Disclaimer: I do not own the artwork or the characters, all rights belong to their original creators

Robotropolis Laboratory:

The next day started with Snivley nervously pacing back and forth as he tried to think of a good lie to tell his uncle. So far he has been unsuccessful,  the poor overlander simply continued to pace in front of the central console, one arm behind his back, the other rubbing his chin in thought.

"What do i do? um...maybe i can...nonono that wont work..." Snivley mumbled to himself. 

The sound of the door opening caused him to flinch and he spun around to face a sight he was all too familiar with, the imposing form of his uncle, Dr. Robotnik.

"Trying to play ruler while the emperor is away are you Snivley?" Robotnik said with a sneer as he entered the command center, his red eyes glowering at the shaking form of his nephew.

"n..n..n..no sir, never sir, I..I..I was just t..t..testing a new formula to eliminate the freedom fighters" Snivley stuttered in fear

Robotniks eyebrows raised curiously at that "A new formula you say?"

"Y..y..yes sir, a plant killing formula"

"Show me"

"At once sir" Snivley said with a salute, 

He typed in a few commands on the console and brought up the formula, the screen was filled with lines of chemical compounds and measurements that would baffle any normal person. Robotnik however was beyond normal, his brilliant mind easily understood the complex formula shown before him, the large overlander hummed in thought as he read, stroking his mustache as he did.

"Hmm, I must admit Snivley, this is good work" Robotnik grumbled

"T..t.thank you sir," Snivley said relieved

"Still it could use some improvements, perhaps a different delivery method, hmm" His eyes light up as an evil idea sparked in his mind. A wide grin crossed the mad doctors face as he began to chuckle

"hehehe oh I have a most brilliant idea Snivley, one that will bring those annoying rodents to their knees," He gleefully said.

The Great Forest:

"Come on.....almost....GAH!!" Cross yelped in surprise as the bow slipped out of his hands and fell over

"Make sure you brace the bottom limb tightly with your boot, slowly bend the bow with one hand and raise the string with the other." Jeremiah instructed

"Yes grandpa" Cross said with a huff. 

He had been struggling to properly string the bow as his grandpa showed him for ten minutes now, it had looked so simple when the old owl attached the loops to the limbs of the bow. Cross however kept slipping and was beginning to get annoyed that he couldn't do it as fast as his grandpa did. Cross lifted the string once again as he slowly bent the bow towards the upper limb, his breathing increased as he almost made it to the loop. Just as it was about to slip again, he managed to attach the loop onto the upper limb of the bow.

"HA...whew...I DID IT!!" Cross cheered

Jeremiah claps his hands, 

"Excellent work Cross, Remember this will take time to get used to, but once you practice enough....." Jeremiah started

".....it will become as easy as breathing" cross finished the phrase

"Correct."

Jeremiah walks over to inspect his work and gently plucks the string to test it, with a satisfied nod he moves over to his pack and begins to dig through. Cross for his part is so happy with his accomplishments that he immediately plucks an arrow from the quiver and tries to shoot an arrow at a nearby tree.

"Aha here they are, now before we begin lets......"

THWACK

"OWW!!!" 

Cross yelps and hisses in pain as a welt starts to form on his left forearm. Jeremiah looks up at his grandson whose rubbing his arm to try and ease the pain to no avail. the old owl rolls his eyes at the actions of his impatient pupil and walks over to gently grab his arm and lift up his sleeve to inspect. The red mark had started to form on his arm, thankfully it too bad thanks to the long-sleeve shirts material. Jeremiah looked up at Cross with an amused expression

"I understand your eagerness to learn but perhaps you should wait until i finish explaining first"

"yeah your right, sorry" Cross said with a blush of embarrassment

"Well as i was saying, before we begin lets put these on you first," Jeremiah said while holding up a pair of black leather bracers, they looked a like they were just recently shined and polished

"Wait you had these the whole time?!" Cross shouted

"I was going to give them to you earlier but YOU decided to leave the house before I was able to" Jeremiah stated, his finger poking Cross's chest when he said the word 'you'

"Oh....right, sorry." Cross said while rubbing his arm, a

He then starts to equip the bracers to his arms and places the gloves back on his hands, Jeremiah stands with the bow in hand and an arrow gently resting in his hands. 

"Now are you ready to learn?" The old owl asked

Cross nods eagerly

"Good, now then, watch carefully"

He lifted the bow up, nocked the arrow and slowly pulled back the string. As soon as his thumb reached the corners of his beak, he let the string loose. the string hit his forearm with a thwack but Cross could hear the sound of the string hitting the leather bracer, and he saw the arrow fly straight and true, hitting the makeshift target hanging off the tree branch. Jeremiah held the bow out to Cross, 

"Now you try"

Cross gratefully took the bow back and grabbed another arrow from the quiver, before he nocked it Jeremiah stopped him and said"Not with your thumb and index finger"

"What?" cross asked with a raised brow

"Hold the arrow between your index and middle finger," Cross looked down and moved the arrow between his fingers

"now with your index, middle and ring fingers, grab the string with the first joints." Cross did so, his eyes narrowed in concentration as he stared at the tree he was aiming at before

"Keep your back straight and when you pull the string, use your back muscles and your arms together, almost as if you are pushing your shoulder blades together," Cross followed the instructions, and was surprised at how much easier the draw felt this time as apposed to just using his arms.

"When you fire, let the string slip loose," Cross did so and this time he successfully fired the bow, unfortunately, he aimed too high and the arrow, hit the branch above instead of the trunk.

"You'll need practice, a lot of practice, and that's what we will be doing for the next few weeks."

"Alright Grandpa"

"Good, now before we get back to shooting practice," the old owl picks up his field bag and staff, "follow me to the training grounds." Cross tilted his head in curiousness, but his grandpa just gave him a knowing smile and said, 

"come on boy, your gonna like what you see," and his grandpa headed towards the barrier with Cross following after.

The sunlight that peaked through the forest canopy created plenty of light for the various herbs and berries that grew on the forest floor, it also created plenty of shadows to hide in. The journey starts with a run like always, cutting away from any paths or trails, the two ran on through at a leisure pace without making much noise. The trip was made easier with the good weather and the familiarity of the grounds. Jumping over rough terrain, crossing streams with fallen logs, climbing various outcroppings or hills that got in their way, all while constantly keeping an eye out for any travelers they might run into.

 After 20 minutes they reached the foot of the mountains that sat on the edge of the forest, after walking along the eastern side of the mountain the pair of travelers came across a small cave hidden by the foliage of the large willow tree above the mouth of the cave. Jeremiah lifted his staff into the air, a bright white glow emitted from it, and they entered the cave. The air was cool and the roof of the cave was low for the first part of it, the further one walked in, the more the cave would open up. After navigating the downward sloping path and narrow passages, the main chamber of the cave came into view, it was a vast open cavern with the stream from the mountaintop passing through this area, creating a soft echo of running water, from the top of the cavern small cracks brought in some sunlight to help brighten the area, causing Jeremiah to douse the light from his staff. At the center of the room was a raised rocky plateau that had a few large flat rocks to act as tables or benches, torch stands lining the plateau edge, target bullseyes set in a pile, and a few wooden cross shaped posts. Bits of moss and lichen covered parts of the cave's walls, and even some of the mushrooms they ate grew down here. Depending on the time of the year, one could even find some fish in the stream. All in all, it was a perfect camping spot for a few dozen people to have, and a good training area for those who don't wanna be seen.

"WHOA, this place is HUGE!!!" Cross exclaimed, his eyes twinkling with wonder

Jeremiah turned to look at the awed expression on Cross's face, and smiled.

"For the next few weeks you will be coming here to practice your shooting skills, you will be warming up with push ups, lifts and pull ups to strengthen your muscles, then you run here and begin hitting the targets," 

Jeremiah says as he sets down the field bag and opens it up, he raises his staff which glows a soft blue color and with a simple wave, the tiny pieces of the swat-bots from the other day come flying out of the bag and set themselves on the cross shaped posts, becoming makeshift training dummies. Cross trembled in anticipation, he was excited to finally begin this last part of his training, and so his training would begin as such. Every morning he would eat breakfast, begin sets of pull ups on the tree branches, then push ups, then he would fill up buckets with stones and lift them as a warm up, then he would get his cloak and bow and go on a run to the flat-rock cavern where he would string the bow, aim, draw and release arrows into the varies target bullseyes draped over the dummies chests.

 It was tiring, his shoulders and back were sore, his hands had callouses forming from constant firing, but he was getting better day by day. After a week of constant practice, he was able to easily set up the bow, nock an arrow and fire at the target and while he didn't hit the bullseye every time, he was able to at least hit the target with every shot with good speed. His grandpa would come by in the late afternoon to bring him food or to observe how he was progressing, but for the most part he left Cross and Cosmo do things at their own pace. All in all this was very much his routine, until one day, something unexpected happened.

Knothole Village:

Tails sighed as  he sat on the edge of the bridge while holding the fishing pole. The young Mobian fox was joined by Rotor and young pink hedgehog with green eyes, wearing a ruffled yellow skirt and a white shirt with puffy green sleeves, her name is Amy Rose. The three Mobians had decided to head out onto the bridge above the great River to do some fishing, so far they have spent an hour waiting and zero fish caught for their patience.

Whats the matter Tails?, asked Amy earnestly, trying to break the silence and find something to do to get rid of the boredom.

"Oh sorry," Tails said looking down

"If its about the fishing we could always do something...." Rotor chimed in seeing the sad look on his friends face, but Tails looked back up at them and shook his head.

"no,no its not that, I was just thinking about Sonic, he looked really sad when I saw him earlier" Tails explained

"Ah....that explains it" Rotor nodded in understanding

"So do you know what happened Rotor?" Amy asked

Rotor gave a sigh and said, "yeah...I do...and I understand why he's upset. During our last mission, Sonic saw his Uncle Chuck, well the roboticized version of him." Both the young Mobians gasped at the news

"Yeah, he was completely under Robotniks control, tried to attack us at one point, but when Sonic gave him the power ring, I guess that disabled the control Robotnik had over him, brought him back to normal" Rotor continued

"REALLY!?" Tails said brightly, he always loves to hear the stories about the missions, especially when Sonic is involved. The blue hedgehog is like an older brother to the young fox, and Tails greatest wish is that he can one day go out on a mission with him.

"Totally, it was awesome to see him act like the old hedgehog he used to be...." Rotor was happy to tell the story as he was there to witness the events of it all, however his smile dropped when it came to what happened after the mission

"for awhile anyways" Rotor finished glumly

"What do you mean?" Amy questioned, giving the purple walrus a sympathetic look

"Well when he was back to normal he helped us take down Robotniks operations in the crystal mines, but after we were finished, the power rings effects wore off, and he turned back to being a loyal worker bot, right in front of Sonic." Rotor explained in distress, his eyes drifting down towards the river as the memory of that came up.

Tails ears drooped and Amy had tears in the corners of her eyes as Rotor finished his story. It all made sense now, when Sonic came back from the mission that night, his eyes were red and puffy and this morning he didn't show up for breakfast. Tails went to check up on his friend but when he made it to his hut, Sally was exiting the hut with a downcast expression on her face. She simply told Tails that Sonic wasn't feeling well and that he needs sometime alone today, now Tails understood what she meant by that.

Amy sniffed and rubbed the tears out of her eyes and looked over to Tails and put on a forced smile to try and cheer him up as well as herself. "Don't worry Tails, If we manage to catch something really big and show Sonic maybe that will cheer him up, a good meal can sometimes help ya feel better" she said with enthusiasm. Amy always tries to look on the more positive side of things, especially if her friends are feeling down.

Tails giggled at the thought that, "hehe Sonic doesn't like fish Amy" he said

"He will if I cook it, I'll be sure to make a dish filled with love that will clear those dark clouds hovering over my beloved Sonic," she said while cupping her hands together and her eyes sparkling. Ever since Sonic had saved the young hedgehog from the Swatbots a year ago, she developed a crush for the blue blur, and it was very obvious to the whole village.

Tails and Rotor both rolled their eyes at the love struck girl and looked at each other and quietly laughed. Amy snapped out of her stupor and huffed in annoyance at the two boys,

"Hey whats so funny?" she asked

"Nothing.....WHOA!" Suddenly Tails was startled by a tug on the line. He grabbed on tightly and tried to real it in but it was really strong.

"Hey I got something......its a big one!!" Rotor set down his rod and moved over to help Tails

"OH MAN! your not kidding, It weighs a ton." Rotor grunted. 

Amy for her part set down her own rod and looked down to try and see what it was. Her eyes bugged out as she saw a enormous Salmon, probably as big a Rotor was, fighting and tugging at the line. Tails was using his feet to brace against the bridge railing, while Rotor held on to the rod with him and tried to reel it in and keep Tails from slipping.

"Come on guys you got this, with a fish that big we could feed all of knothole!!" Amy said excitedly and moved to help the others pull. 

With the combined strength of the three Mobians they could feel the fish start to lose its energy, but with the weight of the fish and the rushing current of the river it was a contest of endurance at this point. Rotor took a step back to get a better position but when he did, he accidentally stepped on the fishing rod he slipped and fell backwards bringing Amy with him, and unfortunately, he let go of Tails. The poor young fox couldn't hold on alone and he was pulled down from the bridge, into the rushing river, the two friends on the bridge looked up in horror as they saw their friend falling down,

"TAILS!!!!!!!!!"

Somewhere in the great forest:   

"8...9....10...whew." Cross drops down and takes a swig of water from his canteen, then splashes some on his face to cool off. Three sets of 10 for each exercise were done so now all that was left was the run to the flat-rock cavern and then some shooting practice. Cosmo floats over to him and hands Cross a hand cloth to wipe himself of sweat, to which he thanks her for the help. after cleaning up, Cross puts on a clean shirt and grabs his cloak, his bow and arrow, and some fruit for a snack before heading back down to the forest,

"Bye grandpa, love ya"

"have a good day Cross." Jeremiah said from the alchemy lab

With that, Cross headed towards the zip-line and made his way down to the forest floor and make his way over to the training grounds, with Cosmo following after.

"Your getting better at using the bow" Cosmo said while flying beside him

"You think so? I feel like I'm just doing the same as always" Cross said honestly

Cosmo shook her head and said"uh uh you went from hit the targets some times to hitting them all the times" she stated to try and encourage her friend

"Yeah but most of those shots are hitting the outer ring" Cross stated, slowing down to a jog so he could talk

"hey a hits a hit" Cosmo replied with a smile

 "I suppose, still I want....." he stopped talking when a sound caught his attention and stood still in the middle of the forest.

"hey whats wrong?" Cosmo asked, Cross held up a hand and gave a soft 'shhh'

Cross has been walking through the Great Forest all his life, he knew the sounds of birds, the wind through the trees, the echo of thunder in the distance, but what he heard wasn't anything like that. It sounded like a voice, echoing through the forest, sounded like they were saying...

'help'

Cross and Cosmo both turned towards the sound, a chill ran up their spines as the voice echoed through the trees.

"You heard that too?" Cross asked

"I did, it sounded like it came from the over there" Cosmo replied, while pointing towards the source of the voice.

"Come on," Cross turned and ran towards the voice, when he heard them call out again, he picked up the pace. 

"HELP"

Cross was no longer concerned with stealth, he was concerned about speed, whoever was calling out into the forest for help needed it bad. Out here there were hardly any Mobians that traveled to this part of the forest, so in Cross's mind, he and Cosmo were the only one close by to do something. Cross pulled the hood up over his head to make sure his human features were still hidden and kept going. The sound of rushing water filled the air, as the trees thinned out and the river came into view, Cross stopped by the edge of the banks and leaned against a tree to catch his breath. Cosmo floated alongside him, her eyes darted around to look for anyone nearby.

"HELP ME!!!!"

 Cross and Cosmo snapped their heads up and looked toward the direction of the shout and their eyes went round in shock. They spotted a yellow