Return

by Lordoftheghostking28

Mark and Monica are back...but this time, they get visitors to THEIR world!

1. Chapter 1

Ok, everyone. Um, this is the sequel to The Visitors to Our World, and if you haven't read it yet, you might wanna, just for character references and stuff like that. I own ONLY Mark, Monica and Leo, no one else, CLEAR? Also this was originally going to be Legend of Zelda, but I thought, 'Hey, people might get confused if I say the prequel was in another category of fan fics.' Ok, now that that's out of the way, I can go on with this. REFRESHER: Mark and Monica made it back to Earth and challenged each other to the game that they had just exited from. It was all good, and they lived happily ever after.

Heh, yeah right. If it was, I wouldn't be sitting here up against a wall with my back hurting writing this. Rated T for mild language, intense action and peril, and rude humor. Also when I say MILD LANGUAGE; I mean that they'll say things like, "Oh, crap!" or "Holy shi-" and then get cut off. Just wanted to clear that up on account of people getting confused. I'll paste that onto my profile eventually too. Also this switches between Monica and Mark's point of views. Just look for the bolded name and then you know who's talking in 1st person.

Ok, now on with the story.

MONICA

It had been one year sense we had been sucked into Mark's game. Even though I had been determined to hate the strange planet, I grew to love it. It was a home away from home. You see, our parents were too busy for us sometimes. In the game, it was like a family.

A crazy, slightly scary, psychopathic family, at any rate.

Ever sense we had come back to our basement Mark and I have been working on ways to get back.

Mark played stage five: level two over and over and over again, trying and failing to send us back. I played through the game's storyline(Which, by the way, was similar to our adventure) and found nothing like the hooded guy that had sent us back to our real world.

Two months of fruitless attempts later we gave up.

I turned my focus to school and Mark to comics and other Sonic the Hedgehog games. Our great adventure seemed to be a dream we both had long ago.

We were both 14 now, but we felt like we had never changed. To tell you the truth, most girls my age were getting all hyped up over boys while I still couldn't tear my eyes away from a book. I never wanted to be like them. For that I was ridiculed and shunned.

Like I cared.

Every now and then I would catch Mark attempting the stage and level again, but he saw me he would just shrug and sigh. "It's hopeless." He would say.

"Then why do you keep trying?" I asked.

"I feel like if I try enough, something'll happen." Mark said, dodging a robot on screen. Seeing the thing throw punches at Sonic made my stomach twist into a knot as I remembered our encounter with the exact same thing.

"But if something does, call me. I don't want to miss it for the world." I turned to go back up the stairs.

"Monica! I'm going to go shopping!" Our mom called from the garage. "Be back soon!"

Whenever she said that, it usually meant something along the lines of: Be back when the store runs out of 'fashionable' crap.

I sighed and decided to stay in the basement. "You've gotten the best rank on every stage, every single extra, and every unlockable. I think that it means that the adventure we had will never happen again." I said.

Mark paused the game but continued to stare at the screen. "I guess you're right." He finally admitted. "I just want to go back. I didn't really get to meet everyone yet."

"I know. And I miss Cream." I sighed. "She helped me realize how great that place is."

"You wanna try?" Mark held the remote out to me.

"I've tried a bazillion times." I said. "Face it Mark, nothing's going to happen."

"Well, can you get through this level, then? I have to pee." Mark hopped up out of the chair he was sitting in, passed the remote to me and hopped up the stairs. Was it just me, or did the screen get brighter?

Oh, well.

I sat down with another heavy sigh and resumed the game in time to see the robot bring one of its hammers down right on top of Sonic. "Yikes." I gasped, gathering most of the dropped rings.

I expertly dodged some more of its attacks and then smacked its head with the metal pipe that was hanging from the ceiling. When it was down, I spin-dashed into its head and popped it clean off its shoulders. Then the ending screen popped up with the time, number of rings, and bonus stuff. Rank: S

"I rule this game." I thought happily. A notice popped up on screen. I read it over quickly. It said that I had unlocked a character sketch thing in the Extras menu.

Weird, I thought Mark had already unlocked everything.

I dismissed that thought and proceeded to go to the Extras menu. From there I discovered a flashing NEW sign on one of the unlockables. I clicked it.

It has been long.

What….the….Jell-o…

You miss Mobius, don't you? But you obviously forgot what you did to me…

"What's going on?" I gasped, my eyes wide.

Monica, don't you want to see your friends again? Have more adventures? That all comes with a small price…

"Who is this?" I screamed. I didn't care that the TV couldn't hear me.

The price is I come too.

"Who…what?" I threw the remote on the ground and stepped backwards. "What's going on?"

That was when the Wii began to glow brightly. But it seemed to be glowing with a slight purple glow too. I closed my eyes, covered my ears and hid behind the chair as a deafening squeal filled the air. It was all over in a matter of seconds.

I was just about to see if the Wii had self-destructed when I heard voices.

"Uh…where are we?"

At first I thought it was Mark, but his voice had gotten deeper in the last year. No, this was someone else.

I peeked around the chair and nearly screamed. For there, in my very own basement, was the world's fastest hedgehog; the Ultimate Life Form; the smartest fox in the history of ever, practically; a psychic psycho and his fire-controlling friend; and a red demon with spikes on his knuckles.

"Where am I?" Tails squeaked, looking around. "What happened?"

"Guys?" I came out from behind the chair.

You couldn't mistake the looks of shock and worry on their faces. "Monica?" Sonic asked. "Where are we?"

"In…in my basement." I stuttered. "How'd you get here?"

"No clue." Silver shrugged. "first we were going through a forest, and now we're here."

"I was checking out the Extras menu on the game…and then you guys showed up after I checked something." I said quickly. "It said something like: 'If you want to see your friends again, then I must come too.'"

Knuckles hissed. "That sounds like Eggman." He muttered.

"Now that you said that, I did notice something suspicious going on." Blaze said. "There was a small clearing that we were all in."

"Then there was a flash of purple-ish light and then-"

THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK.

Mark came clomping down the stairs. "Monica! What was that noise? What…" He trailed off and nearly fell down the rest of the stairs.

"Hello again, Mark." Shadow said.

"Uh…hi…what….what are you all doing in my basement?" Mark was pale.

"Let Monica explain that." Sonic said. He had claimed the chair in front of the TV and was fiddling with the remote. "So what game is this?"

"It's your game." I said.

"So I can keep it?" Sonic asked excitedly. "Sweet!"

"Not like that." Mark took the game's box out from behind the Wii. "It's literally your game."

I was pretty sure if the situation wasn't already beyond impossible Sonic's jaw would have hit the floor and broke all his teeth. Instead he glanced from the game to us, and then back again.

After about thirty seconds of that and complete silence this was his reaction:

"SWEEEEEEET!"

Blaze rolled her eyes. "You know, we really need to focus on the probablem at hand, Sonic. You can play the game later."

"But Blaze! You're in here too! And so is everyone else!" Sonic said excitedly, pointing wildly to the screen.

"Really?" Silver was suddenly interested. "Can you play as me?"

"Yeah!"

I reached over and turned the Wii and TV off. I got a load of Sonic and Silver's disappointed faces and almost burst out laughing.

"What do you have to eat?" Knuckles asked, "I could use something."

"Yeah, me too." Sonic dropped the remote, hopped up from the chair, and zoomed up the steps. Mark ran after him as a terrible feeling came over me. I turned to the others.

"Knuckles, you said that the message sounded like something Eggman would send, right?" I asked slowly.

"Yeah?"

"Well, if you're all here…does that mean…?"

Blaze's yes got wide. "More than likely."

"Oh, crap." I hit my forehead with my palm. "Crap, crap, crap! I thought it'd be bad enough with all you here; no one to protect your planet, but now this…!"

"Who knows what he could do here." Shadow added.

"Ok, that's not helping." I sighed. "We need to find him, and pretty darn fast! And after that, there's the issue of getting you all back home, and not having Animal Control all over our lawn, and small things like that." I sighed again and sank into the chair and faced the blank TV screen.

"What's Animal Control?" Tails asked.

"It's when people come and get you all and drag you to animal prison." I answered. "Forever."

"…Sounds happy." Silver concluded.

"Come on. Let's go upstairs." I got up and lead them all up.

I found Mark sitting at the table and Sonic going through the fridge. "Hey, get out of there!" I said. "We don't have anything worth eating."

"I'll be the judge of that." Silver said, beginning to go through the cupboards. "Hmmm…who likes Sun Chips and Guacamole?"

"Ewww, no." Blaze said.

"Ok, if you really want something, there's ice cream in the freezer." I said, instantly regretting it, because both Sonic and Silver lunged for the freezer and nearly tore the door off.

There was the sound of our garage door opening. That was when I overlooked something vitally important. It was worse than evil geniuses running around our world and Animal Control.

"Mark, what the heck are we gonna tell Mom and Dad?" I asked in a panic.

A/N: Ooh, awesome, right? Hope you're enjoying this, cuz I am. And did I really describe Knuckles as a red demon? Ah, well. If he's mad he can be…

MARK

My eyes got wide. The garage door stopped opening. "Oh no." I gasped.

"Distract him! I'll get everyone to a safe place!" Monica grabbed the ice cream out of Silver's hands and took the spoons from Sonic. "Maybe later guys, but right now if you're discovered, then all heck'll break loose."

I ran to the door that I knew either my mom or dad would enter into and waited until the door opened. My dad stumbled into the room after a very hard day at work.

"Hi, Dad!" I said, flinging my arms around his waist. "What's up?"

"Oh, hi, Mark. Sorry, I'm really tired." My dad muttered. He pushed me away and threw his computer case on the couch. "Stupid co-workers never do anything right…" He muttered.

"Mom went shopping again." I informed, plopping down next to his case. "Don't know when she'll be back."

My dad sighed loudly. "I don't understand her anymore." He whispered. "She knows we can't afford this…"

"What if I get a job?" I asked helpfully.

"You might have too." My dad undid his tie and threw it on the counter. "We'll need you and Monica just to pay the gas bill."

I smiled grimly. Money was always a probablem. "Well, on the other hand, we might make enough money to pay for food too!"

"That's be great." My dad sighed. He sank into the couch next to me. "So how was your day?"

"Awesome." I recounted the last few minuets. "I uh…I beat my video game again."

"I'm surprised your eyes haven't fallen out of your head yet." My dad joked.

"That's what Monica always says." I said back.

"Well, I've got a lot to do. Tell Monica that dinner's going to be in fifteen minuets."

I got up off the couch. "Ok. Bye, dad!"

I ran upstairs and into the room that Monica and I shared. I opened the door and entered to find Sonic spinning on our swivel chair and Monica looking about ready to kill him. "Shut up and hold still!"

Blaze was reading Monica's book and Silver was trying to read over her shoulder. Shadow was looking at our family photos that we had taken on our last vacation that seemed like lifetimes ago. Tails was trying to hack our computer and Knuckles was examining Monica's fencing sword. "What do you do with this?"

"You learn swordplay." Monica said curtly, glaring at Sonic, but he didn't notice. He was too busy getting dizzy.

"Could come in handy." He put the sword down.

"Where's this?" Shadow asked, pointing to the Lincoln Memorial that was behind us in one of our photos. Monica and I couldn't have been more that six in that picture.

"Washington DC." I said. "Our nation's capital."

"Where are we now?" Shadow asked. "How far away is this place?"

I pulled a map out of one of our computer drawers. I turned to the United States and pointed to the state shaped like a glove. "We're here, in Michigan." I said. "Right dead center. DC is all the way over here." I pointed to the capital.

"Is this your entire world?" Shadow asked.

"No, there's a lot more." I opened to the page that contained the entire world on it. "Our nation's just one of hundreds."

"Wow, your world is bigger than ours." Silver said, coming over to look at the map. "Your nation is funny."

"It's called a state, and it makes up part of the nation." I said. "So there you are, the fastest geography/history lesson you've ever had."

" Cool."

"I like this book." Blaze held up Monica's book, Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke.

"It's one of my favorites." Monica said. "All the way through, it's full of action, friendship and suspense."

Sonic got off of our swivel chair and ran into a wall. "Ow…" He muttered.

"I told you to stop spinning." Monica growled. "Next time, listen."

Sonic fell face first onto my bed and sort of passed out there.

"Hey, you guys have got to pick a better password." Tails said from our computer. "I just hacked your internet."

I glanced at the computer and discovered he had hacked the National Bank.

"AAAGH! What the heck are you thinking?" I quickly logged out and shut the computer down. "Maybe they can't track us…"

"What did I do?" Tails asked, looking worried.

"You hacked the National Bank." I said, my knees shaking. "Now we could all get arrested."

Tails backed away from the computer like it would bite him. "Sorry…"

"Next time, if you come across anything that requires a password, tell us first before you hack." I said.

"Right."

Silver glanced at the pile of books by Monica's bed and picked one up and began to read.

"I'll go check if Dad's still here and/or awake." Monica went to the door and slipped out, leaving me with the Crazy Crew.

"So when's dinner?" Sonic asked, his voice muffled from the blankets on the bed. "I'm hungry."

I sighed and glanced out my window at the forest behind my house.

A/N: Wow, Tails hacked the national bank! Good for him! (Honestly, I don't know what would have happened…) Anyway, Monica and Mark's dad was in the story! Good for him! Yey! Anyway, you can sort of see some family tension and all. Well, anyway, will the 'Crazy Crew' find Eggman, or not? Find out soon!

MONICA

Dad was snoring his head off on the couch when I snuck downstairs. Taking that as a signal that it was safe, I ran back upstairs. "Dad's asleep. I think we should all get out of the house."

So with me in the lead and Mark bringing up the rear, we made it down the steps without any trouble. Getting to the door and out into the forest was an entirely different story. We would have to cross directly in front of my dad.

"Ok, I'll get the door open, and then we run for it." I whispered. "Ok?"

Knuckles gave me a slight nod and I crept forward and opened the door. I motioned for them to start coming.

Tails flew almost silently to the door and out. Sonic tip toed out the door and then broke into a sprint to reach the forest. Blaze was just as quiet along with Shadow and Knuckles. Then Silver took two steps, tripped over the rug, and landed on his face with a slightly loud crack.

My dad muttered something from the couch but didn't wake up. Silver curled up on the rug looking about ready to start screaming about a broken nose or something. Luckily, I didn't see any traces of blood…yet.

"Come on Silver, we have to move now!" I whispered urgently. "I mean it! My dad seriously overreacts!"

Silver started crawling blindly to the door. He wasn't moving very fast and any second I feared that my dad would wake up, spot him, and call 9-1-1.

From the forest I could see Mark motioning to us wildly. He looked about ready to jump out of the woods and run back at us and yell.

That was when the worst happened, if you can even believe it.

Silver's boot hit the doorframe with a loud THUNK. My dad stirred, opened his eyes, and stared at us.

"Um, hi, dad." I whispered, waving pitifully. "This isn't what it looks like."

My dad paled and pointed a shaking finger at Silver. "What….what…?"

Silver seemed to forget about his nose as my dad got up and headed towards us. "AGH! Let's go, Monica!"

Silver grabbed my wrist and practically pulled me over in his haste to get to the woods. I could see Mark motioning to us from the woods. Everyone else was already running deeper into it.

I glanced back to see my dad gaining on us. He grabbed my other wrist and there was a mini tug of war over me. When Silver realized that my dad had me he let my arm go and backed up slightly.

"Monica, are you ok?" My dad demanded, pale and shaking. "What is that thing?"

"Dad, his name is Silver and…" I started, but Silver had grabbed my hoodie's sleeve and began tugging me towards the woods.

With speed I had never before seen in my dad he ran over to Silver and punched him as hard as he could in his jaw. Silver flew backwards and hit the ground hard. He groaned slightly and then fell unconscious. "Dad!" I yelled. "Why'd you do that?"

"Where's Mark?" My dad demanded.

"Monica, what are you…" Mark came barreling out of the woods. He spotted Silver and our dad and his eyes got wide. "What happened?"

"Come back to the house, now!" My dad commanded in harsh tones I had never heard before. "Come back to the house and we'll call the cops!"

"No, dad!" Mark yelled. He grabbed my wrist. "You…you wouldn't understand…"

He gave me a glance that said: You know what to do.

I gave him a slight nod and quickly reached down, picked up Silver and Mark and I ran off.

Our dad screamed at us to come back, but I probably couldn't have even if I wanted to. He started coming after us, but soon stopped. We knew the woods better than he did. Along the small deer path I felt tears sting my eyes. Why did my dad, out of all people, have to get involved with this?

By the time we met up with the others, it was getting darker. We had run further than I thought. We were in unfamiliar territory.

"What happened?" Blaze demanded. "What happened to Silver?"

Silver muttered something at the mention at his name and I gently lowered him to the forest's floor. "May dad freaked out." I muttered, embarrassed. "Now we're on the run."

"This day could not get better…" Knuckles grumbled.

"So…what now?" Sonic asked. "Do we try to find Eggman or do we wait for him to find us?"

"Probably us finding him." Mark said. "But if we wait, he's bound to pull off some absurd crime that'd attract the whole city."

"How do we even know that he's even here?" Tails asked. "I mean, if he came here too, wouldn't he have been in your basement?"

I didn't have a reply to that. Mark, unfortunately, did. "Maybe he programmed some teleportation device thing and it set him in a different location."

"He could be halfway across the world." Shadow said.

"Oh, man, that'd be bad." I shuddered.

We sat there for a few seconds, waiting for Silver to wake up and contribute to the group. Eventually he opened his eyes and glanced up at the treetops. "Owww…" He groaned.

"Sorry about that, Silver." I sighed. "Nothing broken?"

"Mah tongue's swellin'." Silver muttered.

"Ok, we'll take a few more seconds to rest." I said, finding a rock and sitting on it. "We probably need to get out of here. Get as far away as possible because the police'll be onto us."

"So we need to avoid police, major highways, our family, Animal Control, suspicious people, dark alleys, and things like that?" Mark piped up.

"That's the plan."

It began to get really dark. Luckily one of our companions glowed and the other controlled fire. We could survive for weeks.

Blaze gathered up some wood and started a small fire while the rest of us claimed a spot on the ground and tried to get as comfortable as possible.

A/N: Wow, avoiding all that chaos and finding Eggman…easy, right? Yeah, easy. That's why this Fan Fic is already 3,828 words and counting. Heh, easy…

MARK

I was awakened the next morning by an obnoxious bird that couldn't sing but refused to believe it couldn't. I wanted nothing more than to jump up and pluck all the feathers off it.

"Are all animals on this planet this annoying?" Shadow growled from a tree, where he was keeping watch.

"A couple are." I muttered, stretching out from the long, cold night on the forest's floor. The fire pit was out; it had probably gone out long ago. I glanced around and did a quick head count.

"Never again…" Monica muttered, yawning. "Never again will I sleep on the bare forest floor. I think I was eaten alive by mosquitoes."

"I want breakfast…" Sonic groaned, rolling over. He still was asleep. "I want pancakes and bacon and orange juice and sausage and maple syrup and scrambled eggs and toast and Nutella on the toast and…and…"

"Oh, man, I never thought about what we'd do for food." I sighed. "I was too scared by my own dad."

Blaze sat up, brushed the twigs out of her fur and arched her back in a long stretch. "Someone mentioned food."

I glanced over to Tails, who had both tails curled around him so he looked as cute and innocent as could be. I hated to wake him.

"Hey, Tails, wake up. We've got to find something to eat." I said.

"Five more minuets…" He mumbled.

"In that case let's try to cover our trail." Monica began digging a hole in the ground with her bare hands and putting parts of the burnt-out campfire in it. "Come on, everyone. Help me."

Knuckles literally bashed a hole in the ground and threw more burnt wood in it. "Now that that's taken care of, let's worry about food."

"And water." Silver muttered unhelpfully, brushing small clumps of dirt off his arms. "Water is good."

"So is shutting up." Shadow suggested.

"Ok, now that we're all bright eyed and bushy tailed-" I got the weirdest glance in the history of ever from Tails. "-we can worry about food."

"Right. Cold pizza, anyone?" Sonic suggested.

"No, we're not going anywhere public." I clearly stated. "You guys would be too easily recognized as…well…you know."

"So why can't you guys get the pizza and we wait here?" Tails said. "You won't be recognized…yet."

"I dunno…news travels fast." Monica sighed. "Should we risk it?"

"I'm hungry enough to risk it." Silver said as his stomach gave a loud rumble. "See?"

"In that case, Mark will get the pizza." Monica said. "Here's ten bucks. Get us a large supreme."

"What?" I demanded. "If we go out to get pizza, there's got to be at least two people at one time!"

"Well, I'm older, so I'm in charge." Monica said, crossing her arms across her chest. "So ha."

"Actually, you're not the oldest." Tails said. "Shadow is."

"Oh. Yeah." Monica growled. I smirked at her.

"So…who makes the rules now?" Silver asked, looking confused.

"If you want pizza, get pizza." Shadow said. He started to climb further into the tree. "I don't care how you do it."

"Ok. See ya, Mark." Monica threw me a ten dollar bill. "Remember: large supreme."

I grumbled a curse and then turned in a circle. "Um…how the heck do we even get to a pizza place?"

"Don't worry, we'll accompany you until we see signs of civilians." Silver said. "Then it's up to you. Don't fail."

There was a loud crack and Shadow fell out of the tree and hit the ground, cursing loudly the entire way.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that that tree is about dead." I said, beginning to walk in a random direction. "Are you coming or what?"

Everyone was obviously not passing up the chance of Earth pizza and followed closely.

Before long we heard signs of a road somewhere to our right. It sounded like a small road that lead back to some neighborhoods, not one that could lead us to pizza. Eventually the road's sounds faded and we were surrounded by crickets' chirps and squirrels running around.

"We're lost, aren't we?" Tails asked fearfully.

"I don't know." Monica said. "Mark, are we lost?"

"Yes." I admitted.

"Now what are we going to do for food?" Knuckles demanded.

At the mention of food, everyone's stomachs rumbled loudly. "I can't go on!" Silver wailed. "I'll die here and never see Mobius again! NOOO!"

"Aren't you a drama queen." Blaze hissed. "Relax, there's some berries over there."

"Are they poisonous?" Sonic asked.

"Why don't you eat a few and see?"

I went over to the berries and saw that they were blackberries, but only a few were ripe. I quickly gathered them up. "It's not much, but everyone can have three."

"I'LL TAKE IT!" Silver shouted.

Monica began dispersing the berries among everyone but Shadow refused to take them. "If anyone needs them, it'd be you." He said plainly. "I'll survive."

All the berries did was make us hungry-er. Now we were lost, starving to death, and with no sign of anyone else besides squirrels.

"This sucks." Monica confirmed.

"I can look for the way, if you want." Tails suggested. "I can fly above the treetops and see the way into town."

"Why didn't you do that sooner?" Knuckles demanded.

"Sorry…" Tails flew off and began searching for a pizza place.

We meanwhile decided to take a rest and sat down in a small circle. "So what happens after we get our pizza?" Sonic asked.

"Then we try to find Eggman." I said. "Or…maybe wait for him to find us."

"I'd rather find him." Blaze said. "That way we can have the element of surprise."

Tails came flying back. "If we go straight, I see some buildings."

"That's the town! Good job!" I said. "Come on, everyone!"

A/N: Birds are annoying.

JET: hey! (Attempts to smack GhostKing upside her head with Extreme Gear)

GHOSTKING: I meant Earth birds! GAAH! Ok, bye people! I'm getting out of here! CHAOS CONTROL!

Yes, that's right. I can teleport. Never underestimate me ever again...

MONICA

It was nearly noon by the time we heard traffic again. By this time Sonic had gotten so hungry that he started biting a stick and Silver tried to eat a rock. Both methods of food failed miserably.

"If we resort to cannibalism, we eat Knuckles first, ok?" Sonic said to Silver.

"Ok…" Silver's stomach rumbled loudly again. "I'm so hungry…"

"I can see the road!" Mark announced excitedly. "Oh, wait, maybe that isn't the best thing in the world…they might see us!"

We all backed up a few paces until we could no longer see the road. "Ok, Mark. See ya. Get the pizza." I said casually.

Mark growled something at me but I ignored it and found a rock to sit on. We waited a good half hour before he came back with a large pizza box.

"FOOOD!" Silver cried, lunging for the box.

Blaze grabbed his arm and held him back. "Silver, relax!"

Mark opened the box and counted softly. "Ok, there's eight of us, and there's eight pieces. They're not all exacally equal, but…."

He was cut off as Sonic grabbed the box, chose a piece and zoomed up a tree to eat in peace. Silver broke free of Blaze and grabbed a piece before stuffing the entire thing in his mouth and Knuckles practically did the same. Blaze, giving them disgusted looks, took a piece and wondered away from the group. Tails got excited, because it was his first time ever to have Earth pizza and it took him thirty seconds to pick his share. Mark picked a piece and handed the box to me. I had a choice between a puny piece and a piece that was a sorry excuse for a pizza slice. Not much choice.

"Um, who didn't get one?" I asked.

"Have both." Shadow said. "Those together would just barely equal a normal slice."

"You haven't eaten anything all day." I protested. "Come on, you're going to starve."

"I'll manage." Shadow muttered before finding a nice tree to lean against.

I sighed. "Are you sure?"

"Positive."

I was sort of too hungry to argue, so I didn't. The pizza was pretty good too. It had the right amount of cheese and sauce and peppers, mushrooms, sausage and pineapple. To think this entire thing cost ten dollars. Jeez. We'd run out of money by tomorrow.

"Yum." Silver announced. "Now what?"

"Look at this." Mark pulled a newspaper out from one of his pockets. He unfolded it and handed it to me. "Pass it around when you're done, ok?"

I took one look at the headline and sighed. "Good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"

"Um…good news." Tails said.

"Good news is I now know where Eggman is." I said.

"What's the bad news?" Blaze asked, looking worried. "And where is he?"

"He's in Lansing." I said. "Stealing from banks. About a day's walk from here if we're lucky. The bad news is there's an article about us. Mark, I'm glad no one recognized you."

"Let me read it." Silver said.

I handed the paper to him and he began to read.

" 'Missing: Monica and Mark Cleveland.'" He began. "Your last name is Cleveland?"

"Apparently. Get on with it." Blaze said.

" 'What started off as a normal day quickly turned into a day of horror and worry for the Cleveland family. Identical twins Monica and Mark were kidnapped from their own home by what their father described as a "Snow-white alien with piercing golden eyes." Unfortunately, he was unable to describe the strange being further.

" 'The FBI and other organizations are on the case, but so far nothing has turned up other than evidence of them running into the forest. Police dogs are also being used to search for the children and the strange, so-called alien.'"

Everyone stood there.

"Cool, I'm an alien!" Silver said. "Oh, and there's more, but it just describes you two."

Blaze took the paper. "Are police dogs bad?" She asked.

"Well, if they really are using the dogs, then we need to get moving." I said. "They can track us."

"Where is Lansing?" Shadow asked. "Is it important?"

"It's our state's capital." Mark said. "So I guess, yeah. Come on, we live right sort on the outskirts of the place. We should reach it by tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Sonic said. "What if we get hungry again?"

"Then Monica pays." Mark said sarcastically.

"I have ten dollars left. If we can, we're eating apples or anything the forest provides, ok? It may not exacally be good, but it'll keep us from starving." I held up the money. "But I'm saving this for emergencies only from this point on."

"Well, if it's a day's walk, we might as well get going." Sonic started speed-walking. "Come on, by the time we reach Lansing it'll be the middle of next year if you slowpokes don't start moving!"

We started off to the capital at a fast pace. That was when I decided to gather as much information as I could.

"What exacally happened before you guys come here?" I asked.

"Well, we were running through a forest clearing thing, and there were little red panel things on the edges of the clearing. We were all together, by the way." Tails explained. "We were wondering where the heck Eggman could be when we heard him laugh his maniac laugh and sure enough, there he was in his little hover thing above us, holding a large remote with a huge red button on it. He also had a couple of the Chaos Emeralds, too. So of course we knew that nothing good was going to happen."

"He had all seven, Tails." Sonic said. "So that makes it infinitively worse."

"Oh, yeah." Tails paled a little. "Ok, well, he laughed a lot and mentioned you guys and how we were going to see you again very soon and how he will have his revenge on you and us at the same time. Then he pressed the button and there was a bright white flash, and we were in your basement."

"Wait…" Mark stopped walking. "So you guys are here…Eggman and his little hovercraft…AND the seven Chaos Emeralds?"

"Oh, crap. I forgot about that." Silver muttered. "This is bad, right?"

"Beyond bad." Blaze summed it up.

"So now we got to worry about being caught by the police and/or Animal Control, our family, Eggman, finding the Chaos Emeralds, stopping him, and sending you all back." I sighed.

"Who knows, the list of 'Stuff to do' might get longer. Like finding food!" Knuckles suggested.

"Well, duh."

We walked on.

"I'm thirsty." Silver announced. "Let's take a break and find a lake. Hey, that rhymed."

Blaze gave him a sideways look. "Please stick to the situation at hand."

"No, actually right now is a good place to take a break." I said, smiling. "Look at that apple tree!"

"Wow!" Mark ran up to the tree and pulled an apple off of it that was slightly bigger than his fist. "This is awesome!" He took a bite. "And juicy!"

A/N: Don't you just love Silver?

Anyway, apples are good. I'm really wanting one right now. Well, now that they know that Eggman has the seven Chaos Emeralds, this could complicate things even more. What will they do?

JET: I found you, you crazy author!

Aaagh, not again…*Dodges Gear and chucks apples while running away*

MARK

Between the eight of us, we practically ate everything on the tree.

"I've never felt so full in my life!" Tails said happily. "These are great!"

"I wonder how a tree even got back here in the first place." I wondered. "Maybe Johnny Appleseed."

"Yeah, maybe." Monica rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, we should probably keep going." I got up. "We need to reach Lansing as soon as possible."

We continued on. My feet ached badly, but I sure wasn't complaining. Silver was doing plenty of that, plus asking a million questions.

"I'm tried. Can we stop for a nap? Can I get a cookie? What time is it? What's the date? Where are we again? Why is this forest so long? Can I go back and get more apples? What if the police catch us? What will Animal Control do to us? I don't want to find out on second thought…and we're not animals! We're simply beings from another world. Jeez, this planet is creepy. Will they shoot us? What do the police dogs look like? What's crab like? What if Eggman lost the emeralds? What if we can't go back to Mobius? What if we're stuck here forever? What if someone dies? Why did your dad punch me? He seemed nice until he did that. I don't like him anymore. Can we try Chinese? Can I get a chocolate truffle? What IS a chocolate truffle, anyway? Are they made of chocolate? What's the square root of 45,483? Why is 42 the ultimate answer? How come Shadow gets to be the Ultimate Life Form and not me? Why is Sonic blue? Why is the sky blue? Why do blue tongued skinks have blue tongues? Blue in Spanish is azul! I think my boots are giving me blisters! Why is Shadow making that face at me?"

"Gee, I wonder why." Knuckles rolled his eyes while doing the throat cutting gesture.

"Silver, you haven't shut up for the past fifteen minuets." Blaze fumed.

"I'm just nervous." Silver muttered. "I don't like dogs and that's why you're my friend."

"Um…thank you…?"

"Plus I don't want Animal Control to catch us. They sound evil. Will they catch us and…and kill us?"

I was about to tell him that they probably wouldn't kill him right away, but after catching Monica's glare I kept my mouth shut. That glare clearly stated Tell-Him-And-You-Will-Have-A-Very-Freaked-Out-Hedgehog-On-Your-Hands-FOREVER.

"Is it getting dark, or is it just me?" Tails asked, looking up at the treetops. "How long have we been walking?"

"A good half of the afternoon." I said. "Pretty soon we aught to pitch camp."

"Should I go look over the trees for anything?" Tails asked.

"Probably." I said.

"I'll look for anything to eat." Sonic ran off.

"Come back with nothing and we'll eat you instead!" Knuckles called after him.

Blaze gathered up wood and rocks to make a fire pit while Monica looked at the angle of the sun as it shone through the trees. "It's got to be only around five." She announced.

"I don't care. I'll sleep till five in the afternoon tomorrow if I can." I announced.

There was a sharp call out in the distance. We all froze and listened. It came again and echoed around us.

"Was that…?" Monica's eyes stretched wide.

"..It was." I announced fearfully. "Police dogs. We need to get out of here…NOW!"

Silver didn't waste a second and was off running. Blaze scattered the fire pit (That luckily wasn't lit yet) and ran after him. Knuckles and Tails followed. "Come on!"

"How far away do you think they are?" Monica whispered to me.

"Not far." I answered. "Go on ahead, I'll catch up. I have to make sure Sonic makes it back here."

"I'm sure he can." Monica said. "Come on!"

Shadow stepped up beside me. "I'll wait for him. You two go!"

"He can teleport, Mark, he'll be fine too." Monica grabbed my arm and practically dragged me through the forest.

We ran for about ten minuets, nonstop. By the time we caught up to everyone else we were about ready to pass out.

"Where's Sonic and Shadow?" Tails gasped.

"Shadow's waiting…for Sonic…and they should…be here soon…" I managed to say between gasps. "Holy crap…I never should have quit…track…"

"What if they were caught?" Silver's eyes were so wide I thought that they were going to pop out of his head. "What if…what if Animal Control gets them?"

"Sonic and Shadow can take care of themselves." Blaze said. "If they don't meet up with us then that means either Eggman showed up or Sonic fell and broke his leg."

We didn't have to wait long. There was a streak of blue and Sonic appeared, looking terrified. "They…" He gasped. "They got Shadow."

A/N: OH NOOOO! They got Shadow! What will happen? Without him they're without common sense!