It's kind of overwhelming, isn't it, the release of so many Sonic games at once? Sonic Colors comes out in the U.S. tomorrow, and coming from an avid fan of Sonic and Tails… IT LOOKS AMAZING. The few cutscenes I let myself watch on Youtube give me a GREAT first impression. Just the way Sonic and Tails talk to each other makes me so happy. They're so familiar and casual and brotherly. I can't wait to see what this game brings, as far as character development, plot, gameplay, replay value, unlockables… everything. It looks slightly on the lighthearted side for my tastes, but then, that's what I thought about Unleashed before its release as well, and THAT turned out to be one of my favorite Sonic games of all time.

Anyway… if you weren't anticipating this release, you should be now! And with anticipation so high, what better to tide you over than another chapter of DSotM? This happens to be one of my favorite chapters in this story, so I hope you like it as much as I do! Enjoy.

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CHAPTER 14: Scars Fade Away

As the quad of semi-allies ran towards the pack of robots at the pond, Espio came up alongside Sonic and got his attention.

"From here, they look like one of the more powerful series of Eggman's robots. If I'm right, they're called the Eggman Empire Elites, and they'll have 'E3' on their left shoulders. I've only encountered them once. I didn't get too close, knowing it was suicide to try and fight them on my own. These might be the same ones."

"They're gold and red, and really different looking," Sonic said. "I think I would have remembered seeing these before. What's more powerful about them?"

"I camouflaged so I could get near enough to see them clearly, and from what I observed, they are very fast. They can also shape-shift. Once we get close enough, you'll be able to see slots on their sides. Their limbs can retract into those. I don't know what the purpose of it is, though."

The robots stood tall on smooth, gold legs. Each limb had two bending points instead of one. The shining gold ran all the way up the legs and halfway up the torso of the robots, where it was interrupted by a dark crimson. The arms, also crimson, looked rather plain, but they all knew from experience that there were probably weapons underneath the exterior.

They were not blocky-looking at all; in fact, they looked smoother and more agile than any robots Sonic had ever seen.

"They were probably watching us," the hedgehog said. "The last group of robots weren't anything like this, but they watched me until I was alone and then attacked. These ones might have been waiting for the same opportunity."

"Somehow I doubt it," Espio said. "If they are as strong as they appear to be, they would have no need to wait for that."

"They won't leave us alone, and they get better every time they show up," Sonic pointed out. "Neither of those things are coincidence. Eggman's got a plan."

All four of them were running next to each other, now. Shadow, near Sonic on the far right, looked over at them. "I encountered two a while back, so they've existed for a while; just not in many numbers. They were the ones who collapsed that building on me before I could react, and they were gone before I escaped, so I never got the chance to tear them apart. They're clever, and they work fast. If they managed to disable me that quickly, I can't imagine any of you will have better luck."

Sonic glowered at him. Tails recognized the look in both sets of eyes and took flight, quickly moving over the group to land between them. "The enemies are over there!" He shouted irritably.

They both nodded reluctantly, but it didn't stop Sonic from adding, "I'm the one who got you out of that building."

"They've spotted us," Espio said calmly. "There appear to be about twenty of them. We should spread out a little and try to get them to spread out as well. But not too much, as we need to be able to look out for each—"

"Yeah, yeah," Sonic said confidently, "I know you're a ninja and stuff, but we're not new to this either."

With that, the blue blur bolted ahead of them, eager to be the first to take on the new robots. Shadow growled something under his breath and took off after him, having no intentions of letting the other hedgehog reach the action before he did.

Espio pulled out his throwing knife and then camouflaged. Tails had already taken to the air and was almost caught up to Shadow and Sonic. He arrived just in time to see Sonic rebound from a spin dash.

It hadn't even left a dent in the robot before him.

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Sonic's perspective.

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I couldn't believe my spin dash hadn't broken through it. I had been going at least a few hundred miles per hour. The thing had hardly even budged.

It was difficult pushing myself up off the ground. I felt like my brain had been shaken inside my skull.

"What's up with that!" I said, looking up at Tails. There were two of him. I tried to focus my vision.

He shrugged. "I guess they are stronger. Watch yourself."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Espio's knife whiz past the side of my head and strike the robot I'd been trying to destroy. One of the three blades on the triskele stuck in its torso, but it didn't seem to affect its functioning.

For his part, Espio seemed uncharacteristically surprised. Usually, the arc of his throw caused his weapon to simply slice a hole in the enemy and boomerang back to him. Now it was stuck.

"…I need that back."

I glanced up at Tails, who had just chuckled for some odd reason. He grinned down at us. "Leave this to me!" He flew upward another fifty feet, then dove down in a rush. At the last second, he pointed his feet downward and stomped on the robot's head, forcing it down into its body. It was awesome. He sprung back upwards and flipped through the air before doing the same to another robot that was close enough. The others were still making their way around the large pond.

Tails landed on his feet and looked over his shoulder as both robots exploded. To finish the stylish presentation, he jokingly dusted himself off, the way I would.

Well. There was one thing that had changed drastically because of my tampering with time. His fighting skills had increased a lot over those three months. As had his ego.

"How did you know to do that?" I asked as he jogged back over to us, brushing his bangs out of his face.

"From above, I could see that their heads are only held to their bodies by these… well, hinges, kinda. Between their head and their neck, I could see their inner workings. Not a smart idea on Eggman's part to leave the neck hollow. He should have filled the empty space with reinforcements."

"That was sweet, Tails."

He smiled, looking far more modest in the face of a compliment than in the face of an enemy. I was glad he was confident on the battlefield, though. It made me have more confidence in him, too.

"Here come the rest," Shadow said. "It won't be easy facing ten times the amount you just faced."

"Plan on helping any?" I shot. I expected Tails to try and stop me from arguing with Shadow right now, but instead, he came up next to me and looked at Shadow expectantly.

"Fine, since you obviously don't think you can do it without me."

"Tails just took care of two without your help, so we obviously can. We're not asking you to be a showoff and take care of all the problems for us; we can do that ourselves if need be."

"Yeah," Tails said, "You'd be, like… a catalyst. You'd make defeating them a lot easier and faster, but if you don't want to help, we don't need you."

"But don't expect me to get you out of any more fallen buildings if you can't help us out with something that would apparently be so easy for you," I remarked.

"Is someone a little intimidated by the robots that defeated him before?" Espio put in, grinning a little along with Tails and I.

Shadow wasn't grinning. His hands were fisted at his sides. "I am the Ultimate Life-form," he said quietly. "I do not get intimidated."

The remaining E3s increased speed, approaching unexpectedly fast. We were all still focused on our conversation when a dozen of them quickly formed a wide circle around us. The remaining six went between them, inside the circle. It was so sudden that even I couldn't react before their maneuver was finished.

But it wasn't finished. We all watched as the ones forming the ring collapsed themselves into metal boxes with long spikes extending from the top, sides and front. The spikes were gold and appeared to come from what used to be the torso, underside and back of the robots. Not hesitating, I made a move to escape the ring. As soon as I approached the edge, the three spiked robots that were nearest to me slid closer to each other on the ground, blocking my path. The move left a lot of space on either side of the trio, though, so I dashed for one of the openings.

Long before I got there, the three robots had shifted over to block me again. Trapped inside a small battlefield, I couldn't get the speed I wanted, but I was still pretty fast. They were faster.

"Sonic!" Tails called out to me. Once he got my attention, he dive-bombed a robot, but it used its long arms to shield its head. Tails recovered from the block and landed on the ground, running towards me. "They learn from what we do. They recognize what happened to the two that I defeated, and do what they have to do keep it from happening to them. They have really intelligent AI!"

Suddenly, an E3 sped up behind Tails. I saw him coming a split second before he got there, but it was still too late. He smacked Tails in the back hard, sending him flying towards the perimeter of the battlefield – right towards one of the spiked cubes. I raced after him, seeing what was coming if I didn't do something about it. As he landed in the wet grass and tumbled over himself uncontrollably, I threw myself on the other side of him and tried to catch him before he hit the sharp perimeter. It didn't work out as I'd planned. Tails's momentum took me with him and sandwiched me between him and the spikes.

I cried out in sudden, unexpected agony.

"Ugh…" Tails gained his bearings from the bumpy ride and pushed himself to his feet. By the look on his face, I knew he didn't realize what had happened until he saw me. "Oh my gosh! Sonic… here, let me help…"

I was on my side on the ground, the spikes digging into my back. We had slowed down enough to prevent me being impaled or something, but they had still broken the skin, and it was still incredibly painful. "Wait, waitwaitwait," I stammered as Tails bent down to help me. I didn't want to be touched or moved. Tails watched me with a concerned expression as I laid still for a long moment. Then I slowly pulled myself away from the spikes.

Hah, that's what I get for having my little bro back.

Once all the sharp ends were out of me, I rolled forward on my front in relief.

"Are you okay?" Tails asked.

"I think so," I mumbled into the ground. "How bad is it?"

"Not as bad as it probably feels. There's only a little blood. Sonic… why do you always have to do that?" I turned my head to look at the apologetic expression on his face.

"Would you do the same for me?"

"Of course I would. Without a second thought."

I smiled at him, then grimaced unintentionally. Ouch. "Then it doesn't need explaining, now, does it?"

"I suppose not." He smiled, too. "Can you get up? Espio and Shadow are holding them at bay for us. They saw what happened. But they won't be able to hold them back forever."

"Yeah, I think I'm good," I said. Tails held a hand out. I grasped it and he grabbed my forearm with his other hand, then pulled me up smoothly.

For a moment, I wondered if my spikes hurt that bad when I was forced to use them on something capable of feeling pain.

"Tails, can you fly us out of here? I don't like limited fighting space."

"That's not a good idea; trust me. Shadow tried jumping over one of the spike bots at the same time you were trying to run around them. It blasted upward as Shadow was going over it and the spikes almost caught his face. I don't want to risk it."

He could have just left it at the first sentence.

"We need to find a way to fight them. They're guarding their only weak spot!"

Just as I finished saying that, I heard a loud grunt from Espio. I whirred around to see what had happened. For a second there was nothing, then I saw Espio slowly come back into view from his camouflage. He was on the ground on his side, hands to his head, making a respectable effort to hide the pain I could see he was in.

Things were going downhill fast.

"Hang in there, Espio!" I called to him, turning away for a moment to survey the scene. Tails had run over to where Shadow was, and was trying to distract the nearest robot so Shadow could attack it. I could see the concern on Tails' face and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was: this was already a tough battle, and it was only going to get tougher. For the moment, though, he was holding his own. I raced over to Espio.

"It's superficial," the chameleon said, seeing me see the bleeding wound on his forehead. Espio was no stranger to injuries, and it looked superficial to me too, but it bothered me that he hadn't gotten up yet.

It also bothered me that a lifetime ninja and martial artist had been attacked so brutally, so quickly. "What happened?" I asked him. It wasn't the ideal place to have a discussion, but at the same time, I figured we needed to learn from each others' failures to defeat these guys.

"I camouflaged and they still detected me."

I let out a low whistle. The last time that had happened was… never. That explained why he was caught off-guard like he was.

"Move."

I dove to my right. When someone tells you to move in the middle of a fight, you don't waste time asking stupid questions. I just barely avoided getting plowed by an E3 moving at ridiculous speeds. But Espio didn't avoid it. I saw him try, saw the signs that his body was still failing to react the way he wanted it to. I saw the E3 force him almost to the edge of the ring, then start beating him without restraint.

Already recovered from my quick dodge, I was running after him, having no idea what to do to but hoping I would by the time I got there a few milliseconds later. I never quite got there, because I made crucial mistake.

Tunnel vision.

Following my first instinct to save Espio, I wasn't paying any attention to what was going on outside of that. So I didn't see the robot that had been behind the one now pinning Espio to the ground. I didn't see it coming at me from the side, about to cross paths with me violently.

The heavy weight of the robot crashed into me, lifting me clear off the ground. I cried out in mortal agony as one of my ribs cracked with the impact. My scream was jolted by the sudden force of the ground hitting my face. The E3's inertia landed it right on top of me for a split second before it kept rolling. The rib snapped completely. Against my own will, I inhaled to scream. The act increased the pain in my side tenfold. My throat constricted and my breath locked in my lungs.

Seconds were hours as I laid there, clutching my side, holding my breath. My eyes were shut tightly, so I had no idea if that robot was getting back up, ready to kick me while I was down. I tried to breathe. It was a very shallow, painful first breath. But there was no time. I couldn't wait until I was okay to get back up.

I forced my eyes open and rolled over on my front. Endorphins were kicking in somewhat, but I still heard myself moaning as I got to my feet. I hoped the broken rib was the only thing in there that was broken.

The spiked outer ring was about five feet away from me. Impaled on one set of the spikes was the robot that had slammed into me. Most of its exterior was destroyed, and it was on fire. I tried to ignore my pain and figure out a way I could get the rest of the robots to kill themselves like that.

"Hey, Faker! I tried to say you were all out of your minds."

Shadow had a robot to each side of him, one holding each arm immobile. Though he tried, even his strength couldn't match that of the robots holding him. A little ways behind him, I saw Tails being held in a similar fashion. His legs were limp beneath him and his eyes were just barely open. He looked dizzy and sick. My stomach lurched in fear. I hoped he was okay.

I didn't need to look behind me to know that Espio was down for the count, too.

And Shadow was glowering at me like the whole thing was my fault. I wanted to hurt him. "It's not over yet," I said with a grim grin that dared him to tell me otherwise. If he had a response, I never heard it, because the two E3s holding him pressed their free limbs to the sides of his throat, knocking him out in five seconds flat. Espio would've known more about a technique like that than me, but I was pretty sure it involved cutting off the blood supply to his brain.

I was about to make a dash for Tails when I heard a voice I hadn't heard in a long, long time.

Hold still.

It was the conscience of the Master Emerald.

They detect by movement, not by sight. Be absolutely still.

I supposed it was a good thing I was already in a relatively normal position and not standing on one foot, or something. Where have you been? I thought. I tried to breathe without inflating anything but my lungs. The effort put more pressure on my ribs, which presented me with the additional challenge of not wincing.

After energizing the Super Emeralds all that time ago, the genderless voice began, I needed time to rejuvenate as well. Even now, it is extremely difficult to communicate with so much negative energy being spread by the barrier. I can do little more than communicate, as a matter of fact. Sonic, listen to me. Leave Tails. He will be okay. If you attempt to pursue him, things will turn out worse. Allow the minions to capture you.

Where was the logic in that? That's crazy, I thought back.

I thought you knew better than to doubt me. You, of all people, should know how to think rationally at a time like this.

I do, I thought. But you're not being rational!

If you do not listen to me, things will not work out as planned, and the bigger picture will not end up looking like what you want it to look like.

What are you talking about? What plan?

You'll understand in time, if you are willing to take a risk. There was a drop of mockery in the voice, on the second part of the sentence, I noticed. I couldn't resist a smirk.

I caught myself too late; my change of expression alone betrayed me to the nearest E3. I managed to dodge its attack, setting off the rest of the robots in the process. "Risk is my middle name!"

From the corner of my eye, I saw another robot come at me. I stepped out of the way just in time, then whirred around – only to get rammed promptly in the head by a thick, metallic limb.

My last conscious thought was, was that part of the plan?

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"Sonic, are you awake?"

I was now.

It was sudden. There wasn't a blurry, groggy transition from unconsciousness to consciousness. I was just suddenly awake. I wondered if being in a standing position had made me rouse faster.

Then I wondered why I was in a standing position to begin with.

It was like I had just woken up from sleepwalking, and realized I had been sleepwalking. The only problem with that was that I knew I had been knocked out cold.

The surrounding area was dark, and my eyes were still adapting to it. I could see a wall across from me; that was about it. I tried to reach up and rub the darkness out of my eyes. My hand didn't move. Neither did the other one. Neither did my feet.

Cold, dreadful realization struck me. I had been sleeping on my feet because I was pinned to a wall.

"Don't panic," Espio said from several feet away from me. It was his voice that had asked me if I was awake a moment ago. It bothered me that his was the only voice I had heard thus far.

"Where are Tails and Shadow?" I asked.

"Not here. By the looks of it, that is probably a good thing."

My vision was adapting to the relative darkness. I could see that we were in a plain, unadorned hall. That our voices echoed was a pretty good indicator that the walls were marble. The one we were being held against was smooth and cold. I figured it was probably dark grey with light veins, like the one across from us. The ceiling was low, maybe eight feet, and concrete, like the floor.

Curious and a little unnerved by the fact that I couldn't move, I looked down at myself. I saw what I expected to see, but what I hoped I wouldn't see. Tight, metal semicircles were holding my feet to the floor, my wrists at my sides to the wall. There was a switch about a foot away from me that I imagined would open the restraints. I hated that it was so close but so out of reach. I was trapped and I knew it right then and there.

The pads taped to my shoulders and sides offered no comfort.

There were four total, two on my right and two on my left, and there was a wire connected to each one. Following the wires across the hall with my eyes, I could see that my right side was hooked up to one unit, my left to another. Espio was set up similarly. I wondered why.

If nothing else, I had an inward laugh at how traditional of a setup this was. Eggman was usually pretty original, but this idea was a little cliché, if you asked me.

"Well then," I said after I finished my appraisal of the situation, my voice resonating around the narrow chamber. "Good morning."

"I've had better mornings," he replied. Neither of us knew if it was actually morning or not, but we had just woken up. It was just the irony of voicing a pleasantry amidst a situation like this that made me say it. "They usually involve a cup of coffee." For his part, Espio's voice was cool and lightly sarcastic. I was glad he shared in my easy humor. The situation we were in was undeniably serious, and the wires taped to both of us foreshadowed how much more serious it would likely become. The way I saw it, that was enough gravity without us adding to it. Might as well even the balance, and take ourselves lightly while we could.

Something caught my eye a moment later, something that made it impossible to feel humorous anymore. I turned my head to my left, looking down towards the end of the hall.

Lying in a heap there were the limp bodies of three G.U.N. soldiers.

I felt queasy.

"…Not all the people captured were taken up to Grand Metropolis, were they?" I asked, my voice tone changing.

"Apparently not."

"There were people trapped in these chambers all along, these chambers that I rushed past so many times, not thinking anything of them. I could've saved them!"

"I don't think that's your weight to shoulder."

"Who else could have? Shadow? And Tails was dead half the time – er, you know what I mean – so I was the only one!"

Espio sighed. "I have been in the empire as long as you have. I did not know of this, either, and I do not hold myself responsible for something I didn't know about."

I looked back at the bodies, turning away from him. "These G.U.N. agents must have known what was going on. Eggman couldn't have them knowing about what he was doing. And while he was at it, why not try to persuade them to join his side, in exchange for life? And those who…" My voice cracked. "Those who refused were tortured to death."

"It appears Eggman has us set up to be next."

I gave him a sidelong glance, realizing only then that he was a whole ten feet away from me. The echo of our voices in the small building was deceiving. "Eggman never used to be like this," I said. "He was evil, yeah, but not like this. He's going insane now that he's so close to having the power he's dreamed of!" Espio was turning his arm, trying experimentally to ease out of the restraints. Even if our gloves were off, I don't think he would have had any success. The metal was biting into my wrists. I couldn't imagine his situation was any different.

Several weeks ago, in my 'other' life, I recalled Eggman saying he wanted to make my life miserable for all the times I made him miserable. He told me in a moment of unashamed, unrestrained honesty that he wanted to make me suffer. Although the exchange technically hadn't happened in this life, he undoubtedly still felt the same way. That wouldn't have changed. Now, he was acting on those feelings. I realized that was what he had been after all along. Reprisal.

And I also realized that I wasn't afraid of that. The sense of vulnerability I had felt before was nonexistent now. When Tails was killed by the poison, it brought me down to earth, made my attitude less genuine and more of a façade, made me something of a… faker. Even after the wounds had healed and I felt mostly myself again, there was still that scar that seemed as if it would never go away.

Of course, that Tails died at all had been effectively undone. But I could not unlearn the things I had learned throughout that journey. I couldn't un-think what had occurred to me about vulnerability, about how we could all lose our lives and ourselves so easily.

When Shadow and I had gone back in time and I saw my past form, it made me acknowledge how much my perspective on life had changed since then. I watched myself deal with the pain of the poison and the possibility of death, and remain totally unfazed. I thought to myself, 'I wish I still had that.' But even as I thought it, I knew that Tails' death had given me a new perspective that I had never seen before, and it couldn't be reversed, no matter how much time traveling we did.

That was the metaphorical scar.

But sometimes even scars can get so light you don't notice them anymore. That was the point in my life I was at right now. I no longer felt so mentally vulnerable. I was ready for whatever happened next, and I would not hesitate to take a risk when an opportunity arose. I felt as confident in myself as I knew I was supposed to feel, as I had always felt. I felt invincible – on the inside.

"Hard to miss the reason why Eggman wants me trapped in here right now," I muttered, grinning a little. "But what I don't understand is… why did he put you in here with me? I mean, I love the company, don't get me wrong, but he doesn't really have anything against you."

I actually did like the company. Espio and I were very different in a lot of ways; he was far more serious and dutiful than I ever wanted to be, and he had discipline that, if it was a trait of mine, I would find more of a burden than a virtue. But his quiet self-respect and his composure made him a low-maintenance personality, and he was easy to get along with.

"Nothing that I know of," the chameleon replied. "It's quite possible that he knows Vector and Charmy are outside the boundary. Perhaps he thinks I'm spying from an interior point of view, and communicating with them. I am a professional detective, after all."

"Wait, have you been talking to them? You could get them to go to G.U.N. and we could get outside help!"

"That was my first thought once I realized how serious Eggman's gotten about this empire. But by then, it was too late, and I was trapped in here."

My heart was pounding. "Even so, don't you have high tech phones and stuff? You could try contacting them and—"

"I did so several times in the weeks before I found you, at several different locations. The signal just doesn't carry through all the negative Chaos energy being spread by the barrier, even with the good technology we have."

It's a depressing feeling, getting your hopes up for nothing. "Oh, well. We'll figure out something!"

"I do have an idea for our current problem, but it likely won't work and sounds ludicrous in my thoughts, to say nothing of how it would sound out loud."

"That unpromising, huh? Well, try me!"

"It is something you would have to leave to me. Never mind for now."

I would have shrugged. "M'kay then."

A few minutes passed in silence.

"Sonic, have you noticed that we never see anyone approach the barrier from the other side? Even though I haven't been able to contact Vector, it seems someone should have tried to travel here and noticed the barrier. A phenomenon like this would be getting news coverage, too, and yet we've seen no sign of G.U.N. or any other source of help."

"Maybe it repels intruders, or something," I suggested. "Who cares? Knowing why there's no outside help isn't going change anything unless we can find a way to communicate with someone outside."

"That should be our next step," Espio said.

"That's what I was thinking, but didn't we say we'd leave the barrier to Shadow and Tails for now? We agreed to find Eggman."

"Regardless, we can do neither until we escape."

"Actually, we can find Eggman," I said slowly.

Espio met my eyes. "Why do you say that so unenthusiastically?"

"Because I'm saying that he will come right to us. He will want to see us personally." He will want to see me personally.

"That much, I had assumed already."

"Heh. I wish we could meet up with him on our terms, not his. Pretty sure that's what Tails had in mind when he suggested we find Eggman." As my little bro's name left my mouth, I felt a slight pang of worry for him. Were he and Shadow okay? I hoped the Elites left them alone after capturing us. I didn't want to imagine Tails being pinned to a wall somewhere, unable to escape, like I was.

It was almost as bad as imagining him being stuck in a room with only Shadow for conversation.

"I can't imagine how we're going to get out of here," Espio said. "This is tricky." He didn't sound positive, but he didn't sound discouraged either; only tactical and realistic.

There was muffled noise coming from outside. If Espio heard it too, he didn't betray himself. I glanced in the direction of the door. It was too dim for me to quite see the door at all, but I knew it was there. No light was coming from the area, a pretty promising indicator that it was still closed. The feeling in the pit of my stomach, though, told me that that noise had indeed signaled the arrival of someone.

As much as we both hoped it was Tails and Shadow, I knew deep inside that it would be none other than the Elites… or Eggman himself. "Shhh," Espio whispered, and I knew he knew it too. "Nobody has entered yet, but they might be listening. If they are Elites, perhaps we can remain quiet enough and still enough to prevent them from detecting us."

I had the urge to look down at my hands and feet, as if the restraints themselves held the answers to my escape. I kept still, though, as did Espio, listening in anticipation. "You're right, this'll be tricky," I said under my breath, offering a challenging smile, "but if we can't get out of here now… we can take what's coming with dignity until we can."

He smirked back with pride and poise. Again, I found myself thinking he was a good person to be trapped in a room with.

"Spoken like a ninja," he said to me. Then the door swung open, bathing the room in a sudden wealth of blinding daylight.

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Up next: where did Shadow and Tails end up, and how in the world could the Master Emerald have wanted things to work out this way? Also, Tails discovers what Sonic has been keeping from him for months…