A peaceful day in Mobius… the world remains calm and serene, a day where Mobians can finally live in peace… Everyone exists in this crazy world, surrounded by either peace or conflict. One may expect the unexpected on the most random day. One person can live in peace, not minding the drama currently happening, while the other is in a situational hellhole. It’s a world where everyone has to adapt to the unexpected environment that unfolds, whether they live in urban or rural areas. They’ll always find a way to interact or spot those on the side of the good and the bad.

  Until then, this day remains peaceful.

  No crimes.

  Nothing.

  — Angel Island (Mobius) —

  In Angel Island, Knuckles awaits to guard Master Emerald yet again, but this time, he senses something is wrong… really wrong. Right away, he dashes to the pedestal, hoping that whatever he senses isn’t true.

  However, whatever hope he gained was far from right, opposed to the outcome he’s currently witnessing.

  The Master Emerald is missing.

  Desperately looking around everywhere, Knuckles spots a mech flying away at a significant distance, and he knows who it is. “DAMN YOU, EGGMAN!” Knuckles's voice roars, echoing throughout the entirety of Angel Island; his history involving Eggman’s plans with the Master Emerald is best described upon total resentment from the past to the present.

  Eggman chuckles menacingly, his voice low, while fleeing as far as he can go. “Try to catch me…” His plan to use the Master Emerald is just like the other plans he’s been anticipating for a long time. This time, he plans to make things difficult for Sonic and his friends, having conducted extensive research in his lab and committed to this plan wholeheartedly, leaving everything behind.

  — Somewhere in Mobius —

  After Knuckles informed Sonic and his friends (Tails, Amy, Rouge, Shadow, Cream, Silver, and Blaze) of the alarming news, they all grouped together and quickly tracked down Eggman. All that calm day just for Eggman to ruin their relaxed and peaceful day once again. Knuckles is already tired and annoyed that Eggman is constantly stealing the Master Emerald, and for this to happen after only a day of relaxation, he has had enough.

  While the team is making substantial progress in chasing him, Rouge glides elegantly, gazing at Knuckles while curious about his status. “Hey, Knuckles.” Her voice causes him to finally take a listen to her, "How are you feeling?” Putting on a smirk to emphasize her teasing.

  Knuckles remains in his stoic expression, his gaze set on Eggman, but he still has tension with her involving the Master Emerald. “Stop distracting me, Rouge. And, no, you’re not going to get the Master Emerald after we defeat him.”

  Rouge rolls her eyes and giggles, “Relax, red-head. Besides, I have a lot of things to plan after we stop Eggman.” Her tempting voice was already luring enough. She thinks about her plans, “And once his mech is destroyed, that sweet Master Emerald will for sure be mine-”

  “Rouge, focus on our mission. We’re all in this together.” Shadow instantly cuts off her speech, already shooting some bullets at the mech, which doesn’t do much damage.

  In the mech, the camera displays each of the team members’ movements, noticing they’re catching up to him at an alarming rate. Eggman takes every regard for his plan, and he’s not going to hold back. “These brats think they’ll stop my plan again!?” Pulling out the lever causes boosters to open. “I hope this is enough!” The mech boosts itself further, relieving the distance between the team and Eggman once again.

  “Egghead is always like this.” Sonic says before yawning, bored of constantly having to deal with Eggman. “Hey, Silver.” He tirelessly says.

  “What is it?” Silver looks down at Sonic with a confused expression.

  Sonic yawns again; clearly, he overslept but is still out, running to finish a simple mission. “Can you just use your psychokinetic powers right now? I want to get this over with.” His tired eyes answer with a plea, desperately needing to sleep.

  Silver sighs and shifts his focus back to the mech, getting himself ready for combat. “I’ll-” CRASH!!!

  Not even another word, and Silver gets hit by a random object, instantly waking Sonic up mentally. “HA! You think you can use Silver to stop me that easily!?” The loud microphone from Eggman, as it exclaims to everyone while the mech outpaces them. “I like to see how desperate you all are to stop me!”

  “Silver!” Blaze and Cream stop chasing and check on him medically. He’s injured, yet no scratches or blood are visible to them. “Are you alright?!” Blaze desperately questions him.

  Silver groans before angrily punching the ground in frustration, “I should’ve paid attention to my surroundings…” His voice emphasizes his defeat before Blaze and Cream help him get up. “Though I’m fine… but… my head kind of hurts.”

  “Mr. Silver.” Cream says while ruffling his head to counteract the injury. “Always watch out ahead, just like what Tails said before chasing him.” Cheese nods in agreement, though a hint in her voice is still concerned about his injury.

  Meanwhile, in response to Silver's injury, the rest of the team speeds up, catching on to Eggman’s mech and letting him know that they’re not giving up on him that easily. They dangerously close the distance between themselves and Eggman; he finally realizes the situation he’s in, and another backup boost is pressed, finally outpacing the team once more.

  “Tails, I need backup here!” Sonic yells out as his legs become exhausted from the excessive running.

  Tails immediately gazes towards Sonic and quickly descends; he grabs onto his hand, where their hands get a tight grip before he ascends back to his original altitude. “Hold on tight, Sonic!” He pulls out a jetpack that he built earlier in case of any missions revolving around chasing an enemy, and this will be the perfect time to use it as he turns it on. “We’ll catch him- WOAHHHHHH!” The jetpack instantly quickens their chase, halting their conversation further.

  Eggman detects them rapidly approaching him and presses his last emergency button. Just like usual, his mech speeds up, though it also automatically launches missiles at them. “Look out, Tails!” Sonic shouts out while Tails prepares to dodge the missiles. However, with some of the experiences that Tails has gone through, he successfully maneuvers and dodges every one of them. “Hah!” Sonic exclaims while pointing at Eggman, his usual tease never letting go of him. “Is that all you go- WATCH OUT TAILS!!!” The missiles home in on them from behind, letting them know how devoted Eggman is.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Pathetic… infested… anthropomorphic beings... Let me own the Master Emerald for good.” Eggman’s thoughts rummaged throughout his mind, constantly having to remind himself about the failed outcome he had against Sonic or someone else.

  Every.

  Single.

  Time.

  This time… he senses a different outcome… a different result that may finally be the plan he has hoped and dreamed of to avenge his past failures.

  “Tails, is this thing going any faster?!” Sonic holds onto Tails’s hand tightly, while nervously staring into the homing missile that approaches ever so slightly. Yet the jetpack doesn’t seem to correspond to his words, where it slows down. Tails intensely stares at Eggman’s mech ahead, unfocused on the missiles that are meters apart from each other. “TAILS, IT’S COMING CLOSE!!!”

  Tails maneuvers in a multitude of ways, forcing each missile to lose track of them while continuing to shift his movements in multiple directions. Despite his maneuver, not only does it still detect them, but he has lost the significant pace he had when trailing by Eggman at a close distance, leading him to give up on everything.

  “... Sonic… I’m sorry…”

  Sonic’s ears droop, and he starts closing his eyes, letting all the emotion die down inside him. As the missile gets closer and closer, their mind goes numb… and they let all the core memories flash back in their mind, enjoying their last moments together.

  All while the missile is finally an inch apart.

  Kaboom.

  “...”

  “... What…?”

  “Tails…?”

  “W-We’re still alive!”

  Sonic’s eyes widen open, his hand still clutching onto Tails’s hand while they both remain unharmed. While the jetpack is flowing smoothly, the missile has already exploded mid-air from behind. No one knows how the missile exploded mid-air until a voice shouts from below. “Focus, guys!” Shadow yells out while holding a gun. “You gonna chase him or what!?” He continues to fire gunshots, leading to the missiles exploding from behind.

  “Y-You’re right! Thank you, Shadow!” Tails’s eyes are downcast to the ground, where he can still spot the rest of the team chasing down Eggman with them. Although feeling comfortable, the jetpack, which is still flowing smoothly, begins to show signs of its degrading fuel and is now desperately in need of assistance. “We can’t catch up to Eggman if we don’t have any assistance for us!”

  Then, an idea forms from Knuckles. While he’s gliding, he slowly approaches them and yells, “Tails, I’m about to use my strength to throw you towards Eggman!” He exclaims, confidently sure that this plan is guaranteed to work. “Just like a baseball!”

  Sonic is immediately horrified by this plan. He quickly points at Knuckles and tells him, “Don’t you dare make us a base-!”

  “Hell yeah! We have to stop Eggman somehow, and acting like a baseball should do the trick!” Tails not only cuts off Sonic, but his reaction is the polar opposite, leading Sonic’s feelings to turn South pretty quickly.

  Knuckles immediately grabs onto Tails’s jetpack and glides down, letting him land on the ground smoothly while the others pass them. Tails immediately removes the jetpack as it flies away and explodes at a distance. “I’ll use all my strength to throw you two directly through the mech’s core.” A deep breath, followed by some stretching, prepares him to focus on his strength and accuracy as he picks them up. “You guys ready?!”

  Tails, with determination, puts on a smirk while holding on to Sonic. “Born ready.”

  Sonic groans while he rests his head on Tails’s shoulder, feeling the side effects kicking in. “No... I’m getting dizzy…”

  “Let’s do this then!” Knuckles ignores Sonic’s concern and gets ready to throw.

  “3!”

  “2!”

  “1!”

  “WHY-?!” But too little too late for Sonic’s complaining, and Knuckles throws them.

  As a baseball, both scream while being thrown at Eggman at an unprecedented rate, equivalent to the speed of light. Eggman finally notices, but it’s too late; they both crash through the mech, causing consequential damage to the boosters. This results in the mech substantially slowing and falling to the ground, hindering its movement and speed.

  While both are still spinning, Tails gets a small glimpse of the mech; a glaring hole caused by them is directly set through the mech’s core, a great sign that the mech is dysfunctional. “We did it, Sonic! We dealt devastating damage to his mech!” He exclaims in excitement, still spinning like before, but it is still relatively harmless. Sonic, however, is very dizzy and nauseous. “Umm… sorry, Sonic.” He nervously chuckles before they proceed to land on the ground.

  Knuckles, Shadow, Amy, and Rouge stare at the mech, astonished at the blown damage. The mech stops fleeing and stands there, either frozen or twitching in its devastated state. “Geez, Knuckles. That’s quite the damage.” Amy responds in awe of the scenery.

  “Odd plan, yet an effective outcome…” Shadow inspects the debris fallen to the ground, where most of the core boosters have been destroyed and separated. “Amy, finish the job.”

  Eggman hits the machine in desperation for the mech to have some sort of movement, hoping to keep his plan alive. “Damn it!” He continuously punches and slams his fist onto the machine, breaking it. “Move!” Pressing multiple buttons isn’t effective, nor is hitting the machine. Instead, something hits the leg of his robot, something not done by Eggman himself. Revealing the screens, Amy has swung her hammer multiple times, constant and devastating blows cause the mech to be destroyed. “Great, now you’re letting her hit you.” He starts leaning on the chair and holds on to the Master Emerald in his hands, scratching out his plan for good. “Thank you so much for doing this. It was a nice plan all along… IN MY GOD DAMN HEAD!!!” He says before the mech proceeds to crash to the ground.

  At the crash site, Eggman crawls out of the mech, coughing from the debris and mess while still holding on to the Master Emerald. “My plan… My beautiful plan…” His injuries are relatively minor, consisting of a few scratches alongside some sprains throughout his body. “I suppose it’s time… before I do give the Master Emerald back…” He slowly sits back up before the team finally surrounds him in a circle.

  While surrounded, Blaze and Cream bring an injured Silver, whose injury isn’t as serious as it initially seems, but still requires support. Tails, however, supports a tremendously dizzy Sonic, his head swirling from the impact. “You… Eggman… lost… again…” He tries pointing at him, but his entire head leans down to the ground, and his finger curves slightly toward the ground, too. “You… lost… a-”

  “That’s enough, Sonic.” Tails immediately shuts him off while gently putting him on the ground, giving him time to rest and recover.

  Knuckles goes through a stack of debris and extends his arm out. “Give us back the Master Emerald!” He yells before adding a slight asterisk. “Not her, though.”

  “Hey!” Rouge raises her arms in frustration, out of everyone that Knuckles points out not to give the Master Emerald to, it’s her. “Oh, come onnnnnn…” She frowns at his response, feeling humbled. “Are you seriously trying not to give me the Master Emer-?”

  “NEVER!!!” Both Eggman and Knuckles instantly respond and cut her off.

  “Okay! Okay…! Geez… get a grip, you two…” She is a bit hurt from their synchronized responses, but of course, they’re smart enough to know that they’re not giving the Master Emerald to her.

  “Though…” Knuckles starts to glare at Eggman, knowing his intentions. “Give it back, now!”

  Eggman slowly crawls backwards to get away from Knuckles, but Shadow is already behind him, now and truly surrounded. He gives up hope… the plan he had long awaited… has now faded.

  Failures…

  After failures…

  After failures…

  Eggman sighs and places a hand down on the debris, slowly letting go of the Master Emerald, while still having an arm wrapped around it, struggling between his will to give up and his dedication. “Come on… Egghead…! Just give the… thing… back to Knuckles and we… go on with our day…” Sonic’s dizzy, albeit strong words, pressure him to reconsider his decision to give up.

  Before Eggman gives up, something feels… off when he feels the debris on his right hand. Although the mech is destroyed, not everything is essentially powered up by it, and to his astonishment, it’s something different. This is where he secretly smirks, letting his unintentional backup plan finally take effect. “This is about to be spectacular…” A slight and menacing chuckle causes the team to be fully aware and suspicious of the situation, yet confused about why he’s acting the way he is. “You think you’re about to win, huh?” His chuckle begins to transition to menacing laughter. “But fear not! I’ll do something that’ll rethink all of your lives!” Under Eggman’s hand, a button has been activated, and surrounding him, a portal opens up. He gracefully falls through the portal with his arms wide open. “So long!” His voice echoes throughout the portal, leaving a sense of shock and unease within the team.

  “DAMN IT!!!” Knuckles yells and punches the debris ferociously, letting his anger take over his body. “DAMN IT! DAMN IT! DAMN IT!” He grabs one of the mech parts and throws it away, deep into the absolute nowhere. “WE NEED THE MASTER EMERALD BACK!!!”

  The rest of the team watches in disbelief. All of that work to chase down Eggman and destroy the mech… resulted in a defeat? Left stunned, they need to figure out a plan to stop Eggman from using the Master Emerald to his full advantage and potential. However, the portal is still up and running, enabling the team to easily go through the portal and chase down Eggman, per usual. The problem is that they’re unsure how long the portal will last, so if the team opts to alarm every friend or ally they know of in Mobius, it’ll probably be too late for them to go through the portal once. In this difficult decision, they have to make a choice. Either stay in Mobius and let Eggman do what he has to do with the Master Emerald, or go through the portal and see where it leads them.

  You readers know where this is going.

  Therefore, each team member jumps down the portal, looking forward to wherever they’re brought, to get the Master Emerald back. After everyone jumps through the portal, Sonic is the only one who’s still left to jump. He looks around Mobius, wondering if this will be the last time watching the peaceful atmosphere despite the wreckage around him. Even if he’s dizzy, he still has a mission to do, and that mission is to jump through the portal.

  “The blue blur onto saving the day once more!” Sonic says all to himself, bringing a good charm before he proceeds to jump through the portal, disappearing into wherever until the portal finally closes off for good.