Theme Song: "Make A Move (Skrillex Remix)" by Torro Torro
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The Next Morning...

"I'll tell you, we can never catch a break nowadays!" said Tails.

Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles, and Silver had decided to meet at Tails' house in light of recent of events.

"We can't underestimate these humans- well, aliens...I think?" said Shadow.

"I'm pretty sure the shorter one's a werewolf." said Knuckles.

"He's not short?" Sonic now.

"I mean as a human; he's shorter than his partner."

"Speaking of his partner, how about him? He just looks like regular human who happens to be pretty strong."

"My guess is he's a hybrid of some sort. He's got bird wings...Yeah, maybe that's why he's so agile and his reflexes are so high." Shadow again.

"They must have some weird planet with human/animal hybrids!" Silver quipped.

"Well, according to our history, we are technically human/animal hybrids!" Tails informed.

"Oh yeah..."

"I guess it's settled then. We have to work together (again) to find the Chaos Emeralds." stated Sonic.

"Unfortunately. It's becoming annoying to have to come all the way over here just so we can be on the same terms." Shadow replied.

Sonic stepped closer to meet Shadow eye-to-eye, smirking. He then offered a handshake, "Once rivals, always rivals...faker."

"But for now, we're business partners...moron." grinned Shadow, shaking Sonic's hand.

"Wow. No wonder why our fans ship you two so hard. I can feel the tension from the passion." Silver cut in.

Sonic and Shadow quickly released each other's hand, wiping off their own on themselves.

"OK then," Tails began, putting away the random gadget he was repairing and grabbing another, "Let's see what the radar finds!"

Everyone gathered around Tails to observe the circular monitor in Tails' hand. A black screen with a green grid appeared. It then beeped as a horizontal line floated over the screen, revealing a little dot.

"Found one!" Tails cheered.

When it scanned again, the dot moved to the left.

"It's moving!" Silver chimed in.

For a third time, the dot reached the end of the screen.

"And fast! That means someone else has it!" noted Tails.

"It's probably on those aliens' ship!" cried Knuckles.

"Last one there's a rotten hedgehog!" Sonic challenged, zipping out of the door.

"He really thinks we're gonna join him, huh Shadow?"

Shadow gave Silver a blank look, "I guess you're the rotten hedgehog then."

Shadow boosted after Sonic, and Silver followed behind grumpily.

"Wait, what does that make us?" Knuckles to Tails.

"Either just a regular fox and a regular echidna, or even more rotten, I guess."

"Oh...LAST ONE THERE IS EVEN MORE ROTTEN!"

Knuckles made a mad dash out of Tails' house, almost tripping down the three steps.

Tails on the other hand took his time cleaning up his station before getting up. "I think he forgets that I'm the one with a plane..."

Above The Suburbs of Central City...

"Nice! This one didn't break!" exclaimed Joseph.

"Yep, that's real! Alright, thanks you guys! I'll talk to you later, bye!" Geo saluted.

"What a relief." said Nathan.

"It looks nice in purple!" admired Joseph.

"I agree...Ouch."

"What?"

"I found the location of the next one: it's two hours away."

"Two hours?!"

"Be happy it's two hours- the furthest one's in another continent."

"Yeah, we'll get that one last!"

"Yep...Damn it, we got company."

Joseph raced back to his chair to find a holo-window with a rear-view of the ship. In order of who was closer, there were three bright trails heading their way. On the ground were sky blue and fiery orange ones, and airborne was a turquoise one- belonging to Sonic, Shadow, and Silver respectively.

"Whoa, they're moving fast alright!" Joseph exclaimed.

"Let's pick it up!"

The two accelerated the ship faster, able to gain distance. Then, they heard three thunderous reverberations from inside, noticing that the three hedgehogs were exceptionally faster.

"Way too fast!" Nathan now.

They noticed that Silver vanished in a blink of green light.

"Oh shit, the flyer is gone." said Joe.

"It's the psychic one, Silver. Keep your eyes peeled- FUCK!"

Silver reappeared ahead of them and with a raise of his hands, he hard-stopped the ship's flight, and Joseph and Nate smacked into the reinforced glass windshield. Silver was trying to crush the ship with his powers, but his fingers could not complete the motion.

"This is a tough ship! It's like some abnormal metal; I can't even put a dent on it!" he called out.

Silver noticed the ship suddenly went quiet, like it had shut off. On the side, a door slid open and out Nathan and Joseph came. They sprung off to attack Silver, but Silver immediately put them in a telekinetic hold in mid-air. He let his hand go from the ship while it still levitated, and guiding them with one full swing, Silver launched Nathan and Joseph into the side of a building. Unable to break through the paralysis, they both heard and felt the plastic-glass windows shatter around them. They rolled and flipped sloppily into a large office, with window shards covering them. The employees saw this and starting escaping the area.

"Shadow! Get the Emerald!" Silver called down.

Shadow could now feel the gem's presence, which was all he needed to use its power. Shadow teleported from the ground to the inside of the ship Silver was holding. He noticed the podium for the Chaos Emeralds was still in the open, and the violet one was the only one inside. Upon stepping closer, the glass started sliding open, but to his surprise, gravity had left Shadow. He looked out the window and just noticed Nathan punching Silver across his face, making the latter lose his focus on the now falling ship. Shadow was slammed into the roof of the ship, then carelessly tossed around as the ship spun and tilted in its fall.

"This is gonna h-"

The ship had finally crashed sideways, silencing Shadow as it slammed him again on his back against the steel ladder. The top slid open to allow the sun to beam down on Shadow, but Joseph's wide body blocked it as he peeked in. Joseph hung off the edge of the doorway and reached for the Chaos Emerald. He was several inches away from the podium, but still too far even while he stretched. Shadow rolled off the ladder and rose to his feet (standing on what would have been the wall if the ship were positioned correctly), cracking his bones. Joseph then let himself go and caught on to the edge of the sideways podium, then snatched the Chaos Emerald from its slot.

Shadow jumped up and managed to grab onto the top of the Emerald while Joseph held its bottom. "Chaos Control!"

Shadow teleported them both out of the ship, leaving Joseph dumbfounded when he reappeared outside, not realizing he let go of the Chaos Emerald. However, his reflexes saved him when Shadow went for a jump kick, and Joseph rammed a hammer fist onto Shadow, spiking him back to the ground. The impact winded Shadow and cracked the asphalt below him, and he now released the Emerald. Joseph only made a slight move to reach for it, but a rough wind had brushed over him and it was gone.

Sonic ran down the street with it, laughing at Joseph far behind him. When he turned back, he promptly noticed a missile shooting for him. He front-flipped up in the air, dodging the blast, and before he met the ground again, Nathan flew in and tackled Sonic into the pole of a streetlight. Nathan slugged Sonic's cheek and went for another hit, but Sonic was quicker to escape behind Nathan and stomp his shoe on the back of Nate's head into the same pole. Nathan, aggravated, grabbed and lit his Blazers, and with a crouched spin, he cut through the pole and also managed to scratch at Sonic's chest. Sonic flinched back with the burning sensation, and distracted, the streetlight fell right on his cranium, flooring him.

Bullets sprayed from the sky and Nathan jumped away to avoid them. He saw a yellow biplane flying above him, piloted by Tails. At that moment, a red body hopped off the aircraft.

"Knuckles." muttered Nathan.

Knuckles was coming down with a battle cry and an angry fist for Nathan. Nathan jumped back as Knuckles landed before him, but Knuckles' power quaked the earth, causing Nathan to stagger. Knuckles took advantage and tried again with another fist, but was caught off-guard when Nathan randomly ducked. The reason came right after and Knuckles was cracked with a steel pole to the face by Joseph, knocking him far away like a baseball. Joseph released the pole and let out an empowering roar to make sure his rival heard it.

Immediately after, Sonic bashed Joseph with a Homing Attack to a tumble, and bounced off him, and targeted Nathan. Nathan crossed his Blazers and blocked Sonic, burning the tip of his quills a bit. Sonic bounced to the ground and dropped to sweep his leg across Nathan's. Nathan slipped onto his side and as soon as he looked up, a blue sphere smashed into his temple, as he heard his head bounce off the concrete sidewalk, cracking it. His vision was blurry and all sound was muted. His brain then started to heal his concussion immediately, as he remembered the description he read about Spin Dashes and Homing Attacks being concussive.

When he recuperated, he chuckled a bit, "Well done, Sonic. You're the second person- well, 'living thing'- ever, to give me a concussion; and I've had ten of them as of now."

"Boy, you should really get that looked at if you're gonna keep making stupid choices, kinda like this one!" said Sonic.

Nathan pounced forward off one knee, a fist ready, and Sonic did as well. The both fists were en route to strike their enemy, but spontaneously from the ground below, someone rose and violently shoved Sonic and Nathan away from each other. Sonic flew across the street, groaning after he hit the curb, while the dropped Chaos Emerald mysteriously hovered away from him. Nathan went right through a brick wall into some kind of storage room.

After several large boxes fell on him, Nathan dug his way out and back into the street, as Sonic nearly fell over upon finally getting to his feet.

At the same time, the two recognized the new threat. "You!"

The man grinning with the Chaos Emerald turned to Nathan, "By the way, Nathaniel, you may call me Ansem, Seeker of Darkness!"

Ansem disappeared in a black hole with the Chaos Emerald, leaving Nathan and Sonic in appall.

"Sonic! Let's get outta here!"

Sonic turned to see Silver waving and everyone starting to leave. Sonic caught Nathan's eye and the two stared each other down from across the street. Joseph then approached Nathan, watching the their tension grow- his own partly contributing. Without even a starting motion, Sonic boomed away with the others, far gone.

"Come on, we got more out there." said Joseph, turning back to normal.

"That Ansem...He's going to be a problem." grunted Nathan.

"The fact that he's here is surprising- creepy almost."

Joseph helped Nathan to a stand and the duo proceeded to their ship, sharing a silent confusion.

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