(Universe 12)

"You know it's almost time for lunch right?" A blue and peach colored hedgehog asked as he talked to what looked like a large metal cylinder. The hedgehog tapped his arm with a glove-covered finger while red shoes with a white stripe and buckle tapped the ground beneath him. Emerald green eyes sparkled with amusement, as the container seemed to growl out an answer, "Is that anyway to talk to your older brother?" He asked humorously.

A small, furry, orange head popped out from inside the machine followed by the rest. Soon an orange and white fox with two tails stood in front of the taller one glaring with light blue eyes.

"I'm in the middle of a very important project Sonic." The fox said testily, "I'll eat when I'm done. Go for a run or something and stop bothering me."

Sonic frowned and, upset, he poked the machine that was keeping his charge from eating, "What's the big deal about a dumb machine Tails?"

"You mean besides the fact it could destroy the world if I don't get it right." Tails growled as he swatted the hand away and climbed back inside, "Later Sonic."

The older huffed and walked to the door before suddenly vanishing in a blur of blue.

XXXXxxxXXXX

Sonic the Hedgehog, named for his ability to create sonic booms on foot rushed through the countryside miles away from their house.

With a small growl towards how his adopted brother had been pushing everyone away lately in exchange to work on his machines more, the blue speedster slammed his feet on the ground speeding up.

All sound seemed to disappear and everything slowed down as he approached the speed of light.

He didn't try to go faster or pass it though, not being capable of that yet.

As he began racing over a large ocean water droplets froze in midair as he passed.

He continued in his speed not noticing, as a large gap seemed to appear in front of him.

"No!" The hedgehog gasped as he noticed the gap and, unable to stop at his speed, ran straight into it.

XXXXxxxXXXX (Universe 59)

Complete darkness. That was what he saw. In his mind Sonic huffed in exasperation. Either he was dead, almost dead, stuck in between time and space, or blacked out.

The last one proved correct as his vision changed from black to white, before becoming blurry as colors were filtered in.

Suddenly everything snapped into focus bright and burning. He closed his eyes as light reached his abused senses and decided to focus on others.

Touch… whatever was underneath him was hard, like the floor in one of Eggman's bases and the air was relatively cool.

Taste? There was a slight metallic taste in his mouth, probably bit his check when he fell.

Smell? Fresh air along a mix of oil and salt were filtered through his sensitive nose.

Hearing… the purr of a steady going motor reached his ears along with the electrical humming of electricity flowing through the walls.

Carefully he opened his eyes again and looked around.

The space around him was relatively small and shades of black and gray because of the absence of light.

After what seemed like hours to the blue hero, but was probably only a few minutes, he stood up and moved a hand to the cold metal doorknob in front of him.

Feeling cold metal he froze, realizing that his gloves had somehow shrunk and the fingers were missing from the knuckles to the tips revealing his surprising thin fingers.

Figuring it had something to do with the tear he had traveled through Sonic opened the door and stepped outside.

No one was in the long plain corridor in front of him, so he took the opportunity to explore.

Near what appeared to have used to be the control deck of the ship was a large kitchen and dining area with an auditorium by it.

Near the bottom of the ship was a control room that was in use, oh… and they were in space.

Hearing voices echoing from down the hall Sonic dived into one of the shadows and watched.

Shadow and Rouge appeared from around the corner.

Sonic suffocated a laugh as it tried to force it's own way up his throat.

Shadow looked like he had been stunted, being shorter and less foreboding. His quills were also shorter and his eyes not quite as red.

The laugh disappeared as Sonic fully realized what he looked like. Standing in front of him was an echo of the powerful Ultimate Lifeform that had defeated the Black Arms and worked with him many times.

Rouge looked paler and younger than normal. She reminded the blue stowaway of how the white thief had looked when they first met on the ARK.

Both of them were different.

"Mr. Shadow! Miss Rouge!" A young voice called and both turned to see a rabbit running down the hall. Cream looked the same with just slightly less glow in her deep brown eyes, "Miss Amy made a cake to celebrate the defeat of the Meterex. It's in the dining room."

Rouge smiled and Shadow smirked before nodding.

Soon all three were walking down the hallway with a stowaway following close behind.

Rouge, Shadow, Cream, Amy, Vector, Espio, Charmy, Tails, Knuckles, a human he didn't know, and apparently himself were all in the room.

It was the last one that confused him the most.

Remembering his adventures into two classic storybooks Sonic quickly decided that he must have traveled to an alternate universe like before.

The other blue hedgehog was shorter and slightly fatter, with light olive green eyes instead of the bright emerald ships the traveler had.

His body had not been shaped by the chaos that flowed through him like Sonic's own had, that was for sure.

Hearing that the Master Emerald was powering the ship the stowaway snuck towards the engine room, not noticing when certain red eyes caught sight of his shadow.

XXXxxXXX

Shadow hurried to the dining room with Rouge at his side certain that a Faker they knew would eat it all if they didn't hurry. Because of said hurry he didn't react when he felt eyes on the back of his head as someone followed him.

When the Master Emerald was mentioned he spotted a shadow disappear around the corner and, after excusing himself, followed.

XXXxxXXX

The stowaway finally reached his destination and was shocked at the state the Master Emerald was in.

The large jewel was completely shattered, all the pieces were there, but it was still shattered.

"Maybe," He muttered underneath his breath as he stepped up the stairs to the top, "I can fix it."

Once reaching the top he held his hands just over the shards and felt the energy just at the tip of his fingers. It was slightly different with a life force being stored inside as well. Ignoring that Sonic concentrated on his own energy and couldn't help but smile when energy the same color as his eyes flowed from his fingerless gloves onto the emerald.

The first piece had just aligned itself with his help when he suddenly felt an arm circle around his neck pressing into his air pipe.

"Stop what you're doing now!"

It was Shadow.

Of course, to the other it must have looked like he was drawing energy from the emerald.

He could stop but… that would be dangerous to both of them.

"I can't stop. I've already form an alignment with the emerald."

"Than break the alignment." Shadow hissed as his arm dug into his windpipe more.

"No! I can fix it. I did it before…"

He was cut off when Shadow yanked on his back quills and sent both of them tumbling to the ground as the connection broke like a rubber band.

Sonic winced and rubbed his fingers on his arm to try to remove the flurry of green sparks that were trying to find a place to go.

Shadow had him stuck with his arms behind his back long before they had disappeared; "Faker was still sitting at the table when I started to follow you. So you can't be him. Who… or what are you?"

"Lemme go and I'll tell!" Sonic shot back as a spark decided that Shadow would make a good refuge.

"Don't try to move." The black hedgehog warned as he was released, "How did you get on the ship?"

"Dropped through a wormhole." Sonic said half sarcastically half truthfully.

Shadow glared than decided to try another, "Where are you from and who are you?"

"Planet Earth, and Sonic the Hedgehog."

Shadow frowned more than before and pressed a button on his watch, "Tails I think we have a problem. The Doctor may be involved with it."

Ten minutes later Sonic was sitting with his back against the wall glaring at anyone who dared to go near him, the sparks that still couldn't find a place to go flying around him making the hero seem more formidable.

"You're me." The voice is slightly deeper than his, yet still younger.

Sonic couldn't help but grin at the other's surprise, "Guess ya could say that. Sonic the Hedgehog at your service."

The younger Sonic grinned and snorted, "Sonic the Hedgehog at yours. Got any titles or code names I could call you?"

"Blue Blur?"

"I'm called the same thing."

"Knight of the wind?"

The younger snorted, "Dude, that is cheesy and why too long. How'd you get that one?"

"Time travel. Saved Camelot. Uh…" There was one he hadn't said yet… but he kinda liked to keep it a secret. What the heck, it wasn't like they'd see his plant anytime soon, "The only other two are Blue Beast and Dash."

"Blue Beast? How'd you get that one?"

"Egghead. Some sort of machine of his turned me into a werehog at night. It was either that or what my new friend kept calling me 'Mr. Monster Guy'."

"I'll stick with Dash." The younger proclaimed after thinking for a few seconds, "Knucklehead wants ta talk ta ya about what you were doing to his rock. Doesn't exactly trust anyone with it since I stole it." (He really did! Go check when they were getting the ship ready to leave in Sonic X)

"You stole it!"

"Long story."

With that Sonic left leaving 'Dash' only the four walls as his company until the guardian came.

XXXxxXXX

'Well,' Knuckles thought awkwardly as he watched the intruder for signs of life while he tried to figure out what was going on with those sparks, 'They sure have the same sleeping habits.'

"You got yourself into a big mess kid."

"I think I'm older than you."

Knuckles shook hearing the voice and turned his vision back to the hedgehog. Blue lids had opened to reveal emerald eyes brighter than he was used to, "You were awake."

"Why would I fall asleep?"

Knuckles opened his mouth to answer only to find he didn't have one. 'Dash' snorted realizing this.

"What were you doing with the Master Emerald?"

And they were back on track. As quickly as he could Sonic explained his situation, how he had got on their ship, and how he thought the emerald might help him get home.

"So you really were trying to fix it."

"That's what I've been saying!"

"You're a long way from home."

XXXxxXXX

"From what I can tell it's a simple chaos caused jump. The simplest you can get at any rate." Tails explained to the hedgehog leaning on the wall in front of his computer, "However that's also a problem."

"How?" Bright green eyes watched with curiosity that the fox was not used to seeing in someone that looked so much like his brother.

"You can't control where you jump to. Eventually you'll get back to your dimension… I have no idea when though. Could be three jumps, could be fifty."

The taller hedgehog frowned for a second before grinning, "Might as well start as soon as possible then."