It might be alittle slow going, but trust me. It will be worth it.

Enjoy!

Chapter 2

Where ever Sonic was, it was warm, comfortable and...familiar. Wearily, he opened his eyes,as they came into focus,Sonic found himself in a white room. Groaning, he sat up rubbing his head.

" You shouldn't be here," said a gentle voice.

His eyes opened fully, he blinked and turned his head at the sound. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Sitting at a small dressing table, looking slightly older, her head low and her hands drawing to her heart's content. Was Naminé.

" I..N-Naminé?"

She turned in her seat to face him. Her red eyes softened and she smiled. " Mister Sonic, you're awake!" She walked over to the bed and sat at his side, her smile faded slightly as she lifted a hand to stroke the side of his head. " You shouldn't be here. You don't belong here. Go home."

" Where is here? And it's just Sonic, okay?"

She nodded, dropping her hand. She tucked a stray strand of her ice- blue hair behind her ear, " This is a dream, Sonic. I'm just here to help you. The Phoenix is made from Black Arms DNA, as is Shadow. To release Shadow's body from it's hold, you need to use a powerful force of good . There is a key sentence that you must translate before it's too late and Shadow is too far away to be saved."

" Do you know what it is?"

A nod." When Shadow was inside me, I wrote it every day. I'll get it for you."

Sonic watched her journey to the other side of the room, he swiped at the air around his ears, a strange buzzing had started and it was getting on his nerves. Naminé returned and handed him a small piece of paper, on it were the words:

Slegna ginylf eht fo snos owt eht esu. Nihtiw wodahs eht esaeler dna,semalf revlis eht lleuq ot.

Sonic looked at the paper with a confused expression,as he tucked the slip of paper into his gloves, he grumbled and swatted around his ears again. He went to ask Naminé about it, but found she- and the rest of the room -were fading fast.

"Naminé? Naminé!?"

"Sonic, stay calm. Just figure out that message, I promise you it will help you. Good luck, Sonic the Hedgehog."

"Naminé !?" He shouted as everything turned black once again. "No wait! Naminé? NAMINÉ !?"

--------------------------------

Startled, Sonic yelped and fell out of bed, again. He hit the wooden ground with a bump, as he rubbed his sore behind, Carla poked her head in. She giggled at him before entering the room, carrying a small bowl and a spoon, she put them on a crate next to the bed and looked down at him. He grinned nervously at her as he got to his feet.

" Nice to see you're awake, Uncle Sonic." She grinned, smoothing down the hem of her blue vest-top.

"Uggh...What time is it? The last thing I remember clearly was jumping off The ARK---" His eyes widened, " Aw man! Is everyone ok? W-where's Amy?"

Carla took hold of his arm,a little sad that he couldn't, or really didn't want to, remember the night before .She walked backwards, tugging him along towards the other small room that doubled as a bedroom. " Both you and Amy were out for a while. Luckily for Amy, Shadow's strenght protected her,"

" Shadow? Is he alright?"

A nod. "Oh yes, we're not to disturb her. Knuckles is waiting for us, outside."

He followed Carla outside and spotted Knuckles. Knuckles was fiddling with an old and battered TV set. After finding another screen filled with snow, the red echidna groaned in frustration and kicked it.

"Stupid thing."

" Next time my TV breaks down, I'm so not calling you for help." Sonic grinned at his buddy. " What's up?"

Knuckles rubbed the back of his neck." I want to apologize, Sonic. I messed up."

" Uh.. Ok. For what? You got us down here safely didn't you, what are you sorry for?"

He took a deep breath, " Glory asked me if I could.. tinker with the magical elements of The Master Emerald to see if I could use it from space. You know, for our trip to The ARK, I said I'd give it a go. When Caz checked in, I'd almost finished when the Chaos Emeralds came screaming at me! You said Eggman did something to them,"

"Yeah. He dipped them in Black Arms DNA. " Sonic shuddered, " So not cool."

"You don't know the half of it. I had the job of cleansing the Emeralds, once freed from Eggman's evil I sent them back into space. They will wait there, until you have need of them, Sonic." Sonic nodded in understanding.

"What happened to the evil, Knuckles?" Asked Carla, softly.

" I had to get rid of it, that much evil would do no one any favours. I sent it in the direction of a well known black-hole, but there was feedback. I don't know how it happened ,Sonic, but The Master Emerald used it's more powerful version of Chaos Control to teleport you here. When I found you all, you were knocked out."

" Whoa ! The big rock did that ! Impressive." He frowned, " Apart from the blacking out bit."

" Carla woke up first, so I left her in charge of looking after you." Seeing Carla was studying the broken TV, he leaned in close to Sonic, " Actually, she insisted that she be the one to look after you."

Sonic was taken back, " She did? But why?"

Knuckles rolled his eyes with a shake of the head, "Sometimes, you are the dumb one. It's very clear that Carla has feelings for you, and if I'm not mistaken, they're very close to what Amy used to feel for you. You get where I'm going with this?"

A very faint pink tint appeared on Sonic's cheeks." She likes me?"

"No, I think it's deeper than that, dumb-nuts. I think Carla's in love with you." He smirked. " I'm guessing by the bright pinkness of you face, you like her too?"

The blue hedgehog nervously grinned and nodded. " Now that you mentioned it, last night Carla did start purring at me,and I found it relaxing. I like having her around, she makes me feel happy when I'm near her and we like the same sort of things." He poked Knuckles in the chest." And don't you dare tell her! I'll tell her, but not yet, I'll wait till this thing blows over. And not to get side-tracked, Knuckles, you said something about looking after Amy?"

" I was going to look after Amy, but Shadow appeared. I couldn't get anywhere near her because he growled at me every time I did so. So I left him to it." He joined Carla at the TV, smirking again as Sonic stood at her side, looking slightly uncomfortable, and started fiddling with the buttons again. "I've been trying to tune into the News station. From what I've gathered from the radio, the people of Station Square have all been evacuated to West City and now are under the protection of Mayor Taylor."

" Gotta love that guy, " Sonic murmured, remembering a previous adventure. "What about Glory, Tails,Uncle Chuck and G.U.N ? Shadow said they were fighting Eggman and his cronies."

" They were. They fired everything and anything at Phoenix , nothing worked. Apparently, from the radio reports, Phoenix got bored and melted all their weapons with one wave of his hand. Now he's missing and they're saying he's.. well, he's gone to sleep."

" Gone to sleep? It's the most powerful being on the planet, and he's gone to sleep !? I mean.. how? "

"The fake pendent. Eggman used only Black Arms DNA and Shadow's body, but because he's got the fake necklace, he has none of Shadow's true Chaos powers. He has the basics- Chaos Blast, Chaos Spear, but that's it. Shadow isn't wearing his rings, The Phoenix used up all his powers in one go and now has to recharge. G.U.N have taken this little breather to come up with more useful weapons. There's rumors that their own Battle Droids might come into play."

Sonic snorted, " Yeah, like that stopped Shadow before. He needs a challenge."

" A challenge? Ooh, Uncle Sonic! That means you, doesn't it?"

He groaned inwardly."Yeah. Thanks, Caz." He noticed Knuckles raised brows, "It's nothing to worry about, Phoenix just wants to beat me to a bloody pulp when he's done leveling the city." He shrugged. " It's no biggie. I have a plan."

" No biggie!? " Came a high-pitched scream. Amy joined them, wearing a spare set of Carla's clothes. She looked very upset for some reason. " No biggie?!"

" Yo, Amy.. what's the deal? I have a plan to swap pendents, Shadow can fight old bird-brain from the inside, and... why are you crying?"

"Oh ,Sonic..." Reaching into her shorts pockets, Amy withdrew the two half of the broken pendent and placed them into his hands. " Shadow's gone!"

" GONE!? Gone where? "

" I--I don't know! I think he's gone after Phoenix himself."

" Idiot! " Roared Sonic, throwing the useless necklace towards The Master Emerald. The gem sparkled, he flexed his hands and then pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from one of his gloves. After he read it, he blinked and suddenly grinned, looking up into the clouds." Knuckles, the Chaos Emeralds are up there, right?"

"Yeah...waiting for you to call them." Sonic handed him the note. He read it then his mouth dropped opened. Knuckles handed it to Carla, who in turn, handed it to Amy.

While they were busy figuring out the key sentence, the one that could save everyone,Sonic looked from the Master Emerald, to the edge of The Floating Island and back again, then he nodded to himself.

"Guys, I have a new crazy idea. Let's get that TV working, pronto.We've got to find our ghostly buddy and with the help of the Chaos Emeralds, I've just declared open-season on Phoenixes." He held out a hand, " Who's with me?" They all placed their hands on his and nodded. "Then let's do it, to it!"

" Yeah! " They shouted and got to work.

More soon, promise.