Your fight against Infinite didn't go as expected. You've now seen what the false Chaos Emeralds are capable of and how their powers can be used by someone accustomed to that power. Though Infinite is no longer a threat, Eggman certainly is - and you're in no position to return to Chicago to try to take him down right now.
Focus on recovering and regrouping; you're going to need a plan to oppose Eggman from here on out.
THE VOID
Maybe you've grown complacent over your time in Chicago. You won't be seeing the city this week. Tails is adamant that it isn't safe to go back and insists that you remain here, within the Void between worlds. It is a still, silent abyss of nothingness, broken up only by gemstone-like shards that serve as platforms or obstacles, with very little else to see.
Gravity doesn't work properly within the Void, meaning you can float and even zip around at high speeds once you've figured out how it works. You can also stick yourself to shards no matter what angle you're at, resulting in walking upside down or otherwise getting stuck to one without being able to escape. Thankfully, this wonky gravity only applies to the Void itself, and you'll naturally come to master it as you spend more time here.
There are some shards that are shaped differently from the ones you can use as platforms, however. These are almost hexagonal, with a dark center that may flicker whenever you approach one. If you're lucky, the surface will flicker like water and show you images of another world - usually you will see Chicago and the robots rampaging through the city streets - but occasionally you may see glimpses of your home world or of other worlds. No matter what you do, you cannot interact with these visions. Since they do seem to be water, punching them will do no good; your hand won't even get wet, as it will go through and dispel the image entirely.
Settle in, it seems like you'll be here for awhile. Oh, and try to ignore that unnerving feeling of being watched - there's no escaping it when you're in the Void, after all.
RINGS
There is one bright spot in being stuck within the Void, and that's that your colorful little pals have rings. If you've been diligent about collecting them from whatever ridiculous places they've ended up in, you may even have a good amount! Though it will take a day or so for the rings to actually work, as the week goes on, you'll be able to world hop to your heart's content.
Which yes, means you could absolutely go home. Be mindful of your mission and just how long you spend there, because you will need to return eventually, right? Though time may work differently in the Void, it mostly works the same between worlds. Try not to spend more than a week back home.
But there is something a bit strange about world hopping; you can't really control where or when you'll end up.
You may arrive back in your home world at the wrong point in time entirely, either in the past or the future. You may end up in an alternate reality of your world (canon AU or fanmade AU) or you may even end up in someone else's world entirely! You all aren't used to using rings just yet, so it makes sense that there's some confusion.
Two of you attempting to use a ring together will have more success... but even then, failures can still happen and you can still be sent to the wrong places.
You may visit any world to exist except any Sonic worlds. Worlds where Sonic shows up as a cameo (Super Smash Bros, for example) are fine. Which yes, means I am barring you from visiting Sonic Underground, you'll have to forgive me.
SHARDS
Though you're stronger now than ever before, your power pales in comparison to Infinite's, let alone Eggman's. You're going to need to be much, much stronger if you want to stand a chance of fighting back. Maybe it would be worth it to visit a world full of monsters to practice using your shards.
As you fight with your allies - particularly those you have a close bond with, positive or negative - you may feel the tug of something in the back of your head; it tells you that you can do more. Together, you can become more powerful. You can use your shards together. Doing so will grant you a new power, or strengthen the one you already have. The more you trust one another, the easier this power will be to use.
It might be good to experiment with these new powers; after all, you never know when you may need them.
TAILS' TASKS
Rings can only be found in certain worlds, which means your worlds are safe from them. This does mean there are only a limited number of rings, however... so please keep this in mind when world hopping! This week, Tails does not have any tasks for you aside from continuing to train and develop your shard powers. Oh, and to stay safe, of course. Please don't get yourselves killed in some other world.
ENEMIES
Surprisingly, you will encounter none of Eggman's robots this week. The Void remains still and silent for the whole week and your worlds are free from Eggman's influence. You're welcome to beat up any enemies native to your own worlds, of course.
[ More thinks back to what he saw in that dreamscape school. Fukuda is human as any other, but the gulf between him and his classmates could not have been wider. ]
Nobody in my world thinks of themselves as 'human', but... people will be people, regardless of their tribe, won't they? They will put up dividing walls because they feel like the categories keep them safe. The mind is consumed by anxiety just so easily...
[ 'Brave' is not a word More had previously applied to it. He has good reason to not think of himself as brave, but he's going to dwell on thinking such of the will to believe in somebody else. ]
There is nothing you need to thank me for. If anything, I am sorry that I was made to invade your privacy this way. I am sure it was not the way you would have introduced yourself if you'd had a choice.
[Fukuda smiles a little haplessly because... yeah. Not the foot he generally wants to start with.]
Well... it could have gone worse. You treated me kindly even though I was strange... Ah! But, just so you know, thanks to my hole, I don't count things anymore. Not like that, anyway.
[That should at least answer some of More's questions.]
More has been around the same spaces as Fukuda for long enough now that the sight of the head hole does not bother him at all, but it's still a rather baffling state of affairs. ]
It removed a compulsion, I take it? [ WILD. ]
Though I do not think 'counting' is by itself a scornworthy trait to begin with.
Aah, it did. [More using more technical terms than Fukuda himself usually does, incredible.]
It was about how often it was. I couldn't escape numbers and the need to count anything that could be counted. Sometimes I'd tap or touch things repeatedly as I did. People would get upset with me because having to count would slow things down... But more than that it was just that people found it strange, I think. And they didn't want to be associated with someone strange.
Yes, such is the cruelty of people... very unfortunately. They feel that their place in society is quite precarious, so they seek to avoid all that they deem 'below' them out of fear to be dragged down as well.
[ More usually thinks about these matters with regards to race and class, rather than ableism, but it's an easily recognizable principle at play. ]
Such structures are always around us, and it is because of them that I find myself drawn to people who are as unlike myself as can be. I pride myself on my open-mindedness, but maybe a part of it is that I have always been a bit of a contrarian...?
Hmm... That's hard since there's a lot we don't have in common being from different worlds. Is there something you're particularly knowledgeable about?
That subject matter is fascinating to me in itself, as a fantasy author.
The world I wrote of was one without magic, as magic is often an axis of inequality in my world. It's an interesting exchange that other worlds instead imagine magic from the ground up.
Ah right, you said it was similar to Earth! Unfortunately there are plenty of other things to create systems of inequality around.
But it's funny, I encountered something shortly before I came here that almost seemed like magic, in the sense of Arthur C Clarke's law of "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
I do not know the man you quote, but I certainly understand his words. The lines between engineering and magic are paper-thin... no, more than that, the matters often overlap.
[ Lots to be said about magic and progress in his world, but... ]
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[ More thinks back to what he saw in that dreamscape school. Fukuda is human as any other, but the gulf between him and his classmates could not have been wider. ]
Nobody in my world thinks of themselves as 'human', but... people will be people, regardless of their tribe, won't they? They will put up dividing walls because they feel like the categories keep them safe. The mind is consumed by anxiety just so easily...
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Mm. You're really smart, Mr. More. But I think it's brave that you clearly want to believe the best in people anyway.
[He pauses.]
... I feel like I should thank you for how kind you were to me before, even if it was only a dream.
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There is nothing you need to thank me for. If anything, I am sorry that I was made to invade your privacy this way. I am sure it was not the way you would have introduced yourself if you'd had a choice.
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Well... it could have gone worse. You treated me kindly even though I was strange... Ah! But, just so you know, thanks to my hole, I don't count things anymore. Not like that, anyway.
[That should at least answer some of More's questions.]
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More has been around the same spaces as Fukuda for long enough now that the sight of the head hole does not bother him at all, but it's still a rather baffling state of affairs. ]
It removed a compulsion, I take it? [ WILD. ]
Though I do not think 'counting' is by itself a scornworthy trait to begin with.
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[More using more technical terms than Fukuda himself usually does, incredible.]
It was about how often it was. I couldn't escape numbers and the need to count anything that could be counted. Sometimes I'd tap or touch things repeatedly as I did. People would get upset with me because having to count would slow things down... But more than that it was just that people found it strange, I think. And they didn't want to be associated with someone strange.
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[ More usually thinks about these matters with regards to race and class, rather than ableism, but it's an easily recognizable principle at play. ]
Such structures are always around us, and it is because of them that I find myself drawn to people who are as unlike myself as can be. I pride myself on my open-mindedness, but maybe a part of it is that I have always been a bit of a contrarian...?
[ There's a small laugh at the end of that. ]
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Oh? Saying something like that makes me want to challenge you to a debate, Mr More.
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[ More seems amused by this idea. ]
Is there a topic you suspect we'd have an interesting disagreement on?
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[ Not a helpful debate topic. ]
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The world I wrote of was one without magic, as magic is often an axis of inequality in my world. It's an interesting exchange that other worlds instead imagine magic from the ground up.
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But it's funny, I encountered something shortly before I came here that almost seemed like magic, in the sense of Arthur C Clarke's law of "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
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[ Lots to be said about magic and progress in his world, but... ]
What was it, that you bore witness to?