A/N

I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or anything that has to do with him. With that out of the way...


Sonic the Hedgehog ran through the alleys away from the police with a wide grin on his face. In his hand he carried a large emerald, supposedly worth millions. He looked behind him for a split second to see ten police officers running after him. Sonic was, of course, only humoring them. He could run much, much faster, but he was saving that for when he got out into the streets. Sonic led them on a merry chase before he finally turned a corner that led to a pathway to the street. What Sonic found was a police blockade. He shook his head and jumped easily over the cars and onto the street. He burst into full speed leaving all the cops in the dust.

It only took a few minutes to leave the city limits into a large field where his friend, Tails the twin-tailed Fox was waiting with their escape bi-plane, the X-Tornado. Tails jumped down from the wings. "Well?" he asked. "Did you get it?"

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Do you not see the expensive jewel I hold in my hands?"

"Is this that sarcasm thing I keep hearing about?"

"Yes." Sonic handed the emerald to Tails. "Did you get the plane fixed?"

"I think so. The wings are still a little shaky but should be stable. Are you sure you want to ride on the wings?"

"Of course I do."

Tails sighed. "Okay. I'm just saying it's really dangerous."

Sonic jumped to the wings and shrugged. "So is flying with an open cockpit. Anything else?"

Tails flew up to the cockpit and strapped on his flight goggles. "No."

"Excellent. Let's head out now."

"Although, I am starting to get a little worried," Tails said as he started up the engine.

"About?"

"Don't you think we're starting to get a little greedy? Maybe even risky? Cops all over the world are going to be hunting us down."

"And we'll evade them as always. Seriously, Tails, you have to lighten up."

"Okay. If you're sure."

"And I am. Now could you please take off."

"Roger." After a few seconds, they were up in the air.


Dr. Eggman watched as his robots searched the room. There was broken glass everywhere. Whoever stole the emerald didn't seem to care if he or she wanted to be sneaky. This was the third time something had been stolen from Eggman's warehouses and the second time the police were useless. Yet another thing he would have to change when he conquered the world.

Eggman returned to his base and accessed the Eggnet, a special internet connection that Eggman ran where thousands of assassins, criminals, and bounty hunters awaited Eggman's command. Each one of them owed Eggman something or other, and he was willing to take advantage of that. Eggman browsed through the thief section hoping the old saying was true: "It takes a thief to catch a thief." He found the perfect thief for the job. Her name was Rouge the Bat.

Rouge practically owed her life to Eggman. She had once tried stealing from Eggman's secret vault but was caught. Instead of killing her then and there, Eggman made her swear her "undying loyalty" to him.

He e-mailed her the job, and said he wanted it done immediately. Then, he called up one of his robots searching the warehouse. "Any news that I'd want to hear?" he asked.

"That depends," the robot answered. "Will you trash me if I say 'no'?"

"You haven't found anything?" Eggman wasn't surprised. This thief, whoever it was, was good. Too good. It made Eggman sick.

"No, sir."

"Someone is stealing my chaos emeralds. I need those chaos emeralds for world domination. So help me, if you don't find something…"

"We'll find something sir!" the robot shrilled. "D-don't worry."

Eggman shut off the communication. Not even a trace of a person other than the glass. It was like you'd have to be moving at the speed of sound. There wasn't even anything on camera. One second the emerald was there, the next it wasn't.

Suddenly Eggman smiled. "Speed of sound, eh?"