SonicANIME2010 here, bringing in another chapter to the Sonic Adventure arc to Knight of the Night Sky. Well I must say I'm astonished now by the amount of views my stories have totaled up. I really can't explain how it's getting so much notice to be honest; maybe I'm doing something right. Anyways, spring semester's back and my classes are gonna be tough and interesting, hopefully I'll be able to keep up my stories, I can't promise anything, but I'll do my best.

[Non-Administrated Planet # 97 "Earth"]
[Station Square: Safe House]
[BGM: "Welcome to Station Square" Sonic Adventure]

For Fate and Alicia, both who share the same DNA, albeit for the reason that Fate was created as a clone of her sibling, they still shared a family-like bond as they were, as far as they knew, the last of their family, the last of the Testarossa family. As part of the Blue Team of the Time-Space Administration Bureau's Special Mobile Force 97, they, along with Reinforce Eins, were scheduled to manage the Safe House and report in on any incidents or leads that they found in the city.

The sisters were in the middle of some computer-based paperwork; Alicia still had to write up the report on the beast, now identified as "Chaos", which she, Sonic and Reinforce fought last night. Fate on the other hand was using the computer she had, which was next to her sibling's, to check in on the status of their devices, Bardiche and Sisterhood, as they were taken in by Mariel at Engineering for some sort of an upgrade.

Reinforce Eins made her presence known when she walked in; she had an update she wanted to give, "I just heard from our deployed half about that beast we fought last night."

"Ara?" Fate queried, "What about it?"

"It has at least some connection to Doctor Eggman" Reinforce speculated, "He called to it and it appeared, so either it's tagging along for its own reasons, or it's under the Doctor's control. But, one thing has been confirmed. It's after the Chaos Emeralds."

"Chaos Emeralds?" Alicia asked, "Why would it be after them? What could it gain from them?"

The unison device pressed a few keys on the screen in front of the two girls. The screen displayed still photos and recordings of Chaos' absorption of the first Chaos Emerald and its minor transformation

"With each emerald it gains, its strength increases." Eins summarized.

"Still, that was only one Emerald" Fate noted, "It didn't seem too powerful because Sonic-kun was able to deal some damage to it with his Shidden Issen."

"That creature can't be allowed to attain all seven of the emeralds." Alicia noted.

"And he won't..." Reinforce narrowed her eyes, her tone was serious, "However, at the moment, Sonic, Hayate and Nanoha have their devices; yours were needed to be upgraded. Thankfully their scheduled to be returned tonight, so until then, the best thing we can do is find out any information about this Chaos creature and how we can stop it."

With the Testarossa duo starting their research, Reinforce watched over them, her expression stoic and serious, "Whatever this "Chaos" creature is… both it and Eggman have to be stopped before all of the emeralds are gathered."

[OP: "Eternal Blaze" Mizuki Nana]

Sonic: Knight of the Night Sky
Chapter 36
A race to gather all Emeralds

[Mystic Ruins: Tails' Workshop]
[BGM: "Miscasting" Nanoha A's]

The workshop wasn't all too impressive to look at from the inside; the place was messy and littered with machine parts and other items. The whole bottom floor of the two-deck workshop was the shop itself, all of the lodging accommodations were situated on the top floor.

The party of Sonic, Hayate, Nanoha, Reinforce Zwei, Tails, Alisa, Suzuka, Zafira, Arf and Shamal gathered at the upstairs lounge room to have a video conference with their Admiral, with whom they just finished their report about the recent developments in the case too.

"So it all comes down to getting the Chaos Emeralds before Eggman or his "Chaos" monster can?" Lindy asked, thankful that she had tea that morning to keep her from going full-blown lecture mode on the young ones.

"Hai" Sonic confirmed the Admiral's summary, "But it won't be easy... the emeralds could be all over the island."

"And Eggman stole the Emerald I had for my prototype airplane." Tails lowered his head in a bit of shame

"About that…" Tea or not, Lindy went into lecture-Admiral mode anyway; well a minor variant, but what she said promised a more potent version later, "Later on; I'm going to have a talk with you, Miles Prower, about responsibilities and communication."

Tails gulped while Sonic, Hayate and Nanoha took a step back when they heard their Admiral address the fox by his full name, and not by the namesakes. Experience with the Admiral previously taught them about avoiding her "lectures". The particular trio blushed a little bit when they remembered Lindy giving them the "Birds and Bees" lecture after the other girls were caught in a somewhat ecchi situation that they brought on the poor hedgehog back on their trip to Mid. Since then, they've done everything possible to keep from those lectures, as well as doing a little bit of thinking themselves.

Sonic was quick to change the subject to a development, a flash on the nearby computer screen, "Ara? Hey! This computer says that an emerald's nearby"

The others quickly gathered around the hedgehog as he typed up some more keys, "Here… at this point… Looks like we have to go through some gate and then a ravine of a valley range in order to get the Emerald, but in order to get through the gate, we need the proper key."

"I think I found the key that matches that gate during one of my tests." Tails noted as he revealed some sort of a green statue with an insignia of wind imprinted on it, "The insignia on the gate matched the one on this key."

"Sonic, I want you to take your team out there to investigate that valley" Lindy ordered, "Also, take Alisa, Suzuka and Arf with you as well. The trainees could use the experience. Tails, you and the rest of your team remain here for further orders."

"Hai!" The mentioned mages saluted and left upon orders, all that remained were Zafira, Shamal and Tails, the feed with their Admiral was still up."

"Zafira? Shamal? Could you leave us for a moment?" Lindy asked, her tone was serious enough to make the mentioned Guardian Beast and Healing Wind of the Wolkenritter shiver in place "And lock the door behind you too please."

"H-hai!" The duo acknowledged and left the room, leaving the young fox boy all alone and very nervous.

"Alright… about responsibilities.." Lindy, in Maximum Power Lecture mode, began her long talk with the poor fox; who could only gulp and give the admiral his own version of a Deer caught in the headlights look.

[Windy Valley]
[BGM: "Windy Valley 3" Sonic Adventure]

As their fox friend was held at the mercy of the Admiral-in-lecture-mode, the five mages and one familiar began their search in the Windy Valley. Beforehand, they tested the key that Tails gave them and sure enough it worked, though not in the way they all expected. The winds made generated from the gate's activation were so strong it literally ripped all six of the mages up into the air.

Alisa and Suzuka, both multi-multi-millionaire heiresses, have heard many stories from Nanoha about the environment and beauty that these zones the islands held, but have never actually been in one, not counting the Mystic Ruins. When they were enlisted by Lindy Harlaown about training as mages in the Bureau, they'd like to see for themselves how the zones actually looked.

Despite that, falling a thousand meters or so straight down after being dropped from a tornado was not what they had in mind when they said they'd like to see a zone for themselves. With not much real experience in magic, the duo found themselves with nothing else to do but scream very loudly as they fell.

The other mages, however, were the exact opposite of freaking out; Nanoha smiled as she admired the wind brushing her hair softly, Hayate was in the midst of an adrenaline-pumped excitement, Arf was quite excited as well in anticipation of the upcoming dangers and risks, in addition to spending a little bit of time with a certain blue hedgehog. Speaking of which, Sonic was closest to the screaming duo of heiresses and turned to them with an eyebrow quirked; he sighed before focusing his attention on the ground below them that seemed to approach rapidly.

"Yup… first time alright" Sonic shrugged in free-fall, "Relax you two, this is no sweat for us."

"Eh?" Alisa was surprised by how calm the hedgehog was

"What do you mean?" Suzuka asked.

"This isn't our first aerial start in a zone" Sonic explained, "Girls? You know what to do!"

"Hai!" Arf, Zwei, Nanoha and Hayate acknowledged, and in a synchronized motion, the girls held out their dominant arms, which in exception to the southpaw Nanoha, they were all right-handed; Sonic joined in too; over the palms of the extended hands, three Belkan Triangles, one Mid-Childan circle and one IS Template appeared over said palms respectively; Sonic, Hayate and Zwei had the triangles, Arf had the circle and Nanoha's was the Template.

All of their falls were broken by a series of sigils summoned up from the base of the ground of the calculated landing point. The sigils acted as fields to break the fall and in addition, a small trampoline bounce-like effect was applied from the force of their landing.

The two trainees sighed in relief, only to open their mouths further as the amazing sight of the Windy Valley's aerial track revealed the amazing view of the mountains below them. Needless to say, it was one sight that could definitely be calendar material.

"Sugoi…" Was all that the duo could say in awe of the amazing sight; surely this was one sight they wouldn't forget anytime soon.

"Oyoy…" Sonic snapped the duo out of their daze with a few finger-snaps, "I know this is your first time and all, Alisa-san and Suzuka-san, but we're kinda racing against the clock here. I promise you'll have time to sightsee later, but right now we have a Chaos Emerald to track down."

"Hai!" The duo instantly snapped back to attention form their little head-in-the-clouds moment, their devices in hand in case of any resistance.

Nanoha took a few steps forward and lost all emotion for a brief moment, her cyborg abilities put to use as she scanned the area; her amber eyes glowed dimly but just enough for her heiress friends to notice that they were amber, and not blue like they remembered, they were shocked and confused even further when their friend spoke in a somewhat emotionless tone, "Chaos Emerald located"

"Where?" Sonic asked

Nanoha then pointed her finger out into the distance, just at the end of the track and around the mountain it was situated on, her eyes stopped their glow but remained amber in color; her tone returned to her usual one, "Over there… I also detected a few robots and traps. We have to proceed with caution."

"Nanoha-chan, are you okay?" Alias asked; concern plainly obvious in her expression, she may have been a bit tsundereish in her moments, but the main trigger from those were her concerns for her childhood friend.

"You don't seem like yourself." Suzuka added, "Your eyes are different too, what happened?"

Nanoha chuckled a bit in nervousness as she realized that her friends weren't yet made aware of her cybernetic "operation" from almost two years ago, "I'm fine girls, it's nothing to worry about, we'll explain later after we get the emerald."

"I hate being left out of the loop, you know that Nanoha." Alisa's concerns turned into frustration, "You will tell us the truth this time."

"I will I promise" Nanoha answered the frustration with calmness, "Neither you nor Suzuka-chan will be left out of the truth again."

"If that's settled" Hayate sighed a bit, "Can we get going please? My legs aren't fully healed yet and standing around here is starting to hurt."

"Hai!" Suzuka nodded, "Gomen, we'll get going."

With that, the group took to their flight and trek throughout the zone. In the midst of her wing-given flight, Hayate reflected upon what she said. In all honesty, she didn't mind flying, but she wanted to be able to experience running and walking again, it may have been selfish for her to have that wish, but she didn't want to experience the sense of helplessness that her wheelchair gave anymore. The help she has been given tightened her resolve to recover, to be able to walk again, that was a dream she'd like to have come true, and it wasn't too far away, her recovery's gone so well and unhindered, the earliest and best case scenario is that she'd be able to walk and run again in a year and a half or so.

The true entertainment of the navigation of the Windy Valley aerial track came from the squeals and screams of excitement and fear from Alisa and Suzuka; with the sudden sharp turns, full-pipe looks and Nanoha's not-so-favorite thing in the world, springs, any annoyances from the course were distracted away by the new trainees.

In the end of the course was the dark-blue Chaos Emerald, which was claimed and safely stored away by Sonic.

"Now that this is over with, let's head to Station Square and see how the others are holding up." The hedgehog offered, "In addition, we can take a break for tea and also tell Alisa-san and Suzuka-san about Nanoha-chan."

"Hai!" all of them agreed.

[Station Square: Safe House]
[BGM: "Dissidia Menu/Opening"]

Reinforce took Alicia and Fate out for a little stroll and scout of the area in Station Square that led to its Casino. While that happened, Sonic, Hayate and Nanoha explained to the deployed Yellow team trio about Nanoha's injury.

After a few minutes of explanations and the review of video footage about Nanoha's incident, her full story about the injury at the hands of Metal Sonic and her conversion into a Combat Cyborg.

"So… you were almost killed by this robot knock-off of Sonic and the magic people turned you into this robot-thing in order to save you?" Alisa asked.

"That about sums it up" Nanoha sighed, "Except I'm not a robot, I'm a cyborg now, and there's a difference between Eggman's robots and what the Bureau did to me. Eggman's robots don't have any emotions or a soul… I do… all they did was change my body… I'm still me on the inside, and I still have the um… organic functions humans have."

"Oh." Suzuka understood, "why didn't you tell Alisa or me any of this?"

"I ordered them not to." Lindy's voice was heard from the communication feed screen that she opened up in the midst of the story and explanation, "At the time, you both were still considered non-magical and civilians, and it was thought that you didn't need to know. That notion changed when I enlisted you both as trainees. As part of my squad, you're both authorized to hear this sort of classified detail, but the same order applies; if you can help it, do not inform anyone about this operation. The Bureau classified this operation as "experimental" just like our unit."

"Hai…" Alisa nodded, "but still I don't like that I was kept out of this for so long. Nanoha-chan is my best friend, and to hear that she was almost killed and operated on without either me or Suzuka knowing is painful."

"I know" Lindy sighed, "And I'm sorry… Hell I still don't know the real reason why this had to happen to Nanoha-chan."

"If Harlaown's news was frustrating enough.." A new voice chimed in; Admiral Midget Crowbel opened a feed from her side and she did not look happy, in fact she was angry; very angry and serious, "Then the grave news I have will make things worse probably."

"Admiral Crowbel?!" Lindy was surprised, the feed turned into a conference when all of the Red Team as well as the rest of the Yellow Team were pulled into the last-minute conference, "What is it?"

"First off, I want all three teams, as well as the head of Engineering in your shop to be listening in." Crowbel ordered, "and secondly, I want this conference to be secure and private. No other outsiders can listen in on this, it's highly classified."

"Done and done" Lindy acknowledged after a few clicks on her keyboard, "What is it that you wanted to say?"

"I have some positive news first." Crowbel started her debriefing, "After a long enquiry and the use of my position, we've been able to identify the superiors who authorized and sanctioned the highly illegal operation that happened to your Nanoha Takamachi… any other occasion this would be good to report."

"But?" Nanoha asked, suddenly fearful and nervous; she did not like where this was going.

"They've all been brutally murdered; not only that, but the assailant also hacked and stole all of the classified files in relation to the operation. To make matters even worse, instead of this data being taken to the assailant's yet-to-be identified master; they leaked it all to Mid-Childa's MBC news and to all of the press on Mid. Though the leaked details did include the reason for the operation as an experimental test of cybernetics and healing human injures. All of the details, including specifically Nanoha's name, age, home-world and birth-place have all been compromised." Crowbel informed with a sad sigh, "I'm sorry to be the first to inform you all of this, but I'd rather it be me that does the informing rather than a media ambush."

Nanoha suddenly lost all feeling in her legs, she knelt down and started to cry; so many questions and fears were voiced, "W-what's going to happen to me now? A-am I in trouble? What will happen? My family? Everyone I know? H-how are they going to handle this?"

Sonic and Hayate quickly knelt down with their cybernetic friend and group-hugged her in an attempt to calm her down, as this happened, all ears and eyes were focused on the older Admiral, who sighed and wiped a few tears from her own eyes, when she spoke again, it was in a far more comforting and relaxing tone.

"You needn't worry. Nothing is going to happen to you as far as the Bureau is concerned; whoever did this was out to paint the Time-Space Administration as a faction that cannot be trusted with taking in new recruits, especially the young ones. Right now our people are working in damage control and have already come out with an answer of their own; they've spun your operation in a sense that it had to happen in order to save your life. The spin the Bureau has put to counter the scandal is that you were a young recruit with so much promise and talent; and as a victim who was robbed of the chance to display that promise when a foe attacked you and almost took your life. They played the story and truth out in a sense that what the operation did, while it was highly illegal, it gave you that second chance. The media and press managed to buy the whole "did it to save her life" bit quite well, and somewhat bought that you didn't hold any resentment to them. They'll want to hear that for themselves."

Nanoha stood up, her strength returned thanks in part to the cute, heartwarming cuddle moment she had with her teammates, "What's going to happen now?"

"Our radars show that a large investigative ship, commandeered by just about every newsmedia source available, is en route to Earth and will arrive by tomorrow, from what I've heard, the Bureau authorized this under the restrictions that each news organization can have only one reporter sent out there, and it had to be their most qualified, and in addition, I've been told to tell you that while your family and friends will be interviewed, they have all rights to decline any question that may seem too personal or not relevant to the story at hand, and the interviews have to be all at the convenience of the ones interviewed."

"That will be acceptable." Lindy sighed, "So we basically do get a media ambush, but at least we'll be prepared."

"Hai." Crowbel nodded, "I gotta go make a press statement, keep me informed on your current mission." The admiral closed the feed on her end

"We'll need a change of plans then." Lindy frowned, "I see that you guys retrieved one of the Chaos Emeralds, has the third's location been confirmed?"

"Hai" Reinforce Eins said as she, Alicia and Fate returned from their scouting, "It's in Casinopolis, Station Square's casino."

"Great…" Lindy sighed, "And I doubt they cater to kids…"

"Actually" Fate countered, "I read a flyer that today's the grand opening for their "Sonic playroom" section of the casino. Their idea is for kids to have fun and play games to earn "Rings" for prizes. Everyone's going to be there, and one of the prizes is a Chaos Emerald."

"Sonic… playroom?!" The hedgehog blinked, "Uh….why name it after me?!"

"You're famous, remember?" Alicia noted.

"Oh yeah…" Sonic groaned, "Hate that…."

"Sorry" Hayate sighed, "Eggman makes attacks on Station Square, we stop him… but the press started asking a bit too much so you become our very own sacrificial media lamb."

"Anyways…." Lindy sighed, "Even if it's for kids, I don't trust Hayate in a casino and with the upcoming press free-for-all, Nanoha needs to explain a few things to her family; so I'd be sending in Sonic-kun in with Reinforce Zwei.. And even then, he'd be eaten alive by the children."

"Ano, he wouldn't be alone.." Mariel Atenza announced herself as she walked in, "I finished the upgrades to Sisterhood and Bardiche."

The Testarossa girls were given their devices, which from the outside, nothing has changed about their standby form. As Alicia examined her device, Mary explained the upgrades, "I've upgraded Sisterhood with a Cartridge System, with that, your power can be boosted for a short time, however there are risks, I trust you'll be careful?"

"Hai" Alicia nodded

"In addition, I also added experimental forms to both Bardiche and Sisterhood, I want you both to test them to see if they'll work." Mary added.

"Well that changes things." Lindy noted, "Now I can send Sonic, Alicia, Fate and Reinforce Zwei the Casino. I heard that the Red Team's going to be in there as well, apparently Knuckles detected a trio of Emerald Shards there."

"We'll head off to the Casino then." Sonic announced and began to walk out with Alicia and Fate in tow.

"Hold on!" Mary stopped Alicia on the way out, she handed her a silver card with light blue trims, "I was asked to give this to Chrono, could you give it to him?"

"Uh sure.." Alicia agreed and quickly ran ahead to catch up with her teammates.

"What was that?" Lindy asked, naturally Chrono was her son so she'd be a bit concerned.

"It came along with a message from Admiral Gil Graham" Mary explained, "He said it was something that could be useful against this "Chaos" monster, I think he was reading our reports again…"

"Well then, I'll be sure to ask him about this next time I get in contact with him." Lindy smirked a bit, ensuring that someone was definitely going to be in trouble, "In the meantime, Hayate-chan? Nanoha-chan? Reinforce Eins?"

"Hai?" The called out trio asked

"I've got a favor to ask." Lindy started, "Mind tagging along with me to Nanoha-chan's house?"

"Right!" The trio nodded.

[Station Square]
[BGM: "Welcome to Station Square" Sonic Adventure]

The sun had set over an hour ago, and opening night for the Casino's new section just kicked off. Sonic, Alicia and Fate gazed down at front door; the only entrance into Casinopolis, from their vantage point on a nearby rooftop.

"So this is Casinopolis" Sonic gazed at the casino, "Looks kinda crowded."

"We still have to go in there.." Fate noted and turned to her "twin" in reality the girl she was cloned after; her stand-by form device in between her fingers "Want to see our devices' new upgrades in action?"

"Gladly." Alicia smiled, her device held the same way.

Sonic knew exactly what was going to happen next and quickly turned around to give the girls their privacy. A wise move by the bleu hedgehog as both girls held up their devices.

[BGM: "Kin no Senkou" Nanoha A's]

"Bardiche Assault / Sisterhood Bullova! Set up!" Both girls cried out as their bodies glowed, and their devices transformed. First their Barrier Jackets appeared after their civil clothes disappeared in magic, all of them; ideally the reason why a particular hedgehog was averting his gaze. In a matter of seconds, the barrier jackets were materialized, the first part was the sleek swim-suit-like undergarments, the distinguishable colors were Fate's black and Alicia's sky-blue. Fate's suit was covered by a very short pink skirt, while Alicia had the same set-up, only sea-green. Long socks that extended up to Fate and Alicia's upper thighs appeared next, in a respective Black and sky-blue color that matched the swim-suit undergarment. Their hair-ties were kept and their distinctive styles remained the same. Arm-plates appeared on both of the girls' wrists and a long cloak that matched their undergarment colors topped off the outfits.

"Assault Form / Bullova Form" the devices called out simultaneously and shifted; they took similar forms of a pole-axe on top of a long pole with a pointed edge, much like their original designs, albeit Bardiche's ax-head was more curved like Sisterhood's spikes were on the opposite side of the curved-ax. After the transformations, both Testarossa twins held their devices in opposite, but dominant hands with Alicia having Sisterhood in her left hand and Fate holding hers in her right.

"Wow.." Alicia gazed in awe at her device's new look, then turned to Fate, "We match!"

"Hai.." The artificial mage smiled in amusement, "We do, Alicia-onee-chan."

Sonic cleared his throat and stood up, miraculously he still had his gaze completely averted, it was his turn now and he held up his own device, just before he started he could feel two pairs of eyes gazing directly at his back, with a brief blush he turned around, "Oy!"

"Busted.." Alicia snapped her fingers and turned herself and her sister around to avert their gazes in return.

A tsunderish huff came from the hedgehog as he held up his sword pendant, "Freiewind, set up!" and was engulfed in a flash of light. Unlike how the mages did their transformation, the belkan style was slightly different in the order. Freiewind morphed from its standby form into its sword-form first. As the hedgehog gripped the handle, his civil clothes, which was basically a pair of jeans and a sweater for the cold weather, disappeared; it was quickly replaced by a blue padded-shirt and matching shorts with silver-white trims along the middle of the shirt and sides of the shorts; the legwear only reached just to his upper-thighs; while it wasn't covering much of his legs at all, its design was for support of running and flight speed, the protection was given in the form of a waist-cape that reached just to his ankles, and along his waist were armor plates for each side. His shoes kept their red color, but morphed into plated boots for extra protection of his feet. On his wrists were arm-bands that were metal plated and his gloves were black and fingerless; his armor plates on his waist and wrist matched the trims of his shirt and shorts; topping off his Knight Garb was a red short sleeved jacket that laid just above his back-spikes, the red and blue trimmed jacket matched the cape that started at his waist. Finally, Freiewind's silver and blue-trimmed saya appeared in Sonic's left hand and he sheathed his blade in it.

The hedgehog rose up from the ground after his transformation and glanced behind him to the Testarossa twins, who lasted halfway through their hedgehog's knight garb transformation and ended up looking anyway. Thankfully to Sonic, but secretly regrettable to both girls, they did not catch any good looks.

"New Knight Garb, Sonic-kun?" Fate asked.

"Yeah, Hayate-chan and I finished the design to it this morning." Sonic nodded, "I wanted to try it out earlier, but I didn't get the chance with Eggman attacking and stealing the chaos emerald Tails had. Now that we've had some preparation time I figured why not give the new clothing a little test run."

"It looks quite neat on you." Alicia complimented.

"Thanks" the hedgehog smiled a bit cutely, which drew a pair of blushes, "Anyways, you notice the Cartridge System on your device, Alicia-chan?"

"Hai" the girl in question pulled up a small metal cover to reveal the cartridge system in the form of a classic revolver with six rounds already stored inside, "and I already know how the system works. I ask to load a cartridge and it does."

"Just be careful." Sonic cautioned as he stood up on the edge of the rooftop and absently overlooked the casino in thought, "Don't overdo it like Nanoha-chan and I did."

"I won't, I promise" Alicia nodded, "Anyways, shall we go in?"

"Sure!" with that the trio hopped down onto the ground and into the Casino.

[Casinopolis: Lobby]
[BGM: "Casinopolis" Sonic Adventure]

The so-called playroom was quite larger than either of the Blue team trio had expected, there were slot machines, pinball, strength test, whack-an-eggman which was the equivalent to whack-a-mole only with fake Eggmans in their place. There were many machines that gave out "rings" and also arcade games.

The real attention getter was the large, golden statue of Sonic's likeness, though it was a decent attempt at best, the sculptors made him seem a little bit too chubby than he really is.

"Oy.. that's supposed to be me?!" Sonic huffed in another annoyed moment, "I'm not fat"

"Well not anymore at least." Fate noted, "Hayate-chan said that you had that problem when you first started living at their residence, obviously they fixed that problem."

As predicted, there was an endless mob of fans just dying to get autographs from their heroic hedgehog, some of the screams and cries of excitement actually grew a bit ehm… explicit for a young kid such as Sonic. Before the hedgehog could move behind Fate and Alicia for shields against the fans, a loud voice silenced them all in one shout.

"OY! KNOCK IT OFF ALL OF YOU!" the owner of the voice was none other than Iron Knight Vita, who along with Signum and Chrono of the Red Team provided a better metaphorical barrier against the rabid fans. Vita glared at them all, "If any of you want to ambush Blue boy like this then you'll answer to me! He's here for something very important and if any of you try to interfere with him or harm him I'm coming after you all. Now go back to your games."

Maybe it was the knight in red gothic-lolita garb's pointed polo hammer held out in Vita's protective stance that drew some intimidation; or the loud booming voice and harsh tone that did it, but Vita single-handedly scared off a rabid group of fangirls and fanboys. With a huff she hoisted Eisen over her shoulder

"Bakas they all are! Avoid them, hedgehog, they are dangerous!"

"Vita-chan… Arigatou." Sonic hugged the iron knight in gratitude for coming to his defense from the fans; seriously they are tough.

The child-in-body blushed a bit and pulled him off after allowing the hug to last for a few seconds, but it was plenty of time to allow a somewhat mischievous smirk that Signum gained through some teasing and cute little giggles were voiced by the Testarossa twins "Alright, alright, you're done. Hey, you're finally wearing the final design to the Knight Garb. I think this one's going to suit you much better."

"Indeed it will." Signum added, "The old one was too thick and bulky to support the agility of someone with your small size."

"hai" Sonic nodded, "How goes your Master Emerald hunt?"

"We've secured one of the shards that are in this casino." Chrono informed, "We were starting to search for the second one when you arrived."

"Well we got a Chaos Emerald to hunt for." Sonic noted, "Hopefully it isn't too hard to get."

"Not really." Vita shrugged, "I did some snooping and found that the Emerald is one of the prizes, but you need to get over four hundred rings and they're using it as promotional item, so you better be quick otherwise someone will get to it first.

"We'll get to that then." The hedgehog nodded, "Thanks for the heads up."

"Nii-chan?" Alicia asked of Chrono, "I was told to give something to you."

The girl handed the Enforcer the silver card that she was given by Mary earlier, "Mary-san said this was from Graham-san."

"Is it now?" The teen Enforcer looked at the guard for a brief moment before stowing it away in his jacket, "Thanks for your help in this. I'll be sure to ask him what this is for later."

The trio of the Red Team watched as Sonic, Fate and Alicia ran off to play the games at the Casino in order to gather up the rings. As this happened, Signum, Vita and Chrono rejoined Knuckles, Quint and Megane, who had just secured the second emerald shard.

It didn't take too long to acquire the rings needed, as the trio of the Blue team split up and went for the games that gave out the most rings at once. On a few humorous notes, some of the games Alicia and Fate tried the first time got the max amount of rings, which was fifty at once, but they might have overdid it a bit. The strength challenge with the mallet that one would find in carnivals was set up in a way that if one hit the machine and the metal part was sent high enough to hit the bell, then they would win fifty rings. Alicia gave it a try and did get the bell a ring on her first shot, though she hit it hard enough for the bell to get sent flying up into the ceiling, and it was stuck in the hole it made deep, and was not willing for gravity to pull it down; needless to say that machine was going to need some repairs. In the end Alicia and Fate secured one hundred rings each while Sonic had two hundred.

With their total of rings reaching 400 exactly, the kids went to claim the Emerald prize; that much was easy, the only problem was that the fans and media got word of the Hedgehog sighted in Casinopolis and wanted autographs and interviews.

"Oh great… them again." Sonic facepalmed as he held the silver Chaos Emerald in his hand; he then took to the mental channels, "Oy.. their back.."

"The media again?" Quint asked, "Didn't Vita tell them to stay away."

"Well there's more.. and I think some noticed Fate and Alicia's presence" Sonic noted, "Could we get some sort of a distraction?"

A distraction did attract the attention of the media, turns out the giant not-so-accurate golden statue of Sonic was shattered into pieces by a particular red Echidna.

"Oops" Knuckles snickered, "I think I broke it."

"I owe you that, Knuckles" Sonic sent mentally as his team took advantage of the distraction and exited the casino, "Thanks"

In the clutter of all of the shattered statue pieces, Knuckles found the last shard in the Casino area. To avoid a media ambush he rejoined his team on an overlook of the kids section.

"I think I have all the payment I need for my little stunt here." The echidna confidently smirked as he continuously threw and caught the emerald shard he found, "Turns out that statue had a piece of the Master Emerald in it."

"You don't seem too concerned over the fact that you shattered a statue in the likeness of Sonic." Signum quirked an eyebrow at the careless attitude

"Eh, they were nowhere near accurate on how Sonic looked" The echidna shrugged, "I did them a favor, besides, Sonic didn't like it either"

"Good point, let's get going." Signum noted

However, before they could leave the casino, a bright red ball soared quickly for the group and began to circle around the echidna in a speed that was too fast to trace.

"Huh?!" Knuckles tried to follow it with his eyes but the ball shined extremely bright in his face, "ah gr-.." he let out a soft "thud" sound as he drifted into unconsciousness.

[Outside of the Casino]
[BGM: "Theme of Dr EGGMAN" Sonic Adventure]

As the Blue trio left the building, a familiar doctor charged at them in his eggmobile, "Ah ha!"

The trio quickly dodged, but in the process, Sonic wasn't able to keep a firm grip on the Silver Chaos Emerald and had to let go; this made Eggman's task quite easy. With a fast charge he grabbed the emerald and held it out.

"That was all too easy." The doctor smirked.

"Eggman!" Sonic glared at the doc as his teammates joined flanked his sides, their devices in hand along with the hedgehog's; who just unsheatehed Freiewind and pointed it directly at the man in the mech, "Give that emerald back!"

"Not a chance." Eggman smirked as he started to ascend, "Now isn't it past your bed-time kiddies?"

With a loud laugh that echoed throughout the whole area, Eggman dropped a large canister onto the middle of the ground, the canister then opened up and flooded the area in a gas, affecting dozens of civilians, knocking them out cold.

"Sleep g-gas!" Fate cried as she felt herself drifting into unconsciousness.

"Egg…man.." Sonic wasn't able to hold on much longer as he and his teammates lost consciousness and were caught in a somewhat peculiar moment with the hedgehog on top of both girls.

The genius scientist laughed as he made his escape; his "Chaos" companion was nowhere in sight, not too surprising as it did suffer a number of damage thanks to Sonic. While the doctor secured the 2nd emerald, he didn't notice that the team still had one more in their possession.

[POV: Knuckles]

The red echidna woke up with a shake of his head; his emotions full of complete confusion as he takes a brief look at the area around where he stood. From the appearances, he was in front of a large red-brick temple that held a square-shaped base with four sides. In the middle of each side was a flight of stairs that led into the temple.

"Where am I?" Knuckles thought to himself as his gloved hand felt part of the temple, "I don't remember being here before.. but something about this place.. feels familiar… This is strange."

With his twin-blades sheathed behind his back, the echidna took to a glide around the temple to survey it. From his aerial vantage point he could see other echidnas, but what was odd about them was that their fur was a purplish-pink. He could hear rumblings about their leader, Pachahamac, who was planning some sort of an attack to get some "stones", from there on they could conquer anything in their path.

"Pachahamac… isn't that…" Knuckles was brought out from his thoughts when he saw two echidnas in the middle of a disagreement.

[BGM: "Tikal's Theme" Sonic Adventure]

The younger of the echidnas was a girl with peach-colored fur and she was clad in a tribal dress and foot-wrappings, on her hands were white gloves with light-blue bracelets on her wrists. The girl seemed to plead with the other individual, "Father, please don't do this!"

The other individual was a much older echidna, his fur was dark red and he had some fluff on his face, probably as a display of his elder age; despite the appearance, the echidna appeared quite strong in his tribal robes and in his right hand was a spear. The elder echidna gave a stern reply to his daughter, "Tikal, the 7 Emeralds are essential to the survival of our clan. It's for the good of all our people that this happens."

"How can I make you understand, father" The girl pleaded, "Attacking other countries, stealing and killing; they can't be the proper way to peace! I beg you father, please don't!"

Knuckles silently absorbed all of what was said, before he could do anything else, he suddenly lost consciousness again after seeing another shining light.

[Station Square: Outside Casinopolis]
[No BGM]

"Oy… Red." A somewhat quiet, but familiar voice attempted to wake up the echidna, it worked somewhat, but Knuckles was still half-awake. The source of the voice's patience thinning, it tried again, but this time much louder, "OY! ECHIDNA!"

"Uwah!" Knuckles sat up again and fought off a headache, "What the?!"

"Finally you're awake." Signum knelt down and gave the red echidna a bottle of water, "You've been barely conscious for the past half hour."

"I had a dream. Or was it a vision." Knuckles took a small sip from the bottle as he stood up, "I was in this place.. like a temple. I don't know why, but it felt familiar.."

"You can explain this vision later." The swordswoman sighed.

"Where are we?" The echidna appeared generally concerned.

"Outside of the casino." Signum replied, "We took you out here after you blacked out."

"Thanks.." Knuckles shook his head again, his gaze quickly found the unconscious Sonic, Fate and Alicia, "Huh?! That's Sonic!" before he could attempt to wake up the trio, he was held back by Signum and Vita, "Oy! Let go!"

"Leave them." Signum held the echidna still, "They've been out cold for as long as we've been out here."

"And we tried waking them up." Chrono added, "Nothing worked.. In fact it looks like all of the other civilians present are in the same situation."

Megane used her device to take a few samples of a leftover gas substance, "And I found the cause… It looks like some sort of knock-out gas. A very limited range, but very potent, guaranteed at least three hours of sleep to anyone who's affected by it"

Lindy Harlaown chimed in on a communication feed she set up from her position at the Takamachi residence, "Just after you guys claimed the last Emerald shard, I received emergency alerts from Freiewind, Bardiche and Sisterhood. Their masters were ambushed by who we believe is Doctor Eggman, he took one of the Chaos Emeralds they secured, but thankfully the other one was hidden. The emerald's location has been tracked to the hotel nearby. Go after it! Don't worry about Sonic and the others at the Casino, I'll send Shamal and a couple of medics to tend to them when they wake up."

"Hai!" Knuckles and his team acknowledged as the communication feed was closed.

[Takamachi Residence]

Lindy sighed as she closed the feed from her location, "Great… just as I thought things wouldn't get any worse.."

The Admiral was in the middle of debriefing the rest of the Takamachi residence, along with Hayate and Reinforce, the classified details about Nanoha's cybernetic operation. Nanoha's siblings did not seem too surprised, as they were already aware of their sister's condition. Nanoha's parents had more mixed reactions; her father took the news in stride while her mother was a bit concerned.

"Sorry about that.." The admiral apologized, "Her friends were in a bit of trouble."

"This "Doctor Eggman" I presume." Nanoha's father, Shiro Takamachi, asked

"Hai…" Lindy confirmed, "Now, back to the topic at hand…"

[Station Square: Hotel]
[BGM: "Theme of Dr EGGMAN"]

The Red Team entered the hotel where the Chaos Emerald was tracked; sure enough there was Eggman, in front of an elevator entrance. With stealth and discretion favored at the moment, the team watched as the scientist went into the open elevator with the Emerald in hand.

Vita counted the amount of ticks that indicated the floor the elevator went to, "Oy, fifth floor!"

"Got it!" The team took the other elevator up to the mentioned floor; where they found a formal restaurant area with a wide ball-room that was suitable for dancing. The team confronted the doctor who appeared to be waiting for something in a passive manner.

"Oy! Eggman!" Vita shouted, "Give that Chaos Emerald back!"

"Oh?" Eggman asked as he held up the silver emerald, "You mean this?"

"We know you took it from Sonic's team" Signum glared as her fingertips tapped the hilt of Laevatein passively, just waiting for a reason to pull out the blade, "Hand it over"

"I don't think so." The doctor smirked, "I do have to thank you all for coming. You'll make a perfect test dummy."

"For what?" Chrono asked, his tone serious.

"Chaos! Come forth!" The doctor called out. To answer the call, a familiar puddle of water formed into the shape of the all too familiar Chaos 1. The creature stared passively at the team of six gathered in front of him.

"Oy.. it's that creature again." Knuckles said as he twirled his twin blades and held them in a stance, "The same one on the island."

Signum drew her blade from its saya and held it in a stance of her own, "Hai.. and the same one that Sonic's team reported to encounter last night and earlier today."

"Correct." Eggman smirked, "After I ordered Chaos to retreat from Sonic and his group of friends; my little pet needed some time to heal itself of injuries. And thanks to the Chaos Emerald that Sonic was all too eager to hand over, now I can see just how much powerful Chaos can get."

"Hand over?" Quint glared, "You stole it from his team and knocked them and everyone outside of that casino out with sleeping gas!"

"Details, who needs them?" Eggman shrugged and threw the emerald into Chaos' body. Another change occurred as the monster reformed itself into a being with larger arms and metallic lining acting as a bone of sorts.

"What the… it changed shape…" Knuckles gasped in shock; he quickly recovered from the shock and held his blades aggressively, "It won't scare me"

"Or us either." The others of his team held their devices; well Quint pounded her Revolver Gauntlets together and Megane summoned her insect guardian Garyu.

Chaos 2 roared out loud as it prepared for battle; an action that Knuckles only smirked at, "Heh.. bring it on"

[BGM: "Chaos" Sonic Adventure]

Chaos changed its shape into a large ball of water and attempted to crush the team by bouncing ontop of them. It failed as they were all quick to dodge.

"Boost on!" Megane called to her device and a purple aura engulfed her guardian insect, with an unspoken command, Garyu gave the ball of water a harsh kick that slammed Chaos 2 off a nearby pillar, where it then reformed into its regular form.

Signum went on the offensive and attempted to slice downward and cut the Chaos Monster from its head, only for her attack to fail as her sword clashed with a light-blue shield. With nothing she could do, the swordswoman backed off.

"A shield.." Signum glared, "Can't get anything past it so long as it's up."

"Leave that to me" Vita smirked as Eisen shifted into its Raketenform, the jet on the opposite end of its head flared up and the small Iron Knight spun in place, "Raketen….Hammer!" the knight charged right for Chaos 2's head, despite the barrier's best efforts it was cracked and Vita's attack pierced the "brain" inside of the head of the beast. Chaos 2 flinched in severe pain and liquefied itself once more, surprisingly it didn't regenerate.

"One hit?!" Vita scoffed, "Went down in one hit?!"

"Grr.. Still must be recovering from Sonic's attack earlier." Eggman stomped on the ground, "Retreat! Don't think you've won yet!"

As Chaos's liquid-self disappeared, Doctor Eggman, furious in his defeat, threw down a flash-bang grenade and made his escape while the Red Team was blinded.

Eggman's Chaos Emerald counter jumped to two with the Chaos beast having already absorbed two. Can they be stopped at this rate?

[Ending: "Spiritual Garden" Tamura Yukari]

[End of Chapter 36]

Author's Notes: Heh, I did contemplate putting an omake in, but then again I look at my word count and realize I'm over 8000 in words for this post alone.. So ah… Not happening.. if I had to shorten it like the Lyrical Record, then I'd be using some humor. Oh and for the updated appearances. I had planned for Sonic's original Knight Garb to be a somewhat temporary template, this new one he has is the real form.