The location was Seaside Hill, a mostly uninhabited hilly area of the larger Seaside island. The various Mobuni were minding their own business going about their day, but in a certain flowery field, dozens of wounded Mobians stood huddled together in front of a portal, awaiting the arrival of their two commanders. This was the Mobian resistance.

After a few moments, Sonic and Knuckles emerged from the portal, with it closing immediately afterwards. The resistance ran to their commanders, but Sonic held a hand out. He could see how affected Knuckles was by the destruction of Angel Island, and wanted him to have some space. So, the hedgehog approached his lion friend Cryus and asked him,

"Alright Cy, what're our casualties?"

Cyrus looked down sadly and told his old friend,

"About 40% of our forces were lost by the ambush. But we managed to save the cyan chaos emerald."

Sonic looked between the remaining resistance members, and sure enough the chaos emerald was lying on the ground, perfectly intact. Cyrus then noticed something and asked Sonic,

"Hey, where's the other chaos emerald? The one hidden in the waterfall?"

Sonic was about to answer, but he was cut off by a yell of anger and the sound of a large impact. The hedgehog turned around and saw Knuckles repeatedly punching the ground in anger while yelling,

"SO! STUPID! SHOULD'VE! BEEN! BETTER! GONE! EVERYONE! GONE!"

Knuckles then shut his eyes and began silently crying in both sorrow and rage. Everything he worked to guard his entire life was just…gone. He then looked up and saw Sonic looking at him in concern. Interpreting this as a pity party, Knuckles's face furrowed in rage as he ran at Sonic, knocking him flat on the ground and yelling,

"IT SHOULD'VE BEEN YOU! IF YOU HADN'T BROUGHT THESE PEOPLE TO MY ISLAND, THEN NONE OF THIS WOULD'VE HAPPENED! MY HOME, MY FRIEND, MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER, ALL GONE!!!! I'm the last of my kind…I have nothing…"

The young echidna put his head down and continued to quietly sob. Sonic, not wanting to see his friend like this, waited a moment before putting a hand on his head and telling him,

"You may be the last, but you're not alone. You've got us, Knucklehead."

Knuckles then looked up and saw all of the resistance members looking at him. Sonic continued his pep talk, telling Knuckles,

"Every single mobian here has lost loved ones to that overgrown egg, but we still keep fighting for those still alive. We can't bring back your great-grandad or your island, but we can avenge them."

Knuckles stared at the resistance in silence for a moment, and Sonic could tell that he was still buried in thought. So, he decided to break the tension by saying to Knuckles,

"So….Sonia. You loved her, didn't you?"

Knuckles's eyes widened in surprise, and he asked the hedgehog,

"How did you…?"

Sonic chuckled and told his friend,

"Come on. I saw her kiss you on the cheek and how much you liked it. To think, the two of us might have become in laws one day?"

Knuckles couldn't help but chuckle as well, standing up and replying,

"You know, the thought of me having kids related to you just made me rethink my whole crush."

He punched him in the shoulder playfully, and Sonic responded by laughing and doing the same. Afterwards, Knuckles turned serious and asked his hedgehog friend,

"So, what do you think we should do now?"

Sonic put his hand on his chin and began thinking, tapping his foot on the ground as well. After a few seconds, his eyes shot open and he smirked, snapping his fingers like he had just come up with a major breakthrough. He then told all the Freedom Fighters to listen up, and once they did, he told them,

"Alright everyone, listen up! We just lost our main base, so it's pretty clear to me that old Robuttnik is going for the jugular! We're gonna have to strike as well! It's time to end this war! I'm talking a full frontal assault on Robotnik's base on Little Planet!"

The resistance were all shocked by this suggestion and began to murmur amongst themselves. Cyrus then stepped up to Sonic and told him,

"No offense Sonic, but we just lost a lot of our troops. Not to mention that even with all of our troops, we just didn't have the power needed to take on Robotnik's main base. You and Knuckles are our only heavy hitters."

In response to this, Sonic smirked and wagged his finger, telling Cyrus,

"Tsa tsk tsk, you're forgetting something, Cy. There's another group of Freedom FIghters who didn't move to Angel Island with us, and they've got some real heavy duty guys. Come on."

Sonic then ran off, going slow enough so that the others could still see and follow after him, which they did, with Cyrus carrying the cyan chaos emerald. After a few minutes, the resistance all arrived at a small building with an incredibly slanted roof. The resistance all looked at the building in confusion save for Sonic, Knuckles and Cyrus, who gained a knowing look on his face.

Sonic then walked up the steps leading to the door and knocked on it. A loud and boisterous voice then yelled from inside the building,

"Who is this?!"

Sonic then told the voice,

"This is commander Sonic the Hedgehog of the resistance requesting entry!"

The door then opened to reveal a large green skinned crocodile Mobian with red spikes running across his back and goldenrod colored eyes. He was wearing a black leather vest and dark blue shoes with yellow zip cuffs. He happily offered Sonic to come in, but was surprised to see the other members of the resistance behind him.

Knuckles then walked up to the crocodile and shook his hand, telling him,

"Vector. It's good to see you."

Vector laughed and replied,

"And it's an honor to meet you, Commander Knuckles! You and Sonic come in!'

Knuckles obliged and walked into the building alongside Sonic, the other Freedom Fighters choosing to stay outside for the moment. Sonic, Knuckles and Vector all then sat at a table, Vector chugging down a bottle of Chaos Cola. He then asked Sonic,

"So, what brings you guys here?"

Sonic and Knuckles explained what had happened to Angel Island, and Vector was sympathetic, telling them that they could stay as long as they wanted. Knuckles thanked him, but they then heard a ruckus. A high priced voice yelled,

"Espio! Hey, Espio! How's the new guys?!"

Sonic, Knuckles and Vector then heard Mighty yell at this voice to shut up, and then they heard some crashing and smashing while Ray was heard asking Mighty to calm down. The 3 mobians then saw a small yellow and black striped mobian bee flying out of another room while being chased by an angry Mighty and a concerned Ray.

The young bee had orange eyes and was wearing a maroon aviator jacket, orange glove cuffs and an aviator helmet. As he flew away from Mighty, he flew above him and teasingly told him,

"Na nananana, you can't catch me!"

Vector then yelled out at the bee,

"CHARMY! CALM DOWN! WE HAVE VISITORS!"

The bee, Charmy, quickly stopped and saluted Vector, yelling out,

"Aye aye, Vector sir!"

As Charmy flew up to them, Vector explained to Sonic and Knuckles,

"This is Charmy. I found him orphaned near one of Robotnik's territories when he was 2 and took him in. He's a little…enthusiastic, but he's got a big heart."

Charmy eagerly shook Knuckles's hand, and the Echidna nervously greeted him. Sonic then went to go talk to Mighty and Ray, but as he was about to greet them, he was cut off by a chameleon mobian suddenly jumping down in front of him. This mobian had purple skin, a golden horn on his forehead, a long curled tail, and a belt with a strap going over his shoulder that carried ninja stars.

He also had purple shoes with black accents, metal-reinforced arm bracers, and white gloves with purple pads and white trims on the backs. The chameleon then got in a fighting stance and asked Sonic,

"State your business. Who are you?"

Sonic sighed in annoyance, but seeing Knuckles looking at him seriously, he sighed and replied,

"My name's Sonic the Hedgehog, co-commander of the resistance and eldest child of Queen Aleena."

The chameleon's eyes widened upon hearing this, and he then bowed to Sonic. Sweating a little, a confused Sonic asked the chameleon,

"Um, what're you doing? This is a little unnecessary."

The Chameleon, still kneeling on the ground, replied by saying to Sonic,

"My name is Espio the Chameleon, last of the Shinobi Clan of Rainbow Valley."

"Shinobi Clan of Rainbow Valley?"

"We were secret defenders of Mobius who served under the hedgehog dynasty for generations. When Robotnik took over, all of our clan went to fight him. I was only 7 at the time. Unfortunately, our clan didn't stand a chance against the sheer numbers of Robotnik's troops. My parents gave their lives to allow me to escape…"

Vector then continued Espio's story, telling Sonic,

"He was roaming Mobius for years fighting Swatbots before I found him."

Espio then asked why Sonic had come to see them, and Sonic smirked, telling him,

"Alright, you might wanna sit down for this one. This is gonna be big…"

Alright, the chapter's finally done after the site went down twice in two days! Now for the ages of the Chaotix, since I like doing ages.

Vector: Born day 150, 3215 (is 20 during Underground and 22 in this story)

Espio: Born day 180, 3220 (Was 15 during Underground and is currently 17 years old)

Charmy: Born day 90, 3231 (Was 4 during Underground and 6 in this story)