Chapter 6: Crisis City Escape

Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat sat alone in the middle of a ruined city. Rouge was sitting on a ruined car in the street, while Shadow was sitting on a ruined bench.

"Rouge, get out of the road. It's not safe to be in traffic."

Rouge looked at Shadow with disbelief. "Come on, we've been here for hours, and nothing's happened at all!"

Shadow sighed. "Whatever. I'm bored."

Rouge got down from the car. "Well then let's go back to looking around."

Rouge walked off. Shadow started to follow, but made sure to look both ways before crossing the street. Rouge shook her head and kept going.

"So it appears we've found the computer room…" Shadow muttered to himself. Rouge looked to him.

"So?"

"N-nothing, just… memories. Let's see if there's something interesting on this computer."

Rouge walked over to the computer and activated it.

"NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP, NEVER GONNA LET YOU DOWN-"

"Ahh!" Rouge quickly closed out of the video. "Wasn't expecting that. Oh hey, according to the little calendar at the bottom of the screen, we're in…" Rouge gasped. "I don't believe it!"

"What?"

"The year is 2206! We're in the distant future!"

Shadow took the time to look around. "Well. Soleanna really fell to pieces. Can't say I'm surprised, they don't even have a president."

"Now's not the time for your sense of humor, Shadow."

"Humor?"

Rouge ignored him. "At least, that's assuming the database is up-to-date…" Rouge turned back to face Shadow. "Heh. Wouldn't it be funny if someone just put that date on there as a joke, and it's actually… next Tuesday or something?"

"No."

"I should do that sometime." Rouge ignored Shadow again. "Maybe to Knuckles."

"So what we can take away from this," Shadow started, "is that Mephiles can control time. It felt a lot like Chaos Control, to me."

Rouge rolled her eyes. "Well I can only imagine what Mephiles intended to do when he shouted 'time travel' before warping us away from the valley…" she said, sarcastically.

The whole room shook. Shadow tensed up.

"I detect… him."

Rouge tilted her head. "Oh? Mephiles is back?"

"No... More like-"

"Sonic!"

"Tails, I'm right here."

"Sorry, I just instinctively yell that when I'm nervous." Tails admitted.

"We need to work on getting you some independence, pal."

"Am I buggin', or is this place different?"

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles had found themselves in another version of Eggman's cylindrical chamber. It looked like it was partially destroyed. Rust, dust, decay, mold, the place was in a state of severe neglect.

"I wonder where Eggman sent us." Tails pondered. He whipped out his pad device. "Hmm… There are no functional robots with detectable electromagnetic signatures nearby…"

"You hurt your what?" Sonic asked. Then it hit him. "Wait, didn't Eggman say something about sending us to after an apocalypse? You don't think…" Sonic stopped and slapped himself. "Eggman totally used a time machine on us."

"Time machine?" Tails repeated.

"As in… a machine?" asked Knuckles.

"Hey, gang." a familiar womanly voice echoed. Sonic and friends looked up through a broken window to find Rouge and Shadow. Rouge waved, while Shadow kept his arms crossed.

"How… long were you standing there?" asked Tails. Rouge shrugged.

"Whole time. I was gonna think of something witty to say, but then I got bored."

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Took long enough."

Sonic, Tails, Shadow, Rouge & Knuckles were all standing atop a cliff, just outside a ruined city.

"I declare myself the new mayor of this city." Sonic announced. "As mayor, my first order of business is to rename it. I'm thinking something cool… How about 'Crisis City'?"

"Sonic, take this seriously." Shadow said.

"What for? If this really is after the apocalypse, there's no pressure anymore." Sonic shrugged. "Besides, this game takes itself too seriously already, it doesn't need my help."

"Can I be the deputy?" Rouge asked. Sonic gave her a thumbs up.

"First come, first served. Welcome aboard."

"Thanks, buddy."

Tails looked hurt. "Sonic, how come I'm not your deputy?" Sonic shrugged again.

"You snooze, you lose."

"We gotta bounce, man! We're 210 years past my comfort zone!" Knuckles exclaimed. Shadow started counting on his fingers.

"… carry the four- Wait, that would put us back in 1996. Why would- Oh yeah, you're Knuckles."

Sonic spoke up. "As the mayor of Crisis City, I deem-"

"-that we need to go back in time." Shadow finished. Sonic glared at him.

"Not cool, Shadow."

Tails shrugged. "How are we going to do that, anyway? Chaos Control?"

Shadow put a hand to his nonexistent chin. "With my power alone, that would be insufficient. We need Sonic to join in. But that would also be insufficient. Both of us would need to use Chaos Emeralds, as well. That would prevent our Chaos Control from being insufficient, allowing us to return to the past. Sufficiently."

"Stop saying 'insufficient'." Rouge nagged.

Tails was fiddling with his radar again. "Well it just so happens that there's a Chaos Emerald nearby! Talk about convenient!"

"So in other words…" Sonic gave a thumbs up. "We need to team up!"

Shadow nodded. "Yes… It's just as I feared." He turned to face the city. "Now the only question is how we're going to find it…"

Shadow eyed a buggy nearby. "Hmm…"

NOW LOADING…

Shadow was slowly driving the buggy along the highway leading into Crisis City. Rouge was in shotgun while Team Sonic was in the back. Sonic was standing up, waving to imaginary crowds.

"Greetings, my citizens! Have no fear, for your new mayor is here!"

Tails would not hold still.

"I gotta use the bathroom!"

And Knuckles was bored.

"Shadow, are we there yet?"

"For the love of Cheese, would all of you shut up? I'm trying to drive!" Shadow shouted. "Rouge, I need to unwind. Could you hit the radio for me?"

Rouge raised an eyebrow. "Uh, I guess?" She hit the button.

"WHOA THERE, SOLEANNA! Or what's left of it! Welcome back to 77.8 KSOL! With DJ Fancy Pants-"

"And MR. BANANAS!"

"OHHH, BANANA…" a sound clip from Donkey Kong 64 played after Mr. Bananas introduced himself.

Rouge's eyes widened. "What? There's actually a radio station in this future? Seriously?"

"What sorta weather we got today, Mr. Bananas?"

"Well today will be an infernal 102 degrees, same as it was yesterday and every day before! Speaking of, here's our first request! This one goes out to you, Ms. The Cat!"

"BURN, BABY, BURN! … BURN, BABY BURN! … BURN, BABY, BURN! … BURN, BABY, BURN! … To my surprise-"

Knuckles smiled. "My favorite!" Shadow turned the radio off. "Hey!"

"Too annoying." replied the hedgehog.

"Look!" Rouge pointed. Shadow and all the others had made it to the city, and it looked much worse up close.

"The whole city's on fire!" Sonic shouted.

"We have eyes, Blue." said Rouge.

Shadow resumed his driving, at the same slow pace as before. An Iblis Worm popped up from the ground before them.

"REEEEEK!"

With no reaction, Shadow pressed a button, firing a missile at the worm, destroying it. The buggy kept going, destroying more monsters as it went, but never going fast at all. Sonic sighed.

"Shadow. I say this without a hint of irony. But you really are too slow. I'm out." Sonic hopped out of the car and ran ahead. "See ya at the Emerald!"

"Sonic, don't leave me alone with Shadow or Knuckles, please!" Tails flew off after Sonic.

"I'll just chill." Knuckles leaned back.

From extremely high up above the ground, Sonic dropped from the sky. He was on the snowboard from earlier, and aiming for a grind rail.

"This'll be sweet!"

Sonic missed the rail.

"WHAT! How?"

Sonic x01

Sonic x00

From extremely high up above the ground, Sonic dropped from the sky. He was on the snowboard from earlier, and aiming for a grind rail.

"This'll be sweet!"

Sonic landed on the rail and rode along.

"Déjà vu…" Sonic rubbed the back of his head. Eventually he leapt off the rail and onto a slanted skyscraper.

BOOM

The skyscraper was exploding all around him.

"Holy mackerel, why is this building randomly exploding?" Sonic was fighting to stay balanced. Tails then managed to catch up. "Tails, what brings you to this neck of the woods?"

"I just wanted to make sure nothing happened to you, Sonic!"

"A bit late on that one, I'm pretty sure I just died. But I had a 1-up, so it was cool." Sonic said. He hopped onto a highway's guard rail and began grinding on it. "This dystopian wasteland is perfect for snowboarding, way better than White Acropolis! Cool to know I'm the mayor of it!"

"Yeah it was a real smart move to leave it like this, you're a good mayor!" Tails said.

"You're still not my deputy."

"Darn it!"

Back with the others, Shadow sighed.

"I-It's not like I like you or anything, Rouge!" Knuckles was flustered. Rouge crossed her arms and looked away.

"Well you're nothing special either! I don't need you, I have jewelry to keep me company!"

Shadow wordlessly turned the radio back on.

"It's me again, DJ Fancy Pants!"

"And Mr. Bananas!"

"OHHH, BANANA…"

Sonic was still grinding over the skyscraper canyon that was Crisis City. Some firebirds lowered down and started charging breath attacks.

"Guess I gotta wing it!"

Sonic used homing attacks on the birds, to Tails' surprise.

"That looks like a homing shot!"

Sonic landed on a spring, which started bouncing him all over different springs located around the city.

"Whoooooa! Too many springs! Too many springs!"

"Someone could get seriously hurt, if they don't land on them properly." Tails noted.

Sonic eventually made his way to a grind rail, and started grinding. Iblis monsters were getting sent airborne all around Sonic, until he looked down and saw Shadow skating past a mob of them, knocking them into the air. The black hedgehog reached a spring and bounced up to a rail neighboring Sonic.

"Shadow? What happened to the jeep?"

"You mean the buggy? Rouge and Knuckles happened. They won't shut up. I don't think they've even noticed that I've left yet."

"Oh yeah?" Knuckles started. "Well bats are just flying mice, so there!"

"Excuse you?"

Shadow was running through another section of the city. He looked up and saw Sonic trying to navigate some upheaved earth and floating cars that were caught in the fire tornado's pull.

"Think Sonic will be okay?" asked Tails.

"Can't say. For some reason, he always takes the showiest path. Showoff."

Shadow came across another buggy.

"It looks like this buggy still runs. If I press the button, I can-" The tornado started carrying Shadow's new car. "… Darn."

Shadow found a spring. He hopped on and it launched him onto a grind rail that circled the tornado.

"This massive fire! It's a good thing I'm the ultimate lifeform, or I might get heatstroke just from being near it!" At that time, Shadow noticed the buggy floating in the air, taken in by the tornado's pull. "Hmmm…"

Shadow hopped in and revved up. Sonic was headed his way, hopping across some more cars.

"Sonic! Give me a boost before I get pulled in and burnt to a crisp!"

"Got it!" Sonic did a homing attack on the buggy, knocking it out of the tornado's pull, and hurtling towards the streets below. He then noticed a spring on a nearby piece of land. "Now it's my turn!"

Sonic went over for the spring and it launched him toward the ground near the tornado. But the tornado started pulling him in.

"Uh-oh. Gotta speed up!"

Sonic took off, trying to outrun the fire tornado. He noticed several pipes and crates scattered along the highway ahead.

"What gives? As the new mayor, I think a city-wide cleanup is in order!"

Sonic kept narrowly avoiding the crates and followed the trail of rings. Some firebirds appeared to give him trouble.

"Oh not now, this section's already hard enough!"

Two missiles came in and blasted the birds to bits. Sonic looked over and saw Shadow driving along a parallel highway. He gave Sonic a nod, and Sonic gave a thumbs up.

"Thanks, pally!"

"Never call me that. Ever."

Sonic returned his focus to the road ahead and ran straight for the goal ring. Shadow sped up his buggy and jumped out, leaving it to crash while he jumped toward the ring himself.

Both hedgehogs did flips.

"Ye-eah!"

"Yes."

Sonic stuck out his pointer finger.

S

"That was incredible!"

Shadow crossed his arms.

S

"Perfect!"

"Surprised I did that well, considering I died at that one part. Or did I die? Extra lives are weird." Sonic said.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

At that point, Tails hovered down to meet the two hedgehogs. "Sonic, Rouge beat us to the Chaos Emerald!"

"It wasn't a race." Sonic said. Tails nodded.

"Yeah, but I think that Knuckles thought it was, 'cause he keeps complaining about it."

Shadow noticed Rouge and Knuckles up ahead, walking over to greet him and Sonic. "How did they even get through the city before us?"

"Well Rouge and I can fly. And Knuckles can kinda glide. So we just sorta… went over you guys." Tails explained.

Rouge was staring at the green Chaos Emearld she held in her grasp.

"Heheh. Oh, my darling. My beautiful emerald. You're so shiny and magnificent."

Shadow chuckled to himself. "At least take it out to dinner first."

Rouge looked up to Shadow and stuck her tongue out. "Bleh! You're just jealous we beat you!"

The gang kept walking through the city, though Tails tilted his head at a curious sight. "Hey, is that…?"

Everyone saw an old robot sitting in the middle of the street. Nearby were several dusty cars with skeletons in the drivers' seat of each of them. But more importantly, there was that robot in the street. It was red, black, and yellow.

"Can it be?" Shadow muttered. He walked over to it. "No…"

Name: E-123 Omega (of the Future)

Morning Routine: Tarnish remover, liquid polish, anti-corrosive foam, WD-40

Rouge went over and tried to wipe some dust off of Omega, but-

"DON'T TOUCH IT." Shadow shouted. Rouge flinched.

"Shadow, what gives?"

"It looks like he's in standby mode. You might trigger some kind of alarm and he'll go off, and fire whatever he sees in front of him! That's Future Omega, he might not be friendly! It's been 200 years!"

"I'm just surprised he's held up as well as he has." Sonic commented. Something caught his gaze. "Hey what's that?"

Sonic slowly walked over and creeped into a building. He silently motioned for Tails to join him. Tails complied and the two friends listened in.

"So Iblis knocked down that airship?" a familiar voice asked. Sonic peeked in. It was Silver. He, Blaze the Cat, and another version of Shadow were talking to each other.

"No. This was moments before his birth. The Iblis Trigger, the one responsible… was this person." said the Shadow lookalike. The lookalike then made a dramatic gesture and held out the purple Chaos Emerald. Silver and Blaze saw something in it that Sonic and Tails could not.

"So that person… is Iblis's mom?"

Sonic and Tails gave each other a weird look before going back to spying.

"As long as this person lives, the world will remain the same. Forever." The stranger ignored Silver's question. "I will take us to a time when he was still alive, shortly before the Day of Disaster."

"I'm pretty sure that was Sonic the Hedgehog. He's not Iblis Trigger material." said Blaze. Sonic silently nodded in agreement from his hiding place.

"Oh yes! He is. He is intimately tied with the brink of ruin."

Silver lifted a finger. "Wait I have a question-"

"TIME TRAVEL!"

Sonic and Tails gasped as a blue wormhole sucked Silver and Blaze into its core. The black hedgehog dropped its head and pointed at Sonic without even looking at him.

"Soon…"

He was then taken into the portal, which closed it immediately. Sonic and Tails stood there in shock for a few moments.

"…"

"…"

"Well…" Sonic started, "That explains a few things. Guess we know who to blame for my time-travelling assassin."

Tails ran up to the computer that the trio left behind. "Holy cow! This article says that the princess died on one of Eggman's airships! Back in 2006!"

"See!" Knuckles shouted, startling Sonic with his presence. "This sorta thing would've never happened in the 90's!"

"Knuckles, how long were you there?" asked Sonic.

"And why'd that guy look so much like Shadow?" Knuckles ignored Sonic.

"That must've been Mephiles." Shadow said, startling Sonic and Knuckles with his presence.

Sonic flinched. "Geez! How many people were eavesdropping with us?"

"Is he the chump that you said sent you here?" Knuckles asked Shadow. The hedgehog nodded.

"Yes. And judging from what Sonic said on the way into the city, the other hedgehog must've been that 'Silver' character. The one who tried to wipe him out. Knuckles, Sonic: Mephiles is bad news. He was probably just making up all that Iblis Trigger stuff for Silver."

Sonic put his hand on his own nonexistent chin. "Hmm. Makes sense. Silver's too adorkable to be a straight-up villain. At least, that's my mileage out of him."

Shadow hung his head and sighed. "Sonic. I told you to stop going to that site."

"Uh, guys?" Tails interrupted. "This article dates the princess's death as two days after the Festival of the Sun. It was one day after the festival when we left, and it was nighttime by the time we reached White Acropolis! So she died in Eggman's captivity only hours after Eggman got rid of us!"

"Interesting if true." Sonic remarked. "As much as I enjoy being the mayor of Crisis City, I'd prefer it if the world didn't meet its untimely end. We should find that second Chaos Emerald and warp back. Too bad Morpheus took the purple one with him."

"Mephiles." Shadow corrected, unheard.

Knuckles nodded. "Yeah, and if we bounce to even earlier than we left, we'll have extra time!"

Sonic pointed to Knuckles. "Good idea." He raised his eyebrows. "Did I really just say that to you?"

BEEEEEH-BEEEEEEH-BEEEEEEH

"Intruder alert! White hedgehog and lavender cat are in the base!"

"Son of a horse!" Eggman yelled. "SA-55! Rev up the Genesis! I'm going for a drive!"

Silver and Blaze were walking about a snowfield. Silver turned to Blaze.

"Are you sure the Iblis Trigger went past here?"

"You mean Sonic? Well, that's what the chameleon said, at least."

"Uh, Blaze?" Silver donned a worried look and pointed to the sky. "What is that?"

A giant, robotic pod descended from the skies. It remained in midair as four wings attached themselves to the main core. The friends also caught sight of a fat man sitting in a hover pod nearby, holding a remote control.

"Heheheheh! Sorry, but I'm no longer accepting visitors! Egg-Genesis will kindly show you to the door… OF LIFE! Ohohohohohoho!"

Blaze grimaced. "Yep. It's coming back to me now. He's Eggman."

"Do I know you?" Eggman tilted his head. "Oh well, doesn't matter! Get them, Genesis!"

Boss: Egg-Genesis

Danger Quotient: 510%

Genesis started firing missiles at Silver, but the hedgehog caught them all with his mind and threw them back at the robot.

"WHAT?" Eggman's eyes nearly bugged out from behind his shades. "These hedgehogs just keep getting weirder! No matter! Time for a change of pace!"

Eggman opened up a compartment on the controller and pressed a new button. A laser started firing from the dome beneath Genesis.

"LASER!" shouted the Wisp Announcer. The laser started chasing Silver.

"Aaah!" Silver floated around to evade the beam. Blaze leapt up to the top of one of the searchlight columns.

"Don't look down, don't look down…" she whispered to herself. Blaze then performed a fiery homing shot on Genesis's head.

"HEY!" Eggman was indignant. "That's cheating! Not that I mind cheating, but at least do it right!"

"ROCKET!" The Genesis started firing homing rockets at Silver.

"Silver!" Blaze shouted from atop the robot. "Those look like homing shots! You'll just have to avoid them!"

"Wait, I can't just catch them and-" The missiles hit Silver, sending him into a nearby wall. "AAAAAAAH! EVERYTHING HURTS! Not… now…" Silver went unconscious. Blaze's eyes narrowed as she bared a fang, glaring at the robot.

"Rrrrrr! You…!" Blaze started clawing at the Genesis's head, with her claws on fire. Eggman was frantically pressing buttons on his remote.

"Shoot, where's the button? Aha!" Eggman slammed a finger down on the button.

"FRENZY!" Genesis started spinning wildly, knocking Blaze off and into the snow. She landed on her feet, but they got stuck in the snow.

"Great." She rolled her eyes.

"Hahaha! Time for a change of pace!" Eggman repeated himself, pressing a new button.

"DRILL!" Genesis began to fire two drill missiles. They burrowed into the snow. Eggman watched with glee.

"Prepare to be skewered!" the doctor taunted.

"Huh? Uh-oh!" The cat freed her feet and moved just in time. A drill missile flew up out of the snow where Blaze was. The cat then noticed movement under the ground near Silver. He was about to get drilled. "NO!"

Blaze ran over, picked Silver up, and jumped out of the way, just in time for the other drill missile to fly up.

"Phew!" Blaze set Silver down and picked up some snow. She burned it in her hand, turning into water, which poured onto Silver.

"AAAH I'M AWAKE!" Silver flailed his limbs. He remembered where he was. "Blaze? Did… did we win?"

"No, you… took a nap. Yeah, that's it."

"Uh, hello? Giant killer robot here!" Eggman interrupted from his pod. "Kind of trying to kill you guys! Oh forget it! Prepare to be schooled!"

Eggman pressed another button, and the Genesis began to fire regular rockets again. Silver stood up.

"I gotta make it up to you, Blaze! TAAAKE THIS!" Silver caught the missiles and returned them to the Genesis again.

"STOP DOING THAT!" Eggman shouted, slamming a hand on the side of his hover pod. Blaze glared.

"Quiet, you! Don't think I've forgotten what you've done!"

Eggman raised an eyebrow. "Uh, could you refresh my memory? I do a lot. Look, if I cut you off in traffic or something, I'm sorry, I was just really in a hurry-"

"The Sol Emeralds, you fiend!"

"The what, now?" Eggman shrugged. "Look, I have a hard time remembering all my schemes." He then sighed. "Especially since they all end in failure… Really, sometimes I even wonder why I get out of bed in the morning. Nothing ever goes my way… I think my first real mistake in life was-"

Blaze whispered to Silver. "Think you can pick up the robot while he's busy?"

"What? I've never picked up anything that big! The closest thing was that snowball on the way here, and I was only able to slow it down for a little bit! Although…"

Silver turned his attention on Eggman and caught the man and hover pod in his psychokinesis.

"Whoawhoa, no touching me with your mind!" the scientist yelled. Silver brought him closer and started swinging him around with his mind. "Whoooooa! Stop, you're gonna make me sick!"

Silver telekinetically threw Eggman and his pod far from the base. "So long-a Eggman!"

Genesis merely stood in the field, master-less and dormant. Blaze did some stretches, then ran up to the robot. She leaped into the air and threw dozens of fireballs as she flew over Genesis, setting it on fire.

"OVERHEATING. MUST-SHUT-DOooownnn…" The burning Genesis collapsed. Silver and Blaze both struck a pose.

C

"That took too long!" Silver sternly noticed.

"I'll say…" Blaze bitterly agreed.

Something shiny in the snow caught both of the animals' attention. Silver went over and picked it up. The blue Chaos Emerald.

"Oh, a Chaos Emerald." observed Blaze. "I guess Eggman dropped it when you were getting rid of him. Well, it might come in handy for us. If you collect all seven of them, a miracle can happen."

"Ooh! Ooh! Will we get to summon a dragon?" Silver asked, eagerly. "I wanna summon a dragon!"

Blaze winced. "Well, I suppose. Who knows?"

BEEEEH-BEEEEH-BEEEEH

"Intruder alert! Pink hedgehog is in the base!"

"Pink… hedgehog… That's Amy!" Silver exclaimed. "Oh man, we should get outta here. She might yell at me again…"

"What about Sonic?"

Silver rubbed the back of his head, uncomfortably. "We… can do that another time. I really don't want Amy to yell at me again. She almost threatened me with her hammer."

Blaze took on a stern look. "She was going to hit you with a hammer? Okay, I don't think we should've come back to kill Sonic, but I won't let anyone hurt you, Silver. You want us to find this Amy and I have a word with her?"

"No, please, it'd just make things more awkward."

Blaze started thinking out loud. "Amy… Was she the one with the knuckles? No, that can't be right… Was she the one with the tails?"

Shadow, Rouge, and Team Sonic made it to a rocky canyon.

"As King of the Mountain, I dub this volcano, 'Flame Core'." Sonic announced.

"Stop doing that." said Shadow.

"Tails, home slice, you sure a Chaos Emerald is in this volcano?" asked Knuckles. The fox nodded.

"Yep. Just a little further."

"Then let's hurry it up. All this heat isn't doing my fur any favors. It gets all frizzy." Rouge said, before shuddering.

"You barely even have fur!" Knuckles commented. Rouge glared and slapped him on the back of the head.

"And everybody had the good grace not to mention it until now! Thanks for reminding everyone I'm a freak!" Rouge pouted and stormed off toward the volcano. "Come on, Shadow, who needs this guy! We're leaving!"

Shadow sighed.

"This should be fun." Shadow said, sarcastically. He slouched and followed Rouge.

Sonic went over to Knuckles and put a hand on his shoulder. "C'mon man. You know she doesn't like it when people talk about that. Kinda crossed a line there."

Sonic then ran off after the others. Tails awkwardly looked between the leaving group and Knuckles before deciding to follow Sonic.

The cyan Chaos Emerald floated over a pond of magma. Rouge flew up to it.

"Aha! There you are, my darling!"

"DON'T TOUCH IT! Again." Shadow said.

Rouge looked back. "What for?"

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!"

A hideous roar echoed through the cavern. Shadow and Rouge noticed a giant lava worm with a monstrous face staring at them. Team Sonic ran in.

"Sorry we're late, we just- WHOA that is one ugly son of a gun!" Sonic declared. "Looks like we have our area boss!"

The boss roared at its intruders.

Boss: Iblis (Form 2)

Danger Quotient: 600%

"He's as strong as six of Silver!" Sonic stated.

Sonic and Shadow looked at each other.

"You thinkin' what I'm thinkin', Shadow?"

"Winner gets to fight that monster."

"Agreed."

Both hedgehogs began shaking their fists.

"One-two-shoot!" both hedgehogs said at once.

"Scissors cut paper!" Sonic cheered. A game of rock-paper-scissors would determine who fought Iblis.

"Best two out of three!" Shadow demanded.

Their companions sighed.

To be continued.

Author's Notes:

The first chapter to properly feature all three hedgehogs. Sonic and Shadow also interact for the first time in the story. I was worried they'd be too similar to each other, but I've figured it out. Sonic sort of reacts to things as he pleases. Shadow takes everything seriously. Everything.

With Sonic and Shadow's trips to Crisis City and Flame Core taking place at once, I decided that they're actually cooperating through the level. This also means that Team Sonic is there when Omega is discovered, while Shadow is there when the gang snoops on Mephiles and Silver. And in this version of the story, Mephiles knew that Sonic was there the whole time, all the way back in Chapter 2. Speaking of Mephiles, it wasn't communicated in this chapter, but I like to believe that he did actually end up in Crisis City with Shadow and Rouge, and that's how he came across Silver.

I'm a little sad that 'adorkable' is apparently recognized by my Word program as a word. And thanks to that glitch, Sonic has only one life left. It sure would be a shame if something were to happen to him… Soon.

I decided to cut out Silver and Blaze going through White Acropolis. We'd already seen it before with Shadow, and honestly it's a really boring level. Even by this game's standards, there's nothing of note. The boss is still there, though. I also cut out Flame Core, because there wasn't really anything worth writing about, and the chapter was long enough anyway.

And just to reiterate, Blaze is from her home dimension, and only remembers a few of Sonic's friends, and now Eggman.

Now that I have all three hedgehogs in one chapter, I think I can say that Silver is the most fun to write, with all his quirks in mind. Shadow works for reacting to others, and Sonic has his moments, but Silver's got more to work with. It's also fun to write his interactions with Blaze, even in their more serious moments. The way I'm writing it, I'm trying to portray Silver as seeing Blaze as sort of a big sister whom can do anything. Though I wonder if he saw her that way and she started acting like it, or if she started acting like it, making Silver see her that way.

Also we get a few bits of Tails' quirk; his sometimes unhealthy reliance on Sonic. Going forward, there may not be a lot of Tails in this fic (after the trip to the future, I don't think we see him again until Sonic's final level, other than that filler beach level). Otherwise, he's a more neutral member of Sonic's team, between Sonic's attitude and fourth wall humor and Knuckles being Knuckles.

So I was actually able to get this chapter done early. Cool. See you next time.