Sonic didn't even make a full stride when Nathan's bullet flashed and whooshed past him. His heart sunk deep into his stomach when he spun around to see the girl drop to the floor. Sonic then felt a familiar wind brush past him; it was almost ghastly. Behind this girl, a black smoke dissipated from the air: a Heartless.

"Too slow, Little Blue." jested Nathan.

A heavy thump was heard as Joseph flipped onto the rooftop behind Nathan.

Joseph caught sight of the blue hedgehog, "Ah shit, look who joined the party."

"Actually this is more so my party, and you two are the purposely uninvited guests. So, do us a favor and go be 'uninvited' away from here." flagged Sonic.

Two lighter thumps came from behind Sonic. Shadow removed himself from Knuckles' back after the climb.

"I didn't know duty allows for a three-way phone call." continued Joseph.

Everyone, even Nathan gawked at Joseph in confusion.

Joe sheepishly chuckled, "You see, duty 'called' us two here, but we weren't expecting you all to be here, so it's- you know, just forget it. It's just some metaphor Nate and I came up with."

"So who invited these two?" Knuckles chimed in.

"No, Knuckles! We're done with metaphors!" Sonic now.

An electrical charge resounded beside them and as soon as they realized Chaos was facing them, an energy wave already beamed their way. In the knick of time, an aqua-colored barrier formed around them to absorb the blast. Silver from above raised his fingertips over his temples and with a close of his eyes, a forcewave reverberated through the air towards Chaos' head. Chaos whiplashed and let his head hang, dazed in a vertigo.

Silver hovered in, "I guess we're working together now?"

Sonic turned to Nathan specifically. "I guess we are."

"Nuh-uh, hold it there. We're here for the Chaos Emerald, so after we- as in, us two- beat it out of this lizard, we'll be the ones walking away with it..." Nathan said, trailing off.

Him and Joseph simultaneously averted to Shadow.

"And our trackers say you have one, Shadow." Nate continued.

Shadow sniggered, "We'll settle this right after, bird-boy."

Chaos then made a slight motion in an effort to recuperate.

"Silver, take the kid somewhere safe and far." advised Sonic.

"I got it, I'm the best swimmer here." Knuckles offered.

"But I can fly." reminded Silver.

"Yeah, but if you run out of energy over the waters, you gotta swim- and at least I can glide and I can climb if we wanna get out of the water."

"Fair enough, I guess my energy would be best used here."

The little girl latched onto Knuckles' back and Knuckles soared off the building, gliding to safety.

"That is so weird!" commented Joseph.

"It's the dreadlocks." everyone replied, including the now present Tails.

"I know that, that's why it's weird!"

Chaos was noticeably revitalized and angered when he roared down at the six warriors. A tentacle formed from his torso and he swung it through the base of the tower, causing it to tilt forward. Nathan's wings pushed him off the ground and he grabbed Joseph's wrists to face the god.

"No matter how Chaos goes down, we can't let those two get the Chaos Emerald." said Sonic.

"I've just about had it with teaming with all of you, but I unfortunately agree, again." Shadow remarked.

"It's OK, we'll understand if we don't see you for a while after all this. Just know you won't be missed!"

"Now there's an agreement I can work with!"

As the building spilled forward, the rest of them jumped off.

Nathan swung and threw Joseph forward, and the latter cleanly kicked Chaos in the lip. Chaos flinched slightly to the right, then Sonic spun and bumped him from that oncoming direction. Nathan banked around again to throw a fist, but a black mass rammed into his rib cage, leaving a stinging pain. A swarm of Dark Ball Heartless spawned and began ambushing Nathan.

Nathan sprayed them with a barrage of machine gun rounds, but didn't notice the one that teleported behind him and chomped down on his left wing with its blade-like teeth. More came and attacked both of the wings and his body.

To his surprise, Tails arrived and lashed his rear whips for tails, consecutively defeating a few of them. As he threw a punch at one of them, one of Nathan's Blazers thrusted over his shoulder, saving him from a nearing attacker. While injured, Nate's wings gave out, but Tails reached out and grabbed Nathan's arm, a forgiving smile offered.

Nathan held Tails' forearm as well, seemingly accepting his assistance. Instead, after his wings healed, he tugged Tails down to his level and shoved a knee into his abdomen.

Nathan held him there for a moment, leaning closer. "I didn't need help, let alone yours."

He then let Tails go to fall down to the waters. A flash of light appeared in front of Nathan.

Shadow lunged at him, "You like cheap shots?"

His fist cracked Nathan in the jaw for his betrayal. Nathan flung his own punch, but Shadow blinked above Nathan and dug an unforgiving foot into his neck, sending him down with Tails. Before he teleported again, Silver grasped Shadow from afar.

"Hey! We're not supposed to use the Emeralds for now, remember?"

Shadow puffed out his spite and nodded. Instead, he balled himself up and Silver followed by launching Shadow through Chaos' face like a cannonball. The bombardment Chaos was receiving was evident in his slower responses.

Sonic recognized Chaos in this state. "Silver, daze him again!"

Silver raised his fingers, but Chaos spat an energy ball that sent Silver through a tower.

"Or not." the blue hero muttered.

He spun himself in place and boosted off his tower, rolling down the side of it. Chaos shot a blast in his direction, but Sonic rolled off and continued downwards. He bounced off a block of concrete, then off a sailing bus, and zig-zagged through every obstacle nearby until he reached the base of Chaos. Sonic continued spinning into the water, following the current leading into his torso. Sonic felt the immense chaos energy surrounding him, tempted to make us of it. But, it was tainted with darkness, so he reconsidered and flowed up from torso to the neck.

Suddenly, he stopped there, as he felt Chaos jolt back, the change of current trapping Sonic within. Nathan took his opportunity and pierced his Blazers into Chaos' brain. The beast wobbled from side to side, but still showing life. He then shook Nathan off his head, weakly charging the next blast. Nathan rebalanced his flight, but noticed too late when Chaos was going to strike. To his fortune, the blast imploded in his own face as Sonic fought the current and submerged out of his head through the membrane. Chaos let out a fatigued cry and began sinking back into the waters. Silver swooped in and caught Sonic from above. They met with the rest of the Mobians on a different building.

Nathan found Joseph clamped onto the side of a building and met with him there, both of them soaked in water. When they looked around, they noticed the water level began to fall and clear out to a crystal blue.

"I'm still feeling a chaos energy from these waters...And, the darker part of it is gone."

"But the tracker isn't specifying a location, it's just saying it's close."

The tracker went silent now, almost as if the energy was disappearing with these waters. Abruptly, it pinged sharply once more. They glanced around the area, and on the building with the Mobians, they saw a light blue, liquid figure standing beside them.

"OK, so maybe just this once it'd be a bad idea for you to be here, Chaos. No offense, but this may even be beyond you." advised Sonic.

Chaos walked up to face Sonic and Knuckles, his green glassy eyes fixed on them. This silent stare held meaning, in which only these two protectors of the Emeralds understood well: Chaos was leaving full responsibility to them. Knuckles with the Master Emerald, just as he swore to do, and Sonic with the Chaos Emeralds, as his voluntary initiative was now his primary task.

"We told you we'd be back."

The Mobians peered over at the Loose Cannons.

"Let's try this again. We know you have two Chaos Emeralds with you, so just make this easy!" said Joseph.

Each of the Mobians looked at one another in confusion, denying with frequent head nods.

"Being honest here, we don't know where you got that number from." Sonic responded.

Both hunters held a finger to their trackers in their head. Joseph pointed diagonal towards Chaos and Nathan to Shadow beside him. Chaos felt threatened as he balled his hands, but the other five blocked his way.

Shadow turned his head around while doing so. "News flash: I'm the only one with a Chaos Emerald. What you're detecting is Chaos himself."

Initially, they were struck with a brief moment of dubiety, but it all finally became clear to the hunters. They recounted that their trackers went haywire when the flood started, then when Perfect Chaos took form, and just now upon encountering Chaos.

"So, is it just made of chaos energy? But, it just looks like water..." said Joseph.

"Come on, you did your research on that ship of yours! Don't play stupid now!" barked Knuckles.

"They have information on us on their ship?" Silver questioned.

"Wait, when were you on our ship?" Nathan vexed now.

"Shit, it must've been when I first fought Knuckles. That explains how I woke up in the ship after that." muttered Joseph.

"Yeah, that's why they know so much about us!" said Knux.

"Hey, we didn't know about that water-alien thing right there!"

Chaos' body rippled with the insult, refraining from causing more damage than what was already done.

"Tails, Knuckles, get him out of here." urged Sonic.

Chaos willingly followed them to the spare plane Tails called in. In moments, they were gone, no longer of interest to Nathan and Joseph.

"Shadow, you should probably take that Chaos Emerald far from here." said Silver.

"I'm fine." Shadow spoke flatly.

Nathan snorted, motioning for a weapon. "It's your death wish-"

Before Nathan could even decide which he wanted, Sonic boomed forward into a ball and drove himself onto Nathan's torso, falling off the two-hundred foot tower with him. In seconds, Nathan was violently planted into the wet concrete while Sonic bounced off him and landed perfectly to his feet.

"What's your deal," Sonic addressed, "Why do you even need the Chaos Emeralds? The fact that you're here just seems random!"

Nathan ached to peel himself off the hard ground, turning over on his arms to push his body up. Every bone within him was snapping back in place while he slowly rose above the fractured ground below him.

"Let's make something clear, we're not the bad guys here. I'm just doing what's right for the sake of my world, all because of the stupid shit you're doing on yours!"

"How do you even know it's us? I'm doing what's right for my world too! So as long as you're here, don't be expecting any breaks from any of us!"

Sonic boosted to Nathan again, but Nathan's reflexes were beginning to adapt to Sonic's tactics. Nathan felt Sonic's force as a pulse in his own body, and quickly reacted by shoving an open hand above him. Nathan was now on his feet, holding Sonic off the ground by his throat. Sonic himself didn't expect this, which followed with his body being slammed into the same spot he planted Nathan. He was back-flat to face the dismal sky, then a solid pale fist struck Sonic's eye, and he was suddenly scooped up and flying away from the crater. In seconds, he collided with the ground again, feeling weaker. His eye was also beginning to enflame.

Implacably, Sonic rose again to see Nathan flying at him like a hawk. "Let's do this."

Nathan picked Sonic off the ground again and took him high into the sky. Sonic lifted his legs and kicked himself off Nathan, then rebounded with a Homing Attack. Nathan took the hit, lit both Blazers and lashed out at Sonic. Sonic rolled into both of them, using his razor-like quills to deflect the blades. As Sonic unrolled, Nathan rolled himself, spun and launched his two boots at Sonic, spiking him back to the earth. Sonic landed like a cat however, took a good leap towards a divebombing Nathan, and managed to land a quick jab across Nathan's face to knock him out of the air.

"That's enough, you rat!" threatened a furious voice.

Sonic's body jolted forward as a blunt force plunged into his spine. Upon landing, he had to force himself off his back due to the severe discomfort. He tried to fight it through gritted teeth, but it was too much to contain as he broke out in a scream of torment. Sonic couldn't move any part of his body now and his breaths were short and sharp to the nerves.

"Sonic!" Silver and Shadow called from afar.

Shadow blinked away and down to the scene.

"Shadow! Stop using the Emerald!" Silver exclaimed, then blinked after him (unneeding of the Emeralds to do so).

Joseph stood over a powerless Sonic, "You were warned."

Shadow appeared both of them, and with a fist fuming in a red aura, he slugged Joe on the snout, grabbed one of his arms, and flung him to the other side of the park. Silver had just arrived, but Shadow teleported again. He reappeared right before where Joseph was supposed to land. Right when Joseph's body flew above him, Shadow landed a vertical kick right into Joseph's spine, dropping the behemoth to a halt.

"AGH! How did-...You're like three feet tall!" hacked Joseph.

Shadow now set his target to Nathan, but before he teleported again, he was tackled to the muddy grass from the side.

Silver was now over Shadow, pinning him to the ground. "Shadow! NO. Chaos Emeralds! What part do you not comprehend?"

"The word before 'Chaos.'" growled Shadow, slamming his forehead onto Silver's nose, then rolling him off. "I'm done playing by your rules. I'll do things my way now."

Shadow teleported again, and before Silver thought about chasing him, he remembered about Sonic. He now blinked over to him, and insuperably, Sonic was fighting through his paralysis as he was now on all fours.

Silver immediately kneeled down to help him, "Sonic, you can't-"

But the latter paused Silver with a hand. Sonic's body then started to vibrate. Silver couldn't help but gawk at him, as Sonic now looked like someone literally "smeared" his body as if he were a painting on a canvas. Within seconds, Sonic stopped vibrating and he kicked his feet over his head to a handstand and front-flipped to unexpectedly stand strong once more.

His kept his eyes fixed on the hunters while he adjusted his glove, "This just became a war."

Nathan noticed this from afar after he delivered a back-fist to Shadow and a fully recovered Joseph mauled him down. "That damn hedgehog can regenerate!"

"F-What?!" Joseph cried back.

"CHAOS- BLAST!"

An explosion of red energy bursted out from Shadow's direction, and it expanded outwards knocking Nathan and Joseph off the ground and away from Shadow. When it ceased, Joseph's coat was charred at its tips.

Nathan, of course, was immune to the burns, but the force nonetheless rocked him. "So one can regenerate, one's tough-skinned and now apparently a time-bomb, and the other is kinda hard to reach."

Joseph patted out the last kindle on his shoulder, "Kinda sounds like us when you put it that way."

"As much truth as there is in that, I don't want to ever have to compare to these rats in big shoes."

Shadow began another command, "Chaos," but a blue sphere knocked him over- and the Chaos Emerald right out of his hand.

Then, almost as if the world was gelatinous, everything around them swayed a bit and a strident noise resonated throughout the area. All five warriors took to their knees, oddly feeling dizzy.

Sonic shook it off, "Shadow, are you out of your mind?"

Nathan and Joseph spotted the free Chaos Emerald and split; Nathan glided over to it, and Joseph distracted the two hedgehogs. However, he forgot about Silver, who apprehended their plan from afar. Silver performed a tugging motion with his hands and both hunters subsequently were pulled away from their targets. Silver then raised an open palm at the Chaos Emerald, making it float to him. Joseph quick to react sprung up and sprinted towards it. Right before it was out of arm's reach, Joseph hopped in front of it and caught it with a wrap of his fingers.

Silver then froze Joseph in mid-air, giving his body a shocking paralysis that caused him to drop the Emerald. Opportunely, Nathan swooped in and caught it before it hit the ground, and spattered bullets in Silver's direction, nicking one of his fingers. Nathan settled further away from the scene, admiring the snow white jewel's beauty and feeling its power. He noticed that it felt like it was responding to his presence, like it was alive.

An idea then occurred to him when the feeling began to wane. He held it out in front of him and cleared his throat. "Chaos-..."

Sonic, Shadow, and Silver all glanced to one another, realizing none of them made the command. They then saw Joseph already scampering for a head-start to guard Nathan, and it was there they saw the illuminating Chaos Emerald. Shadow flashed away again and Sonic realized he would not catch him on time, so he gave up and harnessed some chaos energy to speed his chase. Silver teleported after Shadow and appeared right next to Nathan, reaching out for the Chaos Emerald and placing his other hand out to block a reappearing Shadow. Sonic and Joseph had also just made it, when suddenly, the world bended and contorted again, followed with another clamorous howl. This time, the warriors were moving in slow-motion as reality began to warp, and the Chaos Emerald was emitting a blinding light like never before, flaring throughout the area.

Tails was not too far behind to see this. He experienced dizziness from this, but he wasn't moving in slow-motion. When he rubbed his eyes to readjust from the light, everyone was gone; nowhere to be found. No one, and nothing except the twinkling gem that was left behind. Tails checked his watch to see if he can get a location of Sonic on his radar. Usually, if he ran off, the watch could at least detect his presence before he went off-range. This time, the watch said "User disconnected."

"Oh boy, this can't be good."

*This concludes the end of "Part I."

THIS cliffhanger ("Chapter 9"), is fully intentional. Pressure? 😮😁

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