Enjoy.

Chapter 5

The warm heat of a fire woke Red XIII. The tiger/wolf creature lifted its head to find itself at the base of some kind of shrine. He could see a faint green light shining at the top.

"How do you feel?" came an unrecognizable voice. A pair of red legs came from behind RedXIII and sat down next to him. The rest of the body bore the form of some kind of red creature with abnormally large fists. Red XIII tried to get to feel the force of a sharp pain in his paw pull him back down. The other red creature put out a hand in attempt of assistance. "Easy boy. You're hurt pretty bad."

"Boy?" Red XIII finally spoke.

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Knuckles dropped his jaw. What kind of creature was this? It looked like a tiger yet it also looked like a wolf. On top of that, it could talk.

"Judging by the tone of voice I can tell that I'm well older than you are young man."

Knuckles pushed away from the creature unsure of what to think. "What the heck?" Knuckles started. "What is this….who the…..how did…?"

Words could not explain what Knuckles was feeling. The red tiger/wolf tilted its head and smiled at the red echidna. "What's wrong? You act as if you haven't seen a talking animal before."

"Well yeah but," Knuckles paused after finally realizing the humor. "Hey."

The red tiger/wolf chuckled and looked down at his injured paw. It had a bandage wrapped around which was obviously done by his new red friend. He squinted his eyes, concentrating on the paw causing a round, green glow to form in the lower part of his leg. "Cure," RedXIII softly said and his paw was consumed by a soft green light. After the glow cleared, he moved his paw a few times to make sure the pain was gone.

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Knuckles was once again in awe. One moment the tiger/wolf creature had a sprained paw, the next thing he knew it was healed. "What just happened?"

"Relax" the tiger/wolf replied. "Well why don't we stop with all the shock and start with our names? I have a few questions that need to be answered."

Knuckles blinked a few times and finally calmed down. "Yeah um…. Well where should I start." Knuckles asked.

"Your name boy, your name. Fine I will introduce myself first. My name is RedXIII."

Knuckles noticed the tattoo of the Roman Number, 13. He put his hand on the back of his head and scratched it. "Well I'm Knuckles. So, Mr. RedXIII, I've seen you around these parts before. How did you get on the floating island?"

RedXIII tilted his head and gave Knuckles a 'what are you talking about a floating island' look. Knuckes pointed out towards the horizon and guided RedXIII towards what appeared to be the tip of the island. The tiger/wolf looked to find there was nothing but ocean at the island's base. Indeed, he was on a floating island. This was a very strange world he was in. "I found you unconscious in the forest with some strange machine. Were you captured by Eggman."

"Eggman?" RedXIII brought his attention to the sound of that strange name. who in their right mind would name their child Eggman.

"It's alright, Sonic and Tails with be back here with their new friend, Cloud."

"Cloud," RedXIII jumped up and knocked Knuckles over. "Where is Cloud? Please tell me. Did you find anyone else with me when you found me? Please I need to know!"

"Whoa calm down," Knuckles picked himself up and dusted his legs and arms of any dust that was there. "When I found you, you were all alone. It seems that you've got some explaining to do."

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Shadow was thrown against a wall. His opposition came at him with his claw extended. Shadow tapped his feet together, activating his jet boots and blasted off the wall. He pulled himself into a ball and rolled through into a glowing ball that met Vincent's claw in a minor explosion. The two were knocked away from each other a few feet. Vincent lifted himself and leaned on his knee. The black creature lay unconscious before him. He pulled his gun from its pocket and slowly and looked over Shadow's body. He pointed it at him and squinted his eyes. He could feel the room had begun to heat up. There were no signs of any ventilation. He looked down at the black hedgehog to find that he was swelling with a thick red energy. His quills were blowing in a non-existing wind.

"CHAOS BLAST!" Shadow cried as he threw his eyes open. An explosion erupted from his body, knocking Vincent into an open elevator shaft. Upon impact with the wall behind him, Vincent slowly peeled off of it and fell down into the dark abyss. Shadow stood over the open shaft, holding his injured arm. He hadn't faced anyone like this before. Sonic was nothing compared to this guy. He turned around and approached the computer monitor Vincent was previously operating and activated one of the files labeled 'Chaos Stream.' The screen blacked out, a red line beaming across a sign indicating that it was processing his command. The screen faded into the image of his former creator, Dr. Gerald Robotnik. The scientist began to speak by saying the date in which it was recorded, "We recently discovered a space shuttle of sort and found it inhabited by a group of fellow scientists led by this woman."

A photo of a blonde haired woman popped onto the screen. Her hair her stopped shortly after it met her shoulders. Shadow observed the woman on the screen, he had never scene her in his life. What the connection between her and Gerald? The screen shifted to the image of Shadow's creator who had resumed his arrogation. "Her name was Dr. Lucrecia Crescent. Apparently, her and her staff have arrived from another world. She has agreed to assist in our research in building the Ultimate Lifeform. Dr. Crescent has told me of her world. It seems that the natives of her home planet have found ways in which they can draw natural energy from the earth and use it as an alternative to electricity. I wish to know more if this Lifestream she preaches to us. Perhaps there is something that ties her story to our world's Chaos Emeralds."

With that said, the screen went blank for a moment and returned to the menu of the other unviewed programs. Shadow put his hands on the computer mouse and prepared to open the next program when he was interrupted by the sound of faint footsteps. Shadow slowly turned around with his handgun out to find none other than the human he had just done battle with. "So you came back for another round huh?"

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Vincent did not answer. He was shocked at what he had heard in the previous message. Lucrecia had been here, in this space station. Apparently Cid was not the first person to have went into space. He had to keep this a secret. Vincent stood beside the black and red creature and kneeled onto the table. "Can we please watch this over?"

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Cloud slammed against a wall with Sonic at his side. They could feel the shots of Eggman's robots scorching the other side. Cloud clutched his sword and looked at his blue companion. "Is it always like this when you break in to save your friend?"

"No," Sonic replied with signature smile. "Sometimes I knock. Now let's take these guys."

The two nodded to one another and jumped from behind the wall. Sonic blazed into the fray leaving Cloud behind. A blue streak bounced off the walls knocking into the evil scientist's SWAT Bots. Cloud pressed into his sword's blade, causing one of its extensions to unclip, revealing a second sword. Cloud approached a nearby robot and slashed at one of its legs. The tall robot kneeled over as if it had felt pain. Cloud brought his sword up and slashed a second time at the damaged leg, this time cutting it off. The SWAT Bot keeled over and was consumed by its own explosion. Cloud leapt at a second SWAT Bot who had it fist bent forward revealing a small cannon. Cloud deflected each shot with immediate swipes of his two swords as he flew forward. Once in striking range, the blonde slashed through the mech's head. Sonic came dashing through the SWAT Bot's torso, making sure it was dead.

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The door to Eggman's holding cell came crashing off. The bars near the door's center were deeply bent showing it was hit with a high compilation of energy. Tifa and Amy came walking out the cell. Tifa cracked her knuckles and casually made her way into a hall that was flooded with the sound of an alarm. Apparently they weren't the only ones around. Amy came to Tifa's side and peeped her head out of the hallway.

"It's Sonic," Amy cheered. "He's come to save us."

"Sonic?" Tifa replied. Amy ran down the hall leaving Tifa dumbfounded. "Cloud where are you?"

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Cloud picked up his phone and dialed in the frequency to reach Tifa. There was no signal inside of the Eggaman's fortress. This Eggman character wasn't a dumby, not as if Cloud ever thought he was. His security grid was unlike anything he had ever seen. This new style of technology far surpassed that of his home world. Sonic, he lead Cloud a few inches ahead, stopped and brought up his hand to signal Cloud to stop. The blonde haired human stopped as he was directed to and was brought to the attention of footsteps. Apparently two sets. A pair of shadows took form on the wall before them. Sonic clenched a fist and spread his legs apart. Cloud squeezed the handle to his sword as a foot slid out from behind the wall. He couldn't take the suspense anymore. Cloud lunged forward brought his sword down only to find it to be blocked by a large mallet. Cloud's eyes spread open in shock to see that he was in a blade lock with a tiny creature identical to Sonic. The pink animal groaned as she pushed Cloud off her.

"Amy," Sonic interrupted. The pink hedgehog let down hammer and dashed over to Sonic and wrapped her arms around him.

"Oh Sonic," Amy cried. "I was so scared."

"Amy?" came a second female voice. Tifa emerged from behind the wall to find Cloud. "Cloud."

Cloud put his sword away and approached his childhood friend. Tifa embraced Cloud and buried her face into his chest. The heart-warming reunion was soon cut short by the sound of metal slamming together. The four turned around to a large sealed door. Cloud held a tight squeeze for one of his many swords but did not pull it out yet.

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"You and I are almost the same," Shadow leaned against the desk and looked at the computer screen, which had a menu of the other unwatched programs. "We're not all that different you and I."

Vincent stood by a window, looking out into the vast void of space. "I had no idea that she had actually been in outer space. So many secrets. But who am I to complain."

"Where are the others that you told me about? You told that you had traveled to mobius with a group."

Vincent pushed off the window and brought his gaze over to the black hedgehog. He then looked back out the window to the green planet below them. Having fought with Shadow, Vincent had forgotten about his friends. "Is there any way that I can get down to the planet?"

"Why?"

"My friends."

Shadow and Vincent looked deeply at one another for a few seconds. The black hedgehog couldn't decide what to do. He didn't know Vincent well enough to let him leave the ARK. But what if he was telling the truth?

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Tails could see the Angel Island coming at him from behind the horizon of clouds. The volcano at its center gutting out of the ground dominated the island's landscape. The light brown fox flew over the floating with the volcano to his port side and found the forest behind it had been decimated. Trees were snapped out of place and a large trench had been formed. This was no ordinary trench. It looked as if one of the evil doctor, Eggman had crashed his ship or maybe a meteorite had fell from space. Tails flew along the trail to see that it stopped at foot of the where he had set up his workshop. A space unlike any he had seen before lay in waster. It was obviously not from Eggman's fleet. Those were always red and yellow and had his insignia painted on their sides. Tails came in easily on his landing strip and brought his purple plane to a halt only meter away from his workshop. He hopped out of his plane and looked over the cliff side at the wreckage that was the airship.his attention was soon drawn by a door slamming open behind him then drew his attention. Tails found a human male carrying a pack of tools out of his workshop. The human casually walked by without saying a word to the small fox. Tails tilted his head a bit.

"What the?"

Sorry it took so long to update. School is murder on me. I just made the honor roll and I haven't had any time to write so I thought I'd try to give you guys an extra long chapter this time.