Hi once again. Like I said, I apologize for rushing things a little. I don't think I'll be skipping anything else after this one. Enjoy! Disclaimer: I ain't saying nothing.

Day X, 8:55 AM

After a long plane flight (made even longer by Knuckles' embarrassing antics, since he had never been on an airplane before) our heroes made it to Washington, capital of the free world. After getting some sleep in one of BWI's lounges, Robotnik had hacked into the White House computers (Yes folks, he can get into the White House files but not GUN. What does this tell you about this military organization?) and found the president was currently taking a drive in a limousine. The limousine was equipped with a full satellite and TV receiving system, allowing the president to watch broadcasts during a long drive. It was likely that Snively would make a call at 9:00, so they had to move fast. After receiving a frequency-locator device jury-rigged from paperclips, a digital watch, a cigarette lighter and several other pieces of small metallic scrap by Robotnik, Amy turned the Passion into a car and took Shadow onto Route 101 to track down the limousine. The Super Emerald in the engine made the car faster than before, allowing them to quickly catch up with the president's limousine but nearly caused a few accidents. As the Passion passed the black limousine, Shadow jumped out and landed on the roof, dropping in through the open sunroof and landed in the car, startling the president and the aide in the car. "Oh, I'm sorry for my entrance Madame President, but it is extremely urgent that I talk to you." President Chao-lin, an angelic Hero Chao in a suit with a tie, signaled her aide, who opened a laptop in front of the Chao. Yes, the president of the United States is a Chao. Hey, we've had far worse presidents. She's much better than most human politicians are! Chao-lin started typing on the laptop. A voice software activated, reading what she wrote out loud. "Shadow the Hedgehog! It's been a while since I last saw you. I heard you were arrested. What's that all about?" "You mean you don't know why I was arrested?" Shadow asked, disappointed. "Sorry, but no. GUN may be government funded, but their business is their business. I can't snoop around in their affairs without permission." Chao-lin replied. Shadow sighed. "Oh well. Madame President, are you expecting a call from Snively?" Chao-lin scowled and kept typing. "Unfortunately, yes I am. Why?' "I'm going to try to tap into his frequency when he calls. I've brought a device that will follow his signal back to its source, locating his secret hideout so I can go and stop him." Shadow explained. Chao-lin smiled and typed something. "Go right ahead. But stand to the side of the TV when he calls, that way he won't see you." "Right!" Shadow walked over to the big TV and stood next to it, hooking up the device Robotnik had made to the electronics next to the TV. A minute or two later, the TV came on and Snively's ugly face could be seen on it. Stone walls could be seen behind him. "Ah, President Chao-lin! It's been, how long? An hour or so? Yes, it's been such a long hour since we last spoke, hasn't it?" "Get to the point, Snively." Typed Chao-lin. "Yes, of course. Are you ready to surrender yet?" asked Snively, sounding a little hopeful. Chao-lin sighed. "Snively, I've already told you thirteen times no! I'm not going to give in, no matter how many times you call me. And I sincerely hope my fellow leaders are doing the same. Now stop calling me, I despise the sight of you. Your face scared my little girl this morning when she turned on the television to watch Saturday morning cartoons and you were calling through the TV at the exact same time." Snively grimaced. "I don't care how many times you say no, I'll still win! We'll see whether the other nations will still refuse to surrender after I blow the U.S.A. into the D.S.A. at midnight!" "The what?" asked Chao-lin, confused. "D.S.A., the Disassembled States of America! You have fifteen hours left, Chao-lin! Ahahahahahahaha!" He cut the transmission. Chao-lin looked at Shadow. "Did you get what you needed?" she typed. Shadow looked at the device. "Yes, it says he was transmitting from a set of coordinates in.Egypt! Thank you for letting me help, Madame President." "No problem. After all, you've saved my country on more than one occasion. By the way, perhaps I can help you get where you're going." Said Chao-lin. "Oh? How?" asked Shadow. "How would you like to get to Egypt in style, on Air Force One?" she asked. Shadow gaped. "Madame President, please, I couldn't-" "Oh go on, it's the least I can do to help you. I don't want this country blown up! I'll call ahead and get you your flight. The plane will be waiting at Dulles airport. Hurry, there are only five hours left to save the world!" Chao-lin typed. Shadow nodded. "Thank you, President Chao-lin. I'll try to finish the job before then." He walked to the center of the room, then paused. "Oh, and you can be sure I'll vote to reelect you." He jumped out of the sunroof, leaping off of the car roof and landing behind Amy. She drove off, heading back to BWI to pick up the others. "Such a nice hedgehog." Chao-lin typed. She quickly set up the arrangements for the flight to Egypt, then sat back and relaxed, enjoying the drive at last. The aide interrupted her from her relaxation. "Madame President, we're getting a call from our agent." Chao-lin jumped in her seat and frantically typed, "What are you waiting for?! Put her on!"

Our heroes got to Dulles airport without much trouble, got the Passion/Storming Heart III loaded into the aircraft, and took off on the long flight to Egypt. Ten hours later, they arrived in Cairo. Rather than renting a car, they flew out of the airport in the Storming Heart III. (It was impossible to fit everyone in the plane, so Knuckles had to hang on desperately to a wing while the other two Chao were wedged in beside Robotnik. Angel and Amy were the only ones comfortably seated, since Shadow was right in front of Robotnik. After flying uneventfully over Route 280 and an area Knuckles identified as the place where he had found Master Emerald shards 4-6, they reached the coordinates Robotnik's device had indicated, a pyramid in the middle of a sea of quicksand. Knuckles gazed among the great expanse of ruins and shook his head. "The desecration of such an ancient and sacred place, it's horrible." He said. "What do you mean? Time wore these ruins away, not raiders." Said Robotnik. "No, I'm talking about how Snively has pasted his face everywhere you look, it's horrible." Knuckles explained. This was true. Snively had carved and painted his logo on nearly every building around the pyramid. Many statues had had their heads ripped off and replaced with images of Snively. It was disgusting. "The pyramid entrance is no doubt guarded by plenty of traps and robots. One of us will have to go in there and find the entrance, clearing out the traps along the way." Said Shadow. "I'll do it!" said Amy. "Are you sure? It looks dangerous." Said Knuckles. "Angel and I can do it." Said Amy. "I'll wipe out the opposition in front of us and make a path to the entrance so all you guys can get through safely!" "I think she can do it." Said Robotnik. Shadow nodded. "Amy, go ahead. Have some fun, blow up Snively's robots, but don't go in without us, okay?" "Okay!" Amy started walking towards the ruins in the Passion. "Don't you think she'll be in trouble?" asked Knuckles. Shadow shook his head. "No, she'll be fine. Climbing over the wreckage of anything that ticks her off will be difficult." He affirmed.

Stage 7: Hidden Base. Mission: Find the entrance into the hidden base.

Amy and Angel were in the start of the ruins, an open square. A few urns were in the room's corners, and the path was ahead through an opening in the wall. Amy went through the opening, dropping onto a platform bridge rising from the quicksand. She walked across the bridge and onto a platform. A Hawk swooped down and shot at her. She blasted the Hawk, then jumped onto a fallen red pillar that lay across the quicksand. She walked across the pillar, seeing a tall platform nearby. She hovered across the gap, landing on the platform. Ahead of her was a large platform held aloft by a pillar with a few dynamite packs strapped to it. Angel locked onto the packs and fired, blowing the explosives and dropping the platform to Amy's level. She hovered onto it, walked over the platform, and was faced with a larger ruin with a stone door with Snively's face carved into it blocking her way. She blasted the door several times, breaking it and entering the next room. There was another Snively door at the other end of the room, which she destroyed and passed through as well. After blasting through half a dozen rooms with Snively doors, she came into a hallway with another Snively door at the end. She destroyed it and exited the hallway, ending up in another room with a Snively door on the left. She destroyed the door and went through, back into the open desert. She was on a dead end ledge. Below her, in the quicksand, were a series of platforms. She jumped off the ledge and hovered to the platform below. She hovered to the next one, and the one after that, reaching a pulley. She grabbed onto the pulley with a robotic arm installed in the walker and was elevated. She jumped off the pulley and hovered to another one, which took her to the top of a pillar. She jumped and hovered onto the pillar, and was confronted by a dozen Hawks. Angel and Amy took out the Hawks with some fast shooting, and hovered to the pillar ahead of them. Straight ahead was another big platform on a pillar with dynamite packs. Angel blew up the explosives, dropping the platform tot heir level. Amy hovered onto the platform, walked across it, and blasted down the Snively door on the other side. She went through the door and turned right in the next room, blasting down the door ahead of her. After proceeding like this through three rooms, she came back out in the open again. She followed the ledge she was on to the left, then jumped off and hovered down to the long series of red pillars ahead. She hovered from pillar to pillar, blasting every Beetle in her way from the sky. She was forced to go into a long hover, since the next several platforms kept going into the quicksand and coming back up. Ahead of her, she saw a platform on a bombed pillar. Alerting Angel to its presence, the Chao took action and blasted the pillar to oblivion. The platform fell, revealing.another pillar and platform right behind it. Angel destroyed the charges on that pillar, revealing yet another pillar and platform. After blasting those dynamite packs as well, the platform fell, revealing an alcove with a pulley. They were almost to the first platform at this point, but were too low to reach it. Amy spotted a pulley above one of the sinking platforms and flew into it, grabbing the handle with the robot arm. Once they were high enough, she let go and hovered to the platform. She walked across the three platforms and grabbed onto the next pulley, going to a higher area. She jumped off the pulley and onto the ledge leading inside the next open chamber. The instant Amy went through the door, several Kikis, robot monkeys, appeared and began throwing bombs at them. After getting rocked by explosions, Amy and Angel took aim, blasting the mechanical monkeys into the great junk heap in the sky. A little damaged but okay, they kept going. Right ahead was a passage blocked by the view of a pillar with charges. Angel locked onto and blew up the charges, dropping a platform in front of them. Amy jumped onto the platform and walked ahead, finding a seeming dead end. The left end of the small, narrow section they were now in had a large cylinder. Curious, Amy blasted the cylinder until it blew up, revealing a Snively door. She blew up the door, and passed through a series of antechambers, each with another Snively door blocking the way. After getting through all the doors and antechambers, they came to a ledge. Amy dropped off the ledge and onto a red pillar below. She hovered from the pillar to a narrow ledge just ahead. She walked down it to the left, finding a dead end. She dropped down to a ledge just beneath the current one, finding a passageway in the wall. She walked down the passage, finding a door blocked by crates. She blasted the crates down and entered a pillar- lined hallway filled with floating Unidus and Golas. The flaming and spiky robots came right for them, intending to destroy the intruders. They were destroyed, instead. At the end of the hallway was a pulley, which elevated Amy to another pulley, which she used to get back in the open desert. She was now in a long open hallway with many platforms and pillars, and many bomb-throwing Kikis. Amy passed down the hallway while blasting the metal monkeys to oblivion, finding a Snively door atop a high platform. She jumped across the pillars to a platform a little higher than the one at the end and hovered across, blasting open the door on the other side. She went through the door and entered a room with a Snively door on the far wall. She blasted the door apart and went through it. There was a corridor on the other side that went forward, then right. Amy walked down the corridor and to the right, blasting down another Snively door. She went past and found another door. She blasted it to pieces and followed the corridor to the left. At the other end was a room with another door. She blew open the door and came into a room with an opening on the left wall. She went through the opening and found a ledge running along the wall. She walked down the ledge on her right, coming to the end. She saw a platform below and dropped down, hovering to the bottom. As she did so, several Beetles, Hawks, and Hornets approached. Angel locked onto all the incoming enemies and destroyed them. Amy dropped onto the platform safely, walking though the doorway on it. Inside the next room, she saw a pulley. She grabbed onto the pulley and was elevated to a position where she could hover to a platform with a Snively door on it. She let go of the pulley, hovered to the platform, and destroyed the door. She went through the door and groaned at what she saw on the other side. It was a long channel of quicksand. At the far end was a platform and door. In between her and the door were several platforms that kept slowly turning over, making a very dangerous set of stepping stones. Carefully, she hovered from one platform to another, jumping off right after landing to keep from falling into the sand. After several close calls, she made it to the other end and went through the door. She was in a courtyard with a tall walkway at the other end. A spring was placed at the base of the walkway. She walked onto the spring, bouncing onto the walkway. She went down it, passing a long row of flags, before finally reaching a stairway leading to a pavilion. As they came out onto the pavilion, Amy and Angel nearly danced with glee. Right before them was the pyramid. The Goal Ring hovered in the center of the pavilion, the entrance into the great structure at the far end. She passed through the Goal Ring, ending the level.

(STAGE CLEAR. RANK A.)

Amy called the others, telling them the way was clear. Somehow they made it through the level, reaching Amy after a long half-hour. As a group, the heroes and Chao entered the pyramid.

What horrors wait inside Snively's pyramid? Find out next time! And please review!