During the explosion Eggman had managed to retreat unnoticed and Knuckles was also absent. "Hey where did Knuckles go?" asked Chris who was first to notice he was missing. "I wouldn't get to worried about him, he probably went looking on his own," said Sonic. He jokingly added, "Man, can't he at least pretend to be friends with us?" Tails examined the green emerald. "I think we should check in there," he said pointing to the mine entrance. The other three nodded and the gang proceeded into the aphotic (dark) mine. The only source of light was the chaos emerald which was now aglow and radiant.
After a few minutes of walking aimlessly the team noticed that the mine now split into an elaborate maze of tunnels and paths. Amy sighed, "I wish we had a map." Chris quickly made a suggestion, "I think this will work better if we divide up into groups." The team welcomed the idea. Sonic took a step forward, "Yeah." He looked around for a moment then said, "I better stay with Amy so we don't lose her." Amy was more offended than pleased with this remark. Luckily it was to dark to see the pout on her face. "I guess I still have a lot to prove, but I really can't blame Sonic. I did used to act kind of babyish in the past." She soon apprehended that everyone else had started walking. Tails stopped in his tracks and he looked toward Sonic. "Hey wait, won't you guys need a light?" Sonic pulled an emerald out from seemingly nowhere (literally, the writer doesn't even know where he got it from). "I thought we'd need this," he glanced behind him to confirm that Amy was still following him.
Chris and Tails went to the tunnel on the right, Amy and Sonic to the left. The green emerald which was still in Tails' possession changed little in brightness as they headed deeper and further into the vast tunnel. The walls were filled with tiny vesicules (holes) allowing tiny streams of light to peer through.
In some other random tunnel Knuckles was digging furiously almost as if he were in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. His fist hit a large boulder which left a nice bruise on his right hand. "Oww!" he exclaimed. With a strong haul he removed the massive boulder and who should he come face to face with but Eggman. Knuckles grunted, "What's up doc?" (ha ha, get it? I know, lame but I had to put it there) "Now is that any kind of greeting to a future king of the universe?" Eggman replied conceitedly. Knuckles leered at him suspiciously. "Just what are you planning now?" Eggman was now being uplifted by his hovercraft thingy. (does he have a name for that thing?) He chuckled menacingly, "You'll find out soon enough." With that said he took off before Knuckles could revile.
There was an awkward silence in the atmosphere between Sonic and Amy. Their red chaos emerald had not yet shown any reaction. With each step they had renewed hope and with each step that hope was mutilated. Still silence. Neither one of them had uttered a word in hours. Then for a second Amy's ears perked up and she held her breath listening, waiting. "What's up?" asked Sonic who'd noticed she had stopped moving. Amy replied, "I just thought I heard something." Sonic put his hand to his ear and listened intently. "Well, it's gone now," he said as he resumed his search. Amy wasn't so sure but followed reluctantly. She heard it again a small tiny sound like the drop of a penny. This time Sonic had heard it also. He was looking around franticallyprobing aroundfor what could have been the source of the peculiar noise. "Sonic!" Amy yelled suddenly pointing behind him. Her finger was tense and quivering slightly. It quickly registered in his mind what Amy was pointing at. Behind him was a robot which resembled a rat with two rectangular shaped teeth and a long tail of bronze. It had sharp jagged claws that looked as if they could snatch you in the blink of an eye.
Sonic took a few steps back while keeping Amy close behind him. He glared at the rodent and got in ready position for a homing attack. Amy pulled out her hammer secretly behind her back. Sonic leaped up doing a homing attack which happened to land on the robot's nose. The rat countered with a swing of its claw. It grabbed Sonic's leg and threw him into the ground. Before the rat had a chance to strike once more Amy gave a powerful swing of her hammer which hit the rodent's left side. It was not completely destroyed but was now dismantled into several different pieces and was incapable of movement. She ran over to Sonic who was clutching his leg in pain. He let out a loud groan as she gently touched his leg moving her hand up and down. The mechanical beast had torn his calf muscle. Sonic winced, "I don't think I can run."