At the edge of the cliff in front of the camp Shadow's voice could be heard "What are you doing? Just throw her over" Cream was suddenly thrown onto the edge and she started walking around. "Shouldn't we make sure they saw her?" Marine asked "Good idea" "No. No wait. NO!" Marine was suddenly thrown over onto the edge as well, she put her hands up and closed her eyes "I'm not an intruder!". She opened her eyes and saw that the camp was deserted "Oh, this is a problem" Shadow climbed up and saw it "Great" he said sarcastically. Shadow followed Cream into the camp and saw her find her cradle which she climbed into, he then noticed Knuckles standing on the other side of it. "I told you they left" Marine then walked past them trying to figure out which way they might have gone but Knuckles stopped her "Watch and learn. The broken branches are still green, and the tracks go that way. There ahead of us by about two hours". Marine mimicked him as she walked away "By about two hours". Knuckles pulled Cream out of the cradle which made her laugh and he stared at Shadow "You clearly don't need this. Give her to me and I'll be able to track down her Dad". Shadow walked forward and took Cream "That's not really impressive. They're all going to Ice Cap. Everybody knows that Mobotropolis is on the other side".
Knuckles smirked "Well done. But the pass-through Ice Cap is going to overflow with snow soon. So, unless you know how to track you won't be able to reach it in time. So, you can give her to me, or she'll have a blizzard between her and her Father". Shadow thought for a second and it looked like he was going to give her to Knuckles but he then gave her to Marine "Here's your little bundle of joy. We're returning her". Marine was happy and mockingly looked at Knuckles "Oh, poor Knuckles is getting left behind. Poor Knuckle-wuckie". Shadow started walking but turned his head back "Marine, Knuckle-wuckie is going to lead the way". Marine suddenly looked very frightened and she ran with Cream to Shadow "Shadow, could we possibly talk about this?". "No. The sooner this is over the sooner I get rid of the annoying waste of space and Cream too" he walked on as Marine was frozen in place. Knuckles walked past her "You won't always have Chaos boy over there to protect you. So, I hope you have a thick skull because I'll be crushing it" Marine gulped "Help me".
The three of them were traveling with Cream who was crying and by the look on there faces she has been doing it for a while "You have to make it stop. I can't take it anymore" Shadow said clearly frustrated. "I've punched things that have complained less" Knuckles said, Marine was holding the crying Cream upside down causing her to be kicked in the face "She won't stop squirming". "Oh, will you just put it down!" Knuckles said so Marine did so on a small rock. Shadow thought for a moment "Hey, maybe her diapers full. Marine check" Marine didn't look happy "Why am I the poop checker?". Shadow suddenly got right in her face and spoke very intensely "Because bringing the kid was your idea. Because your small and insignificant and because I'll throw a chaos spear at you if you don't". Marine looked very scared "Why else?" "NOW MARINE!" Knuckles and Shadow turned around so they couldn't see as Marine started. All they could hear was "Oh god. Yuck, my goodness… Okay. Alright, I got it. HEAD UP!" Shadow realise what that meant and quickly tuned around only to be hit in the face by a clean towel. Marine laughed "It's clean. Got ya" Shadow clearly irritated launched a chaos spear at her feet causing her to scream in fright. Cream started to laugh which Knuckles noticed "Hey, do that again. She like it" Shadow did it again causing Marine to jump "It's making me feel better to".
Cream laughed and she did the same gesture as Shadow to try and launch a chaos spear, but nothing happened causing her to cry again. "Here let me try" Knuckles stood in front of Cream and covered his face "Where's the baby? There she is" he revealed his face which just confused Cream. He did it again, but Cream just started crying "Stop it. You're scaring her!" Shadow said as he hit Knuckles over the head. Marine then heard Cream's stomach rumble "Mabey she's hungry. How about some milk?" "Oh, great idea. Just one problem. Do you see any milk?!" Knuckles said in frustration. Marine started getting angry "Oh, I'm sorry let's go back to your brilliant where's the baby plan!" "ENOUGH!" Shadow yelled at both of them. Suddenly a carrot was thrown out of a bush "Food" the trio said in unison but suddenly a small green creature with buck teeth and wearing glassing came out of the bush and took the carrot before running off.
They followed the creature until they came across an army of identical ones. "Protect the Nerb way of life. Prepare for the apocalypse!" they could hear one of them say in the crowd. "Apocalypse?" Marine asked, "I've heard of these nutcases" Knuckles replied. The Nerb they were following placed the carrot on a stump with two others before he spotted the trio "Ahh! Intruders help intrud-" he wasn't looking where he was running, and he went write off a cliff much to the shock of the trio. Moving on from that Shadow walked forward "Um, excuse me. Could we have our carrot back? The kid's hungry and-" one of the Nerbs jumped on top of the stump. "No way. This is our stockpile for the apocalypse. We need to survive underground for billions of years" Shadow raised his eyebrows "So… you have three carrots?". The Nerb ignored him "If you're not smart enough to plan ahead then doom on you" the other Nerbs began chanting the same thing as they advanced on Shadow who looked annoyed "Get away from me". The Nerb passed one of the carrots to another "Defend this with your life" the other Nerb ran off with the carrot right over the cliff edge "The carrot!" another one said in concern causing about ten other Nerbs to jump off the cliffs to their deaths.
Knuckles rushes forward to get another one but one of the Nerbs kicks it out of his hands. Shadow pulls out the chaos emerald but before he can use chaos control a Nerb bites him on the leg causing him to scream out pain, he accidently fires a chaos spear which disintegrates the mid-air carrot. Marine grabs the last one but gets chased by Nerbs, as she runs, she throws her boomerang taking them out. She turns around only to realise the entire Nerb army is now between her and the others. She looks at Cream who his reaching out for her with a worried look on her face. Marine suddenly looks very determined, she holds the carrot close in one hand and with the other holds out her boomerang. She charges forward with her eyes closed and swings the boomerang wildly causing her to hit any Nerbs in her way. She ended up knocking them all out and she was now in front of the others, Cream cheered causing the others to do the same. Marine started celebrating and she threw the carrot to the ground. The others stared in shock at this, Knuckles face became very angry "Marine, what the hell? She's not gonna eat it now. It's not sana…tary" as he was talking Cream walked over to the carrot and happily ate it.
That night Shadow picked up Cream "Bedtime, squirt" he looked over to Knuckles who seemed to be asleep, he then lied down with Cream sleeping next to him. He then saw Marine walking towards him "Oh look our triumphant hero returns" he said sarcastically "Yeah, I've definitely earned a good night's sleep". She lied on a rock but kept moving around "Eeeuuuaaaahhhhhhh-aaaaaahhhh. Ahhh. Eeuuaaahhhh" "WILL YOU STOP IT!?" Shadow yelled at her causing her to jump "Okay, sorry. I'm trying to relax". She went to sleep causing Shadow to do the same but the moment he did Knuckles opened his eyes. He walked over to Shadow and reached over him to get Cream but just before he did, he suddenly herd whispering coming from over a small hill. He sneaked towards it and lunged at the intruder pinning them to the ground only to realize it was Menniker "Go ahead. It'll be the last thing you ever do".
Before Knuckles could react Lien-Da chuckled as she walked past him "What's wrong, Knuckles? Is chasing an infant too difficult for you?". Knuckles let Menniker up "What're you two doing here?" "Dimitri is getting impatient. He said come back with the rabbit or don't come back at all. Haha" Menniker answered with amusement. Knuckles surprisingly smirked at this "Well I have a message for Dimitri. Tell him I will bring him the rabbit before her father reaches Mobotropolis. And also tell him I'm bringing another chaos emerald". Menniker looked surprised "A chaos emerald?" Lien-Da looked sceptical "You're lying. Where the hell would you have found a chaos emerald?". Knuckles pointed down the hill towards Shadow "That hedgehog has the green one that was lost over fifty years ago. I'm leading him and the kid to Ice cap". Lien-Da looked surprised "We've been searching for that one for years. Where would he have gotten it?". Menniker suddenly charged forward "Doesn't matter. Let's get him!" Knuckles got in his way "Not yet. He knows how to use chaos powers. We'll need the master emerald to neutralize them. Get the others ready. Now". They reluctantly left as Knuckles went back down to the others and went back to sleep.