Stage 3: Emerald Chaos

"...Okay, wake up time. Hey guys! It's a new day ya know." Sonic said wide and awake as he tapped his foot impatiently.

"I hope you have a snooze button on your nose, Sonic," Knuckles growled as he awoke, "Cause I'm about to jab it."

The rest of them got out of their snoozing position from the plane. They all knew Sonic was right, one moment of hesitation always translated into a moment that Eggman could exploit.

"Okay, we're up," Tails said in a groggy voice, "Now you did say that you saw mysterious human females, right?"

"Oh yeah, right. Like I said already, no other human I've ever seen was able to do the things that they could. I don't know whether or not they're connected with Eggman. They were all so powerful."

"Okay, so as far as we know they are more dangerous than the average human being, perhaps even more dangerous than Eggman himself," Knuckles said, "So for now well just refer to them as 'super humans.' We… might not want to face them in a fight or something."

"What I'd like to know is how they got their powers in the first place?" Amy said, "There must be a record of them somewhere in this place."

"Hey Nicole," Tails asked his super computer, "Can you search for locations in a ten mile radius that have information on super humans?"

"Certainly," answered a beautiful fox woman wearing a Tron like body suit from inside the computer, "Standby." Nicole began searching for information about super humans but found nothing after a minute, "No information available."

"Try 'Sailor Scouts'," Sonic suggested.

"Standby," This time, Nicole found something, "Seven matches found."

"'Sailor Scouts?'" Knuckles inquired.

"Yep," Sonic nodded, "That was what they called themselves."

"Display location map," Tails commanded.

"Acknowledged," the super computer projected a holographic map. Tails pointed at one location.

"Okay, just to be on the safe side we'll need to find out more about these 'Sailor Scouts'. Let's try this location here."

"I'll go," Knuckles said walking to the entrance.

"Okay, Knux," Sonic gave a thumbs up, "Watch your back out there."

"Here, take a Chaos Emerald just incase," Amy said giving him the yellow Chaos Emerald.

"Thanks," Knuckles grinned and flew off, "Be back in a sonic second!"

Meanwhile, as the Freedom Fighters were focusing on their strategy, the Sailor Scouts were doing just the same…

"So let me do a recap… you saw a blue hedgehog?"

"Yes."

"A hedgehog that can TALK."

"Yes!"

"Hedgehogs don't talk, Sailor Meatball Head..."

"Of course, but this one DID!"

"And they're not blue."

"But this one WAS!"

Amara leaned back against the wall of Raye's temple with her arms crossed sighing as she did. She fought against energy eating monsters, the messiah of death and silence, and possessed Sailor Scouts that wanted to conquer the universe, yet she could not believe the idea of a blue hedgehog that could talk and ran faster than the eye could see… and wasn't in any way demonic.

"She's telling the truth," Ami spoke, "Eggman called this blue being a hedgehog, and that's all we can go by for now."

"Hm…" Dairen frowned, "So this strange creature is capable of moving at speeds faster than all of you? How's that possible?"

"We don't know, Dairen," Raye answered, "He couldn't have just moved so quickly without anything extra."

"Uh huh," Serena nodded, "But do you remember what Eggman said? He was talking about 'Chaos Emeralds.'"

"Chaos Emeralds?" Lita asked, "You don't think?"

"I really do hope not," Luna cut in, "But there may be more of those Chaos Emeralds around and I think that it may be best if we find the rest of them before this Sonic or Eggman do."

"Did he say something else that may help?"

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEKK!" Serena screamed and glared at the time guardian behind her, "Trista, you really have to stop that habit of yours!"

"Apologies," Trista responded, "I saw what was going on and I wanted to see what was up."

"Hey, Trista," Artemis asked quickly, "Do you know anything about Eggman, Sonic, or the Chaos Emeralds?"

Trista slowly shock her head.

"Well, that's lands us back at square one." Raye sighed.

"But I thought you had omniscience," Mina said, "You know, the power to know anything and everything. And can't the time gates help us?"

"The time gates don't exactly have every information in the universe, they work like a file closet. If I find that the there is something that I don't already know, I transfer it into the time gates and it's monitored from then on."

"So if we want to find out more about these guys," Michelle figured out, "We'll need to do it ourselves."

"Huh?"

"What was that, Hotaru?" Amara asked as her 'daughter' felt alarmed.

"I thought I saw something in the window. It looked like an animal."

"Was it the hedgehog?" Luna asked quickly.

"No. It looked red and it was flying. It also seemed to have dreadlocks."

"Stay here with the Inners," Amara said as she and her cousin went to the door, "We'll find him and see what he knows."

"Okay," Serena said, "Just don't be too aggressive."

"Right…"

With Knuckles…

Knuckles landed in the faculty in the far part of where he came from. In front of him was a large iron gate. Behind it was a building made of steel.

"Man, look at all this security," Knuckles uttered, "This is gonna be tougher than I thought."

Knowing that just standing there would get him nowhere, he climbed up gate and jumped over it. He finds a locked vent, punches through and goes inside. He was small enough to actually walk through there. The vent itself was actually like some kind of maze. He decides to go strait to the end and he finds something shocking: a bunch of humans were walking around a large room working on computers.

"Dang! Sonic wasn't joking; there are a lot of humans out there!" Knuckles whispered to himself.

Trying to be as stealthy as possible, Knuckles brought out his Shovel Claws and ripped though wires. Silently, he jumped from platform to platform. When he reached another vent opening, tore through it and went through. After about ten minutes, reach a bird's eye vent. He looked down and fortunately, there were no humans around. He drops down to find a large computer.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Knuckles chuckled as he walked up to the computer, "Let's what we can find." He typed in "Sailor Scouts" and added "First Strike" just to see if he could find their origins. He wasn't able to find any of it, but he did find an article about the night that one of the Scouts, Sailor Moon, first appeared.

NEW DEFENDER OF JUSTICE MAKES A DEBUT

Reports of strange happenings going around Tokyo have been becoming increasingly larger. Rumors of monsters that steal energy from people have been spreading like wildfire. Most people say that the rumors were no more than an urban legend. That is until one night confirmed that all the rumors were not urban legends at all. A hideous monster attacked a fourteen year old schoolgirl, and took control of the minds of the women wearing mind control jewelry. All seemed angst until Sailor Moon comes on the scene and miraculously dose away with the monster. She then deals with all the rest of the monsters for the entire night and disappears for the day. No one is certain where she came from, but one thing is for sure… one night of crime busting is just the beginning.

"Well, that's weird," Knuckles uttered to himself, "But at least I've got something," He pulled out a USB cord from his Comm. Link and connected it to the computer. As it was downloading, he called Sonic.

"What's the word, Knux?"

"Sonic, I managed to find something on the Sailor Scouts. I'm sending it to Nicole now."

"Sweet. See you when you get back here."

As Knuckles turned off the Comm. Link, he heard some noise coming from the outside. Knowing that he might be discovered, he quickly pulled out the Chaos Emerald and began to pray to the Master Emerald to lend him some of its power. That was when the door opened.

"What in the…!"

The humans didn't even have the time to react. There was a blinding flash of light and it blinded them all. They were all shouting "What happened!?" or "I can't see!" as they clumsily bumped into each other. Knuckles just snickered at the humorous display of stupidity and flew up to the vent and out to the roof.

"Man, that was a close one," Knuckles muttered to himself, "Thought for once that I was gonna get caught. Well, I got what I came for, might as well head back…"

"You're not going anywhere," said a gruff feminine voice, "Not until you answer our questions."

Alarmed, Knuckles looked around for the source of the voice; he found two feminine silhouettes standing on the edge of the roof in a back to back position.

"And who are you suppose to be?" Knuckles asked suspiciously.

"Guided by a new era, Scout of Wind and Elegance, Sailor Uranus!"

"Also guided by a new era, Scout of Water and Grace, Sailor Neptune!"

"Charmed," Knuckles said in a sarcastic voice. The two Outer Scouts jumped near Knuckles at a striking distance.

"Okay, hotshot," Uranus began, "We have questions for you and we want them answered now."

"I'm not gonna say anything to some super humans like you," Knuckles said with arms crossed, "What do you think I am? Stupid?"

"Uranus," Neptune whispered to her cousin, "You see what he has in his hand?"

Uranus glanced at the yellow gem that the red echidna had in his hand, "That must be one of the Chaos Emeralds Serena told us about," she whispered back. "On second thought," she then said out loud, "Hand over the Chaos Emerald!"

"What?!" Knuckles demanded.

"We don't know what the jewel is capable of doing," Neptune continued, "We need to make sure that impending chaos will not be released again. That is why we need to hang on to that Emerald."

"Ya know, I usually don't know how to act around girls," Knuckles growled, "But there's no way I'm giving you this Emerald, that and give you any information at all."

"Then we're just going to take it from you! Uranus World Shaking!"

Knuckles' eyes widen as the yellow orb ripped through the ground and went right for him. He managed to evade it, but drop the Emerald, which Neptune slowly picked up, while doing it.

"Give… that… BACK!" Knuckles shouted as he went after Neptune but Uranus knocked him to the ground.

"Our welcome has worn off, Neptune," she said, "Let's go." The two Scouts jumped away as Knuckles tried to follow them. He tried to use his senses to find them and the Emerald but soon lost track of them.

"No… I lost em," Knuckles snarled to himself, "This is not good, not only did those Sailor Scouts find out about the Chaos Emeralds, but they also have one now. Gotta tell the guys." He flew off back to the cave.

Back at the hideout…

"Aw no, there more Sailor Scouts out there and the stole the Emerald you had?" Amy asked in distress.

"Yeah, when I said that I wouldn't tell them anything, they snatched the Emerald and made off with it," Knuckles informed, "They also said something really weird."

"What did they say?" Tails asked.

"They said that they needed to make sure that impending chaos wouldn't be released again, as if they know something we don't. But we all already know the legend behind the Chaos Emeralds."

"Since they already have one Chaos Emerald," Sonic thought out loud as he rubbed his nose, "No doubt that they would be trying to clam the rest. We'd better get to those Emeralds before they do. Tails!"

"Already done, Sonic!" Tails said as he imputed some commands on Nicole, "I scanned they Chaos Energy from our Emerald and used it to find the location off the rest of the Emeralds! So far we've located three."

"Hopefully we'll be able to find the Master Emerald too," Knuckles added.

"Okay, you guys," Sonic commanded, "We have a situation on our hands. We need to get those Emeralds before the Sailor Scouts do. Freedom Fighters, let's jelly n' jam!"

Raye's temple…

Hotaru looked closely at the Chaos Emerald that Amara gave her, "Well, what is it?" the tall woman asked.

Hotaru's deep amethyst eyes darkened slightly, "I'm… not so sure. I feel a dark ancient power from this Emerald, but at the same time, I can also feel an ancient light balancing it."

"Darkness and light in the same place?" Michelle wondered, "That's absolutely unlikely."

"Tell me about it," Raye pointed out, "While you guys were gone, I tried to find something in the sacred fire, but so far nothing."

"Yeah, but I've also found something very disturbing," Hotaru said as she gave them Emerald to Serena, "While there was darkness and light, both of those elements where totally destructive."

"Really?" Mina gasped.

"Uh huh. I'm afraid if that the Emerald ever fell into the wrong hands, it could destroy an entire city! And if there more of these Chaos Emeralds, just imagine what could happen to the whole world!"

"Then that settles it," Luna concluded, "We have to find an Emerald or two before it's too late. Ami, can you try and pinpoint the location of the Emeralds?"

"All over it," the brilliant Mercurian princess said as she brought out the Mercury Unit, "I'll use the traces of energy from the Emerald to locate the other ones."

"Okay then," Serena instructed, "Time to find us some Emeralds! Sailor Scouts, let's move!"

In an unknown area…

Dr. Eggman sat in his large chair and watch the multiply monitors before him. He had sent his E-10 Spybots to look the city that he would soon conquer (yeah right). In one hand, he held the red Chaos Emerald as he thought about last nights failed attempt to take over the city.

"Where did that little hussy learn to harvest that power? How is it that I, Doctor Ivo 'Eggman' Robotnik, with an I.Q. of over three hundred, spent days… months… YEARS to gain such power while she can do it without any effort? I must find out where that power comes from!"

A small beeping noise caught the doctor's attention. Turning to the monitor, he finds Sailors Uranus and Neptune antagonizing Knuckles.

"My, my, my. It seems there are more of these sissy girl scouts around here."

In a split second the taller women fires a yellow ball thing a Knuckles. He evaded it but dropped what Eggman confirmed to be a Chaos Emerald. The other one swipes it and they dash off as the guardian tries to chase them.

"Ooooh! Looks like the ladies aren't too chummy with the blast rodents! And they seem to have taken a Chaos Emerald for themselves!" An idea then dawns on to Eggman as he turned away from the monitor, snickering deviously, "That's it! I've got it! I'll make both teams handle the grunt work and make them find the rest of the Emeralds! And once that's over with, I'll pit them against each other! Although the hussies have a bizarre fashion sense, they out number my advisories already and they're more powerful then they would ever hope to be! Those Freedom Fighters would never stand a chance! Muhahahahahahahahaa!"