"FREEDOM FIGHTERS, GO AFTER DR. EGGMAN! CHAOTIX RETRIEVE THE MASTER EMERALD!! We'll cover you!" Yelled the leader of the Freedom Fighters, princess Sally Acorn.

"Knux, you GOT to stop getting duped by Eggman, man!" Laughed the quickster as he took Amy in his arms and attacked the malicious Dr. Eggman.

"HE WANTED TO TALK!" Knuckles shouted at him while the Chaotix agreed with Sonic. Some like Vector, Ray and Matilda holding their laughs, others like Espio and Mighty we're giving Knuckles the "are you serious?" look, and then there's Charmy shamelessly laughing at Sonic's comment.

"Suure, next thing you know he came up to you with a basket of grapes, Knux" said Mighty sarcastically to his hot headed friend. Knuckles stopped and blushes a bit. At that moment Mighty knew what that meant. "He gave you a basket of grapes, didn't he?" This caused the two children and the green crocodile to burst into laughter/wheeze.

"SH-SHUT UP AND LETS GET THE MASTER EMERALD BACK!" Yelled Knuckles as he went after the grand Emerald.

The Chaotix followed the red echidna and started to create a plan to save the Master Emerald. Charmy, Saffron, and Ray flew above the other Chaotix members as they ran toward. Charmy sees a capsule with civilians banging on it. Mysteriously didn't had the recognizable yellow switch on the top. 

"Hey guys I think the bad guys captured some people!" Said the young bee to his friends.

"Vector, Mighty, Julie-Su go with Charmy and get those folks free. Espio, Ray, Matilda, and Saffron will cover me!"

"You sure, hun?" The pink echidna asked the guardian as she shoots D.E.L soldiers.

"Yes now go!"

As they separated into two groups, the first group follows Charmy to see soldiers surrendering the imprisoned mobians. As they get there the Eggman forces starts shooting at the group. They take cover immediately behind some boulders, Vector grabbing the bee before covering.

"Now what?! They're shooting non-stop!!" Screamed Charmy as the green croc let him out his grasp.

"There are at least 10 of them!" Julie-su stated as she shoots at the D.E.L soldiers.

"10 soldiers? For simple civilians?...Isn't it a bit weird?" Said the armadillo as he looked at Vector.

"You're right Mighty, somethings fishy here but we need to get them out of here" Vector stated as he searched for a way to get them out of there without getting them hurt. He looked at the boulder covering them and then looked at Mighty.

"Yo I got a plan! Mighty, lift this rock up and throw it at them! Julie-Su cover Mighty while he's getting this up!"

"What about us, Vec?" Asked the bee

"Right, after Mighty throws this to them we'll take care of those that are left! Deal?" Vector asked to his small group

Both Mighty and Julie-Su nods, and Charmy screams in excitement. Vector gives the order to get the plan going.

Julie-Su provided cover for Mighty as he lifted the boulder. As Vector expected, most of the Eggsoldiers ran off and some stood their ground. Mighty threw the boulder at them and it made them scatter away. With only a few of them left, both Charmy and Vector started their fight against them and won. The group headed to the capsule and saw two mobians, a male and female, unconscious on the floor of the contraption. They banged on the window and started screaming at them to wake up but it didn't worked.

"Here's the control panel! Let me see if I can unlock it" declared Julie-Su as she ran to a computer on the prison.

Mighty kept banging and banging, being careful not to break the glass and hurt them. The more he looked at them, the more he thought.

'They look familiar... but why?' Was the only thing that came to his mind. He then noticed their tails and it resembles so much like-

"A squirrel tail? No way, it can't be!" Yelled the armadillo out of shock.

Did he really see what he believed?

After all this time

Did he really see right before his eyes Ray's parents?

"Mighty, you ok?" Vector asked as he looked at his friend's face pale as Antoine's when he sees a spider.

"I-I think these are Ray's parents!" Yelled the armadillo as he kept looking at the two unconscious mobians.

Everyone was shocked by what they've heard. After a short pause, a beep was heard and the capsule was opened. Mighty ran inside the capsule and lift the lady up to a seated position and shook her gently to wake her up.

"Miss? Miss? Can you hear me?"

As Mighty spoke the young woman's eyes fluttered open and looked at the armadillo. Mighty sighed in relief of her being safe.

"Miss are you ok?" Asked the armadillo to the lady who just simply smiled and nodded. Mighty looked at Julie-Su as she did the same with the gentleman. "I'm sorry to rush this but we need to get out of here" Mighty stated as he picks up the woman and looks at Vector. Vector gives them the all clear and they start to leave the area successfully saving both civilians from the Eggman Empire.

~~~~
Meanwhile with our blue blur

Sonic has been having fun with Eggman. Teasing him, destroying his robots while the rest of the Freedom Fighters were keeping the D.E.L away from them.

Sonic found something odd about Eggman's attacks. They weren't as difficult to dodge nor as deadly as before. Sonic watched Eggman's actions carefully and what he saw made him both confused and concerned. He noticed that Eggman got a notification on his communicator.

"Yo, Eggy! Whats the deal? Am I getting to your good side?" Teased the blue hedgehog

"Why you!! No matter...soon I'll conquer the world and if I have to I'll do it from the inside out" stated the doctor as he was backing away from Sonic

"Again you know you failed at the end right?"

"You!... you'll regret this hedgehog!!" Cursed the doctor as he flew away with his army following him.

This was weird for the blue blur. Eggman retreating? With no cause? Weird...

"Sonic, this is Nicole. I have confirmed that Knuckles retrieved the Master Emerald" Said the holo lynx as Sonic started to turn back to his group.

~~~~

Knuckles kept yelling to both Ray and Matilda about how he let the Master Emerald was stolen. He was embarrassed and the two of them snickered at the echidna. Sonic came back and join in on the teasing the echidna. Sally only shakes her head as the hedgehog teased Knuckles, she noticed that the rest of the Chaotix were not present. She went over to Espio, who was the only Chaotix not in the teasing.

"Hey Espio, where are the others?"

"Vector and the others went to save some civilians taken prisoner by the doctor." Answered the chameleon to the princess.

"Ok at least we can get them to New Mobotropolis and/or some other town"

Espio nods agreeing with Sally. As they finished their conversation the other Chaotix arrived with the two squirrels. The team got them up to speed in introduction and asked their names.

"I am Nise and this is my husband Gizō" replied the woman very quickly. Not shaking at all. This caught Vector's eye for one moment she couldn't talk but immediately after they met up with the rest of the group, did she spoke?

"We've been looking for our child for years and we never got to see him" commented Gizō

"Well maybe we can help you out!" Said Amy very kindly

"Oui but not here. I-I don't want to be ze ahem zardie cat-"

"Scardie Cat, Mr.D'Coollette" said Matilda as she looked at Bunnie, while the rabbit giggled

"A-Ah O-Oui merci, petite fille" said Antoine to a confused Matilda, who didn't understood what he said.

"Um....bless you?" Replied Matilda making Sonic wheeze and the rest laugh from the response.

As Mighty chuckled, Ray was laughing nonstop. The young couple saw the two of them and looked at each other. Once Sonic stopped, he looked at them and had a very strange feeling.
~~~~~
Once everyone was back at Freedom HQ, they started asking questions about the missing child to see if they can help them.

"So what does your looks like? Maybe we might know him" asked the princess as they sat on the couch.

"Well he's small...um a-a squirrel-" said Gizō as he tried to describe his son. Nise stepped in to finish the description of him.

"He always had a studder, it was the most adorable thing ever" she said as she took her hands up to her chest with a smile.

Everyone looked at Ray, as the boy looked shocked at the woman.

"I don't mean to be rude but theres more than a dozen kids who can studder" Vector stated, very doubtfull. He's been thinking about the way these two were captured.

"Right...we should keep looking" Said Nise, looking down disappointedly. Her husband glares at her and cleared his throat.

"Well for the time being why don't you stay here in New Mobotropolis" said Sally as she tries to chage the subject matter slowly. She noticed how uncomfortable most of the Chaotix were, especially Ray.

It was too much for the little guy.

Sally kindly asked Bunnie and Antoine to take the couple to New Mobotropolis. She waited for a few minutes and thought how to get the independent Freedom Fighter group to talk it all out.

"Uh oh...Yo Ray your scarf is busted" Sonic pointed out.

Ray took of his scarf and examined it. It in fact got ripped up badly, leaving a hole as big as his hand.

"Aw m-man you're r-r-r-right...I might ask H-H-Honey to stitch it u-up for me" Ray stated with his ears down. "H-Hey Knux? D-D-Do you mind l-l-lending me the w-w-warp ring?Im g-gonna ask Honey to f-fix it"

Knuckles nodded and gave the warp ring to the young boy. "Be careful Ray"

"I-I will. I'll be b-back as s-s-soon as p-p-possible!" Said the young squirrel as he looked at the Chaotix. They all nodded and smiled.

"Sure, Buddy"Mighty told Ray as he used the warp ring and crossed through it.

Right when the giant glowing, noisy, room-sized gateway closed, everything went Chaotic

"VECTOR, ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" Yelled the pink echidna at the green one.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN JULIE-SU?! They're sus! And it is Eggman we're talking here"

"What makes them so suspicious, Vector?! You literally told them that they wouldn't find their kid!"

The argument went back and forth between the two. Knuckles and Espio were trying to separate the two. While the rest just stay silent watching them argue. Everyone  but one...

"ENOUGH!!" yelled Mighty as he pushed both Vector and Julie-Su away from each other. Catching his breath, collecting his composure and he looked at his friends. "I understand that we need to be careful who we trust but if Ray has a chance to be with his family, we need to honor his wishes" 

"Wha- WE'RE his family, Mighty!" yelled the giant crocodile at the serious armadillo. "we can't jus hand Ray over to them!"

"Did I said that? When did I say that, Vector?" Replied Mighty as he looked at his reptile friend. "Look all I want is to be there for Ray.. if they are Ray's parents we'll let him choose... our only job is to support and be there for him...and that includes protecting him" He told his friends as everyone agreed and calmed down.

Vector can see his friend suffer with the whole situation. He know how much they care for each other, he saw Mighty's attitude change when Ray joined the Chaotix. He was more happy, open about his experience of the Eggman Empire. When he met Mighty, of course he was the trusty armadillo we know and love but he felt that Mighty had a lot of guilt inside, after the events of his family and Ray.  Ray also changed once he joined the team, he's been more and more friendlier and less shy towards the team. But he will never forget how they sticked together through everything, from when they first met to when they went in search for Matilda. They will stick together no matter what...