The cave itself was colder inside. Surrounded by wall-to-wall ice, Sonic thought for sure he would never stop sneezing. To avoid standing in blue boy's line of fire, Knuckles the Echidna stepped aside. Tails shivered as his gismo laid out the readings, "Wow, it is cold in here! Where should we look, Sonic?"

Shaking as well as sneezing, the blue blur asked, "W—wha—what do you mean? You—you're the—the one w—with the th—thingy." Holding out his arms, Tails flipped his flat screen around and pointed at a certain spot, "The thermometer has lost battery life. It looks like we are going to be on our own."

Sonic waved the situation away, "Not to worry, kid." Thumb pointed against his puffed up chest, he assured his little companion, "Leave it to me and this chase will be a breeze." "Yah, but…" "Have I ever let you down before?" Fed with wholesome courage, Tails' waged his tails, eyes pleasantly closed and laughing, "Thanks Sonic!"

Ignoring current events, Knuckles was anxious to find the root of the problem and then smash it. That sounded easy enough. Walking down the dangerously slippery cave, he looked for any sign of something sinister enough to freeze everything. Eggman was so conceited. Whenever his symbol showed up, it was a dead giveaway that he was there.

So far nothing showed. Feeling ticked, the echidna slammed a punch into the wall. It had sent a quake throughout the entire formation. Sonic and Tails did their best to not lose balance due to their hotheaded friend. "Hey, Knux, easy on the hammering!" Sonic called out to him still holding out two arms.

Fist still positioned where he had left it within the icy wall, Knuckles' eyes grew at what he saw. "What's this?" he quietly muttered under his breath. Ripping his hand free, sending pebbles and small stones flying, he placed his other hand on the same spot. This time he was brushing the snow and soil away. Under the filth was another tunnel within the hollowed ice.

"Hey guys look at what I found!" The two buds turned away from Tails' malfunctioning gizmo to look at what caught Knuckles attention. Encased within the glassy ice was an old path. A daring smirk went on Sonic's face as he rubbed his runny nose. This should a snap, he thought, eyeing the frozen wall. He backed up and energetically positioned his body, saying, "Let me take a whack at it!"

Tails and Knuckles turned around and their eyes grew and yelled, "Don't do it, Sonic!" Even Knuckles held out his hand as though to stop him. That of course would not stop the hedgehog. Sometimes communicating to a brick wall would be no different. The two friends had to fall to the floor to avoid being creamed. That fool! Knuckles alarmingly thought he will bury us alive.

Sonic began to saw through the wall, making the cave shake as he created a hole, apparently forgetting how Knuckles fists made the place unstable. Chunks of ice slammed onto the floor and pieces flew in several directions. An icicle loosened over Tails' head and Knuckles snatched his tails to send the little guy flying behind a boulder. The echidna then punched the ice to keep it away. Everything was become too dangerous and if Sonic does not finish or stop to think about the havoc he was creating, all three were done for.

A whirling sound flew through the air above the echidna's head, making him glance upwards. Chucked into the icy wall, a sharp edged boomerang sat lodged into its thick surface. Next to it was a long skinny rock poking through the surface. It did not look like it should match and when Knuckles' eye followed where the weapon was fired a black figured fled the scene. He moved his foot to follow but stopped when he heard Tails yelled and jump away from another ice chunk. First things first, the shaking must stop.

Another whoosh flew over his head and on impulse he covered his head. A couple pebbles tumbled onto his hair and he glanced up to the see the long rock moved down like a liver by another metal boomerang. The boomerang fell to the floor and the icy wall moved apart. The shaking sound made Hedgehog pause and listen. His ear moved up and down until he stepped out of his small tunnel. Within seconds, the wall had split open and they were face-to-face with the hidden tunnel. A low whistle came from Sonic's mouth with impressed green eyes. The three looked at one another and smirked. Sonic was the first to move, urging his friends to follow with hand single, "Alright, let's check this place out."

Silently the other two followed, Tails with an interested face and Knuckles with a suspicious one. They were not alone in this strange ice cave. Someone wanted them to enter the passageway unharmed. His purple eyes remained steady on the stony lever until he could no longer see it. If there was something like a lever that must mean this cave was made by someone. Nature after all cannot produce something like that. Unfortunately they do not possess the time to look.

Sonic zipped down the secret tunnel and called out to Knuckles and Tails, "Hurry up you slow moes! I'll be old and grey long before you reach me." Tails flew to catch up while Knuckles growled behind him. Tails thought that he said something about dumb hedgehogs and how he wished to ring his skinny blue neck but the two tailed kid shrugged it off. There was never a time when those two rivals would tick the other off.

"Hey, Tails check this out," Sonic called from a ledge. Tails landed next to him and looked stunned and at a loss for words. Knuckles shortly arrived after the fox made his landing and was almost just as shocked. Encased in more ice was a giant furry creature. White like snow, it was the size of a mansion, maybe taller. And here is where it gets even freakier.

Its lifeless eyes shot open.