There was silence between us as Sonic and I looked at my empty hands for what felt like an eternity. We looked at each other. Then back at my hands again.

"...what happened?" I asked, too stunned to really process any other emotion other than "what the actual heck".

"...I don't know..." Sonic replied. He looked over at the group, who looked just as equally stunned and confused... aside from Knuckles, who looked like he might throw up. He stood up shakily, stumbling towards us. He made it to me and grabbed my hands, examining them, turning them over and over.

"...where... where did it go...?" He asked, his voice a bit shaky.

"I don't know..." I replied quietly. "...d-did I Chaos Control it away...?"

"No, something else would have happened to us if you did," Sonic said, backing away as Knuckles continued to desperately search my hands. "Knuckles, he doesn't have it."

"Then where is it?" Knuckles shrieked, holding one of my hands up. Something suddenly flashed in my eye, temporarily blinding me. I yelped and yanked my hand back to cover my eyes, before slowly pulling my hand away... did the Emerald reappear? I quickly looked around, hoping to see the Emerald. Sonic chuckled a bit, less out of humor, more out of still sounding unsure of what to do, walking over to me again and holding up my hand.

"It was your ring," He said, laughing a bit more.

"How can you laugh at a time like this, the Chaos Emerald is gone!" Knuckles practically moaned, putting his hands on his head. "We just found it, and now it's gone again-"

"Relax Knux, geez," Sonic waved a hand, finding his confidence again. "We'll find them, just like always!"

I stepped back a bit, letting them have it out for a moment, Knuckles freaking out more, and Sonic trying to pass it off as just one extra step we had to take. I, meanwhile, wanted to check something... Claudio's ring, as silver and polished as it was, wasn't all that shiny… was it? I held my hand up, trying to catch it in the sun again...

Woah. That's not Claudio's ring.

It was the same size and shape... but this was not Claudio's ring. It was made of glass. Red glass, like… a bright, fiery red.

...or... no it's green, like, grass green...

...or ocean blue...

As I moved the ring, it changed color. And it wasn't like it was refracting light, like a prism or something, the glass itself was changing color. I kept moving it, sweeping it across myself.

Yellow, a lighter blue, purple, an opaque white... and then clear, totally colorless. I went in the opposite direction...

White, purple, light blue, yellow, blue, green, red.

Seven colors.

...holy crap.

Holy crap!

"Guys...!" I called out, continuing to wave my hand back and forth across my body. Everyone turned to look at me, probably wondering why I was doing some really weird, slow motion stretches. "Look…" I slowly walked over to everyone, my eyes never leaving my ring. Sonic held Knuckles back as he started to rush forward, and let Amy get to me first. She stared at my hand, gasping immediately, noticing the difference.

"Your ring…!" She exclaimed, prompting Tails to come over and examine it as well. He thought for a moment as Sonic and Knuckles joined us, taking a look as I slowly moved my hand.

"It changes to seven different colors," I said, "That means-"

"It might be showing us where the seven Chaos Emeralds are!" Sonic finished, a wide smirk crossing his face. "This just got a whole lot easier!"

"This must be a gift from the Master Emerald," Knuckles spoke quietly, almost reverently. He looked over at me, awe written all over his face. "You must be part of something big…"

"Please don't say that," I squeaked. My stomach did a flip. "I'm just trying to get back home, I don't want to go on some sacred mission."

"You might not have a choice," Knuckles frowned. "For whatever reason, the Master Emerald chose you to-"

"Lay off Knucklehead," Sonic interrupted, giving Knuckles a light smack on the shoulder. "We're just gonna find what we need and get him home. Right dude?" He smiled at me, winking and giving me a thumbs up. "You'll be out of here in no time!"

I nodded but didn't feel quite so sure. My palms were getting a familiar sheen of sweat again… my heart pounded for a moment. I was Creeped... which, to me, meant Sonic didn't believe what he just said. Sonic stared at me longer than I think he meant to before he put his hands behind his head.

"Anyway, why don't we head back to my place for now. We can figure out what we're gonna do there," He suggested, looking around at everyone.

"Good idea," Tails nodded. "I'll see if I can figure out where the Chaos Emeralds are, maybe even a way to pinpoint their exact location."

"I'm gonna stay here…" Knuckles gazed up at the top of the temple. "I'll try and see if I can find the Emeralds too, and maybe look into what your brother is doing, see what their plan is." I nodded gratefully… as much as I wanted to stay up there with him, I had a feeling Tails really wanted me in his workshop… maybe I can have him bring me back up later. We said our goodbyes, made our way back through the forest, and made it to the plane again. As Tails and Amy began to prepare for launch, Sonic hung back, stopping me.

"You ok Josh?" He asked. "You acted a bit weird a little while ago… you looked kinda… I dunno, sick."

"Huh?" Did… did he notice my Creepy Senses? No, no way, only Jacob was able to tell, and that was because he was with me all the time... "Yeah, I'm fine. Just… you know…" I motioned around me, to the ring, to Sonic himself. "Every new problem we get, the more worried I feel."

"I get that," Sonic shrugged before patting me on my shoulder. "But hey, you're in good hands. Tails is the smartest guy I know, and I can get anything he needs to be done in a flash." Sonic winked again (he liked doing that), before patting me on the back, both as another reassuring gesture and as sort of a "let's get going" signal. He hopped onto a wing opposite Amy as I climbed into the front seat. The plane rumbled as the engines started up, the propeller began to spin, and before I knew it, we took off into the air, flying back to Tails' warehouse. It was too loud to really talk to anyone or ask questions... so it left me pretty introverted and self-reflective, pretty much ignoring everything else going on around me. I began to review everything we had just learned.

On one hand, I was really grateful to find out where Jacob was... Someone found him and had agreed to help him. But he wasn't home. He wasn't safe. He was far, far away. And what were we going to do once we had a way to get back home? I didn't see enough of the vision to figure out what he, Silver, and Blaze were going to do. What was his plan? Did the Sol Emeralds, whatever those were, work like the Chaos Emeralds? If we both used Chaos Control, did we risk maybe accidentally swapping worlds? And on the topic of Chaos Emeralds, why were the Chaos Emeralds so far apart? I just dropped them out of Eggman's ship, I didn't really try to scatter them. But, and I double checked in the plane to make sure, my ring was showing that the Chaos Emeralds were spread across various places... Did this have something to do with why the Emerald disappeared from my hands?

I rested my head on the front of my cockpit, or whatever it was called, feeling the cool metal against my forehead. This... sucked. Most people in fanfiction were ecstatic to be amongst their childhood heroes and/or celebrity crushes... and at first, it was incredibly exciting. Now... I just had a headache, not to mention a heartache. I suddenly just felt so... lethargic. I closed my eyes, readjusting so I was resting my head on my arms...

Running. Running as fast as I can. The hallway stretched on forever, but there had to be a door or an exit... something. Right? I turned around. He was getting closer. Eggman grinned, baring his pointy teeth, his death machine surging closer and closer. I felt a large buzzsaw barely miss my back. He kept getting closer, and I just couldn't keep up the pace. I felt myself trip and fall, hitting the ground hard. I turned over just in time to see the machine bear down on me, and I screamed out for help...

"Josh," I snapped up, taking in a soft breath before locking eyes with Sonic, who was giving me a small shake. He smiled once he saw me focus on him. "Have a nice nap?" He asked, holding out a hand and helping me out of the plane.

"Yeah..." I rubbed my eyes. What a nightmare... not as bad as my usual, but still... it just reminded me of yet another problem, a mad doctor that probably didn't harbor very pleasant feelings for me was also looking for the Chaos Emeralds. And, despite how cartoonish Eggman was, he was really dangerous. He keeps trying to kill Sonic. Like... actually kill, not just capture or hinder, kill. And based on the brief exchange we had before I fell, I wouldn't be surprised if Eggman had added me to his hit list as well.

"Hey!" I looked around again. Sonic was already at the door to the house, waving me over. "You coming?" He called out. I nodded, shaking away my thoughts and hurrying through the door.

Inside, Amy had settled in at the kitchen table, doing something on her phone, while Sonic leaned against the kitchen counter, looking over at me. "You hungry?" He asked, standing up.

"Kinda..." I replied, moving into the room. I hadn't eaten with Tails and Amy while we were in the city, my stomach not feeling ready for food yet, but... now that it was much later in the afternoon, I was starving. Sonic nodded and walked over to a stove, pulling out a pot.

"Oh, don't feed him that!" Amy cried out, looking a bit disgusted.

"What?" Sonic looked over his shoulder as he pulled a can of something out of a cabinet. "I'm yet to find one person who hasn't felt at least a little better after having a chili dog." Amy rolled her eyes and went back to her phone as Sonic dumped the contents of the can into the pot, stirring it. The smell of something somewhat spicy yet somewhat sweet filled the room, and my stomach rumbled just a bit. I slowly sat down at the table, watching Sonic cook.

"Hey," Amy whispered, quietly reached over, grabbing my arm and leaning forward a bit. "If you don't want to eat it, you don't have to. He won't be offended, promise."

"Ok..." I nodded, looking back over at Sonic. He was humming some upbeat tune to himself as he got out some hot dogs, putting them in the microwave, and returning to the chili. For a moment, the kitchen was calm, filled only with the sound of the microwave whirring, the sound of stirring, and Sonic's soft humming.

I took in a deep breath... and let it out slowly.

So much had happened today in a relatively short period of time. It felt like ages since I was able to just... stop. We weren't in a busy city, or on an enchanted island with a possible deity. We weren't trying to figure out how to fling two kids across the cosmos to get back to their planet. We were just at someone's house. Someone was cooking me a late lunch.

I stared out a nearby window, watching the world outside for a while and just listening... Sonic's voice was surprisingly melodious... very soft and smooth... almost effortless, like he wasn't really trying to hum, he was just doing it. The microwave beeped quietly, Sonic prepared a few things, and he placed a warm plate in front of me. I stared at what was below me... basically, a hot dog, covered in chili. A chili dog. Sonic sat down next to me, almost immediately digging into a dog of his own, taking a large bite and, somewhat noisily, chewing. I carefully picked up my chili dog, holding it for a moment and blowing on it to cool it down, before taking a bite.

It was warm. It was savory. It was just the right balance of sweet and spicy. And it felt amazing in my stomach... I settled back a bit into my seat, a wave of exhaustion hitting me. My body felt sore again. I didn't move for a moment, before groaning a bit as I sat back up.

"Do you still have those painkillers...?" I asked, closing my eyes and trying to stretch out a bit. Sonic nodded, quickly standing and hurrying over into the living room we were in last night, coming back with a bright red bottle that almost looked like an old film canister with a medical label on it. He opened the top, handing me a couple of pills, before going over into the kitchen area and getting a cup. "...my brother was sore too..." I said quietly, letting out another small groan. "Is this because of the Chaos Emeralds?"

"Probably," Amy replied. "Using a Chaos Emerald is a pretty intense experience... Sonic passed out the first time he used all seven."

"You're lucky you were just holding onto one," Sonic said as he came back, placing the water in front of me. "You could have really been hurt," Now, call me crazy, but... he almost sounded... worried. "Your parents would kill me if I let anything happen to you,"

I felt a familiar bit of darkness pool inside me. I quickly took another bite of chili dog. Warmth.

"...Hey, uh... speaking of you using the Chaos Emeralds..." Sonic looked a bit puzzled now. "I've been wondering this for a while... how did you guys know how to use Chaos Control? And Chaos Blast?" He shook his head. "And you said my name when I saw you in the hospital that first time. I mean... where did you learn... any of that?"

Uh-oh. ...Welp, this'll either go really good or really bad.

"...There are... actually a whole lot of people who know about you guys," I started slowly, trying to gauge their reactions. "...you guys are video game characters!" I smiled a bit, chuckling sheepishly. "...surprise...!"

There was a brief moment of silence as Sonic and Amy digested the information.

"So... like... I star in a video game?" Amy asked, leaning forward slowly.

"...k-kinda? You're in a bunch of them, but... the games are more about... him..." I said hesitantly, pointing at Sonic. He laughed, his chest puffing out a bit.

"Heh, you guys have good taste," He said cockily, planting a hand on his hip. "I hope they're good games,"

Do I tell him? ...better not.

"Yup. All good."

Nailed it. Sonic looked ready to launch into a few more questions, when Tails came through the door, looking a bit worried. We all turned to look at him, waiting for him to say something. He looked at all three of us, looking like he was debating whether or not he should say what he came here to say, before sighing.

"...Eggman's already on the hunt." He said, holding up his phone. Sonic walked over and took it, examining what looked like a news article from where I was sitting. He frowned, looking back at me for a moment before turning back to Tails. He didn't say anything for a little while, just staring at the article.

"...we have to hurry..." He said quietly, handing the phone back. "Josh, I want you to come with us,"

"What?!" Amy stood up, moving in front of me. "No way, I don't care what Knuckles said, we talked about this last night, you can't make him-"

"Eggman's gonna be looking for him too, not just the Emeralds." Sonic cut her off. "You know him, Ames, if anyone crosses him, he'll go after them." I felt a shiver run down my spine, which Sonic took notice of. He looked at me sympathetically, walking over and settling me back down in my chair. He sat next to me, pulling his chair a bit closer. "...I know... this is really out of your comfort zone," He began, "But... this is the best way I can think of to keep you safe. If you're in one place for too long, Eggman will find you. And as much as I trust Amy and Tails to protect you, if something goes wrong, I can run faster than anyone. I can get you somewhere safe." He looked over at Amy, who nodded a bit reluctantly.

"He's right..." She conceded, crossing her arms. "If Eggman somehow overpowered me and Tails, we wouldn't be able to get very far without him catching up to us."

"And, with that ring of yours, we'll have a better idea of where the Chaos Emeralds are-"

"Wait, hold on," Amy suddenly cut in. "I'll agree he's safer with you, but why can't Tails invent something to make it easier for you guys. Or even better, you stay with him, and we go looking with Tails' machine!"

"I tried that already," Tails replied, showing us his phone again. He pulled up a map and tapped a few things, before his screen suddenly filled with a bunch of error messages. "The Emeralds aren't like they were before. Eggman supercharged them, remember? And they're putting out so much energy, my scanners are getting overloaded. No matter what I've tried so far, nothing's worked." He pointed to my hand. "That ring is the best thing we've got so far," Amy grumbled a bit, obviously trying to think of something else.

"Ames..." Sonic stood, walking over to her. "...I don't like it all that much either... but..." He paused, then looked back over at me. "...how do you feel about it? Any better ideas?"

"No..." I stood up as well. "But honestly... the faster we find those things, the faster I can get back to Jake. If that means that I have to go along, I'll do it." Maybe it was the pain meds, but I was starting to feel this weird sense of... I wouldn't call it bravery. Determination I guess. "I just want my brother back." Sonic smiled just a bit.

"...then let's get to it." He replied.

Tails' workshop was tucked neatly against one of the side walls of his small aircraft hangar. It had almost every tool the young kitsune could ever need, and then some. The wall to wall workbench was littered with scrap metal, spare parts, and projects in various stages of completion. The back wall was filled completely by a large LCD screen, which Tails began to tap on, clearing away a few blueprints and other documents, including a webpage with a large picture of Eggman on it. The screen went dark as Tails asked me to stand in front of it.

"Hold your hand out please," He instructed, pressing on a few points on the screen. An image of me from above appeared on it. I looked up to see a camera above me had turned on. "Spin in a circle." I did as he asked, slowly turning in a circle, watching the screen. As I turned, the camera tracked where my ring was, tracing the path it took as I turned. The path would change colors depending on what color the ring was, giving us a sort of multicolored "circle" (it ended up as more of a squiggly oval) around my body. Tails tapped the screen again, and my image disappeared, replaced by a blue grid. A few more taps and the colored segments of the circle began to extend outward, like uneven sunrays.

"What's this?" Amy asked, pulling up a chair and sitting on it.

"Just because I can't track them doesn't mean I can't give us a general idea of where the Emeralds might be," Tails started to type furiously. We watched the image zoom out, and a map of what I assumed to be where we were was laid over it. The map was overlaid with the seven colored "wedges" sprouting across it, like... like a really drunk sun. It was a bit confusing to look at, but I think I understood...

"So, this," I started, pointing to the red wedge, "Is from here to here?" I held my ring out so it was red, and waved it back and forth, stopping when the ring changed and going in the other direction. Tails nodded.

"Your ring is giving you a range, and if we're right, the Chaos Emerald should be somewhere in there. So if we put that on a map, we can get a better idea of where you're going and what you might be up against..." Tails trailed off, studying the map intently. Sonic walked up to the window, staring at it before pointing to the light blue wedge.

"Most of that's in the tundra," Sonic said. "We'll have to dress warm..."

"They're all over the place..." Amy replied, her eyes darting around the map. "The beach, the mountains..." She looked over at me. "We better make sure you're packed for any occasion."

"You guys probably won't be able to pack heavy..." Tails interjected. "You won't be taking the Tornado." Sonic and Amy looked like they were ready to argue with him until they both realized something at the same time.

"...Because it's too easy to track," Sonic closed his eyes, sighing. "It's the first thing Eggman would be looking for."

"Wait, are we going to have to walk...?" I asked. "T...that'll take forever, we don't have time...!"

"Hold on, don't panic!" Tails held up his hands, hurrying over to his workbench and picking up a pair of black shoes with blue accents running down the sides, like racing stripes. He walked over to me and handed me the shoes. "Put these on," I examined the shoes for a moment... they were a little heavy, and they looked like shoes Sonic might wear: Big, shiny, and a bit eccentric. I removed my old shoes, slipping them on. To Tails' credit, they were comfortable. He bent down and pressed something on the back of each shoe, which made the blue stripes light up. "Alright, everyone outside."

We filed out, the hills around us getting dimmer as the sun started to set. Tails pulled me and Sonic a good distance from the buildings before holding his hands up. "Okay, hold on..." Tails ran back inside his workshop for a few minutes before coming out with a pair of white gloves, each with three blue mavericks on the back of them, the same color blue as my shoes. He pressed something on the gloves, and the mavericks lit up. He handed them to Sonic, who, after giving Tails a strange look, replaced his old gloves with the new ones.

"Ok, now, Sonic, grab Josh's hand," Tails instructed. I couldn't help but blush just a bit, even more so as I felt Sonic's large hand gently take mine... his glove was remarkably soft. Sonic, on the other hand, didn't even seem to give the hand holding a second thought... and I was really hoping he didn't see how red my face was getting. It's was a little embarrassing I guess? I don't know. "Now... run," Tails stood back, motioning for us to surge past him. Sonic and I looked at each other for a moment, before Sonic shrugged, and the two of us started to run forward at a decent pace... well, decent for me anyway. Tails shook his head. "Sonic, go fast," He instructed again.

"Are you sure buddy?" Sonic looked back at Tails, who nodded eagerly. He looked down at me again and sighed before adjusted his grip on my hand. "Hang on tight, ok?" He said, giving my hand a small shake. I nodded, squeezing his hand back best I could. Sonic looked forward and slowly began to pick up his pace...

And somehow...

I was able to keep up! I looked down at my feet and found that it didn't look like I was running any faster than I normally was... but Sonic's feet were a blur. I didn't feel like I was being pulled by him necessarily either, it just felt like I was running. Sonic looked equally amazed, staring down at his feet, my hands, and forward, before staring at me for a while. We both made eye contact, trying to figure out what to do or think, before a wide grin crossed Sonic's face. He whooped before taking off even faster, this time needing to pull me a bit as he took off around the hills.

We only went for a quick, experimental run, arriving back at the hangar a few minutes later. It was... how do I even describe it? It was exhilarating, it was heart-pounding, it... it was so freeing... I wanted to do it again.

"That's amazing Tails!" Sonic exclaimed, letting go of my hand to look at the gloves.

"Are those like Shadow's shoes?" Amy asked.

"Not exactly. A, rocket shoes will take a while for Josh to master... running that fast can be dangerous for people who aren't used to us. And B, I... was trying to make something like them, but accidentally made these instead. I thought I could use the gloves to register how fast you wanted to go, depending on where they were positioned, and have the shoes propel you at that speed. I modeled the positions off of Sonic and how he runs, but by doing that, I kinda accidentally made the gloves only respond accurately to Sonic... but, as we were talking in there, I realized that, hey, maybe the person wearing the gloves didn't have to wear the shoes... turns out I was right!"

"They're amazing...!" I gasped, watching the shoes' lights go dim. "That... I mean... wow..."

Sonic looked pretty proud of Tails, watching me with no small amount of amusement. "So, how do we turn them back on?"

"They should automatically turn on whenever you make contact with each other," Tails explained, waving everyone back into the hangar/workshop. "Just don't run as fast as you can with him yet. I haven't tested them at full speed, but... I mean, you saw, you can get going pretty fast."

"No Sonic Booms, got it," Sonic nodded, sitting down and admiring the new gloves. I took a seat as well, staring up at the map.

"As for all the different climates, I have something you can take with you that should help," Tails told me, pointing to... something on the workbench. "I'll finish it up tonight and have it ready for you in the morning."

"Thanks, Tails..." I looked up at him gratefully. "It means a lot, really..."

"No problem," He smiled. "Besides, I'm kinda using you as a guinea pig, so..."

"But this stuff will work, right?" Amy asked, glaring at the kitsune.

"Sure. Probably."

"Tails..."

"So, when do you want to head out Josh?" Sonic asked. I thought for a moment before looking at Tails.

"That thing you're finishing up... you'll really have it done tomorrow?" I asked Tails, who nodded confidently. "...alright... then we leave just as soon as you're done. As soon as possible."