Chapter 3: A Shining Emerald
Sonic looked around the corner, Vlad at his side.
"This is the place, right?" he asked.
"Yes," Vlad replied.
"So we sneak in and get the Emerald?"
"Yes, but be careful; Axium Labs has tight security."
"No securety's tight enough for me," the hedgehog replied cockily.
"Even I have to be careful, the securety's for ghosts. That means you have to be extremely careful, Sonic, if you want the emerald."
The duo went towards the building, unaware of the silent eyes watching them.
Elsewhere...
"Axium Labs. There's a Chaos Emerald there," Nino said, dropping out of nowhere.
"How did Sonic find one?" Lia asked.
"Help. He's got Vlad."
"Great, now my enemy's helping him," Danny said.
"We better get there fast if we want to beat them to it," Lia said.
"Okay, we'll go," Sam said, getting up.
"No Sam, we need stealth, not power. And no offence, but you're not very good with that Keyblade yet," Lia said.
"So who do we need?" Shadow asked.
"You, Danny and myself. Between us Halfas and an ultimate life-form, this should be a piece of cake."
"Sooooo... stay here and hold down the fort?" Nino asked.
"Bingo. We'll be back before you know it," Lia said, a defiant grin on her face.
"If you say so," Sam said.
Later in the Time Stream...
Danny and Lia hovered silently above Shadow, the trio staring at the lab below them.
"This the place," he whispered.
"Yup. We better be carful, Danny's pretty famous around here. The labs pretty much ghost proof, which means non-ghosts are gonna have a helluva time. Be careful, Shadow," Lia said, then turned to the building.
"Do you here that?" Shadow asked, a little later.
"What?" Danny asked.
"The sound of running feet. I hear it, too," Lia added, then she said, "Danny, invisible. I'll overshadow Shadow and see who it is."
"Overshadow? What does that mean?" asked a suspicious Shadow.
"It means she takes over your body for a bit. You better let her," Danny said.
"All right," he said reluctantly, and Lia phased into his body.
"I'll be back in a bit Danny. Don't get caught," she said to him.
Danny waited for a while, watching the lab for any movement, when something tapped his soulder. He turned around, thinking Lia in Shadow's body had tapped him, to see Vlad and a blue hedgehog on the ground, prepared to attack.
"Where are the other two?" Vlad asked.
Danny backed up in the air and put his fists out to defend himself. "What other two?" he asked, playing dumb.
"C'mon, we know you're with Shadow. Where is he?" the hedgehog asked from below.
"Right here!" came Lia's voice from behind the hedgehog, and Shadow appeared, doing a roundhouse kick into the blue hedgehog's side. He then put his hands up and blasted Vlad with blue energy. Lia phased out of Shadow and held him up a bit.
"Time for stealth is over, let's get the Emerald before these losers," she indicated Vlad and Sonic, "and high-tail it outta here." She took off, Danny beside her and Shadow below them.
Once they were inside the building, Lia asked, "Can you sense the Emerald?"
"Barely," Shadow replied, then pointed, "It's that way." He was pointing to a wall.
"No problem," Danny said, flying toward the wall. He slammed into it as though it were solid to ghosts.
"They must have got some new toys from FentonWorks," Lia suggested.
"Looks like we're solid," Danny said.
"Looks like," Lia agreed.
"Now what?" Shadow asked.
"We find the Emerald the old-fashoned way," Lia said.
"Lead the way, Shadow," Danny said, and Shadow took off where he thought the Emerald was. Corridors flashed by, lefts, rights and straight aheads melting into one single path. After a while, Shadow slowed down.
"What is it?" Lia asked.
"The Emerald... is near! Let's go," he said, taking off again, Danny and Lia in his wake.
"Where?" Danny asked.
"I don't know for sure, but it's close," Shadow replied.
"Good."
They entered the main lab, and saw the Emerald, protected behind three layers of glass.
"Shouldn't be too hard," Lia comented.
"You got that right, Ghost," a voice said from behind. Danny, Shadow and Lia whipped around. A girl in a skin-tight, red-and-black outfit stood on a hoverboard, a large bazooka-like thing in her arms. She took aim at Danny, and fired. Lia shoved him out of the way and took the hit, being slammed into the glass around the Emerald.
"Ohhhhh, you wanna play dirty, huh?" Lia asked, standing up, "Well, two can play at that game." She aimed her hand at Valerie, and feinted an attack with her energy, while behind the hunter, a large hunk of cement raised into the air. The hunk wasn't large enough to kill Valerie, just enough to knock her out. "And my name isn't Ghost," Lia said, lifting her other hand, making it look like she was intent on blasting her out of the air, "It's Wisp!" She let the rock come forward, hitting Valerie in the back, knocking her of the board. She hit ground hard, passing out on contact.
"Lia!" Danny cried, running over to Valerie.
"What? She's obviously alive. Let's get the Emerald and get out of here before..."
"...before I get here and take it?" a voice said from behind them. Sonic was tossing the Emerald up and down, over and over. Shadow growled, and jumped at Sonic. The blue hedgehog disappeared in a flash of light.
"Damn!" Shadow said.
"We should get home before our families start getting suspicious," Lia suggested, and Shadow and Danny agreed begrudgingly.
Even Later in the Time Stream...
"So Sonic got there in time to make sure you guys didn't get it?" Sam asked. Danny nodded.
"It's like it was planned!" he said.
"Yeah. Hey, Shadow, was that Chaos Control that Sonic used?" Lia asked.
"Yeah, but not the one that I used to get here. That requires all seven," Shadow said.
"If we get one of the Emeralds, can you teach me'n Danny to use it?"
"Sure, but I don't need a Chaos Emerald to use it. All I have to do is tap into the Master Emerald for power."
"Master Emerald? Is it here?" Sam asked.
"No, it's back on Mobius, but it should be powerful enough to let me use Chaos Control here," Shadow said, standing up. He held his hand out, closed his eyes and said, "CHAOS CONTROL!"
The same kind of light that had grabbed Sonic earlier grabbed Shadow, and he disappeared, reappearing behind Tucker, making him jump.
"I guess I can use Chaos Control from here without using a Chaos Emerald," he said, looking at his hand.
"Cool. So you can teach us?"
"Yes, but not tonight. I need rest."
"Sweet," Danny said, high-fiving Lia.
Shadow lay down on a makeshift bed, and Lia, Sam and Tucker left.
End Chapter 3: A Shining Emerald.
Author's Note: Did you guys like it? R&R.
Author's Quiz: 'Kay, enough Sonic quizzes for now. What Danny Phantom episode did we first see Valerie's sweet new outfit?