Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in this fanfic nor do I own Sonic the Hedgehog. All copyright claims of Sonic the Hedgehog and all its material rightfully belongs to Sega and Sonic Team. I am not making money off of this, it is a story written for enjoyment and fun for fans of the series.

Sonic the Hedgehog

CHAPTER 1: SONIC

Act 6: Flame Core Zone: Part 1

After discovering where a Chaos Emerald was located, Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails left to get it after contacting Rouge and Shadow to meet them at the location with Robotnik's computer. When they arrived at the location, near a massive dormant volcano; Created as a result of the destroyed future.

"You guys are so slow," said Rouge as she and Shadow arrived first, "Look."

She held up an Emerald, showing it to them that they found the Green Chaos Emerald.

"A Chaos Emerald!" said Tails, "You've already found one!"

"Well now...I may not look like it," said Rouge, "But I'm a real treasure hunter. Unlike a certain Echidna I know."

"What was that?" Knuckles said in an angry tone.

"Have you guys discovered anything?" Shadow asked.

"Um, yeah," Tails answered, "I've discovered a signal indicating there's a Chaos Emerald here, but..."

"You mean we've got to go through there?" Rouge asked.

"If you don't like it," said Knuckles, "You can stay here!"

"You've got to be kidding," said Rouge.

"Don't be late," said Sonic to Shadow.

"Same to you," he replied as he walked on his own to the volcano.

The 5 raced to the dormant volcano to find the Chaos Emerald. Sonic and Shadow jumped from rock to rock, avoiding the lava below them as Rouge, Knuckles and Tails flew. They encountered more of the fire creatures they saw at the ruins of the city.

"These things again?" Shadow said.

"Friends of yours?" Sonic asked.

"They're no friends of mine," said Shadow, "CHAOS SPEAR!"

Using his chaos powers, Shadow dispatched the creatures with ease.

"This is taking too long," Shadow said, "We already have a Chaos Emerald. Might as well use it."

The 4 gathered around him as he was about to use its power.

"Chaos Control!"

After teleporting to the inside of the volcano, they saw the Cyan Chaos Emerald on the other side of the interior of the volcano.

"That was easy," said Rouge as she went to pick it up.

As she bent over to pick it up, Shadow quickly yelled, "Don't touch it!"

Suddenly, a large snake-like creature broke through the soft rock covering the lava, taking the Chaos Emerald with it as Rouge jumped back to avoid it. It leered at them with a malevolent intent of destroying them.

"What is that?" Tails asked.

"Whatever it is," said Sonic, "It doesn't look too friendly."

The creature attacked them as they jumped away to avoid it, breaking through the ground they were just on and disappearing into the lava.

"Where'd it go?" Knuckles asked.

"It's underneath us," said Tails, "Watch out! It could pop up any moment!"

Back in the present at Robotnik's White Acropolis base. They prepared to depart to Robotnik's main base as Scratch and Grounder were sent to retrieve Princess Sally from her cell.

"Hey, Princess!" said Scratch as he opened the door, "Robotnik wants to meet you!"

They gasped as they saw she disappeared from her cell, starting to panic over it.

"She's gone!" Scratch yelled.

"Doctor Robotnik would be mad at us!" said Grounder, "What'll we do?"

Unknown to them, Sally was crawling through an air vent in her cell to escape. As she made her way through to find an escape, she heard Robotnik's voice below her. She looked through a vent, seeing Scratch and Grounder telling the doctor she was missing.

"Nincombots!" he yelled, "You let her escape?"

"We didn't let her escape," said Scratch, "She let herself out."

"Morons!" Robotnik yelled, "She couldn't let herself out!"

As he let out his anger, an alarm went off.

"Intruder Alert, Intruder Alert," it said.

"What is it now?" Robotnik yelled.

He turned on a security camera to see what it was; A Hedgehog.

"S-Sonic?" he stuttered, "That's impossible!"

"Sonic?" Sally thought.

"Scratch! Grounder!" Robotnik said, "Send out the Egg-Genesis!"

"Yes, sir!" they said.

"Also," he abruptly said, "Give it the Chaos Emerald for more power."

"You sure?" Scratch asked.

"Of course!" Robotnik answered, "I like to see how he'll fare against the princess's treasure."

After the robots left, Robotnik said, "Speaking of the princess..."

He pushed a button on a console, opening the air vent above him, dropping the princess in front of him.

"Did you think you can escape that easily?" he asked,

"I've designed this base! It's designed to prevent escape by the air vents by having the cells come through this room first. I do admire your futile to escape though. Prepare her for transport. I'll be taking her to my base by train."

"Train?" she asked.

"Of course!" said Robotnik, "It's easier transporting kidnapped royalty through train than the Egg-Carrier. Gya, ha, ha, ha, ha!"

Back in the future, the 5 struggled to fight against the snake-like creature as it breaks through the ground in a sneak attack and dived back down to hide.

"What a cowardly beast," said Shadow, "It wouldn't fight face-to-face! Chaos Spear!"

He threw a spear into the lava where the creature dived into.

"You think he got it?" Tails asked.

The lava started to bubble.

"Seems like it," said Knuckles.

An arm shot out of the water and pinned Shadow to the wall.

"What the?" said Sonic.

The creature emerged from the lava again, showing it grew an arm. Another grew out right in front of them.

"W-What is that thing?" Tails asked.

Using Chaos Control, Shadow escaped the creature's grasp.

"There's more to this creature than meets the eye," said Shadow.

"Doesn't matter what it meets," said Sonic, "All that matters is getting that Chaos Emerald!"

Sonic started using his Spin Dash attack, striking the creature's third eye. It barely knocked it back as Sonic was thrown back, caught on fire by the intense.

"Yeow!" he screamed, "Hot! Hot! Hot! Hot!"

He quickly ran in a circle, putting out the fire almost immediately.

"Whew!" he said, "For a minute, I thought I was gonna be a smoking hedgehog."

"You fool," said Shadow, "If you've paid attention, you would have noticed the creature's made of intense heat!"

"Then how are we gonna hit it?" Knuckles asked.

"Just shut up and leave it to me," said Shadow.

He fought against the creature, using his Chaos Spears to attack and Chaos Control to warp and escape its attack.

"I'm not letting you have all the fun!" said Sonic.

"Sonic, we just saw using your Spin Dash could burn you!" said Tails.

"Then I'll hit and run," said Sonic, "No way I'm getting burned like that again!"

Sonic jumped into the fray as well as Knuckles.

Rouge sat behind with Tails, saying "There's no way I'm getting near a walking inferno. It'll just ruined my makeup."

"But it has the Emerald, Rouge!" said Tails.

"So what?" she answered, "I'll just let the boys handle it for me."

The battle raged on with Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles fighting the lava creature, they realized that the creature seemed to be unstoppable, as it never tired out from the battle.

"What is this thing made of?" Sonic asked, "We've thrown everything at it and it's still coming back for more!"

"It must be the emerald!" Tails shouted, "If we get the Emerald away from it, we could beat it!"

"I wish you said that sooner, Fox," said Shadow, "It would have made this easier. Chaos Control!"

Shadow warped through it, stealing the emerald within without it burning him, thanks to the power of the emeralds.

"Nice going, Shadow!" said Sonic, "Now let's see how tough this thing is!"

After stealing the emerald from the monster, it lost its extra strength. Their attacks started to affect it now as it showed signs of injury.

"You ain't so tough now, aren't ya?" Sonic asked.

"Pathetic," said Shadow. The battle came to a close as the creature sustained numerous injuries from the constant attacks. It retreated back into the lava to recover.

"We did it!" said Sonic.

"Don't be too sure," said Shadow, "It just retreated for now. It's best to escape before it returns."

Sonic and Shadow each took up 1 of the 2 Emeralds, using its power in unison, shouting, "Chaos Control!"

The energy of the Emeralds collided with each other from using the warping powers of Chaos Control, creating a rip in time and space. Wasting no time, Sonic and his friends jumped in as Rouge jumped after.

They returned to Soleanna as the rift closed behind them.

"Where's Shadow and Rouge?" asked Tails.

"The portal must have sent them somewhere else," Knuckles thought.

Sonic looked and saw a newspaper on the ground. He picked it up to see what the date was, seeing if they made it back to the correct time period. Tails and Knuckles looked to see that it was the date; The date of Princess Sally's death.

To Be Continued!