The following is a work of fan fiction by Joshua D. Tarwater and is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS.*
*SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS retains full rights over the Sonic the Hedgehog™ intellectual property and can terminate or take control of this work at any time.

         ★The Rings will always remember.

         The origin of that saying is unknown, but it is believed to be the reason the world shifts. As Rings lose their energy they fade from the world, the golden loops becoming one with the world again. As they do, they transform the world based on the memories they possess. In this state their memories travel among other Rings who transform the world as they near awakening, creating new landmasses and transforming existing ones. It is a phenomenon known as a Ring Shift, and what gives adventurers their value in the world.

Light filtering darkness
Metal framework creating enclosed world
Machinery running
Lights blinking
Electricity crackling
Great trees and rolling grasslands
Flowers and great stone structures
Two worlds merged
Embraced by the ocean

         Passing a massive metal girder and wall of ivy split by a waterfall, the Tornado skimmed across one of several low clouds held within the once small moon-sized space station. Now it was akin to a planet within a planet, where the sun and the passengers of the Tornado were both strangers.

         “This is hardly the Death Egg I know,” Sonic remarked as he looked up into the sunless sky the Tornado flew under, the dim lights of the space station interior coming into view.

         “It looks like it got caught up in a Ring Shift,” Tails remarked as he kept the plane steady and chose a course to avoid the large number of flying robots filling the internal sky. It’s kind of funny to see considering how it’s typically Eggman building over everything else.”

         “Yeah, I bet he’s furious,” Sonic agreed, but his mirth and humor were tainted by discomfort.

         Up until this point, Sonic’s memory from another history far past this point in time seemed to be only slightly off. But now things were vastly different. As he knew it, a week after stopping Eggman’s launch of the Death Egg it had wound up on Angel Island, a legendary island that flew in the sky. There he met who would become a good friend and a great ally in all things related to the Chaos Emeralds. Now, when he needed that good friend most, history had changed so much that he could no longer know if it wasn’t all just a dream after all. The only things he could be sure of were Tails and Eggman. It was disquieting and Sonic rubbed the underside of his nose with a finger as he flicked an ear irritably.

         “Go ahead and find us somewhere to land Tails. I don’t like not having my feet on the ground when I don’t know what’s up.”

         A short while later Sonic and Tails walked away from where the Tornado was set down on a large impromptu pier. The metal of the Death Egg’s frame giving way to a small meadow with a tree upon it was a sight that normally would have brought a smile to Sonic’s face. Seeing nature beating back the damage Eggman did was usually quite the reward, but now it did not sit right with him. Enough so that he kicked the grass and found it had rooted itself right into the metal.

         “Okay,” Sonic remarked and knelt down. “That is definitely more than a little weird.”

         “Is it actually growing out of the metal?” Tails asked bewildered as he knelt and joined Sonic. “That’s–?!”

         Suddenly being kicked in the stomach by Sonic, Tails failed to finish his thought as he tumbled backward. Rolling over and sitting up, he saw Sonic had rolled backwards in a similar way. Unlike himself however, Sonic was poised for combat and Tails scrambled to respond even though he did not see what had Sonic on edge. However, he did not miss the beam of destructive green light that Sonic dodged.

         “That was fast,” the fox remarked with a hint of anxiousness.

         “Except it’s not an Eggman mech,” Sonic corrected Tails.

         “Wha…!?”

         Finding his footing, Tails traced back where the next beam of light came from and did not find an Eggman robot. Instead, it was a strange stone statue. A pair of massive arms and a torso floated above the ground like a ghost with a shape that made it resemble an anchor. As strange as the floating statue was on its own, its lack of a head or neck that was instead replaced by a massive green gem made it even stranger. As light started gathering within the gem Tails new what was about to happen, and Sonic again dodged an incoming beam of light that scorched the grass and metal.

         “S-Sonic, what is that?!” Tails managed to find a question to ask unsure of what to think of the phenomenon.

         “Nothing but trouble it seems,” Sonic replied as he dodged another beam and closed the distance.

         Closing the distance proved a foolhardy move as the anchor-man-ghost caught Sonic with a punch and sent him and the Rings he had gathered flying. Rings Sonic could not recollect easily as he sprung to his feet in a backflip to avoid another beam attack. “Yeah, definitely trouble.”

         “Maybe–”

         “Already trying it,” Sonic implied he knew Tails’ suggestion as he ran out and around the statue, dodging more beam attacks. “Though maybe you could lend me a hand.”

         “Right!”

         Taking to the sky with his tails, Tails provided Sonic a point to pivot a jump from and curl into a ball to plow through the green gem atop the statue. As the gem shattered, the whole statue turned to dust and a brilliant seed of light sprang up into the air above it.

         “Don’t touch it,” Sonic warned Tails as they both watched the twinkling seed fall to the ground. As it did, it spontaneously grew into a healthy flower stem, one with a very different bloom.

         Possessing a shape resembling broad flower petals wrapped around a ball, the flower was large enough to easily hold Sonic if he was curled into a ball. That was not what made the flower unusual however, but rather that it was made entirely of light and bobbed above the end of its stem.

         “What a weird flower,” Tails commented as he walked around it, studying it with great curiosity.

         “Yeah, definitely a little unusual,” Sonic agreed as he looked around the Death Egg, spotting the soft light of countless flowers in a myriad of colors, statue beam attacks, and Eggman robots engaged in combat.

         “I don’t think this was a Ring Shift, Tails.”

         “Really?”

         “Yeah,” Sonic answered as he rubbed his nose. “If it was, the grass would be growing from dirt dumped onto the Death Egg. But growing straight out of the metal…”

         “But what else could it be?” Tails queried. “A Ring Shift is the only way to explain vegetation being merged with the metal.”

         “I don’t know Tails, but whatever is driving these golems might be the cause.”

         “Golems?”

         “Just an old word for moving statues,” Sonic shrugged. “Better than calling them statues when they’re clearly moving.”

         “And without any mechanical parts either,” Tails added as he looked again at the flower. “That’s so weird. I can’t even begin to put a hypothesis together for the animating of stone like that. Or maybe it’s not stone and the energy that powered it simply made compressed dust resemble stone. If that were the case, then it would explain how it could resemble stone yet still move. It also explains the decompression when you broke the gem.”

         “Well, it packed a punch like it was made of stone,” Sonic laughed and pushed on the side of his head to stretch his neck. “Either way, we’ll want to make sure we have plenty of Rings.”

         Eyeing the verdant, machinery strewn landscape ahead of him, Sonic made sure to note everywhere he saw Rings dangling in the air and spinning on their axes. He also made sure to note where the golems and Eggman’s robots patrolled and engaged each other.

         “Looks like it’s going to be kind of rough going, but I got to hand it to you now, Tails. I’d guess you need a control room or something to access Eggman’s systems and see what’s up, no less get back to your tests on me.”

         “Pretty much,” Tails nodded. “And probably a few components from several of Eggman’s robots. It’ll be easier to build a physical backdoor into his system than understand the code he uses.”

“I guess we better get moving then.”