This chapter contains material that I do not own, they are the property of one of the following: Akira Toriyama, Yoshihiro Togashi, Rumiko Takahashi, Tite Kubo, Masashi Kishimoto, Eiichiro Oda, and Yuji Naka. Please support these excellent artists.

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Alarms; something was happening on the planet. I woke up to the sound; it wasn't uncommon. Usually just Eggman up to something, or one of his lackeys. Usually Sonic would take care of it; usually I wasn't needed. I sped to the console regardless. I needed to double check, make sure I kept my promise to Maria. The computer flipped on, running a diagnostic of the space base Ark first. It was a safety procedure. I watched, thinking how this was my birthplace, my home.

Then the computer switched to the planet below. Mobius, Earth as the humans call it. My job, I guess my choice. Was to protect it. The screen zoomed in on one point, expanding it. It looked like a bomb of some sort. There was a figure hunched over it, wearing a black suit and hat. Then he turned, his face pasty white, and smiled. The look in his eyes, hunger. It was the only way to describe it. He knew I was watching him. How. This was a satellite camera, he couldn't know.

I shook the thought from my head, realizing in the moment I had taken to think he had vanished. The bomb was not Eggman's design. I could glean that much from here. He plastered his face on everything, this didn't carry his mark. I realized I was the only one who would know that it was there. The energy radiating off the device was immense, if it blew it would easily take the entire planet with it.

Determined I ran straight for the teleport. It would take me almost right to the bomb's location. In the meantime I had to figure out what I could do to stop it. If I could get Nicole or Rotor there soon enough, maybe they could stop it. But the thing was set to go in a matter of minutes. Even at top speed I'd only have a minute to figure out what to do. Maybe just destroy it? No, that'd just detonate it soon. I might be able to teleport back with it. I skidded to a stop at the teleporter, keying in the computer so that it would pick me back up, with the bomb. I also had the Ark start moving further away from the planet. It would be close.

On the surface I moved rapidly through the dense forest I had been dropped in. There. I stopped perfectly. There was a minute left on the counter. I reached down to pick it up, and prepared the teleporter. But the moment I touched it it beeped twice and exploded...

...I didn't expect to wake up; but I did. I was still in a forest. It was different than the one I had been in before though. Less foliage on the ground, the trees had higher branches. I guessed first that I had been thrown by the explosion, but if it had detonated the planet shouldn't still be standing. Yet there wasn't even scorch marks.

I looked around, it didn't look like any place I had been; so I used my wristwatch to try and communicate with the Ark. There was no signal. I heard a sound coming from behind me. There were a couple of men in black armor approaching me slowly. Odd, but I didn't have time to question. As soon as they were in range they lowered guns and began firing. Reflexively I ducked the bullets, and cut through the armor with my spines, figuring I could scare them away. The armor came apart and fell lifeless to the forest floor. No one was inside. I picked up a piece, the metal wasn't something I recognized. Touching it reminded me of that man I had seen; like this was a part of him.

There were a lot of questions running through my mind, and no answers. The planet had been under attack by many foes before, but none of them added up to what I was facing here. I ran as I thought. Whatever put that bomb on the planet was new. Why didn't the planet explode? I skidded to a stop as something passed the corner of my eye. Two more of those armored creatures were approaching a sleeping girl. Her messy auburn hair hung in her face. Within a second I had cleaved both in half and grabbed the girl. She was in strange garb, a flowery robe of some sort; I'd have to find a safe place to wake her.

I skidded to a stop as a familiar, and grotesque image passed overhead. Ruins, it looked like a part of the Master Emerald shrine. It was just a chunk of the whole, the main shrine was not here, but I soon recognized the rest of the Floating Island, which was hard because it looked like the Island had crashed on its side and almost flipped entirely over. I could see the tip of the largest mountain reduced to rubble as it smashed cruelly against the planet's surface.

I set the girl down and moved to get a better look. After climbing to the highest piece I could see chunks of the Echidna City strewn out on all sides. The main streets and center parts I could only guess were deep under this rock now. Obviously the bomb was not made to destroy, but perhaps instead relocate. Possibly something similar to my own Chaos Control teleport technique. Then I spotted something else of interest.

Right where the shrine was cut, there was an odd purple line. Beneath it, the earth looked like it had been cut clean. In fact it was almost perfectly smooth. Now the big question in my mind was who could have done this? No one came to mind out of the many villains that had threatened our world before. Not even Eggman has the level of power required to teleport an entire planet. Then I heard something.

I moved rapidly to conceal myself and watch the sleeping girl. A man emerged from the woods. He looked unlike the humans of Station Square. He was regal, his skin was as pale as fresh snow; almost to emphasize that he wore a white robe, and a flowing poofy white band over his shoulder. What struck me was when he moved to the girl and seemed to reach out to her. His yellow eyes took on a strange expression his clawed hand moved gracefully. My first instinct was this person was bad news.

"If you value your life, stop right there!" I called out, moving from my hiding place. He seemed unsurprised as he looked at me. Then he returned to what he was doing. I kicked into high speed as well as my spin dash, if he hadn't moved his arm as quickly as he did, he would be missing it.

Now in between the two, I stood my ground.

"Don't get in my way." He said, quietly, but with a force of emotion behind those words; like venom waiting to come out. He pulled his band back and rested his hand on the hilt of a sword. I didn't feel comfortable fighting while having the girl directly behind me, so I moved in, hoping to stop him before he drew his weapon.

Fortunately for me, the blade was stopped on the rings I wear around my wrists. However, the force and speed with which he struck nearly knocked me off my feet. I dug in and held my ground; electricity seemed to spark off the blade, but now I knew this was a powerful opponent and I was not about to get cut.

After a few seconds of struggling in deadlock we broke apart, immediately I began moving. I took advantage of my superior speed, moving rapidly out of the way of his cautious attacks. He was toying with me. Once again I shifted gears and almost instantaneously got behind him and threw a punch. The space between my fingers flared with pain as his blade blocked my strike. However in that instant I spun in and landed a kick right across his smug face.

Once again we put some distance between us. I looked at my hand, it felt like the cut was still opening; like electricity was trying to pour into the rest of my body. Fortunately I was hardy, and my skin was tough. There was a little bit of blood, but the blow hadn't been deep enough. I looked over at him, he was smiling. He now had his blade in an openly aggressive stance. Even though he was now closer to the girl, he showed no intention of abandoning this fight.

"Sesshoumaru-sama..." A delicate, frail voice on the winds. The girl was stirring. Immediately the man I had been fighting was by her side; his weapon sheathed. I moved cautiously now, watching him closely.

The girls eyes fluttered open, and she simply smiled up at the man over her.

"Sesshoumaru!" She yelled out, pulling herself close to him. He held her there for a moment before picking her up and returning her to her feet.

"I'm sorry." I said, realizing now that I had made a mistake. "I was just trying to keep her safe." Then I felt arms wrap around me. The girl had come over to hug me. I just froze.

"Thank you." She said softly, then bounced over to Sesshoumaru; who had an unreadable look on his face.

"Thank you for keeping her safe. To show my respect I won't kill you." That pompous. I was shaken from my stupor by those arrogant words.

"I'd like to see if you could." I almost wanted him to pick up the fight again now; but he seemed disinterested.

"If I were you, I'd find somewhere to hide. Come Rin." He said, before turning and heading back into the forests. I decided it wasn't worth following them and moved on in search of my own clues.

My instincts told me to head towards what I assumed to be north. As fast as I live, I cannot distrust my instincts. As I sped along I came across a terrain change that had me stop in my tracks. I moved from the very healthy forest into a desolate desert.

I turned and reexamined the space. A thin purple line, again. I dug my hands into the sand on one side, reaching for the other. I quickly hit soil. I dug a bit on both sides, I tried to dig out the line, no matter what I did the line shifted with the outermost lair. If I poured sand on top the line shifted to the top part as rapidly as I placed it. It was like an ugly wound, that no matter what a person does will still show.

I looked around, and realized the impossibility of the terrain. The desert, was no more than five meters around. I could see the forest in all directions. Like the two were trying to overlap each other, and the forest won.

Deciding I would need tools to analyze this further I began leaving. No sooner had I moved back into the forest, than I felt the ground quake. The lines behind me shone brighter, and the forested area shifted inwards, consuming the desert until not even the lines were left. I shook my head, there was nothing I could do now, I needed equipment before I could figure out what had happened.

I once again returned to my path, weaving between the trees; I wondered how there were so many. Considering the planet's state before the explosion. Yes we had been gradually regrowing, but much of the planet's surface was still covered in waste.

I paused my pondering for a moment as I passed someone. He was watching me carefully from halfway up a tree. He was a short man, with black hair spiked up to the sky and a white bandanna around his forehead. He wore a black cloak, under which I could just make out the hilt of a sword.

"It's not safe around here!" I called up to him. He smirked.

"That is not my concern." He seemed to be looking elsewhere. After a moment he looked down at me. "Have you seen a young girl, she has light blue, almost white hair and usually wears a white robe?" He seemed a mixture of annoyed and angry.

"No, I did find a few people back that way. One of them was incredibly strong. But I will keep an eye out." He smirked back at me, then vanished. Come to think of it, we never had this many strong, or strange people on our planet either, most humans had been fairly frail, relying on guns to make up for their weak frames. The best example of which was of course Eggman. I had yet to have seen an efficiently strong human who relied on at most a blade. Yet in about a day I have seen two. I continued my musings until I stumbled upon a new patch of desert.

"Okay." I told myself, watching it closely, the lines had lit up only a few seconds ago. "This is going to be stupid, but I'm not figuring anything out just standing here watching." Working up the nerve, I moved onto the sand and waited for the lines to reach me. There was a flash of light, and I was standing unsurprisingly in a desert.

It proved a couple of theories. Somehow, something was moving entire pieces of the planet, like it was some sort of jigsaw puzzle. Anything caught in the movement, moved too. As I looked around I noticed the sand was not a uniform color. There were multiple shades, from the typical golden brown, to a reddish hue. There was even an eery white sand, of which I had never seen on Mobius. This brought a new conclusion to mind, there was more than one planet being used. Which would explain the size. Normally I could circumvent the planet in a few hours going at top speed. It had been almost a day, and I felt I hadn't seen a fraction of the whole.

I was about to move on, when I felt something familiar. A few short moments away, I found a red gem shining out of the sand. One of the Chaos Emeralds. I picked up the stone, feeling it's power flow into me. With just one Chaos Emerald I could unlock a large part of my own powers. Most importantly the Chaos Control, something that would allow me to warp across large distances. I thought for a moment, then activated the Emerald's power.

Mountain, Ocean, Plains, Desert, Forest. My body flickered through each of these terrains as I semi-warped myself around the planet. One fact remained constant. Each terrain type seemed to be gathered, almost sorted, into a particular place. The only inconsistency occurred in civilization. Entire ruined structures lay almost at random across the globe. Then by chance I flickered on top of a structure. I stopped.

The machinery below me was active. This was alive, but with what? I edged my way to one side, spying those Armored creatures gathered below me. Almost as soon as I did, they began scrambling. Some rushing towards the forest's edge, others trying to take aim at me. I couldn't help but grin.

Before they had even steadied their guns, I was on the ground behind them. I had felt my spines run right through four layers, they were done.

"Chidori!" I heard someone call out from the forests. Several armored creatures flew out in pieces as a young man followed slowly behind them. He wore a deep blue overcoat with a high collar, his short black hair seemed to have the habit of sticking straight up, but most striking was his eyes. Blood red, with three black dots inside. He caught my gaze, and considered me for a moment.

"I assume you are not with these things?" I shook my head. "Good, then stay out of my way." He shifted rapidly to where he was behind me. I almost didn't see the movement. After a moment I decided to follow him.

Just inside the building was a walkway leading down, on the lower floor I could make out creatures, different than the armored ones. These things were obviously made of flesh, but most of them had very inhuman shapes. Many of them seemed grotesque or bloated. The man next to me didn't hesitate. He drew out a blade and dashed down. The creatures moved to attack, but he cut into the mass. I decided to dash down as well, cutting my own path through the creatures.

Within a matter of seconds the monstrosities were either dead or fleeing. I quickly took in the monitors lining the room, and spotted a large switch on a panel in the center. The console lit up, and quickly generated a large map