Author's Note: New chapter of Sonic Worlds is finally here! Let's get to it!

I do not own any rights to Sonic the Hedgehog or any of the related media. All rights go to Sega.


Chapter 8: Undiscovered Secrets.

Back in Chris's Dimension-Three months since Chris' disappearance:

Deep within Chuck's secret lab in the Thorndyke Mansion, kept hidden from everyone save for Nelson and Lindsey, and even to the house servants, the latter having been forced to return home following her son's disappearance and Chris was still yet to be found, were the three adults as Chuck was making final analyzations on his theory. The police and FBI were baffled for not finding any trace or even clues on where the twelve year old had gone off too. No traces of blood or kidnappings, and the neighbors who had been taken for questioning had no idea either as they hardly knew him, so they were off the case.

Even witnesses heard nothing, which made the Thorndykes worry that the authorities were creeping closer to suspecting them as they were realistically the main cause of why the youngest ran away.

"This is getting worse...If the government finds out the truth without our son being here, it's all over...!" Lindsey muttered, as she paced back in forth in anxiety.

"He isn't an escape artist, he should have been found by now...!" Nelson growled furiously as he stood behind his father who was busy typing frantically on his computer. "Is this thing even working!?"

"Hold on, I'm almost done." Chuck mumbled, focusing on his work.

"How could he do this? How could Christopher disobey when he was supposed to stay here!?" The woman began the two men frantically ranted, before clutching her fists angrily. "Our family line's only hope in keeping the name alive and ensuring that our goals are met, and he goes off wanting the so called normal life when there is no such thing...!"

"Every single one of them outside in this world are fools...! Unless we find our son soon, we may not be able to continue hiding like this and we'll have to make haste in order to avoid in being discovered until it's too late for them." Her husand grunted in agreement.

"Aha! There we go!" Chuck declared suddenly, finally finding what he was looking for, after careful analyzing with the hidden camera from the labortory two months back. "It looks like I was right."

"Huh?" Nelson and Lindsey murmured, both of them quickly peering over the older man's shoulders. "What did you discover?"

"This may look like he's gone for good, but look very closely as I zoom in." The elder Thorndyke explained, fiddling with the zoom on the computer, which revealed none other than Chris, hiding behind a dumpster in the alley, looking quite scared.

All of the sudden, at the same time as Pell's Warp Ray flew out of the window, a mysterious beam of light came from the sky and to the horror of the couple, it engulfed their son who screamed as he began to vanish, but not in a vaporizing way, but a very thin trace of another hole opening up which sucked the twelve year old boy in. As the three Thorndykes watched, they saw Chris vanish into the thin portal created by the two beams which all three suddenly vanished without a trace, resulting in the boy's disappearance.

"Is he...?" Linsdey trailed off, horrified while her husband began to go pale.

"Christopher is still alive." Chuck informed them, scanning the connecting beams. "According to my analysis, Professor Pell's Warp Ray accidentally made contact with another powerful source in the parallel dimension that our family's future has been taken to. Unfortunately, I need to do more research in order to fully understand what it is, what caused it and how to get in, in order to bring the boy back home to Earth."

"But you need Pell's Warp Ray to further study it so we can go there, correct?" Nelson asked, shocked as while he was somewhat relieved that the youngest Thorndyke is still alive, the fact that Chris was indeed in another dimension and now free from their lives while trapped somewhere else made things worse.

"Yes. To do that, I'm afraid we can no longer continue wait until he's eighteen." The elder man responded grimly, yet darkly as he narrowed his eyes.

"You mean..." Lindsey began darkly while Nelson gritted his teeth.

"Yes." Chuck turned around with a very dark look. "The time has come for us to take drastic measures into our own hands. It will take who knows how long to do this, but we don't have any other choice. In order to bring Christopher back, we need to do what our ancestors had done before..."

"To think that it has come to this..." Nelson grunted as he folded his arms in distaste, then thought about his missing son. "Christopher...You will regret in disobeying us and believing in such foolish emotions and desires that were never real since the beginning of humanity's time."

"How long will it take to find the dimension where Christopher has gone off to?" Lindsey questioned coldly.

"Hopefully it would only take months, but unfortunately I don't know. Until then, we must do what we can do to provide our future. After all...we are the true humans of Earth." The elder Thorndyke explained. "Once we have Pell's Warp Ray, he and I can create a larger machine to transport us and others we bring with us to find Christopher and bring him back home."

"And if there are people who are close to our son?" Nelson questioned.

"We either make sure they don't follow, or destroy them. On the other hand...We could bring one where I can do research on the species of the aliens, and once we gain our goals here, we can do the same with every other reality. This is what I have dreamed of and yes our family goals are important, we can do more. Much more." His father explained, smirking cruely.

"But what about this footage? The FBI will most certainly figure this out." Lindsey questioned, her eyes solely on the computer screen that held evidence on her son's disappearance.

Chuck chuckled as he already began typing on the computer once more. "Don't worry, Lindsey. I can easily edit and change this so that it would seem like the footage is only showing the failure of Dr. Pell's experiment. It would take a little bit, but I've told him not to worry that the three of us and the FBI can handle this."

Nelson and his wife both held dark, twisted looks at this even though they felt that Dr. Pell was going to be a problem. They both shared a look and narrowed their eyes.

They had to take drastic actions.


It didn't sit right with Alexander Pell. Two months had passed since his colleague left to find his grandson. Even after years knowing Professor Charles Thorndyke and being old roommates at collage, even friends and having known that Christopher was a miserable boy who disobied family rules, it was a mystery on what kind of life did he really live in. Yes, a lot of rich people don't allow their children to follow their own dreams if they want to avoid in going broke, or just want them to live up the family legacies of business or fame. But Pell felt that something wasn't right, and now it has gotten even worse.

So despite that his old former roommate repeatedly told him that it was fine and the FBI already questioned him if he knew anything which he didn't, the old scientist decided to secretly do some research himself by going back to the exact date of when Christopher vanished at the same time as the failed experiment.

'It's far too big to be simply a coincidence. Christopher runs away, then the mysterious light of the Warp Ray's failure and then he suddenly vanishes without a trace, with no prime suspects. What on Earth is going on?' Pell wondered as he repeatedly typed down on the keyboard. He decided to check on the security footage based on the hunch that he felt.

Finally after scanning through several weeks of footage, dating back to the exacte date of the young boy's disappearance, his eyes widened in shock and sheer horror...because he saw what he feared happened.

"Oh...Oh no...! My experiment...it worked...and it took the boy!" Pell softly exclaimed to himself, sheer guilt and dismay filling his insides. "Oh, god...what have I done!?"

How was he going to explain this to everyone now?


Back in Sonic's Dimension-A week after Chris' first day in school:

Even though Sonic and his friends were worried about Chris' strange new healing ability which scared the young Earth-boy, the rest of the week at the twelve year old's new school went off more smoothly when they all agreed to keep this as a secret. Chris though did come clean with his new friends Danny and Francies who were shocked and a bit disappointed that he lied about his origins at first, they quickly understood the reason as despite being from a parallel universe, he really didn't know about his new power and after making up, they promised to keep it a secret as well, not even informing their parents.

Since then, they began hanging out with Chris and even the Mobians while Sonic made sure that Eggman wouldn't attack again or even catch wind on this either. It was now Saturday, and the blue hedgehog and the young Thorndyke along with Tails, Amy, Francies, and Danny all went to Angel Island to talk to Knuckles about this while Cream and Cheese stayed home. Of course, since the X Tornado only had four seats and the pink hedgehog of the group refused to be left out on this, Sonic, reluctantly, agreed to carry her as he ran.

At the Altar of the Master Emerald, Knuckles once more stood lost in thought while guarding the giant gem until he heard a chorus of noises coming from behind him and looked over his shoulder. The first thing he saw was a white and yellow air-craft of modern design approach in an increasing speed.

"What now?" Knuckles grunted, turning around and stood on his guard. "It had better not be Eggman...!"

He was then corrected when he heard the sound of a sonic boom and blinked when he saw a blue and...pink and red(?) blur approach before stopping right at the alter in front of the red echidna, revealing to be Sonic with Amy in his arms carried in a bridal style.

"Hi, Knuckles." Sonic greeted, gently setting his self-proclaimed girlfriend on the ground. "Sorry to barge in like this."

"Why am I not surprised?" The older Mobian muttered sarcastically, relaxing a little. "Where's the kid?"

"Nice of you to notice me too, Knuckles." Amy spoke up quickly, glaring at him with her hands on her hips, annoyed by the rude greeting. "A hello would be nice, you know."

"Yeah, nice to see you again too, Amy. But why are you here?"

"This is really important. Chris is with Tails and the other two kids. I did tell you that we'd be coming here with a couple of witnesses who have a right to know about this." The fifteen year old hedgehog answered for the twelve year old hedgehog.

"Then explain to me why there's a new plane coming to my island." The sixteen year old echidna responded.

"Oh, that's Tails' new plane the X Tornado. It's a whole lot faster than the other planes, and really fun to ride in too." Sonic replied, smiling casually this time.

"So why aren't you guys up in there?"

Both Sonic and Amy both blushed in slight embarrassment before the latter said while the former shrugged sheepishly. "It only has four seats."

"We'd ride on the plane's wings, but uh..." The cobalt speedster began, casting a small annoyed glare at his self-proclaimed girlfriend for making him run and carry her since she wanted it to be 'romantic'. Plus she needed practice in the future but felt the opportunity to be with her 'boyfriend' was impossible to pass up.

That only made Knuckles smirk in amusement. It was no secret that Amy claimed Sonic as her boyfriend despite the denials from the hero of Mobius himself.

Up in the air, Tails, Chris, Francies and Danny, the latter two really enjoying their first flight up in the X Tornado, were nearing the island as the two-tailed fox announced. "We're gonna be landing very shortly, guys. Angel Island is up ahead."

"Whoa! That's really Angel Island?" Danny exclaimed in awe.

"It's more beautiful than I thought." Francies murmured in awe and excitement.

Chris was astonished. He never heard of islands actually flying in the sky. That sort of thing was fiction. At least back on Earth where he came from. To be seeing it in real life right before his eyes was incredible.

"It really is floating. That's one of the coolest things I've ever seen!" The twelve year old Earth-boy softly exclaimed. "How can it do that?"

"It's mainly because of the Master Emerald. Nobody knows why, but while it has control over the seven Chaos Emeralds, the Master Emerald is somehow linked to the island itself. Without, Angel Island wouldn't be able to fly or hover and just land anywhere, whether it was land or the sea." The eight year old cub explained. "It's been guarded by echidnas for thousands of years."

"So Knuckles is the current and only guardian left in the world. That's really sad." The young Thorndyke murmured, feeling sorry for Knuckles, as did both of his classmates who, upon also hearing this, lowered their heads in sympathy.

Tails nodded in sadness. "Yeah, and he's been all alone for so long, we've been trying our best to keep him company even though he likes his privacy more than Sonic does. But deep down for a tough guy, I think he's really lonely."

"Yeah..." Chris trailed off. It was kind of strange, but he could relate to the red echidna; while he himself grew up with a family, deep down he was just as lonely since his parents and grandfather didn't love him, and for years he had been forbidden from making any real friends, or do anything he wanted to do. In Knuckles' case, he had no choice but to remain on the floating island with no family or friends to turn to, until Sonic and the others came along.

Once Tails made the landing just near the altar, he and the human kids climbed out of the X Tornado as Sonic, Amy and Knuckles came down the stairs to meet up with them, the two hedgehogs greeting them with a wave.

"About time you guys got here. What took ya so long?" Sonic greeted jokingly.

"Oh, the weather was just so beautiful today, I thought it would be nice to just cruise around in the air in the X Tornado." Tails explained jokingly, making his adoptive older brother laugh.

"Wow! This feels so weird to be on an island that can fly! It's almost like we're in heaven or something." Chris remarked in awe, and his two other human friends were in agreement since it was their first time on Angel Island as well.

"Well, they don't call it Angel Island for nothing!" Amy giggled.

Knuckles, skeptical and a bit uncomfortable in having humans on his island even though they were only kids, approached as he said. "I guess that's one way of putting it."

He then turned his gaze to Chris and was admittedly surprised to see him again even though he knew that the twelve year old boy didn't recognize him since he'd been unconscious at the time. "You're the kid Sonic saved from Eggman's base. The one who somehow had been transported from another dimension."

"Uh, yeah. My name's Chris. Are you Knuckles? I've heard a lot about you." Chris replied a bit hesitantly, upon seeing and meeting the red echidna for the first time.

"Define a lot?" Knuckles raised an eye ridge.

"Um...that you helped out a lot in the past and helped Sonic to fight that creepy guy Dr. Eggman." The twelve year old boy shrugged, trying not to hurt the sixteen year old's feelings.

Human from another world or not, while Knuckles still felt uneasy about this kid, there was something about him that seemed normal yet he felt that same strange feeling he felt earlier during the week. "In that case, Sonic told me a lot about you and that you guys need my help in what's going on. Explain from the beginning."

"Well, Knux, it kinda goes like this. This happened not long after I left ya when I went to pick up Chris from school." Sonic began, scratching the top of his head. "Eggman attacked hoping to brainwash the kids with another stupid robot but it had this laser function and hit Francies here on the arm and got me too. For some reason, Chris was able to heal the both of us unexpectedly."

"Heal?" This caught the red echidna by surprise.

"Yeah, it was like a magic healing power. It happened so fast that it was like I never got hurt at all." Francies spoke up, shrugging.

"And when I tried to convince Sonic to have Mrs. Vanilla to help with his injury, I accidentally touched him like I did with Francies and somehow I healed his arm too." Chris added, scratching the back of his head.

"When Chris healed my small scratch, I felt that it was just like the Chaos Energy whenever I use the Chaos Emeralds to heal myself or others. Problem is, none of us have even one with us and Eggface didn't have any either." Sonic continued seriously.

"We have reason to believe that when the Chaos Energy was exposed by Dr. Eggman's machine, not only it transported Chris to our world, but also may have caused a side effect that's starting to effect him. I already ran scans on Chris yesterday since he needed time to be at school and be normal, and it's pretty alarming." Tails added, holding out a mini-computer pad known as the Miles Electric he created a while back, fiddling with a few things to show it. "The Chaos Energy inside Chris is pretty weak for now, but the healing power is so strong that he doesn't need any of the Emeralds. It's not stabled yet, though and Sonic's Chaos Energy is still much higher than anybody else's."

"We were hoping that you know something about this, Knuckles. That's why we came to you today since it's the weekend." The blue hedgehog concluded.

Knuckles absorbed everything he's been hearing and while he was skeptical about the story, he thought about it and why the feeling he got from Chris made him on edge yet wasn't considered as dangerous. The strange energy that seemed weak at the time since he first laid his eyes on the human boy, but now he could feel it a bit more due to the presence of the Master Emerald. If the twelve year old boy from the parallel dimension was exposed by the powers of the Chaos Emeralds via space-time travel, then this was a serious problem.

"Hmm...It is very unusual for a human to be exposed of the Chaos Emeralds' energy and being given the power of healing, let alone a human from another dimension." The red echidna began, before questioning the boy. "Have you ever had any family backgrounds with any kinds of abilities before?"

"No. My family's just as normal as anybody else. Just...well, really crazy about what they thought of the world. They thought there was no such thing as having friends and that everybody else's wrong or delusional or something." Chris shrugged, before scratching the top of his head. "Come to think of it, everytime I ask about what our family's history really is like on either side, they'd say it was always family business, or movie acting or just science stuff. Nothing if they were knighted by the Queen of another country or if they went to other countries or even mention about who my ancestors were."

"Not even your great-grandparents?" Sonic asked as he and everybody else were admitted stunned to hear this new info.

"I couldn't find any records of them. Not even photos if. It's almost like they didn't want me to learn about them. Every time I did...I was forced to remain silent and locked up in my room." Chris somberly confessed, shocking his friends and even Knuckles.

"They what!?" The red echidna exclaimed, sweat dropping. 'And I thought Eggman had a bad family history.'

"That's just not fair! How could your parents and grandfather do such a thing to you and your family history?" Francies exclaimed angrily, furious over what she and Danny, who looked just as angry, heard about their new friend's family history.

"This is just beyond infuriating what they did to Chris...! But to make everybody forget that his own great-grandparents even existed!?" Amy growled furiously, clutching her fists which shook in anger, then half-screamed. "This is an outrage!"

"This is just like how GUN covered up the truth about Shadow and what really happened fifty years ago..." Tails muttered, horrified, shaking his head in disbelief.

Sonic forced himself to remain calm even though he wanted nothing more than to give the creeps who called themselves Chris's mother, father and grandfather, clutching his fists as he gritted his teeth angrily. "That's just a new low. No offense, Chris, but I'm surprised that they didn't get arrested for abusing you like that yet."

Chris nodded, shuddering over the memories. "Yeah. If anything, I'd rather be in a foster home for what they did, but since I was never really hurt on the outside, I couldn't even get the police to believe me since they could lie a lot and believe that everybody else was wrong."

"More like they're hiding something even from you." The sixteen year old Mobian said deeply, causing everyone to gaze at him. "Forbidding you to learn more about your own family's history, and learning about the outside world while erasing any evidence of your grandmother's existence...This doesn't sit well. Especially since they think that the world you come from is wrong about how life works."

"You mean...like they've lied to me?" The twelve year old boy asked, becoming shocked and horrified.

"Hate to say it, buddy, but if they don't want you to know about the world or even about your family's background and they keep punishing you for little things that everybody else does to force you to do what they want, it makes sense that there's something totally wrong with your folks and grandpa." Sonic apologetically agreed.

"Then...combined with Dad's business, Mom being a really good actress and Grandpa being a scientist...it's easy to trick people into thinking that they're innocent despite their rude behaviors. Even me. But...why? It doesn't make any sense...!" The young Thorndyke realized, lowering his head as he felt his chest feel very heavy over the horror that his own family were up to something horrible and would never tell him, or let him go out to be like everyone else.

That was the biggest betrayal he ever experienced. Especially since he knew every little about the Thorndyke background. It scared him that maybe...maybe they were evil criminals or something and had the power to hide it from the world and forcing him to accept that he wasn't meant to know at all.

"I dunno, pal. But it's going to be okay." Sonic murmured, approaching his human friend and gently patting him on the back. "Your family's never gonna hurt you ever again. I promise."

Chris sniffled, wiping away traces of tears that developed and nodded, while the rest of his new friends all gazed at him, feeling their hearts ache and Amy, Tails and Francies felt tears sting their eyes and Danny placing a comforting hand on the young Thorndyke's shoulder. Even Knuckles, seeing this, felt somewhat sympathized with the human kid's life before he ended up accidentally being brought here.

Now that left him torn on whether the Earth-boy was safer in his own world or here in Mobius.

"I'll see what I can do to help with your new healing abilities." Knuckles finally spoke up, surprising Sonic, Chris and everyone else. "Given this, now that we know that you've been exposed to the Chaos Energy, we can't let anybody else know about this, either here in Mobius or in your world. I'm not an expert in healing powers since I don't have that strong of it like Sonic does, but I think I can do some research on it and how to help you control your abilities. It's probably best to look for the Chaos Emeralds for that and before Eggman finds out."

"You're right, Knuckles. Plus, if Eggman finds out that Chris can now use Chaos Energy for healing, he could use Chris to his advantage." Tails agreed.

"Right. I'm not gonna let Eggman get to Chris if I can help it. We'd better keep this between us and make sure he doesn't find out, and at the same time, make sure that our buddy has a normal life as possible." Sonic declared, fearing that things could get much worse given the situation.

Everyone was in an agreement even though Chris felt guilty for the situation and lowered his gaze. "I'm really sorry for the trouble, you guys. It's just I couldn't handle how I was treated back at home anymore."

"Don't worry. It's not your fault." The blue hedgehog reassured optimistically. "Things will work out."

"Right." The twelve year old boy nodded, smiling softly even though he still felt terrible. Maybe if he hadn't run away, then everybody on Mobius wouldn't be going through the risks of him being here or being exposed to the Chaos Energy. At the same time, though...if it had been the other away around...if Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Cream and Cheese, and even Eggman had ended up on Earth...

That would be ten times worse.


The next couple of days were somewhat relaxing even as Sonic and the others tried to find ways to avoid in Chris revealing his new abilities out in the public while Knuckles researched on if there was any history if a human could use Chaos Energy in the past. Since then, no incidents happened and the twelve year old Earth-boy got the chance to spend time with his classmates, going to school which had no other problems since the attack, and even hanging out with both Francies and Danny as well as Sonic's group.

By Wednesday, Chris had just arrived home and was about to enter Cream's house when he heard a soft sound of a guitar playing close by.

"Huh?" The twelve year old boy blinked in confusion, wondering what that music was and where it was coming from. Looking around for the source, the curious boy went around the house to the backyard and found, to his surprise, was Cream who was playing a pretty melody with a small cute, Chao-shaped and Cheese listening to it to his heart's content.

'Wow...She's really great at it. I wonder where she learned how to play such a nice song.' Chris thought to himself, as he listened to the little girl's talent. It was such a nice piece of music, he could just listen to it all afternoon.

By the time Cream finished playing, she giggled as Cheese clapped excitedly, but he was soon joined by Chris who clapped as well, making the two turn to see their friend and housemate right there.

"Oh, hello Chris." Cream greeted, realizing that the boy had listened to her playing.

"That was really great, Cream. I didn't know you could play a guitar." Chris replied, approaching his youngest friend and sat beside her.

"You really think so?" The six year old rabbit girl asked with glee.

"Yeah. It's the best I've ever heard." The twelve year old human boy replied. "Where'd you learn how to play so well?"

Cream beamed over the compliment and explained. "I've learned it from Sonic."

"Sonic? I didn't know he could play a guitar too." The young Thorndyke muttered, greatly surprised that Sonic the Hedgehog not only could run super fast and was really caring, but the fact that the hero of Mobius played music too and taught Cream was surprising and amazing.

Cream nodded. "Mm-hm! Sonic teached me how to do it one time six months ago, around the time after we first met."


Flash-Back: Six months ago...

As Cream and Cheese were happily approaching the beautiful field of flowers to pick some, the two youngsters stopped when they heard something very nice fill the air. Curious and puzzled, they looked around as wondered what it was.

"Do you hear that, Cheese? It sounds like music." Cream asked her Chao friend.

"Chao?" Cheese chirped, before he noticed the source of the music and pointed up ahead on a hill close by. "Chao Chao!"

Following her friend's gaze, the six year old looked to see and found to her surprise that the sound, which was such a lovely melody, was coming from none other than Sonic who had rescued her and her mother a few months ago and since then they, Tails, Amy and Knuckles had become friends. The blue hedgehog, seemingly unaware of the two youngsters, was sitting against the bark of a tree under the shade with his eyes closed as he played a wonderful song with a red and white guitar.

Amazed by this skill neither of them had thought of Sonic being capable of doing as the blue hedgehog had once again surprised them, Cream and Cheese then approached him as silently as they could while listening to the lovely song, while the teenage Mobian seemed to be in peace as he played while listening to both the music as well as the gentle movements of leaves blowing in the breeze, feeling one with nature as though it was in his blood.

Once Sonic finished playing, Cream and Cheese both clapped excitedly which prompted the hero of Mobius to open his eyes and blinked in surprise to find that he suddenly had an audience.

"Wow! What a very lovely song, Sonic." Cream said happily.

"Hey there, Cream and Cheese, and thanks." Sonic greeted as he sat up, smiling warmly. "Guess I should've known you'd both be here. I thought I was imagining things when I heard soft footsteps and small wings flapping."

"Oh...We're sorry. We didn't mean to interrupt you." The young rabbit girl muttered, lowering her gaze in slight guilt.

"Chao Chao..." Cheese murmured.

"Don't worry, I wasn't fazed one bit. You don't have anything to apologize for." The blue hedgehog gave them a wink, before gesturing them to take a seat next to him, which, to their surprise and delight, they did. "So, what brings you two here today?"

"Cheese and I were going to pick some flowers when we heard you play with your guitar. You're very talented and I like the song." The six year old Mobian girl explained as she and her Chao sat by the hedgehog's right.

Sonic blushed a little sheepishly. "It's no big deal. I just learned as I go along. Plus I kinda just made up the song too. Took me a couple of years to get it right."

"I think it's so pretty. I wish I could play it. Playing a guitar sounds like fun!" Cream replied.

Seeing that he had made not just a new friend, but also a new admirer, the blue hedgehog smiled and offered. "You want me to teach you?"

"Really? Are you sure?" She asked, hopefully.

"Sure! I can teach ya' as long as you want me to." Sonic answered with a wink and a smirk.

From that day onward, Sonic had taught Cream how to play a guitar and the very song she grew to love to the point where she asked her mother Vanilla to get her a guitar, and the elder rabbit, with the aid of Sonic, Tails and Amy, all pulled together to make the little girl's wish come true.


End of Flash-Back:

"And that's how Sonic taught me how to play this song." Cream concluded her story.

"Wow! Sonic really made up the song? He should be a song writer and be in a band." The human boy remarked, finding himself even more amazed by Sonic's talents in a lot of things every day.

"Would you like me to teach you how to play it?" The young Mobian girl asked.

"Sure, I'd love to." Chris nodded, very fascinated over the story.


Few days later when it came to the weekend, Chris, under Vanilla's permission, had wandered off to find a good place to keep practice as, even though it felt a bit silly to play a little girl's guitar but it was better than nothing, before settling against a tree in the huge green fields up on a hill as Sonic would do so, and after memorizing the string-strokes and how it was done, began to play.

Unaware that Sonic, who had been on his morning run after waking up feeling refreshed this morning, slowed to a stop when he heard the familiar sound of a guitar playing his song that he invented in confusion. Curious and wondering if it was Cream playing, the blue hedgehog looked up to see that it was his new human friend instead.

"Chris?" Sonic muttered, surprised that the Earth-Boy was playing his song, before figuring out that Cream had taught him in the last few days. Smiling as he found that the twelve year old Thorndyke was doing an amazing job, the blue hedgehog silently approached as Chris finished playing and sighed.

"Well, looks like I finally nailed it." Chris muttered to himself.

"I'd say you nailed it perfectly, bud." Sonic spoke up, surprising his friend who looked up to see him as the teenage hedgehog clapped. "That was pretty good."

"Oh, thanks, Sonic. Cream taught me when I heard her play it after to school the other day, especially since I never played a song before, let alone an instrument." The twelve year old boy greeted.

Hearing the last part of his friend's explanation, the blue hedgehog frowned in concern as he took a seat next to him. "Oh man...Don't tell me that you weren't allowed to play music or even listen to any kind of songs you like back at home either..."

"Nope." Chris shook his head with a sigh, frowning over another part of his life he was denied. "I had to listen to boring music my family wanted me to listen to, like the old 1960's drama and horrible songs, like opera. I wasn't even allowed to watch TV unless it was either the movies my Mom starred in, or stuff like musicals that were pretty bad. One of the worst movies ever was My Fair Lady."

"And I thought Eggman had a bad taste in music. At least he goes for disco but dresses up to go with the beat which is totally embarrassing." Sonic shook his head in disbelief. "On the other hand, not everybody's good when it comes to playing music...or singing."

"Tell me about it. I even had to take singing lessons at home since I wasn't even allowed to take part in the music classes back at home either, and everytime I would be selected to go into the choir, Mom would instead drag me into her theater shows instead and force me to sing with her, and if I mess up, I wasn't allowed to even talk for three weeks and I was only allowed to say yes on a piece of paper or explain how I went in school." The twelve year old boy shuddered.

Sonic looked pale over hearing this new information. Even Chris's own mother forbid him from joining the school choir, forced him to join her own shows and if the kid messed up, he was forced to remain silent for three weeks!? The blue hedgehog felt like he was going to be sick, but he managed to hold it in.

"On top of that, if I get caught in listening to music I really like, I was forced into taking even more etiquette lessons and watch more of those movies for them to try and get me to listen to 'real' music." The boy continued.

Groaning in disbelief while holding back the urge to simply just scream in anger over how horrible Chris's family really is, the blue hedgehog covered his face with his hands as he learned forward to try and calm down.

"No offense, Chris, but the more I hear about your folks, the more they sound like they've been treating you like a robot." Sonic grumbled, his voice muffled through his gloved hands.

"I've been thinking about that myself lately and sometimes I felt like I might as well be a robot. Especially since if they really did lie to me for my whole life." Chris nodded in agreement with a sigh. "I always ask myself why I couldn't have a normal, loving and caring family."

The fifteen year old hedgehog lifted his face before stating. "If you ask me, your parents and grandpa are among the top on the worst family ever list. They shouldn't treat you or anybody else as though they own the planet. It's not fair on you, and you deserve a whole lot better. I'm surprised they haven't been put into jail yet. Again, no offense."

"Yeah, except they hadn't done anything to really get into trouble and being rich means that they can do whatever they want and get away with things like yelling at other people, especially when their anger is at me. Every time I considered on asking for help, well, my parents would always say that people would just hurt me and that the outside world is full of liars and the Thorndyke line is the only true family and humanity on Earth." The twelve year old boy lowered his gaze.

"That doesn't sound right." Sonic admitted, feeling more and more uncertain about his new friend's family and how horrible they sounded. "Okay, sure, I'll admit it, I never knew who my parents were, so I wouldn't have a clue, but I've met tons of families who love their kids in many different sort of ways. It sounds awfully like your family were way over the top superstitious. Like they're scared of the outside world themselves."

"That's part of the problem. Every time I ask why they were scared, they would just give me the same excuses and tell me to never go out and learn for myself." Chris shrugged, before frowning. "Hmm...come to think of it, Grandpa never really talked about Grandma except that she was a lot like me, being kind and friendly and always believing in the good in others, but I wasn't allowed to see her much since even she wasn't allowed to see me. I was...I was six years old when she died."

The hero of Mobius softly gasped in horror and sympathy, before he gently rubbed the back of his friend's back when the latter began to look sad over the memory for the loss of at least one good family member who wasn't allowed to even see her own grandson.

"I'm sorry." Sonic whispered. "At least you had someone who really cared."

"Yeah, but I wasn't even allowed to get to know her a bit more. Or even talk about her, not even seeing the family photos since we didn't even have a photoalbum either, like with my great-grandparents. Only Mom's autographs or Dad's papers or even Grandpa in the newspapers." Chris shrugged, thinking about the times when he did wish he learned a bit more about his late grandmother, before gazing up at the sky. "I do like to think that she's watching over me from Heaven. I wonder if she knows where I am right now?"

"Well, Heaven is a place were people rest in peace and watch over everybody in the living world. I don't believe in ghosts, but what I do believe is loved ones who pass away always know what everybody who are still alive are doing. I'll bet that your grandma is glad to know that you're safe and free now, and I have a feeling that she's just as glad that you're away from the rest of your family. From what I can tell, she sounds like a very nice lady." Sonic reassured with a warm, optimistic smile.

The blue hedgehog gazed up at the sky as well, as he explained. "I don't even know who my folks are, or if I had any. As far back as I can remember, I can vaguely see their faces from time to time in my earliest memories when I was a little kid. I guess I just kinda learned after somehow being separated from them or something."

"I...didn't know that." Chris muttered, stuttering a little.

Sonic shook his head, "Many wouldn't, and I try not to let it get to me. Why try and look for something that may be lost forever, when you can keep on moving forward and see what the future brings? Sure I was pretty lonely growing up on Southern Island, even when I first started fighting Eggman. I had decent company in all of the wildlife animals and I got along fine with the villagers, but let's face it, I wanted to go on adventures and see the world and...more importantly, I wanted to have real friends, like you...and like Tails."

"Tails didn't have any friends either?" The boy asked, surprised.

"That's for him to say when he's ready and, let's just say he didn't have an easy life himself, 'til I showed up. He fixed my airplane which is the original Tornado and gave it a fresh paint colour. It was one of the nicest things anybody's ever done for me, and we barely knew each other. He did it 'cause he saw me one day and thought I was cool and wanted to be my friend. After that, we grew close to each other and were best friends and brothers ever since." Sonic smiled, remembering the meeting and bond with his little brother fondly.

"Wow...You guys really are just like brothers." Chris breathed, amazed and maybe feeling a little bit jealous. But then again, with the exception of Cream and Cheese, and Francies and Danny, all of his new friends had even harder times growing up until they found each other. He then wondered. "Um, besides how you met Tails and Knuckles, and Cream told me that you saved her, Cheese and Mrs. Vanilla from Eggman, how did you meet Amy?"

"Similar how I met them. It's a complicated story since when I first saved her, she immediately fell in love with me and, well...she's been following me since. Don't get me wrong, I like her as a friend, but she's crazy over me." Sonic shrugged with a sweat drop.

"Love at first sight, huh?" Chris remarked with a small sweat drop.

"Something like that." The blue hedgehog nodded. "Anyway, sometimes a person does need a bit of a break, but being on your own all the time is no fun. Unless you're like Eggman who's only company is his stupid robots. Because as far as I can tell, friends are just as much as a family as blood relatives are. It doesn't matter if you're related or not. It's the bond you share with those you care about so much that really counts."

'The bond you share with those you care about so much that really counts...that sounds like something out of the movies or storybooks.' The twelve year old boy thought as the more he listened to the teenage Mobian speak, the more he felt inspired and comforted.

"Sonic, you're really one of a kind." He said fondly, making the blue hedgehog gaze at him in confusion. "The way how you talk and act towards others, even with your past being a mystery, you're the most optimistic person in the whole world. Maybe even the universe."

Stunned by the compliment he received, Sonic blushed slightly in embarrassment, scratching the top of his head with a sheepish grin. "Aw, c'mon, Chris. You're kinda embarrassing me here, buddy. You, Tails, Ames and Cream have hearts that are more pure than mine is."

That made his new friend chuckle even as he tried to stop it, before the fifteen year old join in. They stopped after a few minutes of laughing, before the blue hedgehog then thought of something. "Hey, I have an idea. You wanna show everybody how you can play a guitar?"

"Huh? You mean like show all of our friends?" Chris asked, startled by this suggestion.

"Yeah. Cream showed it of not long after I taught her. I don't mean like today, but whenever you feel ready. Just the three of us, Cheese, Mrs. Vanilla, Tails and Amy. And whoever else you'd like to invite." Sonic nodded as he stood up, before saying as he realized that he may be ahead of himself. "Unless, it's not such a good idea just yet."

"It's not that, it's just, well...After being forced to do all of rehearsals with my Mom for so long, what if I mess up and people get mad at me?"

"Hey, we're not gonna get mad at ya'." Sonic reassured, placing a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder. "Even professionals make mistakes. You don't have to do this if you don't want to. I'm sorry that I came up with the idea. It was kinda too rushed. I just thought that you were great and thought that maybe you'd like the others to hear it."

"It's okay, Sonic. It wasn't your fault." Chris sighed, smiling softly. Again he was reminded just how kind the Mobian hedgehog was. Plus was jusut a suggestion, not a demand and his friend did apologize, and that no one was going to be mad at him if he made a mistake or messed up.

Plus maybe it would be good for him if he did practice a bit more and gained a little bit of confidence since he realized that Music classes were going to be starting soon and he was in the class age group where students would attend school choirs to a large audience. He never even attended that, and had been forced to attend music concerts with his mother instead. He just hoped he would get support from his friends and current guardian.

"You know what? I'll give it a try." He finally decided.

"Really?" The blue hedgehog asked, surprised.

"Sure. Plus, with music classes coming up and it'll be the first time I'll ever be able to join the school choir, instruments or not, I could use practice so I don't end up getting a stage fright." The twelve year old boy replied.

"Cool! Then I'll help ya' practice and maybe we can invite Cream to join us. Who knows, maybe we could even set up our own mini-guitar band." Sonic smiled happily, holding out a hand to his friend who smiled back happily and took it, helping him stand up.

"That sounds like fun." Chris commented, becoming less frightened and more excited. In the weeks he's been here on Mobius, he was having much more fun with the freedom he longed for than he ever had on Earth.

Even though there was still a mystery over his new strange ability of healing.

As the two talked, they were unaware that a spy robot was watching them have a conversation.


Meanwhile, after spending the last couple of weeks sulking over his latest failure due to Sonic's actions, Eggman has been busy in rebuilding his new secret base, this time on the cliffside shores in a good distance away from Sonic's village and Station Square, and now that it has been completed, he was ready to come up with another scheme to take over the world and destroy Sonic and his friends.

Right now he was watching his young nemesis and the twelve year old boy having a conversation through the monitor, even though he couldn't hear what they were saying since the spy camera-bot wasn't designed to have audio recording or speakers.

"Well, it looks like Sonic has a taste for music, and a guitar no less. Now he's taught his new friend with Creamy Dreamy's little Chao Guitar toy." Eggman muttered to himself, grinning evilly. "This gives me another brilliant idea."

"Here are your cards, doctor." Decoe spoke up as he and Bocoe approached with a tray full of deck cards.

"Thank you." The evil scientist picked up the stack and shuffled through them. "Hmm...lets see. Which one should I choose? I can't decide."

Deciding to then choose the more easier way, the mad doctor then stood up and approached the robot slot machine and placed the cards into the slot before pulling the lever, cackling sinisterly. After a few moments, it stopped when it revealed three pictures of a robot that was shaped like a Musican...with it's body holding almost every instruments that ever existed.

"Ah, Rock-N'-Bot! The best music robo-player in the universe. Perfect!" Eggman said in glee, pleased with the results of the choosing. "And what better time to sent him in than the Music Fair within the next week?"

Standing back and turning around. "And once I win that competition, I'll be able to launch an attack on Station Square and get rid of that annoying blue pest once and for all! Oh ho ho ho ho ho! Ho ho ho ho ho-!"

He stopped when he then had a coughing fit which also made a sickening crack within his ribs or muscles, causing him to place a hand to his stomach and he bent over a little, wincing in pain.

"Are you alright, doctor?" Decoe asked in concern.

"Oh...ow...I've laughed so hard, not only I've swallowed the wrong way but I've also pulled a muscle..." Eggman winced in a high-pitched pained voice.

"You should get some rest, Dr. Eggman. You've been working hard in the last few weeks." Bocoe suggested, though it was a bit of a lie since Eggman did all the ordering while the gray and yellow robots did all the work.

"Excellent idea. We begin the prologue of this new plan tomorrow and destroy Sonic by interrupting him and his...audition." The evil doctor agreed, yet he grinned at the very idea of ruining Sonic's chance of playing with his guitar he most likely had.

As the evil man walked away, the two robots watched him go before sharing a glance and Bocoe muttered in a whisper. "He gets to rest while we have to keep working."

"When we will ever get a vacation?" Decoe whined in a whisper.

"I HEARD THAT, YOU USELESS SCRAP HEAPS! GET BACK TO WORK!" Eggman's voice from the corridor shouted angrily, frightening the two minions who yelped in fear before they quickly scrambled to get back to work to avoid in turning into either scrapped metals or worse, toasters.


Meanwhile, Rouge and Shadow, who still couldn't remember much and wondered to himself why he joined the white bat who seems to know about him, were still searching for clues about how to get the latter's memories back with little to no luck. They flew and skated their way through many parts of the land looking for clues in the last couple of weeks, and right now were both in Station Square, the jewel thief flying over the buildings and the amnesic black hedgehog leaping from one roof to another until they both came a stop which overlooked the city in late afternoon.

"Sure seems really peaceful here today. Guess Sonic's been keeping it safe from Eggman or the doctor's been coming up with another plot that will probably cause major problems all over again." Rouge commented as she stood by Shadow's right.

"You seem to know them, don't you, Rouge?" Shadow questioned, skeptically given he didn't remember his actions, nor did he remember anything about the hero of Mobius or the evil doctor who had freed him before, yet he knew that it was the scientist who had him inside that capsule. "Who is this Sonic? Why do you say he looks like me in the face?"

"Sonic may be fifteen years old, but he's the hero of Mobius and really quick on his feet. He has a wild personality that a lot people say is just like the wind. But boy, does he have a heart behind that, and I quote, 'coolness factor'." The white bat explained, shrugging.

"Coolness factor? I've never heard of anything so ridiculous." The Ultimate Lifeform scoffed. "He sounds more like a child who likes to play a lot."

"That's some truth in that, but when it comes to saving the world, he's all serious, especially protect everybody including those he cares about and as far as it goes, Sonic doesn't ask for anything much." Rouge giggled, before noticing something down below and had a sly smile after she held a look of surprise. "And it looks like he's here again today with a new friend, having a rocky taste in music."

While wondering what in the world his companion was talking about, Shadow followed her gaze and saw, emerging from one of the buildings below, a group that looked strangely familiar. But none more so than the blue striking figure walking side-by side with a human boy who seemed to be holding a blue shiny guitar; a blue hedgehog who, even from the distance, looked a lot like him in the face, but with emerald green eyes and a carefree smile. With the teenage Mobian and the boy were other children and an adult Mobian rabbit; a young rabbit girl that looked identical to the elder, most likely her daughter, with a small blue creature with pink wings and a yellow ball on it's head, a pink hedgehog girl, a yellow and white two-tailed fox cub, another human boy and a young human girl.

While Rouge recognized most of them and Shadow only found the blue hedgehog familiar, it was Sonic, Chris, Tails, Amy, Francies, Danny, Vanilla, and Cream and Cheese, who had just bought a practice guitar for Chris and were heading for home.

Yet seeing Sonic and Chris laugh and talk not only made Shadow feel like he did see the younger hedgehog before, but for a split second he saw an image that made his head ache, causing him to place a hand to his face and winced, unable to hear Rouge's sudden concerned voice.


Shadow didn't know what was happening, but he was running. Running through a metal corridor as though his life depended on it. Behind him, looking over his shoulder while holding the wrist of the owner, was a young human girl with blonde hair with blue eyes, wearing a blue headband and dress, and she looked both worried and terrified. Chasing after them were a group of unfamiliar yet very familiar people, wearing uniforms with logos that had GUN on them, carrying rifles.

Unfortunately, both Shadow and the girl end up a dead end, before everything went fuzzy and one of the men has them cornered...then...a gunshot was heard and the girl could be heard gasping in shock and in pain.

Then Shadow heard himself exclaim in horror and concern. "Maria!"


Then, the image faded to another vision. This time Shadow saw himself in the streets of Station Square in the middle of the night, facing the blue hedgehog up close, yet the teenage hero was holding a serious expression, if not angry as well.

"Give back that Chaos Emerald you stole, you fake hedgehog! Who are you, anyway?" Sonic demanded, glaring at him.

Shadow heard himself scoff as he held a green gem in his closed hand, then said to the younger hedgehog. "My name is Shadow, I am the Ultimate Lifeform."

Then he somehow chanted something called Chaos Control, and heard Sonic call out for him to wait, before everything went white...


"Shadow! Mobius to Shadow!"

As the vision faded, Shadow's head was aching, yet the pain was starting to dull and fade, yet his breathing was shaky and his heart was rapidly beating.

"Shadow, are you alright?" Rouge asked, surprisingly concerned for her companion's welfare.

"I'm fine...I just...I saw something." Shadow muttered, before shaking his head and gazed down below. "I saw that blue hedgehog...the one you called Sonic. Rouge...do you know anything about this Chaos Emerald?"

"You're starting to remember?" The white bat asked in return, surprised. "If you're asking about the Chaos Emerald, then that must be a sign that you're remembering."

"Hmmm...I need to speak with that hedgehog. He must know something else about me." The black hedgehog muttered, more to himself then his companion. Not only that he believed that Sonic may provide a clue into his mysterious past, but if he could find this Chaos Emerald, it may be another hint.

Yet, that left one question in mind.

'If I met Sonic the Hedgehog before in the past, then he knows something about me. Yet...that girl...is her name Maria? Who...who is she? Do I...know her?' Shadow thought to himself, yet as he thought about Maria, the image was too gruesome.

Too horrific. Because he certainly knew one thing; whoever those men chasing after them are...one of them has killed her. They killed an innocent human child...

And Shadow himself may have been trying to save her. Either way, his only clue so far now before he could pounder into the mystery of the girl is to confront, or at least, speak with Sonic the Hedgehog.

Because that blue speedster had to know something. And...that boy he was hanging out with.

'Why do I get this strange energy feeling from that boy? Who is he? Why is he being with that blue hedgehog?' He thought.

Knowing what to do, he decided to take his chance. This was going to be interesting.


A/N: Sorry that this is late and that it's another breather chapter. I did my best with it and this is also part of the request from my friend danielman21 which the rest of it will hopefully be in the next chapter. Just hope things will be okay when I update this story again as soon as possible. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

See you later!