Chapter 7

Apple's Home Planet

"Where are we? It looks like a planet covered with nothing but greenery! I like it, but what if we don't get up off the ground? This all worries me!" screamed Sonic in terror.

"I didn't know that Sonic always hides all of this terror each time we land on a planet that we know nothing about!" Amy exclaimed.

"I'm scared of tacos!" yelled Knuckles.

Everyone stared at Knuckles for a few moments and then burst out laughing. Sure he brought it up once, but they didn't know that tacos terrified him.

"I want my mommy!" Cream cried.

Everyone started screaming totally random things that were the truth and they couldn't control it either. They all seemed to be stuck until finally Tails told them to just be quiet because they were getting on his nerves. They all looked to Tails for instructions on what to do and Tails gave them each assignments and they all agreed. Suddenly, Apple realized something.

"Hey, we're on my home planet! I'm back at home!" cried Apple happily.

"Awesome!" Sonic yelled happily, but then turned confused, "Were you the only one who lived here because I'm pretty sure that you had mentioned to me that there were a lot of people on this planet and in your family. Where are they? Do they live in those trees?"

"Yep, you should be able to see the door on the other side of the tree. It's a lot roomier than it looks. Trust me. Everyone here's also very friendly!" Apple assured him.

Sonic just shrugged. He left the Blue Typhoon to go and explore the new planet. He left a cloud of dust behind him when he ran off. Everyone else followed close behind. Tails split them up into groups with Sonic on his own, Apple, Amy, Cream, Cheese, and Cosmo in another, Tails, Lily, Rabby, Kaira, and Knuckles in the last. They were all soon scattered around all over the place in their groups.

Sonic was just walking along down the road when he saw something, something unexpected, something delicious. There was a taco on the ground in front of him. Sonic bent down to pick it up.

"I can't believe my luck! I'll take free lunch any day! I don't care if it's been on the ground all day. You can't stop me from eating this!" yelled Sonic.

"Hey!"

"What was that? Was it a person? Hello? Anybody around here?" asked Sonic, looking around in a big circle.

"Look at the taco in your hand."

"Look at my taco in my hand? It's just a- Waaaaaaaa!" cried Sonic dropping the taco.

"Hi! I'm a taco turtle! You see, I'm a taco turtle who looks like a taco! Were you planning on eating me?!" snapped the taco turtle.

"Now I see why Knuckles is so scared of tacos… Yes! I mean, yes! Wait, I didn't want to say that! I wanted to say no! Do you know what's going on?!" cried Sonic.

"It's the truth telling atmosphere. As long as we have that, nobody can tell a lie," the taco turtle answered.

"Okay. I'm sorry that I tried to eat you, but if I knew that you were a taco turtle, then I would've left you alone. I'll never eat another taco ever again!" cried Sonic inching away from the taco turtle.

"Hmph! Fine, I'll believe you for now!" yelled the taco turtle as it ran off. Sonic followed and found himself in front of the taco turtles' home. He screamed in terror and fled from the dreadful place.

Meanwhile, Apple was looking through his old house and noticed that everything was either gone, or in ruins.

"What did the metarex do here at my house?! Don't tell me that after they caught us they searched through our stuff and destroyed everything. I hate those heartless thugs!" cried Apple helplessly.

He found a picture of his family lying on the ground in a shattered frame. He picked it up and took the picture out. Carefully, he folded it up and held it in his hands as if it were the most important thing in the world at that one moment.

"Where are you…, I know that you're somewhere. I'll destroy all of those metarex! I will destroy them!" yelled Apple angrily.

"Apple, are you okay?" asked Amy.

"Those metarex take away everything that I love. I am going to punish them all! They will pay for all that they've done to me, my family, and everyone! They deserve it," Apple said.

"I know how you feel and I want to help all of those who are being terrorized by the metarex as well, although, it won't help to get upset about it Apple. We will find them and we won't stop looking," Amy told him.

"Amy's right and we'll be right here next to you all the way," Cream said from in the doorway.

"Chao!" Cheese agreed.

"The metarex did the same thing to me as they did to you. They destroyed my family and only I survived, but only because they thought that I'd be a good spy. I'm not one now, but even if I still was, I'd still want to fight them and help you find your family," Cosmo answered.

"Thanks guys. I really appreciate it," Apple replied.

The four of them walked back outside and noticed Sonic running for his life for… no reason? Amy, Cosmo, Apple, Cream, and Cheese stared after him. Amy began to run after him and the other three continued watching.

"Sonic, what's wrong?!" demanded Amy.

"T-T-TACO!" cried Sonic. He turned again and ran off in terror.

"Don't tell me that Sonic's running from a taco! I thought he loved tacos! Maybe I should remember that he's scared of them…," said Amy with a disappointed look.

She turned around and saw a big cloud of dust flying towards her and she quickly ran out of the way. A stampede of taco turtles were charging him. The four of them stared at the stampede in astonishment. Apple shifted awkwardly.

"I'll never eat a taco ever again…," mumbled Apple.

Tails, Knuckles, Lily, Rabby, and Kaira scurried up to them. Tails looked around in search of Sonic and got worried.

"We heard Sonic screaming and had to come investigate. Where's Sonic? What's wrong? Did you see him?" asked Tails.

"He's being chased by a stampede of taco turtles," Amy replied.

"Why should I believe that Sonic's being chased by a horde of taco turtles?! That's got to be the most ridiculous thing I've heard all day! Where did you come up with that Amy?" asked Tails.

"Oh, look at that. It's the demonstration to get Tails to believe in the taco turtles. Looks like they haven't been giving Sonic a break," Apple commented.

Sonic stormed up to Tails and started panting heavily. He looked behind him in fear and when he didn't see anything, he sighed with relief.

"Sonic, what's wrong?!" demanded Tails.

"I've got about twenty seconds before they come again! Please Tails, help me somehow! They all hate me!" cried Sonic desperately.

"Save you from what?!" asked Tails.

"The millions and millions of tiny adorable demons that want me dead!" cried Sonic.

"Demons?!" cried Tails in horror.

"Yeah, and they look an awful lot like one of my favorite things! Please Tails, help me now! I can see them coming!" wept Sonic with an even more petrified look on his face.

A cloud of dust in the distance was racing up at the path of dust that Sonic had left behind him. They stormed up to Sonic and stopped. Tails went bug-eyed at what he saw. A horde of taco turtles stood in front of him and nearly gave Tails a heart attack.

"Did you call us ridiculous?" asked a taco turtle.

"Y-yes… I mean yes! Wait, I meant to say no!" declared Tails.

"Ah, the truth-telling atmosphere ends up in our favor again. You've gotta love that thing," another taco turtle replied.

"Truth-telling atmosphere?" asked Knuckles.

"Hmmmm… You all must be newcomers. If so, I'll tell you that nobody on this planet due to the atmosphere that prevents all from telling lies. The people who dwell here don't trust outsiders, so a rainbow fox named Rainbowta, cast a spell on our atmosphere causing everyone to tell the truth. That's why we made she, and her husband the king and queen of this land!" announced another taco turtle stepping forward.

Apple gasped in astonishment and looked down at his hands. He looked back up at his friends.

"My mother is Rainbowta! Are you saying that I am a prince?!" demanded Apple.

"King Gold and Queen Rainbowta are your parents?! I'm so sorry my dear prince for my behavior! May we have your name?" asked the taco turtle.

"My name's Apple, but you don't have to put the royal prince stuff in front of it. Do you know where everyone is?" asked Apple.

"We have no idea. A bunch of metal robots appeared all of the sudden and hauled everyone away. We haven't seen anyone since!" exclaimed the taco turtle.

"Why didn't they take you?" asked Amy.

"They viewed us as too ridiculous to be a threat to them, so they left us alone. Taco turtles were once known for being stupid, but we have evolved to make ourselves useful and smart. The big robots didn't know that, so they took everyone else, but left us," it replied.

Apple turned and left sadly. He didn't know if they were all split up onto metarex ships and taken prisoner to become metarex, or dead. He sincerely hoped neither would happen to any of them.

Kaira's wings pricked up and she noticed a grate on the ground. She nudged Sonic and he swiftly made his way over to it. Sonic ran his finger over it and tried to open it, but it was stuck in place.

"Hey, guys! I found something!" shouted Sonic.

"Found what? A clue?" asked Tails.

"This grate on the ground is what I found. Does any of you know where it goes to?" asked Sonic to the turtles. They shook their heads.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we found more clues down there. Sonic's hunches are usually correct, so we're bound to find something," Amy replied.

Knuckles pounded on the grate with all of his might, but only made a tiny dent in it. Knuckles the echidna is able to split even the biggest boulder in the universe in two, but this was made of no ordinary metal. It was a metal that they were all familiar with.

"I think that I got it! The metal is made out of the same stuff that the metarex leaders use for their armor! This must be the place where they get it all from! If so, some metarex must be here to guard it because it's the strongest defense that they have! Also, they might be able to tell us where the people who live on this planet are," Tails said.

"That makes sense, but how are we supposed to open the grate? If Knuckles can't do it, then who can?" asked Cream curiously.

"Chao?" asked Cheese.

"We could melt the grate if we had something hot enough I suppose…," thought Apple.

"No, that wouldn't work because heat alone won't be able to burn through that metal. Maybe acid?" asked Rabby.

"How about both heat and acid? Would that work?" asked Lily.

"I'm not sure what kind of reaction that would have if we were to simply mix lava and acid together. I don't know that much about the substances here…," said Tails.

"You could use the thing that totally evaporates that substance! It's only found in one place in the universe and that's here. In the Canyon of Dust, you can find a fountain that produces this stuff, but not much of it. It only makes it once a year. The metarex has tons of that stuff that could melt anything that they choose. The reason that you haven't seen it is because they only just discovered it about a year ago and stole all of the material that the fountain made. It's also said to have been made by the magic of one who has more power than we could stand about, well, two years ago," answered the chief of the taco turtles.

Kaira felt chills run up and down her spine when she heard the word "magic". The words "said to have been made by the magic of one who had more power than we could stand," didn't help either. Sonic must've also noticed because he glanced over at her with a suspicious glance.

"Well, we now have a date with the Canyon of Dust. Let's go get that substance!" Sonic shouted.

"We only have one warning for you. Only one can enter the Canyon of Dust at a time," warned the chief taco turtle.

"Why?" asked Sonic.

"The venomous snakes and scorpions go after those who travel in groups, but it is harder to get those who are alone. I know what you're thinking. Snakes and scorpions can't catch me because I'm way too fast for them. That may be so, but they read minds and know your every move. Worst of all, they're invisible," said the chief taco turtle.

"What does their venom do?" asked Tails.

"The venom will not kill you. That's the only good news. The bad news is that it'll make you forgetful and you forever wander around in circles in the canyon all because you can't remember what you were doing three seconds ago," finished the chief taco turtle.

"Well, then I'll just not have to get bitten or stung!" Sonic yelled determinedly. He knew that his super speed would be of hardly any use in the canyon. He'll have to use courage and spirit alone. There was only one problem for him. He wasn't sure if he'd come out alive.

Meanwhile, with Shadow, who is totally lost. If you looked up lost in a dictionary, Shadow's face would be there. He was wandering the halls of the snake temple and hardly knew where he was going or what he was doing.

"I can't see anything! Is this supposed to be a test?! There are snakes spying on me and I'm completely lost! What a way to spend the day," Shadow snapped to himself.

He ran his hand along the wall and suddenly, felt holes within the wall! He jumped back and quickly realized that they were packed with arrows and knives. He would have to run full speed at the other side, or die trying. He looked ahead of him, and sprinted! Within a millisecond, he was safe on the other side and arrows pierced the wall violently.

Shadow continued down the hallway and wondered what would be next.

Outside with Rouge,...

"I wonder if Shadow's okay…," she said to herself staring into the door of the pyramid It was tall, dark and ominous… She didn't want Shadow to not come out. If that were to happen, she'd have to crawl back to Eggman. That was the last thing that she wanted to do. Rouge placed her hand on the invisible force field that separated her from him.

"You're still more than my ally, more than my partner, but you are my friend Shadow the hedgehog…," she whispered into the tunnel of never ending darkness that lay in front of her.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Shadow came sprinting through the trees full speed and raced into the tunnel without being stopped by the invisible force field! Two seconds later, it was silent again and Rouge was dumbfounded.

She flew laps around the pyramid trying to find an exit, but there was only one way in and one way out. She flew back to the door wondering if she only imagined it.

Rouge made her way back down the stairs and found a footprint. Shadow's footprint to be specific. Rouge never recalled being over here flapping next to Shadow. Their footprints were on another side of the pyramid. They jumped up onto the stairs from the side. A clue.

Rouge followed it, but it soon ended in a clearing. She searched around. These aren't Shadow's footprints… Finally, she remembered something that could have been important.

"You can't escape from me…,"

"That voice! That's what went after Shadow! It must be! That's the only explanation for what happened earlier! If that's who went after Shadow, then it must be able to shapeshift or something. I think that he'll be safe however, because if that thing just leaves chaos emeralds up for grabs, then it probably won't just sit and watch him suffer," said Rouge to herself going back to the pyramid.

Back within the temple...

"I've been walking in this thing for two hours now! Where's the end?!" demanded Shadow to the snakes who he knew were somewhere.

As he was continuing on, a hedgehog who looked exactly like him, stormed through the hallways, passed the traps, didn't go down the dead ends, and found the button that lit up the temple.

"Wha-?! Darn it! My eyes can't adjust that fast…," Shadow said with surprise. He flipped around and didn't see anything. Shadow simply shrugged and staggered on.

Three minutes later,...

"I guess that this is a little more bearable now that the lights are on, but how long is this thing? If I have to go on for any longer, I'll simply- Nevermind, I made it I'm guessing," Shadow said staring up at something that looked like a shrine for the emerald.

"Congratulationssss! You made it to the shrine of the color emerald… Let'sss ssseee if you are worthy if thisssss," replied one of the snakes appearing from a crack in the wall. The other came after it.

"If you want to see my power, you just got the perfect chance!" Shadow told them tauntingly. He crouched down to prepare himself for a spin dash.

Right at that moment, the hedgehog jumped out of nowhere and used something that looked like a chaos spear. The snakes were so focused on Shadow, that they didn't notice that a chaos spear was flying at them 'till the last second. They shrieked and the spear struck them. When the electrical energy settled down, the snakes were gone and so was the hedgehog.

"That was… interesting…," Shadow said as he began to approach the shrine.

He stared at the emerald, but it was different from all the others. It was black. Black as a storm, but clear as a starry night. Clear as ice… It was weird. He felt a force from it like never before.

"Grab me… Grab me… I will bring you a great destiny... ," it seemed to tell him. It shimmered and glittered more and more as Shadow's hand approached it.

Then, Shadow snatched it from its resting place! The gem stone began to glow a dark light and it grew hot in his hands! It floated up into the air and slammed into Shadow's chest causing him and the gem to merge together. He could feel the power in his chest. Not painful, but more like a weird sensation that won't stop bugging him. It also made him feel like he had the power to do almost anything! He stumbled backwards and the effects of it finally started to go away. He collapsed on the ground and sighed.

Rouge.

What is she thinking at the moment? Is she worried that I won't come back like she did all those other times? I must go back. For her. Right now.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake and the walls cracked! The color emerald must have been the only thing that was holding the place together. Shadow was about to race out as fast as he could when the hedgehog appeared again! It dragged Shadow down the hallways, around the corners, through the traps, and went way faster than Shadow preferred. It was all very new to him. Being dragged anyways, so he didn't know what to expect.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Shadow demanded angrily at the hedgehog. He bit back an insult to go with his sentence. Maria wouldn't be happy. Did that mean that he had to be nice to Rouge from now on?

The hedgehog that looked like him didn't answer. It was too busy navigating the hallways at horrifyingly dangerous speeds. They raced past a giant rock that was once a part of the ceiling and they very nearly got crushed by another giant rock that was falling off from the ceiling. It was just scary that they were going through what seemed to be a racetrack to their deaths.

Finally, Shadow and the other hedgehog raced out of the door and landed on the ground in front of Rouge. The hedgehog looked at Shadow for a moment and then ran off back into the bright green trees of the forest.

"Who do you suppose that was?" asked Rouge to Shadow.

"Don't ask me because I don't know." Shadow glanced around to see where it went, but it was gone without a trace. Not even footprints.

"Will we see that hedgehog again?" asked Rouge curiously.

"We'll never know…," Shadow said in reply.

"AAAAAAAAH!"

Crash!

"What?! Who's that?" asked Rouge pointing at the person who fell onto the ground. She had long black hair, emerald green wings with a spiral pattern in them. They were long and pointy, but sort of roundish as well. Looked about in her teens. She glanced up at Shadow and Rouge.

"Who are you?! Why are you here?" demanded Shadow to her coldly. He crossed his arms at her.

"My name is Zaira! Hi. I'm here because I was horrifyingly lost in outer space! HEY! YOU COULD USE SOMEONE TO GO ALONG WITH YOU! I know you do! Please! Please! PLEEEEEEEEASE!" she begged loudly and in a very annoying fashion.

"No." Shadow began walking off with Rouge walking next to him.

"YAY! I get to follow you two around EVERYWHERE!" she replied happily.

"I thought I said no. Besides, don't you have anything better to do?! I need to return to Dr. Eggman to see if he has any good plans for these things," said Shadow looking down at the chaos emerald in his hands.

"WOW! SHINY THING!" she yelled snatching it from his hands. Quickly, she inspected it. Every edge and every side.

"Give it back," said Shadow threateningly. He snatched it back and ran his fingers over it. He then glared at Zaira before storming off. Rouge followed of course.

Zaira flared her wings and bolted after him.

"You selfish idiot! Get back here! I want to keep following you! That and your eyes are very sparkly… and pretty...," she mumbled.

"They're what?!" demanded Shadow flipping around and staring at her with a really annoyed look.

Rouge only shuddered. She turned to Shadow he looked at her. Shadow's nightmares have come true…