So we pick up right where we left off.

I still want comments, but as I promised, here is Chapter five on Christmas day. My gift to you, enjoy!

Chapter 5- The Unlikely Team

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Amy Rose P.O.V.

With two Sonics beating up the Metarex, soon it was only the command ship, Eggman's ship, and debris left.

The dark one started to form an energy beam to blast the command ship out of commission, but the light one teleported in front of him to prevent him from having a clear shot.

"Get out of my way! What's your problem?" the shadowy powerhouse shrieked, ending his attempted energy blast before he could shoot it off.

"No! There is a living being on that ship, you can't just destroy it and kill him! Even if he is a Metarex!" the shining one reasoned with him.

"Do you think I care? He came here and attacked me! He's just getting what he deserves!" dark sonic fumed.

"No, it doesn't matter; we can't just take his life because he made the mistake of attacking the wrong person." Light Sonic argued back.

"And who's gonna stop me? You? You can't even touch me!" the dark one scoffed.

"I can and will stop you!" the brightly glowing hedgehog bravely powered up. "If you want to take his life, then you'll have to go through me first!" he shouted with overflowing confidence.

"Fine! Then I will!" the other yelled with equal confidence.

And they sped straight at each other.

"Oh no…" I heard Tails whimper behind me.

When they made contact, even though they were very far away from the ship we could still feel the blast. An explosion erupted between the two, but it didn't faze them even a little bit.

They continued at it, smashing into each other faster and harder each time. The command ship had been smart enough to make a break for it and attempt to slip away while the two had been arguing, but it was much closer than we were, and just being within a mile of their battle was enough to make the ship dented and bashed up looking. Good, I thought, they should get some dents for messing with us. Poor Sonic, who knows what he's dealing with right now?

The only ship left that wasn't retreating was Eggman's, and I saw it heading towards us, with… was that Shadow and Rouge standing on the top deck waving… white flags? I almost couldn't believe my eyes.

The screens on our ship fizzled to life to show a very worried looking Eggman.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shadow the Hedgehog P.O.V.

"You want us to do what?!"

That was Rouge, being immature and loud as usual.

"I said; I want you two to go stand on the hull and hold white flags while I get close to their ship." The doctor repeated through his teeth, looking very unhappy about giving this order.

"I heard what you said Eggman, but… Why?" Came Rouge's usual snappy response.

"Because… this… crisis… with Sonic… has… gone… too far…out of hand… it needs to be ended…" he grudgingly and slowly explained.

I could tell the doctor hated the idea of surrendering to try and work with the other Mobians to stop this apocalyptic fight, but he has to admit, it really is the only way that we would get anywhere close enough to stop him. It was my idea; Sonic's identity crisis is getting too far out of hand, and it is endangering lives. We need to bring an end to it. And the only way to even begin to do that is to work with his friends. I managed to convince Eggman to agree to surrender by pointing out that Sonic would probably come for us next if he hadn't already destroyed everything with those explosions he was creating. That got the doctor to get over his pride.

"Shadow! Don't you have anything to say about this?" Rouge complained.

In response, I picked up the flags and threw one to her as I walked up to the deck.

I allowed myself a small smirk at her dumbfounded expression. Eggman mumbled something unintelligible and turned his chair around to get to work on launching communications. Rouge just stood there for a minute and then snapped out of her daze and flew to catch up with me on the top deck.

"What the hell, Shadow? Since when are you fine with giving up?" She accused me.

I ignored her, its better not to argue with idiots.

"Hello? Earth to Shadow! You are about to just give up! To Sonic's friends!" she flew in front of me so I had to look at her.

I sighed, "Yes, Rouge, I know full well what I am doing; I was the one who suggested we surrender." At this statement, Rouge gaped at me. I took some pleasure in her surprised expression and continued. "And if you would shut up and open your eyes, you would see why. We are outnumbered and now, possibly outmatched. And Sonic is out there causing massive explosions that, since you obviously haven't noticed, just keep getting bigger. The only chance we stand is by working with his friends to stop him. There's more than just your pride at stake here, Rouge. There are millions of lives down on Mobius that would be extinguished if those explosions reach the planet. Not to mention ourselves and Sonic's friends…" I watched as realization washed over Rouge's features and she thought over exactly how much trouble we were in.

"Oh… right, I didn't think…" she flustered

"Exactly, you didn't think. You never do. Now either get a move on, or get out of my way, I have some flag waving to do." I said as deadpan as I could, knowing exactly how ridiculous I sounded.

She hid a grin at my attempt to be humorous and moved to the side so I could walk past. I walked up to the top deck, and lifted my flag. Rouge arrived beside me, and we just stood there for a bit, waiting for the space ship to get close to The Blue Typhoon so that they Mobians could see us.

"So… what are we supposed to do? Just… wave them?"

This was really awkward, "Yes." I said like I knew what I was doing.

She couldn't tell. "Had experience with this sort of thing, have you?" She teased me.

I just closed my eyes and counted to ten in my head; it helps me to focus and not punch people in the face. I heard her snicker to my right; she figured I was keeping myself from attacking her, and for the record, she was not making it any easier, but I kept my cool. When I opened my eyes again, we had made some progress towards the ship, and I could see the fox and the pink hedgehog on the deck watching Sonic. We started waving the huge flags as broadly and visibly as possible.

The pink one looked our way and perked up and got the kitsune's attention. They both turned our way and the Seedrian, Cosmo, ran out to see, then ran back inside. The fox ran inside as all the screens presumably filled with Eggman's face. The female hedgehog stayed out on the deck to keep an eye on our approaching ship. Rouge and I continued to wave our flags as we drew closer. I could tell Rouge was getting tired; the flags were a bit heavy. I wasn't tired. I'm the ultimate life form. I don't get tired.

The explosions continued in the distance, and I offered to take Rouge's flag for her if she would go and explain why we were here to the pink one. She fervently agreed and nearly threw the flag at me as she launched herself down towards the ship.

I caught it deftly in my right hand and continued to wave them until we were close enough that I could see the pink one's large, worried eyes as Rouge talked to her. I dropped the flags and jumped to the other ship. Both girls turned to me as I landed.

I nodded to the pink one and walked towards the control room. She didn't stop me.

I walked into the room to see Eggman and the dual-tailed fox debating over how to bring Sonic back under control.

"We have to be careful about how we handle this." Tails mused, "I'm not too happy about working with you Eggman, but I see your point. We need to work together in order to get sonic under control."

"Glad you see it my way, or rather Shadow's way. Ha! Speak of the devil, hello Shadow!" he said, seeming relieved to see me. The kitsune whipped around to see me as well.

"Oh, hi… Shadow…" he nervously greeted me.

Poor kid, I thought, his best friend is having an identity crisis, and he's just had to deal with taking leadership and negotiate with his nemesis. Who knows how stressed he is?

I almost reached for his shoulder and asked him if he was alright, but instead I just nodded to him and asked: "So, do you two have any idea how to pull Sonic back together?"

"Well, first we need to know what happened. I took some readings during the supernova when he split, but I imagine Tails knows more about what could have caused his split personality in the first place. I recognized one of his halves as dark sonic, and the other is his super form, am I correct in assuming this?" he turned his attention back to the young fox.

Yes, that's how I think he split too." Tails confirmed. "But these two Sonics, they resemble dark and super Sonic, but I believe they are more than that. Before he split, I had asked Knuckles to power up the master emerald so that I could increase power to the shield and guns. I noticed while I was waiting that Sonic was only shooting the ships with his dark super side's hand. I think that more than just Sonic's body and powers split. I think his personality and mind split as well." The kitsune paused for breath and Eggman interrupted.

"So one half of him is his pain and aggression, his dark side and evil personality; but the other half of him is all the goody-goody things about him, like his conscience and his loyalty?"

"That's my guess, yeah." The fox agreed.

"Ok, so continue with your story." Eggman encouraged, sitting forward in his chair.

"Well," the fox nervously restarted looking back to me like he was afraid; I gave him a nod of encouragement. at least, thats what I was going for. "Um, as I said, I sent Knuckles to power up the master emerald and when he got there something weird was happening." He rushed through, gaining confidence as he continued to speak. "I didn't see much of it, but the emerald was sparking and flashing with images, almost like it was… angry I guess. Actually, Knuckles is around here somewhere, he can describe it to you." He finished, seeming excited to get his friend and running out of the room.

That left just me alone with the doctor on the screen.

"What do you make of this, Shadow?" the doctor asked.

I thought about it for a second then said, "I don't know what to think, all I care about right now is fixing this mess and avoiding one more cataclysmic event."

Eggman didn't say anything. Just then Amy and Rouge came in and joined us.

Rouge came to stand next to me, and Amy stood next to her, still talking about something that had too much to do with shopping and fashion for me to understand. Or care. Rouge whispered something to Amy and then giggled. Amy giggled as well. Rouge put her back next to mine and crossed her arms and made a moping face. It took me a moment to realize she was mocking me.

"Rouge…" I growled.

"What Shadow?" She asked innocently, pretending to be oblivious. Amy had her hand over her mouth, trying not to laugh.

I glared at her and said as menacingly as I could, "You know exactly what, cut it out."

She uncrossed her arms. "You're no fun Shadow," she pouted.

I just ignored her and turned away, attempting to avoid an argument with Rouge.

"Come on Shad, don't be that way." She coaxed, teasing me at the same time.

"Don't call me that, you know I hate it." I hissed back.

She just gave me one of those infuriating grins, like she's saying 'I have something planned later, and you won't like it' in a singsong way. Needless to say, it always manages to work me up, but for the sake of Amy and Eggman, I didn't start a fight. I just closed my eyes and counted to ten. I do that a lot when Rouge is around.

When I opened my eyes again, Rouge and Amy were in a corner talking quietly. I noticed that they looked in my direction a lot, so I mentally prepared myself for one of Rouge's tricks later. Eggman had left the screen, probably to go get something to eat, he hasn't had a snack for, about… wow, I think it's been an entire hour since he last ate. That just might be a new record.

I went back to ignoring the rest of them and watching the two hedgehogs (or was it one?) that were causing mayhem just a few miles away. That idiot, he's gonna destroy Mobius with those blasts! I thought. Then I felt kind of bad for calling him an idiot, the guy wasn't in his right… minds, and so far everything that I've heard hasn't indicated that it's his fault in any way. But the guy, even when he isn't causing massive explosions, infuriates me to no end. I can't stand him. At all.

Tails came back into the room dragging a dejected Knuckles the echidna into the room. When he saw Rouge, Eggman, and me, his despair quickly transformed into rage.

"What are you doing here?" he practically shouted at the three of us, his words dripping with loathing.

"Knuckles! Calm down!" the pink hedgehog in the corner scolded him.

"Yeah, knucklehead, we come in peace." Rouge said.

Which of course, just worked him up even more.

He turned on Tails. "Why are they here?" He demanded.

I felt bad for the kid. "W-well, ummm, they surrendered, and ummm, I thought... Well, Sonic is out of control... So I said we could team up together and-"

Knuckles cut him off "You said what?! And you didn't ask me?! There is no way I would EVER work with... With her! Or Eggman! EVER!"

Rouge looked hurt, "Awwww, Knucky, that hurts, I'm not that bad to work with, right Shadow?" She asked, turning to me expectantly.

Ugh, Rouge. She knows that I hate having her annoying me, and that working with her almost is that bad. But on the other hand, I need Knuckles to agree to work with us because he knows what happened with the master emerald.

"Um, sure." I said, rather unconvincingly.

"See Knucky? Shadow works with me all the time, and he doesn't think I'm so bad. For the record, Shadow is a great partner too." She said. Knuckles looked unimpressed.

I decided to intervene, Rouge wasn't getting anywhere with the echidna.

"It doesn't matter whether you want to work with us or not, do you think we're all thrilled to deal with your attitude? We're here because neither of us can get Sonic under control alone. By working together, we have a better chance of stopping him from blowing-up the planet that his explosions are getting closer to every second." I stated.

The echidna's righteous anger dissipated, "I know... It's just, I feel like this is all my fault." He confessed, his shoulders drooping. "The... The master emerald, it was sparking, and there were these horrible images" he shuddered. "I know now that the emerald was trying to warn me, but I didn't understand. I saw... In the reflections on it, there was... An image of... Sonic, in immense pain, and all of us, watching him and not being able to do anything. I didn't know what I was supposed to do, I had never seen anything like it, so I just started my chant, because that's what Tails had asked me to do. For the shields and weapons. As I said the chant, it glowed brighter and the images sped up, and then I closed my eyes to finish the chant because the images were making me feel sick." He shivered again remembering the images and swirls on the emerald. "And then as I said the last part, it hummed and when I finished, it was silent. And when I opened my eyes again, it..." A tear fell down his face "... It was dead. Completely dark. It had no power at all. One second it was full of life and humming with power, and the next... It's like it just let go of all its power. And then I heard Sonic's scream..." He finished, looking down.

We were all silent for a minute; no one dared say a word. We had all been listening intently to his story. The explosions outside continued.

Rouge said rather half-heartedly "looks like you messed up pretty big, Knucklehead." Knuckles glared at her but didn't say anything.

Then Eggman piped up, he had come back just after Knuckles had arrived. There was a plate covered in crumbs on his side table. "Well, there's no use in just sitting here, is there? Now that we know what happened to the hedgehog, let's work on how to fix him, remember, time is of the essence, and by the looks of it,"

He glanced off-screen, presumably in the direction of Sonic, but from our view, he was looking in the opposite direction. All of Sonic's friends who didn't know better looked that way, then seemed to realize their mistake and looked in Sonic's direction.

"That is something we are in short supply of" the doctor continued, referring to Sonic's ever-growing blasts of light and energy.

Tails looked confused "What do you mean we know what happened to Sonic? All Knuckles told us is how the master emerald lost power." He asked.

"Ahhhh! But you must have missed something very important!" The doctor raised one finger and gloated in a tone that all of us recognized, and most of us hated. I didn't hate it, it usually meant that the doctor either had or was close to a solution.

"Spit it out, Eggman. We're all waiting!" Rouge rudely prompted the doctor to continue.

"Well, the master emerald, as you put it, 'died' just before Sonic started to split, am I correct?" Knuckles nodded and Eggman continued, "and your exact words were:'it just let go of all its power', I think it did more than just let go of the power it had."

Tails gasped as he caught on while the rest of us exasperatedly asked "What?" Waiting for the doctor to finish already.

"I think it sent all its power to Sonic. It had too much, and sent them to the one outlet it had. The chaos emeralds, which, it just so happens, were being used by one Sonic the hedgehog." He ended his theory triumphantly.

Tails continued the idea, "And because all that power came to him while he was split the way he was, his conflicting forms used that power to actually split him into two different hedgehogs! And since they were given such a huge amount of power, they powered up to forms beyond super, the dark and light Sonic out there are literally composed of pure darkness and pure light energy!" He added.

"Yes, Tails! And now, all we need to do to stop them and pull them back together is find a way to remove the chaos emeralds, and fast!" Eggman suddenly stopped and frowned. "But how?"

The ship rocked suddenly. An alarm went off saying the shields had been breached.

"I don't know, Eggman, but we better find out soon, or we're toast!" Rouge yelled as another powerful shock wave reached us.

"I have an idea!" Eggman yelled, "I'm sure that it will work! But the side effects might be... Unpleasant."

"It doesn't matter!" Tails shouted, madly trying to get the ship back under control. Everyone in the room was holding onto something to keep from falling over. "Just do it! Now! Before we're all blown apart!"

"I need to go back to Mobius to retrieve what I need! It shouldn't take too long!" Eggman shouted over the combined noise of Tails' and his own alarms.

"GO!" Tails yelled back "but hurry!"

Eggman wasted no time and left. Tails flew the ship further away from the battle and we watched as the blasts got larger and larger until Eggman came back. He was on a much larger battleship, it looked familiar, but I couldn't quite place it.

Tails gasped. "Of course! Why didn't I think of that? But, will it work?"

Eggman smiled wryly, "Of course it will. All we have to do lure them both into the trap and push the button. It's already calibrated and ready to fire from its previous success. But as I said, the side effects will most likely be... Undesirable."

Okay, same deal as last time, five comments on this chapter before the next chapter! Merry christmas guys! happy new year!

remember that favorites and follows do not cost any of you a penny! (Favorites and follows would make an amazing hristmas present *hint, hint* comments, too.) I appreciate any sort of feedback, alright? later dudes (and dudettes)!