((AN: Wow, you guys like this story. Who'd have thunk? So here's some more of it, earlier than I was planning on I guess.))

The Individuals at the front door let Sonic through the hidden exit. Looking behind him, he could barely see their hideout underneath the snow - if he wasn't paying attention, he wouldn't notice it at all. That's was a good thing; nobody would find it by accident. But he knew what was on the inside - a patchwork of shelters made of packed snow and wood, barely holding up, scattering powdery flurries from the ceiling just long enough to make everyone worried it would collapse. What a detestable state they found themselves in, that the air was too cold, their minds were too blurred, and their hearts were too hard to realize the true danger they were in. Frostbite nipped at all of their skin, leaving prickles up their arms like the small bites of thousands of ants, but none of them felt pain. You didn't stay in control of yourself this long without having a tough skin. It was a rough climate, literally and figuratively.

The worst of winter would be around the corner soon. It would be merciful and unforgiving, everyone knew. Hard as they may try to ration, everyone knew there would not be enough food to last until spring, even if they were in a place they could eventually grow more. Some were likely to starve without a breadth of new supplies coming in, and with the scouts returning less often, they couldn't guarantee that could happen. Their barricades would hold for a time, but as their cold fingers solidified in the frost, building new ones was unlikely. And what was now a biting cold would become a searing one, leaving the group up to awful choices. Would they face the possibility of limbs frozen solid, maybe even dying? Or would they light fires, leading their pursuers directly to them with the smoke, and risk losing everything they had worked so hard for?

All in all, things were looking grim.

Sonic's feet slipped over the ice, almost like skating instead of real running. It hadn't snowed in a few days, so the ground was relatively solid - a good thing, when compared to three solid feet of mass to push through. The sky was overcast and there was no clear indication of direction, but when your base is near the North Pole, you don't need much guidance other than "down." He shook his head, trying his best to not think about all the people he was leaving behind. He wanted to be the hero, like he used to be. He wanted to bring food, build shelter, create heaters, but that only solved the symptoms of the real problem. The nanites were becoming more and more dominant, and it was only a matter of time, fires or no, before their camp would be found.

The image of a partially robotic face haunted him… it reminded him of one of his off world adventures, when Tails had been partway turned into a robot by alien Zeti. He had known how to stop them from controlling his mind as well at the time, which was good, but the concept still made him uneasy. The only advantage they had over The Taken - and it really, really was the only advantage - was that they didn't seem aware of what some of the 'bodies' were capable of. If they combined their seemingly limitless knowledge with durable, unfeeling bodies….

Well, he hoped it would never come to that. And he tried, desperately, to think about literally anything else.

Feeling the whoosh past his face, even if it was bitterly cold, brought a smile to his face. It wasn't joy so much as peace that overtake him, despite everything. How many months had he been locked away and constrained? How many times was his only movement the shifting of belongings from one inhospitable place to the other, knowing his companions might not also make it? And now, after months, he was alone, taking in the air and feeling the gentle thrumming of his feet on ground. Unable to help himself, and seeing that he was far from any sign of life (Individual, Taken, or otherwise), he let out a loud whoop. It died in the self-created wind, only audible to his own ears, but man did it feel good.

Seeing a coastline, Sonic slowed down, skidding to a stop along the shore. Broken ice gave way to water, small fish and penguins splashing in the water. He paused for a moment to watch them before changing direction, following the water's edge as far as it would take him. He knew there was a risk that it wasn't the actual coastline, but just a large lake - somehow, he doubted that was the case, and took his chances. Okay, he thought. He'd go south, following the water, and get to something resembling civilization. Then he'd hide and dart around until he found something he could recognize to get his bearings, and use that to orient his way to the path north from GUN. And somehow, miraculously, he'd find a secret agent who definitely does not want to be found, over the course of literally a quarter of the planet, using only his couple years of rivalry and four-ish months of a long distance relationship as clues, who was probably going to shoot and ask questions later. And when he found him, he'd hope to whatever gods were on his side that Shadow was unharmed and uninfluenced by an ever growing hive mind that happened to gain more of the planet's complete knowledge about every conceivable topic, including the two of them. And then, they'd have to convince the evil mastermind that started this entire mess, who was probably still planning on taking advantage of this situation in any way that he could, to come out of hiding and do something benevolent to prevent a catastrophe the likes of which said evil mastermind had been trying to single handedly create for years.

Sure. No sweat.

After about two hours, his lungs were burning. He started to see trees - real trees! - again, and ice gave way to rocks. Then sand. Then dirt. Cliff sides and beaches, hills and jagged stones, breaking through the rushing tides. The spray of the sea grew warmer as he ran, and though he had to pay close attention to where he was going due to his speed, the crisp air stung his eyes. He wasn't used to this anymore, true. He wondered if this was what it felt like when he carried someone as he went at near sonic speeds. He'd be a lot more sympathetic in the future, he thought. Ease into the high speeds. Tell them to turn their heads away from where he was going. You know, if the world became right again and he'd ever be allowed to carry people who weren't already as fast as he was. And he wasn't fleeing for his life. That'd be nice.

A large cliff loomed in the distance perpendicular to his running path, and he slowed to a stop as it took up more and more of his vision. It hung tall, like a natural skyscraper, and stretched as far as he could see into the horizon. Wanting to avoid face planting in rocks, he put on the brakes, feeling the ground pile up beneath his feet. He thought this was just as good of a place as any to stop. How long had he been moving? How far had he gone? The air was pretty balmy and humid, and it was January, so he had to be pretty far south at this point… darn, he overshot the GUN base! But he could always turn around and go back the way he came-

His thoughts were cut short by distant voices, which told him that he was near civilization. Cautiously, he tried ducking behind jagged stones, hiding his tracks as much as possible until he could discern whether the speakers were friend or a foe. He focused his attention on being as quiet as possible, both so he wouldn't be caught by the new people, as well as to hear what the others were saying. Not to mention resisting the urge to peer out from behind the rocks to satisfy his own curiosity.

"You must put it inside you," one of the voices said, their words slurred and gravelly from lack of use. They sent a shiver down Sonic's spine, but it wasn't entirely unexpected. One of the Taken. That was what they were calling them these days, right? The name for them kept changing - the Hive mind, the Hoard, the Brainwashed, the Infected…. Whatever they were called, they were never good news, and they never had anything new to say.

In fact, they hardly had to say anything anymore; Tails had put the estimate of Taken on the planet at over seventy five percent of the sapient population. The rest were either in hiding, or they lived very remotely to begin with. So the only time they had to actually talk was to try to convince their abductees how good it was to be one of them, how wonderful it felt, how much it helped The Purpose or whatever it was called….

In any case, it only freaked people out. Frankly, Sonic wasn't sure why they still did it.

More surprising, though, was the other voice. "Put what inside me?" It asked, filled with genuine confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"Be still so we can give it to you," the Taken voice replied. Sonic felt his stomach flip as he realized he could practically hear the voice gurgling from the nanite sludge that must be stuck in its throat.

"Stay the heck away from me!"

"You will understand soon."

"I don't understand anything except that if you come any closer, my fist is gonna get acquainted with your face!"

The other voice, Sonic realized, was wholly familiar. Brazen, deep, filled with purpose… sure enough, when he looked up, he saw an old friend, a red echidna far from home. A giant smile came across his face as he darted out from his hiding place, and sure enough, there his friend was. "Knuckles! Am I glad to see you!" Sonic cried out, reaching out his hands and moving faster towards him.

The echidna turned, his eyes wide and almost frightened. "Sonic! Keep it down. They'll-"

He couldn't finish his words before a burst of stone flew out of the side. Three figures, wielding drills and protective masks, came out of their self-created holes about six feet apart from each other. They looked at the two and, silently, sprinted towards them. Knuckles coughed a little, then braced himself in a fighting position. "This doesn't look good," he muttered, mostly to himself."

"It's three guys," Sonic said, coming up next to him. "We can take them!"

Knuckles snorted. "'Taking' them was never my concern. Angel Island drifted to the ground here, and these clowns started drilling in the bottom!"

"Oh yeah, they're probably looking for more metal."

"Wait, why?"

"It's how that black gunk in their mouths gets bigger?"

"In their mouths? But they've got air masks on. I haven't seen-"

A drill came swinging down on Knuckles' head and, interrupting his own thought, Knuckles caught it with his two arms. The weight of it normally would have crushed a person, but Knuckles wasn't a normal person; he used his strength to hold it steady and, with a heave, sent it flying back towards where it had come from. The three attackers dodged the drill-turned-projectile, continuing to run towards them.

"What the heck is going on, Sonic? I just got a strange signal from the ground, and when I get here, everybody looked possessed or something! Is this Eggman's doing?"

"Kind of. Science project got away from him."

"Again?"

"Yeah, again."

Sonic half thought about picking up Knuckles and running from the assailants, but he knew that wouldn't do them any good; they knew he was here, so that cat was already out of the bag. Besides, if he ran, they'd keep drilling on Angel Island, and he couldn't let that happen either.

"Anything I should know about fighting these guys?" Knuckles asked, his positioning for the fight back in place after the throw. "Weak spots? Best counter attacks?"

"Not really. Just avoid their spit, and you'll be fine."

"Their spit? You've got to be-"

As if on cue, one of the figures removed their mask and started bracing themselves. He sucked in air, a gargling sound coming from his throat. The black goop bubbled near his uvula, moving on its own accord like magnetic putty, and it seemed to grow bigger with each passing second. Knuckles looked absolutely disgusted and, before the person could send any bodily fluids through the air, punched him in the stomach. The body doubled over, crumpling up, and the black goop flew through the air before landing in a wet plop a few feet away. The other two quickly moved to replace him in the formation without saying a word, despite being several feet away.

"What the-"

"Yep, they're talking to each other through their heads. Gotta keep up with the times, buddy."

"How-"

"Less talking, more kicking hive mind butt!"

"Hive mi- they're a hive mind, too? Couldn't have mentioned that earlier?"

The two bodies ran to the two of them, flanking them on both sides. They had their own drills, but they were just attached to their arms, and they were otherwise unarmed and unprotected. Sonic ducked down grimacing - normally, he hated hitting actual living things, but right now he had little choice. Swinging his leg in a semicircle, he tripped one of the attackers. Knuckles then smacked down on the assailant's head before arcing his elbow towards the others' head. The latter enemy dodged, and the two exchanged a series of blows just fast enough to ensure the attacker never got to take his mask off. The others incapacitated, Sonic took deep breaths, not realizing how winded he would be after such a short fight. It was always remarkable to see Knuckles fight; he didn't have Sonic's speed or sharp spines, so he couldn't do the kinds of quick jabs that Sonic tended to favor. Instead, his attacks radiated pure power and strength; every blow had his full body weight behind it, and when he missed his attacker and hit the side of the cliff, a dent formed in the stone. Sonic knew if he came in the normal way, it'd be hard for Knuckles to keep fighting and not hit hit. As he saw the fight start to wear on Knuckles, the other's breath becoming very heavy and labored, Sonic started to wonder how exactly he could help.

Then he realized the cliff edge was still close. He grinned and, after a second of two of revving up speed, he took off running up the side of the cliff. He wasn't big, but even something small could do a lot of damage when coming from a high place - and right now, this rockside was nearly as tall as a city building. He could use that to his advantage.

"What are you doing?!" Knuckles called up after him, his voice becoming more faint the longer he continued from the distance. "You're trying to leave me here! And you'll never make it to the top of the rocks!"

"No I'm not, and I know. I don't need to," Sonic yelled from high up. Knuckles seemed so small from up here - a red speck, first the size of his fist, then the size of his fingertip. "I just need to fall in the right place. Keep him still for me, will ya?"

Not waiting to hear a reply, Sonic shoved off the cliff side with his legs and, right away, began to tumble down. The air grew loud as it rushed by, and Sonic tried not to think about what this fall was going to do to him. It had been a while since he'd done this, and to be safe, he angled to only kick with his never-broken leg. His falling picked up speed, and stray rocks from where he kicked off flew down next to him in pebbles. As he got close, he yelled out, hoping to Chaos that his friend could hear him, "Knuckles, under me! Make sure he's in place and doesn't take his mask off!"

Sonic couldn't quite make out Knuckles' reply, but it sounded something like a grumbled "guess I don't have a choice." With one solid shove, he pushed the final assailant into just the right position. Just as the enemy was about to move, Sonic's foot collided with his shoulder and sent him into the ground. Compared to the dent Knuckles knocked into the rock side, this was practically a crater; debris flew everywhere, creating a giant dust cloud obliterating the scene. Even Sonic couldn't see the outcome at first, instead overcome by coughing and trying to get the gravel out of his lungs. I think… I think I got him. But I won't know for sure until…. As everything settled and the crater stopped forming in the ground, Sonic leaned down and confirmed - the attacker was unconscious, but still alive. Breathing out in relief, Sonic bent his knees slightly before they caved in beneath him. When he fell down with a solid thump, he felt himself laugh. His whole body was shaking from exertion and nerves, but he didn't care - this was the most alive he'd felt in months.

"Man," he said, "it's been a while since I've done that! Guess that guy got caught between a rock and a hard place - literally!"

Knuckles groaned before he stopped, confused for a second. "Wait, that's right, you broke your leg!" Knuckles rushed over, bending down to look at his shins in a near panic. "I'm glad to see you on your feet again, but are you crazy? You can't re-injure yourself out here, not now!"

Sonic shrugged. "Relax. We're alright, aren't we? And besides, if I didn't do that, you would've had to fight him until you were both worn down."

"Or you could have fought with me! How's that for a solution? And what's going on around here anyway?"

Sonic stopped and explained everything to Knuckles - the nanites, the Eggman machines gone awry, the experiments by GUN, Shadow's mission… everything except for his more personal reasons for looking for Shadow and Eggman. It wasn't relevant right now… he thought. "So we gotta find Shadow real soon," he said, "and he's gonna help us stop whatever weird plot the hive mind is coming up with now."

Knuckles glanced at the ground, obviously disturbed by this turn of events. "I wonder if Shadow is the one that sent that distress signal, then. Not a lot of people know how to do that.

Sonic tilted his head. "That reminds me. What kind of distress signal are we talking about here? Most of the radio waves and satellites are controlled by those things at this point, and the ones that aren't, everybody's afraid to use."

"Because they think it'll help the enemy find out where they are?"

"Exactly! Cause, you know, the hive mind doesn't need to talk 'cause they do it in their heads, so there's a lot of fake calls that turn out to be traps they set for us. We have to have runners deliver messages by foot, like we're in the Pony Express days or something" Sonic put his hands on the ground, trying and failing to push his spent body to standing. "It's crazy how far we have to go to make sure everybody stays safe."

Knuckles looked troubled, but said very little.

"But you never answered my question. What kind of distress signal?"

The echidna furrowed his brow, still looking at the unconscious bodies. "It wasn't a satellite or radio signal. It was a sort of pulse, going to the Master Emerald. It's in some kind of Morse Code, but when I wrote it down and translated it, it didn't make any sense."

"Like, hive-mind sent it didn't make sense?"

"Like, there's probably a whole other layer of code on top of the Morse code, didn't make sense. I figured if I could make it to the ground and find a Chaos Emerald, I'd at least be able to find the one that's sending out the call-"

"-and hope it's not any of The Taken finally learning how Chaos Energy works." Sonic finally managed to get back on his feet, albeit unsteadily. "I'm game to help, if you need it," he said, flashing a thumbs up while stifling his wobbling.

Knuckles glanced at the off balance hedgehog skeptically, then looked at the collapsed bodies of the intruders. He sighed, picking Sonic up by the waist and slinging him over his shoulders.

"Hey, watch it!" Sonic yelled out. "What do you think you're doing?"

"If you're right, and those guys are part of some bizarre connection-link-brain thing, then we'd better get moving. All of them are going to know we're here, and we can't wait for you to recover from your dumb decisions."

"A dumb decision that saved your free will," Sonic grumbled to himself, pouting but ultimately willing to be carried. "So where do we go, then? You said Angel Island drifted to the ground?"

"Yep. You're looking at it."

Sonic peered up from around Knuckles' shoulder, and his eyes went wide. "Man," he said. "I never realized how tall that place was…."

"Yep. It's over a mile from the bottom to the top. Lucky for you, I'm climbing us up there. Shouldn't take too long."

"And those guys at the bottom? You think they won't wake up and come after us?"

Knuckles scoffed. "The island will be up in the air again before they remember what daylight looks like. Besides, if I managed not to know about this for… how long has this weird robot thing been going on?"

"Four months."

Knuckles scrunched up his face, wincing. Sonic could feel his shoulders tense from underneath him. "Four months… great… then I'm guessing it's still safe to be there for shelter, at least for now. It's about five miles away - we just have to find a way back up there."

Sonic nodded and flashed a thumbs up. "Then climb away, Knuckles. We don't have any time to lose!"

The echidna nodded, readjusted Sonic over his shoulders, and started to climb up the mountain. Neither one of them noticed the twitching ears of one of their assailants.