A/N: Hey everyone. Sorry for being away for so long. I've just came back from Orlando. Anyway, the gang is off for their first emerald.

Chapter 3: Battle for the first Emerald:

Down in the Sewers, we see a bandicoot that almost looked like Crash but has long brown hair and wore a sleeveless yellow jacket and green jeans. He has a scar over his left eye and wore orange sneakers. He has a black blade strapped to his back. And following him was Knuckles.

"Yo, Benjamin" Knuckles said "Think this is the right direction to the emerald?"

"Well according to the radar you gave me, we've not too far behind" Benjamin said turning to Knuckles. "But what puzzles me though is why you are interested in the emeralds all of the sudden."

"I won't allow Rouge or Eggman to get their hands on the Chaos Emeralds" Knuckles said "Plus, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Eggman."

Benjamin sighed "Just a while longer and we'll be there."

Back at the Bandicoot House, Tails showed the bandicoots the same radar Benjamin has.

"This radar would help us find the Chaos Emeralds" Tails "we cannot let them fall into Dr. Eggman's hands."

"It is hidden in Water Temple" Coco said realising where it would be "we fought Wa-Wa there."

"Oh I am not going anyway where there's water" Sonic said.

"But we have to" Crunch said "we can take the Tornado II there. Sonic, Crash, Tails and Coco will go in the temple to check it out while Cream and I pilot the plane."

"Cream can fly the Tornado II well" Tails said "I'll let her do the flying."

"Well, what do we got to lose?" Crash said.

A little while later…

The gang arrived at the Water Temple. There were pipes hanging around the place above the water. Crash, Coco, Sonic and Tails gets off to check it out. While they are searching for the emerald, Coco couldn't not help but gaze at Tails' twin tails. Tails took notice of this.

"What is it, Coco?" asked Tails.

Coco blushed and tries to hide it and said "You have… well… nice tails."

Tails blushed as well. "Err… thanks, Coco. With these I can fly."

"Wow. Hey, Sonic! Crash!" Coco called to them who were ahead of them "Tails and I are going to check the high areas. You check the low areas."

Tails grabbed hold of Coco's waist and using his twin tails as a small helicopter they flew to a higher level of the Temple. Sonic and Crash just glared at each other.

"They didn't give us time to response" Sonic said.

Then a sewer pipe opened up which caught Sonic and Crash's attention and Knuckles fell out of the water from it and fell into the water below. Benjamin peered out of it.

"I told you not a good idea to do that!" Benjamin called.

"Benjamin?" Crash called capturing Benjamin's attention. "What are you're doing here?!"

"Oh hey, Crash!" Benjamin said leaping down in front of Crash and Sonic. "Well, I was helping Red here find the Chaos Emerald."

Sonic then grabbed a fishing rod out of nowhere and reels it down and pulls Knuckles up. The hook was caught on his pants.

"Knuckles, what are you're doing?" Sonic asked.

"Sonic!" Knuckles gasped. "What are you doing here?"

Sonic laid Knuckles back onto the pipes.

"Well, I was forced to come here to search for the emerald" Sonic said.

Knuckles was about to say something else when he saw Crash. "Tails? When did you… no wait a minute. You're not Tails!"

"So you're another one of Sonic's friend. Tails has gone off with my sister. And my name is Crash" Crash said.

"So what are you and Knuckles doing in the sewers anyway, Benjamin?" asked Sonic.

"Searching for the Emerald but we came to a dead end. So Knuckles tries to break through and a huge gust of water wash him out. I managed to hang onto the ceiling while it happen" Benjamin said.

Sonic and Crash looked at Knuckles who look uneasy. "Hey! How was I suppose to know there's water on the other side?!"

"CRASH! HELP!!!"

Crash looked up to the higher level. "It's Coco! She and Tails might be in trouble. Sonic, keep searching for the Chaos Emerald while Benjamin and I go and help."

"You got it!" Sonic said as Crash and Benjamin leap to above while he and Knuckles continued below.

At long last, Knuckles and Sonic found the Green Emerald but also found a tall pink/purple jewel. Knuckles dived in and grabbed them.

"We got the first emerald" Knuckles said as he tossed the jewel to Sonic "now we just need 6 more. What's wrong, Sonic?"

Sonic looked shocked as he gazed at the jewel. "I don't believe this. This jewel has the same power as the Chaos Emeralds itself".

"What?" Knuckles gasped.

Sonic then remembered what Crash has said and held onto the jewel. "Now I see. This is one of the Power Crystals that Crash was talking about."

"A Power Crystal?" Knuckles asked looking at the crystal.

"Like the Chaos Emeralds, the Crystals have the power to change the world and also have magical powers within them." Sonic said "There are 25 of them."

"25?! Then the crystals are more powerful than the Chaos Emeralds!" Knuckles gasped.

"Almost" Sonic said "The 7 Chaos Emeralds and the 25 Crystals have the same power as each other."

"Exactly!" came a voice from the shadows causing Sonic and Knuckles to jump and turned to see Dr Cortex emerging from it "And we need the crystals so we can conquer the world!"

"Who the heck are you?!" Knuckles asked.

"Wait a minute" Sonic snarled as he remember what Crash told him. "I know who you are. You're that doctor Crash told me about. You're that Neo Cortex character!"

"Yes. And you… you must be Sonic the Hedgehog. Eggman told me all about you, you meddling hedgehog." Cortex sneered.

"You're not getting your hands on the crystal or the emerald!" Knuckles shouted.

"Hahahaha. Oh I am afraid he disagrees" Cortex snapped his fingers and a huge mutant appeared. He was crossed between a crocodile and a dinosaur. He wears grey trousers and a huge flamethrower on his back. "Dingodile! Roast them and bring the Chaos Emerald and the Crystal to me!" And then Cortex got onto his platform and flew off.

As Sonic and Knuckles faced off against Dingodile, Crash and Benjamin arrived to see Tails badly hurt and Coco is surrounded by robots. And in his Egg-Mobile hovering above them is Dr Eggman.

"More reinforcements huh?" Eggman said as he noticed Crash and Benjamin. "Aha. So you…" he said to Crash, who is helping Tails "You must be Crash Bandicoot! Dr Cortex has told me how troublesome you are."

"I take it you must be Dr. Eggman!" Crash said "Sonic told me how twisted you are!"

"Hehehehe. It doesn't matter. Now that Cortex and I have joined forces, we shall show you just how terrible we can be!" Eggman said.

"Leave Coco alone!" Tails shouted.

"I must be on my way" Eggman said "Let see how well you fare against my army of robots." And he flew away.

Crash and Benjamin take out their swords and slashed their way through thousand and thousand of robots. Tails got some strength to take Coco to safety. Crash and Benjamin then stand back to back at each other as the robots move in.

"Think you can handle this many?" Benjamin asked.

"Well" Crash said "Might be tough if one more shows up."

"Then that have to be the one I take care of" Benjamin grinned.

"What?" Crash smiled smugly at his friend and rival "You're fighting too?"

Then the two charged and starts slicing, chopping and slashing more robots.

Meanwhile, Dingodile blows his flamethrower and Sonic and Knuckles ducked away from the flames. Sonic then grinned and ran around and round Dingodile making him very dizzy and Knuckles then leap up and kicked him. Dingodile then shot a flame beam towards Knuckles. Knuckles defend himself as the flames engulf him. When it died down, Knuckles' clothes were badly burnt. But he coughed out a puff of smoke from his mouth.

Sonic then spin rolled into Dingodile hitting the self destruct button on the flamethrower. Taking the Emerald and the Crystal, Sonic and Knuckles managed to get away as the explosion engulfed the area. When it died down, Dingodile just laid there unconscious.

Sonic and Knuckles reached to the top to see piles of metal and scrap every where and oil trickling out of them. They turned to see Crash and Benjamin out of breath kneeing down leaning against their swords. Tails help Coco stand and walk over to them.

"Wow. Did you guys do all of this?" Sonic was impressed. Crash slowly rose to him feet. "Yeah… just tired that's all. Did you get the emerald?"

"Yes and we also got the Crystal also" Knuckles said.

"The crystal?" Crash spotted the crystal in Sonic's hand.

"And we just defeated a mutant dinosaur-crocodile thing with a flame thrower" Sonic said.

This shocked Crash. 'He… defeated… Dingodile?' he thought.

"Coco, are you OK?" Tails asked worried.

Coco smiled at him. "Yeah, I'd be fine."

Crunch and Cream picked them up and they returned to N. Sanity Island. But when they returned, everyone watched as Sonic and Crash were standing further away from the house on the beach.

"What's the matter, Crash?" Sonic asked.

"I have some questions" Crash said "If you're that strong and fast, do you have at least a Super Form or something?"

"Super Sonic?" Sonic asked "Sure. At first I needed the Chaos Emeralds to do so, but not anymore. Now I can control it."

"Then…" Crash turned to Sonic with a serious look in his eyes. "Will you fight me?"

Sonic and the others looked shocked. Crash is challenging Sonic to a fight?

To be continued…

A/N: What is Crash up to? Why does he want to fight Sonic? Stayed tuned.