CHAPTER 2

THE FORESTS

MONICA

"They WHAT?" Everyone screamed. Silver broke down in tears.

"Yeah, back there…HUGE dogs! I can't believe it…" Sonic sat down heavily. "What will we do without-"

There was a loud cracking noise and Shadow appeared. "They're not far behind, we need to-AAGH! WHAT THE-?" He was cut off as Silver practically threw himself at him and gave him a huge hug.

"I thought you were dead!"

"Get off of me, you crazed psychopath!"

Meanwhile Sonic was cracking up. "I can't…believe you…fell for…THAT!" He laughed.

"That was your idea of a joke?" Blaze's whiskers caught fire. "You have more issues than I originally thought!"

I was pretty sure Mark would have paid money to be able to beat up his favorite-until very recently- game character. "Sonic, don't ever do that again!"

"Ok, but for real, we need to get out of here. They were close enough to Shadow that they could clearly see him, and they saw him teleport out…and I'm pretty sure they're headed this way." Sonic said.

"Do that again and I swear I'll wring your neck." Knuckles hissed as we all began to run again.

We didn't stop until it got too dark to see. Blaze quickly set up a campfire, but sadly, Sonic couldn't find anything to eat, so that meant that we'd be dreaming of food all night.

We claimed places on the ground and fell asleep.

I awoke in the middle of the night freezing cold and slightly freaked out, because someone had curled under my arm and was shivering so violently that I thought there might be an earthquake. I glanced at the campfire and saw that Mark, Shadow, Sonic and Knuckles were hogging the whole thing while Tails, who had that load of fur, was sleeping with his back against a tree. Blaze, sense she controlled fire, didn't seem to be effected by the cold because she was next to a rock that had to be as cold as ice.

I glanced at Silver, who's teeth were chattering so hard I thought they'd break and fall out. Poor guy. I unzipped my hoodie and spread it over him. Now I was so cold I thought my nose would fall off. I sat up and sighed, watching the quiet forest, waiting for any sign that something might be wrong.

Silver muttered something and pressed his back to my leg and nearly immeadentally stopped shaking. Oh, great, now I wasn't allowed to move until he woke up.

Something snapped somewhere to my right. I glanced in that direction and tried to make out if anyone was there. I couldn't see further than the rays of light that the campfire shed.

"Monica…?" I jumped as Silver muttered my name. "Monica…I want truffles…"

"Maybe later." I whispered, turning back to where the weird sound had come from. I nearly screamed.

There, not five feet from me, was the one who had caused all this in the first place.

"Eggman!" I more or less whispered.

"It's been a while, Monica." He said. "I've wanted revenge for quite some time."

"Actually, it was Mark's idea to tie you to the robot." I said lamely. "But if you're looking for revenge against me then it'd be for threatening you with your robot's own gun."

"I've got a score to settle with all of you, anyway." Eggman hissed. "What are you doing here, so far away from your home? Won't they miss you?"

"My main goal is to stop you." I said. "To stop you and put you in jail. Then send these guys back."

Eggman glanced at the crew huddled around the campfire and smirked when he spotted Silver curled next to me under my hoodie. "Touching." He sneered. "Won't you miss them?"

"Sure I will. But I won't miss your face, that's for sure."

"What if they never made it back?" Eggman asked casually. "What if…say…a certain someone went to the police and told them where you were and how dangerous those creatures were?"

I tried to hide my fear but failed miserably. "You…you…"

"What if this certain someone also found the wad of cash that someone else stole from the bank a day ago and described your kidnappers with perfect detail?"

"You wouldn't dare." I hissed. "Try anything, and you're dead."

"We'll see about that."

There was a sharp click from a tree. "That's the police. We've got you surrounded." Eggman snickered. "Give up and they won't harm your precious friends."

I held eye contact with Eggman while I nudged Silver roughly. "I can't trust you."

Silver moaned but didn't wake up. I nudged him again. "You probably told them some twisted lie." Silver groaned and his eyes flared open.

"Perhaps I did." Eggman admitted quietly. "But you'll never know, will you?"

Silver sat up suddenly, gave Eggman a scared, wide eyed glance and screamed, "WAKE UP! WE'RE IN TROUBLE!"

He did exacally what I wanted him to NOT do.

Within two seconds the police squad that had us surrounded moved forward so we could see them with what looked like dart guns and Tazers and those clear shields. Mark, Shadow, Sonic, Knuckles, Tails and Blaze were jolted awake instantly from Silver's yell and were on the defensive.

"Mark, Monica! Back away from them now!" One of the police guys commanded. "They're dangerous!"

Shadow stood in front of Mark bravely and Sonic backed him up. Silver scooted over by Blaze and glared at the nearest police guy. I was still sitting on the ground but I was giving (What I hoped to be) the evilest glare in the history of ever. "Don't shoot!" I shouted. I got up slowly. "Let me explain."

"The poor kids have been in the woods too long with these kidnappers! They obviously haven't eaten in a long time and it's effecting their judgment!" Eggman said. "Don't listen to them! Get them home safely and do whatever you want with the others."

"Not Animal Control…" Silver squeaked.

I shot Mark a glance. The glance was loaded to the brim with words along the lines of When-I-Say-So-We-Run-For-It-We're-Not-Going-Down-Without-A-Fight.

He nodded slightly.

"Mark, Monica, please back away slowly from those creatures." Eggman said gently.

"Oh, shut up." I muttered. I grabbed my hoodie from the ground and charged at the nearest police guy. "YAAH!"

Everyone else did the same. There were multiple firings of the dart guns and Tazers, but luckily no one was hit. We broke out of the small circle of people and ran for it into the dark woods. They were still shooting at us.

"Everyone form into a circle!" Shadow commanded. "We won't escape them unless we do this!"

Everyone quickly formed into a small circle. I could see flashlights from the police behind us. They were getting closer…

"CHAOS CONTROL!"

We were suddenly standing near a small stream what seemed like miles away from where we were standing a second ago. "Are we safe?" Blaze asked quietly.

"I sure hope so." Tails gasped. "That was too close!"

That was when Knuckles staggered to one side and fell. Mark was the first to reach him and pull out a small dart from his arm. "Crap." He muttered.

"We almost escaped without anything happening." Sonic said. "Oh, well. I'm still tired. Let's sleep some more."

I don't know how everyone managed to sleep like that right on the spot(Except Knuckles because he got shot from the stupid dart gun thing). I was left to keep watch, without my hoodie because Silver nabbed it again.

A/N: Wow, scary! So they met up with Eggman…finally…and he's still as evil as ever! What will the group do? And how the heck did he find them like that?

JET: Ha! There you are! You can't run forever!

GHOSTKING: Ok, you know what? If you don't want to be insulted in my stories, then stop leaving comments in the comments box!

*Gets smacked upside the head with Extreme Gear*

GHOSTKING: I HATE THIS JOB!

MARK

I woke up when the first rays of sunlight filtered through the treetops. Luckily, nothing other than the light greeted me. I was more or less expecting the police again. Twice after we were nearly caught I dreamed we were captured, but both times I woke up with a start from the cold.

I sat up and stretched. Monica was leaning back against a rock and glancing around. She looked like she hadn't slept at all sense we teleported to a safe place. "Morning, Mark." She muttered.

"You didn't sleep?" I asked, getting up and brushing leaves off my back. "How come?"

"It's pretty obvious that we should have posted a guard." Monica sighed. "I don't know who was suppost to do it last night, but I'm going to drop kick them to Mobius without a portal of any sort."

"I think it was Sonic's watch." I muttered.

"Guess who doesn't get breakfast for the next five days." Monica growled.

"Wha…? Breakfast?" Blaze groaned. She sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. "Did you get something?"

"No. I don't even know where we are." I admitted, looking around. "We could be in Canada for all I know."

"Canada's colder." Monica said. "Come on. Help me wake everyone else up, because we need to find out where we are and how to get where we want to go, pronto." She stooped down next to Tails and rubbed his shoulder. "Tails, wake up, we need to-"

"ARE THEY BACK?" Tails jumped up and flew about sixteen feet in the air and got tangled in some tree branches. "What's going on?"

"Relax! No one's around as far as I know. We just need to find out where the heck we are and which way to go." I said. "I think we should camp in Lansing until we come up with a plan."

Silver walked over to us wearing Monica's hoodie. "I like this thing!" He exclaimed. The ends of it came past his knees and the sleeves were so long that his hands didn't stick out of them. "It's like a giant blanket!"

"Give it back." Monica commanded.

Sonic came stumbling over, looking ready to fall asleep again. "Hey guys. Can we get pizza?"

"Heck no." Monica hissed.

Tails dropped from the tree branches and landed on my head. "Hi, Mark. Sorry."

"Knuckles won't wake up!" Blaze called.

I went over to where they were and shouted, "WAKE UP!"

Knuckles didn't even move.

"Well, this is great." I muttered. "Shadow, can you help us over here?"

"Mark, I seriously don't think I can." Shadow groaned, forcing himself to sit up. "Teleporting you all here last night…I don't think I can do that again yet alone go anywhere for a while…"

"I'll find food." Tails volunteered.

"We shouldn't leave the area here." Monica said. "And if we do, it's altogether. We can't risk being found again. Where exacally did you teleport us to?"

"It was only five miles away." Shadow muttered. "But taking you all along with me made it seem like five thousand."

"Five miles in which direction?"

"North, I think."

"If you sent us dead North, then I think we may be closer to the city." I said. Monica nodded. "So we only have about…how many miles again?"

"At least five more." Monica confirmed.

"This is great!"

"But in the meantime we can't do anything on account of two of our companions are weaklings." Sonic snickered.

Shadow gave him the evilest glare I had ever seen. "As soon as I get up I'll Chaos Blast you to the other side of this world!"

"Um, I don't think that'd be good, because people will see a giant explosion and come to check it out." I muttered.

Everyone sort of sat in a circle for a few minuets. "I'm so hungry…" Silver muttered. "What if three of us went to find stuff?"

"I don't know. If you're surrounded by a group of police guys, then I don't know what'll happen to you." Monica said. "How about this…If Knuckles doesn't wake up within the hour and Shadow still can't stand then I'll go look around. The police know that Mark and I are unarmed, and according to them we've been kidnapped. We won't get gunned down."

"Makes sense." Blaze said. "Why do you think Eggman chose to send all of us here along with himself?"

"To take revenge on all of us at once." Tails said. "I think he meant to turn the police and everyone against us so they could take care of us so we couldn't interfere with any more of his plans. To take revenge on you guys…He probably wanted you to watch it all happen."

"That's…that's cruel." Monica hissed. "Boy, if I ever get my hands around his neck, I'll…" Monica did a violent twisting motion with both hands.

"You tell him, Monica!" Sonic said.

Silver nudged Knuckles with his shoe. "Knuckles, wake up! We have chocolate cake!"

"That won't work." I said when Knuckles didn't move even when Silver was practically kicking him in the face. "We just have to wait."

"But I'm hungry!" Sonic's stomach rumbled so loudly I was surprised that Knuckles didn't move. "See? We're going to starve!"

"If it makes you happy, I'll look around." Monica sighed, getting up. "But only around here. If I lose sight of you guys then I'm coming back." She started walking away.

Shadow tried to get up but his left leg gave out underneath him and he lay there cursing loudly at both worlds, Eggman, the police, Animal Control, the seven Chaos Emeralds, the Republican and Democratic Parties, annoying birds, shoelaces, his leg, Chaos Control, and technology.

"Dang, I've never heard that before." Sonic cracked up.

"Shut up." Shadow hissed.

Knuckles twitched and he slowly opened his eyes. "I heard this really high pitched noise…" He murmured.

"That would be Sonic's laughing." Silver laughed so hard his face turned blue.

"What the heck happened…?"

"Ok, we were getting away from the police guys, and you got shot from one of their darts and slept a lot. Shadow used up all his power, practically, to send us here. 'Nuff said." Sonic explained horribly.

"Luckily no one died." Blaze said. "We were really lucky."

"Oh." Knuckles glanced around. "Why is it purple?"

Everyone looked where he was looking. "I don't see any purple." I said.

"No, see? Right there, the purple TV…"

We looked again, but there was no purple TV. "Uh, Knuckles…?" I asked.

Knuckles started snoring again. I sighed. "Great."

Monica returned a few minuets later with something cupped in her hands. "Well, I learned this a long time ago, even though it grosses me out." She uncupped her hands and we saw what she was holding.

"WORMS!" Silver yelled.

A/N: WARNING! GROSS SCENE AHEAD!

"Yes, worms. They're a good source of protein." Monica cringed. "And right now I'm pretty darn hungry."

"I'll take it." Shadow volunteered. "I'm so hungry I'll eat that rock over there."

I'll put it this way…after watching him eat the worms I wasn't hungry anymore. Neither was everyone else. Apparently this was Monica's plan: watch someone eat worms so we never want to eat again. I must say, it worked out pretty well.

"If I had eaten anything I would have thrown it up by now." Silver curled into a ball and began rocking back and fourth. "I'm not ever eating again. I'm scarred for life…"

"They're actually not that bad." Monica said, eating a worm like one would eat spaghetti. "At least it's food."

"Yeah, BIRD FOOD!" Tails said loudly. "I've heard of 'The early bird gets the worm', not 'The early human gets the worm'."

"Oh my Gah they're moving in my stomach…" Monica's face turned green. "Oh my Gah, oh my Gah, oh my G-" She turned her head to the side and threw up the contents of her stomach, which wasn't that much. The two live worms she ate crawled underground and were gone.

Silver pretty much passed out and Sonic turned green. "That…is…disgusting…"

Apparently no one in the group could stomach live worms because thirty seconds later Shadow threw up too.

"Ok, I'm getting pizza." I volunteered.

"No thanks, I'm good." Tails muttered, looking sick.

Shadow lay on the cold forest floor, shaking and shivering violently. "I don't…I don't think I can g-go anywhere t-today…"

"Me neither." Monica groaned. "I have never felt so bad in my life…"

"Wait a second." Tails said. "What if we get a Chaos Emerald? It should help everyone feel better, and Shadow can get more power from it so we can continue on."

"But we can't just split up." I said. "Last time it was nearly a disaster."

"But if we don't, then we'll be stuck here for a long time. The police might find us again."

I started getting some horrific images in my head of all my friends captured and brought to a lab, and…

"No, if we go anywhere, it's as a group." I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts away.

"You m-might as well go on w-without me." Shadow said. "I don't t-think I can stand yet a-alone walk…"

"We might have to, Mark." Blaze said. "If we do, then I'm willing to stay behind and guard."

"All in favor of splitting up to find a Chaos Emerald?" Monica called.

Silver, Shadow, Blaze and Tails raised their hands.

"Opposed?"

Monica, Sonic and I raised ours.

"Knuckles would have to vote." I said.

"I favor staying together as a group." Sonic said in a high pitched voice.

"You fail at ventriloquism, Sonic." Monica said.

"Hey, Knuckles, wake up." Tails nudged Knuckles with his shoe. Knuckles groaned and opened his eyes. "What do you possibly want?"

"Should we split up to find a Chaos Emerald or stay together as a group?" I asked.

"Chaos Emerald." Knuckles yawned. "Yeah, Cha….os….Emer….ald…" He started snoring again.

Monica turned to me. "So we have a decision."

A/N: EWWW WORMS! Ok, well, I hoped none of you threw up there. Sorry, I had to do that. It was one of those random ideas I have and I just couldn't pass it up.

JET: You mocked me….: ( Not all birds eat worms!

GHOSTKING: Wave does.

*Dodges Extreme Gear and counters with worms*

GHOSTKING: EAT THIS!

….So now begins the search for the Emerald…

MONICA

The groups went like this: Staying behind in the forest: Shadow, Knuckles, Mark and Blaze. The group that was looking for a Chaos Emerald (Or seven) consisted of Silver, Tails, Sonic and I. It was a pretty good split up.

"We'll try to meet you at the edge of the forest sooner or later." Mark said. "just in case you get lost."

"99.12% chance of that happening." I sighed. "Come on guys. I want to reach Lansing soon."

So my group moved out of there and towards the unknown.

"What's Lansing like?" Silver asked. "Is it shiny?"

"Um, some of the buildings are…" I said. "But other than that, it's not shiny. It's sort of a big city if you've lived where I had all my life. I don't like crowds that much."

"Where do you think a Chaos Emerald is?" Sonic asked.

"Eggman's got to have all of them, right? And he works with the police here now, I guess, so maybe at the police station?" Tails suggested.

"I don't know, I was thinking of some sort of lab or something." I said. "They may be trying to harness the power."

"That could be bad." Sonic shuddered. "Yeah, we're all gonna die."

We walked on for about an hour until we came to the forest's end. Beyond the trees I could make out a highway thing that lead into the city. We were close.

"We just need to cross the highway and enter the city." I said. "But the thing is we may have to wait until nightfall until we do anything."

"I can wait." Tails said.

So wait we did.

Eventually I couldn't take it much longer and when it finally got dark enough so I couldn't see Sonic sitting next to me I said, "Let's move."

"So what the heck are we going again?" Silver asked.

"We sneak into Lansing and find an abandoned building or something. We make that our base, and then we sneak out to find Emeralds." I said. "I think I know where a building is, too."

We ran to the highway and began running along it in the darkness. Twice a car came and we hid in the trenches next to the roads until the cars passed. We made it into Lansing within about half an hour.

"Ok, stick close to me and the alleys." I suggested, leading the way into a dark alley. There were some trashcans in our way, but Silver used his psychic powers to move them. We emerged out of the ally near a boarded up building.

"Does that look good to everyone?" I asked.

"Sure." Tails said. "As long as the police station isn't around."

"It isn't." I assured. "They're across town."

I kicked the door down and we entered into what used to be a dusty business building. I quickly put the door back and we began to look around.

"Not bad." Silver muttered.

"Ok, now that we know where we need to go and stuff like that we should start looking." I said, heading back to the door. "Maybe we should pick up a paper and see if there's anything that can help us."

We entered back on the streets again and headed back to the ally. Tails found a paper and handed it to me. The headline blared: MISSING and went on to say an updated version on our disappearance and how 'the strange alien creatures were holding us captive against our will'. There were descriptions of us too. They were so accurate it sort of scared me.

"There's an article on Eggman." Sonic said. "It says he's working with the police and your parents to find you."

"Working with my parents?" I grabbed the paper. "That jerk! How did he convince them?"

"I don't know, but that really worries me." Sonic muttered. "It seems like the whole city is against us."

"Does it say anything about the Emeralds?" I asked, speed reading to the extreme.

"I don't think so. I didn't see anything about them."

I continued reading for about thirty seconds. "There's something about them." I said. "It just says that Eggman has seven strange jewels and how everyone thinks it suspicious. And it goes to tell how he's staying at the police station until this crisis is over!"

"So that means we have to go into the police station." Silver's eyes got wide. "But…but what if they catch us?"

"You're always welcome to stay here. ALONE." Sonic said in an emphasis.

"No, thanks. I'm coming." Silver squeaked.

"I think we should spend the night in the office building, then." I said. "We'll come up with a plan in the morning."

We turned and headed back to the building

A/N: Well, what do you think 'll happen? SUSPENCE!

JET: STOP MOCKING ME!

GHOSTKING: Ok, jeez! I said that about fifteen times! Go away before I get a Restraining Order against you!

MARK

We had been hanging out in the forest all day doing nothing, practically.

It was fine and all, but hunger was beginning to gnaw away at me again. I thought if I didn't get any food soon my stomach would dissolve itself.

Knuckles was finally awake and sane, which was a good sign. The bad news he had some sort of reaction to whatever was in the dart and his eyes swelled up. So he couldn't see and it sort of worried everyone.

Shadow, on the other hand, had fallen asleep about five hours ago and hadn't woken up yet. Even though he had been constantly saying that he wasn't hungry before, I sort of knew. And I feared if he didn't get something to eat soon he'd go into some sort of coma.

Blaze had searched the area of the forest we were in so many times I couldn't count, but every time she showed up with nothing. I reached into my pocket and drew out the ten dollars that Monica had given me. She thought I'd need it more than she did, and I think she was right.

"The only way we're going to get any food is if we start walking towards Lansing." I sighed. "I don't think we're going to last much longer out here."

Blaze nodded. "Should we start now?"

"Probably." I grabbed Knuckles' arm and hauled him to his feet. "You can walk, right?"

"Yeah, but I can't see a dmn thing!" Knuckles hissed.

"That's why Blaze is here. She'll lead you away from trees and rocks and branches and things like that." I said, kneeling down next to Shadow. "Hey, can you hear me?"

When he didn't respond I grabbed his right arm and threw it behind my neck and dragged him up from the ground.

(A/N: IF THERE'S A BLACK LINE HERE, IGNORE IT!)

"Ready?" Blaze asked.

"Yep." I said back. We began walking.

Within half an hour we had to stop, partly because Knuckles twisted his ankles and mostly because I couldn't figure out how to carry Shadow because he kept poking me with his quills. He had hardly moved through the entire mini journey and I was beginning to get worried.

"I hope we find Lansing soon." I sighed, looking over the treetops. The sun was beginning to sink below the horizon. "I don't care if I'm recognized, because once we reach the place I'm buying food and water bottles." I had just barely finished that sentence when I realized how thirsty I was.

"Why did you have to mention that?" Blaze hissed.

"I don't know!" I hissed back. "Now I'm annoyed at myself!"

"Who isn't?" Blaze muttered under her breath.

I growled at her and stared at the treetops. "What I would give for something to eat…"

"If we resort to cannibalism we eat Shadow!" Knuckles said loudly.

"We're not eating anybody!" Blaze and I shouted at the same time.

"You know what? We aughta keep going. We need to get as far as we can." Blaze said. "We can't afford to stop like this."

"You're right." I sighed. "Let's go."

We walked until it was too dark to see anything. We pitched camp under a tall tree and Blaze lit a fire. The swelling in Knuckles' eyes was beginning to go down so he helped gather firewood nearby. I tried and failed to wake Shadow up. By this point in time he had almost stopped moving completely and reacting to anything.

"So we move out in the morning, right?" Blaze asked.

"As soon as the sun's up." I confirmed. "Hopefully tonight will be nice and warm."

Little did I know a frost was moving across the land that night.

MONICA

I woke up the next morning to find that Silver had stolen my hoodie off of me sometime during the night. That explained why I was so freaken' cold. It didn't explain why he was using my arm as a pillow.

"Ok, this is weird." I scooted over in a corner and tried to go back to sleep but a sudden sound prevented me.

I held my breath and listened. The sound came again, and I recognized it was the sound of boots scraping across the cement steps outside the building.

As quietly as I could I crawled over to the others and shook them awake roughly. "Wake up! Someone's at the door!"

"Then open it…" Sonic muttered.

"It's the police!" I hissed. "We need to get out of here, NOW!"

I ended up picking Tails up and wrapping him around the back of my neck like a bizarre scarf and darting into the other room with the others; now wide eyed and awake; right behind me.

"There's stairs!" Silver pointed. We began to climb them, and not a moment too soon.

There were some calls from outside the building and the door fell off its hinges. I didn't stop running. When we reached the second floor we quickly found a window that lead onto the roof and climbed onto it. Tails was beginning to wake up and wonder why the heck he was draped around my neck and we were running for our lives.

We hid behind a chimney and I quickly explained.

"Oh, wow, that was close." Tails' eyes got wide. "So they're here? How'd they find us like that?"

"I don't know, but we need to get out of here."

Silver's stomach growled loudly. "Can we eat after that?"

"I thought you never wanted to eat again." Sonic said.

"Well, that was yesterday. I think I dropped ten pounds and I need to eat a lot!"

"You need to eat a lot? I can run faster than sound! Guess how many calories I need in a single day!" Sonic said.

"Well, I'm psychic! I need a lot too!"

"We'll argue over this later, ok?" I hissed. "See that rooftop over there?"

"Yeah?" Tails asked, sitting next to me.

"We have to jump." I said. "The police'll find us on the roof sooner or later, and luckily it's not that bright out yet."

"You're crazy." Silver glanced to the other rooftop. "That's a long way."

"You can levitate yourself! Why are you scared?" Sonic demanded.

"I'm afraid they'll shoot at us!"

"They won't." Tails said. "If they have anything, it's a dart gun. They want us alive."

"So they can kill us in terrible ways." Silver squeaked, wrapping my hoodie tighter around himself. "I don't want to die."

"I don't either. That's why we've got to jump!" I pointed to the window to see a policeman's figure cross in front of it.

Tails simply flew over and Sonic did this weird moon jump thing. Silver ran like his shoes were on fire and crashed onto the other rooftop. I took a running start and jumped.

I wasn't going to make it.

My fingers scraped the drainpipes and I managed to get ahold of it. But there was no way I would be able to pull myself up. I heard a shout from the house behind me.

"Monica! Come on!" Sonic shouted. "I know you can do it!"

My left hand slipped. "DOES IT LOOK LIKE I CAN?" I screamed. "Someone help!"

Silver reached down, grabbed my left hand, and pulled me onto the rooftop.

There were more shouts from behind us and I saw the police begin to gather on the roof. One of them drew some sort of gun.

"They've got guns!" Silver shrieked, and as I watched, all of the police gathered on the rooftop slid to one side of the roof and one by one dropped off.

Silver stood there, looking horrified. "Did…did I do that?"

"Silver, they weren't even going to shoot at us!" Tails yelled. "Now they'll kill us for sure!"

"I'm sorry!" Silver shouted. "But luckily, none of them died! Only one broke their leg!"

"How did that happen? They fell from the second floor!" Sonic yelled.

"I'm psychic, don't argue with me!"

"We'll argue later!" I yelled. "Right now we need to work on roof hopping!"

We continued with that sort of travel for the next ten minuets before we reached the downtown area. We slipped off the roof we were on and hid in an alley.

"Something smells good…" Silver said, looking around. "But there's only a dumpster here."

"We are behind a Starbucks'." I said.

"STARBUCKS?"

Before I could stop him, Silver opened the dumpster and drew out a paper bag full of something oval shaped and covered with sugar.

"What has become of us?" Tails sighed as we ate two day old doughnuts. "We rely on the alleys for food."

"It's good food!" Sonic said.

I found a plastic cup that looked clean enough to drink out of and put it under a water spout. Pretty soon it was filled with the morning dew stuff, but I didn't complain. I downed it in three gulps and the others did the same.

"I feel like I could run a marathon!" Sonic announced.

"That's because you ate the doughnut that was covered with the powdered sugar." Tails said.

"So now what way to get to the police station?" Silver asked.

"It's down the street a little ways, and then to the left." I said. "The probablem is getting there without being spotted. We could wait until the traffic goes away, or we can run like heck and try not to get captured."

"Running like heck sounds good!" Sonic started shaking. "Wow, sugar rush!"

"It's because you haven't eaten anything decent in a while and you're getting all hyped up from a doughnut."

"Maybe we should wait." Silver said, glancing out from behind the dumpster and quickly hiding again. "There's already a crowd out there."

"Ok, then." I said. "If you want to sleep, then fine. I'll keep watch until I can't keep my eyes open anymore."

MARK

I woke the next morning to find my breath billowing out from my nose and mouth in great clouds. I was shaking so hard I felt like my eyes would fall out of my head and I couldn't feel my fingers, ears, or nose. Blaze was huddled next to me, but instead of the normal warmth she always carried she too was freezing cold. Knuckles was next to her with his teeth chattering so loudly I was surprised the police didn't find us that way. But the one I was worried about the most was Shadow. He wasn't even shivering.

"S…Sh-Shadow?" I thought my tongue was frozen too. "Sh-Shadow? A-are y…you ok?"

Blaze tried to summon a flame to her hand but the only thing she succeeded in was making a brief flash of sparks and smoke. She tried desperately again.

"Shadow..?" I nearly yelled. I began to rub his arm furiously, trying to warm him up. "Shadow, wake up!"

There was a soft poof and Blaze held a small flickering flame in her hand. Knuckles handed her a piece of dried wood that hadn't been effected by the frost and she lit it. The little flame, even though it was tiny, was a great relief. Knuckles began to sort through some sticks nearby and made a small campfire pit. Soon we had a fairly decent fire, just enough for all of us to begin to get warmer.

"Shadow won't wake up." My voice cracked. "I..I don't know if he's breathing!"

Blaze threw more leaves into the fire and it flared up brighter and warmer. She then went over where I was kneeling over Shadow. He didn't react in the slightest.

"Is he ok?" Knuckles asked.

Blaze felt for his pulse and announced, "I don't know. We all need to find something to eat and drink soon, or he'll die."

"What do we do?" I sighed. "Lansing is who knows how far off…we might not reach it by tomorrow!"

"It looks like you have no choice, then."

Blaze, Knuckles and I spun around at the voice that seemed to come from nowhere. There, standing with a group of police officers that looked like the ones from two nights ago, was Eggman. "Surrender and come with us and we'll save his life."

Blaze barred her teeth. "You wish." She hissed.

The police began to surround us. I noticed this time they were carrying real guns. No Tazers or darts this time.

"I won't go down without a fight." Knuckles declared.

"That would be an unwise choice." Eggman smirked. "As if you try anything, then your other puny group will be killed."

"You wouldn't." I hissed.

"You're right, I wouldn't." Eggman said. "So only three of the four will die. You have one guess on who'll live and watch."

I felt anger burn inside of me. "Don't you dare…!"

"I won't if you give up. We'll take you where you can get some food, water and warmth…also revive your friend."

Blaze gave me a glance. "We might have to." She whispered. "Shadow won't last much longer if we don't."

Knuckles nodded. "And besides, Monica and her group is still safe, I know it. If they were captured, he'd bring proof. They'll get the Emeralds and break us out of wherever they're taking us."

I then made the hardest decision of my short life. I turned to Eggman and nodded. "We'll go with you."

Instantly two policemen came and handcuffed Blaze and Knuckles. They were lead away from me by two other policemen with long rifles. I carefully scooped Shadow up in my arms and stood up. "How long do we have to go?"

"It's not far." Eggman assured.

Shadow twitched in my arms and moaned quietly as if to tell me I was making a terrible mistake. I tried to ignore that thought and followed the police through the woods to where a few spacious police cars were parked. Blaze, Knuckles and I were all herded into separate vehicles. One of the policemen tried to take Shadow from me but I recoiled from him. "No, he stays with me." I said firmly.

"But what about all this grief they put you through?" The policeman asked. He couldn't have been more than eighteen. "They're the cause of this."

"That's what you've been told from someone other than me or my twin." I said. "It was all lies you were told. Eggman framed them so they can get killed and-"

I was interrupted as a policeman motioned for me to be quiet and get in the car. I did, but only because they had weapons.

We rode for about fifteen minuets in the overheated car. But to me, it felt like heaven. Feeling was beginning to come back into my feet, hands and face. I suddenly felt extremely tired.

We reached a small boxy building, but I couldn't tell what the sign next to it said. I was marched out of the car and into the building, where I was greeted by two people I didn't expect to see.

"MARK?"

I nearly dropped Shadow. My mom and dad came running at me. "You're alive!"

"Mom, Dad, you've got to listen to me!" I pleased quietly. "They're not what they've told you they are. They're helping me stop him!" I pointed to Eggman, who was talking to a couple of officers. "He's the real villain!"

I must have looked pretty pathetic; dirty, still slightly shivering, pale, and carrying one of my best friends that was close to death. My mom glanced at Shadow like he was some sort of murderer and backed up slightly. "Mark, you've been in the woods for too long. They're dangerous! I know you want to help, but you can't."

That was when Blaze and Knuckles were marched into the building, both with their heads down looking worried and sad. A officer dug the butt of his gun into Knuckles' shoulder blades and he nearly fell. He turned and tried to get at the officer, but Blaze hissed something at him and he glanced my way.

"Hey, Mark. Sorry." He muttered.

"They can talk too?" My dad gasped.

"Of course they can." I retorted.

A tall young girl wearing surgical scrubs walked over to me pushing a small gurney. Her name tag read Olivia. "You can put him here." She said softly, motioning to Shadow.

"What are they going to do to him?" I asked.

"I don't know. I'm only working volunteer hours here." The girl's eyes got wide. "But if there's anything I can do, I'll do it. I don't trust some of the officers here."

Once Shadow and the girl were around the corner my mom and dad both hugged me at the same time. Tears welled up in my eyes. "Why don't you pay us any attention at home?" I whispered. "You…you didn't care about us."

"Oh, honey, we did. We do." My mom began to cry too. "I just didn't think it would come down to this to get us together as a family again."

"What about Monica?" I asked.

"We'll find her soon." My dad promised. "The police promised to double the search efforts."

My stomach leapt into my throat. Oh, crap. Her group had better hurry it up and get the Emeralds, soon, or…who knows what'll happen…

We waited there for who knows how long. I lost track of time. The only thing that mattered at the moment was I was with my parents and that Monica was still out there somewhere. We still had a chance.

"Mr. and Mrs. Cleveland? Can you sign some of these papers and have an interview with a few news reporters?" a camerawoman came over to where we were sitting. My dad and mom left my after giving me one last hug.

I was left sitting there on one of the uncomfortable couches in the station's main lobby. My parents began to tell the cameras how we had been kidnapped and dragged away.

Lies. I thought bitterly. All lies…

"I'm betting you want to know where your friends are."

I jumped at Eggman's voice. He was standing over me, smirking. "So?"

"What's going to happen to them?" I demanded, standing up as tall as I could. I just barely reached his shoulders. "Tell me!"

"Well, I'd have to show you." Eggman sneered. I thought my stomach just about dropped down to my feet. "Don't worry, nothing's been done to them…yet…"

I sighed slightly. "So where are they?"

"Follow me."

We went down one of the hallways past a closet that held extra surgical scrubs and supplies. Just the sight of that made me pale. What was a closet like that doing in a police station…?

We passed a few rooms, but they were darkened and the doors were closed. We finally came to a door at the end of the hall. Eggman opened the door and motioned for me to go first.

"Mark!"

I turned to see Blaze and Knuckles in some sort of cage. It was too small for both of them. I ran over to them. "Guys! Did they hurt you at all?"

"Just that guy with the stupid gun." Knuckles growled. "Other than that, I'm fine."

"But the weird thing is we can't break out." Blaze said. "I can't burn the bars away and Knuckles can't get enough room to punch his way out."

"Just sit tight for now…I'll get us all out of here sooner or later." I said so Eggman wouldn't hear me. "But if they try to do anything to you…kick, bite, scream, anything. I'll hear you and try to help."

"I don't know if you could, Mark." Blaze said. "They're taking you out of here in half an hour. This isn't the police station, as I'm sure you've noticed. This is a research lab."

I felt like I had just gotten slapped. "I should have taken the hint!" I hissed. "Do you know what they plan to do to you?"

"No, but I have some pretty scary thoughts." Knuckles sighed.

"Where's Shadow?" I asked.

"They took him into the room over there." Blaze pointed to the east side of the room. "And then I didn't hear or see anyone come out of there sense."

"I swear I'll be back, ok?" I said. "Sit tight."

I turned to Eggman. "Where's Shadow?" I demanded.

"Only authorized personnel is allowed behind that door." He said smugly. "And you're not authorized, are you?"

"I just want to know he's ok." I felt fake tears filling my eyes. I felt stupid. "If this is the last time I'll ever see him…"

Eggman got a guilty look on his face. He was evil enough to side with the police and convince them that my friends were dangerous, capture us, bring us to a lab and lock two of them up…but he wasn't evil enough to deny a kid fake-crying his request.

"If you're quick about it…." He sighed. He went over to the door, entered a code and opened it. "Five minuets."

I entered and was greeted by six scientist/doctors who immeadentally demanded identification. Once I told them why I was here, they nodded reluctantly and lead me down a hall.

A/N: Oh noes, one group captured! What will happen next? What do you think happened to Shadow? What do you think 'll happen to Blaze and Knuckles? Will Monica's group succeed in getting the Emerald(s)? Will they put a stop to Eggman's deranged plan like they always do? Find out in the next chapter…