To all of my readers, especially ShadTikal4ever, I apologize for the wait. I have had to postpone the writing & posting of these next chapters due to the chaos in my own life.

Hope you like this one! Read on…

Chapter 5: Sonic and His Hunch

The meadows rolled out in front of him like a sea of green. The long thick grasses rippled with the light breeze. Swirling around, the wind headed for the old oak tree, and the tree's gnarled bark took the gentle caress with pleasure. Continuing on, the breeze flew to the creature sitting in peace at the oak's roots. It met the blue cheek and kissed it playfully. With its last energy the breeze wiped through the oak leaves and a few fell to the blue traveler.

Sonic the Hedgehog gazed at the scene before him, like a painting. Places like these only exist in dreams, luckily I live in one, thought the hedgehog. I have saved the world numerous times, gained a groups of friends like none other, found the Chaos Emeralds, have a huge fan club, and I am still am to find peace in a painting like place. Wow.

Sonic leaned back a little more on the oak tree and sighed. This was the type of Sonic no one would ever find and few even knew about. This was the side of himself that he reserved just for himself, this thoughtful reflective Sonic. Sometimes he needed a break, time to himself, that's when he ran and never looked back.

On this particular run, he had crossed the River Atlos, the boundary of the eastern part of this "earth". He ran for what seemed like forever until he found the oak and meadows. Here he had thought about the latest troubles, his former life and missions, and what might happen in the future. Nothing had happened in 1 year, and he had a feeling, a hunch, that something was coming. It always did.

Sonic stood up and stretched. Breathing deeply, he was gratified with several cracks and pops. It was time for him to leave. And so, with a final look, Sonic ran east; back to his life and the hunch he had felt.

"Chao chao cho ca cha!" screamed Shoca Lief.

"No Shoca! You can't have my life-size-extra-blue-extra-cool-official-Sonic fan club-Sonic–doll!" Amy screamed back at her. She drew in a large breath as her chest rose up and down.

"Careful on the air intake-scream output Amy," remarked Knuckles as he walked past her room.

Knuckles then proceeded down the spiral staircase, hearing more shouts on the way. At the foot of the stairs he stopped. And 3…2…1… A very vicious ripping sound echoed down the stairs.

"AAAHHHHH!"

Knuckles ducked into the kitchen and exited via the back door. He quickly ran to Tails's mechanic shed when the fox met him halfway.

"What's going on in there!" asked Tails. There was grease on his nose and a wrench in his hand.

"Amy's Sonic doll just ripped because of Shoca," Knuckles told him. "I suggest you get in there!"

The pair raced into the house and found the air full of white stuffing. They arrived just in time to see Shoca run through the living-room, Sonic's head in her arms. Amy chased her, wildly swinging a spatula covered in ricotta cheese.

"Hey! That was for my lasagna!" Knuckles shouted at her.

The crazy chao was now running into the kitchen. Taking a deep breath for support, Tails put the wrench in his tool belt and stepped in front of Shoca.

"Shoca, stop!" he commanded.

Shoca immediately stopped and Amy ran into her. The spatula flew up in the air and landed at Knuckles's feet with a splat of ricotta cheese.

"Great," groaned Knuckles as he picked it up and grudgingly went to finish his dish.

"What is going on in here?" asked Tails of Shoca.

Shoca mumbled under her breath a fragment of chao speech.

"What?" asked Tails.

"Cha ca chao cho choo chao chao…" Shoca said.

"You're sorry?" asked Tails. "You hurt—"

"She ripped my Sonic doll!" interrupted Amy.

"Chao," said an apologetic Shoca.

"Sorry!" yelled a near hysterical Amy. She fumed visually and demanded, "give me my doll!"

"Cho!" Shoca said as she clutched the Sonic head closer. She narrowed her eyes and glared at Amy.

"You---!"

"Give her the doll's head Shoca Lief!" ordered Tails.

Shoca shook her head in a 'no'. Tails gave her a firm look that said-now!

Shoca held out the blue head to Amy who snatched it away and ran up to her room. The sound of her door slamming was audible in the silence of Shoca's reprimand.

"What did you do?" asked Tails in a softer tone.

Shoca replied and Tails, in his simple but growing understanding of chao language, interpreted- she took doll away from me. I was angry and ripped the doll…Sorry…love you.

"I love you too Shoca," Tails said as he hugged her. "Now go play with your toys please."

Shoca readily went to a corner of the living-room and pulled out her boxes of toys. She selected a pair of cars and went on to "vrooming" them around the room.

Tails found the nearest chair and sat down. It took all he had to put on a tough face and discipline his chao. He was having to be tough more and more as Shoca grew more difficult. This isn't what Cream said it would be. In fact almost nothing about Shoca was normal.

Since Wednesday, the chao had grown several inches, she now stood at Tails's chest. Shoca walked and talked better then chaos that were a year old, and she wasn't even a week!

The chao was now a gorgeous, shiny white and displayed mature chao markings. She was difficult to manage and Tails had had to put his foot down too many times. I can't keep up with her! He thought.

He hoped Sonic would get back soon. Maybe he could do something about Shoca.

It was late afternoon when Sonic reached his house. He jumped the steps and went in through the unlocked door. Maybe I should get a lock, he thought.

After shutting the door he yelled, "I'm home!"

No answer.

"Hello?" Sonic asked the quiet. That's when he noticed the note that had fallen off the door.

Have gone to the chao races. If you get this, Sonic, head over. We'll be at our usual spot with a picnic. Hope you had a good run.

Tails, Amy, Knuckles, and Shoca Lief

"Shoca Lief?" asked Sonic out loud, "who is that?"

He shrugged it off and started out the door again. He was hungry.

Once at the chao race-grounds he found his friends in their usual spot, near the child course's turn two.

"Hey gang!" Sonic greeted them.

Tails and Amy returned his greeting in full as Knuckles gave a low grunt of acknowledgement.

Sonic quickly sat down on the checkered picnic cloth and began to munch on the closest thing. Taking a plate he piled it with lasagna and potato salad. Amy brought him some lemonade as she batted her eyes at him.

"We missed you Sonic," she said sweetly.

Tails rolled his eyes and started to eat as Knuckles let out a low whistle. Yeah right…

"Ah, thanks Amy," said Sonic as Amy tried to hug him. He quickly stood up and asked, "who is Shoca Lief?'

"Oh yeah, Shoca Lief is my chao," said Tails with pride.

"Your chao!" Sonic asked in disbelief. "When did you get a chao?'

"Monday, while you were gone," replied Tails.

"Well, where is it?" questioned Sonic.

"She's in the next race," said Tails with a smile. "Cream's with her right now."

"Speaking of the next race, you'd better get there Tails," Knuckles said.

Tails looked around and saw that Knuckles was right. He took off flying to the course Shoca would race on. The rest of the gang started there on foot.

"So how is Tails handling this?" asked Sonic as they started to the course known as Horseshoe Path.

"Not too bad," said Knuckles. "Shoca's a little different than most chao though. I mean, I'm not an expert on them, but his chao is growing at an insane rate. He needs some help."

"Hmmm," thought Sonic. I don't really know anything about chao either. Oh well.

"Hurry up you slow pokes!" called Amy to them. "the race is about to start!"

Horseshoe Path was much like the name implied. It was shaped like a horseshoe; a raceway of two straightways, one on each end, with a stretch of water in the middle. Spectators could watch the start on one end of the horseshoe and then walk to the other end to see the finish. The owners of the racing chao would follow the length of the course, cheering on their chao.

Amy was waiting for then at the start. She quickly pointed out Shoca Lief to Sonic and Knuckles.

"Wow she's pretty," remarked Sonic as he first saw the chao.

Shoca was gleaming with good health as she waited in the fifth slot. Around her were other chao of varying appearances. She towered over every chao except one. In the first slot was a large red chao. It was the same height as Shoca and appeared just as strong.

As Amy was pointing all of this out to Sonic and Knuckles, Ajex walked out behind the flag-bearing Omochaos on the sideline. With his silly grin, he placed the trumpet mouthpiece to his lips. Ajex belted out a high note to gain everyone's attention and then followed it up with the traditional fanfare. He was ushered off the raceway with a large round of applause.

Sonic watched as the lead Omochao raised a small pistol. Aiming it to the sky it let out a single shot.

Bells rang and the crowd cheered wildly. The chao sprang out and dashed down the path. Shoca took an early lead as the red chao followed behind her.

After the racers had faded away the crowd made its way to the finish line. They had a good 5 minutes before they would see the first chao rise over the hill and sprint to the finish.

Shoca's fans selected the fence closest to the finish as the rest of the crowd gathered near the hill. They stood there talking as a shadow fell over them.

Knuckles looked up as something blocked out the sky over them. The sun made the figure black but he could tell whom it was.

"Bat girl!" he shouted at Rouge.

His initial anger was halted as he took in Rouge's condition. She was scraped and bruised all over, her black clothing ripped in several places. Rouge's face was haggard but her eyes were full of fury. It looked like she had been traveling nonstop as she collapsed in front of them.

"Rouge!" cried both Amy and Sonic. They both grabbed an arm and hoisted her up. Amy knelt down and supported her as Sonic asked what happened to her.

"I knew I'd find you here," she said with difficulty. "You all need to hear this…GUN…"

Shoca rounded the corner with agility and the red chao followed. They'd been like this the whole time, the rest of the pack left in the dust. Tails and Cream were on the sideline, running and cheering her on. The red chao's owner, some type of raccoon, was cheering on his own.

She could see the hill getting closer…

"…And after I fell I found these files, these logs of their experiments…"

Shoca Lief reached the top of the hill. She could hear Tails's encouragement, and the beat of the red chao's feet behind her. Then she tipped and was passed by the red chao. She felt hurt and mad that she'd lost the lead so close to the end. Her rage was building…

Rouge choked and finished, "Jadas escaped they said."

"Something like that, being free…that's dangerous," said Amy.

"And even more dangerous in the hands of GUN," remarked Sonic

"How'd you get out?' asked Knuckles with hidden concern.

"Well I…"

Tails and Cream were shouting for her to get up, but Shoca was so angry. Somewhere deep inside of her she remembered this feeling and how destructive it had been before, but she couldn't control it. It was chaos…

Just as Rouge finished her story the red chao was coming down the hill. There was sudden change in temperature. It got very cold and clouds came from no where to cover the sky. In the darkness, Rouge shivered and the rest looked up the hill.

There was a giant blast of air and, in a white blur, Shoca shot down the hill. She was floating above the ground like Sonic did when he reached full speed. She blew past the finish line and a huge wind followed in her wake.

Knuckles was blown over in the wind and Rouge collapsed onto Amy. Sonic looked at all of them as he got to his feet. As the sky grew light again they all met eyes, each one full of disbelief.

Shoca Lief was GUN experiment 094, codename Jadas.