COPYRIGHT NOTICE:
As always, I do not own either Sonic X, any characters within the Sonic series, RWBY, DBZ, or Madoka Magica. You should know this already, though.

NOTE:
First of all, this fanfic starts roughly around episode 2 of Sonic X, and is supposed to act as a sort of sequel to Series 1, depending on when you want this to be set in the Dragon Ball Z storyline. If you've read Series 1 – A World Always in Distress, then you should know that Silver and Blaze are present on Earth as well, along with the RWBY ladies that feature in Series 1, a few of the Madoka Magica girls, and as always, the cast of DBZ.

SECOND NOTE:
This is also being published BEFORE Series 1 because I feel like I spent more time producing this first chapter than I did on what I planned would be the beginning of the DBZ/RWBY/Sonic & co./Madoka Magica crossover series. I apologise for those of you who care about things being in chronological order as much as I do.

"Great. It's not even been a full day since we got here and they've already ran off elsewhere."

Vegeta scowled, much like the blue-eyed heiress walking beside him. This was the first time he ever took Bulma's advice to go abroad and discover what the rest of Earth was like. It was just his luck that Ruby and Kakarot had plenty of suggestions in mind of places to go, and were all too happy to invite plenty of others. Not that Vegeta minded having to spend this time with the heiress, since she was one of few people that Vegeta could stand, but he would have rather spent these months training to become stronger than Kakarot, not play nice with the locals of Earth.

He could list everyone that had came with him on this trip: Kakarot, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Pyrrha, Weiss' sister Winter, Blake's mother, Silver, Blaze, Trunks (the one from the future), and Homura. Everyone else had decided to stay behind, just in case another threat to Earth came along. Still, the others staying behind were allowed to visit whenever they wanted, and vice versa.

Currently, Blake's mother Kali, Blake, Silver, Homura, and Trunks were settling into a fancy mansion near the city that Bulma's parents had managed to rent out a couple years ago. Blaze had wanted to accompany Yang while Silver had decided stay with Homura, Blake, and Trunks. They had all planned to meet up at the mansion after exploring the town, but after Kakarot and Ruby's hasty escape from the sights of both Vegeta and Weiss, they were beginning to think the idea was a bad one.

Hopefully, those two morons didn't get lost during their speedy sightseeing.

"They probably wanted to escape from you both, knowing how... strict you two can be." Pyrrha told them through the small Scroll in Weiss' hand. Weiss was in a conference call with Winter, Pyrrha, and Yang, and, either thankfully or unfortunately, the call was on speaker.

"And here I thought they were just more eager than any of us to explore the city!" Yang sarcastically remarked, loud enough for passers-by to start staring in the direction of Vegeta and Weiss.

"Yang, would you keep your voice down? Remember, you're on speaker. People are staring." Weiss scolded Yang through the phone, her voice a bit hushed.

"Not as much staring as they're doing here." Winter commented. "People are looking at me as if they've never seen foreign military personnel before."

"That's probably because you're not from this world's military. They probably assumed from the uniform that you're not from any military they know." Pyrrha ascertained, reminding the older Schnee.

"Hence why I said foreign." Winter responded, surprisingly casual and, dare Vegeta say it, nice.

"At least you don't have it as bad as Yang and I do. Apparently people have paused their routines to gawk at us." Blaze pointed out.

"Actually, I think they're gawking more at you than at me." Yang replied.

"I suppose it should be expected. It'd be the same with Silver if he went out in public." Weiss planted a hand on her hip.

"Speaking of Silver, there's apparently another hedgehog around here besides him. As far as I've heard, there's a blue hedgehog that can run as fast as Ruby." Pyrrha piped up again. Vegeta tried not to snicker when he saw the look on Weiss' face. "It's on the news. Some of the broadcasters are talking about how a blue hedgehog suddenly showed up in the city last night and outran something called the Speed Force. From what witnesses are saying, he was able to move faster than the speed of sound. A sonic boom, if you will."

"Does anyone know where that hedgehog is now?" Yang asked. She didn't sound as alarmed as Weiss seemed to be about the blue hedgehog's speed in question. "We might be able to find a friend for Silver. And Blaze too."

"I'm more concerned about his speed." Weiss chimed in as she used her free hand to point to a park area. Vegeta nodded and followed Weiss through the park. "I'm not gonna lie, it makes me uncomfortable when I think of anyone being faster than Ruby."

"What about Goku?" Yang asked next.

"Or Goku, if I thought it was possible to be faster than him." Weiss added. She pointed over to an empty bench, shared a look with Vegeta, and took a seat. Vegeta followed closely behind, sitting next to Weiss, not that she was bothered by it.

"I don't know. Don't you think we should warn Ruby about—huh?" Pyrrha sounded confused, even through the Scroll. A second later, Vegeta and Weiss heard a gasp from Pyrrha's end of the line. "I... don't think this is good."

Vegeta arched a brow. "What's wrong?" he asked – well, more like demanded – Pyrrha's side of the call.

"It's breaking news. You should see it. Reporters are now saying that another speedster has been found dashing across the city. The video is of Ruby, I'm sure of it."

"WHAT?!"

~ Sonic the Hedgehog ~

"The supersonic speed demon, seen here on police helicopter video, has the city baffled."

"It was about this high, it was blue, and it looked like a freak."

"I was doin' about 60 on the highway, when this thing went 'whoooo!' right by me."

"That thing moved too fast to be a regular animal!"

"As to the question of whether or not this is a UMA – Unidentified Mutant Animal – it is positively not. Even the cheetah, which is widely believed to be the fastest member of the animal kingdom, cannot outrun a speeding Formula 1 police car. Because of this, the inescapable conclusion one must inevitably come to is that this so-called hedgehog is, in reality, a machine."

"Speaking of breaking known speed limits, another supersonic speed demon has been seen this morning flying over rooftops with another unknown individual. While this unknown individual has disappeared since, the speedster on the other hand was filmed live from police helicopter video. However, this speed demon is not a hedgehog, like the one seen last night, but in fact a human girl. From witness accounts, we can identify this girl as having a distinct red cloak or cape and is somehow able to leave behind a trail of rose petals. Though, much like the blue hedgehog seen last night, no one knows anything about the girl other than what they have seen of her."

"Sounds interesting. Nice to know that there's other speedsters out there." Sonic offhandedly commented after swallowing the last bite of food he'd eaten. To be honest, he was currently considering going to find the girl. Maybe have a race, or just a simple conversation. Hopefully she'd be better company than anyone else Sonic had met since he got here. And hey, she was the only human he'd met who had something in common with him.

"If she's that fast, then I don't see why we're only just discovering her now." Chris piped up beside him. "I mean, if there was a human on Earth who could travel as fast as you can, I'm sure she would have made the record books."

"I guess she's new around here, too, then." Sonic mused, but didn't smile at his inside joke. He didn't usually outright laugh at his own jokes anyway, but the thought of that girl also being new to the area ended up reminding him of his need to find his friends.

A moment later and the door opened, revealing a rather short, old man with grey hair and a receding hairline, whose most distinctive feature was his lab coat. Behind him stood two girls, both with long, jet-black hair.

One of the girls had violet eyes, which matched the cardigan she wore. On her head was a red ribbon, tied into a bow at the side. Her clothing consisted of the aforementioned lavender-coloured long-sleeved cardigan that draped down to her knees and almost covered the backs of her hands, a white dress that also reached her knees and exposed her collarbone, a pair of black tights, violet flats, and a silver ring decorating one of her hands.

The other ravenette was taller, and seemed older by a few years. Though he could've easily mistaken her for being the older sister of the girl beside her, it was her general appearance that turned him away from the assumption. Her eyes were yellow, almost golden, and could've almost been described as cat-like, and Sonic swore he could see what he thought was faint lavender eyeshadow decorating the corners of her eyes. Her black hair, while almost as long as the hair of the girl beside her, was also wavy, and had a few curls towards the end of it. On top of her head was a black bow. Her choice of clothing included a white turtleneck jumper, a thin black coat that reached her knees, black skinny jeans, and a pair of tall, high-heeled black boots that reached just below the knee. On her back was a fairly big backpack, which looked like it had something big stuffed inside it.

"There you are!"

The old man approached the side of the couch, a bright smile plastered on his face. Unlike the old man, the girls seemed to immediately notice Sonic's presence in the room, and, in perfect unison, cocked their heads to the right, both of their expressions portraying confusion. However, if there was one thing Sonic recognised in their eyes, it was the recognition within them.

Sonic arched a brow, also confused. He'd never seen either of them before in his life, and he was sure he didn't recognise them from anywhere. Of course, there was the possibility that he reminded them of someone they both knew, and upon realising this, his expression softened and he looked back up at the old man.

"Guess what? A big blue hedgehog came out of nowhere and outran the S-Team yesterday!" the old man said, before looking down to see Sonic when Chris didn't respond right away. Sonic could hear Chris struggle to form words when the old man glanced back at the TV, wide-eyed. Then, rather suddenly, he pressed his face to Sonic's, staring at the hedgehog intently.

Chris gasped and picked up a cushion off the couch. Without any given warning, Chris pushed the cushion onto Sonic's face, much to the hedgehog's dismay and irritation.

"Hey! Cut that out! I can't breathe!" Sonic objected, shouting and squirming under the cushion. Eventually, he managed to throw the cushion off of him and sat with his arms crossed, frowning.

The old man peered down at Sonic, as if studying him.

"Blue... just like that..."

In his peripheral view, Sonic could see the old man give a gleeful, open-mouthed smile. All of a sudden, the old man grabbed sonic, locking his arms around the hedgehog.

"IT'S HIM!"

Sonic attempted to push the old man off of him, or at least move his head away. Chris leaned back, obviously trying to stay out of the way.

"Easy, Grandpa!" Chris told the old man whilst looking on with concern.

In a sudden turn of events, Chris' grandpa had managed to lift Sonic off of the couch and pulled out a...

...was that a screwdriver?!

"Grandpa, what are you doing?!" Chris objected. Sonic squirmed and struggled, hoping to slip out of the man's grasp.

"I have to see how this thing is put together!" The mad man turned Sonic over and prodded his back with the screwdriver. As a reflexive, Sonic automatically leapt from the old man's hand, and over the other side of the couch. He landed with sure footing in front of the TV, much to the apparent surprise of the two ravenettes still standing a few feet behind the old man. Chris' grandpa's brief expression of shock soon turned to annoyance. "Stand still!"

"Grandpa, wait." Chris called out to his grandpa. "He's not a machine. He's Sonic the Hedgehog."

Chris' grandpa stood up, his face painted with a mix of awe and shock, and he lost his grip on the screwdriver. As the screwdriver rolled on the floor, an awkward silence ensued between the three of them. Then, the yellow-eyed ravenette approached the table.

"Um... I don't mean to intrude, but you should really look at the TV." she told the three of them, pointing to the TV with her index finger as the shorter girl approached behind her. The violet-eyed ravenette already had her eyes on the screen.

"Now let's go live to this late breaking story."

Familiar whimpers and cries came through the speakers, and a soft, sweet voice said: "Please!"

Sonic blinked, shocked. Was that...?

He immediately turned towards the screen.

On the screen was Cream and her pet Chao, named Cheese. They had somehow ended up on an advertisement sign, hugging each other and holding one another close as they both trembled, scared.

"Please...! Leave us alone!"

"It's Cream and Cheese!" Sonic couldn't help but blurt out.

"It's who?" Chris asked.

"I'm not the only one who got transported into this weird world after all. I'll save those two!"

Sonic immediately dashed out of the living room and out the front door, leaving everyone else in the dust. Just as he sped directly through a hedge, the voice of the taller black-haired girl from earlier managed to reach him.

"Do you know where they are?!"

Realising his mistake, Sonic skidded to a grinding halt before sprinting back through the newly made hole in the hedge. He managed to pull an instant stop once reaching the yellow-eyed female. As soon as he stopped, he raised his hands and shrugged his shoulders, giving her a nervous smile.

The girl, in response, released a deep sigh.

~ Blake Belladonna ~

With some introductions out of the way, and after having given an explanation as to why she and Homura were at the Thorndyke residence, Blake finally managed to make sense of the situation. At least, she managed to relay it to Silver in a way that made sense. Speaking of the hedgehog, Silver himself had been making himself cosy in the backpack she'd been carrying.

Leaning her back against a few boxes, Blake listened to Chuck – the grandfather of the boy who had saved the blue hedgehog last night – whilst he was calling someone who knew about Cream and Cheese, Sonic's friends. If she'd learnt anything, the blue hedgehog's name was Sonic, and the boy's name was Chris.

"I thought they'd probably do something along those lines. Thanks very much for giving me the scoop and I'll talk to you soon!" Chuck put the phone down. "Well, it seems Sonic's friends have been captured by the police and taken to Area 99."

"Area 99?" Chris repeated, his brows furrowed. "That's that top secret military base."

"What?" Blake and Sonic asked at the same time.

Chris turned to Sonic. "It's where the National Defence Force keeps all their tanks, fighter jets, and high-tech spy equipment."

"That sounds like Eggman's kinda place." Sonic remarked, causing the corner of Blake's mouth to hesitantly curve upwards. She had to admit, whether that was a nickname or his real name, calling someone by 'Eggman' threatened to make her chuckle. Thankfully, she managed to control herself before any sign of humour was shown.

"Your friends have been taken there by the Army and placed under 24-hour guard. The authorities believe they could be aliens, or perhaps members of a mutant species developed by an enemy power designed to attack our population." Chuck explained, his eyes meeting Sonic's. "I wonder if they might not be right, Sonic, eh?"

Sonic shrugged. "Think what you want. I'm gone. Now that I know where my friends are, I'm outta here."

As soon as Sonic began walking away, Blake noticed Silver trying as hard as he could to subtly poke his head out of the gap in the backpack zipper. Much to Blake's horror, Silver somehow stealthily managed to climb out of the backpack and grab a control from the countertop.

"But if you show up at Area 99, they'll lock you up too!" Chris attempted to warn Sonic.

Sonic stopped and turned back to Chris. "They can't lock me up!" he said and spun in place. Automatically after he did so, the garage shutter closed on him, keeping him inside. Sonic was clearly surprised at first, but then he got visibly irritated and pivoted back around to face them. "Open that door!" he demanded.

"Don't look at me, I didn't do it!" Chris waved his hands in front of him.

Silver leapt out of the shadows, holding the remote. Homura was – at the very least – surprised to see Silver, while Blake was slowly regretting bringing the hedgehog along with them.

"Sorry, but that was me!" Silver pointed to himself rather proudly, braving his cheeriest smile.

"Huh?" Sonic arched a brow, his jaw agape as he took in the hedgehog's appearance. "And who are you?"

"Oh, that's right, Blake hasn't introduced me yet." Silver glanced toward Blake, before returning his gaze to Sonic. "Anyway, my name's Silver the Hedgehog. And you're going to need some help, Sonic. I'll go with you!"

"Funny. That was just what I was about to say." Chuck admitted with a grin.

"Grandpa, are you serious?" Chris stared at his grandfather in disbelief.

"Of course I'm serious." Chuck looked back down at Chris. "And you're coming along, too! You told me you don't want to lead a boring life like your father, so here's your chance for some excitement!"

"Well, if you're up for it, I'm up for it!"

"Well, this was unexpected." Blake chimed in, much to Sonic's apparent bewilderment. Silver almost jumped out of his skin – or fur, to be exact. With a huff, Blake stood up, took off the black coat she was wearing and tossed it at Homura, who caught it flawlessly with one hand. "Homura, do me a favour and find Ruby and Goku, would you? If and when you do, can you bring them back to the place we're staying at?"

Homura nodded. "Okay. I assume you're going to go with Silver?"

Blake merely nodded in return after picking up the backpack and closing the zip. Blake slipped the backpack over her shoulders and onto her back. "Oh, and one more thing, Homura."

"What is it?"

"Make sure that neither my mother, Blaze, nor Weiss hears of this. Silver and I won't hear the end of it otherwise." Blake told her with a knowing look.

Homura nodded again. "Sure."

"Then let's get going!"

So apparently it took a while to travel from a city to a top secret military base out in the middle of nowhere. Who knew? Blake certainly didn't.

If there was anything worse than the lack of speed the car possessed, it was the weather. She could feel her skin beginning to get a bit too warm, and the feeling was more than uncomfortable. Yet somehow, Silver wasn't sweating, and neither was anyone else, Sonic included. Maybe deserts weren't a terrain suited for cats or cat-like Faunus.

Are we really going as fast as this thing can go? Blake wondered.

"It's gonna take forever to get there. I'd rather just go by myself." Sonic pouted, his arms folded across his chest.

"Chill out." Chuck told him, still smiling for some reason.

"Is it time?" Chris asked his grandfather. He was holding something similar to... what were those things called again? Saiyan scouters?

"It's time."

Chris turned around in his seat and handed the scouter knockoff to Sonic. After Sonic took it in his hands, Chris pointed at his head. "Put it on!"

"What's this?" Sonic asked.

"An infrared scope." Chuck told him. "I'm certain that Area 99 if full of infrared motion detectors that set off security alarms. If you wear that, you may be able to avoid them."

"Is it just me, or does that look like a Saiyan scouter?" Blake leaned over towards Silver, some of her hair falling on his quills. Both Silver and Blake watched as Sonic put on the 'infrared scope' and gave Chris and Chuck a double thumbs-up.

"It's not just you. I thought it was a knockoff." Silver whispered back, looking up at Blake and nodding his head.

"Same here." Blake pulled her head away from Silver's and straightened back up in her seat. Her cat ears - still hidden under her bow - twitched when she heard the sound of something click.

Before Blake was able to register the fact that Sonic's seatbelt had fallen against her side, Sonic immediately leapt out of the car and began running on the road. Blake's jaw almost hit the floor of the car when she saw that he was able to keep pace with the speed of the car itself.

"See you later, guys!"

Not even a second later and Sonic had sprinted away, towards Area 99. He was so fast that he left a trail in the form of dust and smoke.

"He certainly is a speedy little critter, isn't he?" Chuck rhetorically questioned, leaning forward with widened eyes.

"Sonic! Wait a minute!" Silver shouted, before he unbuckled his own seatbelt. With the power of his psychokinesis, Silver flew up from his seat and boosted after Sonic, a transparent cyan glow enveloping him entirely.

Blake didn't even have a moment to object to Silver's sudden abandoning of her. Leaning back in her seat, a restless sigh escaped her lips. Much to her surprise, though, Chuck raised his fist to the sky.

"YEAH!"

Blake's eyes widened as the car sped up, trapping Blake and Chris to the backs of their seats. The wind blew Blake's hair in several different directions, and the Faunus was sure her hair would look similar to Goku's or Vegeta's if they didn't slow down soon. She was definitely regretting ever silently complaining about the speed of the car.

But what surprised Blake more than the sudden speed boost was the faint sound of someone calling her name. The voice got louder until Blake managed to recognise who exactly it belonged to.

"Blake! BLAAAKE!"

"RUBY?!"

As soon as Blake whipped her head around, she saw a familiar red blur pass by the car before stopping. The figure of Ruby escaped the bullet-like blur and she began a sprint, still apparently with her Speed Semblance activated. The car managed to catch up to her, and Chris couldn't help but stare at Ruby as she showcased her speed. As her trail of rose petals was lost to the wind, Blake unclipped her seatbelt and scooted a seat over, attempting to get a better look at Ruby.

Out of curiosity, Blake's eyes wandered to see what kind of clothes Ruby was wearing, since she didn't manage to see the girl wearing her signature red cape. The red blur and rose petals had come from a thin crimson hooded jacket she wore, left open and with the sleeves hurriedly shoved up to just below the elbows. The bottom of the jacket reached the first quarter of her thighs, and it had a very obviously specially designed emblem on it. The emblem was Ruby's 'Scatter' emblem, which looked sort of like a rose. The colour of the emblem was jet black. Ruby also wore a black dress which just barely reached her knees and had red trimmings around the edge of the skirt, almost like the usual "combat skirt" she wore. Covering her legs were a pair of black tights, and on her feet were a pair of crimson flats. A grey belt hung around Ruby's waist, carrying a silver version of her 'Scatter' emblem in the middle of the front of it, the compact form of her Crescent Rose on the back of it, and a red leather pouch on either side of her silver emblem.

"You...You're that girl that Sonic and I saw on the TV this morning! The speedster that leaves a trail of rose petals!" Chris blurted aloud as Ruby inched closer to the car.

"I was on the TV?" Ruby arched a brow. Shaking her head and muttering something about needing to watch the news more often, Ruby then turned to Blake. "Homura told me you and Silver were headed to a place called Area 99 to rescue someone." she explained with a shrug. "Where is Silver and the third person you were with and why are you heading to a top secret military base?"

"The third person is another hedgehog, like Silver. His name is Sonic. Sonic ran off ahead and Silver followed him. As to the why, apparently two of Sonic's friends are being kept here. They've been captured by the military, who are trying to do some testing on them. As far as I know, one of them is a rabbit." Blake informed the team leader, watching as she absorbed the knowledge with occasional nods of her head.

"I assume you're planning to help them out too, right, Blake?" Ruby gave the Faunus a quick smirk.

Blake rolled her eyes and smiled back. "Obviously."

"Then hop on!"

~ Sonic the Hedgehog ~

"Sonic, can you hear me?" Chris' voice came through the infrared scope.

"Yeah!" Sonic responded with a smile and sprinted even faster. Silver called out his name again, complaining of his speed and telling him to slow down.

"Remember, when you get to the main building, go in through an air vent. That should be a blind spot for security. Got it?"

"Got it!"

"But Grandpa, after he gets inside, how will he find where his friends are?" he heard Chris ask.

"Give me that!" Chuck said with obvious eagerness. "Listen to me, Sonic. Once you get inside, you won't have much time, so think quickly and act quickly."

"Thanks for the tip! I'm going in!"

Just as Silver managed to catch up to him, Sonic again sped ahead. This time, Silver was prepared to keep up his pace in the air, and arrived back at Sonic's side in no time. Silver easily flew over the gate with a NO TRESPASSING sign on it, while Sonic bounced over it and over to the other side. Much to his surprise, though, Silver dropped from the air and landed steadily beside Sonic.

There were surveillance cameras almost everywhere.

Knowing Silver wasn't necessarily fast enough to get past all of the cameras without being noticed, Sonic picked Silver up and ran with the other hedgehog in his arms. He dashed forward until he was not only out of sight of the surveillance cameras, but also until a vent was in his sight. He released Silver from his arms yet still kept his hand around the other's wrist. And pulling Silver with him, Sonic dived into the open vent.

"I'm inside the air vent." Sonic informed Chris and Chuck.

"Be careful!" Chris told him in response.

As soon as Sonic reached a level part of the vents, he felt a faint burning sensation on his behind. Silver bumping into the back of him didn't help.

Sonic planted the palm of one hand on the metal beneath him whilst he attempted to rub the pain away with his other hand. "It feels like I have skid marks on my butt."

"I think I may have got a burn on my back from that." Silver complained, patting his back.

The sound of something heavy sliding down the vents behind them caused his and Silver's ears to perk up. Both hedgehogs turned their heads. Not even five seconds later, a feminine, rather high-pitched groan was heard and a girl with a distinctive red jacket slid down behind them, closely followed by Blake.

"What the—"

"Ruby? What are you doing here?" Silver asked the new girl, who was apparently named 'Ruby'.

"Ow..." Ruby's face scrunched up and she rubbed her back. Blake tapped Ruby's back with her boot, prompting Ruby to stop and blink, before she began to register Silver's question. "Oh! Goku managed to sense you and Blake on your way here, so I came over as fast as I could to help after Homura explained the situation. Anyway, doesn't it feel a bit crowded in here?"

"It's the best way we've got if we want to go in undetected." Silver shrugged his shoulders. "I'll guess we'll just have to settle with it for now."

"Okay." Ruby nodded her head.

Averting his eyes, Sonic turned around and began to crawl forward. Unfortunately, though, he was stopped in his tracks when he saw that even the vents were guarded with red lasers.

"How's it look in there, Sonic?" Chris asked.

"Just great." Sonic replied, silently hoping that Chris would catch on to the sarcasm.

"Is that a scouter he's talking through?" Sonic heard Ruby whisper.

"No, it's apparently an infrared scope. It does look like a scouter though." Blake responded just as softly.

"Oh."

Sonic lowered his head carefully in order to peak out of the air ducts. From there, he could see a door and a surveillance camera attached to the wall next to it. Another surveillance camera was just underneath the duct.

"This'll be a piece o' cake." Sonic smiled to himself. He turned back to the other three. "Which one of you three is the fastest?"

"Me." Ruby raised her hand.

"Alright. Ruby, you're with me first. Blake'll follow up behind. Silver, considering you have telekinesis, you'll be last." Sonic told all three of them. It took a moment for Blake and Silver to nod in agreement, but otherwise they seemed fine with Sonic's decision. Silver opened his mouth to say something, but stopped himself and shook his head.

Sonic pulled the air duct out and placed it to one side of the vent, before sticking his head out to check which direction the closest surveillance camera was looking in. Once the camera turned away from his direction, Sonic slipped out of the vents, landed smoothly and quietly on the floor, and backed up against the wall directly underneath where the surveillance camera was situated. While the camera wasn't looking that way, Sonic beckoned Ruby to climb out of the vents, to which she – all too happily – obliged. Once Ruby was backed up beside him against the wall, Sonic's eyes scoured the hallway for more cameras.

He noticed a pattern with the direction the cameras were facing – there was always a gap, a blind spot, where he could duck by them. Tapping Ruby's hand with the back of his own, Sonic motioned to Ruby about the blind spots. Ruby nodded to show she understood. After another nod in return from Sonic, the speedy duo dashed from blind spot to blind spot, making sure to move quickly enough so none of the other cameras would see them.

Once they reached a checkpoint behind the wall around a corner, Sonic glanced up at Ruby. "Looks like we're too fast for 'em!" He grinned at the girl, only to receive ignorance as Ruby was already peeking around the wall in front of him. With a sigh, Sonic jogged forward and joined Ruby.

"You'd think for a top secret military base they'd have learned not to have blind spots when it comes to security." Ruby remarked under her breath.

"Heads up," Sonic gained back his smile, tapping the side of Ruby's thigh with the back of his hand.

And so began another round of speed-stepping. One, two, three, four...

Sonic lost count after the fifth surveillance camera. Even Ruby seemed perplexed at the number of cameras there were when they turned a corner.

His ears perked, though, when he heard some footfalls. Two sets. One was somewhat light and sounded as if the person was taking large strides as they ran. The other set sounded heavy, almost as if someone was wearing thick or large boots.

Silver and Blake.

Sonic couldn't wait for them to catch up to him and Ruby. In less than a second, Sonic had already passed two more cameras. He sprinted down the corridor, Ruby somehow managing to match his speed, and even ending up in front of him. The both of them reached the end of the corridor and backed up against the wall.

Ruby glanced back to see Blake and Silver. When Sonic looked towards them, he found Silver using his telekinesis to aim the cameras up at the ceiling, while Blake sprinted forward, holding him by the wrist. Not exactly the most subtle tactic ever, but as long as they avoided the sight of the cameras, they would be fine.

Sonic was pulled back to his own situation when Ruby grabbed his wrist and pulled him around the corner. Surprisingly, Ruby was faster than he thought she was, not that he had underestimated her in the slightest. But he hadn't thought she was faster than him. That was quite a shock to him.

He couldn't for the life of him see where they were going due to rose petals obscuring his vision, but he assumed Ruby knew where to go – he desperately hoped she did. Only a couple of seconds later, Ruby suddenly stopped and Sonic was backed against the wall, although it wasn't of his own accord. He cleared a few extra rose petals off of his face before he saw Ruby beside him, also leaning her back on the wall.

"Why'd you stop?" Sonic asked Ruby, trying to keep his voice as quiet as possible. He didn't know what was around that corner, after all.

"Here. Look." Ruby ushered Sonic to the edge of the wall, and he peered around the corner. Ruby leaned over him. "Laboratory, staff only. Doesn't it seem suspicious to you?"

"Now that you mention it..." Maybe that's where they are. He glanced at Ruby from the corner of his eye. We have to get inside somehow and check it out. But this won't be easy. He looked down at the ground and placed his finger and thumb to his chin. If it was just me, I could get out quick. But if I have to bring Cream and Cheese with me, I can't get too reckless.

All of a sudden, the lights went out. The entire hallway and corridor was shrouded in darkness in the blink of an eye.

"Huh? What happened to the lights?" Ruby softly inquired.

"Finally. See, darkness I can work with." Blake's voice suddenly echoed behind Ruby. Ruby's shoulders spiked, obviously caught off-guard by the suddenness of hearing Blake's voice.

Both Sonic and Ruby turned to see... only Silver standing there. At least, as far as Sonic could see. In the dark, Sonic realised that Blake couldn't be seen as well as Silver could be. In fact, the only things that stuck out to him were her pair of bright yellow eyes that seemed a little too cat-like, her white shirt which had dulled with the lights out, and Blake's skin tone, which had also become more ghostly and grey with the loss of the lights in the building.

"Wow, Blake, I didn't realise you had the ability to become an actual shadow in dark environments." Ruby remarked with wonder.

"Actually, this is just the effect my appearance has when I'm in the dark. I often end up blending in with dark surroundings." Blake explained, somehow surprisingly calm as Sonic was barely able to see the shrug of Blake's shoulders. "Anyway, now that the lights are out, we'll have a better chance of rescuing your friends, as they're probably in the dark as well. But someone'll have to lead me, since I'm doing this blind."

"That's right, your night vision only works at night, doesn't it?" Ruby asked, tilting her head.

"That, and because I'm part cat. Cats are practically blind when there's no source of light in their environment." Blake held out her hand, as if trying to feel for something. Ruby grabbed her hand.

"I'll lead the way for you." Ruby nodded with a smile.

"Alright." Blake acknowledged with a barely visible nod of her head. "Thanks, Ruby."

"But how will any of us get in? It looks like you'd have to enter a code or password to enter." Silver pointed out.

"Since the lights are out, I'd assume so is their security system. The code or password or any kind of scanner they have to get into the lab wouldn't be functioning, and the locks for the door would naturally be connected to the security system." Blake explained, following Ruby in the dark as the group edged closer to the door. "Essentially, the door should be unlocked because the security system is busted, regardless of whether or not it's temporary."

"...Oh."

With a wave of her hand, Sonic, Silver, and Ruby quickly made their way over to the door, Blake warily following behind them all, her footsteps hesitant. Silver managed to open the door without a sound and turned to Sonic. "Go get your friend and hurry back out."

With a nod of his head, Sonic sped into the room and performed his infamous spindash attack on the one machine that looked like it might have Cream and Cheese hidden inside it. The glass shattered upon impact, although the machine's outer layer had been made of metal. Before any of the scientists could turn to look at the commotion, Sonic grabbed Cream and Cheese and hid behind one of the computer machines, much to the shock of the rabbit and Chao.

"Sonic—!"

"Shh!" Sonic raised his finger to his lips.

Cream covered her mouth, but apparently Cheese did not get the hint to be quiet.

"Chao! Chao! Chao! Chao! Chao! Chao! Chao!" Cheese said as it excitedly wrapped its arms around Sonic's neck, enveloping the hedgehog in a sweet hug.

"OVER THERE!"

Uh oh...

"Let's go!" Sonic turned to Cream.

"Right!" She nodded in return.

Sonic, as gently as he could, pulled Cheese off of him and passed the Chao to Cream. Then, Sonic hopped to his feet and began sprinting towards the door, where Blake, Silver, and Ruby were waiting. Once out of the room, Sonic grabbed Cream's wrist and ran, leaving Silver, Ruby, and Blake to follow.

~ Silver the Hedgehog ~

A backup plan would've been nice to have in this situation. If anything, he had a feeling that running wasn't going to accomplish much. Especially when they were sprinting in the middle of the hallway, easy for the surveillance cameras to spot.

He was thankful that they were busted, at least for the time being. And it seemed Cream was thinking something similar.

"Wow, Sonic! How did you shit off all the electricity?" Cream suddenly asked with a smile on her face.

"I didn't do it, Cream. I guess it just happened." Sonic responded with a similar smile.

"I don't know what kind of world he comes from, but no military bases I know of can just run out of power at the most convenient of times; if any." Blake muttered under her breath.

"It does seem rather suspicious." Silver chimed in as he leapt from the metal ground and glided smoothly onto Blake's shoulders, causing Blake to jump almost out of her skin. "Perhaps someone decided to help?"

"But who—?"

"Maybe it just happened because you bring good luck everywhere you go, Sonic!"

"You might be right!" Sonic said after a brief chuckle.

"I don't know what about this feels lucky. It may have made our mission easier, but I'm still blind as a bat here."

"I thought you were part cat?" Sonic asked, as if amused.

"People like me can use expressions like that as well, you know."

But, as their luck would have it, the lights switched back on and the cameras became fully functional again – right on cue, as well. Sonic was the first to stop in his tracks, Cream doing the same as soon as. Blake and Ruby both ended up skidding until Blake almost tripped up and she bumped into Ruby's back. Being on Blake's shoulders also happened to be a bad idea too, as Silver was quickly realising after the back of Blake's head hit him square in the face and left him rubbing his nose to soothe the bit of pain.

"So much for bringing good luck." Silver remarked with underlying sarcasm as he leapt off of Blake's shoulders, noting he would be safer if he floated in the air instead.

"Finally, I can see clearly again." Blake rubbed her eyes and blinked a few times, before quietly celebrating with a whispering cheer.

"I shouldn't have said anything; it must be a jinx." Cream ascertained, tightening her hold on her Chao friend, Cheese.

"This isn't your fault!" Sonic told her as he sent a glare up at the surveillance cameras.

In his peripheral view, Silver noticed Blake reaching for her sword and pulling the sheath off to reveal the katana. The katana folded over into its form of a pistol whilst the top of the surveillance cameras opened up and out came built-in laser scopes.

"Mounting lasers to cameras. How original." Ruby offhandedly commented, her expression surprisingly deadpan.

"Cream, hang on!" Sonic called out to the rabbit, tightening his grip on her wrist.

Blake turned to Ruby. "Make sure you and Silver get out with those two. I'll take care of the laser cameras."

"Make sure you get out yourself, though!" Ruby grabbed Silver's and Sonic's hands and pulled them with her through the corridors.

The lasers began firing at them, but Blake jumped over their heads in that same moment and blocked the lasers with her sheath and katana. The block caused the lasers to reflect off of her weapons and fire back up at the cameras, destroying them easily. Blake's katana folded back over into its pistol form and she emptied her magazine at every surveillance camera ahead of Ruby that Silver could see.

~ Ruby Rose ~

Ruby narrowly skidded round a corner and even leapt off the wall with one foot. Sonic narrowly dodged the wall as he pulled away from Ruby, letting go of her hand as he chose to run with Cream and Cheese, likely thinking it would prove more effective if they were separate. She made a mad dash, utilising her Speed Semblance to navigate her way through the bas, Sonic falling behind her as he was still holding onto Cream's arm. Meanwhile, Blake was busy spinning wildly across both sides of the room. Her body, weapons, and Aura created a black, white, and purple discus of destruction, leaving a path of torn surveillance cameras.

But Blake couldn't exactly keep up, and somehow managed to exhaust herself out a bit with that last attack. She ended up falling behind, leaving Sonic, Silver, Ruby, and Cream and Cheese to fend for themselves against the lasers.

When she saw Blake skid to a halt directly in front of a few lasers she hadn't destroyed, Ruby let go of Silver and dashed back to get Blake as fast as she could, especially when Blake's knees visibly shook with the sudden wave of fatigue she was competing against. Ruby scooped Blake up and held the Faunus bridal-style in her arms, and shot back at the speed of sound, only to see that Cream and Silver had stopped in their tracks, watching Sonic take out the security cameras.

He had punched the head of one camera off its stand on the wall, and had leapt over to a camera on the opposite wall, grabbing the head of it and forcing the camera's laser to shoot at the other cameras. Once Ruby caught up, one of the camera heads fell to the floor in front of Cream and Cheese.

"Keep running!" Sonic shouted at them as he tore the camera head off and threw it.

"Right!" Cream and Silver both started running, Ruby jogging along close behind.

"D-2 AREA LOCKDOWN IN PROGRESS."

Each corridor behind them suddenly began getting closed off behind them, thanks only to the large doors falling and shutting them in. The same happened with the door behind them, and not even a second later, the door in front of them began to fall.

"The door! We can't make it out!"

Silver raised his hands, using his psychokinetic powers to attempt to hold the door still, but even with his powers, it only helped in slowing down the speed of the door. Sonic sped past in Ruby's peripheral view and grabbed Cream and Silver, dashing with them under the door. Ruby bent her legs and shot forward, spinning at the speed of a bullet through the gap under the door before it closed behind her and Blake.

Once they were all through, they faced more lasers being fired at them.

Sonic was the first one to stop as he skidded to a halt with one foot, partially blocking Cream from any incoming lasers, while Silver had already taken to floating in the air. Ruby almost slipped but managed to avoid falling on her back as she ducked under a laser aimed for her face and slammed her knee on the metal floor. Putting her other foot out, she slowed and stopped her own acceleration, ending up crouched next to Sonic and Cream.

On her shoulder, she felt a twitch from the cat ears under Blake's bow and looked up to see a swarm of small paper-aeroplane-shaped mechanisms flying towards them.

"What are they?" Cream asked, though no one had an answer.

Two of the mechanisms – whatever they were – disconnected the heads of two cameras from their holders. The heads of another two cameras fell victim to two more of the mechanisms destroying the wiring inside them. Then another two fell, and another two had their wires destroyed. Even Sonic couldn't keep up.

Ruby was the first to run, pushing Sonic forward in an attempt to get him and Cheese moving.

"I don't understand, what's going on?!" Cream asked.

"We can't stick around to find out!" Sonic grabbed Cream's hand again and started running, trying to keep up with Ruby's jogging speed. Silver flew above Sonic's head, just high enough to not get pricked by Sonic's spikes.

They managed to get through the next set of doors that had begun to close on them, before reaching a stairwell. Silver took the lead, running up the stairs as Sonic followed with Cream and Cheese. Ruby herself had taken an alternate approach, deciding to hop from one railing to the next one above, and so on.

The camera lasers were out of control. As they advanced, the cameras were damaging their surroundings, as if something had gone wrong with their programming and they were now going rogue. Out of the corner of her eye, Ruby noticed that a few lasers had destroyed some parts of the walls, causing explosions and smoke to arise.

One shot above Cream's head just as she and Sonic turned a corner, causing another explosion and leaving behind a hole in the wall. At this point, Cream's feet were barely touching the steps.

"Sonic! Are we going to make it out?" she asked, sounding slightly panicked.

"Don't worry, we'll make it!"

Despite Sonic's words, one of the lasers cut through a large portion of the flight of stairs Sonic and Cream were on, and the piece of the stairs fell away before Cream could get past it. The only reason she didn't fall was because Sonic was still holding onto her. He stopped running when Cream fell, her weight tugging on his arm. Silver stopped and looked behind him. Once he saw Sonic holding onto Cream, Silver rushed back to Sonic to help pull Cream and Cheese back up onto the steps.

Even then, huge chunks from different flights of stairs dropped down the gap between the stairs that remained. One almost hit Ruby and Blake as they hopped from another railing, but thanks to Ruby's reflexes, she managed to use the chunk of stairs as a spring and leapt from it, onto the railing two flights up.

When Ruby and Blake reached the top of the stairwell, Ruby gently put Blake down, allowing the girl to stand. Ruby leant over the side to see if Sonic and Silver were alright, and they were. Sonic and Silver were leaping between the remaining stairs still stuck to the wall, with Sonic still carrying Cream and Cheese as they also tried to avoid being shot by the lasers.

Eventually, the three of them managed to catch up to the girls, much to Ruby's relief.

Ruby doubled over with her hands on her knees, the drawback to using her Semblance so much this morning finally getting to her. Maybe she wouldn't have been so tired if she hadn't had a race with Goku this morning.

"Whoa, are you okay Ruby?" Silver approached her, trying to hold her upright. She hadn't even noticed she was leaning until Blake assisted in holding her up. "I've never seen you look so tired."

"I'll be fine with some rest." Ruby attempted a smile, even when she noticed Sonic, Cream, and Cheese looking at her with concern.

"She's probably just overused her Semblance. It probably didn't help that she had to catch up with Chris and Chuck on the way here, let alone go faster than their car." Blake ascertained with a blank expression. Despite her tiredness, after taking a single look into Blake's eyes, she was sure the Faunus had gone blind again due to their dark surroundings.

"You've gone blind again, haven't you?" Ruby deadpanned, her voice breathy from being out of breath.

"Well, at least someone noticed."

"Anyway, catching up to the car was actually pretty easy." Ruby yawned and almost lost her balance, but thankfully Blake caught and stabilised her frame, despite not being able to see her. "The race I had with Goku must've taken more out of me than I thought."

"Still, thank you all for saving us!" Cream held her gloved hands together, all fingers intertwined, as she beamed at Ruby, Silver, and Blake.

"Chao-Chao!" Cheese flew around for a bit and smiled widely as it waved its arms around happily.

"No problem, saving people's what we do." Ruby gave the girl a weary smile and a thumbs up, leaning on Blake with her other arm around the Faunus' shoulders.

"Oh, that's right! We haven't introduced ourselves to you yet, have we?" Silver asked Cream with widened eyes. Cream stared at him before humming as she shook her head. Silver pointed his thumb at himself, "Well, I'm Silver the Hedgehog—" he pointed his thumb at Ruby—"and this is Ruby Rose—" and finally pointed his thumb at Blake—"and this is Blake Belladonna."

"It's nice to meet all of you. My name is Cream, and this is my Chao friend, Cheese."

"Chao-Chao!"

The audible shuffling of Blake's bow twitching alerted them to her, and although her face immediately became red, she reached around for the wall and placed her ear to it. Sonic and Silver did the same.

"Sounds like a plane..." Blake pointed out, pursing her lips in confusion.

"The Tornado!" Sonic grinned widely.

Cream gently grabbed Cheese and pulled the Chao close. Sonic stepped away from the wall and grabbed Cream, and he took off with the speed of a bullet and used his head to break through the ceiling, allowing in the sunlight.

"Finally, there's light again." Blake blinked a couple of times before squinting at the hole in the roof Sonic had created.

"Hey, come on! Let's go!" Silver jumped onto the edge of the roof.

Before he took off flying after Sonic, Blake threw her Gambol Shroud at him, the ribbon wrapping around the hedgehog's waist and securing itself on. A cyan glow transferred from Silver to Blake's Gambol Shroud and to Blake as she slid across the ground and swiped Ruby up off the floor, finally enveloping Ruby in the same glow.

Ruby had to squint when she and Blake flew out of the roof and the sunlight hit her for what had felt like the first time in a while. Though, in real time, it probably would have felt like 15 minutes or less.

Silver flew up onto one of the wings of the plane Ruby assumed was 'The Tornado' that Sonic mentioned. Once Silver was on, he used his psychokinesis to pull Ruby and Blake up onto the wing with him, which turned out to be opposite of the wing that Sonic and Cream had landed on. Once both girls were on the wing, Blake's Gambol Shroud unwrapped itself from Silver's waist and she carefully placed it back in the sheath on her back.

Ruby opened her eyes to see a fox with two tails piloting the plane, and honestly, she didn't know what surprised her more: the fact that a fox was piloting a plane, or the fact that said fox had two tails instead of the usual one tail.

"Guess we have an explanation for who helped us with those cameras back there."

Once they all got back to the house Sonic was staying in – which was in fact the mansion that Chris, the boy who'd identified Ruby as the speedster on the news, resided in – the two-tailed fox, ironically named Tails, landed his plane in the driveway of the garage beside the mansion and everyone introduced themselves to Tails and Cream. Since then, Ruby had stayed outside, intrigued by the plane to see if it had any defence mechanisms or hidden weapons, despite its innocent-looking exterior.

"Hey, uh, Tails!" Ruby called out to the fox. Once he – and everyone else gathered in the garage – turned to her, she pointed at the plane. "So is this just a plane or does it have any inbuilt weapons or defence mechanisms?"

"I can show you the properties of the Tornado later, if you'd like!" Tails suggested, prompting Ruby to nod several times and eagerly enough to make Weiss uncomfortable if she had been there with her and Blake. As Ruby looked under each wing of the Tornado to try and find any places where inbuilt guns could fit or where she could build some in if there weren't any, she heard Tails ask: "Does she have a fascination with that kind of thing?"

"Pretty much. She has an avid fascination with weaponry or machinery that can be used offensively in a battle. That piece of metal she's carrying on the back of her belt? It transforms into a sniper-scythe that she created herself." Blake shrugged her shoulders, as nonchalant as ever.

"From what I've seen of Ruby, she's very knowledgeable on all sorts of weaponry and any equipment that would traditionally be used in battle. I wouldn't hesitate to even call her a creative genius when it comes to weaponised machinery."

"And she's still on the side of the good guys?" Sonic asked, and from the sound of his voice, she wondered if he saw the potential in her to be a bad guy, borderline villain.

Ruby burst into a fit of giggles. "That's so absurd!" she doubled over, holding her stomach as she laughed. Once her eyes started to water and her sides started to hurt from so much laughter, she quietened her laughing and straightened herself up, wiping the water from her eyes. "I'm only a villain towards cookies and homework. Cookies because I'm eating them, and homework because it's so boring and irritating that I want to destroy it."

"I can understand that. I've heard homework becomes a lot more difficult and annoying when you get older." Chris rubbed the back of his head.

"That's an understatement. Even I can agree that the amount you get would drive anyone to hate it. You just don't have the time to live your life with deadlines and assignments hanging over your head." Blake leant back against the wall. "Though, it might be different here. Who knows. Not many schools are the same, especially when it comes to schools of different worlds."

"Extraordinary." Chuck, Chris' grandfather, observed one of the paper-aeroplane-like mechanisms that Tails had sent a swarm of to help them with the Area 99 laser surveillance cameras. Ruby stopped surveying the Tornado and leant against the wall, standing beside where Blake sat. Chuck carried on: "Tiny, radio-controlled aeroplanes. Extraordinary."

"We've got lots of neat gadgets!" Tails proudly divulged, and Ruby's eyes glistened.

"This is an amazing piece of equipment! It goes beyond anything I've ever seen! How did you develop it?"

"I've been on this planet long enough to know that in comparison to Earth as it is now, our world of Remnant is so advanced it would seem like a world where a future-fantasy novel is set. But even with our world's technology being so advanced, no one I've heard of has created such a thing as that. It's impressive." Blake agreed with a nod of her head.

Ruby followed suit, adding a smile. "I'd love to know how to do that too!"

"It's nothing special. Not in the world we come from." Tails gave a soft smile, his palms out flat as he tilted his head.

"And where exactly is that world, Tails?" Chuck leant forward in his seat, staring down at Tails.

Tails scratched his head. "Beats me. But I think we got here through a warp in time and space."

Chuck fell back against the back of his chair and crossed his arms, his brows furrowed as if he wasn't impressed with the answer. "Very interesting. Not very helpful, but interesting."

"You think Madoka was involved?" Blake turned and raised her head, her eyes meeting Ruby's.

"Wouldn't she have informed us herself if she was sending a bunch of others?" Ruby shrugged, pursing her lips. "We'll ask Homura though."

"I was just thinking that."

"SILVER!"

Blaze glided smoothly across the floor of the garage and stopped next to Silver. Everyone besides Ruby, Silver, and Blake stared at Blaze, her not-so-subtle entrance leaving them all in a state of shock.

"Oh, hi Blaze. Were you looking for me?" Silver tilted his head.

"Yes. When I didn't find you in the house, I was worried that you had gone out and got yourself lost." Blaze nodded her head and folded her arms, glancing between Sonic, Tails, and Cream and Cheese. "Who are your new friends?" she inquired as she turned back to Silver.

"This is Sonic—" Silver pointed to Sonic—"that's his best friend Tails—" he then pointed towards Tails—"and that's Cream and her Chao friend, Cheese." He pointed at Cream and Cheese, both of whom smiled and waved at Blaze. Silver turned to everyone else, and then held his palm out in front of Blaze. "Guys, this is my friend, Blaze."

"Hello!" Yang's voice entered the garage. Ruby's head spun toward the door of the garage, only to see Yang in a pair of black jeans and a yellow t-shirt, approaching the group with Homura trailing behind her.

"Yang!" Ruby and Blake jumped up.

"Hey sis! Hey Blake!" Yang approached both of them. She gave them both a hug, and went out of her way to lift Silver off the floor and through him into the air like he was a child. She caught him and hugged him close to her. "Hey, Silver!"

"Did you come here with Blaze?" Silver looked up at Yang.

"Yep! Homura had to spend the day with us 'cause you and Blake were going on an adventure." Yang put Silver down and patted his quills. "Anyway, has anyone been by the coast lately? An odd place to build a tower, don't ya think?"

"The roof of it looked like the head of a mushroom a bit." Homura added. When Ruby looked to the girl, she found that Homura was holding a newspaper.

"Is it just me, or does that sound familiar?" Cream asked, pulling Cream closer to her chest.

"You know, I just thought of something," Tails turned to Sonic. "You and me and Cream and Cheese are here, maybe the others got here too."

"You might be right about that, Tails." Sonic looked up at the ceiling, his finger and thumb cupping his jaw. Yang and Homura shared a look, and Homura simply shrugged her shoulders. "And if you are, that means... maybe..."

"Eggman's here too!"

"I'll explain later, Yang."