Location - Somewhere above the ocean.

"Huh?" Tails jolted awake. What on earth is happening to me? he wondered. He felt so cold, and despite the warm sun on his back, he shivered. All thoughts of food were forgotten.

The voice he had heard was familiar, and the pink place too. Suddenly he knew. The dream he had on the night Sonic disappeared was exactly the same. And Loren had been in it....so maybe that was Loren who had just tried to communicate with him. She had been trying to tell him something about the darkness. Something that had seemed so important.

The plane dipped down dangerously and Tails grabbed the steering controls in a flurry. How stupid! He had nearly forgotten about the plane!

"Sorry...... Turbulence," he called to Sandi. He did not want her to know that his 'daydream' could have killed both of them.

"Hey, Tails," Sandi said lazily, snapping out of her own personal reverie. "I've just been thinking..."

"Mmm?" Tails murmured, keeping a tight focus on piloting now.

"I'm glad you believed me...when I said I was your sister," Sandi said quietly. "I was so afraid you wouldn't believe me, and I'd wanted so badly to see you again. I mean, what if you thought I was on Eggman's side or something? What if you thought I just wanted to tag along?" Sandi looked tearful for a moment as she let her emotions get the better of her.

"Sandi, you're my sister. You always will be, and that's never going to change." Tails said assertively.

"But - how can you know for sure? I don't even have any proof..." Sandi trailed off miserably. Tails let the plane hover as he turned to face Sandi.

"You're the only other fox I know with two tails." Tails smiled. He looked her in the eye. "And there's more than just that. I know you're my sister. I don't know how I know, I just do," he whispered. The air had gone all quiet. Then Sandi smiled too.

"I want to fight beside you, and help you," she told him. Tails hugged her.

"Welcome, Sandi. You're part of the team," he said brightly. The mood in the little plane went from pensive silence to cheerful warmth in a matter of seconds.

"Hey, wanna know ho I found you?" Sandi asked.

"Go on."

"I was always working in some sort of casino, or disco, or club of some kind. There was this one job I got two months ago in a tavern over the other side of Station Square. It was quite a good job, so I stayed on for a while. About two weeks ago I overheard two people talking about this Sonic guy and his friend, a fox with two tails, who saved the world from being blown up by some space missile."

"I remember that," Tails murmured, recalling the Eclipse Cannon catastrophe.

"They said you lived in Station Square when I asked them for more details. So I packed up and went to work in the Casino in Station Square." Sandi paused and looked over Tails's shoulder.

"Um, the ...little green light is..bleeping."

"Oh! The plane!" Tails exclaimed. He turned to face the cockpit. The tracking system had located something. "Yup, it looks like Stella's plane landed on that island down there. Karmen Island, I think. Let's go." All Sandi felt was an intense gust of air in her face as Tails took the plane into a steep dive towards the island. Her breath caught in her throat as they hurtled down and stopped, one metre above the ground, right at the last minute. Tails gently let it down to the ground. Karmen Island. They were there now.

They soon found out that Karmen Island was actually a secret underground stronghold. The entire surface of the island was covered in shrubs and dense vegetation. But secret doorways opened up vast underground passages that led to a central stronghold deep underground, teeming with robots and security monitors. Like a private government or military base, it seemed almost impassable.

Tails was definitely going to find it easy to break into.

It was by pure luck that they found the entrance to one such passage. After they had landed, Sandi quite literally stumbled across it. In truth, she fell a good few feet into it. The wooden trapdoor entrance had rotted away and crumbled over the years. It made Tails wonder how long ago this stronghold was set up.

Sandi silently followed Tails as he navigated down the dimly lit, metal corridors. She did not need to ask where he was heading, she figured he would try and reach some sort of control room before finding Amy. As they slipped between the shadows avoiding unblinking security cameras and odd little robots that scuttled about like crabs, Sandi became more and more certain of how the plan would work.

Minutes later, they entered a cleaner, more technologically sophisticated area. The security was intensifying the deeper and further in they went. Tails stopped on the corner of a corridor and peered round.

"That's the room we're looking for...there." He pointed it out from the shadows. Sandi looked. It was the door to the master computer, the thing that set all the programs for maintenance of the stronghold ( it said so on the door).

"Why don't we just walk straight up there and bash through? I mean, it's not going to matter if security spots us, 'cos you're just going to shut down the system anyway." Sandi said.

"How'd you know I was going to do that?" Tails murmured with amusement.

"I'm adapting," Sandi said with a wink.

They went over to the door. It was made of metal, so tail force would not do as it had done in the M.S.C building. But there was a glass window. Tails picked up one of the scuttling robots and bashed it through the glass. He then scrambled through with Sandi right behind.

"I'm finding Amy, right?" Sandi asked.

"Yup. I need to be here in case anything goes wrong," Tails affirmed. Sandi waited patiently as Tails played about with the stronghold's electricity system. He knelt in front of a tall, refrigerator- shaped unit that was covered with wires and switches that controlled everything electrical in the stronghold. Sandi left him to it with a silent reverence quite different from Amy's boisterous impatience. She began looking around the room, out of curiosity. Behind a closed cupboard door she found a rack of guns. Since she was the one who was going to find Amy, she armed herself well.

"When do I go?" Sandi said after a while. Tails switched round one last wire and pulled down on a lever. Suddenly all the lights switched off and the luminous green LCD displays on the unit turned blank.

"Now," said Tails.

Sandi blasted the door open with the gun she had 'borrowed'. She was not going to climb through that window again. Then she vanished from the doorway, leaving Tails to his world of computers and technology.

* * * * *

Amy lay close to tears in her minuscule, unbearable cell. The electric shock method had not rubbed off too well on her. Right now she would give anything to get back at Stella. Too much energy had been sapped out of her; she was even starting to believe the things Stella was telling her. Tails, where are you? she called silently in her mind, a mere prayer in the darkness.

She heard the handle on the door rattle. Pause. The door rattled again. Looks like Stella forgot the key, Amy thought with relief. Suddenly something hit the door with terrifying force and smashed it to bits. Amy's heart skipped a beat. She looked up at the shadowy figure in the doorway.

"Amy! It's me, Sandi. I've come to rescue you. Hellooo?" came Sandi's singsong voice. Amy nearly fainted, and this time it was not because she as exhausted! Someone had really and truly come to rescue her and she could not believe her luck, even if it was someone as intolerable as Sandi.

"Sandi...over here..." Amy gasped, the words coming out harsh and dry. Sandi discarded the gun - still smoking from the blast - went into the room and soon released Amy from her cramped prison. She pulled Amy to her feet, ready to make a run for it, but Amy crumpled to the ground. Sandi was surprised to see how weak she was.

"What happened to you?" Sandi said, helping her gently to her feet again.

"Don't...wanna...talk now.... Escape," Amy said feebly. She staggered out of the dark, dank cell with Sandi at her side. They were halfway back to the control room where Tails was, when Sandi nipped into a storage room to pick up a healthy supply of food.

They got back to Tails and rested a while, eating the crisps and sausage rolls that Sandi had got for them. Amy told her side of the story ( accompanied by many gasps of shock and revulsion on Tails and Sandi's part ) then Tails explained what they were going to do next.

"The electricity can't be turned off forever. It's got an automatic timed backup, so we haven't got long before the electricity is able to be turned on again. We have to get to the lift on the flight deck, it should get us out of here." Tails explained, checking a series of large maps he had fished out from one of the long shelves in the room.

"Right. Everyone ready?" said Sandi. Amy and Tails nodded. Sandi stood up. "Let's bust outta here!"

* * * * *

Stella lay back in her soft black leather seat. She glanced briefly at the screen in front of her, which displayed the security cameras from all over the stronghold. The frequent talks with her prisoner were not yielding any information as of yet, but she was sure that Amy's spirit was failing. Sooner or later Stella would know everything.

She swivelled her chair round to her computer to check up on e-mail. Sifting through the various contents of her inbox, she discovered that the ship incident had been cleared up thanks to Dr. Wallis, and Eggman was now in possession of the Plasmic Generator. Eggman also informed her that Knuckles was still under the control of the Orb and was on his way to Eggman's base. Like she needed to know that! The red spiky furball was as annoying as that pesky fox. Knuckles had caused enough mischief already, telling Tails the location of the Plasmic Generator. She did not know why Eggman bothered keeping him around.

A beeping sound distracted her from the computer. Turning around again to face the screen, she noticed that one section had gone fuzzy and grey. A small red button underneath it was pulsing. One of the security cameras was down! That was strange. They had just been re-installed that morning. As she sat there staring at the blank window, another camera switched off. And another, and another - until finally the entire screen which had once been so full of colour was now grey and fuzzy. She shook her head. Maybe the system was not compatible, after all the cameras had only been put up that day.

A little robot carrying a mug of steaming coffee zoomed into the room, the automatic doors hissing shut behind it. Stella almost smiled. These little robots were handy. Eggman could make a fortune of them if he was a decent, honest scientist.

Stella took the mug from the metallic, lifeless creature and had barely lifted it to her lips when the robot began shaking and spluttering. The 'arm' that had handed her the coffee jittered and Stella glimpsed a shockwave of current running through it before it hung limp. Then the entire thing shut down.

Stella blinked. First the CCTV cameras, now the robot; there was definitely something wrong with the electrical system and she had a feeling she knew what - or who - was causing it. But no, it couldn't be! The irritating fox boy could not have come here so fast....it was impossible on that puny aeroplane of his.

She bashed the mug of untouched coffee down on the worktop in front of her and stood up, ready to investigate. As she strode out of the room, her computer also decided to switch off, and the automatic doors did not bother to close behind her. This game was starting to annoy her.

* * * * *

Five minutes later Tails, Amy and Sandi were still on their way to the flight deck. They came to another door and Tails picked up one of the robots, ready to smash it through the glass as before. When he walked over to the door it simply hissed open automatically for him. He dropped the robot.

"The electricity's working again," he murmured.

"Oh good. Can we put the lights on then? I hate this place, and it's even worse in the dark." Amy said.

"No. It would attract attention," Tails told her. "We're there now anyway." And they walked through the door into the flight deck.

* * * * *

Stella turned the corner into the flight deck. To her surprise, and severe annoyance, she saw Tails and Sandi helping Amy into the elevator that would take them to the surface of the island.

"YOU!!!" she snarled at Tails. Tails whisked round. From the expression on his face it was clear that Stella was not the only one who was shocked.

"Stella. So we meet again." Tails said boldly, covering up his shock. Sandi came and stood next to him. Amy did her best to stand round the other side.

"You and your girlfriend come here thinking you can make a fool of me? Think again," Stella snapped. She felt gutted that they had managed to get so far before she had found them. It had put her in a stormy mood. Even without her gun she looked as ruthless as a tigress.

Tails had also noticed the absence of her gun. It seemed to calm him a little, which Stella noted angrily.

"Sandi's not my girlfriend, she's my sister. And I'm not here to make a fool of you. In case you forgot, you kidnapped Amy. You hurt her!" What had started off as a calm and collected sentence had now gotten Tails boiling with rage. "I've come to get her back and get her away from you!"

"Yeah, you stupid PUMPKIN!" Sandi shouted too. Tails looked at her quizzically for a second. Then he carried on.

"We're leaving now," he announced. He turned and began to walk away. Sandi hesitated.

"Tails...." But her anxious warning came a second too late. Stella had reached the remote control door lock and turned it on. The doors all around them - including the elevator door - hissed shut. All escape routes were blocked off. Tails had not anticipated this.

"No-one's leaving yet," said Stella. She drew out a knife from inside her jacket. Sandi adopted her natural fighting stance. Tails looked around the dark flight deck. Sure, Stella had trapped them, but it was three against one. Or two against one, not counting Amy.

Sandi made the first move. She leapt up into the air and aimed a sidekick at Stella. Stella flashed the knife in front of her and Sandi transformed the kick into a hook kick, catching the sole of her foot against the flat edge of the knife. The knife buckled, and nearly snapped. Stella yanked it back and punched Sandi's stomach viciously with her free hand.

Tails ran up to one of the helicopters in the flight deck. Perhaps there would be some weapons in there, or so he was hoping. He was in luck. Picking up a pistol, he turned back to Sandi and Stella, who were battling furiously. Of course he was not actually going to use the pistol, but it gave him an advantage over Stella.

Tails was just about to cock the gun when Stella swung Sandi into him, knocking the gun from out of his grasp. He slammed into the helicopter behind him, the one he had found the gun in, and it toppled over. Tails lay breathless against it for a second, long enough for Stella to see him. She hurled the knife in a flash and it landed a millimetre from his face. Tails's eyes widened in shock. He turned to the side and hid behind the helicopter wreckage. Stella bounded forward to retrieve the knife. At that moment, Sandi struck again. Stella lashed out wildly with the knife, cutting just above Sandi's left eye. Sandi wiped away a trickle of blood and Stella took that opportunity to send her sprawling.

Tails ran along behind the helicopters and aeroplanes until he reached the end of the row. He looked for the gun he had dropped, but could not see it. Then he saw that Stella had the knife again and Sandi was on the ground. He raced towards them.

"Leave Sandi alone!" Tails yelled. He stood between Sandi and Stella. Stella swiped the knife at him. He jumped back and it missed his chest by inches.

"I've had enough of you 'caring and sharing' nonsense," spat Stella as Sandi struggled up. "You're too young to see it, but the world is a tough place. So get used to it." Tails clenched his jaw at this. He dodged another knife strike and helped Sandi to stand. He was scrambling backwards with the injured Sandi, trying to get her away from Stella when his back hit the wall. Cornered. By Stella. Again.

Amy had been watching from beside the elevator up until now. She had not thought there was much she could do. Then she spied the gun that Tails had dropped. It was only a few metres away from her. A thought sprung into her head like lightning. And Stella was focussed on Tails, so she would not notice until it was too late, just like in the basement of the cruiser. But...Amy was still extremely weak. Stuff weakness, she thought. Watch out Stella, 'cos HERE...I... COME!

Stella had barely taken a step towards Tails and Sandi when a small pink shape came hurtling towards her, landing on her shoulders and clinging on to her neck. Stella felt cold metal being pressed against her temple, and it was her turn to be scared.

"Drop the knife," Amy ordered. She held the gun firmly in her hands, ready to fire. For perhaps the first time, fear washed over Stella. She realised that it would not be so hard for Amy to pull that trigger, after what Stella had done to her. Now it was stalemate. Drop the knife or die. Either way, they won. She let the knife clatter to the floor. "Tails - the doors," Amy called to Tails. A small grin had slowly been spreading over his face as he watched the little hedgehog overpower Stella. He had to fight to keep from bursting out laughing as he went over to the door lock.

Once Tails had unlocked the doors, he helped Sandi into the elevator. Amy did not attempt to move off Stella's back.

"Go on. In the elevator," she said. Another nudge of the gun against her head and Stella unwillingly did as she was told. Tails ran back over to the door lock mechanism and did something which triggered off a countdown. The others watched in bewilderment. Tails rushed back to the elevator.

"C'mon, quick, GO!" he yelled as he pulled close the elevator doors behind him. Sandi set the elevator to the highest floor, presumably the surface of the island. She did not ask what Tails had done, she just knew that they had to get out of there fast.

They reached the top and tumbled out just as the countdown reached zero. The door to the elevator clamped shut and a far-off, muffled BOOM came from deep down beneath them. The ground shook a little, then all was still.

"What...have...you...done?" said Stella through clenched teeth, trembling with anger.

"Oh, nothing much. I just blew up the base and locked all the entrances," Tails said, as though it was no big deal. Now Stella was absolutely bursting with fury.

"You...you b-,"

'Watch your language," Amy quipped, reminding Stella that while she still had the gun, she had the upper hand.

"I'll go get the Thunderstorm." Tails chuckled and disappeared amongst the foliage.

Five minutes later they heard a soft chugging sound and Tails appeared above the treetops in his plane. He brought it to light beside them. Sandi clambered in, then Tails began the take-off. Amy whispered to Stella, "Thanks for co-operating," before she leapt onto the Thunderstorm and was hauled to safety by Sandi.

Locked out of her own stronghold, defenceless and livid with rage, Stella could only watch as they zoomed into the distance. Outsmarted by a hedgehog! She could have cried with humiliation.

* * * * *