Turns out, when my internet goes down, I have a LOT of time to write, which is why this is out relatively quickly.

Still don't any non-OC characters. That's SEGA's job.

Sonic invited them in, and after a quick explanation from Tails and Amy about their day, Sonic was very distressed. "It's gotta be Eggman. . . I know it. . ."

"But we haven't heard from him for months. . ." Tails protested.

"How do you know it's Eggman, Sonic?" Amy leaned closer as she spoke up, and Sonic sighed. He stroked his chin, staring ahead in deep thought. He wanted to explain everything he knew, but not only would it worry his friends, they might figure out that it was linked to his incident with Amy. He knew that getting Cream and Cheese back were more important than having them possibly be mad at him again, but he knew he did not have to tell them everything.

"I saw him a few weeks ago. . . he sent me a message to fight him alone, and he had a HUGE army, which explains why we haven't heard anything from him. If I refused, he said he'd hurt you. . ." Tails and Amy both moved towards him, frowns on their faces and sad looks in their eyes. ". . . and he had five chaos emeralds, so it was only a matter of time before he had all seven. I had to try and stop him. I did some damage, got two emeralds, and got away, but I was beat up pretty bad. If it wasn't for chaos control, I don't know if I'd have survived. . ."

"Why didn't anyone do anything about it? Did. . . did you talk to Sally about it?" Amy said gently.

"Yeah, I went there first. . . and she was with her family. . . I tried to tell them, but none of them believed me. . ."

"WHAT?" Both Tails and Amy exclaimed.

"I know. . . I looked pretty ragged, and Sally's parents hadn't seen me around much, but I don't really know why they didn't believe me. . ." Sonic hung his head. "I guess they thought I wouldn't let things get this out of hand. . ."

"Sonic. . ." Amy said sympathetically. "It wasn't your fault. . . and you did all you could. . ." She reached her arm out to touch him, and Sonic stepped away. "What. . . what's wrong. . .?"

"It's nothing. . ." Sonic looked up, but could not force himself to look happy.

"If it didn't go well with Sally. . . why didn't you tell any of us? You know we'd have helped you out. . . " Amy leaned in closer to him, her eyes meeting his.

"I tried to. . ."

"Who did you go to first? No one seemed to know about this. . ." Amy thought for a moment. "Even Shadow or Rouge would help us out and tell everyone. . . " Sonic stayed silent through Amy's speech. He wanted to distract her, to hope she would not find out the truth, but he knew there was no stopping her once she was focused. After a few more seconds, her eyes went wide. "Wait a minute. . . you looked terrible that day I found you. . . and you, you. . ." Amy hung her head, and Tails gasped.

"I ran away after I left you. . . I couldn't handle anything at that point. . ." Sonic sighed. "I'm sorry. . ."

"It. . . it's okay. . ." Amy held her arms open for a hug, Sonic walked over, and the pair embraced. "I thought that you were having a bad day when I saw you, but, that's terrible. . ."

"Yeah, but I still shouldn't have treated you the way I did. . ." Sonic pulled away and nodded. "We need to get to Eggman's base in the mountains. It'll be really risky, but I put a dent in his army, and with the three of us, we should be fine. Let's go!" All three of them ran to the Tornado and got in.

"I've heard about his mountain base, but I've never actually seen it. . . you're gonna have to help, Sonic. . ." Tails said as they took off.

"Right. And do a scan for anything electronic when we get close, just in case. . . he's got some good defenses set up. . ." Sonic nodded.

"Okay. . ." Tails headed towards the mountains, scanning the ground with both his eyes and the Tornado's technology, looking for any suspiciously-placed rocks or trees, in case they held turret guns or anything that could detect the Tornado as it was flying towards them. "What's our plan for when we get down there?"

"We split up and search. That mountain base has a lot of tunnels, which means it might take us a while, and we'll probably have to take out most of his robots to get to Cream." Sonic's eyes were also darting around, and he looked as nervous as Tails did. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Amy fidgeting with her dress as she looked around. He gently put his hand on her shoulder, trying to sound as calm as possible. "We'll get her out of there, Amy, don't worry."

"You won't get away with this, Eggman!" Cream shouted from inside a small container made of a glasslike polymer. It was transparent, yet strong enough so Cream and Cheese couldn't break out, even though they tried.

"If I had a nickel for every time I heard that. . ." Eggman angrily muttered.

"What do you want with Cheese and I?" Cream clung to her crying Chao, stomping her foot with rage.

"I'm going to use you as bait, of course. Sonic may have gotten the better of me in the past, but no more! With my newest fleet of robots, Sonic and his friends won't stand a chance! Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho!" Eggman threw his head back as he laughed. Just then, a mechanical voice was heard from the nearby computer.

"Enemy ship detected. . . "

"Perfect! Put it on screen." Eggman smirked and stroked his mustache with anticipation as he saw that the Tornado was heading straight for them. He typed in a series of commands to prepare his robot army for their arrival. "Let them come. . . soon, they'll all be out of my hair for good. . ."

"What hair? You're bald!" Cream shouted and stuck her tongue out at Eggman, who angrily muttered something and turned back to his computer.

"We're almost there!" Sonic shouted as he pointed to an inconspicuous rock formation on the side of the mountain.

"Descending now!" Tails kept looking around, but still found no defenses built into the mountain or surrounding ground. "Sonic, there's no turrets or anything like that here. Was this how it was when you were here?"

"Yeah. . . probably because it took everything he had to make all those bots. . . we need to be on our guard after we land. He'll probably have a big welcoming committee." Sonic focused on where he saw the entrance was last time, and Amy summoned her hammer as Tails brought the Tornado in for a smooth landing.

"Eggman probably already knows we're here. I picked up a few stray electronic devices on our way here, and it's not like Eggman to let anyone in undetected." Tails found a lot of objects on the radar, all seemingly crowded near the entrance. "Yup. . . that's a lot of bots. . ." His eyes went wide for a moment.

"We need to hurry before it gets any worse. Let's go!" Sonic said as Tails opened the cockpit. Sonic jumped out first, followed by Tails and Amy. The three of them ran towards the entrance, zigzagging and using cover to be careful just in case the robots tried to swarm them. They all became concerned when the robots did not try to swarm them or advance at all, even when they were under the cover of a large rock right outside the entrance.

"What's going on?" Amy asked. "They're just. . . standing there. . ."

"I think Eggman just wants to show off. . . he can't resist it after chasing me away. . ." Sonic sounded angry at the thought of having an earlier "defeat" rubbed in his face.

"Now what do we do?" Amy looked to Tails, who was deep in thought, searching for an answer.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! The sound echoed throughout the apartment, and the red light associated with it made its presence known on every wall. "What's going on?" The gruff voice of Shadow the Hedgehog was barely audible under the screaming alarm.

"It's from the commander, it's an emergency!" Rouge ran to the blinking red light on the video phone they had installed in their apartment, courtesy of G.U.N., and pressed the "Play" button.

"Shadow, Rouge, Eggman's army has shown itself in the mountain base. Our surveillance has spotted Sonic, Tails, and Amy already there, along with approximately one thousand robots at the entrance alone. We couldn't get any cameras or bugs inside the base, so we're not sure how many more weapons he has."

"What do you propose we do, commander?" Shadow crossed his arms and glared at the video feed of the commander.

"I'm leaving that up to you. If you decide to attack, we'll have soldiers head out immediately."

"We can't risk an army as large as Eggman may have loose on the city. Send all available soldiers and weapons to the base. We're on our way there." Rouge said as she looked at Shadow and nodded. Shadow nodded in return.

"I've never been there, so I can't use chaos control to warp there, even if I get a picture of the place. We'll need a ride. Send the fastest jet you have here right away." Shadow added.

"Done. Good luck." With that, the commander cut off the transmission.

"I'll get the chaos emerald. Even if I can't warp there, it'll be useful in the fight." Shadow ran over and grabbed the glowing green gem.

"I know Sonic's a great fighter, and Tails and Amy are no slouches, but. . . I don't know if they can handle all this. Eggman amassed a huge army, and if he got all the chaos emeralds as well, he'd be unstoppable." Rouge sighed as the pair walked outside and up to the roof, waiting for their pickup.

"We'll make sure that won't happen." Shadow put his hand on Rouge's shoulder and gave a confident nod, his face still as stoic as ever.

"Of course, handsome." Rouge grinned and leaned in, kissing Shadow's cheek, which made him grin. Shadow was about to respond, but was stopped by a G.U.N. jet pulling to a stop over their roof and opening a side hatch to allow people to board.

"All ready to go, agents Shadow and Rouge. We'll be off as soon as you board." The pilot spoke over the intercom, and the two got on and strapped in within seconds. The pilot retracted the hatch and took off.

"How many soldiers do we have joining us?" Shadow asked.

"About a thousand, and they're all our best men, and armed to the teeth." The pilot replied.

"Sounds like we're gonna come out on top." Rouge grinned as she spoke.

"We can't keep standing around, we gotta get to Cream!" Sonic was becoming impatient as they were planning.

"We'll stick together against the bots, then split up once the coast is clear. Eggman always has complicated bases, and we have no idea where Cream is. If we split up too early, they'll overwhelm us. Everyone ready?" Tails asked, and the other two nodded right away.

"Then let's go!" Sonic jumped on top of the rock and dashed towards the robots, and Tails and Amy swept around, coming from opposite sides. Once approached, the robots all came to life and started firing, aiming mostly for Sonic, with the robots on the far edges aim for either Amy or Tails, depending on who was attacking them. The sound of bullets, robotic joins moving, and hammers and tails moving deftly filled the air. Each of them focused on the robots in front of them, with Amy clobbering robots into other robots, Tails using his surprisingly strong tails in a similar fashion, and Sonic bouncing around all the robots he could like a pinball.

"There's too many! How are we going to get to Cream through all this?" Tails shouted as his tails swept at the ankles of some of the robots.

"Just keep fighting! Eggman can't send bots our way forever!" Sonic shouted back, wincing as a bullet grazed his arm. Amy leapt up and smashed a robot, crunching it down like an empty soda can.

"I can see more coming, Sonic! M-Maybe we should get out of here. . ." As Amy spoke, some of the robots moved around to get between the heroes and the Tornado.

"We'll fight our way out of this, and see what we can do from there. . ." Tails was panting as he used his tails to sweep the robots out of his way.

"Come on, guys! You can do it!" Cream looked worried, but shouted encouragingly at the screen anyways.

"Your puny friends don't stand a chance against my army!" Eggman turned to Cream, an evil grin plastered on his face. "I've got even more robots waiting, and plenty of traps in here to crush them, if they even get here! OH-hohohohohoho!" Eggman laughed as he sat back down his chair, assured of victory.

"We're getting close, agents. Where do you want to land?" The G.U.N. pilot spoke calmly over the intercom.

"Put us right in the middle of the action." Rouge suggested, and Shadow gave a curt nod.

"I'll try. The closest I can safely get you. . ." The pilot checked his controls and map. "I can circle around and have you jump out fifty meters away from Eggman's robots."

"That'll do fine." Rouge put her arm around Shadow. "Ready to have some fun, sugar?" She turned to him and winked, which Shadow replied to with a smirk and a nod. He then wrapped his arms around Rouge, which caused her to gasp.

"Be careful out there." Shadow gently nuzzled his cheek with hers. "I've already lost Maria, I won't lose you, too." He whispered softly to her.

"I'll be fine." Rouge placed her hands on his cheeks and kissed him deeply, pulling away only when the pilot shouted, "Ten seconds, agents. Opening the hatch now! Reinforcements will be here in two minutes!" Rouge grinned as she walked outside and held Shadow close to her. "Let's give ol' Eggy a visit he'll never forget." Rouge clung to Shadow and jumped out. They were two miles above ground and falling fast, waiting to get closer to Rouge could glide them to a safe landing.

On the ground, the mountain of scrap metal was slowly growing, but sweat was visible on the brows of all three fighters, each of them looked battered, and Amy's dress looked like swiss cheese. "There's too many!" Tails shouted. "Every time we get close to the edge, more of them keep surrounding us!"

"We gotta get out of here!" Sonic shouted, his eyes wide and his voice shaking with desperation.

"Hii-yah!" Amy shouted as her hammer made contact with another robot, sending it flying into the crowd. They had taken out about half of the original thousand, but more were coming out of the mountains to take the place of the fallen. She and Tails were both panting heavily, as they were not as used to hand-to-hand combat as Sonic. They had had a bit of training with Sonic and Knuckles, but not even Sonic was prepared for something like this. All of them turned when they heard the sound of a jet flying overhead, and Tails had enough time to spare a glance upward in the middle of fighting.

"Something's falling from the plane!" Tails noticed the jet's logo just before it went out of sight. He jumped up and kicked the nearest robot in the shoulders, giving him more time to look up as he flew backwards. He saw wings unfurl from the falling object, and recognized it immediately. "It's Rouge! And Shadow!"

The airborne pair glided gracefully over the swarm, dodging bullets. The green chaos emerald was visible against Shadow's ebony fur. "CHAOS. . . SPEAR!" A blast of energy took out a few robots on the ground. Seconds later, Rouge threw Shadow into the fray, where he landed next to Sonic, taking out a robot right behind him.

"G.U.N. is sending backup that should arrive in about a minute. Soldiers, tanks, artillery, you name it. Looks like someone believes you after all, faker. . ." Shadow grinned as he started giving the robots a sound thrashing.

"Hold on just a bit longer, everyone! Then we'll take Eggman down, once and for all!" Rouge shouted as she did a sweep kick to take out the robots surrounding her. Sonic, Tails, and Amy were revitalized by the arrival of Shadow and Rouge, in addition to knowing that they would soon have enough firepower to take down whatever Eggman had planned. Sonic had his trademark grin back as he looked towards the entrance and shouted as loud as he could.

"You hear that, Eggman? This ends NOW!"