YES! My muse finally overcame my stupid, stupid, STUPID cold, ear infections, sore throat, etc, etc, etc.! So I'll keep myself from ranting on and on about procrastination, medication, nasal spray, peanut butter, and blueberry muffins, and let you read on. Enjoy, amigos.

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DISCLAIMER: I do not own Sonic, Shadow or any other official StH character that occurs in this fic. They belong to SEGA and/or Sonic Team. Game Locations such as Westopolis and Angel Island, etc. are also Sonic Team/SEGA's, I believe. And the song Almost Dead by Powerman 5000, of which the first part is featured in the prologue, is from the game 'Shadow the Hedgehog', therefore also belongs to, you guessed it, SEGA/Sonic Team. Otherwise, yeah, the rest is mine.

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It was night on Angel Island. Stars dappled the infinite black sky like white dust on a cloth. Below, the dripping jungle resonated slightly with the miniature cacophony of the night creatures' calls. Through the thick curtain of the exotic foliage, a deep green glow pierced the blackness.

Deep in this floating island's beautiful yet unforgiving labyrinth of rainforest, a magnificent temple stood, bathed in the green splendor of what it held.

At the top of the huge stone structure, sitting on a small altar, was a gigantic green gemstone the size of a small car. It shimmered green with enough intensity that it illuminated the entire clearing. On the topmost step to the altar, a certain Knuckles the Echidna stood silently, arms crossed. An immovable red sentinel guarding a jewel of immense power.

The figure's deep violet eyes were fixed on the fringe of forest in front of him, as always. Watching and waiting for the slightest abnormal rustle, anything he wasn't used to hearing. If someone or something came for it, he was ready.

That's when he first heard it.

A high, shrill whistle, slowly getting louder and louder, not unlike the screech of some kinds of tropical birds. But those birds only were out in the day; this was almost midnight. Never trust the unusual— that was his rule. There was something out there, and he didn't like it.

His head snapped to the left, his eyes narrowed. He saw a reddish-pink sphere, spinning uncontrollably, sailing through the air… right for him.

He ducked down at the last possible instant, feeling it pass so close to his head, he felt himself slide to the right a few inches from its' powerful slipstream. Half a second later, he heard a deafening crash as it smashed into the forest floor and into a jungle tree.

He stood upright, facing the glowing object. Next question—what was that?

The sphere had left a long, slightly smoldering slash in the ground, and the tree it had hit was now sporting a large chunk missing from its' trunk. The sphere glinted as a forcefield of sorts swirled across its' surface. Then, with a swoosh noise, the energy shell around it disintegrated.

Suddenly the ball seemed to fling itself about three or four feet into the air and it uncurled midair and landed back on the ground, standing on two large, rabbitlike feet with three small, curved claws on each almost invisible toe.

Knuckles stared at the creature. It resembled a large, chubby, furry lizard— it was only about a foot tall and the same length, and covered in short, thick fur of red-pink. Its' stomach was covered in large, platelike scales of dark red. The tail was somewhat short, with spikes going up until its' rump, and down to the arrowhead tip at the end of it. Its' dark red eyes were large, round and shiny, and almost seemed too big for its' oval-snouted face. Triangular, catlike ears, with two black tufts on the points, and large, scarlet horns that curved into a wide semicircle. A small, pointy fang poked out of its' tiny curve of a mouth.

The red guardian studied the peculiar reptile cautiously, and suspiciously. Judging from its' physique and color, it was female.

Unexpectedly, the thing dropped down on all fours and trotted towards the steps. I knew it! The echidna readied himself to fight, but the creature simply sauntered past, sparing him no more than a nonplussed glance. It padded over to a Ring that was revolving and glimmering nearby, and, with one smooth movement, it swooped its' tail through the Ring's center. There was a small crackle, and the Ring started to float around its' tail. Now adorned with this object, the pink lizard-thing started back over to the temple steps.

Here it comes…

It was, at present, quite obvious that the thing was just looking for a Ring to amplify its' attacks, and now, he wished he would have stopped it before then. Knuckles went into a defensive stance as the reptilian furball made it to the bottom of the steps, and stood back up on its' hind legs.

But, unlike what he was expecting, the creature didn't jump at him, breathe fire, screech, attack, or act hostile in any way. The two of them just stood there, staring at each other, until the pink thing waved a chubby front paw at him and piped in a cheerful, immature, oblivious-to-the-fact-that-it-was-about-to-be-smitten-into-next-week-with-a-spiky-fist-if-it-didn't-scram-in-five-seconds, definitely female voice—

"Hello!"

Now this had certainly taken him aback. His powerful red arms dropped to his sides in surprise. Checking himself inwardly, he resumed his stance and glared at her.

"… Alright, what do you want?" he demanded, though he already was sure of the answer.

"Me? Nothing." the creature looked genuinely puzzled at this query, and shrugged, a rather comical gesture. "… Well, for one, I'd like to know where I am…" She looked around at the dense forest undergrowth, looking rather troubled. "And I'd like to know if you've seen any other strange flying things about. Especially odd-colored ones!" For no particular reason, she beamed, her eyes becoming wide, upside-down 'u's.

"… What? No, why would I?" he growled, folding his arms. He was still wary of this lizard-thing, but seeing as it hasn't made a move for the Emerald yet, he figured he could relax somewhat.

"Awwh, darn. I hope this isn't an island or I won't be able to get out of here…"

"Well, hate to break it to you, but not only is this an island, it's a floating one." Knuckles replied.

"Floating? COOL! How come it floats?" asked the pinkish creature, her eyes sparkling with excitement, forgetting her predicament in a heartbeat.

"It floats from the power of the Master Emerald, which I guard to keep it from falling into the wrong hands…" he replied, glaring rather pointedly at her. "… Which doesn't mean you, right?"

She actually laughed out loud. "Nope! I'm actually here for a really super-important reason, and that would be to warn this world…"

He blinked. "Warn? Of what?"

"Of, erm… Oh bother it all, I just remembered! I won't be able to remember what I'm here for until I find the Sages' Ring again, it's to keep me from spilling the beans to the wrong person…" She glowered up at him, imitating his glare. "Which doesn't mean you, right?"

The surly red echidna rolled his eyes, but looked back to the pink lizard questioningly. "Sages' Ring?"

The furry pink reptile heaved a deep, slightly whistling sigh. "… Well, I suppose I should tell you, but take my word for it, it's a long story. Wait, by the way, what's your name?"

"… Name's Knuckles." He half mumbled, rather taken aback by the reptile's trusting and friendliness. "… What exactly are you, anyway?"

"I'm glad you asked!" She chirped. "I am Magenta, a Fire Dragon, of the scientific name draco occidentalis pyrosis. I come from the world of Draconia."

"A fire dragon from the world of… wait, if you're a fire dragon, why do you have fur?" Knuckles asked.

"That's part of the long story I was talking about; I'm actually not supposed to have fur, it's from the exposure to the Sages' Ring that I had as an egg, in other ways I'm different as well…" Magenta replied. "But before I can tell you about that, I have to start from the beginning.

"Draconia is a large planet, similar to Earth in many ways," Magenta began. "There are continents, oceans, and polar icecaps. But the continents on Draconia are way differently shaped and the icecaps are HUGE!" The pink dragon thrust out her chubby arms as far apart as possible to punctuate her point. "Also, there are absolutely no humans on Draconia—the chief sentient beings there are dragons, like me! There's barely any technology involved in our lives, and most of everything comprises magic and the power of the elements, although there is plenty of scientific knowledge of the world around us.

"Anyway, I'll tell you how me and my brothers were actually born. Many human years ago, there was a prophecy that Draconia would be assailed by a deadly evil and that four dragons of completely different species— ice, fire, black, and electric, altered at birth by an object from a different dimension and raised under the shadow of something called the Divide, would have to journey to a parallel universe to stop its' spread to another planet—namely, Earth, and if they succeeded, the evil in Draconia would die out and all would live in prosperity once more. The prophecy didn't say whether or not those four would succeed, but anyway, about a year after that Oracle Dragon made that prediction, a tear in the lining of the universe appeared—right over the Temple on the Isle of Daainyr.

"The Daainyr dragon temple is one of the largest temples in Draconia. These are constructed at the sites of sacred milestones in our kind's evolution, and Daainyr was said to be where the first true dragon was born, so naturally, it's the biggest of its' kind. Anyway, that tear appeared about three hundred feet above the temple's peak, and some started to panic. After all, vortexes like that one probably would swallow up everything around it. But strangely it didn't do anything, so panic died down, and the dragon priests that kept the temple in good condition began calling it the Divide, since it most likely marked the border between two different universes. Then, it spat out the Sages' Ring one day, about three months after it appeared.

"The Sages' Ring is, obviously, a ring that looks a lot like these ones—" Magenta pointed to the Ring floating on her tail. "—but it's actually three of them fused together and tinged green, probably mutated from traveling through the Divide. It could give many powers to the one who wielded it, and give them the power to speak any language; in some cases even alter the weather and tides. In fact, the only way I can be talking to you right now is because I'm wearing one Ring on my tail so I can speak any language, but I think it's going to fade after a while since it's nothing close to the Sages' Ring's power level. Anyway, luckily, it didn't fall into the wrong hands, and the dragon priests at Daainyr kept it safe and out of sight from greedy eyes.

"Then, soon after that… I can't remember who or what, but SOMETHING evil started spreading out from the Isle of Drear, which was the worst place in Draconia, and started this huge war. The dragon elders from each kingdom agreed that their only hope was to take four dragon eggs of the four specified types, and incubate them next to the Sages' Ring at Daainyr. This caused the embryos to mutate in numerous ways.

"Once the four dragon chicks were old enough, they were sent through the Divide to help save the other planet, so here we are!" Magenta finished, beaming.

"Wait a second… if there's someone, or -thing, evil coming to Earth—is it already here? When will it come?" Knuckles asked, somewhat agitated at the thought of a new enemy who could eventually set its' sights on the Master Emerald.

"I told you, I won't be able to remember until we find the Sages' Ring again; it got sucked in with us, and beforehand the elders used its' power to take out our memories of what we know about the enemy. The closer we get to it, the more we'll remember. And I can't remember anything yet, so it must be really far away…"

"Well, I can't help you find it; I need to keep guarding the Master Emerald." Knuckles glanced back to the enormous gemstone.

"That's okay, I'll try to do it myself. Thanks for your help though, Knuckles!" The little pink dragon sang out, and she disappeared into the deep jungle foliage.

… How exactly did I help her…? Knuckles thought, momentarily confused, before resuming his position at the top step of the temple.

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Ugh, I'm terrible at writing Knuckles, aren't I? x.x Oh well, next chapter features Tails, so that'll probably be easier, that and I love Tails, so whee!

… Moving on…

School's starting in a few days, so expect chapter updates to be fewer and farther apart.

That'll be it for this time around. This is Dragonz, your friendly neighborhood blueberry addict, signing off!