They had brought the mystery hedgehog back to the workshop and had set him on a couch. Two days had passed since they found him and still hadn’t woken up. Tails was in his lab studying the chaos emeralds and (as John named it) the energy lancers as well. John was in the workshop, making something of his own idea. The mystery guest stirred for a bit, then he woke up. He looked around to see where he was. Then he got up from the couch and walked down the hall. He stopped at a door that had loud noises coming from it. He opened the door and saw John welding some pieces of metal. He walked to John and tapped his shoulder.

“Wha-!” John jumped and turned around. “Oh, your awake. You okay, Feeling alright?” The stranger finally spoke.

“Yeah, I’m ok. Weird place.” John tilted his head a little. “Your voice, it sounds very familiar. I know that voice from somewhere.” John closed his eyes and put his hand on his head as he tried to place a name to the voice.

“Now that you mention it, your voice does sound kinda familiar as well.” The hedgehog said. John looked up and put his hand down.

“Shelby? Is that really you Shelby?” He was shocked at how John knew his name.
“Yeah it is, how did you…John? Is that really you?” John nodded.

“Yup, the one and only.” Shelby looked a little relaxed.

“You do know you look like a fox, right?” John gave a small laugh.

“So I take it you haven’t seen yourself lately. Boy, you’re in for a surprise.” John held up a sheet of metal. Shelby looked at his reflection .

“I look like…Sonic? And you…you look like Tails!” He shook his head and looked again. “How? How is this possible?” John put down the metal sheet.

“I don’t know, but you might wanna get used to it.” Shelby sighed.

“Thanks. Say, have you met Tails yet?”

“Uh-huh, and we are in his workshop. Wanna meet him? I was just about to check on him. He’s studying the chaos emeralds we had.” Shelby shrugged his shoulders.

“Sure, why not?” The two of them walked down to the lab.

“Knock knock, anybody home?” Tails was standing in front of a computer.

“Hey John, you know those markings on the Lancers? Well, they say ‘The power of Chaos is your sword.’”

“That’s interesting, our guest is awake, apparently he’s also from where I’m from. Tails, meet Shelby.” He walked into the room when his named was said.

“Hey, nice to meet you.” Shelby held out his hand.

“Same here.” Tails shook it.

“Mind if I have these back?” John pointed at the chaos emeralds and the lancers.

“Sure, I collected all the data I need. John picked up both the emeralds and the lancers and the red one to Shelby.

“Uh…thanks?”

“I’ll show you how to use them later. But I want to show you guys something.” They walked down to the workshop and John pulled out his project from the tub.

“What is that?” Tails asked. It looked like a bracelet and an ovular disk with a hexagonal hole in it. John put the green chaos emerald in the hole and put four latches over it to secure it. Then he put it on his arm and closed it.

“Pretty neat isn’t it?” Tails nodded, but Shelby looked a little confused.

“What is it?” John held up his arm in front of him and a green circular field of energy enamenated from the emerald. “

Oh, I get it, you made it so you can use that shield!” Tails exclaimed. Just then, Sonic skidded into view.

“Hey guys! There’s a-“ Sonic looked at Shelby and vice versa. John broke the silence.

“We can do introductions later. What’s so important?” Sonic got his mind back to what he was going to say.

“I was running around when I thought I saw Knuckles. Apparently, he’s wearing hat jacket with orange lines. He was surrounded by a bunch of Eggman’s robots. I think he said his name was Brandon or something.” Shelby and John became very alert.

“Where is he?” John asked.

“This way, I’ll show you.” The two of them followed Sonic. But Tails stayed behind.

“Don’t worry about me, I’ll catch up in the Tornado II.” Tails said. Sonic nodded.

“Just don’t be late.” The group headed out the door. Sonic started running and Shelby and John tried to keep up. Well, John tried to keep up. Shelby was running faster than he ever had.

“Woah, how do I control myself?!” He had trouble trying to balance himself. The two of them made it to the spot. John used chaos control and appeared behind them.

“Well, we made it. And there’s Brandon.” John said.

“Yeah, and he’s doing a poor job of fighting.” Said another voice.

“Well wll Knuckles, thought I’d see you sooner or later.” Sonic said. Knuckles came into view, stepping out from some rocks.

“So you and Tails a double as well, should we help him?” John held out his Lancer and activated it.

“Well, I’m going in.” He ran down to help Brandon. Shelby took out his Lancer and held like he saw John held it. A red beam of energy came out of it.

“Well, it is Brandon.” He followed John. Sonic looked at Knuckles and shrugged.

“Just let them go Sonic. Obviously, this is something they need to do on their own.” Knuckles said. John and Shelby had reached the group of robots.

“Surrender your Chaos Emerald, you are surrounded.” Said one of the robots.

“Surrender this!” John yelled as he sliced one of the robots. All of them turned to look at John.

“John, is that you? Are you really here as well?” asked an unseen Brandon.

“Yeah I’m here alright.” All of the robots raised their arms and pointed them at John. At the end of the arms were holes.

“Not good!” John said. He crouched and activated his shield in the nick of time. The robots fired and the sheild deflected the shots.

“A little help?” John said the roar of the barrage. Shelby was struck with fear. He didn’t know what to do. Then he had an idea. He went to the side group. Shelby held out the blade to his left. Then he ran as fast he could, the blade sliced through with multile enemies in half. But not all of them.

“Hit them again!” But then the robots started shooting at Shelby. He ran behind some rocks. It seemed hopeless, until John noticed the some of the robots were falling down. Two robots fell down and Brandon, who looked like Knuckles, came into view. He was holding an orange Energy Lancer.

“You all right John?” Brandon yelled as he sliced down some more robots. John deactivated his shield and jumped at a robot, thrusting his saber into the chest of it. Shelby got into action and sliced down multiple robots again. Brandon puched a robot and it flew back into a group of other robots.

“Strike!” John yelled as he watched the robots fall to pieces.

“John, enough with the jokes.” Brandon groaned. Shelby joined the group.

“Hey Brandon, how’s it going?” Brandon was surprised.

“Shelby, you too?”

“Yeah, me to.” John looked around to see of there were any more robots.

“Looks like we got them all.” Sonic and Knuckleswalked down to them.

“So, Shelby was it? You did alright.” Sonic said.

“These two called you Brandon, right?” Asked Knuckles.

“Yeah, and?” Replied Brandon.

“You could use some training. Your fighting skill were ok, but you need to know how to use your strength you have.”

“If you want, we could help you. I noticed that you were having trouble getting used to your newfound speed. I guess I could teach you how to control that and other things.” Sonic said.

“And I could teach you how to better use your strength. Know what your limits are and improve your technique.” Knuckles said. Shelby and Brandon both nodded when the sound of an airplane arose.

“Sounds like my ride’s here, well, good luck.” John said.

“What are you going to do?” Asked Brandon.

“Probably build my own plane. I have some more ideas of my own.” The plane was in sight and was lowering to the ground. The three of them split up and went their separate ways.

“HEY TAILS!!” Shouted Sonic. “YOUR LATE!!” He gave a small laugh and walked away to Shelby.