Chris grinned excitedly at the Chaos Emerald that was locked away safely in Chuck's experiment safe. "So, a Chaos Emerald. Does anyone know where they came from or how they work?"

Penny shook her head. "Nope!"

"Penny's right." Tails said. "Nobody knows much except that they're really powerful!"

Chuck grinned at them. "I hope my analysis reveals something about its makeup."

"Me, too!" Penny grinned excitedly up at Chuck. "I've always wondered how these Chaos Emeralds worked!"

Their talk was immediately interrupted by banging on the attic door. Penny's eyes widened. "Someone's com-"Chris and Tails quickly covered Penny's mouth, listening to whoever was entering the attic.

"I know you're in there!" An unfamiliar voice called, and Penny could tell it was female. "You haven't let me clean this room for so long, I'm issuing a dirt alert!"

"It's Ella!" Chris cried, quickly turning to Tails and Penny. "Quick, you two, hide!"

Tails and Penny quickly scanned the room until seeing a bean bag chair, and the two quickly flopped down on the bean bag chair, trying to keep as still as possible.

The person Chris called Ella opened the door to the attic, carrying some kind of strange appliance in her hand. She stared at Chris. "I thought I'd find you here, Christopher."

Chris waved his hand sheepishly. "Oh, hi, Ella!"

"Hmmm." Ella frowned, scanning around the room suspiciously. Penny sweat-dropped a little. Did this Ella person hear them talking? By the looks of it, it didn't seem like she heard. The lady pulled out her pink appliance and rolled it around the floor, muttering, "Keeping this room dust free is losing a battle. Not that I'm complaining, but it's like trying to vacuumed a dirt road. I-"

Penny's heart stopped when Ella turned her head to stare at her and Tails, but thankfully the female hedgehog used everything she could to act like one of Cream's dollies back at home.

The lady's eyes widened with delight and she stopped what she was doing, kneeling uncomfortably close to Penny and Tails. "They're so precious!" The lady cooed, turning to Chris. "Are they your toys?"

"I-I'm taking care of it!" Chris stuttered, rubbing the back of his head.

Ella grinned. "Ah, it almost looks real to me!" She glanced at Tails and Penny, and Tails twitched his eyes up at Ella, and Penny did the same.

Ella jumped back, startled.

Chris quickly stooped forward and grabbed Penny and Tails in his arms, chuckling nervously. "I-I think I'll go outside and play!" The boy said, running out of the room.

Chuck quickly stood up. "Uh, yeah, me too!" He waved a little bit at Ella and quickly darted after Chris. Once outside, Chris let out a laugh as he ran, carrying Tails and Penny. "Wow, Tails, Penny, that was a close call!"

"We sure fooled her." Chuck laughed.

"Yeah!"

Sonic groaned, glancing down at them from Chris's balcony. "Can't I nap in peace?"

"Nope!" Penny called up to him, snickering as Chuck grabbed her from Chris.

Chris was laughing too hard that he didn't look where he was going, and the boy accidentally bumped into his butler.

Mr. Tanaka stared down at him. "Master Chris, what, may I ask, is going on?"

Chris chuckled nervously, and Tails and Penny quickly flopped back as dolls. "Um, we're just playing, 'Capture the Stuffed Animals!" He glanced around and laughed nervously, boosting Tails up behind him. The boy slunk of. "Eh heh...heh...bye..."

Chuck quickly prepared to follow his grandson. "And I think I'll..."

"Sir."

Chuck stopped in his tracks, staring up at the butler. "While I commend your style to stay fit, I would've stuck to adult sports like bowling."

Chuck frowned, placing Penny on the ground against his legs and crossed his arms. "You can't tell me what to do. I'll play Ring-Around-the -Rosy if I..."

"Sir."

Chuck jumped. Mr. Tanaka was a little too close for comfort for him. "Perhaps you should slow down. Rest is important. I believe it is time for your nap." He turned Chuck around and pushed him back towards the house.

"I don't need a nap!"

"You can play later."

"I have work to do!"

"Come on, Mr. Thorndyke."

Penny, Chris, and Tails looked over at the two gentlemen. Chris sighed with relief. Then, someone knocked into Chris, Penny, and Tails, and the four fell down. The figure groaned, holding her head in pain.

"Amy?!" Chris asked. "You know it's dangerous to go wandering around by yourself!"

Amy got to her feet, looking excited. "I just saw a news report. It looks like they might've found another chaos Emerald!"

"What?!" Penny yelped in surprise.

"The strange energy spikes which seem to be coming from the Silver Valley area have played havoc with computers and machinery across the entire region."

Penny hummed, leaning forward and resting her elbows on her lap and rested her head on her hands as she watched the news report. "It MUST be a Chaos Emerald..."

"You know, Silver Valley isn't very far from here." Chris pointed out, glancing down at the three Mobians. He grinned and stood up. "Let's check it out!"

Amy ran outside to tell Sonic the news. "Hey, Sonic, did you hear the news?"

Sonic opened his eyes, glancing down at Amy from the balcony. He gave a tiny wave at Penny as she walked up behind Amy, and she slightly waved back.

The older female hedgehog had her hands clasped together, eyes beaming with excitement. "We're headed for Silver Valley! Come along and we'll have a picnic there!"

Tails frowned. "But...we're going for the Emeralds."

Sonic frowned. "Nah, I've been there before."

"YOU WENT WITHOUT ME?!" Amy shrieked. She paused in realization. "Oh. You passed it during one of your runs, didn't you?"

"Yep, you guessed it!"

"FINE, Sonic!" Amy humphed angrily. She turned to Penny, Chris, and Tails. "C'mon, we'll have more fun without him anyhow."

Chris frowned. "How can we get there without a car? My grandpa's resting and I can't ask Mr. Tanaka to drive."

"If I drive, I'm gonna get spotted," The fox pointed out with a frown.

"Pretty problematic." Penny hummed. She frowned thoughtfully, and then brightened. "Hey, I've got it!"

Pretty soon, Penny sat on Chris's lap, and Tails and Amy sat beside him, using the doll trick they pulled on Ella earlier. Everyone seemed to take an interest on the "dolls" Chris bought along and started talking about them.

"Those stuffed animals are really cute!"

"Isn't he a little too old for those toys?"

"They're all staring..." Chris groaned in embarrassment.

"It's okay, Chris, we're almost at our stop!" Tails whispered in the corner of his mouth.

"Yeah!" Penny said through clenched teeth. "We'll soon be off this train and you won't have to worry about them anymore!"

Chris winced, eyeing the crowd nervously. "Don't talk, they'll hear!"

"Hey, Chris, I need to blink," Amy said in the corner of her mouth. "What do I-" She stopped short when one of the five year old girls grabbed her ear and started tugging it.

"Hey, Mom, can I get one of these?" The little girl whined, tugging on Amy's ear and looking pleadingly at her mother. "Wake up, Mommy, look-it! Oh, please, can I have one? Please, Mommy, please! You said I can have a toy if I was good! I want it-" She let out a startled scream as Amy pushed her away with her foot. The girl slammed into the door of the train and started crying.

"Amy..." Penny winced inside her head.

"Now, if only I can blink, everything will be perfect." Amy thought happily.

Sonic yawned as he woke from another nap. "That was nice..." He yawned. His ears jerked to familiar laughter, and he looked up to see Bokkun flying towards him. The little robot landed on his rail and opened up his satchel, pulling a screen TV. He placed it on the tip of Sonic's shoe with a grin. "Message for you!"

Knuckles appeared on the screen, and boy did he look angry. "Sonic, I'm sick of all of your selfish stunts. This time you've gone too far. I'm challenging you to a showdown. Meet me in Silver Valley in one hour, and don't be late."

Sonic frowned.

Bokkun grinned and backed up as soon as the copywrite message turned on. "This message was bought to you by the Eggman Empire. which is not responsible for its content, except for this part-"

Sonic let out a startled yelp as the TV exploded right in front of him, and Bokkun flew off, laughing.

Sonic scowled in annoyance, coughing out some smoke. "Man, Knuckles is gonna regret that!"

When they finally made it to Silver Valley, there seemed no sign of the Chaos Emerald anywhere. Penny frowned, raising her eye brows. She turned to the gang. "You guys, there seems to be no sign of the Emeralds anywhere."

"Oh, well." Amy shrugged. "At least we can still eat!" She grinned as she laid out a table cloth and set the picnic basket on top, handing everyone a plate and some food.

Chris grinned. "It sure was worth the trip even if there is no Chaos Emerald!"

Amy looked up, frowning. "Shouldn't there be a lot of people here if they found a Chaos Emerald?"

"Maybe something else caused the energy spikes." Tails suggested.

"Hmm, maybe." Penny hummed, taking a bite out of her apple.

"I guess it must've been a mistake." Chris shrugged. "We can still have some fun while we're here."

"Yeah!" Tails grinned. "We could go take a hike in the mountains, or go swimming in the lake!"

"I vote swimming!" Penny grinned, raising her hand

Their moment was short-lived, though. A huge gush of water exploded right in front of them, and Penny let out a startled yelp along with everyone else when a robot suddenly scooped them up with his shovel claw and drop them in its tank. Penny let out a groan as she collided with the ground.

Eggman snickered as he glanced at his prisoners.

"Eggman!" Chris and Penny gasped.

Eggman snickered.

"You rat!" Chris hissed. "You tricked 'em into broadcasting that news story!"

"Uh, uh, uh, uh!" Eggman snickered, wiggling one of his fingers in the air. "I generated artificial energy spikes just like the ones made by the Chaos Emeralds. It isn't my fault that those news hounds barked up the wrong tree."

"I hate to admit it, but even Eggman had me outfoxed." Tails winced. Penny patted his shoulder. "Don't worry, Tails, happens to the best of us."

Amy threateningly raised her hammer. "Well, his plan failed 'cause we're out of here!" She let out a yell and tried to smash their way out, but the glass was too thick. The older female hedgehog panted, leaning against her hammer.

"You can't leave." Eggman laughed. "I need you in case my first plan to beat Sonic fails."

"Sonic isn't here." Penny hissed, putting her hands on the wall of the cage and glaring at Eggman.

Eggman snickered at the young hedgehog. "He'll be here any minute now." He glanced over at the mountains, and Penny saw a familiar figure sitting down on a stump.

Knuckles.