"You'll never catch me, you faker!" called Sonic behind him, running through the hilly plains of Green Hills, Shadow hot on his heels.
"I faked it one time, would you let it go?" retorted Shadow. His brow was furrowed, focusing on catching up to the blue blur.
"Never in a million years, Shadow baby!" Sonic said, blowing a kiss over his shoulder. Shadow blushed, and put on a tremendous burst of speed, finally overtaking Sonic.
"Looks like you're slowing down, blue boy. Eat my dust!" Shadow said, keeping his pace as he blew past trees and around a loop. He glanced back to see that they'd switched positions, and now Sonic was right behind him. Suddenly, he turned around and Sonic collided with him, sending the black and blue hedgehogs tumbling down the grassy hill. They rolled topsy turvy over each other, finally landing with Shadow on top of Sonic, pinning him in the soft grass.
"Get off me, Shadow!" said Sonic, struggling fruitlessly against his aggressor.
"Do you really want me to?" asked Shadow, giving Sonic a flirtatious look. It was Sonic's turn to blush, and Shadow took the opportunity to bring his lips to Sonic's. They kissed in the grass, with Shadow's grasp on Sonic becoming more of a caress as he laid on top of the spiky haired blue boy.
"You're so cute when you're trying to be hard, Shadow," said Sonic.
"Keep it up, and you'll find out how hard I can be," replied Shadow. They kissed again, deep and long. Finally, Shadow got off Sonic, and held out his white gloved hand to help his lover to his feet.
"You know you only won because I let you," said Sonic, casting his eyes to the ground while he ran his hand over his quills.
"Of course you did," said Shadow. They both looked up as they heard a whirring overhead, and saw Tails coming towards them.
"There you two are!" he said as he landed in the soft grass. "I've been looking everywhere for you guys! What are you doing out here?"
"Just having a bit of a tumble in the grass," said Shadow, taking Sonic's hand in his.
"What's up, Tails? Why have you been looking for us?" said Sonic. "Did something happen?"
"Knuckles sent me to look for you, he said there's something strange happening with the Master Emerald!" replied Tails. "We need to get to Angel Island right away! Let's head back to my lab and we can take my plane. Everyone else is already on their way!" With that, he took off again, heading off towards his lab.
"We'd better hurry, Shads! Come on!" said Sonic, tearing off in the same direction as Tails.
"Sonic, wait up!" yelled Shadow, but the blue hedgehog was already gone. Shadow shrugged his shoulders and followed after Sonic.
When they arrived at the Altar of the Emerald, everyone else was already there. Shadow and Sonic hopped off the yellow wings of Tails' plane as their pilot hopped out of the cockpit. Climbing the steps to the Master Emerald, they could already tell that something was off. The Master Emerald looked… sick. It threw off green sparks, and its shine seemed dimmer than usual.
"What's happening, Knuckles?" asked Sonic, turning to the echidna. Knuckles kept his eyes on the Master Emerald.
"I don't know. Something is messing with its power," responded Knuckles. "I'm worried that if we don't do something soon, Angel Island will fall."
"Do you think it has something to do with Robotnik?" asked Amy.
"I'm not getting any readings of his technology," said Tails as he examined the readings on his pad. "But I wouldn't count him out."
"What are we going to do?" asked Blaze, standing next to Amy. "Silver, do you think you can do something with your powers?"
"I don't know, Blaze," said Silver. "But I'll try."
"Wait!" yelled Shadow, pointing at a point in the sky above the Emerald. A glowing orb of purple energy floated there. The energy from the Emerald seemed to be drawn into it, and as the group watched it, a strange tentacle poked through the surface. After it came a strange creature, the likes of which they had never seen. Its arms were intertwined ribbons of blue and red, twisting around each other like strands of DNA. Its body was red, and two prong-like legs stuck out from it. A blue face punctuated with black eyes gazed down on the assembled Team Sonic. It floated slowly down to the ground, landing softly, and turned its back on the group, facing the Master Emerald.
"What the hell is that thing?" cried Tails. The creature extended its arms, and they began to wrap around the Master Emerald. It seemingly didn't care about the sparks of energy that were now being sent into its body.
"Whatever it is, it's trying to take the Master Emerald! We have to stop it!" said Sonic, and charged at the creature.
"Sonic, wait! We need a plan!" yelled Shadow as Sonic ran head first at the strange being. Suddenly, Sonic stopped, as though he'd crashed into a wall a few feet short of the creature. He was held there, and after a few seconds, he was sent flying into the air. He landed at the foot of the stairs in a heap. Shadow sprinted down the steps, lifting Sonic's head and shoulders into his arms. "Idiot," he said, glaring down at his boyfriend with concern.
"Okay, that's enough," said Blaze, conjuring a fist full of flames. She looked at Knuckles, who nodded, and the two rushed forward to the point where Sonic had been stopped. Aiming carefully, they both punched at the creature, hoping to break through its wall and interrupt what it was doing. The combined force of their punches did the trick. A glowing purple crack appeared in the air, spreading outward, and the energy protecting the creature shattered. They charged at the creature, reaching it and punching at it with all their might.
Just as their attacks were about to land, however, they froze. Knuckles and Blaze strained against whatever was holding them back, but to no avail. The creature continued its work on the Master Emerald. The heroes were running out of time.
"What do we do?" asked Tails, panicking. He was frantically searching through his bag for something that might help them, but it was too late. The creature's arms had intertwined around the Emerald. Lifting it, it turned towards the heroes, and slowly floated back into the sky towards the orb it had come from. Team Sonic looked on in shock as it reached the orb, unable to do anything to stop it. It entered the orb, vanishing with the Emerald. A rumbling filled the area as Angel Island began its fast descent to the ground below.
"What the hell was that thing?" asked Blaze, who had been freed from her stasis when the creature vanished.
"Not now, we've got bigger things to worry about!" said Knuckles. "Everyone hold on to something!" Everyone grabbed at the pillars of stone around them, except Shadow, who held the injured Sonic to his chest. Angel Island came crashing down into the sea below, sending up a huge spray of water that soaked everyone on the Altar. Sonic's eyes fluttered as he came to, and he looked up at Shadow.
"Hey, cutie," he said weakly. Shadow smiled weakly back at him.
"You're so reckless, idiot," said Shadow, pulling the blue hedgehog tight against his chest. "I… I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you."
"Hey, I'm alright. Just a little sore," said Sonic, feigning strength. "Did we win?" Shadow looked away, not wanting to respond. Sonic took this as an answer, and groaned.
"Is everyone alright?" he asked.
"Everyone except you," responded Shadow.
"I told you I'm alright," lied Sonic. "Help me up, and let's check on the others." Shadow helped Sonic to his feet, supporting him with an arm around his shoulders. They hobbled slowly up the stairs and rejoined the others. Blaze and Amy had come together in a tight hug. Knuckles was looking sullen. Silver was shaking the water from his fur. Tails, however, was analyzing the readings on his pad again, and had a bright look in his eyes.
"Everyone okay?" asked Sonic, his voice faltering with pain. Knuckles nodded, though he clearly counted the loss of the Master Emerald as far from alright. Blaze and Amy broke their hug, turning to the approaching Sonic and Shadow.
"We're okay, Sonic," said Amy. "Are you?"
Before Sonic could answer, Knuckles' temper got the better of him, and he broke in. "We're not okay! The Master Emerald is gone! We need to do something!"
"I think I'm onto something, Knuckles," said Tails. "I was able to trace the energy signature of that orb the thing came through. I think that, with enough power, I could recreate it and we could go through it. There's just one problem, though…"
"What's that, Tails?" asked Amy.
"I don't know if we can get enough power to do it," said Tails, answering her. "The only thing that generates that much energy is the Master Emerald, or maybe the Chaos Emeralds."
"We still have the Chaos Emeralds," said Knuckles. "They're here, on Angel Island."
"You're missing the point, Knuckles!" said Tails exasperatedly. "Their connection to the Master Emerald is probably broken, their power is probably fading fast! I don't know if we could even make it to wherever that thing came from, and I definitely don't think we'd be able to make the return trip!"
"You're missing the obvious, Tails!" said Sonic. "If we can get to that creature, we just have to kick its ass and take back the Master Emerald. That's our ticket home!"
"But it made such short work of you guys, how will we manage that?" said Silver. "Do you really think we can do it?"
"I do," said Shadow. "We were unprepared this time, but next time, we'll be ready."
"Then we'd better get a move on," said Knuckles, running off to collect the Chaos Emeralds.
"I'm going to head back to my lab and get what I need to set up the portal, you guys get ready to go!" called Tails as he hopped into his plane and took off. After an hour had passed, he'd arrived back on Angel Island. Everyone had gathered at the foot of the steps leading up to the Altar of the Emerald. At Tails' direction, they assembled the equipment he had brought. When everything was together, Knuckles handed Tails the Chaos characteristic sheen had faded somewhat, but everyone could still feel their energy pulsating within them. Tails slotted them into the portal machine.
"Let's hope this works!" said Tails, pulling his goggles down over his eyes. He pulled the switch to start the machine. At once, sparks flew up from the console. "Woah!" he cried, and opened the casing to fiddle with the wiring. A purple dot appeared in front of them on the Altar. It expanded rapidly until it was large enough for them to walk through.
"You did it, Tails!" said Amy.
"Don't thank me yet, Amy! We still have to get through it!" said Tails.
"What are we waiting for?" asked Knuckles. "Let's get through it and bash that creep!"
"Wait, I haven't got the coordinates figured out!" yelled Tails, but he was too slow. Knuckles ran through the portal, disappearing. "That knucklehead! It goes to the same plane as that creature, but I wasn't able to get a fix on where it went."
"There's nothing for it, Tails," said Shadow. "We'll have to go through it now and join up with Knuckles."
"Shadow's right, Tails. We need to go, now!" said Sonic. He turned to Shadow and grabbed his hand. "Ready, faker?"
"I think you're the fake hedgehog, babe," responded Shadow.
"You two are really cute, but we need to get going!" said Amy in frustration. She and Blaze stood behind Shadow and Sonic, holding hands and tapping their feet impatiently. Sonic grinned at them; Shadow shook his head and groaned. They stepped through the portal, the purple light surrounding them. As they continued walking forwards, the light around them faded, growing dimmer and dimmer, until it was pitch black. They kept walking forward, and finally a green light appeared as though at the end of a long tunnel. It grew brighter as they walked towards it, and eventually they felt their feet come into contact with solid ground.
They'd emerged into a forest. Green light filtered down through the trees around them. Lying there in the dense underbrush at the foot of a thick tree lay Knuckles. He had clearly sprinted through the portal and ran headlong into the tree. As Sonic knelt down next to him and attempted to wake him, Blaze, Amy, Tails, and Silver came through the portal. It closed behind them, sealing them in this dimension.
"Hey, Knucklehead!" said Sonic, lightly slapping Knuckles' cheek to wake him up. Knuckles stirred, and his eyes snapped open. He sprung up, glaring around for his attacker. Realizing that they were alone, however, he put down his fists.
"What is this place?" he asked.
"I don't know," said Tails. "You left before I could get a fix on where we were heading, and we had to follow you before you got lost!"
"We need to find some civilization!" said Blaze.
"Agreed," said Shadow. "Let's find a way out of this forest." The group began walking, keeping a wary eye on things around them. Before long, they noticed other strange creatures wandering around in the forest. Giant yellow and black striped wasps, several types of moths and butterflies, and various larval insect-like creatures called the forest their home. Stranger still, several of the plants seemed to be moving. Mushrooms waddled about, large yellow flowers gazed down on them as they passed, clearly aware of the interlopers.
"I don't like this place, Blazy," said Amy, coming closer to Blaze as they walked. "Everything seems like it's alive."
"It's ok, love," said Blaze. "I'm here with you."
All of a sudden, Knuckles stopped. "I hear voices," he said. "Maybe they can help us out of here." Everyone listened intently, and heard the voices coming nearer to them. Three people were making their way through the trees nearby.
"Send in Tails," said Shadow. "Besides Sonic, he's the cutest, and he's also the least threatening of us."
"That hurts, but it's true," said Tails. "But I don't wanna go in alone!"
"Come on, Shads! Let's go check it out together," said Sonic. Shadow relented, and followed Sonic stealthily through the brush towards the voices. They came out onto a path, and standing before them were three humans, all fairly young. The one in the center had on a red and white cap, a blue overshirt with white sleeves, and blue jeans. The girl had orange hair tied back in a ponytail, a yellow crop top and jean shorts. The tallest had on an orange shirt with a green vest over it. He carried a heavy pack that had cooking gear hanging from it. They stopped mid sentence when the two hedgehogs appeared in front of them.
"Hey, I'm Sonic! Think you could help me and my friends out?"
