"This is Scarlet Garcia,-" Boom!-…SSTV News, reporting live with breaking news in the center of Station Square-" Boom! "…-or at least what's left of it!" Said the red haired tv reporter standing on top of a building, with concern in her voice as the image was quivering due to the fear of the person holding the camera and moments when the ground shook under their feet. Her camera man was doing his very best to hold the camera steady, though deep down all he wanted to do was drop everything and run screaming in terror.

Rumble!

"For those of you who are just tuning in, you are witnessing what appears to be the aftermath of a battlefield. Just moments ago, the city was surrounded by Eggman's robots, probably one of Eggman's biggest assaults yet. Hundreds of these robots have already caused extreme damage as they tried to take over our fair city. There are no casualties so far, but many are injured and most of all scared of the worst. The police, along with G.U.N, the S team and few of Sonic's friends have been doing their best to take charge of the situation."

The scene was in total chaos as the sky turned black with thunder and the city was falling into ruins and the wind blow with a harsh force. Yet Scarlet stayed, standing in a strong position so she doesn't fall down. This was a story she refused to miss.

Rumble!

"As for now, there has been a moment of relief as our heroes shut down the last of the robotic army while getting the remaining civilians out of danger." A small group of people were being led by Sam and couple police officers out of a crumbling building to a safer area shown in the background.

Rumble!

"All I can say folks, this does not seem the end of the fight. Most of all, we have not yet seen Eggman or our brave hero, Sonic the Hedgehog. It looks like it is going to take a miracle to stop this crisis. But I will still continue covering this story for as long as we can. This is Scarlet Garcia, SSTV News."


"Hahaah, great job." Eggman laced his fingers together, as he eyed the younger person in front of him. There was a strong feeling of deja vu.

Chris was clutching the 7 Chaos Emeralds within his arms, eyes flickering between the scientist and the morphed hero, back pressed against the cold steel wall of the base. "What do you want Eggman?" His voice echoed the anger and rage that laced the young teens voice.

"You'll see soon young Christopher." The man waggled a finger back and forth. "Now be a good little boy and hand the Emeralds over."

"Fat chance, Egghead."

"Possibility of injury at 90%." Metal said. "Compliant action increases probability this. Please heed the Doctor's wishes."

"No way! I may not know what's going on here but you're never getting them!"

"Such a stubborn boy."


"Is she going to be alright?"

Doctor Greg nods to everyone who was waiting to see the state of Cream, the vet looked weary but had a smile on his face. "She's resting now. "Luckily, that Omega fellow came when he did. His metallic body blocked about 85% of the explosion. Most of her injuries are superficial, outside of broken arm and some burns."

"So the tiny creature shall continue to function." The mentioned robot spoke. "This is favorable."

"Why did you save her?" Ella asked. "Why help?"

"Doctor Eggman is the enemy. Explanation is longer but situation is not favorable. Tiny creature's state more important. Now Doctor is priority."

"Guess that means we'll be saving the Q&A for later then."

"Affirmative. Allies of tiny allowed to assist on mission."


Sonic and the Beast had been at it, for what felt like days upon days. While the Beast was stronger and in better condition, something was keeping him from finishing off the other.

It was the only advantage Sonic had, his speed wasn't much use in this dark mindscape. "Ugh!" Smacking into an invisible wall, he had only a supersonic heart beat to dodge the incoming claws of his opponent.

"You won't be lucky forever! I'll make you submit or get rid of you!"

"Never!"


Chris still refused to hand the gem stones over, the scene extremely similar to another aboard one of Eggman's vessels a few years ago.

"The child is only going to get injured at the rate he's going." Metal Sonic thought silently. "Either I or the Doctor's 'pet' will be ordered to remove the Chaos Emeralds from his grasp. The Doctor's gotten more volatile in a short span of time. Likely conclusion is of second hand exposure to the negative energy emitting from Sonic the Hedgehog. Combined with some stress."

"You have one more chance child." continued the Doctor.

"No!"

"Seems I must calm the situation before things get out of control." The robot went over to Chris and kneeled down.

"W-What do you want?" Chris gripped the emeralds closer to himself.

"You already know, but hand them over quietly for you own sake."

"I already said fat chance!"

The robot mentally sighed, slowly reaching a hand forward to place upon his shoulder. "Young Human Thorndyke, I can assure you that this will end better if you give them to me."

"Eggman wants them just to use them for his schemes!"

"That may be true, but will injury or death help you anymore then clutching the emeralds on the floor?"

Chris hated to admit it, but Metal Sonic was right. He couldn't help Sonic or the others if he wasn't able to do anything. "But he could just hurt me afterwards...it is worth the risk?"

"I promise, Young Human Thorndyke."

Chris looked away whilst giving the emeralds over to Metal Sonic, a defeated sigh escaping him. Was this really the best choice? Could he trust Metal? Did he just single-handedly doom them all? Dozens of questions and fears ran through his mind.

"Thank you." He turns and places them on a table. A grin come to Eggman's face. "Now, was that so hard child?"

Chris glared at the mad scientist and looked away, refusing to say anything. He remained silent and didn't even dare to up at them.


This wasn't going well..or was it..? Sonic couldn't tell anymore as he and the Werehog battled. How long had they been trading blows? Seconds? Minutes?

It felt like years in a endless dance where his opponent was strong but was unable to finish him off. Like a video game boss with replenishing health it seemed. The furious dance continued with him dodging swipes that were inches from his face, just barely keeping himself alive. To think one blow could mean an instant kill...

"Die!" The werehog snarled.

"Why don't you just give up instead?!" Sonic panted, "Make it all easier for us both!"

"That won't ever happen, you know that very well."

"Well it's worth giving you the suggestion." He mumbled he dodged another swipe.

"Sooner or later I will win. You won't be able to fend me off forever."

"Sure, sure. I think I've heard this joke before." At this point, even his one liners were weak.

"Alright. Tough crowd." He tried to land a homing attack on the beast.

Eggman's voice drew the attention of both. "~Be a good boy now and keep an eye on the child for me.~"

"Ugh. Does he still think I'm his lap dog or something?" Sonic asked the beast irritably.

"Well considering our body hasn't moved, I'd figure that." responded the beast.

"That's because you're such a damned pushover for him." Sonic snapped a bit.

"It's not my fault! That damn chaos collar is messing with my instincts."

"Then why is it still attached to us, huh?"

"Can't take it off, moron!"

Sonic was quiet for a moment, "...I guess..."

"If it wasn't for that bloody collar, I would've torn that man apart a while ago!"

"Well...any ideas for what we can do about this-?"

"Interpret his order our own way. . . . Why the heck am I talking to you?" the beast snarled.

Sonic rolled his eyes, "Because obviously fighting day and night isn't doing any good. Well really, think about it for once." The 'hog let out a sigh. He had to do something besides waste his time fighting this thing.

"Ggggrrrr..." Growled the werehog, not wanting to admit that the other one had a point.

He turned around to face it, "Look. You want out and I want out. Why can't we … say, oh I don't know, work together to get out of this mess?"

"Then you and your friends will just get rid of me."

"That's...uh..." He stuttered a bit. That's exactly what they'd do to it.

"So tell me, why would I help you out?"

Sonic glanced off to the side, "For the greater good isn't an answer to you is it?"

"No."

"Well this isn't getting us anywhere faster either."

"Unless you can promise that I'd exist after, I will never lend a claw." the beast said with a growl.

Sonic was quiet, thinking over what the beast had said...

"Look if I promise we won't get rid of you, would you work with me to stop Eggman? I'm not saying you're free to take me over again...maybe we could...co-exist or something? I'm sure if you're like me that being trapped isn't your thing either." the hedgehog replied, bending himself to the beast's want while still showing dominance, though slight.

The beast just gave a short growl before huffing from his nose. "Okay...I agree to your terms..." Still though, he'd rather have full control, but unless he was to be a 'pet' for the rest of their existence, he had to...work together...with his counterpart. Even thinking about it made his tail lash...

"This is a start to a beautiful friendship." Sonic smiled back at him. "So we got to figure out a plan of some sorts. At least work together to not follow 'Lord of the Eggs' orders, maybe add our own spin just to make him mad."

The beast rolled eyes. "Hardly..." He muttered, turning away for a second. And as for the newly dubbed, 'Lord of the Eggs'... Knowing he was likely to regret it, The Beast turned to Sonic. "...What do you have in mind...?" He asked, not being able to think of anything...agreeable...on.

"Have to wait on him for that. But we could work on trying to muscle some control back to us." The hedgehog scratched his chin with a thoughtful gaze.

"That...might be a problem...The collar has some kind of feature where it kicks you out the 'control room' of our body and locks you out from there. It hurts too much to try and fight it off..." He explains, his tail lashing slightly.

"Right...ugh...Eggy isn't making this easy. But do you think that would still work if there was two of us?"

"Hmph, probably..." He replied.


* Credit to gwencarson for the Scarlet scene. (with small edits)
* Big thanks to InvaderNexis and Wafflesbelike-NYANCAT for writing with me
* And to Shadowlover911 who looked over parts of the text to fix errors.

Please as always send in any ideas you may have. They really do help me out. And if anyone drew art for this, let me know. I'd love to see it.