A/N:[UPDATED] This chapter is a turning point... It's also the Chapter where people might try and kill me after reading... pertaining to questions you will have at the end of this chapter, in Eggman's words, "They will be answered in time." Maybe... Sonic the Hedgehog characters and ideas copyrighted by SEGA. Kingdom Hearts Characters and Ideas Copyrighted by Square Enix. I also just remembered one more copyright that I'm too lazy to go back and correct. Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters and ideas Copyrighted by Disney.

Chapter 4: Discovery

"So, how do we find the second Chaos Emerald?" Sora asked Sonic, while wandering through a deserted city they found themselves in. It had been hours since the departure of Eggman, and they had just recently found the city. The dark clouds had spread all across the sky, as if a storm was lurking without any rain.

Sonic held up his Chaos Emerald, which was pulsing with energy, and said, "The Chaos Emeralds react when they're near other Chaos Emeralds, making them more powerful in numbers. That is why when the seven are together it is one of the most powerful things in the world."

Nodding, Sora looked around the empty city. "Why would the Chaos Emerald turn up here?"

"It could be anywhere. You never know where a Chaos Emerald will turn up until it does." Sonic looked at a tall building that had approximately 12 stories, and windows on every floor. He held the Emerald near it, then away from it, feeling the pulses. "The next Emerald is in this building somewhere. We'd better hurry; I think Eggman is looking for them too."

They entered the building, and Sora got a sudden chill. "Nothing is creepier than a giant empty building…" Sonic laughed while watching the Chaos Emerald. Sora couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to jump out at them. They found themselves at a staircase, and Sonic motioned Sora upward.

While walking up the stairs, a question popped into Sonic's head. "Hey Sora, What do you think Eggman wants with Kingdom Hearts?"

Sora had been thinking of this question as well. "I don't know. Kingdom Hearts has a lot of power, and that power in the wrong hands could lead to a lot of bad things."

Sonic stopped on the fourth floor, and walked through the door. Sora, still a little nervous about being inside a run down, abandoned building, slowly followed. The room was dark, except for two glowing lights. The first light came from the Chaos Emerald in Sonic's hand. The second came from the corner. "I think we found our second Chaos Emerald, Sora!" Sonic happily cheered as he ran to get the other Emerald. Sora, on the other hand was nervous.

"Sonic, when we were outside didn't we see windows on every floor? I'm pretty sure it wasn't this dark outside." Sora looked around, but could see nothing but the two lights.

"I thought I told you two to stay out of my way!" Eggman's voice boomed into the room. The darkness lifted to reveal dozens of heartless crowded into the large room. Sora summoned his Keyblade, but he still remembered what happened last time they fought the heartless. "There's no use, you simply can't defeat this many heartless on your own, and Sonic can't even truly destroy any without a Keyblade! It's hopeless! Just give me the two Chaos Emeralds and nobody will get hurt."

Holding both Chaos Emeralds in his hand, Sonic yelled back, "You'll have to take them from us yourself!"

"That should be easy enough. Heartless, attack them and hold nothing back!" The heartless all jumped at once at Sonic and Sora, who braced themselves for the worst. Immediately the heartless were upon them and there was darkness once more. Sora slashed blindly, hoping he could hit whatever heartless was near him. He couldn't see Sonic at all, but he could hear him in pain. Sora couldn't get to him, there was no hope.

Suddenly, a blue light emitted from the place where Sonic should have been. The light intensely burned away every heartless in the room. When the light cleared, Sora saw an empty room. He looked at Sonic, who seemed to not have moved at all, was standing with the second Chaos Emerald in one hand, and a blue Keyblade in the other.

"What just happened... how did you get a Keyblade?" Sora immediately asked. Sonic shrugged and held up his Keyblade. It looked like Sora's Keyblade, except it was all blue, and the keychain was the blue Chaos Emerald instead of the Mickey Mouse insignia.

Sonic looked at the Keyblade deeply, "I don't really know what happened. I was thinking about what Eggman said about me not being able to destroy them when they jumped on me, and out of nowhere the Chaos Emerald started shining and turned into this."

"That's it?"

"That's it." Sonic walked to the window in the room and looked up. He saw Eggman's airship flying away. "Eggman just left, so we should be fine for now." Sonic walked out of the room and back into the stairwell, leaving Sora with even more questions about the Keyblade than ever.

"And I thought I had finally figured this thing out…" He said to himself, looking at his own Keyblade, before following Sonic out of the room, in search of the next Chaos Emerald. When they left the building he looked up at the dark clouds, hoping Kairi and Riku were okay.


Riku sat uncomfortably on the couch while Rouge was pacing, waiting for Shadow. He had left and hour before to try and find Sonic, saying it would be faster if he went alone. Rouge spent the rest of the time explaining that Shadow and Sonic could travel faster than the speed of sound, so going alone really did help speed Shadow in his search.

"So let me get this straight, Riku. You're saying that the power of Kingdom Hearts is so strong that whoever controls that power could control the world?" Riku nodded, which caused Rouge to stop pacing and sit down, open-mouthed. "I couldn't imagine Eggman with that power. If he had that, and the Chaos Emeralds, he could do anything he wanted."

Riku twiddled his thumbs, trying to figure out what to do. He couldn't resist thinking about the other two, and what might have happened to them. The last time they were separated, his friends didn't give up looking for him, so Riku knew that he couldn't give up on them.

Rouge's ears twitched, and she looked around, listening. "Do you hear that?" Riku stood up, went to the door and pressed his ear against it. Rouge added, "It sounds like jet engines, big ones at that."

"There's only one way to find out," Riku said, while opening the door. Rouge got up and followed him out. She found Riku outside with the Keyblade in his hands, surrounded by black creatures.

"Are those…. The heartless?" Riku turned his head and nodded. Rouge looked up to see a giant black airship, the source of the engine sound, with Eggman's logo on the side. Rouge jumped around a little bit, and kicked the air to warm up. "Well then, let's see how tough they really are then!"

The first heartless jumped at Riku, who sliced it in half. He then slashed at another, while Rouge kicked at every heartless that came near her. She flew up a few feet, and then drilled at one directly beneath her. Riku fired dark aura shots, the same attack he used against Shadow, at every heartless he could aim at. Suddenly, the heartless stopped attacking.

"So, you're the other Keyblade wielder. Riku, is it? Your spiky haired friend asked about you." Eggman's voice exploded out of the airship above, "You two are faring much better than he and Sonic did. Then again, I have no hatred against you."

Riku got upset, "What did you do to Sora? Are they on your ship? Where is Kairi?"

"You two really ARE friends. You ask just as many questions as he does. Let me tell you a secret, Sora isn't on this ship. As for your Kairi friend, you'll just have to come up and find out for yourself. That is, if you can!" Eggman laughed as a beam of light came down from the airship. Something that could only be described as a figure made entirely of water appeared, with a metallic, bug like skull where its head should have been. Riku looked at the skull and found on the forehead the heartless symbol; a black heart with red outlines and a red "X" inside the heart. "I hope you enjoy my Artificial Chaos Heartless!"

Riku ran at the new heartless and slashed horizontally. The slash shattered the heartless, and the water drops fell to the ground, the skull rattling on top. "He wasn't that tough," Riku muttered. He turned around to look at the water drops, which started moving independently toward each other. The water entered the skull, and the heartless rose from the ground, taking its original form. "Well, that's something new." The new heartless expanded whip-like arms and lashed out at Riku. He jumped back to avoid the attack, then quickly charged and cut at its body. Once again, there was no avail.

Rouge was still fighting the regular heartless. Their numbers were rising, and she was getting tired. Three heartless jumped at her at once, so she flew three feet up, spin kicked the nearest one in midair, landed on the second, and threw the third. She ran toward more and jump kicked another. "I'm running out of moves," she panted. She looked at Riku fighting the Artificial Chaos, and struggling. Out of nowhere, a heartless attacked her from behind, and she fell to the ground. The heartless crept toward the grounded Rouge, who was trying to back away. She felt the wall of the warehouse behind her. "Uh oh… Now I'm trapped, this isn't good."

Just as the Heartless were about to maul Rouge, an arrow of energy shot through the nearest heartless. Hundreds more rained down on the heartless, until there was very few left. A black figure jumped down, holding a red Keyblade. He turned toward Rouge and tossed her the purple Chaos Emerald. "Hold on to this for a while, I'll take care of these guys." Shadow then turned to face the heartless, holding the Keyblade in one hand and his other in a clenched fist. He looked at his Keyblade, then back to the approaching enemies, "Now, let's see how this thing works." Shadow then charged.


Knuckles and Mickey watched everything that was going on in the Master Emerald. "So, how do Sonic and Shadow have Keyblades?" Knuckles asked. Mickey shrugged and summoned his own Keyblade, as if looking at it would give him the answer.

"I don't know. Maybe the Keyblade has a link to the Chaos Emeralds. From what you told me, it seems the power of the Chaos Emeralds is similar to the power of the Keyblades. They both depend on the power of the heart, and only certain people can use both. It could be possible that they both came from the same source originally, and later separated."

Knuckles pondered on this thought. "That may be true, but I don't think we're in a position to find out right now. Listen, both Sora and Riku mentioned someone named Kairi. Do you think she has something to do with this?"

Mickey thought about it for a while. He then asked, "Can you make the Master Emerald show us where Kairi is? I think we have to find her before we can help Sora and Riku."

"Why?"

"Well, Kairi is one of the seven princesses of heart. They are seven people who have no darkness in their hearts whatsoever. It could be possible that Eggman needs her for something."

"I see." Knuckles placed his hands on the Master Emerald and once again asked for its all seeing eye. A third image appeared on the screen, and Kairi could be seen lying on a metallic floor, asleep. Mickey stepped forward a few steps, then turned back to Knuckles.

"We need to find her and make sure Eggman doesn't get to her. If he does, then we need to get her back!"

Nodding, Knuckles asked the Master Emerald to show them where Kairi was, and the image of a large, black airship appeared. Knuckles recognized the design of the ship and frowned, "I hate to tell you the bad news, but it looks like Eggman already has Kairi. That must be his new Egg Carrier. I would remember that thing anywhere." Knuckles recalled another adventure with Sonic and his friends that involved another model of the Egg Carrier.

Mickey looked at his feet, thinking. He then looked up and stared out at the black clouds. "That means we need to find that airship and rescue Kairi. We'll need Sora and Riku, if they haven't figured out where she is already. It looks like we're back to our original plan then." Mickey sat down on a stair, and placed his head in his hands. "I wonder if anybody knows what is going on."