Theme Song: "Ticking Bomb" by Aloe Blacc
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"I got it! It's over here!

Sonic the Hedgehog was out looking for the Chaos Emeralds- seven powerful gems that have an immense power. One alone can grant the power to control time and space. When all seven are united and used correctly, their combined power can put an end to an entire planet, and perhaps more- only under the condition that they fall into the wrong hands.

Sonic, along with his two other friends, Tails and Silver the Hedgehog (a hedgehog who was from 200 years in the future) were in a farmhouse, where one of the Chaos Emeralds hid. Tails and Silver walked over to Sonic to find him holding up a hen above its nest, where the white Chaos Emerald was found. Contrary to the name, all of the Emeralds came in different colors; all of which were: yellow, red, white, blue, aqua, violet, and the typical green.

Silver chuckled when he saw Sonic struggle with the hen, so he used his psychokinesis to remove the Emerald from the nest, and made it levitate into his marked hand. On both of his palms and the back of his hands were the glowing symbols; a wide line starting at the wrist, travelling up his hand, both lines diverging into a circle around the hand.

"Hey!" howled a hard, raspy, masculine voice. It was a farmer with a shotgun.

"RUN!" Tails yelled.

Of course, Sonic boomed out of the farmhouse through the wall, allowing some of the chickens to escape from there. Silver used his powers against the man, when he cocked his gun aiming at the two. The gun then illuminated with an aqua-colored energy. The man tried pulling the trigger, but Silver locked it in place, and slowly started to bend the entire chamber reach upwards, until the whole gun had an "L-Shape."

"ALIENS! They're here!" the man cried, dropping the defective weapon and scurrying out of the farmhouse.

"Why is it always me they call the alien? You guys aren't from this planet either!"

Tails snickered, "Come on Silver, let's go catch Sonic!"

Later That Evening...

"One Emerald down...six more to go." Sonic pouted.

"Did we even bother to check if there were any around here?" asked Silver.

"Good thinking Silver!" said Tails.

Tails picked up his Chaos Emerald Tracker, which looked like a ship's radar, and powered it on. To his surprise, it beeped.

"Hey, we have one! It's over-...actually,...it's coming closer!" Tails observed, as a white dot on the radar slowly started to beep its way to the center of the monitor.

As this happened, the growl of a motorcycle outside Tails' house was heard. It screeched to a stop and the dot beeped to a stop as well. Outside, the purring of the engine shut off. Silver's fist tightened and glowed an aqua aura, ready for the late-night intruder.

Yet, intruder it couldn't have been; this stranger had the civility to knock on the door. Tails walked over to his door and opened it. Standing there was Shadow the Hedgehog.

"Shadow? But...I thought I fixed this thing to find only the real Chaos Emeralds?" said Tails, referring to the false one Shadow already has.

"Well then, your device must be working." Shadow replied, pulling out two Chaos Emeralds- one green and one blue.

He handed Tails the blue one and put the green one away.

"Wait a minute, hold on! You usually like to keep the Emeralds to yourself, why are you giving us this one?" Sonic cut in.

"Notable observation Sonic. First reason, I trust Tails with keeping the Emeralds- although, I myself can just as easily take them away from him."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Tails offended.

"Second reason, we're stronger in numbers...we need to work together to find these Chaos Emeralds."

Sonic walked to the door to stand face-to-face with his long-time rival.

"Alright Shadow, what's the catch to this?"

"I honestly wish there was one...but, that's not the case this time." said Shadow, skimming past Sonic and Tails, and into the house.

"Hey Shadow." Silver greeted.

"What are you doing here?" asked Shadow.

"I bumped into these two while they were finding the Chaos Emeralds, so I decided to join them since I had nothing better to do."

"Anyway, I need- well, we'll need as much help as possible; Dr. Eggman is up to something. He seemed more desperate than usual to get the Chaos Emeralds, he even went as far as trying to take my fake one. Luckily, there was one around the area we were in, so I fought him for it."

"This definitely must be a serious situation." said Sonic, observing the fresh scratches and ashes on Shadow's shoes.

He looked up to his face and noticed a small gash next to his lip.

"Shadow, your face!" Sonic gasped.

"It's only a scratch..." said Shadow.

A scratch it was, but that was the problem exactly. Although Sonic's rival for many things, Shadow's physical durability was much more enhanced than that of his antithesis. So much as cutting Shadow would be considered an achievement for his enemies.

Silver noticed this fault as well, and addressed, "Eggman's bringing out the big guns, huh? Either that or you're getting sloppy Shadow!"

Shadow switched his attention to Silver, an expression of malcontent beginning to boil.

"How about I kick your ass and we'll see who's getting sloppy?" he fired back.

Silver stood up to the challenge and Sonic sped to the gap between them, holding his hands out to each of them.

"Ladies, ladies- you're both terrible! Listen,- hey, really Shadow?! With the gun, you had to?" shouted Sonic.

Shadow had just pulled out his pistol; cocked, locked, and loaded. "Well, if I'm sloppy, I'd miss, right? Besides, he's got powers, he could stop the bullet!"

"Yeah Sonic, let him test that theory..." Silver now.

Sonic saw Shadow move, so he tried to block him from doing anything else, but Shadow shoved Sonic to the floor and pulled the trigger aiming at Silver. Silver caught the bullet in a force field, then fired it back at Shadow with the same speed. With only a tilt of his head, the bullet missed Shadow, just skimming a quill.

"STOP!!!" Tails barged in. "The more time we waste fighting, the more time Eggman has to find the Chaos Emeralds! And this is my house anyway- so STOP FIGHTING!"

Shadow and Silver check their heads to Tails at this, back to each other, and relax their fighting stances.

"He's right," said Sonic, standing up and dusting himself off, "We need to get as much help as possible with this. I've known Eggman for quite a while, he's most dangerous when we don't know what he's doing."

"Whatever it is that he's doing, Metal Sonic is involved. The Doctor sent him out to find the rest of the Emeralds."

Sonic baffled now, "We need to go NOW then! Come on!"

Sonic snatched the blue Emerald from Tails and beamed out of the house, Silver and Shadow following.

"Tails, let's go!" Silver called out.

"Wait! I need my stuff!...Just go!"

Silver left, Tails grabbed his bag of equipment, ran to his garage, and started the engine of the Tornado- his biplane. He rolled out and took to the skies, the garage automatically shutting behind him.

At A Beach...

"It's already dawn? We've been up all night...This is gonna be fun." said Silver.

"I'm not getting much reception out here guys, we need to start digging!" said Tails.

"Are you sure it's out here? I'm not going to scavenge this endless sand for a Chaos Emerald that isn't even here!" snapped Shadow.

"The radar picked up its signals here, but as soon as we landed, the radar lost connection."

"Maybe something's jamming it?" Silver suggested.

"Hey, do you hear that?" Shadow again.

Everyone stood silent. They listened, and heard nothing but the crashing of the waves and the occasional squawking of seagulls.

"I don't hear-"

"SHH!!!" Shadow interrupting Sonic.

The sound began to grow louder. It was that of a thruster- a jet's specifically. The group turned around towards the sound, growing louder and louder, as they saw a blue speck on the horizon growing larger.

"It's Metal!" Silver exclaimed.

Metal Sonic (nicknamed "Metal") is a robot created by Dr. Eggman with the sole purpose to rival, resemble, and defeat Sonic. He's failed countless times before, but it's come to the point where he even disobeys Dr. Eggman to accomplish his new personal goal: to kill Sonic the Hedgehog.

"Start digging, I'll deal with Metal!" said Sonic.

He charged towards him at breakneck speed and upon approaching him, he front-flipped forward to missile-dropkick Metal right on his glimmering blue forehead. Metal Sonic spun backwards, falling face-first on the sand, and coming to a sliding stop- while Sonic landed perfectly on his feet, also coming to a sliding stop behind Metal Sonic.

"Sorry Metal, but you're not gonna get those Chaos Emeralds!"

Metal arose from the ground, sand pouring from the curves of his face. His black eyes and red irises glared down at his nemesis. He stood hesitant like this for a moment.

He then reported with a metallic and monotonous voice, "Change of objective: Eliminate Sonic the Hedgehog."

He raised his arms in front of him, homing missiles retracting out of his forearms, and fired at Sonic, with each missile spiraling next to each other in circles, tracking down their target. Sonic sprinted to the left and the missiles followed him. Sonic cut to his right once he gained distance and curved around again facing the direction of Metal Sonic.

"Well, if you can't catch me Metal, catch this!"

Sonic began running towards Metal as the missiles tailed him, accelerating faster with each inch they gained on him. When Sonic found he was close enough to Metal, he leaped and back-flipped in the air, dodging the missiles, and leading them to Metal Sonic. Prepared, Metal shot out countermeasure flares from his back to disrupt the missiles' direction. Both rockets diverged up and away from each other and exploded within the flare cloud above him, expanding the cloud in flames and shrapnel. Sonic and Metal Sonic were left staring down at each other once again, awaiting the other's next move.

Sonic and crew were around Eggman's territory; his base was approximately two miles away, as you could see the tip of it poking over a grassy hill. For this reason, no one visited this beach anymore.

"Metal Sonic, report back to the base immediately!  Initiate Emergency Override!"

It was Dr. Eggman giving the command through Metal's built-in receiver.

"Objective updated. Initiating Emergency Override." said Metal.

Metal Sonic obeyed Dr. Eggman for once, turned around, and began to fly away on ground level. Sonic was left confused now- Metal never obeyed his creator when it came to facing Sonic.

"Hey! Get back here!" barked Sonic.

He chased after Metal, trying to stop whatever he was doing, or going to do. Suddenly, a purple beacon of energy blasted into the sky from above Eggman's base. It pierced through the clouds and it expanded at its peak into a vast purple ring. At this, Metal Sonic's back thruster increased in power, boosting him further away from Sonic. Sonic caught this and sped up as well, almost looking as if he was just a blue light. He started to tail Metal Sonic again, but Metal boosted himself even further with a sonic boom.

"Oh really? Is that what you think?" Sonic sneered.

He as well just broke the sound barrier running faster. But it wasn't enough. So he pulled out the Chaos Emerald he took from Tails earlier and a light began to glow from it. Powering Sonic, his speed increased slightly beyond the speed of sound, and he was now catching up to Metal Sonic. Just then, a faint force wave reverberated from Eggman's base and increased its radius throughout the beach, lightly brushing past Sonic and Metal. The two continued their paces, Sonic almost feet away, when unexpectedly, it seemed Sonic was swallowed out of existence. An unwelcoming portal quickly opened up in front of him and just as fast sealed itself when he entered. Metal Sonic turned around and noticed his disappearance, paying no mind to it and returning to Dr. Eggman.

Shadow wasn't all too far behind, he was trying to catch up to let him know that Tails found the third Chaos Emerald, but it was too late. He saw it all happen from a distance.

"That definitely wasn't Chaos Control." said Shadow, referencing to the ability to teleport using a Chaos Emerald.

He looked up at the sky and noticed the energy from Eggman's base had diminished. From, behind Tails and Silver had just flown in on the Tornado.

"Where's Sonic?" questioned Tails.

"He...disappeared." Shadow replied.

"What do you mean?"

"Whatever that thing Eggman shot into the sky, must've affected time and space...or just space? Regardless, a portal opened up out of nowhere and he ran right through it."

"Are you sure it wasn't Chaos Control?" asked Silver.

"With Chaos Control, you disappear in a flash of light, not a portal. It takes two to make the portal, you know that."

"True."

A voice came from beside the Tornado, "I hereby declare that-....What?"

It was Blaze the Cat. A lavender cat and a princess from the Sol Dimension. She wore a purple hoodless cloak that had a spell within it to control her powers. Blaze's pyrokinesis was not something she "learned," it was what she calls a "curse" at birth, and was often made fun of for it as a child. She also adorned a red jewel on her forehead, above her golden eyes.

"Hey Blaze!" Silver greeted first. Blaze and Silver held a relationship like that of siblings.

"Hey guys...Did you summon me?" she asked in her graceful, calm voice, with a hint of concern.

"Not at all. You didn't arrive here by will?" asked Shadow.

"I was about to banish someone, until I was transported here...There's something-....this dimension doesn't feel the same as before..."

"Damn it, Eggman might have just screwed up big time!"

In the distance, sirens were heard blaring from Eggman's base.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's see what the Doctor did this time!" said Blaze.

Shadow led the way, with Silver catching up after, and Tails taking off with Blaze on the Tornado.

At Eggman's Base...

"Dr. Eggman! We have an intruder!" simultaneously stammered Orbot and Cubot- the two most loyal robot-henchman Dr. Eggman had.

Orbot was red, with an "orb"-like shape to his head and abdomen (which elevated off the ground), and Cubot was yellow and "cube"-like (and also hovered). Orbot was generally the smarter of the two, while Cubot was more "simplistic."

The Doctor was at his supercomputer typing something and analyzing the screen intently. He was a tall, rounded man, with an exaggerated mustache brushing out to the sides of his head like whiskers. He wore a red coat with two tails in the back, black pants, and large black boots. He also always wore his signature black circular glasses and some kind of technical goggles above his head- although he's barely seen using them.

He swiveled around on his chair to face his two robots. His face had a look of scorn, a look that made even his most emotionless robots feel uncomfortable.

"Well, out with it already you lugnuts!"

Orbot clicked a button on the side of his head and out from his digitalized eyes and mouth, a holographic projection of one of the camera feeds in the base popped up. This room was the experimental laboratory, the one where Dr. Eggman kept the rest of the Chaos Emeralds, including the Master Emerald; it had the resemblance of the green Chaos Emerald, but was as big as a classroom chalkboard and much heavier.

On the camera feed was the Guardian of the Master Emerald, Knuckles the Echidna. He seemed to had just finished destroying Eggman's reinforcements. The camera angled downward to show that Knuckles jumped on the wall and gripped onto it with his spiked fists. He climbed up to the camera and as a direct message to the Doctor, he smashed his fist through the lens, and ended the connection with a static screen.

Just Outside Of The Base...

The group of four stood at the entrance confused.

"Is it just me or did he make this door bigger?" asked Silver.

"Hmm...He really must not want company if he increased his security." said Shadow.

Silver held the door in a psychokinetic grasp and it glowed in response. Silver tried to close his fist to crush the door, but his effort was ineffective. He raised his other hand for support, straining his power to work. He yelled in frustration, thrusting his hands forward in an attempt to blast through the door. Unfortunately, this door was too stolid.

"Silver, you're joking right?" Blaze with worry.

Silver shot a frown to who spoke and caught Blaze's confused glance. He'd expected Shadow to say something like this, but with sarcasm. Blaze better knew the extent of Silver's powers and how well he was able to use them.

"This door isn't normal. It's like some outer force is interfering." he replied.

"'Either that, or you're getting sloppy!'" Shadow teased.

"Shut up!"

Shadow walked up to the door and observed it carefully. Standing near it made him feel a rising energy within him. Instinctively, he pulled out his Chaos Emerald and found it was irradiating brightly.

"No wonder we can't find the anymore Chaos Emeralds..." he said.

"It's because Eggman must've found the rest before us!" Blaze finished.

From the dirt, nine automatic railgun turrets came up and surrounded them. The energy from Shadow's Emerald grew even more with this.

"Shit! The whole damned base is powered by the Emeralds!....On three, we all jump!" Shadow exclaimed.

"Jump?" they all repeated.

"The turrets might be strong enough to knock out the force-field."

The turrets started to charge and a violet glow began in their chambers.

"One...two...three!"

Everyone jumped out of the way, dodging the blasts of the turrets as they zapped in a linear fashion across the door.

As she landed, Blaze rolled to a kneel, her hands ignited in flames. In a rapid motion, she volleyed large fireballs at each of the turrets, blasting them off their stands and leaving sparking wires and tubes.

The base was now lit up with a purple force-field glazed around it. There was a crack on the barrier where the turrets shot at, right in front of the door.

"Shadow, can you hit and break it?" asked Tails.

Shadow smirked in response and his Emerald began to glow again. He balled up and started to spin, readying a Spin Dash. He spun faster and faster in place, increasing his launch speed, and the Chaos Emerald boosting his strength for it. As soon as he decided to attack, a wormhole appeared beside him and out from it, a blue sphere dashed out of it parallel to Shadow, and they both smashed into the field, disabling the barrier as it faded away.

Shadow bounced off and unballed himself to land on his feet. He looked to his left to see what it was that helped him break the barrier. It unballed itself as well, to reveal that it was Sonic.

"Where'd you go?" Shadow asked.

"I don't think I went too far...but...I don't know." Sonic responded, scratching behind his ear.

"Well, what did the place look like?" Tails chimed in.

"I think I stood on Earth...maybe not our Earth though..."

"Well, what matters is that you're back. We have to deal with Eggman!" Blaze reminded.

"Do we know the extent of how bad this is?" Sonic asked.

"Very!" everyone filled in at the same time.

Silver tried his powers again to hold the door, and with a crush of his hands, the twenty-foot door crunched into a large ball- removing it from its hinges and frame, then drove it forward as a projectile to destroy the door behind it.

"He also has the rest of the Chaos Emeralds." Silver to Sonic.

"Oh boy. Alright, let's roll!

A militia of Eggman's robots poured out of the base. They were big, blue, and battle-ready; machine guns for arms. Walking out in between them was Metal Sonic again. He caught a glance from Sonic, clicked something on his head, and pointed in the group's direction, ordering the robots to attack, as he disappeared behind them further into the base.

"I got him!" Sonic claimed, running off right after Metal Sonic while dodging the robots' bullets and passing by them with ease.

"You heard him, let's keep these robots busy!" said Tails, pulling a ray gun out of his duffel bag.

Silver and Blaze's hands lit up with their respective powers, Shadow's fists wreaked of red aura, and they all began to battle the robots.

In Eggman's Laboratory...

The last robot continued to fire, but was immediately stopped and ceased its fire upon impact. Knuckles, with his stone-like head, charged himself head-first, through the abdomen of the robot, cutting cleanly through, and leaving a gaping hole with sparks and wires popping everywhere. The robot leaned forward to fall flat on the floor, now inanimate. Knuckles landed with a somersault on the other side of the hunk of metal...

Speaking of which, when he looked up, there standing just a few feet away from him was Metal Sonic. Without further thought, Knuckles lunged forward with his club-like fist launching out at Metal Sonic. Metal effortlessly caught the fist in his cold and chrome hands. With the other hand, Knuckles threw another punch, this time lit with fire. Metal attempted to catch it again, but underestimated the strength of this attack. The punch broke through the block and right onto Metal's face.

The strength of Knuckles' punches are the most powerful of his friends and enemies. At full strength, Knuckles' fists will catch fire due to the fact that the force is powerful, he is able to split and ignite oxygen atoms in the air.

Metal Sonic soared backwards into a wall upon impact of the attack, bounced off it, and fell to the ground. He struggled a bit to stand again and had a crack on his right eye-lens, making the digital iris flicker off and on.

From his back, a gatling gun retracted outwards and mercilessly fired at Knuckles. Knuckles barely dodged the bullets, some of them slightly grazing his arm in the process. He hid behind a table of beakers and test tubes to examine his wound. Through his red fur was a darker red fluid seeping from the wound.

"Damn it!" Knuckles cursed under his breath, holding his arm.

The gunfire paved to the desk as shards of glass containers rained down on top of him. He secured his face as this happened, but some of the bullets managed to penetrate through the table and hit Knuckles' elbow.

He bit his tongue before saying something he'd regret, whipped around, and rammed his other fist into the desk, sliding it across the room as a projectile heading to Metal. Metal caught the desk, but it was suddenly shoved back into the wall with him being crushed in between. Sonic had just rolled in and bounced the desk into Metal Sonic.

"Knuckles, you alright?" said Sonic.

"Yeah, that Homing Attack was well-timed!"

"Is this sarcasm?"

"What do you think you moron?"

"Figures."

Metal Sonic recovered from his temporary daze and dug his metallic claws into the table. With one tug, he tore the large desk into two clean halves. He walked through each block and stared the two down.

"Where are the Emeralds, Metal?" Sonic demanded.

Metal clicked something on his wrist and the floor beneath Sonic and Knuckles turned out to be electric panels. The two bodies constricted and contorted in a spasmodic fashion as the electricity surged through their bodies. They both fell to the ground, bodies charred and unconscious.

"Metal, do you copy?! Where is the Master Emerald?!" Eggman barked through Metal Sonic's receiver.

He walked over to the nearest supercomputer and clicked a button. A camera feed of where the Master Emerald should be popped up on the screen.

To their misfortune, the Master Emerald was not there. Metal clicked a few more buttons and multiple camera feeds appeared in a 6x4 array of twenty-four cameras. Third feed, last row, was Shadow hoisting the massive jewel out of the base.

"ALL UNITS, REPORT TO THE ENTRANCE! DO NOT LET THAT EMERALD GET AWAY! " Eggman hollered through the base's telecoms.

Back At The Entrance...

"I repeat: All units, find Shadow!"

"Damn it Tails, hurry it up!" Shadow desperate.

Tails was tying his spare, giant net around the Master Emerald so that his biplane can carry it away. He gave a final tug on the rope and the net tightened around the Master Emerald.

"All units, abort objective. Leave this to the Metals!" Eggman again.

Metal Sonic is a pinnacle of Eggman's robots, but there were many more "Metals" he has created. Inside the base, in a linear fashion were more of these "Metals;" Metal Sonic in the middle, leading the pack. With him were the four Metal Shadows and two Shadow Androids. The Metal Shadows had the same menacing eyes as Metal Sonic and they were all chrome, but wherever Shadow's red markings were, there were different colors. Each were armed with a weapon as an arm. The green and orange ones had grenade launchers, while the pink and blue ones had fully-automatic machine guns.

The Shadow Androids however, are not a part of the Metal series, but they definitely were spitting images of Shadow- with the exception of their limited abilities and motives. Also, one android was gold wherever Shadow was crimson (all except the iris). And unlike Metal Sonic to Sonic, the Metal Shadows' and Shadow Androids' voices sounded exactly like their role model.

The pink and blue Metal Shadows unloaded their guns aiming towards Shadow and Tails- who then dove behind the Tornado for cover.

"Tails, I'll cover you! On my go, you jump on this plane and get out of here!" Shadow shouted over the pitter-patter of the bullets hitting and missing the plane. Tails nodded in agreement at this, so Shadow signalled, "Ready...Go!"

Shadow leaped first, the line of bullets switching their direction above the plane.

Shadow had his arm pulled back, two fingers up, and they seemed to charge with electricity, "Chaos Spear!"

Upon these words, he slashed his hand horizontally and a streak of energy shot downward towards the ground of the base entrance, gusting up clouds of dust and smoke smogs to blind the enemy- putting a hiatus to their gunfire. The engine started up on the Tornado and Tails started rolling it out of the base, getting enough speed for lift-off.

Unfortunately, Shadow's distraction only worked for so long. The green and orange Shadows and the Androids charged out. The two Metals each lobbed a grenade at Tails' plane, but Shadow stopped them both. He caught both grenades in midair, threw one back at them (they dodged), and went to throw the other, but the Androids had already restrained his arms. The grenade stopped cooking, Shadow released it, and it exploded right in front of him and the Androids.

A flame blossomed for a moment and quickly diminished into black smoke. The Androids were completely obliterated, their body parts scattered around. Shadow lied in the midst of it; his charred body now made him look like an actual "shadow," his red markings barely visible. He lied there at rest for a bit, until he heard the familiar sound of his hoverskates passing by him. He looked up to see the grenadier-Metals were going after Tails who was just about to go airborne.

Shadow painfully reached for his Chaos Emerald and when he grasped it, he frustratingly bellowed, "Chaos- Control!"

Time slowed for a moment. Everything was still moving, but much slower. Shadow teleported in front of the Metals and simply stared at the two as an act of mockery. Both of their eyes slowly diverted to Shadow as they finally processed he was in their presence. Shadow knew they were going to fire, so Shadow walked up to each one and faced them to the other. He then teleported back to where he was to gain distance. Time sped up again and the Metal Shadows fired their grenade launchers at each other. The grenades were lodged into each of the other's heads, and too late to do anything else, the grenades ignited blowing off their heads. The headless hunks of metal crashed on the floor, sparking and twitching where they were sprawled out.

Tails took off and flew steadily and safely into the air with the Master Emerald attached to his plane. Shadow turned around to enter the base, but saw Metal Sonic flying towards him at full speed. He forgot Metal was with the militia Eggman dispatched, but then clearly remembered when Metal delivered a cold, vengeful fist to Shadow's face. Shadow spun backwards on impact and fell right on his back, his head bouncing off the ground. Though dazed, he rolled over to look behind him and saw Metal Sonic pivot upwards to follow Tails. The frightening part was, Metal Sonic's thruster alone was fast enough to catch Sonic; the Tornado was just an average biplane that Sonic has outran countless times.

"Tails!" Shadow tried to call out, but yelling made his headache worse.

He was left to suffer and watch Metal Sonic take down Tails.

"I got him!" said an assuring voice.

He looked up to see the speaker. Silver had just run by him to chase down Metal Sonic. Silver's aura gleamed around his body and he let his feet go to transition into flight. Luckily, Silver's flight speed was also as fast as Sonic. Silver boomed through the air after Metal, who was ever so near the Master Emerald. But, before he even placed a hand on it, Silver caught him in a telekinetic hold and was violently yanked downward for a crash-landing. Just to be sure, Silver scooped him off the ground and sent him flying far out into the infinite ocean.

Silver turned back around and descended back into the base. He landed to stand above Shadow and kneeled down to check on him.

"Hey, you alright?" he asked.

"Don't worry about me...Where's Blaze?" Shadow groaned, spitting out a fluid.

Silver's expression fell upon hearing this, forgetting she was still in the base. He cursed under his breath and ran back in the base.

Several seconds later, he flew back out as thousands of bullets were flurrying in his direction.

"What are you doing?!" Shadow confused as Silver flew closer.

"I don't know where Eggman finds the time to build all these things, but we're outnumbered by a lot! We gotta go!"

Silver aimed a hand at Shadow, making him levitate off the ground, and ascended up and out of the base with a limp Shadow floating behind him.

Back At Tails' House...

There was a knock at the door. Tails peaked through the window and saw Silver helping Shadow stand. Tails hurried to the door to let them in.

"I don't need your help, for the last time!" Shadow moaned.

"What happened? Where's the rest?" Tails questioned, giving them space.

"Shadow took on the Metals-"

"All of them?!"

"Most of them, including his Androids. As for the rest, we don't know." said Silver, leading Shadow to the nearest couch.

He rotated their backs facing the couch and released Shadow on the couch.

"I didn't need your help..." Shadow growled.

"You couldn't even stand on your own! I had to carry you home!" Silver argued.

"I could've beaten them lying down!"

"Sure you could."

"What about the Chaos Emeralds?" Tails again.

"Eggman has the rest of the five." Shadow responded, drifting to a rest and tuning out.

"I hope the others are alright."

"They can last, but either way, we're going to need help, and tons of it!" Silver suggested.

"Do you think they can last the rest of the day?"

"Not sure...I mean, I'm pretty sure they've been through worse, right? With this new plan Eggman has, makes the situation all the more dangerous...Let's wait until tomorrow. Today, we'll recruit more allies. Besides, Shadow needs rest."

Shadow opened an eye at this and flicked it towards Silver and Tails.

He closed it, and denied, "I'm not resting! I'm simply trying to see how long it takes for my headache to go away while I'm on this couch. And I can't test it right if you two keep yapping away!"

"Whatever." Silver dismissing the issue with a hand-flag.

Meanwhile...

"Look at him. So fake. Doesn't even look like me!"

"Whoever made this guy must've been shit stupid!"

"Guys, let's not worsen the situation please?"

Sonic, Knuckles, and Blaze were captured by Dr. Eggman and were held hostage in separate, thick-glassed tanks. While there, Sonic and Knuckles spent their timing mocking Metal Sonic- who stood on guard in front of them. Blaze's tank was in-between them, remaining silent in her captivity.

"How does he sleep with that thruster on his back? That's gotta be bad for your spine!" Sonic jested.

"Does he even sleep? Does he even have a spine?" Knuckles added.

"If not, then he can't be 'Sonic,' right?"

"I don't know, you don't really have much of a backbone either pal."

"Who's side are you on?"

"Uh...Blaze's right side."

Sonic eyed Knuckles through his tank.

"Really? You went there?"

"I have to admit, that was pretty bad." Blazed tuned in from her meditation.

"SILENCE!" barked Dr. Eggman from across the room.

"What's the deal Egghead? What do you need the Chaos Emeralds for this time?" Sonic demanded.

Eggman swiveled his chair around towards the three, rising, "Let me keep it simple for you simpletons! I'm trying to harness a power not from this dimension, I have yet to find the source, but its dimension seems to be close to ours."

"So you're trying to unleash a power in this world, not knowing the consequences of misusing it?" Blaze now.

"Correct."

"Are you mad?! You fool! Do you remember what happened with Solaris?! Even you were almost killed!"

"And the time you made this planet into an enormous jigsaw puzzle!" Sonic included.

"Yes, yes. I remember the results of Solaris and Dark Gaia. But, I didn't have all of the Chaos Emeralds to keep them in check!" Eggman corrected.

"You don't have 'em all now!" Knuckles now.

"I know that you imbecile! That's what I'm trying to do, but you fools keep stopping me! Eggmanland will thrive someday; thrive on the very dirt of this planet- right on top of your carcasses!" Eggman roared.

He pulled out a remote with a red button, aimed the antenna at the tanks, and clicked the button. A rod came down from the top of each of tank and generated electrical surges to electrocute the three. All three cringed and twitched in pain, falling to their knees as electricity rushed through their bodies. Eggman clicked a button again and the tormenting ceased as the rods retracted back to where they came from. Eggman turned around again and continued his work on his computer. To the left of him were seven podiums with slots in them. Four of them were filled and held a Chaos Emerald. Behind these stands was a larger platform with a larger slot- most likely where the Master Emerald was supposed to be. Eggman has never gone this far in gathering the Emeralds; this was a catastrophe waiting to happen.

"Computer, prepare another trial." Eggman ordered.

Two camera feeds popped up on Eggman's supercomputer: one of the sky above the base and one of the antenna on his base.

"You won't get away with this Eggman!" Sonic pounded on the glass.

"Watch me- computer, begin trial now."

On the second feed, Eggman's antenna began to charge with a lavender energy. While charging, Sonic tried to free himself from the tank by doing Homing Attacks and Spin Dashes on the glass. With each attempt, he failed and failed, not even a scratch made on the glass. He unballed again and thought for a moment. To his right, he heard constant clunking from Knuckles trying to punch his way out of the tank. He too could not escape. Blaze's tank looked frosty, as if it was cold. It was kept at a super-cooled temperature to prevent her from melting the glass. Luckily, her powers were just good enough to keep herself warm.

Sonic continued to think. Then, he remembered something: he still had a Chaos Emerald. He pulled it out and it glowed its glow.

A small window popped up on Eggman's computer reading: "Chaos Emerald Detected."

Metal Sonic also detected it, but his sensors were quick to process that it was right behind him. "Dr. Eggman!"

"What is it Metal?" the Doctor responded, spinning around again.

Upon seeing Sonic with the shining blue Chaos Emerald, he raised a pleading hand at Sonic, as he was making sure he didn't lose his focus on him while getting up from his seat.

"Now, now Sonic, let's be smart here! Just place the Chaos Emerald in that tube." he said when a tubular vacuum came down above Sonic.

Sonic responded with a grin, and balled up to start a Spin Dash. The Chaos Emerald empowered him, his Spin Dash screaming as speed escalated.

"Sonic! Don't do th-"

All at the same moment, Sonic spun forward and pierced through the glass and the antenna above Eggman's base fired the energy into the sky. Sonic bounced off Metal Sonic, knocking him down with full force, redirected his Spin Dash into a Homing Attack while spinning up in the air. His ball targeted Eggman's computer, but as he rolled through the air, another unexpected portal warped open in between him and the computer. Sonic noticed it, unballed himself, and tried to run around it at the last second, but wound up going into it anyway, as the portal engulfed him into another realm.

He was now in a blue, spinning tunnel, his body whirling around as he went down it. He looked forward at the direction he was floating towards and saw a white light. He repositioned himself into a running stance. His legs started to make a running motion, moving faster and faster until they made the typical figure-eight motion. His arms flew back and he ran towards the light. By the time he reached it, he broke through the sound barrier, but no sonic boom was heard, because it appeared sound couldn't travel through this tunnel. The now near light absorbed Sonic and led him into the other world. Sonic ran out of that tunnel, through the portal, and out into this world that looked exactly like Earth.

For some reason, it was already nighttime. The light behind him faded into this black darkness, accented by a green, grassy ground. He ran about fifty meters more and skidded to a stop, his blue aura dying down. He turned around to see his portal closing in-between two out of the four people there. There looked to be a battle happening at the moment. One of them looked like the Grim Reaper, one looked like a werewolf- who was on the same side as a man in black leather clothing with black bird-like wings, black spiked-hair, and black boots; he was armed with two guns and two swords that had flames for the blades. The one seemed to be facing the Grim Reaper at the moment looked to be a red monster, with jagged sharp teeth, horns on his head, blood red eyes brought out by blackened eye sockets, and dark brown bat wings on its back. Sonic thought to himself:

"Some party I ran into this time...I remember that werewolf-thing from the last time I was teleported here..."

He then spoke out loud, "Either something's definitely not right or I'm just too fast for reality!"

The werewolf moved forward a bit and looked like he started sniffing.

He then whispered to his winged-partner, "That's it! That's the running rodent!"

His partner's face tightened as if confused, and shot back in a louder voice, "Rodent? It looks like a cat!"

"Hey, I heard that!" Sonic struck out.

"You cause a lot of trouble for being a little rat!" the winged-one now.

"I'm no rat either! I'm a hedgehog! And you can call me Sonic!"

"Well Sonic, you're under arrest! You've caused enough trouble in this city!" the big wolf declared.

Sonic smirked at this. "Sorry, but I don't rest!"

"I said arrest, not rest!"

"Same difference! You're gonna have to catch me first!"

Sonic's hearing was pretty good, so he heard when the werewolf said in a lower voice to his friend, "I'll be back."

"I'll be waiting." the other replied.

The werewolf charged over to Sonic and with a bountiful vault, he went to pounce on Sonic, but as soon as his clawed-hands were close enough to grasp Sonic, Sonic sped away into the forest behind him in a blue blur. Sonic looked back to see the werewolf follow him, but it seems the Grim Reaper telekinetically pulled the beast back into battle. Sonic took advantage of this and escaped the battle entirely.

The forest felt infinite, like the many green trees were guarding the land; wherever Sonic went, there was always several surrounding him. After running around in a sporadic fashion for a bit, he realized he was now lost. There were too many moonlit trees to tell how deep in the forest he was. Sonic stopped running and looked around. He let out a yawn and threw up his arms to stretch.

"I'm tired...I'm really tired...I think I'm just gonna...take a nap." he mumbled.

He climbed up the closest tree and found the sturdiest branch to rest on. He lied down, shifted a bit to get comfortable, and drifted asleep for some time.

An hour passes, and Sonic awakens. Yet, he did not wake up on his own; a rustling of branches and leaves startled him. He peeked down to see what it was disturbing him: nothing there.

"Must've been a squirrel or something...meh." Sonic dismissed.

He shut his eyes again to fall back into the infinite, dormant abyss...but awoke again to the same sound, followed by the snapping of a branch.

"Who's there?" Sonic called out below.

At that moment, he noticed a man with large bat wings holding Sonic's resting branch. Before Sonic could react, the man yanked the branch down and let it fall to the ground along with Sonic who flailing his arms around to try and grab something. It was quite a height to fall from; Sonic lost his breath when he landed on his back, He regained his breath and stood up on a defensive when the man descended, retracting his bat wings into his back. He looked to have clawed fingernails and large fangs in his teeth, like a vampire. He was pale, seemed well-built, wore a white dressy shirt that was ripped, bloodied, and was untucked out over his dark blue jeans.

"Hey, what was that for?!" Sonic bolstered.

"What are you? And why are you in my forest?" the man retorted.

"What am I? I'm a hedgehog, thanks for asking. What are you?"

"Sonic is it?...My name is Drake, and I'm a vampire."

"Well, what do you want?"

"I should be asking you that. You're in my territory!"

"Oh really, where did you mark it then?"

Drake sneered at this, his fangs glimmering with a tint of red shone by the moonlight.

"I've marked it countless times actually- with the blood of my victims..." Drake responded, lurking closer to Sonic, "Would you like me to show you?"

"I'm not afraid of you, Dracula." Sonic returned, fists clenched.

Drake's grin vanished, his fists clenched as well.

"How did you know that?"

"Know what?"

"Don't play games with me rat!"

"I'M A HEDGEHOG!"

"I don't care what you are- how do you know what I am?!"

"You just told me your name! Drake, right?"

"You just said Dracula, you fool!"

"'Cause you're a vampire, it was a joke! Why, is that your real name?"

"So if you were to meet any other vampire, you'd just call them 'Dracula?!'"

"I mean...yeah, I guess."

"That's insulting!"

"That was kinda the point. Why, is it your name?"

"Doesn't matter..."

"Obviously it does if you're complaining, 'Dracula!' Besides, that sounds way better than Drake...'Drake,' more like fake!"

"Enough!"

Drake pounced forward at Sonic- claws ready, but Sonic zipped behind him. Drake wound up gripping the tree instead, while processing what just happened. He pulled his hands off the rugged tree trunk and spun around to find Sonic there kicking rocks around.

"You're quite the slippery one." Drake grinning.

"So I'm told."

Sonic blinked once and it in that instant, Drake was already in front of him with a fist heading in the direction of his face. Sonic only managed to break these words before being launched through a tree:

"Oh sh-"

The tree broke down from where Sonic went through, and while it leaned to fall, Drake jumped and caught the massive tree, his wings helping. He raised it a bit and slammed it on a defenseless Sonic.

He descended back to ground level and lifted the tree once more to see the damage he inflicted. To his surprise, Sonic wasn't there.

"You're fast, and pretty strong too!" said a voice from behind. Drake spun around again to find Sonic rubbing his jaw from the punch.

"Damn rodent!" Drake barked.

"You kind of remind me of my friend Shadow; you both put up a fair fight, but I can still kick your asses!"

Drake sprinted forward at Sonic as fast as a shadow, but "shadow-speed" could not beat the speed of sound. Sonic Spin Dashed through Drake's legs, causing him to flip up in the air. Sonic unrolled himself behind Drake, leaped into mid-air, and back-kicked him straight into another tree. Drake's body struck the tree and landed face-first on the cold dirt.

A rip of the wind was heard and Drake raised his head in reaction. Sonic had just escaped, as his blue trail had just diminished. The roar of the wind began to fade as Sonic exited the forest in search of another settlement for the night.

At Dawn, In Another, Smaller Forest...

"Alright, naptime is over! Now, to get back home...Ugh, I'm marooned on this planet with no way out!...Wait, if I teleport every time I run, maybe I should keep doing it!" Sonic thought out loud, standing up from the dirt- for he was sleeping at the base of a tree.

He boomed through the forest, trying to test his theory. He bursted through the olive green trees in a blue blur, the world flying by him at the speed of sound. Sonic wound up exiting the forest the same way he went in; through a playground- with the trees now passed behind him, leaving a sea of green grass ahead of him.

It was a beautiful scene- at least until some pillar-like rock formation sprung up from the ground in front of Sonic. Too late to react, he braked his velocity, skidding to right into the pillar head-first, and bouncing back onto the ground. At such a speed he was running, he could've broken through that rock, but it was too sudden and he resorted with trying to stop.

Sonic stood up rubbing his head and the rock formation shrunk back into the grass.

"Well, that's new- whoa, hey!" Sonic exclaimed as he seemed to be raised in mid-air, like by some outer force controlling him in a paralysis.

Not under his control, he slowly rotated facing behind him as a man in an electric blue suit stood there. He was pale, had eyes matching his suit, and had dirt-brown hair. He seemed a bit odd, but also serious, like he had something up his sleeve.

"What's the deal? Who are you?" declared Sonic.

"My name is Geo, I am the Guardian of this Earth. What is your purpose extraterrestrial?" the man spoke with a suave, yet authoritative voice.

"I have no purpose! I keep winding up on this planet!"

"Is that so? Because it seems intentional when you run faster than the speed of light to teleport through dimensions! I've been watching the dimensions surrounding ours and now they're all connecting because of the space gaps you leave!"

"I don't know what you're talking about, I can't run at ward speed! I can measure my own speed, I've only been running at the speed of light at most, but I resort more to sonic speed!"

"So how-"

"I wish I had that answer for you pal, sorry! Now, could you release me so we can settle this like civilized aliens?"

Geo releases his hold and Sonic's feet gently met the grass.

"So this is 'Earth,' huh?" Sonic started.

"So you have been here before?" Geo frowned.

"Not my Earth. This is a different Earth from where I come from."

"Interesting."

"I guess. So what were you saying about the dimensions? They're connecting?"

"Correct. For two years it's been happening and the energies I feel are mostly from your planet. It started when the Black Aliens were wiped out."

"Are you saying it was that?"

"No, but some outer force must be causing it. Have you had trouble with dimensions, time, and/or space before?"

"Dimensions, definitely. But we've managed to fix them ourselves."

"Really, how?"

Sonic pulled out his Chaos Emerald; it was glowing in a stable behavior. "This is a Chaos Emerald. One alone can grant the power the to control space and time. There've been countless times where all seven have been misused at once, but we fixed it the same way."

Geo frowned again at this, but with a deeper frustration, "You fool! Do you mean to tell me you've been using these to control time and space for your own reckless uses?!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, I wouldn't say reckless. Trust me, we can handle the Emeralds."

"Obviously you can't if you keep ripping through dimensions!"

"You don't even know if that's the cause of all this, so don't-"

Sonic was interrupted when a portal appeared again in his place- and it consumed him from this reality, leaving Geo with unanswered questions.

Elsewhere...

"OK, so Blaze doesn't get any because she has the Sol Emeralds, right?" asked Tails.

"Yep." Blaze confirmed.

Tails, Silver, Blaze, and Knuckles were back at Tails' house, redistributing the Chaos Emeralds. In the events when Sonic was in another world, Silver and Tails managed to get help to save Knuckles and Blaze. They acquired help from Amy Rose, E-123 "Omega," and Rouge the Bat.

Omega and Rouge are both close friends of Shadow; Omega (also known as "The Walking Arsenal") is Shadow's right-hand man (or robot if you will) and a perfect one at that, considering his vast arsenal of built-in, high-caliber weapons. He was originally created by Dr. Eggman to kill Shadow the Hedgehog, but Rouge the Bat was luckily at the scene of their first encounter to explain the true problems at hand.

Rouge has been known to occasionally work for Dr. Eggman as well, for her talents in theft are highly admired. But, she sometimes couldn't be trusted, because she would keep certain rewards to herself depending on the value. She decided to finally burn bridges with Dr. Eggman when he sent Omega to kill Shadow- Rouge was allies with both of them separately at the time. All three collectively decided to leave decided to become agents for a government organization known as G.U.N.

"Do I get any?" Rouge smirked, walking out of Tails' kitchen.

"Which one?" Tails responded.

"Hmm...I'll take yellow this time!"

Tails grabbed the yellow one from the table beside him and tossed it to Rouge.

Then he started to count, "So that leaves: one, two,...four!"

"Wait, where's the blue one?" Silver asked.

At such a convenient moment, a portal opened up in front of Tails' TV. It was Sonic who walked out from it and the portal closed behind him.

"Sonic! Are you alright? Where were you this time?" Tails solicitous.

"Yeah, I'm alright pal. I was on another Earth for sure, another dimension."

"Whoa...well, at least you're OK. We got all the Chaos Emeralds from Eggman, so hopefully you or any of us are not in danger of being teleported again. Speaking of which, do you still have the blue one?"

Sonic responded by handing it to Tails.

"I'll keep this one." he said.

While everyone tried to find out who gets what Chaos Emerald, Shadow and Blaze stood away from the crowd on opposite sides of the room. They seemed to be lost in thought, they almost seemed troubled.

"Hey, I'm gonna get going now," Blaze broke first, "Bye everyone, keep those Chaos Emeralds safe!"

In unison, everyone except Shadow waved and returned their salutations as Blaze exited the house.

Shadow then took his opportunity, "I'm leaving too."

Everyone said goodbye again and Shadow closed the door behind him. He could still faintly hear the chattering of everyone inside: "Could I just leave since the Master Emerald is already mi-...?"

That was the last thing Shadow heard before walking down the steps. Not too far ahead of him was Blaze walking down the sidewalk.

"Blaze!" Shadow called down the dark sidewalk, his voice almost sounding raspy with his already deep voice.

Blaze stopped her pace and turned around to find Shadow jogging over to her.

"Hey Shadow, what's wrong?" she asked.

"I could ask you the same thing." Shadow answered.

"What are you talking about?"

"You feel that too, don't you?"

Blaze's eyes widened a bit in realization of what he was talking about. When Sonic appeared in the portal again, Blaze felt a surge of energy from that world, for she can feel disturbances within dimensions.

"I do feel that," she continued, "I didn't know you can sense dimensional disturbances?"

"Exactly the problem- I can't. I can sense energies from people, but whatever energy projected from that dimension was immense! And...I can still feel it...like it's close."

"Because it is close. There is a dimension- assumingly that one- that is close to merging with ours."

"So what should we do?" a voice from above was heard.

Shadow and Blaze look up and as if appearing out of thin air, was Espio the Chameleon. He was camouflaged on the rooftop of the house next to them. He leapt off the rooftop and landed on both feet next to the two.

"Were you spying on us?" Blaze asked.

"Yes and no."

"Not creepy at all." Shadow commented.

"I felt a disturbance in the area and decided to see what it was," Espio clarified, "Then I saw you two talking in private, so I thought you might have had some knowledge of what happened?"

"There's something wrong with the dimensions. What did you sense? Was it a strong energy?" Shadow now.

"I don't have either of your abilities, I can only feel close disturbances of Earth, nature in specific. Something just wasn't right."

"We can't jump to conclusions yet. Let's hope this bypasses and if not, we'll bring it up to the others." suggested Blaze.

Espio and Shadow hesitated in thought for a moment, then agreed on the matter.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go see Amy." said Espio, thumbing behind him towards Tails' house.

He walked away leaving Blaze and Shadow.

"For everyone's sake, I hope we made a wise decision." Shadow commented. He turned around to walk away, "Later, Blaze."

"Goodbye, Shadow." she returned.

The engine of Shadow's parked motorcycle roared through the neighborhood. He rolled away from the curb and rode down the empty-night road. Passing by Blaze with a wave, the roar of the engine fading away the further he rode.

Blaze sighed, "I sure hope so too Shadow...I hope so too...for everyone's sake...."

THE END.....

*Vote, comment, and/or share if you liked! Thanks a lot.

CAST (Looks better on mobile!):

Sonic The Hedgehog

Miles "Tails" Prower

Silver The Hedgehog

Shadow The Hedgehog

Blaze The Cat

Knuckles The Echidna

Dr. Eggman

Orbot

Cubot

Metal Sonic

Metal Shadows (Pink; Blue; Orange; Green)

Shadow Androids (Red; Gold)

Amy Rose

Rouge The Bat

E-123 "Omega"

Espio The Chameleon

**Lol, phew! Just hit the 20-Image Limit (didn't even know there was one)!