Chapter 3

"For a while now, I've been keeping my chaos emerald in a vault owned by G.U.N.," Rouge explained. "After I talked with Shadow, I went to get it, but I couldn't find it. I asked one of the guards if it had been moved, but he said no. It just vanished."

"Well, that goes along perfectly with what happened here," Sonic said.

"What do you mean?"

Tails took over. "It started like this. Sonic and I got here soon after Shadow did. We went to the top of the pyramid and Knuckles explained what happened. I was kneeling by the Master Emerald's pedestal when I bumped into something. The problem was, I didn't know what I bumped into. So I stretched my hands forward, and there it was. The Master Emerald was still there, just invisible."

"We think Eggman may have invented some kind of invisibility ray, because Shadow's emerald disappeared sometime when we were talking. And it's gone, not just invisible," Knuckles added.

"That's not good. I need to alert the president about this. Actually, I think I might just head back so I can check up on the other chaos emeralds," Rouge said. "Be careful, guys. Knowing Eggman, he'll try and take the Master Emerald forcefully, since sneakiness didn't work. Bye!"

She flew off.

The group watched her go. "Now what do we do?" Tails asked.

"I guess we just-" Knuckles was cut off by a loud snap! in the trees.

"Quiet!" Shadow whispered. They all strained to hear something.

There was a rustling in the woods, and the group stood back-to-back. "Be ready," Sonic muttered under his breath.

A few more seconds passed. Suddenly, there was a bang from somewhere in front of Tails. Sonic jumped into action. He caught a bullet in mid air that probably would've killed Tails.

"ATTACK!" a loud voice boomed. Sonic knew it all too well.

The trees burst apart, revealing probably a hundred robots, ready to fight. Eggman appeared in his eggcarrier overhead. "Get the emerald! Kill anyone who gets in the way!" he screeched.

Sonic figured out a plan. "Knuckles, stay up here and protect the Master Emerald! Tails, you take care of any flying robots! Shadow, you and Itake out the ground forces! Got it?"

"Got it!" Tails yelled as he took off into the air.

"Come on, Shadow!" The hedgehogs ran down the pyramid.

They split up. Half the robots went to Shadow, the other half to Sonic.

Sonic started off well enough. He spindashed through the first five or so, and performed several homing attacks. Shadow was flinging chaos spears in every direction, effectively mowing down even more robots.

A group separated and headed up the pyramid, where they found Knuckles. He smashed through them all. Tails was doing well also, and kept the air forces away from the Master Emerald.

Then things started to go wrong. Eggman brought out some kind of weapon, and began aiming at his own ground forces. "This will throw you for a loop!" he shouted.

He shot a group of robots near Shadow. Immediately, they disappeared. He shot some more surrounding Sonic.

Shadow took out the first couple, but he missed one. Invisibly, the robot ran behind Shadow and hit him on the back of the head. He fell, dazed.

"Shadow!" Sonic yelled. He ran over and tried to keep the rest of the robots away from the midnight hedgehog, but at a cost. They both had forgotten about the robots' guns, and while they could normally dodge each shot, Sonic stood his ground to protect Shadow. A bullet found its mark, and hit Sonic in the shoulder. He yelped and went down also.

By now, Shadow was standing up, and started fighting again. But it wasn't enough. For every robot he destroyed, two more took it's place. And he had to stay in one spot. Otherwise, Sonic would be wide open in his near defenseless state.

Shadow sighed. He didn't want to do this. But as he blasted another robot, he knew he had no choice. "Knuckles!" he shouted. "I need help down here! Sonic got shot!"

"Crap," Knuckles muttered. He knew that if he went down to help, he would have to leave the Master Emerald wide open. But he also knew Shadow. He wouldn't ask for help unless things were desperate.

"Tails! Try and protect the emerald the best you can! I need to help on the ground!" With that, Knuckles jumped down and began knocking down robots. He stood opposite Shadow, with Sonic in between, where he was as safe as the situation allowed.

Tails flew down to the top of the pyramid and did the best he could, but he didn't know about the invisible robots. He had been too high up to notice. And that did it. The same robot that hit Shadow punched Tails in the stomach. He went "oof!" and fell to his knees. Eggman saw this, flew over, and hooked a rope around the Master Emerald. Then he flew off, the emerald swaying beneath him.

"Retreat! We got what we came for. Pull back!" He yelled. He didn't want to waste any robots.

It took a couple minutes, but the fifty or so remaining robots retreated to the forest. There was the sound of an engine starting, and a huge ship flew off the island. Then, all was quiet.

Until Tails groaned. He pulled himself off the stones and headed down to see how the other three were doing.

Knuckles had a couple scrapes and bruises, but nothing serious. Shadow was still slightly dazed. But Sonic was the worst. Blood was flowing out of the wound. The bullet had gone straight through his shoulder. Fortunately, it was the shoulder opposite his heart, but it was still pretty bad.

"I need to get him back to my house," Tails said worriedly. "I can take care of him there."

"Okay," Knuckles said. "But I'm coming with you."

"So am I," Shadow said. He still couldn't believe it. Sonic had taken a bullet in order to protect him. He felt like he had to come with him. He owed him.

"Besides, without the Master Emerald, the island will fall. It will be fine in the ocean." Knuckles said.

"Alright. I'll bring the Tornado over hear. You guys get Sonic in the second seat." Tails ordered.

They did as they were told. "Will you two be fine on the wings?" Tails asked.

"Yeah," Knuckles answered. Shadow stayed quiet. With that, Tails got the Tornado in the air, and began flying home.