Chapter 22

Josh's eyes fluttered open. He was greeted by the sound of birds chirping in the trees. He shut his eyes once more, taking a moment to listen to the melodious sound. Josh sat up and yawned, as Sonic's hand fell off his shoulder. Josh quickly grabbed it as it fell and gently laid it beside his brother's head.

"...Am I lucky or what?" Josh thought to himself. "I have the best brother in the world...er, worlds." Josh tilted his head as he realized there were indeed two worlds he's visited... and possibly many more. "I have two homes now I guess, here on Mobius with Sonic, and back on Earth with..." Josh's thoughts turned to his younger brother. Josh felt a pang of sadness enter his heart, as he realized how much he still missed his younger brother. Josh slowly climbed down from the tree and began to pace around. He realized how much he missed hearing from Jacob.

His annoying, sometimes repetitive stories.

The sound of him practicing his tuba for school, even though they both knew he could play guitar much better.

His loud and cheerful laugh.

Josh felt a small tear on his chin. He quickly wiped his eyes and took a deep breath.

"I'm coming buddy. As soon as I can!" Josh said to the sky, hoping Jacob could somehow hear him.

"You still haven't used the Emerald to check on him you know." Sonic said from behind him. Josh turned and looked at the hedgehog, who was stretching out his legs.

"Yeah... I'm going to right now." Josh held his hand over his ring and summoned the red emerald. "...Do you want to see him?" Sonic smiled.

"Sure, why not?" He said, walking over. "Give me a chance to see a how Blaze is doing."

"You got a thing for her?" Josh asked.

"Nah, we're just good friends." Sonic replied

"Sure you are." Josh teased. Sonic gave him a playful punch on the shoulder, before placing a hand on Josh's hand containing the Emerald. Josh closed his eyes. "Show us my brother."

…...

Josh and Sonic opened their eyes. They were once again floating over the scene. Jacob was admiring a yellow gem in his hand. His tail swished back and forth in wonder and curiosity.

"He's beating us..." Josh thought to himself. "Unless we step it up, he's going to find his Emeralds first..."

Blaze walked up to Jacob and put an arm around him.

"It looks good!" She said, admiring the gem. "Almost exactly like the real thing!"

"Why do they have a decoy?" Sonic asked. Josh shrugged.

"The Spirits know what they're doing." Jacob replied. "Let's just hope this works..."

"Well, it's one of Silver's ideas so... 50/50 chance." Blaze said, laughing softly.

"And this helps me feel more confident how?" Jacob asked, smiling. Blaze shrugged and tossed the decoy back to Jacob. "...After this, we only have three to go." Jacob said quietly. "Then I can see Josh again." Josh was happy to know that Jacob was thinking about him too.

"...Jake, are you... happy? You know, with me adopting you and everything." Blaze asked. "You can always go live with Josh and Sonic, I'll understand if you do."

"Are you kidding?" Jacob hugged Blaze. "Sonic may be cool and all, but I don't know him like I know you." Blaze smiled and hugged him back. "Plus, you've taken good care of me this far, why would I go live with a complete stranger?" Blaze chuckled and kissed the top of his head. She finally pulled away.

"Come on, let's finish this up. After this, we only have three left!" Blaze said. Jacob smiled, his ears lifting in excitement. The two walked off in search of Silver.

…...

Josh and Sonic's eyes snapped open.

"Well... that was short." Josh said, a bit surprised.

"Guess there wasn't much to show." Sonic shrugged.

"Does it bug you that Jacob likes Blaze over you?" Josh asked, tilting his head and smiling a bit.

"Maybe." Sonic said with mock indignation. He smiled and shook his head.

"Quiet down..." A voice grumbled. Knuckles was still asleep at the base of a tree. Sonic rolled his eyes.

Josh's stomach growled loudly.

"Sonic..." Josh said, looking down at his gut. "...Do you think there's something inside of me? Like something living?" Sonic made a gross face.

"Yeah, I betcha it's an alien wanting to bust out!" Sonic shook his head. "You just get really hungry bud, trust me, you're fine." Sonic started to walk towards a small grove of trees. "Let's find some food, I'm sure there's something we can pick out here."

…...

Hello! Uh, this is... what entry is this, six I think? No, five! That's right. It's getting harder to keep track, and I don't know if that's a good thing. Eh, whatever, I don't care too much. I've never been that orderly anyways.

Anywho, this little segment of the Great Emerald Hunt as I've been calling it has actually been really fun! Not like the last two, this one was just pure fun and adrenaline! Let me explain, from the beginning.

So we were running, as usual, to try and find the Dark Blue Emerald...

"We should be getting close guys!" I yelled over the wind. Sonic had a firm grasp on my hand, and I was doing my best to stay upright, as usual. Knuckles ran alongside me and Sonic.

"How close?" Knuckles yelled back.

"Um... maybe less than an hour?" I guesstimated. "I've said this before, this thing doesn't tell me distance!"

"Right." Knuckles nodded. "Forgot about that."

I quickly noticed that I was running evenly with Sonic as he started to slow down. I looked at him with confusion.

"What?" I asked him. Knuckles stopped and looked where Sonic was looking.

"Josh... you ever been to the beach?" Knuckles was staring off in the distance, and he smiled.

"Uh... once, when I was really little, with my parents." I looked over to where they were looking. We were right next to a beautiful, and apparently little-known beach, that seemed to stretch on for miles. The forest we had been previously running through must have blocked the view.

"What do you think? A little break sound good?" Knuckles asked, looking at me. I smiled.

"A little break sound very good! Josh likey!" I said, taking off. Sonic and Knuckles ran after me. Then I quickly stopped. I remembered that Sonic didn't like the water... like, at all. I snuck a quick look at Sonic, who looked a bit wide-eyed.

"I don't have anything to swim in." I said, coming up with an excuse.

"Do you need something to swim in?" Knuckles asked.

"Well I can't exactly jump right in with my clothes on!" I replied. "Unless these are waterproof as well as odor-proof." I looked at Sonic and shot him a small smile.

"Good point..." Sonic said slowly, realizing what I was doing.

Upon closer inspection of the beach, we noticed small white ruins sticking out of the ground, with red lines around the borders of them. The whole place looked very familiar.

"...This is Seaside Hill." Knuckles said, looking around.

"Haven't been here in a while." Sonic said, looking a bit nervously at the water.

"Let's take a break later, maybe when we find a town or city, some place I can buy a bathing suit." I said to Knuckles. He shrugged.

"Whatever you say. Which way?" He asked. I held my ring out.

"Uh... that way!" I said, pointing. Knuckles dashed off, keeping an eye out for a city. Sonic waited until Knuckles was out of earshot.

"Thanks bro." Sonic said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Dude, why are you so afraid of water?" I asked, looking at Sonic concerned.

"It's not that I'm afraid... I just can't swim." Sonic said sheepishly.

"Didn't you learn?" I asked.

"No, hedgehogs can't swim." Sonic said matter of factly.

"...Yes they can." I replied.

"No, they can't." Sonic said back.

"Yes, they can!" I said. "I've seen them back home! Plus, you're more anthro than hedgehog, if I can swim, so can you!"

"...I dunno..." Sonic said nervously. I put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'll teach you man. You have nothing to worry about." I said calmingly. Sonic gave me a small smile.

"Come on, Knucklehead's probably wondering where we are." Sonic grabbed my hand and sped off.

…...

"Sonic, when was this here?" Knuckles asked, dumbfounded.

"I don't know... this is new!" Sonic replied, equally dumbfounded.

"Wow..." I gasped.

We stood on the border of a large city, built right onto the beach. Palm trees littered the white cobblestone streets, as every sort of shop lined the busy sidewalks. Tanned Mobians walked, talking with their friends, going shopping, or heading to the beach to surf or relax.

"This is like some kinda cape town." I said, taking a few steps forward.

"Sonic! Oyé, Sonic!" We heard a thick Spanish accent behind. We turned to see a sombrero wearing monkey running towards us. I recognized him almost immediately.

"Is that Amigo?" I asked Sonic.

"You know him in your world too?" Sonic asked.

"He's only the main character of my favorite music game of all time!" I said quietly as Amigo approached so as not to freak the monkey out.

"Sonic! Long time no see eh?" Amigo said excitedly.

"No doubt!" Sonic high-fived the excited monkey.

"Who's your friend?" Amigo asked, looking at me.

"I'm his adopted brother, Josh." I said, shaking his hand. "I'm a big fan of your music Amigo!"

"You've heard of me!" Amigo sounded impressed.

"Yeah, I listen to you all the time. I love Samba de Jainero!" I said, gushing a bit. "Funny, I didn't know you knew Sonic."

"We've met a couple of times." Sonic said. "He's come up here to North Mobius, and I've gone down to visit him in Sambadalo."

"Sambadalo's a continent, right?" I asked a bit quietly. Amigo laughed.

"Si, it's right below North Mobius." Amigo explained. "Have you been paying attention in geography?"

"Ah, always fall asleep in that class." I said, covering up for my naivity.

"What are you doing here Amigo?" Knuckles asked. Amigo turned.

"Hey Knux! I'm here to perform for the big hoverboard race! You guys are racing, right?" Amigo looked at each of us.

"Uh..." We all stared at him blankly. Amigo laughed again. He ran over and ripped a poster off the wall.

"See, it's starting tomorrow morning! It's a team race, three to a team! The grand prize is this cool blue gem!" Amigo pointed to a picture. We all did a double-take.

"The Chaos Emerald!" I almost yelled, pointing.

"Well, that's convenient." Knuckles said, crossing his arms and leaning forward to study the poster.

"You guys know about the prize?" Amigo asked.

"Yeah, we've been looking for that actually." I said. "It's really important that we get it."

"Then you guys better sign up! You're lucky you have enough people!" Amigo said.

"Very convenient..." I said, nodding.

"Well, I gotta go practice for the big show! Come by the beach later tonight, me and my band are having a fiesta!" Amigo waved, then ran off.

"...Remember when you were talking about how we might be in a piece of really bad fanfiction?" Sonic asked me.

"Yeah." I said.

"Do these sort of conveniences usually happen?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah, and they usually introduce every fun aspect of the character's world, like the hoverboarding. Not to mention, they seem to introduce a familiar character in every place they go t-"

"Sonic!" A different voice called out from behind us. We turned again to see a green hawk running up to us, carrying a green piece of machinery under his arm. Me and Sonic looked at each other, then looked up.

"Do you think someone's out there, reading us right now?" I asked, sounding a bit concerned.

"I'm starting to wonder..." Sonic said quietly.

"...What are they doing?" Jet asked Knuckles.

"Don't know. Really don't care." Knuckles replied, shaking his head.

"...Sonic?" Jet waved a hand over Sonic's face.

"Wha? Oh, sorry Jet, hi." Sonic said, still sounding a bit dazed, but focusing his attention on Jet. He tapped Josh, who snapped out of his trance as well.

"...Uh...you guys here for the race too?" Jet asked, trying to break the awkward moment.

"Yeah, we are. The grand prize is a Chaos Emerald, which we need." Sonic said.

"You guys on a team?" Jet pointed to Sonic, Knuckles and Me.

"Oh no, not me, I don't know how to hoverboard." I said, shaking my head. Jet cocked his head.

"Who are you exactly?" He asked.

"I'm Josh. Josh the Hedgehog. I'm Sonic's adopted brother." I said, smiling and giving a friendly nod.

"You adopted?" Jet looked at Sonic. Sonic nodded and put an arm around me. I smiled a bit wider.

"Well, you need three to race. So unless you can find someone else to race with you, you can't compete." Jet said. He walked off. "Good luck!" He called out from behind him.

"...You can't hoverboard?" Knuckles looked at me.

"We don't have those where I'm from... well, not yet." I replied. "I never even learned how to ride a skateboard."

"Jet's right, if you can't race, we can't compete." Sonic said, looking at me. "I hope you're a fast learner."

"I hope too..." I replied quietly.

…...

"See anything you like bud?" Sonic asked, taking a look at a board in a display case.

"Nothing yet..." I replied, lightly touching boards on the wall as I passed by them. There was a rather large hoverboard shop a few blocks from where we were previously, so, after some directions, we stopped inside. "Is there a difference in performance?" I asked the store clerk, a raccoon by the looks of him.

"Yeah, you can see the stats on the little sign under each board." He replied. I looked down at the sign. It might as well have been written in Yiddish, I could barely understand what half the crap said!

"...What's 'Turbovelocity?'" I asked. Sonic stepped over.

"Just look for these three numbers to be high." He said, pointing to three stats. "This one is for handling, this one is for speed, and this one is for acceleration. The rest you can leave to me."

"Thanks Sonic." I replied, looking at each board. My eyes fell on one in the corner, a white board decorated to look like a piano keyboard. I instantly fell in love with it. I walked over and checked the stats. "What about this one, they seem pretty high!" I said, calling Sonic over. Sonic took a look, and slowly nodded.

"Not bad..." He said, thinking. "...How well can you balance?" I shrugged. "You may have a bit of a hard time staying on when you first learn, and it's a bit lacking in top speed, but I think this one'll be fine to start out with." Sonic pointed at the board, and the store clerk pulled it down.

"That's 2,210 Rings please." He said, crossing over to the register and pressing a few buttons. Sonic whipped out his cash card.

"Wait, I got this one!" I said, cutting in front of him and giving the clerk my own card. He took it and scanned it, deducting the rings from my account.

"Have a great day!" The clerk said, handing me the board.

"Thanks!" I said, taking it. It felt a bit heavy in my hands, but not as heavy as I thought it would. Me and Sonic walked outside, where Knuckles was waiting for us.

"What'd you get?" Knuckles asked. I held up the board. He nodded in approval. "Looks like you might have trouble balancing on it."

"He can do it." Sonic said, clapping me on the shoulder and smiling.

"If you're teaching me." I added, laughing a bit. Sonic shook his head.

"You gotta be confident if you're going to do this." Sonic told me. "If you don't think you can do it, then you won't, got it?" I nodded. Sonic patted my shoulder. "Come on, let's get going. You have a lot to learn."

…...

A small row of T.V. Screens along a blank wall caught my eye. None of them were on at the time, but there was a slot for our cash cards to go in to, as well as a bunch of buttons along the bottom.

"Sonic, what the heck is that?" I asked, pointing.

"Pay-Coms." Sonic replied. "Their like normal Coms, but you have to pay money to use them."

"And Coms are?" I asked, still not sure what he was talking about, though I had a good idea.

"'Com' is short for Telecommunicators. You use them to talk to other people, no matter where you are." Knuckles explained.

"So, like a Phone!" I said, understanding. "Well, minus the T.V. Screen."

"Exactly." Sonic replied. My thoughts turned to Amy and Tails.

"Do you know the number to the base?" I asked, walking over.

"Base? Uh... yeah, I think so..." Sonic said. "Um, 555-648557-6." I slid my card into the machine and punched in the numbers. The screen came to life, flashing the word "Calling" over and over again. Finally, the image changed to that of Amy, standing in the kitchen. She squealed.

"Josh!" She exclaimed. "Oh, it's so good to see you, I was getting worried!"

"Hey Amy!" I said back, waving.

"Hold on, let me go get Tails!" She said, dashing off.

"Feeling homesick?" Knuckles asked.

"Just checking in." I replied. "I don't want her to be worried." She quickly came back on screen with Tails in tow.

"Hey Josh!" Tails chimed, waving. "How are you guys doing?" I held up my ring.

"Three down, four to go!" I said happily.

"Is Sonic there?" Amy asked, trying to look behind me.

"Uh..." I stammered. I looked at Sonic out of the corner of my eye. He was furiously shaking his head no. "He's getting us lunch right now. Chili dogs again I'm guessing." Amy looked disheartened.

"Is that all he's been getting for you?" Tails asked, not sounding too surprised.

"No. I gotta admit, I'm starting to like them though." I said, nodding a bit. "What's new on your end?"

"We've been reading the gossip." Tails said, sounding a bit bitter. Amy held up a magazine, with the headline reading "Sonic saving endangered species!"

"I can't believe they think you're just some stupid animal!" Amy said, showing another. "Animal bonding with local hero!" It showed a picture of me hugging Sonic.

"Where are they getting the pictures?" I asked in shock.

"Who cares! I've been writing to all of the magazines I can, trying to tell them that you're a human, but they won't listen!" Amy said, frustrated.

"It's fine, no one's been bothering me about it." I said, sounding a bit defeated. I quickly changed the subject. "Anything good happening?"

"No, nothing yet." Amy sighed.

"I got the Tornado fixed." Tails shrugged. "Not much else. What about you?" I smiled and pulled my adoption slip out of my back pocket.

"What's that?" Amy asked, squinting.

"Read it!" I urged. Amy and Tails went quiet for a moment as they began reading. They both went wide-eyed at about the same time.

"No way!" Amy said excitedly, a smile creeping onto her face.

"Sonic adopted you?!" Tails asked, sounding excited.

"You aren't jealous, are you?" I asked concerned.

"Are you kidding? That's awesome news!" Tails practically yelled, causing the speakers to pop and crackle. Amy couldn't stop reading the paper, as she laughed a bit.

"Josh the Hedgehog..." Amy said quietly.

"I think it fits!" Tails said. "It's like you were born to have that name!"

"Thanks guys!" I said. I looked at Amy, who was crying a bit. "You okay Amy?"

"Yeah!" Amy sniffled a bit. "I'm just happy for you right now!"

"There's more, Blaze is adopting Jacob now too!" I said. "Someone will be taking good care of him."

"That must take a load off your shoulders." Amy said, wiping her eyes.

"You have no idea." I said, laughing and shaking my head. A small warning message popped up, telling me I was almost out of time. "Er, sorry guys, I have to go, I'm running out of time on this thing!"

"Okay, be careful!" Amy said, waving.

"Have fun!" Tails exclaimed.

"Bye!" I said, pressing the end call button. "...Sonic, she's gone."

"Why are you so afraid of her?" Knuckles asked, shaking his head. Sonic just shuddered.

…...

"Lean forward a bit Josh!" Knuckles called out as I struggled to maintain my balance on the hoverboard. I brought my head down a bit, which seemed to help stop the constant shaking on the board.

"That's it, now just hold it like that!" Sonic said, walking over towards me. The hoverboard had been set so that it was only an inch off the ground, which, due to my shortened height, was a lot higher than it was on Earth. I still had a long ways to go before I could ride it up at its full height of two feet. Sonic adjusted a small dial on the side of the board, increasing the thrust coming out of the many air holes scattered across the bottom of the board. I slowly began to rise into the air, my arms pinwheeling as I struggled to maintain my center of balance. The board got maybe a foot off the ground before I lost it. I fell backwards into Sonic's arms. He stood me up.

"What am I doing wrong?" I asked, looking at Sonic helplessly.

"It just takes practice." Sonic replied. "You're doing good for a first-timer!"

"You're picking this up really well!" Knuckles chimed in, trying to offer encouragement. I smiled and turned back to the board, turning off the air. The board gently lowered to the ground. I stood back on it and pressed a button on the back of the board with my foot. The board began to rise into the air again.

"Stay forward buddy, you got it!" Sonic said. The board reached a foot off the ground again. I felt more confident as I realized I was still on!

"Higher!" I called out. Sonic leaned down a bit and dialed up the board a bit more. The board slowly began to rise, stopping at just about Sonic's shoulders.

"That's it!" Sonic whooped. "Two feet!" I pumped my fist in the air. Unfortunately, that knocked me off balance, causing me to lean towards the nose of the board. To my horror, it began to speed forward.

"Sonic!" I yelled as I struggled to stay on the board. Sonic ran up alongside me! "Shut it off!" I yelled in desperation. Sonic laughed and shook his head.

"No, look, you're doing awesome!" Sonic pointed forward. I looked forward to see what he saw, but nothing was there.

"What am I supposed to be looking at?" I called out, squinting. There was no answer. I turned again to see Sonic had stopped running beside me! I panicked and began to lose balance again.

"Josh, relax!" Sonic's voice came from the other side of me. I turned to see Sonic riding his own board. "Just face forward! You'll have better balance that way!" I nodded and looked forward. The board immediately stopped violently jerking, replaced by a gently swaying as my body naturally began to balance itself. I laughed! I was doing it!

"Sonic, I'm hoverboarding!" I called out. I held out my arms, sticking them both out for balance, like how you'd see a surfer balance on their board.

"Try turning a bit!" Sonic called out to me. "Lean in the direction you want to go!" I nodded, and slowly leaned away from Sonic. The board tilted slightly, as I began to turn left. My feet stayed planted on the board, much to my relief. I began to lean back and forth, making small S shapes in the air. I dared to look behind me. I was leaving a small tornado of sand as I turned, the air stirring up the small brown grains. I giggled gleefully.

"This is awesome!" I said, looking at Sonic. He smiled broadly at me.

"You're a natural!" He replied.

"...How do you stop?" I suddenly asked, realizing I would have to get down eventually.

"Lean towards the back of the board." Sonic explained. He demonstrated, the nose of his board rising into the air as he quickly fell behind me. I nodded and leaned back. The nose of the board rose much more than I had expected, dumping me off the board. I fell into the sand with a thud. Sonic ran up to me, board in hand. "You okay?" He asked, helping me up.

"Peachy." I replied, dusting myself off. "I gotta work on stopping a bit." I said. Sonic chuckled.

"You're doing great! Tomorrow, that race is in the bag!" Sonic said, giving me a thumbs up. I smiled.

"Only because I had a great teacher." I said. I hugged Sonic. "Thank you."

"No problem buddy." Sonic replied. He hugged me back, before messing up my hair. "Let's head back."

"Wait!" I said. I lowered my board and climbed on. "Let's ride back!" I exclaimed. Sonic jumped on his board.

"Race ya!" He said, looking behind his shoulder at me. I quickly started my board and began to take off.

…...

"...And remember to keep your toes forward, okay?" Sonic asked as the three of us walked down the night street to find a hotel.

"Toes forward, got it." I nodded, making a mental note.

"Sonic... what's going on over there?" Knuckles asked curiously, pointing across the street. A large crowd had formed, many of them consisting of photographers. Sonic pulled me behind him a bit.

"If they start coming towards us, run." Sonic told me quietly. I nodded. Knuckles and Sonic began to walk forward.

"Stay here." Knuckles said, turning to look at me. I nodded, and scooted back a bit so I could step into a shadowy awning. Sonic and Knuckles began to push their way into the crowd a bit, much to the press and media's delight. They began snapping even more photos, and I heard many questions involving the word "animal" directed to Sonic. The crowd began to move, as, I assumed, their points of interest began to move. The ground stopped moving as two impressive looking body guards, both of the gorillas, stepped out of the crowd and began to hold them back. Three figures stepped out between the body guards: Sonic, Knuckles, and one more person that I didn't recognize. He looked a bit like a hawk, but his beak wasn't as sharp, and he didn't have the same feathers. He looked to be a bit young, a little older than me maybe. Sonic and Knuckles seemed to be eager to hold a conversation with him. Sonic turned to look at the crowd, then looked at me, then back at the crowd. He waited for just a few more seconds, making sure they weren't looking, before he quickly ran over, scooped me up into his arms, and ran down the street, out of the way of the flashing mob. He set me down.

"Who's your friend?" I asked Sonic.

"He's not really a friend." He replied, seeming a bit star-struck. "He's one of the best hoverboarders in the world!"