Sonic had no words to describe how he felt when he saw Sunny trapped.
It was anger? Sadness? Concern? Fault? All of them? He couldn't tell, but he immediately looked at Sunny with a sad frown.
"Sunny? Is that you?" Sonic called out with a worried tone and expression.
Unknown for him, the same mysterious figure that watched over him when he first escaped from Cyber Space was spying on him from the distance.
"Hello? I-Is someone there?!" Sunny called out with worry. "Please, help me!" she begged.
"Hang on!" Sonic told her, even tho he suspected that she couldn't her him at all. "M-Maybe messing with the ruins will fix things..." he added, closing his hand into a fist because of how worried he was or her.
However, in front of him, the Sunny's Memory Tokens he collected earlier as he explored the island popped up and entered on the capsule where Sunny was trapped, startling and confusing him in the process. Suddenly, the spikes around the capsule disappeared, and the capsule itself started to shatter.
"Hah!" Sonic cheered with a smile. "So those things are useful after all!" he added.
However, once the capsule broke, the energy of it entered on Sonic's left arm, which he was using to cover himself from the capsule's sudden explosion.
Sunny looked around confused, then slowly landed on the grass. However, something was wrong with her: she was on a digitalized state, meaning that she was here, but not at the same time.
Sunny looked around a bit confused. She could recognize that this was Kronos Island, since she read about the place before, and also saw some pictures; but she didn't get how she ended up here in the first place.
Sonic lifted up his sight and looked at Sunny, both happy but also half concerned. He technically saved her from the capsule, but her current state was a clear sign that she still needed help.
"Hey there, Sunny-bunny!" Sonic greeted with a mocking tone, with his left hand still absorbing the energy of Sunny's capsule, having a glitchy aspect and a red with black color.
"Sonic!" Sunny said with a small smile, that vanished when she saw Sonic's arm. "Are you alright?!" she asked with concern and worry.
"Me?" Sonic said with a raised eyebrow and a teasing smile. "You're the one who's only half here!" he pointed out at her.
Sunny looked at herself, wondering why she was on such a weird state, but still worried about Sonic. "I feel fine. But that energy that was holding me prisoner went into you!" she said with worry.
"Eh, I've been infused with weird zappy stuff before" Sonic pointed out calmly. "Besides, I feel like it gave me some kind of boost!" he added with a confident smile.
"Still... I doubt that you should be absorbing that energy" Sunny pointed out, still worried.
"It's okay, Sunny. As long as I can get you out of this state, I don't mind" Sonic assured with a smile.
"Well... in that case, we need to get moving" Sunny stated, now a bit more relaxed. "If I was trapped, I'm pretty sure Tails and Zipp are too!" she pointed out.
"Good call" Sonic told her. "This place has the Chaos Emeralds capsuled, so if you could give me a hand to find them, it would be great!" he stated with a smile. "As for Tails and Zipp, I'll scout around to look after them and find you later. Deal?" he added, boosting away from her.
"Deal!" Sunny shouted. "Be careful!" she begged with a worried expression.
Sonic came out of nowhere from behind her and stopped in front of her, turning around with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. "Careful? Where's the fun in that?" he asked playfully, still smirking at her.
Sunny shook her head with a smile, knowing fully well that Sonic was going to have as much fun as he could while looking for Tails and Zipp.
Sonic defeated the giant enemy he found earlier, which somehow he discovered was called Azura, and obtained three additional gears: one for defeating the enemy, and two extra for using his new ability on its legs.
He also made a new Cyber Space stage that sent him to a strange city he doesn't remember at all, not even the structure. Still, he felt it was pretty easy to pass and obtained another key for the Chaos Emeralds, even unlocking the Yellow one as he saw its light shining bright from a floating platform.
He just collected the Red Chaos Emerald, and now he was on his way to get the Yellow one. How would he get to the floating platform wasn't his concern at all, to say the truth, but as he ran trough a grass field, a giant creature appeared out of nowhere.
The creature was black, massive, and it literally had a series of teeth inside of his teeth.
It tried to stomp Sonic with one of his legs, but Sonic managed to dodge the creature just in time.
Sonic barely stopped, and then he gasped in both surprise and worry because of how massive was the creature. The only times he saw something this big were when he fought Perfect Chaos and the Death Egg Titan.
The titan slowly turned around to face Sonic once again, while Sonic looked at it with a frown. "I guess that's one of the 'Titans' keeping Sunny trapped" he said with concern.
Suddenly, at the Titan's side, a human-like girl was floating next to the titanic creature. She had a short hair, a very, very scary aspect and an aura that made her look intimidating. She also got some kind of glitchy effect all around her body, that concerned Sonic even more.
She extended her hand to the Titan, and the creature simply 'shut down', which concerned Sonic a lot more now. The girl teleported from her place, now showing up in front of Sonic, who got startled by the sudden appearance of this girl.
"You" the girl called out with a cold stare and voice. "Leave. Immediately" she ordered.
"Where did you come from?" Sonic asked her confused. "Are you trapped too?" he asked a bit worried.
"Do not approach the Titan" she ordered, ignoring Sonic's questions completely.
Sonic, seeing where this conversation was going, smirked confidently and walked away. "Sorry, kid, but I've got a job to do" he said, now running away from her and the Titan.
The girl, however, looked sideways at him, still with the same cold expression. "If we are fortunate, it will destroy you" she said, raising her hand and reactivating the Titan.
The Titan looked directly at Sonic, and raised a leg to stomp once again. Sonic smirked, confident that he'll dodge the attack again, but then, the Titan stomped in the ground, which make it broke and flew in the air. Sonic tried to stop, but then he went flying as well, as he screamed in the air.
He managed to gain composure, and used his Homing Attack against some rocks to get close to the Titan's head. Then, he started to use his Homing Attack several times on the Titan. However, he stopped for a second when he noticed that the Titan was moving his right hand... but got no time to react when it grabbed him.
Sonic grunted in pain, trying to get free of the Titan's grip, but the creature then threw Sonic strong enough towards some pillars, until Sonic crashed on his back against a wall. Sonic rolled on the mountain until he landed on a metallic platform, then he tried to stand up... but ultimately fell unconscious in the floor, while the girl looked everything from the Titan's side.
The girl smiled victoriously, then she disappeared, while the Titan moved to another place.
"Sonic... Sonic... Sonic! SONIC!" a female voice called out, while Sonic slowly opened his eyes.
Once he got his sight fully back, he sat on the ground a breathed heavily, scared and shocked that he's even alive.
He looked at his side to find Sunny, looking at him with a worried expression.
"S-Sunny?" Sonic called out, groaning in pain and standing up. "W-What happened?" he asked confused.
"That... thing! It came out of nowhere, and throw you to some pillars, and..." Sunny explained in panic. "A-Are you hurt?!" she asked with concern.
"My entire body is k-killing me..." Sonic confessed, slowly standing up and grabbing his stomach. "B-But nothing seems broken, so..." he added with concern.
Then, he looked in the direction where the Titan appeared suddenly and sighed.
"I'm not taking that thing down the traditional way" Sonic pointed out. "I'm going to need the Chaos Emeralds... and maybe a little bit of luck" he added with a worried and painful expression.
"I wouldn't worry about the Emeralds yet, Sonic" Sunny said with concern.
"What?" Sonic asked. "What do you mean?" he questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"Better look at it for yourself" Sunny said, moving towards a certain place.
Sonic looked at her strangely, but decided to follow anyways.
And then, just as he was about to ask something, he saw the last thing he wanted: an asset of Eggman, with some supplies and resources around of the asset.
"This is what should worry us... I guess" Sunny pointed out.
"Eggman tech!" Sonic said with both anger and worry. "Seems abandoned, though" he pointed out.
"But still, shouldn't we be careful that he's not around?" Sunny asked with concern.
"I know Eggman. He would have already attacked me the moment I came out of Cyber Space" Sonic pointed out with a frown. "However, I think I'm getting a look inside, just to make sure" he added. "Can you keep looking for the Chaos Emeralds while I explore this asset?" he requested.
Sunny just nodded, before walking away and suddenly disappearing, while Sonic looked back at the asset and went inside of it by Spindashing against the door.
The asset wasn't anything fancy in the inside.
Sonic only saw lots of cables and buttons, also a big round hole in the ground.
"I guess he came with his Eggmobile and everything" Sonic said with a little smirk.
Despite how big the place seemed to be, it was empty. He couldn't find any computer, nor tablet... however, he did find an mp3 player abandoned in the ground.
He was going to grab it, but it glitched a bit before he could touch it. Sonic got both startled and confused, but still decided to pick it up.
"Huh" Sonic said with a raised eyebrow. "This thing wasn't here a second ago" he pointed out with concern.
Sonic looked at the mp3 player and decided to press the play button on it.
"Some force is keeping me from exiting Cyber Space. Is it because my AI made unauthorized access to the databases? If so, that's the exact opposite of what it was supposed to do!" Eggman's voice played.
"Huh?" Sonic said with a confused expression. "Eggman? He's trapped too?!" he questioned in disbelief. "Whatever he was doing, it sure backfired if he's trapped now..." he pointed out with concern. "I have the feeling I should carry this, just in case" he added, looking at the mp3 player and putting it on his quills, then boosting out of the asset.
Sonic got in some rails and then boosted towards boost rings in the air.
However, the medal he grabbed this time wasn't Sunny's Cutie Mark... it was Hitch's.
"Huh?!" Sonic exclaimed with shock. "Hitch's Cutie Mark?! But Hitch didn't came with us!" he pointed out with worry. "He can't be in the island... can he?" he questioned with concern.
"Sonic!" Sunny called out, appearing behind him with a worried expression, and he could swear that she was crying since her cheeks seemed wet, despite her current state.
"Sunny! What's wrong?!" Sonic asked with worry.
Sunny tried to reply, but she saw that he was holding a medal with Hitch's Cutie Mark, so she sobbed and looked back at him. "I-I see you already know..." she said
Sonic looked back at the medal he had on his hand and frowned. "Where is he?" he asked.
Sunny pointed with a worried expression at the floating platform in the distance, where the Yellow Chaos Emerald was located as well.
Sonic nodded with a confident look. "Go ahead and keep an eye on him, Sunny. I'll collect more Memory Tokens for Hitch and catch you up later!" he instructed, boosting away from her.
Sunny looked back at the floating platform with her ears down, before nodding and heading there as well.
Sonic, on the other side, ran towards the platform that was below the floating platform, and saw another one of those Ninja enemies. He smirked and used his Homing Attack to get close to the enemy. He used a series of attacks: his punches; then a new attack called Sonic Boom, where he unleashed shockwaves from his hands; then he used a Wild Rush, where he zigzagged in the air at high speed before kicking the Ninja.
All of that was enough to charge his Phantom Rush, an attack that can only be unleashed once he made enough combos. The attack basically gave Sonic enough speed to move so fast around the enemy that it felt like if he was multiplying himself. Finally, Sonic used his Stomp Attack, and the Ninja disappeared and left another gear behind.
But not only that, it also made a spring appear out of nowhere, and Sonic saw that said spring lead to rails that would sent him to the floating pedestal.
"Hang on, Hitch" Sonic said. "I'll collect more of your Memory Tokens first, and then I'll rescue you" he stated with confidence.
Sonic managed to collect 20 of Hitch's Memory tokens.
He also cleared another Cyber Space stage, that unlocked the Silver Chaos Emerald, but he was going one step at a time.
Now, he used the spring he unlocked before when he defeated that Ninja, and jumped on other two springs to get on the rails, where he boosted to get to the top of the platform. Jumping on another spring and passing through boost rings and doing some air tricks before landing near the Chaos Emerald.
Sonic walked towards the capsule, extended his hand and the key appeared, dissolving and opening the capsule of the Chaos Emerald. Then, the Emerald disappeared and appeared over him, landing on his hand.
Sonic putted the Emerald away, and then he turned to see Sunny looking at Hitch's capsule with worry. He honestly didn't noticed the capsule up until now.
Sonic walked towards them, and then stopped to stare at Hitch with worry. The sheriff wasn't alone: he had his animal crew around, and even Sparky on his back, which only made his concern grow.
"How did they ended up here?" Sonic asked. "Only Tails, Zipp, you and I came here" he pointed out with worry.
"I-I don't know..." Sunny said with a sad tone. "But we had to take them out of there!" she added desperately.
"And we will!" Sonic assured her. "The only problem is that I don't know how to give him the tokens" he confessed.
"What?!" Sunny asked in panic. "T-Then how did you free'd me?!" she questioned with an anxious look.
Before Sonic could reply, the tokens he collected came out of nowhere and started to get inside of the capsule, just like they did when Sonic found Sunny before.
"That happened" Sonic said with a neutral expression.
Once the medals got inside of Hitch's prison, the spikes around it disappeared, and the capsule immediately broke, freeing Hitch, the critters and Sparky in the process.
However, like the last time, the energy of the capsule entered on Sonic's body, once again on his left arm, while Hitch and the critters landed slowly in the ground, since Sparky was on Hitch's back.
"Hitch!" Sunny called out, running towards the sheriff and embracing him on a hug.
"Whoa!" Hitch exclaimed, taken aback since he didn't expected to see Sunny... at all. "S-Sunny?!" he called out in shock and surprise.
"I-I'm so, so glad that you are fine!" Sunny said, not even daring to brake the hug.
Hitch just laughed a bit sheepishly. "What is happening?" he asked, but then he noticed Sonic behind, with his hand being glitchy, red and black once again. "Sonic! You're here too?! And what is that?!" he asked concerned, pointing at Sonic's arm.
"This? Its nothing! Just the energy keeping you trapped giving me a boost to save you from this digital ghost state" Sonic replied with his usual smirk.
Hitch just rolled his eyes, and Sunny finally got apart from him with a smile and a slight blush. Then, Hitch noticed that Sparky and his animal crew were with him as well, which worried him, then he noticed where they were standing.
"How did we get here exactly?" Hitch questioned.
"You mean the island, or the platform?" Sunny asked back.
"The platform" Hitch replied.
"You were already here when we arrived" Sonic replied. "Now, getting serious here: Why are you here exactly?" he asked, crossing his arms and looking at Hitch with a serious expression.
Hitch scratched his head and looked back at Sonic with worry. His critters started to make sounds, mostly telling him to tell Sonic the truth, while Hitch then looked a Sparky on his back, who just shrugged at him. Hitch let out an exhausted groan and looked at Sonic.
"Well... let's just say that Knuckles kinda brought us here by accident..." Hitch started to explain...
Eggman managed to wake up from his unconscious state, kneeling and catching his breath for a second, before finally realizing where he was: Cyber Space.
He slowly stood up, and noticed that he was on some kind of city, probably created by the data on his memories. To tell the truth, he never saw this city before, so he just assumed it was a mix of many of the cities he has visited in the past.
He walked towards the edge of the highway he was standing on, and started to look around all the possible ways he had on this Cyber Space stage.
"I appear to be in a digital dimension" Eggman stated to himself, recording a memo on his suit. "I've employed similar constructs in my own systems, but this is markedly more advanced" he pointed out.
He suddenly paused the recording after he realized what he just said.
"Note to self: don't admit that to anyone" Eggman told himself, then resumed the recording. "The amount of data stored here defies quantification" he stated.
As he looked around, he was overwhelmed by how many data was stored on Cyber Spaced. He investigated everything he could about the place, and he knew that discovering the secrets of the Ancients to control their technology could take ages, if not his entire life.
But then, he gave a determinate look and tapped his own head. "But it won't stop me from trying!" he declared.
Maybe it will take forever, but for him, it was worth the shot.
Sonic had to go and destroy a few enemies and complete Cyber Space levels to get rid of his frustration.
Hitch basically explained that Knuckles found a gear and a Cyber Space portal back in Maretime Bay, and of course, Knuckles decided to investigate further. It wouldn't had been a problem if Knuckles used the gear and got dragged to the Starfall Islands alone... but Hitch, Sparky, the critters, Izzy and Pipp were with him too, and just as he feared, they got dragged to this place too.
Of course, Sonic didn't took that well, specially with Pipp being dragged to all of this. He though that it would be just save Sunny, Zipp and Tails, then go back to Maretime Bay and act like if nothing of this ever happened... but with the rest being dragged, things escalated quickly. Sonic was now on a race against time, and the sooner he collected the Chaos Emeralds and defeated the Titans, the better.
Right now, he headed to get the Silver Chaos Emerald, and curiously, he found both Sunny and Hitch, with Sparky and the critters, near the pedestal.
Sonic decided to stop and talk with them a bit first. "Hey guys" he greeted with a nervous smile. "Sorry for just run away before... I needed to process things on my way" he apologized.
"It's understandable, Sonic. Don't worry" Hitch told him with a smile. "Honestly, if Knuckles didn't used the gear, either Izzy or somepony else would have" he pointed out.
"Yeah, I know" Sonic confessed. "And I don't blame Knuckles for dragging you here too. He didn't knew what the gear was for, or that the portal was a portal at all" he pointed out as well.
"How did you got trapped?" Sunny asked to Hitch. "You didn't mentioned that before" she pointed out.
"Sparky, the critters and I appeared in front of a portal near the river over there" Hitch explained. "After that, black creatures appeared and tried to attack us, but thanks to my magic and Sparky's fire, we defeated them... until a giant creature with three arms and a weird girl appeared and captured us on that capsule near the Chaos Emerald" he added with a bored expression.
"So, a group of Soldiers attacked you, and then that weirdo attacked with an Asura..." Sonic summarized. "I'm guessing the others are on the rest of the islands, or else I would have run into them by now" he pointed out with a frown.
"Yeah... sorry for the bother, Sonic" Hitch apologized.
"Eh, no biggie" Sonic assured. "I'm used to watch over my friends backs, anyway" he added with a smile. "However, I do wonder why I managed to escape Cyber Space, but you guys are still half ghost" he said with concern.
"Well, we feel fine, despite our... digital state" Sunny said with a smile.
"If you say so..." Sonic said, then looked at the tower that contained the Silver Chaos Emerald with a frown.
Both Hitch and Sunny noticed that, and they looked in the same direction, but found nothing weird.
"What's the matter?" Hitch asked with concern.
"Something's been bugging me about these ruins" Sonic confessed, now crossing his arms. "The whole reason we came was because Tails detected the Chaos Emeralds were drawn here, right?" he asked to Sunny, as she nodded to him. "And now, I'm finding digital keys and confinement towers seem costume-made to hold the Emeralds" he explained. "Like half this stuff was built with them in mind" he pointed out.
"Maybe the Ancients used the Chaos Emeralds in the past?" Sunny suggested. "I mean, you guys didn't knew the Chaos Emeralds are from this dimension until, like, 2 months ago" she pointed out.
"And you have mentioned that other civilizations on your world have used the Emeralds as well, way before even Longclaw was born" Hitch added.
"True, but those groups tried to use them" Sonic pointed out. "The stuff here seems all about containment" he added.
"Hmm..." Sunny said, placing a hoof on her chin. "Maybe they knew something about their power that we don't?" Sunny said. "The Chaos Emeralds are still pretty mysterious, even after all you've done with them" she pointed out.
"True..." Sonic said, rubbing his chin. "Perhaps the Ancients feared the power of the Emeralds, so they just went with the easy route and contained them on those towers" he guessed.
"Perhaps we'll never know, or perhaps we will" Hitch stated. "In any case, we should look for the Emeralds so you can defeat this... Titan, you named it?" he asked.
"Yeah" Sonic said, also nodding his head. "I'll get the Emerald, and then I'll just wonder around until I found the remaining ones" he told the ponies with a smile.
"Well then, we'll see you later" Sunny told him with a smile as well, walking away.
"Take care, Sonic" Hitch told him with a smirk.
As the two ponies disappeared, Sonic walked to the tower and extended his hand, then the key appeared and unlocked the capsule of the Emerald. Once again, the Emerald disappeared and then reappeared, slowly landing on Sonic's hand.
However, once Sonic putted the Emerald aside and decided to keep going, he felt something vibrating on his quills. Sonic decided to check out what was it, and he discovered it was the mp3 player he found on Eggman's asset. The screen said '4 new entries', and Sonic raised an eyebrow.
"I guess I can hear these before keep going" Sonic said with a little smile, then pressed the play button on the mp3 player.
"What are G.U.N. military craft doing in here?! Sage has helped me avoid the worst of it, and it doesn't appear to be manned. Is it a defense mechanism? I need to learn more" the first entry played.
"I've seen some of G.U.N. tanks and helicopters on Cyber Space as well" Sonic muttered with a frown. "And who's Sage? I never heard of anyone with that name before..." he pointed out, then pressed the play button again to hear the next entry.
"The 'terrain' here keeps shifting. I'm finding recreations of regions from South Island, West Side Island, even Angel Island! Where is this environmental data coming from?" the entry played.
"So Cyber Space is some kind of memory extractor... and Egghead hasn't realized that I'm here... yet" Sonic muttered again. "Better keep it like this for a while" he stated, pressing the play button again.
"I have found elements from my own EggNet, United Federation, even Planet Donpa Kingdom race data! But not only that: Canterlot, Crystal Empire, Ponyville, even Manehattan! Places from this dimension are listed in here as well! As best as I can surmise, this Cyber Space extends well beyond the scope of these islands and is gaining information from around this world and mine. Fascinating!" the third entry played.
Sonic's eyes widened on the last entry. "Cyber Space is more powerful than I would like it to be..." he said with a frown. "Perhaps I should be more careful on what I'm thinking whenever I interact with that place" he stated, before pressing the play button one last time.
"I am officially jealous. This entire expanse was constructed by the ancient race who had previously settled on these islands! The level of technology they employed is completely alien to me, so I can't salvage it... yet" the fourth and last entry played.
"Eggman jealous of others tech? Now that has to be quite something!" Sonic snickered, putting the mp3 player away and boosting towards the metallic platform he landed on when the Titan attacked him before.