Shadow landed The Hunter in a clearing on the outer edge of the island. Sonia wanted to go with them, but Shadow told her to stay put. They weren't sure what was out there. Shadow and Rouge exited the ship and surveyed their surroundings. The webs seemed to be connected to Sky Sanctuary and draped the island like a giant curtain. Only the outer edge was clear of webs. Shadow took a few steps forward and examined a strained of webbing, "This stuff looks like it is a melding of organic and metal compounds."

Rouge shrugged, "What does that mean?"

"This stuff is much more than a simple bug trap. These strands appear to be able to carry power, broadcast-jamming signals, and...." Shadow picked up a stick and tapped the web with it, "Stick!" Shadow let go and the stick remained stuck to the webbing, "We'd better do our best to avoid this stuff."

"No problem here!" Both of them entered The Mushroom Forest. Fortuity, the large mushrooms kept most of the webbing off the ground. After a few minutes of walking, Rouge spotted several cocoons of webs hanging from the larger webs, "Any ideas what those are?"

Shadow stopped, "I'm not sure!" He transformed into his aqua form and summoned his twin swords, "Lets find out!" Shadow leapt into the air and sliced a cocoon opened and an echidna fell out. Shadow dismissed his armor and helped the echidna to sit under a mushroom, "What happened here?"

The echidna blinked a few times and fell down. Rouge checked his pulse, "His heart rate is weak!"

"You go get Sonia and some medical supplies from the ship. I'll free the others in the area."

Rouge nodded but a loud laughing stopped her from leaving. A gray female fox leapt down from a tree and stood in front of them, "You're going no where!"

Rouge transformed into her wind armor, "Did you do this?"

"No! But I must admit it was nice of someone to give me all these bodies." The fox jumped up and landed on a tree branch ten feet above the forest floor. She held out her fingers, "My name is Strings! Father has sent me to give you one more chance."

Shadow transformed into his aqua armor, "Tell Luxor to go shove it. I'll sooner kill myself than follow that fool." Shadow summoned his swords, "So why don't you get out of my sight."

Strings chuckled, "Sorry you feel that way." Red strands of energy shot from her fingers and attached to several cocoons around them. The echidna within broke free and dropped to the ground. Strings pulled on the strands and they all stood up. There was ten in all, "Kill them!" The echidnas lunged at Shadow and Rouge.

Leda woke up and felt the empty place next to her. She sat up and yawned, "Speed?" She grabbed her robe and tied it closed as she walked into the cockpit. Speed was sitting in the large command chair at the controls, "Speed?"

The green hedgehog spun around in his chair, "Sorry! Did I wake you?"

"No! I was just wondering where we are going."

"Angel Island! According to the scanner The Hunter is there."

"Aren't we going after the last stone?"

Speed shook his head and spun back toward the view port, "Not yet! I want to hook back up with the others. With Bojack back in town, we are going to need all the help we can get."

Leda nodded and sat down in his lap, "Mind if I take a nap?"

"Never!" Leda smiled and curled up in his lap and fell asleep with her head on his shoulder. Speed simply continued to pilot the ship.

Both Rouge and Shadow jumped back as the echidnas tried to attack them. Either one of them could take out the whole group, but they didn't want to harm the echidnas. Rouge had tried attacking the strands of energy, but an echidna would always get in the way. Shadow's grip on his swords tightened, "I am growing tried of this game. Lets just go through them and cut our losses."

"Come on Shadow! We can't just plow through them. We are the good guys."

Shadow crouched down, "You can do the good thing. I'll do the winning thing." Shadow dismissed his swords and curled into a ball. He started to spin in place and water started to form around him. Rouge quickly stepped back as Shadow shot forward. Water engulfed him a small wave formed. The water smashed the echidnas down and Shadow slammed into Strings hard. The fox fell from the tree and landed in a large web. Shadow uncurled and smiled as the strands of energy vanished. He glanced behind him, "See! They lived." Rouge ran up and then screamed. Shadow looked at Strings and had to gasp himself. Several large gray spiders had climbed onto the web and started to wrap Strings up. Her cries were quickly muffled as the spiders cocooned her up in a matter of seconds. When the cocoon had stopped moving, the spiders returned to the trees. Even Shadow found what had happened disturbing, "Well that was both helpful and weird."

Rouge turned back to the downed echidnas, "What about them?"

Shadow started to walk, "We have no choice but to leave them for now. We'll head for Sky Sanctuary and take down the webs. Then we will get them help."

Shadow walked down the main street of Echidnatropolis. The once beautiful city was now nothing but buildings covered in thick webs and he spotted hundreds of cocoons. Rouge glided over head and landed in front of him, "I can't fly over this stuff without going back."

"Guess we will just have to walk it."

The two traveled toward the center of the city. Near the fountain in the middle of the square was a Zoot Chute that led to The Master Emerald Chamber. Form their they would be able to travel to Sky Sanctuary in a matter of minutes. When the reached the fountain, Shadow suddenly realized that all the webs actually connected to the fountain, "I think we found the source."

Rouge slowly approached the fountain, "So now what do we do?"

Shadow shrugged and launched himself at the large pillar of webs, "Slice and dice!" Shadow swung his swords, but all they did was get stuck to the webbing. The hedgehog cursed as he tried to rip his weapons free.

Rouge chuckled, "Step back!" Shadow moved out of the way as Rouge summoned her Chakrams. She threw both of them with as much strength as she could muster. They spun through the air and like the swords, got stuck in the webs. Rouge sighed, "Well I'm out of ideas!"

Shadow looked around, "Maybe we can burn them free." He spotted a tree in the small garden near the fountain, "I'll just grab some wood." As he reached for the tree, several spiders dropped from it. Each was about the size of a dog. Shadow backed off, "Should have brought some bug spray."

The ground cracked around them and collapsed. Shadow jumped clear and Rouge flew up. A large thing climbed out of the hole. It had the body of a spider, with the upper torso of a female human. Its hands were clawed and had eight glowing eyes. It smiled and reviled a set of sharp fangs, "Hello!" Several more spiders crawled out of the hole and swarmed around the large one, "My name is Brood! You have wandered into my trap."

Shadow curled into a ball and launched himself at Brood. The mutant spat out a blob of web and it knocked Shadow out of the air and onto the ground. Shadow tried to break free, but the blob held fast, "Get this stuff off me!"

Rouge flew down to help him, but Brood captured her the same way. Brood chuckled, "Bind them my children. Master Robotnik will be pleased." Shadow and Rouge were helpless as the small spiders crawled over them.

Sonia sat in the pilot chair as she watched the landscape. She was both worried and board. She drummed her fingers on the consol, "What could be keeping those two?" She heard as strange tapping sound along the hull of the ship. She walked to the door control and tried to open it. But the door wouldn't budge, "What is going on?" Sonia ran to a small window and screamed. A large spider had walked across it and was covering the ship in webbing. Sonia ran to activate the engines, but the webbing had drained the power core. The squirrel ran to the center of the ship and hid in the small armory, "Where is everyone?"