Sorry, I accidentally posted the wrong chapter yesterday. Here is the correct one.

Shadow's Odyssey 2: The Chaos Continues

Sonic found himself in the middle of a desert. He looked around and saw nothing but sand for miles.

"Either I'm in the wrong dimension, or Rouge greatly exaggerated how technologically advanced this place is."

Sonic picked a direction and started running. If nothing else, this place was great for running, though he would have preferred a more colorful environment. Or a more interesting environment. Or less sand. He had to stop to dump out his shoes multiple times.

Just when he started to think this place was nothing but an empty wasteland, he saw a town. Finally, civilization!

Sonic cut his speed so as not to damage anything and set about exploring the town. He soon came across a large building in the center of town. Some obviously drunk humans came out of it, ritzy music flowing from the door before it closed behind them.

That place must be a bar. Bars were good places to get information, according the movies. Such was Sonic's thought process as he went inside.

The inside was noisy, smelly, and crowded. Sonic drew instant attention with his bright blue fur and his 'obviously not a local' curiosity. Some of the patrons began whispering to each other, clearly talking about him. Some of them even stood up and quickly walked out a back door. Sonic ignored them and strolled right up to the counter. The bartender reluctantly approached him.

"What's your poison?"

"Information, actually. First of all, where am I?"

The bartender erupted with laughter. "People usually have a few drinks before they start asking that question."

Sonic tried to explain. "I'm not really from here. I came from another dimension."

"I've heard that one before."

"Look, my friend been possessed by an evil wizard and I need the Jedi to perform an exorcism on him or something."

The bartender blinked at him. "Okay that's a new one."

Sonic was getting impatient. "Do you know where the Jedi are or not?"

"I've heard a few rumors about where they live these days. But you're not gonna get that kind of information for free."

Sonic winced. "Yeah, I might have forgotten to pack my wallet before I jumped dimensions."

"Well, then it was nice talking to ya." The bartender turned his back and walked away.

Sonic crossed his arms. "Rude."

He left the bar and explored the town some more. Eventually he heard the sound of a cheering crowd. With not much else to do, Sonic decided to investigate. What he found was a large canyon full of people. Sonic peered into the canyon to see what everyone was looking at.

Sitting at the bottom of the canyon were various machines. They looked like large jet engines with a cockpit strapped to them using only a few cables. Like if someone wanted to build a plane but didn't have all the parts. It didn't take Sonic long to piece together what was going on here.

A race.

Han Solo sat in the stands and sipped on his Bloody Rancor while he watched the racers line up and get ready. He had some time to kill before he had to leave for his next job, and what better way to kill time than to watch people kill each other in a podrace?

The announcer's voice came through the speaker system. "And the racers have taken their positions at the starting line! If you want to place a bet folks, now's the time!"

Someone suddenly pushed past Han, making him spill his drink.

"Hey, watch it!"

The small blue alien ignored him and jumped out of the stands.

"What's this? Some random member of the crowd has just jumped out onto the racetrack! Could he be a superfan looking for an autograph? It looks like he's… taking a position next to the podracers! And stretching!? He can't be doing what I think he's doing!"

"Oh, I think he is!" The other announcer replied. "He's actually going to try to race against the pods on foot!"

"Entering a podrace without a pod! I've heard better ideas from people high on death sticks!"

Han rubbed his eyes and stared down at the track, but they continued to agree with his ears. The blue alien had dropped into a runner's crouch and was waiting for the race to start.

"And in three… two… one!"

The starting horn blew, and the racers took off. When the dust at the starting line cleared, the insane blue alien was still there in the same position. Han was mildly surprised that no one had run him over.

"He must've realized how crazy this is."

Then, he moved.

At least, Han assumed that's what happened because when he looked away for a second, he'd vanished.

"Oh my god! I do not believe what's happening here!"

Han looked up at the viewing monitors and saw that blue creature running past the other racers!

"How is he doing that!?" The announcer shouted.

"What species is he? Where did he come from?" The second announcer added.

"I don't know but someone get me his autograph!" Replied the first announcer.

Han pinched himself. He had to be dreaming. He had to be!

"What's he- Is he running backwards!?"

Han looked back at the monitors and saw that the blue creature was indeed running backwards and casually waving at the racers as he passed them. Han couldn't believe this. This was really happening. This… whatever it was, was outrunning podracers. And wasn't even trying!

Sonic caught up to the lead racer. These pods were faster than formula one cars, but still no match for him.

"Hey there! Lovely day for a race isn't it?" Sonic called cheerfully to the lead racer.

The four-armed alien yelled something unflattering and shook one of his fists at Sonic.

"I have no idea what you just said so I'll just assume you said hi!"

The alien pulled out a gun.

"And now I'm going to assume it was a death threat."

The aliens started shooting at Sonic. He ducked as the shots whizzed by his head.

"Okay, if you're just gonna be a jerk, then I'm just gonna go."

Sonic accelerated, leaving him in the dust. Sonic bolted across the finish line with a huge lead, completely humiliating the other racers. The crowd was dead silent.

"What, no applause?"

A human male wearing a vest over dirty, wrinkled cloths approached. He just kind of stared at Sonic before finally saying, "Who are you?"

"I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog." He flashed a grin and thumps up as he usually did when introducing himself to someone new.

"Where did you come from? Because I've been all over the galaxy and I've never seen anything like you."

"I'm sure you haven't." Sonic agreed. "You see, I'm from another dimension."

Han would normally find that ludicrous, but he had just watched this guy win a podrace by running backward. "So, what are you doing here?"

Sonic became a bit more serious. "I'm here to save one of my friends and I could use a little help with transportation."

"Really? Because I just so happen to need a bit of help myself."

"What do you need?"

"Well, my boss wants me to get a certain… thing. And this certain thing is very hard to get."

Sonic narrowed his eyes. "Are you asking me to help you steal something?"

"It's just some rock! Nothing anyone's gonna really miss, just some rich guy's souvenir."

Sonic shook his head. "I don't do stealing. I'll just find someone else to give me a ride."

Han's voice took on a warning tone. "I think you'll find that's a lot easier said than done. This place is crawling with scoundrels and none of them are going to give you a ride for free. In fact, a lot of them probably want to kill you right now."

"Why? What did I do?"

"You made them all lose their bets on the podrace."

A blaster bolt struck the sand near Sonic, kicking up a puff of sand. Not far behind it, an alien came charging towards Sonic and screaming incoherently. In an eyeblink, Sonic had swiped the gun and kicked the guy holding it face-first into the sand.

"Why don't you come with me before things get really ugly?" Han offered.

"I not afraid of a few thugs with guns." Sonic boasted.

"Well okay then, I guess you're not in any hurry to save your friend." Han started walking away. "I'm sure they'll be fine while you waste time fighting off everyone in town."

Sonic groaned. "Okay fine, you've made your point!"

Han made a 'follow me' gesture and started running. He led Sonic through the alleyways to an open area that was being used as a docking bay. He straight for a blocky-looking ship that had definitely seen better days.

"Um, I not gonna act like I'm an expert on spaceships, but are you sure this thing flies?"

"She might not look pretty but trust me, The Ghost is always ready to fly."

"The Ghost, huh? Do you call it that because it looks like it's already dead?" Sonic snarked.

"It had that name long before I bought it." Han said mildly indignantly.

"You!" A green fish-faced alien yelled from the ship. "I've been looking everywhere for you!"

Han rolled his eyes. "Greedo, I told you I was just gonna watch a quick race."

"And I told you we don't have time for that!" Greedo shouted.

"Well, you're gonna be super glad that I did, because you won't believe what I found." Han gestured at Sonic. "This guy won the podrace. On foot."

Greedo stared at Han. "…Have you been smoking death sticks again?"

"No, and the entire town is after him so we kinda need to get a move on."

An angry mob could be seen running towards the ship.

"Damnit Han! What did you do this time?" Greedo yelled as he went to the cockpit and began preparing for takeoff.

"It wasn't me! I told you, they're after him!"

"And you decided to become friends with him!"

Sonic shrugged. "What can I say? I'm a likable guy."

"Trust me, this is all gonna be worth it in the end. He's agreed to help us with the job."

"Yeah? And how much of the cut does he want?"

"I'm not in this for the money. I need help finding the Jedi." Sonic explained.

"See? Doesn't want any cut, he just wants us to fly him somewhere."

Greedo sighed. "Fine."

Han got in the other pilot's seat and they flew away.

"So now that I'm on board with this, what are we doing?" Sonic asked.

Greedo stared disbelievingly. "You didn't even tell him what we're doing? And he still agreed?"

"All I know is that we're stealing something from some guy." Sonic's expression twisted. He still wasn't happy about the stealing part.

"Rumors have been going around," Han began. "About these unusual gemstones that have been just appearing out of thin air. One of them is supposedly in the possession of this rich guy. And for whatever reason, Jaba wants it."

Sonic was now extremely interested. "Gemstones that just appeared?"

"Yeah, they're part of some old legend."

"Would this legend possibly be about a hedgehog that came out of nowhere and started a clone revolution that resulted in the government collapsing?"

"Yeah, something like that."

"How long ago did these events supposedly occur?"

"Something like twenty something years ago?" Han shrugged. "Honestly, if you ask me, the whole thing's ridiculous."

Sonic leaned back, suddenly feeling a lot less guilty about the impending theft.