A blue blur sped by, leaving everything behind him to eat his dust. His feet practically floated off the grass as he ran by. He'd ran about five miles already, and yet his legs felt no pain. But his heart was pounding and he was appreciating every second of it. The wind brushing past his face, playing with his quills and cooling him down as he kept running forward. Everything was a blur of blue and green to his emerald eyes, and even though he was passing the world by without even taking a second glance, he knew exactly where he was going.

"And Sonic the Hedgehog approaches the obstacle loop!" the blue hedgehog chanted in his head as he ran through the loop, curling up into a ball to speed up. He uncurled from his ball shape and kept running, faster and faster, panting heavily and yet still having enough energy to run five more miles.

Being able to run at such impeccable speed was the best feeling that Sonic could ever experience. A great feeling of peace and relaxation washed over him, and nothing could ruin it. Nothing at all.

Until a massive explosion erupted before him.

He tried skidding into a stop, but the impact of the explosion was so vast that it threw him back against the grass and checkered soil. He brought up little dust that joined the clouds of dust the strange blast had brought up. Sonic got up and walked over to the huge gaping hole, seeing only debri and rocks scattered around. As he skid down to level dirt, he was sure this was the work of his egg-headed enemy.

He didn't see anything down there that could have caused the explosion. Right when he was about to turn around and leave, maybe report it to his fox friend, a pile of rocks began to stir. The hedgehog walked over to the pile of rocks with caution and interest. He kicked one of the rocks. A low, muffled groan was his response.

Startled, he began to shove the rocks aside, trying to help whoever was in need of it. After pushing away a few of the rocks, he could make out dark fur. "So he caused this," Sonic thought to himself as he pushed away more rocks until the dark hedgehog, who was curled up into a protect ball, was free.

"Hey, are you okay? What happened?" Sonic asked, the hedgehog before him stirring and outstretching his arm. Sonic took it, helping him up, and only then did he see that the hedgehog was actually a girl.

It surprised him a bit, since he didn't really see many female hedgehogs around Green Hill Zone, except for maybe Amy. He shook away the thought of the obsessive pink hedgehog and examined the girl before him. She was covered in scars she most likely got from the explosion. All of her fur was black, except she had a white snout and her quills had a bit of pink at the tips. Now that he thought about it, she kind of looked like Shadow to Sonic. Her irises were a pink color, and her eyes darted over Sonic confusedly as he inspected her. She had gloves like Sonic's with red cuffs that matched her red shoes. Her shoes were also similar to Sonic's, except they had a black stripe instead. The dirty, not even close to white, shirt that clung onto the girl had a bunch of rips and tears, and that seemed to be all she was wearing.

She appeared to be an ordinary hedgehog, until he saw the dull glowing sphere behind her shirt a few inches below her neck. Curiosity nudged Sonic forward as he reached for the neck of the girl's shirt, hoping to get a glance at the glowing sphere. Before he could pull the neck down, though, a sharp sting on his check sent him a few steps back.

Sonic held his cheek and stared at the girl with wide eyes. She stared back at him, eyes wide and an outstretched hand protecting her chest.

He realized how scared she must have felt.

"I'm sorry," he began, inching forward. "I just-" He cut himself off, noticing how frightened she looked, how she was inching away from him, how her breathing was shaky and short. "Wait, I-"

The words barely escaped his lips when she was running away from him, out of the hole and speeding away.

"Wait!" Sonic shouted as he sped forward. He was sure he'd catch up to her in no time; he was the fastest guy around. To his surprise, though, the girl seemed to share his speed as well. She peered back and gasped when she took one look at him, the looked ahead and sped up even more. Glaring and somehow accepting the task as a challenge, he increased speed only to have her speed up even more. He clenched his teeth, anger boiling up enough to blind him and send him tripping over a rock and crashing into the ground.

Sonic clenched his fists and picked himself off the ground, cussing lowly at the stinging on his face from the fall he took. He looked ahead and saw that the girl was long gone and out of sight.

He felt like going after her. A huge part of him did. Maybe it was because of the glowing sphere behind her shirt, maybe it was because of the fact that she crashed (almost literally) into his life. Or maybe it was because of the fear and confusion written on her face. Either way, he couldn't just let her leave. He had to find her, and he had to help her.

"What was that?" someone laughed from above him. He turned around and looked up to see Tails laughing lightly, his orange tails whirring behind him as he flew down and landed before him.

"Did you see her?" Sonic asked. Tails raised an eyebrow.

"The hedgehog you were chasing?"

"Yeah! She came crashing out of nowhere!"

"I don't think people just crash down out of nowhere, Sonic," Tails said, laughing sarcastically. Sonic glared at him.

"No, she did! I helped her out of these rocks she was trapped in, and there was something glowing under her shirt. I wanted to check what it was, and well… she slapped me and ran away. I chased after her, but tripped and she got away."

"She was probably scared, Sonic," Tails replied sympathetically.

"I figured, and I guess me chasing her wasn't helping," Sonic muttered, turning back and looking at the direction the girl had sped off. "She looked really lost and hurt… What if Egghead did something to her, or does something to her?"

"So you want to look for her?" Tails asked. Sonic nodded. "And you want my help?" Sonic turned to him and grinned.

"Of course, buddy! Let's go find that girl."

-…-

She kept running, faster than she'd ever run before, even after she was sure the blue hedgehog was gone. Her heart pounded loudly in her ears, and so did her panting when she entered the dark cave. The strange glowing in her chest illuminated the darkness slightly, but not so much that she could see the water running nearby. She leaned against the cave wall, shutting her eyes and catching her breath, sinking down until she was sitting on the cold hard floor.

That strange glowing, what was it? What was it doing in her chest, and what exactly was causing it to do that? She was too afraid to even look. Even more questions flooded her brain, the main one being-

Where was she and why was she a hedgehog? She was pretty sure she wasn't a hedgehog before winding up in the strange place she was in. Now that she thought about it, she didn't have any real recollection of anything before crashing into the ground. And now she was beginning to feel the after effects of that crash. Her limbs felt sore, and the cuts and gashes stung. Her head was already pounding, and she just wanted to go where ever home was, not where hedgehogs where chasing her and metallic animals were trying to hurt her.

She wanted to go back home.

A choked sob, followed by a hiccup, escaped her lips, and tears ran down her cheeks. She pulled her knees to her chest and rested her head on her knees, hoping that stupid hedgehog wouldn't find her, her pulse still pounding in her head.

-…-

Dr. Eggman was enjoying a nice flight above Green Hill Zone on his Eggmobile when a buzz startled him, disrupting his peace. He'd been checking on his robot animals inhabiting the area when the buzz erupted. With an annoyed scowl, he turned to the blinking screen and accepted the incoming call.

"Dr. Eggman," a robot voice erupted.

"What is it?" Dr. Eggman replied, making sure his annoyance was visible with a grumpy look.

"A new hedgehog has appeared."

"And what do I care? If it isn't Sonic, then it isn't of my concern."

"But this hedgehog is quite powerful." That simple phrase, or more like one of those words, caught Eggman's full attention.

"Power? How much… power?"

"More power than a Chaos Emerald." Dr. Eggman smirked evilly, gears working up an evil plan to take out that annoying blue hedgehog.

"Tell me more."

Nara: I hope I didn't make you guys wait too long D: I finally got around to writing this at about 3 am xD But yep, soon I'll have rewritten all the chapters and will continue c: I've got the plotline figured out so hopefully nothing stops me~

Thanks for reading n.n