Welcome to my story, which is one of the very first attempts ever made at a Pokemon and Sonic the Hedgehog crossover (look it up via filters, you'll find it's #4 :p). I know the publish date is a bit disheartening to look at, but I'm back on track now, and if you join me on this ride I promise (or at least sincerely hope) that it will be worth it.

I am Flightgirl, and this is Gotta Catch em All

Chapter 1

Manners and Maniacs

It was nothing for him to move his feet faster than the speed of light. It was second-nature to him, like flying was to Tails or smashing was to Amy. The ultra-high speeds that he travelled were completely natural, but there was something about moving at the speed of sound that still amazed Sonic about himself. In those times when the rest of the world seemed to stand still, he felt like he was moving faster than time itself, faster than life. Nothing could see him, nothing could feel him, and nothing could touch him.

But his feet weren't moving fast today.

It was the cliche-kind of beautiful. The sun was shining and a slight breeze blew peacefully over Mobius, rustling the quills of the blue creature's spikes. Sonic the Hedgehog was enjoying a surprising day off from protecting the planet from Eggman and Scourge and alien threats, and he was going to spend it doing absolutely nothing at all. He was sunbathing on the roof of Freedom HQ, leaning back with his hands behind his head and his eyes closed. He tapped his foot and sang along to a diddy annoying to everyone but him, but stopped when he felt a familiar swirling wind from above. Sonic opened his eyes in time to see Tails, the orange two-tailed fox who had been his best friend throughout the years, land on the roof beside him.

He stretched lazily. "Hey Tails. What brings you out of your lab? Scourge isn't trying to enter our dimension again, is he?"

Tails smiled his cute little kid smile and shook his head. "Nope. I actually came because of some news from Knuckles."

Sonic yawned. "Oh?"

Tails nodded seriously, though excitement danced in the light of his eyes. "He and Rouge found out where the last Chaos Emerald is."

"That's great!" The blue hedgehog jumped to his feet, his interest peaked a hundred times more than it had been four words earlier. "Where is it?"

The fox frowned. "Shadow has it."

Shadow: the broody black and red hedgehog created by Dr. Gerald Robotnik more than 50 years ago to be the Ultimate Lifeform. Getting anything involving charity from him was always a chore.

"Oh…" Sonic scratched his head, trying to think of a way that he could possibly get the Chaos Emerald from Shadow without having to fight him for it on his day off. He sighed. "Then I guess I'll just have to beat him up."

Tails' eyes widened in horror. "WHAT!? Shadow?!"

Sonic shrugged. "Why not?"

Tails shook his head in amazement. "You can't be serious! You're just going to waltz right up to Shadow the Hedgehog, throw a punch, and take the Emerald?"

"That's the plan," Sonic confirmed while fixing his glove.

"Yeah, some plan, " the kit rolled his eyes. "Come on, Sonic, you know how Shadow gets. You don't need to get into a fight with him. Besides, you know full well that he's extremely powerful when he has a Chaos Emerald. He's more likely to destroy you than he is to lose the Emerald to you."

"Oh, he won't do that," the hedgehog argued. "He loves fighting with me too much to destroy me. Besides, Shadow isn't that powerful. I've beat him plenty of times. I bet Knuckles could even take him out, the Faker."

Tails blinked at him. "Um, he kind of put Knuckles in the hospital. Rouge is with him now, but she'll be coming back here soon."

Sonic shrugged. "Well, now I guess I have a reason to beat him up. He knows he's not allowed to hurt my friends."

Tails sighed. "Alright, fine. If that's what you're doing, go right ahead. But it's your funeral." With that, the two-tailed fox spun his tails and left the roof to go back to his and Rotor's lab.

Sonic scratched his nose and smiled, then jumped off of Freedom HQ and took off.

It only took a few seconds for him to reach his destination: G.U.N Police Force. Actually, only Shadow lived there. Back when they had been on Earth, Shadow had been hired by the organization, and when they returned to their own planet, Shadow had created his own version. Though no one else wanted to join because Shadow was the leader of it, and he lacked the disposition to be much of a police force.

"Hey, Shadow!" Sonic called into the array of useless metal buildings. "Come out here, Faker! I need to talk to you!"

Silence.

Sonic tapped his foot. "I'm waaaiiittttiiinnn'." His voice echoed off the iron and steel.

"Don't ever do that," a voice said from behind him.

Sonic whipped around and found himself facing a black hedgehog with red stripes and a serious attitude problem. He smiled and waved casually. "Hi, Shadow. Got a minute?"

Shadow the Hedgehog crossed his arms and glared.

"I'll take that as a yes," Sonic said. "Thing is, you have something that I need."

"The Chaos Emerald."

"Yup, that'd be it. See, the thing is, we have six of them, and you have one of them."

Shadow continued to glare silently.

"I need it."

Shadow still glared, unmoved.

Sonic avoided his eyes, which were, quite frankly, creeping him out. He sighed. "Look Shadow, I don't want us to get into a fight. But you already hurt Knux, so unless you want some serious damage yourself, you'll hand over the Emerald this instant."

Shadow finally blinked once and turned around to leave. He stopped when he had taken a step. "If you came for an apology, you'll be disappointed. Knuckles tried to steal from me. There's a difference between asking and taking. He took." He continued on his way.

Sonic scratched his head in confusion. "Are you saying that you didn't give Knuckles the Emerald because he wouldn't say please?" he called after Shadow.

Shadow chuckled, but continued deeper into the crowd of buildings.

Sonic sprinted to catch up. "You know I'm going to have to pummel you because of what you did to Knuckles, right?"

"You can try, Faker."

Sonic frowned. "I don't really want to fight you."

Shadow's lips showed the tiniest hint of a smile for a fraction of a second. "Nor I, you. But I will, if that's what you choose."

The blue hedgehog sighed. "I'll forget the whole thing if you just give me the Emerald."

Shadow remained silent and expressionless.

Sonic cleared his throat. "Um…Please?"

The black hedgehog looked long and hard at his blue counterpart before sighing in as much resignation as anyone could expect from such a brooding soul. He reached into his spikes and tossed something red and shiny at Sonic.

"Take it. I'll soon be as powerful without it as I am now with it, anyways."

Sonic stared at the gem in his hand. He immediately felt the power surge through him from the Chaos Emerald, and he almost felt bad for taking it from Shadow. He debated whether or not to give it back, but before he could make a decision, he heard Shadow yell, "CHAOS CONTROL!" and he was gone.

"Um…Thanks, Shadow." Sonic turned back the way he came from and took off.

He took a little longer, because he wasn't in a hurry. He allowed himself to take a couple minutes, rather than a couple seconds, to get back to Freedom HQ.

"Sonic!"

Oh, no. He knew that high-pitched, annoyingly cute voice.

A pink female hedgehog was running towards him like—well, like an animal—with arms and eyes open wide. At least she didn't have her hammer.

Sonic smiled nervously. "Hey, Amy. How's it going?"

She screeched with joy and tackled him. "Oh Sonic! I'm so glad you're back! Did you get the Emerald?"

"Right here." He held up the red Emerald.

Tails came down from the sky and landed beside Sonic and Amy. "Wow. You're in one piece. And you have the Emerald."

"You sound surprised," Sonic said as Amy hung off of him. "I told you I could do it."

Tails took the Emerald. "Not surprised," he replied. "Impressed." He smiled at Sonic. "Good job."

"Naturally." He pushed Amy off of him. "Amy, I need to breathe."

"I'll go put this with the others," Tails informed Sonic, lifting himself into the air with his tails.

"Why don't you go with Tails, Amy?" Sonic said. "I'm going to go for a run."

"Aww…" she said dejectedly. "Alright. But hurry back!"

Sonic flashed her a signature smile and took off, not really knowing where he was going or what he was going to do. What does the Hero of Mobius, whose hobbies include running and beating up on fakers and Eggman, do on his day off? The answer: run anywhere and everywhere as fast and as long as you can.

Truth be told, Sonic didn't know what to do and running was all he could think of to pass the long day now that the last Chaos Emerald was found. It would defeat the purpose of his day off to invade Eggman's headquarters to destroy whatever evil scheme he was thinking up.

The heroic hedgehog didn't even know why he was taking a day off. It had been something Amy had insisted on, and he'd only agreed to make her stop bothering him. It had been a slow week anyways. What was one more day? The problem now was that the lack of activity was driving him crazy.

Sonic slowed to a stop and looked around at where he had ended up. He was outside of the Knothole infirmary, from which a sound like war was coming. Sonic smiled as the familiar red echidna with a crescent moon mark on his chest burst out of the doors, followed closely by insisting nurses.

"WHERE IS HE?!" Knuckles was screaming. "I'M GONNA KILL THAT BLACK HEDGEHOG!"

"Heya, Knux," Sonic said with a wave. "Feeling better?"

"I will be once I wring Shadow's smug little neck!" Knuckles replied, fuming. He stormed over to Sonic. "Have you seen him?"

"Yup. He gave me the Emerald just a little while ago. Apparently you didn't say 'please'…?"

Knuckles stared at him. "I didn't say 'please'?"

"That's what he said," the hedgehog replied with a shrug.

"Sir," a chipmunk nurse interrupted, placing a hand on Knuckles' bandaged shoulder, "you need to rest. You had quite an ordeal—"

"I'm fine!" Knuckles shouted at her. "Leave me alone!" He turned to Sonic. "Where's Rouge? Is she okay?"

"She's back at Freedom HQ. Don't worry, she's fine."

He was settling down now, taking deep breaths and letting his blood pressure return to normal.

Sonic grinned. "Come on, Chuckles. Let's get out of here."

Knuckles sighed. "Alright. I can always beat on Shadow later."

Meanwhile, in Robotropolis…

"SNIVELY!" Dr. Eggman shouted. "Bring the Inhibitor Rings!"

"Yes, Uncle," the skinny, big-nosed man said from the other room. He came in carrying a small red box and presented it to Eggman.

"Thank you, Snively." He turned to the red and black hedgehog that stood in front of him and opened the box to reveal the two golden Rings sitting inside.

Shadow eyed them suspiciously. "I am not sure about this, Doctor."

Eggman laughed. "OH HO HO HO! What is not to be sure of, my boy? I invented this special type of Ring specifically for your Chaos abilities, Shadow. They can work for no one but you."

"That's what worries me." Shadow crossed his arms. "Let's face it, Doctor. You're not the most trustworthy man. You must have had a reason for making these, or else you would not be giving them to me."

Eggman sighed and placed the box on a table. "Okay. You caught me. I want you to be a guinea pig of sorts. I'm thinking of expanding my horizons beyond my feats of villainous genius, and I'm experimenting with capturing the power of Chaos Emeralds and storing it for future use, when the source is not available-that is, to be able to contain Chaos Energy in something beyond the gems themselves."

Shadow crossed his arms. "And what does this have to do with me?"

"You are the only known being able to control Chaos Energy without a Chaos Emerald. Naturally, I wanted you to be the first to test my new technique."

Shadow looked to the red box with the Rings, his face expressionless. "So what are they supposed to do, exactly?"

Eggman grinned through his bow-tie moustache. Hook, line, and sinker. "Well, they are designed to tap into Chaos reserves and magnify its power up to ten times, without damaging the vessel—that's you—anymore than a normal exertion of power would. That means that you no longer have to remove your Rings when releasing a great amount of the Chaos force."

"Hm."

Shadow continued to look at the Rings. It was truly a tempting offer, and if not for his previous experience with Doctor Ivo Robotnik—more commonly known now as Eggman—he would have accepted already. But there was something about the presented information…something that was missing… It just seemed suspicious.

"Why didn't you just make a fake Chaos Emerald?"

Eggman waved a hand dismissively. "Pish, posh. Been there, done that. I wanted to try something fresh."

Shadow considered, then chuckled and turned towards the exit. "Nice try, Doctor, but I am not Knuckles. I am not so easily fooled. I know you are hiding something from me."

"Alright," Eggman said, closing the box slowly. "I suppose it's back to the drawing board. Snively, would you destroy these please? We won't be needing them, it seems." He passed the box to his waiting nephew.

Shadow froze in the doorway. "Wait." He couldn't believe he was doing this. He turned back to Eggman.

"Yes?" The doctor waited expectantly, with Snively beside him with the box.

Shadow sighed. "Give them to me, and I'll think about it. If they do what you say, it seems like a waste to throw them away."

Eggman beamed and snatched the box from Snively. He opened it and held the Rings out to Shadow. "Let me know how it works out for you when you use them."

Shadow picked up the Rings cautiously and looked at Eggman. "I will, Doctor."

And then Shadow walked out of Eggman's ship, headed for Freedom HQ.

Eggman smiled darkly as soon as he was gone. "Snively, watch the monitors. I want to know the minute he puts those Rings on."

Snively nodded. "But Uncle, I still do not understand why you gave him Rings to become more powerful. Aren't you trying to get rid of your enemies?"

He chuckled. "Shadow is not an enemy. After this, he will be an accomplice, though he will not be able to celebrate becoming my new ally. You see, as soon as he puts those Rings on, I can control his power and send him and the people around him to any world I choose. If I time it right, I'll never have to worry about that pesky blue hedgehog or any of his Freedom Fighting friends ever again! OH HO HO HO!"