Chapter 5

Sonic's dream

Sonic was running through a forest. It was nighttime. He was looking for his friends, and the chaos emeralds.

There was a snap somewhere to his left. He stopped and looked in that direction.

"Who's there?"

Silence.

Sonic started heading in that direction. He kept an eye out for any movement, but saw nothing. He continued until he saw footsteps. They looked like Tails'!

"Tails! Where are you, little buddy?" Sonic called. There was no answer, so he followed the footsteps.

After about 10 minutes, the footprints stopped in the middle of a clearing. Sonic looked around, wondering where his friend could've gone.

He started walking again, only to trip over something. Something he didn't see, no matter how hard he tried.

"Hey!" someone yelped, right where Sonic tripped. "Tails, is that you?" Sonic asked. "Yeah. You ran right into me when I was sleeping. Didn't you see me?" Tails asked. He was thoroughly confused.

"Nope. And I still don't," Sonic answered.

"Sonic, be serious! I'm right here..." Then he fell silent. "Okay, now I'm scared. I can't see my own hand?! Why?!"

"Oh no," Sonic muttered. "Eggman. He hit you with his invisibility ray! That means...Knuckles! Shadow! Where are they?"

"They're right over..." Tails trailed off. They could both see that their friends were gone.

Or were they?

"Well, if you were sleeping, then they probably are too! They've gotta be around he somewhere."

With that, Sonic started walking around the clearing. It wasn't long before he ran into two other invisible things. They both groaned and, from the sound of it, sat up.

"Sonic?" Knuckles voice called. "What's going on? Where's Tails and Shadow?"

"I'm right here," said Shadow's voice a few feet away.

"No, no, no, no, no," Sonic said worriedly. "All three of you Eggman shot with his invisibility ray!"

As Sonic finished, more things around the clearing began to disappear. "What?!" Sonic shouted. "How can this be happening?!"

Even more trees, plants, rocks, everything disappeared. Suddenly, the whole clearing was enveloped in a white void. "Ahhhhhhh!" Sonic screamed as he disappeared also.

Real world

"Ahhhhh!" Sonic screamed and sat up quickly. Everyone else throughout the house jumped. Tails and Amy were sitting in the living room, while Shadow and Knuckles ran in from the kitchen.

"What's wrong?" Knuckles asked. Then he saw Sonic sitting up on the couch. "Finally! You've been out for 12 hours! It's the middle of the day. The battle was yesterday."

"That long?" Sonic swallowed. Then he felt pain in his right shoulder. He groaned and fell back again. Now he remembered. He had been shot by a robot over on Angel Island, trying to protect the Master Emerald. "The emerald?"

"Gone," Tails answered.

"Is the island okay?" Sonic asked.

"It's in the ocean. But, otherwise, it's fine," Knuckles said.

Then Sonic focused on Amy. "Hey there. What are you doing here?"

She blushed. "Tails called me. He said he would need my help. And he was right, by the looks of that bullet hole in your shoulder. Tails and I stitched it up, and I think you'll be fine. However, you'll also be pretty weak and tired for a while. You..." she swallowed, looking worried. "You lost a lot of blood."

Now that Sonic looked at each of his friends, he saw that they had all been really worried. Even...hmm. Shadow too. He had also stayed quiet. Sonic wondered what was on his mind. He actually looked kind of guilty.

"What's wrong, Shad?" Sonic asked.

He shrugged, and tried to make his face blank. It didn't work. "Nothing," he said a little too quickly.

"Uh huh. Come on, what is it?" Sonic asked again.

"Hmph."

"Really! What's bothering you?" Sonic pestered.

"Fine!" he growled. Then he got that guilty look again. "It's just, you only got hurt because...because of me. You were just trying to protect me. It's my fault."

Sonic was surprised. Shadow almost never let his emotions show. He must feel really bad for him to open up right now.

"Hey, it's not your fault." Sonic said. "It's Eggman's. And it's our job to ruin his plans like always. Right, gang?"

"Right," Tails said.

"Hey Sonic, since I'm already here, can I help you guys? They told me what was going on, and I really want to help."

"If you want to, Amy," Sonic answered.

Amy smiled at him, and he blushed. He hoped the others didn't notice.

"Alright, since we're all at Sonic and I's house, you can stay if you want. It'll be easier to plan that way," Tails said.

"Plan for what?" Knuckles asked.

"Why, for attacking Eggman, of course!" Sonic smiled. "And I, for one, can't wait!"

"Oh, no you don't. You are staying right here and getting better," Amy ordered.

"What?! But Eggman made it personal! I have to go with!" Sonic argued.

"Sonic, I agree with Amy. Eggman'll think we'll wait a couple days before doing anything. If we go, say, tomorrow, we can surprise him," Shadow said.

The blue hedgehog growled, but he knew how stubborn his friends can be. "How about I act as a lookout? If you guys need help, I'll be right there."

"Alright," Tails said. "But only if we really need it."

"Deal!"

XXXX

As it turns out, the group didn't need to go to Eggman. He came to them.

"How many emeralds do we have? We should have them all," Eggman asked a robot.

"We-have-7-emeralds," it said.

"Plus the Master Emerald?" Eggman asked hopefully.

"No. 6-chaos-emeralds-plus-1-Master-Emerald."

"Grrrrr! Where could that last emerald be? We've looked everywhere! Who else..." he trailed off. He knew who had the last chaos emerald.

That annoying little rodent! he thought.

"Well... I guess we'll just have to get the emerald, eh?" he said, warming up to the idea. "Hahahahaha! Watch out, Sonic the Hedgehog! I'm coming for you!"