Sonic Adventure 3: Spirit World

== Basic Overview ==
=== Release. ===
Sonic Adventure 3 would originally be released on the PS4 and Xbox 
One. Yet an updated version with extra content and updated graphics 
would eventually be released on the PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC.  
 
=== Basic Gameplay. ===
The gameplay expands on Sonic Adventure 2's, as well as a number of 
the more modern games.. There are 3 main styles of gameplay. Action 
sections, treasure hunting sections, and more combat and puzzle based 
sections. The combat and puzzle sections are similar to the Werehog 
sections from unleashed, but they are a bit faster.
=== Title Screen and Main Menu. ===
The title screen is a hand drawn background with psychedelic colors. 
Silhouettes of the 9 playable characters slowly float by. Once start is 
pressed there is a file screen, and than it jumps into the modes. The 
modes are Story, Free Play, Multiplayer, Chao Garden, Extras, and 
Options.  
 
=== Modes. ===
Story mode is pretty self explanatory, and we will get to that later. 
Free Play is just like Sonic Adventure 2's stage select. You can pick
 any stage that you've unlocked, but must have beaten it with a certain 
character, to play as that character in free play. There are also 5 
different challenges for each stage and character. However not every 
stage has the same challenges, and the challenges would be more similar 
to that of Sonic Generations, rather than the original adventure games.
Multiplayer is basically the same as Sonic Adventure 2. Players are 
pitted against another player in one of the 3 gameplay modes. The speed 
stages and treasure hunting stages stay the same as they were in Sonic 
Adventure 2. The new combat based stages are more of an arena styled 
challenge. They will have a certain number of enemies that need to be 
defeated. Whoever defeats the most, or gets the closest before time 
ends, wins. There are also 3 extra character's for multiplayer.
The Chao Garden is rebuilt with aspects of Sonic Adventure 1's and 
Sonic Adventure 2's gardens. There are is no longer a hero, dark, and 
neutral garden. Instead there are chao gardens for each of the 4 main 
hub worlds. Thees being Azure City, The Wildlands, Eggman's Fortress, 
and Spirit World. Chao are also able to evolve to the same types from 
Sonic Adventure 2, such as speed, power, swimming, ext. Chao are 
upgraded with chaos drives.
The garden's new features are style, super chao, and new mini games. 
Style is costume pieces such as hat's, glasses, bow ties, and more to 
customize your chao. Costume pieces can be unlocked in Free Play and 
Multiplayer, as well as bought in certain hub worlds. Some of thees are 
far rarer than others. Examples include a Sonic or Knuckles hat being 
extremely hard to get, but a basic top hat acquired with ease.
Super chao are chao that have leveled up past level 50, and have been
 given a golden chaos drive.  Golden chaos drives are decently difficult
 to obtain, appearing within randomly spawning golden enemies. The chao 
will then gain a sort of glowing gold aura, as well as sparkling eyes. 
This unlocks much harder versions of the mini games for regular chao. 
Speaking of mini games, chao racing and karate come back, yet there are a
 couple new ones too.
There's Chao Fishing, which is actually similar to the fishing from 
Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. The fish you catch, can be sold for 
rings to buy more costume pieces, toys, fruit, or things in the extras 
menu.
The other new mini game is "Chao Ghost Hunting." This is a Mario 
Party style mini game ware you walk your chao around the halls of 
various haunted areas, using a flash light and a butterfly net to 
paralyze and catch various multicolored  ghosts to earn points.
Extras is a mode ware you can listen to music, change the game's 
background/narrator, and look at concept art and videos. Basically 
imagine a mixture of the extras mode from Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic 
Mega Collection.
Options is what you'd expect.
=== Characters. ===
All 4 main stories are unlocked at the start of the game. You have a 
choice between Sonic's story, Shadow's story, Silver's Story, and 
Ichor's Story. In each story you play as 3 characters for each different
 gameplay style. each character has a unique feel, as well as their own 
abilities. 
Each character's specific abilities and exact gameplay style will be explained in depth when they are introduced in the story.
Speaking of the story, the screens where the character narrates what 
is currently going on in the story as text scrolls across an image of 
them make their return.
=== Each story's playable characters and what gameplay style they occupy. ===
Sonic's Story:
Action Stage: Sonic the Hedgehog
Combat and Puzzle Stage: Tails "Miles" Prower
Treasure Hunting Stage: Knuckles the Echidna
Shadow's Story
Action Stage: Shadow the Hedgehog
Combat and Puzzle Stage: E 123 Omega
Treasure Hunting Stage: Rouge the Bat
Silver's: Story
Action Stage: Silver the Hedgehog
Combat and Puzzle Stage: Big the Cat
Treasure Hunting Stage: Blaze the Cat
I know some people may think that Silver should be treasure hunting,
 and Blaze should be action, but I wanted to keep things consistent, 
with each of the main characters being action based. There's also the 
fact that the Sonic Rivals series was really the only real time we got 
to speed through stages as Silver. Finally I feel that Blaze's fire 
abilities could work really well for levels involving a little more 
exploration.
Ichor's Story:
Action Stage: Ichor the Hedgehog
Combat and Puzzle Stage: Bruno the Porcupine
Treasure Hunting Stage: Axel the Bat
Multiplayer:
Action Stage: Amy Rose
Combat and Puzzle Stage: Mara the Lynx
Treasure Hunting Stage: Chaos 0
=== Online. ===
The online isn't to complicated. One can play against others in the 
multiplayer online, as well as in the chao mini games. Leader boards for
 both the main game, and chao mini games are also posted online. Finally
 players can trade chao, fruit, toys, and costume pieces with each other
 in the chao garden.
=== Music. ===
The music of the game is varied. The stages and hub worlds have tunes
 orchestrated to match the mood, such as the Azure City hub world having
 an up beat jazzy tone with whistling. Meanwhile the Spirit World hub 
world having an eerie and haunting piano melody.
Each character has their own theme song. The old character's theme 
songs are all remixes of their themes from other games. The new 
characters would most likely, if this were an official game, have their 
own theme song. However since this is just my ideas, I'll be giving them
 each existing songs that I feel works as their theme.
The main theme of the game of course has to be preformed by Crush 40. It's called "Mirror Image." It's a rock song about another existence that's similar, yet very different to our own.
=== -Note- ===
That's the basic overview of the game. The rest of this will be going
 into each character's stories and how they play out. I will also 
elaborate a bit more on some of the modes at the end. Thank you! (:
== Sonic's Story. ==
The story begins with a few shots of a beautiful brightly lit city at
 night. Neon sines flash advertisements for "New and improved Chaos 
Soda" and "Chao in Space Remastered." In a shadowy alley we see an egg 
pawn wondering around. Dr.Eggman seems to have upgraded his robot design
 a bit. This egg pawn is taller, black and red, and has multiple guns 
and spikes attached to it.
The camera zooms closer to it's eye, showing a Chaos Emerald radar. A
 little blinking light shows that there is a chaos emerald in a city 
park a few miles away from the alley. The robots eyes glow a light blue 
as it cocks it's arm cannon. Suddenly a large blue circle appears on the
 robot's radar. It appears to be getting closer and closer. The egg pawn
 looks around frantically. The blue circle appears to be flashing in 
different locations on the radar. The egg pawn begins frantically 
shooting at random locations around him. Suddenly the circle is right 
behind him. The robot turns around and there is nothing. The circle 
vanishes. 
Suddenly a cover of Sonic Adventure 2's version of  "It doesn't 
matter" by "Waterparks" begins playing as a blue ball bursts through the
 robot, breaking it into a million pieces. Sonic the Hedgehog lands on 
his feet wagging his finger condescendingly.
"You should really look for cars next time buddy! Although this is just 
an alley way?" Sonic says as he strokes his chin. He than shrugs and 
goes "ah whatever!" Suddenly sonic notices the egg pawn's head with the 
radar inside of it. The head is mostly intact, but is sparking a bit. 
Sonic walks up to it and picks it up. "Hmm. Eggman is looking for the 
chaos emeralds again!?!" The blue hedgehog looks at the radar with the 
light blinking in the park, and than looks up at the city. 
"I guess no matter what it is, it can't be good!" I better get over 
there and check out what's going on!" Sonic than wall jumps across the 
walls of the buildings in the alley way and begins rushing down the 
street, starting the first level of his story.
=== Sonic's Gameplay Style. ===
Sonic controls similar to how he has for the last decade. Overall 
it's about the same as Unleashed, Colors, Generations, and Forces. 
However due to this being an adventure game, Sonic is slowed down a bit.
 He can still boost and use all his moves, there is just a lot more 
control over him this time. He also gets a few older moves, such as the 
bounce and triple dash back later on in the game. There are also no 2D 
sections in this game. 
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=== Stage 1: Bright Light Boulevard. ===
==== Find the Chaos Emerald in the park. ====
 Sonic's Controls
The level is pretty simple, as it is the first level of the game. It 
is a city at night, similar to classic levels such as Speed Highway or 
City Escape at night. Sonic is on the ground for most of this level, 
accept for a part at the end. The hedgehog hero speeds through city 
streets, running past business with all sorts of referential names. 
There is the classic Chaos Soda and Chao in space adds. But there is 
also things such as a shoe store advertising light speed shoes, adds for
 chaotix detective agency, and a bill board for Chocolate Chip Travel 
Agency, which has images of locations from Sonic Unleashed on it. 
The level's enemies are basic black and red egg pawns and flying 
robots. The plat forming is pretty easy as well. There are basic jumps 
from street to street over bottomless pit, homing attack chains with 
groups of flying robots, and rail grinding. The level of course has cars
 that can be ran through and destroyed. There is also a few sections 
where Sonic boosts through a door and runs through various stores, 
hotels, apartments, and parking garages. 
The level's music is a fast rock tune similar to City Escape, but it 
has hints of Tropical Resort Act 1's tune and mood. It's a nice mix of 
rocking energy and upbeat fun.
The last section of the level, involves sonic stealing a skateboard 
from a store and grinding across city walls and roof tops, whilst being 
chased by the game's first non robot enemy. The creature is a giant blue
 flame with glowing green eyes, in the shape of a jelly fish. It sort of
 resembles a giant nega wisp.
This is a spirit. It shoots green flaming lasers at Sonic, and he 
must side step. Eventually Sonic must slide under a wall of spikes. He 
dose so and the creature crashes into it. Sonic arrives at the park and 
hits the goal ring. After making whatever remark he decides to, 
depending on the players rank, the next cutscene plays.
=== Enter Ichor the Hedgehog. ===
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Sonic walks towards the green Chaos Emerald and picks it up.
"Hmmm? Just what was that thing? I wonder if Eggman is messing with 
some weird magic garbage again!" The blue hedgehog says while face 
palming.
"I assure you my friend. My magic is far from garbage." Sonic looks 
at a roof top to see a dark red hedgehog with wild hair and a black ring
 on his stomach. "Jesus of Suburbia" By Green Day begins to play as The 
mysterious hedgehog's black gloves become engulfed in dark blue flames.
"Excuse me? Have we met?" Sonic sarcastically asks.
"Not likely." Says the red hedgehog as he jumps down in front 
of Sonic holding out a flaming handshake. "The name is Ichor, Ichor the 
hedgehog. I'm a private investigator of the sorts."
"Oh Great!" Sonic irritably says as he crosses his arms and taps his 
foot. "And what the heck do you want with me? I think you got the wrong 
guy!"
Ichor melts into a pool of black energy in the ground, and rises up 
behind Sonic. "No Sonic, I'm more than sure your the one I was sent to 
capture." Ichor than smirks and attempts to hit Sonic, but sonic dodges.
"Eggman sent you!?! Didn't he?" Sonic yells attempting to homing 
attack Ichor. "And you must also have something to do with that weird 
glowing monster!"
Ichor dodges. "It's not important who sent me man." Ichor's hands 
ignite again as he begins to juggle 3 dark blue fire balls. "Nor is it 
all that important that I explain my powers to you. All I know is that 
someone very rich promised me a very handsome reward to capture you." 
Ichor than laughs and puts out the fire balls and flames on his hands. 
"Besides!" He chuckles as he points to the city. "With all collateral 
the damage that you regularly cause on your little adventures, someone 
should arrest you!" 
Sonic nervously laughs and says "Oops! Never really thought of that."
 Sonic than swipes his hand and yells "That doesn't matter though! What 
matters is I'm not letting you take me alive!"
Ichor's hands ignite again. "Shame man. But I shouldn't expect Sonic the Hedgehog to be captured willingly!"
"YOU CAN SAY THAT AGAIN!" Sonic screams as the two hedgehog's rush at each other.
=== Ichor Boss Fight. ===
The boss fight is similar to Shadow's first fight from Sonic 
Adventure 2 and Silver's first fight from Sonic 06. A battle version of 
"Jesus of Suburbia" plays during the fight, as that is Ichor's theme. 
The goal of the fight is for Sonic to attack Ichor 4 times. Ichor will 
attempt to shoot dark blue fire balls, teleport, and shield himself with
 purple flames during the fight. He also tries to homing attack Sonic.
The fight is pretty easy, and should be over shortly. Ichor will make
 comments such as "Just come quietly man!" and "Taste the power of my 
black magic!" During the fight. After being defeated he simply says 
"Darn, Guess I'm not getting paid.
=== Sonic Escapes. ===
Sonic and Ichor are both extremely winded after their fight. They are
 both panting and facing each other. Sonic turns around and states "I 
don't have time for this Ichor. I gotta see Tails and figure out 
Eggman's newest scheme. Why don't you arrest him!?! He's the bad guy 
here!" Sonic than speeds off. 
Ichor wipes off his forehead and looks at Sonic as he speeds away. He
 grumbles to himself "This isn't over man." Suddenly a phone starts 
ringing and Ichor gets a scared look. "Oh no that's right! I told Mara 
I'd meet her more than half an hour ago! She's gonna try and kill me. . .
 again!" Ichor than melts into a pool of black energy on the ground and 
Sonic's next cutscene plays.
=== Ticket to Ride. ===
After the boss fight with Ichor, the time transitions to day time. 
Sonic is seen walking through the city as a jazzy up beat tune plays.
"I
 need to find Tails. Chances are he's in his new workshop in the 
Wildlands." Sonic says as he taps his foot with his hands on his hips. 
"He's gotta know something about those weird ghost like creatures from 
last night, and I just know Eggman has something to do with it as well. 
The scene zooms in on Sonic's face as he has a quick flash of Ichor 
with dark blue flames in his hands. "Something also tells me that wasn't
 the last I'll see of that Ichor guy." Sonic shrugs. "Ah well. I guess 
I'll just have to see ware things go. Sonic tosses a ring at a large man
 running a chili dog stand. He tosses a chili dog in his mouth and says 
"Finally, I've been just itching for an interesting adventure." 
=== Hub World: Azure City ===
Azure city is the game's first hub world. It is like a much bigger 
version of Station Square from Adventure 1. The sines and buildings are 
the same ones as Bright Light Boulevard. The entrance to the Chao Garden
 is through a pathway in the park section of the city. There are 4 
sections. Thees are the shopping district, the residential district, 
main street, and the park. This hub world's music is an upbeat guitar tune with a few jazz instruments thrown in there. It sort of sounds like a combination of Station Square's theme from Sonic Adventure 1 and Empire City's daytime theme from Sonic Unleashed.
Sonic starts out on main street. He needs to 
take the train to "The Wildlands", but he doesn't have a ticket. 
Luckily after exploring a bit, it becomes apparent that a vendor in 
the shopping district has a ticket for only 100 rings. If one does not 
have enough rings from the previous stage, there are a few spread around
 the city.After purchasing a ticket, talking to some towns people, and 
exploring a bit, Sonic makes his way to the train. The train heads for 
the next hub world. The Wildlands.
=== Enter Tails. ===
The next cutscene shows Tails flying a large yellow and white plane 
over a huge swamp like area. A cover of Adventure 1's version of 
"Believe in Myself" sung by Simple Plan begins playing. "All systems 
seem to be in check. I'm not noticing any problems this time around. 
Alright were good." Tails loops the plane around and does a few tricks.
"That was awesome." He states and laughs. "I wonder what all that 
commotion was last night. I hardly got any sleep. There seemed to be 
some sort of light show outside." Tails begins pressing a few more 
buttons in his plane. "Eh, that's not important right now. I need to 
focus on flying, any minor distraction could-"
"HEY TAILS!!!" Sonic yells as he starts running and jumping across 
the swampy ground below Tails gets a surprised look on his face.
"What!?! Sonic?"The young fox questions allowed. He than smiles and 
waves saying "Hey! Long time no see!" Suddenly the plane begins to 
careen down towards the ground. Tails realizes he let go of the controls
 and screams. He attempts to gain control of it, but can't and jumps out
 flying to the ground. The plane crashed behind him. Tails face palms 
and shakes his head as the next stage starts.
=== Tails Gameplay Style. ===
Tails
 uses dummy rings, his tails, and a double sided laser baton to 
attack enemies. Tails' laser baton is a silver pole with a red laser topped with 
an orb. The orb has a yellow sun symbol. The other side is a blue laser 
with an orb that has a white moon symbol on it. Thees types of levels 
are very  similar to the werehog levels 
from Sonic Unleashed. However the characters can run much faster, and 
there is way more platforming.
=== Stage 2: Misty Marsh. ===
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==== Head towards the wreck of the Tornado 3. ====
 Tails' Controls
This is the first combat and puzzle level of Sonic's Story. It is a 
large swamp like area similar to Lost Jungle from Sonic Heroes and 
Tropical Jungle from Sonic 06. It is full of green water, large trees, 
mossy stones, and vines. The enemies are that of egg pawns dressed as 
jungle warriors, larger gorilla like robots, floating fly like robots, 
alligator like robots, and large armored turtle like robots.
The music is a calm yet mysterious melody. There are sounds of crickets chirping and frogs croaking, layered over a soft and slow drum beat. Overall It's similar to Lost Jungle from Sonic Heroes.
The level isn't overly complicated. It consists of platforming 
sections across ruins and ledges over the green water, rooms ware Tails 
must defeat every robot to progress, and very basic switch puzzles. 
Examples of such puzzles 
are, moving boxes on a switch and flying up to a
 switch on a higher ledge.
At the very end there is a section where a giant alligator pops out 
of the water. It has glowing purple eyes and begins to chase Tails. 
Tails must platform through a tight hallway whilst being chased, but 
once he reaches the end, a pillar falls on the alligator. The level ends
 with Tails finding the wreck of his plane
=== Sonic and Tails. ===
Sonic speeds up to Tails. "Oops. Sorry about that." He says looking at the wrecked plane.
Tails than chuckles. "Yeah. Reminds me of the old days." Tails 
punches Sonic in the arm. "It's not the end of the world. The Tornado 3 
was kind of a bad idea from the start. I'll get to work on a fresh 
design as soon as I can." Tails turns away from the Tornado 3's wreckage
 and looks at Sonic.
"Speaking of the end of the world." Sonic says as his expression 
turns serious. "Last night I found this in the park." Sonic tosses the 
Chaos Emerald around. "One of Eggman's robots was looking for it." Tails
 sighs.
"Great, same old same old." Sonic crosses his arms. "Not quite." 
There was this hedgehog. He said his name was Ichor. Eggman had hired 
him to capture me. Tails strokes his chin.
"So the emerald could have just been a trap?" The young fox asks inquisitively.
Sonic holds the emerald up and looks at it. "Yeah. . . the weirdest 
thing is dude, is that Eggman's robots weren't the only things in the 
city. There were thees weird ghost things too. And this Ichor guy isn't 
only a bounty hunter, he apparently knows how to use Black Magic!!!"
Tails thinks for a moment. "Hmm. That must be what all those lights were."
"Yeah! Do you know anything about it? Sonic questions.
Tails shakes his head and chuckles. "Man Sonic, when I first met 
you,I thought a hedgehog being the fastest thing alive was strange. Who 
knew hedgehogs could also be 50 year old experiments with alien DNA, 
psychics from the future, and black magic wielding bounty hunters?"
Sonic shrugs. "I guess we're an interesting species."
"I think this Ichor guy is our best lead. If anyone knows anything 
about him, it's Shadow. He works for G.U.N. Maybe G.U.N has had run ins 
with this Ichor guy before. Who knows? They may have even worked with 
him in the past." Tails says has he begins walking away.
"Good idea. Let's hope Shadows actually in the mood to talk today. 
Now that would be even stranger than black magic, or ghost like 
creatures or-" As Sonic is talking to himself, Tails jumps up and begins
 to fly away.
"Hey don't leave ME in the dust!!!" Sonic says as he begins to boost, running after his best pal.
=== Enter Knuckles. ===
The next cutscene actually cuts away from Sonic for a bit. Knuckles 
the Echidna sits on Angel Island. He is meditating in front of the 
Master Emerald as a butterfly lands on his hand. A modern rap cover of 
"UNKNOWN FROM M.E" by Del the Funky Homosapien and Joji  is playing. I 
imagine it's pretty similar to Sonic Adventure 1's version of the song, 
but a bit faster, and with the chorus feeling more soft and 
otherworldly, as it is sung by Joji.
"Finally." Knuckles yawns. "It's so nice to finally be back here." He
 stretches his arms and opens his eyes, looking at the butterfly. 
"Adventuring is fun and all, but my place is by the Master Emerald." 
Another butterfly lands on Knuckles' other hand. "I was born on this 
island. I have been guarding the Master Emerald my whole life, and while
 I haven't always done the best job." Scenes of Sonic 3 and Knuckles, Sonic Adventure 1, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Rivals 2 play. I have continued to do my best." As Knuckles is talking, a roundish red and black figure slowly descends behind him.
An arm cannon extends from the figure and begins to charge up. A 
yellow sphere of light is launched at the Master Emerald. It shatters 
and Knuckles jumps away and turns around. He is facing a shiny black and
 red version of the Eggrobo. The Eggrobo seems to have been upgraded 
since the last time Knuckles saw him. The robot has red spikes all over 
his body, an extremely large arm cannon at the end of his left arm, and a
 red laser sword at the end of his right one.
"You again!" Knuckles says angrily. Suddenly Dr. Eggman himself 
descends next to the Eggrobo. He evilly smirks at Knuckles from his Egg 
Mobile.
"Ah Knuckles. I should have expected you to be here!" Eggman says as he strokes his chin.
"Eggman! What are you up to this time? Why can't you just learn to give up!?!" Knuckles yells as he clenches his fists.
"Actually Knuckles!" Eggman says as he holds up his arms. "I WAS just
 about to give up. All my plans for building the Eggman Empire seemed to
 come crumbling down." Eggman  dramatically gestures while explaining 
this. "I was just about to throw it all away!" Eggman then evilly grins.
 "That was until. . ."
"Until what you psychotic egg head?" Knuckles angrily questions.
"Until I found this!" Eggman than holds up a bound red book with the 
symbol of a flaming star on it. "The Phantom Codex . This book holds the
 power of The Spirit World, as well as instructions on how to summon 
many of it's most powerful and useful entities!"
Knuckles laughs. "Resorting to black magic now huh Eggman? You've 
truly lost your mind." Knuckles says as he punches a nearby pillar in 
anger.
Eggman laughs. "While that may be so, I have nothing else to lose. 
This is my last resort." The doctor retorts as his face twists into a 
scowl.
"So why shatter the Master Emerald?" Knuckles asks.
"That is only part of the plan. I actually have two other gems I need
 to shatter. So I'll be off. But I can't have you, Sonic, or any of your
 other pesky friends stopping me this time. I sent a very skilled 
individual after Sonic, so he shouldn't be a problem." Eggman strokes 
his chin again. "But as for you. . ." The doctor than points at 
Knuckles. "Eggrobo 2.0, take care of our canine friend here!"
"Hey I'm and echidna!!! Not a dog!!!" Knuckles screams. Eggman than 
flies off. Knuckles looks at the Eggrobo. "While you shouldn't be too 
difficult to take care of!" Suddenly Eggrobo begins to transform as he 
gets twice as big, his arm cannon becomes a large tower shield, and he 
gains a suit of spiked armor. He slashes at the air with his sword and 
points it at Knuckles. "Okay. . . This may be a bit tougher than I 
thought!"
=== Knuckles Gameplay Style. ===
Knuckles plays exactly like he does in Sonic Adventure 2. He glides, 
climbs walls, punches, and can later dig and see invisible items. A 
radar with 3 symbols is at the bottom of the screen. The symbols go from
 blue, to green, to yellow, to red, the closer Knuckles gets to a piece 
of treasure. The treasure hunting radar returns, and it is Sonic 
Adventure 1's version. Multiple emerald pieces/other treasures blink  at
 the same time on the radar. The floating hint monitors also make their return. Once all 3 pieces of treasure are 
collected, the level is complete.
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=== Egg Gladiator Boss Fight. ===
 Knuckles' Controls
The music for this fight is an electric guitar cover of"Hard Boiled Heavies" from Sonic Mania.
The boss fight takes place on the small floating area of Angel Island
 where the Master Emerald alter is. The Egg Gladiator walks around 
shooting missiles and laser disks. He also rushes at Knuckles and 
slashes at him furiously. Whenever Knuckles tries to attack the 
gladiator, either the spikes on the robot will hurt him or the shield 
will block him. Knuckles needs to find away to hurt the Egg Gladiator.
This is done by luring him under a pillar, and waiting for him to 
start slashing. While the robot is slashing at the air, Knuckles must 
punch the pillar and cause it to fall on the Egg Gladiator. The robot's 
helmet will fall off, and Knuckles will have a few moments to attack the
 head. This needs to be done 3 times.
If Knuckles touches a floating question mark during the fight he will
 say. "I can't seem to hurt him. But If I could just get to his face. . .
 Maybe the pillars are heavy enough to knock his helmet right off!"
After the third time this is done, the gladiator's helmet will become
 covered in spikes. Knuckles must now find another way to attack the 
gladiator. Knuckles notices a vine on a pillar, as well as a crumbling 
wall. He says "Hmmm. Maybe if  I slam into that crumbling wall, and use 
the debris to attack him, I can knock him off the island.
Knuckles must then climb up the pillar and grab a hold of the vine. 
After he swings on it, he slams into the crumbling wall, causing a piece
 of debris to knock into the gladiator. The gladiator is launched back, 
and falls of the ledge of the floating isle, but he grabs on, clinging 
for dear life.
All Knuckles has to do is walk right up to the Egg Gladiator and 
knock him off the island. After the fight Knuckles says "Good riddance" 
on the result screen.
=== The Hunt Begins Again. ===
Knuckles looks down off the ledge as the Egg Gladiator plummets to the ground. 
"I can't believe I have to search for the broken pieces of the 
emerald again. Than again. . . it's been a few years, and it is my duty 
after all." Knuckles looks around. "I can sense a few pieces of the 
emerald nearby. I'll find them real quick, than I need to meet up with 
Sonic and tell him about Eggman's plans. I just hope that he was able to
 handle whoever that mad man sent after him!" Suddenly the Island begins
 to shake and slowly float downward.
"Oh right!" Knuckles 
says as he face palms. "The Island needs the power of the Master Emerald
 to stay afloat. I gotta get out of here!" Knuckles runs and jumps off 
the island, gliding to the nearby Wildlands.
=== Hub World: The Wildlands. ===
The Wildlands is a hub world of 
thick jungles, ancient ruins, and a few rocky cliff sides. There are 5 
main sections, the campsite, the jungle, the caves, the ruins, and the 
hidden lake. Knuckles starts off in the campsite, which is a rocky 
cliff/forest area full of tents, cabins, and gift shops. There are explorers, campers, and vendors. The music of the hub world, 
accept for the hidden lake, is a smooth laid back song. There are a few 
drum beats in the song, but it is mostly made up of a slower guitar 
tune. The best way I can describe what the tune sounds like, is actually
 that it sounds similar to the one from "Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi
 4" by Camping in Alaska.
The stage Knuckles needs to go to is behind a few trees on a hidden path.
=== Stage 3: Cliff Side Campground. ===
==== Search the campground for the pieces of the Master Emerald. ====
This
 level is a large open forest area with various campsites around. The 
level takes place during sunset, and the music is a rap song of course, 
the exact lyrics I'll post later. The background beat is just an 
extremely chill lofi beat with sounds of a campfire crackling and 
crickets chirping in the background.
There are a few buildings 
such as bathrooms, a gift shop, and check in buildings. There are also 
other areas such as campers or storm drains. Thees areas are usually 
ware the emerald pieces spawn. However on harder difficulties 
they are 
in places such as in enemies, in the trees, in the campfires themselves,
 or even underground.
Egg pawns return this time, but they 
are dressed as tourists/explorers. The monkeys and flies from Misty 
Marsh also return. The only new enemy is a camp fire like ghost that 
floats around the campfires. 
After Knuckles completes the stage, the story transitions back to Sonic.
=== Asking About Shadow. ===
The next cutscene is an extremely quick scene of Sonic and Tails walking through Azure City at night. 
"I think we should split up and ask around about where Shadow could be." Tails says.
"Good thinking. That way
 we can cover more ground quicker. I'll go check out the shopping 
district." Sonic states before running off.
Back in Azure City Sonic
 must talk to various people in town. Many will say nothing of use. They
 will simply comment about Dr. Eggman, or the recent weird creatures 
appearing, or random chatter about their life. However some will state 
that they saw the "jewel thief" Rouge the Bat heading towards the 
Zeppelin Casino.
The Casino is floating 
around the city at most hours, but lands in a clearing in the park a few
 times a day to pick people up and drop them off. After heading to the 
park Sonic will find a large Zeppelin hovering just above the ground. It
 is a giant blue, yellow, and red glowing wonder of neon lights and 
flashing sines.
All Sonic has to do is hop on the latter attached to the side of the zeppelin.
=== Stage 4: Casino Carrier. ===
==== Find Rouge in the floating Casino. ====
The level starts with 
Sonic jumping off of a latter and landing in a giant floating casino. 
The sight is absolutely dizzying as giant pinball machines, slot 
machines, and roulette tables are all being carried by neon airships. 
Gardens of exotic plant life hang suspended in the air, and playing 
cards wiz through the night sky like rockets.
"Woah! So it looks like 
the Zeppelin is only one part of the attraction. I don't have time for 
games though! If I find Rouge I'll find Shadow! There's also a good 
chance Rouge herself  knows something about this Ichor guy. All right 
let's go!" Sonic states at the beginning of the level.
This level is the game's
 casino level. Every Sonic game has one! It is what you'd expect. Sonic 
boosting through brightly lit areas whilst getting caught up in pinball 
and slot machines. The slot machines this time around have 7 symbols. 
One of a ring, one of a stack of 5 rings, one of a stack of 10 rings, 
one of the face of whatever character the player currently is, one of 
Dr. Eggman's face, one of a Chaos Emerald, and one of an invincibility 
symbol.
What happens if the 
player lines up the ring and invincibility symbols is pretty self 
explanatory. As for the others, If the player gets 2 Eggman faces, they 
will loose 25 rings, 50 if it's 3. The opposite happens if the player 
gets their character's face, with them gaining rings instead. If a 
player gets 2 7's they gain 50 rings, and if it's 3 they gain 100. The 
Chaos Emerald fills the boost meter half way if the player matches 2 of 
them, and the meter is completely filled if the player matches 3.
The rest of the casino 
mechanics remain the same as they do in every Sonic game. They aren't 
overly complicated, and neither is the rest of the level. Aside from the
 pinball tables, and slot machines, Sonic runs across roads of cards, 
hops across giant dice, spins across roulette tables, and makes a ton of
 rings in the process.
The level's enemies 
consist of basic Eggman robots such as , egg pawns *dressed as waiters*,
 floating bee robots, and monkeys that throw bombs from the neon trees. 
Yet there are also G.U.N robots this time around. The basic models with 
arm cannons and the flying gunners from Sonic Adventure 2 are the G.U.N 
robots in this level.
There are two types of 
casino level tracks in Sonic games. There's the slow jazzy night club 
tune, and the high energy up beat park tune. This level is extremely 
fast and involves Sonic boosting and bouncing all over the place, so I 
find the second one fits the best. A song akin to Casino Park from Sonic
 Heroes or Night Carnival from Sonic Rush is about what this level's 
music sounds like. 
The last part of the 
level is a giant pinball machine. This one has art of Sonic, Tails, and 
Knuckles on it. The main thing that makes this Pinball table special is 
that it is 3 times the size of the others in the level. That's not all, 
it also doubles the amount of rings you get on the slot machines. The 
goal ring is in a compartment the middle of the table. This specific 
table is unlocked later on in Extras mode, where it can be played with 
any character, and the art changes depending on the character.
One Sonic touches the goal ring, the level is over and the next cutscene plays.
=== Long Time No See. ===
Sonic is walking lands 
on a green platform and hears "Hey big blue! Long time no see!" A faster
 pop cover of "Fly in the Freedom" from Sonic Adventure 2 sung by
 Paramour begins playing as Rouge the bat is seen on a ledge behind 
Sonic. 
"Rouge!" Sonic says smiling and waving.
The bat jumps down by the hedgehog. "You here on vacation or something?"
"Not at all." Sonic shakes his head. "I actually wanted to talk to Shadow, but you may also be able to help me.
"What is it?" Rouge says, becoming extremely intrigued.
"Do you know anything about a guy named Ichor the Hedgehog? " Sonic asks. "I had a nasty run in with him last night?"
Rouge thinks for a 
moment. "Yeah I think I do." She then gets a worried face. "That guy has
 made a name for himself in the last two years. He uses black magic to 
catch all sorts of criminals. I shouldn't be saying this, but he 
actually dose a better job than G.U.N. The only problem about him is. . .
 well." Rouge seems to become distressed.
"Well what!?!" Sonic says tapping his foot in impatience.
"He catches more than 
just criminals. He uses his magic to do almost any job that will 
handsomely reward him. Rumor has it, he's even worked as an assassin." 
Rouge states.
Sonic becomes concerned. "So this guy is no joke?" He rhetorically asks while wagging his finger with a serious expression.
"Exactly." Rouge says as she begins to walk away. "But that's all I know. Most people don't even know how to contact him."
Sonic sighs. "So it 
looks like we're gonna have to find someone who does. But that won't be 
easy! Wait a minute. . ." Sonic thinks for a minute. "Eggman knows! 
After all, he was the one who sent Ichor after me."
Rouge signals for Sonic 
to follow her. "Come on big blue. I'm sure you already know about 
Eggman's recent meddling. Shadow is currently heading to his new canyon 
base. If he's the one hired Ichor to capture you, than we have even more
 of a reason to pay the old doctor a visit. Sonic nods and begins 
following Rouge.
=== Discussing Eggman's Plan. ===
It is now day time as Sonic and Rouge walk up to Tails and Knuckles. 
"Hey Sonic look who I found!" Tails says turning to Sonic and Rouge.
"Took you long enough." Knuckles states with an attitude as he waves at Sonic. "You must be getting slower with age."
"Real funny knuckle head!" Sonic sarcastically says as he rolls his eyes.
"I see you were able to find Rouge." Tails states as he turns his gaze towards the bat.
"It's like a big reunion or something." Rouge jokes.
"Yeah, just not under 
the best circumstances." Knuckles responds. "I was just telling Tails 
how Eggman destroyed the Master Emerald to complete some weird plan."
"Some weird plan involving the Phantom Codex." Tails says as he takes out a tablet and begins typing on it.
"The Phantom Codex?" Sonic questions.
"I remember Shadow and I
 were assigned to investigate the doctor after he was reported breaking 
into a museum and shattering a gem known as the Pharaoh Ruby." Rouge 
states.
"It says here that the 
King Sapphire, which resides in an ancient castle in Spagonia seemingly vanished.!" 
Tails says as he types on his tablet. He than gets an extremely worried 
look and shouts "OH NO!"
"What!?!" Sonic quickly asks.
"According to this 
website on the occult, a very powerful evil spirit by the name of Effigy
 the Wraith is sealed away in the Master Emerald, the Pharaoh Ruby, and 
the King Sapphire!" Tails nervously states.
"WHAT!?!" Knuckles yells. "HOW COME I NEVER KNEW THIS!" He gets in Tails' face.
"It's a very obscure piece of mythology! Calm down Knuckles!!!" Tails shakily says.
"Well let's hope it's 
just a myth!" Sonic says as he crosses his arms and shakes his head. "We
 gotta head to Eggman's base now!" Everyone agrees and begins to walk 
off.
=== Plan B. ===
The player takes control of Tails for this next 
part. The yellow fox says "I need to get us tickets for the canyon south
 of hear. I should easily be able to buy them at the ticket vendor." 
However the ticket vendor tells Tails that the last ticket was actually 
bought by a large purple fellow a few hours ago. After talking to the 
vendor a cutscene will play.
=== The Tornado Cyclone. ===
Tails is seen walking down the street whilst intensely thinking to himself. He walks up to Sonic, Knuckles, and Rouge. 
"So did you get the tickets Tails?" Sonic questions.
Tails shakes his head. "They seem to be all sold out."
"What about the tornado?" Asks Knuckles.
Tails
 gives Sonic and irritated look. "Um yeah. . . about that?" Sonic 
nervously says as he puts his hands on the back of his head and 
chuckles.
Rouge sighs. "Is there anyway you could get it repaired 
before Eggman completes this hokey ritual or whatever it is he's 
planning?"
Tails thinks for a moment. "I would need to get a 
few new parts, as some of them were severely damaged in the crash." The 
young fox states as he holds up one finger. "I just don't know any place
 in this city that sells the ones I need.
"What about that old warehouse over by the docks?" Rouge suggests.
Tails shivers. "That place is creepy!"
Sonic
 puts his hand on his stomach and laughs. "Hahahahaha! Ah come on Tails!
 It's not that bad. Plus I remember hearing about how that place used to
 be the largest warehouse in the city. At least before the accident."
Tails jumps back. "ACCIDENT!?!" He shouts.
"Kidding!
 Kidding!" Sonic states in between bouts laughter. Everyone stares at 
him with irritation until he calms down. "Look man, my point is that 
it's our best option."
"Why can't knuckles do it?" Tails retorts as he crosses his arms.
Knuckles
 shrugs. "I wouldn't know what to look for." Bedsides Tails ghosts 
aren't so bad. Just shine some light on them and they run away like 
chickens!"
Tails thinks for a moment. "Fine! I'll do it!" He says as he begins to fly towards the docks.
"That's the spirit!" Sonic shouts as he begins laughing again. Knuckles just shakes his head and face palms while Rouge sighs."
=== Heading to the Docks. ===
The
 docks are at the edge of the residential district. Eventually Tails 
will come across a large gate with sines saying things such as "DO NOT 
ENTER, DOCKS CLOSED, DANGER!!!, and UNDER RECONSTRUCTION." Tails will 
have to find a switch in someone's backyard to get the gate open. It 
isn't too hard to find, and once it's thrown part of the gate will 
slowly open.
=== Stage 5: Desolate Docks. ===
==== Find where the machine parts are stored in the old warehouse. ====
We're
 back to the combat/puzzle gameplay again with this level. Tails must 
navigate through various warehouses, as well as the outside area of the 
docks. The level has an overall creepy ascetic. The music reflects this 
as it starts out as an eerie drone, but than slowly turns into an other 
worldly rock tune. Ghostly guitar rifts accompany an alien feeling melody
 throughout the whole song. The level's theme is very Silent Hill 
inspired.
A grey sky hangs over a desolate collection of 
abandon buildings as Tails fights his way through hoards of broken down 
G.U.N robots and white wispy spirits. The G.U.N robots are the same as 
in Casino Carrier, but they are rusty, smoking, and have wires sticking 
out of them. The spirit variety of enemies in this level resemble the 
classic Sonic ghosts, but they are surrounded by blue fire and they 
carry mini sickles and torches. They also only appear in the dark.
There
 are two new enemies in this stage. The "hunks of junk" are large 
Frankenstein's monster like amalgamations of broken G.U.N robots. They 
have giant arm cannons that shoot energy blasts and bombs. They also 
have huge hammer like fists of comprised rusty metal shards and spikes. 
The "boom boo reapers" are tall skinny versions of the typical Sonic 
ghosts with black cloaks. They carry a large scythe and shoot balls of 
blue fire from their hands. They have an attack where they ignite their 
scythe and spin in a circle.
The puzzles of this level are a 
bit more difficult than the first level. Imagine that if Misty Marsh was
 like Sonic Unleashed's Windmill Hill Night Act 1, than Desolate Docks 
is Savanna Citadel Night Act 1. They aren't that much more difficult, 
but they do require more thought.
Some Examples include 
puzzles such as arranging crates in a certain way to get to a higher 
area, pulling levers to lift docks up and down to clear a path, and 
turning off lights to reveal hidden enemies or switches.
As 
for platforming, the platforming is a bit harder than the last stage. 
It's a lot of jumping across rafters and avoiding pits of rusty spikes. 
There is a lot of scaling warehouses and attempting to quickly run 
across crumbling rooftops. Overall it's not too difficult. There are 
however secrets such as extra lives and chao world keys hidden in 
decently hard to reach areas.
The level ends with Tails 
entering a large warehouse through the chimney. After making it to the 
bottom floor, Tails must fight 3 boom boo reapers. The level is 
completed once he defeats them.
=== An Unexpected  and Unpleasant Encounter. ===
Tails walks up to a metal crate and begins to rifle through it. 
thumb|226x226px
"Everything
 seems to be here!" The two tailed fox mumbles to himself. "Now time to 
take thees parts and get out of this creepy place!"
"You 
ain't goin no where!" A Boston accented voice says a large brown 
porcupine steps out of the shadows. "Candy Paint" by Post Malone begins 
playing. The porcupine is muscular and completely covered in spines. He 
is wearing a backwards white cap and has a golden "B" Necklace. "You're 
Tails the Fox ain't ya?"
Tails turns around and points his laser pistol at the porcupine as he angrily questions."And just who are you?" 
"Woah
 woah woah! Don't shoot!" The mysterious thug puts his hands up in mock 
fear. "The name is Bruno! Bruno the Porcupine! You know Sonic right? My 
boss has been lookin for Sonic!" Bruno states with venomous antagonism.
"I
 get it now!" Tails says as his stance becomes even more defensive. "You
 work for Ichor! Well I'm not telling you where Sonic is!"
"Smart
 kid!" Bruno mocks as he taps his head. The thuggish porcupine cracks 
his knuckles and states. "Too bad ya won't tell me where Sonic is 
though!" Bruno rushes at Tails, but Tails shoots at him. Bruno jumps out
 of the way and lands in front of Tails. "Guess I'll just have to beat 
it out of ya!"
=== Bruno Boss Fight. ===
This
 boss is similar to Ichor. A battle remix of "Candy Paint" plays as the 
two characters duke it out. Tails just needs to completely empty Bruno's
 health bar to win. Bruno mostly rushes into Tails, trying to punch him 
and kick him. Bruno's other attacks include a bounce attack and an 
attack ware Bruno curls up into a ball and shoots his spines out all 
around him. Bruno's most powerful attack is when Bruno juts his spines 
out of his body and charges up. He then preforms a spinning stomp that 
creates a stunning shock wave.
On the boss fight's result screen Tails says. "Why can't you money grubbing punks just leave Sonic alone!"
Preparing for take Off. 
"Ah
 my head!" Bruno says after the fight. He points at Tails. "This ain't 
over kid!" The large brute of a Porcupine then runs off.
"Good
 riddance" Says Tails as he looks down at the box of parts. It slowly 
zooms in on the parts as Tails theme song starts to play while he smiles
 to himself. It then cuts to him flying  out of his workshop in the new 
and improved Tornado Cyclone. The Tornado Cyclone looks is a large green
 plane with four wings. It's has black stripes, as well as various tail 
symbols on the sides. It also appears to be powered by two chaos 
emeralds.
Tails is seen flying away from his 
workshop, over the Wildlands jungle, above the campgrounds, and 
eventually through the skies of Azure city. Sonic, Knuckles, and Rouge 
look up at their friend from a picnic table at the park. Tails waves 
down at them and shouts "Hey guys!"
"Alright!" Says 
Sonic as he looks at Knuckles and gives him a thumbs up. Knuckles picks 
up Sonic and tosses him at the plane. Sonic lands on one of the the 
right wing's and signals Rouge and Knuckles to come on up. Rouge grabs 
Knuckles and flies up to the plane. She drops him on tone of the left 
wings, and then lands on the plane's tail herself. Tails does a few 
spins and loops to show off, before heading towards Eggman's canyon 
base. Sonic shouts "Oh yeah let's do this!" as the gang heads to their 
destination.
=== Sky Chase Act 1 ===
Sky chase is just as it should be. Which is how
 it was in Sonic Adventure 1, and not Sonic Unleashed. Tails simply 
pilots the tornado cyclone through the sky as he shoots down Eggman and 
G.U.N robots. The music is a metal remix of Sky Chase Zone from Sonic 
the Hedgehog 2. The level is short and simple. There is no boss and it 
simply consists of Tails shooting down enemies. If the Tornado Cyclone's
 health bar reaches 0, the player looses a life. 
The controls are also not complicated at all. The player presses A/X 
to shoot, and holds the button down to charge a shot. B/Square is used 
to lock on, and Y/Triangle does a little barrel roll that destroys 
nearby enemies. The Tornado Cyclone can also launch missiles if the 
player presses triggers. There are however only 3 missiles available.
Energy from Underground.
Tails successfully lands the Tornado Cyclone in a large rocky canyon.
 The gang looks up to see that Dr. Eggman has certainly built a new 
base, and it is an absolute fortress. A large structure that looks like 
an unholy mix between a castle, an amusement park, and a power plant 
looms over our heroes.
"Wow ol Egghead really pulled out all the stops this time." Sonic says in awe.
"Yeah but I doubt getting in will be easy!" Tails states stroking his chin.
"No need!" Rouge says as she points up to a destroyed ventilation shaft.
"Shadow!?!" Sonic says with excitement! "All right! This must mean 
he's already gone in there and hogged all the fun! Guess I'll just have 
to play catch up!" The blue hedgehog stretches his legs in 
anticipation. 
Knuckles than begins to hold his head as if he's in pain.
Rouge notices and says "What's wrong Knucks?"
Knuckles looks at the rest of the group with a grim expression. "I 
can sense pieces of the master emerald here. . . but something's wrong. 
It's coming from underground. Knuckles than notices a wrecked mine cart 
laying in front of a small tunnel in the wall of the canyon and walks up
 to it, looking in.
"Knuckles!?! You can't possibly plan to go in there all by yourself? I
 mean no one even knows where it leads!" Tails says with concern.
Knuckles looks back at the group and holds up his fist as the new and
 improved version of "UNKNOWN FROM M.E" begins playing. "It's my duty to
 protect the Emerald, and I haven't been doing a very good job of that 
lately. I know you guys can handle yourselves, and I can handle myself 
as well!"
The group thinks about it for a moment.
Sonic than smiles and gives Knuckles a thumbs up. "Alright 
Knucklehead!" He turns and begins heading towards the ventilation shaft.
 "You got your duties." He says as he glances towards his echidna pal. 
Sonic then stares up at Eggman's base and cockily smiles. "And we got 
ours!"
"Thanks guys!" Knuckles says as he begins climbing down into the 
tunnel. "Oh and by the way guys." Everyone stops walking and glances 
back at Knuckles. "Say hi to Eggman and his newly hired goons for me!" 
The guardian of the Master Emerald than jumps down into the darkness of 
the tunnel.
=== Stage 6: Burning Basement. ===
==== Find the pieces of the Master Emerald in the fiery tunnels below the base. ====
Remember Aquatic Mine from Sonic Adventure 2? This level is basically
 that, but replace all the water with fire and magma. The music is 
another rap song of course. This time around it's general mood is hot 
and intense, with an incredibly fast beat. 
The level's lay out is a large square room with a huge pit of magma 
in the middle. The magma can be lowered and raised with a lever. This 
reveals many tunnels that lead to items, enemies, or emerald pieces. The
 level is also littered with mine carts, tracks, floating chunks of 
rubble, oil barrels and flashing sines of Eggman's face. The barrels 
explode when attacked, yet they sometimes have emerald pieces in them on
 higher difficulties.   
The enemies of the level are miner themed egg pawns, and some 
returning badniks such as coconuts and caterkillers. There are also of 
course spirit enemies. Most of thees actually resemble Iblis monsters 
from Sonic 06. Examples include large rock and lava golems, flaming 
birds, and fire worms. 
This level's most notable aspect is actually that Knuckles acquires 
the shovel claw here. It has an upgrade this time around as well. Now it
 can not only dig through just dirt or sand, but harder substances such 
as molten rock and crystal too. Let's just say it comes in handy in this
 level.
The level of course ends when Knuckles collects all 3 pieces of the emerald.
=== Rising Magma. ===
 Knuckles looks at the pieces of the Master Emerald. They appear to 
have some sort of blue light coming out of them. Knuckles seems 
concerned and says "Hmm. I knew there was something wrong. The magic 
Eggman has been fooling around with must have somehow tainted the 
shattered pieces. I gotta find the rest of the pieces fast, as well as 
get back to Angel Island and figure things out. Man could this day get 
any worse!" 
As Knuckles says that he raises his arms to the sky and shakes his 
head. He then sighs, but quickly turns around as he hears a deep 
guttural rumble. Suddenly the magma begins to rapidly rise. Knuckles 
shouts "I guess I spoke too soon!" and begins to climb up the wall.
=== Stage 7: Soul Powered Stronghold. ===
==== Break into Dr. Eggman's Base. ====
This level immediately starts after the previous one. It starts with 
Sonic bursting out of the ventilation shaft. He says "Alright Eggman 
enough games! I'm coming to crash this little magic party of yours! Same
 goes for you Ichor! Here I come!" 
This level is a giant neon castle like structure. The music is a 
tense rock tune, with a mixture of both mechanical and other worldly 
sounding instrumentals spliced in. There are flashing sines that say 
"EGGMAN", as well as giant statues of him dressed as a king or an 
emperor everywhere. There are also strange giant lantern shaped 
generators. Inside of them are massive round white spirits with glowing 
yellow eyes. The spirits  look as if they're in pain; they seem to be 
having their energy siphoned out to power Eggman's base.
The platforming becomes a bit trickier here. There are platforms that
 will fall down after only being stood on for a few seconds, rail 
grinding, and wall jumping. The enemies are also much tougher as well. 
The egg pawns are much bigger. Most of them have shields, as well as 
spikes all over their bodies. They can only be attacked via their heads.
 The giant metal hammer robots from Sonic Heroes make a return here. 
They are typically seen guarding most switches or doors, and are also a 
bit easier to take out in this game.
Black versions of E 123 Omega appear here, they however seem to be 
much weaker. The flying robots now have electrical shields that turn on 
and off for a few seconds. There are also spirit enemies here as well. 
They resemble ethereal knights, chandelier, and balls of slime. The 
spirits aren't that difficult to take out. Some of the knights have 
shields, but they put them down and can easily be destroyed. 
The level also has some switches that need to be thrown to turn off 
laser gates or move platforms. Some of the generators need to be 
destroyed in order to open up doors. However each time a generator is 
destroyed a monstrous roar rings out through the level. By the end of 
the level, it's revealed that the roar was coming from a giant dragon 
like spirit. 
The dragon is white with yellow spikes on it. It's surrounded by 
green flames, and has a a golden rail on it's back. Sonic says "Woah a 
dragon! I should be able to get at it's head if I grind up the rail 
looking thing on it's back." Sonic does this and the dragon spits up the
 "bounce bracelet"and some of the dragon's spikes become purple glowing 
cylinders. Sonic says "Maybe if I bounce on those glowing purple thing's
 on it's back, that will finally put him out of commission." Sonic is 
correct. As the dragon fades away the goal ring is revealed and Sonic 
directly falls on top of it.
=== We meet again. ===
Sonic walks through the main door into the interior of the base. He 
looks around and shouts "Eggman! You home? It would make things much 
easier on both of us if you come out so I can kick your butt again!" 
"Sorry but Eggman isn't home right now!" How about you leave a 
message at the tone." "Jesus of Suburbia" Starts playing as Ichor the 
Hedgehog stands up on a ledge with Amy Rose in one arm.
Amy shouts "Sonic!"
Ichor laughs  and says "Funny isn't it? She mistook me for you. I've 
heard of your annoying fan girl who follows you to the edge of the world
 Sonic!"
"Annoying?" Amy questions with irritation.
"Amy!?!" Sonic shouts. "Ichor!!! You put her down right now!?!"
Ichor looks at Amy and than looks at Sonic. "Hmph. I didn't think you
 cared about her Sonic. After all, from what I know she always shouts 
about how much she loves you, and all you do is ignore her and run away.
 Shame."
"Sonic DOES love me! He wouldn't have come here to rescue me if he didn't" Amy swoons.
"I think your mistaken miss. The world renowned Sonic the Hedgehog 
seems to have a date with someone other than you." Ichor ignites is free
 hand with dark blue fire. "ME! ICHOR! AND THIS TIME I WON'T LET HIM GET
 AWAY!"
"PUT HER DOWN!" Sonic yells.
"IF YOU INSIST!!!" Ichor shouts as he throws Amy off the ledge.
Amy screams and seems as if she's about to hit the ground, but 
suddenly the lost track "Broken" from Shadow the Hedgehog starts 
playing. Shadow himself  appears and shouts "CHAOS CONTROL!" He saves 
Amy. 
Shadow sets Amy down and says "You're late!" 
"I know!" Sonic says with irritation. 
"SONIC!!!" Amy shouts and hugs him.
Shadow looks at Sonic and Amy. "I don't think you two have time for a
 cheery reunion. Eggman is just down the hall. You go stop him from 
completing that ritual, I'll take care of this hack magician!" Shadow 
angrily stares up at Ichor while he says that last part. 
Ichor melts into the floor and reforms in front of Shadow. "Well this
 hack magician knows some pretty deadly tricks Mr. Ultimate Life form!" 
He says as he ignites his hands.
Sonic gives Shadow a thumbs up, and dashes down the hall as the two black and red hedgehogs begin to duke it out behind him. 
=== Confronting the Doctor. ===
The next cutscene starts 
with Sonic running into a large circular room, with Amy in his arms. 
There is a large capsule full of some sort of light blue wispy energy in
 the middle of the room. There is a large blue sapphire, the same size of the
 Master Emerald held above the capsule. There appear to be laser guns 
pointed directly at the sapphire.
Dr. Eggman is seen standing on a
 balcony. Silver the Hedgehog and Big the Cat are seen fighting a legion
 of Eggman's robots. Tails and Rouge quickly run in behind Sonic.
"Ah
 Sonic!" Eggman smirks as he looks down at his arch nemesis "I'm 
surprised you didn't show up sooner. Even Silver came all the way here 
from the future! Which means that my plans must of worked!"
Silver
 destroys a few robots with his psychokinesis. "Think again Eggman! Your
 plans backfire again! Effigy betrays
you, and destroys the world."
"Ah!
 I was afraid of that!" Eggman says as he pulls out a stone bracelet 
with ancient symbols carved on it. It has green, blue, and red gems 
inside of it. "That's why I had this made!"
Sonic
 sets Amy down. "Don't worry Silver, you can go home! Eggman won't be 
summoning this weird epitaph thing or whatever it's called on my watch."
 Sonic homing attacks a few robots. "You and your new creepy buddies' 
games are over Egg head!" Sonic jumps in front of the capsule and points
 directly at Eggman.
"Yeah! It's dangerous to 
play with spooky ghosts doctor!" Big says as he swings his fishing rod 
around, destroying a few robots."
"That's what you 
idiots think!" Eggman states as he presses a button. All his robots 
suddenly short circuit and collapse onto the ground.
Tails laughs. "Wow. It looks like all the times we've defeated you has effected your engineering doctor!"
"Yeah! Even when You've won before, Sonic has always found a way to stop your plans you creep!" Amy chimes in.
"MUWAHAHAHAHAHA!
 AGAIN THAT'S WHAT YOU THINK!" Suddenly the floor opens up. A trap remix
 of "E.G.G.M.A.N" From Sonic Adventure 2 begins playing. A large dark 
green octopus like robot rises from the floor. It appears to be 
surrounded in glowing green energy. The robot has bat wings and large 
claws as well.
"BEHOLD! ONE OF MY NEWEST CREATIONS! THE EGG KEEPER! THE SPIRIT WORLD'S ENERGY HAS MADE MY MACHINES INVINCIBLE!"
Silver charges up his psychic energy. "We'll see about that!"
Sonic looks at Silver "You said it buddy! I say it's time we get serious!"
Silver clutches his fist. "As If I wasn't before!"
=== Egg Keeper Boss Fight. ===
The music for this fight is an eerie and creepy rock tune. It resembles the music from the fight with King Boom Boo in Sonic Adventure 2.
This
 boss battle takes place in a large circular room. The Egg Keeper flies 
around shooting dark green lasers at Sonic. It's other attacks include 
summoning mini versions of it's self, marking the ground with magic 
circles that burn anyone standing in them, charging at sonic, and raking
 across the ground with it's claws. 
thumb|167x167px
If Sonic 
touches the boss battle's floating question mark he says. "That thing's 
core must be it's weak spot. It's the only part not powered up by magic.
 I'll have to find a way to get it to spread it's tentacles  though. 
Silver can you help out!"
Sonic actually has Silver 
as an ally in this boss fight. Sonic doesn't need to do much, other than
 dodge attacks. Every now and than Silver will grab the robot with his 
psychokinesis and forcibly hold the robot's tentacles open. All Sonic 
has to do is homing attack the core.
Half way through the fight, the Egg Keeper begins smoking.
"YOU
 INSUFFERABLE HEDGEHOGS!" Eggman yells. "THIS ISN'T THE END OF MY 
GLORIOUS CREATION!" Suddenly a serge of deep purple energy surrounds the
 Egg Keeper. It's eyes glow a bright green. It's core becomes surrounded
 with purple glowing spikes.
Suddenly a quick in 
battle scene of Ichor igniting his fists plays as he says "It looks 
likes there's been a change of plans." The scene is similar to a 
character's animation before you fight them in Sonic 06.
The fight starts back up again. As "Jesus of Suburbia" begins to play.
"Ichor you're helping me!?!" Sonic states as Silver is replaced by Ichor.
"Shadow
 told me Eggman's true plan. The madman told me he was only using magic 
to improve his machines, not attempting to summon something like Effigy.
 Besides, your psychic friend looks like he needs to recharge his 
power."
"Alright, I guess I'll have to trust you for now. But no cheap tricks!"
Sonic
 just needs to avoid more potent attacks from the Egg Keeper. Ichor will
 bring down the robot's magic shield, and Sonic will be able to simply 
homing attack anywhere on it's body.
On the results screen Sonic says. "Thanks Ichor ! You're a life savor!"
"This whole helping you business isn't gonna be a reoccurring thing!" Ichor replies.
=== Enter Effigy. ===
The
 next cutscene shows Sonic and Ichor standing over the smoking rubble 
that was once the Egg Keeper. Silver gets back up after catching his 
breath. Shadow and Knuckles run into the room.
"Are we too late?" Knuckles asks?
Sonic smiles and shakes his head. "Nah we just made it!"
"Actually. . ." Eggman states as he begins to madly cackle. "Knuckles is right for once!"
"HEY!" Knuckles yells.
Suddenly
 a laser beam hits the King Sapphire, shattering it. As it shatters light blue 
energy drips down into the capsule. It begins swirling around. The song 
"Anubis" By Septic Flesh begins to play.
"What's happening?" Big questions.
"Effigy is being summoned." Ichor replies. "Eggman played me, and all of you for fools."
"ICHOR
 YOU FAILED. YOU DIDN'T STOP SONIC FROM GETTING HERE, AND YOU BETRAY ME!
 YOU'RE DEFINITELY NOT GETTING PAID! MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Amy
 screams and hugs Sonic. Everyone has a horrified expression on their 
face. Silver punches the wall, looking defeated. Shadow and Ichor try to
 look stoic, but fail as the energy begins to form a hedgehog like 
figure.
"WAHAHAHAHAH! IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK!" The 
energy forms into a light blue demonic looking being. He has spiky hair,
 black eyes, horns, fangs, and the symbol of a dark blue swirl on his stomach! "ALL BOW TO ME!" 
thumb|253x253px
He says as he launches a wave
 of dark energy that knocks everyone, including Eggman against the wall.
 Eggman stands up and him and Effigy stare each other down.
"In the Shadow of our Pale Companion" by Agalloch begins to play.
"I assume you were the one who released me?" The demon asks the mad scientist.
"Why yes! And I could use your help!" Eggman holds the bracelet behind his back with one hand.
"Help?" Effigy questions as he strokes his chin.
"Yes!
 From what I understand from your history, you almost took over all of 
Mobius once. I'd like to do the same. However I can't do it alone." 
Eggman explains.
The Wraith crosses his arms "Well I can."
"I'm
 not sure about that." Eggman responds as his glasses reflect the light 
of Effigy's luminous form. "The world has changed so much since you've 
been asleep. There are others who wield power similar to yours. Some who
 may even be able to surpass it. At least three of those whelps down 
there can access the very form you pioneered." Eggman points to Sonic 
and his friends.
Effigy looks down at everyone 
from the balcony and studies them. "I doubt that." He then looks back at
 Eggman. "But I'm listening."
"What I propose is my genius combined with your power. It would certainly be an unstoppable force."
Effigy thinks for a moment. "Fine."
Eggman laughs. "I knew you would like the sound of that Effigy! MUWAHAHA!"
"But
 you won't be needing this." Effigy proclaims as he holds out his hand, 
magically ripping the bracelet from Eggman's left hand. Effigy catches 
the bracelet and appears to store it in some sort of pocket dimension. 
"I promise I won't betray you good doctor." Effigy evilly smirks at 
Eggman.
Eggman seems terrified, but after a few moments he nods with a serious expression. "I hope not."
Effigy
 lets out a twisted and sickening cackle. "TO PROVE IT TO YOU! "I'LL 
PRESENT YOU WITH A GIFT.  THOSE FOLKS DOWN THERE SEEM LIKE PESTS GOOD 
DOCTOR. I'LL GIVE THEM A ONE WAY TRIP TO THE SPIRIT WORLD!" As Effigy is
 saying this, he is charging up.
He opens a 
large swirling green portal. It starts sucking Sonic in, but Ichor grabs
 him. However he starts getting sucked in as well. Shadow yells "Chaos 
Control!", but starts to get sucked in to. Silver grabs them both with 
his psychokinesis, but even he is getting sucked into the portal.
"TAILS, KNUCKLES, ALL OF YOU GUYS GET OUT OF HERE!"Sonic Yells.
"We can't just leave you guys!" Amy yells back.
"We can find a way out, trust me I've done it before." Ichor claims. "You guys just get out as fast as possible.
"And why should we trust you?" Rouge asks Ichor.
"Because I'm the only one who has experience with this kind of stuff! Just go!"
"GUYS THIS IS SCARY! LET'S GOO!" Big yells as he starts running away.
"Tails looks at Sonic." We're gonna do our best to halt Eggman and Effigy. Ichor, pleas bring the guys back safely."
Ichor shouts "I'll do my best." before all 4 hedgehogs are sucked into the Spirit World.
=== Unexpected Help. ===
The next cutscene shows a red light blinking 
as a monotone and  robotic voice says "INTRUDERS ESCAPING! INTRUDERS 
ESCAPING! DO NOT LET THEM ESCAPE!" Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Rouge,  and Big
 are running through a metal hallway. They eventually become surrounded 
by Silver egg pawns.
"This is baaad!" Big states as he takes out his fishing rod.
"Tell me about it!" Knuckles replies, getting ready to fight.
"Get ready guys!" Tails says as he begins spinning is laser baton around.
Suddenly
 the egg pawns are all destroyed as a huge guitar rift echos through the
 hallway. Bruno the Porcupine and a male bat are seen standing behind 
the now destroyed robots. The bat looks kind of like rouge, but he is 
wearing black sweatpants, a black beanie, and has a green clover on his 
stomach. He is holding a purple electric guitar. "Mona Lisa" by Panic at
 the Disco begins playing.
Big looks at the bat and says "You!?!"
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"Hey fox boy! Short time no see. Glad ya found the place safe!" Bruno mockingly proclaims.
The
 bat scans the group with his crimson eyes. "I'm Axel for those who 
haven't met me yet. This is Bruno." Axel points at his porcupine 
companion and then himself. "We work for Ichor, and I'm assuming there 
has been a change of plans!"
Knuckles nods. "Eggman was only 
using you guys as pawns! Your boss and our friends have been sucked into
 the Spirit World. Effigy has also been summoned."
Axel snaps his finger. "Shoot! We need to figure things out. But first we gotta get out of here!"
"You
 said it." Tails replies. "Everyone stand your guard! Who knows what 
nasty inventions Eggman could have lurking around down here."
Bruno
 and Axel nod. Bruno looks at Tails and says "We'll go on ahead! We know
 our way around this dump by now. You fellas tail us and stay close." 
Tails gives Bruno a thumbs up and follows the bat and porcupine.
=== Stage 8: Hectic Hallways. ===
==== Escape through the base's tunnels!!! ====
This
 level involves Tails fighting waves of robots in various metal hallways
 deep inside Eggman's base. This level is actually a much more combat 
heavy level then Tails' other levels. There  are things such as switches
 and laser gates, but for the most part Tails spends his time in this 
level trashing legions of Eggman's robots. The music of this level is a 
high energy rock tune with long and intense guitar rifts. It is very 
similar to Pyramid Cave's music from Sonic Adventure 2.
Enemies
 include silver egg pawns, large grey robots that resemble E 123 Omega, 
metal hammer robots, silver buzz bombers, bronze motobugs, and giant 
catterkillers. There are also plenty of blue flaming spirit enemies. 
Thees include blue fire goloms, blue flying bird spirits, flaming blue 
knights, and blue worms. 
There are of course more difficult 
enemies as well. Copies of the Egg Gladiator will appear, but Tails 
won't have to knock them down to defeat them like Knuckles did. Armored 
hammer robots also make their return from Sonic Heroes. As for deadly 
spirits, silhouettes of Effigy will appear through the level and throw 
green fireballs at Tails.  
Security alarms will go off at 
various points during this level, summoning more and more robots. The 
other main obstacles Tails will have to avoid are spike pits, walls that
 close in, and blue portals that open up  on the ground and walls. Thees
 portals will suck Tails in if he gets to close. In some rooms, a white 
mist will come out of the vents a timer will appear. The doors will 
lock, and Tails will have to defeat all enemies before time runs out. If
 the timer reaches 0, the mist will kill Tails.
Effigy and Eggman 
will also say various taunts and insults overt the loud speaker 
throughout this level's duration. Examples include Eggman saying "Do you
 fools really think you can escape without the help of your precious 
hedgehog heroes!" or "Give up Tails! I know you can't do this without 
Sonic."Effigy will say things such as "You mortals are so foolish. 
Running around down there like cornered rats!" or "I bet your friends 
are being torn apart by a pack of angry ghouls right now!"
Tails
 finds the "Lightning Charm." In this level. It's a little charm of a 
lightning bolt that attaches to Tails' laser baton. This causes the 
greatly increases the laser baton's damage output, as well as make it so
 that enemies charged with Effigy's power can be harmed.
The 
level ends with Tails coming to a large red door with Eggman's face on 
it. Eggman will come over the loudspeaker and say "Oh Tails my dear boy!
 So close yet so far! This should take care of you!" Three giant blue 
glowing armored hammer robots appear.
Effigy's deep 
eerie voice states "I have charged them up with my power. Good luck even
 making a dent on them you idiotic mortal." It's a good thing Tails picked up the Lightning Charm. Tails eventually takes them down and the level ends.
=== Escape. ===
The gang runs out of the base. "We've almost made it!" Rouge happily claims.
'ALMOST!" Eggman's voice echoes throughout the entire base. A legion of robots come running towards the gang on all sides.
Knuckles stomps his foot angrily. "WE WERE SO CLOSE!"
Suddenly a robotic voice yells "ALL EGGMAN'S ROBOTS MUST BE ELIMINATED!" E 123 Omega lands in front of the group.
"Omega!" Rouge shouts with joy. A techno remix of "This Machine" from Sonic Heroes begins to play.
"NEW
 AND IMPROVED!" Omega states as his hands open up and he begins spinning
 around. Large purple lasers shoot from the red robots arms. Many of the
 enemy robots turn to ash. "ROUGE AND FRIENDS. ESCAPE FROM EGGMAN'S 
BASE! I WILL TAKE CARE OF THEES HUNKS OF JUNK!"
"I'll
 stay here and help with wreckin the doc's toys!" Bruno says as he 
flexes his muscles. "Axel, you get thees fellas outta here." The 
porcupine commands his cohort. Axel nods.
"The Tornado Cyclone is this way guys!" Rouge looks at Tails. "It will be exhausting, but I think I can fly out of here."
Axel
 looks at rouge. "She's got a point. Your plane can't possibly fit all 
of us. I'll fly as well. You take the echidna, the girl, and the big 
guy.
Amy crosses her arms. "We have names ya know!"
Axel shrugs. "Well I'm off." He begins to fly away.
"HEY WAIT UP!" Rouge yells as she starts flying after Axel.
"MEET
 US AT MY WORKSHOP YOU GUYS!" Tails yells as he begins to run towards 
the Tornado Cyclone with Knuckles, Amy, and Big following him.
=== Sky Chase Zone Act 2. ===
This
 level is just a way harder version of Sky Chase Zone Act 1. The sky is 
dark and grey this time, and the enemies are way tougher. Not only do 
Eggman's flying robots now have red bubble shields with spikes, many 
flying spirit enemies appear here. The music is a far more intense remix
 of Act 1's music, which is already a remix of Sky Chase from Sonic the 
Hedgehog 2.
This level actually has a boss. It 
is a giant blue phoenix called the "Winged Phantom." Tails must blast 
the glowing pink orbs on the creatures wings before he can shoot at the 
belly. Rinse and repeat and eventually the bird spirit will become tired
 and lay it's head down. All Tails needs to do is to shoot the Winged 
Phantom's head a bunch of to win.
When the Winged Phantom first appears Amy says "AHHH! THAT BIRD IS GONNA EAT US!"
Tails says "Not if I can help it! I won't let any of Effigy's goons stop us from escaping!"
On the results screen Tails says "Don't worry Sonic! Once you get out were gonna put that wispy creep back where he belongs!"
=== In the Spirit World. ===
The next cutscene shifts away from Tails and the rest of the 
gang and shows Sonic, Shadow, and Silver waking up in a multicolored 
void. Green and purple seem to be the most prominent colors of the void.
 The place seems to be filled with chunks of floating rubble and larger 
floating islands. This is the Spirit World. It looks like a mixture of 
the Ghost Zone from Danny Phantom, the Fade from Dragon Age, and the 
Soul Carin from Skyrim.
The 3 hedgehogs look around and see Ichor standing in front of them.
"Glad to see you guys are awake." Ichor states with a cocky half smile.
Shadow looks around. "So this is the mythical Spirit World?"
Ichor nods. "This place serves as an afterlife for many departed 
souls. Yet it is also the source of many forms of magic, as well as 
ancient and powerful creatures. From my research I've determined the sun
 god, Solaris, originates from here. Pockets of this realm also serve as
 story book like worlds."
Sonic strokes his chin. "Then I've been here before. A couple times actually! Just not this part."
Ichor nods. "This is also where the Chaos Emeralds draw their power from."
Silver takes out the grey Chaos Emerald and looks down at it. "So that means-"
"Yes." Ichor cuts him off. "When one uses powers such as "chaos 
control" or the "super form" they are drawing power from the Spirit 
World. Which brings me to Effigy."
Sonic crosses his arms and becomes irritated. "Yeah! Just what is that guy's problem anyways."
Ichor turns away. He looks up at the multicolored sky and states. "I 
don't know the whole story." He than takes out the cyan Chaos Emerald 
and looks down at it. "What I do know is that he wasn't always Effigy 
the Wraith. He was was once Effigy the Hedgehog." Ichor further 
explains.
Some images drawn in the style of Sonic and the Secret Ring's 
cutscenes appear. A sad piano version of Effigy's theme, "Anubis", 
begins playing. The first image shows a blue hedgehog who looks sort of 
similar to Sonic.
Ichor continues. "He was the first to find all 7 Chaos Emeralds." The
 next image shows the hedgehog with all the emeralds surrounding him. 
"He unlocked the super form, and with it he was unstoppable." The next 
image shows the hedgehog with glowing golden fur. "He took it to far 
though." The next image is of the hedgehog destroying villages and 
starting things on fire while people run for their lives.
"He let it consume him, and eventually he merged with the energies of
 the form it's self." The next image shows the hedgehog's face. His eyes
 are now pitch black and his teeth are razor sharp. His fur is also 
light blue now. "He was the most powerful being in the world, and 
apparently he wanted to become it's soul ruler." The next image shows 
the hedgehog's warped light blue body descending from a red sky, as if 
he were some sort of dark messiah.
Ichor wraps his story up. "Yet he was stopped by powerful sages who 
sealed him in 3 large gems all over the world." The next image is that 
of multiple hooded figures standing around the hedgehog and casting some
 sort of light spell on him. Then 3 images appear as Ichor names them.
The first image is of a large red ruby in front of a pyramid. "The 
Pharaoh Ruby in Shamar. The gem Eggman based the Phantom Ruby off of." 
The second is of a large blue sapphire deep underwater. "The King 
Sapphire deep below the flooded kingdom of Sylvania." The third image is
 of the Master Emerald on Angel Island. "And Finally the Master Emerald 
restful atop the floating Angel Island."
The scene flashes back to Ichor who wraps up his story. "Eggman broke
 all 3 gems and unleashed Effigy. He is way more powerful than the 4 of 
us could even dream to be. With him and Eggman teamed up the world is 
doomed. I don't think we could even stop him in our super forms."
Silver looks at Ichor "Our super forms?" He questions.
Ichor shrugs. "What can I say? I've had an eventful year." He then 
takes out a picture of Him and a yellow lynx in a white hoodie and 
jeans. Ichor and the girl are standing in front of a large white and 
gold church. Ichor looks down at the picture for a few seconds.
"All that is great and all Ichor." Sonic says and begins to tap his 
foot. "But we won't even have a chance against him at all if we're stuck
 here. So how on Mobius do we get out."
Ichor ignites his hands. "Easy. I preform a ritual to get us out. 
There are natural entrances in and out of this realm, but if we take 
those we could reappear anywhere on the planet. If we do it somewhere 
around here we should be back in Azure City."
"Seems easy enough." Shadow replies.
"It is. But we will need to generate quite a bit of magical energy. 
Every time anything moves in the Spirit World a tiny bit of magical 
energy is generated. But we'd have to sprint from here to hmm. . ." 
Ichor looks around and points at a large mountain like chunk of floating
 rubble in the distance. "There!"
Sonic jumps up and does his iconic victory pose. He smirks at Ichor 
"So what you're saying is that all we need to do is speed to that 
mountain looking thing all the way over there." Sonic questions with 
great anticipation.
Ichor begins juggling the dark fire balls in his hands. "I knew you 
would like that idea!" He turns and begins to walk away from Sonic, 
Shadow, and Silver. However he says one final thing to Sonic before the 4
 start heading towards the mountain. Ichor turns to the hedgehog he was 
once hired to capture and says "race ya."
The 4 hedgehogs then begin rushing towards the mountain as an 
orchestral version of "Race to Win" from Sonic Rivals 2 plays for a few 
seconds before the next stage starts.
=== Stage 9: Otherworldly Outskirts. ===
==== Rush through the Spirit World to generate energy. ====
This
 stage is unlike any in the game up to this point. It is extremely 
trippy and contrasts heavily with the rest of the game's semi realistic 
style.. They sky is a strange mix of colors. Purple and Green stand out 
the most. Strange temple like buildings appear in the far distance. A 
few shooting stars can even be seen in the sky at some points. The music
 is a fast techno beat. It is entirely synthesized. The best way I could
 describe it would be like a mixture of the Danny Phantom theme, and an 
Owl City song without lyrics.
The actual gameplay level's 
gameplay is mostly just Sonic running across floating rubble, grinding 
on beams of light, and homing attacking glowing balls of light. The 
level is probably the most speed heavy in the game, at least for Sonic. 
There are a lot of portions where Sonic just boosts through glowing 
tunnels or rides on the back of a glowing green bird whilst dodging star
 like obstacles.
There are no Eggman or G.U.N robots in this 
level. Instead there are returning and new spirit enemies. There of 
course the typical birds, goloms, and flame like spirits. There are some
 new ones though. Sonic will encounter black skeletal spiders, giant two
 headed glowing red bats, Green air elemental like creatures, mummy like
 spirits that whip at Sonic with their wrappings, and finally glowing 
green demonic looking creatures. The demons sort of resemble a balrog 
from Lord of the Rings or the Old Iron King from Dark Souls 2. 
There are a lot of sections, such as the previously mentioned bird, 
that are mostly just set pieces. Other examples include ethereal tubes 
that Sonic launches through, sections where Sonic is falling, only to 
safely land on a beam of light that can be ground on, and even a part at
 the very end that hearkens back to Sonic Adventure 2.
There are a few sections where Sonic will only be able to get through a wall by triple dashing through it. Luckily he finds the "Speed Soul Necklace" in this level. The necklace is made from black string and a purple jewel shaped like a comet. This upgrade unlocks the triple dash.
At the
 end of the level Sonic finds a snow bored and starts riding down a 
crumbling street. A bunch of glowing green clones of Sonic appear and 
begin to snow bored next to him. "Who are thees posers, they don't seem 
friendly. How about a little race!" They shoot lasers that Sonic will 
have to dodge. Eventually another creature joins the fun. It is a 
massive glowing, black, and skeletal spider. Sonic says "Woah what is 
that thing! This reminds me of that G.U.N truck, but much freakier. I 
gotta speed up!" The goal ring is at the end of the hill.
=== Silver Disappears. ===
The next cutscenes shows Sonic, Shadow, and Ichor arriving at the mountain.
Sonic looks at the other two hedgehogs and cockily says "I think I win."
Shadow rolls his eyes. "Whatever. Ichor do you think we can get out of here now?"
Ichor nods. "Yeah, but where is that other hedgehog."
Sonic shrugs. "Silver is a bit of a slowpoke anyway."
Shadow smirks. "Yeah you think with his psychic powers he'd be here before all of us. This place seems perfect for him."
Ichor's gasps and suddenly becomes extremely concerned. He nervously states. "Shoot. That's right."
Shadow then becomes concerned as well. "What!?! What is it???"
Ichor
 takes a breath and calmly replies. "The magic in this place has a way 
of getting to psychics. Psionics and magic are two very different 
things. He could be in serious trouble. We've got to find your friend 
and quick."
Sonic begins to run off. He turns around and says with a bit more urgency in his voice"Quick is my middle name. Come on!"
=== Hub World: The Spirit World ===
Finally,
 after many cutscenes and stages, the hub worlds are back. sonic states.
 "I gotta find Silver and fast. Who knows what the weird magic of this 
place could be doing to him." This is the Spirit World hub world. It can
 be a bit confusing as it doesn't really have desperate sections like 
the others.
This one is just a huge field in the middle of the void. 
Again, it's a lot like the Soul Cairn from Skyrim. It is a bit easy to 
get lost, simply due to how vast this area is, but if you know where 
you're going you should be fine. The entrance to the chao garden can be found through a portal in the center of a large black temple.
he Spirit World's music is a soft and otherworldly synth tune. Remember 
the old royalty free music from 2007 YouTube? Yeah. That's what it 
sounds like.
After walking around a bit, 
random chucks of rubble will fly at Sonic. After each time this happens 
Silver's voice will say things like "disappear" or "it's time I end 
this." All Sonic needs to do is follow the direction the rubble is 
coming from. Eventually Sonic will come across a large black tower. Once
 he gets close enough the next cutscene will play.
=== Time for you to Disappear. ===
The 
 next cutscene starts with Sonic, Shadow, and Ichor walking up to the 
tower. A space rock cover of "Dreams of Absolution." Sung by Starset 
begins to play. " Silver then descends from the top of the black tower. 
His eyes are now as red as shadows. A red glow surrounds him.
"Silver what's gotten into you." Sonic asks.
"I'd say it's a puppeteer." Ichor states.
"A what?" Shadow questions.
"A
 puppeteer." Ichor replies. They get into people's minds and control 
them. Psychics are extra susceptible. We gotta knock it out of him."
Shadow crosses his arms. "Hmph. I wasn't expecting to have to fight Silver twice in one week."
Sonic gives Shadow a thumbs up. "Don't worry man, I'll handle this.
Ichor glances at Sonic.  "Are you sure you'll be okay?"
Sonic nods. "Just start the ritual to get us out of here. I'll knock that evil spirit right out of him!"
Silver
 starts to glow a bright red, rather than his usual green. "I'll be the 
one knocking you worthless mortals around. You'll soon join your weak 
willed friend! It's time for you to disappear."
=== "Silver" Boss Fight. ===
The
 fight is a much improved version of the Sonic 06 fight. Starset's cover
 of "Dreams of Absolution." Plays throughout the fight. Sonic has to 
homing attack "Silver" 6 times to win. However Silver he can not lock 
Sonic in place with his powers and attack him over and over again. 
Instead he has to actually hit Sonic with a chunk of rubble to be able 
to psychically grab him. Sonic can homing attack the rubble and hit 
"Silver."
When enough time passes during the fight Silver's 
special move will charge up. "Mind Fry" Let's Silver unleash a wave of 
psychic energy that inverts the controls of his opponent. Once Sonic 
gets the 6 hits he needs the fight is over. On the results screen Sonic 
says "Go play puppet master with someone else you invisible freak."
=== Going Home. ===
After
 the fight Silver stands up and rubs his head. He looks at Sonic and 
weakly states. "Ugh. Thanks Sonic. My body started to tingle and then 
everything went black. I kept fading in and out during that fight. Sorry
 about that guys."
Sonic smiles and begins to walk towards Shadow and Ichor whilst responding "No problem dude. Let's just get home already."
Ichor'
 and shadow are holding hands. Both of their hands are glowing a dark 
green. Ichor explains "We should join hands for this. It will power up 
the portal much quicker" Everyone joins hands and the occult hedgehog 
begins to chant in an unknown tongue. Suddenly a green spiraling portal 
appears in the middle of the four hedgehogs.
"Alright! Let's go teach Eggman and Effigy a lesson!" Sonic eagerly says.
Ichor looks off in the distance. "You guys go on ahead. . . There's something I need to take care of here."
Silver looks at Ichor. "You sure? Won't it take even longer for you to get back if you're alone."
Ichor sighs and replies "I'm decently familiar with this place by now. Besides I have to do this."
"Very
 well." Shadow responds and jumps in the portal. Silver waves goodbye to
 Ichor and jumps in as well. Sonic is about to jump in, but then turns 
to Ichor. "No hard feelings?" Sonic asks with a smirk.
Ichor chuckles. "I guess, but I want a rematch someday."
Sonic replies "totally" and jumps in the portal back to Mobius.
=== Reunion. ===
The next cutscene starts out with Tails, Knuckles,  Amy, Rouge, Big, 
and Axel sitting outside of Tails' workshop. Everyone is looking 
worried. Tails hangs his head low, Knuckles is nervously pacing, Amy is 
biting her finger nails, Rouge is staring off in the distance, and Axel 
is rapidly tapping his foot. The only one who doesn't seem worried is 
Big, who is currently passed out. 
Tails sighs and looks off into the distance. "Sonic. . ." He sadly says under his breath.
Suddenly Tails hears an upbeat voice say "Yeah? What is it man?" Tails looks behind him to see Sonic, Shadow, and Silver.
"Guys!" Tails excitedly says. Everyone gets excited and runs up to the 3 hedgehogs. All the noise wakes Big up.
"You guys actually got out of there!!" Knuckles states.
"I knew you guys could do it!" Amy cheers.
"You guys are just full of surprises!" Rouge says with a sly smile.
Axel gestures to the 3 hedgehogs. "I guess I underestimated you 
guys." The bat then takes a closer look and notices Ichor is gone. His 
smile quickly fades and he asks. "Where's Ichor?"
"Don't worry." Silver replies. "Your boss is  the reason we were able
 to escape. He just stayed behind. He said there was something he had to
 take care of."
Axel nods. "I guess he has his reasons. I hope he is alright. Bruno 
too. I better get back to our hideout and tell Ichor's girlfriend Mara. 
She has to be worried sick by now. I'll be surprised if she hasn't gone 
out looking for Ichor." Axel begins to walk away, but turns back to the 
group. "Thanks dudes. I'm sure we'll meet again. This nasty business is 
only just beginning." Axel then flies away.
"He didn't even give us a chance to respond." Rouge states.
"What?You gonna miss him or something?" Knuckles jokes.
Rouge shrugs. "It's just nice to see another bat around here in this sea of hedgehogs."
"I'll pretend you didn't say that." Shadow says as he walks up to rouge. 
"The commander wants us back as soon as possible. G.U.N has already 
gotten reports of the large scale destruction of various cities around 
the world."
Rouge stretches. "Well I guess we have to go too."
"Alright. Thanks for all the help guys." Sonic states.
Shadow looks back at Sonic and says. "Don't mention it." Before him and Rouge fly off.
"I hate to leave you guys too." Silver says as he crosses his arms. 
"But I saw something that concerned me while I was possessed by that. . .
 thing." Silver looks over at Big. "You coming Big?" He asks.
Big slowly stands up and replies. "Silver! I told you I was gonna stick with you until you completed your goal!!!"
Silver chuckles. "Alright. And I'll stick with you until we find your
 friend." Silver looks at Sonic. "I wasn't able to prevent Eggman from 
summoning Effigy. So my work in this time period still isn't done. I'll 
be in touch."
Sonic smiles and waves goodbye to Silver. "It doesn't matter what it 
takes. We will stop those creepy megalomaniacs from destroying both my 
time and yours."
Silver gives Sonic a thumbs up as him and Big walk away.
Sonic turns around to face his other 3 friends. "And than there were 4."
"SONIC!!!" Amy says as she tackles him in a hug. Knuckles and Tails laugh.
"Amy stop mauling Sonic." Knuckles commands. "We have to discuss how we can stop Eggman and Effigy."
"Sorry. Force of habit." Amy says as she gets off of Sonic.
Sonic gets up and rubs his head.""Yeah, we don't have any time to waste."
"Exactly." Tails replies. I have been doing some research, and it 
turns out the pieces of the Pharaoh Ruby and the pieces of the King 
Sapphire fuse back together when their all in the same place."
"Just like the Master Emerald." Knuckles states.
"So all we gotta do is find them." Sonic assumes.
"Not exactly." Tails responds. "You see, a magic ritual needs to be done in order to seal a spirit in the 3 gems."
A brief image of Ichor flashes in Sonic's mind. "I think I know a guy!" Sonic says as the image fades.
Knuckles sighs. "Great. More treasure hunting. I was this close to piecing together the Master Emerald."
Tails takes out a radar looking device. "I'll let you take care of 
that first Knuckles. Meanwhile I'll try and fine tune this tracking 
device. It should lead us right to the sapphire and ruby pieces once 
it's complete.
Knuckles punches his fists together. "Right." I'll be back shortly. I can sense the emerald's power somewhere off the coast."
Sonic Yawns. "Good work guys. After all that 'being trapped in a 
creepy alternate ghost dimension' business I need to catch some Zs. 
Sonic lays down under a tree and begins to fall asleep as Knuckles jumps
 off a ledge and begins to glide towards the coastline in the distance.
=== Heading to the Coastline. ===
Gameplay picks up with Knuckles in the jungle section of the 
Wildlands. This area is a homage to the Mystic Ruins' jungle area from 
Sonic Adventure 1. The jungle is thick with many tall trees. A white 
river flows through the jungle, and needs to be jumped over whilst 
traversing the many sprawling paths. frogs croaking and cicadas singing 
can 
also be heard alongside the main theme of the Wildlands.
Eventually,
 after wondering through various overgrown paths, Knuckles finds a 
natural archway made from bent trees. All that's left to do is to walk 
right through the archway. Doing so will lead right into the next level.
=== Stage 10: Coral Coast. ===
==== Find the final pieces of the master emerald. ====
This
 level is a large open beach area. Think Big's emerald Coast in Sonic 
Adventure 1, or even sections of Shadow's Wave Ocean in Sonic 06. The 
music is a rap twist on typical ocean level music. It's nice and laid 
back. The instruments do their best to emulate sounds that remind one of
 wind and the ocean. The lyrics are around the same tempo of "Dive into 
the Mellow" from Sonic Adventure 2.
The level it's self is 
actually Sonic's story's first water level. You can dive deep under 
water, and chances are you will need to in order to find emerald pieces.
 The underwater section is pretty open. There is a large coral reef 
that
usually has emerald pieces in it. Aside from that the only real 
things to worry about are enemies and a few mines. Air bubbles of course return, as they are a staple of the series.
The
 "Air Necklace" which allows Knuckles to breathe underwater is also 
found in a small sunken jetty. The air necklace looks a bit different 
this time around, now being made of various different kinds of shells.
The
 mines explode on impact, and the enemies are all aquatic based. On the 
Eggman robot side we have Mega Choppers, Barracuda based robots, 
tentacled octopus like robots, and large steel sharks with serrated 
teeth. On the spirit side we have green spirits that resemble deep ones 
from Lovecraftian mythology, long black and white sea snake spirits, 
crab spirits with shells made of molten rock and spikes, and large 
angler fish spirits. Sometimes the angler fish make the glowing bulb on 
their antenna look like emerald pieces.
On the beach there are a 
few ledges, a small cave, and a light house. The enemies here are mostly
 returning 
enemies. Examples include coconuts, the other variety of 
monkey robot, fly robots, blue fire golom spirits, and glowing blue bird
 spirits. The crab spirits from the bottom of the ocean also appear on 
the beach. There are 2 new
enemies on the beach. They are flying seagull
 robots, and robots that look like a blue version of Omega. Unlike Omega
 they can be defeated with around 2-3 attacks.
Emerald pieces
 appear in places such as inside enemies, in the middle of the reef, or 
atop the light house. In harder difficulties they are in less obvious 
locations. Some examples include buried at the bottom of the sea or 
actually on an angler fish spirit's bulb. Collect all 3 final pieces and
 the level is done.
=== The Reassembled Emerald. ===
The next cutscene shows 
Knuckles standing on the beach while the sun begins to set. The master 
emerald begins to come together. "Finally." Knuckles states. "The Master
 Emerald is whole once again." Knuckles glances at the 
setting sun. 
"Although my duty is complete, the world is still in danger. . ." 
Knuckles begins to carry the Emerald towards the jungle. "It's getting 
late. I'd better get back to Sonic and Tails.
=== Locating the Pharaoh Ruby. ===
 The next cutscene starts with 
Knuckles lugging the Master Emerald up to Sonic and Tails. It's the 
middle of the night by now, and Sonic is still asleep. Knuckles wipes 
off his brow and takes a deep breath.
"There we go." He says to Tails. Knuckles stretches. "So? Did you find out where the shards other gems are?"
Tails
 smiles and nods while pumping his fist. "The Pharaoh Ruby shards are 
located in the desert east of here, and the King Sapphire is somewhere 
in the north."
Knuckles looks over at Sonic. "I'm sure he'll be up
 by the time we get back from the desert. Once  we get all 3 gems 
together we can get in contact with Ichor, and than it's goodbye 
Effigy!"
Tails thinks for a moment and then asks. "Are you sure we shouldn't wake Sonic up? We may need him."
Knuckles
 shrugs. "I think we can handle this on our own. The two of us can 
easily find a few shattered ruby pieces. I mean I do this kind of thing 
all the time!"
"I guess." Tails responds. "We should be able to make it to the desert by foot, as it branches off from the wild lands."
Knuckles smirks and punches his fists together. "Then what are we waiting for!?!"
Tails laughs and the 2 begin to head towards the desert.
=== The Ruins. ===
Back
 to the hub world once again! Tails has to travel through the section of
 the Wildlands known as the Ruins. The area is what you'd expect. It's a
 sort of arid landscape with many crumbling temples and other ancient 
structures. It sort of resembles Wild Canyon from Sonic Adventure 2, 
with a little bit of Kingdom Valley from Sonic 06 thrown in there.
The
 NPCs are all explorers and archeologists who comment about the ancient 
ruins in someway. Most of them mention the riches that are rumored to be
 buried in the area. A select few mention mummies into the desert. Tails
 eventually finds a cave and once he enters it the next cutscene plays.
Tails and Knuckles' Teamwork.
Tails
 and Knuckles are seen in the desert looking around. Tails looks down at
 the radar and says. "The pieces are this way." He says as he points to 
the south east. A pyramid is spotted in the distance. Tails then looks 
at his echidna pal and explains "Let's head for the pyramid. Once we get
 there, you can do your stuff!"
Knuckles crosses his arms and
 nods. "This place could be dangerous. You sure you can handle it 
without Sonic?" Knuckles jokes to his fox friend. Tails simply rolls his
 eyes and begins to fly off. Knuckles yells "HEY WAIT UP" and chases 
after Tails. The next stage then starts.
=== Stage 11: Dark Desert. ===
==== Travel to the Pyramid. ====
This
 level is a desert level at night. It is very reminiscent of Sand Ocean 
from Sonic Adventure 2. There are things like quicksand and spinning 
platforms with torches in the middle of them. Tails will have to use his
 flight quite a bit in this level, as most of it is filled with 
quicksand. The level's music is also similar to Sand Ocean. It is the 
typical video game desert theme, but it has that Sonic energy to it. You
 know what I'm talking about.
As stated, this level is very 
heavy with platforming. Tails will have to jump across stone structures,
 fly through boost rings, and scale large temples. Yet he will also have
 to solve various puzzles to make it through. There are switches of 
course, but this level also has a few unique puzzles. 
The 
first puzzle is that of lighting up certain hieroglyphs on a wall to 
unlock a door. On the walls of the last large  chamber there are  
carvings of Perfect Chaos, Iblis, Black Doom, and Effigy. Since the 
Pharaoh Ruby has similar properties to the Phantom Ruby, virtual reality
 versions of past enemies *or current enemies in Effigy's case*, are 
hidden in certain sections of the chamber. Once Tails defeats all thees 
hidden enemies the door to the goal ring will open.
The other 
puzzles aren't as complicated. One of them is simply attacking the 
orange flames on the level's large torches a certain number of times. 
Eventually they will turn blue, and eventually purple. Once all the 
flames in a room are purple the door will open. The final unique puzzle 
is a return of the Dusty Desert Ball Puzzle from Sonic 06. Although this
 time there is no time limit, and the number of times the ball can be 
hit has been increased to 15.
Tails finds the "Stun Rings" in this
 level. This upgrade is a dummy ring box where the rings are actually 
green instead of gold. This upgrade causes dummy ring explosions to stun
 enemies for up to 3 seconds.
Finally the enemies Tails will 
have to face in this level are what you'd expect. No Eggman robots this 
time around. There are however many sand based spirits. Sand/rock 
golems, sand elemental like beings, bats of sand and rock, chameleons 
made of sand, and brown cobra like spirits are all encountered here. The
 tougher enemies are the virtual reality versions of other enemies. 
Examples of thees are Chaos 2, giant Black Arms aliens, massive fire 
golom Iblis monsters, and Effigy clones.
After flying, fighting, and puzzle solving, Tails ends up in front of the Pyramid.
=== Stage 12: Treacherous Tomb. ===
==== Find the shards of the Pharaoh Ruby. ====
The
 next level actually starts immediately. Knuckles drops into a large 
sand filled chamber and states. "Alright Tails, if your radar is correct
 than the shards of the Pharaoh Ruby should be around here somewhere. 
This won't take long at all!"
The level is a large collection of 
chambers filled with quick sand. There is very little footing to stand 
on. Knuckles will have to do a lot of climbing and gliding in the level.
 There are large pillars, giant torches, shifting platforms, and a few 
sarcophagi both resting on various platforms, as well as floating in the
 quick sand. The hour glasses from Sonic Adventure 2 make their return 
here as well. They function the exact same as they did in that game.
The
 level's music is very similar to that of Death Chamber from Sonic 
Adventure 2. The rapping is extremely fast and sort of sounds like 
whispering. As for the actual tune of the music, it is a very eerie 
desert melody. It really gives the mood of diving deep into an ancient 
and accursed tomb.
Knuckles finds the Sunglasses in this level. They function like just 
they do in Sonic Adventure 2, and even need to be used to find some of 
this level's ruby shards on harder difficulties.
Some enemies from Tails' previous level 
cross over into this one. The sand golems, sand elementals, and sand 
bats make their return. However this level also brings back the boom boo
 ghosts, as well as the boom boo reapers from Desolate Docks. There are 
also some mummy like spirits that slowly shuffle towards knuckles. If 
they touch him he will turn to stone for a few seconds. 
The 
most dangerous enemy in this level are giant mummy pharaoh spirits with 
massive glowing green swords. They take a few hits to be defeated. They 
can turn knuckles to stone, but they can breathe fire and launch balls 
of snakes at him as well.
The ruby shards are hidden in 
places such as on the wall, in enemies, in sarcophagi, and just out in 
the open. In harder difficulties they are in places such as inches above
 the quick sand, in secret compartments near the ceiling, and being 
guarded by the pharaoh spirits. Collect all 3 of the shards to end the 
level.
=== Rouge? ===
In this cutscene Knuckles is seen 
walking on a larger platform. He sees the 4th and final shard of the 
Pharaoh Ruby and shouts "There it is!" As he runs towards the shard, 
Rouge swoops in and grabs it.
She slyly smiles and says "Hey Knuckie. Sorry, but I won't be letting you take this beautiful piece of treasure!"
Knuckles
 gasps. "Rouge?" What are you doing?" He takes a closer look at her and 
notices the that ruby  
shard is glowing. He suddenly gets a flashback to 
the Phantom Ruby from Sonic Forces. "Oh right! It's just a projection. 
I'm 
still gonna need to beat her if I want that shard though." Knuckles 
points his fists at the Rouge projection. "I'm sorry Pharaoh Ruby, but 
you're coming with me!"  
=== Rouge Projection Boss Fight. ===
This
 boss is the modern equivalent to the Rouge VS Knuckles fight from Sonic
 Adventure 2. The Paramour cover of "Fly in the Freedom" Plays during 
this fight. Knuckles just needs to hit Rouge about five times. However 
she has similar moves to him, and will do her best to prevent this. 
Knuckles will have to wait until Rouge is done attacking
him, and then 
quickly get in a hit or 2. The fight ends pretty quickly.
On the results screen knuckles says. "Now all we need is that sapphire. Eggman, Effigy, you're finished.
=== Eggman's Announcement. ===
The
 next cutscene actually shifts away from Sonic, Tails, or Knuckles. 
Azure City is shown as suddenly Dr. Eggman appears on all screens in the
 city.  Then the image starts to appear all over the world. Team Chaotix
 even makes a cameo, as there is a brief scene of them watching TV 
before then it switches to Dr. Eggman.
The remix of 
E.G.G.M.A.N begins playing as Dr. Eggman says "HELLO EVERYONE! I HAVE AN
 ANNOUNCEMENT TO MAKE! THIS WORLD NOW BELONGS TO ME ONCE AGAIN! AND THIS
 TIME, NO PUNY RESISTANCE, OR IDIOTIC BLUE HEDGEHOG WILL BE ABLE TO STOP
 ME! WUHAHAHA!
Suddenly the screen flickers as Effigy appears on screen. "Don't you mean the world is ours good doctor?"
Eggman appears again and states. "That's right my dear Effigy. I am not alone this time! I have made an alliance with a god!"
Effigy
 appears again and laughs. All the people and anthros  of the world look
 horrified. Effigy smirks and says. "I am Effigy the Wraith. Some of you
 may remember me from history class. WELL ALL OF YOU ARE ABOUT TO BE 
HISTORY! THIS WORLD RIGHTFULLY BELONGS TO THOSE WITH THE POWER AND 
INTELLECT TO TAKE IT. ALL OF YOU SURRENDER TO ME AND EGGMAN!"
Eggman appears again and says "YES! SURRENDER TO THE DOUBLE E EMPIRE!" 
Effigy appears again and face palms. "What? Are we doing a TV show or something?"
Eggman
 appears and replies. "Come on I thought it was a cool name! Anyway. You
 all have 24 hours to surrender to me and Effigy or we are going to 
destroy a majority of this planet, and just in case you think we're 
bluffing." A scene of Effigy floating above Central City appears on the 
screens. He unleashes a Chaos Blast like attack and decimates the city. 
Everyone cowers in fear as Eggman says. "That will happen to even more 
of the world if you don't surrender in 24 hours! Tootles!" 
The screens of the world go dark as Eggman and Effigy's threat lingers in the air.
=== Egg Invasion. ===
In the next cutscene Knuckles and Tails walk up to their now awake 
blue friend. Sonic has his arms crossed. He taps his foot as he points 
at Tails and Knuckles. "I can't believe you guys ran off and hogged all 
the fun!"
Tails chuckles and shrugs. "We didn't hog ALL the fun."
Knuckles chimes in and says "Yeah! We still need to get that sapphire."
Sonic gestures towards his friends. "Great! So where is it?" Sonic 
asks "I'm all for adventures but I just saw Eggman and Effigy's 
announcement. . ." Sonic's expression suddenly turns serious as he 
continues. "And I think it's time we put an end to this little game."
Tails and Knuckles agree as Tails looks down at his radar. "It looks 
like the King Sapphire shards are somewhere north of-" Tails begins to 
point north, but falls down as he stares up at the sky. His eyes widen 
and his jaw drops.
Above Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles is a massive armada of Eggman's 
airships, giant floating islands, and mushroom like structures with 
wings. An orchestral version of E.G.G.M.A.N begins playing as Eggman's 
voice echoes through the air. 
"HELLO SONIC! I  CAME HERE TO FINISH OFF YOUR WORTHLESS FRIENDS, BUT I
 SEE THAT YOU SOMEHOW ESCAPED THE SPIRIT WORLD! DO YOU LIKE MY NEW 
ARMADA? I CALL IT EDEN!" Eggman manically laughs and then calms down 
after a bit. "I have the sapphire shards right here with me! My machine is 
charging 
up right now. After it's fully charged the sapphire shards will be 
vaporized. I won't let you ruin my plans this time you persistent blue 
pest."
"Guys let's get in the Tornado Cyclone!" Tails suggests. However our 
heroes don't make it in time. As they are running towards the plane, a 
red laser beam pierces Tails workshop. The workshop goes up in flames. 
more lasers begin to rain down upon our heroes as they furiously dodge.
"We gotta get out of here!" Knuckles states as he jumps out of the way of a barrage of missiles."
"You think?" Sonic sarcastically asks as he homing attacks a bomb that was launched at Knuckles.
Tails is seen flying and weaving through an onslaught of attacks from
 Eggman's fleet. "No time for sarcasm guys! We gotta find away on that 
fleet."
Sonic thinks for a moment. "The casino back at the city. If we hitch a ride on that! We should be able to jump onto the fleet."
"I guess it's our best option!" Knuckles replies as the 3 heroes make their getaway."
=== Beginning of the End. ===
Gameplay picks back up with Sonic. The hub worlds of the Wildlands 
and Azure city are being attacked by all sorts of Eggman robots and evil
 spirits. Things are on fire, and explosions keep appearing everywhere. 
Sonic needs  to quickly run to the train leading to Azure City, and then
 rush to the park as fast as possible. However when Sonic gets
to the 
park. He has someone waiting there for him.
=== Effigy's Intrusion. ===
Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles quickly run into the park but stop in 
their tracks when they see a sickly light blue figure floating before 
them. "Your resistance, and life, ends here Sonic the Hedgehog." 
Sonic smirks. "Effigy the Wraith. I think it's time we get properly 
acquainted. Ichor told me all about your little god complex. Well guess 
what, while you were sleeping there have been hundreds of people who 
have learned how to use the power of the Chaos Emeralds. You aren't the 
only one anymore!" Sonic points at Effigy. "Time's up loser! I won't let
 you or that egg head take over this world and hurt my friends!"
Knuckles punches the air with an angry expression and Tails clutches his laser baton in his hands. 
thumb|220x220px
Effigy simply snickers and Anubis once again begins to play. "Oh you 
poor poor foolish mortals. In this world the only thing that means 
anything is power. What you think is right or wrong matters little. 
Anyone with power can force their own opinions on those who are weaker 
than them. Take a look at yourself for example!"
Sonic impatiently replies "What do you mean by that?"
Effigy gestures up at the fleet. "The doctor may be intelligent, but 
you have the speed and power to utterly trash everything he creates. 
There for he can never achieve his view of an ideal world. Guys like you
 are no different than me! You stomp on any idea you view as wrong just 
because you have the power to do so! From some brief research I have 
discovered that if that Shadow fellow decided to be evil back in the 
day, almost no one could have stopped him. He would of then been able 
power to shape the world in his image."
"Just shut up already!" Knuckles shouts.
"Yeah get to the point!" Sonic says as he attempts to homing attack 
Effigy. Effigy teleports out of the way and replies. "The point is, 
Eggman may not have the power to shape the world in his image, and guys 
like Shadow may not want to. However I both wish to. . ." Effigy pauses 
and begins to cackle. "AND CAN!" Effigy then holds out his arms.
Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are levitated off the ground. They don't 
seem to be able to move or breath. Tails tries to reach for a dummy ring
 to throw at Effigy, but his attempt is absolutely useless. "Goodbye 
Sonic the Hedgehog. Your time in the sun is through. Now it's my turn to
 shape this miserable planet into a truly great world. Into MY world!"
Suddenly a voice shouts. "I don't think so!" As Effigy is blasted 
with a dark blue fireball. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles fall to the ground
 as Effigy turns around to see Ichor the Hedgehog, Bruno the Porcupine, 
and Axel the Bat." An instrumental version of Jesus of Suburbia begins 
playing.
WHY YOU LITTLE!" Effigy shouts.
Ichor smirks. "You make a good point Effigy. The strongest of us do 
have the power to shape the world to their liking, but I don't think I'd
 like any kind of world shaped by an egotistical creep like you. You're 
not the first spirit I've tangled with, and I know you won't be the 
last!"
 Ichor looks at Sonic and genuinely smiles. "Sonic. You and your 
friends take care of Eggman. I know it'll be no sweat for you to take 
down that fleet. Effigy is mine!" Bruno flexes his muscles. "We already 
got started!" Axel flies around and pumps his fists. "Go on guys! It's 
time for us to rock this freaky phantom's world!"
Effigy crosses his arms. "Very well. I'll have plenty of time to end 
you and your friends' sorry lives later!"Effigy says staring daggers 
into Sonic. He then turns to Ichor and descends to the ground. When him 
and Ichor are eye level, Effigy says. "But first I need to crush this 
worthless excuse for a warlock and his idiot henchmen! 
Ichor snickers and replies. "If anyone is worthless it's you! And thees aren't henchmen! Their some of my best friends!"
Sonic smiles at Ichor and gives him the thumbs up. "Good luck you guys. Don't die on me Ichor! I still want that rematch!"
Ichor glances at Sonic. "Don't worry. This beat down will just be a warm up for that!"
Sonic chuckles and jumps on the floating casino as it passes by the park. Tails and Knuckles follow him.
=== Charge! ===
The next cutscene shows Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles standing atop a 
ledge overlooking the fleet. It resembles a mixture of Sky Troops from 
Shadow the Hedgehog, the Shrine of Storms from Demon Souls, and the sky 
custom stage from Super Smash Bros Brawl. 
"Woah! This looks more like an alien fleet than something Eggman would build!" Knuckles states in awe.
"It must be crafted with elements of the Spirit World." Tails theorizes."
"I guess Effigy helped old Egg Head out! Come on guys let's do this!"
 Sonic says as the 3 run and jump off the ledge, down onto one of the 
fleet's floating islands.
=== Stage 13: Egg Eden. ===
==== Make it to the shards of the King Sapphire. ====
This is the final level of Sonic's Story. You play as all 3 
characters in various sections. I've already given a feel of the level's
 overall aesthetic. The music fits this aesthetic, as it as gives the 
off feeling of a lost alien like world in the sky, sort of like that of 
the themes for Sky Sanctuary from Sonic 3 and Knuckles and Sky Troops 
from Shadow the Hedgehog. Maybe even imagine a bit of "High Above the 
Land" from Shovel Knight thrown in there. Yet it is an Eggman level, so 
there is some intense high energy rock thrown in there too. Think Egg 
Fleet from Sonic Heroes.
The level is the most difficult of Sonic's Story. Nearly every enemy 
from the past 12 levels, aside from the Pharaoh Ruby projections and 
G.U.N robots, appear at least once here. There aren't many new ones. 
However there are powered up versions of a good chunk from the past. The
 best examples are the metal hammer robots. They are now 
gold and have 
spikes on their hammers. Another good example is most of the spirits. 
They are much bigger and most of them have white energy shields around 
them. 
As stated there aren't many new enemies. There are 3. They are white 
metal Sonic like robots that seem to be powered up by Effigy, massive 
titans of molten rock and 
white fire, and smaller glowing versions of 
the Egg Keeper. 
This level is pretty long and has some of the most dangerous sections
 in the game. The player starts off as Tails. Tails says "I'll take care
 of Eggman's Army. Knuckles you focus on finding away to get those 
shields down. Sonic, we'll leave the final blow to you!"
Tails' section is what you'd expect by now. Tails fights through 
waves of enemies, flips switches, solves puzzles avoids traps, and does 
some treacherous platforming. Most of the puzzles involve defeating 
enemies or flipping switches to turn on large fans. Thees fans launch 
Tails into the air, where he will have to fly through boost rings and 
avoid floating mines and enemies.
One other puzzle involves 
stepping on panels on the ground that are in a certain order to create 
bridges out of floating platforms. The other puzzles just involve Tails 
will have to push statues of Dr. Eggman onto certain switches. 
The
 most notable aspect of Tails section is that there is an homage to 
Sonic Adventure 1's Sand Ocean at the end of it. However this time Tails
 is surfing on a large gust of wind that leads directly down to Eggman's
 main ship. Going under the archways will give Tails some extra rings, 
shields, and even a brief invincibility power up if he strings together 
enough archway's in a row. He will have to avoid many of the flying 
enemies the gang has faced up to this point, as well as red spiky 
floating mines.
Knuckles section starts with him in front of a
 large door on Eggman's main ship. The door is covered with 3 energy 
shields. Knuckles says "Each of those shields should have some sort of 
energy source. If I can find it and destroy it, than Sonic should be 
able to make it to the King Sapphire in time."
The stage is 
just like all other Knuckles stages. Accept this time he doesn't just 
need to find the energy cores, he needs to destroy them. The cores 
resemble the jewels that Shadow needs to destroy for the hero mission of
 Sky Troops. Knuckles needs to punch them multiple times to destroy 
them.
Knuckles has to be careful about random gusts of wind that 
will knock him into the great blue yonder. There are also pillars that 
will fall on him if he's not careful, and poisonous mushrooms that will 
harm him if he stays on them for too long. The cores are located on 
areas such as on top of giant mushrooms or on random floating platforms.
 Some are even located in random temple like structures. On harder 
difficulties the cores are actually in similar locations, they are just 
more heavily guarded.
Once Knuckles destroys every energy 
core, the shields are lowered and it's Sonic's turn! Sonic says 
"Alright!!! We're in the endgame now Eggman! Here I come!" There is a 5 
minute time limit to this section. But it isn't super long. Sonic rushes
 all around Eggman's main ship. He grinds on it's wings, bounces off of 
floating mushrooms, hitches a ride on missiles, and generally trashes 
the ship. There is now a storm going on as well.
Eventually 
after spending enough time outside. Sonic actually makes it into the 
ship. He speeds through it's various halls and finally makes it to the 
deck. However before he can make it onto the deck, he will have to avoid
 lasers and missiles from Metal Sonic. Yes he makes a brief appearance 
here. He serves as a mini boss. Sonic will have to
dodge his lasers and 
missiles before getting a chance to homing attack Metal Sonic. Attack 
Sonic's robot copy 4
times and Metal Sonic is down. Sonic then rushes 
out onto the deck for him and Eggman's final showdown.
=== Confrontation. ===
The cutscene starts with Sonic rushing onto the 
deck and then screeching to a stop as he looks up to see a large glass 
cube. Inside the cube are around 8 floating blue shards. Multiple 
sparking metal rods are surrounding the shards.
"Game over Eggman!" Sonic says pointing at up at his arch nemesis.
Dr.
 Eggman rubs his hands together. "Hehehehe! You're right Sonic! It is 
Game over! For you!" Eggman takes out a keyboard and begins typing on 
it. "I'm sick and tired of you constantly getting in the way of my 
plans!" Eggman begins to monologue as Sonic crosses his arms and begins 
to tap his foot. "OVER AND OVER AGAIN! I DO EVERYTHING I POSSIBLY CAN TO
 DEFEAT YOU! I INVENT GREAT AND POWERFUL MACHINES, I TEAM UP WITH 
ANCIENT GODS, I EVEN TRY TO ERASE TIME AND SPACE!"
Sonic 
yawns. "So what? I've heard this lame speech over and over again. I'm 
always going to beat you! So just give up! I can't keep doing this for 
the rest of my life ya know?" Sonic begins pacing. "I may want a family 
or something someday man!" Sonic chuckles. "Or not. . . either way, 
let's cut the chatter. It's time I give you such a thrashing that you 
never ever show your ugly mustached face around me again!"
An extremely intense orchestral  version of the Robotnik boss theme from the original Sonic the Hedgehog begins to play.
Eggman
 laughs as a giant tentacled robot being pulled by 4 robotic horses 
appears. Eggman gets in the robot. He cackles and states. "You know what
 Sonic? I just realized something! I don't care about taking over the 
world anymore! I mean I've already done it before. I want something 
more. . . spiritual. But I need you out of the way first! Goodbye my old
 nemesis!
Sonic yawns again, this time stretching as well. 
"Again snore! And what about Effigy? You know he's gonna betray you 
right?" Sonic asks.
The mad doctor cackles again. "Effigy 
means nothing to me! He's only 1 of the millions of minions I'll have 
once I fuse this realm and the Spirit World together."
Sonic becomes shocked. "WHAT!?!"
"Yes!" The doctor replies "Soon even you will be nothing but a mindless lost soul under my control!"
Sonic's expression turns Grim. "Not over my dead body! The final boss of Sonic's story then starts.
=== Egg Apocalypse Boss. ===
The 
 orchestral version of the Robotnik boss theme is blaring as Sonic is 
standing on a few platforms in the middle of a storm. The Egg Apocalypse
 floats before him! Sonic says "I may be able to make it to his cock pit
 by attacking those horses."
There are 4 horses, one is surrounded
 by fire, one is surrounded by lightning, one is surrounded by snow, 
and  the final is surrounded by black energy. Through out the fight 
Eggman will shoot lasers, missiles, fireballs and bombs. For the first 
few hits Sonic will just need to wait until all 4 horses power off for a
 second. Eggman will say "NO NO! TURN BACK ON YOU WORTHLESS SCRAP 
HEAPS!" Sonic then has to chain homing attack the horses until he hits 
Eggman's cockpit. After 2 hits Eggman will yell "BACK UP GENERATORS ON!"
 The horses will no longer power off.
Sonic says "Looks like 
I'm gonna have to take those horses out if I want to get any closer! 
Poor guys. I should be able to use Eggman's own missiles against him! 
Sonic then simply needs to wait until one of Eggman's missiles get 
really close. If he homing attacks it at the right time it will fly 
towards one of the horses destroying it. Destroy all 4 and Eggman enters
 his next phase.
Eggman shouts "I DIDN'T WANT TO HAVE TO RESORT TO
 THIS!" His mech begins to glow purple as he starts attacking twice as 
fast and twice as hard. Soon he starts knocking the platforms down with 
his tentacles.
Sonic will say "What an idiot! He may be 
wrecking the platforms, but he's giving me an opening with those 
tentacles. Sonic then needs to run across the tentacles and attack the 
cockpit. After doing this twice Eggman enters his final phase. 
The
 crazed scientist screams "DIE SONIC! DIE!" At the top of his lungs. He 
flies extremely far away. Sonic chuckles and states. "Running away after
 all eh?" Eggman then rushes at Sonic at full speed. The Waterparks 
cover of "It Doesn't Matter." Begins to play.  A button mashing session 
happens where Sonic jumps up, lands on one of the tentacles, dodges 
another tentacle causing Eggman to hit himself, and finally attacking 
the cockpit one last time.
Eggman yells 'NOOOOOOOO! NOT AGAIN!" As
 the Egg Apocalypse plummets to the ground. On the results screen Sonic 
says "Was he really expecting anything else?"
=== All's Well That Ends Well. ===
Eggman's
 fleet begins to collapse as  the game's main theme. "Mirror Image" By 
Crush 40 plays. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles make it back to the ground a 
little scuffed up. They are still in 1 piece though. Ichor and his 
friends walk up to Sonic and his friends. The Master Emerald, Pharaoh 
Ruby, and King Sapphire surround everyone.
Effigy is on the 
ground. He looks up, extremely injured, and says "How? How did I lose? 
The doctor as well? This is a nightmare!"
Ichor says "Time to
 go home Effigy! As he holds out his hands and the 3 gems begin to glow.
 A green portal opens up above everyone and starts to suck Effigy in.
He
 begins clawing at the ground. "NO! NO! NO! I AM A GOD! THIS CAN'T BE 
HAPPENING! I CAN'T GO BACK!" Effigy is sucked into the portal. The 
portal closes.
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Sonic yawns and stretches. "Glad that's over. You guys wanna go get some Chili Dogs?" He asks Tails and Knuckles.
"Of course!" Says Tails.
"Eh I guess?" Knuckles adds.
As Sonic begins to walk away with his friends following, Axel shouts "Hey I want some chili dogs"
"Yeah you always hog em! All the food trucks are always out of em cuz of yous!" Bruno chimes in.
Ichor chuckles a bit. "You know what boys! I think we can enjoy a bite with our new friends here!"
Sonic looks back and smiles at Ichor. "Friends?"
Ichor
 walks up to him. "Friends." He then begins to run away as he shouts 
"NOW TIME FOR THAT REMATCH! I THINK WE'LL MAKE IT A RACE!"
Sonic yells "HEY NO HEAD STARTS!" As he chases after Ichor.
The other 4 guys simply laugh as Sonic and Ichor rush off into the distance.
=== Sonic's Credits ===
The Waterparks cover of "It doesn't matter." Plays during Sonic's credits. 
The
 "FIN" Image is an image of Sonic running down a boulevard during the 
sunset. Tails is Flying left of Sonic. 
Knuckles is gliding to the left 
oh him. They are both slightly behind the blue blur. The words "Try 
another story!" are in the top right corner of the image and the word 
"FIN" is in the bottom left corner.
== Shadow's Story. ==
Shadow's story opens up quite similar to Sonic's. It's night time, 
and the scene shows a sweeping view of the desert . Suddenly everything 
begins to shake as  a giant fire worm pops out of the grown and roars. 
It begins emitting fire from it's body, causing the very sand around it 
to melt. Suddenly the lost track "Broken" from Shadow the Hedgehog 
begins playing as we hear "CHAOS BLAST!" The worm falls to the ground as
 none other than Shadow himself lands in front of the worm's body.
"Target is neutralized." Shadow says into a walkie talkie. 
"Great job Agent Shadow. Now report back immediately, agent Rouge 
found something interesting that may be related to all of these strange 
creatures that have popped lately." A G.U.N agent's voice ripples out 
from the static. 
A loud rumble can then be heard from the distance as a giant burning scorpion with flaming wings pops out of the sand.
"You
 gotta be kidding me." Shadow grumbles. He takes out his walkie talkie 
again and says "There's been a complication. It turns out my mission 
isn't over yet." 
"Copy that." The agent says as Shadow stares at the creature flying away. He sighs deeply and shakes his head before smirking. 
"You
 pathetic creatures never seem learn your lesson! I'm gonna have to show
 you a taste of my ultimate power!" For a quick second it shows scenes 
of Shadow from Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Sonic 06. 
Shadow looks up at the sky and somberly says "Maria, I've come so far 
since back then." He takes another look at the creature which is fading 
from view as it flies. "I won't betray my promise to protect the people 
of this world, and thees things, whatever they are, certainly aren't 
going to change that." He then skates off into the desert.
=== Shadow's Gameplay Style. ===
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Shadow
 plays pretty close to Sonic, yet he of course has more attacks, and can
 use chaos powers. Chaos Spear is just how it is in Sonic 06, but Chaos 
Blast and Chaos Control has to be charged up like in Shadow the 
Hedgehog. It works similar too, with different enemy types charging up 
one of the gauges. For Chaos Blast it's spirit type enemies, and for 
Chaos Control it's robots. He also doesn't have a boost to balance 
things out.   
=== Stage 1: Dark Desert. ===
==== Follow the mysterious flame monster.  ====
This
 stage is of course similar to that of Tails' version, with similar 
enemies such as Sand/rock golems, sand elemental like beings, bats of 
sand and rock, chameleons made of sand, and brown cobra like spirits. 
Yet there are a few haywire G.U.N robots lurking around. Most of the 
architecture of Shadow's version this stage is actually different to 
that of Tails' version. There is a lot less pyramid and Egyptian like 
structures, as it mostly takes place on a dusty road in the middle of 
the desert. The sane billboards from the Azure City Hub World and the 
Bright Light Boulevard Stage can be seen, yet most of them are rusty and
 falling apart. Road sines also dot the side of the road.
The 
music is similar to the theme from Tails version, yet it has a bit of a 
rock flare to it. Imagine what I described for Tails' version of the 
stage sort of mixed with "Sky Rail" from Sonic Adventure 2. Obstacles 
are simple things such as spikes, burning and broken down cars, and 
holes in the road. There is of course some light platforming as well. 
Overall it's a pretty simple first stage.
=== Caught You. ===
Shadow
 finally catches up to the scorpion who is seen nestled in the wreckage 
of a broken down truck stop. "I think we've chased each other around 
long enough. I'd say it's time you surrender." The scorpion simply roars
 and uncurls, melting the ruins and sand around it. "I guess you don't 
agree. Well then I guess it's your funeral." As Shadow runs towards the 
creature he mutters "Damn, I'm really starting to sound like Sonic."
=== Flame Scorpion Boss Fight.   ===
This
 boss is fought in a circle of ash and glass shards and amidst the ruins
 of the melted truck stop. The themes sounds sort of like a faster 
version of the stage's music, mixed with "Infernal Foundry" from Sonic 
and the Secret Rings. 
If Shadow touches the floating question
 mark he says "That thing is covered in some sort of molten armor. If I 
can break it, I may be able to attack it's weak points. Chaos Blast 
should do the trick!" 
In order to damage the scorpion Shadow 
must defeat the various smaller versions of the boss that spawn during 
the fight. This will charge up Chaos Blast, which he can use to break 
the armor on the scorpion's claws, and face. After attacking all three 
weak points, the scorpion takes to the sky. 
Shadow says "Damn
 it! He's running away. I refuse to waste my time chasing him down 
again. Maybe I could get on top of him with Chaos Control." The fight 
then transitions to Shadow chasing the scorpion down a stretch of road 
as it breathes fire at him, and spews out eggs that hatch even  more 
miniature versions of it's self. Luckily the road is 
filled with haywire
 G.U.N robots to help charge Chaos Control. 
After the attack 
is charged up and Shadow uses it, a quick time event will happen where 
Shadow teleports onto the Scorpion's back and pelts it with Chaos 
spears, finishing it off with a final Chaos Blast. 
After the fight Shadow says "Hmph. That better be the last of them. 
=== Tablet Fragment.  ===
After
 the fight, the creature screeches and turns to ash. Shadow skates over 
to the center of the pile, as something catches his eye. It's a small flat 
piece of stone that seems to have something carved into it. As Shadow 
looks closer he realizes it's. . . Sonic. No it's not Sonic.The 
hedgehog carved into the stone looks similar to Sonic, but it has a 
weird eye and a large scar. He simply mutters "Interesting" before 
skating off into the distance and heading back to the G.U.N base that 
him and Rouge are currently stationed at. 
=== Back at the G.U.N outpost. ===
The next cutscene starts
 with shadow teleporting into a grey and green room, similar to the room
 with the Map of Soleanna from Sonic 06 and a lot of the rooms in the 
cutscenes in Shadow the Hedgehog. Shadow walks up to Rouge, who is 
holding a flat piece of stone. Rouge waves at him and smiles slyly. The 
Paramour cover of "Fly in the Freedom begins playing. 
"Hey there Shadow. How was pest control?" Shadow rolls his eyes.
"Boring as usual, now 
what's this I hear about you finding something that may be related to 
said pests. Rouge gives Shadow the stone, which seems to be similar to 
the one he found in the desert, only this one has an arm that looks 
similar to Sonic on it. Shadow nods and takes out the stone he found and
 presents it to Rouge. Rouge looks surprised.
"Hmm that's pretty 
weird. It what I found was only a piece of a larger stone tablet, you 
seemed to have found another. But why does it look like Sonic." 
"Probably just a 
coincidence." Shadow flatly states. "I mean you can't tell me that in 
all of history, there haven't been two hedgehogs who look exactly the 
same, or at least similar. I mean people thought me and Sonic where the 
same hedgehog back when we first met him, so it's probably not as weird 
as it seems." Rouge thinks for a minute.
"Still. . ." She takes a
 closer look at the two flat stones before looking back up at Shadow. 
"The point is I did some research and I figured out that this thing may 
be related to a book called the Phantom Codex. 
"The Phantom Codex?" 
Shadow questions. Rouge nods and begins typing on one of the G.U.N 
computers. "It says here that an ancient mad wizard, who's name has been
 lost to time, wrote a dark and evil book known as the Phantom Codex. 
Along side it he also carved voodoo doll like stone tablets, depicting 
images of non de-script people . He would then use the dark magic from 
the book, and channel it into the tablets, to summon a dark reflection 
of all those who gazed into the eyes of the figure depicted on the 
tablet." As Rouge is saying this images of a black book, stone tablets, 
and a mysterious person in red robes appear on the screen.
"So like some sort of a cursed mirror?" Shadow replies.  Rouge nods.
"The commander has 
already ordered me to track down the rest of the tablets, if they are 
surfacing around Azure City for some reason, they could easily fall into
 the wrong hands. He also wants us to find out as much as we can about 
the Phantom Codex. Both the codex and the tablet may be drawing those 
creepy ghost like creatures to this area.
"Us?" Shadow asks with an irritated look. He crosses his arms and looks down at the floor.
"You don't want to come with?" Rouge asks puzzled. Shadow uncrosses his arms and speaks.
"I don't know how I feel
 about all this magic mumbo jumbo. Killing those monsters was enough, 
but I have a feeling bad things could happen if we dive deeper." Rouge 
shrugs.
"True but orders are orders." the bat girl replies.
"Your orders." Shadow shoots back. 
"Aww come on Shad, If this does get bad, I'm gonna need some back up. Shadow sighs.
"Fine. Just don't call me Shad." Rouge giggles as the two walk out approach the teleporter and get ready for their trip. 
=== To Misty Marsh. ===
Misty Marsh ends up 
being the second stage of Shadow's story as well, but it is a treasure 
hunting stage. Which is why you actually play as Rouge, who spawns into 
the Wildlands hub world and says "The Commander said more strange 
creatures have appeared in the swampy forest, I bet that's where one or 
more pieces of this weird tablet are." Rouge then simply needs to 
explore the hub world, where she will eventually find the entrance to 
the stage, which is located in the middle of a body of water, on a patch
 of mossy and overgrown ground. It's similar to the entrance to 
"Tropical Jungle" in Sonic 06. The entrance is a moss covered hole in 
the ground.
=== Rouge's Gameplay Style. ===
Rouge of course 
plays almost exactly like Knuckles, but considering she's a bat I 
decided to give her a unique ability. Basically she can use echo 
location, that functions Knuckle's sunglasses, and Rouge's own treasure 
scope from Sonic Adventure 2, yet she always has them. In fact this 
ability will be utilized quite often in Rouge's stages.   
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=== Stage 2: Misty Marsh   ===
==== Find the three tablet pieces in the marsh. ====
Again, the stage is 
similar to Tails' version but structured more like a treasure hunting 
stage. It's more open, has more areas to climb around on, and actually 
has a few bodies of water to swim around in. The music is a remix of 
"Dry Lagoon" From Sonic Adventure 2. The tablet pieces can be found in 
many different places in this stage, such as under water, atop trees, 
behind rocks, and inside enemies. It's pretty easy, at least for the 
stage's main mission, as it is Rouge's first stage. On harder 
difficulties echo location will be required. 
Speaking of enemies, the
 stage consists of all of the animal based robots from Tails' version of
 the stage, but there are some new enemies. Well sort of. A few of the 
various spirit type enemies appear in this stage. Mostly the golems and 
the flying ones, but they now have a green color scheme. There is also 
one new enemy, a shaman type spirit 
who can summon more spirits, as well
 as make them respawn, 
Once Rouge finds all of the tablet pieces, it's onto the next cutscene. 
=== Eggman's hiding something. ===
The next cutscene starts with Rouge carrying the pieces of the tablet over to Shadow. He looks down at them.
"So what's on thees 
ones?" Rouge seems concerned as she shows the images on the pieces to 
Shadow. It's another arm, and two legs. All looking like Sonic's. Rouge 
speaks up.
"It seems there is one 
more left. I'm afraid to find out what happens when we get all of them. 
Suddenly the remix of E.G.G.M.A.N begins playing as the doctor himself 
can be seen flying in his Egg Mobile overhead. He doesn't notice Shadow 
or Rouge until Shadow shouts at him.
"DOCTOR! HEY WAIT A MINUTE!" Eggman stops for a second and flies down to Shadow and Rouge. 
"Oh Shadow, Rouge, what 
is it this time? You know us all being here in this jungle reminds me of
 back in the day, when you two were on my side!" Shadow rolls his eyes. 
"Now speak up I have things to do!!!" Eggman barks.
"Do you know anything 
about a book called the Phantom Codex, or stone tablets relating to it?"
 Eggman chuckles and pulls out a black book. 
"You mean this?" Rouge gasps.
"Yeah that's it!!!" She says. Eggman chuckles again.
"Well I have been using 
this book for my new plan, I haven't really looked into the section on 
the dark reflection tablets, so I don't know much." Shadow then smirks. 
"Doctor, hand over that book if you know what's good for you! We are currently in need of it." Eggman grumbles. 
"You're going to have to wait your turn. I'm not done with it yet. Eggman then flies off." 
"HEY GET BACK HERE!" Shadow yells before bolting after Eggman, who is heading towards the coastline. 
Rouge shouts"Hey get back here you guys!" Before a voice comes out of her walkie talkie.
"Agent Rouge, another 
piece of the tablet has been found. Get back here right now." Rouge 
takes another look at Shadow who is rushing towards the book. 
"Oh alright!" She  says and shrugs before flying off. 
=== Stage 3: Coral Coast. ===
==== Chase down Dr. Eggman. ====
Knuckles only got to 
explore a small portion of this stage, a portion that Shadow quickly 
rushes through. The wind and wave like sounds from Knuckles' version of 
the stage's music is still there, but the rap lyrics are of course cut 
out, and the music is much faster and more rock themed. The enemies are 
pretty much the same. Gorilla robots, crab robots, fish robots 
underwater, all that kind of stuff. There are of course spirits too, 
such as the sea snakes and crabs. No blue Omega's this time around, as 
they don't come until later in the story. 
The rest of the stage is
 basically an Emerald Coast/Wave Ocean type level. Shadow grinds across 
docks, around a light house, and across the beach. There are some 
underwater sections, but they aren't long. There are of course still air
 bubbles if they are needed. The stage also takes place at sun set just 
to spice things up a bit. 
Category:Fanfiction