Ark of the Cosmos

The Arks of the Cosmos (星の聖櫃) are five ancient, ring-shaped metallic stones created by the Babylonians that allows the user to manipulate gravity. They are a major plot device in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity where Team Sonic, Dr. Eggman and the Babylon Rogues are hunting for them.

History
Much of the Arks of the Cosmos history are shrouded in mystery. Apparently, they were created by the ancient aliens know as the Babylonians, to be power unites that could utilize the power of a black hole to power the warp drive of a spaceship called Astral Babylon, which would later become Babylon Garden.

When the ancient Babylon approached Sonic's world in the distant past, they discovered that they could not control the Arks of the Cosmos and that their power was about to create a black hole. In order to prevent this, the ancient Babylonians disconnected the Arks of the Cosmos from Astral Babylon and send them into orbit of Sonic's world, but it left them stranded on this world.

The Arks of the Cosmos then remained in orbit of an unknown amount of time, but eventually fell down on their own, but at different points in time. Two of them fell down during the time of the Babylonian, who hid them at Gigan Rocks and Crimson Crater, and when another one appeared, it became at part of Monopole's museum exhibit. Dr. Eggman later found the one in Crimson Crater and used it as a power source in MeteoTech's mother computer.

The last two Arks of the Cosmos fell down during the beginning of Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, one at Crimson Tower, which came into the possession of SCR-HD, and Tails who passed it onto Sonic. Due of the programming inside of the Arks of Cosmos, they took control of the MeteoTech network and drove SCR-HD and the SCR-GP to go on a rampage and search out the other Arks of the Cosmos and return them to Babylon Garden. Once they learn of this, Team Sonic try to reclaim the Arks of the Cosmos to stop the global robot rampage, while Jet and the Babylon Rogues are hunting them to become the fastest Extreme Gear riders in the world.

Eventually, all five Arks of the Cosmos were brought together and called Babylon Garden to them. Sonic then gives his Arks of the Cosmos to the Babylon Rogues, but then SCR-HD appears (barely functional) and takes all five Arks of the Cosmos from Wave and takes them back to Babylon Garden. When he gets there, the core of Babylon Garden reacts with the Arks of the Cosmos and creates a black hole and SCR-HD becomes Master Core: ABIS. Sonic and the others have to fight him to prevent the black hole from consuming the planet. But since Sonic and friends no longer have any of the the Arks of the Cosmos, ABIS controls gravity, but they manages to use it against him and defeats him. It is unknown what happened to the Arks after the fight, but it is believed that they were restored to Babylon Garden allowing it flight once again.

Powers and Traits
The Arks of the Cosmos possesses a magnetic field that allows them to take a mass' energy, or gravity, and convert it into energy, making them a powerful energy source. This also allows them to manipulate gravity, making it possible for the wielders of the Arks of the Cosmos to either negate gravity, thus allowing flight, or create bursts of gravity that can repel obstacles at will.

The Arks of the Cosmos also seems to work as high-power computers and possesses a powerful program that draws them to one another for the purpose of returning them to Babylon Garden. For this purpose, one of the Arks of the Cosmos serve as the Master Unit while the four others attract each other and serve under it. The potency of this program was demonstrated when the Master Unit were inserted in MeteoTech's computer; once all the Arks of the Cosmos were back on Earth, the Arks' program took control of the network and issued an order to all the robots connected to it, to collect the Arks of the Cosmos.

Once all five Arks of the Cosmos are brought together, their resonance can call Babylon Garden to them.

Trivia

 * Each playable character that holds an Ark of the Cosmos has it by their color; Sonic has the blue Ark, Jet has the green Ark, Amy has the pink striped Ark, Storm and SCR-HD have the grey and purple Ark and Eggman has the Master Unit.
 * Different characters wear their Ark of the Cosmos/Gravity Bands on parts of their bodies; Sonic and Eggman wear their Ark on their right wrist, while Jet wears his on his left wrist, both Knuckles and Shadow wear theirs on their ankles, Tails, Wave, Rouge and Silver wear theirs on their hips, Cream, Blaze, NiGHTS, and Amy wear theirs on their chests, and Storm wears his on his finger like a ring.