"You can't be serious." Shadow deadpanned. Shadow drug a hand down his face. When Sonic had come back from his short run rather hastily he'd known it couldn't be good news. It just had to be the doctor didn't it? As if they didn't have enough they were dealing with right now.

Sonic frowned, pinning his ears against his head. "Trust me Shadow, I wouldn't joke about this with everything else going on."

"This has trap written all over it." Tails put a hand on his chin. "Eggman inviting you to come to his base? There's no way he doesn't have something planned."

"Oh it's definitely a trap." Sonic agreed, nodding. "The question is, should we go anyway?"

"Absolutely not." Shadow shot the other hedgehog a glare. "You're in no condition to fight and frankly neither am I."

"We don't know what he might do if we ignore him though." Sonic argued.

"I can imagine plenty of what could happen if we did go." Shadow crossed his arms. Seriously, how could Sonic even be considering this? "At this point I feel it's not worth the risk. Nothing good is going to come from going there."

"I feel like… Shadow is right." Tails said slowly, looking away from Sonic as the hedgehog shot him a look. "We don't know what Eggman has planned and that on top of the whole Super situation this is just a bad idea. What happens if you lose control while we're fighting?" He finished, turning back to Sonic.

Sonic sighed as his ear twitched. "Look I know it's a risk-"

"A risk you shouldn't be taking right now." Shadow huffed. "Not until we know how to stop Super for good."

"Look, guys." Sonic rose his hands in a placating gesture as his ears perked back up. "It'll be fine. You guys'll be there. Plus it should be a while til he's strong enough to try taking over again." Sonic folded his arms over his chest and looked between the others. "We can't just let Eggman do… whatever it is he wants to do. My own issues aside."

"Sonic." Shadow stared at the other hedgehog until he met his gaze. "You're an idiot." Sonic shot him an unamused look and opened his mouth to respond but Shadow held up a hand to cut him off. "We have no idea if things will follow the same pattern as before. Whatever Eggman is planning can either be dealt with by us or handled later. It's possible that nothing will even happen if you don't show up."

"We don't know that for sure though!" Sonic threw his hands up and looked away. Shadow blinked at the sudden anger in his tone. Sonic also blinked and shook his head before looking back. "Uuuuh sorry about that." He rubbed the back of his head.

"This is exactly why you shouldn't be anywhere near Eggman right now." Shadow shook his head. He'd thought perhaps this whole experience had knocked some sense into the faker, but clearly not. Hopefully they could talk some sense into him, but if not… Well Shadow wasn't against forcing him in the ball again just to keep him out of trouble.

"Look I get it." Sonic said, sighing. "I know it's dangerous for me to go out there right now. But I also know that if Eggman's up to no good then it's dangerous to not take care of it. Sure sometimes it's more harmless but other times it's not. I don't think I need to remind you all that he broke apart the planet to unleash dark gaia a while back." He pinned his ears down. "And that's only one thing he's done. He's been quiet for a while, which means he has something planned. We can't just ignore him."

Tails looked Sonic in the eyes. "We're not going to be able to stop you huh?"

Sonic sighed and shrugged. He shot the fox a lopsided smile. "You know me, and you know the answer to that."

"Guess that's it then." Knuckles shook his head and huffed.

Shadow looked between the three of them. Had… had they seriously just agreed to this? Why? "What? You're just… giving in? Just like that?"

Knuckles shrugged. "Better than waiting around to see what happens." He began stretching out his arms. "Plus it'll be nice to let off some steam."

"You of all people should know how stubborn Sonic can be." Tails chuckled. "When he's made up his mind there's practically no stopping him. It's better if we support him then just have him go off alone."

"Which I wouldn't do right now." Sonic looked between all of them. "Just to clarify." Shadow shot him a skeptical look. Sonic had the audacity to look mildly offended. "It's true. I wanna go stop Eggman sure, but I know that I shouldn't be running off on my own right now." The hedgehog crossed his arms. "Believe me or not, it's the truth."

Shadow glanced around the group and finally came to the conclusion that he wasn't winning this argument. With a deep sigh he finally relented. "Fine. We'll go stop whatever Eggman has planned. Don't say I didn't try to warn you though."

Sonic waved off the comment. "Don't worry Shads. If something goes wrong you have total rights to say 'I told you so'."

"I hope for all of our sakes nothing goes wrong." Shadow shot a glare at the other hedgehog.

Sonic shot him a thumbs up. "Don't worry, we'll be fine. Let's get going!"

Tails grabbed Sonic's arm and started to drag him off. "Sleep first Sonic. This can wait until the morning." For a moment it looked like Sonic was about to argue but he cut himself off and nodded. He waved to Shadow and Knuckles as Tails dragged him off.

"How much do you think he's actually gonna sleep?" Knuckles asked, a hint of amusement in his voice.

"Very little." Shadow answered, sighing. "We should try and not follow his example though. We're going to need to be ready in case anything happens tomorrow."

The echidna nodded. "Yeah. If anything does happen let's hope that thing likes going after Eggman more than us."

Shadow couldn't help but feel a sense of unease. "Yeah."


Sonic took a deep breath as the base came into sight. While Sonic wasn't exactly pleased at the doctor's timing, it almost felt better than not knowing what he was up to. If they beat him here that should give them enough time to figure out the whole Super situation before he did anything again. He just had to make sure to not lose control. There was no telling how Super would react. Whether he'd still fight Eggman or go for Sonic's friends. Based on how upset Super had been with Sonic though he was willing to bet the latter.

"I'm not picking up on anything useful from the outside." Tails said, looking between the miles electric and the base. "Whatever he has planned is either using something I can't pick up on or he's hiding it somehow." The fox shook his head. "Sorry."

"Don't sweat it bro." Sonic said, still staring at the base. "We'll just be as careful as we can."

"Maybe let some of us go on ahead blue, just to see if we can catch any nasty surprises." Rouge spoke up, eying the base.

"I SHALL OBLITERATE ANY SURPRISES WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE." Omega chimed in.

Shadow had managed to convince Sonic to wait long enough for him to call the rest of his team. Admittedly it was a good idea to have the extra back up, but Sonic had been rather impatient waiting for them to arrive. "It might be better if we all stick together." Sonic suggested. "For all we know the doc wants us to split up. The invitation was to just me, but he should know by now that I probably wasn't coming alone."

"I agree. Sticking together is the best option here." Shadow spoke up, looking around the group. "The doctor likely wanted Sonic alone for whatever he has planned. We should do our best to prevent that."

"Plus Shadow is our safety net if Super somehow does come out." Tails reminded quietly.

"I still think I could take him." Knuckles huffed.

Rouge pat him on the back. "Sure you could hun. Sure you could."

"Alright so stick together, find Eggman, and stop whatever he's up to. Everyone clear on the plan?" Sonic asked, looking back at the group. After he got some sort of confirmation from everyone he grinned. "Let's do it then."


Once they busted in, things descended into chaos and Sonic was living for it. Something that finally felt completely normal and had him almost forgetting the whole Super thing. He likely would have forgotten him for the time being if he couldn't feel Super's excitement mixing with his own as he tore through robots. It was kinda odd, just how in sync he felt with Super. He shook off the odd feeling. Now was not the time to be thinking about that. Right now he had a doctor to stop.

He spin dashed through another group of badniks, the rest of his friends not far behind. While he could pretty easily rush ahead of everyone, except maybe Shadow, he hung back. He'd promised to be as careful as he could and he intended to keep that promise. Shadow destroyed a bot that was coming for him with a chaos spear while he wasn't paying attention. "Keep your head in this faker!" Shadow shouted over the sounds of explosions and grinding of metal. "Now's not the time to get distracted."

Sonic shot the other hedgehog a quick thumbs up before returning to beating up robots. The number was steadily increasing so they had to be getting closer to where Eggman was. The fighting continued on for several more minutes before Sonic decided something needed to change. "Shadow!" He shouted. The other hedgehog came out of a spin and shot him a questioning look. "Help me clear a path. We're making almost no progress. Let's take the fight straight to Eggman before the fodder tires us out."

Shadow nodded. "Let's do it."

The two stood side by side in preparation to blitz through the enemies. "Everyone get ready!" He shouted loud enough so that hopefully everyone would hear. "We're going through!"

The two hedgehogs took off through the crowd of robots. Based on the sound of running he figured the others were following them. Now they were making progress. Finally they arrived at a large door. "This has to be it." Sonic skidded to a stop, Shadow doing the same beside him. Sonic stepped aside and gestured to the door, shooting a cocky look at Knuckles. "Care to get the door for us?"

The echidna cracked his knuckles. "Gladly." He stepped forward and punched a hole straight through the door and began to widen it enough for them to get through. It took a bit longer than Sonic would have liked, mainly because they had to make it large enough for Omega to get through as well, but at least they were in.

The room itself was pitch black; the only light coming from the hole in the door. Sonic also idly noticed that the robots that had been swarming them had retreated. That could either mean good or bad things, but it was more likely bad. Especially since he could feel Super trying to get free. Why was he suddenly so active? "Well well. Glad you could join me, Sonic." Sonic whipped around as Eggman's voice suddenly filled the room. "I see you brought along some friends as well." Suddenly light filled the room revealing a massive mech that no doubt held Eggman. "I'm sorry, but the invitation didn't include any plus ones. Though I'll make an exception for you."

Sonic strode forward. "So this all you got this time Eggman? A big robot? Not your best work I have to say. I've smashed bigger and badder than this before."

"Yes, taunt me all you like Sonic. But this machine has a far greater purpose than just fighting you. In fact if I play my cards right I won't have to fight you, or your little friends at all. You'll so kindly do that for me." Sonic could practically feel the grin on Eggman's face.

Sonic took a step back with one foot. "Oh really? I don't know what screw got knocked loose for you to think I'd help you, but maybe you should get that checked out."

"Oh but I don't think you'll have much of a choice in the matter, you little thorn in my side." The mech began to move as plates around its chest area began to retract. Sonic's eyes widened and he took several more steps back. "You see, I've not been simply twiddling my thumbs all this time. I've been quite busy and your little… problem has not gone unnoticed. Any problem of yours though, I'll happily turn into my benefit."

Sonic felt himself start to shake. His friends were saying things, but he couldn't hear them. Everything seemed muffled. No no no no no no. Not again. This can't be happening again. Not so soon. As Sonic gazed up at the open chest of the machine the other four chaos emeralds were there mocking him. He saw a flash of gold and then things went dark.