On an island in the heavens, Knuckles the Echidna watches over the Master Emerald. He takes a break to stretch his legs, but suspects that something is coming to the island fast.
Deep in space, the spirit of the Dark King feels reminded of a time long past, where he and the Elemental Overlord weren't at each other's throats.
Joe Dark has barely any interest in his reminiscing and demands to know if he's certain of where the Chaos Emeralds are.
The Dark King has plenty of knowledge of all the worlds and what are contained within them, even after all this time.
Joe Dark is baffled that the Chaos Emeralds appear to be on Earth, but as the Dark King points out, there are multiple Earths out there.
He directs Joe Dark to Angel Island with confidence and lucky for them, the seven Chaos Emeralds are gathered around the Master Emerald.
Joe Dark stands atop the Master Emerald and prepares to draw in the negative energy from the Chaos Emeralds...Only for nothing to happen.
The Dark King is baffled, Joe Dark is enraged, feeling like he wasted his time. The Dark King silences him with a threat, and notes that he can feel an abnormal darkness nearby.
Blowing down a secret entrance to a cave, Joe Dark comes across the Scepter of Darkness. The Dark King notes that its existence is a temporal anomaly, but nevertheless it works to their advantage.
Joe Dark absorbs the power of Mephiles the Dark, and the Dark King effortlessly destroys his conscious. Now, feeling renewed, Joe Dark is about ready to leave the planet when he's ambushed by Knuckles.
Joe Dark then decides this is the best time to test out his new power.
Knuckles put up a good fight but Joe Dark's dripping with darkness and raw confidence, allowing him to quickly get the upper hand over the Echidna's ridiculous strength.
When he appears ready to deal the fighting blow Joe Dark is interrupted by the sudden appearance of Sonic the Hedgehog. Joe Dark smiles as he recognizes the hedgehog through the Dark King's powers. Sonic is honored in too, though playfully mocks Joe Dark for coming in unannounced without introducing himself.
Joe Dark gives no introduction and decides to attack this slow and pathetic creature. Sonic quickly goes Super through the Chaos Emeralds and gives Joe Dark a brief thrashing, taunting him that he's the only slow one here.
The Dark King advises Joe Dark to transform into a new state with the darkness they've gotten up until now. Joe Dark does so, becoming a monstrous four-legged beast with a bleeding eye at the front of its head.
Before he can attack, however, he's struck by a Chaos Spear from Shadow the Hedgehog.
Shadow immediately goes Super and starts coordinated attacks with Sonic to get the advantage over Joe Dark momentarily. But Joe Dark soon becomes accustomed to his new power and starts knocking the super hedgehogs around.
Shadow goes mad and loosens his inhibitor rings, combining them with negative Chaos energy to unleash a powerful Chaos Blast.
Joe Dark survives and crushes Shadow underfoot, taunting him with such a frightening tone that it briefly forces Shadow to remember Mephiles.
Joe Dark then knocks the two hedgehogs away, seemingly killing them.
However, suddenly the Chaos Emeralds flush with light, growing in size to become Super Emeralds. Sonic and Shadow rise in their Hyper Forms, then use Chaos Control to combine together into Hyper Shadic, daring Joe Dark to try and beat him now.
Hyper Shadic manages to toss Joe Dark around with barely any effort on his end, leading to Joe Dark getting so furious he plans to wipe out Shadic along with the entire planet.
Despite all heedings from the Dark King not to engage in this fight any longer, Joe Dark commits to Shadic's end with all his might.
But with the power of the rings and the hopes of all his friends, Shadic manages to push back Joe Dark's strongest attack and send him hurtling into the moon.
Shortly after being rendered unconscious, Joe Dark awakens feeling the agony of defeat yet again. He can barely stand, and perhaps he shouldn't even bother.
He's tired of going after Whiter only for unforeseen elements to keep getting in his way. The Dark King laughs at him giving up so easily NOW of all times, and tries to force him to stand and keep fighting.
Their little internal struggle is suddenly interrupted by the appearance of Chaos Alex. Joe Dark presumes he's the real Whiter until the copy suddenly uses darkness, which Whiter couldn't.
Joe Dark questions this copy on who they are and how they got here. The Dark King, however, knows the truth, and confirms Cackletta's hand in this copy's creation.
The Dark King also suspects that Chaos Alex was reborn from Joe Dark's revival, somehow.
After learning of this Joe Dark finds out Chaos Alex's purpose and, though perturbed by the scope, thinks that if he can make this copy learn to break away from the omnicide and think for himself, he'll have a good ally against Whiter.
So Joe Dark forces the copy to question his purpose and stand here on the moon until he can decide what he wants to do most in life, free of his "mother's" influence.
Meanwhile, Joe Dark flies off to seek out Whiter for the time being. And with his departure, Chaos Alex stands there, developing a sense of free will, slowly but surely...
A couple months later, we find Mew traveling through space. He has decided to leave Earth behind for now to go help out other worlds in need and fulfill some of his Elemental Overlord duties.
As he stops by one planet to refuel his stomach he has a run in with Joe Dark. Joe Dark almost mistakes him for Whiter but Mew doesn't know who he is at all.
The Dark King theorizes that perhaps Mew IS Alex, just with amnesia, an idea Joe Dark buys into when Mew has a "fight or flight" response to the Dark King's spirit.
Joe Dark decides to attack anyways, given how few people could possibly control the elements. Mew fights back, but barely manages to stand toe-to-toe with Joe Dark.
Joe Dark continually calls him a faker, much to Mew's confusion. The relentless mockery manages to make Mew break a little bit, dislodging his lost memories of Light Form in the process.
As Joe Dark prepares to finish him off, Mew activates Light Form and turns the tides.
For a time, because unbeknownst to Mew, Joe Dark is able to transform into a Phantom Beast state to become even stronger. Now, not even the power of Light is enough to save him.
Mew starts getting frustrated, leading to him hearing a voice in his head urging him to get angry.
As Joe Dark hammers him on with taunts about being a clone, Mew snaps, becoming overwhelmed by a powerful darkness as he loses control of his body.
The possessor bends at the knee towards Joe Dark, recognizing the Dark King inside of him as his "liege".
The Dark King refers to him as "D.", his former second-in-command, stating that any respect the demon gives cannot be trusted. His whole existence is a mockery, and he loves only to relish in the despair and destruction of others.
Joe Dark is advised to try and get on his good side, suggesting that showing fear shall only get them both killed.
However, "D." grins and immediately stabs his claw through the Dark King's ethereal body, remarking that just because he's not a spirit at the moment...Does not mean he cannot make a ghost bleed.
He obliterates the Dark King's spirit without hesitation and laughs at the frightened Joe Dark, saying he's next.
As "D." blissfully tears Joe Dark to shreds, Mew struggles on the inside to contain him, using the power of Light Form to create barriers that'll wall the demon on from attaining full possession.
But "D." laughs at his wasted efforts, for he shall always hold the trump card to breaking through the barriers.
Mew regains control of his body for now, but Joe Dark is in a very beaten state. Its hard to believe that he'll survive.
Shaken by this turn of events, Mew retreats to his Earth in shame.
However, in doing so, he leaves Joe Dark's body behind to me picked up by a strange spaceship.
Not long afterwards, Joe Dark wakes up inside of a pod, his wounds all patched up.
He breaks free and is immediately accosted by a towering man who calls himself Gravitus.
Gravitus offers an allegiance between the two of them, recognizing him as the new Dark King. But Joe Dark, tired of being a puppet to higher powers, tricks Gravitus into accepting a handshake only to then quickly grab and squeeze his neck off.
Freed of the Dark King's spirit and feeling stronger than ever, Joe Dark escapes the ship and rockets off into space to find the real Whiter.
Meanwhile, however, Gravitus' head rolls over, and he laughs, saying this has all gone according to plan.
Many more months pass on by with Mew now back at home, isolating himself from the rest of the world because of "D." stuck inside his head.
He takes up calming exercises and the like to keep his mind off the demon but one thing sticks in his head like glue...
He still wants to help other worlds. But now with concerns swelling that "D." could possess him at any time and kill entire worlds, Mew knows he can't go out anymore.
But he comes up with a great idea. Utilizing his knowledge of the past, he remembers he can make a clone of himself. And this clone won't be possessed by "D." to boot.
So he makes a clone of himself with slightly different colored hair and eyes and gives it a blank personality so it can develop all on its own.
He briefly brings them into his house to give them their own set a clothes and then a new name. The new clone is very inquisitive, since his mind is about as empty as the sky.
This comparison gives Mew the idea to name the clone "Riku"...Even though Riku doesn't mean "Sky". Whoops!
Mew then tells Riku what he wants him to do and Riku really doesn't have much of a will to disagree with the idea at the moment.
Riku then flies off, leaving his brother behind to defend the Earth, where he feels comfortable.
"D." taunts him for this plan being a waste, but Mew disagrees. If nothing else, Riku has the potential to become stronger than him, and hopefully, if worse comes to worse, Riku will be able to put him down should "D." possess him...
Thus Riku heads off to space, for the beginning of a long but eventful journey that'll decide the fate of many, many worlds.
Part 4 Prologue END