Anonymous Review Replies!

CjV: Aw, thank you! :D It's a lot of fun to write each character's separate storylines, they all have such unique methods to engage with anything they come across. Knuckles and Team Rocket is a blast in particular. XD

Guest: Heh, glad you like! :) I pull my stories off mostly with a LOT of discipline to get myself to finish stuff I started. ;p Hope you enjoyed the last update to First Class as well! I do remember reading one or two issues with Eclipse, yes. However, right now my plate is a bit full with fanfics that do need to get finished first - but there's no telling if I might not find a place for him in one of my other fanfics where Shadow is a main character :p Just depends on where inspiration takes the plot!

LoneGarurumon: Adorable brother reunion incoming indeed :D Gods I love those two reuniting and Sonic being concerned and happy and fluff. XD I did actually think a lot about what you said about shuffling the character segments around in the last chapter - I think the reason why I kept Tails' for last was that it has the most action and then leaves with a nice hint as to the upcoming events. Though yes, the rest of the flow might have gone better in a different order. I do hope you enjoy this chapter then instead, I'm feeling pretty good about arrangements this time ;P Thanks for commenting!

Last Time...

Well, last time Tails had been adopted/abducted by a family of Ninetales and Vulpix, but then left them after saving one of the kits from certain death! And now he's on his way to a farmhouse where a certain hedgehog might just be hanging out...

Amy, meanwhile, has been stalked by a Golduck and is making fast friends with the girls from the Azure City Pokemon Gym, even if they don't speak her language and are not quite sure what she is. And Knuckles...well. Let's say Team Rocket TRIED to kidnap him...

Chapter Ten: On My Way to Viridian City...

Misty awoke with a yawn and a long, luxurious stretch. Sunlight was falling through the window in her guest bed room, indicating that it was late morning by now, the noises emanating from both the kitchen and the laboratory meaning that both Brock and Professor Oak likely already had been up and working for a while.

"Mmmh...!" Misty sat up, slowly, rubbing her eyes. She had had the weirdest dream – a Pokémon-like alien coming to visit them and beating Ash up when he'd tried to capture it (that part had been funny) but now she couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculousness her subconscious came up with. The next moment, the ringing door bell startled her from her musings, the girl jumping up abruptly.

"Can someone get that, please?!" the professor's voice echoed through the house almost simultaneously. "Busy here!"

"On it!" Misty called back, hastily wrapping a dressing gown around herself as she hurried down the stairs. The aroma of Brock's delicious pancakes wafted toward her from the kitchen as she crossed over to the front door and she smiled. Surely, she'd be able to get a laugh at the breakfast table when she told the boys of the nonsensical dream scenario (Aliens. Who looked like Pokémon and talked. Really.) and she therefore pulled open the door with a friendly smile to see who it was.

"Yes, hel-huh?"

"Down here. Hello," said the small, bipedal talking fox-Pokémon at the door, beaming up at her with a cheerful wave. "I was just wondering whether I could use your phone?"

xxx

"A visit-oh!," Oak had turned to look around, raising his eye brows as he looked past Misty and then saw the...small, fuzzy thing...standing in the doorway behind her. He had a bit of trouble making out what it was (it looked, in fact, more like a walking brambleberry bush than anything else) but apparently, Sonic had no such trouble. At the first sight of the furry creature behind Misty, the hedgehog had leapt up with a wide, disbelieving grin.

"No way! Tails!"

"Sonic!"

Their visitor broke out into an equally relieved laugh and immediately dashed into the room, careening full tilt into the bigger hedgehog, who caught him securely into a hug, for a moment holding him seemingly tight enough to hurt.

"Li'l buddy! You're here, too! How did ya know how to find me?! And..." and here the blue hedgehog for the first time seemed to notice the state the fox kit was in, now actually a note of concern entering his voice as he gently moved the smaller Mobian away from him, looking at the ruined golden pelt. "...what happened to you? Didja get hurt in the explosion?" Sonic's grip seemed to tighten at his words, though if the hedgehog noticed that himself was impossible to tell.

"No!" Tails vigorously shook his head. "But I almost got eaten by giant caterpillars! Under the command of a bee goddess! And I had to spend all night outside in the forest getting attacked by insects and birds and adopted by ferals and everything and I've been looking for your forever, and it was really, really scary." The fox kit swallowed, briefly glancing at the floor as if embarrassed, but then looked up at the hedgehog again eyes large and serious. "I think they have a problem with their animals here, Sonic."

xxx

"...do they," Sonic replied, blinking, his eyes once again travelling over the fur of his kid brother. Currently, it was still sticking up in all directions, had various pieces of greenery installed at irregular intervals, and (for some reason) seemed to have been set on fire in places.

"Yeah!" Tails disentangled himself from his grip. "Sonic, where are we? And who are they?" he asked, now somewhat self-consciously brushing down the larger twigs caught up in his coat as he seemed to remember the presence of the humans in the room.

"Ah. Right." The hedgehog ran a hand through his quills, the alarm bells in his head now slowly subsiding as it became apparent that Tails appeared to be a bit frazzled, but healthy and whole. He laid a hand around the kit's shoulders and turned him a little so they could both face the others, who had been watching them with silent curiosity. "Apparently, we managed to Chaos Control ourselves to a different planet, Tails. This is Professor Oak and Misty, I met them last night. They said they could help me find the rest of you guys."

"Oh. That's nice of you!" the younger Mobian immediately smiled at their hosts, despite the news of their planetary relocation his cheerful nature bouncing back without visible effort on his part. (Sonic privately suspected the fox kit had in his previous life perhaps been a pogo stick). "I'm Miles Prower, but everyone calls me Tails. I'm Sonic's little brother," he said, now pointing at the hedgehog while the pride was positively coming out of his ears.

"Hey...Tails," Misty was the first to also venture a smile in return. "Welcome to Earth. Did you say you're his brother? You look kinda different..."

"Oh, yeah. That's because he's a hedgehog and I'm a fox," Tails nodded sagely. "You don't have Mobians here that you can't tell, huh? I met your foxes, by the way. They're kinda strange."

Both Oak and Misty gave Tails a look that indicated they probably thought 'kinda strange' was more applicable to their newest visitor, actually, so Sonic - used to reactions like this to his kid brother even on their home planet - took that opportunity to neatly step in.

"Well, it's good that you're here now, li'l bro, we were just about to have breakfast and then head off to the next big city to talk to their police about finding the others. But uh, before that..." Sonic trailed off a little, giving his sibling a longer look. "How about a bath first, li'l buddy?"

xxx

Knuckles was panting. The chase had lasted well into the night, but the master of Angel Island not only had excellent endurance, he was also a tracker second to none. Now the moon had already risen high over the horizon, but he was finally holding the man of the trio of his wannabe-abductors by the collar, his right foot planted on the back of the cat, who currently had his face pressed into the dirt. He was somewhat reluctant to lay a hand on the woman yet, but the hard edge in his violet glare was nevertheless conveying to her that this could definitely become an option if she attempted to do anything stupid.

Well. Not like it seemed that any of them would have the energy to do anything stupid anyway, but...

"Okay," Knuckles said, trying to get his breathing under control again. "You," he increased the pressure on Meowth's back subtly to convey his message. "Translate what I say."

"Ow. Yessir," the Mobian winced.

"I see we understand each other. Now. You three jokers will take me to..."

Here Knuckles paused. By now he had already worked out that wherever this place was, it had to be very, very far from home. Getting back to the Mystic Ruins where he had left Angel Island would almost certainly mean either having to use Chaos Control (which had sent him here in the first place) or – and here he gritted his teeth – enlist the help of that blue lunatic for a supersonic ride back home. In fact, even Chaos Control would mean either having Sonic or Shadow on hand, and he had no idea where either of them were. And even at finding a Chaos Emerald they'd need for a Chaos Control in the first place the hedgehogs would be much better since they could cover a lot more ground faster, Knuckles admitted with gritted teeth.

Dammit.

There was no choice. Finding Sonic first would be paramount no matter what he did.

Now where would that six-quilled entertainment-addict be likely to be found...?

"...take me to the nearest big city," Knuckles said firmly.

"Take you to da nearest big city?!" Meowth repeated, twisting his head around to stare up at Knuckles, wide-eyed. "Dat's Viridian City, but-"

"Right. Then that's where we're going. Start walking."

"B-but – it's da middle of da night!" Meowth exclaimed. "And we've been wunning for hours and we're weally tired and-"

Knuckles bent down and managed to say the next word without actually separating his teeth.

"Walk."

xxx

"Alright, then. So, how are we gonna get to the police station? Is it far?"

"Well, it's the next city over. It'll probably take around two hours to walk there, if we leave now, we should make it by midday," Ash said, hoisting his green backpack onto one shoulder as Pikachu jumped onto the other. After breakfast and fox-cleaning had been taken care of – and Tails had been filled in on the intricacies of their new home world for the moment – all three of Ash, Brock and Misty had immediately volunteered to take the trip with the two of them to the police station, which had been a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one.

"Walk there?" Sonic raised an eye ridge. "Not that I mind or anything, but...don't you guys drive cars in this world? Or something?"

"Uh, sure, adults do," Misty said. "But me and Ash are like, ten. Even Brock is only fifteen."

"Uhm. So?" Tails frowned up at her in confusion. "I'm nine and I drive."

"Yeah, li'l bro, but you're kind of a special case, I thought we discussed this?" Sonic cut in. "Which is why, in case the police back home ever asks us..." he trailed off, expectantly, until Tails replied, sighing,

"...you're the one piloting the supersonic jet plane. I know, Sonic," he huffed.

"Glad to hear it, kiddo," Sonic smiled (also ignoring the increasingly curious faces and the muttered comment of 'jet planes?' from their new human friends).

xxx

"Maybe...maybe she is a mew?"

Daisy blinked at her sister Violet's suggestion. Both of them were watching Lily and their visiting Pokémon enthusiastically sketching on anything and everything, 'talking' about what, depending on interpretation of the drawings, could either have been something to do with blue buzzsaws, or maybe explosions and moustaches, Daisy wasn't quite sure.

"A mew?"

"Yeah. Like Lily said. I mean, she's pink and she's small and probably female, like the legends say and I think she actually teleported into our gym, appearing so suddenly. Also, she seems really intelligent and our Pokedex has no idea what she's supposed to be." As if to demonstrate again, Violet pointed the gadget at their oblivious visitor, the LED on it lighting up as the mechanic voice proclaimed the familiar 'Insufficient Data. Species unknown.'

"I dunno." Daisy said with a frown. "I think...mews are supposed to have a really long tail, aren't they?"

Silence descended as both their gazes travelled as one to their visitor's backside, modestly concealed by the green skirt they'd given her. It seemed to bulge over some sort of tail, but its exact form was kind of hard to tell. There was a bit of a pause.

"So...do we check?"

Daisy threw Violet a look. "Do you want a hammer to the face?"

"...fair point." Violet admitted. "Maybe checking whether she's really female isn't a good idea, either, huh?"

"Yes," Daisy said, very firmly. Out of all of them, Violet was usually the most analytical and level-headed, a stark contrast to their bubbly and easily excited youngest sister Lily, but, for some reason, neither of them seemed to have quite yet developed the common sense Daisy had, which was probably the fate of all older siblings worldwide. "Anyway, I'm pretty sure she's female. And I also think that maybe a several foot long tail would be kind of visible underneath a fifteen-inch skirt, don't you think?"

"Yeeeeah, okay..." Violet said, though it sounded a bit disappointed that they hadn't in fact a legendary and all-powerful Pokémon currently sitting on their couch and playing charades.

"Exactly." Daisy nodded. "So, unless I missed something and mythical Pokémon actually end up soaked in other people's swimming pools at regular intervals, I don't think she is one. I'd say it's more probable that she's just a really young unknown psychic type of some sort who just messed up her first teleportation, or something. Her trainer is probably worried sick."

Violet sighed. "Yeah, you're probably right. We should submit a police report first thing in the morning. Do you think we should keep her in a Pokeball until then, or...?"

"Doubt it's possible." Daisy shook her head. "If she's owned by whoever put that dress on her, a regular Pokeball would likely just bounce off her head. And that would probably make her angry."

"Hm. Yes," Violet agreed, briefly throwing a side-glance at a (still unconscious) Golduck in the corner of the room. "That would be kind of bad."

"Uhm. Guys?" Lily's head poked up over the head of the couch. "Do we have any spare blankets around? I think the entire day has just been a little much for her..."

Her words had been spoken quietly and in a hush, and as her sisters glanced up, the reason had also become obvious. On the sofa, their little pink-furred visitor seemed to have fallen asleep right where she sat, curled up on her side a little bit like a domesticated pet would, arm tugged under her head as a makeshift pillow.

"Huh," Daisy commented as they regarded the small sleeping fur bundle. "You know, despite the fact that she defeated a Gyarados today, somewhere she is kinda…incredibly cute."

"I know, right?" Lily (impressively) managed to squeak while whispering.

"And," Violet said, suddenly bending forward and reaching out two grasping fingers to lift something, obeying the time-old traditons of anime (and entirely ignoring her sister's panicked 'Violet!' as she did so), and then grinned. "Definitely not a mew!"

xxx

"Hey, uh. Sonic?"

Sonic glanced over his shoulder. The one who had spoken had been Ash, the human boy now also looking at him somewhat awkwardly. They were all walking along a wide, well-trodden dirt road – so far, cemented roads seemed to be a bit of a rarity in the Pokémon world – that had been steadily leading out of the village where Proessor Oak's lab had been situated. By now it was meandering its way through the fields toward a large forest. At Ash's address, Sonic angled an attentive ear toward him and gave him a nod.

"Yeah?"

"I just..." Ash hesitated a bit. "I just wanted to say I'm really sorry. For trying to catch you as a Pokémon."

"Eh, like I said, I'm over it. 's long as you don't try it again, that is," Sonic gave the boy a pointed look, which Ash returned with an embarrassed chuckle.

"Yeah, no, I won't. And as long as you guys stay with us, no other trainer will try to capture you, either – well, not unless they're Team Rocket, anyway..."

"Team who?" Sonic wanted to ask, but was interrupted by Tails' outcry of -

"Wait, we're gonna go through there?!" The two-tail was staring at the forest ahead of them in terror.

"Well, yeah, Viridian city is straight behind i-" Brock began, but the little fox had already crossed his arms.

"Nuh-huh. 'm not gonna go back in there. Everything living in that forest is nuts, Sonic."

"That where the, uh, fox-eating caterpillars attacked you, huh?" The hedgehog asked, trying not to let the edges of his mouth twitch as much. Tails began to scowl.

"Not funny, Sonic! They could eat us all alive!"

"Hm. Usually, wild Pokémon will only jump out at you if you venture into the tall grass, though," Misty said, thoughtfully. "Around here, literally everyone knows that. Did you go into the tall grass, Tails?"

"There was nothing but tall grass!"

"Well, this time let's take care to stay on the path, okay? If we do that, we should be fine," Brock said soothingly. Tails turned his nose up.

"Fine. But when the insects come this time, I'll fly away and watch you get eaten."

"We could use some repel?" Ash suggested, but Misty cut him off.

"Yeah, no. That stuff is crazy expensive and you still haven't paid me back for my bike-"

" - not that bike again-"

"- and anyway, we'll be able to deal with some stupid caterpies. Let's go."

"...her bike?" Sonic ventured as they had entered the forest soon after (Tails sticking as close as he could to the tallest human, Brock, and turning his head often enough that he started looking like a fox-eared radar tower). Ash groaned.

"Part of my worst day ever. I totalled her bike on the very first day I set out to become a Pokémon Master and she hasn't let up on it since."

"Girl who knows how to collect debts, huh? I know a bat like that," Sonic remarked. "What's a 'Pokémon Master'?"

"Oh, well, only the best Pokémon trainer in the entire world!" Ash's eyes had lit up with wide enthusiasm. "And I want to be the very best!"

"Don't be so loud!" Tails shushed warningly, letting them all flinch. "The insects will hear us!"

"Uhm, Tails, I promise you it's really safe if you stay on the paths," Brock tried with a reassuring smile. "I was scared of wild Pokémon, too, when I was smaller, but really, they won't attack if you don't stray from the path."

"Oh yeah?" Tails pointed to a large gash hacked into the underbrush cutting straight across the forest path. There where three sets of widely spaced apart shoe prints (and one set of cat prints) on the muddy ground visible, much like a small group had been running for their lives through this very forest last night, pursued by something terrible.

Brock was silent for a moment.

Then:

"Okay, tell you what, I'll carry you, and the moment you see something, you shout and we run like hell."

"Right."

While this was going on in the back of their group, Sonic was more concerned with what his new friend had just said.

"'Become the very best'? So, er, like the strongest, or...?"

Ash shrugged. "It's a combination of things, really. It's about training hard every day so you and your Pokémon become stronger, sure, but it's also about learning more about them and yourself and developing a bond with them. Isn't that right, Pikachu?" he smiled, patting the little yellow Pokémon riding on his shoulder (much like Tails, who was currently straddling Brock's neck) on the head. It gave a pleased, keening 'chuuu'-noise and rubbed its head against his palm, ears twitching.

"Huh." Sonic blinked at the display. He had to admit, the way the little mouse thing appeared to like Ash seemed to lend truth to the boy's words, but he still hadn't forgotten how, when he had sent it to battle him, it hadn't been his life on the line, the human himself staying safely behind on the edge of the clearing, and only having got hurt by accident.

"Other than that, we travel around, learn about new Pokémon, and help out where we can," Ash informed him cheerfully. "And when I'm good enough I want to enter the next big Pokémon tournament."

Right, tournaments, Oak mentioned that. Banana league or something...

"Helping people out?" Sonic asked instead, since that sounded more interesting (and more sympathetic) than yet more stories about the Pokémon battling for their humans. He did wonder how much of that was bragging, though, or how much work Ash and his friends actually put into that and how much they let their Pokémon do.

"Oh. Yeah," To his surprise, the boy then actually looked more embarrassed by Sonic's inquiry than self-satisfied. "I mean, we just do what we can if we see someone has a problem. Like anybody would. I mean, most people are really nice around here, not doing everything you can in return would be rude."

"Right," Sonic replied, a bit hesitantly. Ash did sound like a good kid, at least...and he and his friends were currently helping him out with that police report, too. After he tried to electrocute me, anyway, a voice in Sonic's head added, but then, any further pondering about Ash and his friends was cut off when the forest in front of them ended and they stepped out to the edges of what looked indeed like a bigger city than pallet town had been. Asphalt roads from all sides lead into what appeared like a lively town centre, filled with high rise buildings, shopping windows and hotels, all of it not actually looking that much different from Station Square or Westopolis. Next to the edge of the forest, a large sign proclaimed 'Viridian City – City of Evergreen'.

"Whew, we made it! Back in civilization!" Misty smiled. "Let's head to the police station. Sonic, Tails, it might be best if you leave most of the talking to us, otherwise it could take twice as long...just give us a description of your friends first as best as you can?"

The descriptions took a while (although – or maybe because - Tails 'helped' somewhat by also drawing pictures of Knuckles, Amy and Shadow) but at least all three of Ash, Misty and Brock seemed to have an idea of what they were going to file a report for when they walked into the station. Sonic (who had no interest in dealing with any paperwork whatsoever anyway) gladly flung himself into one of the waiting area couch chairs against the back wall as Ash and Misty went to stand in line for the police counter. Brock, on the other hand, seemed to have entered a strange trance the moment they had set foot into the station, but, as Ash and Misty had informed them, that was apparently a very normal event.

However, while he and Tails did indeed attract a few curious looks from the blue-haired officers (who all for some reason seemed to a) be women and b) look exactly alike) none of them at least seemed to think them especially odd, which Sonic suspected would last as long as they didn't speak up.

Well. I'm gonna have to start talking to them eventually, but maybe not when it isn't necessary, Sonic thought, giving a small yawn. An idea occurred to him, and he blinked, right before pulling out the translator on the wrist strap from underneath his glove, and pressing its power button, turning it off. Immediately, the murmur of human voices around them became incomprehensible, but Sonic actually found it a welcome rest.

"Hey Tails?" he called over, attracting the attention from the fox kit, who had been busily studying the 'wanted' posters on the wall. "I switched off the translator for a moment, we can talk without them all freaking out because we're speaking their language."

"Yeah, I noticed. I was reading the posters and suddenly the letters became gibberish," Tails pointed out. "I think the translator lets us understand written text, too."

"Huh. Cool," Sonic commented, joining his brother before the posters. "Anyway, I was wondering...what do you think of them? Ash, Misty and the others?"

"Hm. They seem nice?" Tails suggested. "Only I think Brock is currently kind of stalking one of the police officers and I hope we won't get arrested for that. Can you turn the translator back on so we'd know if they try to throw us in jail, Sonic?"

"Uh. Sure," Sonic said (also throwing a glance at the darker-skinned boy who indeed somehow seemed to be floating along behind one of the police officers with starry eyes). "Let's check how Ash and Misty are doing – I hope this is done soon and no one else of us has gotten in trouble already..."

xxx

Shadow groaned as he lifted his head. Something had gone terribly wrong.

They had been in the Doctor's lab, he could recall, and then that faker of a hedgehog (and his even more chaotic friends) had destroyed the human's machinery, and there had been an uncontained, unfocused Chaos Control with absolutely unlimited power…

He shook his head, trying to clear his mind, ignoring the pain in his body that he wasn't even sure where it came from. Skin stretched underneath charred fur as if he had been burned and for a moment there were images in his head, of bizarre monsters and humans, yelling and roaring…Shadow gasped, clutching at his head as he tried to banish those nightmare images. He wasn't going insane. He wasn't.

He could distinguish fake memories from reality.

He had to believe in that.

Drawing a couple deep, calming breaths, forcing his heart to stop beating quite so fast and his mind to stop spinning, Shadow finally drew himself up on his knees. And then looked around his surroundings and stared.

Stared right at the space outside the large window in front of him, the starlight of an endless universe falling into and illuminating the silent, empty room he was lying in.

The room he had been standing in with Maria more than fifty years ago, aboard the space colony ARK.

"…no," Shadow whispered.

xxx

"...but they're probably totally fine!" Sonic grinned, giving his worried kid brother a thumbs-up.

xxx

To be continued...

Well, well, happy second advent to everybody! Hope you liked and if you read, please review! :)