I hardly spend any time on this site to do my stories and yet I'm always making more projects for myself. Best. Freaking. Author. Ever.

Pro author. Definitely.

Anyway, I don't own Sonic or any of the characters or the locations used from the Sonic games. That crap belongs to SEGA, which you probably already knew anyway.

Enjoy. Or at the very least, try to.

P.S. Story changes from POV to POV, beginning here with Tails. POV change will be marked with bold italic.

I sat on my bed in my room, looking over some blueprints I made for a new invention. I turned over and sighed sadly at the prototype, a pile of scrap metal. I set the blueprint down and went downstairs to the kitchen with my flashlight, since it was 2 in the morning. I looked in the fridge to find nothing but frozen hot dogs and packets of chilli. "Again, Sonic?" I muttered under my breath. I closed the fridge and checked the cabinet to find nothing but hot dog buns. I groaned and opened a mini fridge I had hidden behind some boxes to find... cheese... "Great, now he's found my last dependable source of food... ah, well, at least it's cheese..." I grabbed a few slices, ate them, and put the mini fridge back behind the boxes.

Suddenly, I heard something fall and hit the ground from the living room and ducked, turning off the flashlight. "Agh!" I heard a whispered voice cry out. "Stupid boxes...!" I dashed over to the table and hid under it, trying to see who was in the room. I saw the silhouette of a hedgehog, looking around nervously as if to see if anyone had come down due to hearing the noise. "Alright, alright, looks like I'm fine..." the hedgehog said. Due to the low tone of the voice, I couldn't identify it, and it was so dark I just couldn't see a face. The hedgehog slowly picked up a small box covering a metal container. He opened it and pull out the cyan Chaos Emerald. He found the Emerald box! I thought. "There you are, I knew you were around here somewhere." He put the container back and set the cardboard box back on top of it. He had slipped something into the metal container, I just couldn't tell what it was.

The hedgehog looked around and went out the front door, dashing away off over the hills...

I got out from under the table and ran back upstairs. M-Maybe it's just a dream I thought. Maybe if I go back to sleep, everything will be fine in the morning. I got in bed, turned off the light, and fell asleep.

My alarm clock went off and I woke up, reaching over, flopping my arm around senselessly to find the "off" button. I ended up knocking the clock over and sat up with a groan. The clock kept beeping and I reached down, hurting my back, to pick it up and put it back on the night stand. Once I set it down, I pressed the "off" button on the clock and nothing happened. With a loud groan, I grabbed my hammer and smashed the clock into pieces. The wires between the speaker of the clock and the computing unit managed to stay connected and I pounded at it with the hammer with no result, other than putting a dent into the night stand.

Screaming, I grabbed the wire and pulled at it furiously, but the plastic coating kept it together. I grabbed my pocket knife and cut the wire. I don't know how, but the speaker just. Kept. Beeping. I grabbed my hammer and smashed the speaker apart and finally the beeping stopped. Sonic slowly opened the door and peeked in. "You okay, buddy?" he asked. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine," I replied. "This happens sometimes." Sonic walked in and said, "Yeah, that's what happens when you make your own clocks." I set the hammer down. "I don't see you complaining about the Tornado," I said. Sonic chuckled and said, "Touche, little guy. C'mon, let's have some breakfast. You got any cereal?" I got up and yawned. "No, we just have all that chilli dog crap overloading every source of food in the house," I said. "I was up at night and saw you even managed to find my mini fridge." For some reason, Sonic suddenly seemed real nervous. "Uh... heh... yeah... uh, let's just go to a diner or something, yeah? That-that sounds good," he said. "Uh... Okay...?" I replied, confused.

We went downstairs and I suddenly remembered last night. "Hey, you go ahead to that diner just down the street from the theater, I'll be there. I need to check on something real quick," I said. "Okay. See ya, Tails!" Sonic said as he dashed off through the door at about half the speed of sound. I took the cardboard box hiding the Emerald box and opened it. "Phew, it's still here," I said in relief. "I guess it really was a dream, eh?" I hesitated as I closed the box. "Huh... the Emerald always shines as I close the lid..." I opened it and took the Emerald out. "This doesn't feel right... it's too light..."

I put it back and put the box in my room under my bed, deciding not to leave Sonic waiting too long and to test the Emerald later. I ran to the diner and found Sonic already sitting with some coffee at a window booth. I sat down and he slid a hot chocolate he ordered for me. "Thanks," I said, taking a sip and opening the menu.

Meanwhile,

Shadow's POV...

I skated over the sidewalk with my hover shoes at full speed, dashing through the streets past people, carelessly pushing the people who were in my way into the street or into a bush. Upon reaching a construction zone where some people were drilling the sidewalk open, I jumped over the tape and pushed my foot on a worker's head to give me a boost over the other end of the zone. I kept skating, bearing urgent news that needed to be delivered immediately.

I reached Tails' house and kicked down the door. I ran up to his room and opened it, shouting "TAILS!", only to find his room was empty. "Huh?!" I exclaimed in confusion. I ran through the house searching for the golden fox, but I couldn't find him. I went back to his room and searched it to find a metal box under his bed. I opened it and saw the cyan Chaos Emerald. I sighed in relief, but then I realized that there didn't seem to be any energy coming from it. I took it in my hand, and said "Chaos, Control!", but nothing happened. "Huh?! Wha- It's a plastic fake!" I set the Emerald back and dashed out the door to search the town for Tails.

Whooo, first chapter done! Yaaaaay!

But what's Shadow's news? Who replaced the Emerald with a fake? WHAT DID TAILS ORDER AT THE DINER?!

Stay tuned for the second chapter and find out all of this!*

*May exclude Tails' order