Project was confused at the blue one's words. To bust an egg? What does that mean?

"Follow me." Sonic said as he ran off.

"Wait for me!" Project yelled as he started running, his rocket shoes kicking on as he slowly caught up with the blue blur.

Sonic just kept running, loving the feeling of the wind rushing through his quills and his feet hitting the hard ground. He smiled as he saw Project beside him, racing just like Shadow would: eyes faced forward in determination, leaned forward to gain more momentum, and arms gracefully moving back and forth to the rhythm of the skates. He felt like he was finally racing Shadow again, though he knew this was just Project.

Project smiled, never feeling a better feeling than this. Wind was the only thing he felt as he stood up. He looked over at Sonic with a new found competitive spirit, ready for a race. Sonic just smirked in response to his silent request and sped off quickly. Project ran faster, now gaining the lead. Sonic caught up and the two were like that for the whole trip.

"I win." Sonic shouted triumphantly when reached their destination.

"Sure you did." Project said sarcastically.

"I did!" Sonic argued. Project smiled at the childish hedgehog. He felt more comfortable around Sonic and his friends, now that he knows he can trust the blue blur. Something with that race triggered something within him. It showed a new found need to race the blue hedgehog and argue a bit. It felt almost... familiar, in a way.

Sonic was thinking the same thing. The race and the arguing over who won felt familiar to him.

'Shadow...' A voice in his head said.

Ever since Shadow died, Sonic had a horrible ache in his heart. Somehow, he always thought that Shadow was still alive. He kept searching around the world, looking for his crush, but he never found anything. Shadow's body was never found after he fell to Earth. Tails said that the fire, that was probably there as he reentered Earth's atmosphere, caused his body to disintegrate. Sonic didn't believe him, though he acted like he did. Shadow was created to withstand a lot, being the ultimate lifeform and all, so how could he die from that? What exactly was going on? A few years after Shadow's death, a look a like of him appears out of nowhere and doesn't remember much. There's something strange going on here, and Sonic is going to figure it out. Maybe after they find Knuckles. At the moment, he was worried for his hot headed friend.

Sonic started walking into his arch rival's base. Project followed warily- the huge, metal building giving him a clear sign of danger.

"Sonic?" He asked, looking at his friend.

"What?" Sonic stopped and looked at Project's slightly frightened eyes.

"This place looks dangerous..." Project said, his ears flattening to his skull.

"Don't worry." Sonic smiled reassuringly. "I'll protect you. I do this almost everyday."

As Sonic ran in, different lasers, guns, and robots shot at him. Project just stood there, questioning the other's sanity. Sonic dodged all of the gunshots and spin dashed through a line of robots. Then, he jumped on one of the guns and jumped when another one shot at him, destroying the on he was on. He continued to do that until one was left, in which he used his homing attack to get that one. Then, he finished off the rest of the robots.

When he was finished, he turned to Project and said, "What are you waiting for? Come on!"

Project walked through the mess, looking at everything. He looked in amazement at the destroyed machines that were just standing tall a second ago. Project guessed that Sonic liked to have his ego grow because he grinned triumphantly when Project looked at him with shock and amazement.

The two walked into another room where a man sat in front of a huge computer. The man was tall, bald, and fat. His body was shaped almost like an egg, and he had a long orange, bushy mustache under a long, pink nose. Small, blue glasses covered his eyes.

"Ah, Sonic, what an unpleasant surprise." The man spoke with a grin.

"You know very well why I'm here, Eggman!" Sonic shouted, running up to him. Project quickly followed behind him.

"And who is your friend?" The man, that Sonic called Eggman, stared Project down before a strange glint was seen on his glasses. "No, it can't be... Shadow died years ago..."

"Why does everybody think I'm Shadow!?" Project sighed, causing Sonic to chuckle. Then, he shouted at Eggman, "They call me Project, so I suppose that is my name. I am not Shadow!"

"Either way, I'll have fun destroying you both!" Eggman shouted, pressing a big, red button.

Sonic stood readily as robots surrounded the two. Project looked around nervously. He didn't know how to fight, only flee. Sonic glanced at him, noticing his worried look, and he gently grabbed Project's hand and gave him a reassuring nod. As the robots started to shoot, Sonic and Project jumped over them. When they landed, Sonic Lego projects hand and spin dashed into one robot. Project studied how Sonic did that, and he wondered if he could try that attack instead of just standing there. He warily started running towards the robot and curled into a ball, his quills sharpening to a deadly point. He spun faster and faster until he cut through a robot and landed safely, the robot exploding behind him.

"Way to go, Project!" Sonic cheer before destroying more robots.

"I did it..." Project let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. He smiled and helped Sonic finish off the rest.

Eggman was staring at Project intently. He really didn't believe that this was a completely different hedgehog. A blood test would prove that. The question is, how could he get the blood?

Project looked over at Sonic when they finished. Sonic smiled back and gave him the thumbs up that was the Blue Blur's signature. Eggman smirked as he pressed another button.

Project gasped as he felt metallic arms hold him tightly. Then, a robot with a medic look approached him with a syringe.

"Project!" Sonic shouted. He was about to run over there, but another robot grabbed him before he could. He struggled in the robot's grip and shouted Project's name again.

"Oh, don't bother, Sonic. I'm not going to hurt him... much." Eggman said before breaking into his hysterical / evil Santa laugh. "Oh ho ho ho!"

The syringe was stuck into the side of Project's arm. He whimpered, but stayed still. The medic bot soon took the syringe, now filled with Project's blood coming out. The blood soon went from red to green.

"Chaos energy..." Eggman mumbled. "Just like Shadow..."

"Let Project go, Eggman!" Sonic shouted, almost desperately. He didn't want Project to be hurt again.

"Bring the blood sample to me, Medibot." Eggman commanded. "And you two take our prisoners to the chambers."

Project and Sonic quickly tried to escape, but failed. Soon, the robot holding Project let go of them. "What...?"

Standing on top of the robot was a red echidna with gleaming purple eyes. His gloves has spikes on the knuckles, and his quills were arranged like dreadlocks.

"Knuckles!" Sonic shouted happily.

Knuckles chuckled and punched through the robot holding Sonic, his sharp knuckles penetrating the metal. Sonic looked over to where Eggman was, but he was gone.

"Thanks, Knuckles." Sonic smiled before looking at Project, who was holding his arm where the syringe was. "Are you okay, Project?"

"I'm fine... My arm hurts a little though..." Project replied. "But, I'm use to it."

"We should go back to Tails and get that taken care of."

The other two nodded, and they walked back to Tails' workshop.

While they were walking, Knuckles decided to strike up a conversation. "So, you're Project?"

"Yeah," Project replied. "And you're Knuckles?"

"The one and only." Knuckles smiled.

Sonic was walking ahead of the other two. He was wondering why Eggman took Project's blood. Was it some kind of evil plot? Project is supposed to be dangerous...

"Sonic?" Sonic looked over to see Project staring at him.

"What is it, buddy?"

"I... just wanted to say thank you for helping me." Project looked down shyly. "If you hadn't took me in, I probably wouldn't have made it far..."

Sonic smiled. "Hey, it was nothing. Nobody deserves to be treated like you did."

Project smiled and kept walking until they made it back to Tails' workshop.

Sonic put disinfectant on the wound and then put a bandage on it. Knuckles was telling everyone about what happened.

"How could you have been knocked you out that easily?" Tails wondered. "And why didn't he take the Master Emerald?"

"Maybe he's working on something else, but needed Knuckles out of the way." Sonic suggested. "Maybe he's working with someone else to make sure his plan succeeds."

"But who would he work with?" Tails asked.

"I remember a shadow appearing before I was knocked out..." Knuckles said. "But I don't know exactly what it looked like..."

"This day just keeps getting weirder and stranger." Sonic commented as he sat down on the couch.

Suddenly, a white hedgehog appeared in a flash of light. Five quills were sticking up on his head and two were on the back of his head. He wore a strange black outfit with glowing blue lines throughout it. On his head was a matching black and glowing blue headset. He had determined sunset colored eyes.

"Speaking of weirder and stranger..." Knuckles mumbled as the other three stared in surprise at the newcomer.

The hedgehog scanned his surroundings before pressing the side of his headset. "I have made it to the time era of 2004. Proceeding to find the missing gem." he paused for a second before saying, "Commander? Oh come on stupid technology, don't quit on me now!"

"Uh, excuse me," Sonic said, drawing the attention of the intruder. "but you're standing in front of the TV."

The white stranger looked around again, but this time he noticed the four very confused faces in the room. He stopped and stared at Knuckles. His stare turned into an icy glare. "You."