"What the heck?!" Y/N exclaimed in shock while Kirby gasped with his eyes wide.

"What are those?!" Sonic exclaimed, glaring.

The rest of the Freedom Fighters were shocked to see strange dark creatures attacking the city with innocent people running for their lives on screen.

"This is amateur footage from the other night. Someone in Westopolis recorded video of these... things... attacking after dark." Nicole explained.

"Are we too late to help?" Sally asked in worry.

"G.U.N. and local law enforcement arrived in time, and from what I've gathered, no one was seriously hurt."

"I guess that's the best we could hope for."

Sonic starts walking around, placing his hand on his chin thinking. Y/N wonders what are those creatures are that attack in night.

"I bet this is all linked to the professors' research." Tails guessed. "Professor Pickle said this was in the Gaia manuscripts' end-of-the-world scenario, and those monsters could be tied into the dark energy Uncle Chuck was studying!"

"Ha! C-Can we not be using ze term 'end of the world'?" Antoine stuttered with a nervous sweatdrop. "I am very much preferring ze idea zat we can still fix zis."

"Uncle Chuck said that goop was corruptive-- mutagenic. What if those monsters were just some poor critters changed by the dark energy?" Bunnie asked.

"Guys--" Sonic goes between the married couple with a nervous smile. "You're overthinking it. Thanks to the profs, we know what to do: find the Chaos Emeralds, plug 'em into the Gaia Temples, save the world. Simple."

"Right--" Sally raised her eyebrow with a smirk at Sonic. "Like finding all the emeralds alone isn't hard."

Y/N and Kirby snickered as Sonic winked at his girlfriend.

"Eh, I do it all the time. But then, nobody is as skilled as me, are they?"

"Watch it-- I don't think the Sky Patrol can support the weight of your ego."

Sally then turned serious.

"But Sonic is right about what we need to do, and we should do it quickly. We'll start by breaking into search and recovery teams. Sonic, Y/N-- I want you two to take Amy and Rotor and do recon on a possible Gaia Temple."

"Pooteetah!" Kirby shouted at Sally, jumping up and down.

"Sorry. You can go too, Kirby. Don't think I forgot about you." Sally giggled.

Kirby's eyes sparkle in happiness and excitement.

"In the meantime, I'm having Nicole cross-reference some of the data I took from the Death Egg." Sally continued. "Be careful out there. This crisis affects everyone, and not all of them are handling it well-- those we know about. We've hardly met every race and culture out there..."

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

Later, Sonic, Y/N, Kirby, Amy, and Rotor are walking on the beach.

"Why does everyone else get to go on the emerald grabbing mission while I'm stuck beach-combing?" Sonic whined.

"Oh, don't be so sour, bro! I'm pretty sure there might be some things that are exciting than going on emerald hunt." Y/N said.

Kirby was looking at the ocean in awe.

"She's right! If something goes wrong, we need you and Y/N to handle everything!" Amy said, smirking at Sonic.

"Don't patronize me... but you're right." Sonic said.

Rotor was looking at his device in confusion.

"We might as well just head back-- I'm not seeing anything remotely like a temple!"

"That's 'cause you're looking at the map, Rote." Sonic teased. "The unmarked temple isn't going to be there."

"What I mean is, Professor Pickle wasn't even sure there was a temple out here! And between the map of the region and what I can plainly see, there is no temple here!"

"Which is why we're searching the area, genius!"

Rotor grabbed Sonic in a headlock and ruffled his head.

"I know that! Stop being difficult!"

"Hahaha!"

Y/N chuckled, rolling her eyes. She noticed Amy is walking towards something and followed after her along with Kirby.

"Amy?"

Amy turned to her and her friends and pointed at something ahead.

"Hey, guys? I think there's something over here!"

"All I see are rocks." Sonic said in confusion.

"Can't you hear it? Can't you feel it?"

"...No? What?" Rotor asked.

Y/N's ears twitched.

"She's right! I hear something too!"

Y/N grabbed Kirby, placed him on her shoulder, and followed after Amy. Y/N and Amy then made it to see a sand hole where the music is loud enough for them to hear.

"The music!"

Amy lean down to the hole as Y/N listens.

"Hello? Is anyone there? That's a lovely tune! Maybe you can help us?"

"Oh, gosh... Is that them?" the voice said from the hole.

"Wow. You're right, Amy." Y/N said in surprise.

"Um, hello? Are you Sonic and Y/N the Hedgehog?" the voice asked.

"Yes, I'm Y/N. Hello." Y/N greeted.

Kirby waved at the voice.

"What the... no! I'm not Sonic! But he's with me!" Amy said in shock.

"Thank goodness! I can't... um, please wait right there! I'll send someone to get you!"

"Okayyy...?"

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

Soon, it was sunset as everyone is waiting for someone to supposedly pick them up as Rotor and Amy are sitting on the rock with Sonic pacing around as Kirby is on Sonic's head, looking bored while Y/N is sitting on the high rock, staring at the reflection of herself in the ocean.

"We've been waiting forever!" Sonic exclaimed.

"Maybe fifteen minutes! Keep your shoes on!" Amy grumbled.

"It's not a total loss. I beat my top score in 'Angry Chao'!"

Someone cleared their throat and everyone turned to see a muscular Mobian shark colored slate with very light grey strips around his muzzle and torso. He has gold eyes and has a necklace around his neck and a green rope around his waist in which he carries a dagger and a pouch. His ears and the fin on his head are pierced with rings. Next to him is a green and black-colored, Dark swim-type Chao. He has a green spiked-ball floating above his head and blank-white eyes.

"So... I guess you're the surface-walkers I'm supposed to fetch?"

"Bah!" Dark Chao growled.

Y/N was surprised at this new Mobian she had ever seen and accidentally fell into the ocean with a big splash from leaning too much. The Mobian shark quickly came to her aid and helped her up.

"You alright, miss...?"

His eyes widen at something he had never seen as Y/N shook herself to get the water out of her quills as she rubbed her front hair back for him to see the beauty of her F/C eyes that sparkles like pearls as he could've sworn he saw sparkles behind her from the reflection of the sun that flashes before his eyes.

"I'm fine! Thanks!"

"She's... beautiful..." he thought, blushing.

Sonic breaks their moment, approaching them with a smile.

"Dude, I don't even know. Did you just come out of the ocean? Did that creepy voice send you or something?"

The Mobian shark was brought back to reality and face Sonic.

"Uh... I'm Razor, protector of the Eusebes—"

Suddenly, the Dark Chao snaps his jaws at Sonic, scaring him.

"—Shrine! Crusher—No! Bad! No bitey!"

"Pooteetah!" Kirby growled at Crusher, making him growl back as they face each other with a glare.

"Anyway—I was sent to pick you up. I don't suppose any of you are some kind of 'great heroes'? The priestess seems to think at least the two of you are important."

"Yeah—That'd be me." Sonic said, protecting his arm from Crusher in case he bites him again while Kirby and Crusher kept glaring at each other with a growl.

"Me too." Y/N said, squeezing the water out of her quills.

"Sonic the Hedgehog? Beat the Eggman Empire about a million times? And this is my sister Y/N the Hedgehog who also help save the world."

Razor look at Sonic as if saying this is the guy, while he was fine with Y/N since she looks like a very promising hero than her brother.

"Eh—Alright. Coral's expecting you two, and she's the priestess, so that's good enough for me."

Razor took out his green pouch to pull out the blue gem necklace.

"I guess if some priestess is bragging about us, we've got to live up to her expectations, right?" Sonic grinned.

"Well, it's not like we have any other leads just yet. Wouldn't hurt to ask the locals." Rotor said.

"Ask about what?" Razor asked, hearing their conversations.

"We're looking for something called a Gaia Temple." Amy said.

"It's kinda important. We're trying to fix the world." Y/N added as Razor handed her the necklace after Amy.

"Uh... I don't know about that, but there is a temple in the shrine. Regardless, take these air charms and follow me. You don't want to be out here after nightfall."

Once everyone put on their air charms around their neck, they dive into the ocean with Razor and Crusher in the lead.

"Keep up and don't go sightseeing. We haven't had any visitors in ages, and I'm not even sure those air charms still work—Haha!"

"Whoa! I can actually breath! This is awesome!" Y/N gasped, swimming around gracefully.

"Pooteetah!!" Kirby agreed, spinning himself around in the ocean.

"Weird! I can breath normally, but I'm not in a bubble or anything." Rotor said, looking at the necklace in amazement.

"Y'know what? I don't think my clothes are getting wet. What neat little charms!" Amy said, looking at her dress.

"No kidding!" Y/N said, having fun, making Razor smile at her.

"How are you doing back there?" Amy asked Sonic who's walking on the sand ground.

"You know me—I'm fine. I can handle anything."

"Right..." Y/N rolled her eyes and whispered to Razor. "He's afraid of the water. But he won't admit it."

Razor snickered at that. Rotor saw something ahead in the bubble.

"Is that a city back there?"

"Yeah, that's Meropis. But the temple's outside the city. Right in here, everyone, then up until you hit the surface."

Sonic quickly rush in, after hearing surface and spin dashed out of the water, landing on the sandy ground. He hugged the pile of sand in relief and happiness.

"Land! Glorious land! I don't even care if I get bad traction on sand—it's land!"

Y/N surfaced out of the water with a deadpan look. Suddenly, the grey-colored Mobian manta ray with light green eyes. She has a light gray muzzle and spots on both of her sides on her head. She has a dark-gray oval on the top of her head. For attire, she wears an orange dress, black leggings with yellow rims, and a gold necklace with a green gem. Her head is actually the shape of a manta ray, hence her name.

"Shhh! Shhhhhh! You'll interrupt her again!"

Razor surfaced out of the water with Crusher as he approached the manta ray who grabbed his arm.

"You almost missed it, Razor! C'mon!"

"Heh heh—Take it easy, squirt. We're comin'!"

Sonic eyed on Crusher who glared at him, ready to bite him again. This made Y/N gave Crusher a stern look to not do that or there will be consequences with a hint of anger, making him gulp and run after Razor. They went inside the temple as they heard the same beautiful music tune to reveal a Mobian betta fish with orange skin/scales. She has a long thin tail fin and no toes on her feet. Additionally, she has shoulder-length fins growing from her head, giving the appearance of hair, and two smaller additional fins growing on her forearms. She has purple eyes and a white muzzle with no nose and two smaller white orbs on her forehead. For attire, she wears a mint green dress with a purple sash and a dark mint green trim, a cord necklace with a white pendant, and a mint green turban which appears to have four white corals ornaments, hence her name, with purple stripes on them.

She was playing a magical yellow flute towards the Angel Chao who's listening to it until it was cocooned as the music was finished.

"Yay! Aquarius went into her cocoon!"

Sonic, Amy, Y/N, and Kirby clapped at the wonderful show.

"Yeah! That certainly was... a thing..." Sonic said.

"Beautiful!" Y/N awed.

"Oh! Welcome! Thank you for bringing them here, Razor. My name is Coral, and I'm priestess of this shrine. This is Pearly, my little apprentice." Coral said with a smile.

"H'lo." Pearly shyly greeted.

"You came just in time to witness the reincarnation of our sacred Chao... Aquarius. She's been reborn in this shrine for generations, so soon she'll be reborn fresh and new... At least, I hope so. You see, the Chao are mystical children that grow through loving contact. When they reach the end of their cycles, they close themselves in a cocoon and..."

"Actually—sorry! We know about the Chao. We have friends that raise them." Amy said, stopping her there.

"Really? I didn't realize the land cultures had Chao!"

Y/N approaches Coral.

"Well believe me, it's a small world. And we didn't even know there were settlements under the ocean, so I guess we're even."

Razor cleared his throat.

"Oh, right! Our heroes are here! Sonic the Hedgehog, I presume?" Coral said.

"Finally, some recognition!" Sonic said.

"And you must be Y/N the Hedgehog?" Coral asked, facing Y/N.

"Yep! Nice to meet you, Coral! This is my friend Kirby!"

"Pooteetah!" Kirby greeted with a smile.

"Oh? Is that your land Chao?"

"Kirby? No. He's more of a cute alien from another planet. Don't know where he comes from, but he's a cute and good companion."

"Well, nice to meet you, Kirby." Coral said, patting Kirby's head and making him blush.

"And with me are Rotor and Amy—"

"Sent by the spirits to help us in our time of need!"

"Sent by the who-now?" Sonic asked in confusion.

"...The spirits? The ones who told me your guys' name?"

"Sorry, we don't know anything about spirits. But can you confirm if this place is—? OOF!"

Amy cut Rotor off by elbowing his chest before facing Coral.

"Spirits or not, we'll be happy to help you. We are the Freedom Fighters, after all."

"Yeah, that too..." Rotor said, easing the pain.

Y/N thought to herself for a moment on what Coral mean by spirit. Could she be talking about... Tikal? She is the spirit and it's been a long time since she last seen her. Y/N noticed Coral looks sad and confused.

"I-I-I don't understand... The spirit said... and with everything else going wrong, I can't..."

Razor quickly comforted her.

"Hey—it's late. Let's all just camp out for the night and figure things out in the morning."

"B-B-But... a-alright... Please excuse me..."

Coral then left the temple, making Y/N feel concern for her and was about to follow after her when Razor stopped her by placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry about her. I'm sure she'll be okay. Just... give her time."

"I... Okay."

Razor nodded with a smile and turned to Pearly.

"Take those air charms to be recharged. Okay, kiddo? You five are welcome to rest here for the night. Actually, like I said, you do not want to be caught outside at night."

"I get what you mean. We saw those dark creatures that came out at night. We'll be careful."

"Good."

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

Shortly, everyone are doing fine as Amy was talking to Sally on the device screen with Rotor sleeping, and Sonic, Y/N, and Kirby playing around with the ocean Chao and Razor watching over with a fond smile with Crusher sitting next to him, glaring at Sonic still. Y/N yelped in surprise as the ocean Chao tackle her to the ground and began tickling her, making her laugh as she tried to pry them off, making Sonic and Razor laugh at that scene. The moment was cut short when Crusher goes to bite Sonic again, causing him to back away while Razor tried to stop him.

"Pooteetah!" Kirby growled, tackling Crusher.

"Bah!!" Crusher growled back as they began to wrestle each other.

"Hey, hey! You two! Cut it out! Break it off!"

Y/N grabbed Kirby and Crusher from the back and move them apart, holding them in the air.

"Kirby... Say sorry for attacking Crusher. I know you mean well of protecting Sonic, but don't pick fights."

Kirby eventually calmed down and apologized.

"Pooteetah..."

Crusher smirked at him, but it was quickly dropped when Y/N glare at him.

"And you, you should also apologize for trying to bite Sonic. Don't know what your problem is but I know you're just trying to protect Razor and everyone else."

Crusher huffed and crossed his arm, looking away.

"Crusher..."

He then sighed and looked at Sonic and apologized.

"Bah..."

"It's fine, buddy. Just... don't bite me again..."

"He better be." Y/N said, looking straight at Crusher in the eyes. "Promise?"

Crusher nodded, crossing his heart. Y/N then placed them down.

"Wow! I'm surprised that you manage to get Crusher to listen to you. I've tried everything to get him to stop biting anyone." Razor said in shock.

"Well, you have to be more stern with him if you have to."

"Wow.. You're amazing."

"Thanks."

"She's always amazing. But don't anger her. Trust me, you do not want to know what happens." Sonic said, eyeing Razor.

"Noted."

The next morning...

"...Wait, you're saying her Chao are made of cheese and chocolate?" Razor asked Amy.

This made Y/N giggle.

"No! Their names are 'Cheese' and 'Chocola'! I mean, you called yours 'Crusher,' of all things." Amy said, holding the ocean Chao.

"It makes him feel important."

"Yeah, like crushing somebody's dream or stealing??"

Y/N glared at Crusher who's about to steal the orange from the ocean Chao, making him stop and walk away with an innocent whistle.

"No. Not like that." Razor said, snickering at how Crusher was somehow caught red handed by Y/N.

Amy noticed Pearly was hiding behind the palm tree.

"Don't be shy, Pearly. You ought to know these Chao better than me."

"Nuh-uh. Chao are creepy!"

"Creepy? They're cute!" Y/N said, hugging one of the ocean Chao.

"Yeah. They're like little water babies. How are they creepy?" Amy said.

"Seriously. Your head's covered with spines. She ought to be scared of you!" Razor laughed.

"You wanna test me?" Y/N smirked at him.

Suddenly, they heard Coral's scream and quickly ran over to the temple to check on her. Once they made it inside, they saw Coral crying with Sonic and Rotor attempting to comfort her.

"AHHHHHHH! NO!"

"Whoa! Take it easy! Breathe! Tell me what's—"

Razor harshly grabbed Sonic's arm.

"What did you do to her?!"

Y/N immediately went in front of Razor, removing his grip on her brother.

"Whoa! Razor! Calm down!"

"Yeah! Chill! I didn't do anything! I was trying to find out what was wrong!"

Coral pointed at the cocoon that was supposed to be hatched by now.

"I-It's Aquarius! She... She hasn't hatched! She-She-She should have reincarnated by now!"

"Odd! Maybe it's taking it's time!" Y/N tried to assure her.

"Um... Sonic? Y/N? Razor? I could use you guys out here..." Amy called, sounding nervous. "We've got company!"

Y/N ran out of the temple with her katana out and saw a maroon-colored Mobian mantis shrimp who is roughly around the same height as Sonic. While he is mostly colored maroon, his torso and muzzle are colored white, his tail is maroon with black stripes. He has a Meropis City Guard uniform, which contains a green colored hood that attaches to a pair of swimmerets that are green and black colored, along with a black sash, kept together by a golden buckle. He wears golden boots.

He possesses a black eye patch on his right eye, but on his left eye, his iris is colored blue. He also has a golden, metallic claw on his left hand compared to his normal, white-glove wearing right hand. He also carries a golden trident.

Next to him is a Mobian dolphin of average height. She has purple skin and a white muzzle with a rounded snout, along with some purple dots on her cheeks which resemble freckles. She has a dorsal fin on the top of her head, two on the back of her head, and one more on her back, as well as a caudal fin for a tail. 

As attire, she wears the standard Meropis City Guard uniform, which includes a black shirt and shorts, green additional garments and a golden helmet adorned with shells. Uniquely, she also wears a shell bracelet around her right ankle. Y/N could see other more Meropis City Guards behind them.

"Who are you? And how dare you trespass on sacred ground?!"