First, I just want to say thank you to everyone who's read this, reviewed this, and favorited this. This story is only beginning, and I'm excited to start this journey with you. in fact, here are some responses to some reviews...

Shian1998: Thank you! The idea of them being in "Potluck" coming back in this in some way...maybe!

DoctorWhatTheHeck41: Thank you very much! It's fine that you skipped "Darknight Universe." In fact, if you think about it, this being an anthology series of crossovers is like something such as "American Horror Story;" you can read the ones you want and skip the ones you don't like or don't know. And trust me, this is going to be one you'll like!

So anyways, let's start the chapter!

Chapter Two

Never Vibe a Chaos Emerald

Morning swept over the large valley, covered with trees and jagged rock structures all around, at a riveting pace. Soon, the sunlight had rushed up a tall, marble-colored structure and made its way to the top. Directly in the middle of said structure's peak was a towering crown jewel; a literal diamond the size of a car, green in color and extremely radiant. It was so voluptuous in sight, some might've felt compelled to take it for themselves. Luckily, there was one thing standing in the way of that.

The guardian in question stood in front of it, solitary and with his red arms folded. Roughly four feet tall, Knuckles the Echidna had red skin, spiky hair and two spiked fists that looked like they were itching to rip through something. This particular morning was the same for him as any other; he breathed, huffed, and guarded the Master Emerald with his very life. Anyone who would do it harm or steal it for evil means would face his wrath.

Yet there was a sudden glow from the emerald itself. It took some seconds for him to register the radiance permeating on his back. When he caught onto the brightness, the echidna gasped and darted right up to its' green surface. Putting his gloved hands on the jewel, he closed his eyes in an attempt to discern what it was blinking about.

"Master Emerald…what are you trying to tell me?" He asked slowly.

The Emerald glowed brighter, sending a myriad of images into his head. People in spandex ran off, just as or faster than Sonic. Wait…that didn't make sense. But as his thoughts became jumbled, that got to be a repeated cliché in of itself. Buildings like City Square with people and odd eggs in the middle. Explosions. Robots built by…Eggman? And to cap it off, he foresaw a horrifying sight; a defeated hero laying on the ground, dea-

Knuckles broke from the concentration and looked upwards, sweating from his vision. He shook it off and darted down the steps, panic flooding his mind. He had to tell someone about it.

For some reason she couldn't hope to explain, Iris was unusually worried for Barry today. The last time she'd been this frantic was when her husband disappeared into the Speed Force for six months. This incident wasn't necessarily as big or dangerous; in fact, it was just the same kind of danger he normally faced on missions. And yet, her gut wouldn't sit right until she was certain it was over.

"Harry," she barked in an unintentionally loud voice, "You hear from the team yet?"

The arrogant Earth-2 scientist rolled his eyes. "I'd like to annunciate that the chatter cut out right when they found something, Iris…But knowing Allen, I'd say it's nothing to worry about.

Not believing in anything, Iris folded her arms. Joe noticed her reluctance and moved to give her some comfort. "Iris, Barry and the others…they've been through worse. They'll be fine."

"I-I know, dad," she replied back, "but I…I'm just worried today for him…I wish I knew why…"

Her ears betrayed the sudden churning behind her, and Iris wheeled around to see a breach parked in front of the entrance to the Cortex. Out of the indigo-colored portal came the four heroes, slightly dusty and disheveled but looking all the better. Once it closed, she soon came to find that their happy-go demeanor has grown sour.

"Barry!" She ran to her husband, ironically not quick enough to respond before she embraced him in a hug. "Are you okay?"

"'Course I am," he replied with a quickly-woven smile. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Iris blushed, backing up a little as she regained herself. "…Yeah, right. Sorry. Just worried a bit."

Cisco scrunched his eyes while taking off his goggles. "Besides surviving an inferno, I really need to vent this suit out. It was just sweltering being out there."

"Then maybe you shouldn't wear so much leather, Ramon," Harry commented.

"Ok, Harry- "

"Hey!" Killer Frost shouted to everyone, getting their attention with both the interruption and an annoyed face. "I don't know about you all, but I've had enough of holding…whatever the heck this is." The green emerald held by her very fingertips, she placed it on the top of the central computer station. "There. Now you can geek out over it."

Joe held a disbelieving gaze while walking closer to the jewel. "That's what caused the fire? This day just gets stranger and stranger."

"Not exactly…" Barry cut him off. "We found the remains of a robot from the blast site where the fire occurred. My guess? Based on the scorch marks and debris metal, somebody deliberately planted a bomb inside so it could explode."

Ralph put a spandex hand up to his chin in thought. "You know, there's always that Trickster guy. What if he planted the bomb?"

"Yeah…wouldn't fit his M.O," Cisco pointed out, all the while circling around to see the emerald for himself. "He's always about clowns and color, not robots."

"Forget the robot," Harry demanded. "What about this emerald? It was, what, just laying around?"

Cisco looked back to Barry and Frost, who shrugged their shoulders, and then to Harry. "Uh…yeah. It kinda' was."

Unconvinced, the scientist laid a finger unto the green jewel, contemplating something. "It's a common scientific fact that emeralds don't have a high density towards being damaged. For one to survive an explosion of this magnitude, not to mention a fire…there's something wrong with it."

"Then let's figure out what's up," Iris stated, snatching the emerald and walking over to the scanners in one of the two smaller rooms on the sides of the Cortex. Just as the others caught up with her, she slid it underneath the station and turned on the machine. Already, results had begun to pile up on a couple of closely-knit computer screens. "Uh…so what do these mean?"

Harry pushed himself past her to get a look at the results, though something seemed wrong on his face. "They're saying…this emerald is absorbing and channeling energy into itself, like some sort of battery. And currently, it's holding…more than enough to power an entire city."

"An entire city?" Ralph's face contorted into a look of skepticism once he heard the information. "This gem sure gives 'mad with power' a new meaning."

"Here's what I don't get." Joe said to the scientists. "So, the bomb was in the robot. That's clear. But someone put an emerald next to the blast zone; an emerald, which, by the way" – he pointed back to the green jewel in the midst of his rant – "can suck energy into itself. And we just happened to find it?"

All Barry could do was give him a humorless smirk. "That's what we know, Joe."

Station Square was a unique place. It wasn't New York City, but it was a bustling metropolis filled to the brim with street vendors, garbage, and rampant crime. People could walk a few blocks and find something excitingly dangerous in their midst. So, if, say, a blue hedgehog sped through town looking for chili dogs, pedestrians treated it as the norm.

Sonic the Hedgehog was in a positive mood today. It was normal for his schtick to be upbeat, but after running along the lake and taking some time to work out, his stomach was growling for something to eat. Then he remembered the Chili Dog Stand on Griffith Ave and bolted to it. The closer he got, the more he imagined his lips munching on a chili dog.

Eventually, he stopped with a small dust cloud on his feet. The hedgehog hero walked up to the food stand, noticing a blue wolf behind the counter. At his entrance, the wolf looked up while gripping his notepad. "Hi, what can I get you?" he asked.

"Well, I think a regular chili dog will do," Sonic said. He dug out a crisp $5 from his pocket and gave it to the cook. "That covers it, right?"

"Sure thing," the wolf breathed back, heading to the back of the food truck with the money in hand. As sounds of grease and food being cooked filled his ears, Sonic turned around to gaze at the rest of the park. It was meant to get him to be patient, but the view was still lovely. He tried dispelling the sounds of fried onions and meat long enough to focus on what he'd planned on doing today. Yet he only drew up blanks, as he hadn't thought that far ahead.

Then his ears picked up on some kind of wind vibration, only to realize it was a sign of someone he knew. A yellow fox with two tails landed next to him, gloved hands and a positive smirk on his face. "Hello there, Sonic," he the fox greeted politely. "Getting a chili dog?"

"You read my mind," Sonic replied back. "Say, you wouldn't happen to have something for that…would you?"

Tails shook his head. At least it was a try. "Not yet. Though there are some things I've been working on lately- "

"Sir?" The wolf at the food stand stood up, a chili dog in his paw wrapped in tin foil. Seeing that his food was complete, Sonic skipped over and gleefully received it. The wolf tipped his hat, giving them a "Have a good day" as they walked off.

The blue-quilled hero opened the chili dog, sniffing the familiar smell and smiling. He took a bite out of his before crunching down. "Dis good stoof," he garbled through bites.

"So, any plans today?" Tails asked, looking around Station Square to find it surprisingly empty. He surmised it must've' been early in the morning for most residents in the area.

"Nooo…" replied Sonic, continuing to chew the Chili Dog, but managing to swallow to talk. "Things've been pretty quiet, especially from Eggman. And I already got a run in this morning, so I'm kind of just chilling."

"Sonic…" Tails grew serious. "If Eggman's not doing anything…maybe he's working on something in the shadows?"

"Eh. Tails, I wouldn't worry," Sonic made a point with. "We've got all this time to relax. Why not- "

"SONIC!"

The two heroes stopped in their tracks. Knuckles the Echidna was bolting straight towards them, angrier than ever and with a dust storm right behind him. To their luck, he went to a halt just before their position and took several breaths in, puffing his chest out to breath. "I…I need your help."

"We figured, Knuckles," Sonic pointed out. "Yelling my name kind of spells it out."

"No, you don't…understand." Knuckles said, standing up. "The Master Emerald…it warned me of something."

"The Master Emerald?" Tails was definitely embroiled in the conversation now. "What'd it tell you?"

"One of the Chaos Emeralds is missing," the echidna deadpanned.

Sonic and Tails' jaws dropped. "That's impossible," the hedgehog retorted. "We divided the emeralds up among us three and the others. Whoever got it stolen from would've pinged us by now…right?"

"It wasn't just any emerald, Sonic," responded Knuckles. "It was yours."

Sonic's face ran white, a look he rarely used only in the direst of situations. "We should check my place…now!" He turned and immediately dashed off, his form degenerating into a poignant blue line. "Meet you there!"

"Wait up, Sonic!" Tails had already begun flying after him, leaving Knuckles to follow in their wake as fast as he could keep up. Passing buildings, intersections, and tons of establishments spread around, they eventually came upon a small green house located on the outskirts of the city. Knuckles ran immediately up to the door, already cracked open, and unlocked it further to get inside. Tails followed up, but by then Sonic was already in his living room, and the seriousness hadn't left him at all.

"My emerald…it's gone," he declared seriously.

"How?" Tails pondered, confounded as well. "How could this had happened?"

"More importantly," said Knuckles, "where?"

The conversation between the heroes at S.T.A.R. Labs was getting nowhere. Harry was still baffled by the incomplete results regarding the emerald, Ralph was being unhelpful, and Joe felt more in the dark than ever. The unproductive session was just about to make Iris' brain pop from the lack of progress…until she got an idea.

"What if we've been looking at this all wrong?" That got the attention of the squabbling scientist.

"What exactly do you mean?" Harry questioned.

"Lab results…they could go either way at this point," Iris stated. "But we do happen to have a more reliable and human way of figuring this thing out…" Slyly, one of her fingers jabbed towards Cisco, though the hint was obvious to him at this point.

"You want me to vibe it? Sure. It'll be easy," he said confidently, walking over to the emerald.

"Just be careful, Cisco," Barry warned. "We don't know if this thing is safe or not."

"C'mon," Cisco said sarcastically. "It's not like this thing is a nuclear bomb." His hands gripped the jewel in a grand motion, then his eyes shut and he attempted to concentrate. The rest of the heroes exchanged looks, somewhat concerned at Cisco's transfixed position and small bits of mumbled dialogue. The motion went on for so long, Barry thought maybe he should end it all. But right when he was about to pull the plug, Cisco screamed. Some kind of force shot him back, slamming into one of the walls and dropping the emerald onto the floor in panic. Caitlyn, who by this time had melted back from her Killer Frost persona, ran over to help her friend.

"Cisco!" She cried in worry. "What's wrong?"

"I-I…it was too much," Cisco cried out, his dialogue stuttered by the paleness on his face. "It was all this random stuff…and then it just overloaded me!" It was then that his eyes enlarged, and Cisco pointed right back at the emerald in horror. "What's happening?"

Barry and Iris, along with the others, turned to gaze at the gem. Where it once had been a green jewel that glittered once or twice, some sort of power now had taken hold over it, and it wasn't letting go. Crackling sparks sizzling over, the green lighting up to yellow and red and every color in the spectrum. Caitlyn put a hand to her mouth in shock at the sight.

"That emeralds become radioactive!" Harry shouted. "Vibing it must've done something to the energy inside!"

"Radioactive?" Ralph replied. "We've got to get this thing out of here – no, out of the city!"

"What if we just breach it?" Joe suggested, looking to help somehow.

"Won't…work," Cisco garbled, trying to get up despite being in a shock.

"He's right," Caitlyn added. "Putting something that volatile through the breach to the multiverse…there's no telling how many earths its' energy could spread to!"

"Then what others options are there? Because that emerald sure isn't getting cooler!" Ralph shouted. True to his word, the emerald had now shone an even lighter color, but with more powerful energy coming from it. "Boss? What do we do?" He asked Iris.

The reporter puts her hands together and tried to think, yet every plan she'd tried before was caput at this point. The pressure, the people depending on her, the volatile gem in their midst…it was all too much, and she couldn't think properly. Why couldn't she just-

"I'll do it." The words of stone, cool power emanated from the mouth of her husband, already suited up and with his mask over his head. Iris' dread returned when she looked to him.

"Barry, no!"

"Iris, this emerald…someone's got to get it to a secluded area!"

"But what about you?" Iris demanded. "I just got you back…again! I don't want to lose you…"

"Allen!" Harry had gripped the gem in one hand, though it was evident from his face that he couldn't hold it much longer. "This emerald is going to go supernova is less than twenty seconds!"

In the brief moment, Barry looked at his wife and smiled. She didn't have any time at all before he gripped her and embraced her in a passionate kiss. And then, equally as fast, he'd snatched the emerald and made off with it into his lightning. Iris screamed his name, just standing there as she realized how much emptier it was without him. Everything seemed to lose sound, but she still saw the rest of the team, shocked or hectic, looking at the tracker on Barry's suit as it sped away. Farther and farther it went from the city, picking up speed and heading towards the Badlands. Just as he had reached the point, a pink shape enveloped his signal and a loud noise seemed to flood through the entire city. Immediately following this, the screen cut to black.

Tears lining her face, Iris collapsed to the floor, sobbing. The rest of Team Flash faded from her line of sight, what with her surroundings only being darkness.

He was gone. Again…

Well, that was pretty dark...but things do get better. Until a week or so, fellow readers!