Hello! Okay, so earlier I realized I made a mistake. I said the white chaos emerald was at the bottom of the world, but then I said it was at the North Pole. My mistake, and from now on, I'll say South Pole. I can't say Antarctica because it's not Earth. It's Mobius. That's all. Enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 8

"Is everything packed?" Amy asked as they finished strapping their supplies in the Tornado.

"I think so," Tails answered.

"Do we have the chaos emerald tracker?"

"Yes."

"And the scuba gear? Just in case?" she persisted.

"Geez, Amy! Of course we do! I swear, your acting like my mother." Tails said, exasperated.

Amy sighed and nodded. "I know. I just want to find the emerald as soon as possible. I'm worried about Sonic."

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Tails said, although he too was scared for his big brother.

"Yeah. Sonic can handle anything," Knuckles added helpfully.

Shadow looked over the plane one last time. "Come on. The sooner we get in the air, the better."

With that, he jumped onto the right plane wing. Knuckles went on the left, Tails climbed into the cockpit, and Amy went in the passenger seat.

Tails started the engine, and they took off. The sky was fairly clear, and they made fast progress.

But after about ten minutes, a missile appeared out of nowhere. Shadow saw it first.

"Incoming missile, Tails!" he shouted. Tails looked in the direction he pointed and saw the rocket. He immediately put the plane in a nose dive.

"Is it following us?!" he yelled.

Knuckles looked up. "Yeah!" he answered. "It must be a heat-seeking missile!"

Tails took a deep breath. Alright. Concentrate. I can do this, he thought. He aimed the plane at the ground, and then, at the last second, he pulled up. The missile tried to follow, but instead hit the ground and exploded. Everybody sighed in relief.

"Wait a second," Amy said after a pause. "Where did that thing come from?"

"Eggman," the guys replied in unison.

"Okay then. How do we find him?"

They thought a bit. "I've got it," Tails said.

He maneuvered the plane so it was facing the spot where the missile appeared. He then started firing the machine gun attached to the Tornado. Most of the bullets missed, but about a quarter of them hit... something. That something lost it's invisibility. Now that it was visible, it was obvious what had fired the missile. Eggman's airship. Maybe even the same one he used to capture Sonic.

"Argh!" Eggman's voice, amplified through a speaker somewhere, shouted. "Now your gonna get it!"

The ship let loose a load of missiles, but, like for the first one, Tails piloted the Tornado well. All of the rockets missed, and instead they hit the airship.

Eggman groaned from inside the cockpit. Now he had to retreat. He wanted to know what Tails and the others were up to. He knew they would stop at nothing to save Sonic. But with his ship badly damaged, he would have to get it repaired. Look on the bright side, he thought. I can still torture Sonic when we get back. That should cheer me up quite nicely.

Eggman had to find the last chaos emerald. Otherwise, the blue hedgehog might get rescued, or escape. After all, it was the emeralds power that kept Sonic prisoner. With all the emeralds, his prison would be completely invincible to any attack.

As the villain retreated, he came up with a new plan. He figured the rodent's friends would try to find the emerald. Assuming they succeeded, they would most likely bring it with when they came for Sonic. Eggman decided he would just wait for them, while he repaired his ship. Then he would snatch the emerald.

Shadow knew something was up after Eggman retreated. He had backed down too quickly. The black hedgehog had expected more. Oh well. He would just have to wait and see.

Tails sighed in relief. With a damaged ship, Eggman wouldn't come back any time soon. Now they could focus on the job at hand.

"Everyone okay?" Amy asked.

"Yeah, we're fine," Knuckles replied. Shadow also nodded.

"Alright then," Tails said as he turned the Tornado north.

XXXX

Sonic was nervous.

As soon as the air ship landed, he had been taken to a large cavern. In the middle of the room was some kind of tube. It looked kind of like a roboticizer, but it was surrounded by controls. Sonic hadn't liked the look of them. They were almost sinister. And later, he found out they were (spoiler!).

The tube's glass was lifted up, and Sonic was forced into the contraption. Then the glass came down, and he was left in there for a couple of hours. During that time, he inspected his prison. The tube was about five feet in diameter. The glass wasn't too thick, but Sonic couldn't break it, not with his bad shoulder. It gave off a soft glow, but he didn't know why.

Finally, Eggman came in. He was smiling.

"So, how's our little, heh heh, guest doing?" he asked.

"Umm, bored, hungry, amused to see what you'll do to me. Nothing I can't handle, I'm sure," Sonic smirked.

"Oh, is that what you think? Try again, rodent. Your trapped in an unbreakable-" he coughed, and continued. "-unbreakable prison."

"Or so you say," the hedgehog taunted. For just a second, Sonic saw a worried look on Eggman's face. He wondered what that meant.

Eggman's expression went back to normal. "You can't escape. The Master Emerald and the chaos emeralds provide enough power to contain you." That made sense. The whole contraption practically hummed with energy. "And once I get the white emerald, I will drain their power." Now he smiled. "And then, I will drain you."

"How are you gonna do that?"

"Behold!" Eggman brought out a cannon-like contraption. "The chaos siphon!"

Sonic turned pale. "You... rebuilt..."

"Hahahahahaha! You won't be able to go super, or use chaos control, or anything! You will be stuck normal, and then I will destroy you." He laughed some more as he began walking out of the room. "Good night, Sonic the hedgehog! Sleep good! Your going to need it!" Then he was gone.

Sonic was still frozen, trying to think of what that meant for everyone. Shadow would lose all of his chaos powers. No one would go super any more. Eggman would gain the upper hand.

He shuddered, then laid down and tried to get comfortable. He would need any rest he could get.