Theme Song: "Ocho Cinco" by DJ Snake and Yellow Claw
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After a minute into the chase, Joseph stopped running and stood upright again.

Nathan noticed him slow down and stopped flying. "Let's go, we're gonna lose him!"

Joseph's eyes were fixed far out into the sky above the skyscrapers and he pointed to it. Nathan followed his gesture while settling himself back on the street. His expression of confusion and frustration loosened into one of wonder.

"It's a floating island." marvelled Nathan.

"I have an idea: I'll head back to the ship and check it out, and you go find that hedgehog." suggested Joseph.

"This isn't a vacation, Joseph!"

"No duh! Do you see me wearing my swimming gear? If this place has a floating island, I wouldn't be surprised if some crazy magical stuff would be involved in that. You know, like them Crazy Emeralds?"

"Chaos Emeralds."

"They're synonyms!"

"OK, whatever! I like that plan, so come find me in two hours- three at most, and we'll regroup to call it a day."

Joseph gave a thumb-up and ran back towards where they left the ship. Nathan's black feathered wings unfolded from his back and he ascended into the air to continue his hunt.

Above The Ocean, On Angel Island...

"Ah, just me, my grapes, and nobody else!"

Knuckles the Echidna plucked another firm, purple grape from his wooden bowl, throwing it into his mouth as he indulged the less-than-mild sun rays glowing over him. His back was against the Master Emerald- high-raised in its radiance in its ancient stone shrine surrounded by matching borders embedded in the grass and stone pillars scattered around.

Before taking another grape, a shadow briefly passed over him. Knuckles glanced towards the Sun and realized there weren't any clouds. With a double-take, he noticed a small dot floating in the sky. The echidna rose to his feet with a hand over his eyes to better see this object right before it steadily descended into the trees.

"It hasn't even been a week and I already gotta worry about something. Alright Knux, let's go see what that is." huffed Knuckles, setting down his bowl of grapes.

From afar, a flock of birds scrambled above the trees, in retreat of what landed in the forest.

From the meteor-ship, Joseph jumped out of it and scoped his surroundings. "This is a pretty solid ship to still be working as well as it had before we landed."

His earpiece started to beep again when he looked sharply left. He began his search towards that direction, pushing trees and branches and plants out of his way.

A minute later, Knuckles slowly walked out from the forest, gawking at the structure before him.

"It's a meteor," he assumed, "I've never been this close to one!"

Knuckles strided closer to it to admire the twenty-foot rock. He went to touch it, but before he could, a perfect line formed and steam puffed out from it. Knuckles flinched, "Oh no, why's it always me?!"

He clenched his blocky fists in preparation of what was about to happen, but there was nothing else but an opening door into the hollow boulder.

"It's-...It's a ship?" Knuckles baffled, "Hello? Anyone in there?"

Knuckles took the silence as his influence to sneak inside. "It's so dark in here...and why does it smell like vomit?!"

A dim light flashed behind Knuckles, followed by a monotonous "Welcome" from the ship. It was still dark, but the radiance was enough to catch Knuckles' attention. A white hologram window popped up with an familiar image that made Knuckles' stomach turn.

"These Barf Aliens must be looking for the Chaos Emeralds!" said Knuckles, hastily exiting the ship and frantically scanning the area.

Without further thought, he followed his instincts and sprinted back to the Master Emerald, in hopes that he was faster than this invader. When he arrived, he slid to a stop when he reached the stairs of the Altar, checking his surroundings once more. He suddenly heard a ruffle in the forest, and regardless of where it came from, Knuckles decided to hide somewhere.

Joseph found himself in the same astounding sight, with his earpiece giving a final prolonged tone before fading to mute. He peered up to the top of the layered stonework, to find an enormous jewel.

"Whoa...That's a big fucker!" Joe commented.

He noticed a set of stairs leading up to the Emerald and quickly jogged over to it, then running even faster up the steps by skipping every other one, until he finally stood before the Emerald. Joseph didn't know why, but he felt something from this Emerald, like an energy; an energy that raised the hairs on his forearms.

"It's so beautiful...It almost feels-...alive...Wait, there's seven of these total?! How the hell are we supposed to fit all them in the ship?!"

Joseph sized up the Emerald to himself, realizing it's height reached his belly button, and was about as wide as a sofa. He stepped closer to it, squatted, and wrapped his arms around its bottom. With all his effort, he did manage to lift it, but realized he had a long set of stairs to go down- plus the walk back to the ship. He squatted again to release the gem.

He shook out his and held a finger inside of his ear, "Call Geo."

Following a static silence, a voice greeted Joseph, "Yeah, Joe!"

"Hey, you do know that there are seven of these Chaos Emeralds, right?" Joseph said, wiping a sweatdrop off his forehead.

"Yeah, why?"

"These things are huge! We might need a bigger ship!"

"What? They should be the size of your hand. I'm pretty sure they are!"

"Well, whatever Wikipedia you learned that from just lied to you!"

"Wait a minute, you said it's big right? It's also green, right?"

"Yeah, like a normal Emerald. Except, it really isn't."

Geo then sighed deeply, "Joseph, I'm going to ask you something, and I want you to be completely honest."

"I may be a religious man, Geo, but I'm not always honest. And by the way you're speaking, it kinda feels like a good time to lie!" smirked Joseph.

"Did you and/or Nathan read that file I sent you?"

"Nope!"

"Why the fuck not?! I'm trying to help you two get home as fast and as safe as poss-"

Joseph tapped the earpiece again, hanging up on Geo. He then exhaled sharply, "I guess I fucked up then...Oh well, let's try this again!"

This time, Joseph took off his shirt and stuffed half of it in his pocket. His already toned and muscular figure expanded further and his bones crunched in-sync. Brown fur flushed out all over until he was his taller, stronger, werewolf. He squatted again and this time was able to easily lift it above his head. When his eyes left the Emerald, he noticed a short, red creature with large gloved hands with spikes on its knuckles.

"Knock, knock!" the creature snarled, punching Joseph in the abdomen.

Joseph was caught off-guard and was not expecting the punch to actually hurt, as he let go of the Emerald and tumbled back to roll down the jagged stairs.

After what felt like ten seconds of the skin-scraping fall, Joseph landed at the bottom again in sand. He stood up to see his opposer holding the Emerald with ease- in one arm. Joseph's snout twitched and he took a few quick sniffs.

"It's an echidna." he concluded.

"Damn right I am. Then you should know that this belongs to me!" Knuckles threatened.

"What does that mean? One cheap-shot and you think you're tough shit now, huh? It took me one punch to put down that Sonic! I promise you, this won't be any different."

Knuckles frown became more smug when hearing Sonic's name.

He carefully placed the Master Emerald in its slot and turned to face Joseph again, now walking down the stairs. "Sonic, huh?"

"Yeah, that's right! Don't believe me? Come on down and find out!" Joseph challenged, backing away to give Knuckles space to face him fairly.

"Let me tell you somethin', wolfman, you're right about one thing."

"Oh really? So can I just take that Chaos Emerald right there?"

Knuckles stopped halfway to look behind him again.

He bursted out in laughter, holding his stomach, proceeding his descent. "Well, I see you haven't done your homework! Make that two things you're wrong about!"

"'Two?'" Joseph confused.

"The first one was for insulting my toughness."

"Pff, and second?"

"Don't worry about it, let's go back to where you were right."

Knuckles had now reached the bottom step and his smirk went away.

Joseph's did as well, "Oh yeah? What's that?"

"That it actually does take one punch to shut Sonic's mouth- trust me, I know! But I ain't Sonic. I'm Knuckles; wanna find out why they call me that?"

Joseph dropped to the grass on all fours and roared at Knuckles vehemently. At the same time, the two charged towards each other and clashed together with their hands clenched in the others', testing their strength.

Joseph stepped forward, but Knuckles set him back with more resistance. Knuckles now stepped once, but Joseph pushed harder. Simultaneously, the two brutes pushed away from each other to end the stalemate.

"Not bad for a chihuahua." mocked Knuckles.

"Same for you, short fry." returned Joseph.

Knuckles lunged forward to throw a right hook, but Joseph was quicker to evade it and drive a knee into the echidna's stomach. Joseph scooped Knuckles off his knee and tossed him away like ragdoll.

"That was easy!" scoffed Joseph, turning his attention to the Emerald again.

Upon his second step, something blunt and rigid struck Joseph on his shoulder, as the spot hit was inflaming rapidly. He turned around to find what used to be a stubby pillar, fractured in pieces on the dirt.

"OK, I'll play a little longer." Joseph growled.

"Good, 'cause I was getting bored." said Knuckles.

The two ran up again and each threw a punch that was precisely timed for their fists to meet on impact; an impact that let out a thunderous wave in the area. Whatever nearby wildlife was in the forest could be heard retreating as the branches shuffled around.

The spikes of Knuckles' fists only irritated Joe, and the latter quickly swiped his claws across Knuckles' face, then side-kicked his legs to ground him. Knuckles too became irritated, so he Spin Dashed into Joseph and upon unrolling, drove his feet into the beast's face. Joseph stumbled slightly, refocusing on his target. However, he noticed Knuckles was gone. There was nothing but a crater where he once stood.

"Wha-?" he grunted, peeking down in the hole.

The plan had worked- and while Joseph was distracted, Knuckles broke through the ground behind Joseph. Before Knuckles could do anything else, Joseph reacted on reflex and slugged Knuckles out of the air.

"Typical of echidnas to dig holes. You're a strong fighter, but you're too slow." advised Joseph.

"Last time someone said that to me, I had to knock some sense into him!" Knuckles growled.

Knuckles got up on one leg and charged Joseph again, but this time Joe caught him by the wrist and lifted him up to meet him eye-to-eye. Knuckles persisted and went to try again with his free hand, but Joseph caught that one too, ignoring the spikes puncturing the pelt of his hand.

"Still slow." sneered Joseph.

Unexpectedly, Knuckles leaned back and slammed his head on Joseph's snout, causing him to let go.

"Fuck," grumbled Joseph, noticing the blood on his hand from his lip, "But for being tiny, fuzzy, and maybe cute creatures, you assholes are actually tough!"

Knuckles chuckled when he saw Joseph spit out blood, but suddenly grew infuriated with what Joseph said- despite it being a compliment. "CUTE?!"

Knuckles leaped up to Joseph's level with a jumping roundhouse kick, but Joseph ducked. While still spinning in the air though, the furious force of Knuckles' fist caused it to ignite on fire and struck Joseph's well-timed, cross-armed block. Knuckles' attack was so powerful, Joseph's arms crackled upon contact and Joseph roared in agony as they went limp.

The werewolf was baffled by the hidden strength- so much so, that when Knuckles met the ground again, Joseph was not ready for the blazing uppercut delivered to him. Joseph felt a severe pressure under his chin, along with his body elevating off the ground and a ringing sound in his head. The world around him suddenly grew darker, and it was completely black by the time he felt the gentle grass again three seconds later.

Knuckles bumped his fists together and awaited for his opponent to stand up again. Instead, the beast had shrunk back into a normal human being. To his surprise however, he noticed Joseph's cracked teeth started mending on their own.

"Interesting."

The Guardian picked up Joseph's unconscious body and started running back into the forest from where the invader came.

Meanwhile, At G.U.N. Headquarters...

"Agent Shadow! Our cameras found him, he's outside of our base right now!" called an officer from his computer station.

Shadow stopped talking with his teammates, Rouge the Bat and E-123 Omega, to check the security feed. At the entrance of the base, stood the vindictive hunter in black: Nathan.

Just then, Nathan can be seen lighting both of his Blazers and cutting an appropriate hole through the fences. The circular slab peeled back and Nathan slid through, the base's sirens screaming throughout the headquarters.

When the sound reached the room Shadow was in, Shadow ordered the officer, "Have HQ go into lockdown and deploy all units and reinforcements throughout the base! I have a hunch that we're gonna need it."

*I have been waiting for so long for these characters to meet, because of how well they can work off each other! Hope you enjoyed- and if so, vote and/or follow for more! Don't be shy to comment throughout too, thank you!