Chapter 6 Around the World

It was most recently till we found Tails (or more likely; when Tails found us). He appeared in the sky after abruptly hearing shouts from Sonic, who was being chased by an angry Shadow around the whole Green Hill area. I thought it was quite funny, since the last time Tails first found us was the time Amy was in rage.

When he appeared into view, he immediately propelled down to the ground and stopped the two hedgehogs from running, and surprisingly calming Shadow back to the way he usually was. Shadow grunted.

"If only he could stay in one place instead of running around everywhere." The black hedgehog was beginning to fuse with anger again. "He needs to learn that every place he goes to, you can't just go running off, especially when we're on a mission."

Sonic snickered, like what he mostly does towards Shadow. "Again with the seriousness, come on Shads, you know this is where my first adventure began! It's hard to resist running through it!"

Shadow closed his eyes as well as crossing his arms, seeming to ignore whatever the blue blur had spoke out of his mouth. His lids opened again, but instead of looking at Sonic, his ruby orbs turned to me.

"Yet again, you took her along." He continued dimly.

"What's wrong with that?" Sonic spoke offended with his eyes widened. "She's one of my great pals! Plus, I haven't seen her in forever. We need a little catching up to do." He turned to me in smile when he said his last group of words. Shadow grunted again.

"Still, what matters is—"

"Court!" Tails finally noticed me, and interrupted by saying my name as happy it could get. With his two tails, he swiftly flew across the two hedgehogs, to me, and given me a long embrace. As he let go, a grin was placed upon his face.

"As Sonic would say: long time no see!" The grin never left his face. "I always knew you'll be back, even when Sonic told me that he's heading to your world, I knew that you'll be here again!"

"Wow." I quietly laughed at the twin-tailed fox, cheerful by me appearing back into his wondrous fantasy world. Honestly, I didn't think that I'll be missed by much by Tails, or the other characters that I met here (guess I have to wait and find out). By looking at Tails' face, it was hard to resist grinning back at him. I may not have mentioned it earlier, but I miss the little kitsune. Well…not little anymore, he did say he was eleven…

"I always knew too." I replied to Tails' earlier response. "Something told me that I will see you guys again." I told him as the two hedgehogs overheard close by. "As much as I doubted to believe, I'm quite surprised that it was true. I'm happy that I'm back." My grinning never faded.

"Did Dylan come along too?" Tails had asked me while his two tails danced around behind him excitedly. Before I could answer the good news, I heard a familiar voice talking close in the background. When I looked over to the source of the voice, I saw Dylan—not that far away—walking backwards towards us. Apparently, he was still showing off his moves/powers to Chelsea and Trevor, who were walking normally with shocking looks on their faces.

"Do the fire again Dylan!" Trevor clasped both hands to the bottom of his chin, hopping up and down from his excitement while he walked. When they had gotten closer, I saw Dylan making a smirk at him. It was obviously a yes. Even though I said this once before, but Dylan was exactly like Sonic in some ways. He's funny, kind, sincere, and so on. It was no doubt Dylan was popular. With those kinds of characteristics, no wonder almost everyone at our school wants to be his friend.

"Alright! Here it—"

"Dylan!" Tails ran and hugged my best friend from behind, before he got the chance of putting blazes into his fingertips. Dylan flinched from the sudden glomp, but as he turned and saw Tails, he immediately hugged back.

"Tails!" The orange hedgehog outburst the orange kitsune's name during the embrace, and then let him go. "How are you?"

"Great! After seeing you and Court back!" Tails announced happily, and then opened his mouth to say something else. But it closed suddenly as he saw our two other friends behind Dylan. Without a second thought, he walked to them.

"Hello! Who are you guys?" Tails kindly greeted and asked them, as he made a little wave. When Trevor looked below at Tails and was about to speak, Chelsea quickly jumped on the fox whenever she first laid eyes on him.

"Oh my goodness! He's soo adorable!" Chelsea squealed as she death-hugged Tails. While I watched her, she looked like she was squeezing him more tightly then whenever she had me, maybe even tighter than Amy's hugs. I could tell because Tails' couldn't breathe whenever Chel's laid hands on him.

"Chelsea!" Dylan angrily yelled my friend's name, then rushed to her and got the fox free from her long dangerous hug. First thing Tails did whenever he got out was gasp for oxygen.

"What's wrong? I was only hugging him!" Chelsea yelled at Dylan, already making the third fight of the day.

"To me, it looked like you were about to end his life!" The orange hedgehog yelled back while he pointed at the gasping Tails, defending him and himself.

"Don't blame me! He was too cute and adorable for not being hugged!" She continued. "Just look at him!"

Dylan seemed to ignore Chelsea's command, only to continue his usual glare to her whenever they got into argument. It was a funny sight to see, them fighting. But as if any good friend would want, is to see their other friends get along.

"Well next time, don't put him in a—"

"Stop!" Tails yelled out when he finally gotten back to his normal state. He was standing up tall with both of gloved hands gripped by his sides with a mean look on his face. It was the first time hearing him that loud. After what I saw earlier, I think Tails has gone a long way from being what he used to. For him to stop fights, and going to Eggman's abandoned base alone, he really has grown up from what I saw in the early Sonic games. Tails' courage and bravery had gotten stronger.

"But, but, but…" Chelsea kept repeating the same word after the kitsune's outburst, and kept pointing at Dylan and Tails constantly. But before Chel's switched on to another word to continue, Sonic walked into the group by placing a hand on one of Tails' shoulders. Tails then looked up at him, and immediately paid attention to his best friend.

"Hey Tails, mind taking us to your workshop? We've need some technology for our new adventure." Sonic asked him kindly. In instant, Tails closed his eyes and formed a cheerful smile to his favor, with all his early anger vanished.

"Certainly Sonic!"

And before you know it, we were halfway there.

A couple of zones later, we all managed to get to Tails' workshop. But as I was traveling through the zones, I wondered why Shadow didn't just go ahead and teleported us there. It might have been the easiest thing to do.

But then I remembered; Shadow didn't teleport us to some places during the last adventure. I did hear him say that he wanted to do some things the old fashioned way. When I thought about it, if we teleported to every place we needed to go to, then we'll be missing out on these breathtaking zones that we have to go pass.

That would be a waste of an adventure, especially in Sonic's world. I need to take in everything here while I can.

Who knows when I'll be back…?

As we finally gotten to the workshop, it was exactly the same when I last saw it. It was in the Mystic Ruins, a big metallic colored base right on one of the shortest cliffs in the area. Tails walked up by the side of the garage of the building, and punched in the password on a calculator-like device aside it. There, it unlocked all doors from the shop and slowly opened the huge garage door.

"Welcome and welcome back to my workshop everybody!" Tails childishly said toward us as he happily went inside his workplace, wanting us to follow his lead.

Everybody instantly rushed in—especially Chelsea and Trevor—and got a look of everything that was inside. It wasn't big of news to Sonic, Shadow, Dylan, and I, since the same machines that were incomplete and broken were still in the same places. But I couldn't help but look at the plane that took us places where the Chaos Emeralds were hidden. The Tornado III.

Unlike the other machines and devices in here, it was the only one that seemed very clean, and very well taken care of. I guess Tails' cherishes this plane a lot.

"Come here guys!" The two-tailed fox waved to us till we got his attention, and then all of us huddled over.

"I wanted to see more stuff!" Chelsea complained as she looked back at the many types of machinery in the workshop. Tails made a cutesy laugh.

"You will Chelsea. It will only take a minute." He told her, as he went over to his scanner-like machine. Then he looked over back at us.

"Chaos Emerald?" He asked with blinking eyes. Without saying a word, Shadow reached for something behind his back, and revealed his green luminous Chaos Emerald to him. He handed it over.

"Careful with it." Shadow said unfaithfully to the kitsune. When the Emerald was placed into his palms, Tails gave him a half-smile. "It not like I'm going to steal it."

The kitsune walked shortly back to his scanner machine, and then pressed a button from its left side. A few seconds later, came out a unique-like container. Tails then gently placed the mystical gem inside of it, then pressed the same button to close the container back in. The scanning started automatically.

Once that was processing, Tails swiftly flew left to his computer that was nearby, and pressed many keys upon his keyboard while his eyes glued to the monitor. When we saw and heard that the scanning was finished, the fox quickly typed more on the keyboard, and ended it by pressing the 'enter' key with his right index finger. Once that happened, a flashing light occurred from a box-like device by the other side of the computer. Tails opened it.

"Taa-dahh!" The fox cheered as he grabbed something from inside of the machine, and revealed a very technical watch. It almost looks similar to the watch Tails had given me and the others on the last adventure, except that there was now a screen on it. The fox showed it to everyone.

"This is my brand-new version of my Emerald Tracker Watch!" Tails announced. "For those who haven't used or seen this before, it helps you by detecting any Chaos Emeralds that may be close to range."

"I want one!" Trevor shouted out as he stared at the watch Tails' held with interest. I rolled my eyes at him.

Tails laughed. "You'll be getting one, so don't worry." He said reassuringly before he continued. "Now, I made a few adjustments on the Emerald Tracker Watch. As you can see, I added a screen so you can see where the Emerald's located without depending on the beeping. And what's even better, I added a feature that you can see where all the Emeralds all located!"

"Sweet!" Sonic said happily by making a thumbs-up to his best friend, along with most of us complimenting on Tails on how he worked so hard to get this done. It was a great improvement from him.

Shadow looked at Tails seriously as the fox had given the watches to everybody, and after giving him back his green Emerald. "You won't mind doing us another favor will you?" He asked deeply.

"Umm…sure! What you do want?" Tails asked with both of his tails behind him flipping around curiously.

"We have other powerful gems to search for in the other world." Shadow tilted his head to me for a sec, telling Tails that it was my world that he was mentioning. "And it would truly help if you can make another set of watches to tell their location."

The kitsune placed his right fist in front of his mouth, and thought for awhile. Till five minutes have passed, he looked back at Shadow as he finally thought of a solution. "Well I could make another adjustment to the watches, but to do that I need the gem that you guys are looking for."

Popping my head up after hearing the last words Tails said, I quickly placed my hands behind my neck and un-chained my necklace with the Harmonic Iridescent. After that, I walked and showed it to Tails. He looked at the necklace confused for a second, till he realized that the gem hanging down from the chain was the gem that he needed. He grabbed it by the chain, and perked up at me.

"Thanks Court!" He said with another cheerful smile.

After retrieving it, he then asked for a recall for all the watches he'd given away. Once he got them all, he placed them back into the same device that the watches were in before, and then walked to the scanner machine, and placed the Harmonic Iridescent in there this time. But when Tails was in the middle of doing his routine from before, the scanner begun to spark, and before you know it, it was engulfed in flames and smoke.

"Oh no!" Tails panicked while he rashly tried to find a fire extinguisher somewhere by his computer desk. But Dylan hurriedly rushed in and made the flames disappear with his powers. The fox sighed in relief.

"Thanks Dylan." He told him with a relieved smile, but it lowered whenever he reached the broken scanner.

"No problem." Dylan answered back as he walked with him, Sonic came too.

"What could've happened to cause that?" Sonic asked Tails while he was tugging at the container slot, to get it open. At his final tug, it finally flung out, and Tails grabbed my necklace which was inside of it. But once he touched the surface of the jewel, he gasped in wonder.

"Whoa…why do I suddenly feel calmer? Is it…this gem?" He questioned himself while looking at the Harmonic Iridescent. He tested it as he let go and let it dangle by the chain, and then touched it again.

"It is the gem!" The kitsune gasped in surprise. "I can feel its power coursing through my body as I touch it…Courtney? Where did you get this?"

I made a little sigh as I begun to explain everything I knew about the Harmonic Iridescent and whatnot. After I mostly covered everything, Tails now understood why his scanner malfunctioned. It was the cause of the gem's power whenever the machine was scanning it. The scanner must have triggered something in order for gem to release its full potential.

"Well, at least the watches are ok." Tails said with a little happiness as he begun passing out the watches again. Sonic looked at him with a confusing look.

"So, what are we going to do without the H.I. detecting adjustment?" The blue blur asked. The fox thought for minutes again.

"Hmmm…Well, I don't think any of my other equipment can help with that problem. But I do know one way…" Tails started out saying by looking at my necklace that I placed back on, and then continued. "…and that is to ask someone who pretty much knows everything about jewels. That's my only option."

Sonic looked at Tails wide-eyed during the whole explanation. But then they narrowed mischievously as he started to poke Shadow in the upper arm with his elbow.

"Hey, maybe you should ask your girlfriend to help us out? She is a jewel thief…" Sonic smiled as he whispered to the dark hedgehog. But it only left him with being punched in the head.

"Do I have to remind you…Every. Single. Time?" Shadow paused at the three last words seriously and furiously. "I repeat, and I will repeat…SHE'S NOT!"

"To which part?" Sonic snickered as he got back on his feet, now rubbing the bump Shadow had placed on his head.

"Don't start again!" Shadow growled deep in his throat.

Thus another fight started…

But in the end, we all managed to agree on going to Angel Island to see Knuckles. It turns out that Rouge was on a mission for G.U.N. He was our next choice, next to her. Other than him being a guardian to the Master Emerald, he was also a treasure hunter believe it or not. And by 'treasure hunter'; it meant searching for the shattered pieces of the Master Emerald, and retrieving them. With that, I'm pretty sure he has some experience searching for jewels.

After we've agreed, we said our thanks and goodbyes to the helpful Tails, and we were now on our way to the island in the heavens. But during our walk there, Dylan and I decided to check out our new watches.

"Which button is the one that turns on the screen?" I asked him confusingly while looking at the many black buttons on my watch.

"I think it's the one that closest to the screen, cause I just turned mine on." He said as he went over to me, and pressed the button he was mentioning on the watch. The screen lit up.

"Thanks!"

"No problem!"

As we both looked at our watches speechlessly as we walked, waiting for screen to load for a few seconds. Till now, something popped on and revealed a map of the area we were now passing through.

"Whoa neat!" Dylan said amazed as he looked at the map on the watch. "I wonder if we can zoom out?"

He went ahead and pressed the same button again. It turns out that it did zoom out of the area, and into the continent we're now on. We both looked at the continent on our watches surprisingly; it looked like it was one of the continents from the world in Sonic Unleashed, the one that was left without a city/town/village. I kind of figured it was the one that Sonic and the others lived in.

After seeing that, we decided to zoom out once more, and then the continent was out of view and into the world map. It so turns out that it was the same world off of Sonic Unleashed. While we continued looking, I couldn't help but spot red dots blinking in each continent. Do those dots mean the cities? They look like they were in the same location where the cities and towns were in the game.

"Dylan…? What do those red dots mean?" I asked him once more as I looked over to him. He looked like that he was about to ask the same thing.

"I think that they're either cities or the Chaos Emeralds…wait…" Dylan looked into his watch more closely, and found out there were white dots nearby the blinking red ones. It appears that the white dots are the locations of the cities.

"So that means…" Dylan started as he slowly looked over to me, and both exchanged the same shocking glance.

Surprising as it sounds, but each of the seven Chaos Emeralds were all located in seven continents and countries of the whole world. How did they get there? Who knows? But we did know that we all have to go to each continent to retrieve them.

So, it's like Sonic Unleashed over again. The only things different is the plot, the world not broken, no Werehogs, no Gaias, and that me and my closest friends are included. Although it would be awesome if there was Werehogs and Gaias, but I'm positive that the adventure would be great nonetheless.

I was excited.