Sonic flew across the ocean, arriving now to the dessert island, a.k.a. Ares Island.
However, he was flying so fast that he didn't noticed a defensive mechanism activating and shooting two lasers to him.
"Whoa!" Sonic exclaimed startled.
One of the lasers passed by, but the other one hit him. He started to fall to some sunken sand, rolling in the air and finally landing in the sand.
He shook his head, feeling a bit of pain on his back, but he still managed to stand up and look at the sky with a concerned expression. There, he saw the 7 Chaos Emeralds, spinning in the sky until they split up across the island.
Sonic sighed a bit concerned, not liking the idea of having to search for the Chaos Emeralds again. "Nah. That's cool" he told himself with a tired expression. "I didn't want this to be easy, anyway" he added.
After verifying his surroundings, he nodded to himself and got out of the sunken sand. He saw more of those rails, springs, climbing spots and stamina rings around, as well as the boost rings. He also noticed two new Memory Tokens: the first one was some kind of military medal, and the second one was Izzy's Cutie Mark.
"Let me guess: Knuckles and Izzy, huh?" Sonic told himself, then he grabbed both Memory Tokens and putted them aside. "I'll better start looking for those two before another of those titans shows up and decides to launch me against a mountain... again" he said with a bit of annoyance, before boosting through the desert island.
However, it didn't took him so long to recognize another of those capsules where he found Sunny and Hitch before. He approached to said capsule, just to find Knuckles inside of it, sitting inside his prison and looking absolutely bored.
"Knuckles? Can you hear me, buddy?" Sonic called out, but just as he expected, Knuckles didn't replied anything. "Never mind–– I'll get you out. Hang on!" he assured.
Conveniently, he found one of those mystery chests that could only be opened with his new ability. After he used said ability, he obtained 8 of Knuckles' Memory Tokens. He felt he needed a few more to free Knuckles from his prison, so he decided to go around the Island and look after more Memory Tokens.
After 30 minutes, Sonic defeated some enemies and gained a gear, which he used to open a Cyber Space portal that took him back to the first act ever he cleared on Green Hill Zone.
After passing the stage, he gained 4 keys, enough to make the Blue Chaos Emerald to shine and reveal its location for Sonic to go and take it.
However, he also got enough Memory Tokens to save Knuckles, as well as a few of Izzy's Memory Tokens to save her as well.
So, Sonic ran back to the capsule where Knuckles was trapped, and once the Memory Tokens got inside of the capsule, Sonic smirked, because he was ready to mock Knuckles about the fact that he got trapped on the capsule.
Once the spikes of the capsule disappeared, the capsule itself broke, and the Cyber Energy of it went straight to Sonic's right arm, while Knuckles himself grunted a bit as he landed slowly in the sand.
Sonic grunted in pain because of the Cyber Energy on his body, while Knuckles looked at his hands, noticing he was still on a digital state. None of them noticed that Sage was looking at them from the sky.
"Some rescue" Knuckles complained, turning and looking at Sonic with a frown. "I'm still half-ghost!" he said.
"I'm working on it, okay?!" Sonic groaned with a frown as well.
Sage looked a bit confused at Sonic before disappearing.
Sonic raised his hand when he saw that Knuckles wanted to punch him, but Knuckles' fist went through Sonic's hand because of his digital state.
"What's going on with you?" Knuckles asked, noticing the Cyber Energy on Sonic's right arm.
"Ah, just a little side-effect of the island's weird energy" Sonic explained, still smirking.
As the Cyber Energy on Sonic's arm disappeared, Knuckles smirked back at Sonic, before starting to look at the surroundings with a critical look.
"By the way, I met Hitch on the previous island and he told me that you brought him, Izzy and Pipp to the islands by accident" Sonic said with a concerned tone. "Care to explain?" he asked.
"We were investigating some strange ruins when we were transported here" Knuckles explained. "I got trapped eventually, and I'm guessing the rest got trapped as well" he guessed, walking around Sonic as he looked at the surroundings.
Sonic couldn't help but smirk more. "Never a dull moment with you" he mocked up.
Knuckles rolled his eyes at Sonic's attitude. "I'm just glad to hear that Hitch is safe" he said. "Now, just bring me up to speed" he begged.
Sonic's smirk disappeared once he remembered that Knuckles wasn't the only one trapped in this island. "Listen, I need to look for the Chaos Emeralds to beat-up some big robots" he started to explain, while Knuckles rolled his eyes again and crossed his arms. "But first, we need to find Izzy and free her from her prison" he stated.
Now that called Knuckles attention, as he turned and looked at Sonic with a panicked expression. "Izzy?!" he asked in panic. "She's in this island?!" he asked again.
Sonic nodded with a serious look. "Once we free her from her prison, we'll look for the Emeralds. And once you two are free from this half-ghost state, you'll be back to guard Maretime Bay with Hitch in no time!" he assured with his usual smile.
Knuckles closed his eyes, thinking on Sonic's suggestion, before opening an eye and smirking playfully at him. "Sounds like a plan!" he said on a mocking tone.
Sonic growled, and stared back at Knuckles, since he wasn't a big fan of him. Yet, he knew he had to help him and Izzy as well.
Before going to free Izzy, Sonic decided to recover the Blue Chaos Emerald first, using the keys he gained from Cyber Space and freeing the Emerald from the tower as usual.
After that, he collected more of Izzy's Memory Tokens and decided to meet with Knuckles... but as he ran through the desert, he couldn't help but sense that something was wrong.
And then, in the sky, a strange figure appeared out of nowhere: Ares Island's Titan. This one was very different to Giganto: it was some kind of giant snake with two arms and a big mouth with really sharp teeth. It also had spikes all around its body.
Sonic looked at the Titan, both impressed and disturbed, but since the Titan was just flying around, Sonic sighed in relief since it didn't noticed him.
However, Sage appeared suddenly at his side, startling Sonic, who stepped back and looked at her confused.
"While I cannot fully control it, I can awaken its rage against you" Sage told Sonic with a cold tone and stare.
Then, Sage turned and raised her hand, that shone bright as she instructed the Titan to attack Sonic. The Titan turned around, and Sage disappeared, while Sonic just looked at the Titan with a frown. He was scared, since he didn't had the Chaos Emeralds, he literally just recovered the Blue one.
The Titan approached Sonic, and opened its mouth as it roared, while Sonic stepped a bit back, but still frowning.
"I need to find someplace safe!" Sonic said, before boosting away from the Titan.
As he tried to run away, the Titan roared once again and started to shoot several missiles from its body. Sonic managed to dodge all those missiles, boosting across the island as he tried to find a place to hide from the Titan.
He reached some platforms, where he collected some stamina rings, more Izzy's Memory Tokens and even managed to gain a bit more of speed thanks to the boost rings.
Finally, he reached a place with some rocks, perfect for him to hide, but then he noticed that a missile almost crashed against him, so he jumped in the air, but as soon as he saw more missiles, he used his stomp ability and landed in the ground, then jumped again to dodge some more missiles, landing once again on the ground and running away from one last missile, hiding behind a rock.
He fell to the ground and lay his back on the rock, breathing heavily as he tried to catch his breath after that chase with the Titan.
Speaking of it, a few more missiles fell in some rocks ahead of the one he was hiding on, while the Titan flew away since it couldn't detect Sonic anymore.
Sonic sighed in relief, standing up and cleaning some dust from his body, but then he heard something and looked at the sky, finding Sage floating there once again.
"You cannot run forever" Sage told him with a cold stare. "Final warning: leave" she added, once again disappearing.
Sonic stared at the sky confused before frowning. "Tch. That was a 'warning'?" he said with anger and sarcasm. "I barely escaped alive!" he said with frustration. "Better go find Knuckles and see if he found Izzy already, or any Chaos Emerald for that matter" he told himself, boosting away before Sage or the Titan returned.
Sonic ran through the desert once again, this time towards some ruins where he agreed to met with Knuckles.
However, as he approached to said ruins, he couldn't help but notice that Sage appeared once again, so he stopped and looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Father was right about you!" Sage told him, for the very first time, showing an emotion: anger. "You're reckless and destructive!" she added, still mad.
"I have no idea what your deal is, but if we could just talk..." Sonic tried to resonate, raising his hands and trying to calm her down.
"No!" Sage cut him off. "No discourse, no bartering, only elimination!" she exclaimed, raising her hand and preparing to shot a laser to him.
However, Knuckles came running at top speed, and once Sage let the laser go, Knuckles quickly moved in front of Sonic, who's eyes opened wide when he saw Knuckles, then he closed his eyes while Knuckles placed his hands in front of him and repealed the laser. After all, he was also in Cyber Space like Sage, so her attack didn't affected him.
Sage frowned at Knuckles, while the echidna placed his fists together and ran towards her, ready to have a proper fight with her. Sage stepped back, but then Sonic himself stopped Knuckles from going any further.
"Whoa-whoa-WHOA! Time-out!" Sonic told Knuckles with a concerned expression.
"Time-out?! She attacked you!" Knuckles pointed out with anger.
"Yeah, it's kind of her thing" Sonic told him with a neutral expression and a calmed tone. "But she's trying to protect something... Or someone" he pointed out, then looked back at Sage and walked towards her, while raising his hands like telling 'calm down' to her. "I'm willing to help, but first I need to know what's going on" he told her with honesty.
Sage gasped after hearing that. A part of her wanted to listen, to reveal against her 'father' and accept Sonic's help... but that wouldn't make her any better than his father's previous creations, so she denied with the head and frowned at him again.
"No! You don't know what you're talking about!" Sage replied with anger and concern, before disappearing once again.
Sonic and Knuckles stared confused at the spot where she was a few seconds ago, before Knuckles groaned again and looked at Sonic with a frown.
"You're too trusting, Sonic" Knuckles told the hedgehog with concern.
"No, I'm not" Sonic told him with a neutral expression, before smirking playfully at him. "Trust me!" he added with a mocking tone, while Knuckles groaned in annoyance, still frowning at him. "By the way, why did you wanted to meet me here?" he asked, now with a more neutral tone.
Knuckles kept frowning, but ended up sighing and looking at him with a serious expression. "I think I found Izzy's location" he told Sonic with a worried tone.
"About time!" Sonic said in relief. "The sooner we rescue her so we can collect the Emeralds, the sooner I'll defeat that Titan so I can free you both" he stated with a smile. "Lead the way, Knucklehead!" he told him.
Knuckles simply boosted away, with Sonic following up close behind.
After a while, Sonic and Knuckles hid behind some rocks, staring at Izzy's capsule... that was right below a giant enemy named Strider.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me..." Sonic groaned.
"That thing gives me the creeps" Knuckles muttered with anger. "Think you can take that down?" he asked.
"Eh, it shouldn't be a problem" Sonic said with a smirk. "I'll save your girlfriend in no time, Knucklehead!" he added with a mocking tone, while Knuckles looked at him with a bored expression. "Be right back!" he assured, launching himself towards Strider.
Once Strider detected Sonic's presence, he launched several circular rails around the area. Sonic jumped and used his boost on of them until it became full circle, then jumped into the next one and did the same, and then he jumped to a third one to repeat the process before umping straight to the three rails around Strider.
There, Sonic used his boost ability to fill the first rails into a blue color that should make a bit of damage to strider. A laser came out suddenly from the enemy, but since it landed on a place where Sonic already passed by, he just smirked and jumped to the next rail to do the exact same thing. After going full circle in the second rail, Sonic jumped to the third and final one, while Strider launched another laser... on the second rails that Sonic already completed.
Once he completed the final rails, some kind of platform appeared around Strider's weak point, and so, Sonic used his Homing Attack and started to punch the enemy there until he charged up his Phantom Rush. But instead of using it, he moved aside and used his Wild Rush attack instead. Then, he decided to use a new ability he just learned: Homing Shot, a move that allowed him to launch a volley of energy spheres at his enemies. After using this attack, he decided to keep punching Strider until he charged the Phantom Rush again, and started to attack him even faster now.
But then, the platform he was standing on disappeared, and so he realized that he had to do everything again from the ground. So, he got onto the circular rails again and boosted in them, until he reached the ones around Strider's weak point again. After repeating the same process from before, the platform appeared again, and so he started to punch the weak point again, once again using the Homing Shot and finishing the enemy with a Wild Rush.
After Strider exploded and disappeared, Sonic landed in the ground, and even obtained a new gear for a Cyber Space portal. He grabbed the gear and putted it aside, then he noticed the capsule where Izzy was trapped, and Knuckles standing at its side with his arms crossed.
Sonic walked towards them and stopped in front if the capsule, extending his hand and making the Izzy's Memory Tokens appear, as they got inside of the capsule and made the spikes around it disappear as always.
After that, the capsule exploded, and Izzy landed slowly in the ground, looking at her body confused, since she was still on a digital state. In the meantime, Knuckles ran towards her with a smile, while Sonic drained the energy of the capsule again. He grunted in pain, not liking to deal with this Cyber Energy, but if it was necessary to save his friends, then he was willing to accept this energy, and therefore, to deal with the pain.
"Izzy!" Knuckles shouted.
Izzy herself turned, and was embraced on a hug by his boyfriend. Again, since they're both in Cyber Space, they can interact with each other.
At first, Izzy didn't knew how to react, but she eventually returned the hug to her boyfriend with a smile. "Knuckie!" she said with joy, and then Knuckles broke the hug so they could share a kiss.
Sonic, still processing the pain on his right arm because of the Cyber Energy, smiled at Izzy and Knuckles moment, before looking down to the ground with sadness.
Once again, he started to think and worry about Pipp. Again, he didn't blamed Knuckles for dragging her to the islands since it was an accident, but a part of him was a bit mad that he wasn't more careful.
He wanted to make sure his Little Pipp was okay, but of course, he had to focus right now on finding the Emeralds and defeat that Titan. After all, if Pipp wasn't on this island, she was probably on the next one, as well as Tails and Zipp.
So, he decided to walk towards his friends, once they finally broke their kiss and smiled at each other.
"What happened, Knux?" Izzy asked to her boyfriend. "And where are we?" she added with concern.
"Welcome to the Starfall Islands, Izz" Sonic said, approaching to the couple with a weak smile since he was still in pain because of the Cyber Energy.
"Sonic?" Izzy asked confused. "Wait, what happened to you? And why aren't you ghosty like us?" she added with concern.
"This?" Sonic questioned, showing his hand with the Cyber Energy. "Nothing important, just the island energy trying to stop me from saving you, guys" he said with his usual smirk. "As for why I'm not half-ghost like you, there's a weird voice guiding me around, and they told me that I escaped thanks to my own power, or something like that. The point is, I'm not trapped because something prevented me to stay trapped" he explained. "How did you ended up trapped, by the way?" he asked her with concern.
"Well, after Knuckles placed that gear on that weird tower, we all poofed and then I appeared below a strange creature that looked like a giant spider" Izzy explained. "Then, some weird girl just snapped and sealed me on that capsule. And... then I saw nothing until something freed me" she added.
"Yeah, that something was me" Sonic said with a smirk. "I'm glad you two are free now, but we should keep moving. We have Chaos Emeralds to find and a Titan to beat-up!" he stated.
"Titan?" Izzy asked confused.
"I'll explain you later" Knuckles told her with a smile.
"You two go and look for the Emeralds, or even for Cyber Space portals, any of those work for me" Sonic told them before boosting away. "I'll go and explore the island a bit more" he added before disappearing from their sight.
"Does he ever stop running away like that?" Izzy asked to Knuckles.
"Not that I remember, no" Knuckles replied with a small smile.
After running across the Island for the millionth time, Sonic remembered something important: he needed to unlock the map.
Well, not unlocking it since part of the map just popped up on his mind after completing a certain puzzle, but still, you get the point.
He couldn't calculate how much of the island's map he unlocked, but he could now travel with no trouble through the first half of the island, meaning he still had to unlock the other half.
Right now, he was running towards the ruins where Knuckles saved him earlier, just that he ran through them so he could see what was at the end. Once he stopped, he saw a pond, a giant chain with a seal in the water, and a floating pyramid where the chain came from.
He also found Knuckles and Izzy staring at the water, so he decided to approach them.
"Hey guys!" Sonic greeted. "What are you doing here?" he asked curiously.
"Can you see that seal in the center on the pond?" Knuckles asked back to Sonic. "If we could pull it out, we could drain the water" he pointed out.
"The problem is that were still ghosty, and you're not in good terms with water" Izzy pointed as well with a sheepish smile.
"Yeah, I'm no friends with water, and I doubt I'll ever be" Sonic said with a bored expression, also crossing his arms. "Anyway, if I can jostle the device holding the chain, maybe I can get it to reel it in?" he suggested.
"Worth the shot" Knuckles said, before smirking playfully. "Just don't slip and fall. We can't haul you out" he added on a mocking tone.
Sonic rolled his eyes and turned around, finding some kind of old canyon at one side of the pond. He turned to the other side and found some kind of missile resting over a rock, so he moved towards said missile. It was on a high rock, and despite hating to do it, he admitted that he wasn't strong enough to carry that thing... then he remembered his new ability.
"I still need to find a proper name to that thing" Sonic told himself, before using the ability around the missile, and then it moved from the rock to his hands... or something like that.
The missile was actually floating, but Sonic could tell he was the one carrying it since it moved alongside with him, so he decided not to question the logic behind this.
He moved with the missile towards the canyon, then placed the missile inside of it and pointed the canyon straight to the center of the floating platform. Once he let go the missile, it crashed against some kind of red button that turned blue, with the lines around it turning blue as well.
After that, the chain started to elevate back to the pyramid, removing the seal from the bottom of the pond. The water started to drain away, while Sonic walked slowly towards the edge of a high zone.
He cringed a bit when he saw the pond completely empty, thinking it wasn't a good idea to drain it after all.
He saw Knuckles and Izzy standing at the other side, and so he ran to reach them and have a chit chat with them.
"Guys, was draining the oasis the best idea?" Sonic asked them with worry and concern, also crossing his arms.
"Well hey, you revealed the way forward" Knuckles pointed out with a smirk. "That's what's important" he added with confidence.
"Says you" Sonic complained with a bored expression. "You two can't feel this heat thanks to your 'trapped in Cyber Space' state!" he pointed out with boredom.
Suddenly, Sonic felt his head vibrating, and h e took out the mp3 player, just to find that Eggman uploaded 2 new memos.
"What's that?" Izzy asked curiously.
"A little device I found on Kronos Island" Sonic explained. "Eggman's also trapped on Cyber Space, and so he's uploading some memos from there" he added. "By the way, no. I'm not planning on saving Eggman because, one way or another, he's gonna get out on his own, so it's not worth the shot" he said with annoyance.
"You're telling me" Knuckles said with an eye roll.
"So, wanna listen what's he up to?" Sonic asked with a smirk. "I'm not lying when I say that he's actually finding out really useful things" he confessed.
"Well, I don't mind!" Izzy said cheerfully.
"Ugh... fine" Knuckles groaned with a bored expression and his arms crossed.
Sonic then pressed the play button to play the first memo.
"Who were the Ancients? They predate any civilization by a wide margin. The echidnas? Pfft. The Black Arms? Please. The Babylonians? Hardly! The owls? Don't make laugh! And yet they didn't seem to influence the world beyond these five piddly islands. Why? What stopped them from conquering the world? What stopped them from conquering the entire multiverse?" the first memo played.
"Hang on..." Knuckles said with a frown. "The Ancients... are older than my people?" he asked with concern.
"And older than the owls too..." Sonic pointed out. "The Ancients are probably the very first civilization that used the Chaos Emeralds in history, but we never heard of them, and it's not because they're from Equestria" he added, then pressed the play button again.
"I'm finding multiple connections between the Ancients and the Chaos Emeralds. Their technology seems built with the Emeralds in mind. It's almost like they share the same origin. While I'm aware that the Emeralds come from Equis - apparently that's the term for 'Earth' on this dimension -, their true origin remains a mystery. Heck, I do enjoy a good mystery, but not when the answers are more mysteries! Argh!" the second and last memo for the moment played.
"'Equis'? Seriously?" Knuckles deadpanned.
"So the Ancients and the Emeralds share a stronger connection than I thought..." Sonic said with a worried frown. "Man, the more I hear these memos, the more story I learn about the Emeralds past in Equestria... the more confused I feel..." he confessed.
"I hardly understand a thing" Izzy confessed. "I only got the 'Equis' part! I thought you guys already knew that?" she asked confused.
"I honestly though this planet was called Earth as well" Sonic confessed. "But I guess you learn something new everyday!" he added with a smirk.
"If there isn't anymore of these weird memos, can we please keep going?" Knuckles asked with a tired tone.
"Aw, don't be such a killjoy, Knuckie" Izzy told him with a smile, also nuzzling against his shoulder.
"He has a point, tho. We gotta keep moving if I wanna get you guys out of your current state" Sonic pointed out, before smirking. "Race you to the next Emerald!" he declared, then boosted away to look after more Chaos Emeralds.
"... He does know we can reach the Emeralds before him, right?" Knuckles asked with a bored expression.
Izzy kissed his cheek to cheer him up, and it worked since Knuckles finally smiled. "I don't think so~" she said playfully, as the couple disappeared to meet with Sonic in another location of the island.