*Author's note: knuckles, the echidna, is a monotreme, or an egg-laying mammal, like the platypus, and doesn't have a bellybutton(i just wrote this down so everyone would get Knuckles's joke).
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"Ok, what's going on here?" a ticked Sonic demanded.
"Nonofyourbeeswax!" Pietro replied.
Sonic took this as a challenge, and was sure he could take on that wimp any day.
"Oh, yeah, well I'm makin' it my 'beeswax'"
"You'llhaftacatchmefirst!" Pietro laughed, as he zoomed off into the middle of nowhere.
"Ooohh, what an attitude!"
"Tell me about it," Evan said.
"Yeah," added Kitty, who rose out of the ground like on an elevator, "Like, they've been at each other's throats ever since they were kids"
"Well, I just gave him a head-start," Sonic said, before starting off after Pietro.
"Sheesh," Evan declared, "Another me"
"Evan! Are you alright?" It was Storm, floating down and hovering a couple feet in the air.
"Yeah, Aunti O! I'm fine, but it looks like Sonic has gone off on a wild goose-chase, or 'Pietro-chase'"
"Oh, great," Logan groaned, as he walked into view.
Then, Forge came running up to them.
"Hey, guys, I was able to build a portal to this world!"
"Great," Scott said, "Now, I'm expecting some bad news. What is it?"
"You read my mind," said Forge, "The bad news is, that it's back at the mansion, thanks to Croak-man!"
"Toad?"
"Hey, ya gotta problem with that?" Toad asked, in his usual smart-aleky voice.
"Yeah, we gotta 'problem' with that," Logan growled, as he picked Toad up by the collar of his shirt.
"Uh, ok, you can put the toad down now! Arright? Uh... Heh heh heh..." Toad chuckled nervously.
Just then, Sonic zoomed back to where he and Pietro started. He tapped his foot on the ground impatiently, and said, in his usual cocky manner, "I'm waiting..."
Pietro finally caught up, and was not about to admit that he'd been beaten by a videogame character.
"Hey!Nofair!Youhadaheadstart!"
"No, I gave you a head-start! You're just jealous 'cause you're too slow!"
"Slow? I'mnotslow!"
"Yesyouare! Sheesh! Can yousay 'slow-man syndrom'?"
And so on...
"Hey, you two, like, give it a rest!" Kitty yelled, trying to break up that pointless quarrel, without success.
Then, the fight was interrupted by a red creature with dredlocks. Knukles! He looked at Sonic, crossed his arms, and gave the hedgehog a dirty look.
"Hey, I gotta bone to pick with you!"
"Who are you?" Sonic asked him.
"Ah think it's thait mono-whatzit?"
"It's 'mah-no-treem'! An' what's it to you, girlie?"
"Cut it out-Knuckles, is it?" Rogue replied.
Knuckles nodded.
"An' I'ma teach blue-boy a lesson!"
"Like, you mean, for stealing the chaos emeralds?" Kitty asked.
"Yeah, Dr. Robotnik told me so! An' that stupid hedgehog trashed m' island!"
"But he's lyin'!" Evan explained.
"Would he lie to me when he was the one who took care o' me after the bomb blew up?" a still-unconvinced Knuckles asked.
"But he was the one who set the bomb off in the first place!"
"How would you know? Do you work for him?"
"Nien, nien," Kurt explained, then corrected himself before Knuckles could open his mouth to reply, "I mean, no, no! He played ze videogame, 'Sonic Und Knuckles'"
"Und?"
"He means, 'and'," Scott explained.
"Hmph! Boy do I get the weirdo's!" Knuckles grumbled.
"Oh, and you think you're hot stuff?" Sonic, feeling just a little offended, asked him.
"Well," the hedgehog continued, "I'll bet I got something you don't got!"
"Yeah, like what? A bellybutton?*"
The echidna laughed at his joke, but only Kitty got it.
"Like, good one, Knux!"
"Thanx. Now can I settle this, mano a monotreme?"
"C'mon, Knuckles," Evan pleaded, "You gotta believe me! You're in danger! I've played that level with the secret palace several times, and you always find out that Dr. Robotnik is the real bad guy!"
The echidna's eyes bugged out.
"How the uh-heck did ya know about the palace? You're workin' for the hedgehog, aren't you?"
And with that, Knuckles grabbed Sonic and turned him upside down, shook him, causing various toys, half-eaten apples, and money to fall out of his usually-invisible 'pockets', forming a pile about half the hedgehog's size. Finally, the seven chaos emeralds fell out, and the echidna took them, laughing like he did on the videogame.
"Ha ha ha! You'll never catch me!"
And he ran away, with the emeralds in his fingerless paws.
"Great!" Forge rolled his eyes in disgust, "I figured that the emeralds would be our only way out!
"Well, we're just gonna have to get 'em," Evan said, feeling in the mood for adventure.
"Ok, but how are we gonna find them?" Sonic asked.
"I think I can help," Forge offered, "My robotic parts have been picking up a strange signal that centered around you, Sonic."
"Well, like, how can we find them now?" a worried Kitty asked.
"I'll just tweak a few of my circuits," Forge explained, fiddling with some circuitry in his arm, "There! I'm picking up a chaos emerald that way!"
He pointed in the direction of something floating in the sky.
"What's thait?" Rogue wondered.
"It's Floating Island," Evan explained, "Or Angel Island if you're from England"
"Anyone for a lift?" Tails offered, winding up his two tails.
"Sure," said Sonic, as he grabbed on, and was flown up to the island.
Jean used her tek-powers to lift Scott and Kurt, while Storm took Logan. Evan took his shoes and socks off and shot spikes out of his feet, launching him upwards. He then sprouted some spikes out of his head and back, making his body more streamlined(and destroying another perfectly good shirt). Rogue touched Kitty for a split-second, and then they both levitated up to the island, with Kitty carrying Forge.
The brotherhood was left on the ground to find some other way to get up there.
"Who are you?" came a voice from behind.
They turned around to see this ugly dude in a red, yellow and black get-up that stretched to look like spandex. His eyes were black with red irises, and he was bald except for his moustash, which made him look like some refugee from a Dr. Suess book in 'Mickey Mouse' pants.
"Robotnik?" the younger members gasped.
"So you know my name?"
"Yeah, IbeatyouonSonic3&Knucklesbillionsoftimes!" Pietro bragged.
Robotnik raised an eyebrow at Pietro's statement.
"What? Beat me, the great Dr. Robotnik? HA HA! NEVER!!!!!!!"
"Uh, Robotnik, we need your help," Toad piped up.
"Me? Help you? HA!!!!!!"
"We wanna get some people who are helping that hedgetoad-" Fred(Blob) began.
"That's hedgehog!" Toad corrected.
"Shut up!" an annoyed Mystique ordered.
"Yeah, whatever..." Toad trailed off. Sheesh, he thought, why's everybody always pickin' on me?
At the mention of 'Sonic', Robotnik was definately interested.
"Well, that's different then. Where is that miserable porcupine?"
Lance pointed up. Robotnik looked in the direction Lance was pointing, and saw the Floating Island.
"Well, I assume that that stupid echidna has taken the chaos emeralds?"
Mystique nodded.
"And that hedgehog and fox are up there too?"
"Yep," Lance answered.
"Well, I'll help you, but there's one other thing you need to do to make me want to-"
Mystique, who was not about to bargain with the mad scientist, started morphing. She turned into a giant dinosaur-creature, several times bigger then Robotnik.
"Will this be enough?" she asked, in a monster's voice.
"Uh, yes, yes, of course!" Robotnik stammered, "J-just d-don't eat me!"
"I wouldn't want to," Mystique replied, gagging at the thought.
"Ok, what do you want?"
"We want you to find nine mutants who call themselves the X-Men. They are planning to use the chaos emeralds to-" she paused for a moment, trying to think up a good lie, and then continued when one came to her, "-to take over Mobius and-and make you their personal slave"
Those words angered Robotnik, who was great at making robots and the like, but was easier to fool then Knuckles.
"We will see about that!" he fumed.
"Grounder! Scratch!" Robotnik barked, "Get a ship ready for these people!"
The two stupid robots came out of nowhere and clumsily saluted the scientist, the one that looked like a tank making his head spin.
"Uh, yes sir, Robotnik, sir," they said.
"Come right this way," the chicken robot said, as he gestured toward a vehicle that looked like a miniture flying saucer.
"Uh, Ithinkwe'regonnahaveaproblemhere," Pietro said.
"Oh, you think?" a sarcastic lance asked.
Todd and Fred were trying to squeeze into the tiny ship, which could barely fit them, let alone the brotherhood.
"Hey, I wanna get in first!"
"You always get in first, blubbergut!"
"Shut up, toady! I want in first!"
Robotnik felt a headache coming on. A very big headache.
"Oh, great! A human Grounder and Scratch!"
