Happy New Year, everyone! Now that I've taken on a new name, I figure I owe you all a present. So consider these new chapters my gifts to all of you!

The first new chapter of 2020!

Chapter 4: Running into Trouble

(adapted from GREEN HILL ZONE: ACT 3)

Sonic curled up into a ball, jumped into a nearby palm tree, and shattered another miniature television like the pinata at his birthday party. When he landed back on the ground, however, Sonia and Manic noticed their brother was covered in sparkles for some reason.

"Are you okay, Sonic?" asked Sonia.

"Well, I don't feel like I might die, so that's a start," replied Sonic, tapping his foot at a much faster speed than normal. In fact, he was tapping so rapidly that the tip of his sneaker burst into flames. Fortunately, one of the freed animals sprayed it with a fire extinguisher, despite the fact Sonic's shoes were fireproof, ensuring that they wouldn't burn to ashes if he ever ran fast enough to light them ablaze.

"Dude...I think that TV you smashed gave you a serious power boost," explained Manic. "Kinda like you're some kind of...Nitro Sonic!"

Sonic's eyebrows perked up. "Nitro Sonic, huh? Now there's a name!" he grinned, as he began to rev his feet up. However, instead of turning into a blurry, spinning wheel, they took on the shape of a blurry, cycling 8, which was kicking up some seriously major dustage.

"Time to see what this baby can do!" the blue hedgehog told himself as he suddenly shot off through the area, blasting through robots before they could process what had attacked them; zipping over rope-bridges so quickly that he left a trail of flames in his wake; and collecting as many rings as he possibly could.

"YEEE-HAAAW!" Manic whooped. "Just look at him go, sis. Days like this, I wish I could be the Fastest Thing Alive."

Soon after, Sonic's sparkly aura had flickered out, but he was still going plenty fast. However, as Manic and Sonia took to their own vehicles in order to keep up with him, they didn't realize they were being closely monitored.

On the outer walls of one of the empty houses, the surface seemed to ripple briefly, exposing a dark-blue, reptilian robot. It had a long, stripey tail; four chrome feet, each with 3 fingers; a sharp brown crest on its head, and two large, bulging red eyes. The eyes seemed to shift and change, but in actuality, its eyes were actually high-quality surveillance cameras taking pictures of the trio and sending them to Snively…

Said recipient, in question, was in the midst of an imaginary tea party with Eggatha, who was also joined by Splats (robot rabbit), Burrobot (mining robot with a drill for a nose, a red cap, and tank treads), and Orbinaut (floating sphere with eyes surrounded by spiked mace-balls). Surprisingly, spending time with his younger sister wasn't as difficult as he made it out to be. It was a nice way to reduce the stress he felt, not to mention...

But he was jostled out of his reverie by an incoming message that had been sent to his computer. Checking the message and seeing that it was from the Newt-ron's camera vision, Colin checked through the photo and video files. From what the video displayed, the blue creature was incredibly fast, not to mention ferociously destructive.

But the pink and green ones...while they didn't have super-speed, they were also quite formidable. Minimizing his email window, Snively looked over to his little sister.

"...time to go for a drive." he announced.

Back with the Sonic Underground, they had just managed to plow through a squadron of Buzzbombers and Crabmeats, even after Sonic's temporary power-up had run out the clock.

"Yo, guys; we're almost finished!" Manic pointed out, seeing a large dome implanted in the ground before a sign that looked just like the one they'd passed earlier.

"Now, you're talkin', Manic!" Sonic smiled. "Time ta juice an' cut it loose!" But before he could tear towards the sign, he heard the sound of jet engines. Sonia and Manic did a double-take, seeing that the source of said noise was an egg-shaped grey pod; its lower part was completely black;it had a single headlight on the front;each side of the hovercraft had air seals, small wings, horizontal black and yellow stripes and a rocket thruster on the back end.

Aboard the hovercraft were two passengers: a diminutive-looking young man with a pointed nose and only a few strands of hair on his head, and a small, red-haired little girl in the back seat.

"Attention, worthless peons: your efforts are commendable, but futile!" announced the boy. "Now, you face the wrath of the Robotnik Family!"

" 'Robotnik'?" Sonic exclaimed, the realization dawning. "So are you two the ones behind this?!"

"Only in part," replied the pointy-nosed boy. "I am Collin Robotnik, lower servant to a grander design. Those of the brilliant genius, Ivo Robotnik! He shall bring order to these wild lands; all greenery shall be paved...these filthy vermin shall power shiny robots...Mobius will not only work like, but BECOME a WELL-OILED MACHINE!"

A tiny clearing of the throat was heard behind him.

"...and this is my sister, Ovina," Collin said with a sigh.

The young girl poked her head over the edge of the hovercraft. "You've been getting in the way of our plans, and we're not gonna let you get away with it!" she shouted, making taunting faces at the triplets. "That goes for me and Snively here."

Colin muttered something under his breath as he rubbed his forehead in aggravation.

"Wow, what a jerk." Sonic scoffed.

"SILENCE! YOU DARE DOUBT THE BRILLIANCE OF ROBOTNIK?!" roared Snively. "BAH! As if you vermin could hope to comprehend his sheer intellect! Sadly, none of you will have the opportunity!"

(Music: Sonic 1 Boss Orchestra Remix)

He began to cackle as he pressed an orange button on the dashboard; as he did that, the bottom of the hovercraft opened up, and a massive wrecking ball covered in checkerboard patterns fell out, linked to a metal chain. Controlling the wrecking ball's path with a joystick, Snively swung the ball towards Sonic, who was quickly shoved out of the way by Manic.

"Thanks for the save, bro," remarked Sonic. "But how do we beat this guy?"

"Leave it to Sister Sonia," the magenta-haired hedgehog replied, picking up her medallion and changing it into her keyboard, which she aimed like a rifle at the bottom of the hovercraft. She fired a blast of blue energy at the ship, and it jostled its passengers around for a bit before resuming normal operation.

"Accursed wretches! They seek to impede the progress of the Robotnik Regime!" growled Snively as he wound up and swung the Checker-Wrecker Ball once more, aiming for Sonia. Before he could even blink, however, Sonic whisked his sister out of the way and to safety before the ball could even hit her.

"The undercarriage..." Sonia murmured.

"Say again, sis?" asked Sonic.

"We gotta hit the undercarriage! I don't know how many hits it'll take, but that's our objective," explained Sonia. "...that and to not get flattened by that wrecking ball."

"I think they could use a shot o' my Triple-S!" Sonic remarked as he put Sonia down and ricocheted towards the underside, scoring two solid hits.

"There goes that blue meanie!" Ovina exclaimed. "Lemme use it, I'll get him!" she told her brother.

"You're not old enough to drive, but I am!" Snively retorted as he continued swinging the wrecking ball, only to get jostled around two more times.

"Time to wrap this up!" Sonic said as he landed on the ground, and spun back into a blurry blue buzz saw, leaping into action once more...and slicing off the chain of the Checker-Wrecker Ball, which fell to the ground with a THUD!

"No...no, no, NO!" Snively scowled. "This isn't FAIR! IT'S NOT FAIR!"

"...I don't wanna say you shoulda let me drive it, but...yeah." Ovina replied.

"Looks like your toy is broken," Manic remarked. "Ain't that just too bad..."

"YOU! You're responsible for this, you-you-YOU..." Snively fumed. "GGGGRRRRRRAGH! You won't be so arrogant when the good doctor decides to handle you himself! This isn't over, not by a long shot!"

He fired up the engines, and took off into the distance.

"So long, forget to write!" Manic called. "And now to open the dome-thing." Sonic did some stretches to limber up, and then he leapt onto the top of the dome. In minutes, the dome broke apart, releasing multiple Mobians from imprisonment, the last of them being a brown chipmunk with dark auburn hair that connected to the stripe going down her back and ending on her tail; her face had a lighter brown patch in which her large blue eyes were settled. She wore a pair of black shorts with white rimming, dark blue boots with white outlines on the buckles, and white gloves with her Ring-Blades; as well as a closed blue vest with a black crop-top hidden underneath.

"Thank you for getting us out of that containment dome," she said, brushing herself off until she got a look at Sonic.

"Well, hey; it's just what we...do..." the hedgehog replied, his muzzle turning bright-red.

For a moment, it seemed like time itself had ground to a halt; that nothing in the universe existed, save for these two whose eyes were locked on one another.

"...ahem."

The two blinked in surprise, jostled out of their reverie.

"Right, of course...where are my manners?" the chipmunk girl asked. "My name is Sally Acorn; pleased to meet you, Mister...?"

"What you see is what you get — just a guy that loves adventure! I'm Sonic the Hedgehog!" the blue blur said with an air of confidence.

Sonia and Manic rolled their eyes at how such a line could be both cool AND corny at the same time.

"Well...Sonic...I was on a mission to find my father, until that Snively guy had his robots imprison me in that capsule." Sally explained.

"Talk about great timing," Manic exclaimed. "We're trying to save our family! Maybe you could tag along?"

"I suppose that would be fine," Sally replied. "It never hurts to have a few extra aces in your deck."

"Hey, we're as aces as ace can be!" Sonic declared. "Consider us a team, Sal!"

"It's Sally...and thank you..."