A/N: Hellooooo, gomen nasai for the long wait eheh. My important exams are coming in May and we're already preparing for everything and revision and homework etc. I hope this chapter is worth the wait. Also, don't you guys review? I mean I see the traffic stats to see how many people read this story and I barely receive three per chapter. PLEASE REVIEW DAMMIT! I TYPED IN 10,000 WORDS IN THE LAST CHAPTER FOR YOUR BENEFITS. Arigato to those who did review and fave the story. I'm gonna clear up something, In this story, Maria Robotnik is a Zonecop in No-Zone as well but she's alive and human and the same age as Zamy xD Her name would be Zaria in here.

Japanese translations:

Shini sou: Seems like I'm going to die...
Dare: Who?
Doushita: What happened?
Daijoubu: I'm okay
Betsuni: Nothing
Shuushi: Stop
Shimatta: Damn it
Yakamashii: Shut up
Inasu: Let go
Temae: You
Baka: Idiot
Arigato: Thank you
Iyada: I don't want to do it
Goshinpainaku: Don't worry
Hakiji: Idiot
Dochirahe: How are you?
Hai: Yes
Sumimasen: Excuse me?
Aishiteru: I love you (the popular choice but there is also: Daisuki and Koishiteru)
Doushite: Why?
Kono Yarou: You blighter
Tawagato shojo: silly girl
Tonda: Absolutely not
Amarini: Too
Oyasuminasai: Good night
Gaika: Victory

SEGA Sonic= Nicky
Archie Sonic= Sonic
SEGA Amy= Emi
Archie Amy= Amy

Ages (Well SEGA characters ages)
Sonic: 15 years
Amy: 12 years
Tails: 8 years
Shadow: Older then I'll ever be...-_-
Silver: 14 years
Cream: 6 years
Blaze: 14 years
Rouge: 18 years
Knuckles: 16 years

Disclaimer: I own my brain...

(In No Zone)

The hovercraft finally landed. If you were outside, you would've not been able to see it let alone hear the hovercraft since it's covered by an invisible cloak made by the genius of this dimension: Zails. Inside the hovercraft, Zonic was telling the young hedgehogs (Nicky, Emi, Shadow and Silver) what they were going to do next.
"Okay, so this is what we're going to do: Znuckles and I will stealthily come out and knock out any of the opposing team. Zamy and Zails will lead you to inside the company's abandoned building and begin your search for the chaos emerald. Zails has located the emerald there and he's upgraded your wrist watches so you can track the emerald down quicker in any dimension you guys are in. If anyone tries to attack you, knock them out but DON'T kill them." Zonic eyes at Shadow when he mentioned the 'kill' part.

The ebony hedgehog rolled his eyes at the Zonecop and nodded. It's not like he's going to kill someone as soon as they try to harm him. Though, Sonic may be an exception but who knows?

"No matter what happens, do not just recklessly attack anyone or mess about. Stay as quiet as possible and don't start looking for trouble either." Zonic was now eyeing at the pouting cerulean hedgehog who let out a snort. He stood up and stretched his legs.
"Shini sou. That's no fun..." Nicky huffed sarcastically receiving an eye twitch from his counterpart. Zonic sucked in his teeth before firmly warning the teen.

"Listen you! I'm being serious here. One wrong move could cost anyone's life here. The reason I'm not letting any of you guys to the front line is because you have no experience of the future and the weapons of this place. Sure you've beaten monsters and that stupid egghead but that's not the point. These terrorists you might come across won't hesitate to shoot you or any of your friends. They are ruthless, merciless and greedy. Do you understand?" Nicky stared at Zonic gobsmacked. His ears drooped sown slightly and nodded. Now that Zonic mentioned it, Emi, Shadow or Silver could get hurt and not forgetting the other Zonecops as well. Nicky felt a hand on each of his shoulders. He looked at the owners to see Emi and Silver with a firm look.

It's like they're going to lose their lives in this mission. 'Not if I can help it.' Nicky's mind whispered to himself harshly as both his hands reached to Emi's and Silver's hand on his shoulder and gave a squeeze of assurance.
"I'll make sure no one does anything stupid. I don't anyone hurt either." Shadow explained and stood by the three hedgehogs. The Zonecops nodded at his gesture and they all started to follow the plan. The door opened quietly and automatically only wide enough for a slim human to pass through without giving too much away.

With all their equipment and weapons clipped to their belt, Zonic grabbed Znuckles arms and zoomed out of the hovercraft within a blink of an eye. Zails waited for a signal to see if the coast was clear. His watch flashed which indicated that Zonic pressed the 'safe' button on his watch. Zamy beckoned everyone to follow her as she slipped through the door (which was kind of easy since she's quite thin for her age) Zails trailed behind the group and made sure that the door of the hovercraft was closed. They all crept along the path of grass as quietly as possible. The moon was their only source of light to see the majestic building in front of them.

It looked similar to the Zonecops' headquarters only less lively and there were no lights on. It's a wonder why it was abandoned. Maybe it's because the Zonecops have found out that this building was preoccupied by the black market terrorists thus they had to flee? It sounds logical that way anyway. The four hedgehogs' watches had an icon of a emerald on the corner of the face. It was starting to brighten up highlighting that they were nearer to the chaos emerald.

They all stood flat right next to the nearby wall. Zails scanned his head to see if there were any CCTV cameras around. Surprisingly, there wasn't any in the first place. 'Something's not right.' Zails thought to himself and a look of distress went across his face. He tapped Zamy on the shoulder getting her attention and whispered the issue into her ear. Her eyes widened but before she could open her mouth, Znuckles began to talk in a hushed whisper.

"Alright everyone, not a sound, we are going to bust the door open in silence. Nicky, stay close to Emi and make sure she doesn't make a sound." Emi was about to protest before she felt a hand clamp against her mouth and a hand slither around her waist. She looked behind her to see that it was Nicky himself and he gave a serious look. Emi nodded in agreement and he removed his hand from her face.
"Zails, unlock the door." Zonic gestured to Zails who shook off his disturbed thoughts and tiptoed towards the entrance. From the side of his belt, he got out a small metal rod. He stuck it on one of the keyholes of the doors. Suddenly, the doors glowed in a cyan colour before melting onto the floor like thick custard. Everyone stepped away from the slow melting door for five seconds. The goo hissed and settled immediately after touching the cool concrete ground that had a few blades of grass around the edges.

Everyone stepped over the goop and entered the building. While the others remained oblivious, Zamy and Zails kept on looking behind them to see if anything or anyone was around and waiting to kill them. Zonic tapped his watch and a blue, warm glow lit up like a torch. The rest of them followed suite (Zails upgraded the four hedgehogs' watch, remember?) Each of their watches glowed in a azure colour. Without any words spoken, they split up to explore the building in order to look for the chaos emerald. Zamy and Zails went with Silver taking the stairs to the second floor. Znuckles went with Shadow as they checked the bottom floor. Zonic was left with Nicky and Emi to check the the basement. The reason no one went up the floors above the second floor was because the signal of the chaos emerald on the radar went lower indicating that the emerald wasn't up there. Zamy and Silver and Zails only went to the second floor to check just in case.

(With Znuckles and Shadow)

"Any luck yet?" Znuckles inquired only to receive a shook of disagreement from Shadow.
"The radar hasn't budged much since we got in the offices. But, I've found quite a few dodgy files here and there. Why is the building so empty?" Shadow's eyes flashed in curiosity.
"I think it's cos when they fled, they took everything from here. But why did they take the chairs and tables? They could've took these files as well. Surely they're not that clumsy or anything." Znuckles picked up one of the files to prove his point.

SNAP!

"Somebody's here." Znuckles got his gun ready in no time while Shadow took a fighting stance. A shadow was seen moving out of the room with a creepy smile. "After it!" the duo ran out of the room only to see the shadow has disappeared out of no where. They stopped in their stances with anger written all over the face.
"Dare?" Shadow hissed. Either that person was really fast or he or she is hiding somewhere. "We've got to keep our guards up. I think that these terrorists knew we were coming the whole time." Znuckles gave a grunt and furrowed his brows. Why couldn't there be such thing as a easy mission?

After five minutes of walking aimlessly in the gigantic building on the ground floor, Znuckles and Shadow still hasn't come across with the mysterious figure they've yet to encounter. Despite that, they kept their guards up and gulped down their paranoia. They haven't come across the chaos emerald yet much to Knuckles delight (not).
"I wonder if the others are alright." Shadow murmured to himself but that was heard by the red Zonecop himself.
"Hey, they're gonna be fine. With us lot around, no harm will become on them."
"I said I was going to protect them back there on the hovercraft. Why did we split up? It would've been safer if we were in each other's sight. Chaos knows what that shadow was." Shadow grumbled slightly peeved at the fact he didn't get to fulfill his wish.

Before Shadow could take another step, Znuckles shoved him to the side in an instant.
"What the-" Shadow was cut off by a bullet like orb going past his face and hitting Znuckles in the shoulder. Shadow looked at the direction it came from to come face to face with a human in a spy like outfit holding a weird high tech gun. Znuckles grunted in pain in the background but suddenly screamed in agony. The orb that hit him electrocuted him as well for a millisecond before minimizing into a bullet and falling out of his wound.

"You're going to pay for that." Shadow admonished and he whipped both his hands in front of his form in a X-formation. A chaos spear appeared in both of his hands and as soon as he whipped his arms, the chaos spears shot towards the shooter. The human ducked down and jumped towards the side of the walls. His shoes stuck glowed in a green colour and he stayed stuck the wall.
"No wonder he went away so fast," Znuckles stood up weakly. With his good arm, he took out his gun and started to shoot the human aiming anywhere but the fatal points. A Zonecop's duty is not to kill anyone but to bring justice and peace. Unlike the human's gun, Znuckles' gun is sounded so you'd hear every shot he makes.

The fight has begun with the three of them. Shadow shooting chaos spears, the human terrorist ducking and running on the walls and sometimes shooting its deadly gun at them while Znuckles tried to shoot back as well. They may as well just break down the walls since their silent rule has been broken by the amount of racket they're making. If Shadow had a chaos emerald in his possession, he could've just chaos controlled behind the human and knock him out. Right now, they're safe and sound at the headquarters.

"You alive back there Znuckles?" Shadow yelled as he skated after the human. The human's shoes provided it incredible speed giving it a chance to escape. Znuckles gave a painful 'yeah' as he struggled to keep up. The pain on his shoulder was excruciating but that's not going to keep the Zonecop down.

(With Zamy, Zails and Silver)

Meanwhile, this trio was in a heated fight as well with more intruders however, one of them was human and the other two were Mobians. It was easy to tell by the shape of their bodies underneath the ebony suits and the size of their green flashing shoes which had the same abilities as the human shooter with Shadow and Znuckles. Silver levitated himself and flew towards one of the Mobian terrorist avoiding the electric orbs and acidic bullets from both sides. He punched the Mobian hard on the head knocking it out immediately. Before he could do anything else, he was hit by one of electrical orbs on the side of his leg by the opposing team making him yelp.

Luckily, the orb just scratched past his leg therefore he didn't have to endure the agonizing pain of being electrocuted. Zails shot the legs of the human terrorist making it collapse in pain. The bullets that the Zonecops have has a special serum in it to prevent blood from pouring out of the body while the terrorists' bullet orbs does the opposite.

"Silver! You hang in there!" Zamy shouted while shooting the last terrorist in front of them. Silver winced at the pain on the scratch on his leg. It felt like someone was pouring salt in his wound. Perhaps it's the bit of electricity that managed to get into him. Zails and Silver picked up the weapons from the fallen terrorists so they don't attack in surprise later on.

The standing terrorist darted off at such high speed courtesy to it's shoes with Zamy hot at it's heels. She whipped out a different gun similar to the terrorists but it seemed more advanced in style.
"Silver! Zails! Go find the others; I'll take care of this brat!" Zamy ordered as she was no longer in Zails' and Silver's vision.
"Come on, we have to find the others before it's too late." Zails dragged Silver along with him and they both ran off towards the stairs prepared for any oncoming attacks.

(With Zonic, Nicky and Emi)

Luckily, the remaining three hedgehogs haven't come across any of the terrorists nor were they aware that there were any present in the first place since the ceiling was pretty much soundproof and the only thing you could hear is their raspy breathing. Zonic was in the lead and his head scanning the current room like a guard dog. Nicky was by Emi's side with her holding his hand in fear of letting go. Not that she would admit it but she truly was scared. 'I feel like I'm in one of those horror movies. Note to self, never watch horror movies late at night ever again.' Emi noted to herself. She felt a pressure on her hand and she snapped to Nicky's direction. His lime eyes seemed to look like neon lights piercing her body and the glow of their watches seemed to illuminate his body giving it that warm glow.

"Doushita?" Nicky whispered as they trailed behind Zonic. Emi quickly put on a smile and shook her head.
"Betsuni...daijoubu." Emi replied adding a fake smile quickly. Nicky saw through her act and didn't reply back. Instead, he pulled her towards him a bit more and carried on looking around. If he didn't turn away, he would've seen Emi's bright cheeks. The emerald icon on their watches seemed to glow brighter and brighter.

"We're getting closer to the chaos emerald." Zonic muttered loud enough for the young duo to hear. Nicky grinned in relief but inside the back of his mind, something was nagging him. He just couldn't put his finger on it. Same goes for Zonic. The Zonecop gritted his teeth in frustration. 'This mission is too easy, something's not right.'

Suddenly, they came across a large steel door but unlike the others they had to bust through, it was open. Realizing this, Zonic whipped out his gun and Emi summoned her hammer with Nicky shielding her behind him.
"Someone's here." Emi murmured but wasn't able to step any closer towards the door with Nicky holding her back. Zonic motioned for both of them to step back as he moved closer towards the door.

'If anyone is in here, I can't allow Nicky and Emi to get hurt.' Zonic's mind screamed to himself. Each step echoed in their ears as Zonic moved closer and closer towards the door while Nicky was reluctantly moving further and further away in order to keep Emi safe.
"Emi, stop pushing my arm." Nicky narrowed his eyes at her and gave a firm look but Emi glared back and pushed his arm more to see what was happening. "Shuushi!" he whispered louder and his quills bristled slightly as a warning.

BANG!

The two hedgehogs whipped their heads from each other to the direction of the noise only to see that Zonic has kicked the door wide open aiming his gun at something. Nicky held Emi closer to him and his quills curved up slightly. They were frozen in this stance for a few seconds before the silence was broken by the Zonecop himself.
"We found the chaos emerald. There's no one here." Zonic spoke. His tone of voice told otherwise. It was like he was suspicious and frustrated. Nicky loosened his grip on Emi and they both ran next to Zonic. They peered in the room to see the chaos emerald on some sort of circular floating device. The emerald icon on their watches was glowing to its full extent.

"I'll go get the emerald, you stay next to Emi." Zonic informed ignoring the huff of protest Nicky gave out. Usually, Nicky did all the dangerous work and all that but now Zonic is doing everything which kind of annoyed him. Nicky and Emi stepped into the room as so did Zonic. The room wasn't very big nor was it very small. The walls, ceiling and floor was covered in black metallic tiles with a green glow between every gap. The room seems to look like a power room but with the emerald as its source.
"Someone was here or maybe is around somewhere. That means the others might be in-" Zonic's eyes widened in realization. They all could be injured right now or worse. The sooner they take the emerald, the sooner they could get back to the others. Zonic took each of his step wisely with his calculating mind. Each step was significant as he ventured closer and closer towards the emerald. Emi bit her bottom lip in anticipation and Nicky's face was of a concentrated expression.

Zonic swooped the emerald off of the contraption only for the green glow in the room to turn off in an instance. A gun cocking was heard triggering Zonic to run behind Nicky and Emi and bend his legs slightly making the oncoming electric bullet orb bounce off his shoulder plates and to the wall making it fizz and light up temporarily. This allowed the hedgehogs to see the attacker. The figure smirked and walked towards them casually. It was a human male. He chuckled showing his white teeth and his white hair added flair to his pale face. His jade eyes shimmered in blood lust and his clothes looked like something a spy would wear. He looked around eighteen to twenty years old.

"You again," Zonic spoke in a bitter tone sending shivers down the younger hedgehogs' spines. He was shielding them with one arm and a gun in the other hand. The human man gave a playful pout.
"Aw, someone's not happy." his voice was like velvet chocolate and quite seductive. He's quite a charmer.
"Shut up Hinote!" Zonic aimed his gun at Hinote but didn't fire as the man began to speak again.
"You have no rights to tell me what to do in my building you brat. Now, hand over my emerald otherwise I'll give a fatal shot towards the pink cutie and your mini counterpart." his charming voice immediately switched to a demonic tone.
"Nicky, take the emerald and Emi and run! I'll take on Hinote." Zonic threw the chaos emerald to Nicky who immediately caught it. "Run now!" Nicky didn't hesitate to pass the emerald in Emi's hand and pick her up bridal style however, Hinote appeared in front of his face in a sudden and gave a blood curling grin.

Zonic's pupils dilated at the speed the man was moving trying to attack Nicky with combat. Despite having Emi in his arms, Nicky was doing rather well on dodging Hinote's punches and kicks. Zonic rushed forwards and punched Hinote straight in the jaw sending him to the ground. This gave Nicky the opportunity to run off and find the others to his dismay. Hinote got back up straight away and chased after Nicky. Zonic ended up running after Hinote as well.
"Since when did you get such speed!" Zonic roared and fired his gun at Hinote who dodged all the bullets without batting an eyelash. Hinote shook off his question and aimed his technical gun at Nicky. Emi looked back and warned her close one. Nicky looked back in horror and sped up tucking Emi's head under his chin disallowing any chance of her getting shot.

"Hinote!" Zonic shouted enraged that the man was ignoring him making him speed up as well. He can't allow Nicky and Emi to be injured at any circumstances. Since Nicky had Emi in his arms, he couldn't go as fast as he wanted to giving Hinote the advantage to catch up behind them making the gap closer and closer. Zonic threw his gun at Hinote like a boomerang and hit him at the back of the head making him trip and fall. Unfortunately, Zonic didn't stop running fast enough causing him to stumble over Hinote's body and crash into Nicky and Emi making them fall in process. The emerald in Emi's hand slipped out of her fingers and rolled forward.

When they all composed themselves again, they all noticed the chaos emerald right in front of them. They all took one look at each other before leaping for the emerald and clasping their hands on it at the same time.
"Shimatta! Take your dirty hands off of the chaos emerald Hinote!" Zonic growled pulling the emerald towards his direction. Hinote glared at him and yelled back:
"Yakamashii! I found it first in my building!" Hinote pulled the emerald towards his direction more.
"It belongs to our world!" Nicky added and attempted to pull the emerald in his direction but only by a bit. Emi let out a sound in annoyance and pulled the emerald to her direction with such strength that it pulled the boys as well.
"INASU!" she squealed and slipped the emerald out of their grasps and into her hand making the boys fall on the floor, may I mention, with a loud CRASH!

Groans of pain were emitted from them as they stood up in a daze. All of their green eyes, each a different shade seemed to pierce each other's body. Emi summoned her hammer and narrowed her eyes at Hinote making him raise a brow at the size of the hammer.
"What the-" he was cut off by her piko piko hammer trying to him.
"Temae...baka...baka...BAKA!" Emi's whole body was literally on a fire of fury as she carried on trying to hit Hinote. He dodged every one of her bone breaking hits but only by a centimeter away as each hit got closer and closer towards him. "You tried to kill me! You tried to kill my Nicky Sonikku! You tried to kill Zonic! Now I'm going to BEAT YOU TO A PULP!" what Hinote didn't notice was Nicky was behind him which allowed the young hedgehog to deliver a kick to his back making trip forward in pain only to have a hard hammer deliver a hit towards his stomach and be thrown towards the ceiling and then fall to the ground.

Surprisingly, not only was Hinote conscious, he was trying to stand up again but Zonic had none of that and kicked him back down again to handcuff him.
"I don't see the point of this, I'm going to escape your stupid jail right under your noses like last time." Hinote grumbled. Before Zonic could say anything, Nicky beat him to it.
"You're under arrest! Anything you say will be used against you in court." he added a smug smile along with it earning a sweat drop from both Zonic and Hinote and a giggle from Emi.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Electric orb bullets were shot by the very Mobian terrorist Zamy was chasing striking Nicky on the side of his back quills, Zonic across his arm and Emi across her waist electrocuting them all making them crouch and bend in pain. Zonic gave out a small grunt but Nicky and Emi gave a huge scream since they're not used to this type of harm. Neither of them were able to get up as the Mobian broke Hinote's handcuffs. He rubbed his wrists and gave a wry smirk.
"Arigato...Hiya..." Hinote cackled at the sight of the pained expressions on the hedgehogs' faces. Emi was the worst since she was struck across her waist and was losing more blood. Despite that, she clutched the chaos emerald close to her chest protecting it with all her strength.

"Hiya, take the emerald off pinky and give them all the finishing blow." His voice was dead serious now. Nicky's and Emi's eyes widened in fear. Neither of them wanted to die at such a young age and in this way.
"Iyada!" Hiya appeared as she was wrinkling her nose in disgust. Hinote sighed in irritation and took the gun out of her hands.
"Oh yeah, you don't like to kill..." he cocked the gun and seemed to have scrolled the lever to a higher voltage. "...when you want something done, you should do it yourself." the gun was powering up and when Hinote was about to fire...

BANG! BANG!

Hinote fell onto his knees and onto the floor screaming in agony. His vital spinal chord has been shot immediately paralyzing him. Hiya fell too but was clutching her foot whimpering. Behind them, the one who shot those shots, the one who saved the lives of the three hedgehogs...
"Zamy...you came..." Zonic staggered up with a warm smile and held onto the wall for support. His ears out tuned the screams of Hinote and only focused on Zamy's face.

"Zonic...Emi...Nicky! You're all hurt!" Zamy gasped in shock and ran towards the injured trio. "I've already called for back up. Zilver and Zlaze has already too Znuckles to the infirmary. Zaria and Zhadow has already taken the fallen terrorists to jail." speaking of back up, Zector suddenly appeared at the doorway along with Zespio and handcuffed Hiya. They stared at the paralyzed Hinote in shock and then at the injured hedgehogs in more shock.

Nicky finally managed to get up and dashed towards Emi who was curled up on the floor trying to ignore her pain. He lifted her up in his arms and stared at the wound in shock.
"Y-you're ble-bleeding." Nicky whispered out and closed his eyes in anger. He wasn't able to protect her. He promised he'd protect her. He vowed to make sure no harm becomes on her.
"It's just a scratch Nicky-Kun. Goshinpainaku." Emi smiled out. Don't be alarmed, she's not dying (no where near in fact) but she's seriously injured and the electrocution didn't help either.

"How can you smile in such pain? And you're saying it's just a scratch? You're bleeding a heck of a lot!" Nicky panicked and stood up with her in his arms despite his injured quills protesting in pain.
"At least we have the chaos emerald." Emi tried to lighten the situation but Nicky shook his head and his ears lowered in melancholy.
"To heck with the chaos emerald; your safety is more important to me than some stupid jewel. Hakuji...my hakuji..." Nicky rested his forehead on Emi's feeling the warmth of the sensation travelling around his heart and on his head. He brought his head back up and walked towards Zamy and Zonic with Emi in his arms. His eyes were almost pleading.

Zamy got a gauze from her belt and wrapped Emi's waist with the bandage to cease the bleeding for now. Once they get back to the infirmary, it'll get treated better.
"Come on, lets get out of here." Zamy stroked Emi's bangs like an older sister and gave a nod to Nicky. Everyone was out of abandoned building and entered their respective vehicles on the way to the headquarters.

(At the HQ)

Hiya and the other terrorists were now sitting in their separate cells for who knows how long while Hinote was in a special one due to his temporary paralysis. Znuckles, Silver and Zonic was being treated at the infirmary. Emi wasn't in there because she was treated first by Zaria who was really sweet and nice to her.

(flashback)

"Okay, now you're all done." Zaria giggled as she tightened the bandage on Emi's bare body. "Try not to twist your waist too much or do anything that requires moving a lot as this might reopen your wound." the blonde human girl winked. She was like a cross between Cream and Vanilla. The very sweetness and politeness of her personality mixed with some maturity and maternity love. No wonder Zhadow had the hots for her.

"Thank you so much Zaria! I feel a lot better now." Emi tilted her head to the side and giggled as her eyes closed in bliss. "Ano...can I ask you something?" Emi rubbed her arm sheepishly.
 "Sure! Wait, let me get you a spare dress for you to wear. Luckily, we have an exact one your size." Zaria ran out of the room for a second before returning and handing the dress to Emi. Emi quickly put it on without straining her waist too much. She checked herself out in the mirror to confirm that it's an exact replica of her trademark cherry red dress. "You'll be better in a day or two." Zaria piped up. "Now, about that question..."

"Oh yeah! Are you and Zhadow dating?" Zaria's face exploded in a red hue. Emi asked the question so innocently and yet...
 "W-what makes you think that?" Zaria stammered as her hair shielded her eyes.
 "It's just you two make a cute match. You see, our Shadow lost his Maria long time ago and he admits that he loves her so Zhadow probably feels the same for you." Emi's eyes shimmered in the need for knowledge. Zaria shook her head and twirled a strand of her with a finger.
 "You see, we're not dating but, I think he likes me." Zaria's lips upturned to a bashful smile but was immediately placed with a look of surprise. "Oh! I almost forgot, Nicky told me to tell you that he needs to talk to you. He'll meet you in Zamy's room." Zaria led the sakura hedgehog out of the infirmary and waved a quick bye.

(end of flashback)

The very thought of it made the young girl's heart flutter.
"Maybe he's going to confess, eheh~" she giggled to herself. She was currently in Zamy's room waiting to be treated. She was kicking her legs back and forth on the bed she was sitting on feeling the air on her fuzzy feet (you know, none of the Sonic characters have toes- think of it as a chao feet) Her boots were by the bed and she was fiddling with her gloves. "He'd probably bring flowers and swoop me in his arms. Our face will get closer and closer, I will pucker up and ki-" Emi's daydream babbling was cut off by a fake cough. She looked at the doorway slightly mortified to see Nicky leaned against the doorway.

"Emi...what am I gonna do with you?" He chuckled as he let himself in and leaned against the wall facing the younger one. "Dochirahe? I see the bleeding has ceased." because Emi's dress is backless, the bandage is visible but it wasn't bloodstained.
"Hai. Thanks to Zaria! She's very nice to me." Emi responded but then stopped kicking her legs as he saw Nicky's frown. "She said you wanted to talk to me. Is it something serious?" Nicky sighed and zoomed right next to her and kept standing.
"Emi, I've never seen you bleed so much in my entire life. Heck, I've never seen that much blood in my entire life." he sat down next to her. "You made me worried you know."

His next move took her breath away. Nicky was embracing her tightly. Sure there were other times when he did that but this one made her heart feel like it was over the moon. The way he tucked her head under his chin. The way his strong arms encircled her body squeezing her closer to his frame. The way his breath hit her ears making her shiver.
"Today, one of us could've died. If it weren't for Zamy, we both might have not been here you know." he whispered in her ear. Emi's arms were tucked between both of their bodies so she wasn't able to return the hug.

"But we're alive now. That's what matters. We're a step closer to going home." Emi looked up and Nicky moved his head to see her face. His eyes lowered in worry.
"I've spoken to Shadow a while ago. He's pretty angry on how beaten up we all are. We've come to a conclusion though," Emi froze. 'I hope he's not thinking what I'm thinking,' she begged to herself.

"Both you and Silver will stay back in No-Zone while Shadow and I will go to the next dimension to retrieve the remaining chaos emeralds. We will come back here once we get them and we will go home." Nicky closed his eyes as he finished his sentence. Emi looked at him in horror. 'Not again, no, he's leaving me behind again like he always does. I want to help!' Emi's mind screamed.

"No...NO!" Emi pushed herself out of his arms and took a few steps back. She shook her head and crossed her arms defiantly. "I'm going with you no matter what. We all got hurt and just because Silver and I are the youngest of us for doesn't mean we have to avoid all of this." Nicky stood up and kept his straight posture.
"Emi, please understand, we're doing this for both of you guys' safety. Shadow is probably speaking with Silver right now and we need to leave as soon as possible."

"You're going to leave now? It's nearly one am! We're all hurt and injured. Neither of us can go at this state right now and neither of us are staying behind. We have to stay together." Emi whipped her hand out to emphasize her point.
"Jeez, I knew you would disagree with this," Nicky mumbled.
"So why bother asking. I'm coming with you whether you like it or not. This is my mission too."
"Sumimasen? Whether you like it or not, you and Silver are staying here where you are safe." Nicky's voice rose.
"You can't stop me. I'll follow you anyway. I always find a way! You're hurt too and I don't want you to get hurt any further."
"Why do you care about such a small injury? Just listen to me!"
"I care cos..." Emi paused.

"Cos what?" Nicky had it with her. He zipped towards her and his height towered her slightly shorter body. "Go on then or do you lack a good reason."
"Aishiteru!" Emi shouted out and enveloped him in her arms as tears cascaded down her cheeks. "Aishiteru! Daisuki! Koishiteru!" Emi wailed "Are these reasons good enough? I may not be much but I can't stay without you! I want to be with you. Why...why can't you feel the same for me? Doushite? Why do you always push me back? DOUSHITE!"

After moments of silence, Nicky still hasn't responded both physically and verbally but mentally, there was a fight.

'She's breaking down, how long are you going to keep her like that?' his inner mind growled.
'I can't tell her anything, it's too early!' Nicky countered back.
'If this carries on, she'll be nothing more than a broken shell.' his inner mind retorted.
'No...no she won't...'
'Don't you trust her to be able look after herself? Do you think she's that weak?'
'Shut up! I want her safe. She's not the only one staying.'

'Why is her safety so important? Doushite?'
'She's my friend; of course I want her safe! She's already injured, I don't think I'll live if she dies or gets worse and get attacked by my anti.'
'DOUSHITE? DOUSHITE?'
'Because I love her! And I will protect her at all costs. That's why she's staying here!' Nicky finally admitted the three lettered sentence which he avoided to use in pursuit of Emi. The significant three word which would've eased away her doubts and grant her a permanent happiness.
'Tell her-' his inner voice whispered before Nicky was brought back to reality.

"Nicky-Kun...you haven't answered..." Emi lifted her head up to meet Nicky's gaze. She shook her doubts away and clenched her fists retracting her arms away from his body. "Never mind that! No matter what you day, I know you love me! I will go with you! I don't care what anyone says." Nicky placed a hand on her cheek so she met his tender gaze.
"I care about you- a lot and you know that. But, I can't tell you that I love you, not yet. It's not appropriate at this time. I care for you, that's why I want you to stay back. Either of us won't be able to live without each other. I promise you I will be back. Have I ever broken a promise?" Emi's heart skipped a beat at his little confession.
"Every time you missed a date." Emi wiped away her tears. Nicky's eyes went blank. 'She'll never let me forget those.' he thought to himself.
"I mean the more important things." Emi shook her head.

"Nicky, you know how stubborn I am. I will come with you to the Anti world. I will forever hold this against you if you don't let me go with you." Emi threatened weakly enough for Nicky to see through it. She's never going to hold anything against him because she loves him so much.
"Then it's a price that I've to pay." Nicky replied back. "I don't want you hurt again." Suddenly, a loud crash was heard and a angry Shadow cursing.

"Kono yarou! Get back here! How dare you throw a chair at my head!" Shadow was skating after Silver who was flying just out of the reach.
"Baka baka! What kind of Onii-Sama insults his little siblings?" Silver added fuel to the fire and dodged ac chaos spear.
"A type that will blow up your stupid quills off your head and beat you up till black and blue!" an irritated anime mark appeared on the side of his head.
"Nope, the dress is white and gold..." Silver took the problem very lightly as he entered Zamy's room and still hovered in the air to see Nicky and Emi down there. "Hey Emi! As non-related siblings, we shall escape towards the Anti world whether Nicky and Shadow likes it or not." he yelled receiving a thumbs up from Emi.

"Oh no you're not! Both of you will stay here." Shadow entered the room with chaos spears in his hands and whipped one at Silver making him fall to the ground shouting 'mayday mayday'. "Next time, I'll console Rozu and you take on Silver." Shadow huffed and Nicky.
"But Emi-Chan is still not listening to me." Nicky added bluntly.
"Silver and I are going with you both. I will beat you guys with my hammer if you don't obey!" she summoned her hammer only for it to be grabbed by Nicky who attempted to pull out of her grasps. "Let go of my hammer!"
"No way am I going to let you hit us with that demonic weapon again." Nicky yelled but mostly in fear of the hammer. "Besides, didn't Zaria say you shouldn't be moving too much or do something that involves you moving your waist a lot?" Emi stopped struggling making Nicky think he's one and stopped pulling only for her to tug really hard one more time making him them fall with him on top of her.

"Oof! Emi! Tawagoto shojo!" he blushed at the position they were in. His arms were trapping her under him and their faces were very close to one another.
"Kiss already my future brother-in-law!" Silver shouted making Nicky cringe in embarrassment. The poor hedgehog seemed to be glued in place.
"Not if I can help it," Shadow had the assassin look on before throwing a chaos spear at Nicky's tail.

"OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! DOUSHITEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Nicky's scream was heard throughout the whole building waking a few sleeping Zonecops up.

"Wha? Are they at it again? Why aren't they sleeping?" Zonic's eyes lowered as he got up from his bed. Yawning, he zipped towards Zamy's room to see that she wasn't there. Instead, he saw a cringing Emi, a laughing Silver, a not amused Shadow and a Nicky jumping up and down holding his tail.
"What the heck is going on?" Zonic had his hands on his hips and tapped his foot impatiently. He was faced by an angry Nicky who pointed at Shadow.
"He threw a chaos spear at MY TAIL!" Nicky cried. Zonic glared at Shadow.
"He tried to kiss Emi and maybe take advantage of her." he explained plainly. Zonic raised his brow.
"I did not! You saw that I fell on her." Nicky argued back.

"Why didn't get right back up then instead of edging closer to her lips?" Shadow bared his fangs. Nicky's mouth zipped to a straight line before denying what the Ultimate Life Form was saying.
"Was not!"
"Was too."
"Was not!"
"Tonda!"
"Amarini!" Shadow countered back.
"Tonda!"
"Amarini!"

While the rivals argued, Zonic tapped Silver on the shoulder.
"What caused all of this in the first place?" he asked.
"Sonic and Shadow wanted me and Emi to stay behind temporarily while they retrieve them emeralds from the Anti world. Me and Emi disagreed and it somehow led to this mess." Silver clarified.

Sonic and Shadow were now exchanging fists and pulling each others quills. Zonic had enough and pulled the two apart with a ferocious stare.
"You both are idiots," Zonic started "You won't last a day in the Anti world without Silver's and Emi's help." before they could protest, Zonic held up his hand. "Don't you try and argue with me. Emi will recover by tomorrow and Silver has seemed to have already recovered. You guys will make your journey tomorrow at noon and if you disobey, I will send Zhadow on you. Okay?" they all nodded in a trance. "Oyasuminasai." Zonic zipped out of the room.

One minute turned into two. Two minutes turned into three. Emi and Silver gave a sly smirk towards Shadow and Nicky.
"Gaika!" they shouted in unison. Nicky and Shadow looked at each other in defeat and scoffed.
"So, where are we sleeping..." Silver mused. No one gave an answer.

A/N: not as many words as the last chapter but hopefully this will do. I'm too tired ne. I hope the characters didn't seem OOC or anything like that. I just write random stuff when it's nearly 1 am in the morning ne. Oh, it's COMIC RELIEF! Well it was...I'm babbling again nya...comment, like, review, follow, etc. ONEGAI!