"Thanks for helping me put together my Björnvaalden bookcase. I got it from that foreign build-your-own furniture store!" Amy grinned at the group.

"You're welcome, Amy!" Penny grinned back.

Tails frowned, glancing at the small box. "That's it?"

"Ah, you'd be surprised at how much they can fit in one little box!" Amy grinned.

Sonic walked up and opened it, and boards of all shapes and sizes shot out from it, and Penny popped out of the pile along with Tails, Knuckles, and Sonic.

Tails frowned as he studied the instructions. "There are no words, just pictures!"

"Just like the novel I'm writing!" Knuckles grinned, grabbing the paper. He frowned. "Hmm... the plot's there, but the characters are all over the place."

Amy glanced up from her pile of wood. "How do we tell the difference between Side A and Side C?"

"Good question," Penny said. "I was wondering the same thing myself."

"Side A should have one more L-Bracket." Tails explained.

"You mean T-Bracket, right?"

Tails gulped nervously. "Uuhh..."

Sonic growled in annoyance. "Tails, so help me, if you've been confusing L-Brackets and T-Brackets this whole time...!"

"Who used all the D-Screws?!" Sticks asked. "All I have left are J-Knobs, which are worthless! And has anyone seen Back Panel G?"

"Sorry, Sticks." Penny shook her head. "I don't see it."

"Uhh...I think I found it." Knuckles announced. The echidna raised his arm, sowing the Back Panel G stuck to his arm. Knuckles grumbled as he tried to pull it off, but it seemed glued shut. Knuckles even ended up snapping the board in half.

Sonic groaned in annoyance. "Great! Now we have to go back to the store and exchange the whole thing! Come on, let's pack it up."

The gang tried to place all the boards back in, but there was no room in that tiny box. Penny shook her head. "If someone's playing a joke on us, I'm not laughing."

Sonic nodded in agreement. He sighed and picked up the instructions. "We got a brand new Blork...splargin. Let's just build it right here."

"And when we mess up, we can get yet another one!" Tails grinned. "Great idea, Sonic!"

"That's why I'm the leader." Sonic grinned. "Now let's dominate this cheap piece of furniture! ...To the best of our limited ability."

Soon, Penny helped the others the best she could with the bookshelf. In the end, their result was...well...let's just say it was barely a bookshelf.

"Welp, we're out of parts and instructions. I think we're done." Sonic said.

"Great work, team," Amy said.

"That's one interesting bookshelf." Penny hummed nervously.

At that right moment, Eggman's robots appeared. Eggman smirked down at them. "Did somebody call for a dramatic entrance?"

"Tails, get us an aerial survey! We'll take him out from down here. Penny, stay here." Sonic ordered. She nodded, standing by the bookcase as everyone else ran to fight the robots and Eggman's new team.

"He stole my purse!" Lady Walrus cried, pointing to one of the goons who snatched away her purse. "My baby! Pictures."

Sticks and Amy ran after them. Penny heard Sticks yell a second later, "AMBUSH!"

Penny watched as Eggman snickered down at Sonic. "Looks like your team is stretched a bit thin, you periwinkle pipsqueak!"

"I can take you one-on-one any day, Egghead!" Sonic replied.

"Who said anything about one-on-one?" Eggman snarled.

Charlie ran into the battle as well, followed by Eggman's robots.

"You've got to be kidding me..." Sonic moaned.

"It's working! The plan's actually working!" Eggman squealed.

Sonic saw the bookcase Penny was standing by and ran over to it.

"Sonic, what are you doing?!" She asked.

"Trust me," Sonic said.

Penny nodded.

Sonic quickly grabbed her in his arms and smirked at Giant Robot. "Over here, you oversized can opener!"

Penny let out a shriek as Giant Robot lunged at them, but Sonic sped them away just in time, cutting one of the bookcase shelves and tossed it at Giant Robot, causing it to collide with Charlie.

"NO!" Eggman cried.

Sonic placed Penny to the ground and spun up to Eggman, scowling. "Call off your goons, or I'll smash you into next week."

"I'm busy next week." Eggman stuttered. "I mean, I could probably reschedule, but I-"

Sonic let out a startled grunt as he was suddenly pushed off Eggman's mobile with a powerful force.

Penny's eyes widened.

Sonic glared at his new attacker. It was a black and red striped hedgehog, whose arms were crossed, glaring at Sonic. He turned to Eggman with a scowl. "Pathetic. Even with all this help, you still couldn't defeat Sonic."

Shadow briefly glanced at Penny, before charging into a fight against Sonic.

Penny took a few steps away, her heart pounding.

Eggman seemed pretty excited about this. "It's happening. Shadow has finally joined Team Eggman! I'm geeking out here!"

He tried to join the fight, but all he was doing was annoying Shadow. Shadow growled at him. "Out of the way, you buffoon."

Sonic saw this and zoomed over to Shadow, punching him into a wall. Shadow recovered quickly and zoomed back towards Sonic. Shadow grabbed Sonic by the scarf, pulling him into the air.

To Penny's relief, Sonic broke away from Shadow and landed safely next to Penny, standing in front of the girl protectively. The two watched as Shadow smashed right into the bookshelf that they worked so hard on.

"HEY! We worked all day on that!" Sonic growled.

"Your shoddy craftsmanship brings shame on all hedgehog kind," Shadow growled. "And for that, you should perish."

The next thing Penny knew, Shadow disappeared and reappeared in front of Sonic, smashing him sky first. Penny let out a shriek as Shadow slammed Sonic down with a kick so powerful, that the blue hedgehog made a crater when he landed.

"SONIC!" Penny yelled. She was about to run to the blue hedgehog's aid when Shadow grabbed her arm. Penny squirmed in his grip. "Let go of me!" She cried, her eyes wide.

"I should've known you'd be with that blue lunatic sooner than later," Shadow snarled, tightening his grip on her arm. "Traitor."

Penny stared at him with fear.

Eggman flew up to them, geeking with excitement. "We did it! Sonic was defeated by Team Eggman!" The doctor held out his camera. "Victory selfie!"

The flash of the camera startled Shadow, who let go of Penny to cover his eyes from the blinding flash. That gave Sonic the opportunity to grab Penny and punch Shadow away. Shadow glared at Eggman. "You fool! I had them just where I wanted them!"

"Sorry!" Eggman said nervously, holding out his camera. "That one's on me, Shadow. Forgot to turn off the flash. The pic looks great, though, if it's any consolation."

"Enough!" Shadow growled. "How's a guy supposed to destroy his foes with dolts like you wandering around? We'll fight again soon, Sonic, but next time, on my terms."

And he teleported away.

Team Sonic ran back, grinning at each other and high fiving one another. Knuckles grinned. "We may not be able to build a bookcase, but we sure as heck can clobber some creeps!"

Penny calmed down, finally smiling. Sonic finally loosened his protective grip on her, and he glanced worriedly at her wide eyes. "Penny? You okay?"

She nodded.

Sonic sighed in relief. "At least he didn't hurt you."

Penny nodded.

"Hey, how do you know Shadow, anyway?"

Penny looked at him. "Shadow saved my village from a robot attack a few years ago. They weren't Eggman's, just some idiot accidentally summoned a whole bunch of these weird bots and started attacking the town. I was one of the robot's targets and Shadow saved me in the nick of time. Afterwards, we became friends, but like most friendships, we sort of..faded. I'm surprised he even remembered me after all this time."

Sonic nodded. That explained it.

There was one person he knew who deserved a little payback, though. Sonic and the rest of his friends glared at Eggman, and Eggman gulped nervously, slowly backing up in his mobile. "Now guys, let's not point fingers about who's to blame for this little scuffle..."

The gang ran forward and taught Eggman a lesson by playing volleyball, using him as the ball.

Orbot grinned at Cubot. "What a swell adventure! I sure hope there's more next year."

"Just think of all the hundreds of more stories to be told using the same eight characters and four locations. The possibilities are limitless!" Orbot added.

"Just to be on the safe side, maybe we should start an internet petition," Cubot said.

Next Chapter: Tommy Thunder, Method Actor