Hey everyone! Merry Late Christmas and other holidays! Missed me? Well here's an extra long chapter to make it up! It's my gift to y'all.

DylanDamboise321: I missed your comment's so I'm glad you're back! Thanks for bearing with me.

Meadow: Hi! I'm glad you like Ethan and Nicole…now will I get them together? That's the evil question… I hope you like Miley and Jr in this chapter. It's also adorable.

Narrator's POV:

Manic was cold, unhappy, and a prisoner, which fell under his list of least favorite things. He was just barely falling asleep when the building shook. His eyes popped open, "What in chaos was that?"

"Tell me again how you know Manic?" Nicole was crouched down on the roof of a building across the street from the warehouse.

Ethan, who was crouched next to her, smirked. "I didn't tell you."

"Well then tell me!"

"It doesn't matter."

Nicole rolled her eyes. Sometimes, it was a pain to like this guy.

Little did she know, Ethan was thinking something along the same lines.

"Can you two shut up? I can hear you." Shadow did not sound happy.

Ethan and Nicole shared a small smile.

"Nicole, get in position. Topaz start sneaking in through the back. You know the plan. Now get moving!" Shadow turned off his com.

Near him, Annie and Jr were bickering about something.

"Chaos, it's like working with Sonic and Amy all over again!" He looked over then teleported inside the warehouse.

Meanwhile Topaz crept through the top window. "Seriously, why do so many warehouses have sky lights? It makes breaking in so much easier…"

Nicole stood up and crossed her arms. "And thus begins the plan you so fully dragged us into."

"Well you don't need to be all cranky about it, dear." Ethan responded sarcastically. "Seriously, what's wrong with it?"

"Well, I don't like walking in without even hearing about the guy we're facing!"

Ethan glared at her, eyes in a blaze. "Get moving." He turned his back on Nikki and began fiddling with his gun quietly.

Nicole cursed him under her breath but turned and teleported into the facility. She landed behind some large boxes near the south window. If everything was going to plan, Topaz was right above her, ready to step in for back-up.

Across the way, also in the ceiling, Shadow observed. For reasons no one ever supported, the emo hedgehog liked to watch 2nd generation on their mission's first hand, but never got involved unless it meant saving someone's life. It got annoying rather quickly.

Softly, Nicole sighed. "I hate this plan…" She purposely kicked a nearby screw into a large metal container. You'd never think that small clink would echo so loud.

"Fi! Was that you?"

"No… Someone's in here. Keep a look out, babe."

"Well duh!"

The two inter-dimensional mercenaries began to scourer the area while Nicole quietly teleported up onto a stack of boxes then ducked down behind them. Very carefully, she peaked over to get a glance.

Scourge was standing two aisles away. Fiona was nowhere in sight.

Nicole's POV:

To be honest, from what I heard of the guy, he was a little…disappointing. Don't get me wrong, one wrong move and he may be able to take me out, but seriously? I thought he'd be taller or at least look a little more menacing. But instead he looked like Sonic when he was mad…and green.

I ducked back down and pondered the scene. We had the hedgehog in the middle of boxes, but I needed to make sure he was alone. As if she was reading my mind, Topaz called in and told me softly that Fiona had left the main corridor, probably checking on their prisoner.

Softly, I lowered myself down the boxes until I was right behind him. As fate would have it, apparently I wasn't that quiet.

The green hedgehog turned around and smirked up at me. "Well, well, well… What do we have here?" Scourge leaned against a large crate. "Come down from there. Let's have a little chat before you start shooting me."

"Yeah, I'm not coming down there, but if you want to talk then we can do it from here." I sat down on the edge, three crates above Scourge; my legs hanging just below the ledge.

Scourge chuckled. "Whatever you want Miss Shade."

I made a chaos spear, "Don't ever call me that, again. Ever."

"Well you'll have to forgive me. I'm at a small drawback, as I'm not sure which clone you are. You're not Arianna right? She's more laid back. As you are," he gestured at my glowing hand, "a little tightly strung. So what do I owe the honor of a visit from the famous Nicole Ultman?"

I lowered the spear and crossed my arms. "Depends on what you call an honor. Where's Manic?"

"Manic…Manic…Manic…" He frowned slightly then his awful face cleared. "Oh! You mean the gray boy. He's around here somewhere, Fiona is probably checking on him at the moment. Well you see we nabbed him on accident. Mistook him for Shadow and…well let's just say he's a pain to keep."

He was lying, although I wasn't sure why. I knew they meant to take Manic, but why?

"Yeah, whatever. By the way, you're annoying." I smirked. "Seriously, I can't see how you could've taken over your own planet."

"So the mini-Shadow knows about me. A little mercenary told you?"

I blinked. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh please, I know about Ethan Lavar. He's finally decided to step out of the shadows, the coward. Has he told you why he hates me?

I didn't answer. Okay, who was this guy? This is why I hate these types of missions.

Scourge must have taken my silence as agreement. "I also know about you, Nicole Maria Ultman. You're quite impressive…"

"Thank you. Now can we punch each other?" I will admit it. The fact that he knew my full name was sort of…creepy.

Scourge chuckled again. "I'm not quite done. You're a clone of Shadow the Ultimate Lifeform…well a partial clone anyway. Do you wish you had super speed sometimes? Of course the fact that you have so much chaos energy has to be nice… Flying, more attacks, changing your appearance, you get the idea. Shall I go on?"

"No…" I had lowered my arms at this point and my hands made fists.

"Too bad, I'm going on. Shadow picked your middle name, and honestly, you thought she'd be older. Not so young to…make the Ultimate Sacrifice." He smiled at his clever wording.

My blood went cold as I realized who he was talking about, "How…how do you know about…?"

"Your little time traveling experience? Or about the fact that you and Ethan were closer than you let on? Or perhaps the fact that you lost your memory?" He smile widened. "As I said, Charity Amni, I know all about you. I also knew that your little bat friend was in the raptors and that your mentor was in the building."

I think that's when I lost my temper. I teleported down behind him then attempted to punch him in the face. Scourge was already waiting and caught my fist in his hand. He judo-flipped me on the ground then held me down.

He tusked at me in disappointment, "Now there's no need for that. We have a lot in common. So I'd like to offer you a job. Be honest with yourself, you've never loved your 'father' or your 'team.' Honestly, I don't see why you waste all of your power on protecting others."

I struggled to free myself from his grip. My mind was having difficulty focusing on summoning chaos control.

"Now," Scourge smiled, "I have a squad who would benefit from your…experience. My employer wants me to get rid of you, but I see too much potential in you. So Miss Ultimate Lifeform, what do you say?" He sat up and lessened his grip on my arm.

Where were Topaz and Shadow? My mind was so confused.

Scourge lifted me to my feet and picked up my fallen gun then made a show of giving it back. "If you're wondering about your so called, Team, their a bit occupied. My Suppression Squad is giving them a handful. As for your batty friend she's unconscious around her somewhere. Shadow is a little…tied up, at the moment with Fi." He smiled that evil grin again. "Anyway, what do you say about joining?"

I forced a laugh, "You think I'd betray my friends like that." I made a chaos spear and threw it at the annoying hedgehog.

He dodged then started laughing. "Yes, yes I would. Say what you will; you're not your mentor, you love humans, or what other lies you've been pumped with. You're nothing but trouble, and you know it." He speed around and flipped over me, pinning my right arm behind me.

Okay, why is he so hard to beat? What in Chaos?

Softly, Scourged mumbled in my ear, "And to be honest, you're much more interesting then Fiona. She's always falling all over me, but you…well just keep that in mind."

My brain wanted to throw up from that comment, but my heart picked up ever so slightly…and I'm pretty sure it wasn't from the tension. Ewww…

I reached behind with my left hand and flipped him. "Yeah, in your dreams." I pulled my gun and held it to his head. "Now give up Manic," I growled.

Scourge grimaced, "First of all, ow. Second of all, why didn't you say so in the first place?" He gripped a gold ring in his hand, and then disappeared, appearing twenty feet in front of me. He rubbed the ring again, and an unconscious Manic appeared on the ground next to him. "He's all yours. But keep my offer in mind, dear."

You know when Ethan said dear earlier, it sounded kind and sweet. But when Scourge said dear, it sounded seductive and lucid.

I shivered slightly, then summoned five chaos spears and threw them in successive order.

Yeah…Scourge dodged all of them then zipped around, annoyingly. I kept summoning spears and throwing them, but he just moved out of the way. Finally he jumped up on a box and smirked down at me.

"Well darling, it's been fun, but Fiona is calling me. Apparently, your team is stronger than we anticipated. I'm looking forward to our next meeting." He winked then disappeared with a flash of light.

After he left I checked on Manic. He was breathing alright, but there was something about this situation that I didn't like… I shook my thoughts away then reached out telepathically to my annoying mentor.

"Okay how much did you see of that conversation…Because that was just embarrassing at certain points."

No answer.

"Shadow? Hello? I know you can hear me idiot."

Still nothing.

"Maria Robotnik can't make good cookies."

Okay, since that didn't get a response, now I knew something was wrong. I teleported to where I had last sensed his chaotic energy. Shadow's 'famous' gun was on the ground. Nothing else was in sight.

"Oh Chaos…" I teleported next to Manic and started smacking him to wake him up. "Manic, wake up!"

The poor hedgehog opened his eyes slightly, "Nik? Where-?"

"No time. What happened to Shadow?"

His face scrunched up in confusion then cleared. "The fox…did something."

I had been helping him off the ground at the time, but I let him go. He fell with a thump. "Hey!"

"Man up Manny! If they have Shadow…well nothing good can come from that."

Just then, Jr ran in with Miley in his arms. He gently put her on the ground and she smiled at me. "Well that was interesting. We got jumped by a bird." Her smiled faded when she saw the look on my face. It must have looked pretty worried. "What's wrong?"

"They took Shadow."

Miley and Jr shared a look of shock. Annie and Arnold joined a few moments later with an unconscious Topaz. They figured out what was wrong pretty quick.

"What happened?" Annie demanded.

A bit stuttered I explained best I could, leaving out certain details of Scourge's interesting conversation. No one really spoke for a moment then Jr broke the silence.

"Well, knowing Shadow, he'll probably get out within an hour."

"That is the smartest thing you've ever said," Annie replied softly.

So a little reluctantly, we began to leave the room…only one problem. Somewhere along the way to the front door someone (and when someone I mean Jr) triggered something and the next thing we all know; metal doors fall over the windows and doors.

I'm not sure how long we stood there, but the first noise we all heard was Annie yelling at Jr for his stupidity.

Miley broke them up pretty quick, "Guys! Stop it! It shouldn't be too hard to get out, and it can't get any worse."

Is there an unspoken rule that every time that's said that it gets worse?

Cue hidden gun torrent's and chaos control proof force-field around force field. Oh, and don't forget the ticking bomb and annoying automated voice recording of the villain's telling us to say goodbye to our lives.

After we took cover behind some crates, Miley frowned slightly. "Um…isn't that voice Eggman's?"

I think it was rather weird to be yelled at by a dead Eggman and him calling us Sonic the Hedgehog.

"It's Jr!"

"Um… You know he can't hear you, right?" Miley asked in a rather annoyed voice.

"Yes…?"

I rolled my eyes and attempted to teleport, then discovered the whole chaos blocked area. "Guys, I can't use my powers."

If you guessed that Annie started yelling at Jr, you win some prize…probably getting beat up by Annie.

Topaz decided to wake up at that point. "Ugh…what's going on?"

"Oh, we're just chilling out as guns are shooting at us." Arnold crossed his arms and glared at the said turrets.

The bat smirked at her brother. "Oh Arnold, why don't we say hello to them?"

At first he looked confused, but them he realized what she was saying. He smiled. "That is a great idea."

The two of them basically trashed the guns, leaving the bomb and and bullet proof metal walls.

I pointed at the bomb, "Ace, can you disarm that thing?"

"Um…" Miley walked around it, nodded her head and then shook her head.

"Which is it?"

"Well…" She hesitated slightly, "I can disarm it but we have to use the computer and the actual bomb, meaning I need two people."

"Great, just tell me what to do."

"Yeah, it's not that kind of bomb. You need to know math…and I mean Calculus 3 math. And to be completely honest, I can't hack a computer and avoid the firewalls while disabling a bomb unless I had an hour, and we have five minutes."

Everyone groaned

I attempted to contact Ethan, but apparently the walls blocked the signal. "What happened to Ethan?"

"Eh, he was chasing one of the people who attacked us and we lost track of him." Arnold shrugged.

Annie frowned, "I hate to break it to you, but that's not the current problem! I can try and diffuse the bomb, but Math is not my strong suit."

"I'm the same," Topaz spoke up.

I just nodded in agreement, but knew that wasn't Miley's best option. "Arnold, you wouldn't happen to be a hidden genius, would you?"

He gave a small smile, "Unfortunately, no."

The clock now read 3:50.

"I need at least 2 minutes to diffuse the bomb properly. Come on!" Miley wrung her hands in frustration. "You have to help!"

"Sorry, Miley, but I just can't." I frowned. "I really should have done better in math and science.

Ace rolled her eyes, "I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to him!" she pointed at Jr.

No one breathed for a second then Annie fell over laughing. "What's he going to do? Add 2 and 2?"

Jr whirled around and smacked his sister. She shut up pretty quick. I'd never seen Jr look so mad in my life,

"That's it! I'm done! Annie, you don't know everything about me! Now shut up for once and sit back and stay quiet!"

To everyone's surprise (well not Miley's) Jr marched over to the computer and hacked into it. He and Miley then proceeded to try and defuse the bomb.

Yeah…really weird day.

At 0:15 the bomb still wasn't defused. Jr typed in a few things then yelled, "Nikki! You can teleport now!"

I didn't wait for another invitation, but teleported everyone out of the warehouse. We landed on a nearby roof then watched the building go 'boom.'

Ethan joined us at the ashes two minutes later. "Did I miss anything important?" He asked raising an eyebrow at the wreckage.

Jr shrugged, "Not really… We got out a catastrophic predicament, nothing really major. Although, I think it would have been easier if I hadn't set off the trap. Shadow got shanghaied, but other than that we are all in wonderful shape."

To those of you who don't speak Jr, shanghaied is a synonym for kidnapped.

Ethan glanced at me with a confused look, "I'm not going to even ask…"

"That's probably a good idea…"

Narrator's POV:

*Eight months before Arianna got shot*

Miley was working in her workshop when Jr stopped by to get his running shoes looked at.

"I swear, they're getting more friction then normal! I can't run as fast."

The fox smiled, "They're fine Jr. You just sometimes lose to your father. He is the original after all." She gave back his special sneakers.

"I didn't say I lost to anyone!"

"You don't need to Jr, I know you well enough to know that you lost to Uncle Sonic." She picked up her screwdriver and began to tweak her new watch design slightly. Miley dropped the screw driver and held up the watch to the light. "I think I got it…"

"What are you doing?"

Miley yelped in surprise and dropped the watch. Jr slid and caught it just before it hit the ground.

"Jr! I thought you had left!"

"Nope, I was wondering what you were making?"

She gently took the watch back and put it on a table nearby, knowing too well how often Jr dropped her Father's inventions. "It's a holographic watch. I'm hoping to use it on our next mission but I can't get the Toggle panel to fit correctly with the Widened Electrical wire. If I place it too deep, then it will overload the Gigi circuit-board. Not deep enough and there's not enough power. Then of course I have to get the Spiral crystal to fit with the mega switch without breaking the watches main frame and…" She stopped and looked over at Jr. "Sorry I forgot who I was talking to."

Miley began to tweak with her watch again while Jr stood behind her. He crossed his arms,

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

The fox sighed then put down her screw driver, "Well it just…everyone knows you aren't the brightest bulb in the world."

"So? Does that mean I don't enjoy hearing about your inventions?"

Miley froze then turned around very slowly, "You've never shown interest before…so I just assumed…"

"Look, I'm getting sick and tired that everyone assumes they know me. I'm not an imbecile!"

Miley raised an eyebrow, "Did you just say imbecile?"

Jr froze then slowly shook his head, "No…why would you think I said that?"

"Because you did…"

Jr didn't say a word.

Miley shrugged, "Fine…be that way." She went back to her watch. Jr watched her move around the workshop, grabbing a few things here and there; always returning to the watch.

Two hours later, Jr still hadn't left. Miley was now scribbling away on a whiteboard, which was covered in number's and algebra signs.

She frowned at the board. "I think I got it now…" Miley walked over to the watch and picked up her screw driver.

She began to tighten the bolts as Jr stared at the board. He frowned then his eyes grew wide. "Miley!" He dashed, grabbed her around the waist, took off across the room, pushed her against a wall then placed himself in between her and the work table, just as the watch blew up. And when it blew up, it BLEW UP. The table blew apart, spraying shrapnel that wouldn't kill, but would hurt a lot.

As the dust settled, Miley opened her eyes to find Jr right in front of her, his arms straight in front of him; hands pressed against the wall forming a bar on either side of her. His head was down, eyes still closed, but they slowly opened. He looked up, "You okay?"

Miley could only nod, as her words were chocked in her mouth. Jr stepped away from the wall and surveyed the damage, "Well…that's a mess. This is why you shouldn't work in the basement, no one hears you."

Sure enough, no one had heard the explosion in Miley's workshop.

The fox was still shaking slightly. "How- how d-did you k-know it was go-going to b-blow?"

Jr motioned towards the math board, "You forgot to carry the 2."

"I did?"

"Yeah, in the final equation you forgot the two on the Deprium Equality."

She just stared at him, "How smart are you really?"

Jr smiled, "Smarter than you think. I just play dumb since Annie was always jealous of my speed when we were kids. Just because we're always fighting, doesn't mean I don't care about her."

"Hold on," Miley put her hands on her hips, "You play dumb so Annie feels superior?"

"Well when you say it like that, it sounds rather dumb. But yeah, pretty much." He smiled at her, "And to completely honest, I didn't lose to my Dad or Shadow. I just wanted to see you… that is why I brought my shoes in."

Miley turned a little red. "Well thanks for helping me…not explode."

Jr smiled and turned to go, but paused at the door, "And if you ever need help on that watches math…well just say that my new shoes need testing." He winked at her then sped out of the room.

Miley stared at the door and then sighed. As she started to clean up, she had the feeling that Sonic the Hedgehog Jr was going to be stopping by a lot more. Her heart fluttered with anticipation.

"Let me get this straight," Nikki said in the cockpit of the Tornado 7, "Jr and you started dating because a watch exploded?"

Miley smiled as the plane came to a stop in the GUN hanger, "Well when you put it like that…"

"It sound's rather dumb," Jr finished from the right wing. He hopped off the plane then raced over to the cockpit to help Miley out.

Topaz rolled her eyes. "You two are so weird…"

Annie just smiled, "I think it's cute…" Arnold helped her down from the left wing and smiled back.

On the tail, Ethan was trying to keep Manic from passing out…again. "I think he needs to see Cosmo."

"I'll take him…" Nicole grabbed the gray hedgehog's arm and teleported away.

Ethan watched where she had been a little too long.

"So what's up with you two?" Topaz asked with a sly smile.

"That's for Nicole to tell you, not me." Ethan shrugged. "I'm off. Tell Nicole I'll be here at tonight at seven for any new information. I need to go make sure Scourge isn't spreading lies about me in the mercenary community…" He ran off.

Topaz smirked, "They are so cute together…"

Annie and Miley nodded in agreement, while the boys rolled their eyes.

"Whatever…"

Up in the hospital, Cosmo ran into Ari's room as the hedgehog screamed again. "Ari! Wake up! You're having a nightmare!"

The hedgehog sat up and started crying. "It was horrible…"

Cosmo hugged her friend, trying to comfort her. "What happened this time?"

"I- I'm not sure… I think I shot Sh-Shadow then dragged him to a cell or something…" She sniveled then started to calm down. "Why are these nightmares returning…?"

"Sometimes, it just take's time. I think you getting shot brought back some bad memories, now just lay here and wait while I get your dinner…" The fox patted her friend's hand then left the room. As she grabbed the dinner tray from the kitchen, she heard Nicole calling her. She raced into the other room.

"Nicole! You have Manic I see…how'd the mission go?"

"I'll tell you later, but Manic needs some…medical attention."

"Again?" Cosmo pulled out her stethoscope and inspected Manic. "I can't see anything wrong with him…He just needs to rest."

Almost immediately, Manic resisted. "I'm not staying here! Not again!"

"Relax! I'll put you with some company." Cosmo motioned for Nicole to stay put and lead Manic into Ari's room. She smiled at the girl, who looked a little less stressed. "You're going to have some company for a few hours. You remember Manic?"

The gray hedgehog smiled at the black and red one. "Hi again."

Arianna allowed a small smile. "Hi…"

Cosmo placed Ari's dinner on the side table. "I'll leave you two for only a moment…I need to go speak to another hedgehog." She frowned as she left the room. Part of her wanted to run back into that room and drag Manic out…although she couldn't say why. The fox tried to shake her uneasiness off, but she just couldn't get rid of the foreboding feeling that something was about to happen…something that she knew she'd regret.