4 Years Ago

Hedgehog Town

It's been a few days and Ray is already feeling homesick.

The home he wanted to keep is a family of armadillos as he didn't care about being the only adopted squirrel in this family.

As Ray walks by the door, he turns to see a hedgehog woman who is preparing herself for school.

"I'm off." Ray called.

"Okay. Make sure you stay out of trouble. Same goes for Mighty." Miss Wing said with a calm smile.

"Sure."

As Ray leaves the house, he runs towards the playground with a confident smile.

Until he crashes into someone as he falls to his backside.

"Ow… Huh?" To Ray's surprise, he encounters another hedgehog right in front of him.

"Ow…" A hedgehog boy, Nicky, groans while rubbing his backside.

No wonder it's called Hedgehog Town; 70% of the population is full of hedgehogs themselves.

"I- I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hit you like that!" Nicky apologises while bowing in fear.

"No, I'm sorry! I didn't watch where I was going!" Ray exclaims and then laughs nervously.

As Nicky and Ray pull each other up, Nicky is seeing a friendly squirrel that's heading towards the playground.

"So what are you doing?" Nicky asked.

"Just going to see my brother. He's an armadillo." Ray can already tell how strange it is for a squirrel to be brothers with an armadillo.

"An armadillo? I remember seeing him. He stood up for me when Anton's around. I mean he didn't have to." Nicky frowns while scratching his face.

"You met him!?" Ray jumps in front of Nicky as Nicky exclaims.

"Um… Yes? Is that a bad thing?"

"No! That's awesome! Come on! Let's see him together!" Ray grabs Nicky's arm as he drags him towards the playground.

"Ah! Wait! Hold on!" Nicky yells as he's being taken there with a cheerful squirrel boy.

At the playground, Mighty lifts his head up as he sees Nicky again and is with Ray.

"Hey, Mighty! It looks like you know this guy." Ray cheerfully points at Nicky while raising his hand towards Mighty.

"U- Um… Hi." Nicky waves while meekly fidgeting himself.

As Mighty stands up, he approaches Nicky, knowing this hedgehog is shy, making Mighty raise his hand in front of Nicky.

"Sorry for not saying anything. I'm Mighty the Armadillo. And this over there is my brother." Mighty introduces himself with a calm smile.

"Ray the Flying Squirrel! It's nice to meet you, hedgehog!"" Ray cheerfully introduces himself.

To Nicky's surprise, he's seeing a couple of friendly visitors that are now living in this town.

"I- It's nice to meet you… I'm Nicky. Nicky the Hedgehog." Nicky shakes Mighty and Ray's hands, marking them as new friends.

Ray is glad that Mighty is cheering up despite being psychologically scarred.

They'll protect Nicky from anyone who bullies him.

20XX August 6th

Westside Island, Emerald Town

At the beach, Ray is humming while putting a bunch of seashells in a bag along with a fox girl, Patty the Vixen.

Before the duo continues, Patty gasps with surprise and points up as she sees the hedgehog.

"Hey! It's that hedgehog from before!" Patty cheered.

"Hedgehog? Huh!?" Ray drops his bag and spades after seeing what Patty said.

"'Sup, Ray. Collecting sea shells?" Sonic calls as he walks towards Patty and Ray.

"Sonic? I didn't know you're back right now." Ray walks a little while raising his arms.

Patty slides in front of Sonic and then bows to him while moving her pigtail out of the way.

"Thank you, Mr. Sonic. You saved Miles' life from the bullies. I wish I was as strong as you are." Patty lowers her head while thinking about being unable to help Tails a while ago.

"It's no problem. The kid's gotta need someone to help him. Lucky he has a great mom." Sonic sighs as he's glad that Tails is doing fine in this timeline where he and Amy are staying.

"Sonic's right. Miss Prower's an amazing lady." Ray chuckles.

"That is true. She did help us when we're stuck." Patty remembers Rosemary's teachings that helped as a substitute.

Sonic smirks as he sees Ray making more friends, making him sigh and turn towards the blue sky.

"Patty, you're friends with Tails, huh?"

"HEY!"

"Hm?" Sonic and Ray turn around after Patty snapped at Sonic.

"Stop calling him Tails! His name is Miles!" Patty shouted.

Sonic raises his hands, knowing that Patty is this defensive towards Tails, making Sonic sigh.

"Okay. I'll call him Miles if that makes you happy." Sonic concludes with a calm tone and smirks.

"Gee, Patty, I mean I know you're protecting Miles, but isn't it a bit too much to yell at my friend." Ray said while rubbing his head.

Patty clicks her tongue and holds her arm with guilt.

"Sorry. It's just that Miles is bullied because of his tails." Patty apologised.

"I can't blame him. He was born like that. Nothing else we could do." Said Sonic.

"I agree. I kinda feel sorry for the kid." Ray admitted.

Something about Ray has piqued Sonic's curiosity as he approaches Ray a little.

"Ray. Mighty told me about his family being taken away by this Lyric guy. If so, why're you still smiling?" Sonic asked.

"Silly, Sonic. If I don't smile, then what's the point of moving on? I wanted Mighty to be happy as well, so I can lighten everybody up." Ray reveals his depressed smile as he looks at Sonic and Patty.

Patty is speechless as she feels bad for Mighty and Ray after their real family is taken away.

Sonic can tell something is up as he hands the spare can of Chaos Cola over to Ray.

"I promise Mighty that I'll bump into your sister. I'll find that armadillo girl for you. Trust me." Sonic said while letting the can go on Ray's hands.

Tears are dropping as Ray is seeing Nicky's new personality and adventurous nature while still retaining his old kind hearted nature.

"N- Nicky!" Ray is starting to cry as he falls to his knees, making Patty pat a sobbing squirrel's pack.

"It's okay, Ray. I promise." Sonic grins while patting Ray's shoulder.

Ray nods while sniffling.

"Thank you, Nicky! Thank you!"

"Hey. We're friends. And friends always stick together." Sonic giggles while lifting Ray up.

As Ray wipes his tears, he sees Sonic turning around and leaving by waving to him.

"Sonic!" Ray steps forward while shouting.

As Sonic stops, Ray smiles and then grins by doing a peace sign towards Sonic.

"Show everyone who Super Sonic is! We always need him when anything bad happens to all of us!" Ray calls with a cheerful tone.

This is just like Mighty after Sonic leaves him, making Sonic smile and pull up his thumb.

"Sure. I'll save us when we need it. Sometimes, you don't need Super Sonic to save us. We can fight for ourselves." Sonic responds and dashes away, making Ray smirk and pick up his bag.

"Ray, what is Super Sonic like?" Patty asked, making Ray look at the sky.

"He's an angel. He'll be there when Eggman comes back and attacks us." Ray answers with a calm tone.

"Wow. So, is Mr. Sonic your best friend?" Patty asked.

"Yeah. We're always besties since we're in Hedgehog Town." Ray answered.

As for Sonic, he runs through the forest as green shards are changing the timeline for Sonic to reconcile with his friends from earlier after being with Tails and Amy for a while.

Looks like more of his friends are waiting for him.

Present

20XX August 10th

Marble Garden

Walking in a sunset ghost town, Tails and Amy are accompanied by Knuckles the Echidna after their grudge from earlier.

Worried, Amy is seeing if Knuckles is truly helping her and Tails, even Tails is also hostile towards an echidna.

"It seems you two still don't trust me. I guess my lack of understanding is the reason why you both are hostile towards me." Knuckles said calmly while turning his head towards Tails and Amy.

"Speak for yourself. Your parents are friends with Sonic's mom, why did you have to attack us like that earlier?" Tails asked while raising his fists.

"I told you, It's a misunderstanding. My actions are not justifiable, so take it with a grain of salt." Knuckles admitted his faults while continuing with the remaining 2 Team Sonic.

"Knuckles. Tikal… She's…"

"She's back inside the Master Emerald. I guess Eggman was wrong about all of you. Even Mecha Sonic is trying to protect us. But why is he trying to kill Sonic?" Knuckles asked.

"I heard Eggman preprogrammed him to go after Sonic." Amy answered.

"Seriously?" Tails is surprised to hear that.

"Yeah. It's true that Eggman is out to kill our friend. He used you to take the chaos emeralds." Amy reveals everything that Knuckles ignored earlier.

"Killing a child… That's going too far! We need to stop him!" Knuckles growls after knowing the truth.

"We can't." Tails called out.

"What?"

"Eggman entered the past in order to erase Sonic out of existence. It gets to the point that we'll forget about not only Sonic, but Nicky as well." Tails explains the dark truth behind Eggman's plan, making Amy feel frightened, even Knuckles is shocked about all this.

This had Knuckles thinking as he tapped Tails and Amy's arms.

"Come with me." Knuckles leads the way again, making Tails and Amy follow him towards the palace cave around Mystic Ruins.

Hidden Palace

There it is…

The largest chaos emeralds contain far more power that is too much for a chaos emeralds bearer to handle.

"This is…" Amy is speechless.

"The chaos emeralds?" Tails is surprised yet confused.

"These are the super emeralds. They hold that much power to keep Angel Island safe from any threats. They even grant wishes like the chaos emeralds except way quicker and easier." Knuckles show them the true power of chaos that are the super emeralds.

"Like a premium. With these super emeralds, that means Eggman will not stand a chance against us." Tails said while grabbing a stick and drawing some sketches.

"But isn't your chaos energy weaker than Sonic's?" Amy asked.

"Yeah, but I can calculate that these are 7 times more powerful than the chaos emeralds, even the Master is shown to have 525 times the amount of energy. Combine them all together and you have 875 times. Multiply them by 7 and…"

"6125… That amount of chaos energy is brutal. Fox boy, you have a lot of intelligence for a child."

"Thanks, but that's not all. The Master Emerald isn't 525, but it's actually 0." Tails points out.

"Zero!?" Knuckles and Amy exclaimed.

"You mean the Master Emerald is weak!?" Knuckles yelled as Tails flinched.

"No! That's not it! It's actually infinite. The number 0 indicates that the Master Emerald is the controller of the world itself. Fuse the chaos emeralds and super emeralds and you get 0. What I'm saying is that Master Emerald is very special and holds the power of schrodinger. Everything and nothing." Tails explained.

"In other words, the schrodinger's emerald. Tails, that means it's the jack of all trades!" Amy has solved the missing answer that Tails is asking.

"Exactly. Knuckles, you need to keep the Master Emerald as safe as possible." Tails warned.

"I never thought I'd say this, but you're one smart kid. Tails the Fox, how would you like to be my apprentice?" Knuckles raise his hand while grinning at Tails for his knowledge on the chaos emeralds.

"I appreciate it, but I can't. We need the emeralds to save Sonic." Tails decline as he pleads.

"Hmph. Then let's do it." Knuckles accepts as he shakes Tails' hand and turns towards Amy.

"I'm coming with you guys. I've known Sonic since Hedgehog Town, so let me join in with you." Amy pleads while looking serious.

To Knuckles, Amy is just a girl and his culture is different to Sonic's, making him sigh.

"Fine. But with the lack of chaos energy and no contact with the emeralds, you're putting your life at risk. Are you willing to come with us?" Knuckles warned.

"Yeah. I'll do it not only for Sonic, but for Tails and Tikal as well. Even Breezie, Mighty, Ray, Miss Wing, Miss Prower, Nicole, Tekno, Johnny and Sally and her family." Amy concluded.

Knuckles stands next to Amy as he moves his eyes and glares at her.

"Suicide is a mark for death. Killing yourself is your mistake. If you survive, then I'll commend your effort as a true warrior. No child without chaos energy makes it this far. Amy Rose the Hedgehog, I'll accept that as a challenge." Knuckles said as he walked past.

"Hmph. We'll see about that. If Sonic and Tails go, then I'll go." Amy smirks while glaring back at Knuckles.

Knuckles scoffs and then looks at the super emeralds.

"Are you kids ready?" Knuckles asked.

"Ready!" Tails and Amy said at the same time while nodding.