No, this has absolutely nothing to do with A Tale of Two Cities. I never read the book, and I don't even know much of the plot. This is probably entirely different. I just thought the title sounded good. Also, I own nothing but what I do own. My usual disclaimer. =) Short, sweet, and to the point.

If you think that this story is too similar to Moonlights Path's "A Hedgehog Story," that's because I personally asked if it was alright for me to use some elements from her story. I'm trying to make this different enough that it's still original.

If you don't like this kind of story, I hope you at least read the first chapter. I didn't think I would like it at first, but I tried it out, and I liked it more than I thought I would. Also, this is entirely separate from my other Sonic story. It's supposed to deal with the game universe, not my story universe. So just treat them separately.

As usual, on with the show!

Sonic jumped over yet another badnik and did a flip in midair, slamming down quills-first onto the robot's head. The robot exploded into a million pieces, just like all the others had. The blue hedgehog landed skillfully on his feet, grinning cockily and scanning the area of Green Hill Zone that he was in. It was as pretty as always: green checkered grass, brown checkered soil and cliffs, blue sky, dancing angular palm trees and flowers, waterfalls, and hordes of angry badniks.

Behind him was a long trail of robotic debris. In front of him was one of Dr. Eggman's factories, swarming with mechs trying to protect their master. To his right was another trail of scrap metal, this one created by Shadow, who was at the moment throwing a Chaos Spear into one of the larger and more annoying boss robots who had dared to try and shoot him. Above the both of them was the Tornado, being driven by Tails, who was monitoring the situation from above. As soon as the boss was destroyed, Shadow jumped over its hulking form and grabbed a disk from its chest. He threw it straight upwards, and Tails deftly caught it.

Sonic zoomed over to the black hedgehog and stood in front of him. "That the last one?" he asked.

Shadow nodded stiffly. "Let's get this over with. I want to get back to GUN."

Sonic grinned and rolled his eyes, saying ever cheerfully, "It's always business with you, huh? Alright, let's get in there." He looked up at the airplane circling the battle scene. "Tails! Got any idea where the entrance is?"

A yellow fox peeked out from the side of the plane, flashing Sonic an excited smile. "Yeah, Sonic!" he called. "The blueprints Shadow got off that robot say that the entrance is on the west side of the building." He pointed to the left of the factory, where a thicker swarm of baniks was. "It's extra heavily guarded, though."

Sonic just grinned wider and flashed a thumbs-up sign. "Oh, good! More exercise!" Now it was Shadow's turn to roll his eyes. However, he followed alongside Sonic as they both rushed over to the cluster of robots. Tails trailed after them, obviously not being able to fly his plane as fast. Sonic took out the ones along the ground with his speed, while Shadow took the ones on the walls and just above Sonic with his Chaos Energy attacks, and Tails used his plane's weaponry to shoot any leftovers, which weren't much. The entrance was cleared in about a minute.

Tails landed his plane and jumped out, holding an electronic pad with diagrams of the factory's insides on it, and a disk slot on the side where he had put the robot's information. He, Sonic, and Shadow all ran over to the large mechanical doors sitting in the wall, stopping just in front of the metal porch on the dirt floor. Sonic and Shadow looked at Tails, who was scanning the blueprints he held. Finally, the fox looked up and pointed to the section of metal laying just in front of Shadow. "Shadow, that part has an electric trap on it. Try triggering it with a Chaos attack."

Shadow nodded and fired a Chaos Spear at the spot Tails was pointing to. Immediately, the metal porch and the entire door were covered with streaks of energy. "Now, Sonic!" Tails yelled. "Hit that spot just above-center of the door!"

Sonic grinned and took a quick crouching stance, then jumped into the air, curling into a ball and shooting at a circular plate above the door. The electricity stopped, and the door popped open. Sonic, Tails, and Shadow all ran into the hallway beyond. As soon as they stepped through, the door behind them slammed shut.

A wave of darkness washed over the gray metallic hallway, broken only by the dull blink of red lights along the walls. The whir of machinery could be heard in the distance, but for the moment the trio seemed to be safe. Sonic once again turned to Tails. "Okay, buddy, where's that radioactive Chaos Emerald that Shadow said Egghead made?"

"Ultra Ionic Chaos Emerald," Shadow grunted in annoyed correction.

"Ionic, Radioactive..." Sonic tried to dismiss it with a wave of his hand. "What's the difference? Both are dangerous and need to be turned back into a nice, safe, normal Chaos Emerald, right?"

Shadow glared and opened his mouth to retort, but was stopped by a tap on the arm. He looked over at Tails, who was trying to give him a look that said, "An argument is so not what we need right now."

Tails smiled a bit more patiently at Sonic. "Not exactly. The Ultra Ionic emerald is more than just dangerous- if Shadow's reports from GUN are right, then this emerald could warp minor parts of reality when charged. It could make things appear, alter their shape and form, or change someone's personality slightly; something like that. All Eggman has to do is use its magnetic properties to find the other emeralds and change them to a similar state, and then he could do practically anything he wanted to!"

Sonic's cocky grin never wavered. "Aw, come on, Tails. Eggman couldn't do anything." Next to him, Shadow was grumbling about wasting time and about how he'd just explained this ten minutes ago and Sonic never listened. Of course, Sonic wasn't listening to him now, either, so he didn't notice.

Tails shrugged. "Well, not anything, no. He couldn't raise the dead or reverse time or make life, or anything like that. But he could use all seven emeralds to reverse your personality so you work for him."

Now Sonic's grin fell a bit. "Work for him?! Ick, no way! Let's get that emerald fixed quick, before he does anything really dangerous with it!" He raced off, and Tails and Shadow ran after him.

Shadow glanced at Tails, a very irritated look on his face. "It's only dangerous if it affects him, isn't it? And he didn't bother to let you answer his question from earlier about where we're supposed to go. And I can bet he's going to forget that whole explanation in about twenty minutes."

Tails took his turn to roll his eyes. "He's not that bad, Shadow. I'm sure if he actually was in danger, he'd be careful, and you'd be worried about him, just like I would be."

"I seriously doubt that..." Shadow grumbled. Tails just smiled again. He knew better.

Sonic led them throughout the factory, running into multitudes of robots, machinery, security weapons mounted on walls, and of course, that weird purple water that always seems to be in Eggman's factories. They crashed through the first floor and broke their way onto the second floor. Another boss awaited them there. This was a large violet robot shaped like a sphere with legs, and it would pull in its legs and roll around trying to hit the three heroes until it eventually slammed itself into a wall. Then it would snap its legs back out and totter in circles until Sonic or Shadow spin-dashed into it. It exploded in three hits.

When Shadow landed after the final hit, he frowned. "That's strange," he said. "Usually when we're this close to Eggman, the larger robots take five hits or more. Three hits are only for the robots further away from him."

Tails looked worried, but Sonic shrugged casually. "I'm sure Eggman's just losing his touch. He was bound to sooner or later. Come on, let's go!" He ran through the doorway behind the blackened robot remains and disappeared.

Shadow gritted his teeth. "He's going to get us into trouble. He needs to think."

Tails looked at his blueprints again. "Usually I'm the one who has to think when we go on adventures. He does the attacking, running, teasing, gloating, and all that other necessary stuff."

Shadow sighed. He didn't think Tails was as annoying as Sonic was. In fact, he'd had a moderately good time during the several occasions he'd sparred with Tails. The kid had a good attitude, but he was just too accepting of Sonic's ways. "All that stuff is not necessary, though!" he insisted. "That's the problem! He's wasting time, and going into trouble without thinking about it. If he doesn't get us hurt, he's going to get himself killed!"

"I know, I know," Tails admitted. "But, what else can we do? He's not going to listen. He's going to have to learn on his own, and hopefully the hard way won't be too hard."

Shadow shook his head. He knew Tails was right. He'd tried to beat sense into Sonic enough times to know that. Sonic was too stubborn- he wouldn't listen to anyone if he didn't agree with them. Without saying another word, he ran through the doorway behind the boss, trying to catch up with Sonic. The little fox quickly flew after him with his propeller tails.

Sonic had gone far ahead by this time, and had left a large trail of broken badniks behind him. All Tails and Shadow had to do was follow it. It seemed that Sonic had gotten a new high after defeating the last boss- even the walls, rails, and elevators were in ruins. Spin-dash sized holes were everywhere. The place looked like Swiss cheese. After about thirty seconds, the two had made it to one larger elevator shaft in the corner of the second floor. By the footprints on its walls, they could tell that Sonic had run up the shaft to get to the third floor. Shadow followed suit, and Tails flew.

On the third floor, the trail was much shorter. It stopped at the doorway in front of them, from where they could see Sonic battling another boss. This time it was green and more like a UFO, shooting out multiple bolts of electricity. Sonic had to get it to hit a mirror-like plate of metal covering one of the walls of the large room, and then the boss would end up reflecting one of its bolts on the mirror and hit itself. Sonic then could spin-dash its head. He had already done this a couple of times, and so by the time Shadow and Tails walked into the room, he was doing his last hit. The Robot exploded, and Sonic did one of his finger wagging victory poses.

He grinned over at the hedgehog and fox in the doorway. "Hey, what took you guys so long? I'm doing all the work here! Not that it bugs me much."

Tails opened his mouth, but this time Shadow stopped him. "Sonic, how many hits did that robot take?"

"Three." Sonic's gin faltered a little bit, but stayed. "I'm telling you, Shadow, Eggman's losing his touch. He's just underestimating me now."

"Or you're underestimating him," Shadow countered.

Sonic mocked offense. "What, me? I would never do that!" He put his fists on his hips and smirked at Shadow. "Come on, Shads, you know I always beat him. What's there to worry about? You asked for help, and you're getting it from the best!"

Shadow crossed his arms. "I never ask you for help. GUN assigned me to get you and Tails to assist me in finding the emerald because the rest of Team Dark was on another mission. Trust me, I would have gone alone or with Rouge and Omega if it were my choice."

"Such a cranky hedgie." Sonic shook a scolding finger at Shadow, then turned and ran toward the other end of the room. "I think this is the main control room here! It's the last floor and the last room, so the emerald's got to be in there!"

Tails waved his hands exasperatedly in Sonic's direction, but spoke to Shadow. "I told you, he won't listen. You might as well not try!"

Shadow didn't reply. Instead he said, "This was too easy." He turned and faced Tails completely. "This was way too easy. Even Eggman's easiest factories were never this easy. Not unless they were a trap!"

Tails' eyes widened. Then he facepalmed. "I'm such an idiot! Why didn't I see it before?! It was so obvious!" He flew at top speed toward the doorway Sonic was now disappearing into. "Sonic, wait! Wait!"

Shadow sped up beside him and went past. He reached the doorway just as Sonic went in, and suddenly the door itself slammed down from the roof and blocked the way. "Blast it!" Shadow yelled, punching the metal with all his might. He only succeeded in making a small dent. Tails stopped flying, standing a safe distance away as Shadow unleashed a series of Chaos Spears, spin-dashes, homing attacks, and finally a few large Chaos Blasts onto the door. This last attack caused a plethora of smoke that was coming off the last boss's remains to spread and fill the room, blinding both Shadow and Tails. When it finally cleared, they could see only minor dents in the door, and not a scratch on the doorway itself.

Tails looked at it in shock. "Wha-what?"

Shadow stood in front of the door panting. His power inhibitors were having trouble catching up to his attacks, so he was feeling a bit winded. "It's Chaos-proof," he said. "Eggman finally figured out how to Chaos-proof his factories. He only saved it for the last door so we wouldn't suspect anything. And we were dumb enough not to!" He slammed his fist into the door again. "Now I'm going to fail the mission that GUN gave me. For the first time..."

Tails crept up beside Shadow, still staring at the door with wide eyes. "What's going to happen to Sonic?"

Shadow growled for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. "I have no idea."

On the other side of the door, Sonic was frowning and staring at the new barricade. He'd jumped two feet in the air when it shut. "What's the big idea?" he called out. Then he heard the familiar flashing and bashing sounds of Shadow trying to break down the door. He stood back expectantly, but the door never opened. His frown deepened. "Don't tell me Egghead finally figured out how to Chaos-proof his place."

"Oh ho ho, he did, didn't he?" came a voice behind Sonic. He spun around to face the room and saw a big screen on the wall with Eggman's sneering face on it. He had his hands folded in the usual way that meant he was confident and excited to see his plan carried out, with his fingers twiddling.

"Eggman!" Sonic shouted in surprise. "You really weren't here in the factory after all!"

"No, I'm not, silly hedgehog!" Eggman guffawed. "You should have listened to Shadow when you could. I made it so easy for you! It's a good thing thinking isn't one of your specialties."

Sonic glowered at the remark. "Alright, what's going on? Where's that ultronic emerald thingamajigger?"

Eggman's smile lowered only slightly. "Ultra Ionic Chaos Emerald," he corrected.

"Whatever." Sonic shrugged again. He glanced around the room he was in. It was empty, except for Eggman's screen, some metal debris, and a pedestal in the corner. The pedestal had a metal tray on top of it, like the kind covering food in restaurants. "Is it in there?" he asked.

"Why don't you see for yourself?" the doctor suggested, his evil smile returning.

Sonic looked thoughtfully at the pedestal. "Why?"

Eggman waved at the door behind Sonic. "What else are you going to do? You can't get me through the screen, and Shadow's not joining you anytime soon. And anyways," his smile got a clever glint to it. "You'll always be fast enough to escape whatever I have in mind for you, won't you?"

Sonic's glare turned into a smile. "Flattery will get you nowhere, no matter how true it is."

The mad doctor looked exasperated. "Well, fine then! Why don't you use some of that debris to tip the cover and see? I'm sure you'll be safe then! Or are you just going to sit here cautiously forever?" Gone went Sonic's smile. He did not take to being called cautious. It was like being called chicken. Sonic was no chicken. He ate chicken. At least, if those rumors were true about chicken being in chili dogs. And that was only livestock-type chicken anyways, not intelligent chicken like some friends he'd had before.

But, still, no one called him chicken! Sonic immediately turned and grabbed one of the sturdier pieces of metal off of the floor. Then he narrowed his eyes at the pedestal, lifting his hand that was holding the metal and sticking his tongue out as he aimed. Finally, with a fancy and show-offy flip kick, he threw the metal and hit the cover on the pedestal dead on. It fell off, revealing a green emerald glowing with a strange gray aura.

"Aha!" Sonic yelled. He ran over to the emerald, remembering too late that Eggman had been trying to get him close to it before. That meant he shouldn't have gotten close to it, because whatever Eggman had planned for him wasn't going to be good. Before Sonic ever reached the pedestal, the emerald's gray aura had begun to spread. When he reached it, it had already filled half the room. A second later the room was full of gray. All the metal debris gained a pale glow and started to float. The hedgehog gasped when the glow surrounded him as well, and he hovered a foot or two off the floor.

Sonic's eyes widened as he began to lose control of his feet. Not being able to stay on the floor meant no traction. He tried to spin-dash to the other side of the room, but only spun in one spot in the air. He unfurled and looked back at the screen, where Eggman was fairly shaking with mirth. The overweight doctor was even wiping a tear from his eye. "What just happened?" Sonic demanded. "Why can't I get down?"

"It- it seems..." Eggman was trying to calm himself down enough to speak. Seeing Sonic floating there helplessly was just too funny. "It seems you have forgotten one very important thing about Chaos Emeralds, Sonic. They don't just power machines and attacks, remember? They warp time and space! What do you think a Chaos Emerald altered like this can do?"

"Um, make me float, for one thing." Sonic crossed his arms and kicked his feet up, trying to get in a more relaxed position in the air. "Get to the point already."

Eggman finally calmed down, and got a very dark, very excited look in his eyes. It was enough to make Sonic slightly nervous. Slightly. He didn't get nervous much, ever. But this was certainly not a nice expression to be looking into when you couldn't do anything about it. "You obviously haven't noticed this, but..." Eggman lifted from behind the screen a remote with what looked like a hundred buttons on it, each with a different label for a different action that could be done, along with a speaker which probably did voice command. There were buttons that said "Shapeshift," "Create Object," "Plasma Bolt," and even "Ham Sandwich." Eggman's voice game from behind the remote: "I placed a chip inside of the emerald so I would be able to control it from a safe distance. Even now, I am controlling it."

Sonic sighed. "Yeah, I could tell. That's why I'm floating. Look, could we get to the point now?"

Eggman gritted his teeth. "Always ruining my speeches! I work so hard on them! Well, no matter. You won't be bothering me ever again. Do you know what I'm going to do with you?"

"No," Sonic replied sarcastically. "That's what getting to the point is for."

The remote was held in front of the screen, and one of Eggman's thick fingers was seen pointing to a large button in the center labeled "Chaos Control." The finger pressed it, then went to a little dial next to it labeled "Distance." The dial was spun all the way to the right, "Maximum Distance." Then Eggman pulled the remote to the side, so it could still be seen alongside his sneering face.

"Bon voyage, Sonic!" He yelled. "I hope this lands you in the middle of frigid space, or in a parallel universe! May we never see each other again! Oh-ho-ho!" Laughing maniacally, he pressed the "Chaos Control" button again. The emerald's gray aura turned a blinding bright white. Once again, the light enveloped the room, until nothing could be seen. Sonic shouted out in surprise. Then the light disappeared, and Sonic and the emerald were gone. The screen turned off, cutting the sound in mid-laughter. At the same time, all the debris crashed and clattered onto the floor, and finally, the door opened.

Shadow and Tails were looking over the blueprints to see if there was another way around when this happened. They looked up at the sudden release of the door, and ran into the room before it might close again. Fortunately, it didn't. Unfortunately, the room was empty but for the pedestal and debris. There was no emerald to collect. There was no Eggman on the screen to explain what happened. And there was no Sonic.

Tails whimpered. "W-where's Sonic?" he asked.

"I don't know," Shadow replied. "But I can tell you that I sense a lot of Chaos Energy residue here. I think someone used Chaos Control."

Tails looked up hopefully. "You think it might have been Sonic?"

Shadow shrugged and walked over to the pedestal, examining it. "It might have been. If that's the case, he could be safe."

Tails walked up beside him and looked at the pedestal. Where the emerald had been, there was a warbling black mark. It was almost as if the spot had been burnt to a liquid. "If that's the case?" The little fox trembled with fear for his surrogate brother. He stared for a time at the mark on the pedestal. It shifted and shivered, and glittered with different colors against the black. Then, softly, Tails asked, "Normal emeralds don't make marks like that, do they?"

Shadow shook his head. "No," he agreed. "This was the Ultra Ionic emerald. Sonic might have been dumb enough to use it, but I think it's more likely that Eggman sent him somewhere."

Tails drew a short breath. There was no way of knowing where Sonic could have gone, especially if Eggman had done it. When he wanted to, the mad doctor could cover his tracks well. Sonic could be on the other side of the universe, for all they knew. The fox whimpered again. "Sonic..." he whispered.

Shadow glanced at Tails, his stern gaze mingled with the slightest hint of sympathy. He knew how Sonic was like a brother to Tails, and understood how worried he was. He didn't want to admit it, but he was worried, too.

What do you think? I hope I didn't make the characters OOC.

I know I said I was only going to do two stories at once until they got finished, then add more, but Moonlights Path said that she couldn't wait to read my story, so I thought it was only fair to post the first chapter I had written for her. Besides, with three stories out, there's more of a chance of me getting inspiration for at least one and I might post chapters more often. Hopefully three at once will be the limit.

And I'm only going to have these two "universes" of Sonic continuity. I don't want to be one of those people who's stories don't relate to each other at all because they have so many conflicts in plotline. The two alternate storylines are for any "what if" ideas I get, and hopefully will satisfy all possibilities.

R & R, and God bless!