Espio The Chameleon awaited at Amy's door, knocking and calling her for three minutes.

"Uh, Amy? Are you in there?" Espio called.

He gave up and looked through the window and saw she wasn't there.

"Hmm, probably went out. Guess I'll stop by later."

He started to walk away, but he heard the bellowing of an engine from far. Speeding down the street was Shadow on a motorcycle. He rolled up by the curb in front of Amy's house and shut the engine off.

"Greetings, Shadow. Do you happen to know where Amy could be?" Espio asked.

"Yes actually, she's at G.U.N.'s Infirmary." Shadow replied.

"'Infirmary?' Why is she there? Is she OK?"

"Calm down lover boy, she's fine. Last night, she snuck out with Blaze to face Mephiles and Ansem...Speaking of which, do you remember the night you, Blaze, and I were talking 'the disturbance?' The one where I felt an energy, you felt it in nature, and Blaze felt it within the dimension?"

"Of course. What about it?"

"I think...I think that may have been Ansem."

"Ansem's power?"

"Correct. Because, Eggman said he comes from another dimension."

"How would he know?"

"He summoned him."

"Oh, that fool!"

"I have him imprisoned right now, don't worry. And his base is gone, so he couldn't do anything anyway."

"Gone?"

"Mephiles and Ansem turned on him and must've destroyed it."

"Oh...So what do you need me to do?"

"As of now, we need everyone. We need to find the Chaos Emeralds before they do."

"Sounds like a plan."

Suddenly, five Soldier Heartless and two small red, floating, hourglass shaped Emblem Heartless appeared in the middle of the street.

"What on Earth, are those?" Espio whispered.

Shadow could see the Heartless emblem on each of them, remembering it from the one on Ansem's chest.

"They work for Ansem, they both share the same insignia." Shadow returned.

"Must be an army."

"I hope not."

One of the little red ones created a fireball in front of itself and shot it at Shadow's bike. The bike caught fire and in seconds, the engine ignited followed by a blossoming of flames and scrap metal in a thunderous roar. The explosion also set off local car alarms in the neighborhood.

Shadow noticed his front tire falling in his direction and caught it with one hand while staring down at the Heartless. He held it tightly by his side, breathing heftily, angered that his bike was destroyed.

"Looks like they don't want us to go." Espio commented, pulling out two throwing kunais.

"I'll make them want to!" Shadow erupted, hurling the tire at the same red Heartless.

The tire impelled the Red Nocturne to spin backwards in rapid mid-air rotations. Shadow had already teleported to it and executed a jump spinning back-kick, subduing the creature into submission, making it vanish with a hiss.

Another pained hiss was heard when a blade was flung like lightning at the other Red Nocturne. The remaining Soldiers were left bewildered at who threw it. Shadow watched on as he knew what was to happen next: Espio turned visible again behind one of the Soldiers, to pierce another kunai through its back, and turned invisible again as the rest of the Soldiers tried to rush Espio, but missed and killed their already wounded brethren with multiple claw swipes.

"They lack teamwork." said Espio, reappearing next to Shadow in a fighting stance; knees bent and holding two fingers in front of his face, a blade in the other hand behind him.

"And emotion for their actions." Shadow added, following Espio with his own stance; a fist in front of him and an open hand behind him.

"Far left, far right?" Espio said.

"You read my mind!" Shadow replied.

The two balled up and spun, launching themselves out to the lined up Soldiers. At the same time, the two struck the two Soldiers on the far left and far right with a concussive strike, instantly killing them. The two masters of hand-to-hand combat moved in-sync, unrolling themselves next to the two middle Soldiers. The Soldiers turned to face their opponents, but Espio and Shadow both performed a backflip kick, sending them above their heads. When the respective opponents met eye-level again, the two warriors judo-punched straight through their bodies, wiping them out of existence. The two's fists met each other's, only an inch away from each other. They stood up straight again, relaxing themselves. Espio smirked:

"Not bad for your old age."

"I'm not that old. I've been asleep for a while, remember? So technically I haven't aged a bit. I'm immortal anyway." Shadow reminded.

"Ah, true. But relative to me, you're quite old."

"Experienced."

"What experience? You've unconscious for fifty years!"

"In my case, over sixty is not remotely close to how long I expect to live. How old are you?"

"Twenty-seven."

"A child to me."

"You just envy the fact that you've never experienced that age!"

"Touché, ninja. Touché. Although, (again) I'm immortal, so I'd feel the same way at any age."

"Alright, we should get going to the others now."

Shadow nodded, and the two sped through the streets by foot- Espio running and Shadow rocket-skating at equal, yet remarkable speeds.

From behind, a Wyvern Heartless appeared from behind Amy's house, flying down to land where Shadow and Espio were. Next to it, from a bubbling black gas, Mephiles arose.

"Follow them." he ordered, summoning more Wyverns. Two emerged behind Mephiles and followed the other already leading the way.

"One down..." Mephiles said, pulling something out, "Six more to go!"

Meanwhile...

"I hope Shadow is alright..." Rouge wondered.

"Did Shadow leave?" the nurse asked, giving Rouge her bowl of soup.

"Yes he did. You know how he can be." Rouge responded.

"That's odd, because he left his Chaos Emerald at the charging station."

"He did?"

"Mmhm. I just ran over right now to pick up my phone and there it was in its shimmering beauty!"

"Oh great...Wait! Oh no!" Rouge panicked, putting her soup down.

She reached behind her, trying to summon the Chaos Emerald she had.

"What's wrong, Rouge dear?" the old nurse questioned.

"I lost a Chaos Emerald! A real one!...Oh no...I have to leave!" Rouge slid off the bed, unwrapping the bandages on her head.

"You can't go like this!" the nurse urged.

"I have to! Everyone's life depends on it! I must've dropped it at Eggman's base, which means Ansem and Mephiles have it now!" Rouge took a gulp of her water that was warm from sitting too long, and she flew out the room.

She stopped to a lavender body with a similar height in her way.

"Blaze! What are you doing here? How are you?" Rouge greeted.

"I'm OK, how about you?" Blaze returned.

"Not as much, I lost the Chaos Emerald I had, and I think Mephiles and Ansem have it."

"Where's Amy?"

"Bed rest. Let's just go, I'm pretty sure she'll join us later."

"We can't fight them again. As of right now, we need to try to get those Chaos Emeralds before they do!"

Rouge agreed and the two went off on their objective.

*The battle for the Chaos Emeralds has begun! Who will get them first? Will Shadow and Espio alert the rest on time before it's too late?  Vote, comment, and/or share if you liked! Thanks ya.

*HEARTLESS INTRODUCED:

Red Nocturne