Knuckles is sleeping in front of the Master Emerald unaware of what's happening. A person wearing a backpack walks up to the Master Emerald, grabs it, and tries to cramp it in his backup. Knuckles starts waking up so the person escapes on an airship and Knuckles wakes up seeing the criminal escape. Knuckles grabs a rock at the ship and seconds later it explodes and the criminal falls into the water and Knuckles realizes who it is: Nack the Weasel! Nack falls into the water but emerges in Eggman's submarine.

"A personal gift from Ivo himself. He just doesn't know it yet". Nack laughs and grabs the emeralds again and escapes. Knuckles falls to the ground. Near the Island, Sonic is standing on the wing of the Tornado while Tails is driving.

"Hey, look, it's Knucklehead. He seems to be sad about something. Maybe we should go check it out." They land on the Island and Sonic gets Knuckles up.

"What's wrong buddy?" Knuckles pushes Sonic away and looks up into the sky as Nack's laugh echoes across Mobius.

"That dirty little weasel stole the Master Emerald and the 7 Chaos Emeralds! If we try to get them back, if he's smart enough, he'll go super and kick our butts back to Angel Island!" Sonic gets up and puts his hand on Knuckles' shoulder.

"Unless we have a machine-building genius on our side." Knuckles wipes Sonic's hand away and looks at him.

"We have Tails." Sonic laughs and shakes his head.

"Yes, but I'm talking about Ivo Robotnik. Eggman?" Knuckles gasps and gets mad.

"You're going to try to get Eggman to help us? You might as well hire a walrus!" Sonic laughs and looks into the water.

"That's Plan B!" Knuckles and Tails faceplam.

"But before I stoop that low, I'll try to find Fang myself." Sonic runs off and comes back seconds later.

"Nope. Let's get get Eggman!" Knuckles looks at Sonic.

"Sonic, Eggman ain't going to help us." Eggman suddenly appears behind them in his Eggmobile and laughs.

"Well, maybe I will and I maybe I won't. It depends. What has the sniper stole?" Knuckles whispers to Sonic not to tell Eggman but Sonic ignores him.

"The Master Emerald and the 7 Chaos Emeralds!" Eggman slyly smiles and laughs.

"Well, in that case, of course I'll help you... for a price!" Knuckles angrily growls at him.
"That's not going to happen, egghead!" Sonic pushes Knuckles back and Tails grabs him.

"Ignore him. He hasn't been the same since Nack stole the emeralds. What do you want from us?" Eggman is still slyly smiling.

"Give me the chaos emeralds!" Sonic gasps and almost falls over but keeps himself up.

"What? I'd never do that, Eggman! I'd rather die!" Sonic closes his eyes and turns his head away from Eggman while crossing his arms.

"That can be arranged, hedgehog." Eggman is about to push a button but Sonic stops him and laughs nervously.

"Oh, okay, so be it. You'll get the emeralds and I'll keep my life. Fair deal?" Eggman and Sonic shake hands and Knuckles calms down but is still screaming on this inside and Tails lets him go.

"Fair deal, hedgehog!" Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails get into the Eggmobile and they fly off as Eggman laughs.