Half an hour later, Tails lands the Speed Star a safe distance from the edge of the electrical storm. Sonic then helps Carol unload the Green Hopper, and once it's unloaded, Tails takes off again, climbing quickly to fly over the clouds.
"Remember kid, keep on moving if you don't want to get hit," Sonic instructs.
"Sure thing," Carol acknowledges.
"Are your trackers working?" Tails asks over the radio; Sonic and Carol report affirmatives. "Good. Now remember, while they're designed to withstand the intense electromagnetic fields generated by the lightning, it's possible there may still be some interference."
"And in English?" Sonic asks.
"They should work fine, but don't worry if they go wrong," Carol explains.
"Close enough," Tails confirms.
"Then let's do it to it!" Sonic declares, his anticipation clear.
Carol fires up the Green Hopper and immediately accelerates hard, the jet boosting her to high speed as she enters the storm. As she dodges the first few lightning strikes, she risks a glance to her side, only to see Sonic matching speed while running backwards.
"You're pretty handy on that!" Sonic compliments, shouting to be heard.
"And you're just showing off!" Carol replies cheekily.
"You think this is impressive?" Sonic retorts. "Watch this!" Sonic then turns to face forwards and accelerates so quickly he creates a sonic boom.
"It'd be more impressive if I hadn't seen it before," Carol sighs to herself as she pushes deeper into the Plains.
Meanwhile, in the Arid Sands Zone, Eggman is reviewing intelligence coming from the Northamer Egg Army when the sergeant knocks on the door of his shuttle. "Enter," the doctor commands without turning from the display.
"You wanted to know when we found an Emerald, sir," the sergeant greets as he enters the shuttle.
"Have you found an Emerald?" Eggman asks.
"Yes sir," the sergeant confirms, "but we're having trouble retrieving it."
Eggman turns slowly to face the sergeant. "Explain."
"The Emerald is encased in a stratum of super‑dense rock, and the drilling bots are struggling to cope," the sergeant explains.
"Good thing I came prepared," Eggman smiles wickedly.
"Sir?"
"You're dismissed," Eggman commands. "You and your men will return to Shamar as soon as possible."
"But‑ As you wish, sir."
With a final salute, the sergeant exits the shuttle. Eggman turns back to the screen, dismisses the Northamer reports, and calls up the management program for the drilling bots. "Ah, they're all converging on the same location," he observes. "That must mean there's only one Emerald, which is disappointing. At least the rodents don't know I'm looking yet, so I still hold the advantage."
Eggman then switches to the external camera to watch the sergeant and his troops depart. Once they're a safe distance away, Eggman switches back to the drilling bot management program and activates the shuttle's shields.
A few seconds later, the sound of a massive explosion rolls across the desert.
Twenty minutes later, deep in the Thunder Plains Zone, Sonic sprints into a cave, thankful to finally be safe from the constant lightning strikes. He waits just inside the entrance for Carol to catch up, but after a few moments, his impatience gets the better of him. Risking a look out to the plains, he's surprised to hear Carol behind him greet "What took you so long?"
"How did you… When did you… What?" Sonic asks in surprise.
"While you were busy playing games out there, seeing how close the lightning could get to you, I rode straight here," Carol explains.
"Well… good," Sonic replies. "We shouldn't be wasting time anyway."
"If you say so," Carol agrees, refusing to hide a cheeky grin.
Together, Sonic and Carol head deeper into the caves, Carol leading the way with her superior feline low‑light vision. Over the next ten minutes, the pair traverse the caves in relative silence, wary of hidden dangers. Luck is on their side however, as there are no dangers lurking in the gloom.
Eventually, the hedgehog and wildcat emerge in a large and surprisingly well‑lit chamber.
"My scanner says the Emerald is in here somewhere," Carol concludes.
Sonic taps a button on his scanner. "Tails, we've found a big chamber with the Emerald, but we can't pinpoint its location exactly. Can you help?"
He is answered by nothing but static.
"Tails? You there, bud?" Sonic tries, but there's still no reply, just static.
"No signal?" Carol asks.
"Nope," Sonic confirms.
"Not surprising: we're a long way underground. And then there's all that lightning too."
"Without Tails' help, how are we going to find the Emerald? I don't see it, and the scanner's pointing all over."
Carol looks around the chamber. "It must be on one of these ledges," she concludes, referring to the two dozen examples scattered around the chamber, their heights ranging from less than a metre to over eighty metres.
"You take those over there," Sonic decides, "and I'll take these over here."
One by one, Sonic and Carol check each ledge, Carol climbing rapidly through feline agility, with Sonic relying on his speed to scale the sheer rock faces.
On the ninth ledge, Carol spots a gemstone. Without hesitation, she digs it out of the dirt and examines it. "Red: not an emerald," she concludes. But a rock like this must be worth a lot: I'm keeping it.
Eventually, with all the ledges checked, Carol reunites with Sonic at the chamber entrance.
"Find anything?" Sonic asks.
"No, just this ruby," Carol replies, showing Sonic the gemstone.
Sonic takes the stone and examines it. "This isn't a ruby, it's a Chaos Emerald!"
"No, it's a ruby," Carol mistakenly corrects. "Emeralds are green, and that's clearly red."
"Trust me, it's a Chaos Emerald," Sonic assures. "I've used these enough times to know one on sight."
"But how can it be an emerald if it's red?" Carol asks, confused.
"Only one of the Chaos Emeralds is green," Sonic explains. "There's also two blue ones, a yellow one, a purple one, a grey one, and this red one."
"That's just weird."
Sonic thinks for a moment. "You're right, it is weird. Anyway, we'd better get back before‑"
Suddenly, the earth starts shaking, causing large boulders to fall from the ceiling and embed themselves in the floor.
"Run?" Carol asks.
"Run," Sonic confirms.
They run out of the chamber just in time to avoid being crushed.
"Found it yet?" Eggman asks, his impatience growing by the second.
"We're tryin', boss!" Cubot replies.
"The search would be easier if you hadn't blown a huge hole in the desert," Orbot adds. "What if you've damaged or destroyed the Emerald?"
"They're indestructible, bolt‑brain," Eggman explains. "Now find it!"
Orbot and Cubot redouble their efforts, combing every inch of the fifty‑foot crater left by the explosion, while Eggman paces around its edge. With every passing moment, Eggman grows ever more frustrated. Distracted, he nearly trips over something. Turning to see what he nearly tripped over, he's pleasantly surprised to find the blue Chaos Emerald by his feet.
"The Emerald!" Eggman exclaims, snatching it from the sand. "One down, six to go!"
"Congratulations, sir!" Orbot applauds. "Can we stop digging now?"
"Absolutely not!" Eggman snaps. "That stratum I blew up is a special type of rock that could channel the energies of this Emerald, and make it look like there were over ninety of them. Get me as much of that as you can."
"As you wish," Orbot sighs in reluctant agreement.
Back at the entrance to the cave, Sonic tries once more to get in contact with Tails. "You there, bud?"
"Finally!" Tails replies, his voice distorted by heavy static. "What happened?"
"We found the Emerald!" Sonic reports.
"Cool!" Tails replies. "I'll meet you at the edge of the Plains."
Fifteen minutes later, Sonic and Carol speed out of the Plains, sliding to a halt beside the Speed Star.
"You guys run into any trouble?" Tails asks.
"Nothing major," Sonic reports.
"Apart from the earthquake that nearly crushed us," Carol reminds.
"Like I said, nothing major," Sonic winks.
"That must have been what I picked up on my scanner," Tails reveals. "I couldn't figure out what caused it though."
"No sweat. Come on, let's get back to‑" Sonic starts, pausing as the ground shakes again.
"That's not natural," Carol observes.
"Agreed," Tails replies. "And it's getting closer."
"Whatever it is, I'm ready for it!" Sonic declares, preparing to fight.
"Right beside you, Sonic!" Tails replies.
Carol however remains silent, focussing on the vibrations. Tilting her head side to side to allow her oversized ears to pick up as much detail as possible, she pinpoints the source of the vibrations, and works out the direction the source is moving. Without warning, she leaps to one side, bundling both Sonic and Tails to the ground and rolling with them both several feet.
Less than a second later, the source of the vibrations bursts through the ground at the exact spot Sonic and Tails were stood.
"Are you guys OK?" Carol asks, rolling clear of the hedgehog and kitsune straight into a combat stance, claws extended.
"Thanks for the save," Tails replies as he and Sonic pick themselves up.
"What's the big idea?" Sonic directs to the yellow‑armoured robot, its markings revealing it to be E‑119 Upsilon.
++Hand over the Emerald, or be destroyed++ the robot demands, shoulder‑mounted turrets emerging to complement the two massive drills where hands would normally be.
"What do you say Tails?" Sonic asks, allowing himself his trademark smirk.
"I say we send this bozo to the scrapheap!" Tails answers.
"Hey, leave some for me, will ya?" Carol banters.
++Scrapheap will be unnecessary++ Upsilon responds.
Spinning its drills to top speed, Upsilon dives at the heroes, missing as they scatter out of the way. Sonic is the first to counter‑attack, sprinting directly at the robot, curling into a Spin Attack as he does so. Upsilon anticipates the attack, leaping the hedgehog with ease, but presenting the now airborne Tails with an opportunity. With his own Spin Attack, Tails targets the head, denting it slightly. Knocked off balance, Upsilon lands awkwardly, toppling onto its side.
++Damage insufficient++ Upsilon taunts monotonically as it rights itself.
We'll see about that. Carol closes in rapidly as the robot stands, sliding between its legs as it's about to turn and counter‑attack Sonic and Tails. Claws at full extension, she slashes through the weaker armour of Upsilon's knee joints, cutting several cables and hydraulic lines in the process. Crippled, the robot stumbles and falls. As it hits the ground, Carol leaps onto Upsilon's back, and rakes her claws deep along the top and down the back of the robot's head.
++Fatal error. Fatal error. Fatal error.++ Upsilon's eyes fade as the robot malfunctions and shuts down.
With Upsilon defeated, Carol retracts her claws, then stands atop the chassis, hands on hips, a grin spread the full width of her face. "Another victory for the legendary Carol Tea!" she boasts.
"Nice work, kid!" Sonic compliments. "Though you may wanna be a bit less smug about it."
"Look who's talking!" Tails teases.
"I kicked its tail quicker than you did," Carol adds cheekily.
"We were just toying with it," Sonic protests, playing along.
"Sure you were," Carol smirks as she jumps off the robot and rejoins the hedgehog and kitsune.
"We'd better get back to Sky Patrol," Tails suggests. "It won't be long before Upsilon's defeat is noticed, and Eggman is alerted to our presence."
"Good idea," Sonic agrees.
Moments later, the trio takes off in the Speed Star, and heads home to Sky Patrol.
