Cream the Rabbit opened her eyes. The last thing she remembered was a bright light as she ran from Shadow, and then...

She glanced down, and saw that she was on the edge of a rocky slope that quickly curled into a loop-de-loop. She shivered slightly, and looking over herself, gasped upon seeing the reason.

Her dress was missing, and in it's place was blue fur, with her only items of clothing being a pair of red running shoes and white gloves. Her eyes began to tear up as she realised what had happened.

"I'm Mister Sonic!" she cried, and she only frightened herself more upon hearing Sonic's voice coming out of her mouth.

The rabbit turned hedgehog began frantically looking around, frantically trying to locate Cheese. The chao was nowhere to be found.

Cream began to breakdown. She was stuck in the middle of nowhere, alone and nearly naked. Cream did the only thing she could; she sat down and began to weep into her hands.

However, a loud mechanical roaring, not unlike that of an engine, caught her attention. Looking up at the sky and wiping the tears from her eyes, and saw the Tornado, spiralling around in the sky. Cream at first thought it was doing some kind of airshow, but it soon crashed nosefirst nearby. The now-teenage girl rushed to the crash site, concerned for the pilot's (who she knew would be Tails) safety. She was so concerned that she didn't even think about the speed she was going at.

Cream slowly approached the wreckage, but burst forward upon seeing the limp bodies of Tails and Knuckles fall out.

"Mr. Prower! Mr. Knuckles! Please, wake up!" she cried, shaking them, her concern outmatching her fear of her new body at this point.

The young fox began to stir, and he looked up at Cream. "Uh... Sonic?" he muttered.

"No, I'm Cream. I don't what happened, but I'll make sure you and Mr. Knuckles are alright, Mr. Prower." said Cream gently.

Tails sat up, rubbing his head. "Mr. Prower? Who's that? My name's not Prower."

Cream tilted her head slightly. "Then... who are you?"

"Shadow." he responded simply. "Shadow the Hedgehog." Cream gasped slightly at this.

"Wait... did you see a big flash and all of a sudden you were in the Tornado?"

"Yes. After you ran off, that's exactly what happen--" he cut himself off, as he noticed he was in Tails' body.

"Wha'... what is this!?" Cream placed a hand on his shoulder. "You're in Miles Prower's body, but you might know him as Tails. The same thing happened to me: I'm really Cream the Rabbit."

Shadow nodded, then turned his gaze to Knuckles' body. "Then no doubt that means that he isn't Knuckles." As if on cue, the red imposter began to move. Shadow immediately took a defensive stance.

"Cream! Get behind me! We don't know who that is, it may be an enemy!" As he said this, whoever was in Knuckles' body rose to their feet, and looked over.

"Sonic? Tails? Hey, how are ya?"

"Who are you?" demanded Shadow.

"Who am I?" the one with Knuckles' appearance echoed. "Just look at me! I'm..." he looked down to emphasise this, and finally saw his body.

"...I'm... Knuckles..." he said in what seemed to be a fearful voice. "...AWESOME!!!" he suddenly screamed, giving Cream a fright and making her jump.

"Hmm. Now you understand." said Shadow, causing Knuckles to turn to him. "Now, tell us, who are you?"

"I'm Charmy, from Team Chaotix! Remember me, Tails?" he said with a grin.

"I'm not Tails." stated Shadow bluntly, causing Charmy's smile to fade. "You're not the only one placed in another body; I'm Shadow the Hedgehog, and that's Cream the Rabbit."

"Oooooh..." he seemed to perk up a little. "Wait, that's Cream?" he said pointing at her.

"Yes, she is indee-..." Before Shadow could finish, Charmy had raced over to Cream.

"Hey, Cream, how are you..." he stopped short, noticing Cream's worried expression. "...Is there something wrong?" he asked, concerned.

"I'm just thinking about Cheese..." she said. Charmy noticed tears beginning to well up in her eyes. "I don't know where he is, and... what if..." she began to cry slightly, afraid to think of what might be happening to him.

"There's no time for that." said Shadow callously. "We need to find out a way to get back to normal. There's a city a few miles away from here, I say we head there and see if we can find anything." as he finished, he began to walk off, but returned when he heard Cream's sobs.

"Um... Cream? Charmy? Are you two coming?" Cream simply continued crying, and Charmy gave Shadow a very dirty look as he comforted her. Shadow let out a sigh.

"If it makes you feel any better, we can look for your pet at the same time."

Cream wiped away some tears. "You mean it?"

"Of course. But we'd best get going. The fastest way there is through a series of islands. Come on."

Cream nodded, and began to follow him. She paused, and turned to Charmy. "Are you coming as well?"

"YOU BET!!" he exclaimed, and quickly ran after them.