Boscage Maze
Inside the jungle, Birdie, carrying Thorn, appears and starts exploring the region. Ricky follows close by, flipping and jumping through the trees and vines. They stop as soon as they come across Thorn's Hammer (LOL), along with the Shard attached to it. Thorn Rose prompts the bird to carry on forwards. She picks her hammer up.
Ricky then lands next to Birdie. "Is that it? I didn't get a good look at it from the bushes." He asked.
"Yes. This is the Shard." Thorn tells him, keeping her eyes on the Shard.
"You think if they could grow trees, they can retract the ones you made? It sure would be nice to have sunlight out here again." Ricky chuckles.
"No. No one should have this much power. We can't use it." Thorn warns him.
Ricky shrugs. "Well, you're the one who used it, so you're the closest to an expert. I trust you. Plus, after what Ryder said about the Emeralds, I am officially done with glowing gems. So... what do we do with it?"
Thorn turns around and faces him with a determined look on her face.
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Boscage Maze, Spaceship
A portal opens. Coming out of it is the Chaos Council's Spaceship, ready to look for the Shard. Within it is Dr. Babble and Dr. Don't, along with Nine as their prisoner/Extra set of hands.
A shot of the Boscage Maze appears on Dr. Don't's screen.
Dr. Don't scoffs. "Eurgh, what a dump. I bet this place doesn't even have wireless."
'It's a jungle. What do you expect?' Nine thought as he rolled his eyes. It's too bad he's cuffed, but being their extra hands could allow him to get in touch with Sonic. All part of the plan.
Dr. Babble laughs and gurgles, but stops as Mr. Dr. Eggman appears on his monitor.
"Button you lips and open your eyes. Report back as soon as you've located this backwater Jungle World's Shard!" Eggman orders them.
"And don't muck this up, like all your other tasks." Dr. Done-it warns them after pushing Eggman off the monitor.
Dr. Babble pulls out his pacifier and sticks his tongue out, blowing a raspberry.
Dr. Don't grumbles. "Right? The nerve of those fossils. Ditching us in this stink hole." He turns to Nine, who is currently typing on a computer. "At least we've got the rat to do all the work."
Nine looks at Dr. Don't with a neutral look on his face. He goes back to typing on the computer.
"Okay, smarty pants, show us your stuff. The sooner you can score us that Shard, the sooner we can bounce."
"My name is Nine; and I need access." He said.
"Eurgh. Do I have to do everything?" Don't complains as he types the access code on the keyboard. A HUD of the spaceship then appears on Nine's monitor.
"Wow. Full access. What an egghead." Nine whispers, smirking.
"Hello?!" Don't calls out.
"Don't worry. Soon things will be going exactly to plan." 'If only you knew, it was my plan.'
The rear of the spaceship opens and a horde of Spy Bots are deployed. These robots enter and explore the jungle, and scan every object they can find. Three of them are stationed in the Great Green. One of the robots beeps and flashes green.
"Shard energy signature detected." The Spy bot announced, but it didn't get to locate the source as Thorn had already destroyed it with her Hammer with her hammer, while another robot gets chased off by Birdie, and broken apart by her beak, and the third trying to escape but gets a surprised drop kick from Ricky, smashing it.
Birdie drops the robot at her owner's feet, and she investigates it.
"I dunno what these creatures are, but they're going to destroy the jungle if we don't stop them." Suddenly, they are approached by several Spy Bots and Eggforcers.
"We can't let them find the Shard. Let's get out of here!" Ricky suggests.
"Agreed." Thorn whistle calls for Birdie, who picks them up and runs them away, only to be chased by them.
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Meanwhile, Sonic warps through the Portal and spins down onto the wooden deck. He runs and looks up at the roaming Mothership.
"Oh, no. We won't let you down, Shadow. Together, we're gonna fix this."
Ryder lands next to him. "Then what're we waiting for? We gotta go fast!" They then start speeding together to the jungle as the Mothership exits the Boscage Maze.
Meanwhile, Eggforcers are exploring the jungle in search for the Shard.
"Eurgh, it's too hard to find anything in here. Chop it all down!" Dr. Don't orders from the ship, and the Eggforcers use their weapons to chop down the trees.
Sonic and Ryder then pop out of a grass patch. "And I thought gardening was supposed to be relaxing."
"Let's show em' what we think of their views on nature." Ryder said, cracking his knuckles.
Sonic and Ryder knock down two Eggforcers, and then Spin attacks two more of them in a row together. This prompts the next Eggforcer to attack them. Ryder ducks as Sonic U-turns around a tree and Spin Attacks the last robot.
"So if the Chaos Council's still looking for the shard, that means they haven't found it yet! Good thing for us, I have a pretty good idea where it is." He then leads Ryder up to the highest branch of a tree. They then see a variety of robots vandalizing the area. "The trees. What have they done? Looking for the Shards is one thing, but why all this needless destruction?"
"I mean, at least this saves room and energy for food right?" Ryder receives a scowl from Sonic. "Hey, you heard Prim, too many trees is too much."
"Let's just bash some bots." They then start Spin-Attacking a few bots before stopping. "We need to find the Boscage Gang." They then departed.
Meanwhile, Nine was typing on the computer trying to get control of one of the robots and find Sonic and Ryder. But then he starts hearing a psst sound coming from somewhere. He looks around for a moment before he heard a quiet voice say: "Psst! Up here Nine!" Nine looks up and sees Rory in a vent.
"Took you long enough." Nine whispers.
"Well, you try going around in these vents from the hanger, to the lab, back to the hanger, and sneaking past an army of robots to a small cruiser. Give me a break." Rory retorts.
"Whatever."
"Okay, now let's get you out of here and-" Rory begins but is interrupted by Nine.
"No! Change of plans. It's smarter if I learn what I can as a prisoner."
"But, what about you?" Rory asked.
Nine was actually kinda happy that Rory cared enough to worry and had a small smile. "I'll be fine. This is all gonna work out. I promise." He received a nod from the Hedgehog.
Dr. Don't groans. "This is taking forever!"
Nine's smile dropped. "Locating the Shard will take time."
"We don't have time! The only reason we haven't already made you into a hat is because you're supposed to be an expert on the Shards, and those little blue-" Interrupted by Dr. Babble squawking, he then watches Dr. Babble's screen, showing Sonic and Ryder destroying their Eggforcers and groans.
"Sonic? Ryder?" Nine turns to the screen.
Dr. Don't growls and becomes annoyed. "No way am I letting those annoying hedgehogs trip us up again!" Dr. Babble squawks, prompting him to go back to work. "Facts."
A HUD of an Eggforcer appears on Nine's screen as he continues to hack. The head flashes green, sparking a smirk from Nine.
[Scene Change: Boscage Maze, day.]
Sonic and Ryder grind through the forest, swing with ivies and run their way up to the top of the large tree, in search of the Scavengers. They find them, Ricky and Thorn gathered around, the two latter arguing with Prim.
"Ah! There they are!" Sonic points out.
"Finally? What are they doing?" Ryder wonders.
"The time for hiding is over. We need to fight NOW!" Thorn declares.
"No, we give them the Shard and they'll leave us alone." Prim proposes.
"The Shard is the heart of our jungle. I'll never give it up!" Thorn argues.
"Plus, if these people are doing this much just to find the Shard, then its clear they don't want to do anything good with it." Ricky added.
"We don't even know where it is!" Prim yelled.
"It's hidden and it will stay hidden!" Thorn tells them.
"But we could use it against them!" Hangry proposes.
"We're not using the Shard. It's too much power for anyone to wield." [She threatens Hangry Cat by pointing the hammer to his chest.
Hangry gulps at her. "It's all coming back to me."
"Well said." They all turn and see Ryder and Sonic land on their platform.
"Hey-hey, gang!" Sonic waves at them.
The scavengers panic. Gnarly throws a Spear at them, forcing them to duck as it hits a wall. "Nice to see you, too."
"Sonic? Ryder?" Gnarly said surprised.
"So you're back. And you brought my satchel. I assume the "stuff" I gave you are safe." Ricky said, hinting to the Emerald.
"Yep. "Stuff" secured." Ryder pats on the satchel with a confident grin.
Thorn steps up to them. "You've returned. Where have you been?"
"Everywhere. Nowhere. Somewhere in between? Ridiculously long story short, I need a favor." Sonic tells them.
Prim lands behind the Hedgehogs. "Not a chance. In case you hadn't noticed, we got enough trouble as it is." She said, pointing to the sky where the Spaceship continues dropping Spy Bots.
"We're being invaded! Monsters who want to hurt us. Or eat us." Gnarly panics, causing Mangey to shriek and attaches himself to Ricky, trembling his tails in fear.
"There, there buddy. I'm here." Ricky pats his back, sympathetically. This calms him down a bit.
"Which is why we need to fight back!" Thorn raises her hammer in the air. "Who's with me?!"
"I am!" Ricky raises his hand, but is met with an awkward silence from the others.
"But without the Shard we don't stand a chance." Hangry said, hopelessly.
"There's always hope."Â Ricky said with a glare.
Thorn had enough of this. "Fine! If you won't fight, We'll fight them on my own!" She whistle calls. Birdie re-appears with her. She touches her beak before stepping on, and gesturing Ricky to climb aboard, which he does after going to his chest and getting a sledge hammer he made out of wood.
Meanwhile, Ryder's shoes pulsate as the bird begins to take off. He then realizes where the Shard was. He goes to say something but decides not to. He then tries to call out to them to stop.
"Thorn, wait!" The bird takes off, swoops close to everybody forcing them to duck, and descends inside the jungle.
Meanwhile, Prim Rouge is still staring at Ryder, uninterested.
"She's right, you know. We need to fight. And I have a plan." Sonic declares.
"Welp, we're doomed." Ryder jokes.
"Oh haha. See that spaceship up there?" Sonic points to the Spaceship floating along the sky.
"What's a spaceship?" Hangry asks.
"The... big... metal... tube thing in the sky." Ryder explains.
"What's metal?" Gnarly asks.
Sonic changes the subject. "That's where the metal men are coming from. We gotta stop them!"
"Look at the size of that flying beast." Prim tells them.
"You can't sit this one out, Prim. We have to work together and fight." Sonic replies.
"I'm not going anywhere near that metal bird."
Gnarly throws a branch and hits Sonic while shushing. "The metal men have eyes everywhere!"
"Dang it, Gnarly! I told you, the trees don't talk, and now I'm telling you that robots don't hear."
"What's a robutt?" Gnarly asks and gets a sound of anger from Ryder.
"We're just trying to survive. They're here for the Shard! Not us! All Thorn has to do is hand it over and they'll go." Prim said.
"You wanna sit on the side-lines and watch your world get trashed? Be my guest! Me? I'm off to help Thorn." Sonic said as his eyes briefly glow blue. Afterwards, he leaves and enters the jungle alone through a Spin Dash, leaving the Scavengers worried. He chases after Thorn and Birdie.
Ryder turns to the Scavengers. "I hope you're happy. Your home is in danger, and you're letting your friends fight with their lives. I'd say I'm disappointed, but that would say I expected more from you guys. You're nothing but a group of cowards." Ryder said harshly as he runs to follow Sonic and the others, leaving them to their thoughts, but not before hearing Mangey whimpering.
Ryder then catches up to the group at the Great Green where they stand in front of Dr. Babble and his mech suit.
"Eurgh. How can one baby be so hateable?" Sonic groans.
The robot presses a button on its weapon randomizer. Thorn and Ricky glance at the robot.
"Thorn, Ricky, get out of there! That thing is not a toy!" Ryder warns them.
"It looks like one." Ricky said as the randomizer flashes the pink option. The robot raises it right arm and fires a cannon, which Sonic dodges. Thorn roars and unleashes her hammer to attack, but it gets caught by another cannon shot. She gasps as soon as she loses her hammer. The robotic voice of Dr. Don't chuckles as several Eggforcers emerge from behind the robot.
"Ready to dance?" He asks as one of the Eggforcers display a combat pose and a Don't icon.
It starts attacking Thorn Rose, who dodges. "You monsters. You're destroying my jungle! I'm gonna make you pay!" She jumps and clings onto the Eggforcer's antennae on its head.
Meanwhile, Dr. Babble's robot attacks an approaching Sonic and Ryder.
Let's play a game of speed tag. Sonic proposes and Ryder grins and nods.
They then launch Spin attacks at the robot's chest. "Tag! You're it." In slow motion, Ryder fends off an arm attack, knocking the robot over. Thorn Rose, still clinging on, realizes the antennae are switched off.
"Huh?" Soon, Thorn sees the icon appear in another and redirects the Eggforcer she holds to attack its team-mate, defeating both of them.
Sonic spin attacks another Eggforcer, steps on top of another one, and Ryder does to the one behind him, and then they run along the arms
of Dr. Babble's robot towards the top of its head. Dr. Babble tries to attack Sonic from above, with him dodging and hanging on. Meanwhile, an Eggforcer continues trying to attack Thorn Rose. She trips over a log, with the robot threatening her.
"Time for you, split." Dr. Don't says, putting his saw near her.
While being grabbed by an Eggforcer, Ricky sees Thorn Rose being cornered. "Thorn!"
He then lifts his legs to the chest of the Eggforcer and pushes them on it, far enough for him to make room for him to spin. He then spins rapidly and creates a brown tornado, knocking the Eggforcer away, and then he does the same to the ones on his path. He then unfurls his tornado, and slams his sledgehammer on the Eggforcer that cornered Thorn.
Its blade weapon breaks off and chases Thorn Rose. In super slow motion, the blade barely misses Thorn Rose's head as she leans back Matrix style. The buzzsaw then hits a tree log. Thorn Rose glares at Ricky.
"Hehe. Oops?" Ricky shakes his head. He then hears a beep from behind him and sees another Eggforcer with the icon on it.
"Rematch, bro." The Eggforcer throws a robot part into Sonic, knocking and trapping him.
Thorn was about to try to save him, but had to worry about dodging all attacks and running away. Thorn Rose is soon encountered close-up by Dr. Babble's robot. As it unleashes an arm attack, Birdie reappears and blocks the attack. A Spy Bot beeps at Birdie.
"Shard energy signature detected." Spy Bot said.
"No!" Thorn said with dread.
"The Shard." Don't said.
Thorn whistle calls and hops onto the bird, picking up her hammer with the shard attached to it. Dr. Babble babbles angrily.
"Duh." Don't said as he and Babble's Robot go airborne and chase after it.
Sonic and Ryder then find Ricky buried under the robot part and pull him out. "Thanks fellas. Now we got to help out Thorn and-" He then sees the empty battlefield. "Where is everyone?"
Before they could answer, the Hedgehogs are shocked when an Eggforcer rejuvenates and prepares to attack them.
"Heck no!" Ryder grunts and knocks it over. He gets the claws from his gloves out, ready to attack the Eggforcer, but stops when hearing Nine's voice.
"Ryder, it's me." Nine tells him.
"Nine? Where have you been?" Ryder asks, worried.
"I dunno how much time I have." Nine reports.
"Are you inside the Eggforcer?" Sonic begins quickly looking around the robot concerningly.
"I'm up on the ship with the doctors."
"The what-the what? You're working with them?"
Nine, annoyed, talks to them with the Eggforcer copying his motions. "No! Would you just listen for a second? They captured me but I'm working them from the inside."
"Are you okay? Wait, does that mean they also have their Shard back?"
"Yes, temporarily."
"I'm just trying to deal with the fact that the metal man can talk and is named Nine." Ricky comments.
Ryder pats the jungle man's back. "We'll explain later bro."
"Is that another you?" Nine asks.
"Yep. Meet Ricky Hedge." He gestures to the brown Hedgehog who nods.
"No time to talk about that now. we're coming to get ya Nine." Sonic tells him.
The Eggforcer raises its arm across. "No, you're not."
"I'm not? Pretty sure I am." Sonic retorts.
"Don't worry about me. Focus on finding the Boscage Shard."
"I think I have a good idea of where it is."
"Yeah, so do the Chaos Council. Now, both of you, hold still."
Sonic and Ryder stick their arms out while the Eggforcer charges something into their regulator.
"Is this some kind of secret handshake we have to learn, 'cause-?" Sonic asks.
"I'm re-programming the regulators so we can communicate through them!"
"Oh, score!"
"You'll also be able to make contact with the Shards in any way without risking teleportation. Something I picked up from being here. You see? Playing prisoner has its advantages."
"If you say so. I mean, we should still come up with a secret handshake, but that can probably wait."
"Hey! Rat! What are you up to?" They then hear Dr. Don't through the com-link.
"Gotta go." Nine whispers.
"Alright, let's go find Thorn and get that Shard." Sonic declares.
"You go on ahead. I have some questions." Ryder said, turning to Ryder as Sonic nods and sets off.
"What's up?" Ricky asks.
"What exactly was that?" Ryder asks.
"What was what?"
"The freaky Spinjitzu thing you were doing."
"I don't call it that. I call it a Sonic Spin. I figured it out a while back. I just spin fast and allow nature to grant me it's power."
"Wow, neat trick with your super speed."
"What Super speed? I don't have super speed." Ricky tells him.
"Wait, what? But I do."
"Well, I admit, we do have similar abilities, but I think that mine goes to a smaller percentage. But I don't spend time on speed. But what I do work on is..."
Ricky then runs up to a tree, jumps off, lands on the ground, grabs his sledgehammer, and runs it through the tree, cutting it down.
"...POWER!"
Ryder stares at him amazed by his show of his prowess. "Amazing."
Ricky walks back. "One day, when the time is right, I hope you can figure out this move too. You just need to have inner focus in your motion, and link yourself to the motion of the world around you." Ricky advised to him.
Ryder nods. "Yes sensei!" He then dramatically bows.
"Okay, let's nix on that. I literally never taught this to anyone." He holds up his hands.
"Right. Now let's go." They then go after Sonic and the others from the ground and trees.
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Later, when they reach them, it's already too late, as they are all rising to the trees and exiting. They had already gotten the Shard.
"Dr. Don't to mothership, we've got the Shard. Now get us out of this dump." Dr. Don't said.
"Dang it! We're too late." Ryder looks up at the robots in fury as they leave the jungle.
Sonic then sees a tree that leads to the exit the robots took and turned to Ryder. "Maybe not. Follow me." Sonic Peels Out and runs to the tree and reaches it and runs to the top.
Ryder then presses his boots and Peels in place. "I'll be back. And when I do, I'll introduce Mangey to Tails." He said before making a finger salute and running away, leaving Ricky starring at him.
"Hm. Interesting boots he's got." He said.
The two Hedgehogs run up the very tall tree, following the horde of Eggforcers
"Come on! We can make it!" Ryder encouraged as they jump from the top of the tree, starts spinning then the robots. Dr. Babble's robot holds out the Shard. Just as they're close to approaching the spaceship, a Portal appears. The Mothership appears from the Portal. The jet boosters blast in front' of them, stopping his momentum. They start falling down.
"No!" Ryder calls out, reaching out to no avail.
"No, no, no!" Sonic screams as they fall... into the hands of Prim and Mangey who helps them up.
"You were never gonna make that jump." Prim tells them with a neutral face.
"Oh haha! Laugh it up." Ryder rolls his eyes and gets a giggle from Mangey.
"Prim? Mangey? What are you doing?"
"Saving your hides."
"So, does that mean after this, we're even?"
"Depends on whether or not you too survive." Prim then looks up and sees a portal opening from the Mothership. "What is that?"
"Our last chance. Think you two can get us through it?"
"Not a problem."
"Consider it done!" Mangey declares, shocking them all.
Prim(after starring for a few seconds) and Mangey tosses Sonic and Ryder up into the air. They scream again but land into the body of Birdie, with Thorn and Ricky in-front of them.
"Promise you'll return and help me restore the jungle." Thorn said.
The Spaceship disappears into the Portal.
"You have my word, Thorn." Sonic promises.
"You can count me in too." Ryder adds.
"Good. And remember, nature can always provide." Ricky said, continuing his lesson from before. Ryder nods to this.
Thorn taps the head of Birdie. She caws as they make their way towards the Portal.
"I'm gonna set everything right." Sonic declares as he and Ryder jump off and flies through the Portal into the Void, jumping from rock to rock. Sonic then moves his hand to his face. "Hang on, Nine. I'm coming for ya." Sonic
"No."
The Void, Mothership
Nine stares outside the generator room, where the Chaos Council gathered and filled it the two Shards the Council has collected. "Don't worry about me. I'm working on a plan to get the Shards from the inside.The best thing for you to do is to get the next Shard before they do.
"Are you sure?" Ryder asks.
"Totally. These eggheads are playing into my hands. They don't know that I've been downloading their tech. You just need to get to the Shard first, then get out. I better go."
The Void
Nine then hangs up on them and before they could come up with another plan, suddenly, they are startled by Shadow who was there all along listening into their conversation with Nine.
"That's the first time one of them has made any sense." Shadow said, referring to the doppelgangers.
"Nine's on our side, Shadow. And if you're not gonna help you can..." Sonic begins.
"Oh, I can help." Shadow, in an attempt to make Sonic follow the Chaos Council, spin attacks Sonic, causing him to scream and fly towards the portal leading to No Place.
Ryder turns to the portal. "Wow, I mean, I get that you're kind of a jerk, but did you have to push him so far? I mean really, the fact that you would even think of-" Before he could continue, Ryder is pushed by Shadow into the No Place gateway, causing him to scream the whole way there.