Now meanwhile, the Remingtons were at home at this time with their television on, and Mrs. Remington was beginning to get very worried about Alexa.

"Honey, you mustn't worry about her," said Mr. Remington, trying to calm her nerves.

"Dear, turn it up," Mrs. Remington gasped.

He turned up the volume just soon enough to see the breaking news about the hourglass on the clock tower over in South City District, and Mrs. Remington nearly fainted after seeing a picture of the trapped girl inside the glass. She tried to call the police, but then all the electricity went out, leaving the two in the dark.

"Must be an open circuit," Mr. Remington sighed as he stood up from his chair in the dark and tried feeling around the living room for something to grab hold of. Then Mrs. Remington lit a candle kept in one of the cabinets in the kitchen and came into the room to find her husband standing in the middle of the room.

"Honey, you mustn't panic. I'm pretty sure she's fine," he sighed as he gently touched her shoulder.

"But . . . Alexa . . . Oh, remember what we were discussing last night over dinner?"

"What?"

"You know, about Alexa's fairy tales."

"Oh, those," Mr. Remington chuckled. "Don't worry. I'm pretty aware of that. Maybe it's all just a coincidence."

"But what about the girl trapped inside the hourglass on the clock tower?" asked Mrs. Remington anxiously. "It looked precisely like Alexa. What if what she's been telling us is true after all?"

Mr. Remington sighed and walked with his wife into the kitchen to find a candle for himself to light. "I'm pretty sure it is nothing for us to be concerned about."

"And what about that note outside our door this afternoon?" Mrs. Remington questioned further.

"Um . . . What note?"

"I've never seen such handwriting as this," said Mrs. Remington as she slid a drawer out from the coffee table between two sofas in the center of the living room.

In it was the note left by Sonic who had written earlier that day. Mrs. Remington unfolded the paper and handed it to her doubting husband to read, and then he started to believe as well.

"Don't worry, I'm pretty sure this Sonic person will rescue her somehow," he said.

And then, right after he finished reading the note, the lights flickered back on again, causing the two to become quite startled.

On the other side of the city, Sonic was racing through the crowded lit-night streets to find Shadow and Rouge, but instead he came across a large football field with many bright lights shining down on Knuckles the echidna, one of his friends and the guardian of the master emerald of the Emerald Shrine on Angel Island back in Mobius. Sonic climbed over the wiry fence to get a closer look and the large field and when he landed, it appeared as though Knuckles were running straight toward him from the center of the field all the way to the fence.

"Yo! Knuckles," Sonic said with a thumbs-up as Knuckles came closer.

"YOU!" Knuckles yelled, taking his position to fight and then charging straight fast toward him again, but Sonic sighed and stepped out of the way just as Knuckles zoomed past him and crashed into the fence behind him.

"HOW DARE YOU SEND ME TO ANOTHER WORLD AGAIN! OUCH!" Knuckles yelled, outraged at Sonic.

"Hey, what can I say? It's a gift and a curse. Anyhow, I need your help in gathering the seven chaos emeralds back together again," Sonic yawned.

"And just WHY would I help YOU after what YOU did to me!" Knuckles scoffed, crossing his arms and huffing. "You're always, ALWAYS sending us all to another distorted planet with chaos control! And I'M SUPPOSED TO BE GUARDING THE MASTER EMERALD!"

"Whoa whoa, calm down Binky," Sonic chuckled while he pushed Knuckles back to keep his fists away from him.

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Knuckles exploded with anger and then toppled Sonic over onto the grass, then Sonic speedily rolled over to the right as Knuckles dove his fist into the ground, preventing him from being sliced into a two-holed doughnut.

"What is your problem?" Sonic asked, pointing his finger at Knuckles. "Eggman is planning to take over the world and you are trying to kill me! Come on Fruitcake, the world is at stake right now! Can't we settle this later?"

"No! My world is at stake! The master emerald is at stake! AND YOU DON'T EVEN CARE!" Knuckles shouted, getting ready for a duel.

"Here we go again," Sonic sighed and rolled his eyes as the two got ready to fight.

Knuckles made the first move and charged again toward Sonic, who jumped onto his head and ran out into the middle of the field where all the lights were centered and made a face.

"Come and get me, slow-poke!" Sonic laughed. Knuckles stopped where he was and then dove fist first into the ground. He was still near the fence, but then he dug a tunnel underground and popped up right beside Sonic in just five seconds.

"You really don't give up easily, do you?" Sonic chuckled.

Knuckles threw both fists forward but Sonic stepped back to dodge them, then Knuckles jumped up in the air directly above Sonic's head and dove into a corkscrew but Sonic rolled over on the grass just before Knuckles made a hole in the field. And soon Sonic decided to take his turn in the arena, and so he kicked Knuckles hard in the stomach, sending him crashing onto his back. Knuckles then dug more holes in the field and threw chunks of rock at Sonic, but Sonic jumped over them, kicked them back, blocked them, and dodged each and every attack given him.

"Are you willing to quit yet?" Knuckles panted heavily, feeling a bit tired and ready for a break.

"Sorry but I have no time for this. Eggman has planted a bomb over in South City District, and he's holding Alexa captive in a giant hostage tank until I can return the emeralds to him again," Sonic explained rather quickly.

"HE DID WHAT?" Knuckles asked, dropping his mouth along with the current boulder in his hands. "See, I told you this was all your fault, Sonic!"

"Hey, Dark Gaia was trying to get a hold of the emeralds, too. If it wasn't for me, our world would be just as corrupted as this one. So don't get all mad at me just yet."

"All right," Knuckles huffed stiffly. "What do you want me to do about it, huh?"

As Sonic paused to think for a moment, he noticed someone approaching the field in the shadows way back near the fence. Then he looked up and saw a few helicopters flying high in the sky over them. The man at the gate of the fence was a S.W.A.T. officer with a shotgun rifle pointing directly toward Knuckles. Then another officer came through the gate and several more after that. They all lined up in near the bleachers and then slowly formed a large circle around Sonic and Knuckles.

"Hey! What's going on here?" Knuckles wondered.

"Maybe they think we had something to do with the clock tower," Sonic replied with a shrug.

One of the officers signaled the chopper down to the ground, and then the huge heavy loud machine landed in the football field with several more officers in black rushing out to arrest Sonic and Knuckles. But Sonic couldn't let them interfere with his mission, for he only had four hours left before the bomb would explode the whole clock tower, along with Alexa and the rest of the city.

"Hey, can't we all just get along in peace for once?" Sonic chuckled, walking casually up to one of the guards.

"We've got them surrounded!" one of the guards in the ring said to his talkie.

"No, wait! You're making a big mistake!" Sonic pleaded as two officers grabbed his arms and four tried to get a hold of Knuckles, who fought each of them off one by one through hand-to-hand combat.

Then Sonic gasped and pointed up at the sky, causing the two officers holding him to look up, and then he bit one officer in the arm and punched the other in the face. After that Sonic did a backflip into the air and landed both feet on their heads, collapsing both officers unconsciously to the ground.

Then the whole S.W.A.T. team began piling into one heap on the ground as they tried to catch Sonic, who easily jumped much higher than they realized he could. Knuckles swung the last S.W.A.T. officer around and around in the air then sent him flying onto the very top of the police pile.

"Now that's what I call a pile of laundry," Sonic said with a thumbs-up. Knuckles sighed and held out his hand.

"Hey thanks, and uh, sorry for getting mad at you earlier," Knuckles said as Sonic shook hands with him.

"Yeah, to the point of suicide," Sonic laughed, irritating Knuckles again. "I forgive."

"Yeah yeah yeah, let's just get outta here before any more show up."

And with that, the two quickly scurried out of the football field, leaving behind the chopper and unconscious S.W.A.T. team. But just as Sonic walked out of the stadium, there was a strange rustling noise behind him, so he stopped and told Knuckles to as well.

"Sonic," Knuckles sighed, "if we're gonna find any emeralds, it could take days, so we need to get an early start. We can't stop for every distraction that comes our way."

But Sonic turned around and gasped when he saw something glowing in the trash bin by the fenced gate. He quickly walked up to it and then stuck his arm inside, rummaging around for whatever was glowing. Knuckles turned around and just before he could say anything else, there stood Sonic with a golden chaos emerald in his hand, shining its luminous crystal glow in the darkness of the night.

"WHOA!" Knuckles exclaimed, nearly trampling Sonic when he stormed up to it, but Sonic pushed him away again as he tried grabbing his precious jewel.

"Not so fast, Knuckles," Sonic said calmly. "I'll need to hang onto it for now. We might need it for later."

"What? And you don't think I can keep up with it!" Knuckles protested strongly, taking much offense at that statement.

"Hey, every time you get your paws on it, it either ends up being handed over to Eggman or lost in some other tragic way. But when I keep it, I actually use it," Sonic replied, tossing the emerald up and down with his left hand as he stretched out his other arm to lean against the fence.

"PAWS!" Knuckles exploded with anger again. "What! You're the one who's planning on handing it over to Eggman in the first place!"

"Shh, Knuckles, you don't want anyone else to hear you!" Sonic warned him. "Besides, I didn't actually say I was going to give it to him."

"Well if you do, watch out 'cause you'll be sorry," Knuckles huffed until Sonic put his hand over his mouth.

"Fine, whatever. Just keep your beak shut for once."

And with that, Sonic safely put the chaos emerald into safe keeping and then the two continued on their journey with one emerald already down and six more to go.