Penny felt someone catch her, and the human girl looked through her helmet to see Rouge. Penny struggled in Rouge's grip. "Rouge, let me go!" Penny pleaded. "Sonic needs me!"

"No way," Rouge said. "It would be silly to put you in danger!"

"But Rouge..." Penny gasped. "What if...something happened to him?"

"Putting you in more danger would be the last thing Sonic would want," Rouge said, flying Penny away. Penny sighed. "I just hope Sonic's okay..." She muttered, eyeing the planet Sonic was trapped in. Rouge landed on Tangle and Whisper's plane. "Try to stay calm, Pen," Rouge said softly, hugging Penny. Penny returned it. Tears flew to her eyes. "Sonic needs me! He's saved me before... why can't I save him for once?!" Penny whimpered.

Tangle looked at Penny, her expression showing sympathy. "Penny..."

"We have to get him out of there somehow!" Whisper whispered.

Penny turned her gaze back towards the frightening planet that swallowed Sonic up. Silver hopped over to Penny and placed a comforting hand on the human girl's shoulder. "He'll be okay."

Penny nodded and continued to watch. "Sonic..." She muttered.

...

Chris, Kat, Cloud, Hiro, and Knuckles walked into the Blue Typhoon's piloting room. Tails turned to them. "This doesn't look good, guys."

"Yeah," Chris said. "I just don't know what to do, Tails."

Cosmo looked up. "Don't worry," She said. "He's going to be okay."

Chris, Kat, Tails, Cloud, Hiro, and Knuckles looked at Cosmo curiously. The Seedrian girl continued her explanation of how she knew Sonic will be okay. "This amulet is a very special one." She whispered, putting her hands to it tenderly. "It belonged to my mother long ago. Sometimes it shows me things others cannot see. He'll be alright."

Chris, Knuckles, Cloud, Kat, and Hiro smiled.

"Really?" Tails asked.

"Well, sure!" Knuckles grinned. "That guy can survive anything!"

"And if Sonic can survive, then we can, too. Isn't that right Cosmo?" Cloud asked.

Before Cosmo could say anything, everyone felt a crash rock the ship, and Eggman's voice appeared on the radio. "Eggman here, do you read me? You won't believe what's just happened! It appears my Egg Crimson has rather conveniently collided with your typhoon!"

"Oh, really?" Cloud asked, his eyes raised suspiciously.

The Metarex's trio monster-head lunged an attack at Eggman and Blue Typhoon, but with thanks to Tails and Eggman's skilled driving, they were able to dodge the Metarex attacks.

Penny, Rouge, Cream, Amy, Tangle, and Whisper yelped as the ship shook.

"That was close," Rouge said.

"You telling me!" Tangle gasped, straightening herself.

"You kids okay?" Vector asked, walking over.

"Looks like Eggman's up to something." Espio said, walking up.

"A cowardly trick! Eggman can't land his ship on yours so we'll have to fight alone!"

"We don't that Egghead on our ship!" Amy scowled.

"What else would you suggest?" Eggman shot back. "That crazy Colossus is grading on the whole galaxy, I'd think you'd be happy to team up against these botanical beasties! If this forestation continues, my genius will no longer flourish!"

"What a terrible loss for evil science!" Decoe said.

"How could they be so selfish?" Bocoe asked.

"Come on, everybody! Let's show them who's' boss!" Bokkun yelled.

Eggman shot missiles at the Metarex head trio, but they easily survived.

...

"Cosmo," Earthia whispered to her daughter through the amulet. "Do not fear. I am always with you. Through this amulet, I am watching and guiding you to your destiny. Our planet may have been destroyed long ago, but through you, my daughter, the spirit of our people will live on. Look for the light at the end of the darkness. It is there. In your heart."

"What are we all standing around here for?" Knuckles grumbled. "Shouldn't we be out there fighting?"

"That thing is a hundred feet tall." Rouge pointed out. "What do you suggest, champ?"

"Well, we have to do something!" Amy said.

"There's gotta be some way we can break them! Something we haven't thought of!" Chris muttered aloud. Charmy glanced at him. "You got your secret weapon right here! Sure, I may be small, but I'll..." Before he could continue, Espio clamped his hand over Charmy's mouth. "Put a fork in it, Charmy."

"Finding a weak spot in that gargantuan meanie out there isn't going to be easy." Eggman frowned. "With the combined power of the Chaos Emeralds, not to mention the Planet Egg, that three-headed Dino boys are a mighty powerful monster!"

Knuckles frowned. "What about the Master Emerald?" He asked.

Tangle brightened up. "Hey, why didn't we think of that before? Of course! Where's my brain?"

Penny's mouth dropped open. "Tangle, Knuckles, you geniuses!"

"If we charge up the Master Emerald enough, we might be able to cause some kind of Chaos reaction!" Knuckles explained what he meant about using the Master Emerald, and Chris nodded in agreement. "Well, it's worth a try!"

Tails grabbed Knuckles's hands. "This just might be the idea we're looking for!" Tails said excitedly. "I've gotta hand it to you, Knuckles. Let's get to work on this right away!"

"Thank you, Knuckles!" Cream smiled. Cheese chaoed happily.

Knuckles smiled. "Ah, it was no big deal." He said, a little too pridefully.

"Not so fast, my little Musckiteers! What if Knuckles's idea lays an egg? Pun, pun!"

Knuckles frowned. "What do you mean?"

Chris smiled. "We are going against a whole lot of concentrated energy!"

"Chris is right," Penny said, looking at Knuckles. Kat nodded in agreement.

"Scientifically speaking even if we charge the Master Emerald to its maximum capacity, it still might not work!" Tails said.

"So what then?" Knuckles asked.

"Guess you'll find out soon enough, tiger!" Rouge said, playfully swatting Knuckles on the head.

"Rawr!" Penny joked, imitating a tiger. Knuckles glared at Penny as she and Rouge high fived each other. Cream looked at them. "I think Knuckles' idea has to work because it's our only hope for getting Sonic back!"

"And don't forget, you've got the team Chaotix Detective agency on your side!" Vector said. Charmy nodded. "Yeah, in case the whole thing goes bust!"

"Hey, wait a minute!" Knuckles yelped nervously. "What if it does go bust?! What if the Master Emerald needs more energy than we've got?!"

"You stole the words out of my mouth!" Penny said, looking at Knuckles with wide eyes.

"I have an idea," Eggman said. "You can use the Egg Crimson as background, just in case you need a little more, shall we say, juice?"

Knuckles chuckled nervously, sweatdropping. "Good idea, Eggy!"

"You know, this is almost heartwarming!" Espio said. "Everybody working together like this."

"Don't get carried away." Knuckles grumbled.

Cosmo and Penny laughed together. Penny stopped laughing when Dark Oak started talking again. "Your time is up, my friends!"

Shadow took a leap at the Metarex, spin dashing as hard as he could at the Metarex's forehead, but the Metarex tosed the ebony black- and- red-striped hedgehog back. The Metarex roared and lunged at the ship, and Shadow landed on the Blue Typhoon and quickly tried to push back the giant head.

"What do we do?!" Chris and Penny yelped as the ship shook.

"Missile those monsters!" Bocoe said.

"I'll handle them with a laser attack!" Decoe said.

"Take this, you three-headed freak!" Bokkun growled, and the robots started firing the lasers at the beast in front of them.

Soon, Penny found herself on a plane once again to save Sonic. Rouge, Tangle, Whisper, Cream, and Amy soon joined at her side. The Metarex launched some type of spheres at them, but the girls easily dodged them.

Espio, Vector and Charmy lunged at one of the creature's necks and held on. "Hang on tight, Espio!" Vector called. "It's a slippery one!"

"Yeah!" Charmy said in agreement. "And flabby too!"

Shadow lunged Chaos Spheres at the beast, but Dark Oak's head dodged it, and he tossed Shadow out of the way.

"Shadow!" Penny yelped.

Thankfully, Shadow recovered easily and dodged at the monster again.

...

"Thousands of years ago, when Planet Greengate first came to be, they believed in peace and harmony," Cosmo said, her eyes swelling with tears.

Tails looked at her.

Cosmo continued. "Why did it all have to come to this, Tails?" She asked miserably. "Why?"

Tails grabbed Cosmo's hand comfortingly, and Cosmo placed her free hand on top of his, squeezing it.

...

Chris and Kat grunted as they finished the repairs to Eggman's ship. Chris turned to them. "Okay, you guys, the power cannon is all set up and ready to go!"

"Yup!" Kat said. "We've hooked it up to the Egg Crimson for backup."

"Glad we could be of assistance, kids!" Eggman told them. "But, uh, there may be one slight problem."

Chris and Kat looked at Eggman. What type of problem?

"How is it that you two have found yourselves in this dimension?"

"Well, Chris used the Master Emeralds' energy as a connector, to synchronize our world with this one. And then..poof! We teleported!" Kat said.

"Sure you did," Eggman said with a frown. "You used the Master Emerald as a connector, all right, but when you teleported, you two lost six years, because of the interdimensional warp string, hence that inconvenience not to mention the embarrassing shift from strapping young adults back to annoying squirts. Those lost years restored this particle data inside the Master Emerald's energy centers were safekeeping!"

"Isn't it just astonishing how the doctor knows absolutely everything?" Decoe asked Kat and Chris.

"He is a genius with a capital G!" Bocoe said.

"So you are really 18, hu? And Kat's around 19?" Bokkun asked. "Too bad you're a total shrimpy wimp!"

"Who are you calling shrimp?!" Both Chris and Kat growled at Bokkun.

"I'm not done!" Eggman said. "The bad news is that if we use up a large portion of the Master Emerald's energy, you just may be stuck here, juniors!"

Chris and Kat gasped.

"Your particle data may dissipate with moments of charging! In terms, I'm afraid it could take years to renew its current structure! Which means you'll never be able to return to your world! And even if you do, your molecular structure could possibly be permanently damaged!"

Chris and Kat looked stunned at this news. Images of their family and friends appeared in their heads: Mr. and Mrs. Thorndyke, Chris and Penny's parents, and adapted parents to Kat. Tanaka and Ella. Grandpa Chuck. Uncle Sam, Francis, Danny, and Chris's thoughts trailed to the love of his life, Helen.

Chris brushed away the tears and closed his eyes, then opened them and turned to the dashboard. Kat put a comforting hand on Chris's shoulder, and he smiled at her. Chris turned to the computer. "Sonic Power Cannon. Back-up to Egg Crimson and connect!" He choked out.

He smiled, turning to Eggman and the others. "If it means saving our friends from danger, Kat and I are willing to take the chance!"

"You two are really going through with this, aren't you?" Eggman asked.

"Chris just has to believe we'll go back home someday." Kat smiled.

Chris nodded. "And when we do, we want them to be proud of us!"

Eggman smirked, pleased at Chris and Kat's wise words.

Bokkun, Bocoe, and Decoe surrounded Kat and Chris joyfully. "I have to admit, you are not so bad after all, kid!" Decoe said.

"Yeah!" Bocoe added. "We all thought you, Kat, and your sister were sniveling brats, but you three are not sniveling at all!"

"Sure they ain't!" Bokkun smiled. "You know, deep down, I always knew you, Kat, and Penny were okay kids! At least you bozos wouldn't believe me!"

"Who are you calling bozo?!" Bocoe snapped.

Chris and Kat laughed. "Thanks a lot, guys! We don't know what to say..."

Chris opened his eyes, determination written on his face. "I'm not gonna let the Metarex win this!" He vowed.

"You're really tough, kid!" Eggman said in approval.

...

"All right, Tails, it looks like the backup with Egg Crimson has been completed," Cosmo announced. Tails nodded. "I've reprogrammed the power cannon so it'll receive a sustained charge from all sources!" He looked up, his expression determined. "We're ready!"

"Blaze?" Knuckles asked the purple cat. "What are you doing here?"

Blaze walked up to him, her eyes full of determination as her arms held the SOL Emeralds. Knuckles' eyes widened. "You have the SOL Emeralds?"

"Yes." Blaze nodded. Her gold eyes glowed with determination. "I'm going to help you with this." Blaze laid the Emeralds beside the Master Emerald. "So that way, the Emeralds could help the Master Emerald go to full power."

"I see!" Knuckles nodded and turned to the Master Emerald. Blaze closed her eyes as Knuckles began the chant. "The seven Chaos Emeralds are the servers. Chaos is the power enriched by the heart! CHAOS IS THE POWER ENRICHED BY THE HEART!" Knuckles yelled the last line.

Blaze grunted as she felt the power of the SOL Emeralds surge through her body.

...

"Back off!" Cream cried as she dodged her ship away from the monster.

"Terrific!" Rouge grumbled, slamming her fist on her damaged dashboard. She pushed the window off and hopped out of the plane. "Thanks for the hunk of junk!" Rouge huffed in annoyance as she kicked the broken ship away.

Espio ran along the neck of the beast, throwing at least seven explosive ninja stars. They exploded once they hit their target. Espio disappeared and moved out of the way right before the beast tried to attack him.

Vector shot fire from his mouth. (I was so shocked at that part, I couldn't speak for a moment! Who knew Vector could breathe fire like a dragon?!)

"It's time!" Tails yelled.

"Controller serves to unify the Chaos!" Knuckles yelled. "Come on, Master Emerald! Come through! You're our last chance! If this doesn't work the Metarex will win and I will not let that happen!"

The Emerald grew to its full power, and a crack was soon visible on its smooth, green surface.

"Come on, Master Emerald!" Knuckles growled. "You can do this, I know you can! You're strong enough! Don't let us down! Master Emerald! GIVE US ALL YOUR POWER!"

"Come on, SOL Emeralds..." Blaze grunted, raising her arms. "Help the Master Emerald!"

"It's almost at full power!" Chris said, sweatdropping. "We'll wait a couple more seconds, and we'll reroute the energy!"

Dark Oak roared and launched vines at Shadow, wrapping them around his waist. Shadow grunted as he tried to break free. The vines were wrapped tightly around his waist, but Shadow used that as an advantage by twirling around the staircase leading to Eggman's ship and trapping the Metarex around it. Dark Oak roared, trying to pull himself loose, but Shadow strained as best as he could, forcing himself to move forward while the monster was pulling the opposite direction.

"Link the Master Emerald's energy to the main cannon!" Tails said. "Hurry!"

He radioed Chris. "OK, Chris. Deactivating trigger safety! Set the target to twelve o'clock!"

"Start Tails' function!" Eggman ordered, and the Blue Typhoon, along with Eggman's ship attached, teetered left, causing the whole thing to shake. The Sonic Power Cannon popped out, and this time, Sonic nor Silver were going to shoot from there... they were going to blast full power at the Metarex without the hedgehog's help... only by using powerful electricity.

"GET READY, MASTER EMERALD!" Knuckles yelled. "FULL POWER!"

"Come on, SOL EMERALDS!" Blaze ordered. "Help the Master Emerald!"

More cracks emerged on the Master Emerald's smooth surface, and the SOL Emeralds glowed in response.

"SONIC POWER CANNON... FULL FORCE!" Knuckles, Blaze, Chris, and Tails yelled. Tails fired, and the full force of energy the Sonic Power cannon shot out sliced through two heads of the three-headed monster, freeing Shadow in the process. Dark Oak gave a mighty roar as the powerful blast engulfed him in a huge ball of light so blinding that Penny had to cover her eyes.

"Sonic..." Penny thought.

...

Sonic found himself floating on the water planet. There were trees and blue skies everywhere he looked. He hopped from his spot in the sky and sailed downwards. Dark Oak spoke to him. "You fly inside the galaxy that will be all I still had silent green and glorious!"

Sonic hopped on the top of a tree and stared ahead of him. He hopped off the tree and zoomed on top of them with ease. Dark Oak continued to speak to him. "You think you are free. But you and those like you will never be free! There will always be violence. There will always be destruction!"

"Destruction?" Sonic frowned at the word as he ran. "You wouldn't know about that, would ya?"

Sonic ran. Faster and faster on the top of the forest. Heavy green branches zoomed towards him to attack him, but Sonic easily dodged them as he ran. He even sliced through them as Dark Oak continued. "And you, hedgehog! You are the same as all of these humans! You must all be destroyed!"

"Think so?" Sonic said.

"You are in vain, hedgehog! There is no hope for you! Why don't you give up?!"

Sonic smirked. "Sorry to dissapoint you, see Penny and my friends are waiting for me!"

"Friends, hedgehog? They have forgotten you! That's the way of such little creatures! Go ahead, keep running, Sonic the Hedgehog! Soon your freedom to run wild and free will be gone! Soon, you will be still! And silent! Forever!"

"Do your best, buddy!" Sonic smirked, shooting a thumbs up as he ran.

...

Dark Oak roared. The ball of light that was below him dimmed. Dark Oak roared his agony. Then silence.

Penny shuddered.

"Hey, look!" Chris said, eyeing the monster with shock.

"I have to hand it to you, kids. It looks like your Master Emerald master plan worked like a charm!" Eggman told Chris and Kat.

"All right!" Tails said excitedly.

Knuckles stared down at the broken shards of the Master Emerald. He knelt to one knee and picked up one of the shards, holding it close.

Blaze placed a hand on Knuckles's shoulder. In her arms were the faded SOL Emeralds.

Penny hopped into one of her planes. "I don't care what the others say or try to do," she thought as she flew towards Dark Oak's planet. "But Sonic needs me!"

She zoomed towards the weird planet. She scanned the waters for Sonic until she found his limp form in the water. Her eyes widened. "SONIC!" Penny yelled out to him.

Sonic weakly opened his eyes. Was he hearing things? Was that Penny?

Penny tried again. "Sonic!" She yelped as Dark Oak's branches wrapped around her plane.

Sonic's eyes widened. "Penny!"

When Penny couldn't move her plane anymore, the human girl immediately ejected herself after slipping on her space helmet. She let the exlposion of the plane hurl her down to the water.

Sonic swam up to her and grabbed Penny gently in his arms, his eyes scanning her with worry. Her spacesuit and helmet protected her from the planet's water, and she wrapped her arms around him, which he returned.

The two began to sink deeper into the planet when something surrounded them... kind of like a protective bubble. The bubble floated them back towards the surface. Sonic held Penny in his arms all the way up. His eyes were wide. "Amazing..." He muttered.

Penny smiled at him. "Something out there's protecting us!" She said. He smiled back.

Everyone looked so happy that Sonic and Penny were okay. Sonic landed on Chris's plane and held Penny so she wouldn't float away.

"Hey, Chris!" Penny smiled at her little brother.

"Penny!" Chris said happily. "You're safe!"

Penny nodded, her smile growing. "Thanks to Sonic."

Tails's voice came over the radio. "Hey, everybody! Check it out! Something really weird is happening!"

Penny looked over at the planet, and her eyes widened. The water seemed to be rising. Dark Oak growled. "You tried to destroy us, but we are more powerful than you will ever know! The Chaos Emeralds will make us eternal, you'll see! We shall become as one with Chaos, forever!"

Dark Oak roared as the water soon rose above him, trapping him. Dark Oak seemed to disappear in the water.

"He's gone..." Chris said.

The water planet then sank into itself. Dark Oak's voice was still heard as the planet shrank. "And now the birth of a new galaxy! A galaxy of tranquility! Of emptiness!"

"He's merged with the energy of the Master Emerald!" Tails gasped. "Somehow, he's more powerful then ever now!"

Cosmo seemed to be captured by the scene, and she slowly walked forward to the disturbing scene. Her red amulet glowed. "I'm here." She muttered.

Penny watched with wide eyes as the planet shrank into a peach seed shape. Once it was formed, it started pulsing. She felt Sonic wrap an protective arm around her, and she returned it, squeezing his hand.

The two didn't say anything as they stared at the strange looking planet.