The trio soared high above the skies, heading toward their destination at break neck speeds. Tails had just finished briefing Amy on the nano tab.

"Really? That's… amazing!" Amy replied after hearing the details. "Tails, your invention could change the world of modern medicine."

"Well, there's still a lot of improvements that could be made." Said Tails. "I only came up with the idea because during my training with Knuckles, he never really seemed to pull any punches."

Sonic's attention was grabbed by Tails' last sentence. "Wait… You've been training with Knuckles?" Sonic asked him.

Tails nodded. "For awhile now, actually." He replied. This not only surprised Sonic, but slightly bothered him. Not only the fact that Tails asked Knuckles to train him, but also the fact that Knuckles agreed to it. "But like I said, Knuckles refused to take it easy. He said if I wanted to be strong, I would have to learn to endure."

"That's sounds a lot like knuckles." Amy replied.

"Yeah, I can't tell you how much he made my body go numb. Without the nano-tab, I would have been in the ER way before today." Tails joked, before clearing his throat. "But tell me… how was Cream after you took her home." He asked Amy.

"She was really worried about you. She was happy that you came to, but she wasn't too thrilled about you going out in your condition." Amy told him.

"I see… I didn't mean to worry her. With my level of improvement, I could have taken that robot down easily." Tails flashed back, remembering how the robot emerged from the cover of dust and knocked him for a loop. "I won't let my guard down again." He said, gritting his teeth.

Less than an hour passed before the Tornado flew over a desert-like area. The grounds were covered with reddish-orange sand, while the air was a bit windy.

"There it is!" Tails called out as Eggman's base came into view.

"Egghead must be on a tight budget." Sonic laughed as he stared at the base. This particular based looked so small, that it most likely only had one floor. "Well that just makes it all the more easy to find Eggy and crack his shell." Sonic pounded his fist into his hand.

"I don't know…" Tails said. "...Something just doesn't seem right." Tails had a bad feeling. He focused his eyes on the base, thinking to himself as they flew in closer. No base defenses. No outburst to let us know that he anticipated us. No robot guards. No outside traps…

Tails continued to think to himself, until his eyes opened wide in shock. A tractor beam shot out from the base and began to drag the Tornado in. Tails grunted as he tried to keep control of the plane.

"What's happening?!" Yelled Amy, who almost lost her balance.

"I knew this was too good to be true." Said Tails, pulling back the controls with all his might. "We've been caught in some kind of gravitational beam. It's pulling us toward the base."

"Why would butt-nik help us get closer to him?" Sonic asked, confused. Tails gritted his teeth, still struggling to free the Tornado from the beam.

"Amy!" Tails called. "I need you to jump to the cockpit and press the red button on my right side. If I let go of the controls now, we won't be able to get free."

"On it Tails!" Amy responded, moving closer to the cockpit. She bent down on her knees and looked over the control panel, which contained a radar and various buttons as well as blinking lights. "Tails, there's more than one red button on the right."

"Oh… right. Press the button that's the closest to the bottom of the control panel." Amy spotted the button and quickly mashed it. A metal claw arm emerged from the plane and picked up Sonic and Amy.

"Hey, take it easy with the cold metal hands" Sonic joked. The wings on the Tornado began to shift into an X like position. The tail of the plane shifted and raised itself. The space directly under the plane was replaced with a large exhaust that began powering up.

"Ok, now we're ready." Tails said. The thruster shot out a stream of afterburner and in no time flat, the plane had escaped the beam. "Nothing to i-"

*BOOOOM*

Eggman's entire base exploded before everyone's eyes. The plane was hit by the explosion's shockwave and was sent sailing toward the ground in a tailspin.

"Tails! Pull up!" Sonic yelled, as he and Amy gripped the wings of the plane, holding on for dear life.

"What… do you think I'm doing?" Tails answered, grunting as he tried to pull back the lever. Sonic's grip slipped and he was sent into a freefall of his own.

"Sonic!" Amy called after him. Tails continued focusing on the lever as impact with the ground became more imminent.

"Come… on… BUDGE!" Tails uttered out. He pulled on the lever once more and by some miracle he was able to lift up and take back control of the plane, just barely missing the ground. Tails wiped away the sweat from his forehead as he sighed in relief.

"Tails, Sonic!" Amy yelled pointing at the falling blue hedgehog. Tails quickly swung back around to try and catch Sonic, but it was too late.

"Eyaaaah" Sonic yelled before he hit the ground face first.

"SONIC!" Amy and Tails called out in unison. Tails landed the plane and he and Amy both rushed over to the blue hedgehog.

"Sonic?!" Amy called covering her mouth as she stared with a worried expression. Sonic had landed face first into the dirt.

"This… is starting to happen WAY too often." Sonic answered, with a muffled voice.


After waiting for the smoke to clear, the trio searched the area where Eggman's Base once stood.

"Eggman's base just… exploded." Said Amy, as she looked over all the wreckage.

"That was no coincidence." Tails responded. "The tractor beam that caught us was set to activate once any mechanical object came within a close proximity of the base." He placed a hand to his chin. "No doubt a self destruction countdown was automatically initiated the moment the tractor beam went online. If the Tornado didn't escape in time, the beam would have dragged us to a point blank range of the explosion the moment the base detonated."

"So it was a trap set from the start." Said Sonic.

Tails nodded, moving his hand from his chin. "Pretty much. This had to be set up before we even arrived, which means Eggman was definitely expecting us."

"That Egg-creep." Sonic said, as he pounded his fist. "Pulling something like this."

"Isn't blowing up his own base going a little too far?" Said Amy.

"Too far and Eggman go together like hotdogs and chili." Sonic remarked, throwing his hands behind his head. Tails pulled out his handheld monitor device and pressed a few buttons.

"That's odd… I'm getting a few energy readings. They're really faint, but they're coming from below us." Tails said. He quickly dropped to his knees and began moving debris and loose rubble around. "There's definitely something underneath us. Search the floors for any kind of entrance." He told the others.

Sonic and Amy both began searching. Damaged monitors and mechanics were scattered about the ground. After a moment of searching, the trio soon uncovered a hatch that was under a pile of rubble.

"Bingo!" Tails said, in success.

Sonic scoffed. "That egg for brains thinks he's so smart." He retorted. One by one they entered the hatch and climbed down the ladder. Upon reaching the bottom, the hatched sealed itself shut, cutting off all traces of light and leaving the heroes in darkness.

"Great, now what?" Sonic said. A panel opened and an infrared beam began to scan over the three.

"Non Eggman match." A female computer voice said. "Rerouting intruders to the death chamber."

"Death chamber?!" Amy stuttered out in horror. The floor opened up beneath the three and they were all sent sliding down a tunnel, yelling along the way. They exited into a medium sized titanium room. The entrance to the tunnel closed off and jagged spikes sprung out from two walls parallel of each other and began to close in.

"This isn't good! We're trapped!" Said Tails "I'll see if I can open the hatch to the tunnel back up!" The young fox used his two tails to fly up to the entrance that they had fallen from, "C'mon… Open!" He grunted as he tried to pry the entrance open with both hands. "It...won't…budge!"

Amy pulled out her Piko Piko Hammer. "Then we're just going to have to MAKE an exit. Sonic, give me a hand." Amy and Sonic rushed towards one of the bare walls. While Sonic tried to break through the wall with continuous spin dashes, Amy repeatedly struck it with her hammer. Time after time there seemed to be no change within the wall's structure. "No…" She said as she dropped her hammer and fell to her knees. "There's… not even a dent."

"There's no way out!" Tails informed the others as he regrouped with them.

Sonic glanced over the two incoming walls. He then glanced over to Tails and Amy, his expression becoming serious. Without wasting anytime he ran to the center of the room.

"Sonic what are you doing!" Amy called to him.

Sonic faced the direction of the bare wall that was behind Amy and Tails. He breathed in and out, closing his eyes as he concentrated. After a few seconds he began to emit a faint purple aura from his body.

"What is he…"

Once he opened his eyes, his irises were purple in color and the purple aura was now completely enveloping him.

"... Sonic?"

The spiked walls were now less than two yards away from colliding with each other.

"Tails! Amy! MOVE!" In a flash Sonic shot towards one of the bare walls. He drew back his fist and smashed a gaping hole in the titanium wall. Tails and Amy looked completely dumbfounded. "Let's go NOW!" Sonic commanded. Amy and Tails wasted no time in running out of the newly made exit. The spiked walls collided, closing off any entrance back into the now sealed off room. Sonic exhaled before his aura faded and his irises returned to normal. "That was a little TOO close for comfort." He remarked.

"Sonic… what was that?" Tails asked, with a shocked expression upon his face.

Sonic simply gave his trademark smirk before answering. "Just a little trick I picked up." He said, rubbing his finger under his nose. "I call it… Gaia Mode."

"Gaia mode? What's that?" Tails asked in curiousity.

"To put it simple, it's Dark Gaia energy." Said Sonic.

"Dark Gaia energy?" Amy spoke up after regaining her composure. "But I thought Dark Gaia took back all of its energy during its fight with you?"

"To make a long story short, I discovered there was a residue of the energy left within me a while back." Sonic explained. "I'm able to draw that energy out and it increases my strength. Pretty much like being a werehog; just without all the fur and stretchiness. The energy only lasts... for a short amount of time... before... burning out... and building itself back up." Sonic dropped to his knees, breathing heavily.

Amy ran to his side. "Sonic, are you ok?"

"Yeah." Sonic smiled. "It's just after you burn out, it really takes a toll on your body. I still haven't gotten used to it yet."

As Amy helped Sonic up, she placed his arm around her neck to support him. "We should move a little slower so that Sonic has time to recover. We don't know what else we might run into down here." She said looking to Tails.

"Slower?" Sonic scoffed. "You gotta be kidding me."

"Oh!" Amy blurted as an idea entered her mind. "Tails, why don't you give Sonic one of those healing tabs? That should give him a boost, right?"

Tails shook his head. "Well, like I said before, the nano-tab could still use a lot of improvements. I've only tested it on myself so I'm not really sure how it would affect anyone else. Not to mention how it would react to Sonic's gaia energy." The young fox explained. "We'll just have to wait until his energy naturally recovers. Lucky for us, Eggman probably thinks he got rid of us with that trap." Tails started to walk forward.

"Now we might have the element of surprise."