Kingdom Hearts III: Essence of the Heart

Chapter 24: On Opposite Sides?

A/N: This takes place during Sonic Adventure 2. It's just after Tails left to pursue the President's limo.

A blue hedgehog stood on the city street, surrounded by police. The officers themselves had not caused the anthropomorphic creature's exasperation. The military force known as G.U.N. had deployed numerous robots to capture him, instead of human officers.

"Sonic the Hedgehog," a G.U.N. agent's voice addressed him through a loud speaker, "You are under arrest. Cease your resistance and surrender." The hedgehog known as Sonic had heard the voice drone on repetitively. Sonic jumped into the air, curled into a ball, and shot himself forward, smashing into a floating drone. He landed, unaffected by the impact, and wiped some sweat from his brow. A cocky grin managed to sneak onto his face.

"Aw, man. I hope the others are alright," Sonic muttered to himself. He prepared to tackle the next robot before him. The hedgehog was surprised when Heartless suddenly materialized. "These things again?" The Heartless' main bodies were a jumble of shapes. The torso was a black sphere, marked with the Heartless emblem. Instead of legs, the bottom of the sphere had a pyramidal shape jutting downward. A smaller sphere, floating above the torso, served as the head, with bright yellow eyes. Its diamond-shaped arms were red and translucent. A G.U.N. robot shot at one of them, barely phasing it. Provoked by the machine, the Jumper Heartless teleported behind the device and cut it in half with one of its laser-bladed arms.

"The target has called in reinforcements. Lethal force has been authorized! Take him out!" The military machines charged in at the Heartless, as well as Sonic.

"Reinforcements? What the heck are you talking about?" Sonic was flabbergasted at the thick-headedness of the military. The black creatures were attacking both the robots and him. As the military's robotic force was annihilated, a glint could be seen in the sky. With no more G.U.N. forces left, the entire Heartless horde turned their attention toward Sonic. Before the hedgehog or his enemies could attack, a mass of light dropped like a comet onto the black mass of creatures. Two disoriented figures emerged.

"Wow. That was trippy," Sora breathed heavily. He looked at the only one of his companions who was still with him. "Where did the others go, Riku?" Sora still had the Star Shard in his hand, but Kairi and Will were nowhere to be found. His silver haired friend did not reply. He simply summoned the Way to Dawn.

"Let's worry about these first," Riku told the brunette. Sora finally took notice the scene in front of him and summoned his own Keyblade. They were surrounded completely by Heartless. Riku's green eyes scanned around. Only the single, unfamiliar Emblem Heartless composed the large pack of dark beings. Other than them, only a blue, green-eyed, sneaker-wearing hedgehog was present. He appeared winded, breathing heavily as he evaded attack.

"It looks like you could use some help!" Sora called out to Sonic. The hedgehog hopped away from a Jumper's bladed attack before turning his full attention to the mysterious boy. It was the first time he had seen a human with hair as pointy as his own. Pushing that thought away, he called back to the Keyblade wielder.

"I'm not gonna deny that," Sonic confirmed with a grin. Deciding to act first and find out what was happening later, the Blue Blur dashed into the fray, knocking down a Jumper. Impressed by the hedgehog's speed, Sora rushed in and swung the Kingdom Key at one, but the Heartless vanished. It instantly reappeared behind the teen's head and prepared to cut into him. The brunette managed to duck, just in time to save not only his head, but even his beloved hair style. Riku tried to strike the slippery creatures as well, but only managed to nick one with his blade. They continued to strike out at the Heartless, but they would only land a small fraction of their attacks. Frustrated, Riku fired off several Dark Firaga attacks. The flames had more success in hitting the enemies. With a satisfied smirked Riku alerted Sora.

"Sora, try using magic to hit them instead," Riku called out to his best friend. He released a Thundaga spell from the tip of his Way to Dawn, managing to take out a few of the Heartless. Sora followed Riku's advice and destroyed more Jumpers with Aeroga. The forceful wind gave the two Keyblade wielders, as well as Sonic, an opening to attack.

"You guys have some flashy moves," Sonic complimented the boys, kicking off of a Jumper's head. He then began to pick up speed and circle several of the Heartless. "Check this out!" A blue tornado was formed by merely the speed of the small hedgehog and ripped up its dark victims, "Sonic Wind!" Those that weren't destroyed were left dizzily stunned. Taking their opportunity, the two Keyblade wielders mopped up the stunned enemies with a few slashes of their oddly-shaped swords. "That was sweet!" Sonic approached the two strangers. The teenagers' weapons dispersed into light (and a hint of darkness, in Riku's case). "You guys are pretty tough. Who are you, anyway?"

"I'm Sora." Sora was quick to befriend the hedgehog, as usual. "This is Riku." He gestured to Riku.

"Hey," Riku said in a dull manner.

"It's nice to meet ya," Sonic grinned. "I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog."

A black and red hedgehog stood quietly among the mountain terrain. In his gloved hand was a walkie-talkie. He was seemingly waiting for contact. Following a crackle of static, a feminine voice sounded from the device.

"Shadow. Come in, Shadow." Shadow the Hedgehog held the talkie closer to his mouth.

"What is it Rouge?" he said in a gruff manner.

"The fox-boy seems to have already reached the president (1). He's taking to the air. I can't keep up." Rouge the Bat explained. Shadow gripped the communicator tightly.

"And he still has the Chaos Emerald?" Rouge's silence confirmed his question. "What about that Blue Hedgehog? Was he with him?"

"No, he still seems to be alone," The bat answered. "The doc's little Heartless friends must be keeping him busy." As his ally said this remark, a blue plane flew overhead. A splotch of orange could be roughly seen in the cockpit.

"Fine, then," Shadow sighed in frustration, "He's in my sights. I will retrieve the Chaos Emerald." The hedgehog prepared to take off running, but another sky-high sight caught his attention. A glowing mass of white light was ricocheting around, descending toward the ground at a quick pace. Shadow backed up as the bright anomaly made impact on the rocky mountain ground.

"Did we make it?" a girl's voice rang out from the fading light. Two people emerged: Kairi and Will.

"It would seem so," Will deadpanned. "However, we're two people short." Worry crept into the pit of his redhead ally's stomach.

"Did they land somewhere else?" Kairi took a quick look at their surroundings. Taking notice of Shadow, she approached. "Hey, have you seen two boys around here, one with spikey hair and a taller one with silver hair?" The hedgehog ignored her and moved to go around her. "Hey, wait!" the redhead called to him as he began picking up speed with his hover skates. Uninterested, Shadow continued to skate on, only to be grabbed by the arm. With a grunt, he snapped his head back at the offender, Will. Surprised by the blade-bearing young man, Shadow decided to give him a bit of acknowledgement.

"She asked you a question." Will's hand remained clasped onto the black hedgehog's limb.

"I haven't seen anyone," Shadow growled. "Now release me. I must retrieve the Chaos Emerald."

"Whatever this emerald is, it can wait," Will said to the frustrated hedgehog.

"No, it cannot. I can't let that plane get away with such a powerful item." Shadow's statement piqued the two humans' interest.

"Powerful? Do you mean dangerously powerful?" Kairi asked in an oddly giddy manner. Shadow nodded. "Good. Danger causes trouble."

"What's so great about that?" her ally inquired. Even Shadow couldn't help but be intrigued.

"Well, Sora manages to always find trouble," the female Keyblade bearer answered. "If we follow this guy, I'm sure we'll find Sora and Riku." She clapped her hands together and nodded with certainty. The strange logic was sadly true. She grabbed Shadow's hand and looked down at him. "If we help you get that emerald, will you help us find our friends?" Shadow was about to deny her, but the image of a blonde girl flashed through his blurred memory.

"Fine, but stay out of my way." The Ultimate Life Form grunted. His thoughts lingered to a single name. 'Maria…'

Sora and Riku were now fully informed by Sonic of the current situation. Apparently, the Blue Blur's long-time nemesis, Dr. Eggman, had come to control the Heartless. He was also in cahoots with a look-alike of Sonic. The antagonists were after the seven jewels called Chaos Emeralds.

"Alone, the emeralds are pretty powerful, but if Eggman gets all seven together, the whole world will be in danger," Sonic described the gems power. He then looked over at the scrap metal that was once a force of G.U.N. robots. "To make things worse, the military thinks that I've been stirring up all the trouble that fake hedgehog has done. They even think I'm the one working with those Heartless things." The supersonic hedgehog kicked away a pebble that lay on the earth before. The two island boys could only think of a certain evil fairy pulling the strings in this mess.

"This has Maleficent's name written all over it," Riku concluded. Sora nodded in agreement. "We'll help you out, then. We've got to find our friends who came with us. I have a feeling that they'll be looking for Eggman too, since he's in charge of the Heartless."

"Thanks. This way we can kill two birds with one stone. We'll beat Eggman and find your friends. I promise." The blue hedgehog grinned and gave the boys a thumbs-up. The Keyblade wielders smiled back at him.

"So, Sonic, do you know where that doctor guy is?" Sora asked the spiky hero. Sonic shook his head. This was not a good start

Journal Entries

World Introduced: Speed Zone

Characters Introduced: Sonic the Hedgehog; Shadow the Hedgehog; Maria Robotnik; G.U.N.

Heartless Introduced: Emblem: Jumper (NEW)

Abilities: Sonic the Hedgehog's Sonic Wind

Author's Notes

(1) This is where the story diverges slightly from the original game, due to interference from the Heartless & such