Sonic yawned as he plunged back into the grass and stared out in front of him. The wind was blowing a calm breeze and the birds were chirping a serene melody. The sun shone brightly on the acres of forests and grasslands spread out before him. The world was peaceful.

And Sonic was bored as hell.

Not much has been happening in the past couple of days. There wasn't much activity coming from Robotnik, and he hadn't had much action save for destroying the spare robot or two. Most of his days were just being spent running around and exploring the general area for the thousandth time.

Usually he would hang out with his buddy, Tails, but the fox had been busy the last couple of days tinkering with scrap metal from destroyed badniks. While Sonic was happy to see the fox was enjoying himself he couldn't help but lament on having no one to talk with.

And then there was Robotnik.

Sonic hadn't seen Robotnik since his battle with him last month. He knew he was still out there as badnik activity hadn't decreased at all. He was still regularly finding animals trapped in capsules and badniks wreaking havoc on the forests.

At least, he was until the last couple of days. And Sonic didn't understand why. While he was glad to have a break from robots that wanted him dead, he also knew that Robotnik was persistent, and that if he wasn't causing trouble now it would only mean worse trouble later.

Well, Sonic thought, No use worrying about it now.

With that thought Sonic closed his eyes and let his worries melt away. Whatever troubles he had could be dealt with later, now it was time to relax.

"Yo Sonic!"

Sonic opened his eyes to see Tails running out of their house with a triumphant grin on his face.

"What's up?"

Tails beamed, "I finished my prototype for the helper robot!"

Sonic sat up, "Nice! What can it do?"

"Lemme show you!"

Tails pulled out a small stick figure that seemed to be made of metal wiring and wood. On its back was a large awkwardly placed battery. He set it down on the ground standing upright.

"All I need to do is flick the switch and…"

He bent over and flicked a switch on the back of the robot's head. The machine jolted with a start and began to raise its shaking leg in front of it. It wobbled its way forwards making metallic clicks and whistles as it did so.

Tails jumped up with joy, "It works! It really works!"

He looked at Sonic anticipatedly, "What do you think?"

Sonic returned a smile, "It looks pretty co-"

Suddenly the robot tumbled over due to a misstep . It landed on its side but continued trying to move its legs forward. When its legs didn't touch solid ground they just started moving faster and faster. Smoke started billowing from the battery.

"Ah!" Tails yelled as he ran to the struggling machine and tried to set it back upright. But it was too late as the robot's head dropped forward and let out one last beep.

Tails looked at Sonic sheepishly, "Um..it's a work in progress," he said as he shuffled his feet.

Sonic chuckled to himself making Tails wince. "Well buddy that's the best work in progress I ever saw!" He said.

Tails relaxed and looked up hesitantly, "You really think so?"

Sonic nodded his head, "Keep it up and I bet we'll never have to clean the house again! The robots'll do it for us!"

Tails smiled happily, "Yeah once I figure out all the quirks and stuff I'll be able to improve it."

Sonic laid back down and closed his eyes, "Keep up the good work, buddy." he said as he began to yawn.

Tails looked down at Sonic and started fidgeting his fingers nervously, "Actually Sonic I wanted to ask about something."

Sonic opened up his eyes, "Sure, what is it?"

"Umm so i've been reading these books, and I found out about different uses of energy and all that stuff…"

"Yeah? What'd you find out?"

"Well I learned about this thing called 'Chaos Crystals'-"

Sonic sat up once more, "Like the chaos emeralds?!"

Tails shook his head quickly, "Nah, they are kinda like them but a lot weaker. Even though they aren't as strong they are great energy sources, so that means I could…"

"Use them for your robots?" Sonic finished.

Tails nodded, "And other stuff yeah!" He said as he started jumping around. "Oh Sonic it would make it so much easier! I could redirect the energy to different parts and make a smaller battery that can cycle through the fuel more efficiently and I could also ..."

Sonic watched his friend excitedly jump around as he babbled out the ideas in his mind while listing them on his fingers. Whenever Tails got like this he could barely understand what he was saying, muchless respond. Yet, he didn't really care, sometimes it was just nice to listen.

"...and uh yeah it would be really cool!" Tails said as he sat down to take a breather.

"Definitely", said Sonic, "So where can we find these crystals?"

Tails rubbed the back of his head, "Oh yeah...well…see that's kinda the hard part about it."

Sonic grinned "Ah c'mon it can't be that bad!"

Talks sighed, "The only place where people are able to find it is in...Mystic Cave Zone"

Immediately Sonic had visions of precariously hanging over spikes with a feeble vine. Setting off traps that dropped him hundreds of feet, drillbots firing all kinds of lasers at him, and of course Robotnik, snug in his machine as it came forward with its large drill ready to pulverize anything in its path.

"Oh."

Tails looked at Sonic, "I was hoping...maybe you could help me look for the crystals in there?"

Sonic put on a stern face and looked at Tails, "Now hold on there Miles Tails Prower! You're talking about going to Mystic Cave Zone! One of the most dangerous zones of Westside island! Where people go and never come back! And you want to go into its darkest depths and risk everything just to get crystals?!"

Tails looked down at the ground, "Ummm yes?" He said meekly.

Sonic grinned, "That sounds awesome!"

Tails raised his head, "So we can go?!"

"Are you kidding? This'll be the most fun I've had in months! Not to mention I get to hang out with my best friend."

Tails jumped up, spinning his namesakes to hover in the air, "When can we go?"

"When do you wanna go?" Sonic replied.

"Right now!"

Sonic smiled, "Then fire up the Tornado. Mystic Cave here we come!"

"It has been way too long since we've done something like this!" Sonic yelled over the roaring winds, while standing on the wing of the Tornado.

"Mhm!" Tails mumbled as he focused on steering the Tornado around the thick white clouds that surrounded them.

Sonic closed his eyes and let the wind blow into his body. The wind was strong but he remained standing firm on the plane. He looked down and watched the countryside slowly move past.

Flight was definitely Sonic's second favorite way of traveling, behind running of course, there was something about that feeling of weightlessness and being high enough to see everything below him that gave him chills. The good kind.

It's nice to be able to fly on this without any sense of doom hanging over us, Sonic thought.

Sonic's recent memories with the tornado weren't the most pleasant. Tails had saved his life twice with this plane. Once when he fell from space after exploding the Death Egg, and another time when he…fell from space after exploding the Death Egg, this time with the Master Emerald in tow. The heavy emerald ended up crashing into the tornado and Tails had to make a crash landing on Angel Island.

That took forever to fix, Sonic thought, we were stranded on that island for weeks and I swear me and Knuckles were gonna kill each other….

Even so the Tornado was important to both Sonic and Tails. For Sonic it was the first thing he ever really owned, and for a good chunk of his life the only thing. For Tails it stood to show his ingenuity with machines as he pumped out improvement upon improvement for it. For both of them it was a symbol of their friendship as Sonic had passed ownership of the plane to Tails when they met.

Sonic smiled at the memory of Tails face when he told him the plane was now his.

He probably still considers it mine even though I never pilot it anymore.

Something flashed in the corner of Sonic's eye. He quickly turned to the side and, for a split second, saw a shadow disappear. His brow furrowed,

"What's wrong Sonic?" Tails shouted, noticing Sonic's immediate reaction.

"Ah it's nothing." Sonic shouted back.

Paranoia must be making me see things, he thought.

Nevertheless his mind started thinking about what Robotnik could be up to. Suddenly the familiar sense of dread slowly spiked through him.

Sonic gritted his teeth.

"Yo Tails!"

"Yeah Sonic?"

"Remember to always be on your guard alright?"

"Don't worry Sonic, if anything happens we can handle it right?"

I sure hope so

"Yeah you're right Tails" Sonic said. "We got this…"

Sonic looked down and noticed in place of the countryside was the vivid blue ocean. He looked up and saw a small green speck straight ahead.

Westside Island.

As the Tornado flew over the island Sonic immediately started recognizing its iconic landmarks. The rolling Emerald Hills, the towering skyscrapers of Chemical Plant, the blinding lights from Casino Night, and the dark blue blotches of Oil Ocean.

"Wow this place hasn't changed a bit, huh?' Sonic said, looking over his shoulder back to Tails. The young pilot nodded quietly, his eyes drifting over Emerald Hill Zone as they flew past.

Sonic frowned, Oh yeah, probably doesn't have the best memories of that place. It may had been his birthplace, but he lived far from a happy life there. Orphaned at an early age and ostracized by people who saw him as a freak of nature due to his extra tail.

Sonic pointed a stern finger at Tails "Hey! Don't get all mopey on me now. We came here to find those crystals and we're gonna have fun doing it too."

Tail looked up from his gaze and nodded.

'Y-yeah!"

"This place may be the same but you've changed a lot Tails"

Tails eyes widened.

"Really?"

Sonic grinned

"Hell yeah! You're a lot stronger now, and you're the bravest and smartest person I know! We've conquered this island before and we're gonna do it again."

Tails beamed looking newly rejuvenated

"You're right! We got this!"

Below them the scenery started to take the shape of the jagged mountains and lava pools of Hill Top.

"We're almost at the entrance!" Tails yelled

"Alright, let's land on that field over there and continue on foot."

Tails began to descend . As the wheels of the plane touched the field Sonic gave a thumbs up, jumped off the plane onto the ground and broke off into a sprint. Soon he was nothing more than a blur as he rushed off into the distance.

The plane came to a stop some moments later. As Tails hopped off and floated down using his namesakes, Sonic zoomed back and skidded to a halt by the plane.

"Alright I scouted out the area and things are looking good. The entrance is a nice 5 minute jog from here"

Tails landed and looked at him in awe.

"But you took half a minute to find it!"

Sonic winked

'That's why I said jog. I don't wanna leave you in the dust"

Tails looked down

"Sorry to slow you down."

Sonic laughed, "Are you kidding me? You're the only one I know who can even keep up with my jogging speed, well, besides maybe Knuckles, and it's not like I always like going top speeds. Sometimes it's nice to take it easy."

Tails looked back up with a small smile and nodded.

'Alright then, let's go!'

With that they both dashed off. Sonic jogged at a leisurely pace, zooming effortlessly through the scenery. And just a few feet behind him Tails followed him, his namesakes whirring as fast as he could muster to propel him forward.

After a couple minutes of running they finally came across the entrance to the zone. A large cave mouth was before them with a wooden sign at the top stating, 'BEWARE OF THE MYSTIC CAVE'. More signs dotted the sides of the entrance with warning symbols and words of caution.

"Jeez, real inviting vibe" Sonic said reading through all the signs.

"Oh right! Before we enter…" Tails reached into his backpack and took out a remote like object with a flashing screen.

"Iis that the emerald radar?"

"Yeah, I recalibrated it so it could specifically sense the energy waves from chaos crystals instead of emeralds. Finding them will be a breeze with this!" Tails pushed a button on the device and on the screen a pulsating green circle appeared

"Nice! Let's do this." Sonic took off into the entrance with Tails in tow.

They ran through a decently narrow corridor that slowly opened up until finally they entered the main part of the zone. Vines and stalactites hung from the ceilings, thin broken down bridges hung between many rock platforms and at the bottom spikes of rock laid everywhere.

Sonic looked around seeing that there were many new cave openings to enter. Last time they were here they just plowed forward following Robotnik's trail of badniks, but now there was no real clear path to follow.

"Alright Tails, where to from here?"

"The radar isn't picking up anything right now…but I do know that the crystals form at lower altitudes. So we should take the lowest path."

"The lowest path huh…." Sonic scanned the area and quickly noticed the lowest cave opening. It was at the opposite wall from them and also at the bottom floor surrounded by spikes.

"There" Sonic pointed, "There's no clear path to it though."

"That's ok! I can just fly us both ove-"

Sonic curled into a ball and spun into a spindash. After a couple seconds of revving up he fired off into the direction of the opening. As he soared through the air he quickly uncurled and somersaulted to the side of a rock platform where he landed and pushed off with his feet essentially ricocheting off the wall. As he flew forward he outstretched his arm, grabbing onto a low hanging vine and using it to swing forward. At the height of its arc he swung his legs forward and let go, flipping right onto one of the bridges and jumping off immediately as it started to crumble. He landed right in front of the entrance, missing a spike by a couple inches.

He looked back and gave a thumbs up. "Okay, you can fly over now!"

Tails stood with his mouth agape before jumping and flying down sheepishly.

He landed and crossed his arms "I coulda carried you yknow…"

Sonic laughed and reached over to ruffle the fur on his head. "Yeah I know. This way is just a lot more fun.' He turned his head to look down the tunnel beyond the entrance. "Looks like it's gonna get pretty dark in there, got flashlights?"

Tails grinned. "Even better!"

He reached into his bag and brought out two headbands with circular lights attached. "I thought having to hold a light would slow us down so I fixed these up."

"Oh now we're talking!" Sonic took one and fastened it onto his head. "Great thinking!"

Tails swelled with pride at those words as he put on his headband. "The battery life isnt super long though. I could only get it to last about two hours."

Sonic smirked. "More than enough time to find these crystals."

They both continued down the tunnel path. Now with lights shining their path. Due to the more general darkness they went at a slower than usual pace. As they progressed they came across multiple branching paths. At each branch-off Tails would make an educated guess as to which one would lead them closer to the crystals(though Sonic suspected it wasn't all that educated as the radar was still not picking up any signal), and Sonic would leave a marking in the wall to help them remember for backtracking.

This process led to them running into a lot of dead ends and before they knew it an hour had passed with no sign of the crystals. Tails looked down at his radar exasperated. "I swear there should be some kind of signal by now.."

Sonic walked with his hand on his chin pondering. "Hmm.."

"Maybe it's not working properly…I can try tweaking it better."

Sonic shook his head. "Your radar's never been wrong before. I doubt it'll start now." He slid his hand across the wall. "Besides, somethings been really bugging me about these tunnels we've been through."

Tails looked up from his radar. "Whaddaya mean?"

"These walls, they're too smooth. And the shape of this tunnel is almost a perfect circle."

Tails looked around and started feeling the wall. "Oh wow….you're right!" He flew up to touch the ceiling. "Even here is smooth! And we haven't seen those pointy cave things in ages!"

Sonic's brow furrowed. "Not to mention all the dead ends we've been finding. Something tells me these tunnels aren't natural."

Tails eyes widened. "You think someone made these tunnels?"

"Yeah and I have a good idea of who too"

Tails felt a chill run down his spine "Robotnik...but why would he be here?"

"Same reason as us. He probably wants to use those chaos crystals. In fact I think he might've had the idea long before us. Would explain the lack of them so far."

"We gotta stop him!"

"I'm right with you there. But first we gotta figure out what exactly is going on. We still haven't run into a badnik yet. These tunnels could be weeks, maybe even months old."

Tails nodded in agreement. "Let's keep searching!" He flew off ahead.

Sonic stood there for a moment. Could Robotnik really be back here? Or was his paranoia making all this up in his head?

Whatever this is, Sonic thought. I'm ready for it.

"Sonic! Over here!"

Sonic bolted off towards Tails' voice and was by his side in an instant. "What's up?"

Tails pointed to the ground. "Look!"

Sonic looked and on the ground there were steel railroad tracks running across the tunnel floor. "Looks like we found our next lead."

"If we follow these, maybe we can find out what's going on?"

Sonic nodded and bent over into a stretch. "I'm gonna start going a bit faster now bud. Stay close and be alert."

Tails nodded with a determined look on his face. "Right!"

Sonic dashed ahead running along the tracks with Tails in close pursuit. After a couple minutes of running Sonic suddenly stopped, leading to Tails bumping into his back and falling over backwards.

"What's wrong? Why'd we stop?" he asked as he got up and dusted himself off.

Sonic pointed ahead. "The tracks continue but the ground doesn't."

Tails looked ahead and he was right. The tracks were still going forwards but now suspended in the air like a bridge with no cave floor in sight. Tails looked down and saw a seemingly endless expanse of darkness. He gulped. "Thats a big drop"

As his headlight shone down Tails noticed it as reflecting off of something below. "Wait, Sonic! I think there are even more tracks below."

Sonic leaned forward to look with him. Below he saw another set of tracks stretched across like a bridge. His ear perked up when he heard the sound of metal scrapping. A dark shadow with a blinking red light on it was moving across the tracks.

Tails gasped silently. "What's that?" he whispered.

"It looks like a minecart," Sonic whispered back. "And look what its carrying"

There was no mistaking the faint blue-green glow coming from within the cart. It was filled to the brim with chaos crystals.

"What do we do Sonic?"

"Well we came here for those crystals right? How about we hitch a ride on this thing and see where it's headed?"

Tails nodded and they both leapt down onto the cart. Sonic free falling and Tails floating down.

After landing on the cart Sonic picked up a crystal and inspected it. It was slim and just abt the length of his palm. The color of it reminded him of the Master Emerald but its power was much, much, weaker. When he was in the Emeralds presence he always felt an intense pressure come from it. Even a chaos emerald dwarfed the tiny amount of energy he was feeling from it.

"You'd need hundreds of these to even match a chaos emerald," Sonic remarked.

"Yeah but the energy output is a lot more stable!" Tails said excitedly as he was packing crystals from the cart into his bag. "These'll work perfect!"

The cart continued on through its path on the tracks. Sonic noticed that the further it went the less natural their surroundings were becoming. They were now in another circular tunnel, this time with lights in the ceiling and metal panels in place of the rock walls.

Sonic felt a spike of irritation run through him. He's mechanizing the zone slowly but surely.

Behind him Tails was struggling to put on his now stuffed bag. "Hey….huff…Sonic…..uff"

He finally hoisted the back onto his back, stumbling a bit. "What'll we do if we run into Robotnik?"

"Same as always buddy. We're gonna send him flying."

"And how're we gonna get outta here after that?"

Aw crap. He hadn't really thought that far ahead. They were super deep underground by now. And following the tracks and minecart lead them so far away from where they originally were that they were never getting back to where he left those marks for backtracking. "Uhh maybe Robotnik has an exit somewhere?"

"Hmm maybe" Tails replied with a worried look.

Sonic noticed his face. "Hey, listen. We've gotten lost in a lot worse places remember? We got this."

Tails smiled. "Like that sand temple in Angel Island.'

Sonic groaned. "That was the worst! Who the hell builds a temple in quicksand?"

"It took forever to get the sand out of my shoes."

"Yeah! Felt grains of it for weeks!"

They both shared a laugh.

"But y'know Tails…I woulda never gotten out of there without you. I was stumped with how those levers and buttons worked."

Tails looked down bashfully. "It was nothing. It was just like a puzzle but bigger. Besides, we wouldn't have gotten out fast enough if you hadn't gone Super."

"Hmm true. I guess we can leave that to a 50/50 deal then."

Tails smiled and opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by the sound of the cart screeching to a halt.

They both looked around realizing the track had stopped and they were now on a circular platform which was now starting to rise like an elevator.

Oh yeah forgot we were taking a ride to what may or may not be our doom.

As they rose higher a familiar mechanical humming greeted their ears. Sonic tensed up.

"Be on guard, Tails. I think we got a greeting party."

The platform finally finished rising and they both looked around in shock. The area they were in was gigantic. Around them there were multiple platforms similar to the one they were on with carts of their own(all full of crystals). Many holes dotted the walls and seemed to be tunnel entrances. Robots were lined up along the walls drilling even more holes. Large robots in the shape of a claw flew down and plucked the carts before flying over into the room echoed with the sounds of drilling, humming, and beeping.

Tails watched the process in horror as they exited the cart. "This is….like a weird mechanical beehive…."

"Yeah if bee's sucked every flower dry" Sonic replied. "The ol' Doctor's back to being a parasite"

One of the claw robots started flying towards them. Tails yelped and Sonic tensed up into a fighting stance.

To their surprise the robot completely ignored them and simply picked up the cart next to them before flying off.

Sonic eased up while Tails breathed a sigh of relief. "I guess these robots aren't in a fighting mood." Sonic remarked.

"I think they're running on auto-pilot or something like that"

"Huh, lucky us."

Suddenly the platform vibrated, throwing both of them off balance. Then it slowly started to descend. "Crap it must be going back down for another cart!" Sonic yelled. He scanned the room quickly before fixing his eyes on a metal walkway up ahead.

He pointed. "There! Think you can fly us over Tails?"

Tails sprung up into the air. "No problem!" He grabbed Sonic's outstretched arms and lifted him off the platform as it continued descending into the darkness below. Slowly but surely they made their way over. Sonic let go and landed gracefully onto the walkway with Tails landing next to him.

"Thanks bud. Now let's get to finding that egghead."

Just as they started to move a red line of light suddenly appeared on Sonic's chest and started moving up and down rapidly. He looked down in shock and quickly jumped back.

"What the hell was that?" He looked up and the light was coming from a camera perched on the wall. "Uh oh."

A wailing siren echoed through the room as all the light began blinking in red. Out of the tunnels on the wall flew in swarms of buzz bombers, their behinds flashing as they took aim at the duo.

"Crap! Time to jet Tails!"

"Right!"

Sonic dashed forward into the nearest tunnel with Tails flying close. Behind them the walkway exploded as projectiles from the badniks collided with it. As they rushed deeper into the tunnel Sonic looked behind him and saw dozens of the robots were in pursuit of them.

"Where does he find the time to make all of these?"

"Sonic they're catching up!"

Sonic gritted his teeth. The tunnel was too cramped and winding for him to go at his full speed. Not to mention that even if he could he couldn't leave Tails behind. He skidded to a stop.

"Go on ahead without me! I'll catch up."

Tails stopped. "No! I can fight too!'

"It's alright just go!" He flashed a quick smile at him. "I'll hold off these guys with no trouble. You just go ahead and get a good head start. I'll catch up"

Tails looked like he wanted to protest further but hesitantly turned and flew away.

Sonic looked back at the oncoming swarm. "Alright then." He spun into a spindash and rocketed forward into them, slashing a majority of the robots grouped at the front and knocking some to the side. He noticed a couple flying forwards into the direction Tails ran.

"Oh no you don't!" He dashed instantly in front of them roundhouse kicking one into the other which led to them both exploding. He looked forward and saw another wave approaching. He picked up some of the scraps from the destroyed robots and and spindashed in place before stopping and throwing them forward with the momentum he built up. The scraps fired forward at blinding speed knocking a few of the bots out of commission. He followed it up with another direct spindash into the oncoming swarm which promptly left them all as a pile of scrap. He looked up and saw yet another wave coming towards him.

"SERIOUSLY? I don't know how much longer I can keep doing this…" Sonic groaned as he leapt forward into another spindash.

Meanwhile up ahead Tails was flying ahead deeper into the tunnel. All the while he couldn't shake off some intrusive thoughts.

Why didn't Sonic want me to stay behind? Am I too weak a fighter? I know we hadn't really fought together in a while but still. Maybe I'm not progressing fast enough. Maybe he'll just keep getting stronger until he doesn't need me around anymore and-

Tails shook his head furiously. No, he needed to stop thinking like that. Sonic and him had been friends for a little over 2 years now. There was no reason to doubt their bond. But still Sonic was the first, and only, real friend he ever made, and he couldn't help but worry that he needed their friendship much more than Sonic ever did. Sonic was always more of a lone soul anyway. Fine with doing things by himself. Meanwhile here he was getting anxious over running through a tunnel alone.

His scattered thoughts were interrupted when he realized that the path ahead of him stopped at the edge of a pit and he halted. Peering down he saw the familiar impenetrable darkness and shuddered. It was essentially bottomless. Worst yet there was no other direction to go as beyond the pit opening was just solid cave walls.

Tails felt worry creep up inside of him. He was starting to regret ever asking Sonic to help him find the crystals down here. Now whatever happens would be all his fault. If they never get out then..

He shook his head again even more furiously. Calm down. It'll be alright. We've been through the worst. Sonic can deal with any robots thrown his way no problem. In fact he's probably on his way right now! Yeah. And then with his spindash maybe he can make an opening in one of these walls. He'll find a way. He always does.

Tails breathed out a shaky sigh and calmed himself before clenching his fists. He just had to think optimistically like Sonic would.

Behind him he heard a distant sound coming closer.

"crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapCrapCrapCRAPCRAPCRAP"

Sonic's headlight appeared in the distance, rapidly growing larger as Sonic was jogging at near full speed. Behind him were dozens of robots but this time they were much larger and more equipped than the ones he had been fighting. Sonic let out another yell.

"CRAAAP"

Tails shouted. "Sonic! Over here!"

Sonic finally noticed the fox and his face became more alarmed. "Tails! These bots are way stronger than I thought and there's barely enough room in this tunnel for me to fight one of em muchless this much! We gotta GO!"

"We can't Sonic! Stop running! There's a pit ahead!"

The sound of all the robots behind him all but drowned out Tails' words. Sonic lifted his hand to his ear. "What?!"

"THERE'S A PIT AHEAD STOP RUNNING!"

"WHAT?!'

Sonic finally stopped running but the speed he had been going at was so strong that he may have well been on solid ice instead of rock as he skidded full speed into Tails. Promptly knocking the both of them forward into the pit.

Tails felt a sharp pain in the back of his head as it hit hard against the rock wall. The last thing he remembered before falling unconscious was Sonic's worried shouts of his name as they plummeted down into the darkness below.