Well it's the 23rd now, which means its Sonic's Birthday. Currently listening to RadioSEGA who is celebrating by playing Sonic Music all day, with the only interruption being birthday messages from fans including yours truly.

If you check my blog for the link and listen to it at 11pm BST you may just hear mine.

Sorry I only have three chapters done. Will work on this as much as I can.

All copyright info in first chapter

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Chapter 3 - The Race Begins

BOSS: EGG HORNET (SONIC / TAILS)

The Egg Hornet dove drill first into the ground where Sonic stood. Sonic jumped out of the way as Tails attacked the cockpit glass. Annoyed Dr. Robotnik switched his focus from Sonic to Tails which left him open to Sonic's attacks. It was lose/lose for Dr. Robotnik and it wasn't long before the dynamic duo destroyed the machine.

The wings fell off the machine as it fell to the floor exploding.

"That was odd usually Egg belly isn't defeated so easily", said Sonic softly to himself.

Robotnik didn't seem to move; instead he pretended to smash the controls of his ship with his fist. As Tails ran towards Sonic he noticed the glimmer of the Emerald. He knew the twerp had one of the seven chaos emeralds and now was the time to strike.

A huge claw came out of nowhere and snatched the Chaos Emerald from Tails' grasp. The Claw brought the Emerald into the Doctors grasp.

"Thank you twerp. One seventh of my plan is now complete. Oh Chaos!" said Dr. Robotnik.

A puddle of water appeared out of nowhere, morphing into the same beast Sonic fought outside Station Square's City Hall.

"It's you. Come back for more have ya?" asked Sonic.

"I, Dr Ivo Robotnik, the greatest scientific genius of the world present to you my ultimate plan. Say hello to Chaos, he's very angry and likes to absorb the chaos emeralds, watch", said Dr. Robotnik.

The Doctor threw the emerald at Chaos and it disappeared into its body. Chaos melted back into a puddle and reformed only this time he was slightly different. A strange stone like bone appeared in one of his arms. Chaos 1 smashed the floor with his new arm and knocked Tails off his feet.

"As you can see Chaos gets stronger with every emerald he absorbs. When he gets all seven he'll be invincible and that's when I strike. I will use him to destroy Station Square and on its ruins I will build Robotnikland, where I will rule all", said Dr. Robotnik.

"That thing is nothing but a big drip. I stopped it once I can stop it again", said Sonic.

Sonic raced over to fight Chaos 1 though he just melted into a puddle again and disappeared into the ground.

"Not here Rodent. We will meet again though and next time we will be ready for you", said Dr. Robotnik.

And with that Dr. Robotnik took to the skies and while Tails flew after him, the doctor managed to escape.

Sonic paused to think.

"He needs more emeralds to power Chaos", said Sonic.

"So we have to get to them first, right?" asked Tails.

"Exactly, though where to begin?" asked Sonic.

Sonic and Tails knew they had to find the emeralds. If one powered him up that much, imagine the power seven would give him.

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Meanwhile back in Station Square Knuckles had arrived to find the water beast had completely lost him. It was the first time Knuckles had left his island and entered a big city and so felt intimidated by it all.

The Creature may have disappeared though he realised his real objective should be to restore the emerald, and as luck would have it he felt something in his feet. Knuckles had an affinity with the emeralds and could sense items of great wealth from a distance. This was believed to be an ability to help him find the Master Emerald if it was lost, or in this case shattered.

It was a feeling he felt in his feet that led him to believe some pieces of the Master Emerald were nearby. He examined the City Hall area of Station Square further to find the pieces of the Emerald.

ACTION STAGE: SPEED HIGHWAY (KNUCKLES)

Knuckles used his abilities to hunt down three shards of the Master Emerald. The city was vast and it took quite some time to find all the shards. He was quite happy when he cleared the nearby area of pieces of the Emerald but he could feel a slight signal off in the distance. Knuckles went in to investigate

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Big the Cat had followed his frog friend all the way to the big city. He didn't care much for cities, too busy and hectic for him. He spotted Froggy hopping around the streets and watched as he hopped under a car and down a drain. Big lifted the car and fell through the drain into the sewers.

Big followed Froggy into Twinkle Park the big amusement park of Station Square. It sat on the coastline of Station Square and was very popular with children. Big had gotten through using the maintenance tunnels and found himself in front of a big pool. Big examined the pool and found it full of fish, amongst which was Froggy swimming.

Big wasn't too fond of swimming but he was very fond of Fishing. He took out his Fishing Rod and launched his lure into the water near Froggy.

ACTION STAGE: TWINKLE PARK (BIG)

Just like a fish Froggy fell for the lure and Big snagged him. It wasn't easy to reel him in, but Big managed it, finally catching his best friend.

"Froggy? Why are you running away from me? What has gotten into you?" asked Big.

Froggy sneered at Big and started to fidget. Something was definitely wrong with Froggy; it was as if he was trying to find something. Big took Froggy out of Twinkle Park quickly and avoided the security. Lucky for him he was quick enough to catch Froggy and get out before anyone noticed him.

Victorious Big headed back to his little hut in Mystic Ruins.

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Sonic and Tails frantically searched the nearby area to find a Chaos Emerald. They could've been anywhere in the world though they had to start somewhere. The Emeralds has a tendency to find them these days though, and as fate would have it the dynamic duo caught a slight glimpse of a Blue light deep within the Windy Valley.

"Hey did you see that?" asked Sonic, "A Chaos Emerald, in that valley down there"

"Actually yes I did. I also noticed the large numerous tornados here too", replied Tails.

"So it's a little windy. That's not going to stop us is it?" asked Sonic.

"Lead the way", replied Tails smiling.

ACTION STAGE: WINDY VALLEY (SONIC / TAILS)

Sonic and Tails descended into the valley and blasted along the pathways at high speed. They encountered a few of Egg belly's machines along the way and destroyed most of them. They reached a bridge and saw the emerald waiting for them at the other side.

They raced to the emerald to find they were suddenly swallowed whole by a Gigantic Tornado. Its sheer size eclipsed the others and the others were still very big. Tails grabbed Sonic and used his two tails to navigate through the wind into the eye of the storm.

Once in the eye they climbed to the top of the Tornado using the floating platforms inside. At the top they spied a series of steel track way that somehow floating in the air just outside the Tornado. The following the track way to it's end and found the Blue Chaos Emerald waiting for them.

"Excellent. One down, five to go", said Sonic.

"You know I just remembered something. Station Square actually has its own emerald locked in a vault in their casino", said Tails.

"Its own Emerald?" asked Sonic.

"One the Mayor bought from an archaeologist to put in a museum. Though the feared for it's safety and so placed it in the Casino area's vault, which has never been broken into in its history", said Tails.

"Well there's a first time for everything. Come on let's go", said Sonic.

Sonic and Tails headed back to Station Square at high speed. They had reached the casino just as it was about to open. They raced for the entrance.

"Hey wait you can't go in there….." said the Casino bouncer

The bouncer's speech was interrupted by the whooshing sound of Sonic and Tails blasting past him. The Bouncer turned and looked inside the building. Sonic and Tails were long gone.

"…you're under 18. crap", said the Casino bouncer.

Inside Sonic and Tails were greeted by Gold everywhere. Bright Neon lights filled the Casinopolis and in the centre a massive Gold Statue of Sonic. Sonic blushed a little.

"Whoa! Perhaps that's going a little too far", said Tails softly.

"What was that Tails? You wish they made a statue like that for you? I like it but what's that crack doing in my shoe", said Sonic smiling.

Tails stuck out his tongue at Sonic and surveyed the area.

"Which game are we going to play first?" asked Tails.

"I thought we came here for the em…. Oh who am I kidding I have got to try the Sonic Pinball but first let's check out this NiGHTS table. Sounds cool", said Sonic.

ACTION STAGE: CASINOPOLIS (SONIC / TAILS)

Sonic and Tails played the games for hours, attempting to gather as many rings as possible. They were having a lot of fun but almost forgot the reason why they came here. They eventually pulled themselves away from the games and spied the Grey Chaos Emerald. 1000 rings! That was a big ask for such a short space of time. As fast as Sonic was he couldn't risk going out and simply collecting them as the Doctor could be there at any moment.

They only had the one option, win the rings playing the games but just as they were about to go off and play the bouncers finally caught up to them. They picked the two up and threw them into the basement. It was the quickest way out but Sonic and Tails had no intention of leaving just yet.

They blasted through the ventilation system and found a way back up into the Casino. Once inside they went straight for the games, each to one of the two tables. Together they quickly gathered enough rings to get the Emerald and ran out through the front door before anybody noticed.

"1000 rings, Never thought I'd see that much money", said Tails

"Kinda feel dishonest just taking it like that but we need it more than them", said Sonic.

"We now have two emeralds…" said Tails before being interrupted by a cloud of purple smoke.

"Ho Ho! Thanks for getting the Emerald from me. Night Night you pests", said Dr. Robotnik.

"Damn!" said Sonic before falling asleep

"Egg….man", said Tails before he fell asleep.

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Knuckles decided to take in the sights of the city for now as when he got to the Casino it was closed. He had to wait until Nightfall as the casino only opened at night. He was really impressed by the city. Amazed by the friendless of its people and the incredibly tall buildings.

When night came he headed straight for the Casino. Though as he left the hotel to get to the Casino area he came across a familiar foe.

There entering an elevator was Dr. Robotnik, the reason Angel Island fell from the Sky the first time and Knuckles started to think he was behind it this time. He followed Dr. Robotnik by noting the floor the doctor got off at and entered the same elevator.

As the doors opened he saw Dr. Robotnik just standing there in the middle of an empty room. It was some kind of ballroom probably used to host big events.

"Ok doctor put em up. What are you doing here? What are you up to?" asked Knuckles.

The Doctor turned and was surprised to see Knuckles preparing his fists.

"Kn…Knuckles? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be looking for those Master Emerald shards?" asked Dr. Robotnik.

"What? How did you know about that? I knew you were behind it", said Knuckles.

The doctor started to panic and started to slowly walk backwards. A Giant puddle appeared on the floor.

"Ah Chaos. I was wondering where you got to! HERE!" shouted Dr. Robotnik throwing the grey Chaos Emerald towards the puddle.

The puddle absorbed the Chaos Emerald and reformed as Chaos 2. The head seemed to grow some sort of stumpy bull horns and each arm was reinforced with two stone like bones.

"You! I was wondering where you got to! Right that it's, this time I'm not letting you get away", said Knuckles.

"Chaos, attack!" shouted Dr. Robotnik.