Wow, it's been awhile since I wrote a multi-chapter fic.

Alright, you've read the summary, you've got the gist of the story. The only thing you need to know is that this story is set in the Sonic X universe with the only changes being Chris is not involved and Scourge also tagged along for the ride to Earth. Eggman's personality is more aligned with that of the Sonic X universe than of Archie, just in case anyone needed to know.

You don't need an understanding of the Archie universe to enjoy this story, as the most I'll use from it is the names of Tails' parents and the occasional reference to someone back on Mobius.

As for their ages, Sonic, Scourge, and Shadow are roughly 18 while Tails is still 8.

This story was originally a project I was doing with an author on deviant-art, you may have recognized the summary from that. Her account was deactivated and she never contacted me, so I've decided to go ahead and publish the story on my own, seeing as I did complete the outline and write most of the story on my own.

Anyways, I present to you: Ultimate Life Forms

Chapter One: Capture The Target

Space Colony ARK – 50 Years Ago

"Freeze!" The guard shouted as he raised his gun. "Take your hand off that lever!"

Maria turned and met his gaze for a moment, her young blue eyes filled with fear. Pushing her feelings of terror aside, she turned her attention back to the lever which would insure the safety of her friend and his newest companion.

"I'm not fooling around here!" The guard shouted, keeping his gun aimed directly at Maria.

"Sayonara, Shadow the hedgehog." Using all her strength, she pulled down, launching the two pods towards earth.

A gun fired.

Suddenly, everything went black.

G.U.N. Investigation Report

Due to an unfortunate accident and miscommunication, our initial suspicion of the abuse of government resources to fund and create the "ultimate life form" was false.

No evidence of such a creature ever existing was found in the laboratories or computer data.

A total of 57 casualties have been reported, a result of members of the ARK attempting to attack G.U.N. soldiers and failure to cooperate with the investigation.

Head scientist, Gerald Robotnik, has been arrested for interfering with an investigation and embezzlement of government funds.

A warning has been issued to the general public warning of falling space debris due to the accident, including two capsules. These capsules are highly unstable and are thought to contain nuclear power sources. All civilians are advised to steer clear of such debris and notify the proper authorities immediately.

As of this report submission, only one of the capsules has been found.

A loud and up-beat tune whistled down the hallway as the evil genius and self-proclaimed ruler of the world marched happily down the hall of the abandoned space station. It had taken months, but after yet another defeat at the hands of his speedy blue nemesis, Eggman was willing to take the time to perfect his plan.

Defeat at the hands of Sonic the hedgehog was nothing new to him; in fact it was practically a weekly occurrence. Heck, Eggman had built an empire, lost it to Sonic, built an entire army, and lost that too because of Sonic. It was also thanks to the blue rodent he had ended up in another world, completely separate from the one he knew. On the plus side, it meant he had a whole new world to take over. A new world filled with new resources and new people to enslave. A world where he was only faced with a few members of those pesky freedom fighters rather than entire cities of them.

On the downside, it meant he did not have any of his legionaries at his command to monitor the planet for him or carry out his orders, but he wasn't complaining. You give some, you get some.

This time, he was sure it would all go according to plan. That was what he always told himself before he launched a new campaign to rid himself of the blue speedster, but this time he was willing to wager his entire empire back on Mobius.

This time, he would not be working alone.

Beside him, a much shorter and greener figure walked along. A mirror image of Sonic, which was not too surprising as he was him from another universe, strolled beside him. Scourge the Hedgehog, former king of Moebius.

Scourge had his arms folded behind his head, leaning back slightly as he walked, completely at ease.

As the two approached the end of the hallway, the metallic doors slid open for them, revealing the ARK's observation deck.

Eggman smiled darkly, seeing the other ace in his hand already there on the deck, watching the planet below them. He knew he would be there. He alone held what the ultimate life form truly wanted.

"'Sup, Stripes!" Scourge greeted rather happily, glad he would not have to be alone with the fat man up in space. Shadow may not have been his favorite person on the planet, but at least he had someone around to keep him entertained.

Frowning, Shadow the Hedgehog turned from the window to face the two figures entering the room.

"Well, Shadow" Eggman began. "It's good to see you. I had a feeling you would accept my invitation."

"Let's just cut to the chase." Shadow replied, not in the mood for any of the evil doctor's games. "The journal pages, you said you had them. Where are they?"

Eggman reached into his red jacket and drew some weathered, folded papers from the inner pocket. "They're right here, but you know what you have to do if you want them."

Shadow turned back to the window, staring at the blue planet once more. "Fine. I'll get you what you want." Though Shadow loathed the idea of working for Eggman as if he were one of his lackeys, he desperately needed the papers in Eggman's hands. They were the journal pages from Gerald Robotnik's scientific and personal journal, and the only remaining documents containing the truth about Shadow's past and creation. True, he could use brute force to get the papers out of Eggman's hands, but they were only part of the journal, not the whole thing. If he wanted the complete book, he would have to go along with what Eggman wanted.

Eggman smiled. "Excellent, I knew you wou-"

"But!" Shadow interrupted him before he could go off on a rant; wanting to be sure he was heard. "I will do it under one condition."

"And what is that?" Eggman asked, still smiling and genuinely interested in what the black hedgehog desired.

"You have to swear to me."

"Swear what?"

"Swear that you won't kill him." As much as he hated to admit it, Shadow was willing to stoop to some unethical means of getting what he wanted, but he wasn't willing to dirty his hands with blood for it.

Both Eggman and Scourge let out a rousing bout of laughter at this. Their laughter, however, was cut short as Eggman was suddenly on the floor with an angry black hedgehog standing over him with the front of his jacket in hand.

"I'm serious about this!" Shadow almost shouted. "Swear to me or I will teleport off the station right now and inform them of your whereabouts!"

"Since when did you care about him so much?" Scourge asked, still smirking, happily on his feet beside the two. He was enjoying the show, but even Shadow's refusal to be involved if death was involved was piquing his interest. It's not like the ultimate life form's hands were clean of blood in the first place.

"I fight those I have to." Shadow said, still glaring menacingly at the fat man beneath him. "I may have taken more lives than the both of you combined, but I refuse to have the blood of the innocent on my hands. I was created to protect the earth and that is exactly what I will do if you intend to end his life."

"Alright." Eggman pushed Shadow off of him and stood up, fixing his jacket. "You have my word. I won't kill the rat while he's on the ARK."

Satisfied, Shadow moved away from Eggman, turning to face Scourge instead. "That goes for you too!"

"Hey, I'm just following orders." Scourge put his hands up defensively, though the smile and chuckles resonating from him clearly gave away his lack of seriousness on the matter.

"Swear it." Shadow marched slowly to the green hedgehog until he was merely inches away from his face, clearly not satisfied with his previous answer. "Now!" He snarled under his breath.

"Alright, alright." Scourge snickered. "I swear I won't kill the pansy. Happy now?"

"For now." Shadow muttered, backing away from Scourge. He walked back to the doctor who was still trying to straighten his red lab coat out. "When do you want him?"

"Before the end of tonight."

Shadow removed his chaos emerald from its hiding place. Just as he was about to use it to leave, Scourge grabbed his arm, stopping him.

"Hold up, Stripes. This is a team effort!"

Shadow's face immediately fell even further at the thought of having to work with the green imbecile. "What? Why? I can handle this myself."

"Oh, I'm sure you can. But I'm not taking any chances. Scourge is going with you." Eggman confirmed the green hedgehog's statement. "You're going to nab him as a team. One-on-one, he can use his dumb luck to get away, but a two-on-one is a fight Sonic just can't win, not when his opponents are equally matched in skill."

"Fine. When do we leave?" Shadow asked, wanting to get the experience over with as quickly as possible. He was ready to go, but who knew what Eggman and Scourge had in mind.

"Just a few more hours."

Sonic inhaled, taking a deep breath of fresh mountain air as he lay on the ground. As much as he loved Station Square, he still needed a breather every now and then. That and the forest reminded him of his childhood home of Knothole. It was always nice to take a stroll through memory lane.

Deeply relaxed, the blue hedgehog closed his eyes, hoping to take a quick nap before heading back. Just as he was about to drift into unconsciousness, he felt a sharp object suddenly strike him on the side of his face.

Snapping up to full attention, Sonic looked down at his feet to find a rock.

"Hey, blue!"

Knowing exactly whom that voice originated from, Sonic scowled. It was his day to relax; he was not in the mood for his evil counterpart's games at the moment. "What do you want, Scourge? Can't it wait until tomorrow?" If Sonic did have to point out one good feature in Scourge during their time on Earth, it would have to be that he wasn't constantly trying to take over the planet. Scourge usually approached him when he was bored or Sonic chased after him when he was causing a ruckus downtown. The two of them would duke it out until Scourge either got tired or had his behind handed back to him by Sonic.

"No way. I've been itching for a fight these past few days, and I'm not taking 'no' for an answer." In the blink of an eye, Scourge was on top of Sonic, the two of them sliding towards the base of a nearby tree at full speed.

Putting his hands behind his head, Sonic used the impact to give himself some momentum. Pulling his legs close to his body, he kicked forward, sending Scourge flying off of him in the opposite direction as he curled up into a ball and bounced off the tree.

Scourge flipped himself mid-air, landing on his feet as adrenaline pumped through his veins. Not wasting any time, he charged straight for Sonic again.

The two hedgehogs both curled up to strike one another. Had any person ventured onto the scene, all they would have seen were the two ricocheting off one another at breath-taking speeds.

"How long are we going to do this for?" Sonic taunted as he dropped, grabbing the incoming Scourge by the front of his jacket and throwing him off course. "Another minute or so?"

"That's all the time I'll need to handle you!" Scourge hit the ground, sliding. Rather than charge head-on, he began running circles around Sonic.

With a smirk Sonic joined Scourge in running laps. "Trying to trap me? Come on, Scourge. You know that trick only works if the person you're trying to trap someone who can't run as fast as you."

"Well…" Scourge began, "It's funny that you should mention traps."

"Chaos Spear!"

Sonic's eyes grew wide as he saw Shadow suddenly materialize in front of him, sending a burst of yellow chaos energy his way. Though he tried to dodge the blast, the blue hedgehog still ended up taking the full brunt of the attack, having been too close to avoid it.

Hitting the ground and sliding on his back, Sonic had no time for a witty remark as Shadow suddenly appeared before him once more. Breaking the sound barrier, Sonic took off at super-sonic speed through the mountains with Shadow on his right and Scourge on his left.

"Joke's over guys. What's going on?" Though he hid it perfectly, Sonic was starting to feel slightly nervous. Scourge he could understand, but why was Shadow after him as well? Somehow, he doubted it was because the black and red hedgehog was bored.

"Why don't you come with us and find out?" Scourge tried to side-swipe Sonic into Shadow, but failed as Sonic jumped forward, landing a few feet in front of the two hedgehogs, still running.

Scourge ended up crashing into Shadow, momentarily throwing the two of them off Sonic's trail.

"Get off of me, you idiot!" Shadow grabbed Scourge's jacket and threw him back onto his feet. In a blast from his hover skates, he was back on Sonic's trail with Scourge close behind.

Sonic spun around to face the two hedgehogs, running backwards with a smirk. "Come on, Scourge! You're going to need at least a dinner and movie before I'll go home with you."

Growling, Scourge launched himself forward again, throwing a punch at his blue counterpart.

Sonic caught the punch with his right hand, using his left hand to catch a second punch Scourge attempted to strike him with. Unfortunately, he left an opening which Shadow had no problem taking.

With a swift kick to the abdomen from the black and red hedgehog, Sonic was once again grounded, only now, he was also overpowered. "Let go of me, Scourge!" He shouted to the green hedgehog who had taken the opportunity to flip the tables on the blue hedgehog and grab his hands instead.

"Now, Stripes!" Scourge ordered, trying to make sure Sonic didn't get away.

Sonic turned his attention back to Shadow only to see the darker hedgehog bringing a syringe to his arm. "What is that? What are you doing? Shadow! Stop!" He all but shouted as he fought with a newfound fervor. Managing to break one hand free of Scourge's grasp, he managed to slap Shadow's arm and the syringe away from him.

"Scourge, get a grip!" Shadow grabbed ahold of the arm Sonic managed to free and held it down with his own body weight as he set his knees directly down on it.

"Hey, this is harder than it looks!" Scourge defended as he used both of his hands to hold down Sonic's other arm.

"Guys! No, stop, get off!" No amount of adrenaline and fear could give Sonic the strength to get both super-speed hedgehogs off of him.

Shadow inserted the needle into Sonic's arm, which was no easy task as the hedgehog thrashed about madly, still trying to escape. He injected all the liquid and removed the needle.

"Shadow!" Sonic continued to shout. "What do you think you're doing?! What did you put in me?!"

"Just relax, Blue." Scourge laughed.

As hard as he tried to fight it, Sonic felt himself getting extremely weak. Before he knew it, his eyes were forcing themselves shut as he fell into a deep sleep.

"He's out for sure, right?" Scourge asked, still holding Sonic's arm down tightly should the hedgehog suddenly wake and try to attack again.

"Yes, he should be for the next few hours." Assuming Eggman hadn't lied to him about what was really in the syringe. For all he knew, he could have injected Sonic with a lethal poison. "Let's get out of here before anybody sees us."

"Really? You don't want to put his hand in water or at least draw something on his face?"

Shadow frowned and drew out his chaos emerald. "Chaos control."

And that's the end of chapter one!

I should probably explain that G.U.N. report at the beginning. In Sonic X, that soldier Scarlett meets with says G.U.N. turned in a fake report and swore them all to secrecy. That matches with the information Rouge pulled from the computer, saying that neither of the tubes launched into space by Maria were never found, when in reality, one, Shadow's tube, was found. The report I wrote is supposed to be the fake one they submitted.

That and I subscribe to the theory that the government wasn't being stupid and mistaking Shadow for Sonic, but were actually framing Sonic for Shadow's crimes so they could cover up his existence.

None of this information is key to the story, it's just meant to explain how I'm seeing it right now.

If you liked it, review please! Reviews motivate me to update!