The word brought terror to Cory. It was his number one fear, but also the thing he wanted the most. That thing was, of course, girls.

While espio was away fighting the red robot, Cory had been alone with blaze. That 10 minutes was the longest he's ever experienced. He didn't talk, she didn't want anything to do with him.

Cory cursed in Japanese at the thought of that day. Never again would that happen to him. Never again.

"blaze?" Cory asked.

"what." she snapped.

"how do I get girls?"

"shut up. No one wants to be with you."

Cory looked down and began to cry. His one dream would never come true. He could kill anything using his powers, but he couldn't slay his conscience. That didn't make sense but it still works.

Cory got up, and ran away into the woods, arms trailing behind him. He ran further than he knew he could. Further than the boundaries of space time could leave most. He just left and went into the city.

Cory was overwhelmed with the lights of the city at night. He must have walked miles, even light years just to get here based on how tired he was.

Espio and silver appeared behind him, not even Breaking a sweat.

"why'd you run off, man?" silver said, having regained his catchphrase.

"of course you're out of breath after running 20 yards, you fat loser." espio said, crossing his arms.

Cory looked behind him and saw that they weren't in the woods, they were just in a park and Cory had only run out of the park. Cory sighed, still out of breath.

"what did blaze say, man?" silver asked.

"n-nothing."

Cory began to walk away, not paying attention to where he was going. Silver gave espio a concerned look, espio glared at him, never make eye contact with espio.

Cory opened his eyes eventually, seeing he had wandered into a shopping mall.

Cory cursed in Japanese as he looked around, seeing females everywhere.

"this is just like the last time we went to the mall…" silver said, with worry.

"humph," espio said, crossing his arms.

Suddenly, Chad walked up to them. Chad had 500 girlfriends who lived in his mansion. He also had 20 wives and was filthy rich.

"dudes, I'm going to tell you the secret to dating." Chad said, whipping his hair back, "just be yourself."

Cory had a serious sense of Deja vu. It felt as if this had happened before. Chad then beamed up to his jet and flew away.

"well see you losers." espio walked away.

"Cory, didn't this happen before?" silver asked.

"hmm let me think… no."

"alright then, see anyone you like?"

Cory looked around for a girl, any girl who was in his league. Practically everyone there was below his league, what was he going to do?

"just pick one, I'll be over there." silver walked away, turning into newt.

Cory decided to grace one girl and walked up to her.

"h-hi!" cory shouted.

The girl looked at him with a disgusted look and walked away.

Cory knew she had only done that because she felt unworthy of him. He moved on to another girl.

"um… hi."

She turned to him and looked confused, "uh do I know you?"

"uh uh I wish you uh… knew me," Cory said, trying to flirt.

"what? Who are you?"

"I'm Cory i-in the house.. "

"wait, you're that guy from before who I told to get lost. You aren't 6'2" so you arent worthy of any girl." with that she walked away, leaving Cory disheartened.

He decided to check on the others to see if they were doing any better than him. Not that they were better than him. He chucked to himself as he thought this.

He walked up to espio, who was standing against a wall with his arms crossed.

"what in Tarantino are you doing, espio?" the fat boy asked.

"standing, I let the girls come to me." espio said, scowling.

"is it working?"

"it would be working if you weren't here."

Cory sighed and walked over to silver, who was sitting down at a table in the food court.

"how is your quest for girls going?" Cory asked him as he sat down.

"hmm, not so good. I'm using the newt tactic, man."

"whats that?"

"basically I stare at a girl until we make eye contact, then sometimes I maintain it and sometimes I quickly look away, man."

"hmm maybe I'll try that."

Cory started staring at a qt who was sitting alone. It took a few minutes, but she looked at him eventually. Cory held the eye contact as she got a disgusted look on her face and pulled out her phone, quickly dialing something.

"hey, I think mine is calling her dad to see if she can date me!" Cory exclaimed.

"wow, good job, man."

A few minutes later, a cop walked up to Cory and handcuffed him.

"sir, you're under arrest for stalking that girl." the cop said.

"dont worry, she's into it."

"she called me."

Cory felt betrayed, his heart broke in two as he walked away with the cop. They traveled in a police car many miles into the city. Cory looked out his window at the many people. All of them he had let down. All of them he had failed. Cory thought hard what he should do next, but couldn't think of anything.

"you're going to be behind bars for a long time, kiddo," the cop said.

"B-but I need to save the world from Hitler."

"haha like you could do anything to stop him."

Cory took our his Fedora and closed his eyes, "no, I cannot go to jail. I need to save the world."

"kid, what are you doing?"

"THIS IS WHO I AM." Cory screamed as he went into his seppuku form.

The lid of the car fell off as he rose out of it. He jumped away, landing on the lid and rode down an incline on top of it through the city.

"this is it. I need to go. I need to escape from the city." Cory said loudly as he slide down the inclines toward the park. He landed in front of the others, who had regrouped there.

"guys, we need to escape from the city. The cops are after me."

"finally we'll be free from him." espio commented.

Cory grabbed everyone and used his chaos emerald to teleport them away. Miraculously it worked. The emeralds were now fully charged again and could be used to progress the mission.

Cory opened his eyes, realizing they were in the middle of a desert. Across the plain sat a city. Then it hit Cory, they were near Vegas.

Chapter 18: six emeralds in hand

They walked day and night, going toward the city. They needed to get to Vegas. The pyramid of Vegas held the key to the sixth chaos emerald. So far, they had 4 emeralds, one being taken by the bus driver.

The sixth emerald was fabled to have power over gravity.

"ah, Vegas. This is the where everything happens." silver said. Blaze rolled her eyes.

"I've been here before." Michael said timidly.

"shut up guys I'm trying to find the emerald." Cory shouted.

"we shouldve gotten transportation before going on this quest or whatever." espio complained.

"we do need transportation when we can teleport?" Cory asked.

"well, why arent we teleporting then?" espio said, crossing his arms.

"I love it when you get all angry," blaze said.

"shut up, cat."

Blaze shut up. Cory didn't have an answer to espio. He didn't want to use the emerald.

They walked toward the pyramid as they entered Vegas. The world around them shone with neon lights. Casinos appeared everywhere they walked. The walked right into the pyramid, Cory went to the desk.

"where is the chaos emerald?" Cory asked the clerk.

The clerk was looking down,he started chuckling, "wouldn't you like to know."

With that he threw off his clothes and revealed his red armor underneath. It was zero!

"you again? Why are you behind the desk?" espio asked.

"heh, waiting for the right moment to strike and grab the emerald. Pharoah Aikman ra doesn't let anyone near it."

"pharoah?" Cory asked.

"yeah, it's Egypt themed down to the nose. They even have slaves."

Cory glanced over and saw people in shackles carrying people's luggage.

"team up with us, zero." Cory said.

"sorry, I don't team up with maverick sympathizers."

"we are not working for Hitler!" espio said.

"can't ever be sure who someone really is, can you, shadow?"

Espio glared at him, "let's go grab the emerald."

"i wouldn't try that. He's got the power of the gods." zero stated.

Espio rolled his eyes and walked toward the temple area. Inside sat Aikman ra on his throne. Behind him sat the chaos emerald.

Espio snuck along the wall and went toward the emerald undetected. As he neared it, Cory shouted, "what do you want us to do?"

Espio rolled his eyes as the Pharoah turned around and forced him to the ground. He made the rest of them float in mid air.

"kekekekeke, what do we have here? Trying to 'nap my emer'ld eh? I should throw you in the scrarab pit." he said.

"nice going, Cory." espio said.

"give me one reason why you lot should get ma emer'ld."

"we need it to stop Hitler." Cory said.

"kekekekeke, stopping Hitler is a waste of time. He has infin'te strength."

"b-but."

"you shouldve thought of that before you tried to steal my emer'ld. Kekekekeke…" with that he jumped out of his chair and pulled out a sword. The gravity turned upside down, causing everyone to fall to the ceiling. The world around Cory faded as he hit his head on the hard cieling.

Espio threw his shurikens at the king, but they fell straight to the ground, effected by gravity. Projectiles would not work here.

Silver tried to fly off the ground, but the force of the gravity was too much, and he fell down. Michael jumped into action, hitting the king with his magic dance moves. The Pharoah grunted and forced Michael away, toward the lobby.

It was looking like an uphill battle, not even blazes fire could do anything. The Pharoah shouted in Egyptian and flew toward espio, sword out. Suddenly, he was slashed away by a green blur. Zero had hit him!

Zero dashed into the room, jumping off the wall and slashing the Pharoah. He grunted and turned to zero.

"puny human, you have no place in this world. Go back."

"i am not a human. Reeeeee!" zero screamed as he slashed the pharoah twenty six times, ending with a slash cutting him in half. The Pharoah exploded, leaving the emerald in its wake.

Espio grabbed the emerald quickly and used it to make zero float.

"ugh… why?"

"we need this stupid emerald to defeat Hitler, so stop." espio replied.

"fine, but remember, I'll be behind every corner. Regards." with that, he teleported away.

"how do you know him, espio?" Cory asked, regaining consciousness.

"shut up,"espio said as he walked away. They now had 5 emeralds. The last two would likely be the hardest to find of all. Or maybe a protagonist that rarely shows up holds it, who knows, but Hitler still has one of the emeralds, so that's going to be a challenge.