Chapter Nine: The Waiting Game

Normal P. O. V.

It was too long before he reached the pink hedgehog, when he arrived however, he didn't see her at all.

"Sonic!" You came!" Amy's voice rang clear as day, but she still wasn't in sight. Sonic opened his watch again to see her pink dot blinking over his blue dot.

Is sh- Is she above me?

He looked up into the tree and surely there she was. She was still stuck in the tree hanging 20 feet above the ground.

"Hey Amy," Sonic said. "So I see your just… hanging around." Her relieved smiled turned into a frown.

"Just get me down, Sonic." She said with a rougher edge in her voice. Her irritation made sonic laugh however did scale his way up the tree. The branch that Amy stuck on was woven through the back of her dress. In an attempt to crawl on the branch it didn't both of their weight. To make a short story shorter: it snapped. They tumbled down the tree almost hitting every branch. Amy somehow manage to land on her feet, as for the blue hero he tasted dirt for the second time today. Dazed, he checked his watch after amy helped him on to his feet. The next dot the watch showed was blinking turquoise...Shannon.

Shannon was lying flat on the ground right next to a rock, she looked like she was in pain.

"Are you okay?" Amy asked.

Her voice was separated by a small inconsistent wheeze.

"I...landed on… that rock."

Sonic helped her up, her shirt slightly rolled up in the process. It wasn't much but it was enough for Sonic to see the bruise forming on her tan skin.

The next two, Tails and Rouge, were completely unharmed because of their ability of flight. Rouge was checking her makeup while Tails wrote some calculations into the dirt. After them was Shadow, who was sitting up a tree. You could tell he did indeed landed in a bush as Sonic guessed, small leaves and stick poked through his quills. Last and possibly least, Knuckles, still soaking wet from the lake that had a purple tint as it reflected the supposed to be clear blue sky. The six of the caught Knuckles fishing a small fish out of his shoe. They (Shannon, Sonic, and Rouge) had to stifle their laughter. Wet and frustrated he joined the team as they went home.

Sonic's P.O. V.

Back at my place we basically collapsed on the couch, except for Tails who immediately went to his lab to track the remaining six Emeralds plus the master Emerald just in case. I honestly don't know just how Tails does it, keeping track of all of those numbers. An hour or so after he called us back to his lab, we were presented which codes, colors, and numbers on his giant computer screen. Tails was still staring intensely at the moving codes when he spoke.

"It seems like the Emeralds are spread out in between seven out of many dimensions."

"Alternate Realities? They really exist?"

"Yes. There's thousands upon thousands of alternate worlds, completely different from the last."

We all stared at the screen now, the colors corresponding to the eight Emeralds.

"Obviously the first emerald has already been tracked down on Mobius, also (A/N: non-canonically) known as Universe #33. The remaining six can be found safer if we spit into teams of twos. Unfortunately the next window we could enter is in a couple of weeks."

"Can Mephiles beat us to the other dimensions?" Rouge questioned.

"He can either steal one from Zonic or has Eggman replicate one. It would highly unlikely for him to warp with a chaos Emerald itself."

"How do we know he won't do that?" I asked.

"He won't..." Shadow started.

"...it's too risky." Shannon finished. "Collecting Emeralds while having at least one him… He probably thinks he might lose it, letting his plan backfire already."

"So… we're playing the waiting game," Rouge concluded.

"Exactly, I'll watch it and the moment we get the chance we'll go."

Understanding, the rough outline of the plan they started to break but Knuckles stopped.

"I can't let this go," he simply said and he asked a question that none of us would probably ever ask. "I have to ask for everyone's sake. Shannon?"

You could see the fear widened in her eyes, but she answered.

"Yes Knuckles?"

"When Mephiles spoke to you, what did he mean?"

She fell silent and glanced around. I think she was deciding to whether answer the question or blow it off. It's obvious that she didn't want to talk about her past it if she didn't have to, she always found a way to escape the situation if it came to it.

"Knuckles…" Rouge whispered while elbowing him in the side. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

"No, no. I can't blame Knuckles for asking it, was bound to come up a eventually. The very short version is I wasn't born... I was created, similar to Shadow, on the ARK."

Out if the corner my eye, I've seen Shadow's ears twitch, perking up, as her backstory intertwined with his.

"Actually," she continued. "I was made to proceed Shadow. My ...creator believed that women were better caretakers. He also thought that he could implement more skills that Shadow didn't have… but I wasn't perfect. I was just a failed attempt that happened to live… and didn't want to part with me. So he taught me other skills like math, science, and self defense. Now, I'm here with you guys. That's the short of it." She finished her story with a shrug of her shoulder. It's obvious there was way more to the story and a lot of questions that wanted answers… but that's for another time.

"Is there a successful processor?" Shadow asked after the long still moment of silence.

"There was."

Everything that was needed to be said was there. Another moment of silence, Shannon stood still, in thought, it seemed like, then she gasped.

"Wildberry! Tails can you look Dr. Wildberry Alexandra the squirrel for me please?

"On it."

"Who's...Wildberry? Amy asked.

"A doctor who used to frequent the ship." Shadow answered.

"And my best friend," Shannon continued. "At the time she was twenty-one, now, she most likely pushing her seventies. I can't believe I forgot about her for so long."

"Found her," Tails broke through the conversation. I focused my glance on Shannon it didn't show through much but you could hope in her eyes.

"Could you find an address?"

"Yes I did?"

"Can you write it down please? I'm going."

"Wait. Right now?" I asked.
"Yeah. It's only 1pm."

"But-" I started. I don't want her to end up being disappointed, if she really is the last part to her past and she's not alive. She… she could become very distant and reserved like Shadow, way more than what she already is. She's is a great addition to the team, also, she's an amazing friend

"Sonic." She said cutting me off and looking dead into my eyes. "I'm going. Not be morbid but, if she is alive we are not sure how much time she have left…" She paused looking at the picture that pulled up on the screen it was of twenty-one year old Wildberry. It was a student picture then next to that the school she went on to teach at.

"I need to see her… I need to know, if it makes you feel better your welcome to come with."

She took the strip off paper out of Tails hand and practically dashed out the door with everyone following behind her.