Disclaimer: I do not own, neither do I claim to own, the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, or the Dragon Ball Z franchise. Neither do I own any branch, spin-off or anything pertaining to the two series. SEGA owns Sonic, while Akira Toriyama, Toei Animation and FUNimation all own DBZ.

I also do not own the following characters: Zoey Arsaldi the Wolf, Mira 'Ally' Prower, Axel the Bandicoot; Noah Raymond Thompson and Spencer Franklin Ricardo. The former trio belong to Pekiunai, while the latter duo are owned by werewolf99.

Claimer: On the flip side, I am the owner of Luster the Cat, Megan the Wolf, Jack the Cat, Entity, Quill, Unknown and all the original Eggman robots that appeared in Season 1. Contact me if you want to use any of these characters or ideas in your work.

Last time, on Luster the Cat...

A desolte and uninhabited canyon was next on the list of areas to visit for the four teams, though it wasn't quite as empty as one may expect it to be. Rail Canyon actually belonged to Dr. Eggman himself, as a place to work on his robotic army in secret. Team Dark was the first team to arrive; they had simply blasted through the stations and across the rails with nary a care. Team Chaotix was second, they were tasked to get to the terminal to pick up some classified information only accessible with a chip obtained from Casino Park and to destroy enough capsules containing a certain type of robot that could make or break the army protecting the Egg Fleet. Teams Rose and Sonic followed suit with Team Dark's goals.

At the end of Bullet Station, Team Chaotix had also uncovered a Chaos Emerald, making it the fourth one located so far.

We now come back to some time after we left off!

Heroes

Team Dark, Rose and Chaotix had just barely breached a new area, which was full of nature on performance enhancing drugs. Towering mushrooms, trees that have a gajillion of thick branches, there were bushes that acted as mini-mazes - a bit of everything. Team Sonic were the last ones to get there, but boy were they determined.

"We got no time to waste, guys! We've gotta save Luster and topple that fleet of Eggface's!" Sonic reinstated, as his team followed the grassy path round a shuttle loop and onto a large platform.

Knuckles and Tails raised a fist, agreeing with what their leader said. The fox's eyes immediately darted to a sizely green frog positioned on higher ground. "Guys, look!" he alerted.

"A frog. Seems friendly," commented Knuckles, folding his arms. He jumped up on some small footholds to reach the frog and began communicating to it. "Harmless. You okay-"

As the echidna started to speak, the frog began croaking, which summoned rain to the area. Suddenly, a vine grew and a thin, green piece of ivy straightened out, looking like a grind rail of sorts.

"I think he wants to help us!" Tails noted. "Thanks, frog guy!"

The team thanked the frog and then hopped onto the rail and began grinding over to a raised level surface with another green frog. This time, the rain it created caused some mushrooms to grow, allowing the three heroes to bounce up them and carry on with their advancement through Frog Forest. Much to Team Sonic's surprise, a flower somehow carried the lot of them around a skyscraper-like mushroom and landed them perfectly on a platform that was connected to said mushroom.

Towards the end, there was one seemingly long ivy rail that led the heroes deeper into the nature-filled region. Team Sonic kept on charging through, without an end in sight.

Luster the Cat: Season 2 Opening 2 (Sign - Naruto Shippuden, English ver.) -

I realise the screaming pain

Hear it loud in my brain

But I'm going right ahead with this scar

Can you hear me?

Can you hear me?

Can you hear me?

So am I...

I don't care if you forget

All the words that we used to share

I won't ever break a sweat

Just please show me that you care

This sign that I've been given

Reading it, doesn't make any sense

I have yet to give in

I'll fight in my defence

I've been led astray, no hope to be found

Today I'll pave the way, there's a future abound

I then heard a voice

Within the blowing of the wind

Don't be afraid of the pain

Your scars will make you obtain

Even if the weight of the world

Crashes on your shoulders

Do you remember the time

When our tears fell from the sky

That's when I tried to whine

But kept askin' myself why

Because all the sorrow you've seen

Try to become what I've been

Can you hear me?

So am I...

Even into the proper, deep depths of Frog Forest, Team Sonic pressed on. As soon as they dropped down to the start of Lost Jungle, they immediately noticed something was off.

"Are we at sea level?" Tails wondered, noticing the swampy water surrounding the greenery.

Knuckles took a good look at the water and splashed around in it with his hand. Interestingly, he dipped his finger in the stagnant water and tasted it, confirming his suspicions. "Yep, we're in a swamp," he confirmed.

"Heh, more like a Lost Jungle," Sonic joked, unknowingly referencing the name of the area. "Anyway, we should get goin'."

With immense haste, Team Sonic blasted onwards but were immediately stopped by the appearance of a new robot. It was massive, had a steel hammer equipped and looked like a tough cookie. Sonic went in for a Homing Attack, but found that did absolutely nothing.

Annoyed, Sonic grunted in pain. "Ugh! What gives?"

"Let me take a crack at this one," volunteered Knuckles, grabbing a nearby red Power Core and using it's short lived powers to effortlessly punch a hole straight through the large E-series robot. "Easy."

Proceeding through Lost Jungle, Team Sonic came across a black coloured frog after a short rail grind. When it began croaking, the nearby peaches rolled off the miniture trees and began rolling towards the heroes, with the intention to squash them. Sonic managed to blast them away with a Sonic Wind attack, freeing up the pathway ahead.

"Seems those darker frogs destroy plants, and the green ones do the opposite," commented Sonic, as his team finished destroying some Egg Pawns. "Gotta watch out for that."

Along the way, past ivy rails and some vines that the trio could hang onto and launch themselves from, there was another one of the imposingly big robots from the start of the area. Now that they knew how to deal with them, Sonic unleashed a Blue Tornado to sweep it off of its 'feet', allowing Knuckles to wail on it all he liked. Past more rails and bouncy mushrooms, Team Sonic encountered more of those irritating black frogs and dealt with the slight problems they caused as they came.

At one point, there were two huge E-Series guarding a box that contained a large mushroom. Sonic effortlessly took the pair out with a Light Speed Attack powered by one of Knuckles' punches. When the 'bots became scrap, the box opened, allowing the team to venture onwards. Later on, they came across several hangable vines in a row, all suspended above the mucky water.

"Something tells me something terrible's gonna happen," Tails feared. The fox actually started to shake in fear, but was soon reassured by his best friend.

"No worries Tails, we've faced worse," reminded Sonic, thinking back to previous adventures.

The team proceeded onwards and grabbed onto the first vine, quickly noticing the oncoming, gigantic Mobian alligator attempting to swallow them whole.

"Don't look back! Keep swinging!" Knuckles ordered. He and his team quickly followed these orders, doing their best to escape the snappy jaws of the Mobian predator. Several minutes later, Team Sonic were finally on a large, circular platform, safe from the alligator's clutches.

Phantom Shadows

"Phew! We did it!" Sonic celebrated, taunting in the general direction of where the alligator should be. He and his team felt so relieved to be out of there - they were at a loss for words.

Until three shadows loomed over their presence, up on a platform that stuck out from a tall, thin tree.

"Long time no see, boys!" a familiar female voice greeted from said platform.

Team Sonic's gaze turned towards the fellow team above them - Team Dark. Most importantly, the three colourful anthros were confused: Shadow's alive, and who is this bulky robot?

"Shadow..." Sonic murmured, remembering how the 'faker' died so long ago. Sonic and Shadow protected the destruction of Earth from the falling Space Colony ARK with the use of Chaos Control, but Super Shadow had used so much energy, that he reverted back to his original form and fell to the Earth. Now, he was alive...

"I do not know why I am here, or why I even bothered with this pointless quest in the first place," Shadow stated, folding his arms. "But you, blue hedgehog, remind me of someone."

Did Shadow lose his memory or something? How could he not remember Sonic? thought Tails, his mind blown with the dark hedgehog's reappearance. "How could you forget, Shadow? Don't you remember what happened on the ARK?"

Shadow's mind rang. He covered his ears and began to writhe in pain, like he was experiencing a bad headache of some description. "ARK...Maria...Gerald Robotnik..."

Rouge's eyes widened. I can't have this. Shadow must not regain his memory, because who knows what he might do then? I just can't take that risk. She sighed, and flew down to the circular platform suspended above the swamp water that Team Sonic were on, and was soon followed by her team-mates. "You'll want to be quiet. Shadow, these people are talking nonsense - only Eggman will have the truth."

"No, you be quiet, bat girl," Knuckles returned, reminded of his past scuffles with Rouge. "I've had enough of your treachery and lies. You have to tell Shadow the truth."

"Sensors locked on Dr. Eggman..." scanned Omega. He analysed Team Sonic with great interest. "Any meatbag that attempts to hack my program of destroying Eggman will be annihilated."

"Heh heh..." Sonic chuckled, tapping his foot. "Not really the best way to treat those you haven't seen in a while, huh?"

Shadow calmed down and regained his posture. "What's with you, blue hedgehog? Why do you look like me?"

"There's more to me then lookin' like ya," Sonic answered. "I'll be glad to show ya!"

Team Sonic and Team Dark lunged at each other, initiating a fight.

Team Battlin'

Elsewhere in Lost Jungle, Team Chaotix had just located lost Chao number nine and found that their journey ended at a second circular platform just on the stagnant water, similar to the one Teams Sonic and Dark were fighting on at this very moment. Confused, the detectives were about to head back but were halted in place by the sudden appearence of Team Rose.

"Stop right there, Chao thieves!" Amy demanded, rushing towards the Chaotix, hammer in hand. "Give back Chocola and nobody gets hurt!"

"What?" Vector asked in all the fuss. "Whadd'ya talkin' about? We were ordered by our client to rescue these Chao! If you don't mind, we're gonna go rescue the final one!"

It wasn't until afterwards that Vector noticed Cheese's presence, whom was hovering just above Cream's shoulder. "Boss, there it is!" Espio pointed out. He quickly got Team Rose's attention by whipping out a kunai, in preparation to attack. "We require that Chao. Please, hand it over."

"You're not taking Cheese away from me!" Cream shouted, holding her best pal close to her. "I won't let you!"

Big looked over and saw the distress in Cream's eyes and with Amy's determination transferring to him, he eventually let loose. "Leave my friends alone!" He fired his fishing rod, which Espio countered with a swing of his kunai, sending it back to sender.

"I hate to do this, but team? Attack!" ordered Vector, making his team charge ahead. The croc went after Big, noticing that he seems the be the muscle behind the opposing team.

Espio went after Amy, assuming that his ninja tactics would work well on the hammer-style that the hedgehog seemingly employs, leaving Charmy to go after Cream and Cheese. The bee flew ahead towards the rabbit, though with one glance of the girl's cute appearance, he felt a mental resistance in his mind telling him to not attack.

"Aw come on...I don't wanna hurt you!" Charmy Bee complained, until he was hit by Cheese which made him irritated. He turned towards the Chao and stated, "I now wanna hurt you!"

Charmy began attempting to stab Cheese with his stinger, but every single one of his strikes were evaded. Espio kicked Amy away and noticed his bee comrade's struggle.

"Charmy! We need the Chaos unharmed! Focus on the girl!" the chameleon informed, deflecting a hammer strike with his kunai.

"Okay! Thanks, Espio!" thanked Charmy, now turning his attention towards Cream. "Sorry for this!"

As Charmy began to tackle both Cream and Cheese (proving to be an excellent challenge for the famed duo), Vector continued to match Big's natural strength from punch after punch. The crocodile managed to get the jump on the cat with an explosive pink-purple bubble attack, though Big fought back with a barrage of punches known as the Battering Ram. He then seemed to be distracted and appeared to forget about the fight, which angered Vector.

"Come on!" the green Mobian grunted. "We're fighting, remember?"

"Oh yeah, kinda forgot. Hehe...let's go!" Big smiled, his spirit reinvigorated and his wounds apparently healing themselves - Big had used a technique known as Feel No Pain to achieve this. He then went in for a smack with his fishing rod, which Vector batted away and punched the dim cat right in the gut, causing him to collapse. "That's not nice!"

Becoming angered, Big stood back up and released an unrelenting assault of punches and kicks, all of which Vector blocked successfully, but became tired by the end of it, just as Big was. Espio and Amy were still fighting, however, with the sudden tiring out of their team-mates, they halted the battle to check up on their friends.

"Hmm, you two seem to be fine," Espio noted, helping Vector and Charmy to get back to their regular, non-tired selves. Amy did the same and the purple and pink Mobians walked up to each other and shook hands. "Perhaps this was a misunderstanding."

"Maybe it was. Look, sorry. We've just been travelling for so long, I must be getting tired," Amy explained, blushing. "I've been looking for any opportunity to go home - adventuring's more difficult than it was before, lemme tell ya!"

Espio chuckled. "I agree. The harshness of the open world can be daunting at times, but when you open your eyes, the world can be a beautiful place."

"That's so true. Anyway, I hope I'll be seeing ya later!" Amy agreed, thanking Espio and taking her team to the next area.

The chameleon made sure his team had their energies back to normal, then began to talk to them about setting off, just like Team Rose had done so before. Vector and Charmy agreed with the idea and the leader grabbed the walkie talkie and began communicating with the client.

"So, you've passed through Frog Forest undetected and freed the Chaos in Lost Jungle? Good work, as always," the client responded. "Now, head to the haunted castle nearby. I'll explain to you what you need to do there when you arrive."

"Yes, sir!" Vector comically replied, ending the call. "Let's head to that castle!"

With no hesitation, Team Chaotix set off for wherever this castle was located - it could have been anywhere, but the client had directions.

Dark vs Sonic

Meanwhile, the battle involving Team Sonic and Team Dark was well under-way. Sonic was combating Shadow as equals, Knuckles and Rouge were re-kindling their rivalry and Tails was glossing over Omega's design but was repeatedly reminded of the situation he was in, thanks to Omega's 'destroy everything' attitude. So far, the fight seemed equal.

Until Rouge began playing dirty. Sneakily, she had placed bombs near Sonic and Tails and was ready to activate them. However, something unexpected happened.

"What?!" she questioned, as everyone besides her and Knuckles was seemingly damaged by the explosions. "How did that fail?"

Knuckles wasn't impressed. "You might want to leave. We're equals at the moment, and our friends have been injured by your hands. I suggest you take your comrades and get out of here."

Rouge bit her lip. She hated to admit it, but Knuckles was right. "Fine. Sometimes, retreat is the best option. Shadow and Omega, we are leaving!"

Without another word about it, Team Dark departed from Lost Jungle, leaving Team Sonic to tend to their wounds. Tails grabbed some nearby Rings and used their energy to heal his and Sonic's wounds almost instantly. When healed, the two jumped and made sure their bodies were working as they should.

"Man, I forget how strong Shadow is..." Sonic commented.

"And I never knew Eggman could build robots like that..." Tails added, rubbing his shoulder. "But hey, we should really get moving."

Knuckles and Sonic seemed to agree with that, so Team Sonic got off their backsides, remembered their goals and began to leave the swampy jungle. Towards the edge of the mutated forest, the team came across a familiar blue light and energy.

"A Chaos Emerald!" noticed Sonic, picking it from from amongst the leaves. "That makes two. I wouldn't be surprised if Shadow has one, maybe Amy has one as well..."

"...So there's three left, still out there somewhere. Who's to say, maybe there's a fourth team roaming Mobius?" Knuckles suggested.

Tails shrugged. "It's plausible. We'll likely find out who they are later on, but for now, let's find that Eggman!"

"Yeah!" Sonic agreed. He and his team ventured away from the jungle and towards a dark, mystical castle that could be described in one word: spooky.

Luster the Cat: Season 2 Ending 2 (Let it Out - Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, English ver.) -

Let it all out, let it all out

Tomorrow it will fade away

You wonder, is this the right route?

Someday your dreams will come true, maybe today

Despite this painful dream, I'll keep moving on

Until I reach the pinnacle of my power, oh-ho my friend

Will you comfort me, will you pass the baton?

Oh, oh, whoa

Today marks the rest of my days

Sitting and phasing through these painful plays

My dreams torment me, I cannot explain it

But you know I won't quit

I have a dream, I have a hope, I have a life to live

But I can't do this on my own, I need your help

Hopefully your friendly love will never deplete so you can give

I don't care what you've done, but I just need you now