Morning came, and I did not want to get up. I hate the nights were you just CAN'T open your eyes, but there's no fooling yourself. You're awake, and aware of the things around you. Well, vaguely aware anyway.

I wasn't like this for long, though. Someone started poking me.

"...Faith," I grumbled.

"What?" came a laugh. Other giggling ensued from that.

Was waking me up like a main attraction? People, get a life!

I opened my eyes, but the only other ones giggling were Jill and Joy. I sat up pretty quickly when I saw 'em. Jill was smiling at me, and Joy looked at me with a curious smile. I'm not sure what was going on in their heads, but...hopefully they were happy to see me. We've got an Aspie here, remember?

Joy didn't give me a moment to say anything, because she crawled onto the bed and hugged me. "Ji'an!" She giggled.

I looked questionably at her, and then up at Jill. "...she...knows me?" I asked with a point to her.

Jill nodded.

I wonder if she has her voice or not. I got pretty far in 5 Years Later... and maybe I should push it. The more I looked at Jill, the more I realized the things I've done.

...I killed Brick, and I made her life a living hell for her, all for the sake of a story.

Do you know how bad I felt just then? I felt ashamed to even look at Jill. Sure, Deity Novagod did things to her, but I created him too, and not only that, but I didn't stop him. I let things happen to her, and all for the sake of making the story something interesting to read...

"JC?"

I shot a look back at Jill, because she spoke just then, with a sympathetic smile. If she spoke, then it's true; she's as far along the story as I am.

"Is something wrong JB?" Faith asked with a tilted head.

"...I'm not sure," I said. "I mean..." I looked back up at Jill again, trying to figure out what to say. "...Jill, you changed, so...you know about the things that happened to you...right?"

Jill nodded. "...but JC, I'm not mad."

I perked up. "...you're not?"

Jill smiled. "...even if bad things happened to me, you always made sure that good things happened too. You gave me Joy...and you brought Metal back to us, right?"

"That's right...I guess." I looked down at the toddler who was still hugging me, and I hugged her back. I'll admit that I'm an affectionate person; man, do I love hugs. Joy was just the size of my little 8 year old brother, only with a head the size of an inflated balloon.

Uh, that's not to be taken the wrong way. EVERYONE'S head in this world is inflated, believe me. Proportions, proportions...

I got up from bed, carrying Joy with me.

"What is your plan of action?" Catriona got up from her perch on the end table and sat down on my shoulder. That little fairy was still here?

"Not sure," I replied. After all, I had a few choices. Me and Faith could go back to our Halloween sleepover, or we could get involved with Sonic X's rendition of Sonic Heroes. I think we all know which one I'd prefer, really, but was it smart to get into this?

What if anything here happened for real, and we died in here? That's a pretty gruesome thought to have on your mind, and there's no safe way to test that theory either. I certainly didn't want to jump off a cliff unless there was an extra life for me waiting on the other end of the sharp, jagged rocks. This wasn't any video game I've ever played, thats for sure.

...but there were lots of heroes to save us. Somehow, that logic was reason enough. "Let's go explore and see how things turn out," I said. "We can follow Amy's group."

"Oh, I'm sorry." I turned to see Vanilla poke her head in. "They already left."

"...WHAT?" I rushed past her, along with Faith and Jill; the last whom regarded a nod of thanks to the rabbit.

"They left only a few seconds ago!" Vanilla called to us. "You should be able to catch up to them if you hurry!"

Well, I'm not a fan of skipping a lot of information, but to be perfectly honest, you guys should know what really happened. Sonic Heroes in Sonic X style wasn't very different. Me, Faith, Jill, Joy and Catriona found Amy, Cream and Big, and they were indeed looking for Froggy and Chocola Chao (as well as Sonic). So we tagged along with them, going through coasts and nuclear plants and even cities. I never thought I'd find that kind of stuff in Sonic X, since they don't show very much of Sonic's world in the TV show.

Then we encountered Sonic and his group.

"Okay Sonic, there's nowhere to run!" Amy exclaimed, folding her arms. "You're marrying me, and that's that!"

"Amy, I don't have time for this!" Sonic protested as the two chased each other around.

Well, me and Faith would've stopped it if we weren't laughing so hard. Jill just looked at us in bewilderment.

The real issue was sorted out; Sonic, Tails and Knuckles hadn't seen Chocola Chao or Froggy, so they took off on their way. And I say that because we decided to follow Sonic's group instead. I drew up a little flying pod thing that me and Faith could use to keep up with Sonic, just so we wouldn't slow him down by following him. To be honest, Faith drew it and when I brought it to life, she drove it. She's better at drawing vehicles than I am.

So we followed them for awhile, and guess what? We ran into Rouge, Shadow, and Omega! How convenient, right?

In Sonic Heroes, Sonic was eager to see Shadow again and to kick some butt; but in Sonic X, the last time he saw Shadow was the whole Metarex incident, and he used Chaos Control to freeze time on that gravitational pull coming off of Cosmo's home planet. Shadow was supposed to be frozen along with it. Needless to say, the three heroes were pretty shocked to see him.

I, myself, was pretty curious how 4kids was going to fill this plothole.

Unfortunately, Shadow didn't remember anything, which should have been expected because he didn't remember anything in the game (and WON'T remember anything until the Shadow the Hedgehog game). Not only that, but 4kids doesn't really clean up the plot that well; they make sense, but the plot is so cliché'. But a rather exciting brawl ensued, and me and Faith cheered on whoever we felt like cheering on, and totally overlooked the fact that they didn't bother describing what happened to Shadow.

Jill gave us weird looks, as usual.

That's when I noticed a large ship flying in the cloud cover in the distance. Sonic, Shadow, and their groups were so caught up fighting that they didn't notice.

When I looked back at that ship, I grew pretty curious. It was a big battle ship; no doubt Eggman's.

Or Metal's in this case.

So thinking that, it made me think twice about flying over there. It looked like a giant blue sawfish; actually, the more I looked, the more I realized it wasn't just one ship alone. It was a fleet; all hidden inside clouds.

"Hey Jill," I said, turning to her. "Do you wanna stay here with these guys?"

"...why do you ask, JC?" She inquired.

"We need to check something out, and with you and Joy...it might be dangerous," I murmured. Faith gave me a weird look too, probably wondering what I was talking about.

Jill looked thoughtful...I think. I wasn't sure if she was going to buy it or not.

Eventually, Me and Faith were on our way to that ship. Not that I didn't want Jill and Joy to come with us, but who knows what repercussions would come if the two saw Metal all...metal, and evil again. Could scare the living daylights out of Joy, that's for sure. I didn't want to traumatize the two any further than I already did in the story.

How funny huh? The two of us are heading for a gigantic fleet of ships and my only concern was their safety.

"So why are we flying towards the large, intimidating ship, JB?" she asked.

"I'm wondering what's on there, and if Metal Sonic's on that ship," I replied.

"Works for me!" Faith replied with enthusiasm, and I smirked. Good ol' Faith.

Then the enemies started flying for us. "...uh, Faith, this thing has weapons, right?" I asked.

"Yep!" She said with her toothy grin; believe it or not, Faith's canine actually sticks out when she grins. She's always so pleased with it, and I thought it was kinda neat. Just as I had hoped, she stuck up flaps on the steering with her thumbs to reveal hidden buttons, and they activated a laser turret.

Thank goodness Faith had good aim. I was always teased that I needed a shotgun in zombie games because my aiming was bad.

Anyhow, we flew through the swarm with quite a struggle, but eventually we made it inside the ship's hull, landing the aircraft and disembarking. MAN, it was indescribable being in a giant ship like this! The place was huge, and so real!

Well, when I say 'indescribable' I mean words that really make you think of the place-

You know what? Never mind.

I'm sure you're more interested in knowing what happened next, rather than what the landing bay looked like, especially when me and Faith weren't even going to stay in it very long. The two of us ran through a door and into some hallways, hoping to see what we could find on this particular ship.

When we came to one of those doors that were supposed to open automatically, it didn't. It was also the ONLY door we've ever come across, and if it wasn't opening, then we wouldn't get anywhere. We'd have to break it down.

"Alright Faith," I said. "I think you'll need to plug your ears."

Faith looked at me questionably, but she did as she was told.

And I opened my mouth.

Well, the door was knocked off its place, that's for sure…

"WHAGH?" Me and Faith heard a startled yelp, and when we walked inside, we looked around. We entered a control room of sorts; nothing too different from what you'd ordinarily find on Eggman's ships. Speaking of the devil, he was sitting there on the ground, staring at us in surprise as well as Bocoe, Decoe, and Bokkun.

"Hey, it's that girl!" Bokkun pointed out.

"AWWW! YOU'RE SO CUTE!" Faith said with a wail, grabbing Bokkun in a choke-hold of a hug.

"HEY! I'm not supposed to be cute!" Bokkun protested, whining. "…but thank you…now let me go!"

"What're YOU doing here?" Eggman asked with a growl, standing up.

"Exploring," I answered bluntly. "…and just what are you doing here, Doctor? Trapped in your own fortress?" Eggman gave me a glower for rubbing it in his face. "…I bet I can guess what happened," I told him. "I bet you a Chaos Emerald or two that I can tell you what happened."

"That's a hefty bet to make, girl," Eggman said. "I had no idea you were into gambling."

"But I knew that you were," I remarked.

"…who is this egg-shaped man?" Catriona asked, peeking out from my pocket.

Eggman was going to make some sort of big introduction, but in a split second, he stopped. Then a look of slight terror appeared on his face. I had no idea what was going on, but I noticed that he was looking behind me at the door we just came in.

So I turned and looked…then my mouth hung open in shock.

For a split second…I saw him…I saw that sleek blue shine off of his metallix exoskeleton…and those piercingly glowing red eyes… but a steel liquid-like substance whisked up the doors and sealed them to each other before I could make any reaction, leaving us trapped in here.

"…h-hey!" I uttered, running to the doors. I threw my fist on them frantically. "HEY! LET US OUT!"

"There's no point girl; you're stuck in here with me!" Eggman said.

"Was that Metal Sonic?"

"FAITH!" I screamed, shooting a scolding look at her. She whimpered and stood down, looking at me fearfully.

Eggman gave her the same kind of look. "…just how were you aware of Metal Sonic's being?"

"Yeah! Metal Sonic was supposed to be a top secret project, missy!" added an equally as scolding Decoe.

"…guess you're project isn't so top secret now, Doctor," I said with a sarcastic sneer, and Eggman just gave another glare; "Especially when he's thrown you into this cell here, and starting posing as you."

Both Bocoe and Decoe gave me startled looks.

"…how were you able to figure that out?" Bocoe uttered.

I folded my arms.

"Oh…I have my ways…"

…but the bad thing was that now we were stuck with Eggman and his goonies…and no one but Sonic and his friends could come and save us—oh wait, I almost forgot; The Chaotix eventually barge in here to discover where Eggman's been hiding, and that Vector knew all along it was Eggman who hired them.

…okay, so thankfully we weren't entirely trapped. We just had to wait for the Chaotix…

…I hope it wouldn't take long…