Robotnik was back.
Everybody knew it was coming eventually, but nobody had expected it on such a sacred night. It was the night of the Hexagonal Eclipse. This special eclipse entailed the appearance of the orbiting planetoid Lost Hex crossing the moon. It was the only time people from all around the world could come together and truly celebrate something magical as one. But instead of a planetoid, the viewers anticipating this miraculous event got an airship blocking out the sky.
"What is that?!" Tails shouted, jumping out of his blankets and standing upright on the tarp that he and his friends had brought outside to view the eclipse on. Popcorn spilled from the bowl on his lap. The moonlight faintly revealed the symbol of the Robotnik Empire on the airship. The Lost Hex was hardly even visible. People screamed and fled as soon as they figured out who the ship belonged to.
"Nothing good!" Sonic replied. "C'mon, to the Tornado!"
The next thing they knew, they were soaring through the night sky on their biplane in pursuit of the strange airship. It was moving towards the Lost Hex. "C'mon, we need to go faster!" Sonic ordered. Tails nodded, and flicked a lever. The plane blasted forward, and Sonic was almost able to dock Robotnik's airship. But just then, a bunch of flying Badniks came piling out of a secret compartment on the airship. They shot at the Tornado's wing, and it started to lose altitude.
"We're hit!" Tails shouted. "What do we do?"
"You just try and land on the Lost Hex. I'll take Robotnik!" Sonic replied. Forming an energy beam, he used it to swing from Badnik to Badnik. He then shot it right towards the airship. It dug through the flooring and wrapped around a beam deep within the crust of the ship. There was a large explosion where the lightning hit, but Sonic landed just fine aboard the ship.
Meanwhile, within the living quarters, Robotnik watched from his window as Sonic broke through his defenses. This hedgehog had given him so much, but in the end he had taken all that and more away. The robotic doctor slammed his metal hands onto the windowsill, and dug his fingernails into the metal as Sonic approached. "All Badniks! Fire on that hedgehog. Don't stop shooting until you can paint the Robo Carrier with his blood!" Robotnik shouted.
Sonic smirked as he slashed away at Badniks with a small blade of lightning, destroying them and not stopping in his tracks for a second. He bounced off of one and reached the window, crashing through and coming face to face with Robotnik.
"Look who's back," Sonic sneered, walking up to Robotnik with the blade he had just used to destroy many other robots a lot like the one that stood in front of him. It sizzled and crackled in his hand. "You're wrecking the view, Robotnik. What's your plan this time?"
"You don't need to know anything about my plan, you miserable traitor," Robotnik growled, stepping back slowly and fearfully as Sonic stepped towards him. Every footstep Sonic took was precise, almost melodic with how his feet touched the floor. Sonic looked down, and grinned wide. "All you must know is that the results will be… world-shattering…"
"What results, ya giant talking egg? Your plan isn't getting off the ground," Sonic taunted, staring into Robotnik's Core with crystalized eyes. "And as for you…" Sonic rushed towards Robotnik and drove his blade into the bot's metal torso. He dispelled the blade and, using just his hand, grabbed onto a clump of wires. Robotnik's vision cut out to a harsh static for half a second. When it returned, he found himself dangling over the edge of the Robo Carrier by Sonic's hand. "As for you, you'll be seeing the ground again very soon."
With a kick, Robotnik's wires were torn out of his body. Robotnik went falling from the Robo Carrier, mechanical entrails spilling out from his body. However, before he could fall all the way down to Erius, something else began to pull him to the right. Sonic, confused, felt gravity flip on its side. He was swept off of the airship despite his greatest attempts to grab onto anything. Sonic could do nothing but fall as he entered the atmosphere of the Lost Hex.
He watched as Robotnik fell just a few feet away from him. Sonic thought for sure he had destroyed Robotnik once more, but just before they hit the ground, Robotnik's head departed from his body and flew far away, leaving Sonic to fall. Suddenly, a green orb formed around Sonic, keeping him afloat in the air. However, it quickly dissipated. Sonic fell the remaining distance, and crashed onto the ground.
…
Robotnik's undamaged head landed aboard a dock of sorts atop his base in the Lava Mountain Zone. As soon as it did, a large cannon on the bottom of the planetoid was called forth. It prepared itself to fire. Everyone able to see this watched in dread as the cannon shot a large beam of violet energy to the world of Erius. It formed a shockwave when it landed. As soon as the shockwave dissipated, the world shook. Earthquakes ruptured the planet, as the crust of the world began to break apart. Just like that, the world shattered. The continents and their surrounding oceans separated from one another, and the very core of the world was revealed.
From it, something rose amidst the dust. A large, translucent being. With a deafening roar that could be heard on every one of the fragmented continents, it dissipated into a purple fog that rolled in across each piece of the shattered world of Erius.
…
Sonic awoke to darkness. He smelled dirt, and then realized what had happened. Sonic heard the muffled sounds of a plane making a bumpy landing nearby. Tails hopped out of the Tornado, and saw Sonic with his head buried in the soil. "Sonic?" Tails asked, walking over. The two-tailed fox laughed. "What happened here?" Sonic tried to speak, but all that he did was get a mouthful of dirt. He choked, as Tails tugged on his legs to get him out. When he popped out from the ground, he stumbled back, shaking his head. "How many rocks did you swallow this time?"
"Seven. But never mind that…" Sonic grumbled. "Where are we? Where's Robotnik?!" Sonic looked all around hastily, but gradually slowed down, soaking in the view all around him. It was a sprawling, fantastical mountainous farmland. There were leaves being carried across in the cool breeze, and wooden structures such as windmills speckling the field. "Oh yeah. I fell right onto the Lost Hex…" Sonic stated. "Huh."
"How long were you out?" Tails asked, suddenly looking serious. "Something bad happened down on Erius, but I'm not sure what. There was a large firing sound, an explosion, and some kind of roar."
"That's unsettling," Sonic replied. "Should we go check it out, or…?"
"The Tornado's busted," Tails stated, shaking his head and glancing at the broken wing. Sonic heard footsteps coming from behind him, and with a jolt, turned around instinctively. "I could call Amy, but---" Before Tails could finish his sentence, Sonic was punched away by some complete stranger. "Sonic!" Tails cried. He looked up, and towering over him were six human women. The only problem with that description is that human women typically don't have horns or yellow where the eye whites should be.
"Move, my Deadly Seven!" The woman with two turquoise ponytails and a red top ordered. It seemed like she was the leader, and it also seemed like she could break Tails like a twig. Sonic lied there on the ground, dazed after she had punched him. Or maybe he was just faking it to appease her. "Let's get this over with already." They all charged Tails, and he did his best to fight back.
"I remember when I was the one handing out the orders. I'm proud to see you take the title of leader, Zavok," another woman with white, messy hair and a black bodysuit stated. Given how she looked like the youngest out of the seven, it was hard for Tails to believe she was ever in charge. "I miss bossing you all around, but I suppose I have been waiting for the day where I can enjoy the fruits of my labor." She summoned a basket's worth of fruit around her, and shot them towards Tails. He dodged an extra spiky pineapple, but was nailed by a melon smashing into his face at high speeds.
Tails went skidding back on his feet, before propelling himself forward again to try and save Sonic. "Hey, pass me one of those, Master Zik?" The largest woman asked the smallest one. She had yellow, almost orange hair. Without a word, the white-haired woman, Zik, shot an orange the other one's way. With a large boost of energy coming from eating the delicious fruit, the yellow-haired girl spun around, turning into a tornado and sweeping Tails up into the air. He landed harshly, trying to get up. "Did I do good, Zav?" She asked with great enthusiasm, looking Zavok's way expectantly as she came to a stop.
"You did great, Zom," Zavok encouraged, smiling, before punching Tails as soon as he got to his feet. Just like that, Sonic broke out of his stupor and blasted forward, Homing Attacking Zavok. She blocked it, giving another member of the Deadly Seven a chance to attack.
"Wow, you actually got up. I didn't want to do that this morning, but here we are," the girl with short purple hair that covered one of her eyes moaned without a lick of energy. She had a suit that resembled an owl. Her shadow stretched behind Sonic, formed itself as its own three-dimensional entity, and roundhouse kicked him. He took the kick and Spin Dashed towards the girl herself. "How about I do you a favor and make it so you never get up again?" As Sonic neared the girl, another one came rushing in to kick him away like a soccer ball. "Or you can do it, Zeena. I don't actually care."
Sonic went tumbling the other way, and saw a woman with green hair throwing a bomb resembling a snowman head in his direction. When it hit, he was trapped in cold, freezing… ice cream? Zeena looked down upon the frozen Sonic, with Sonic only able to stare at her as he felt his body go numb. "My my, would you look at that? I wish that was me. That would be delicious!" Zeena stated, as a hard chocolate shell formed around the ice cream. "Still, getting rid of you now will be that much sweeter." Suddenly, Sonic heard some kind of rocket being fired. It exploded, and broke through the chocolate shell. Zeena instantly jumped away as Sonic was caught in the blast and sent flying upwards. "Oh, what the heck, Zazz?! You coulda killed me!" Standing with one leg atop a rock, another member of the Deadly Seven was holding a rocket launcher. She was dressed like she was about to star in a rock concert. "I was gonna TAKE HIM TO THE BOSS while he was stuck in ICE CREAM or something. And you just tried to actually shoot him!" Zazz lowered the rocket launcher without a word. Sonic was caught by Tails midair.
"You holding up?" Tails asked, as he flew Sonic to a hilltop not far away from the Deadly Seven. They were closing in fast. "Should we run, or…?"
"I'm fine. And yeah, maybe that's the best option," Sonic answered. "They're pretty dang strong. I don't wanna get on their bad side, either!"
"Wait… where's the seventh one?" Tails asked. "I've only seen six…"
Suddenly, a darkness was cast over the surrounding area. "Thank you for the lights, Zor!" A pretentious announcer voice exclaimed through some kind of crackly old filter. There was electro swing blaring in the background. Sonic looked up and saw a large, hexagonal float lower from one of the floating pieces of land above. There was a spotlight on the float. "Thank you everybody… for attending my show…!" Standing there, was a girl with a puffy afro and a sparkly black dress that went down to the float. On her face was a fancy white mask. In fact, she was entirely black and white. There was a straw-shaped horn poking out from her hair that made it look like a root beer float. "WELCOME TO… 'LIFE WILL CHANGE'!!!" She cried, enthusiastically. The rest of the Deadly Seven clapped.
"What on Erius…?" Sonic asked, squinting. Tails clapped along. Sonic looked to him, strangely.
"Oh, no, no no!" The girl who looked straight out of an old United Federation cartoon exclaimed, looking offended. "You Erians are so very far from your planet, remember? And that means that the entertainment must be out of this world to match! My name is…" She did a spin, and confetti popped out from the top of the float. She struck a pose. "ZOGA THE HEXI!"
"Can I go now?" Sonic asked.
"You wouldn't, couldn't!" Zoga exclaimed, Zomom and Zavok ushering in chairs and seating Sonic and Tails. "Not if you want shelter! Food! Hom---? Wait this isn't the right script." Zoga grabbed a piece of paper from offscreen, tossing the other one down. It landed in front of Sonic, who had been tied to his chair along with Tails. He looked down, and saw a confusing script loosely following his escape from the Robotnik Empire. "I mean… your very own vacation house in Tropical Coast! A life's worth of meals with the social elite! A MANSION in an undisclosed location for the sake of personal safety! You will have it all! YOUR life will---!" Suddenly, a serene mystic melody overpowered the electro swing. It was the most pleasant sound Sonic had ever heard. However, it seemed very painful for these Hexi characters. All of the Deadly Seven stopped in place and covered their ears, grunting in pain.
"Sonic, what's going on?" Tails asked, surprised.
"I don't know…" Sonic replied, as the song faded. The Hexis held their heads, and then ran for the mountains. Sonic, with a Spin Dash, cut through the ribbons tying himself and Tails to the chairs. "But I'm not just going to stand around. Let's find out!" Sonic dashed off into the meadows. Tails nodded, and followed close behind.