Sonic leaned back in his lounge chair on the beach and slid his sunglasses on. "Ah," He sighed, "This is the life. Sunny beach, cold drink, Amy being twelve thousand miles away…I sure was nice of the President to give me a vacation after I defeated Dr. Eggman…"
'S, O, N, I, C, GO! S, O, N, I, C, GO!'
Sonic had been dozing the warm sunlight when he was woken up by the ringing of his phone. "Huh?" He pulled off his sunglasses and squinted at the digital clock on his cell phone. "Three o'clock. I slept longer than I thought."
'GO, GO, GO, GO, LET'S GO!'
"Alright, sheesh." Sonic flipped open the phone. "Hello!"
"Sonic, is that you?"
"Tails?" Sonic asked, surprise obvious in his voice. "What's wrong?"
"Knuckles was kidnapped!" Tails exclaimed.
Sonic winced and held the phone away from his ear for a moment, then set it back against his ear again. "What? Who kidnapped him?"
"I don't know. It was a group of Marauders." Tails said.
"Marauders? What do ya mean?" Sonic asked.
"It was a group of Marauders, and six of the seven Chaos Emeralds are gone. No one seems to know what happened to them. Sonic, you gotta come back. We gotta get Knuckles back and find the Chaos Emeralds."
"I'm on my way." Sonic closed the phone and took off running. As he ran, he tried to think of who might have the Chaos Emeralds. Maybe Shadow needed them for something. Na, why would he only take six? Why would he take six? All he really needs is one. Maybe Rouge took them. Yeah, that sounds right. And it sounds just like something Rouge would do. Or maybe good old Egghead stole them to help with his latest plan to take over the world. Although he would have taken all seven if that had been the reason.
Finally Sonic gave up and admitted to himself that he had no idea who could have taken the Chaos Emeralds. He reached the ruins of Westopolis and slowed to a fast jog. The authorities weren't too happy the last time I went through here at two thousand miles an hour. He thought with a grin. Maybe it damaged their construction. They were moving right along and almost done rebuilding after the Black Arms invasion.
However, he slammed to a stop when he saw a flash of dark pink in an alley. "Amy?"
He turned and jogged down the alley, keeping his speedy feet moving. Then he saw it. It was wearing a strange suit of armor…it looked like it was some kind of alien outfit. Its eyes, the mark on its forehead, and the marks on its boots and bracelets glowed dark pink.
"Are you friend or foe?" Sonic asked.
No answer.
Sonic tried a different approach. "Who are you?"
"Hmm." It made a thoughtful noise, and then said. "I am Shade."
The voice was feminine. Shade had a tail, and two things on her head that could be ears or quills, or something. "Are you a Mobian?" Sonic asked.
Instead of answering, Shade turned and ran the other way. "Wait!" Sonic held out a hand, but Shade didn't stop. Sonic raced after her until he came to dead end.
"Where'd she go?" He looked around, and behind a couple of barrels, but Shade was gone.
Sonic stood there for a moment, and then shrugged it off. "I gotta get to Tails' house." He turned and raced away.
From the top of a nearby building, Shade watched the blue hedgehog race away. Then she too, turned away.
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T.A.R.N.S.: My Partner- In-Rhyme finally let me see his new Nintendo Power, and they had an article on the new game, Sonic Chronicles, in there. So I read it through and I saw Shade, and I thought, those two have got to meet before the game begins. Somewhere, somehow, Shade and Sonic have to meet. Thus, the end result is this fic. Most of what I put in here either comes from Wikipedia or is my speculating on the game. I don't own any of the characters.
Please R&R
L8R!
