Having defeated King Boom Boo, Knuckles returned to Sonic and Tails.

"Ya find the keys?" asked Sonic.

"Take a look!"

Knuckles produced the keys, and Sonic and Tails each took one.

"OK, on three, guys!" Sonic inserted his key. "One, two…THREE!"

Sonic, Tails and Knuckles turned the keys and opened the door.

"We did it!" Tails pumped his fist. "Let's go!"

"You little thieves!" said a familiar voice. "Did you really think you could get out of here alive?"

"Well, that's kinda the idea, Robuttnik!" said Sonic. "Bring it, sucka!"

"Sonic!" said Tails.

"You cats go on ahead! I'm-a smoke this turkey!"

Robotnik thrust his index finger at Sonic. "This time, I'll take your lives as well as the Chaos Emerald! I call on you to destroy these pests! Come out, my servant!"

The room shook with a hellish rumble, and a giant stone hand pulled itself up. Shortly thereafter, a giant golem appeared from the hole in the center of the room.

"Meet my Egg-O-Matic Ancient Stone Golem! It once served as a guardian of this temple, and now it serves ME!" Robotnik let out an evil laugh.

"Well, if ya want my life and the Chaos Emerald that bad, then you and that oversized rock guy are gonna have to pry 'em from my cold dead fingers!"

The golem balled its hand up into a fist and attempted to crush Sonic, but thanks to his Hedgehog Sense and super speed, he was able to get out of the way in time. Granted, the seismic rumbling produced by the impact did him no favors, but still, he vowed not to give up just yet. Sonic faced another problem in that the strike destroyed part of the circular platform that he was on. However, the strike had also rendered the golem temporarily inoperable, so the Blue Blur took advantage of this by jumping on some protruding blocks on the front of the monster, and once he was high enough, he landed a Homing Attack on its head, causing a small explosion, which told him that he'd damaged it.

"All right, just a few more of those and it's a rock pile!"

As soon as Sonic damaged the golem, it continued operating. This time, it landed two strikes, and of course, more pieces of the platform were destroyed.

"Man, if I don't smash that thing soon, it's Quicksand City for me!"

Fortunately, Sonic found another opportunity to jump on the platforms and was able to damage the golem further. This time, it sparked with a few electrical discharges. Instead of pounding the platforms this time, the golem spun around with its arms outstretched, attempting to knock Ol' Blue into the quicksand. Fortunately for him, the platform segments were at different heights, so he found one that was a bit lower and was able to evade the attack this way. Once it was done, he hopped on the platforms protruding from the golem and struck its head again.

"Can't be much longer now; I can feel it!"

Once again, the golem attempted to attack Sonic, and sure enough, he was able to dodge it and get one last strike in. Sure enough, the golem collapsed and sunk down into the quicksand.

"Nice try, Rocky, but Apollo wins this one!" Sonic cockily pointed his index finger at the now-destroyed golem.

"WHAT!?" exclaimed Robotnik. "How can this be!? It was supposed to pound that pesky pincushion into a pancake!"

"Whatever. Check ya never!"

Sonic hurried to catch up with Tails and Knuckles.

Meanwhile, the roof of the pyramid opened, and Sonic headed for a hidden space shuttle that was located in the center.

"Green light for launch," said a mysterious announcer. "Primary ignition engine on. Beginning liftoff countdown: 10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…"

Sonic made it into the shuttle with seconds to spare, and…

"Shuttle liftoff."

The shuttle blasted off like Team Rocket, and Team Sonic was headed into space yet again.

"I don't mind goin' into space again, but where's the in-flight entertainment?" asked Sonic.

"Uh…Sonic, I hate to break this to you, but this isn't exactly a commercial flight…" said Tails.

"Besides, I heard those movies were supposed to be awful," said Knuckles.

"Hey look!"

Tails pointed out the shuttle window, and the Space Colony ARK came into view.

"So THIS is the space colony where Robuttnik's hidin'!" said Sonic.

All of a sudden, the shuttle took an unexpected turn and accidentally smacked into a meteorite. Lucky for its passengers, the shuttle was undamaged, but the cargo bay doors were jettisoned open.

"What the…!?" exclaimed Sonic.

"Is everyone all right?" asked Tails. "We should be landing soon!"

"Oh no!" exclaimed Knuckles. "The hatch doors are open!"

"Mellow out, Knux!" Sonic gave a dismissive hand flap. "There ain't nothin' of importance on this barge anyhow!"

Knuckles grabbed Sonic by his jacket collar. "Oh what, so the Master Emerald's not important!? Land the shuttle and let me out!"

Knuckles grabbed the controls and attempted to land the shuttle himself, much to Sonic's chagrin:

"Hey hey HEY! What are ya doin', man!? We're gonna crash this rod if ya keep that up! Hey man, don't touch that!"

Knuckles ignored Sonic's entreaties and pulled the ejection lever anyways, leaving Sonic and Tails spinning out of control, screaming for their lives. Luckily, Tails managed to push some switches and turn some knobs and get the shuttle back under control to complete a safe docking procedure. He then grabbed his blaster pistol and exited the shuttle with Sonic.

"Man, what's with that Knucklehead, anyways?" said Sonic. "Tryin' to take over the shuttle! I thought we were gonna crash and burn for sure! And where did he even bail off to?"

Tails stroked his chin. "He must've gone back to get the pieces of the Master Emerald."

Sonic crossed his arms. "Typical Knucklehead." He looked around. "Weird, this place looks deserted…nobody here. What could Robuttnik want with this joint?"

"The Space Colony ARK was shut down about 50 years ago because of a terrible accident. It was the first of its kind, and when it was operational, it was the most advanced research center of its kind, but looking at it now…"

Sonic's Hedgehog Sense twitched, and he stroked his chin. "Call me crazy, but I'm bettin' this place has somethin' to do with that Shadow dude I saw earlier. Whatever the case, there ain't much time left before Robuttnik actually fires that weapon. Let's hurry and destroy that cannon!"

"From what I know, someone designed it to be impenetrable from outside attacks. Its defense shields are super-strong, so we have to find a way to destroy it from the inside."

Sonic's Hedgehog Sense tingled again. "Hey Tails, whatcha carryin' in that case?"

Tails opened the metal briefcase he was carrying, and inside was the green Chaos Emerald.

"Whoa, where'd ya get a Chaos Emerald?" said Sonic. "I thought Knux scattered 'em all after our adventure on Angel Island!"

Tails smirked. "That's the thing: I didn't!"

Sonic raised an eyebrow. "What do ya mean?"

"It's a fake I created while researching a real Emerald! It has the same wavelength and properties, but it's less powerful than the real thing. I designed it to reverse the energy field inside the Chaos Emeralds and blow up. It feels so real that even the most advanced machines can't tell the difference! I'll find the power supply and destroy it. Sonic, you find the control room, OK?"

Tails handed Sonic the fake Emerald.

"OK, so lemme get this straight: we switch the Chaos Emeralds when the machine is stopped, right?" said Sonic.

"Right!"

Tails and Sonic split up.

Tails jumped down into a ventilation duct and came to a locked door. However, he recognized where the locks were and shot them off, thereby opening the door. Behind the door, a few drones attempted to charge at him.

"Uh-oh!"

Despite the surprise he got, Tails calmly aimed his blaster pistol at the drones and blew them apart. Once they were taken care of, he moved along. In another hallway, he encountered more drones and managed to blast them, after which he kept going until he reached a tall shaft, which he flew up. Getting to the top, however, he got another rude surprise:

"Intruder alert!" said a SWATbot. "Eliminate!"

The SWATbots attempted to get the drop on Tails, but he not only proved to be quicker on the draw, but the SWATbots as usual displayed poor marksmanship skills, thus enabling the Two-Tailed Wonder to proceed. In the next hallway, he faced even more SWATbots and managed to down them, but almost ended up hitting a red box marked "DANGER: EXPLOSIVE. DO NOT ACTIVATE EXCEPT IN EMERGENCIES."

"Uh-oh, I better watch out for those!" said Tails.

Having avoided an explosive decompression into the vast reaches of space, Tails kept moving, but found his progress stymied when the next door was locked. Fortunately for him, another door opened into a small room with a few crates and a switch, though it also held one of those explosive decompression traps. After activating the switch, Tails left the room and found that the other door was now unlocked, allowing him to go deeper into this Eternal Engine. At one point, a laser sentry turret attempted to fire at him, but a couple of shots from his blaster pistol put it out of commission. While crossing a bridge, a few Jetpack SWATbots attempted to shoot at him.

"Uh-oh, too many of them! Better run!"

Tails ran as fast as he could and shot down whatever Jetpack SWATbots he could get before he got to the next room, where some more bombs awaited him, taunting him to activate them. However, he ignored their devious entreaties and kept going. He soon came to a large room with only a few floating platforms, but with the power of his twin tails, he was able to gently glide down to another platform. However, the only way he could see to continue on was through a barred grate. Fortunately, he found a small rocket on one platform and activated it, which ended up blowing the grate apart and allowing him to proceed. After blasting another sentry gun, he came to another shaft guarded by only a single SWATbot, which proved to be no trouble for him.

Ascending the shaft, Tails came across a weird, light blue, gelatin-like creature with multiple tentacles that proved exceedingly troublesome for him when it tried to attack him with said tentacles. However, with a few shots from his blaster pistol, and with a little luck, he took it down and was able to keep going. In the next hallway, he not only encountered some drones and SWATbots, but also a few Buzz Bombers, which proved to be little trouble despite their numbers. More troublesome, though, were two floating platforms over a laser grid, which was guarding a pit of green toxic goo. However, Tails simply flew over it and moved on.

(Why is this place trying to kill me?)

Despite the frequent traps and lack of OSHA compliance, Tails kept going, and after entering a room with a few drones – which he promptly destroyed – he ended up on another outer space walkway, where more Jetpack SWATbots tried to kill him. He gritted his teeth, ran like his life depended on it and shot down whatever mechanical minions he could. In doing so, however, he accidentally shot another one of those bombs, which destroyed part of the catwalk. He was able to fly over it, but a Jetpack SWATbot nearly smacked him with a melee attack. Fortunately, a strike from his twin namesakes took care of it.

After flying up to another walkway, Tails kept running as fast as his legs would take him, also using his tails to give him an extra edge if he needed it. He ended up in another booby-trapped hallway, where more drones awaited him. Taking careful aim, he shot them down and kept up the pace. He ended up on another outer space catwalk, but a stray shot from a Jetpack SWATbot took out the bridge he was planning to cross. Taking a deep breath, he dove off the remains of the bridge head-first and used his tails to guide himself down carefully. Noticing that a section of wall stuck out like a sore thumb, he shot at it, and it broke away.

Flying through the hole in the wall, Tails came to a hallway that was not only booby-trapped, but guarded by laser fences. Taking notice of the pattern in which the fences deactivated, he proceeded carefully and managed to make it through without singing his fur. A couple of drones attempted to shoot at him in the process, but he blew them away and moved on. Coming to another shaft, he flew up and paused to take a brief rest.

"Wow, flying takes a lot out of me! I'll have to pace myself if I wanna get through this alive!"

After blasting open another door lock, Tails went through a twisting, turning hallway before coming out to a vast abyss in space. At this point, he encountered more Jetpack SWATbots than he'd ever seen before.

"All right, here goes…"

Tails shot down whatever he possibly could, taking cover only to reload, and once he'd taken out a bunch of them, he made a flying leap before using his namesakes to take off. However, once he got over the abyss, he felt some mysterious anti-gravity force pushing him upwards, as if he were floating. While initially surprised by this, he did his best to calm himself and push himself to the other side. Granted, the Jetpack SWATbots weren't helping, but he shot whatever ones he could and did his best to will his way across the vast expanse of space. It wasn't easy, and in fact, when he saw a door on the other side, the floating effect ceased, and he found himself having to use his tails to try to get to the door. He was huffing and puffing a bit by the time he hit solid ground, but he made it, and that was all that mattered to him. Going through another door, he ran into another one of those gelatin-like creatures, but he managed to blow it away without too much trouble.

Having exterminated another bad guy, Tails found himself in what was quite possibly the largest shaft he'd ever encountered in this place, and it was extremely problematic, having a host of drones, Jetpack SWATbots and Buzz Bombers. As if those weren't bad enough, there were also multiple laser grids that threatened to fry him if he went down wrong. On one hand, he wasn't sure how he was going to make it down, but on the other hand, the fate of the world was at stake, so there was only one option for him…

(Gonna be a leap of faith…)

Tails walked to the edge of the platform, and spreading his arms out to the side to form a "cross" shape with his body, he dove off head-first, shooting a few drones on the way down. Occasionally, he had to use his tails to slow his descent and prevent getting fried by the lasers, which was no small task, a task made even more difficult when some Buzz Bombers rained down on him from above. He looked up and shot them down, but when he turned his attention downwards, he nearly got fried by another set of lasers. Fortunately, he managed to dodge these and continue his descent. As he went down, he could feel his heart racing with every laser that he came across, and he wondered how he was even going to make it with everything that was going on right now. Other people would've suffered sensory overload from the sheer number of hazards, but Tails believed in himself, so he paid careful attention to where he was going and did his best to concentrate on how best to get down. He was doing an all right job of it so far, but at a couple of points, he almost got attacked by a couple of weird gelatin creatures. Fortunately, he avoided their attacks and kept going

(Almost there!)

After flying through one last laser grid and killing a couple more Jetpack SWATbots, Tails found a floating platform and aimed for it. On his way down, he got a call from Sonic on his watch communicator:

"Tails, I found the control room!"

"Good! I found the power supply! Huh…!?"

Sonic was preparing to put the Emerald in the cannon when…

"Tails, tell Sonic to meet you back at the research facility…NOW!"

"Robuttnik!? What the hell is goin' on!?"

"That's of no importance! Just get back to the research facility!"

Sonic hurried to the research facility, wondering what exactly Robotnik had in mind, though his Hedgehog Sense told him that Tails was in some sort of danger…

Criticism is gold. Negativity and nitpicking are pyrite.