Hey new chappy's is here today! Sorry for not updating in like…FOREVER! Please forgive me it's all because of evil school! Anyways thankees for replying everyone! Here's the disclaimer!

Disclaimer- I don't own any Sonic characters except MJ and Chibi Star. Kilala belongs to my best friend Jena who has Sonic Riders.

"5 Years Without You…"

By MJ the Seal
Chapter 4

"The Emeralds of Life"

Eggman's base 7:00am. MJ's prison cell

MJ had just woken up from her sleep. The constant clank, clank, clank of the robot guards patrolling the prison cell area annoyed her head enough for her to wake up.

"I hope Chibi Star got back to the base okay." MJ thought as she nearly threw up from the prison breakfast. "I hope whoever cooks the meals for this prison gets a cookbook soon…Oh well I just want Chibi Star to show me the tape." MJ set her bowl of mush breakfast down and looked out of the jail cell. Chibi Star flew in behind one of the robots and landed in the dirty jail cell.

"I got a message from Shadow!" Chibi Star exclaimed as she wove the video camera in the air. She turned on the tape and Shadow popped up on the screen and he wasn't looking too happy.

"Um…hi?" Shadow said as he did a pathetic wave. Chibi Star popped up from behind the bush and began to make faces. "Yeah…so…what's up? I'm about to head toward the first key and…why are you making me do this?" MJ giggled, Shadow wasn't any different from 5 years ago. "Yeah Sonic and I were wondering why it took you 5 years to get a tape delivered to me. I guess I'll see you soon, bye." The tape turned off after the very short message ended. MJ was glad she got to see Shadow again even if it was only on tape.

"Well he isn't exactly social!" Chibi Star exclaimed as she began to pout. "Was he always like that?"

"Yeah…okay Chibi Star get the tape ready. I have another message for Shadow." MJ replied, but Chibi Star just looked at her.

"Hey don't you remember what I told you last night?"

"Uh…no…"

"Today I'm going to explore the base to get more dirt on Eggbutt's plans!"

"Oh…I guess I forgot…" MJ sheepishly laughed as Chibi Star just covered her face with her chao hand. "Well then I guess you better head off then…" Chibi Star quickly flew out of the prison cell and began to investigate.

Meanwhile

"Let's see the village should be up ahead…" Shadow thought as he raced through the mountains of the Green Hill Zone. He just got to the other side when the village came into his sights, and he quickly sped up. The village appeared to be a grassy place with small, average houses and a huge tower off in the distance. Shadow stopped at the village entrance which had a sign with bright, bold, red words on it.

"Coco Village, home of the Coco Tower and the Coco Creature. Enter at your own risk." Shadow read aloud to himself. "The Coco Creature must be the robot that has the first key…I better get some information from the villagers about it." Shadow was about to go around and ask the villagers about the key when he felt someone tap his shoulder. He turned around and saw a boy dragon about 12 years old standing behind him. The dragon boy was red in color and had red wings about a foot longer than his arms.

"Hey are you here to stop the Coco Creature?" the dragon asked as he looked at Shadow with curiosity.

"Yeah why do you care?" Shadow retorted as he looked at the dragon kid strangely. "Well the Coco Creature has destroyed anyone who gets near the tower, and it has also destroyed part of our village in the process." the dragons eyes became really wide as he looked directly at Shadow. "YOU'RE SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG!" and as soon as the dragon boy announced that to the entire town everyone rushed up to Shadow and began asking him questions and what not. Most of the time they were "Can I have your autograph!" "Aren't you supposed to be dead?" "MARRY ME!" and "STOP THE COCO CREATURE!" Shadow began to get very annoyed at all the attention and wasn't too happy that he didn't have a Chaos Emerald with him. The dragon boy squeezed through the crowd up to him and began to speak.

"Sorry about this…I kind of overreacted…anyway my name is Inferno the Dragon." he said as someone just missed tackling Shadow.

"Yeah real nice now could you please get these people away from me!" Shadow shouted as he ducked from a nearby fan girl who tried to hug him making her trip in the process.

"Make way for the Mayor!" someone shouted and everyone began to clear the way except for Shadow who had no clue of what was going on. When everyone had cleared out onto the sidewalk, Shadow was able to see an old brown bear with a white moustache, a black suit, and eyebrows so thick that they covered his eyes. He walked over to Shadow and stared at him for a good 5 minutes before anything happened.

"Well hello Shadow it's always a pleasure to meet yet another famous hedgehog in our town!" The Mayor said as he roughly shook Shadow's hand. "Sonic came here once a few years ago…I don't quite remember why…perhaps an interview of some sort? Never mind that, what you must do is much more important yes? Please follow me to my humble office." and before Shadow had a chance to say 'NO' he was dragged off to the Mayor's house with Inferno looking at him until he disappeared from sight.

"Great, first I get attacked by a mob and now I have to go to some old timer's place. This isn't going to end happily…" Shadow thought as he was dragged into the Mayor's office. The mayor sat down at his desk and Shadow sat down on a chair in front of the desk. The Mayor took a sip of his coffee and began to speak.

"So you want to defeat the Coco Creature yes?" the Mayor asked as Shadow just nodded. "Well…YOU BETTER THINK AGAIN!" Shadow nearly toppled out of his seat as the mayor shouted at him. "The Coco Creature has taken out our best warriors and hasn't left a trace of them behind! So, why do you wish to destroy it, for the fame, the fortune, pride!" The Mayor began to glow with rage and his fists shook uncontrollably.

"No…I'm doing it to get a key…a key to rescue my best friend." Shadow said as the Mayor stopped glowing with rage and began to look apologetic.

"Oh…well then that is quite unselfish…" The Mayor admitted as he sat down in his chair more comfortably. "I guess you'll need directions to get to the tower, and someone to help you." The door burst open as soon as the Mayor finished speaking. Standing at the door was Inferno, panting heavily from the long run to the Mayor's office. "Ah Inferno, what brings you here?"

"Please Mr. Mayor, let me help Shadow I must avenge my brother." Inferno said as he looked at the Mayor straight in the eye. Shadow was just sitting in the chair watching the two talk to each other back and forth.

"I see…very well then, Shadow, Inferno will be your guide on your quest to the tower. I bid you both good luck and a very nice day!"

Shadow and Inferno left the office and began walking towards the tower. They walked in silence until they got to a grassy field located outside of the village when Shadow began to speak.

"So you want to avenge your brother huh? What happened to him?" Shadow asked to break the awkward silence. Inferno looked down at the ground and looked back up at Shadow.

"Well…5 years ago my brother went towards the Coco Tower and…he never came back." Inferno explained as Shadow's eyes grew wide at the word 5 years ago. "So why are you trying to stop the Coco Creature?"

"My best friend sent me a tape explaining that a villain named Dr. Eggman captured her 5 years ago the day she left town. She said that there were 3 keys to find and get into his base in order to save her before something happened. One of the keys was hidden in a robot in a tower over the Green Hill Mountains, so I set off here and found the tower I needed to find. That's pretty much it up to this point." Shadow explained as Inferno just stared blankly at him, and then a wicked smile spread across his face.

"So…you're rescuing your girlfriend?" Inferno said as he began to laugh. Shadow just glared at him and kicked him in the shin. Inferno yelped in pain and clutched his leg as Shadow just smirked at him.

"Yeah so what if I am?" Shadow said and Inferno stopped clutching his leg.

"Well…nobody in our village even thought you would WANT a girlfriend or any friends, let alone have one."

"You remind me of a certain blue hedgehog…" Shadow mumbled as Inferno turned into Sonic in his thoughts.

"Hey what's that thing flying around like crazy over there?"

"What thing?"

"That little black speck…THAT'S HEADING RIGHT TOWARDS US!" Shadow looked to where Inferno saw the black speck and sure enough it was Chibi Star flying out of control towards them. Inferno flew up above the ground and Shadow dived to the side just as Chibi Star nearly clonked his head. Inferno wasn't as lucky as Chibi Star crashed into him and he plummeted towards the ground.

"Uh…watch where you're going you thing…" Inferno said as he began to rub his head. Chibi Star flew off of the ground looking very angry.

"I'M NOT A THING! I'M A GIRL HERO CHAO THAT'S BLACK AND HAS A YELLOW STAR ON MY BELLY!" Chibi Star screamed as Inferno just stayed slumped on the ground. "Anyways…Shadow I got another message for you." Chibi Star turned her head away from Inferno and flew over to Shadow with the tape. Shadow grabbed it and turned it on as he and Inferno began to watch. MJ popped up on the screen and began to speak.

"Hey Shadow-chan what's up? Sorry about the whole replying to the tape thing…" MJ said as she rubbed the back of her head and began to laugh sheepishly. Shadow began to look tick off and Inferno was clueless to what was going on. "Anyways Chibi Star did some investigating around the base and found out some cool stuff, so you better listen to her! Try and reply again please? Good luck on your quest I'll see you soon!" the tape turned off and Inferno looked over at Shadow.

"So that's your girlfriend? Real nice what's her name?" Inferno asked as Shadow looked up from the tape.

"Her name's MJ…" Shadow mumbled as he looked up at Chibi Star. "So what've you got to tell us Chibi Star?"

"CHIBI STAR! THAT'S YOUR NAME!" Inferno shouted in shock as he began to laugh. Chibi Star just looked over at Shadow and Shadow kicked Inferno in the shin.

"Well I found out that this robot doesn't have the key itself…something inside of it does." Chibi Star began to explain as she flew around in the air. "The key isn't really a key, it's actually a strange object called An Emerald of Life. It is one of the 3 emeralds that Eggman hid away, but I managed to take the last one before he could hide it."

"What are the4 Emeraldscalled?" Inferno asked as Chibi Star turned to him.

"The 1st one is called the Emerald of Hope, the 2nd one is called the Emerald of Peace, the 3rd one is called the Emerald of Rebirth, and the last one is called…"

"Called…?" Shadow questioned as Chibi Star paused.

"The last one is called…the Emerald of Love…Well good luck beating that monster I got to go bye!" Chibi Star flew off leaving Inferno and Shadow in her dust. They just looked over at each other and Shadow began to speak.

"C'mon we better get to that tower." Shadow said as Inferno nodded.

"Okay…SHADOW-CHAN!HAHAHAHAHA OW!" Inferno shouted as Shadow kicked him even harder in the shin than the previous times before. The two ran off towards the tower unsure of what lied ahead.

YAY! Finally the end of Chappy 4. Once again I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while, and Inferno, MJ, Chibi Star, the Mayor, and that weird fortune teller from the last chapter belong to me. Please R&R soon!