It took no time at all before the X-Tornado was set and ready to go to Eggman's base. Cream and Cosmo insisted they came, which meant they rode in the ship with Tails. Of course, Sonic ran at the speed of sound, Knuckles and Shadow on the wings of the plane and Rouge flew alongside them.
Sonic and Tails kept in contact over the wrist communicators in order to work out where they would have to land. If they were spotted, who knows what powers that new machine might unleash? It was only now that it crossed Sonic's mind to call Blaze and Silver here to help, but of course, that would require at least one of the chaos emeralds.

The gang continued to travel on until Tails had found the base on the Tornado's tracker. He brought the Tornado in for a landing and made sure it was well hidden before he and the girls got out. Everyone gathered together after they landed, where do they go from here?

'Maybe Miss Rouge and Mr. Shadow should go ahead and check it all out?' Cream suggested.

'Why us?' Shadow huffed.

'Uh, because you're spies, Mr. Shadow? You won't get seen as easily.' She replied, causing everyone's eyes to widen in slight surprise.

'That's a great idea, Cream!' Sonic exclaimed as he placed a hand on her shoulder, 'Looks like Tails taught you well.'

'Thanks, Sonic.'

'I knew that I was a spy…' Shadow said as Rouge dragged him away.

The gang stayed hidden while they waited for Rouge to contact them via their communicators, but nothing came. It would have been around fifteen minutes the pair were gone with no results and everyone began to worry.

'I thought they would've been back or at least contacted us by now?' Knuckles huffed as he paced.

'Chill out, Knux. Your girlfriend will still be alive when all this is over.' Sonic chuckled, causing Tails to bite his lip.

'Watch it, Hedgehog or I swear to Chaos I'll-'

'Guys!' Rouge shouted, cutting Knuckles off, as her and Shadow ran towards them all.

'What's happening?' Cosmo asked.

'Did you find her?' Cream added.

'We did, but we figured you guys would want to be there when she saw us.' Rouge answered.

'This isn't going to be easy, she appears to be tracing the perimeter. Only now she isn't wearing the cape and has that god awful hammer of hers hanging over her shoulder.' Shadow added.

'Just because you got your ass kicked by it, doesn't mean you have to get sour.' Knuckles smirked.

'You're one to talk!' Shadow shot back.

'Guys, shut up! This is no time for fooling around!' Sonic shouted.

'He's right, we need a plan to get her home with us.' Tails exclaimed.

'Well, there is something you could try.' Cosmo said and everyone turned to face her, coaxing her to continue.

'Is she alone?' Cosmo asked, directed to Rouge and Shadow.

'Well, yeah. So?' Shadow answered.

'Maybe we need to use her weakness against her for our benefit, instead of Eggman's.'

'What are you getting at, Cosmo?' Knuckles said, becoming impatient.

'Eggman believes her weakness is Sonic, right? And there is no denying that it's the truth. The only one that could possibly talk her out of this madness is him! We remain hidden but still close enough to jump into action if necessary and Sonic steps out to talk to her.'

'Tails I think you unloaded all your brains onto this pair?' Rouge smirked at the wide-eyed kitsune.

'It's perfect, let's do it!' Knuckles exclaimed as he thrust his fist into the air.

'Wait, wait. I don't want Cream and Cosmo in battle.' Tails spoke up.

'Even though I'm slightly offended by that, he's probably right. We haven't done field training.' Cosmo admitted.

'That's fine, we yell at you through your communicator's when we pick up something to advantage you.' Cream said.

'Great!' Cosmo and Knuckles exclaimed in sync.

'I'm not so sure about this.' Sonic mumbled, still loud enough to be heard.

'WHAT?!'

'She was pretty pissed at me last time I saw her! Who's to say she still isn't? Who's to say she will agree to come with me?' Sonic exclaimed.

'She's doing this to protect you, to protect all-'

'You don't know that for sure!' He cut Rouge off. Silence fell upon them all as they faced the cold, hard truth that they really did have no guarantee that their theory was real.

'It's worth a shot.' Cosmo said as she walked up and placed a hand on Sonic's shoulder.

He finally nodded before the team set out to meet Amy on the perimeter. They all walked cautiously and carefully towards the base before stopping to hide. Everyone hid behind bushes or trees, waiting for the moment to strike. Sonic hung back and waited for a signal to go out and see her. Rouge was up in a tree looking down over it all, she gave him the all clear and he stepped out into the entrance of the base…