With nothing but dark gas fizzing away around him, Shadow realized he's won yet another battle against the Heartless. He threw down his weapon- an entire traffic sign he tore off the curb- and glanced around at the French bystanders looking on. Ignoring their remarks and recording devices, Shadow repositioned himself eastward, and continued his search for the Chaos Emerald. This fixed direction was certain, based off a Chaos Emerald's general behavior; once they disband, they travel to any point around the world until they each have decided where to land, and it's never the same place. However, they always fly straight, no matter who or what is in the way. Should there be an obstacle, the Emerald will choose whether to simply phase through it and continue on, or stop near or inside of it (if it's a type of containment).

Before it was gone, Shadow saw the white Chaos Emerald go east, and since he's arrived in this dimension the day before, he's done nothing but pursue the relic- all the while, causing significant trouble with sheer determination and audacity. While the United States of America on this Earth had states and cities of different names, it was still mostly the same in appearance, and Shadow had an idea of where he was. After hitting the coastline of this "New York" and having yet to sense any Chaos energy, he immediately recognized that from his point on was just ocean. Regardless if the Chaos Emerald had eventually fallen into the ocean or travelled to another nation, Shadow knew he needed an aircraft. His first thought was to hijack a jet from any nearby military base, but figured it'd be too soon for that much attention. Thus, his decision was to hijack a regular commercial airplane- the only vacated aircraft at the moment.

Authorities were soon after notified and approximately twenty minutes after he departed, military jets would wind up in his way after all. Shadow seized the opportunity, as he broke open the emergency exit of his plane, awaiting for one of the jets to fly near. When the first one dipped low, he fully revved a Spin Dash and launched out from his plane to the jet. Shadow busted into its cockpit and swiftly ejected the current pilot to commandeer the vessel. After easily defeating the accompanying fighter jets, Shadow continued eastwards at a more preferable speed.

In his journey, the dog fights frequented (including evasions from battleships at sea) until there was a period of complete solace. If he hadn't known better, he was beginning to think the American military got lazy. Right when he considered putting his jet into autopilot to rest, his radar picked up more aircrafts heading his way; they had different colors than before, thus, his short break was due to crossing into a different territory and that this new military- assumingly allies- was only deploying to capture him. Shadow was only able to fight half of his battles, so the rest of the night was just evading and outmaneuvering his oncomers.

It was sunrise when Shadow landed in France and was met with a platoon of French troops and tanks awaiting him at the coastline. To their misfortune, it only took Shadow seconds to escape them: the cunning hedgehog let his jet crash-land into a squadron after he ejected out of it. He then hit the ground running when the soldiers saw him stand after such a fall and immediately began firing. Shadow dodged every bullet and dashed right through their blockade, using his turbulence to knock around his foes behind him. He zipped up the cliffside and onto the highway- eastward once more, leaving an overwhelmed platoon baffled and stupefied. Along the way, Shadow stopped in the middle of an avenue because he felt a sudden surge of energy nearby- and not that of a Chaos Emerald.

Then, new Heartless appeared to ambush Shadow: a group of Invisibles. Their bodies were almost human-like, with a chiseled muscular frame from head to ankle, where the feet became narrow and dual-clawed. They had two pairs of wings: small and dark purple bat-wings on their backs, and darkness stained angel wings on their forearms. In addition, these Heartless had two pairs of horns: two large spikes protruding from their temples and another two sticking out from their foreheads vertically to form a heart-like shape. To signify their allegiance, their torsos had empty heart-shaped gaps. Shadow would defeat all five of them, but they were rather difficult, providing more of a challenge than most Heartless he's faced; these were faster, and were weaponized with triple-layered rounded swords and their crescent-blade tails. From afar, he could hear police sirens and helicopter propellers, returning focus to his mission.

On Nathan and Joseph's Earth...

Ansem's Guardian was too efficient in blocking Geo and Sora's every attack, allowing Ansem to deliver every one of his own without interference. Sora was blasted into the air with a sphere of dark energy, sending him back into Geo's cabin through the roof. Geo hovered off the ground to face Ansem above the trees, but the latter sent another sphere at Geo. Geo bent the wind to his will to deflect it elsewhere. Then, increasing its turbulence, he summoned a small tornado to spin Ansem off balance with his Guardian. Before Ansem could think of a counterattack, Geo narrowed the vortex to wrap them, then whipped it downward to slam the Heartless onto the ground. Geo opened his palms and from the humid air, water drops formed and joined together to morph in multiple spears. At the flick of his wrist, the spears darted down to Ansem, but the Guardian rose from his body and dammed them without a flinch.

"That thing is annoying!" hissed Geo.

Sora jogged up to his side, "Distract him for me."

"You got it."

Geo raised his arms high to the sky and his eyes lit up with bright electricity sparking from them. Several clouds gathered over Geo, and in seconds, lightning shot down into Geo's hands. His body now fully charged, he channeled the electricity back out of his palms to let the Guardian take on the continuous flow.

"That absurd suit you wear so proudly matches your profound impotence," commented Ansem, beginning to rise.

"Says the wannabe pirate," returned Geo.

Ansem finally arose when Sora barrel rolled out from a bush, spun to a stand, and swung his giant key at Ansem's back. Ansem twitched slightly, but when Sora went for another strike, the Guardian was quick to float around and deflect it. In this split second, Geo cut the electric current and quickly refired while the Guardian was distracted; this time he struck Ansem, bringing him to his knees and retreating the Guardian. Ansem displayed resistance as attempted to lift one knee off the grass, but Geo responded by intensifying and volumizing the voltage.

Then, Sora pointed his weapon upwards and called out, "Thunder!" as three golden bolts of lightning struck Ansem. Ansem jolted with the sudden attack and sprawled out, as something red flew out of him. Geo ceased his attack and telepathically caught the item out of the air: the red Chaos Emerald. The jewel flew to Geo's hand as Sora regrouped with him.

"Why is it red? Aren't emeralds...emerald?" asked Sora.

"Beats me." shrugged Geo, absorbing the Emerald.

"By the way, I don't really like Ansem all that much either, but I do think he's got a cool outfit..."

"'Cool?' On what planet do you live o- oh, right."

Ansem shakily pushed himself up, his face stern. "Your planet has changed since I was last here."

"Satan is dead; you lost here, Ansem." declared Geo.

"On the contrary," Ansem grinned, as a dark wormhole opened behind him. "Darkness is omnipresent; you have not accomplished anything here- and for that, I thank you."

As Ansem stepped into the wormhole, Sora sprinted to it without warning.

"Sora, what're you-"

"Don't worry about me, he's my problem! Protect your planet, this is far from over!"

The portal was closing rapidly, so with a heavy underhand, Geo launched Sora through it before it did. "What an odd weapon; yet, there was so much power coming from it..."

Geo resummoned the Chaos Emeralds and let them orbit around him as he admired them. He stood in thought for a moment, now acknowledging Ansem's negligence for the loss of the Emerald. While thinking, something clicked in his head, or rather, connected: Nathan and Joseph's ship powered on.

"Nate! Joe! Wh-..." Geo frowned. "Wait, who is this?..."

Geo could hear a voice in the ship, "There's literally no possible way to override the system. It's unhackable! There's some serious encryption on this!"

"Not encryption, it's a simple restriction set through a technology way beyond your lifetime...You must be Tails?"

There was silence now.

Geo detected the other presence on the ship. "And I see Knuckles with you."

"See? This ship has information on all of us!" said the other, angrier voice.

"That is correct, but that's all useless now. Some new information came to light. In fact, I'm glad I have this chance to speak with some Mobians. Where are the owners of this ship?"

"Uh...we're trying to figure that out too," said Tails.

"What do you mean?" asked Geo.

"What are you, anyway?"

"You mean, 'who;' I'm not an AI. My name is Geo, I'm communicating to you from my dimension, where Nathan and Joseph come from. What happened to them?"

"Well, Geo, it's quite complicated..."

Meanwhile...

Doctor Strange was meditating legs crossed and levitated, intently focused. Focused, frowning, and shortly groaning. Silver the Hedgehog was back-to-back, also in the same position.

Strange floated to his feet, "Oh...No, no, no, no, no."

Silver let himself sit before turning back to him. "Everything alright?"

"Where is Sonic?"

"Finding a bathroom, last I checked."

"There's been a slight change of events that may lead to a different future than what we want. Once Sonic's done, we're off to Austria; Shadow's got trouble."