Okay, one quick thing before I start. I messed up on the robot's name last chapter. It's Emel... Well, it's actually Emerl, but people mistake it for Emel, and there's also Emeryl. But, if it's okay with you, I'm gonna keep calling him ML.

"Do you think it worked?" Knuckles asked.

"Had to have worked." Chris said. "He would still be here if it didn't."

"I knew that." Knuckles said. "I meant do you think he made it to your world okay? When I last recall, he wasn't with us when we originally went there."

"Good point..." Chris said. "Well, I'm sure he's fine."

"He'd better be okay. Otherwise, he's as good as dead." Knuckles said.

ON EARTH

Storm looked around the warehouse building that he was in. He saw that it was a plain grey building, with a few wooden boxes in it.

He knew a lot more about Earth than he should have.

The red hedgehog walked up to the grey metal doors, and was about to open them, until he realized something.

He's met one of the people from this world, and they looked nothing like the people from Mobius. He was going to stick out like a sore thumb. Out the window, it looked like it was just barely night.

Storm figured it would be better if he just stayed in the building he was in now. Anyone who would enter would already know about the metal portal with a yellow trim sitting in the middle of the room.

However, despite that last fact, Storm hid behind some boxes for a few hours, until he felt it was safe to leave.

That didn't work out so well.

2 HOURS LATER

Storm felt that the coast was clear, so he slowly moved out from behind the boxes. That is, until he heard the door shift open, which is when he darted back to his original position.

"Why are we here at midnight again?" he heard a girl ask. She sounded about 20.

"Because Chris asked us to watch the machine while he was in Sonic's world." a boy responded. He sounded a little older than the girl. "You know, to make sure nothing but him gets through."

"I just hope he's okay in there..." another girl said. This one sounded 19 going on 20.

"Shit..." Storm whispered. He wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Although he must have talked too loud, because he felt like he was being looked at.

"Did anyone hear anything over there?" the boy asked.

"Yeah, I think so." the first girl said, as Storm heard footsteps in his direction.

Why did I have to talk!? Storm wondered, as the box above him was moved out of the way. He looked up, and saw what looked to be a being similar to the looks of Chris, except he had a darker skin tone and different hairstyle. So, in another words, just not an animal.

The boy looked shocked at what he saw, but Storm just kept staring at him.

"Is there anything back there?" the second girl asked.

Storm looked down in defeat. There wasn't any way out of this.

"No, just some garbage." the boy said. "I'll take it out."

Storm's head shot back up in surprise, in time to see the boy give a wink, as he walked away, and came back with a black bag.

He picked up the red hedgehog, and put him in the bag to carry him away out of the building.

Once he was carried an appropriate distance from the windowless building, and after confirmation that nobody was watching, the boy opened the bag so that Storm could crawl out.

"No talking." the boy said. "Why are you here?"

"Well, I'm assuming you know Sonic." Storm said. "I'm a friend of his. I came here to gather some supplies for a surprise for another friend of his, Cream."

"Were these supplies not in your world?" the boy asked.

"I could MAKE them, but it wouldn't have been the same..." Storm said. "I can't just run around like an idiot here. I have to be subtle. Could you take me to the ocean near the docks?"

"Why do you want to go the- oh." the boy said, realizing his intentions. "Sure. I have a car that I could take you in."

Storm smiled slightly. "Thanks." he said, extending a hand. "I'm Storm, by the way."

The boy returned the handshake. "Danny." he said. "Come on, let's take you to my car. I'll have to hide you in the back seat though."

Storm nodded, and looked up. In the darkness he was in, he could probably activate his dark form and blend in with the back seat.

Actually, he can activate it whenever he needs, but it's absolutely useless unless the lighting around him is dark enough.

The two of them walked over to a sleek red car, which looked like it had about 5 different engines.

"My friend's uncle gave us each one of his cars when he retired from the police force." Danny said, sitting in the left front seat.

Storm entered through the right side, and climbed over the right front seat to hide in the space between the front and back seats.

Once he was in a good hiding position, he found a blanket on the seats, and used it to cover himself.

"Alright, go." he whispered, and he heard Danny starting the car.

INSIDE THE WAREHOUSE

"That's odd..." Frances said, looking outside.

"What's wrong?" Helen asked.

"Danny said he was taking out the trash." Frances said. "So why is he driving away?"

"Better question. Why are you spying on him?" Helen asked. "You don't like him by any chance, do you?"

"Helen, don't make this like high school." Frances said. "I got teased enough about it."

"You're not denying it." Helen said.

"I'm not accepting it either." Frances said. "What about you and Chris?"

"Yeah, but at least I admit to that." Helen said. "And look where it's gotten me. We've been dating for years now. Which you would know if your face wasn't constantly in your phone."

"What do you mean?" Frances asked. "It's not ALWAYS on my phone!"

"If that's true, then you're just blind." Helen said.

"..." Frances didn't have a retort.

"You do raise a good point about him driving away, though." Helen said. "Maybe we should go after him and find out what's going on."

"I'll follow him." Frances said. "You should stay here and keep watch over the portal."

Helen nodded, as Frances opened the door and ran outside.

AT THE DOCKS

"Alright, we're here." Danny said. "It's a pretty long way down, though. Won't you need a swimsuit or something?"

"Hey, I may be a pyromancer, but I can still swim." Storm said, opening the car door. "But if I'm not back in about a couple of hours, go get help."

Danny nodded, as Storm ran to the edge of the docks, and dived into the water.

The ocean of Earth tasted nothing like the one on Mobius when he opened his mouth. On Mobius, it was totally clean, since everyone peed on trees, although in the world Storm was in, it tasted like salt.

Alright. In order to find this thing, I'll need to be able to see in the dark. Storm said. Darkness mode!

Storm's fur shifted from red to black, and his spines stood on end, as he kept swimming deeper and deeper, attempting to find the robot that Cream mentioned.

He didn't remember any physical details, assuming there were any that were given, but he figured that he'd know it when he saw it.

"My oh my, that is an impressive form you have there." a familiar voice said. "Are you sure it's not stolen from me?"

Storm turned around to see Mephiles the Dark, in his stone form, floating in the ocean.

When the red hedgehog... Well, at this point, black, I guess... First saw Mephiles in the ocean, he asked himself one question and one question only.

How is he even talking right now? We're underwater! Storm thought, as he just ignored Mephiles and kept swimming.

"Why are you ignoring me, Sol?" Mephiles asked. "You know that it's futile."

Storm kept swimming faster, attempting to outrun the incarnation of Darkness. Honestly, he didn't know why he thought it would work.

"Oh yes, keep swimming. Please, waste your energy." Mephiles said. "I only want your emeralds."

Storm stopped swimming, and spun around to face Mephiles, twirling the water around him as he did so.

"You're finally facing me head-on, I see." Mephiles said.

Storm rolled his eyes, as he rushed towards Mephiles, attempting to go for an uppercut maneuver.

Although the water around him wasn't restricting the speedy double eye-coloured hedgehog, Mephiles still managed to side-step, even though there wasn't any ground beneath their feet. Mephiles must have used some sort of weird darkness power.

"Come on, just give me the emerald, and you can leave." Mephiles said.

Storm closed his eyes, crossed his arms, and shook his head.

Mephiles sighed, as he balled up his stone hand into a fist, and attempted to punch Storm in the face.

Storm, noticing the punch, decided to use this as his opening.

He grabbed Mephiles's arm, as bent it backwards. He knew that if it were anyone else, the arm would break, but not with Mephiles. He was just trying to slow him down, as he added a punch to the chest, and threw him into a sharp edge along the shoreline.

"ARGH!" Mephiles screamed in pain, as his back collided with the edge.

Instead of sticking around, Storm used this as his opportunity, as he continued to swim downwards, at double the speed from before.

"Get back here you shapeshifting hedgehog!" Mephiles shouted, as he started to chase after Storm, who just kept on swimming, hoping to eventually see the ocean floor.

The farther he swam, the darker it became. The darker it became, the faster he swam, because of his form. However, the same went for Mephiles.

After about a half hour, Storm finally saw what looked to be terrain, as well, as something blood-orange nearby.

He planted his feet, and used that plant to jump towards the blood-orange object, making his body straight while doing so as to not slow him down while he swam.

Once he reached the object, he noticed that it was a rusty robot. Good, no blood in the ocean. He picked up and robot, and used his feet as a launch pad to attempt reaching the surface again. He did manage to swim halfway back up no problem, but that's when Mephiles grabbed his ankle, and threw him into the shoreline. With an underwater fight against Mephiles, that tends to happen a lot.

"Do you submit yet?" Mephiles asked.

Storm, who seemed unphased by the attack (which actually hurt like a bitch), just shook his head, as he kept swimming to the surface.

"How did that not break a bone?" Mephiles asked, as he chased Storm.

AT THE SURFACE

"He's taking a long time..." Danny said.

"Danny!" he heard someone shout. Danny turned his head to see Frances. "What are you doing at the docks? Weren't you taking out the garbage?"

"Yeah... Well..." Danny said, not being about to find the words. "I found an abandoned leaking fish tank on the sidewalk. The fish were still alive, so I felt like I should give them a new habitat."

"Riiight." Frances said, giggling.

"So why are you here?" Danny asked.

"You took so long to get back that I went searching for you." Frances said. "Helen stayed at the portal to make sure nothing else got through."

"Yeah, makes se- wait, nothing ELSE?" Danny asked.

"I don't think animal's usually tend to have red fur that turns black." Frances said, holding up a thin strand of black fur. "I found it under the boxes you went searching under."

"So is that why you went searching for me?" Danny asked.

"I figured it might ha e been the way I was holding it that made it look like it's color changed." Frances said. "It could have been Shadow's."

"To be honest, she wasn't completely wrong." someone said.

Danny looked up to see a red hedgehog on a nearby lamp post, but not the same one he helped out at the warehouse.

"Who're you?" Danny asked.

"Sorry, I guess I should introduce myself." the red hedgehog said. "My name's Iblis. Don't mind me, I'm just waiting for a friend of mine to resurface."

"Oh, you're a friend of Storm's?" Danny asked.

Iblis's ear twitched. "Who now?"

Shortly after that, a large amount of water erupted from the water. To a pervert, it would remind one of a water penis. Just saying.

Anyways, out the top of the water explosion, came a black and white hedgehog, with red eyes. He looked like he was made of stone.

"MEPHILES!" Iblis scremed, dropping down from the lamp post, and running to his friend's side.

"I'm fine, jeez." the stone hedgehog said, rotating back up without even pushing with his arms.

"Sorry..." Iblis said. "What happened?"

"I mentioned the cat." Mephiles said. "And then he knocked me into space."

"I didn't actually hit you that high." Storm said, flying out of the water, and carrying a familiar looking robot over his shoulder. "Had you have been anyone else, that hit would have broken your back."

"Also, looks like you fought one handed." Iblis said.

"STOP HELPING HIM!" Mephiles shouted.

"I do a lot of things one handed." Storm said.

"Stop... Just stop." Iblis said. "We're already enemies, you don't want us to hate you more by having us know what you do behind closed doors."

"I meant like fist fighting." Storm said.

"Still pretty disgusting, Sol." Iblis said.

"Iblis, just forget about the emeralds for now." Mephiles said, taking out his purple Chaos Emerald. "Let's head back."

The two of them were surrounded by a purple void, and once it shrunk into non-existence, the two hedgehogs were gone as well.

"Sol... That's what they call you?" Danny asked.

"Don't ask, I still don't have a good explanation myself." Storm said, turning his fur red again. "We should get back."

Danny nodded, opening his car doors for the red hedgehog to climb in the back. He then un-folded the seat, since somehow Frances didn't have a car with her, as she left it at the warehouse laboratory. That would mean she walked about 20 miles to the docks.

Storm lay between the seat again, set the robot on top of him, and lay the blanket on top of himself again.

"So, you're good with robotics, right?" Danny asked, as the car started moving.

"I've picked up a thing or two over the past few months while the others were in this world." Storm said. "As well as the recent months, when everyone came back, and then they went again to god knows where."

"I think Chris said that it was space." Frances said.

"They went to space?" Storm asked. "Meanwhile, I was running around a dead planet and dicking around in Tails's workshop! Where the hell was I when they left!?"

"Well you said you met them about a week or so ago." Danny said.

"Couple of days, maybe." Storm said. "No, wait... I think it was yesterday, actually."

"Yesterday?" Danny asked.

"I guess here that would technically be about 288 hours, since apparently times moves 12 times faster in my world." Storm said.

"What makes you say that?" Frances asked.

"I don't care how long they've been working on stuff like this, a 10 year old would not be able to put together an extra-dimensional transporter in a mere 3 months." Storm said.

"Alright, I'll give you that." Danny said. "Speaking of which, Chris had to make a connection between himself and the portal in order to be able to transport between here and your world. So how did you get here no problem?"

Storm just shrugged, as the car pulled to a halt. Once he heard the doors opening, he prepared to stand up.

"Alright, nobody's watching." Frances whispered.

Storm pushed himself up, being careful as to not have the rusty robot fall over. Once he stood up, he carried the robot into the warehouse.

Once the doors slid open, Frances was the first one in.

"We're back, Helen!" Frances shouted.

"And you found the hedgehog?" a blonde girl in a wheelchair asked. She must have been the second girl he overheard while behind the boxes.

"WHAT!?" Storm screamed out. "Okay, I can get that you knew I was an animal, given what I overheard about me shedding. But how did you know I was a hedgehog?"

"Not important." Helen said.

"Alright. Before I head back, though..." Storm said, as he laid the robot down, and walked up to the dimensional transporter, putting his hand on it. "I'm gonna see if I can see the other side with this, because I don't want Cream to know I was here."

The currently red hedgehog closed his eyes, and attempted to picture Mobius. He did manage to see outside the Master Emerald, and the only ones he saw were Knuckles and Chris.

"I wonder why I expected differently." Storm said. "Can you please activate the portal?"

Helen nodded.

"I should probably take my fur back too." Storm said, as Helen wheeled herself over to the power switch. "Leave no evidence behind.

Danny nodded, handing Storm the currently red fur, as he took it, and walked over to the portal entrance.

Helen flipped the switch on the side of the machine, turning it on, as Storm proceeded to walk back into his own world.

BACK ON MOBIUS

"Do you think he's almost done?" Chris asked.

"It hasn't even been an hour." Knuckles said. "Give it time."

However, immediately after saying that, the Master Emerald, which he was guarding, started to glow.

"Seems I overestimated how hard the job would be." a familiar red hedgehog said, as he put down a rusty orange robot.

Once the glow stopped, Chris and Knuckles noticed that the person who was talking was Storm.

"Hey, you're back." Knuckles said.

"Yup." Storm said. "Now given that glow, we probably have 5 to 10 minutes before people start showing up wondering what that glow was. Any suggestions on where I should take this before Cream shows up?"

"I feel like the answer's obvious." Knuckles said. "Tails's lab."

"I'm still on... Rough terms... With him." Storm said.

"What, you're saying you STILL haven't talked to him about it?" Knuckles asked. "Dude, I'm not saying there's anything wrong about that, but seriously, the guy's had a bad year. Cut him some shit."

"Bad year?" Storm asked.

"Well, there was the part where Sonic tooked about a week after leaving Chris's world before showing up here." Knuckles said.

"And then his planet nearly got trashed." Chris said.

"And then there was also that thing at the center of the universe." Knuckles said.

"Alright, I get it, I should talk to him!" Storm shouted, but something halted his attention before he could leave. "Wait, what happened at the center of the universe?"

A FEW MINUTES LATER, TAILS'S LAB

Tails was lying in his bed. He'd been getting better sleep recently, but he was still being woken up by that dream.

Suddenly, he heard a knocked at his door.

The two-tailed fox stood up, and walked out of his room, and into the dark hallway. Slowly, he crept along the walls, until he reached the stairs that led to his lab. From there, he knew his way around, as he walked over to his door, and opened it.

Once it was opened, the first thing he noticed was the red hedgehog standing outside of it.

"Hey. I was hoping to get some help on a project I'm doing for somebody." Storm said.

"Is it for Blaze?" Tails asked.

"No, it's not for Blaze." Storm said.

Then Tails noticed a second thing. Storm was holding a very familiar robot.

"Is that..." Tails started, but he didn't need to finish. "Yes, you can come in."

Storm brought the rusty orange robot inside, and laid it on a table.

"When did you have time to do this?" Tails asked.

"Well for me, it was about 3 hours ago, but for you guys, that's about 15 minutes." Storm said.

The red hedgehog looked around the lab, until somethint caught his eye.

"I don't think I noticed that plant before." Storm said. "If you don't mind me asking, where'd you get it?"

Tails looked at the plant that Storm was looking at. "That's... A long story."

"Wanna talk while we work?" Storm asked. "I wanna get this done as soon as possible, so I could use some help."

Tails nodded, as he handed Storm a screwdriver to open up the orange robot, ML.

"It started when a beutiful plant girl came to our planet." Tails said, starting the story.