It was a quiet late summer's night in downtown Westopolis. Everything seemed peaceful, almost as if nothing dared to move in fear of ruining the moment. That would be case for most but two dark figures; one male the other female. They walked casually past closed stores and dark ally ways. The first of the two, the male, was a black hedgehog with sapphire blue stripes on his quills, arms and legs. He appeared to have no mouth but that wasn't the creepy part about him. His piercing eyes, the same colour as his quill stripes, seemed to hold much amusement and curiosity towards all that is dark.

“Come now, its not much farther.” he said turning his head awkwardly towards his partner a slim purple cat with golden eyes.

She stared at him quietly and nodded her head slowly almost as if she was trying to keep her mouth shut. The hedgehog smirked with his would-be mouth. He was obviously amused with her reaction. “Don't be so tense, Blaze. Chaos Emeralds are curious things. Surely they will be exactly what you're looking for.”

The cat known as Blaze occupied herself by looking in the different shop windows until the dark hedgehog got her attention again.

“Mephiles,” she began, “I don't understand how these Chaos emeralds are going to help me get home. The only benefit I see is for you.” she picked up her pace so she was walking side-by-side with the hedgehog, Mephiles.

He seemed to let out a low chuckle yet didn't answer her question as he stopped walking. Blaze furrowed her brow slightly angered at the lack of response. She was soon consumed with curiosity when she noticed the other staring upward. She followed his line of vision and came face to face with the dark building of the Westopolis Museum.

“I hope you're ready. I won't hesitate to leave you behind if you fail to meet my expectations.” Mephiles said with a playful tone staring at the female cat.

Blaze stared right back at him and nodded her head with confidence. Like assassins in the night, the two vanished with high leaps.

--

Sonic the hedgehog walked sluggishly down the deserted streets of Westopolis. He let out a prolonged sigh of annoyance as he held onto a plastic bag loosely. He didn't seem to be enjoying himself at all. His features were low and bored, even his ears were flopped forward. He eventually stopped walking and lolled his head back looking up to the night sky. He was silent for a moment but then let out a loud groan of frustration.

“Ugh! Dammit Tails! Why did you need new mecha parts so suddenly! By now everyones probably in bed.” he sighed "I hate Westopolis."

It was true. The world's fasted being was complaining. Not only that but he was being slow as well. Sonic was an adventurer by heart and lived with his best friend Tails who owns his own mechanic shop despite his young age. Sonic has a tendency of being Tails' errand worker because of his fast speed and willingness to do whatever the little guy throws his way. That is of course except for today.

Today, Sonic was sent on an errand to find some mecha parts that can only be found in Westopolis. The blue speedster had been out in the large city since 12 o' clock noon and it was now one in the morning. He hadn't seen any action the entire day. Even Knuckles, guardian of the master emerald, hadn't dropped by that morning for his usual check up. The rival shop across from them, Babylon Extreme Gear, hadn't made any fuss that day either as far as Sonic knew. Everything was going way too slow and Sonic hated slow.

The azure hedgehog thought for sure he was left out on all the action until the sound of shattering glass and loud annoying alarms sounded from within the city museum.

Sonic's ears perked up immediately at the sound and he turned swiftly to face the building to have two figures jump from a glass window and land almost exactly in front of him. His mouth was agape as he stared at the two figures. These two were openly stealing from the museum and not even caring about all the mess they had caused. The dark hedgehog grinned at Sonic. The wail of police sirens sounded from all around soon after. Sonic snapped back to reality and dropped his bag ready for a fight. The cat looked shocked and got a tighter grip on the stolen object as she looked around quickly.

Sonic got a glimpse at what she was holding. His eyes widened with surprise. A Chaos Emerald!
“Hey! Thats a-” he was cut off by the cat turning swiftly to her partner.

“Come on! We have to split!” she yelled ready to run as the other hedgehog nodded.

Sonic gritted his teeth and with a quick 'oh no you don't!' pounced on her quickly grabbing the emerald from her grasp. She gasped but came back just as fast. She turned and placed her feet firmly on the blue hedgehog's belly and quickly sent him flying.

He lost his grip on the emerald which Blaze went to grab once more. She was knocked out of the way by another, Mephiles to be exact. She was obviously confused the second she hit the ground and stared up at her now floating hedgehog counterpart.

“What are you doing!?” she yelled.
He smiled at her with evil wide eyes. “You're screwing up. I'm leaving.”

Sonic regained his composure and stared darkly at the other hedgehog. “You've got to be kidding me!” he said under his breath.

He jumped up and once again tried his luck with a tackle to the ground. The other hedgehog seemed to be a little baffled by this but soon couldn't help but laugh at it. This was no laughing matter, however. The police were getting closer and Sonic had just succeeded in swiping he emerald once more. Mephiles seemed angered by this not only because he once again wasn't holding the emerald but because the azure hedgehog had punched him in the face in order to get it. He growled and stood up staring at the other hedgehog's smiling face. He was clearly ready to make a run for it. Sonic was fast, he had to give him that but when it came to power Mephiles knew he would exceed.

He began to laugh as he moved slowly towards Sonic. Blaze seemed to be confused and was ready to call out her partner's name when she was cut off. She made the mistake of blinking and found that Mephiles wasn't where he was a second ago and was now behind Sonic where he back handed the blue hedgehog into a large building. This had caught Sonic by surprise and before he knew it he was on the ground ready to black out. One of the last things he saw was Mephile's smiling features and dark laugh.

Blaze moved hesitantly over to her hedgehog partner who went from a deranged happy to an odd anger. He turned around quickly to face her. She was taken by surprise making her take a step back.

“Where is it!? Wheres the Chaos Emerald!?” he yelled. Blaze seemed confused.

“He...doesn't have it?” she questioned quietly though it was hardly heard over the sound of police sirens.

“He must have done something with it!...I'll make sure to get it no matter what.” Mephiles said with a growl. “For now its time to go.”

“R-right...” Blaze replied a little too late. Mephiles was already gone. The flashing lights of the police cruisers were starting to appear. She took one final glance at the azure hedgehog before turning to leave as well.

--

“Aw man...Sonics be out for a real long time...I'm getting nervous. Maybe I shouldn't have sent him out today...” the young fox known as Tails paced before the door of his house. Knuckles the echidna lay back casually on the nearby stairs that led to the upper level.

“Calm down. This is Sonic we're talking about here. He can get himself out of any situation no problem. You worry too much.” Knuckles said waving one of his gloved hands in the air.

“Ugh! You're not helping Knuckles! What if something serious happened to him. It would be all my fault...” He stopped pacing and hung his head low with a defeated sigh.

Knuckles softened up a bit and got up off the stairs and stood next to the young fox and patted him on the head. The other looked up with question ready for what the red echidna had to say.

“It wouldn't be all your fault. That guy, he'd go out and do anything if you told him to. He probably makes sure to come back safe each time. Right?” Knuckles smiled down at the other who seemed to perk up at his support.

“Right. Thanks Knuckles even thought you're not very good at cheering people up.” Tails let a few giggles escape as Knuckles got a little angry and balled his hands up into fists with a quick 'hey!'.

They were soon cut off by a knock at the door. They stopped and looked at each other then Tails made a dash for the door hoping for it to be Sonic. He had a big smile on his face as he opened the door but it soon faded when he came face to face with a police officer with a rather exhausted Sonic the hedgehog next to him.

“Miles 'Tails' Prower? I believe this is your friend?” the officer said in a deep voice. Tails nodded slowly and Sonic let a fake grin come across his face.

“H-hey Tails. Whats up?” he said casually despite the pain that was evident in his voice.

“Sonic! What'd you do? What happened?” Tails said fighting back the lump that was forming in his throat. Sonic moved inside as the officer explained that Sonic had confronted some robbers at the museum but was knocked out before they got there. He soon left and Tails went to the living room where Sonic and Knuckles were sitting on the couch.

“Sonic, how could you. You could have gotten seriously hurt-”

“Sorry Tails...I dropped you mecha parts. Heh, looks like I'll have to go out again tomorrow, erm..today.”

“You're missing the point Sonic!” Tails sighed and sat down in the nearest chair. “I was really worried. I thought something happened to you and here you are. You really did get into some trouble. How could you be so stupid?-”

“They had a chaos emerald.” Sonic stated bluntly. This caused Knuckles to jump up and stare Sonic down.

“What'd you say?” he said rather loudly causing the others to flinch slightly gaining an apology from the echidna as he sat back down.

“There were two of them. A dark hedgehog and a purple female cat. The hedgehog seemed to gain a weird power just by touching the thing. I got lucky.” Sonic laid back into the comfort of the couch really starting to feel the pain of hitting a building at full force.

“What do you mean lucky? Look at you Sonic. It looks like you've been through a grinder!” Tail said moving forward in his seat.

“By lucky I mean I got the gem away from them. Before I was knocked out I managed to hide it.”

“How?” Knuckles asked.

“They blinked haha.” Sonic's grin widened at what he said finding it to be rather amusing. The other two sighed finding his joke to be less than amusing.

After a while of explaining what happened the three decided to retire for the night. Knuckles left heading back to his Master Emerald. Sonic had fallen asleep within minutes of hitting his bed sheets. Tails couldn't help but feel extremely uneasy. He had to do something to protect Sonic. If what Sonic said was true then they would be coming after him again and with more force then what had happened. He feared for his friend so he thought to do the only thing he could come up with; hire a secret agent of some sort to watch over and protect Sonic in secret.

The young fox had his ways and actually had connections that would get him just what the doctor ordered. That night Tails made the decision that would change the blue hedgehog's life forever.

((Yes...Cheesy ending as pointed out by Takashi the hedgehog lol. I must agree. ))