We must leave Jet for now, and go visit how two of our other heroes were found. Let's see…
Knuckles and Rouge stared at each other for what seemed like a thousand years. Each one was on a different side of the Master Emerald, and it didn't seem like one of them would give up their position for one second.
"Alright, Rouge, this has got to be the thousandth time we've been like this! Just go away and find some other jewel!" Knuckles exclaimed.
Rouge shook her head. "No way!" she said, "I've lost this emerald once, and I'm not going to lose it again!"
Knuckles sighed in frustration, and continued to stare in silence. Suddenly, that silence was shattered as what seemed like an oval-shaped portal erupted out of nowhere. The two animals' heads turned instantly, facing the portal.
"Whoa!" Rouge said, amazed by the light-blue glow of the portal. "What in the world is this?"
"I don't know, but if it's going to take the Master Emerald, I won't let it!" Knuckles said bravely.
"You mean MY emerald," Rouge corrected as her paws fell on her hips and she gave a side-ways glance at the red echidna before looking at the portal again.
Knuckles just shook his head, and wondered why some people could be so ignorant of the truth. Just then, the portal started to close, but instead of turning back into nothing, it took shape in two creatures. Knuckles and Rouge had their mouths hanging open in this strange spectacle.
For a minute, the figures were just the same light-blue as the portal, and looked as if they were in a curled-up ball position. Then, the creatures began getting color, and more detail, like what clothes they were wearing.
One of the figures turned out to be a light blue hedgehog with its super-long quills in a pony-tail. From the looks of it, Knuckles and Rouge knew it was a female. The hedgehog was wearing blue jean shorts, green tang-top and white tennis shoes.
The other figure turned out to be a teal-blue echidna, with strange clothing. The clothing seemed somewhat familiar to Knuckles, since it looked somewhat like Tikal's clothing. Her dreadlocks were much thicker than Knuckles', and she had a tan bandana wrapped around them at the top. As you can see, it was a female, too.
Once the spectacle was over, the two figures uncurled and just laid there on the ground, unconscious. Knuckles and Rouge stared in astonishment. It wasn't until five minutes later, something broke the uneasy silence. It sounded as if someone was singing a tune, with the only words being "ta-ta." The voice got louder, and soon enough, a red echidna, much like Knuckles, except for the crescent moon-symbol on his chest which was upside-down, came a walking up to the amazed creatures. That red echidna was known as Muscles (probably because he is strong!).
At first, the red echidna just walked right in front and passed the echidna and bat. A second later, Muscles stopped, and just stared in front of him confused. He had also stopped his 'song'. He then back-tracked his steps, and stopped between Knuckles and Rouge. Muscles just looked at Knuckles and Rouge, confused.
Then, he raised both of his arms, and waved his paws in front of their faces, exclaiming, "HHHHEEEEEELLLLLLLLOOOOOOOO! Anybody in there?"
Rouge shook her head out of her trance as Knuckles, annoyed, grabbed the flailing arm, and pushed it to Muscles side.
"Whew! For a second there, I thought you two had seen a creature made out of nothing, or something! Ha! Like that would happen! Wouldn't it be funny if it would? Ha!" Muscles laughed.
"You don't know how right you are," Rouge muttered.
That made Muscles stop his fun, and looked at Rouge curiously. "What do you mean?" he asked.
"She means this!" Knuckles answered, grabbing the other red echidna's head with his paws, and turning Muscles around to face the unconscious hedgehog and echidna.
"So?" Muscles shrugged.
"They came out of nothing!" Knuckles exclaimed.
Muscles raised an eyebrow.
"You mean a shining oval," Rouge corrected.
"A shining oval? Sounds weird," Muscles commented.
"You bet it was!" Knuckles informed, letting go of Muscles.
"Are they okay?" Muscles asked, concerned.
"How am I supposed to know?" Rouge asked.
"Well, there is one way to find out!" Muscles informed, and started walking towards the females.
"No! Don't!" Knuckles yelled, and closed his eyes, prepared.
Rouge watched as Muscles knelt down before the fallen figures.
"Psst, hey, are you okay?" he asked, shaking the echidna.
"Hmm…wha-?" she mumbled, slightly opening her hot pink eyes.
"I asked if you were okay," Muscles re-asked.
The teal echidna now had her eyes fully open and stared at Muscles, before she screamed, and rolled out of the echidna's arms, which had propped her up.
The echidna, now on her hands and knees, looked at Muscles side-ways with her hot pink eyes wide with fright. She was breathing real heavily, and was going to scream again.
"Hey," Muscles said, a bit surprised. "I only wanted to know if you were—"
She screamed again.
"I'll take that as a yes," Muscles added, closing one eye.
"This is going well," Knuckles whispered to Rouge.
Just then, the hedgehog behind Muscles muttered, with her eyes still closed, "Five more minutes, mom…"
The teal echidna screamed again, and that made the hedgehog jump high in the air and yell, "Okay! I'm up! I'm up!"
The echidna immediately stopped screaming because she recognized the voice.
"…B-Bridget?" she asked, breathless from all the screaming.
"What?" Bridget asked, turning to the teal echidna.
"HOLY COW!" she yelled, scooting back a bit.
"Wait! You two know each other?" Muscles asked, standing up now.
"DOUBLE holy cow!" Bridget corrected herself, at the sight of Muscles.
"Bridget? Is that you?" the echidna asked again.
By now, Muscles had stepped back, in hope that these two could answer their own questions.
"How do you know my—Rachael?" Bridget wondered, looking back at the echidna.
"That's me; at least…I think it is…" Rachael said, looking at her new self.
Bridget's eyes were open wide.
"Please don't scream, my ears have had enough," Muscles silently pleaded.
"WAY PAST COOL!" Bridget exclaimed, jumping up.
"What do you mean?" Rachael asked.
"Don't you get it? We have become our made-up characters in a dream! Isn't this cool?" Bridget asked, jumping up and down.
Rachael stared in disbelief, but it slowly came over her that it was a dream—at least, that what she thought.
"Made-up characters? Dream? This is no dream!" Muscles corrected.
"I almost wish it was," Knuckles muttered.
Muscles gave the other red echidna a glare before continuing, "We are real! Hello! This is real life! No dream; life."
Bridget stopped jumping up and down and stared at Muscles. Rachael was about to scream again.
"What are you saying?" Rachael asked, trying to keep calm.
"I am saying that wherever you guys came from, you guys were transported here by something…at least. That's what I heard from these two," Muscles said, looking over his shoulder to the two, grinning innocently animals.
Rachael's eyes opened even wider as Bridget was about to go ballistic.
Rachael scream at the top of her lungs again as Bridget began bouncing up and down, as happy as ever. So you see, Bridget and Rachael are completely different. Anyway…
"I can't believe this is happening! This is so totally wicked! Awesome! Amazing! Magnificent! Unbelievable!" Bridget kept on saying.
"This is REALLY going well," Rouge whispered to Knuckles.
"Don't start," Knuckles warned.
"Hey, what's going on?" a familiar voice demanded.
Instantly, everyone stopped what they were doing, and turned to see a familiar blue hedgehog with a brown animal-of-some-sort walk towards them.
"Sonic! Man, am I glad you're here! These two have just come out of nowhere! And now one of them is screaming while the other is going to bounce off the walls! And—Oh! Who's she?" Muscles asked, referring to the new animal.
"Her name is Jet, and she's come from Earth unto our world," Sonic introduced.
Bridget and Rachael looked at each other. The name sounded familiar…
Muscles was REALLY confused. "Okay, I am lost, will someone please tell me what is going on?" he asked.
At that instant, Jet recognized the two other heroes. "BRIDGET! RACHAEL!" she exclaimed, and ran towards them.
Rachael screamed and scooted off while Bridget stayed put.
"How do you know who I am?" Bridget asked, curious.
"Well…" Jet took a minute to catch her breath. "If I tell you that my real name is Destiny, will you believe me?"
"DESINTY!" Bridget exclaimed.
Instantly, as quickly as a lightning bolt, Jet's paw covered Bridget's mouth. "SHH! Sonic knows me as Jet. I need to keep it that way," she said as her paw feel back to her side.
Bridget thought for a minute about what her friend just said. "Does that mean I should be known as Shani?" she asked, recalling her made-up character that she created.
"Perfect," Jet said, giving the 'okay' signal with her hands.
"Cool!" Bridget exclaimed, happy.
"And for our Rachael…" Jet started, turning towards the teal echidna.
"I…I have no clue what is going on…"Rachael asked, feeling for a minute as if she were lost.
"Didn't you name your character Maya Eva the Echidna?" Jet asked.
Rachael nodded, "Yes I did."
"Then that's going to be your name! Here, at least," Shani added.
Maya Eva ran that name through her head many times before standing up finally.
Muscles stared open-mouthed at how quick Jet had gotten the two newcomers to settle. As the three walked back, he asked, "HOW IN THE WORLD DID YOU DO THAT!"
Jet shrugged. "I guess you could say I have my ways," she said.
Muscles took a deep breath and shook his head as Knuckles and Rouge came over to the group.
"Okay, now that we are a group, let's introduce ourselves. I don't think things went well at first," Jet assumed.
"You have no idea…." Knuckles muttered.
"Anyway," Rouge poked her elbow in Knuckles' side, and said, "I'm Rouge."
Bridget and Rachael looked at each other excitement was sparkling in each of them. Jet only smiled, even though she was also glad that this was really, truly happening.
"I'm Knuckles," Knuckles said, rubbing his side, "…ow…"
"Name's Sonic," Sonic introduced.
"I'm Muscles," Muscles informed.
"I'm Jet," Jet said.
"I'm Maya Eva," Maya Eva replied shyly, getting accustomed to her new name.
"And I'm Shani!" Shani introduced happily.
"Weren't you guys calling yourselves different names?" Knuckles wondered.
"Uh…yeah, but those are nick-names…" Maya Eva replied, blushing.
"Oh, that makes sense," Sonic said.
"Well, now that we know each other…WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON?" Muscles asked.
Jet laughed. "Okay, I'll tell you, hold your horses…" And for the second time that day, Jet explained what had occurred previously.