Silver the Hedgehog levitated surrounded by a light-blue aura, above a desert which had already swallowed half of the city seen on the horizon. He looked at his glove where the Genesis Portal radar was.

A blue circle on the back of his hand shone, forming a holographic display. A red dot was slowly blinking next to a cross that indicated Silver's current position relative to the portal's coordination. He deactivated the radar with his telekinetic powers and frowned.

This was probably the two hundredth vortex already, and from the looks of it, it wasn't the last one either. It was a daunting task, but it had to be done, and he didn't intend to quit anytime soon.

Closing them was one of the reasons Silver traveled through dimensions. Making sure no unfortunate person would be transported into Space or a world full of flames. The second reason was that he was the only one capable of closing them while he had the power to defend himself.

It was a truth he would have rather not learned, but his friend, Professor Von Schlemmer, convinced him to take this quest upon his shoulders. The silver psychic sighed, sitting cross-legged in mid-air as he rested his head on his hand.

Their small adventure was still fresh in his memories. The chance meeting they shared brought them to a portal under their feet. Shadowy arms inhabiting the vast space they fell into tried to drag them down. Adrenaline filled Silver's brain and kicked his telekinetic powers into overdrive.

Thanks to Silver's quick action they escaped back to their dimension and time and, as if acting on instinct, the silver hedgehog enveloped the portal with his power, forcing it to close. It drained him physically, but they were safe.

Dr. Von Schlemmer was enthusiastic when he witnessed the solution in closing portals he was searching for was right in front of his eyes. He literally kidnapped Silver and...

Silver shook his head. 'Ugh,' he groaned in his mind.

What followed after was the biggest adventure he had experienced so far. He would rather be minding his own business in his own timeline. However, he couldn't ignore he was probably the only hope the different dimensions had. Leaving the Genesis Portals opened would only lead to a disaster of multi-dimensional proportions.

In other words, he couldn't refuse.

The silence was disrupted by chirping sound, announcing the opening of the trans-dimensional rift. The space under the silver hedgehog wavered as purplish, swirling energy formed right in front of his amber eyes.

He looked at the space crack and sighed. It was time to work. He raised his arms. His palms engulfed by a flickering, bluish aura that slowly moved towards the portal, enclosing it.

'Alright, time to close this up before someone runs thr--'

The closing process was suddenly interrupted by a creature of black and red, jumping out off the portal. It had a build like Silver. The coughing sounds the psychic heard told him it wasn't expecting to land on the sand.

"Hey! Not again!" shouted the psychic, looking at the newcomer while he retracted his powers.

He had never seen someone like that, so he stretched his neck slightly to get a better view. At first, it reminded him of Shadow who he had met before. However, this one wasn't a hedgehog since it had a long tail with a small hook and two clawed toes, although it had something like three quills.

Silver floated a bit closer, glimpsing what looked like small animals. One looking like a bird laid on the creature's head. Its wings were completely spread. The psychic's eyes darted down when he heard a silent groan escaping from cubic animal held by a long tail. Based on the crouching and arms around its chest, it was possible this creature was holding more of those strange animals.

"Are you alright?" Silver asked since he noticed the creature was shivering.

The creature's head snapped towards him.

The silver hedgehog jerked when he saw black-colored sclera. It would scare him more, but its yellow eyes were filled with despair, begging for help.

"Eclipse!" shouted a voice behind them.

The floating psychic almost jumped out of his quills as he turned towards the portal.

"S-Shadow?" he stuttered, as the black hedgehog with red stripes made his entrance.

The black-red creature stood up on its shaky legs and tried to escape. Its steps were at best wobbly, and dry cough was occasionally interrupted by a gasp. Each step seemed to lead to a fall, but the creature always somehow managed to keep its balance by moving its tail.

"You won't run away! Not this time!" The ebony hedgehog, who worked for G.U.N. as a special agent, had reached forward when Silver grabbed his forearm.

"Shadow, what's happening? What are you doing here?"

Shadow widened his eyes, and his head jerked to the time-traveling fellow. He overlooked Silver in his anger.

Chit-chat wasn't on Shadow's to-do list, so he quickly barked, "I'll explain later, but not before I destroy him!" His arm yanked, freeing itself from the weak grasp, and the red-striped hedgehog resumed his pursuit.

These harsh words shocked the young hedgehog. He looked at the running figure. 'What did he do to deserve it?' he thought.

Shadow leaped into the air with buzzing energy rod ready to be released from his hand. A strong frown spread across his face.

Eclipse had turned one more time, terror in his eyes. His body was weakened so he couldn't concentrate on blocking Shadow's chaos powers; a power he was naturally born with.

"Enough!" Silver shouted, catching both of them with his psychic ability, holding them above the ground.

"What are you doing?" yelled Shadow, thrashing his body to get free from the bluish aura that surrounded him. The ebony hedgehog was surprised, as this time the psychic's grip was stronger. "Release me at once! I have to destroy him before he gets any stronger!"

"But why?" argued the silver hedgehog, glimpsing at the strange fellow.

"Because he is part of Black Arms – the alien race that seeks nothing more than destruction!"

The ebony hedgehog's voice rose with each word he spat out. The silent growls accompanying his voice went well with Shadow's crimson eyes under wrinkled forehead.

Silver's head turned toward the alien. Eclipse's arms hugged closely other small creatures he kept hiding with his torso. His bear-trap teeth glimpsed under thin lips as he chewed the lower lip. Silver's ears twitched as sharp sighs escaped him.

"Silver!" barked the ebony agent, interrupting his thoughts.

The psychic acted on instinct. "Sorry, Shadow, but how about you take a nice cool down trip?"

He waved his hand, sending the cursing hedgehog towards a big, faraway lake. After that, he closed the portal by squishing it to nothingness and took Eclipse with him.

The alien was silent, watching how he and his small creatures were taken away, flying through the sky without the support of wings.

Silver hoped he didn't make a bad decision, but he knew his ebony friend could be hasty with his judgments.

They traveled far before arriving in a distant city. Silver was overcome with sadness. This place was deserted and left in ruins. Many buildings were torn down or had big holes, and some were reduced to a pile of rubble. Neither moss nor weed grew on them. There was an endless wasteland as far as the eye could see.

'What could have happened here to leave everything devastated?'

Silver shook his head, concentrating more on the problem at hand, or more specifically, feet since he needed to find some safe place to land. It took him a few minutes to spot a suitable building for a temporary hideout. He headed there, entering via a big hole, going down several floors before finally landing at a more stable ground. He turned towards his silent passengers, putting them down.

Once Eclipse touched the ground, he immediately moved four small creatures behind him and prepared for an attack.

Silver tilted his head a bit, showing his confusion. His gaze fell on the little animals.

They seemed to float in the air, but there was no aura around them. The hedgehog thought they might be able to levitate without using any special powers. From the quick look, they reminded him of the small alien race of Wisps since they had various shapes and were able to fly.

"I don't wish to fight you," said Silver in a friendly tone, and placed his hands in front of himself. "I only want to know why Shadow is after you, and hopefully..." His ears dropped as he continued, "I can reason with him enough to not let myself turn into a pancake. So, what is the destruction he was talking about?"

The black and red alien felt confused. His behavior was, if nothing else, strange. "Um..."

"Oh, yeah, my name is Silver, Silver the Hedgehog." He moved his hand closer. "Can you tell me your names?"

The alien looked at the opened hand. He had no idea what that gesture meant, so he didn't accept it, merely staring into Silver's amber eyes.

"I'm... I'm Eclipse the Darkling, and these are my Dark Arms."

"These kids?" The hedgehog retracted his hand, looking at them.

Eclipse proceeded in introducing them too. The one named Cregal reminded him of a bird. The block-shaped one with four small legs was called Blurg. The third one appeared to be eel-like, and his name was Cyzer. The last one was shaped as a simple music note with a nice sounding name Rhygenta.

'So he was holding the last two in his arms,' ran through Silver's head.

The psychic scratched behind his ear. "How can you call them weapons? They are living beings like you." He looked concerned, noticing they were all dusty. "But you look like you need a good shower first," he said with a smile and walked towards usable stairs. "Let's see if we can find anything useful here."

They followed him, and Eclipse observed the silver psychic with an interesting power. The Darkling wasn't in tip-top condition, but Eclipse was sure, he could take the strange hedgehog down if the need arose. However, for now, he would let him be.

It took some time, but they discovered a small, smelly pond in the basement and some old sheets.

There Eclipse, the Black Arms alien, took his wisps and started to clean them.

The psychic watched, as the other had a small smile, talking with them. They were replying in their specific language – he had no idea what they were talking about – but it sounded cute.

'Hmm, he doesn't treat them like items, maybe I just misheard him or something. Perhaps the word 'arms' has a different meaning for him,' Silver thought.

Meanwhile, Shadow the Hedgehog reached the shore of the lake he landed on. He would never expect the psychic to hold him for so long. It surprised him, and he forgot to teleport away, so he ended up in the middle of the lake. The water's odor tortured his nose. But at least the lake wasn't full of trash or oils, so he swam without a hitch.

He got on the ground, frowning and gritting his teeth. Just because he could swim, unlike a certain blue blur, didn't mean he enjoyed getting wet. He spun his body for a few seconds to get rid of the water.

If his robotic partner, Omega, saw him now, he would log this under Hilarious. Shadow, The Ultimate Lifeform, was thrown away like some ball by a mere teenager. He prided himself on his abilities; there was nobody at the military group G.U.N. that could be his equal.

While he was the strongest individual, the group consisted of a huge number of soldiers provided with the state of art technology and weapons. Their Research & Development Team supplied them with various gadgets from mini-ear communicators, special motorbikes, to firearms of various shapes and special bodysuits.

The group was able to respond to an attack in a matter of thirty minutes or less, and most of the time the ebony hedgehog was leading the mission. For years now, he fought with ancients demons, man-eating aliens, a mad scientist trying to conquer the world, and he wielded the power of Chaos many could only dream about.

He was already grumpy, and Silver added oil to his temper. He never had patience with his enemies, and he had no intention to start now.

"When I get my hands on that psycho hedgehog, he will be sorry he has ever visited my zone," he growled as he looked around. "Where am I anyway?" His frowning eyes could only see sand and one far away city. "Guess I'll check there." The ebony hedgehog activated his hover shoes, skating towards the city.

In his mind, he was hoping Silver was alright. After all, you couldn't kill someone if that someone was already dead.

'Just you wait!' he cursed in his mind once more.

The psychic hedgehog sneezed, a shiver ran down his spine. It must have been because of a draft. He looked at Eclipse, who had finished telling him their story.

"So basically, Shadow destroyed your kin," said Silver with a certain uneasiness. He was having a hard time believing that.

According to the story, Black Arms was quite a peaceful race, visiting one planet after another, exchanging knowledge, finding a place to rest and gathering some resources. It just happened some races were quite aggressive, so they had no chance but to protect themselves.

They were attacked by humans when they had to do an emergency landing because their ship was hit in a meteor shower. During the fight, the leader of the Black Arms was almost killed. Thankfully, they escaped in time. They didn't know humans obtained their D.N.A. and in fear, the Earthlings created their own biological weapon – Shadow – in order to research the power of Black Arms and make it their own.

Eclipse's race decided to visit this planet once more in hope to settle that old misunderstanding, but humans eradicated them without hesitation, and Shadow played a big part in it. Only a small number of them remained with Eclipse being now the sole survivor.

The alien looked at Silver delightedly. It seemed this strange hedgehog bought his a slightly twisted version of their conflict. At this moment he couldn't be picky. He needed all the help he could get. His Dark Arms might have recovered from the worst, but they were still far from being useful in the battle.

His thinking was interrupted by a loud noise coming from his stomach with a few others roaring from the little ones.

Silver snickered, finding it cute. "Sounds like a gong for lunch." He got up. "Come with me. I have found a strange plant with a quite tasty fruit if I can say so."

They followed him outside, turning a few corners, before reaching that place. Once there, Eclipse's jaw went loose, and his eyes widened. But that was nothing compared to his increased heartbeat.

'This is...' he thought, unable to complete it.

"I've never seen anything like this." The time-traveling hedgehog pointed at the blueish, red roots-like plant.

The main body seemed to be buried under the surface with no visible mean how to harvest it.

The hedgehog continued, "But the most puzzling is the way how you get the fruit." He touched it with the right hand. "Somehow I can 'communicate' with it through my mind."

His body slightly shone, and the bluish light traveled through the whole plant. Soon, he put his palm away, and from the surface emerged red, round pieces.

Before he could say 'Good appetite' two creatures started to fight over one piece. Silver stepped aside, watching them.

"Cregal! Cyzer! How many times do I need to tell you not to fight over the food!" Eclipse rebuked them, and they promptly broke, picking a piece each.

The box-like Blurg gobbled entire pieces without chewing.

"And you Blurg! Start chewing already!" The alien hit his Dark Arms wisp from behind so he wouldn't choke.

The only one behaving was the note-one Rhygenta, taking small bites.

"Take an example from Rhygenta! She is well mannered!" He patted her head, and she purred.

Once all wisps were eating, he sat down and took one piece too. It had been such a long time since they had a decent meal.

Silver observed their interactions. Now it was obvious, they weren't weapons or anything, they were family. He joined them before they could hog all the pieces he had harvested.

During their meal, Shadow had arrived in the city and looked around. He found this place was strangely familiar and that disturbed him even more. As he walked through ruined streets, he saw cars, lamps, pieces of stones and concrete, buildings, and different metal objects like road signs, all laying around, or utterly smashed. He picked one sign, squinting to read the squalid letters.

'This is!'

He let it fall to the ground, and a metallic noise echoed through the empty space like a sad cry.

"This place! Can it really be?" he uttered under his breath.

He clenched his fists and started to skate. In his mind, he tried to convince himself his observation was wrong! There was no way this city was that one!

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