The Thorndykes Shadow, and the others were in Chuck's lab watching the news.
They knew they were missing school but didn't care right now. If it's what it takes to get Sonic back they'll do it. Especially Tails and Knuckles.
The three of them had stuck together since they met and created Team Sonic. They weren't leaving her now.
"After the explosion on Prison Island, an emergency search team searched for survivors. Fortunately, the team now reports that everyone made it off the island safely." News Reporter said and everyone sighed in relief.
"I told you not to worry. Chris must be okay." Shadow said.
"But if he's not on Prison Island and he's not here..." Amy said then gasped seeing Sonic. "Sonic must have taken him to Eggman!" she said and Tanaka nodded.
"In related news, authorities are still searching for Shadow the Hedgehog, who is-" the news reporter said.
Ella turned off the TV. Everyone was dumbfounded. Shadow stood up.
"I'm going to find Chris and Sonic." he said. "Something's not right with her."
"But the police are looking for you." Amy said.
"Don't worry." he said and took off.
"I hope Shadow doesn't get caught again."
"If we all search, perhaps we can find Chris." Tanaka said.
"Where should we look? Sonic probably brought Chris to Dr. Eggman's secret base. But we don't have any idea where it is." Tails said.
"Tails has a good point."
"Well, if we're gonna find Chris, we'll have to find that base." Amy said.
"Then let's start looking right away!" Cream said.
"Chao!" Cheese said.
In the desert Knuckles stopped running.
"I'm gonna get even with Rouge!" he said then saw his first encounter with her.
"She stole the Master Emerald from me!" he narrated in Angel Island.
Rouge was attempting to flee from him.
"Come back here!" he said and punched her into a tree.
Her mask slipped off, allowing him to see Rouge's face for the first time.
"You're... that girl!" he said and she leapt back up as the flashback ended.
Back in the desert the ground shook, throwing Knuckles to the ground. He stood back up and saw smoke rising in the distance.
"Sounded like a rocket." he said and ran up a sand dune to see Eggman's pyramid base, and smoke rising from it. "Eggman's base..."
Meanwhile Chris was on a space station of some sort looking out the window.
"Whoa... It's hard to believe that I really traveled into space." he said turned around to see Sonic behind him. "And we're inside a space station?"
"We call this place Space Colony ARK." she said.
"I never heard of it before."
"It was built fifty years ago by Professor Gerald Robotnik. It's been kept... secret. That's where I came from and why I work for GUN since I got here. This is a mission Commander gave me, I'd never do something like this and you know it." she said and looked out the window again.
"Wow, a secret space colony!" Chris said and turned back to her. "I wonder if I'm the only kid who's ever gone into space."
"You're not."
"What? Then who was?" he asked as she appeared conflicted, but didn't answer. "Hey, you know what I just noticed? You look a lot like Shadow. Are the two of you... related?"
Sonic's penetrating gaze caused Chris to tremble. However, in her vision, Chris' reflection in the window changed to an image of Maria.
"Maria." she said to herself.
Sonic saw herself, Maria, and Professor Gerald fleeing from several soldiers.
"Stop them! We can't let them get away!" a Soldier said.
Then she saw herself in an escape pod as Maria ran up to a control panel.
"Listen, Sonic. I want you to promise me... please." Maria said.
"No, wait!" she said.
Soldiers started banging on the door.
"Whatever happens, remember I'll always be your friend, Sonic. We always talked about going to visit the planet one day. But it looks like you'll have to go there without me."
"Sayonara, Sonic the Hedgehog." Maria said then pulled a switch and immediately collapsed.
The escape pod was jettisoned into space.
In the current ARK.
"They'll pay for what they did. Every one of them." she said to herself surprising Chris. "After making me work for GUN the day we got here I've wanted to do this."
In Eggman's base Bocoe and Decoe placed the Chaos Emeralds into a project Eggman was working on.
"The Emeralds are set!" Decoe said.
"All six are in place and ready to power the cannon!" Bocoe said.
Eggman was working with a wrench below them.
"Rrrgh... Where's the blasted plug?" he said.
"This junk heap's the ultimate weapon? Maybe it makes everybody laugh so hard they surrender." Rouge said standing nearby.
"The Eclipse Cannon draws its energy from Chaos Emeralds, and generates enough firepower to destroy an entire planet."
"Is that true? It can really destroy a planet?" Decoe asked.
"You know he always exaggerates." Bocoe said.
"I can hear you!" Eggman said.
"Never mind, haha!" Decoe and Bocoe said.
Rouge wiped part of the Eclipse Cannon with one finger, then blew the dust off.
"This antique works?" she said.
"Just you wait and see. I'm going to be the ultimate big shot." Eggman said and laughed.
At Station Square Danny and Frances were walking Helen down the street.
"What's up with Chris? I called to say hello and left a message for him, but he never called me back." Danny said and they stopped.
"Nobody's heard anything from Chris for a long time now." Frances said.
Danny nodded.
Shadow ran past them.
"Hey, was that...?" Helen said.
"Yeah, that was-" Danny started but Frances covered his mouth. "Hey, what are you doing?"
A police officer was standing dangerously close to them. Danny again nodded, and Frances removed her hand.
"Oh, look at that!" Helen said to the other officer pointing to the sky to distract the him from Shadow, who was still visible. "Isn't the sky pretty?"
"Yeah. It's gonna be a beauty of a sunset." the officer said.
In a small house Mr. Stewart and Scarlet arrived at the house. The former glances at a paper he was holding.
"This is it." Mr. Stewart said.
"It might be difficult getting him to talk, considering the way his life fell apart after he got mixed up in Project Sonic. If we push too hard for this story, he may not tell us anything." Scarlet said.
Inside, Jerome was sitting down to eat.
"French fries for lunch..." he said as Scarlet and Mr. Stewart entered.
"I beg your pardon, sir. Does a Mr. Schmitz live here?" Scarlet asked.
"You must mean the old guy. He sleeps there." Jerome said and gestured to the room behind him.
"Thank you."
They headed to the room, only to find it empty. Mr. Stewart felt the bed.
"It's still warm. He just left." he said.
"Let's wait for him." Scarlet said.
At Station Square the image of a baseball game on a TV was replaced by the image of a laughing Eggman.
"The count is full as-" an announcer started.
Eggman laughed.
The X-Tornado flew past the big screen in Station Square. Ella and Chuck were also watching from inside Chuck's lab. Shadow stopped outside a house and watched one of the TVs.
"This is an Eggman update. I'm here to bring you an explosive surprise." Eggman said.
"What's he up to now?" Shadow asked.
"Look in the sky."
"The sky?" he said and looked up to see nothing but the moon.
Meanwhile Eggman, Rouge, Bocoe, Decoe, and the Eclipse Cannon were now aboard Space Station ARK.
"I'm coming to you planet-bound bumpkins live from outer space!" Eggman said. "Let me show you the true power of the Eggman Empire!" he said and laughed.
"What's Eggman gonna do?" Chris said and Sonic grinned, making him nervous.
"Now, let's have a blast." Eggman said and pressed a button.
Everyone on Earth stared in shock as the Eclipse Cannon was revealed. Eggman snickered as the cannon started charging. Then it fired a giant laser beam that destroyed half of the moon.
On the X-Tornado.
"The moon was so pretty! Why did Dr. Eggman wreck it?" Cream said.
"It takes huge amounts of energy to do that much damage." Amy said.
"Chaos Emeralds... If Eggman's got enough of them, he can use their power to make a super weapon!" Tails said and his own Emerald started glowing
On the ARK.
"With that much power, Eggman can blow up any planet he wants!" Chris said,
"Eggman wasn't lying about the Eclipse Cannon. It is the ultimate weapon." Rouge said and Eggman laughed.
At Station Square.
"That came from my Eclipse Cannon, and if you don't surrender to the Eggman Empire within twenty-four hours, I'll blow your planet away!" Eggman said.
"I have to find a way to stop him!" Shadow said and looked back up at the damaged moon.
In the Space Colony ARK Chris and Sonic were looking down at the earth.
"Today it's finally going to come to an end." Sonic said.
"Huh?" Chris said and she glanced at her.
There was a moment of silence as they continued to watch the sunrise.
"Sonic, why did you bring me here?" Chris asked but got no answer.
In her vision, Chris changed to Maria, and a flashback started.
Maria approached her, looking down at the earth.
"Are you going to stare out that window all day, Sonic?" she asked.
"I've seen photographs from down on the surface, but I wonder what it's like to be there. What is it like to see the sky above your head? I'd like to visit there and find out." Sonic said.
"Me too."
"Maybe I can find some answers down there. Professor Robotnik said I was here to do something important, though he never told me what that means. And something tells me that it's connected with that planet..."
Back on the Space Colony ARK.
"Don't you ever smile anymore?" someone asked so she looked up to see Rouge. "Hi, Chris."
"Hello, Rouge." Chris said.
"Aren't you glad to see me, Sonic?" she asked but she started to walk away. "I love it when you give me the silent treatment noq." she said but she has already walked into another room.
Outside the Manor Tails and Chuck were working on the X-Tornado.
"Almost done. I hope these modifications work so we can go save Chris." Chuck said.
"But one Chaos Emerald isn't gonna give us enough power to make all the way into space." Tails said.
"But one is all we've got, Tails!"
"We've got two." he said and held up a Chaos Emerald and another Emerald that looked similar to it.
"You... made a copy of an Emerald?"
"It isn't a perfect copy, Chuck, but the power it produces is almost the same. "
"Come on, let's try it out!"
Tails loaded them into a compartment.
In the small house Mr. Stewart and Scarlet left the house, labeled the Bucket Hotel.
"Maybe he's spotted us coming and it scared him off." Scarlet said.
Little did they know that they were being watched by armed GUN agents.
"Shadow ran over here!" someone said and other police officers followed the source of the voice.
Bokkun pointed down an alley.
"He went this way!" he said and laughed as the officers chased Shadow.
"You won't escape, pal!" an officer said but Shadow managed to elude them.
"Guess I lost them." Shadow said then the sound of fighting met his ears. "What's that?" he said and raced over and saw Knuckles, who just finished off an onslaught of GUN robots.
"Where've you been?" Knuckles asked.
"How's it going, Knuckles?"
"Not bad, except I'm in the middle of a battle right now."
They took on the GUN robots together.
"It's lucky my reflexes are quicker than Knuckles' temper."
But the more robots they destroyed, the more arrive.
Just then, Tanaka arrived on a motorcycle. He yelled a battle cry as the GUN robots pursued him. Cream opened a manhole nearby.
"He's only distracting them. Quick, follow me!" she said.
On the President's limo Eggman was on the screen behind the President.
"Tell me what your demands are, and perhaps we can work out an agreement." the president said.
Eggman laughed.
"Mr. President, that's very reasonable of you. I only have one demand to make if you want to escape my wrath. And if you fail to comply, I have one penalty. Either you agree to become part of my Empire, or else." Eggman said.
"Or else what?"
"Your entire planet will be blown to bits. Well? What is your answer?"
The President buried his head.
"I can't!"
"You can't what?"
"I can't give you an answer. Not yet."
"You're just stalling trying to give your military enough time to organize a counterattack against me. It is useless to resist. I expect your answer within twelve hours."
As Eggman vanished from the screen, the President fell onto his knees.
"What can I do? Twelve hours is not enough time to stop him from destroying the planet." he said.
Sam knocked on the glass, then straightened his cap.
"Y'know, there is a bright side to all of this, Mr. President." he said.
"What might that be?"
"If the planet is destroyed, you won't have to worry about balancing the budgey anymore."
In the desert Tanaka was driving Shadow, Knuckles, Amy, and Cream across the desert.
"So you found Eggman's base, but did you find out what happened to Chris?" Shadow said.
"Sonic took him up into space, and I think Rouge was with him too." Knuckles said.
"Really?"
He nodded.
"There is Eggman's base." Tanaka said and stopped the jeep.
Soon they were riding an escalator up to the entrance of Eggman's pyramid base.
"This place could be dangerous, so be careful, Cream and Cheese." Amy said.
"We will, Amy." Cream said.
"Chao!" Cheese said.
"Stick with Mr. Tanaka." Shadow said.
Topaz was monitoring their progress.
"Shadow and the others are entering the base. I'll follow them in." she said.
In Eggman's base Amy tried to hammer down the door, but to no avail.
"No luck." she said and Tanaka noticed a keyhole in the door.
"There is a keyhole, which must mean there is a key somewhere." he said so they turned to Knuckles.
"Hey! Why are you looking at me?" Knuckles asked.
"Well, you're a treasure hunter. Can't you find it?" Shadow asked.
"Ah! No way! A key isn't a treasure!" he said as everyone closed in on him.
"A real treasure should not have any difficulty finding something as simple as a key." Tanaka said.
"How do we know you haven't been pretending to be a treasure hunter all this time?" Amy asked.
"Maybe Knuckles is a treasure, but is just not a very good one." Cream said.
"Fine. I'll look." Knuckles said and stormed away from them and searched for the key.
Then he ran into Bokkun.
"I hope you know you're trespassing, Knuckles." Bokkun said.
Knuckles waved his hand.
"I don't have any time to play games with you, Bokkun. Scram!" he said.
"If you don't leave on your own, I'm gonna have to make you leave!"
"Oh yeah?!" he said about to punch him, but stopped and calmly walked past him instead. "No. I have to go find that key." he said to himself.
"I warned ya!" Bokkun said and pulled a remote out of his bag. "Go clobber him, Egg Golem!"
Suddenly, the ground shook, and Knuckles came running back.
"Knuckles found the key already?" Cream asked.
"'Fraid not." Shadow said watching Knuckles being chased by the Egg Golem. "Looks like Knuckles ran into some trouble - about fifteen tons of it!"
Bokkun was riding the Egg Golem.
"Let's give this a try!" he said.
The Egg Golem attempted to punch Knuckles, but he dodged, and the door was punched down instead.
"I got the door open. Now are you happy?" he said.
"I guess." Shadow said.
"Here's the spin cycle!" Bokkun said.
The Egg Golem spun its arms, knocking Knuckles into the wall.
"I'll stop it!" Shadow said then leapt onto the Egg Golem and ran against its spinning arms.
"Here's the clap trap!"
The Egg Golem clapped its hands on Shadow, then slammed him into the Egg Golem's head before throwing him down. Bokkun laughed.
"Nice going! You really hammered those guys!" he said but Shadow and Knuckles got back up.
"Have you had enough?" Shadow asked.
"Yeah, I think we can finish it off now." Knuckles said.
The Egg Golem spun its whole body as Shadow aimed a shot at it.
"Give 'em a headbutt again!" Bokkun said as Knuckles attacked the Egg Golem's legs.
Shadow and Knuckles attacked the Egg Golem at the same time, causing it to fall over. Shadow dusted his gloves.
"Well, that was easy." he said.
"Piece of cake." Knuckles said.
"Not so fast! Ha!" Bokkun said.
"Give it up, Bokkun!"
"No way! Look what I got!" Shadow said.
"No way! Look what I got!" Bokkun said.
The Egg Golem was holding Topaz.
"Oh, great. Why is she here?" Knuckles said.
"Hahahaha!"
Tanaka threatened him with karate while Cream took his remote.
"Hey, no fair! Gimme back my controller!" Bokkun said.
"Finders keepers!" Amy said and they giggled.
Cream pressed various buttons, causing the Egg Golem to drop Topaz and chase Bokkun.
He was barely able to keep ahead of the Egg Golem's stomping feet.
"Leave me alone!" he said as the Egg Golem chased him outside.
It attempted to punch him but hit a pillar instead. Bokkun was chased into the distance.
"No! Don't chase me, motor-brain!" he said.
Back inside, Tanaka was holding Topaz bridal-style.
"I hope that brute did not harm you, miss." he said.
"I'm fine." Topaz said.
Outside, Tails found the pyramid.
"There's the base." he said and the top of the pyramid opened. "I'll land inside." he said and landed inside the pyramid and climbed out of the X-Tornado. "I did it, Shadow! I adapted the X-Tornado so we can take it into space!" he said and frowned when he saw how many people there were. "Uh... We might have a little problem, though... It only seats four."
"If you're bringing Chris back, only two of us can ride with you." Amy said.
"Yeah, that's right..."
"Then let's take this space shuttle." Shadow said gesturing to a giant rocket nearby.
"I agree with Shadow." Tanaka said.
"Yeah." Knuckles said.
"Guess I did all that work for nothing..." Tails said.
"What about Cream and Cheese?" Amy asked.
"Well, I could take care of them." Topaz said.
"Thank you, miss." Tanaka said.
"Sure."
"Okay, then let's get going!" Shadow said.
A few minutes later Shadow, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Tanaka were now inside the shuttle.
"10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Ignition!" Countdown said and the shuttle took off.
"Hang on, Chris, Sonic... Hang on." he said as the shuttle disappeared into space.
