Disclaimer: Don't own this... everyone knows that.
(ps. I got rid of the lengthy author's note from before since it's somewhat outdated...) Enjoy.
Chapter 1: Prologue
The sun glimmered on the sea next to the island. All appeared quiet until a trail of water surged upwards that lead towards the beach. Sonic, who was the sole cause of this surge, heard from Tails that a forest in the heart of the island may contain one of the seven chaos emeralds. The palm trees enveloping the edge of the beach reminded Sonic that he was due for another vacation. "All I need now are sunglasses and a lawn chair," Sonic smirked. He stopped on the sand to gather up some sun, when he sighed, "I have no time for this. I must find that emerald. It's too bad Tails couldn't give me some radar or something. Guess I'll just search this whole island. Probably won't take more than a couple minutes. Then I can sunbathe." He smirked again and sped into the forest.
To his surprise, Sonic could not find any clues. Usually when he was relatively close to an emerald, he could sense it. He ran faster and faster around the jungle but found nothing. No caves. No human inhabitants. Not even animals. Becoming infuriated, Sonic ran straight into a horde of vines, tripped, and fell into a hole. He slowly got to his feet, feeling his throbbing head and kicked the wall of the hole. Suddenly the floor beneath him caved in and Sonic tumbled down a muddy slide. Sonic could easily stop himself and head back up the hole but was having too much fun. "Woooohooooo!" He yelled.
The farther he slid, the slipperier and muddier the path became. Before he knew it, Sonic flew out the hole on the side of a cliff underneath a waterfall and plummeted into a lake. Sinking, Sonic began to panic. Like every hedgehog, he could not swim. Flailing his arms changed nothing. As he felt the bottom of the lake, he could feel a cold tightness clutching his lungs, while the air in them became burning hot. Bubbles shot out his nose, and Sonic stupidly struggled to catch them in an attempt to get more air. He could feel himself slipping into unconsciousness, when he floated across a wire. The lack of air made him too blind to see exactly what it was, but Sonic hastily grabbed it and pulled for dear life. It triggered the wire and pulled him out of the lake.
He flew out of the water, onto the mud and coughed up nearly half a pint of water. Sonic held his throat and turned on his back, stealing as much air as possible. After finally regaining his composure he sat up and tugged the wire. An arrow attached to the wire surfaced and as Sonic felt it with one hand, he wiped the mud off his mouth with the other. He grumbled as he felt his aching side. A small naïve giggle came from behind him. Sonic jumped onto his feet and turned around only to see a little baby sitting behind the chaos emerald. She clapped her hands in amusement at Sonic's muddy face and confused expression.
"What exactly are you little guy?" Sonic pondered as he lifted the emerald and the excited child. "Huh? What's this?" After lifting the baby, he revealed a sheath that she was sitting on. He put the emerald in the same hand as the baby and lifted the sheath, containing a sharp sword. "And how did you get this?" Sonic asked to the baby as she slobbered on the jewel. The baby's huge blue eyes gazed back at Sonic. She looked like a cross between a hedgehog and an echidna. Her skin was creamy white with black ears, legs, arms, eyelids, and black-striped spikes. "You kind of remind me of a panda," Sonic laughed, "So which is it: a hedgehog, a panda, or an echidna?" The creature just mumbled as she continued tasting the juicy jewel.
"Sonic, do you read me?" Tails asked through a short-circuiting radio watch on Sonic's left wrist. "Have you found the emerald, yet?"
He put the sheath under his arm for easy access to the radio and replied, "Yeah I got it."
"Good. Hurry back."
"You're talking to the fastest thing alive; of course I'll hurry back. Relax Tails." Sonic laughed. "Hold on tight," Sonic said to the child and rushed off on the surface of the sea, towards Tails' base. Almost instantaneously Sonic arrived at Tails' side. "Ha. Fast enough for ya?" Tails jumped in surprise.
"Y-yes. Hey, who is that?" Tails pointed to the child. "I've never seen this kind of animal." He took the emerald and the sheath out of Sonic's muddy hands.
"I dunno. She and the blade came with the emerald. So, how many emeralds do we have now? Three?"
"Four," a familiar voice corrected.
"Hey Knuckles!" Sonic smiled, "What are you doing here?"
"Well, Tails told me that he needed the chaos emerald that I have been holding on to. However, I am not really sure why. What do you want with them, Tails? Is Eggman back?" Knuckles questioned as he handed the emerald to Tails. "And what is that in your hands Sonic?"
"What is this: an interrogation?" Tails joked. "Well for starters, that creature is just something that Sonic found an-"
"Don't make it sound like she is a thing," Sonic harassed. "She was watching the emerald for me." Tails looked surprised and a little hurt. "Sorry Tails, I don't want to sound cruel here, but this 'thing' saved my ass from drowning." Tails gazed in disbelief and wonder at the baby.
"Although I want to hear that story, I would rather hear about the emeralds," Knuckles interrupted.
"Oh right," Tails chuckled, rubbing the back of his head and smiling. "If you remember, when we were on the ARK space colony and fought against that 'ultimate life form,' I made a counterfeit chaos emerald. Well, not too long ago, Tikal visited me asking about it because she sensed it and was concerned. When I explained our whole adventure, we began talking about Shadow. Tikal thinks that he may not be dead!" Knuckles and Sonic gasped in shock.
"That's great Tails! …But, what does that have to do with the emeralds?" Knuckles pondered. "Also, how could he have survived?"
"The chaos emeralds contain immense mystical power and are controlled by the master emerald, as you and I know. We also know this power can be used for physical desires, such as materializing items, and also that the emeralds can be used for instant teleportation, 'chaos control.' Well, Tikal told me that when supercharged by all seven emeralds, the control that one has on the emeralds becomes stronger. So a simple desire like teleportation across town might get out of control and teleport the super-powered user across the state. When Sonic and Shadow stopped ARK from falling, they used chaos control. When they did this, Shadow must have accidentally used too much power and teleported into another dimension or time. I think that Sonic didn't disappear as well because he only used minimal energy. Tikal told me that she could somehow distantly sense his presence and requested our help to bring Shadow back. That's why we need the emeralds." Knuckles remained silent rethinking the situation, while Sonic played with the child.
"Do you know how to get him back to this world?"
"Hypothetically, yes. When all seven emeralds are gathered with the master emerald and the right incantation is said, the user can have any wish granted. However, Tikal said that to transport anything from another world would be more complicated. We need some sort of key. She told me this legend that a 'chaos key' could fuse the emeralds and rip through time and space. I think that we need to find this 'key' and then we can bring Shadow back!" Tails smiled. "As you can see, I have put a lot of thought into this." The baby started clapping after the long speech. Sonic chuckled.
"So do you know where to find it?" Sonic asked.
"It's already found you fools! HAHAHAHA!" The trio spun around to find Dr. Eggman in one of his machines. Sonic put the baby on the table with the chaos emeralds and the sword.
"It's about time you reared your ugly face! I have had a hankering to beat your ass all week!" Knuckles yelled.
"Hey, that's my line!" Sonic argued. Sonic charged Eggman as Knuckles and Tails headed for the rear. Three arms shot out of the robot, grabbed all three of them, and began to crush the heroes. The pain was excruciating. Tails could feel his ribs cracking under the pressure. They all screamed in pain, and the baby began to cry. Sonic and Knuckles could not budge their arms under the icy metal.
"As if you could defeat me Sonic," Eggman maliciously smirked as the metal arm holding Sonic was raised to Eggman's face. Sonic spat in his pudgy face and as Eggman wiped it from his eyes, Sonic kicked a lever on the controls, releasing all three of them. Sonic ran to Tails, who was hurt the worst. Knuckles punched Eggman out of the cockpit and onto the earth. "Hehe, you can't defeat me, and you don't know where the key is."
"Well, TALK!" Knuckles grabbed his sweaty shirt and glared into his goggles. Knuckles was so focused on those little pudgy eyes that he did not notice the ray gun in Eggman's hand.
"Knuckles, Look out!" Sonic pushed him out of the way, but was not in time to save himself. The ray made Sonic's insides feel as though they were pulled inside-out. Needles pierced his skin as Sonic yelped in pain. The baby started crying uncontrollably. A bright light ensued and when the light vanished, so did Sonic. All that was left was a smoldering pile of ash.
"S-Sonic?" Tails whispered as he gazed up from the ground. The pain from his ribs was so immense, that all anyone could hear from Tails was a squeak. Knuckles gaped at the smoke.
"You bastard!" Knuckles screamed. His eyes burned with hatred; heat resonated from his face as he violently stole the gun from Eggman. "You bastard! Sonic is gone!"
…………..or is he? Dun dun dunnn!