Well, here it is folks, the fourth edited version of "The Future Looks Bright"

I hope you enjoy and please R&R I really appreciate reviews.

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Chapter One: Curiosity Killed the Echidna

By the light of the full moon a jet black hedgehog stole to the remains of a giant tree, the remains of the Sonic Team Tree Base. He looked around longingly, his crimson eyes bright with unshed tears.

"I hope this works," he muttered, unaware of the two robots advancing slowly behind him. He murmured a word then shouted 'Find Knuckles!' as he lifted his hands; one scarred the other mechanical. As the robots closed in, a bright sphere of light appeared and flew up and away, blinding the robots for a second. When the light cleared, the hedgehog was gone. All that remained of him was a whispered word on the wind: "Knuckles,"

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"Knuckles!" cried an orange echidna as she raced through the Sonic Team Tree Base searching for her brother. She bounded to her brothers room. "Knuckles?" she called again as she entered his room to find him gone. She sighed, an annoyed expression on her face as she stalked out of her brother's room and in the direction of her boyfriend's room.

"Shadow?" she asked, "Do you know where my brother is? Rouge is on the phone and she wants to talk to him!" At her voice a black hedgehog raised his head slightly, his hair, normally in spikes, was disheveled and he wore an exhausted expression.

"You're looking for Knuckles?" he asked staring at her. She nodded and he replied "Sorry, Tikal. I haven't seen 'im all day." Tikal sighed and turned to leave

"Well, if you do see him, tell him to call Rouge back. Okay?"

"Fine, if it gets you to leave so I can sleep!" Shadow muttered as she left. He waited a few seconds before yelling, "You hear that, Romeo? Your girlfriend wants you to call her back!"

His closet door started shaking as a red echidna stuck his head out of it.

"I owe you so much, Shadow! You saved me from the devil reincarnated as a white flirty bat!" Knuckles the Echidna pulled himself out of Shadow's closet, his newest hiding place from his girlfriend, and pulled the door shut. Shadow shook his head, crimson eyes amused and said "You let me sleep and we'll call it even." Knuckles nodded as Shadow collapsed onto his bed. As soon as he heard Shadow start to snore Knuckles reached for his Gamecube. The instant the echidna touched the controller, Shadow muttered: "If you value your life, leave my stuff alone!" Knuckles pulled his hand away slowly keeping a wary eye on Shadow. He pouted staring at his friend as he murmured

"Maybe you won't be so grumpy when we're older." As he began to leave the room a small sphere of light flew in his way. He jumped backwards as it flew pointedly in his direction. "Whoa! What do you want!" He jumped again, as a mans voice floated out of it:

"Knuckles! If my messenger has found you then I need you to listen to me! You need to avoid coming to the future at all costs! If you come here then―" the voice was cut off as the sphere's light sputtered and died. Knuckles stared at the spot where the sphere had floated seconds before. He lifted up a small crystal clear fragment of the sphere. It took him a few seconds to realize that the fragment was nearly bursting with Chaos Energy. Questions raced through his mind as he thought about the message. Who was this guy? How does he know my name? What does he mean Future? I don't wanna go to the future! How would I get there anyway? I'd probably need a time machine, but, I can't build anything! Everything I build blows up… As he thought Shadow sat bolt upright and shouted

"Where'd all that chaos energy come from! Is my brother here or something?" The red echidna shook his head and motioned for Shadow to go back to sleep. The hedgehog stared at Knuckles for a second then fell back into dreamland. A new thought crossed Knuckles' mind as he thought about what Shadow said, This fragment does have a chaos energy signature similar to Ten's. Maybe, Ten sent it and is just trying to keep me from doing something great for the future! That's gotta be it!

This messenger thing sounded just like something Shadow's older brother, the evil Metal Sonic Ten or Ten for short, would do. Ten had also been created by Professor Gerald but three years before Shadow. The robot had, and probably always would, hated Shadow. They developed a strong rivalry and Ten would now stop at nothing to kill Shadow and anyone else that stood in his way. Ironically, since he was trying to take over the world, that included the Sonic Team and since Knuckles was the co leader, Ten would try to get him out of the picture by keeping him in the past. Especially if he had, although Knuckles doubted it, taken over the future world.

Knuckles nodded and decided to go to the future where the fragment came from immediately just incase it was from Ten. Well, as soon as everyone else woke up and he got Tails to build a time machine for him.

Knuckles sighed and walked over to Shadow to attempt to wake him up without getting hurt. He decided that the best way was to poke him with something from a distance. The red echidna looked around and found a long stick. When the stick first brushed his fur Shadow moaned and rolled over muttering something along the lines of 'if you touch me with that thing again, then I will kill you'. Sure enough, when the hedgehog awoke he destroyed the stick and turned to come after Knuckles. After assuring Shadow that he could sleep again after the meeting, Knuckles hurried out of Shadows room narrowly missing the chaos spear that Shadow threw lazily at him. Knuckles shook his head and walked down the hallway until he found Chance's room.

He entered the room and found that the seven year old was still asleep. The little hedgehog had also been created by Professor Gerald. He was created as a companion to Shadow but the two thought of each other as brothers. Chance had always stuck to his older brother like glue and it was because of this that Shadows affectionate nickname for the little green hedgehog was 'annoyance one'. Knuckles was convinced that Chance had a shrine in his closet of the dark hedgehog. He walked over to the green hedgehog's bed and gently shook him. Chance moaned and rolled over, exactly like his older brother. Knuckles smiled and calmly told him that Shadow would be at the meeting. At this, Chance leaped up and bounded to the bathroom to take a shower.

Knuckles continued to the room of Shadow's sister, Luna. She had been created by Professor Gerald a little bit before Chance. She had been created to stay at age eight forever. She was overly dramatic, Shadow called her 'annoyance two' when he was alone with her, and she had a huge crush on Tails. He walked into the room and woke the silver fox up. She groaned for a few seconds until Knuckles reminded her that Tails would be at the meeting. She grinned and started to recite romantic Shakespeare lines, Knuckles escaped before she got to Romeo and Juliet.

He hurried on his way and came to his little sister's room. Tikal, who was obviously already awake, shoved a phone in his face and ordered him to call Rouge back. He shouted at her for a few seconds and a screaming match occurred. After a few minutes Tikal gave up and told him she'd be at the meeting.

Knuckles slowed down as he came to Epsilon's room. The bat had only joined their ranks a few months ago and no one but Shadow really trusted him. Epsilon had been working for Ten but Shadow had saved his life during a battle and convinced Sonic, the egotistical leader of the Sonic Team, to let him into the team. He walked into the room and over to Epsilon's bed. The black and green bat was tossing and turning obviously having a bad dream. Knuckles shook him awake and asked him to come to the meeting. Epsilon, wiping cold sweat from his brow told he would be there no matter what. Knuckles nodded and continued on his way. Unfortunately, Knuckles didn't see the evil glint in Epsilon's eye as he left.

Knuckles made his way to Sonics room. He walked in and was nearly blinded by the fact that Sonic had his walls painted bright blue. Wincing slightly, he walked to the blue hedgehog's bed, careful not to tread on one of Sonic's action figures of himself. He shook Sonic awake and after being lectured on waking him up when in the middle of a dream about himself, Knuckles asked Sonic if he would come. The hedgehog nodded and Knuckles left for fear of getting asked to play with one of Sonic's action figures.

The next room he came to was that of Sonic's girlfriend, Amy. He opened the door and was nearly blinded again as Amy had painted her room bright pink. He walked to her bed and attempted to shake her awake. She latched onto his arm murmuring something about Sonic. By the time Knuckles had pried himself loose of her grip, she was starting to wake up. Knuckles hurriedly wrote a note explaining about the meeting and left.

The last stop on his list was Tails' room. He had saved the yellow-orange fox till last since he had to convince him to build the time machine for him. Walking to the fox's bed, he gently shook Tails awake. Once he was up, he handed the technological genius the fragment and told him all would be explained at the meeting.

Knuckles left the room feeling quite pleased with himself; he had managed to wake everyone up without getting hurt. As he walked towards the stairs, still overly pleased, he neglected to notice Shadow behind him. The dark hedgehog hit him with a Chaos Spear causing the red echidna to tumble down the stairs.

"That's for waking me up, Knucklehead!" The dark hedgehog shouted. When he landed at the bottom, Knuckles muttered under his breath 'Sorry for waking you up Sleeping Beauty…'

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A few hours later Knuckles was proposing his idea to his friends. Shadow rolled his eyes and sighed. Chance who was watching his older brother, copied his motions. Luna watching her two brothers copied Shadow as well. Tikal immediately gave her older brother, an expression that said 'what about the master emerald!' and now sat with her back turned to him. Epsilon groaned and shook his head a look of disbelief on his face. Sonic grinned widely and started bouncing on the balls of his feet, obviously wanting part of the action. Amy on the other hand sighed and dragged Sonic down into his seat next to her by his ear. She gave him a look that clearly said No time travel for you! We have a date! Tails gasped and muttered something about everyone using him as a tool and not a person.

"I dunno, Knuckles, a time machine would be a lot of work for me," Tails started. Knuckles, destroying his pride, fell to his knees and began to beg. Shadow knowing how prideful he was took out a camera and took pictures of his pleas. He only stopped when Sonic gave him a look. The dark hedgehog stuck out his tongue at Sonic and returned to his seat.

"Look: I think Ten sent this and is trying to keep me from, I dunno, savin' the future or something! So I think that we can agree as a group that I should go to the future and save it!" Knuckles said as the commotion calmed down. Shadow stood up,

"The thing is, Knuckles, what if," he sighed, "What if, Ten didn't send it? What if, it was from one of us trying to stop something horrible from happening?" Sonic rolled his eyes and stood up,

"I think that what Knuckles says is true and Shadow is just being a pessimist as always!" Sonic said as Shadow stared at him in disbelief.

"Fine! Go ahead and possibly destroy us all! See if I care! If that happens, don't come cryin' to me!" Shadow snapped as he left the room in a huff.

"Shadow!" Tikal shouted as she ran after him.

Sonic shook his head and said "Don't mind them, Knuckles. I've decided that I'm gonna let you go!" Knuckles grinned and hurried off. "Tails, time for you to make a time machine!" Sonic shouted after Tails as he walked away.

"And time for us to get ready for our date!" Amy declared as Sonic moaned.

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A few days later, Tails was done with the time machine and everyone, but Shadow who was still all pessimistic…and moody, was waiting to see Knuckles off. Tikal hugged her brother then excused herself to go and try to cheer Shadow up.

"This, is your time machine?" Knuckles asked as he stared at what Tails had brought him. It looked like a cardboard box with the fragment attached to the top and attached to some buttons and an engine on the back.

"What! You wanted to go quickly didn't you! I couldn't make the most high-tech thing in the world!" Tails snapped.

"Okay! Okay! Don't hurt me! Now, how do I work this thing?"

"Well, you push this button to go to the time that sphere thing came from," Tails said pointing to the red button, "and you press this one to come home!" He pointed to the blue.

"What do the rest of them do?"

"They're mostly just there for show, but that one" he pointed to a black one with a skull and cross bones on it, "is self destruct…don't push it."

"Okay!" Knuckles shouted as he crammed himself into the box. "See you guys in the future!" He pressed the red button and immediately his friends disappeared in a blur of color.

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A black and green bat hurried down the corridor of the Overlord's palace. When he summoned you, he did not like to be kept waiting. The bat entered the throne room and saw his master: the Overlord of the planet. The bat bowed low as his master looked him over. The Master's red eyes narrowed in disdain as he surveyed the bat. Normally, he would never let an original member of the now destroyed Sonic Team into his presence. If it wasn't for the fact that the bat had been named his general, the Master would have him thrown out.

"Well, Epsilon?" He began, his deep voice thick with impatience, "I'm waiting. What information do you have for me?" Epsilon cleared his throat and began,

"Your Excellency, my spies following your brother―"

"Were they spotted?"

"No sir, they found him by the remains of the Tree Base and have brought me valuable information." The Overlord's eyes glinted,

"And what would this information be?"

"We have proof, your Excellency, that Knuckles has somehow survived the Sonic Teams destruction and is out there somewhere. Your brother called out his name before disappearing." At this the lord threw back his head and laughed. His laughter, although thick with cruelty, had no trace of mirth left in it. When he recovered, he stared at Epsilon eyes glinting evilly and murmured,

"If we can capture the echidna, we can finally draw my brother out of hiding! We both know that it was a miracle that your spies found him. He hides himself well," the Overlord paused and then stood up so quickly that it knocked his throne over,

"I want efforts to find my little brother doubled, no, tripled! Anything to find him and have him watch the last member of his little group die just like the rest of them! Then I will finish him off as well."

The Overlord began to laugh again and Epsilon could tell the meeting was over.

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At first, Knuckles had tried to keep his eyes open to see glimpses of his future but found the blur of colors to hurt his eyes too much. He squeezed his eyes closed and began to hear snatches of conversations. A few concerned him, he tried to listen but they flashed by almost as fast as the colors. He heard someone, maybe Shadow, murmuring "Where is he?" a scream, followed by anguished sobs of "I'm so sorry! Please forgive me!" more screams, a murderous laugh, and then, nothing. He opened his eyes and saw nothing as well. He screamed thinking he had pressed the self destruct button and was dead, but when he kicked out, he opened the box. He blinked in the sudden brightness of the morning sun, as he staggered out of the box. A foolish grin was on his face and it only widened when he saw the cars had no wheels and robots were walking among the people.

He had made it and he was alive!

He was so excited in fact that he started jumping around like an idiot, inadvertently pressing the self destruct button with his foot. Tails' voice suddenly rang out:

"Self Destruct Sequence Initiated!" as though Tails had predicted that the Knuckles would be standing stock still staring at the box his eye twitching, it said "I'd run if I were you Knuckles, Self Destruct in five, four, three," At the word 'three' Knuckles began to run for his life, "Two, one, zero. Good bye!"

As he ran the Box exploded sending him flying into the city.

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At the sound of a huge explosion, Shadow the hedgehog raised his head from the cardboard box he was using for a pillow in the alley next to The Chaos Inn, his usual residence. He had decided not to stay in the inn since he had almost been captured the day before. Since he was a fugitive he was using a hologram emitting from the gold ring around his arm to look human. Although being created by Professor Gerald meant that he was immortal, the hologram reflected how long it had been since he had been created so he looked like he was twenty eight.

Curiously, he poked his head out of his alley and saw smoke coming from the park. Now, more confused than ever, the man walked out of the alley and onto the street. He may be a fugitive now, but using his hologram, no one noticed him. Most people were running from the explosion, but he joined the robots rushing towards it. It might have been a risk to join the rush and maybe be spotted, but he had to see what was going on. If memory served it had been ten, long, tortured years since Knuckles had left in his time machine. Now that he knew that it had been he who sent the message to Knuckles warning him not to come, he knew Knuckles would turn up eventually in this year. This explosion just might have been him, hitting the self destruct button Tails had conveniently placed on the time machine, and Shadow was going to make it his business to find out.

As he ran, his arm bumped into a robot damaging the hologram projector. Unfortunately, the many wanted posters of him around the city were of him in this form and a robot immediately noticed this and called the cursed Overlord's special police. Shadow himself didn't notice until one of the robots shot a laser at him, knocking him to the ground. The one in front, the only one that wasn't a robot, the only one he recognized; his old 'friend' Epsilon the Bat. After Knuckles had left, the traitor to the Sonic Team had called the Overlord and helped him get the world into the sorry state it was in now. The traitorous bat walked forward and placed his foot on Shadow's chest,

"Shadow the Hedgehog!" he began a cruel smile on his face, "You are under arrest for crimes against the Overlord!"

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End Chapter…

There you have it, the beginning of my longest story, The Future Looks Bright. I hope you enjoyed it so far.

Oh and to avoid any flames, yes I know Shadow was created fifty years ago, but he was in suspended animation so he wouldn't have aged at all if he did age.

Please R&R

Next Time:

Execution Day