The chase keeps going for what felt like forever. The bat and the fox, with the beast in pursuit, a force of rage and fury right at their heels.

He is close, so close to them, so close to crushing them in his jaws...Suddenly, the noise stops, and Rouge and Tails can no longer hear their pursuer. It is as if he'd simply vanished.

That's never a good thing. Rouge stops and listens, "I don't hear anything" "Me either," whispers Tails, shivering as Rouge puts him on his feet. Their huge ears shift at every sound, their hearts race, their eyes shoot around, looking for the creature that's after them.

This pleases Sonic, watching them from the undergrowth he had hidden in. The beast could hear their hearts race, and smell the intoxicating scents of sweat and fear. It excites him, sensing the adrenaline running though their veins.

They were afraid- good.

"Think it ran off?" Rouge asks. Tails shivers, "I don't know. If it did, then why?"

Sonic edges closer with the silence and liquid movement of a feline. The beast then launches his massive form from the darkness, tackling Rouge to the ground. Tails lets an echoing scream of surprise and horror.

The beast's weight pins Rouge down. She wriggles uselessly in an attempt to free herself, "Get off of me!- Oh, gross!" She exclaims, as drool lands on her face. Sonic is going to do it. He may have failed to get the President, but killing one of the heroes might make his master just as happy.

In excitement, he lifts his head in an echoing howl, then looks down at the G.U.N Agent with murderous glee in his eyes. His jaws open as he goes for the kill. Rouge closes her eyes in fear, thinking that this was it.

The beast suddenly lets out a roar of surprise, and his grip on Rouge dissipates. Rouge and Tails look to see Shadow facing off against the beast. "About time you got here Shadow," Remarks Tails, as helps Rouge to her feet. She rubs her shoulders.

Shadow doesn't acknowledge them, keeping his focus on his opponent. The beast snarls at him. This black hedgehog had gotten in the way of his hunt, and now this little pest is going to pay. Sonic growls and bares his fangs, standing up to his full height, trying to intimidate Shadow. But the black hedgehog is unfazed, making Sonic even angrier.

"Shadow! Try to do damage to that collar around its neck! I think that it's a mind control device of some sort!" Tails informs him. Shadow nods slightly, but just slightly.

The transformed hedgehog rushes at the ultimate life form, and in a single leap would gotten to him. But his prey was gone….What? It was just here a second ago! Sonic's head and ears shoot around rapidly, trying to locate the small hedgehog. No one was that fast, not unless he allowed it.

Nothing...Now he is starting to get a little nervous. Prey shouldn't be able to do that on him, just run for the thrill of the chase, this wasn't right.

His heart beats rapidly, and his ears listen for even the smallest sounds. But he cannot detect Shadow, there isn't the rustling of leaves, and even the wind seems to be holding its breath in anticipation and suspense.

WHAM! Shadow comes out of nowhere, and rams his metal plated shoes into Sonic's face. The sudden attack sends him sprawling into the dirt.

Shadow wasted no time to let him recover. "Chaos, Spear!" He called out, aiming a bolt of Chaos energy at the beast's neck.

The spear hit its mark. KAAZZET!

Sparks fly out of the now damaged collar. The spear had broken part of the collar that controlled the energy flow.

"Raaaahhh!" The beast falls to the ground, writhing in pain as he is being shocked by the collar. He whimpers, and claws at it in a vain attempt to get free. Volts are racing though him as Eggman's collar sparks, going haywire. All he wants now was that cursed thing off of him. He will worry about what trouble he may be in for letting it get damaged later.

Tails races over to Sonic, "We have to help! It's hurting him!" Tails tries to grab the collar, but his hands recoil back in reflex from a shock of electricity. "Come on! Don't just stand there you two, help me!"

The G.U.N agents look at each other. They don't understand the fox's determination to help the monster that tried to kidnap the President and attacked them.

"Come on!" Tails snapped at them. The two agents finally come over, and kneeled down next to him. "What do you need us to do?" Asks Shadow.

Tails quickly looks the collar over, "We don't have time to take it off, but we might be able deactivate it. Shadow, try to drain some of the power out of it."

"Got it," Shadow puts his hands over the beast, which begin to glow as he siphons the harmful energy out. Slowly, the beast starts to relax as the painful electric shocks start to subside.

Tails lets out a sigh of relief, "We're getting it." The creature's breathing starts to ease as well. Shadow and Rouge smile. "Ok let's try and get it off now."

"Back away from the monster. We'll handle it from here." The group looks up to see that they are surrounded by a large group of G.U.N shock troops. All of the troops are armed with guns, and covered in armor.

"Wait! Don't do anything! He didn't mean to do what he did! It was Doctor Eggman using a control collar on him!" Orders Shadow.

"That's not for us to decide. We're under ours own orders to take it in," One of the solders said.

Shadow frowns, "Just hold on a minute-" "Sorry, Agent Shadow, we have our orders."

They continue to argue back and forth.

The beast's eyes flutter open, What's going on...? Where had the pain gone? Groggily, he turns his head towards the sounds of the heated discussion.

"We should give it the benefit of the doubt! There's evidence that it's actions were controlled by Eggman!" The female bat he had tackled before snaps at a small group of armored men.

"Agent Rouge, but there's no proof saying the creature is not capable of causing destruction on its own." They say back to her.

"C-Captain? S-Sir?" Stutters one of the soldiers. "What?" Huffs another man, the captain. The solider points behind them. The beast is getting to his feet.

Everyone turns their attention to him. He shakes his head, still a bit dazed. When his vision clears, the first thing his eyes spot is a collection of guns aimed at him by the shaking men.

They want to shoot me!. The beast backs away in fear and anticipation of more pain.

"Wait!" The yellow fox tries to calm him, "They won't hurt you! Please don't worry!"

But the beast Sonic simply ignored him, too focused on the weapons at hand. He takes another small step backwards, and in a flash turns and bolts into the woods beyond.

"Come back!"

Tails keeps calling after him to no avail. "See what you've done!" He snapped at the soldiers

Trees fly by like a blur as the beast races as fast as he can though the forest undergrowth, his paw-like hands and feet thumping against the cold, moonlit ground.

Run...run far away and run as fast as possible...

Have to get away...it doesn't matter where…..don't want to be shot at...

"You bots have that signal?" Eggman turns to his robots on screen as he flew in his Eggmobile. He taps his finger impatiently, a frown plastered upon his face. The mission has been a complete failure.

He didn't get the president, nobody was seriously injured, Sonic was a no show, and his creature is right now running off to who-knows-where after his control collar malfunctioned.

But thankfully, his genius mind thought to put that microchip in. Otherwise, he might have had no chance of finding the beast ever again.

"Yes Doctor," Becoe finally answers, "He's moving Northeast rapidly."

"Is the gas and net ready for use?"

"Yes Sir."

Eggman grins, "Good, get yourselves prepared for surgery before we arrive." And with that, he turns off the screen. He going to make sure the same mistakes doesn't happen again...ever...

Sonic keeps running, even through his exhaustion, when suddenly pain shoots though his body. It stops him dead in his tracks, as his whole body shakes. He manages a glance upwards, the sun was slowly peaking out though the tree.

The beastly features start shrink and melt away to softer hedgehog ones.

Sonic howls in agony as he changes. It soon turns to cries and screams as his voice comes back, while his bulky muscles slowly fade away. His bones creak and shrink and his thick fur recedes. Sonic's real mind emerges as the beast's disappears.

"Where... am I? This isn't Eggman's place."

Sonic tries to rise from the dirt, gasping from the exertion of the transformation. But his arms and legs felt weak, so he works hard to lean against a tree.

"How did I end up here? Maybe I escaped or something. Hm...something's around my neck?" His hand reaches up, and feels a strange collar around his neck, "What the heck is this thing?"

He gives it a firm tug, "And it won't come off either. Eggy must of put this on after that little pest of a robot knocked me out."

"Just what was this thing for?"

Then another thought crossed Sonic's mind, "If I escaped that means Eggman's going to be looking for me. I have to keep running and hide until nightfall. He can't find out my secret if I can help it." He tries to get to his feet. His knees wobble and feel like they would buckle at any moment.

"There's no way I'm going to be able to run like this, and I have no idea how long it's been. For all I know he could be right overhe-" He stops short when his ears pick up the faint humming of the Eggmobile "I hate it when I'm right"

Sonic looks left and right, trying to figure out what to do. With Eggman so close he wasn't sure if it would be safer to run or hide. If he runs the doctor might be able not be able to follow and he could put some distance between them. But then again his legs still felt weak, so that won't work.

Hiding hardly was a option either, that would be just asking for Eggman to find him. What could he do?

"If I only could get this stupid chip out of me" Sonic tugs at the collar again "But I can't even get this blasted thing off. How am I even going to get to the chip? Argh..."

"Wait Tails might be able to, that's if I could get to him...But then it's back to the -I can barley walk let alone run- problem"