"After the explosion on Prison Island, an emergency response team searched for survivors. Fortunately, the team now reports that everyone made it off the island safely."
At that, everyone sighed in relief. Chris sighed as well and put his hand over his pounding heart, closing his eyes.
"I told you not to worry," Sonic said. "Penny must be okay."
"But if she's not on Prison Island, and she's not here..." Kat said, trying to figure out where her young friend might be.
"Shadow must've taken her to Dr. Eggman!" Amy yelled.
"Shadow?" Kat asked.
"Sonic and Silver's look alike," Amy explained.
Mr. Tanaka nodded in agreement.
"Don't worry," Sonic said, determination in his eyes. "I won't stop looking 'till I bring Penny back home." A memory of Penny saving Sonic from the pool soon entered his head, and he frowned even deeper.
"In related news, authorities are still searching for Sonic and Silver the Hedgehogs. They..."
At that, Ella switched the TV off.
Everyone was silent for a while.
Sonic couldn't take it anymore. He jumped up. "I'm going to find Penny." He announced.
"But the police are looking for you!" Blaze protested.
"Don't worry!" Sonic reassured her. He zoomed out the door.
"I hope Sonic doesn't get caught again," Amy said with worry. Cloud patted her shoulder reassuringly.
"If we all search, perhaps we can find Penny."
"Where should we look?" Tails asked. "Shadow probably took Penny to Eggman's secret base! But we don't have any idea where it is!"
"Tails has a good point." Chuck said.
"Well then, if we're going to find Penny, we have to find that base!" Hiro said, frowning and crossing his arms.
"Then let's start looking right away!" Cream suggested.
Cheese chaoed in response.
...
Now, where was Silver this whole time? He was laying low with Knuckles. The two ran down the desert and paused to rest.
"I'm going to get even with that bat!" Silver heard Knuckles growl behind him. "She stole the Master Emerald from me!"
That's when the world started shaking around them, and both Mobians pressed themselves to the sand. The two looked up and saw smoke over a sandhill.
The two stood up. "That sounded like a rocket!" Silver said, and the two dashed towards it. Their eyes widened with surprise as they saw a strange-looking pyramid.
"Eggman's base!" Knuckles growled.
...
Penny stared out a window, looking at the dark world around her. Her eyes widened in surprise to see Earth right below her.
"Whoa." She gasped softly. She smiled a tiny bit. "It's hard to believe I really traveled into Space! And we're inside a space station?" The girl asked Shadow.
"They call this place Space Colony Ark," Shadow said, crossing his arms and closing his eyes.
"I've never heard of it before!" She said, trying to hide her nerves.
"It was built 50 years ago by Professor Gerald Robotnik. It's been kept secret." Shadow explained to her.
"Wow!" Penny smiled. "A secret space colony!" She was sweating a little, but she kept her cool. "I wonder if I'm the only girl who's ever gone into space."
"You're not," Shadow said, which caused curiosity to spread through the girl, and she turned to Shadow. "Really? Then who was?"
Shadow looked away, not sure of what to say to this chatterbox.
Penny suddenly smiled. "Hey, Shadow, you look just like my friends Sonic and Silver! Are the three of you... related? You three look like you could be brothers."
Shadow frowned really deep, and his glare darkened a little.
Penny shuddered.
Shadow just looked ahead, and soon the image of Penny on the window disappeared, and the girl standing next to him was Maria.
"Maria." He thought.
A flashback of Shadow and Maria appeared in his mind. Shadow pulled Maria as fast as he could down the hall, with the professor running behind them.
"Stop them! We can't let them get away!" A soldier yelled behind them.
Soon, Shadow was pounding fiercely against the capsule he was in, trying to get to the girl who was walking towards the control to release the capsule. She was shaking weakly as she grabbed the lever in her hand.
"Listen, Shadow." She began. "I want you to promise me!"
"No! WAIT!" Shadow yelled.
"Remember that whatever happens, I'll always be your friend, Shadow. We always talked about going to visit the planet one day! But it looks like you're going to have to go there without me. Sayanora. Shadow the Hedgehog."
She pulled down the lever...
...and he was gone.
And so was she.
Shadow's glare darkened as he remembered that last moment with Maria. "They'll PAY for what they did, every one of them." He thought.
Penny gulped nervously as she watched Shadow's glare darkened. "Sonic, hurry!" She cried in her head.
...
"The Emeralds are set!" Decoe announced as he and Bocoe placed the Emeralds in the machine.
"All six are in place and ready to power the cannon!"
"Where's the blasted plug?!" Eggman growled in annoyance. Finally finding it, he plugged it in. "There."
"This junk heaps the ultimate weapon?" Rouge asked. "Maybe it makes everyone laugh so hard they surrender."
"The Eclipse Cannon draws its energy from the Chaos Emeralds. And they generate enough power to destroy an entire planet!"
"Is that true?" Decoe asked Bocoe. "He can really destroy a planet?"
"You know he always exaggerates!" Bocoe said.
"I CAN HEAR YOU!" Eggman growled at the bots.
"Never mind!" Both robots laughed nervously.
Rouge swiped some dust off a counter with her finger and blew it away. "This antique works?" She asked.
"Just you wait!" Eggman growled. "I'm gonna be the Ultimate Big Shot!" He laughed at his own little joke.
...
"What's up with Penny and Chris?" Danny asked as he, Helen, and Francis walked downtown. "I called their cell phones and left a message, but they never called me back!"
"No one has heard from the Thorndyke kids for a long time now!"
"Hm." Danny nodded, realizing she was right.
The three kids yelped as a blue gush of wind rushed right past them.
"Hey, was that..." Helen began, surprised.
"Yeah, that was..." Francis quickly covered his mouth with her hand. "Hey, what are you doing?!" He muffled a yell at her. Francis shushed him and pointed to a police officer, who was suddenly standing next to him. Suddenly, Danny understood, and he nodded. He looked back to where Sonic was running.
Helen thought quickly and pointed at the sky, smiling at the officer. "Look at that!" She smiled. "Isn't the sky pretty?"
"Yes," The officer said. "It's going to be a beauty of a sunset!"
The three kids silently sighed in relief. That was close!
...
Mr. Stewart and Scarlet finally made it to the place where the man they needed to talk to lived. Mr. Stewart looked at the address and nodded. "This is it."
"It may be difficult to get him to talk, considering the way his life fell apart after getting mixed up in Project Shadow," Scarlet informed. "If we push too hard for his story, he might not tell us anything."
...
Jerome sighed a little as he picked up his food. "French fries for lunch..." He sighed. He looked up as the door opened and saw Mr. Stewart and Scarlet standing at the door. "I beg your pardon, sir, but does a Mr. Shmitz live here?" Scarlet asked him.
"You must mean the old guy," Jerome said. He pointed to a room. "He sleeps over there."
"Thank you," Scarlet said, and she and Mr. Stewart walked forward the room. It turned out to be empty, but Mr. Stewart walked over to the bed and felt underneath the covers. After a hum, he looked over at Scarlet. "It's still warm, he just left." Mr. Stewart informed her.
"Let's wait for him," Scarlet suggested.
...
All was normal on the TV screens when suddenly all the TV channels changed into a voice message from Dr. Eggman himself. He laughed evilly before he began.
"This is an Eggman Update. I'm here to bring you an explosive surprise!"
Hearing the mad doctor, Sonic sped to a stop in the middle of his search for Penny to watch through a nearby window. "What's he up to now?!" Sonic growled.
"look at the sky!"
"The sky?" Sonic asked in confusion.
"I'm coming to your planet-bound pumpkins live from Outer Space!"
...
Eggman laughed as he continued his little act. "Let me show you the power of the Eggman Empire!"
Penny's heart started pounding. She looked over at Shadow. "What's Eggman gonna do?" She asked him nervously.
Shadow looked at her for a second, then smirked, chuckling. The smirk seemed odd and uncomfortable, that Penny's nerves started to get more uneasy.
"Now, let's have a blast!" Eggman smirked. He pressed a button, and the Ultimate Weapon was brought to life. Down on Earth, everyone began to panic.
Eggman smirked as the cannon got ready to fire.
Penny's eyes widened, and her heart started pounding once again as she watched the machine load up. Then to her horror, it shot at the moon, demolishing it to a half-moon. At the sight of that explosion, everyone started panicking completely.
...
The X Tornado flew underneath the now half moon.
"The moon was so pretty!" Cream whimpered. "Why did Dr. Eggman wreck it?!"
"It takes huge amounts of energy to do that sort of damage." Blaze said behind Amy. Amy nodded.
"Chaos Emeralds." Tails' eyes widened. "If Eggman's got enough of them, he can use their power to make a superweapon!"
His eyes widened, and he looked down at the Chaos Emerald he had in its place.
...
Penny's eyes widened. "With that much power, Eggman can blow up any planet he wants!" She gasped.
Rouge sweatdropped. "Eggman wasn't lying about the Eclipse Cannon. It IS the Ultimate Weapon."
Eggman laughed in response.
...
"That came from my Eclipse Cannon! And if you don't surrender to the Eggman Empire within 24 hours, I will blow your planet away!"
Sonic growled when he heard that. "I gotta find a way to stop them!"
He looked at the now-demolished moon.
...
Now back at the window, Penny once again stood next to Shadow, and the two watched the sunrise.
"Today is finally going to come to an end," Shadow said.
Confused, Penny looked at him. "Huh?" The girl asked.
Shadow looked away, and Penny stole another glance at him. She asked him the question that she was dying to know. "Shadow, why did you bring me here?" She asked.
Shadow said nothing.
...
"Are you going to stare out that window all day, Shadow?" Maria Robotnik asked as she walked up to the ebony black hedgehog, who was staring out into space. Shadow turned to her, and then returned his gaze back outside.
"I've seen photographs from down on the surface, but I wonder what it's like to be there. What is it like to see the sky above your head? I would like to visit there and find out."
"Me too," Maria said sadly.
"Maybe I can find some answers down there," Shadow said, closing his eyes. "Professor Robotnik says that I'm here to do something important, but he never told me what that means."
Maria looked at him curiously.
Shadow opened his eyes. "But something tells me that it's connected with that planet."
The two stared out into space together.
...
"Don't you ever smile?" Rouge asked as she walked over to the group. She turned to Penny and smiled warmly. "Hi, Penny." She said in greeting.
"Hi, Rouge," Penny said, still not taking her eyes off of Shadow.
"Aren't you glad to see me, Shadow?" She asked as the hedgehog walked out.
Rouge winked at the girl, earning a curious look. Rouge smirked. "I love it when you give me the silent treatment." She said and earned a small giggle from the redhead.
Shadow walked out the door without saying a word, and the doors closed behind him.
Smirking, Rouge turned to Penny. "What's up with Miss. Sunshine?" She asked the girl.
Penny looked up, not sure of what to say.
...
Back at home, Tails and Chuck were working hard on getting the X Tornado ready to travel into Space.
"Almost done." Chuck frowned as he finished up his last bit on the X Tornado. "I sure hope these modifications work so we can go save Penny."
"But one Chaos Emerald isn't going to give us enough power to get into Space!" Tails pointed out reasonably.
"But one is all we got, Tails!" Chuck said.
"We got two!" Tails smiled proudly and held up both Emeralds. One was glowing brightly, and the other was just faded green. Chuck looked surprised. "You...made a copy of an Emerald?" He asked.
"It's not a perfect copy, Chuck, but the power produces almost the same amount!"
"Come on!" Chuck said. "Let's try it out!"
And the two installed the Emeralds in the machine.
...
After a few hours or so, Mr. Stewart and Scarlet finally left the Bucket Hotel.
"Maybe he saw us coming and it scared him off," Scarlet said.
Thinking they heard something move behind them, and they stopped. Mr. Stewart scratched his cheek.
Hearing clamoring, the two watched a small robot lead a stampede of officers.
"Sonic ran over here!" The little robot announced.
The cops followed his directions.
"He went this way!" Bokkun smirked. He watched them run after Sonic, and he smirked, laughing gleefully.
Sonic dashed through the water dock maze, trying to lose the officers. After running a few loops, he finally lost the cops.
"I think I lost them!" Sonic sighed. Hearing pounding up ahead, Sonic looked up. "What's that?" He asked himself.
What was it? It was Knuckles and Silver working together to fight robots. Punch after punch, the two Mobians fought their way through the robots. Soon, Sonic jumped in, smashing a robot as well.
"Where have you been?!" Knuckles growled at Sonic.
"Hey, how's it going, Knuckles and Silver?" Sonic smirked.
"Not bad! Except Silver and I are in the middle of a battle right now!"
The two hedgehog's eyes widened as Knuckles lunged forward, raising his fist at Sonic.
"Watch it!" Sonic yelped, and the blue hedgehog quickly dodged, clinging to a wall of a building just in time as Knuckles smashed a robot.
"Good thing my reflexes are quicker than Knuckle's temper!" Sonic muttered to himself.
"I agree," Silver said, wincing at Knuckles' strength.
The three began fighting for a while when a familiar yell was heard. The three looked up to see Mr. Tanaka wearing a yellow jumpsuit and standing on his motorbike. He managed to drive the bots away, much to the Mobian's surprise.
"He's only distracting them!" A familiar female voice cried from somewhere behind them. "Quick, follow me!"
"Cream!" Silver smiled widely at the young girl who had opened the manhole cover for them. Sonic and Knuckles followed behind, showing the same grateful expression.
...
"Tell me what your demands are and perhaps we can work out an agreement!" The President suggested to Eggman on the screen phone.
Eggman laughed. "Mr. President, that's very reasonable for you! I only have one demand if you want to escape my wrath, and if you fail to reply, I have one penalty! Either you agree to become a part of my Empire, or else!"
"...Or else what?" The President asked nervously.
"Your entire planet will be blown to bits!" Eggman laughed.
The President felt sweat coming down his cheeks.
"Well?" Eggman asked. "What is your answer?"
The President began to shudder, and he clutched his head. "I-I CAN'T!"
"You can't what?" Eggman growled in annoyance.
"I can't give you an answer." The President said, clasping his hands. "Not yet!"
"You're just stalling, trying to give your military enough time to organize a counter-attack again! It is useless to resist. I expect your answer within 24 hours."
And with that, Eggman ended his call.
Feeling defeated, the President fell to his knees. "What can I do?!" He asked. "Twelve hours isn't enough time to stop him from destroying the planet!"
Hearing a tap on the glass, the President looked up at Sam, who was smiling. "You know, there is a bright side to all of this." He shot him a thumbs up.
"What might that be?" He asked.
"If the planet's destroyed, you won't have to worry about balancing the budget anymore!"
Sam smiled and gave the President a wink.
...
Soon, Sonic, Silver, Knuckles, Cream, Amy, Blaze, and Mr. Tanaka were driving towards the base Silver and Eggman found.
"So, you and Silver found Eggman's base. But did you find out what happened to Penny?" Sonic asked them. Silver looked at Sonic. "Shadow took Penny up into space." The silver hedgehog said.
Knuckles nodded. "And I think the bat who stole the Master Emerald is with him, too."
"Really?" Sonic asked.
Knuckles frowned. "I'll teach her a lesson!"
"There is Eggman's base." Mr. Tanaka announced.
The Mobians looked ahead and saw the strange pyramid-shaped base looming up ahead.
...
"This place could be dangerous, so be careful, Cream and Cheese," Amy warned them.
"I could say the same about you," Blaze said to Amy, crossing her arms as they boarded the escalator stairs up to the entrance.
"We will, Blaze and Amy." Cream replied.
Cheese chaoed in response.
"Stick with Mr. Tanaka," Sonic told the young girl. She nodded, clutching Cheese tighter.
...
"Sonic the others are entering the base," Topaz announced through her radio. "I'll follow them in."
...
Amy grunted as she tried hammering a huge door down with her hammer. When it didn't leave a dent mark, she groaned. "No luck!"
Mr. Tanaka walked up to the door and pressed his face to one side. "There is a keyhole." He announced. "Which means there must be a key somewhere!"
Everyone looked at Knuckles.
"Hey!" Knuckles backed away a little. "Why're you looking at me?!"
"Well, you're a treasure hunter!" Sonic smirked. "Can't you find it?"
Silver stifled a laugh.
Knuckles growled. "No way! A key isn't a treasure!" He winced as Amy, Blaze, Silver, Tanaka, Cream, Cheese, and Sonic moved up to him. Amy had her hammer ready as well.
"A real treasure hunter should not have any difficulty finding something as simple as a key." Mr. Tanaka pointed out.
Amy smirked. "How do we know you haven't been pretending to be a treasure hunter all this time?"
"Maybe Knuckles is a treasure hunter," Cream said, holding Cheese close. "But he's just not a very good one!"
"Hey, I think Cream's right!" Blaze said, smirking at Knuckles. "How about looking for it, secret treasure hunter?"
"FINE!" Knuckles growled. "I'll look for it!"
And as he walked off in a huff, he grunted, "This is why I work ALONE!"
He stopped short when he saw Bokkun leaning against the wall, his bag at his side. "I hope you know you're trespassing, Knuckles!" He snickered.
Knuckles growled in annoyance but raised his hand dismissively. "I don't have time to play any games with you, Bokkun. SCRAM!"
"If you don't leave on your own, then I'm gonna have to make you leave!" Bokkun said.
Furious, Knuckles raised his fist at Bokkun, but then stopped, cooling himself down. "No. I have to go find that key!" He thought to himself, and walked away, lowering his fist.
"I warned ya!" Bokkun huffed. He reached into his bag and pulled out a remote control. "Go clobber him, Egg-Dorm!"
And he pressed the button.
Hearing something crashing towards them, the crew turned around to find Knuckles dashing towards them.
"Knuckles found the key already?" Cream asked.
"Afraid not." Silver growled.
"Looks like Knuckles ran into some trouble!" Sonic added, standing next to his partner in a fighting stance. "About fifteen tons of it!"
"Let's give this a try!" Bokkun said as he caused the arms of the bot to move upward by that annoying little control of his. With a press of a button, the arm dashed right towards Knuckles, but luckily the Echidna thought quick and managed to hop out of the way, allowing the fist to collide with the door. Smirking, Knuckles landed next to Sonic and Silver.
"I got the door open, now are you happy?" Knuckles asked.
"I guess." Sonic said, crossing his arms. Silver chuckled.
The rock monster turned its attention back towards the trio.
"Here's the spin cycle!" Bokkun said, and he made the robot spin. Knuckles tried to fight it, but ended up getting smashed by it, and he collided with the wall.
"We'll stop that thing!" Sonic growled, and he and Silver darted onto the spinning arms of the robot and grunted as they tried to keep their balance.
"Here's the claptrap!" Bokkun laughed, and the annoying bot had the robot trap Sonic and Silver in its hands and had them bang foreheads with the robot. Both hedgehogs grunted as they collided with the ground.
"Nice going!" Bokkun laughed. "You really hammered those guys!"
Groaning, Sonic, Silver, and Knuckles finally rose to their feet.
"Had enough?" Sonic smirked at the two. Silver nodded.
"Yeah, I think we can finish it off now!"
And with that, the trio shot each other a smirk.
Bokkun had the robot spin again, but this time Sonic started spinning too. Bokkun started yelping as Knuckles, Sonic and Silver pounded at the robot with all they got, and finally they got it to topple down, and Bokkun yelled as he fell off.
"Well," Sonic smirked as he dusted his hands off. "That was easy!"
"Totally." Silver smirked, crossing his arms.
"Piece of cake!" Knuckles smirked.
"Not so fast!" Bokkun laughed. He pressed a button and caused the bot to stand up.
"Give it up, Bokkun!" Sonic smirked.
"No way, look what I got!" Bokkun pressed a button, and in the bot's hand was Topaz, who yelled in fear.
"Oh, great!" Knuckles growled. "Why's she here?!"
Bokkun was about to do something else, but Mr. Tanaka stepped right up and distracted him with the weird karate moves and cries. This gave Cream the opportunity to snatch the remote from his hand.
"Hey!" Bokkun cried. "No fair! Give me back my controller!"
"Finders keepers!" Amy laughed. Cream pressed a few buttons, allowing the robot to free Topaz and to start chasing Bokkun. The robot screamed as it chased him.
"Leave me alone!" Bokkun wailed. Bokkun continued screaming as the robot stomped after him.
"NO!" Bokkun screamed. "DON'T CHASE ME!"
"I hope that brute did not harm you, miss." Mr. Tanaka told Topaz as he carried her bridal style.
Topaz blushed. "I'm fine!"
Tails smiled as he flew the X Tornado over Eggman's base. "There's the base!" He smiled to himself. The roof opened up, and Tails landed the plane inside.
"I did it, Sonic!" Tails told his friend excitedly as he hopped out of the X Tornado. "I adapted the X Tornado so we can take it to space!" He frowned as he studied the amount of Mobians. "We have a problem." He said. "It only seats four."
"If you're bringing Penny back, only two of us could ride with you," Blaze said, realizing what the fox meant.
"Yeah, that's right." Tails said, looking down, his ears drooping a little.
Sonic smirked and pointed to the space ship that loomed above them. "Then let's take the space shuttle!"
"I agree with Sonic." Mr. Tanaka said.
"Yeah." Knuckles nodded.
Tails sighed. "Guess I did all that work for nothing!"
"What about Cream and Cheese?" Amy asked, looking down at the two kids.
"Well, I can take care of them." Topaz volunteered.
"Thank you, miss." Mr. Tanaka said gratefully.
"Sure." Topaz looked up at Tanaka, and once again, she was blushing a tiny bit.
"Okay," Sonic said. "Let's get going!"
Soon, after a ten-second countdown, the rocket shot up into Space.
"Hang on, Penny. Hang on." Sonic thought in his head, determination in his green eyes.
The rocket disappeared into the sky.
