Sonic and all Sonic the Hedgehog™ characters are copyright to SEGA and Sonic Team

All characters of Freedom Planet™ are copyright to GalaxyTrails

Sash Lilac, Carol Tea, and Milla Basset are originally copyright to ZiyoLing of DeviantArt

I own none of these properties or am making money off this story

Please support the official releases.

Author's Note: This story is NOT canonically related to any of my other works involving Sonic on my profile. It is only relating to the officially canon games of Sonic the Hedgehog™ and Freedom Planet™. Sonic's takes place nearly two weeks after the events of Lost World, and Lilac's takes place nearly an entire year after Brevon's defeat on Avalice.

Sonic and Lilac: Tides of Chaos
Act 1

Prologue: A New Energy

Planet Mobius, sunset hours...

Sunset cast over Mobius once again as the night sky slowly crept up into view. The planet was ready to settle down for another evening of rest, knowing well that their heroes would do well to stop the menaces that plagued the beautiful world. Mobius was a mysterious and beautiful world, teeming with life and coexisting with humans and a race of humanoid animals known as Mobians, and the beauty stretched across the entire land, showing in the futuristic cities and lush beaches and jungles, to some of the odder showings such as giant castles and pinball casinos. With all of that, it was a little slice of heaven for everyone to enjoy. Of course, for one Mobian, he had his own way of enjoying paradise...

The sun was just setting behind the rocky mountains of the bowl-shaped canyon, leaving an orange tint to all of the waterfalls and fresh water collected within the canyon. Dotted across the entire lake within the canyon were orange-and-brown checkerboard rock cliffs with green grass, formed into natural slopes and loops across the terrain. Various palm trees dotted the cliffs, along with various flowers of different species. Several structures of bridges, ancient wooden scaffolding, wooden chain swings, wooden rails and small wooden totem poles, as well as the larger stone totems dotted across the canyon as well, reminiscing of the possible inhabitants of the canyon from long ago. Of course, that civilization was long since gone, now the canyon being the residence of a single Mobian hedgehog, running through the zone, known as Green Hill, at a breakneck speed. Aged sixteen, the Mobian hedgehog was blue, the six spines on his head drooping back behind him whenever he stood still, accented by his tan muzzle, stomach and arms, and his emerald-jade green eyes. His apparel consisted of white gloves with yellow rings around the wrists with red wrist guards, a red short-sleeve jacket, and red shoes with a white band and gold buckles, with a golden ring around the socks. This was Sonic the Hedgehog, the hero and defender of Mobius, and a celebrity in some circles. The blue hedgehog had just finished up his run through the zone before skidding to a stop, pulling a stopwatch out of his jacket and clicking the stop button.

"Just under thirty seconds.." He said to himself, smirking. "Heh, I'm getting better than I thought. Normally it took me nearly a minute to get through the entire place." He walked along the cliff, looking out into the sunset. "Seems like ol' Egghead's always trying to attack our world at every turn. Never gives up, does he? Yet despite his constant onslaughts, he still hasn't tried to attack the same place twice. Guess his failures constitutes him to attack somewhere else." He continued walking, passing a destroyed animal capsule, now having vegetation growing over it. It had been nearly a couple years since Sonic first saved Mobius from the threat of being ruled by a madman, and since then he's nearly stopped every one of his enemy's schemes.

"And he still can't beat me, no matter his attempts." The hedgehog said to himself. "I guess he's just too stubborn to realize he can't win. Maybe he needs to find a new hobby..." Just then his watch started vibrating, Sonic clicked a button on the side to bring up the audio feed with a message.

"Hello? Hey Sonic? You there?" A young voice said, on the other side of the transmitter.

"Going good little buddy. What's up?" Sonic said through the transmitter. "Do we got a certain giant talking egg on the move again?"

"Not exactly," The voice on the other side of the transmitter said. "But I did manage to find something rather interesting. Could you stop by my workshop as soon as you possibly can?"

The hedgehog smirked. Finally some action after so long! "No problem, little buddy! I'll be there before you can blink!" He said, clicking the button on his wristwatch, ending the transmission. The hedgehog then dashed off, entering into a tunnel in the side of the canyon to leave Green Hill Zone...

The calm wind blew across the valleys of the Zone known as the Mystic Ruins, and for a young Mobian kitsune, it was just another day working with tinkering his inventions. Aged 11, the kitsune's fur was a vivid orange, complementing his aquamarine eyes. He had three bangs in front of his head, white furry muzzle and chest, and two tails with white fur at the ends. He wore white gloves with black bands and red shoes that were white at the front, and pilot's goggles on top of his head. This was Miles Prower, commonly known by his nickname of 'Tails', friend of Sonic the Hedgehog and mechanic and engineering extrordinare. He was currently working on the red biplane in the hangar of his workshop since his and Sonic's last adventure to the world of the Lost Hex, an unusual world home to the species known as the Zeti. Since then the plane had been damaged a bit from the adventure, and Tails had taken time to fix his friend's plane. He was just fixing up the main rocket booster when he was reminded of the first time the two met. A small smile came to his face as he remembered his first adventure with Sonic, remembering all the zones they went through and how many times they whooped the mad doc, it was a nostalgia rush for him and he liked that, spending time with his brother-figure. His thoughts were interrupted as a knock on the workshop door rung. Tails got out from under the plane and went to the door, opening it and none other than Sonic walked in.

"Ah, there you are." The kitsune said. "I was wondering when you'd arrive. Everything going well for you Sonic?"

"Heh, you know me!" The hedgehog said, sitting down on one of the barrels in the workshop. "Never a dull moment! So, what exactly did you call me for? Ol' Egghead up to something now?"

"Not exactly," Tails said, walking over to his entire computer setup, typing something into the keyboard. "But it did manage to come across a bit of an oddity during scanning the Chaos Emerald we used back on the Lost Hex." Tails said, typing onto the keyboard, causing a small hatch on the ceiling to open with a small canister filled with a liquid and a green diamond inside the casing. "Back there when you were using it to fight against Zavok and his chronies, the energy emitted from the Emerald seemed to... warp a bit. I'm lucky I was able to record the data or otherwise we'd have to go all the way back to the Lost Hex in order to try and replicate it!"

"How so?" Sonic asked. "Something happen to the Emerald while we were there?"

"Not like that. Look at this." Tails said, indicating two separate wave length graphs on the screen. "These graphs show the amount of Chaos Energy within the emeralds. Now, this top one is the emeralds normally." He said. "But back when you were using the emerald on the Lost Hex, the Chaos Energy seemed to convert into some other type of energy, something I haven't seen before." Tails said, enlarging the other wave length graph. "This seems to have altered energy wavelengths compared to Chaos Energy, not anything we've seen anywhere on Mobius before. And you know what the big thing is?"

"What?" Sonic asked. "Normally this techno babble ain't my thing, but if this is something involving the Chaos Emeralds, you got my attention."

"This isn't the only version of these energy waves I've found." Tails said. "I've managed to do a cross scan for this specific energy signal, and I found a MASSIVE signal coming from another planet!" Tails said, typing away and zooming into a space map of the galaxy Mobius was in. "By tracing this energy wave to other energy waves like this, I've managed to locate it to this planet here!" He said, having the map zoom in on a planet in a nearby solar system. "I'm not sure if there's any life on this planet, but chances are we're gonna have trouble if Eggman finds out about this energy signal."

"You're tellin' me." Sonic said, getting up from his seat. "A power source that's larger than the Chaos Energy within the emeralds? Sounds like a Christmas morning for Eggman! If I were him, I'd try to get my hands on that power source as soon as I could!"

"Yeah, and that's what concerns me." Tails said, closing out the open windows on his computer. "If Eggman gets even a whiff of this data, it could spell disaster for all of us, even if that other planet is uninhabited."

"Yeah, you got a point there." Sonic said. "So, what do we do? Take Eggman down now?"

"He hasn't even done anything yet Sonic," Tails retorted. "Attacking him now would feel like beating a dead horse, it's unnecessary."

"Since when did you become philosophical?" Sonic asked, getting up from his seat.

"I'm just trying to make a point Sonic." Tails retorted. "We can't go after Eggman without knowing he's done something."

"Eh, whatever." Sonic said, shrugging. "Anyways, I'm heading over to Station Square. You wanna come along?"

"Maybe later," Tails said, turning back to the computer console. "I'm gonna run a couple more tests on the emerald to see if I can figure out these odd energy readings."

"Okay then," Sonic shrugged. "You sure you don't want me to get you anything?"

"Nah, I'll be fine." Tails said. "You go on ahead, I might be coming later."

"Kay then, see ya later!" Sonic said, before zooming out of the workshop. Tails turned his attention back to the large computer with all the data readings.

"It doesn't make any sense..." Tails muttered to himself, typing away at the keys on the keyboard, the data on the screen constantly shifting around. "What could be giving off that much raw energy? It can't be more Chaos Emeralds..."

Space, several miles above Mobian atmosphere...

The young kitsune wasn't the only one flustered by the lack of progress on his work. High above the skies of Mobius, a large spherical space station was currently being built, but progress was currently being slowed down as the station neared being halfway completed. And the sole person leading the project was none too happy about the slowing of the project. Aged nearly fifty, he was a grotesquely obese man with surprisingly slender arms and legs, bald head and rather impressive moustache, wearing a red military jacket with black slacks. This was Dr. Ivo Jullian Robotnik, or 'Eggman' as he was known by the Mobian populace, a scientific mastermind with an IQ of over 300, known more for his schemes for world domination and wanting to rule over the entirety of Mobius. However, every time he tried for world domination, every single one of his schemes were foiled by none other than Sonic the Hedgehog, and needless to say, his nerves were getting fried from his constant defeats. He was gritting his teeth anger at the slowing construction, knowing full well that the hedgehog and his friends would be on their way to stop him now.

"At this rate, that blasted hedgehog would have caught wind of what's going on and be on his way!" He said, pacing back and forth across the control room floor. "Then all this work in secrecy will be put for naught, and I'll be back to square one again!" He angrily growled, walking to the back of the room to the power container housing a red diamond. "And the Chaos Emerald hasn't been able to supply much more energy to fuel the construction either. We'll slow to a halt before we can get another! How are we going to do this..."

"Doctor, might I suggest looking for an alternate power source?" An upper-class English voice spoke as a red orb rolled into the room, before unfolding into a small robot. This was Orbot, one of Eggman's two right hand robot lackeys that assisted the mad doc with his schemes. "There might be a solution to the current problem at hand."

"And what exactly would that be?" Eggman muttered. "Bear in mind that we have no time to waste, lest we'll have a hedgehog down our throats soon!"

"Well, I've been checking the energy scanners, and we've come across... an anomaly, you could say." Orbot said, pulling up a digital graph of the energy readings. "It seems we're picking up a much bigger energy reading from a nearby solar system, nearly as powerful as the Master Emerald itself!" He said, zooming into the planet in question. "As of now, we do not know if this planet has any life on it, but the energy readings have been off the charts. It would be perfect for fueling the construction and speed it up tenfold!"

"Interesting..." Eggman said to himself, rubbing his chin in deep thought. "Now then, how should we go about this..."

"Moving the station is a highly improbable cause doctor." Orbot said, bringing up the schematics for the new station, 'Death Egg Mk. III'. "Construction is stalling at a measly forty-two percent. Until at least seventy percent is reached, the station would be ripped apart if we tried to move it now!"

"Well let's see..." The doctor mused. "Ah, to hell with it. If it worked on Little Planet and the Wisp Worlds, then it'll work here." Eggman said, before turning back to Orbot. "Get the planetary grappler ready and open a wormhole to the planet. We'll have that energy soon enough..."

"My good doctor, what is it you exactly have planning?" Orbot asked, a look of confusion on his face.

"If we can't go to the energy," Eggman said. "Why not bring it directly to us?"

"...I understand doctor." Orbot said. "Preparations will be made for your planet fishing trip. I will be off no-"

"What in the..." Eggman muttered as three streaks of light, one lavender, one cyan, and one silver, streak off of Mobius and into the same direction into outer space. "Orbot, what the hell was that? Were those three of the Chaos Emeralds right now?"

"I believe they were doctor." Orbot said. "No matter, they appear to be heading to the planet we were going to reel in anyways."

"Then get moving on it!" Eggman growled, causing Orbot to scurry away. Eggman then turned and paced to the observation window, overlooking the surface of Mobius. "Hopefully this new energy will be powerful enough..."

Planet Avalice, evening hours...

A cold wind blew over Avalice as the planet was starting to set into the winter months of it's year cycle. Soon some people would settle to rest, while others went out in the cold afterhours of night. Avalice was a world not unlike Mobius, however, no humans existed on Avalice, and the main race, Avalicians, came in a more exotic variety that that of Mobius. Avalice had three kingdoms, all having an appearance of a Japanese/Chinese styled ancient city; Shang Mu, the crimson red kingdom, more advanced and populated than the other two, known for it's great deal of shopping malls and other attractions, led by the narcissistic, short-statured and even shorter-tempered red panda Mayor Zao; Shang Tu, the sapphire blue kingdom, known for peace and wisdom, led by the mysterious Royal Magister, who's true face had never been seen in public; and Shuigang, the jade green kingdom, the most neutral of the three, led by the the former king's son, Prince Dail, now having to take the reins after his father's murder at the hands of an intergalactic war tyrant known as Lord Arktivus Brevon. He had thankfully been stopped and now the world had been safe, but damages had been done. But now the world could rest knowing the threat was dead and that peace was prevailing once more...

A light snow was falling over the locale known as Dragon Valley, a large vast valley with various winding roads and various plant life sprung up, though as of now it was under a foot or two of snow at this point. Underneath a giant tree holding a large treehouse, a young dog Avalician was busy building a snowman under the tree. Aged 11, she had white fur with messy orange hair with two green crystalline bands on both of her ears. She wore a black wool sweater with a orange crystal bracelet on her left wrist over her sweater and a green crystalline bracelet on her right wrist. Over her sweater she wore a sleeveless greyish-beige winter skirt with four knot ties on the front, and a long green wither scarf covering the lower part of her face. She was barefoot, only having an orange crystalline bracelet around her right ankle and a green crystalline bracelet around her left ankle, and wore black snowpants. This was Milla Basset, the youngest of a trio of Avalician heroes that had stopped Brevon from nearly killing off the entire planet, her specialty are her psychic energy shield powers, some forms of them people have appropriately named 'murder cubes', and her keen sense of smell and sense. The young hound kept working on her snowman, humming to herself as she rolled up more snow, before the streaks of light flew above her. She stopped her work and looked up at the streaks of light.

"Falling stars?" The hound muttered to herself. "They only recently fell about a week ago... why are more falling stars happening now?" The poor hound never got to answer her question as one streak seemed to fly straight at her! Panicking, she shrieked and dodged out of the way, the object crashing down into the ground in front of the treehouse. Milla cowered on the ground, her fluffy white tail pointed straight up, having it's hair standing on end as she shuddered. When the event passed, Milla reluctantly got up and looked at the crater in front of the tree house. The ground was heaved up and a thin trail of smoke was rising from the crater. Curiosity getting the better of her, she romped up to the edge of the crater, her tail whipping back and forth in excitement as she peered into the crater. Sitting in the center of the crater was a lavender colored diamond. Milla slid down the side of the crater and rushed up to the diamond, cautiously approaching the diamond before she slowly reached her hand out and grabbed it, pulling it away from the center of the crater out of fear. When nothing happened, she breathed a sigh of relief and got out of the crater, holding the gem close to her and examining it as soon as she got out of the crater.

"Is this... an amethyst?" Milla muttered to herself as she looked over the gem. "Maybe Lilac or Carol would know about this..."

Meanwhile, in another section of Dragon Valley, two friends were having the time of their lives as they raced across the snowy terrain. The one was a wildcat, aged 13, with lime-green fur and darker green accents, wearing a red hooded jacket with a black pattern on the back, two pockets on the backside of the jacket near the waistline, a white flower band on each sleeve and two golden strings tied off into a four-petal flower knot at the front of the jacket. Along with that, she wore baggy green snowpants with a red pattern and black and green snowboots. Her black-tipped tail whipped in the wind as she rode her red motorcycle, outfitted with ice and snow tires, across the snow-covered terrain of Dragon Valley. This was Carol Tea, another of the three Avalicians that had stopped Brevon's plans, a natural tinkerer with mechanics and a fierce martial artist. Currently she was feeling smug about herself since she was beating her friend in a race back to their treehouse.

"Aw, c'mon now!" Carol yelled back, a smug look on her face. "What's the matter? Year off loosen ya up a bit?"

Her answer came soon as another Avalician soon boosted up next to her. This Avalician was a species that was rare among the populace: a water dragon. Aged 16, she wore a white top black bottom leotard that was covered by a sleeveless blue outfit with a white 'Freedom' wing symbol on the back, the two strings of it tied off into a five-petal flower knot, with the remainder of the string wrapped around her waist belt with two pockets on the back. Her blue boots that were the same color as the outfit had shoelaces that tied off at the back of the boot, the ivy gecko spell imprinted onto the golden underside of the boots, a wing and lightning extra added onto the sides of the boots. Her lavender horns swept back , complementing the titanium 'cyclone' frame of her headgear, complete with two waterdrop gemstones, one in each side of the headgear. Her two dragon tendrils on the back of her head were tied off near the base with a black cloth ring, held in place by a blue metal ring. On top of that, the lavender dragon was wearing a cloak, complete with a 'flowering cloud' shoulder cape, an 'ocean wave' low border, her family sign on the cloak itself, and a complicated red knot in front. This was Sash Lilac, the oldest of the three and the main reason for Avalice's peace since Brevon's defeat, her abilities and speed as a dragon were unmatched by anyone else on Avalice. She smirked as she looked over at Carol, who now was wearing an exasperated look on her face.

"I'm sorry, what now?" Lilac remarked, before blasting off ahead. Carol seemed to growl to herself as she kicked her motorcycle into full gear and gave pursuit.

"Oh come ON!" She yelled, her motorcycle catching up to the dragon girl. "I thought we agreed no dragon boosting! You know how cheap that is!"

"C'mon Carol, lighten up a bit!" Lilac said, smiling a bit. "I'm just messing with ya a bit!"

"Pfft, yeah right!" Carol said, before kicking her motorcycle into high gear and stuck her tongue out at Lilac. "I'll see you back at the treehouse!" Carol said before her motorcycle took off ahead. Carol grinned as she imagined the look on Lilac's face when she got got he treehouse before her. Though her thoughts of victory didn't last long as she failed to notice the large pit in front of the treehouse. As a result, the wildcat fell in the hole landing hard on her back while her motorcycle tumbled nearby. She laid there for a second, dazed and confused, before Lilac skidded to a halt near the edge of the crater, a look of concern across her face.

"Carol!" Lilac yelled. "Are you okay?!"

"Owww..." Carol groaned, sitting up. "Yeah, I'm totally looking forward to butt blisters! What the hell is this thing! Did Milla have a digging spree or something?!"

Lilac shook her head. "I don't know. That wouldn't seem like her." She said, sliding down the side of the crater. "Either way, let's get you out of this hole."

Carol nodded, Lilac and her grabbing the bike and hoisting it out of the crater. Once the bike was out of the crater, the two climbed up the ladder into the treehouse. It was two stories with working electricity and more than enough space for the three girls. Milla was currently sitting at the table, out of her winter outfit and dressed in a sleeveless black leotard with a green sweatshirt tied around her waist. She was staring at the gem that had crashed in front of the treehouse and only looked up to see Lilac and Carol coming through the entrance to the treehouse.

"Oh, you two are back!" Milla said, her tail wagging in excitement. "You won't believe what happened while you two were out racing!"

"Does it have anything to do with that giant hole outside the treehouse?" Carol said, taking a seat at the table. "What happened? Did you start digging something up? I thought you were trying to build a snowman when we left."

"Well, I did," Milla started. "But then falling stars started to happen like last week, and one came straight for me! It nearly hit me head-on!"

"A meteor hit here?!" Lilac gasped, as she took off her cloak and hung it up. "You're not hurt, are you?"

Milla shook her head. "No, I ran!" She said. "The star crashed in front of the treehouse and there was this purple amethyst thingie in the hole where the star hit! I thought you'd would know what exactly this is Lilac!"

"Well, let me see it." Lilac said. Milla nodded and politely handed Lilac the gem. "Well, it seems to be undamaged..." She said to herself, looking over the gem. "But this isn't an amethyst. Amethyst is a quartz, this gemstone isn't with the consistency of quartz. This gemstone seems to belong more to the beryl family of gems..." She remained silent as she observed the odd gem a bit longer. "Well," she said, getting up. "It's definitely a beryl of some kind, but I can't tell exactly what it is."

"Well, where are you going?" Carol asked, noticing Lilac was getting her cloak again.

"I'm thinking of taking a visit to the Magister in Shang Tu. If there's anyone that'll know what exactly this is, it'll be him."

"We'll I'm coming too!" Carol said, getting up. "Besides, I could use a bit of a rematch. We can see who gets there first!"

"I wanna come too!" Milla complained. "I found it first!"

"Girls, please, you can come. But Milla, change into something else. You'll freeze outside wearing only that."

"I know, I know!" Milla said, rushing back to her room. Carol just shrugged and headed outside, climbing down the ladder.

"Sometimes I really don't understand that girl..." Carol muttered to herself as Lilac came down the ladder, followed by Milla jumping out of the treehouse, using her ears to slow her fall. Milla climbed onto the back of Carol's bike as Carol revved up the bike itself. Lilac put the gem into her back left pocket on her belt, and soon the trio took off for the kingdom of Shang Tu...

Within a few minutes, the Avalician trio reached the outer wall of the sapphire-colored kingdom, Shang Tu. After some small negotiations with the outer guards, the three were allowed inside the gates of Shang Tu and headed for the Royal Palace. But what they didn't expect to see was the side of the palace in ruins as they entered the kingdom itself.

"Oh my..." Lilac breathed, looking up at the collapsed palace side. Peace had already been fragile between the three kingdoms since the incident with Lord Brevon and the limitless power of the planet, the Kingdom Stone. What could have been set off to cause something like this?

"Looks like the place got hit hard..." Carol breathed. "What hit the place?"

"Not sure, but I'm not just gonna stand around and dawdle on it!" Lilac said, curling up into a ball before Dragon-Boosting ahead toward the palace.

"Lilac! Wait!" Milla cried, taking off after Lilac. "Oh no..."

With quick haste, Lilac reached the large steel doors that entered into the palace, though the royal guards were giving her a hard time as to getting into the palace itself.

"You have to let us in!" Lilac had said to the guards. "We're friends with the Magister! There must be something wrong if the side of the palace is in ruins!"

"Look ma'am," One of the guards, a bear, spoke. "We're on tight security right now because of the whole situation. Sorry but we can't allow anyone in that could potentially compromise the situation."

"Quack" The other guard, a duck, quacked, as if to punctuate the statement.

"Compromise the situation?!" Carol said, having caught up to Lilac and Milla at the doors. "Get real, fazface! We stopped Brevon! How would we be compromising the situation?!"

"I'm sorry, but orders are orders." The one guard said. "Now please, leave. We don't have time for this."

"It's okay Fred, they mean well." A voice had spoken from behind the bear. That voice had come from a large panda bear that had now just come out of the temple. Dressed in golden shogun armor with spiked shoulder pads, he had a short black ponytail and a large bronze-gold shield attached to his back. This was General Gong, one of the Magister's personal royal guards and the highest ranking among them. "The girls here mean no harm. They can come in."

"B-b-but general, th-"

"That's an order Fred," Gong said, crossing his arm. "They are to come in, and that's final."

The guard simply hung his head. "Fine" he said, before stepping aside and allowing the three girls inside, before the gigantic metallic doors closed behind them.

"I apologize on the behalf of the Magister for the guard's rather strict status." Gong said as they headed through the royal palace to the overlooking balcony. "We've kinda had strict security since of that odd meteor crash that happened here a couple minutes ago. Can't let anyone in or out of the palace, though you three are an exception to the rule."

"So, we're different from everyone else." Carol said, crossing her arms as they walked. "Not exactly sure how I feel about that."

"We'll you three did stop an tyrannical alien warlord from destroying our planet, so if that ain't enough, I dunno what is." Gong said. "You three gained a LOT of popularity over the past year from Brevon's death and his warship exploding. A lot of people have been respecting you because of your actions that day."

"So, we became overnight celebrities?" Milla asked, her eyes wide. "Wow, I didn't think that something like that would happen!"

"Milla..." Lilac muttered to herself, before the four went through the doors that entered to the royal balcony. The balcony that would normally be there was now caved in, lots of rubble around the caved-in area. Multiple guards we're on standby in the room, keeping watch over the crater area, some conversing with each other. Near the guards two figures were conversing, one taller than the other. The shorter one, about as tall as Gong and the trio, was a female panda with a shapely figure and shoulder-length black hair, wearing a purple outfit with purple gauntlets and holding a scepter with an ice crystal in the end of it. This was Neera-Li, the royal priestess for Shang Tu and the Magister's other personal royal guard. The other was a tall figure, species unknown, wearing blue robes and a gold piece of hearwear. His face was obscured by shadows aside from is glowing eyes. This was the Magister, the ruler of Shang Tu and the wisest and most knowledgeable in Avalice. He and Neera-Li were busy discussing something when Gong and the trio came up to them. Neera looked over to them and a frustrated look had appeared on her face.

"Gong," Neera said bluntly. "Didn't we specifically say that NO ONE is allowed inside the palace at this time? We do not need some incredulous newscasters coming in at this time and interrupting the research of what this meteorite is!"

"Neera, relax," Gong said. "It's just the girls. They came to show their concern because of the whole incident that's happened."

"Gong, orders are orders!" Neera retorted. "We can't afford to be compromised with what's happened now!"

"Neera, it is wise for you to calm down." The Magister spoke. "The dragon-born and her friends have meant no harm before, they would certainly mean no harm now."

"Royal Magister, this is not a good idea!" Neera spoke. "Even if they did save Avalice, we can't just let them in like they know what they're doing!"

"Actually, we came because we had a similar thing happen near our home." Lilac said. "We thought the Magister might be able to help us with it, so we came. We didn't realize that this event was happening..."

"Something similar happened to you three as well?" The Magister asked, before turning away. "Hmm... this is troubling. This could be the sign of something catastrophic unfolding..."

"C-catastrophic?!" Carol choked on her words. "Y-you mean the world's gonna end?!"

"Carol, I don't think he means something like that." Lilac said. "Milla, why don't you show him the gem you found?"

"Right! The beryl thingie!" Milla said, getting the gem from Lilac and taking it to the Magister, holding it up to him. "Here you go! This is what crashed outside our treehouse!"

"I see..." The Magister remarked, taking the gem from the young hound. "We've found one that has crashed into the side of the palace from this incident. From what we've gathered..." He spoke. "This is a beryl; an emerald to be precise."

"A purple emerald?" Carol asked, a look on her face saying that she was unsure about the entire explanation. "Aren't emeralds normally supposed to be, ya know, green?"

"Common perceptions can be misleading, young Carol." The Magister spoke. "Such as the emerald we found was of a silver color. The most startling evidence we came across, however, is the energy that is stored inside these gemstones."

"These emeralds have power?" Milla asked, an innocent look on her face. "But, I thought these were just pretty gems..."

"Oh, young one, these are more than just 'pretty gems'." The Magister spoke. "We've already examined the emerald we've found that crashed into the palace, and from what we've seen, the energy radiating from these gems are rather similar to the energy of Kingdom Stone."

"Wh-what?!" Lilac gasped. "These gems have the same power as the Kingdom Stone?!" She couldn't believe what she was hearing. These odd gems crash onto Avalice and they already have as much power as the Kingdom Stone?

"Yes, but not as large in quantity as the Stone." The Magister said. "These gems seem to have merely a seventh of the Kingdom Stone's power."

"Only a seventh?" Carol asked. "That doesn't seem like a whole lot of energy."

"Until you take into account that this is the Kingdom Stone we're comparing this to." Neera pointed out. "A gem with at least a seventh of the power of the Kingdom Stone is deadly if put into the wrong hands. Which is why we're vouching to seal these away inside the vault."

"...are they really that dangerous?" Milla asked innocently.

Neera nodded. "Since last year's incident with Brevon, we can't afford to have any more compromises with ANYTHING as powerful as the Kingdom Stone. Sealing it away is our only option at this point."

"As much as hate to admit it, I kinda gotta agree with Neera at this point." Gong spoke. "Especially if Spade and his Red Scarf chronies get their hands on them."

"The scarves would sooner try to make money off those gems than use them to try and destroy everything." Carol remarked. "Spade's the only bright one of the bunch, rest of them couldn't tell an oboe from an elbow."

"Either way, we can't afford it." Neera said, crossing her arms. "These gems are too dangerous to be out in the open."

"But..." Milla started, before everyone turned their attention to her. Milla blushed and spoke quietly. "...I-I saw three falling stars in the sky.."

"Three?" The Magister spoke. "Then that likely means that there is still another emerald out in the open..."

"We can look for it." Lilac said, a small smile appearing on her face. "Carol, Milla and I can cover a lot of ground fast."

"Then Gong and I will assist you as well." Neera said, a small smirk appearing on her face. "The sooner we can find this gem, the safer this world will be. We'll need to get moving befo-" She was cut off as a massive earthquake occured, causing the entire kingdom to shake. Nearly everyone fell over from the unpredicted event, that died down as soon as it started.

"Wh-what was that?!" Carol shrieked. "I thought this place wasn't on a fault line!" At that point another royal guard had rushed into the room.

"Y-your excellency!" He cried. "A gigantic metal claw has attached itself to the planet!"

"Ohohohoho!" Eggman roared in laughter as the planet had been grappled and was being pulled through the dimensional hole. "Perfect! The planet extraction is a success! Soon I'll be eating that limitless energy out of the palm of my hand!"

"Ehr, boss? I don' think ya c'n eat energy." A texan voice had spoke as a yellow cube floated into the scene before unfolding into a robot. This was Cubot, the dim-witted other of Eggman's two robot lackeys that suffered from a malfunctioning voice chip. "Ya can use it ta fuel the worker bots though! That'll make it usefull!"

"Cubot, I'm pretty sure that's what he meant." Orbot spoke. "He was using an expression to demonstrate as to how easy it was to get the energy from the other planet by dragging it out of it's planetary orbit and into our solar system."

"Yes, thank you, Orbot," Eggman said, annoyed. With that, the other planet had now came through the dimensional hole and was now close to Mobius. "Now, send out the Mallet Titans onto the planet to find those emeralds. Once we find them, we'll extract that energy and then that planet doesn't really matter. Maybe I can use it to expand my empire."

Orbot nodded. "As you wish, doctor."

"And make sure it's the armored variety!" Eggman said. "Just in case this planet has... hostile life."

Orbot nodded again before compacting and rolling off. Eggman turned his attention back to the planet. "Soon Sonic, soon..."