So... been a while... sorry.
Now before we start, how's about that Sonic/Shadow Generations, eh? As usual, the Sonic fanbase was hyped, then overreacted. Not saying its unwarranted, but can for once we not jump to conclusions? I have a love-hate relationship with Shadow the Hedgehog game myself, but I'm okay with Black Doom returning, and the animation of his eye looked dope. Apparently also Heroes is getting a remaster... I'm calling BS on that one. Not because I don't believe it will happen, but I don't think SEGA is gonna move focus away from Sonic X Shadow Generations. This is the year of Shadow, so why distract the audience from him by making a remaking a game with 3 other teams of 3 characters?
I have my own concerns as well, but let's wait for more info to come. though i will say, I DO NOT think it's another Colors Ultimate situation. Also a few of you asked more questions for the cast, and those new and old ones I have not answered I'll possibly use in the next Twitter Takeover chapter. I kinda wanna get started on season 2 now before doing another one.
This includes asking me when new chapters will come out... you gotta be patient, I'm still alive. Lol. I am in the process of moving into a new home; which I have posted about on discord, so time is very tight. While part of me does want to keep posting for you, I can't rush this. Part of the reason is the moving process, the second and most important one is the same reason of why it took about 3 years for season 1 to conclude... I took my time, and only put it out in the best quality possible. The same applies here. And as not my officially most popular story in both follows and reviews, I don't want to ruin everything I've built up, with all your support of course.
Chapters will come out when they come out, though I will say I do not plan to have this first half of season 2 go on for nearly that long. We got frontiers to cover, which I know you all want badly. Also, a moment of silence for the creator of Dragon Ball Z's passing. As somebody who's work clearly inspired Sonic, if it wasn't for his work, then sonic the hedgehog, or pretty much no anime with similar fight scenes would never exist.
Last thing, the title might feel strangely worded; but you'll see why as you read.
Season 2, Chapter 1 - A Very "SPECIAL" Prologue:
We open up to the Occult Research Club in the main office with Rias sitting at her desk going over some paperwork. It's been a little over a week since they recovered 2 of Sonic's Chaos Emeralds: one from Riser, and the other that Sonic, Akeno, and Koneko happened to stumble upon. That meant there were 5 more still currently unaccounted for, but they haven't gotten any leads since.
Still… she's been a lot happier. No running from some engagement, no Fallen Angels invading her territory… though it has gotten a little boring as a result. The most enjoyment she's had was sleeping with Issei sometimes, and when he did his morning training for better control of his abilities with Sonic helping him out if he was around and not running around the globe for the thousandth time. It was interesting to watch, though Sonic never used his Chaos Emeralds even once for an edge in those play fights. Sure it was scary seeing Riser wield that power, but it was honestly quite beautiful when she saw Sonic's Super Form for the very first time... it was one of those images that are burned into your memory no matter how hard you try to tape it over. And dangerous power or not, it did some good in the end.
Rias turned to her left where there was a decorative table in a corner that originally had candles, now having 7 tiny stands with the most recently added blue one sitting on one of them shielded behind a magical barrier of Rias' magic. The way the Emerald(s) glowed sometimes was more than enough light for the room instead of candles she sometimes used, plus it looked prettier.
Why was one here and not with Sonic? Well thats because she managed to convince him to not have multiple Emeralds on him in case something happened. It really didn't much to convince Sonic as he said as much happened to him before... something about being hit by sleeping gas at a casino?
Rias then stood up and walked over to where the gemstone was, admiring the sparkle of its beauty. After staring at it for a few more seconds, she waved her hand over the barrier and it dispelled.
"All that trouble for not one, but 2 of you..." she talked to the Chaos Emerald, which of course she knew it wasn't going to respond back, just talking to herself mainly. She also reached for it, wanting to hold it for a minute. Sonic wouldn't mind, right? He already let everybody else hold it, she just abstained from her turn. And even if the opposite was true, it would only be for a second, then she'll put it back.
Besides, it's not like she would use it like Riser did. What could possibly happen by simply touching a Chaotic MacGuffin from another dimension?
Her fingers merely touched the Chaos Emerald...
SHINE!
The light it began to generate was blinding, not to mention the energy it was subsequently giving off... such power...! She had to reel back a bit and cover her eyes and face as the Emerald sparked with power, the young Devil unable to re-contain the item even when she accepted to reactivate the barrier, which made her freak out a bit. No, it didn't cancel her magic, her magic just wasn't strong enough... How the hell did Riser control this thing?!
And the power nor its humming or glow was slowing down...
XXX
The only thing we see next is a time-skip, with the top floor of the ORC looking to either have been vaporized or blown to smithereens and it was left open to the elements. Either way, members of Sona's student council/peerage were shown using magic to try and repair the damage before any humans could see, another barrier before them which casted an illusion of the woods so if anyone DID happen to come by would be none the wiser, with Sona herself standing in front of Rias while pitching the bridge of her nose and rubbing it.
Short explanation: a minor, yet still destructive, Chaos Blast.
"And you thought touching a Chaotic McGuffin from another dimension was good idea?" Sona said, keeping her cool despite the situation they found themselves in. It was a good thing she didn't return to the Underworld before school was ending like she normally did. Otherwise she couldn't cover Rias' mistake.
"He didn't tell me the damn thing would blow up!" Rias said in slightly higher pitch than her regular voice while pointing to Sonic who was watching the other Sitri Devils fix the old schoolhouse with his arms folded, shifting the blame in a cutesy anime girl style.
"And we didn't find the fourth one yet..." Sonic muttered, raising one hand from his folded arms and closing his eyes.
Sona sighed again. What was she gonna do with Rias? It's not like she could ask her to let the Chaos Emeralds go or give them to a higher ranking family or family member for safe keeping. Those Emeralds were something else entirely. In fact when Riser was recovering during the time gap, Sona had heard he... well, she wasn't gonna say he felt regretful for what he did as it was political in nature and a prior agreement, but he did explain he felt sorry for all the additional trouble he caused with it, such as getting other families hurt or badmouthing his own sister at times just for the sake of winning more Rating Games. It's like the moment he touched the Emerald, a switch flipped in his head, and even the Phenex despite learning decent control of it had no explanation for why.
"Just... be more mindful of what you decide to mess around with. Last thing we need is the rest of the school blowing up in-between classes." Sona said.
"Yeah; try to keep your Dark Gauge down a bit. Cool?" Sonic added humorously with a few back pats to Rias. While she rolled her eyes at this, Rias had no response ready or pre-prepared and took the 'L' this time. She did technically mess with something of Sonic's without his watch... it could've been worse.
XXX
Later that night as it looked like it was going to storm soon, at the same abandoned church that Raynare used for her forbidden ritual... well, what it USED to be anyway. It looked like ruins of a time long forgotten with only small parts of it still standing after the explosion. However, signs of life could be seen in the form of 2 people with white-hooded robes walking inside. They had no idea why, but they didn't question it as this just made their job easier. One of the people began to remove the hood of its robe, and it was shown to be a girl with short blue hair (though one bang of hair was green) and green eyes.
"Utter ruins... to think demons could do such a thing, destroying a church." said the blue haired girl, a bit of anger in her voice.
"According to rumors, the Fallen Angel housed here had kidnapped a nun. Whoever did it was only trying to save her" said the other robed person, also taking off her hood. She was also a girl, with chestnut hair, which was stylized with long pigtails.
"That's no excuse to lay waste to the house of the Lord." said the bluenette in a stern tone, obviously very passionate about the house of God.
"Rumors also say it was the power of the Legendary Red One, Xenovia; power like that would make anyone go crazy" said the chestnut-haired girl. Don't get her wrong, she was also passionate about serving God, but her partner Xenovia took things a little too far. Still, the chestnut-haired girl understood Xenovia was doing it to protect the people of the church and from the evil Devils.
"Yes... the Red One... By the way, are you sure this is the right town, Irina? I don't want a repeat of last time" Asked the blue-haired girl, whose name was Xenovia.
"Give me a little credit. I moved here when I was little when... when..." said Irina, the chestnut-haired girl, in a cheeky voice; though she began to trail off upon thinking about a certain childhood friend.
"When your friend moved?" Asked/Finished Xenovia. She had heard from Irina herself the story about her past. Unfortunately, Xenovia never once heard Irina say his name; and whenever Irina tried, she'd be on the verge of breaking down crying... they must have been extremely close. The boy sounded like a great guy, and Xenovia would be honored to meet him someday, but knew that'd never happen.
"Yeah..." Irina said, repressing the memory before she cried about it.
"In any case, with the Red One allied with the Devils, we should keep our distance." said Xenovia, warning Irina about the Red Dragon. Also as she said this, the storm suddenly got worse out of nowhere, and it began to downpour. However the girls got very little wet as green energy outlined around the large and small chunks of debris and repaired part of the church to make a roof.
"And of course, your a blessing to have found us." Said Xenovia, now looking in a seemingly random direction, but it was shown she was looking at a mysterious figure, whose hand was glowing the same color of green in a white glove that had a green symbol on its back. "It's thanks to you we've already recovered 3 of the swords."
While we don't know what she was talking about, or who the mysterious figure was, we do seen another clue to this figure from the size of its boot which had a red gem set in a gold ring, blue with a white stripe down the center, cyan toes, and gray soles.
XXX
The storm continued until the early hours of the morning where it subsided. It was still semi-dark out so there was probably no one around, and a good thing as in the bushes of a park, a monstrous Stray Devil was fleeing when it was then first whipped up in a blue whirlwind, then a blast of red energy disintegrated it. It was shown Sonic was the one who caused the whirlwind as he finally appeared from a flash of a blue blur, with Rias dispelling her own power for the killing blow.
"Very strange how it wasn't willing to fight..." said Rias, which sure the job was done, but something about the Strays behavior felt off. Normally they are more than willing to attack other Devils or pretty much anything that moves, but this one seemed very focused on getting to this park... but why? That was the stranger part.
"Made our job easier." Koneko said, which was a fair point. With its attention on something else, it did make it so much easier to take down.
It was however at that specific second, when Sonic was gonna respond with a quip on the situation, he felt warmth from the Chaos Emerald he carried with him in hammerspace; and upon taking it out, it was glowing brightly again with a similar glow as when it reacted to the 2nd Chaos Emerald they found on the beach that day in that odd temple. They all knew what it meant...
"Could one be...?" Kiba was asking, but Sonic dashed off, basically saying 'only one way to find out'.
The others followed him, with Sonic stopping and going and changing direction every so often, using his chaos emerald as a compass or radar. The brighter it glowed, then that's the direction he was going off in. Oddly enough, Sonic ended up in the same location as when Raynare ambushed he, Issei and Asia when they were still human and they had that little pseudo-date; the very same fountain with the structures. It wasn't even fully repaired by this time, with some pillars still missing, and a few holes courtesy of the light spears... why would the Chaos Emerald lead them here?
The other Devils landed nearby (though Issei still couldn't fly without assistance), curious as to why Sonic darted off here. The Chaos Emerald was glowing very brightly, so another one was definitely close by, but there was no corresponding glowing coming from anywhere else. Looking around, Sonic did notice something out of the ordinary, and went over to it.
"You find it?" Asked Akeno, but she and everyone else were extremely confused when he brought back...
"M-My doll?" Asia asked as indeed, the very same Racchu-kun doll (Sonic still swears it's a Pikachu regardless of what Issei said) being held by Sonic. Before anyone could ask about the significance of this doll, Sonic took a quill out of his hair, poked a hole in the doll, and pulled down to undo its stuffing to pull out a certain shiny object, this one green...
...
...
...
"... wait! Wait-wait-wait-wait! We won a Chaos Emerald before the whole time?!" Issei said, realizing what this meant. Winning that silly little crane game not only got Asia a present, but it also had another special surprise buried within it.
"Talk about double prizes." Said Sonic, his arms moving too fast for their eyesight to keep track off, but when he stopped he showed he had knitted the doll back up as if nothing had ever happened, then handed it back to Asia.
"Well, let's not lose such a cutie again." Said Rias, using her magic to open a small glyph for Asia to put her doll on. When she did, it vanished. "He's now safe and sound in his owners bedroom."
"Still can't believe how easily we recovered your 3rd Emerald." Said Kiba.
"Yeah, I know. Usually something completely out of left field happens the moment I..." Sonic was saying...
SNATCH!
A mechanical claw then snatched the recently-recovered Chaos Emerald right out of Sonic's grip and away from the group as it retracted towards owner, which was shown to be a humanoid robot. It's appearance reminded Rias and Akeno specifically of those androids (E-2000) the Fallen Angels used on them, but with a few differences. While it had the same body type as those androids, it didn't have a shield on its left arm. That instead was the new currently retracting arm. It also had Raven-like wings like a Fallen Angel does, but metallic and having no feathers except the outlines of where feathers would be. As for its body, it had the more human-like curves a person (or just human-like entity) would have compared to its previous model.
It didn't stay too long after snatching the Emerald, for its thrusters on its back flared up and it took off after adjusting its wings which had some flexibility like a regular Fallen Angel.
"Where you going, Tin Bird-Bot?" Sonic said, immediately running off after it a few seconds afterwards. Not only that, Issei also reacted a similar way, getting upset the Emerald was stolen when they found it first. Combined with the promise he made Sonic to help get him home, his emotions caused him to flare the energy from his Boosted Gear, which also was summoned.
[WELSH DRAGON - OVER BOOSTER!] The Gear said, Issei activating his Balance Break without even thinking twice about it despite how inexperienced he was with it, not to mention how short of time he could maintain the form itself. He flew off after the robot and the Hedgehog.
"Guys, wait up!" Rias said, she and the rest of her peerage getting out there wings to fly after them as well.
[What are you doing, moron?! You can't hold your Balance Break for more than a few minutes!] Ddraig said to Issei, which while he won't deny him when requesting his power, that didn't mean he couldn't voice his disapproval when using it recklessly.
"I'm only gonna need one! Just one!" Issei said, the. He began to power up the Boosted Gear so he could launch a Dragon Shot at the fleeing android. This was nearly successful, but the robot dodged by doing a barrel roll... the tree the Dragon Shot hit wasn't as fortunate though...
Sonic caught up with the Fallen Angel-like android as well, before Issei did actually, but he took a few steps back when Issei went into attack position. Now that he already did, Sonic picked up the pace a bit more, then jumped onto and off of a tree trunk so he use a Homing Attack on it just as he exited the wooded area of the park due to his jump.
The hit was successful and the Fallen Angel robot rolled sideways in midair (as it was struck from behind on an angle) before crashing into the road and skidded a few times, though it did manage to recover using a combination of its wings and its thrusters to stabilize itself before gaining some altitude and flying off at a faster speed.
But that wasn't all it did... for once it got enough distance, it reeled back, turned around, extended one arm which then folded itself into a machine gun-like barrel...
hmmmmm... TSEW-TSEW-TSEW-TSEW-TSEW-TSEW!
It shot at the duo, but it wasn't bullets fired at them exactly. They were tiny, thin, sharp and dark red when being fired; and when Sonic and Issei moved aside, those same "bullets" caused mini-explosions when they impacted something. A few stragglers almost managed to hit the other Devils whom were lagging behind a bit
'... Light Spears?!' Both Sonic and Issei thought at the exact same time, even the others had a similar thought. This robotic doppelgänger of a rival species also had one of their greatest weaknesses equipped to it and used in a much more deadly way.
Rias herself couldn't stop thinking of the "coincidences" this chase was having... first her brother and his men find an inactive yet advanced robot, she and Akeno encounter more advanced robots back at the church before it was blown up, this one has a similar design as those red and yellow androids Dohnaseek, Raynare, etc summoned against them; now THIS one was able to launch Light Spears out of a machine gun?... While she wasn't going to say that technology was impossible, as their did exist a special light-based weapon that had a similar function; this, however this seemed remarkably more advanced. There was no machine gun variant of the weapon she was thinking of that only shot light beams (least as far as she was aware), but even then... when's the last time a robotic duplicate was EVER deployed by ANY faction?
When the Fallen Angel android stopped attacking, it retracted its gun and turned around to fly off, going towards the cities outskirts and at a faster speed. This was not a problem for Sonic or Issei to keep up with, with former's quick feet and the latter's armor, and while Kiba could also follow behind no problem, he and the ORC instead followed Rias' lead through a teleportation glyph.
Issei tried again with a few more, yet smaller and more controlled Dragon Shots this time, and while his accuracy was more accurate, he still only barely managed to strike the robot at all with it's constant rolls and dives to evade his attacks. This even included Sonic, though in his case he was repelled by its wings which despite being metal now did have the ability to bend the same way... probably why it didn't have a arm-shield on this model, for it would be redundant to have because A) they were probably still used for aerial control anyway; and B) they could be used as more efficient shields to cover all over the body instead of just the front.
It was around here from another direction up ahead the rest of the ORC arrived, and attacked themselves. With the exception of Asia as she was more the supportive one, Koneko tried a physical attack and she did latch onto it and refused to let go no matter how fast or how many rolls the robot did. In fact that was its biggest mistake, as she used the momentum against it by shoving it off her with her powerful strength to cause it to skid on the streets again just like before. Kiba would attempt to slice it in half during this vulnerable time, but at the last possible second, the robot recovered and drew out an actual Light Spear in its hand before using it as a makeshift sword to block Kiba's own.
Being quite strong, it was able to push Kiba no away after a few more seconds of struggling with him, then flew off again. Asia's light from her Twilight Healing was shown to be covering Kiba as this occurred, doing her part, and it was also around her that Rias and Akeno launched crimson streaks of demonic fire and lightning bolts respectively. While a few did get agonizingly close, the robot's aerial acrobatics was just skilled enough to evade each and every one of those magical attacks.
When the chase began again, this had already gone on too long for Sonic's liking. "Alright! You need to slow down!" He said, getting out his Chaos Emerald, where it started to glow. Obviously, he was going to trigger Chaos Control. However, the robot also unveiled the Emerald it stole from inside its arm (maybe it had a small storage in there or something?), and it's own Emerald glowed as it called upon its power as well. What resulted next was a big, blinding flash of light as both time-wrapping abilities canceled out the other.
But that wasn't the worst part... when the light dimmed, the robot turned to face them, which they assumed it was going to attack them again. But it instead summoned a glyph in its hand, showing it can use magic which was surprising, then 2 more robots of itself spawned from 2 larger magic circles on both sides of it. All 3 of them took off in 3 different directions. One went to the left, one to the right, and the 3rd further on ahead.
Sonic: SPLIT!
The ORC and Sonic then went off into three separate groups after each robot. Sonic/Issei/Asia for one, Kiba/Koneko went for another, and Rias/Akeno for the last.
Sonic/Issei Asia's group probably had the easiest time catching up to the fleeing robot. While it did try firing those Light Spear bullets, Sonic and Issei evaded easily (Asia was fine due to her lagging behind and was able to evade them as well), and Sonic finally managed to hit the robot with a Homing Attack with Issei finishing the job with a Dragon Shot... Issei also ran out of time to maintain his Balance Break, but luckily Sonic caught him as he fell. Sadly, this robot faded away in a haze instead of an explosion of shrapnel... it was one of the clones.
Kiba and Koneko wasn't as difficult either, but not as easily as the first group had it. Kiba was more than capable of keeping up the robot, but he lacked the defense the other Pieces had so he had to block/deflect lots of energy shots with his sword(s). And while Koneko could tank some of the energy shots and whatnot, she lacked the speed to consistently catch up to the robot for her powerful physical attacks. Thankfully, Kiba's Holy Eraser sword was able to swallow the light of the Light Spear bullets and let in close in much easier, then he used an ice sword not to slice its wings off, but freeze them solid. While this didn't stop the Fallen Angel android from flying, it did severely slow it down, allowing Koneko to close in and give it a hard punch in one of its thrusters; sending it out of control, skidding, and then it crashed into an abandoned building... but this one also faded away in a haze when they went it it's wreckage... another clone.
ZAP! ZAP! ZAP!
Akeno was using her lightning to try and shoot the android down, and the androids flying capabilities did make it pretty difficult to shoot down as well as its own projectile attack. She did eventually land a successful shock to its systems, but just before it would have crashed... it to faded away, so it was a clone... wait. That can't be right! Each group chased one after the real one summoned duplicates, yet all 3 were phonies?! How does that work?
"Ours was a doppelgänger. Anyone else?" Asked Kiba over the line of the magical earpieces they used during the Rating Game with Riser. They were pretty useful, especially when a certain someone goes for a morning run and it's not exactly easy to find or keep up with him, so they decided to always keep them on hand.
"Same. Our's was faker than a California milfs tits." Issei came on the line to answer for his, Sonic's and Asia's group. "That leaves Akeno and Rias, you guys nab it?"
"Sadly so, sweetie. Me and Riiiiii..." Akeno was about to say Rias' name, but then realized she was all by herself.
"You alright, Lightning? You and Kingpin good?" Sonic voice came over the line.
"That's the thing, she was right behind me..." Akeno said, looking around to see in case she missed her, but Rias was in fact gone.
XXX
Much further away towards the beach, the Fallen Angel robot began to descend from its flight and it pulled out the Chaos Emerald it fought so hard to steal. Either it was taking a break or internally praising itself over its spoils, but regardless of which it was, it was still successful in its mission. It then put its Emerald away and it began to fly off over the ocean, possibly back it's master or base (or both)...
FLASH!
However, just as it got nearly 100 feet off the shore, the Gremory magic circle opened before it, and out slowly arose Rias herself. The robots head tilted, as if questioning how she possibly could have caught it and figured out its trick.
"Nice try, but that's a move I would have done." She admitted, flashing back to her Rating Game with Riser. More specifically, when she told Akeno to lay those traps and make a false clubhouse in illusionary fog. This android did a very similar play by using the cover from the light generated by the Chaos Emerald(s) earlier.
It was here Rias however, was in for an actual shock from something she didn't anticipate. The androids armor around its head began to recede, revealing an actual hair and male face with real skin... so this was a suit of armor or something, like Issei's Balance Break/Over Boost? The Fallen spoke to her.
"Surprised, huh?... Nah, don't worry about me. I'm not too important. Just some nameless villain of the week, some nobody who was upgraded into this... plot filler if you will. You can call me an E-3000, the newest addition to that old man's line of toys." The Fallen said in a very sarcastic voice. "Your right, Rias. I did in fact deliberately wait for that blue Lint Roller to use Chaos Control. You can call that my Chaos Counter Protocol... quite handy if you will, and it's still in beta! Sure I need an actual Emerald or at least some of its energy in order to use it, but to think that old man could turn some of us into robots, and also install a countermeasure when we'd try to snatch the Emerald Riser had... although you got to him first."
Rias took all that information in... while the countermeasure to Chaos Energy was interesting, it was the "Old Man" part that got her attention... that was the second time a Fallen Angel had uttered that in the company of advanced weaponry Rias couldn't even fathom existing, first from Raynare's cronies and now this nameless "villain of the week"... And turning them into robots... as in, more than one?... What kind of sick experiments were the Fallen Angels up too and were performing on each other? And who was this Old Man that was apparently involved?
The Fallen Angel-turned-robot then reactivated it's light spear machine gun arm, and aimed at Rias. When it began to fire, Rias immediately put up a barrier to stop the deadly light energy from hitting her body. While she's never actually been hit by light attacks herself, she had heard stories from survivors of what the pain felt like; not to mention Issei and Sonic having been struck by a few of them, even before the former decided to give up his humanity and become a Devil himself.
Back to the Fallen Angel, he slowly semi-circled around Rias a single time then started to blast off to escape, but Rias launched a wave of Crimson Fire in desperation which hit at just the right angle to graze the Fallen's metallic wing a bit. This didn't stop him, but it did make him groan out in pain and also drop the Chaos Emerald he foolishly forgot to put away, and it was falling down to sea. He dove for it, but Rias was faster and caught it first, using her magic to catch and hold it when she got close enough (not wanting to cause another inadvertent Chaos Blast) and flew back to shore.
GRAB!
She didn't get too far as the Fallen Angel shot out it's grapple arm, the same one it used to snatch the Emerald in the first place, and grabbed her leg. This not only prevented her from escaping, but she was also slowly being reeled in (not by the Fallen's choice probably. This was because she was still struggling to fly away). No matter how hard she flapped her wings, the pull and grip was too tight. She waved her hand to send a small wave of demonic fire at him, which he blocked with his wings; but this was to distract him mainly, as she then used the same magic to burn the cable of the arm holding her, flying away once she was free.
This only made the Fallen Angel angry, and after a new hand reequipped itself from inside his arm, he chased Rias at full speed. He also used actual Light Spears this time, summoning them and tossing them at her from an angle above so as they zipped past her as she obviously dodged, they would be sinking in the ocean below (though since they fade away after a while, it's not like they'd be stuck down there or forever drifting the currents)...
TSEW!
Though randomly, a blue energy ball of some kind nearly hit the Fallen Angel as it traveled towards it but at somewhat slower speed than an actual missile would. Evading it with his speed was not an issue, and only of those strange balls of light also nearly hit Rias which she also dodged. These balls of energy just continued onward, flying off into the distance before eventually fading away (in the Fallen Angels case), and flew into the water and fizzled out (in Rias' case).
Also very randomly, a blue colored plane was shown flying over them, but going in the opposite direction...
All the constant evasion and near-impacts did make Rias lose some focus on the magic carrying the Emerald and she also dropped it, which the Fallen promptly caught 6 feet before it touched the water and flew back up and off again. And right when it was about to rocket away with extra speed from its thrusters visibly heating up, this is where Rias in desperation clung to him after flying over with as much speed as she possibly could, and they began to physically struggle.
"Hey! Lego! I stole this fair and square!" The Fallen Angel said, but Rias didn't even bother to answer. Her moan focus was getting the Emerald back... she made the mistake of letting it go once... not again. As they continued to struggle, her thoughts focused solely on getting it back, her fingers only slightly grazed it...
FLASH!
The Chaos Emerald immediately reacted, glowing and sparking with crazy levels of energy between them. It even started to float on its own, energy crackling around them and immobilizing them.
"Nrgh!... What'd... you do?" The Fallen asked Rias though to be honest, even she didn't know herself... was still trying to figure that out. This crazy gemstone reacted to her oddly, but the Fallen then attempted to trigger his countermeasure again; only for the warning to flash in his eyes saying there was a system overload, along with a bunch of numbers and codes he didn't understand. "Overload?!"
They were helpless as the Chaos Emerald glowed even brighter and white light filled their visions...
...
...
...
When the light finally died down, they were no longer just flying above the ocean. Rather when they observed what was around them... they were now over the ocean INSIDE a long, circular tube that appeared to extend either indefinitely or it was just that ridiculously long. Outside the tube itself however was nothing but the darkness of the middle of the night, sky and clouds, and the water below... Kuoh Town was nowhere in sight oddly enough.
"... where have you brought us, Devil?" The Fallen Angel asked Rias, then pulling out his machine gun arm and aimed it right at her when she didn't give a response in the 2 seconds he gave her to give one. "Answer me!"
Rias on instinct flared her power to protect herself... at least, she tried too, because literally nothing happened. She tried summoning a barrier, Destruction magic glyph, even a Familiar... nothing. It's like her magic had been completely shut off! Don't worry, because the Fallen Angel didn't have it any better; because when Rias still did not answer and looked like she was gonna attack based on her hand movements, the Fallen Angel attempted to fire its Light Spear gun which did physical move, but he too apparently could not attack either as his surprised face and looking down the barrel with a:
"... Huh?... the hell?..."
It told Rias all she needed to know. Either they were both so exhausted from the chase and scuffle over the water that they didn't register it (unlikely), or this weird space they somehow ended up in had an effect on their powers.
That's when they heard something fly past them and deeper into the tube... the Chaos Emerald! It was flying?! Not wanting to let it get away, the Fallen immediately triggered its thrusters and flapped its wings to fly off after it. Not wanting to be left behind nor the Emerald falling into the enemy's hands, Rias also took off herself after it.
(AN: Optional music - any Special Stage theme. Sonic Heroes Special Stage, either version, recommended.)
With their magic cut off from them, this was now a game of pure speed to see who could nab the Emerald first, but that was easier said than done. Now while they flew through this tube, it was like a mysterious force was also carrying them forward; not necessarily increasing their flying speed, but rather just got them moving to a top speed quicker. However was also pretty surprising is that the Emerald seemed to move only slightly quicker than they could, the gemstone slowly shrinking due to the distance it was making between them and making it harder to catch... and what's the all the random colored spheres everywhere? Red, blue, green, etc... again... why?
When the tube had a turn in it, they too followed the turn which slowed them down yet not the Emerald for some reason, but they refused to give up that easily. However as Rias turned the corner, she was going headfirst into a small group of the spheres, and it was very hard to control her turning her with the current carrying her so she braced for impact...
She didn't feel any pain. In fact, the spheres were somehow absorbed into her body... they didn't feel bad mind you; but it gave her a tingly feeling inside her body when she touched them... weird.
As the Emerald got further and further away, it Rias and the Fallen cyborg both wondered if they were now just stuck on a fruitless quest chasing an inter-dimensional with the power over time and space that constantly got further and further away... were they gonna be stuck like this forever in an enterally spanning hallway? Because this seemed impossible as the Emerald flew onwards with no real way of catching up to it, least with their other abilities shut down for now. In frustration, the Fallen Angel knocked into Rias, and maybe also to get her to lag behind, but the former was than main reason. As anyone would get annoyed at being shoved aside, Rias attempted to do the same and with her emotions flaring...
ZOOM!
Rias: EEEEK!
She yelped out of shock as she somehow rocketed forward in an aura very similar to Sonic's Boost and her improvised one (which they coined Destruction Boost), though it only lasted a few seconds... but... how exactly did she do that? She thought all magic was shut off here, but at least she was now closer to the Emerald now, even if they could still barely see it anymore due to its own distance away. Even stranger, when she tired to do it again, it didn't work this time... a fluke maybe? Luck? She had no idea. But what she did know was that Boost felt much different than her's or Sonic's. It felt more releasing tension rather than building up energy to engage a Boost.
The Fallen One also ran into some spheres, and with his own increasing frustration, he too also indicated this Boost somehow and caught up to Rias so they were neck-and-neck again... they were both confused... was there a correlation somewhere they were not getting?
The tube now went downwards with more spheres ahead, and both racers inadvertently absorb them as they flew into them with no time to react. Once again, they both felt tingly when these spheres made contact with them... hang on... Rias had a crazy idea just now. The spheres, the tingles upon contact, the tension releasing when she Boosted somehow, then it came back on recontact with those spheres... even though she was in the middle of a race essentially, she closed her eyes and focused...
ZOOM!
She rocketed off the same way as before, the same aura and speed boost with her body feeling tension releasing as the energy left her...
'I see... so by touching those spheres...' Rias thought to herself, slowly starting to figure it out. It would appear that while her powers were locked behind some kind of dimensional firewall, those spheres were the key to this strange puzzle. When she touched them, that tingly feeling must have been some kind of strange energy filling her body when her body absorbed those spheres. And when she focused, she could release this energy and perform a Boost to catch up to the Chaos Emerald, hence the reason it felt like tension releasing... it wasn't her own power. It was borrowed power essentially, which is why when she used it all up, she wasn't feeling exhausted.
That's all she had to do then: grab the spheres, build up some tension, release to blast off, rinse and repeat until the Emerald was captured. Now having a strategy, she grabbed some more spheres on the side, then rocketed off once again. Of course, the Fallen One seeing this only then pieced together what to do, so he to then grabbed some spheres and took off in the same fashion.
To the left, to the right, up, down and even a loop on one occasion; the supernatural beings continued to follow down to tube, and the Emerald getting back in sight after catching up to it. However they ran out of energy, and up ahead there were no more spheres... so it would appear they had to use this borrowed energy more strategically or risk getting left behind in a barren hallway without any spheres to grab.
"Chao, Chao!"
Both Rias and her opponent looked up at the new sound in confusion... they had no explanation for it, but 2 baby blobs (one blue and the other black) were flying in what appeared to be an orange and white colored hot air balloon, which literally came out of nowhere. The hell were they doing? More challengers for the Emerald?
The blobs tossed out some spheres on the tubes floor, which allowed the racers to catch and absorb them. So they were friendly locals of this strange dimension or something? Now that Rias got a better look at them, they somewhat closely resembled one of the creatures Sonic had pictures his world, but she was also trying to focus on grabbing more spheres at the same time. Neither her or he Fallen Angel opponent bothered to Boost right now, even as the Chaos Emerald started to get further away again, but they couldn't afford wasting valuable energy that was the only thing allowing them to chase it down in the first place.
The grin of the black blob was kinda disturbing...
"Hehehe... Chao, CHAO!" The black blob said and harshly threw a sphere, though this one was dark and spiky...
BOOM!
"OW!" Rias was the one who tried to grab it thinking it was a gift, but it blew up the very second it made contact with her... that little baby bastard! He did that on purpose! Not only did it slow her down and make her now start lagging behind, but she also felt a small portion of the tension from the spheres she collected disappear. It was by this point the hot air balloon and the 2 babies flew off behind the 2 racers, or maybe they slowed down on purpose? It was hard to tell. Still... that dirty black ball of pudding... oh, if she had her magic on her...
There were some more spheres up ahead, so this is where the Fallen took advantage of the lead he had thanks to the intervention of the 2 babies, and Boosted off after the Chaos Emerald, leaving Rias in the dust and also grabbing the spheres before she could. Not wanting to lose him, Rias too Boosted off after him, but the Boost didn't last as long since she lost some of the tension from the spiky ball the blob threw at her. She did see some more spheres' off to the side that the Fallen Angel must have missed, but only 3 of them... wouldn't be allot, but it was better than nothing so Rias went to get them...
BONG!
Rias: "WAAAAAAAAAAAH?!"
What they turned out to be were solid, and she bounced off them but in a defying physics type of way buy not bouncing backwards, but being launching in a direction up ahead. What ended up happening to Rias was she was sent into a hoop of some kind, which made her dash in a different direction, and this continued until she was sent into 3 rainbow colored rings in a straight line which make her spin horizontally with sparkles around her... she got a few sphere's from it, and these had stars on them which seemed to refuel her more than the regular ones, not to mention was now slightly ahead of the Fallen One.
"... ... that was unnecessary..." Rias said trying to be dry, though she couldn't help but have a small smile on her face after all that. For all this crazy tube was, and the seriousness of this situation... it was dare she say, kinda fun.
The race continued on until the final stretch, where a wall was at the end of the tube. They kept getting neck-and-neck at the Emerald and using this worlds Boost mechanic until one of them finally caught it, but it was unclear just who grabbed it as it was such a close race between them, and the Emerald flashed a bright light when it was touched...
...
...
(AN: End Music.)
The Fallen Angel was the one who forced himself to stop just before hitting the wall... Rias and the Emerald were nowhere in sight. The POV was changed to Rias, who was being pulled through a vortex of white light in an uncontrollable state. She didn't know where she was going, but she did it... she got the Chaos Emerald.
- Results Screen -
Rank = E
Rias: The hell does "E" stand for?
XXX
FLASH!
The white light faded and Rias ended up back over the ocean where she left off before, putting the Chaos Emerald now in her magic glyph the moment she returned (not in the mood for it to do more shenanigans)... damn, the fatigue was now starting to hit her. Chasing the Fallen Angel down, avoiding his attacks, then racing him which could have gone either way in some strange alternate space the Chaos Emerald took them too and figuring out the secret to catching it... the poor girl was tired, but she couldn't rest until the Chaos Emerald was safe, so she made some attempt to slowly fly back to shore... but her eyes began to get very heavy, her body felt much heavier... even so, she forced and pushed herself onward.
She then began to fall in exhaustion, the magic dispelling and the Emerald falling with her... the last thing she heard was the faint sound of a motor...
...
...
...
Rias felt warmth the next thing she knew, and slowly opened her eyes. She was somehow on the beach, on someone's lap but she wasn't sure who yet, Asia's healing power surrounding her as the Bishop did what she could (so she was in Asia's lap then)... did she make out all the way to shore out of sheer will, or did she wash up like a cardboard box on a beach?
"Holy fish paste. It's a girl." Sonic teases, now having dawned a life guard shirt and matching tube, but then tossed it away offscreen. But with his joke over, he kneeled down to Rias, now speaking in a concerned tone. "Seriously though, you alright?"
Rias did smile at this. "... Yeah... I'm fine." She then made moves to stand, which Asia helped her do.
"We found you here after we found out all 3 of those Fallen Angels were fake." Asia said.
"Yeah... figured it was a sneaky play... if it had the ability to spilt, why wait until after Sonic tried to Chaos Control it?" Rias explained.
"That's why your the smartest demon on the planet, Prez. And the important thing is, you got the Chaos Emerald from it." Issei said... and that's when the color slowly began to drain from Rias' face, which everyone noticed. "... ... where is it?"
Rias did not answer right away. "... I, uh..." She looked down for a split second to gather her thoughts on how to lightly explain what had happened; then looked back out off the coast of the beach. "... well... we fought over the water, and I..." she looked back at the group, already aware of the looks they were giving her even before she actually saw them. "... ... I think I... ... dropped it."
"You dropped it?!" Akeno was the one to say that. If Rias wasn't pulling their legs, then this meant the Emerald was now lost at sea!
"Hey! It wasn't my fault, okay! We flew after each other, tried grabbing the Emerald, this blue plane flew by, some energ-..." Rias tried to explain everything, but it was the second the term 'blue plane' left her lips is when Sonic shushed her with a finger on her mouth.
"... did you say a... ?" Sonic asked, but not even a second after that, the sounds of an engine flying overhead were heard getting louder as sure enough, a blue plane circled a few times above them... then instead of going out further and turning to land like a normal plane would, this plane had a jet underneath it which allowed it to descend as it slowed down midair, though it began a startling transformation into a completely different shape and gaining a pair of legs before that could happen. When this 'plane' did land, some sand was kicked up from below it.
(AN: start Believe in Myself - Tails Theme.)
The pilot of this aircraft jumped out, but we could only see its shoes which were white and red colored (on the front and back respectively) with white socks. Then after landing, they pilot began to walk forward towards the group; 2 large, bushy, fluffy tails waving behind the pilot as they approached; the Chaos Emerald being held in cuffed, white gloves very similar to Sonic's.
When the pilot stopped walking, the camera panned up slowly to reveal who the pilot actually was: A young-looking (probably as old as Koneko) anthropomorphic male fox, possessing mostly amber fur all over his body but with white fur around his muzzle, front torso with fluffy fur on top of his chest, and the tips of his tails. He also had large blue eyes, large triangular ears, three locks of hair on his forehead near those ears, a small black nose much smaller than Sonic's own.
The entire group just stared.
...
"Excuse me, I think you dropped something important." The fox said with a smile, then immediately after, Sonic dashed off (kicking up and even covering Issei and Koneko with sand, which the latter shook off after 2 seconds) and began to give this fox a hug and what could only be described as a brotherly-like noogie, causing the fox to start giggling.
"And where have you been, buddy!" Sonic said, sounding happier than he usually does... obviously, he knew this person.
The fox giggled and laughed a few more times before made attempts to get out of Sonic's hold. "Me? Your the one who went off to another dimension... again!" The fox said, obviously joking back
"Well not by choice. Eggy McOmelette zapped me with something," Sonic was saying and he continued to have a short conversation with the fox, seemingly forgetting his new Devil friends had no idea what was going on.
"... and then there were 2..." Koneko said in her typical dry tone.
"Ahem." Rias cleared her throat, getting both the Hedgehog and the Fox's attention. "Mind introducing us to your Kitsune friend?"
"Oh, this guy?" Sonic said, putting an arm around the Fox in a friendly manner. "Team Gremory, met Miles Prower; the greatest scientific fox-boy genius sidekick in the world."
'Miles' chuckled at this. "Just call me Tails. It's easier. Heheh!" He said before giving his own warm smile with closed eyes.
Bit of a long prologue, I know; but we had lots of things to introduce to set a new foundation and build upon the first. From setting up Eggman's more direct involvement, another Chaos Emerald and how they react to Devils, and of course bringing in another Sonic character. Also, I couldn't resist putting Rias through an infamous Special Stage.
Once again, sorry for the long wait, but as I said above, I'm moving and my time is very limited when it comes to content creation. But once I settle in, then everything should be fine. Thanks for reading, leave a comment or good luck wishes to me, and I'll see you in the next one.