Gwen falls from the hole in the sky and sees a branch and quickly lands on top of it. She looks around, spotting unfamiliar things once again.

"Where am I now?" she said, not noticing her bangs has another color strand, which is green as she scratched her head.

She suddenly felt something bushy and soft on her head as she wears a flower crown and her quills are curled then she looks down to see her no longer wearing gloves as she's barehanded. She also sees her boots changed to leaf boots. But what shocked her the most is that she's wearing leaf, bushy-like skirt that's a little too high and a strapless jaguar bra. Gwen screamed in horror and embarrassment as her face turned pink. She quickly covered her stomach and private area and looked around for anything to cover herself. Making sure no one was looking, she skillfully slide down from branches to branches until she lands on the wooden deck. More deck sit in old bare trees and bright sunlight.

Gwen looks around the area and down to the tree canopy while wondering where her brother is. As if her prayer was answered, she heard Sonic's scream and ran over to see Sonic running away from the bat, echidna, and a cat as he leaps through branches, dodging the throwing spears.

"Oh, no..."

Gwen was about to pull out her weapon when the green band around her wrist moves on its own and turns into a grass sword.

"Huh..."

She immediately chases after them to rescue her brother. Meanwhile, the bat chases Sonic with her spear as Sonic avoids her. On a deck, the echidna and a cat throw spears as Sonic dodges and swings on the vine around the branch. He leaps to other branches and then swings on another vine as he screams along the way. He spins and lands on the deck and stumbles to the edge. He keeps his balance and ducks a spear. He looks down then faces his attackers.

"Hey, hey, hey, wait! I'm not the bad guy here. We're friends!"

Just as they're about to attack him, a Tarzan yell catches their attention and turns to see Gwen swinging on the vine towards them. They immediately throw spears at her when she slashes them off with her grass sword as each handles breaks in half, shocking them. The bat throws another spear at her when Gwen makes her grass sword turn back to a green band and catches the spear. She throws it back and catches Sonic as they swing away from the attackers. Sonic's eyes lit up to see her.

"Sis!!"

"Sonic! What's going on? What did you do?" Gwen said, slashing off more flying spears with her grass sword.

"I didn't do anything! And... what are you wearing?" Sonic asked, looking at her funny.

She turns pink.

"Don't ask! It just happened! Not my doing!"

"Okay... But I realized something."

"What?"

Sonic and Gwen landed on another deck and spin away before the attackers could act. Gwen catches the spears again that was thrown at them and throws it back to them almost straight to their head as they dodge it.

"They don't know who I am. Again! Which means we're not in New Yoke, we're in a whole new place..."

Sonic looked at the attackers.

"...and you're all-new you's and..."

Sonic's eyes widened and he face palmed himself.

"Oh, not again!"

"Great! Which is worse? My sudden change of clothes or this new world we're in?" Gwen grumbled.

Sonic runs between the others as Gwen catches up to him as they look around the place.

"So this is another altered Green Hill. At least this one has plants."

"Yeah... the Boscage maze has super-sized plants that are suffocating the life out of this place. Thanks to the monster." the bat explained, still holding the spear.

"Monster?" Gwen asked, turning to the group.

The bat, the echidna, and a cat all gasped to see her, which made Gwen and Sonic look at them funny.

"T-Talia...?" the bat said, dropping her spear.

"Uh... what?" Gwen questioned.

The bat, echidna, and a cat starts to circle around her as they stare at her in amazement, disbelief, happiness, etc.

"How is she alive?"

"Maybe she would be either possessed as a demon or maybe the Gods brought her back."

"That's impossible."

The bat slowly approaches Gwen and hold her face gently as tears falls down her face.

"H-How it was possible?"

Gwen frowns and gently removes her hands.

"It's... hard to explain, but I'm from another world..."

As she explains, the certain echidna doesn't seem to be listening as he was busy checking her out, especially her behind, slightly blushing with a hint of smirk. Suddenly, he fondles her behind and gropes her tail. Gwen yelps in shock as her face turns pink. Sonic growls as he has a look of kill and is ready to spin dash him far away as possible. But she beat him to it as her face turn from pink to red as she looks angry. She immediately turns and punches the echidna in the face, sending him flying against the tree bark.

The cat winces, noting to never try and do something like that. The bat shakes her head and turns to Gwen.

"So, you're not... Talia?"

"No... I'm Gwen. I'm guessing something terrible happened to her..."

"Yeah..."

"I'm sorry..."

"It's alright... You just... look exactly like Talia."

"And sweet and kind as she is..." the cat added with his ears down.

"Not to mention how hot you are as her." the echidna smirked, rubbing his head while checking her out again.

Gwen immediately growls at him, ready to strike him with her grass sword when he quickly added with a nervous smile.

"And a great warrior."

Sonic quickly speaks of what was on his mind, breaking the awkwardness.

"Monsters, overgrown trees, perverts, sis change of clothes, lost shards... Tricky situation. There's only one person who could help me and sis figure this out. I gotta find--"

He was cut off by a loud eagle like screech then there's a loud thud until they heard yelling. They look up to see a fox flying over them.

"Tails? Tails!"

Sonic runs and grabs a falling fox by the tail.

"Gotcha!"

Gwen sighs in relief that he's okay. Though, seeing another version of Tails reminds her of Nine's betrayal as she looks slightly angry about him. The bat, the echidna, and a cat stares at Sonic in awe at his speed.

"He's fast." the echidna smiled.

"Fast enough to occupy the monster while we grab what we need." the bat said with a determined smile.

"Say what now?" Gwen questioned.

"Am I glad to see you! The world is all..."

Sonic starts babbling as he moves his fingers up and down on his lips before stopping himself.

"You gotta figure out what's going—"

He was cut off by the fox's growl and looks down as the fox glares up at him with his fangs bared, causing Sonic to scream. The fox then bites him on the arm, causing him to yelp and holds him back.

"Ow! You mangey little—"

Sonic gets pinned down by the fox as the fox attempts to bite him again with a snarl. He struggles to push him back until Gwen charges in and grabs the fox by the back of his neck and pulls him away.

"Hey! Stop that! He just saved your life!" she said, glaring at him.

The fox turns and was about to attack her when his eyes widens to see her. His face changes to puppy look as he lets out a small bark and pounces on Gwen. Gwen yelps in shock as the fox starts licking her face.

"Oh! Ew! Hey! Stop that!"

The fox looks so happy to see her as his twin tails wags. The bat knew this has to stop as she flies over and grabs the fox in the air.

"Hey, give it a rest. She's not Talia, sadly."

The fox lets out a question hum and looks at Gwen, who wipes off the saliva from her face before giving him a sad smile. The fox lets out a small whimper and slumps. The bat then drops him as he gives Gwen a quick nudge on her legs using his face before running on fours towards the group and faces them. The bat helps both Sonic and Gwen up.

"Thanks for your help, stranger."

"It's Sonic and you're welcome. But why didn't he just fly with all his tails?"

The fox begins to scratch his head with his shoe like a dog. The bat looks confused of what Sonic said while looking at the fox.

"Fly? Mangey doesn't fly."

"Mangey??" Gwen raised her eyebrow.

"Wait, 'Mangey'? Really?" Sonic questioned in surprise, raising his eyebrow as well.

"And I'm Prim." introduced the bat.

"Hangry." the cat said.

Gwen raises her eyebrow at the mixture of hungry and angry. The echidna introduces lasts.

"Gnarly. But you already knew that. Didn't ya? Who sent you?!"

Gnarly goes up to Sonic's face with a suspicious look and points his spiky boxing gloves at his face. Sonic raises his hand up in surrender.

"Look, you all seem like a lovely group, but me and sis are trying to find our way back home and we're looking for some answers." he said while Gnarly keeps glaring at him suspiciously and following his move.

Gwen comes in between Gnarly and Sonic and pushes Gnarly back with a glare.

"Back off, buddy."

Instead of being offended, he immediately backs away with his hands up.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Do any of you know about the Paradox Prism?" Sonic continued.

Prim and others stare at him with confusion.

"Okay... how about a shiny crystal shard that may or may not have some really weird powers? It's the only clue we have to getting back home."

"A shard? We don't know—"

Hangry was cut off by Prim as she walks up to Sonic and Gwen.

"Why you waited so long to ask us about it?"

Gwen raises her eyebrow and look at Prim suspiciously, but Sonic didn't catch it and he was happy to hear it.

"So you know where it is. Can you take us to it?"

"Of course. But first come to our village. I'm sure we can help each other."

Gwen looks at Gnarly and others for some explanation of what Prim is up to. They only give her a shrug as they look confused. Gwen nods and she and others follow after Prim and Sonic. Though she failed to notice that Gnarly is checking her out again behind her back. They're now walking across the deck.

"We didn't always live in the Canopy. For years, we lived on the ground, took everything we needed from the jungle to survive. And then, the monster drove us up into the trees." Prim explained with a grim look.

"But why? Why would the monster do that? I'm sure there's a reason behind all of this." Gwen asked.

"Don't know and I'd rather not care. That monster made its reason clear. Especially of what it did to our Talia..."

Now Gwen is curious of what happened to Talia.

"Every day in the Boscage maze is a struggle to survive." Hangry said and grabbed Sonic by the shoulders and shook him. "It's miserable!"

"Whoa! Easy! No need to get angry."

"I'm not angry! I'm hungry. You ever tried filling up on bark?"

Hangry bites on the piece of the bark and walks away. Gwen grimaces, thinking it tastes terrible and hard to chew on.

"'Bark'? Don't any of the trees have fruit or nuts or something?" Sonic asked.

"They used to, but they're tapped out. That's why we have to forage below, despite the monster." Prim said, before stopping and facing them as she holds her spear. "We're here."

They made it to the big area and what used to be a nice big tree as it only shows branches everywhere without any leaves on sight.

"This is your village?"

Sonic hops over and shakes the big leaf. Gnarly rushes over and stands in front of him.

"Hey! Get away from my house."

Gwen and Sonic were confused about the leaf being called a 'house'.

"Your— I mean, it's very rustic." Sonic said nervously, backing away.

They heard Mangey's snarling and turned as he climbs up and runs up with something in his hands. He uncloses his hands to reveal a berry. Mangey smiles and goes to take a bite when Prim takes the berry from him.

"Ah-ah-ah! Hold that thought."

Mangey tries to take the berry back when she holds him back by holding his face and flies off. Mangey drops down and whimpers with his tails and ears down, making Gwen feel bad for him and gently pats him on the head. He smiles and leans into her touch. Prim flies up to Sonic and goes around him.

"Sonic, we'll take you and Gwen to the-the— uh—"

"Shard." Gwen corrected her.

"Exactly! But... first you'll help us by taking care of the monster so we can gather supplies."

Prim tosses the berry behind her and Hangry catches it. Gnarly and Mangey goes to take the berry when Hangry holds it away from them. Gwen and Sonic watches with concern. Prim though was unfazed by it.

"Deal?"

"Oof! These guys really need some help." Sonic commented.

Gwen watches them for a moment before shaking her head with a sigh and start walking towards them. Sonic and Prim watches with worry and curiosity of what she's doing. Gwen snatches the berry, making Hangry, Mangey, and Gnarly turn to her. She tosses the berry in the air and in speed, she summons her grass sword and slices the berry, shocking everyone. As soon as she's done, she makes her grass sword turn back into her green leaf band. Suddenly, the pieces of the berry drops down on Prim, Mangey, Gnarly, and Hangry as they catches it. They stare at Gwen in shock as she rolls her eyes at them.

"Now we can all have berry to eat. Ever learn to share instead of fighting like children?" she sassed.

Prim and the others keep staring at her for a moment then to the piece before taking a bite. They all look in bliss to finally get a taste of the berry. Prim looks at Gwen softly.

"Thanks..."

"No problem."

Sonic walks up to them.

"Good news, everyone! Guess which special guests can handle a so-called monster without even breaking a sweat?"

Hangry, Gnarly, and Mangey stare at him. Sonic deadpans at this and tries to translate it to them.

"It's me. It's obviously me and sis."

They stare at him still with confusion on their faces. Gwen nudges him by the shoulder to just get on to it.

"We'll help you. Berries for all, as many as you want!"

Hangry, Gnarly, and Mangey runs up to Sonic with excitement.

"You mean we could have two berries?" Hangry asked.

Sonic nods, moving away from their closeness.

"The more the merrier." Gwen added.

Hangry, Gnarly, and Mangey cheers at this news, hugging each other. Sonic and Gwen smiles at them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later, three vines drop into the dark jungle. Prim, Gwen, Hangry, Mangey, and Gnarly slide down. Sonic jumps down to a twisted root then joins them on the ground and looks up along with Gwen. They spot the loop-de-loop just like from Green Hill, only it's covered with trees as three yellow Flickies flies up to it.

"That's the loop-de-loop. You were not kidding about the plants. They look even bigger from down here."

"Shh!" Prim shushed him and walked ahead.

"Right! Stealth mission." Sonic whispered, tiptoeing after them.

Prim then points at some leafy plants. Gnarly goes to them and clears some of the leaves. On all fours, Mangey hops between them and sniffs the grass. The others follow him. Mangey squeezes under the twisted root. Gnarly rips it in two and moves on, causing Gwen to jump at the sudden snap like those poor plants just lost their lives. She starts to put two and two together of why the monster drove them up to the trees.

"We need to be very quiet. The monster could be anywhere." warned Prim.

Mangey leaps ahead and gnaws on the thick stem. Gnarly pulls him off and peeks through a small gap at the berry.

"Hey! I found one! I guess it's our lucky day."

He grins and shoves Mangey away that attempts to grab the berry himself and reaches for the berry. With gloves, he rips plants apart, which worries Sonic and Gwen as some leaves flies on Sonic's face.

"Whoa! You know, you might wanna take it easy on the plants." Sonic said.

Gnarly turns to him.

"Why are you on the plants' side?"

He roughly places his fist on Sonic's face holding a plant up to his face.

"They've gotten to you."

Gwen glares and snatches the plant from Gnarly.

"That's because plants, even the trees, have life. All around us, the plants are communicating. We just don't notice it."

She gently plants the plant back on the ground. Gnarly stares at her for a moment before he reaches further for the berry and picks it, showing it to Gwen. Suddenly, Mangey bites Gnarly's arm and Hangry jumps on them. Mangey pulls Gnarly and bumps Hangry's head.

"Guys! Knock it off!!" Gwen whisper yelled at them.

Sonic sighs.

"So much for being quiet."

"Shh! Do you wanna get us all killed?" Prim shushed him.

"Wait, wha— but, uh, he—"

"Shh!"

Gnarly holds onto the berry, struggling to push Mangey and Hangry away from him. A little frog hops to it and grabs it with its tongue. This stopped the three from fighting as the frog hops away. They collapsed onto each other in defeat. A sound was heard, causing Sonic to gasp. Prim, Gwen, and Sonic turns to see plants rustling. Mangey sniffs the air and hides behind Sonic and Gwen. They then heard screeches. A pink blur speeds by. Prim turns to see more plants rustling.

"Run!!" she shouted.

Hangry, Mangey, Gnarly, Prim run. Sonic and Gwen follows. But Prim holds Sonic back by holding up her arm as she smacks his neck and then grabs Gwen's hand.

"Not you! Go deal with the monster!"

Prim then runs off with Gwen.

"Right! I'll deal with the monster. You go find those berries. Take care of them, sis."

"Wait! Sonic!!" Gwen tried to call him, but he already runs off.

Gwen turns and pulls herself away from Prim. Prim turns to her.

"What are you doing?!"

"I need to go after my brother! He could need my help!"

"He can deal with it himself!"

"Not without me!"

Gwen attempts to go back when Prim blocks her way.

"No! It's too dangerous! The monster could kill you!"

"I can handle myself! I'm not a baby! You can't protect me like that!"

She pushes past Prim and runs off. Prim tries to go after her but she's already gone.

"Please! Don't go! She will kill you! Please! Come back! PLEAAAAAAAAAASE!!" Prim screamed as tears runs down her face.

Gwen continue to run in the jungle and try to look around for any sign of her brother as she grows frustrated with how big this mother nature is. She heard a screech an quickly followed after it, pushing through the big leaves. She eventually gets into the clearing and looks around and spots Sonic as he ducks something.

"Whoa! Okay, so you're pretty quick. But how quick?"

"Sonic!!"

Sonic turns to see Gwen running towards him.

"Sis! Shouldn't you help others find supplies?"

"I thought you'd need some backup."

"Well, to be honest, I'm glad to have you back."

Sonic and Gwen runs and hops over bushes. Sonic trips and rolls up while Gwen gracefully dodges anything that are in her way. They look to the side as pink flashes through the leaves.

"Did you see that?"

"Yeah! What's back there? Show yourself, monster!"

They duck something big flying over.

"Yikes! On second thought, you're scary enough as is."

They hop and run through the jungle. A falling log just misses them.

"This place needs a monster-sized weed whacker! I can't hit the gas."

"Man, I wish I have my roller skates!"

Sonic and Gwen runs through a hall of log. They look back and glare with determination.

"That's it! Enough running."

They slide out and stop. More shrieking was heard as they look around.

"Can't fight what we can't see."

"But we've got other senses."

Sonic and Gwen's pointy ears move as they listen closely for any noises. They then turn knowing where the thing is.

"There you go."

Something big lands, sending the hedgehog siblings rolling back and lands. They get into their fighting stances when they were surprised at what they see. The dust clears to reveal a giant pink and white bird stalks toward them. The bird raises its wings and screeches to intimidate them.

"What the...?" Gwen gasped.

"You're no monster." Sonic chuckled. "You're just a giant flicky!"

The bird shrieks at something that made them understand while not liking the words it just said.

"Whoa! Who taught you that kind of language?!" Gwen exclaimed.

"You're gonna regret saying that."

Sonic knocks the bird back using his spin dash before landing besides Gwen.

"Gotcha!"

The bird gets back up and glares at them.

"You wanna dance? Let's party!"

Sonic and Gwen dodges the bird's attacks. Sonic hits the bird's back and jumps down. From the hole in the canopy after they were sent forcibly flying back to where they belong, Prim and the others watch Sonic spin up the tree while Gwen stand her ground facing the bird. The bird chases her and Gwen goes to run not knowing she made the ground beneath her move on its own and move to the other side in speed, surprising herself.

Gwen looks up as the bird charges towards her. She took a step back facing the bird. Prim and the others watches with worry. As soon as the bird comes closer, Gwen ran towards it and attacked the bird, hitting pressure points and immobilizing it before flipping back and landed. Her face darkens with her glaring blue eyes that glows as she stays in her stance.

The bird dropped to the ground with a loud thud as Gwen stood up slowly. Sonic was shocked and appalled at his sister's actions while Prim and others are surprised. Mangey and Hangry were in awe while Prim and Gnarly were blushing that her attack against the bird was both hot and amazing.

Gwen looks back at the bird and she quickly calms down and looks at the bird with concern.

"I-I am so sorry! Don't be scared. I-I just know the pressure points to paralyze, I swear this is not an animal abuse! It was self-defense! Really!"

The bird who is laying on the ground with wide eyes and muscles paralyzes for a certain amount of time was trembling with fear. Gwen frowns, not meaning to hurt it. She kneels down and places a palm of her hand on the bird and giving it a soft, gentle rub. The bird calms down and stares up at Gwen, immediately recognizing her and screeches softly.

"Sorry, I'm not Talia. My name is Gwen. Nice to meet you."

Sonic smiles at the scene while Prim and others are still speechless. Sonic looks up at them from the hole.

"You can come down now, sis defeated and tamed the monster."

"That's not the monster. That's the monster's pet!" Prim said.

"Huh?" Gwen looked up.

Sonic looked confused.

"Say what now?"

A foot covered in leaves steps down. Green eyes peer through bushes. Something hits Gwen and she was sent flying elsewhere as she lands into the berry patch. She gets up to see a lot of berries, including the big one.

"This is what they're looking for."

Thinking fast while knowing Sonic is in danger, she grabs some leaves to make leaf baskets for as much as she can before picking the berries from the patch while being careful with the roots that needs to be grown. Once that was done, she summons her whip that is now a rip vine, but she couldn't careless. She attaches the baskets with the whip before spinning it and releases, throwing the baskets up to the hole of the trees.

Gwen goes to run to her brother's rescue when she took a step forward and suddenly started earth surfing. She struggles to control it until she manages to get a hang of this as she goes faster. Meanwhile, Sonic falls into the thorns and plucks out the thorn on his cheek.

"Spikes? I hate spikes!"

A hammer misses him twice and Sonic quickly crawls under vines while dodging the hammer that kept coming down on him. He then stands after getting out of the vines only to fall to the ground. Sonic looks back to find the vine is wrapped around his leg. He was about to get it off when the bird drops down and lands beside the figure with the hammer. They walk start walking behind Sonic, who struggles to get free from the vine crawling. The hammer scrapes through the grass as the hand grips onto it as Sonic kept on crawling. The vine snaps, freeing him, but the hammer knocks Sonic against the tree. He falls off into the ground and looks upside down at the figure leaping close to him. He turns right side up and looks at the pink hedgehog with a huge hammer, glaring daggers at him.

"Amy? You're the monster?" Sonic gasped, getting up before chuckling. "Ugh, oh, those guys up above have really got it—"

He was cut off by the hammer smacking against his chest, causing him to grunt.

"—wrong."

"You hurt my jungle and Birdie!"

The pink hedgehog knocks Sonic back.

"I hurt you!"

She starts hitting him with the hammer when he dodges every attack being thrown at him.

"Amy, stop! We're friends! You liked me, to some extent."

He jumps away from the hammer as it slams against the ground before being brought back up.

"Get out!"

Above them, Prim and others still watches.

"Maybe not so powerful after all. Am I right?" Prim asked with amusement.

Just then, the leaf baskets was thrown towards the group as each hits them on the head. They look over to see the basket full of berries. They were surprised while looking happy at the same time.

"But how did—"

Prim was cut off by a loud sudden earth shake and they looked over to see Gwen surfing her way towards the pink hedgehog that's chasing Sonic through the jungle. Sonic runs up the tree when the bird is on top of the tree and dives at him, causing him to fall on the ground. The pink hedgehog twirls her hammer.

"And stay out!"

Just as she goes to throw a blow on Sonic when a voice called out.

"NO!"

She turned to see Gwen jumping towards her with her grass sword raised as she goes to strike her down. The pink hedgehog quickly blocks it with her hammer. Gwen was surprised that her grass sword didn't break. Their weapons clash as they block each other's attack until they collided against each other as the two girls struggle to push each other. The pink hedgehog's eyes widened in recognition as Gwen glares at her.

"Talia?"

Gwen raises her eyebrow and immediately glares as she pulls her sword away and strikes at the pink hedgehog's shoulder with one swing of her blade.

"Ugh!" she grunted in pain, holding her shoulder.

The bird backs away in fear at seeing Gwen. Gwen rushes over to Sonic's aid.

"Sonic! You alright?"

The pink hedgehog glances over at them.

"Y-Yeah. I'm fine. But that girl you're fighting the one they call a monster is Amy." he said, pointing at her.

Gwen turns to her in shock.

"Amy...?"

The pink hedgehog though was speechless as she stares at her.

"Talia."

Gwen glares at her.

"My name is Gwen. I don't know what you have against people going into the jungle, but I don't appreciate you hurting my brother like that. And now I'm going to return the favor."

She runs at the pink hedgehog with her grass sword raised. The pink hedgehog though starts to have flashbacks to Talia smiling at her, hugging her, and then to her dying her last breath as the pink hedgehog was staring down at her own hands in horror.

"No! You get away! You're not her!!"

The pink hedgehog hits Gwen and Sonic with her hammer, sending them flying up to the hole of the tree. Prim and the others happily eat the berries Gwen gave them and watch Sonic and Gwen fly up, flailing. Most are worried for Gwen.

"Man, never knew she would have that kind of strength from her hammer!" Gwen commented.

"First Rusty, now this?" Sonic said in frustration.

Sonic spin dashes and flies back down. Gwen struggles to find a way to get down safely when her leaf boots starts glowing. Bubbles comes out as they spread around the sky, catching Prim and others' attention as they stare at them with confusion. With determination, Gwen dives down and begins her parkour as she jumps down on each of the bubbles as she bounces off. They watch her go down as she starts to fall once the bubbles fades away. Gwen brings out her hands and the jungle shakes a bit and she summons a big column of earth as she lands on it before making it bring her down.

Back to Sonic as he tries to talk to the pink hedgehog that kept attacking him with her hammer as he dodges them.

"So how about we put down your big hammer and just talk, Amy?"

The bird lands behind him and the hammer slams onto his chest again.

"My name is Thorn Rose, and you are finished!"

Thorn knocks him through the air. Two yellow Flickies snuggles on a stump. Sonic hits the stump and rolls through them and falls on the ground. One of the Flickies get stuck in mud as it struggles to get out. Sonic sees the other Flicky can't reach its friend and goes over to them and pulls the first Flicky out. He blows on it and wipes it off. Thorn watches from the branch of the tree she was on.

"There you go."

Thorn was surprised that he helped them until they went wide to see Gwen landing safely with the help of the earth she summons. Sonic was amazed at her ability.

"You can control the ground?"

"I think I can control earth. Pretty cool, right?"

"Awesome."

Gwen looks at the Flicky then to the other as she puts two and two together as she realizes Sonic helps them. Sonic lets the Flicky go as it flies away along with its friend.

"You're free now, little flickies."

Gwen smiles at this, but it gets wiped off when they heard a growl. She and Sonic gets into their fighting stance back against each other. They look around for any more enemies they need to deal with as leaves and bushes rustles. Then, a black figure jumps out and goes to pounce on them when Gwen quickly acts and flips the figure over to the side as it lands on its feet. It gets up and the little light reveals a black panther.

"A black panther!" Gwen gasped.

"Oof. That's dangerous." Sonic gulped.

The black panther roared. Gwen stood still, completely unfazed. The black panther then ran forward. She stood her ground, eyes narrowed. When the black panther tried to strike her with his claws out, Gwen just simply moved out of the way. The black panther tried to use his tail to whip her, Gwen used that move against him and flipped him over. The black panther sprang to his feet and when he went for another strike, she dodged it and flipped him over again. The black slides through the ground, but his paw slipped, and he fell forward—right onto the injured paw. He roared in pain. Gwen quickly gets concerned and sees a thorn stuck in his paw. She starts to think of a way to help him.

She eventually took a deep breath and started to approach the black panther, worrying Sonic as he watches along with Thorn. He growls at her with a warning but she kept coming closer with no weapon in hand as she stares at him. The black panther calms down for a bit as Gwen kneels to his level. She gently took his paw, which earned a growl again. She ignored him and grabbed the thorn, and pulled it free.

Suddenly, the black panther roars in pain and then pounces onto her and pins her to the ground as he stood over her, snorting hot breath. He opened his mouth. Gwen stared at his fangs.

"Sis!!"

Sonic goes to rescue her.

"Wait! I was only trying to help!" Gwen pleaded.

The black panther lowered his head and... began to lick her cheek then nudges her face, purring. The black panther walks around her, moving its body close to her  like it's giving her affection. Gwen was surprised by this as she watched him pull himself away from her and lick his paw. She slowly raises her hand and gently places it on his head. It looks up to her and stares back at her as their eyes glows like they're connected to the spirit.

"What's your name?"

The black panther growls something that made her understand.

"T'Challa. Amazing name."

Sonic smiles while Thorn's expression softens with a hint of smile. T'Challa looks around and growls. Sonic and Gwen looks to where the black panther was looking and gasps.

"What happened here?" Sonic asked.

Sonic and Gwen looks around at more stumps. The giant bird lands with Thorn on its back.

"You're what happened here." Thorn said. "You and your kind above, hacked and slashed, and nearly destroyed it all!"

"My kind?" Sonic and Gwen questioned in unison.

"You scavengers took everything the jungle had to offer and left this."

Thorn gestured to broken branches, mud piles, and small plants.

"I'm bringing back nature. By force, if I have to!"

Thorn jumps down with her hammer and misses Sonic as they almost hit between his legs. Sonic takes it with his legs and holds on to it.

"That's right! Mine now!" he laughed.

The giant bird shrieks at them and T'Challa roars back at it, surprising Thorn that it's protecting them, especially Gwen. Thorn then notices the rings on Sonic's shoes are glowing along with Gwen's green strand of her hair bangs.

"That glow."

Sonic looks down at his shoes while Gwen touches her hair, feeling it.

"Huh? Yes!"

"That means there's gotta be a shard nearby."

"Shard? No! I've seen that before. It looks like the great green." Thorn said.

"It's pretty powerful stuff." Sonic said.

"And dangerous to use." Gwen added.

"Can you help me and sis find this 'great green'? This jungle's been giving me, uh, a little bit of trouble."

"Not me." Gwen said, petting the black panther who purrs.

Thorn scowls and Sonic lowers the hammer.

"Look, I believe it can help me and sis get back home and then we'll be outta your hair."

He approaches Thorn and the bird and offers the hammer to her. Thorn stares at him for a moment and the bird shrieks at Sonic again.

"Trust us. Trust me." Gwen said, facing Thorn.

Thorn softens and eventually accepts her hammer as she takes it back.

"Fine. I'll help you. As long as it means you're out of my jungle. For good."

The bird proceeds to shriek at Sonic again when Gwen glares back, making it shut its beak and follows after Thorn, who's walking away. Sonic and Gwen follows them along with T'Challa.

"You say the scavengers did all this?" Sonic asked.

"Yes. We all used to live together in harmony with nature. But then they got greedy, always taking, never considering the harm they were doing to the world around them. They even... caused the death of my best friend, Talia..." Thorn said before frowning at the end.

Gwen frowns, making her think there's more to it than that.

"I'm... sorry to hear that. And sorry if you mistaken me for Talia."

Thorn glances at her for a moment before looking back ahead.

"You may not be her, but... you have her spirit and kindness to the nature around you. You even have the power of Mother Nature as I saw you."

Gwen smiles, taking that as a compliment.

"So that's why you chased them off and went all... whatever this is." Sonic said, not wanting to anger her.

The giant bird lands behind Sonic and shrieks at something that made it sound offended.

"Hey! I meant it as a compliment. I mean, this is way less creepy than the last you we met."

Thorn looks back at Sonic with confusion.

"Last me?"

"It's a long story." Gwen said.

"If you used to live in harmony with the others, why don't you just bring everybody together and, you know, work it out?"

"He's right. I'm sure there's a reason for what they did to your jungle was wrong. They'll understand why. Don't they deserve to survive too?"

Thorn sighs and faces them.

"Do you ever stop talking?"

"Eh, not really." Sonic said.

"Not much, but sorry if we talk too much." Gwen said.

The bird shoves Sonic to move on. T'Challa makes Gwen go on his back to make the ride more fun and faster. Above, Prim and the others watch through the canopy.

"Don't like this one bit. Where are they going with the monster?" Gnarly said.

"They've betrayed us." Hangry said in distress.

"No. Gwen would never betray us. I'm sure there's a reason." Prim said.

"...You do have a point." Gnarly said, looking at Gwen who's riding the black panther.

Thorn pushes through leaves and they smack Sonic in the face.

"Ow!"

Gwen snickers as she and T'Challa along with the bird walks over them and follows Sonic.

"Listen, I get that you and the tree peeps don't see eye-to-eye on stuff."

Sonic eyes on his glowing shoes.

"But isn't calling them scavengers a little... dark?"

The bird shrieks at Sonic, making him quickly get moving. T'Challa growls at the bird, which Gwen gently tells it off, knowing the bird have good reasons to defend Thorn.

"What else would I call them?" Thorn asked.

"I don't know, how about happy, happy, fun upstairs people tryin' to live?"

Thorn places a hammer on his chest threatenly as she faces him.

"There's nothing fun about destruction. It's all they know."

"Hey. Not everyone is that heartless. I'm sure they never realize this or they just don't see it." Gwen said, defending her brother.

Thorn scoffs and walks on. The bird passes them to follow her through the dark, lush jungle. Sonic hops on the log to keep up with them. He struggles through the bushes as he pops his head out as Thorn, Gwen, the bird, and T'Challa watches him with unamusment.

"How do you make your way through all these thorns?"

Thorn waves her hammer.

"This way!"

Sonic climbs a hill to Thorn, Gwen, the bird, and T'Challa. They eventually reach a clearing.

"Behold... the great green!"

Light glows at the bottom of the huge palm tree.

"The palm..." Gwen gasped in awe, mounting off the black panther.

"It's—"

Sonic was cut off by Thorn.

"Magnificent? Yes." she said smiling for a moment before glaring at Sonic, pointing a hammer. "Now do your thing and get out of my jungle!"

Sonic walks closer to the tree's glowing roots.

"If my kicks are right, and they always are, the shard is buried down here."

He opens his spikes from his gloves and digs. Gwen giggles, feeling like just what Knuckles would do.

"I found it!"

Sonic spins out and moves to the far distance to grab something.

"But I can't touch it or I..."

He runs back to them with a leaf in his hand.

"...you know, poof!"

"It's true. It happened to me as well." Gwen said.

He dives back down into the hole he made and comes back up with the leaf wrapped around the small green crystal. Gwen smiles to see it while Thorn was in awe and... greedy.

"Magnificent!"

"Yeah, it's pretty, but trust me, this thing is—"

"Mine!"

Thorn hammers it out of Sonic's hand, shocking Gwen. Sonic flies back and falls and slides over the grass. Gwen turns to Thorn as T'Challa growls and gets into the pouncing stance.

"What are you doing?!"

"Doing what's right."

Thorn picks up the crystal and holds it. Gwen pulls out her grass sword and points to her.

"Give it back, Amy."

"It's Thorn, and I can't do that."

She then attaches it to the top of her hammer. Vines wrapped around the hammer and crystal.

"No! What are you doing? We need that!" Sonic shouted, getting up.

"As if I would give the heart of my jungle to a stranger. You're just another scavenger like the rest of them."

"Oh, yeah? And what about me?" Gwen glared, gripping onto her sword tightly.

"You're... you're different. But you have to understand why I have to do it."

"That crystal is nothing but dangerous. It could lead to more disasters. Do you really think this is what Talia would want?"

"I..."

Thorn struggles to find the word, but she shakes her head and glares back at Gwen.

"Sorry, but there's no point in changing my mind. I have to protect the jungle."

"And I have protect my friends and family... from you! Hi-yah!"

Gwen and Thorn leaps at each other.