Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog, SEGA (specifically, Yuji Naka, if I recall correctly) does. I do, however, own Xero, Lupus

A/N:

WriterXero: Alright, I've been meaning to write this story for some time now, and it's time to finally stop stalling and get on with it!

Silver: Precisely!

WXero: No more stalling, just boldly beginning!!!

Shadow: Damn straight!

WXero: No turning back!

Sonic: Yeah!

WXero: No redundant announcements!

Silver, Shadow, and Sonic: …

WXero: Maybe another day, but not now! Today we finally begin-

SilShadSon: GET ON WITH IT!!!

WXero: … fine, be that way…

We begin our tale in a surprisingly-not-dystopian future, between the present and Silver's timeline. In fact, one could almost call it utopian. Mobius finds itself in a state where technology makes people's lives almost obscenely easier, yet doesn't interfere with nature.

The only remaining threat to this peace is an organization that claims that the union of nature and technology is unnatural, called '!.' Yes, it's called !. While this is how the group writes its name, when verbalized, imagine it pronounced as the word 'Exclaim.'

The hero of the day is a burgundy porcupine dressed in a black leather jacket called Xero. He also wears black jeans, a pair of grey sneakers, and a white long-sleeve shirt under his jacket.

Xero's tragic past? Well, he doesn't have one of those, sorry. He does, however, have a good ol' fashioned sense of justice. As such, he fights ! to preserve peace on Mobius. The irony is not lost on him.

He's also fortunate enough not to be doing it alone. By Xero's side is a young female arctic fox called Sasha. She dresses in a grey and white striped shirt, with two black belts holding her red skirt with a black diamond pattern. On her feet are knee high black boots, and around her neck is a light blue and purple scarf. The grey fur on her head covers her right eye.

Sasha isn't one to talk too much, and it's possible that she does indeed have a tragic past. Even Xero doesn't know, she always has changed the subject whenever her past comes up.

But enough of all these descriptions, on with the show! And while we're at it, out of this tense.

Xero and Sasha stood back to back with about fifty or so members of ! surrounding them. The porcupine spoke first, "Hey, Sash… can they really call themselves an organization when they have so many members?"

The fox glanced at him, "What?"

"Well, y'know. You'd think an 'organization' would only have about… I dunno, 13 or so members. These guys are more of a small nation at this point, y'folla?"

Sasha rolled her eyes, "Is that supposed to be a joke?"

Xero smirked, "Maybe a little."

"Oi! You lot gonna chat eachother up all day, or are we gonna fight!?!" Random ! member # 5 asked.

The porcupine's smirk only widened, "Heh, sorry. Forgot you guys were here…" He proceeded to use several homing attacks, Sasha ripping through the crowd of soldiers with her claws. In time, the group lay… not quite dead.

A random, nameless police officer arrived on the scene, and called for back up to assist in the arrests, soon speaking to the porcupine and the arctic fox, "… Xero, Sasha, as much as we appreciate your assistance…"

Xero finished for the officer, "Vigilante justice will not be tolerated, keep our noses out of things next time and leave it to the police. Yes sir, we'll be sure to do so next time, right Sash?"

Sasha nodded in affirmation. The officer sighed, and the two teens sped off. They found themselves in a forest, where Sasha eventually let out a sigh. Xero took this as a 'we need to talk, Xero' moment.

"Sash, what's wrong?" the porcupine asked.

She sighed again, "For one thing, how many times have I told you to stop calling me that?"

"4,236, and counting," Xero said with a wink.

Sasha groaned, "… never mind… anyway, as I was saying: do you ever get the feeling that despite all the ! members we deal with, we're not making any progress?"

Xero leaned against a tree… they might be here a while, "How d'you figure?"

The arctic fox sat in something akin to a fetal position, also leaning against the tree, "Well… the four most important members of ! are Bold, Misc, Kanryu, and Retaliate… we haven't even met them."

"So? We're still doing our part, aren't we?"

Yet agin she sighed, "Xero… if we were making a difference, those four would have tried to deal with us directly…"

The response to this came not from Xero, but from in the tree the two were leaning against, "Well… sounds like someone's given up hope."

From the tree leapt a young wolf, breaking his fall with his left hand. He was grey, and wore blue jeans and a red shirt with a front pocket. He had, for whatever reason, chosen not to wear shoes, and to dye the fur on his head (which jutted out at the bangs) purple. As he turned around, the two could see that he wore glasses.

Xero was the first to speak, "And who are you?"

The wolf grinned, "Lupus. Citizen of this forest in the future…" he looked about, "Wow… it really was all green once."

Sasha raised an eyebrow, but Xero was the one to actually verbalize the oddness of this statement, "Um… what other color would it be?"

"… Brown, and fiery red. ! really did a number on this place…" at the porcupine and fox's surprised looks, he nodded, "Yes… sadly ! emerges victorious when all is said and done…"

Sasha let out a squeak, seeming close to tears at the very though. Xero looked to the wolf, furious, "Why on Mobius would you tell us that!?!"

Lupus simply smiled brightly, "Because, Xero the Porcupine, if I came from the future, I can take you back to before ! was founded, and you can stop it from ever coming into existance by eliminating its leader. Kill him after it's founded, and he becomes a martyr… but kill him before, and !'ll never come into existence."

The burgundy porcupine was skeptical, "No one even knows who started it… how could I possibly find its original leader?"

The wolf didn't stop smiling, "I've done a great deal of research on the group, and I'm fairly certain I've got it figured out…" he held out his hand, and something that looked like several floating pieces of broken glass appeared, "This is a portal to the time. Step through, and you'll find the founder of !."

In a moment of hesitation, Xero looked to Sasha. She was still in a state of distress from the revelation of their failure. He looked back at Lupus, "Just tell me his name."

Xero's smile reached its widest, "Sonic the Hedgehog."

~Present~

Running along the roof tops Station Square, a blue hedgehog was on a mission of relatively epic proportions. Dr. Ivo Robotnik had apparently gone for a direct approach in gaining control of one of the chaos emeralds, sending an obscene number of robots after an emerald held in a GUN base. The hedgehog figured he'd best stop the doctor's plan, whatever it was, before it was put into action.

The hedgehog, if it wasn't plainly obvious, was Sonic. The two made mental notes to thank the doctor; his robots provided good paths for homing attacks to take sonic across assorted gaps in the buildings.

Eventually, Sonic arrived before Eggman, who looked down on him and chuckled, "Ho ho, Sonic! To what do I owe this displeasure?"

"Yo, Eggman. So, you're trying the same plan yet again?" Sonic rubbed his nose with his index finger, "Alright, let's get this over with. What overly dramatically named robot are you gonna throw at me this time?"

The doctor's eye twitched, and he shouted something unintelligible, which ended in, "So let's see how you like the EGG MINOTAUR!!!"

The Egg Minotaur was actually quite impressive, a sleek, robotic bull which could stand on just its hind legs if the need arose. Several turrets stood on its back and stomach, all of which shot high powered rockets. Sonic was somewhat distressed to find that Eggman had finally gone the non-masochistic route, placing his creation's one weakness inside the robot.

As he dashed from the beast, Sonic spoke (out loud, for some reason), "If only I had that chaos emerald, I'd be able to teleport to its weakness using chaos control!"

For a moment, what Eggman said in response made no sense, "What're you… no! Get away from me, fox boy! It's my emerald!!! Mine!!!"

Tails, Sonic's young sidekick and friend, was currently in the Egg-Carrier, trying to wrestle the chaos emerald from the doctor's grasp. Eventually, Eggman's age betrayed him, as Tails got the emerald, "Here, Sonic!!!" and threw it to Sonic.

The blue hedgehog caught the emerald, "Thanks, buddy!" he then faced the Egg Minotaur, "Alright, here we go! Chaos… control!" In a heartbeat, Sonic disappeared, reappearing within the space of a few seconds… as soon as he did, the Minotaur glowed, then exploded, its horns flying off like rockets toward Tails and Sonic.

Sonic quickly leapt onto his own causing it to spin in circles trying to hit its target, not realizing that said target was directly above it… Tails wasn't so lucky, as the horn chased him over all creation (about five square feet) until he eventually found himself cornered, and…

With a black hedgehog holding back the horn with both hands, seeming to be struggling to even do that. Shadow grimaced, "You alright, Prower?"

Tails nodded nervously, "Th-thanks, Shadow…"

"Nice goin' Shad!" Sonic gave the other hedgehog a thumbs up, leaping off the horn that had targeted him, as its confusion caused it to explode.

Shadow seemed to be visibly struggling with the horn, which desperately wanted to plow through him and Tails at mach speed, "Just… use… a… homing… attack… Sonic…"

"Oh, right!" Sonic was quick to do so, at which point Shadow released his breath.

He then looked up, "And don't call me Shad."

Eggman had long since made a break for it, so Sonic saw no need to avoid a chat with Shadow, "So, Shad, what brings you here?"

"What did I just say?" Shadow asked his own question, before moving on to answering Sonic's, "I'm a GUN agent, remember? The second the emerald was stolen, my boss was on me to get it back…"

Sonic nodded, "Oh yeah…" he smirked, "Still don't see why you'd want to work with them over the Sonic Team!" Before Shadow had joined GUN, Sonic had made him an offer to join the semi-official 'Sonic Team.' Shadow, obviously, had declined…

Shadow raised an eyebrow and allowed a grin of his own, "Oh, the 'Sonic Team?' Is that what you're calling it now?"

Sonic nodded, behind him, Tails shook his head.

Shadow smirked, "Well, since you brought it up…"

The blue hedgehog and the dual-tailed fox looked to Shadow hopefully… only for him to turn away from them, "I'll pass."

The two let out sighs of disappointment said, "Well, fine… see ya, Shad!"

Shadow looked back toward him, "… don't call me Shad," and sped off toward the GUN base.

Sonic smirked, and looked to Tails, "Hey, you got the Tornado? Station Square's getting kinda boring."

Tails nodded, "Right this way!" and the two sped off for the fox's mecha-biplane…

WriterXero: Well, that was an adventure, wasn't it?

Sonic: Wait, what was the point in my part?
WXero: Filler.

Sonic: Filler?

WXero: Filler. In any event, you, the reader, if you'd kindly review, that would be brilliant.