"Sonic!" Chris said.

Suddenly, he grabbed Sonic's hand and took off running with her, far, far away. Everyone was shocked even more.

"Chris!" Chuck shouted out but Chris kept running with Sonic as far as he could.

"Chris!" Sonic said.

With determination, Chris tightened his grip on her hand and she did the same. She ran faster, and was running ahead of him.

"Sonic?" he said as his confusion vanished, and he too ran faster.

Back at the gateway portal.

"I hope that boy can come to his senses before it's too late." Chuck said.

Then Tanaka and Topaz returned from their search.

"Are they...?" Ella started but Tanaka shook his head.

"We could not find him anywhere." he said and Nelson and Lindsey looked at each other in concern.

"We'll never find him now without help. The police will have to set up a large-scale search." Topaz said and Tanaka looked at her sadly. "As you know, this is serious. We have to find them quickly."

"Yes. We don't have much time to cause Chaos Control and send Sonic back. Soon, the melding of our two world will cause time to slow to a stop." Chuck said.

"Chris..." Lindsey said worried so they hugged and she struggled not to cry.

At Station Square morning came, Chris and Sonic walked by the train station.

"What do we do now?" Chris asked.

"I don't know." Sonic said.

"Well, we can't go back home. Wait... Hey Sonic, look!" he said and spied a bicycle nearby.

He was soon riding it, with Sonic sitting on the back of it behind him. A boy was getting the mail and milk, when he realized his bike was stolen.

"Hey Mom, somebody took my old bike." he said.

"Your father left it in the city. He thought somebody could use it." she said and he headed back into the house.

Chris was soon riding through a rich neighborhood. He had earlier ditched his suit, now only wearing his red tie and salmon dress shirt.

"How far should we go, Sonic?" he asked.

"We can go as far as you want to, Chris." Sonic said.

"Okay." he said determined and rode on, exerting his energy as he pedaled into the desert.

Soon they were eating at a dinner.

"We have to stop somewhere." Chris said.

"I usually just keep running until I find someplace I like. The best trips are the ones you don't plan. Not knowing where you'll end up is part of the adventure." Sonic said.

"You know... the world sure seems big when you can go anyplace..." he said as she downed her burger. "Are you sure there's no place you want to go to?"

"I think I've already gone every place I want to go."

"Right. I forgot how much you like to travel. You probably ran across the whole planet already."

"That's why I'm happy to go wherever you say."

"Okay." he said opened a map to a place called "Dolorado". "Well, let's see... The beach is definitely out... The desert's too hot..."

The man behind the counter turned on the TV.

"This is an SXN update. Sonic the Hedgehog has been abducted. Authorities are looking for this boy, Christopher Thorndyke, the only child of corporate tycoon Nelson Thorndyke and actress Lindsey Thorndyke, who has issued this emotional plead." a news reporter said on TV.

Chris was beyond shocked.

"Chris, darling... Your father and I are worried about you! Please come home!" Lindsey said on the TV crying.

Then they hit the trail again.

"When you have famous parents, you can't do anything without the world finding out." Chris said.

'Tell me about it.' Sonic thought and saw when she was at the castle.

"They must be pretty worried." she said.

"Oh yeah? How come... they're not... worried when I... need 'em... to be?" he asked. "Sonic doesn't seem worried either. Maybe I should go back." he said to himself.

Then he stopped when he heard and saw military helicopters behind them.

"Those are my dad's!" he said and Sonic hopped off the bike.

"Well, Chris? You give up?" she asked and he shook his head.

"...No!"

"Okay! Then wait right here."

There was a pickup truck reaching the crossing ahead of Chris. Sonic stopped right in front of the vehicle, forcing the driver to slam on the brakes. When she looked up, there was nothing.

"Hey... where'd he go?" the driver asked and Sonic looked in from the roof of the vehicle.

"Can you give us a lift?" she asked.

Soon, the bike was ditched, and Chris and Sonic were safe inside the pickup truck. While Sonic was resting in the hay in the bed of the truck, Chris stared worriedly out the window, then at Sonic. The helicopter piloted suspected nothing.

At a forest the truck had stopped.

"Thanks again. Bye!" Chris said.

"Bye!" Sonic said and they disembarked from the truck and waved goodbye as the driver drove away.

"Let's go." he said and started walking into the forest, and she followed.

As Chris struggled to climb over a fallen log, Sonic instantly vaulted it and ran ahead.

Now they were on a prairie walking along a set of train tracks.

"Sonic, have you ever been to this place before?" Chris asked.

"I might have run past it once." Sonic said.

"It's pretty easy to forget. You move so fast, and you've been so many places. Maybe you'll forget about me someday too..."

Then they stopped at a junction and looked at the mountains.

"I do forget. But it'd be impossible for me to forget you." Sonic said and Chris turned to her.

"You mean it?" he asked.

"Of course I do! How could I forget somebody who's got me in so much trouble?"

Chris beamed and started running and Sonic walked after him.

Later, Chris was sitting on a bench, and Sonic was reclining on a wooden crate nearby both eating bread. There were pigeons everywhere.

"Guess everybody's looking for us." Chris said.

"We won't be too easy to find. It's a big planet." Sonic said and he crumpled his slice of bread and let the pigeons eat it.

"Yeah. We could hide out for a long time. They might stop lookin' for us. Even... my family." he said and stood up. "Let's go." he said so they got up and left.

Soon they reached a waterfall. Sonic watched Chris as he tried to scale it. Sonic reached the top, and there was a rock that was just out of Chris' reach so she stretched out her hand, and he grabbed it. She pulled him to safety and gave him a wink and thumbs-up.

Later they were climbing a hill and Chris started running, but stumbled over a stone.

"Chris!" Sonic said as he fell to the ground just as she arrived. "Here, let me give you a hand." she said and he got up.

"I don't need a hand! I can do it myself. Come on!" he said and kept running then stopped at the top of the hill.

Sonic joined him and their jaws dropped at something they saw.

"I've never been here before. How'd you know about this place?" Sonic asked.

At Thorndyke Mansion Living room while Lindsey wept on the couch, Nelson was pacing the floor on the phone.

"I don't understand what's taking you so long! Do you have all our choppers searching? Well then, buy some more! Call up the Air Force! Rent out some airplanes, too! Put the business on hold! I want the whole company working on this 24/7 until Chris is found! ... I don't care how much it costs! I just want my son found now!" he said on the phone and Lindsey finally looked up.

"Nelson, let's broadcast a message that Chris can have whatever he wants if he comes home!" she said and stood up. "Call the toy store and tell them to send one of everything."

"Hey, I have a better idea. Let's buy Chris his own toy store!" he said and dialed a number.

"I hope this works. I want Chris back."

Then Ella, Tanaka, and Chuck entered.

"What do you think you're doing?" Chuck shouted out and Lindsey gasped. "Put that phone down. Do it!" he said to Nelson stern and Nelson hesitantly hung up. "You're making a big mistake, Son. You can't rely on your corporate empire to bring your son back home because that's part of what's driving him away. You won't convince Chris to return until you understand the reason why he left in the first place. Now, why do you think Chris ran off? Was it only because of Sonic? Or was Chris afraid that when his friend left, he'd be all alone again, like he was before? You won't get Chris back unless you prove you want to be together as a family."

"But how?" Nelson asked.

"What should we do? We'll do anything to find him." Lindsey said.

"Well, you don't have to use fleets of helicopters or bribe him with toys on TV. Chris wants to be found, not by government forces or by your employees, but by his mother and father." Chuck said and Lindsey walked closer to Nelson. "My guess is that Chris is someplace where he knows you can find him. Go there before it's too late." he said and Nelson dropped the phone.

"Oh, Chris..." she said and wept bitterly, but was hugged by Nelson.

Meanwhile it was now sunset and Chris and Sonic walked toward a villa of some sort.

"You know this place?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah. I used to come here every summer with my mom and dad... when I was a little kid." Chris said and tried the lock on the front door, but to no avail. "It's no use." he said and looked in the window to see everything covered in cobwebs. "One year, we just stopped coming. They kept saying we'd come back the next summer, but they were always too busy." he said and she tried the lock and it came undone.

"Huh. Looks like the chain broke." she said and he gave a sheepish thumbs-up.

That night, they were camping out by the lake.

"Hey Sonic! I collected some firewood!" Chris said and emerged from the clearing carrying a huge armload of wood.

However, he tripped over a rock and fell. Sonic rushed over and caught both him and the wood.

"You okay, Chris?" she asked.

"I'm fine."

"Want some help?" she asked and he stood up and took the wood from her.

"No thanks. I can do it myself."

"Okay..."

"Sonic's probably mad that I stopped him from going home. I wonder why he came with me?" he said to himself.

Soon they had a fire going.

"Sonic? You haven't said anything about how I kept you from going home." Chris said.

"I was waiting to hear what you had to say." Sonic said.

"Sonic... why did you come with me? Are you gonna stay?"

"That's up to you."

"Uh... So if I say... "I don't want you to go back home"... will you... stay here with me forever?"

"I'll do whatever you tell me to do." she said and he was surprised. "You helped me when I first came to this world." she said and he stood up a little upset.

"So that's it. You've been acting like my friend all this time 'cause you thought you owed me!"

"That's not true."

"You felt like you had to be my friend 'cause I let you stay." he said teary. "And you paid me back by pretending to be my friend."

"No, Chris. You know that I really am your friend."

'Besides, I could just teleport home if I wanted to.' she thought.

"You... are?"

"If you need me to stay here with you, then I will. You just have to decide. It's up to you." she said. "I can go home... or stay. The decision is yours."

"Well... I'm not sure. I'd be happier if you stayed in this world. If time does stop, we could stay here forever. Our friendship would never have to end. But Sonic... don't stay here... if it's gonna make you unhappy."

"Don't worry about me." she said and stood up. "As long as there's somewhere to run..." she said and started running. "...I'll be happy." she said and stopped in front of him. "I really wouldn't mind stayin' here with ya. Honest!"

"But... you can't stay here, Sonic. It wouldn't be right, would it? I can't let time stop because I wouldn't want to lose your friendship." he said and started crying again. "It was wrong of me... to try to keep you in this world... It's just... I wasn't ready to say goodbye yet... You've always been there for me when I needed you, but in the end, I let you down." he said and his tears started flowing. "I'm sorry! I was just selfish... Please forgive me..." he said and sat down as his tears landed on the ground and she put her hand on his shoulder.

"Hey. No tears."

"When you're gone, I'll be alone again, like I was before you came."

A flashback of the toddler Chris at the door after his parents leave. Another shot of Chris with his parents' presents.

"Ever since I was little, I've been waiting for a friend like you, Sonic. It's just so hard to say goodbye." he said and she leapt onto a nearby rock.

"Maybe this isn't goodbye. Maybe our worlds were meant to come together somehow. If that's true... then we will see each other again... someday..." she said and he stood up.

"Someday..." he said and hugged her.

"In the meantime, whenever we miss each other, we can look at the moon. It looks the same from both worlds, you know."

Meanwhile Nelson and Lindsey were running through a forest, Nelson bearing a flashlight. They were searching for Chris, as it has now been twenty-four hours since Chris shut down the portal and ran off with Sonic.

"Chris was so happy when we came here years ago. He's here. I'm sure!" Lindsey said.

"I bet Chris is waiting for us... and we'll have a chance to make everything up to him now.

Soon the villa was in sight.

They search the grounds for Chris who was standing on the dock.

"Chris!" Lindsey said.

"Chris!" Nelson said and Chris turned around and smiled.