf Swirl technique. This created a tornado-like effect around himself, while turning himself invisible, and also shielding his comrades from the flaming whirlwind that was blown away by the resulting cyclone. The invisible chameleon then dashed past the Albain brothers, moving in-between them and knocking them down before he deactivated his camouflage to appear behind them.

Corsac and Fennec both got up with growls as they tried to aim their weapons at Espio, only for them both to look in shock and see that both of their respective weapons were no longer in their hands.

They caught the smirk of Espio as he now held both daggers in his hands.

The shocked brothers were so caught up in their own surprise, that they were left vulnerable for Vector to move in and grab them both with his hands and smashed them into each other repeatedly until their respective Auras flashed. "Going up!" He threw them both into the air, where Charmy had pulled Sun up to meet them.

"And going back down!" Charmy threw Sun towards Corsac, who smashed his staff into Corsac's face while Charmy zoomed straight into Fennec's gut, both opponents smashing into the ground hard before their Auras vanished and were knocked unconscious.

"It's done!" Vector called to the house, the door opening as Blake and her parents stepped out.

"So… it's true? They're working for your enemy?" Ghira asked.

Espio had removed his kunai from the device he had previously neutralized and picked it up. "See for yourself." He threw the device to Blake, which she caught.

It appeared to be a Scroll, with a large hole now in the screen, thanks to Espio's kunai. But when she flipped it over… she saw the unmistakable logo of the Eggman Empire.

"Eggman…" She growled as she clenched the wrecked device in her hand.

"It would seem that his influence in the White Fang is deeper than we initially thought." Espio said.

"What do we do now?" Charmy asked.

"We get to the bottom of it, like always." Vector grinned. "Team Chaotix is now on the case."

Atlas – Schnee Manor

After getting cleaned up and dressed, Weiss walked through the empty hallways of her manor towards her father's office. Her attire was that of a long-sleeved white dress that went down towards her ankles with a slit for her legs, as well as the Schnee emblem in dark grey on the back. She wore white heels as well.

'I would have preferred a light shade of blue, myself.' Weiss thought to herself. But as she walked, she felt the environment around her being colder than she remembered. She felt once again that it was because she was more used to the warmer environment during her time in Beacon, both literally and emotionally from being in the presence of her friends.

She soon came to the closed door to her father's study and was about to knock, but briefly hesitated. She hated being back here… talking with him again, and likely being told what to do without any kind of input from herself. But she chose to come here, because she could do more in her current position to help Sonic, Ruby, and everyone else. For their sake, she would face this head-on. Sonic and Ruby would.

Weiss knocked on the door three times. "Father? May I enter?"

"You may." A cold voice came from the other side.

She opened the door and allowed herself to enter her father's study. It was a relatively small yet spacious office. There was a chandelier hanging from the ceiling, a glass table in the middle with a pair of plush chairs on one side and a couch on the other, likely to be used for private meetings, as well as chess games, evident by the chess board that was still present on the table. The walls were lined with bookshelves filled countless books, as well as awards, all either had the name 'Jacques Schnee' or 'Schnee Dust Company' on them, along with a framed picture of the Atlas kingdom and a ticking clock, which provided the only sound in the cold room. And at the end of said room was a fancy work desk with three framed pictures on the back wall, the two on the side had regional images of the Solitas, and the one in the middle was that of a younger version of Jaques himself.

The man in question sat at his desk as he saw his youngest daughter enter his office. "Weiss, so good to see you home." He greeted in a feeing welcome tone.

"Father." Weiss nodded as she closed the door behind her.

"Why the cold treatment?" He asked. "You can't imagine how worried I was for you. First, your transport home was attacked by Grimm…"

"A small attack, and one that was quickly thwarted." Weiss said.

"I see that you forgot your manners." Jacques commented disapprovingly. "But I'm willing to overlook that, given you just returned home for a catastrophic battle that all but destroyed Beacon Academy."

"I wouldn't say that it's destroyed." Weiss clarified. "The campus needs repairs, yes. But the entire Grimm population of Vale, as well as the invading force, we're all completely wiped out."

"So, I've heard." Jacques said. "Everyone, even the staff, are all talking about the 'Golden Hero' who saved our world." He said that last part with over-dramatization, which really irked Weiss as she suppressed the urge to shut her father up. "Though I've seen the broadcast myself, no doubt the media is over-exaggerating for the sake of wanting more views."

"Except that I was there, Father." Weiss said in a professional yet firm manner. "I've seen the Golden Hero myself and what he was capable of. And let me tell you, it was no exaggeration."

"Oh, really?" Jacques looked to her questionably. "I don't suppose you have a means of getting into contact with him. I'm sure I'd love to meet him."

'You'd hate his guts the second you set your eyes on him, and it would be mutual on his end.' Weiss thought before answering. "Unfortunately, no. He didn't exactly leave a phone number."

"I assumed as much." Jacques said somewhat condescendingly. "But what's truly surprising is that you're actually home."

"Is it not what you wanted?" Weiss asked. "You weren't exactly thrilled at me leaving for Beacon."

"Perhaps, but you chose to return home of your own accord." Jacques replied before smiling. "I assume you've come to your senses and abandoned this little 'phase' of yours."

Oh, how she wanted to punch him right here and now for that. But she restrained herself. "Not particularly. I still believe I can do good for the Kingdom of Atlas as a huntress. But I'm also aware that the Schnee Dust Company's reputation has slowly started to sink."

"What makes you say that?" Jacques asked. "Sure, those animals in the White Fang have been more aggressive as of late, but from what I gather, they were all but wiped out at Beacon. Good riddance if you ask me. That aside, our profits have actually gone up since that whole incident."

"Profits, sure. But the White Fang weren't the only ones who hate the Schnee Dust Company." Weiss countered. "Now that I've seen what it's like outside of Atlas, I've come to see that our name is actually truly hated, up to the point that many more people will make moves against us. I came back so that I can help show the world that this family works for the good of Remnant."

Jacques looked to Weiss somewhat questionably. He can tell that there were some rebellions intentions in his daughter, no doubt her time away has actually worsened some of her less-then approachable qualities. But now that she's returned, and of her own accord no less, he was certain he can fix all that. If she was determined to improve the company's reputation, he may as well use that.

"I'm glad you think so. Because the Schnee Dust Company will be holding a charity concert in the coming weeks." Jacques said, something Weiss was surprised to hear. "All proceeds will be used to aid in the rebuilding of Beacon Academy. As you said, we need to show the people of Remnant that we are on their side."

"That's… wonderful news." Weiss smiled. She honestly never expected this from her father. It was probably pitched in by the board members and a majority voted in favor, something even he couldn't argue against. But she also suspected he had some kind of ulterior motive behind it.

"I know, and I think it would make a lot of people happy if you performed at the event." Jacques said.

"May I ask the reason for that?"

"Because you were there. My own daughter, a Schnee, on the ground, defending another Kingdom from Creatures of Grimm, armed terrorists, and a malevolent dictator." Jacques explained. "Everyone's talking about so much about the Golden Hero that they've forgotten that. I think it would be best to remind people that they have a reliable guardian at their service, and not some unknown phantom who does not appear to answer to any kind of authority. To show the world that the Schnee family is just as strong as ever."

Yep, there it was. Just another campaign to bolster his own image. "Am I being asked, or told to sing?"

"I think it would make a lot of people happy." Jacques looked at her with an expression that mixed expectation and a sneer.

Weiss sighed. "I'll do it… on one condition." She quickly said her father. "I write the song."

"Oh?" Jacques narrowed his eyes.

"No disrespect, Father. But you have not been among the people, I have." Weiss explained. "I know what the people like and what I feel the correct message would be to show them the value of our family name, and that they are under the care of a dutiful guardian. Something that can… raise their spirits, if you will."

"Hmm." He thought about it for a moment. "You make a good point. Very well, you may write the song. But I would like a chance to look at it myself before you perform."

"Deal." Weiss accepted. "Will there be anything else?"

"No, you're dismissed." Jacques told her, to which Weiss nodded and turned around to walk away, but just before she reached the door. "Oh, one last thing, Weiss." This got her attention again. "Those were some impressive negotiation skills you just showed. It seems you've picked up a thing or two from your old man, after all." He said with a condescending smirk.

She nodded again before leaving the office.

The second she closed the door and was certain that she was out of his eye-sight, she let loose a sigh of relief combined with a shiver. She had only just got home and he was already ordering her around like she was his little slave. That was no surprise. But what really disgusted her, was that her father seemed proud of something she just did and credited himself for it, saying she got it from him! Just hearing that alone made her want to take a long shower.

And yet… at the same time… she felt somewhat amused by it. The whole reason he was even hosting that charity event was because he was upset that the spotlight was focusing on Sonic, and not him. He was trying to take the spotlight back for himself, trying to actually upstage Sonic of all people! He can certainly try… but the idea of him trying to keep up with Sonic was amusing in of itself.

'You couldn't hold a candle to him even if you tried. He'd leave you in the dust. Pun entirely intended.' She smirked before walking away.

Making sure the front door was locked, Jacques went back to his desk and opened a drawer to pull out a specially made communication's device…

One that had the emblem off the Eggman Empire on it before activating it. The device opened up and projected a small holographic form of the mad doctor himself in the palm of Jaques hand.

"What?!" Eggman questioned irritably.

"You told me that I would be safe when you build your empire here on Remnant!" Jacques stated. "You told me that my family and I will have a place in said empire, while sweeping away the old order! But so far, all I see from you is trouble! The Council in Atlas is considering closing off its borders because of your failed attack on Beacon, potentially costing me millions!"

"That's your problem, not mine! I left you this device so you could contact me in case any of my enemies caught onto you, not for you to bring your complaints to me like a three-year old who is upset that his favorite toy broke!" Eggman argued.

"You could have at least told me that the Dust I was providing you was going to those animals in the White Fang!" Jacques said. "Every single one of them wants me and my family dead, and both of my daughters were there during that attack!"

"Oh what? Is that fatherly-love, I hear? And besides, didn't your eldest cut ties with you when she joined the military?" Eggman questioned. "And even if they did get killed off, you got a son following you around like a love-sick puppy, don't you?"

"They're my children, my assets to use as I wish!" Jacques argued as he sat down on his chair and put the device on his desk. "When it comes to business partnerships, both sides have to be informed of everything that happens. And if you want our partnership to continue, I suggest that you keep me in the loop."

Eggman stared at him for a minute, before he broke out in laughter. "Oh, ho-ho-ho!" Jacques found himself staring at the holographic form of the doctor in confusion. Why is he laughing? That was not at all the reaction he was expecting. "You think that this is a business partnership? I wouldn't say that. A partnership implies that both sides stand on equal footing. The very idea that you even think you're on my level alone is laughable!"

"Now you see…!" Jacques growled.

"You're discreetly supplying my forces with Dust, sure. But I only went that route because my real partner likes to do things subtly." Eggman began. "If I wanted to, I could have targeted Atlas first and wiped that floating island off the map, the SDC included, and taken all of your Dust for myself. And before you bring up my set-back at Beacon, what makes you think I was using all my forces in that assault? That wasn't even a quarter of my armada!"

Jacques' face paled at that.

"And the option of completely taking over your company and that pitiful kingdom is still that, an option that I could undertake if everything goes sideways on my end." Eggman continued. "Let me make this as clear as I possibly can. You and the SDC are a convenience to me, nothing more. You are involved with me because you are useful. If you want to be a part of the Eggman Empire, the soon-to-be ruling body of all of Remnant, then you'd better stay useful. I've got no room for deadweight. And if you even think about bringing up the idea of trying to rat me out or stab me in the back, let me assure you that will be greatest and final mistake. There's no amount of money or layers that can protect you from my deadliest machine, which can find you anywhere on Remnant and cut your head clean off!"

The pitiful man backed away in his chair at Eggman's exposition, already pulling on his collar as the sweat poured down his face. "I… I a-assure you… D-Doctor… that I can still be u-useful to you…! The Schnee Dust Company will be a valued addition to the Eggman Empire, I'll make sure of that!"

"We'll see. An associate of mine should be arriving in Atlas any moment now." Eggman said. "He'll come to you and we'll see how you can be useful to us then."

"And… who might this associate of yours be?" Jacques asked.

A sneer formed on Eggman's holographic face. "Oh, you'll know when you see him."

A large civilian aircraft flew through the tundra air above Solitas and made its way closer to the floating city of Atlas. Aboard the aircraft, everyone sat down and minded their own business as they read whatever they had on hand, slept, or just gazed out the window if they happened to be next to one.

One such man, who sat in the back and in the far-right corner gazed out the window as an announcement was made across the aircraft.

"Attention all passengers, we'll be touching down in Mantle's port in twenty minutes. Please remain seated as we begin landing procedures. Thank you."

Arthur Watts smirked as he looked through the window to see both Mantle and Atlas floating just above it.

"Good to be home."

Done.

So, quite a bit happened here, huh?

We see more people from Sonic's world popping in because of the Chaos Control event at the end of the Battle of Beacon. First, we got Silver and Blaze appearing in Atlas and joining Weiss and Tails; then we got the Chaotix Detective Agency, initially appearing in Vale before boarding the boat to Menagerie, joining with Blake and Sun, the latter following Blake like before in canon. I've been waiting to bring these characters in for a while and I can't wait to work with them as they join the conflict against Eggman and Salem. Their powers, their dynamics, their fun personalities, I love everything about these guys!

And yes, I know how the Sol Emeralds work, how having them in another world beside their own runs the risk the Sol Dimension colliding with the other world that they are currently in, as well as the possibility of the Sol Dimension being destroyed if the Sol Emeralds aren't returned relatively soon. All of this will be addressed and handled quite properly, I assure you. I know what I'm doing here.

We also had Blake and Weiss arrive at their respective homes.

Blake has returned to Menagerie and reunited with her parents, whom she has filled in regarding the conflict with Salem, and it seems they are ready to join in. We also got to see that the battle against the White Fang is far from over, with Corsac and Fennec being as fanatical as they are in canon, though thankfully the Chaotix had dealt with them before they could get word back to Adam and Eggman.

Weiss has come back to Atlas where we see what's been going on over on Ironwood's side of things too. He's brought Winter, Pietro, and the Ace Ops into the loop and has offered the same canon choice to Winter about becoming Fira's successor as the next Winter Maiden (with Harriet and Elm being potential substitutes if she declines). As for whether or not she actually does become the Winter Maiden this time around, you'll have to see. Tails is also ready and willing to help rebuilding Penny and resume his work with Pietro on making artificial Dust. We also got to see what became of Cinder, and despite being an absolute wreck, she is still very much alive. You will see what plans I have for her. I know that compared to my description of Menagerie, we didn't get to see a whole lot of Atlas; but we will explore more of this Kingdom as Silver and Blaze both agree to help Ironwood find whatever Chaos Emeralds may be located there, as well as any other potential problems.

Speaking of potential problems, upon Weiss returning to her home manor, we have now learned that the one who has been supplying Eggman with Dust, has been none other than the lying weasel Jaques Schnee himself. Oh Weiss is not going to be happy when she finds out. In addition, Arthur Watts has also arrived in Atlas and is ready to cause some problems.

Things will get more interesting going forward. But up next, we'll be looking at Teams Dark and JNPR as they arrive in Vacuo and assess the situation there.

Until then, I hope you all have a lovely and merry Christmas (if you celebrate it), and Happy Holidays! I will be back with the next chapter, next year. LOL

I love you all.