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.

~EPISODE OF AMNESIA ISLAND 06~

         ★Though highly mysterious with a lack of any real understanding around them, perhaps the most valuable thing in the world are Rings. The golden loops that hang in the air spinning on their axes or slumbering as a part of the very world itself giving shape to it, are influential to all, even those who cannot see or interact with them.

         It is in times of danger and conflict however when they prove most valuable to adventurers as just holding even one Ring can protect one from harm. A valuable resource indeed when faced with a colony of giant fish-stealing crabs.

Tunnels of sand
Expansive underground caverns
Grotto shaped where coral meets island
An undersea and underground miracle
Colors and light reflected by waterfalls and pools
Natural roadways of branching coral
Marine life abundant
All disrupted by a stampede of giant crabs.

         “You’re awfully clumsy,” Mote criticized Tempest as he extended his right arm to quickly recapture the Rings he dropped as an automobile sided crab claw had been slammed down in the path he was sprinting along. “It’s a good thing you can make use of the Rings, or you would be in far worse shape.”

         “I was almost crushed!” Tempest snapped back in panic at the fairy, his crystals giving off a purple light with sparks of red electricity within. “I don’t think the Rings would have done me a lot of good.”

         “Not true,” Mote argued as Tempest sprinted in a different direction, curling into a ball to bowl through a series of automobile-sized crabs and send them tumbling from the coral highway he was on. “You’ve passed plenty of places that the Rings recognize as safe, and they will always remember you in those places as you were and call you back should you face what would otherwise be an irreparable change in your state of being.”

         “What about Rosy then?” Tempest asked as he jumped from the highway and used his right arm to grab a jellyfish that was floating through the air. Using it like a parachute he tried to guide it to help him land on a shelf of coral growing out of a waterfall. “You said the Rings had forgotten her. What if they forget me?”

         “Not possible,” Mote refuted, shaking back and forth using its teardrop-shaped self to imitate a shaking head. “The Rings will always remember. And the timeframe between when such harm could befall anyone and being saved by the Rings is small enough that it is next to impossible that even their tendency to not remember things clearly would be of little trouble.”

         “Not remember things clearly?” Tempest asked with concern rising in his voice as he slipped down a watery slope and was thrown into the air by a bumper pad headed spring resting at its end.

         “Well, Rings have a rather fickle memory once enough time passes, and they don’t always remember everything clearly. It’s why Ring Shifts make such a mess and why you can find objects like that spring you just used all over the place. They remember them being somewhere but not why or for what purpose and just drop them everywhere when they go to slumber or are nearing waking.”

         “Then Rosy being forgotten…?” Tempest tried to switch the subject as Mote’s explanation started to feel like too much.

         “A mystery I can’t explain. They remember her well enough now from when she was retuned to the world, but from before she woke on Amnesia Island… Well, I’m certain that mystery can be solved by finding the thief I seek rather than dealing with these fish-stealing crabs.”

         “And to that end you need Rosy to lead you to Sonic, right?”

         “Exactly.”

         Turning his thoughts inward as he continued zipping through the coral made caverns beneath the coast of Amnesia Island, an unrelated thought came to Tempest. “Wait, if the Rings can just take us to somewhere safe, would Rosy even be down here?”

         “There is little way she wouldn’t be,” Mote sighed. “She gave me the slip and we found these crabs, so it’s likely she came down here to put an end to the fish stealing. My vassal is far too happy to bite off more than she can chew.”

         “But this isn’t really a safe–”

         “Place?” Mote cut Tempest off. “You’ve already passed several yourself that the Rings have marked. Haven’t you seen those Rings that spin up out of the ground when you pass over them with a star in them? Those are Rings that mark safe points. If Rosy has gotten into trouble beyond what she can handle, then she would have likely ended up at one down here.”

         “But they’re… everywhere…,” Tempest swallowed loudly as he raced through the cave system.

         “It’s a good thing you’re quite speedy then,” Mote nodded with her whole body. “Otherwise, this would take forever.”

         “He-he,” Tempest laughed nervously. “I just hope she’s alright. These crabs are a lot more trouble than they’re worth.”

         “She may lack the speed you possess, but I assure you Rosy is quite a lot of trouble herself.” Mote attempted to assure Tempest of the pink hedgehog’s tendency to be as much trouble as the trouble she got into. And it was a very true statement as Rosy ended up at an underwater beach with a mountain of giant crabs behind her.

         “Ooh~!” She verbally expressed her frustration with an energetic groan. “This is what you get for stampeding around like that!”

         Chiding the mountain of crabs with a finger shake, Rosy winced when she heard a large rumbling and felt the ground shake beneath her feet. “Uh-oh…”

         Coming around the cliff of the underground cove was a titanic crab much like the ones with automobile-sized claws. This one was rather different however as instead of two arms it had four and wore a massive spiral shell covered in spikes. As it scuttled along and bore down on Rosy, the mountain of crabs that trapped her on the underground beach managed to scurry about and become a structured wall rather than a crumpled heap.

         “Hey!” Rosy yelled at the crabs and balled her hands into fists as she turned back to face them “If you can work together like this then we could have talked about how you were stealing our fish!

         “Yikes!” Rosy yelped and jumped back as her accusation resulted in the crabs nearest to her snapping at her with their claws. “What a bunch of jerks!

         “Fine, then I guess I’ll just have to talk to your boss,” Rosy declared as she moved away from the mountainous wall of crabs and up the beach towards the approaching titanic crab.

         Thrusting her balled up hands down at her sides and her hips back and up, Rosy struck a defiant stance as the titanic crab looked down on her. “Hey, you big jerk!”

         Yelling at the crab angrily was not likely Rosy’s best decision, but she was already being pushed to her limits by the aggressiveness and boldness of the Amnesia Island giant crabs.

         “You have all of this and the whole ocean to go get fish in!” Rosy continued yelling at the crab. “Nana and I only have what little the fishing machine can bring in! You don’t need to steal our fish when we can’t even compete with how much fish you can catch! So, you should really just bug off and leave us alone!”

         A bratty, pink hedgehog girl dressed in a leotard and ballet flats yelling at a giant four-armed crab with automobile sized claws on an underground beach was quite a sight. Enough so that it seemed to actually leave the crab taken aback. The looks of the crabs making up the mountainous wall that trapped Rosy on the beach managed to embarrass the massive crustacean and what pride its animal mind had shifted it’s fight or flight response from flight to fight.

         With as much anger as could be presented through eyestalks, the titanic crab raised one of its arms and prepared to swing it down on Rosy.

         “Ooh~!” Rosy whined. “Come on! I tried talking and you’re still choosing to be a jerk!”

         Her lack of fear in the face of such danger could be called courage, or perhaps foolishness, yet Rosy held her ground. Not just held her ground however but braced herself to try and catch the incoming claw as the crab finally swung down. It was still a terrifying sight though and Rosy winced and looked away with shut eyes. The lack of impact between her and the claw however tempted her to open one eye and look back.

         And what she saw was Darkness.

         “It looks like I made it just in time,” Tempest commented as he strode through the hole he had punched through the wall of crabs.

         “What were you just trying to do?” Mote demanded of Rosy as she flew over in a panicked hurry. “Why would you try and fight such a massive crab.”

         “It’s not like I could run,” Rosy pouted as the fairy chided her. “And we both know I’m pretty strong despite my size–”

         “But do you see the size of THAT crab!”

         “I guess it is pretty big,” Rosy confessed as she straightened out and took note of Tempest’s hand having swelled to a large enough size to catch an automobile-sized claw. “But…”