A/N: And so begins another elongate journey into the world of fanfiction. Welcome friends to my next story Courage & Sonic: The Spiritual Odyssey which will crossover Courage the Cowardly Dog with Sonic the Hedgehog; a pair you’d least likely expect to see meeting up with one another. I don’t know why I decided to write this story, but ever since reruns of CTCD started airing on Cartoon Network, I just fell in love with the series again, and since I’ve always been a fan of the Sonic the Hedgehog games (The older ones) I decided to try my hands at a crossover between the two. Now, unlike most of my stories this entire story will be told in a trilogy of stories. Meaning once this story is completed, the second one continues immediately where the first left off. This story will take place on Courage’s home territory Nowhere, Kansas. The second story will take place at Sonic’s turf Station Square, and the third...you’ll have to wait and see. Also, unlike my other stories where I was ambiguous to how many chapters there would be, I have a solid idea on how many I will have for this story. I’m looking at ten to eleven chapters with this story, but hey, you didn’t come here to listen to me babble away. You came here to read, but before you start reading the Computer has a few wise words of advise for you.

Disclaimer: (as told by the Computer) Okay, you twits. Listen up because I do not like repeating myself, so if you fall asleep at the keyboard or your mommy is calling you to go to the store to buy a quarter gallon of milk, and you just skim through the chapter without reading the legal issues than that’s your loss. I can’t blame you humans for your short attention spans. The creator of this story does not own the rights to Courage the Cowardly Dog or the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. If he did, he would be exceedingly rich, and he wouldn’t be wasting his time with you. In fact, he’d probably just take his money and he would mockingly throw it in your faces. Courage the Cowardly Dog is created and belongs to John R. Dilworth while Sonic the Hedgehog belongs to Sega. Also, try not to spam this story with your nonsensical comments, and resist the urge to steal any work from this story.

Prologue: Seven Emeralds of Chaos

The planet Earth; the only planet in the entire Solar System that life dwells on. When you look at every other planet that resides in the Solar System, you notice the distinct traits of the Earth that make it different from every other planet. It has beautiful lushes of green grass that extends for miles and miles. An almost abundant amount of crisp clear blue water that flows freely throughout dams, streams, and rivers, and lastly it has fresh air that allows the inhabitants of this world to breath it in through their noses, allowing it to flow through their lungs and supply them with oxygen. Of course the most important trait of the Earth that distinguishes it from other planets is that fact that there are living creatures on the planet. Animals, humans, and insects are just to name a few. Together these creatures have evolved for thousands and thousands of years, shaping their futures and involving into an advanced species that have used Earth’s many resources to sustain a normal lifestyle.

Today, many people have often asked the question: why is Earth the only planet that has life? Why are all the other planets nothing more than barren wastelands that are deprived of life? What makes the planet Earth so special from all the rest? That is no answer no man has ever been able to answer. Some believe that earth was created through religion while others debated it was created through science. While the creation of life on earth remains unknown, many have speculated that seven mystical gems of unlimited power were integral to the creation of humanity. Ever since the dawn of time these mysterious gems or “emeralds” as they are called have been a part of history, and it has been said that ancient tribes have often worshiped these emeralds as they solemnly believed that the emeralds were fabricated from the gods themselves.

These emeralds were imbued with unlimited amounts of magical energy. A person who was able to obtain at least just one emerald would gain unbelievable powers, but if someone collected all seven emeralds they would become an all mighty god-like being that no machine or creature could annihilate. They would become so powerful that they could rule over the planet with the greatest of ease. No force in the universe could match the divined strength that this individual would have with all seven emeralds. Back during ancient times, many living creatures have fought to obtain the emeralds and use it for the own selfish purpose. This led into many wars that would result in villages bring burnt to the ground, lives would be killed, and valuables would be stolen all because of the greed that these people displayed. And what was it all for? Seven magical gems?

When these wars broke out it was a time of constant fear. Innocent civilians ran for their meaningful lives as thieves or soldiers would invade their own towns. Children would not be able to sleep at night as they heard the sounds of swords clanging, and the blood curdling cries of a person dying. It was like entering an endless nightmare that you could not escape no matter how hard you tried. It seemed that it would go on forever...until another emerald appeared out of nowhere and naturalized the emerald’s power. It was sent from the heavens above to stop this madness from going on, and it eventually stopped the war from continuing for short while when a guardian was chosen to watch over the seven emeralds and the one giant “Master” emerald.

Years later, a race of Echidnas wanted to obtain the boundless power of the emeralds, so they invaded the shrine as to where the emeralds were located. However, the guardian of the emeralds became enraged by this senseless act and absorbed the power of the emeralds himself; turning into a monster that wiped out almost the entire race. It wasn’t until the tribe leader’s daughter took it upon herself to seal the beast in the giant emerald along with herself. This in turn caused the seven emeralds to become scattered all over the world, and to never be seen from again. As for the Master Emerald, its power caused the shrine it was on top of to soar right into the sky, where it remained for many years.

Decades have gone by and mankind has begun to evolve. Soon enough many things were invented that helped revolutionize the way people did things or get around. Cars were invented to help people get to place, computers were used to find information and communicate with people easily, and many other things were created to make earthlings become the most advanced species on the planet. Nowadays people go about their everyday lives by going to work, making a living, getting married, having kids, and doing all sorts of different things.

As for the emeralds, they remained as only stories passed down from generation to generation of people. However, the emeralds were rediscovered by an elderly scientist named Professor Gerald Robotnik who used them in his research. Years later, Gerald’s grandson Dr. Ivo Robotnik heard about the potential these emeralds had and decided to investigate. Born with an IQ of three hundred, Ivo Robotnik’s one goal in life was to take over the entire world. He has built countless of powerful robots he could use at his disposal to destroy every city and town that he could find, so that he could build his own world. A place he called “Robotnikland” where he would be the supreme master of the world, and he would enslave earth’s entire population. Using the seven emerald’s powers, he would create weapons of mass destruction that could ultimately put an end to all life as we know it.

Unexpectedly, though, his plans never got too far. A blue anthropomorphic hedgehog has taken it upon himself to foil the menacing Doctor’s plans time and time again. Born with the ability to run faster than the speed of sound, he has defended his home of Station Square from Doctor Robotnik and his minions; always thwarting his diabolical schemes and saving the world. And thus the battle over the emeralds continued.

However, while the emeralds have been constantly fought over, the emeralds themselves have also brought about another problem to the world; specifically in a small town located in Kansas. The emeralds posses both negative and positive qualities, and every time the emeralds are used negatively by either being used by a person with a dark heart, or used to power up a machine, it releases a electric shockwave that affects a barrier. This barrier is the barrier between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Every time the emeralds released this energy, the barrier would become temporarily broken and it allowed creatures of the undead or creatures with supernatural powers to come to the world of the living. Strangely, most of these occurrences took place in a small town in Kansas called Nowhere. There, most of the creatures would go about causing trouble in the town. Some would have the same intentions as Dr. Robotnik, and they would try to take over Nowhere, while others just went to cause mischief.

Most of the problems these wandering spirits caused were often resolved because of a small fuchsia dog would have to stop them whenever his family, which consist of a grumpy old farmer and kindly Scottish woman were in danger. While this dog was afraid of practically everything known to man, he would do anything to protect his family (mostly the Scottish Woman) from being harmed, and he has often been able to drive the supernatural or undead back to hole they crawled out of, and sometimes he would save the town.

Now, a new threat is upon the horizon. A threat that could end up destroying both the world of the living and the dead. Both the hedgehog and the dog’s destinies will intertwine with each other as they come together for the first time to fight against the most deadliest foes they have ever encountered. It will be the biggest challenge these two have ever faced, and it could indubitably be their last.

Courage & Sonic: The Spiritual Odyssey

Created by: Key19

A/N: Well, here is the prologue. I will resume working on this story sometime in the future as I need to push forward on my other two stories at the moment, and finish up my third semester of College. The entire plot is still in development, but I got a basic idea of what direction I want to go, but the only thing I’m debating on is whether or not to include Shadow the Hedgehog into the story I just don’t know where I can fit him into the mix. BTW, the whole Computer reading the disclaimer is just a joke, so it is not meant to offend anyone. Just thought I’d do a funny intro for once. Anyways, till next time readers.