Night had fallen, and a lone hedgehog stood hidden in the darkness of the night. Shadow had spent most of the day hidden and unconscious in a dark, rarely treaded alley of Station Square. After Sonic scattered the Chaos emeralds, Shadow had tried to pursue one, but he had quickly lost his Super transformation after the emeralds flew too far away. Without the ability to fly, it was eminently difficult to keep up with the Chaos emerald, and Shadow lost sight of it in less than a minute. As soon as he realized he had failed, he found the obscure alley and let exhaustion take over his body.

Another problem was that he had taken off the rings around his wrists, which regulated his energy output so that he did not use up too much energy at once. By taking off his rings, Shadow could concentrate a lot of his energy to make his attacks faster and even more powerful, but it had the frustrating consequence of exhausting him to the point that he would lose consciousness for lengthy periods of time after every battle, as it did just now. Shadow resented having to use the inhibitor rings. He saw his dependence on the rings as pathetic, especially for someone who was supposed to be the "ultimate life-form".

Nevertheless, Shadow knew that he needed the rings. Going without them made him vulnerable during his periods of unconsciousness, so it was important that he recover the rings as quickly as possible.

He had taken them off in midair close to where he and Sonic had appeared in this universe and let them fall to the ground. Shadow struggled to remember where that was. It had been next to a tall building. Shadow remembered hearing windows shattering thanks to a sonic boom that he created. More importantly, he remembered flying into the light of the morning sun, which meant that in order to backtrack, he needed to travel in the reverse direction.

As soon as Shadow exited the alley and got back onto a main road, his memory became a bit clearer, and he was able to find a few conspicuous landmarks that were identifiable even though they only passed through his periphery as he chased the Chaos Emerald. Once he identified a general search area, he could simply use his speed and do a brute-force search—running along every single major street and avenue until he saw broken windows on tall buildings. It took him less than ten minutes.

As soon as the broken windows came into view, Shadow slowed. The rings had to have fallen somewhere along the street, so he swept his eyes across the pavement. There was a distinct possibility that someone picked them up and stole them during the time that Shadow was unconscious. They looked like jewelry, after all. Shadow searched up and down the street for the missing rings, but they seemed to have disappeared. He then began searching some of the surrounding area. There was a lot of picnic tables to the side of one of the storefronts, as well as a parking lot, but no rings revealed themselves in either location.

Shadow felt like screaming in frustration. It appeared that he would have to spend the rest of his time in this universe searching for both the Chaos Emeralds and his inhibitor rings, or otherwise return to Doctor Eggman and ask him to construct him new ones. Alternatively…

… there was that one boy, thought Shadow. Against the Metarex, he was the one who gave me my rings.

Maybe Shadow could ask Chris for a new pair of rings. There was a problem, however. Chris had spent all his time around Sonic, whom Shadow currently did not trust. Remembering Chris, however, raised confusion in Shadow's mind. Why would the boy want to help me if he is friends with Sonic? Where is the boy now?

With bare wrists and a head filling with new questions, Shadow slinked off into the darkness of the night again.

"That's it!" shouted Chris, who had been pacing around the living room in his parent's mansion. "Something's wrong. Sonic should be home by now."

"The last dozen times you announced that, I told you to have faith in Sonic," said Chuck. "This time, I actually agree with you. It's night now, and Sonic still isn't back. Something might've happened to him."

"Do you think he went looking for the Chaos Emeralds and ran into Shadow?" asked Chris. "He just woke up from an exhausting battle! He could be in trouble! Oh, I told you we should have gone looking for him sooner."

Chuck said nothing in response. Chris was right, he realized, and Chuck felt he deserved chastisement for not realizing something was wrong sooner. Historically, Sonic liked to keep his whereabouts mysterious during his daily runs, and Chuck had simply attributed Sonic's lengthy absence until now to that.

Chuck began to make his way to the garage; they would just have to go out and look for their old friend. While walking to the car, Chris checked his smartphone for any scrap of news that might give a hint to Sonic's whereabouts, but all of the news articles about Sonic focused on his sudden and miraculous arrival. His disappearance had yet to break the news.

"Tanaka!" called Chuck. When the butler appeared, Chuck told him, "Let Chris and I know immediately if Sonic comes back to this house. We are going out to look for him."

Tanaka indicated his understanding of Chuck's instructions, and Chuck and Chris set off in Chuck's old car.

"Where could he have gone!?" said Chris in frustration as he and Chuck traveled down the highway. "If he was looking for the Chaos Emeralds, then he could be anywhere. Maybe... maybe someone captured him!"

"Don't be ridiculous," said Chuck. "No one can catch that hedgehog."

"But another hedgehog just might!"

Chuck sighed. "It's certainly possible that Shadow found Sonic, but let's not jump to conclusions. Our best bet is to call your uncle and let him know that Sonic is missing. The police can then start canvassing to see if there were any sightings of Sonic throughout the day. It's not much, but it gives us a starting point for the search."

Chris nodded in response and took out his cell phone to make that call. As it rang, he looked out the window and up towards the moonlit sky.

He recalled the last time he saw Sonic before now. It had been more than six months ago in Sonic's world. He was in a teleportation machine built by Doctor Eggman. Eggman had calculated that the alignment between his world and Sonic's world would be severed within minutes if he did not return to his world right at that instant, so he made a judgment call and chose to leave immediately, without saying goodbye to Sonic. It had pained him greatly not to be able to give a proper parting to his best childhood friend, especially when chances were high that he and Sonic would never see each other again. In that critical moment, however, out of his small window, seconds before Eggman's machine triggered teleportation, Chris had caught a glimpse of a blue blur. Without a second's delay, he knew exactly what it was. It was a sight that evoked a sense of both comfort and overwhelming melancholy. Tears had streamed down his face as Eggman's machine counted down to 10 seconds, 5 seconds, 3 seconds ...

That blue blur had changed his life. That blue blur had given his life excitement and adventure. That blue blur had been his biggest inspiration. That blue blur had saved countless lives, including his own. That blue blur had made him who he was today. And that blue blur might have been the last glimpse he would ever have of the best friend he could have ever asked for.

But it hadn't been the last glimpse! Sonic was back! Sonic was back in Chris's world! And this time, he could stay; there was no time freeze issue to worry about. In fact, there never was a time freeze issue to worry about. Sonic could have stayed in Chris's world forever from the very beginning. He and Sonic didn't ever have to be apart, but due to the manipulation of an evil scientist and the blindness of his own grandfather, his deepest and closest friendship had been torn away from him.

Chris felt his left fist clench and his right hand squeeze his phone more tightly. He realized that this was what had been bothering him for the past couple of days. Chris wasn't mad because Sonic had to leave—it took time, but he had gotten over that already. Chris was mad because Sonic didn't have to leave. He had been deceived. It was a mixture of confusion, anger, and hatred. It had been all bottled up and momentarily set aside by the hope and the excitement of seeing Sonic again. He knew that Helen sensed his negative feelings early on when they were getting ice cream and donuts yesterday, but he didn't want to worry her then. But now, now the same thing was happening! His best friend was missing. His best friend was being taken away from him before he even got the chance to say hello, just because his own grandfather wasn't smart enough to realize—

"Hello? Hello, Chris? Anyone there?" his uncle was saying.

Chris shook his head, clearing his thoughts. He hadn't realized that his uncle had picked up. "Sorry, Uncle. I didn't hear you at first. Sonic is missing."

"What?" said Sam incredulously.

"He went out for a run in the morning and still hasn't come back. It's been almost half a day. This isn't like him. I said there was a problem, but no one listened to me!"

"Do you know where he went?"

"Well, if I did, then I wouldn't be calling you!" shouted Chris.

"Chris, please calm down," said Chuck.

"Calm down!?" shrieked Chris. "You think this isn't serious? Sonic is gone, and it is all your fault!" Into his phone, he screamed, "FIND HIM!", then hung up the call and threw the phone against the dashboard of the car, causing a violent cracking sound.

Chuck slammed on the brakes and pulled to the side of the road. "Chris, we need to talk about this," he said.

"No," replied Chris, "we need to find Sonic! Why did you stop?"

"Because you're acting out of control!"

"Oh, I'm acting out of control?" Chris jabbed a finger into Chuck's side. "It was you who said, 'Oh, don't worry about Sonic. He's probably just out running.' It was you who said, 'Oh, everything is going to be alright.' It was you who said you had it under control. Well, guess what, Grandpa? Things aren't under control! It was you who said Sonic had to go back to his world. It was you who said time would stop if Sonic didn't go. It was you who was too dumb to realize you were being lied to. It was you who sent Sonic away! Sonic is gone because of you!"

For minutes, the two sat in stunned silence. Nothing could be heard except for the sound of cars passing them on the highway and the sound of Chris's heavy breathing.

It was Chris who finally broke the silence. "I'm sorry, Grandpa," he said softly.

It was then when Chuck broke into tears. In his entire life, Chris could only ever remember a few times when his grandfather cried: when Chris's grandmother died and when Chuck had to say goodbye to Tails.

"No, Chris," said Chuck, struggling to maintain his composure, "you don't have to apologize. You're right. You're completely right. I should have known that Sonic didn't have to go. I should have seen through the lies, but I didn't. And for that, I am so very sorry."

Chris suddenly realized how selfish he was being. The departure of Sonic and his friends had been difficult not just for him, but for everyone involved, including his grandfather. Chuck and Tails had formed a bond that was just as strong as that between him and Sonic. If there was any way that his grandfather could have known that Sonic, Tails, and everyone else didn't have to leave, Chris knew that he would have exhausted every opportunity to make it happen.

With tears forming in his own eyes, Chris reached over the driver's seat and hugged his grandfather, who returned the embrace. The two grown men held onto each other wordlessly in the moonlit night on the side of the highway, with no one to interrupt them.

Except, of course, for the sound of Chris's ringtone.

The two ended their embrace, and Chris wiped his eyes before picking up his phone, which was still on the floor of the car.

"H-hello?"

"Chris, I contacted other departments, and we have a lead on Sonic." It was his uncle, Sam. "He was spotted by highway patrol heading north a hundred miles east of Station Square at around 3:00 pm today."

"A hundred miles?" said Chris incredulously. "That's almost in the next state over! It'll take us a couple hours to drive there!"

"Chris, I know you're upset, but I need to know some more information," replied Sam. "When did Sonic leave the house?"

"I don't know when he left the house, I was asleep," said Chris. "Here, I'll put you on speakerphone."

"He left at around 11 in the morning," said Chuck, "so he had to have been running for about four hours at that time. For someone who can run faster than the speed of sound, a hundred miles in four hours is actually pretty slow."

Chris chuckled. "True, heh heh. I forgot about that."

"Can you think of anyone who might want to hurt Sonic?" asked Sam. "Any explanation for why he might be missing?"

"Shadow," said Chris immediately. "Sonic was battling him when he came here, and he's pretty much the only one who his fast enough to catch Sonic."

"But maybe someone doesn't have to run as fast as Sonic to be able to catch him," said Chuck thoughtfully. "What if Sonic was caught off guard?"

Chris rubbed his chin. "If that's true, then—" Chris's eyes widened.

"What is it?" asked Chuck.

"A thought just occurred to me. It was something you said earlier today, Grandpa, when you were reading the news. Didn't you say that there was a group of people who were unhappy that Sonic's back?"

"There was an interview in the newspaper with a guy who was scared that Sonic coming back would mean that danger was coming with him, but it didn't seem like he wanted to hurt Sonic," replied Chuck.

"No, but this is all helpful information," said Sam over the phone. "I've gotta go, but if you think of anything else, don't hesitate to call me at this number. Don't worry, guys. You'll see that spiky little guy again before you know it. I may lose hedgehogs quickly, but I also find them quickly too!"

"Thank you, Uncle," said Chris, "and I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier."

"It's no problem, Chris," replied Sam. "It's my job."

Darkness. Darkness was all Sonic could see as he slowly and groggily regained consciousness. He could feel his eyes open and close, but his field of vision remained a solid black. His hands were tied behind his back, and his feet were bound by some kind of metallic restraining device. As an experiment, he tried moving one of his legs. He found that he could move his leg, but it was bound so tightly to the other leg that he could only hobble around – any kind of running would cause him to lose balance, especially with his hands behind his back.

"Hello? Anyone out there?" called Sonic.

No response. The room remained dark and silent.

Perplexed, Sonic decided to hobble around the room, occasionally stumbling due to his ankle braces. After about ten steps, he collided with a wall.

At least this gives me something to work with, thought Sonic, who then proceeded to feel along the wall with his body for any kind of protrusion, such as a light switch. After about five steps, he felt something. It was too large to be a light switch; it had to be a doorknob. Sure enough, once Sonic felt around this region of the wall, he could make out gaps that formed the edges of the door. Sonic tried to turn the doorknob. Locked.

Whoever his captors were, they had made a critical mistake in securing him. Although they tied his hands and feet so that he could not run, they did not do anything about the sharp quills that lined his back. Feeling the door, Sonic determined it was probably some kind of metal alloy. In the darkness, he grinned. Sonic turned around and hobbled his way to the opposite side of the room, making sure to keep a straight line. After about 15 steps, he hit the opposite wall and turned around. He then bent his knees and buried his head into his lap—it was a bit more difficult to curl up into a ball with his hands tied behind his back, but he could still make it work. In an amazing burst of energy, Sonic launched from the wall, spinning in a ball with his sharp quills exposed, accelerating toward the opposite side of the room in less than a second.

The door didn't even stand a chance. The metal easily fatigued under the pressure of Sonic's powerful spin and broke apart. When Sonic ended his spin, he found himself temporarily blinded by the bright lights that illuminated the hallway he was in. He only had a few seconds to celebrate his victory, however, because a loud, high-pitched alarm suddenly began to sound, most likely signaling to the captors that their captive had escaped.

The alarms gave Sonic a boost of adrenaline, which caused him to immediately begin moving again. In the course of his spin, Sonic's quills managed also to break apart the metal handcuffs that bound his wrists together, but his legs were frustratingly still bound. Hobbling around was too slow, so he curled himself back into a ball and sped down the hallway. The problem, however, was that he could not see very clearly while spinning. After a few seconds, he crashed into a wall—dead end. Ending the spin, he looked around.

In brilliant contrast to the darkness of the room, the hallways of the building were painted almost entirely white. Even the floor and the ceiling were white. Only the doors were a grey, metallic color. Surveillance cameras periodically lined along the hallways, and at the moment, each one was pinned on Sonic.

Sonic determined that he crashed because the hallway had bent leftward, so he adjusted himself and resumed his spinning. The next time he crashed, however, it was not a wall. A security door had come down and blocked Sonic's path through the hallway. Sonic turned to look back in the direction from which he came, but another security door had come down blocking that direction too. The only other option was a single room door. Sonic began moving toward it, but stopped quickly when he saw the doorknob turn to open. He readied himself, preparing to be attacked by whatever was behind the door.

The door burst open, and a group of men dressed in military uniforms and armed with rifles appeared. One of them—the first one out the door—immediately fired on Sonic. Sonic, however, had anticipated this, unlike his earlier encounter in the field, so he easily dodged the same tarp trap that had caught him in the field. While spinning his body, he knocked the weapons out of the hands of the men without even injuring them, all in the blink of an eye.

"I'd love to stay and chat, guys, but like I said, I've got things to do!" said Sonic, who then spun his way through the open door, which revealed a flight of stairs.

One of the soldiers managed to pick up his rifle and began shooting at Sonic. The hedgehog, however, was too fast, and all of the bullets missed. Sonic realized he might be able to use this to his advantage. He spun up the flight of stairs, and after a few steps he jumped up and away from the stairs. The soldier was still firing on Sonic, who positioned his legs carefully so that his leg braces would be in the line of fire, but not any other part of his body. It was an unbelievably risky, life-threatening maneuver. By Sonic's standards, it was par for the course.

It worked. The bullets broke through his braces, freeing his legs. Sonic grinned mischievously. Now that he could run, things became a whole lot simpler. As soon as he landed from his jump, he launched into a full-speed sprint up the stairs, his acceleration beyond the reaction time of even the most skilled and reflexive shooter. He made it to the top of the stairs in less than five seconds. There, he saw a set of double doors, which he immediately ran through.

He found himself in some kind of windowless mission control command center, with computers lined across the room and a giant projection of a world map on a screen above him. What intrigued Sonic the most, however, was the woman standing in the middle of the room, facing Sonic as if she had been expecting Sonic. She was white and had dark hair. She was not in a military uniform like the soldiers. Instead, she was wearing a professional-looking red blazer—civilian clothes. She was alone.

"Stand down," the woman said. In her hand, she held a communicator. Sonic realized she wasn't talking to him—it was an order to the soldiers who were pursuing him.

"Wow, three minutes," said the woman. "It took you only three minutes to get from your cell to the base's command center."

"Sorry it took so long," replied Sonic. "I had a few things slowing me down."

The woman laughed. It was a shrill, high-pitched laugh. If a snake could laugh, that might be the sound it would make.

"I am Agent KB," she said. "I don't believe we've met before."

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance," said Sonic, bowing mockingly before turning to leave.

"But I have met your friend… Chris, I think was his name?"

Sonic froze. He was confident that he could find a way to escape this situation, but if this Agent KB knew who Chris was, things could get messy even if Sonic did manage to escape.

"Ah, yes," said Agent KB, her voice laced with condescension. "Christopher Thorndyke. The annoying, useless son of billionaires Nelson and Lindsay Thorndyke. Yes, I met him about seven years ago. He got real mad that you were leaving, as I recall."

Sonic stepped forward threateningly. "Leave Chris out of this."

Agent KB laughed again. That cold, shrill laugh that sent shivers up Sonic's spine. "You just don't get it," she said, turning her laugh into a piercing, baleful glare. "Your idiotic little mind can't see more than a few steps ahead in the game. You think you're so strong and heroic because you can run fast. Guess what? Not every problem can be solved by running fast and destroying monsters."

Agent KB began taking steps toward Sonic. One of her hands reached into her jacket pocket. Sonic noticed this and entered a ready stance, preparing to be attacked.

"This world has never been peaceful," said Agent KB, her eyes drifting up towards the world map projection. "There's always some war, some terrorist, some madman trying to conquer other lands. Violence, pain, suffering—they're all unavoidable parts of human nature. If you've ever studied history, you'll know that bloodshed is around every nook and cranny. Some of us speculate that the ultimate fate of our kind is self-destruction.

When you came to this world, Sonic, you didn't change anything. You didn't save the world from Doctor Eggman. You brought Doctor Eggman with you to this world. If it weren't for you, we wouldn't have had Doctor Eggman in the first place. This world was filled with war, violence, and suffering—when you came, you just brought along more war, more violence, and more suffering. You distracted our world governments from the problems that actually mattered: the conflicts we were in before you came. Stopping Doctor Eggman became the number one priority, but this meant that insurgents, pirates, criminals, and other lowlifes were deprioritized everywhere in favor of stopping his exploits. It gave them a free pass to wreck havoc on people, families, and loved ones—including my father."

Sonic raised both of his eyebrows in surprise.

"My father was a military officer stationed in a foreign land. When the government turned its attention away from his unit, he was left without reinforcement as a band of insurgents took over and laid waste to the village he was protecting. All the reinforcements were out helping you fight Doctor Eggman. His unit managed to repel the insurgents, but it was at the expense of my father's life. If it weren't for you and Doctor Eggman, the military would have intervened in the armed conflict that killed my father. In other words, you and Doctor Eggman killed my father."

Agent KB stopped walking. She was now just a few steps away from Sonic. Her hand was still lodged inside her jacket pocket, which Sonic was still eyeing warily. Interestingly, he felt something. A familiar, yet still deeply mysterious presence that ignited a hot feeling in his heart.

"My real name," said Agent KB, "is Dr. Kim Bickley. For a time, I worked as a lead researcher at the National Science Institute. My spot put me in a perfect position to fabricate the evidence I needed to banish you and the rest of your friends away from this world. After you were gone, I was recruited by the intelligence branch of G.U.N., the Guardian Units of Nations, of which I now have command."

"Hold on, banished?" said Sonic. "We weren't banished, we left because…"

Suddenly, everything clicked together for Sonic. The pieces fit perfectly: the time stop problem was a conspiracy to remove Sonic and his friends from this world, all fabricated by the woman now standing before him.

"… of you," finished Sonic.

"I've thought to myself over and over: why didn't I just kill you when I had the chance? Well, it turns out, some of my colleagues tried that, and it didn't work." Bickley gave her cold laugh again. "Turns out, you're pretty hard to catch for a hedgehog. He was caught misappropriating government resources. He's still in prison."

Sonic remembered the week he left Chris's world, a rogue military officer had pummeled Mystic Ruins with missiles, where Eggman had been hiding unprotected. It was a cowardly and thoroughly unnecessary use of force—Eggman would have probably been seriously injured or even killed if Sonic had not stepped in and helped him, destroying some of the missiles and allowing him time to escape. What's more, the officer had sent in his agents to trap the President in his office and prevent him from calling the attack off. Sonic had successfully repelled the assault, the President was freed by Knuckles and Rouge, and the rogue officer was identified and arrested by police. It was the last battle he engaged in before he left Chris's world.

"My idea worked," continued Bickley. "You were gone, and for the most part, the world returned back to normal. Now, you're back, and the secret's out. Earlier this week, one of my friends gave me a heads up—turns out, I now have an outstanding arrest warrant under my name." Again, more cold laughter. "Unfortunately, the government agency the arrest warrant was issued to does not have the security clearance to know about this base. Funny how that works, right?"

Sonic's mind swirled with questions. Wouldn't the President or her supervisors have that security clearance? How far up in the chain of command did this conspiracy go? How would Chris respond to this set of revelations? Was he really responsible for the death of Bickley's father?

Before he could ask anything, however, Bickley withdrew her hand from her jacket pocket, pulling out a brilliant, luminous red object. Sonic recognized it immediately.

"A Chaos emerald?!" he cried.

"When my unit first heard that you had returned to this world, we knew that the Chaos emeralds shouldn't be too far behind you. My units managed to follow reports of Chaos emerald sighting and pinpointed the location of one. We are well on the way to finding the rest."

"Do you mind giving it over?" asked Sonic with a snarky smile. "You don't know how to use those things."

"Actually, I don't mind," said Bickley, who returned with her own snarky smile. "In your hands, you'll be one step closer to returning to your world. And this time, you won't come back."

Bickley extended her arm, offering the red Chaos emerald to Sonic.

Sonic eyed the gem carefully. This didn't make sense. Why would Bickley just give the Chaos emerald to Sonic? Sure, she wanted him gone, and only he and Shadow knew how to cause Chaos Control with the emeralds directly, but that didn't justify the risks she would be taking by giving the emerald to him freely. With an emerald, he could easily destroy the base and teleport to a place where he could report Bickley to the police—all in less than a minute.

As if reading his mind, Bickley elaborated: "I know what you're thinking. This is a crazy idea for me. I know it is. To be honest, I did not expect you to escape from your cell so quickly. As we speak, my backup plan is in motion. Right now, I have agents following Christopher Thorndyke and his grandfather. They're looking for you, you know; isn't that sweet?"

On a nearby computer console, Bickley pressed a button, and the world map projection replaced itself with a satellite image of Professor Thorndyke's car driving down a highway, followed by a black, nondescript SUV.

"This was taken 5 minutes ago," said Bickley. "My agents are in the vehicle following them. If they do not hear from me within 10 minutes from now, they will attack the car and make it look like an automobile accident. To prevent that from happening, you will take this Chaos emerald, find the rest, and return to your world. You may continue to stay in the company of the Thorndykes, but you will say nothing to them about me, this base, or your experience here. Once you collect all the Chaos emeralds, you will return to your world and cut off all contact with this world."

Bickley turned to face Sonic and glared directly into his eyes. "I am a very resourceful woman, Sonic. I know where Chris lives. I know where Chris goes to school. I know his daily routine. If you say one word of any of this to anyone, I will make sure the kid does not follow his daily routine ever again. Even if you take me and the agents out right now, there are other agents who will replace them. You and Chris would spend the rest of your time in this world looking over your shoulder."

Bickley extended her arm again, offering Sonic the emerald. "Neither you nor I want to go down that path. Take the emerald, teleport away quietly, and I will call off the attack. Chris will live a happy life, just one that won't have you in it."

Rarely had Sonic ever doubted himself. He always figured that everything would be okay in the end. Against Eggman, against the Metarex, against Shadow. This, however, was a different kind of foe. He wasn't sure what to do or what would happen.

"Tick tock, Sonic," said Bickley, who slammed her hand on the satellite button again, updating the image to the latest version. Chris and Chuck were still on the highway, but the car with the agents had moved closer to them. Bickley then also pressed another button, which caused the damaged cuffs around his legs to unlatch themselves, freeing his legs completely.

This jolted Sonic into action. He warily approached Bickley and took the Chaos emerald out of her hand.

"Goodbye, Sonic the Hedgehog," said Bickley, smiling acidly.

Sonic said nothing in return, instead staring at the satellite image of the highway, looking at Chuck's car intently.

"Chaos Control!"

Immediately, he was whisked through time and space. The control room disappeared, and his field of vision turned into bright linear streaks. It felt like he was traveling faster than the speed of sound. As quickly as it started, it ended.

He soon found himself on the side of a highway. He realized it was the middle of the night, and the highway he was beside was mostly devoid of cars. It was illuminated only by some flickering streetlights, the moonlight, and the soft red glow of the Chaos emerald in his hand. For a moment, he stood paralyzed, contemplating the shocking set of events that just occurred. It felt almost like a bad dream—all the deception, all the violence. Not even Eggman was this cruel.

Suddenly, Sonic remembered that Chris was potentially in danger, and he recognized his location on the highway from the satellite image he saw. He immediately shot in the direction that Chuck's car went, hoping beyond hope that they didn't turn off the highway.

"Hey Chris," said Chuck. "Something's been bugging me for a while now. I didn't say anything earlier because I thought it was my nerves acting up…"

"What is it, Grandpa?"

"That car behind us. The black one. It's been following us since just after we left our house. It's made all of the same turns we did. I thought we lost it for a time, but now it's back."

Chris turned around in his seat. He could see a pair of headlights following closely behind them. The light of the headlights was too bright to properly make out who was driving the car or a license plate number, but he could tell it was a black SUV. "Are you sure it's been the same car the whole time?" asked Chris.

"No, I'm not," said Chuck. "Ah, it's probably nothing. I shouldn't have said anything, sorry."

"No, Grandpa. I'm glad you said something," said Chris. "Sonic is missing, and now there's someone who's possibly following us? At the very least, I think we should call Uncle Sam."

"Let's try and confirm first before we take up his time," replied Chuck. "See that next highway exit? I'm going to turn off the highway at that exit and see if the SUV follows. Then, I'm going to double back and head in the reverse direction. It's such an unlikely series of maneuvers that if they follow, we'll know they're following us."

Chris nodded his assent to the plan. When the exit approached, both men watched the rear-view mirror intently. When they turned off the highway, they widened their eyes as the SUV turned with them.

"Okay, okay, that could be just a fluke," said Chuck.

"Or it could be serious," declared Chris. "I'm calling Sam."

"Hold on one second," said Chuck. He pulled to the side of the road.

"You're stopping?!" cried Chris. "Are you insane?"

"We stopped before," pointed out Chuck. "And if they stop too, we'll deal with them."

"How?" said Chris. "We don't have any weapons!"

"Let's say I made a few… modifications to this car over the years," said Chuck, who smiled deviously. Chuck slowly eased the car to a stop on the side of the road. Right next to the transmission stick, he lifted an obscure cover, revealing a hidden button.

Chris saw this, shook his head, and smiled. "A transform button?"

Chuck looked at Chris incredulously. "How did you know it was a transform button?"

"It's always a transform button," said Chris. "You and Tails are too obsessed with them. The X Tornado transforms to the X Cyclone. The car you helped Sam build transforms from a sports car to a race car. Even the original Tornado—Tails' propeller-driven biplane—now has a transform function thanks to you. Personally, I prefer extending what you already have, rather than pack in all this extra transform functionality solely for dramatic effect. Plus, transforming takes time that sometimes you don't have. When Tails first used the Hyper Tornado transformation on the original Tornado, he told me he almost got killed by one of Eggman's homing missiles because he lost the ability to eject. It's simply—"

"Chris, this is not the right time to argue about the efficacy of transform buttons. Here they come!"

Behind them, they saw headlights approaching, and they immediately tensed up. Chuck kept his finger on the transform button while the lights grew brighter as the SUV came closer.

300 feet.

200 feet.

100 feet. Still coming closer.

Chris and Chuck watched as the SUV whizzed passed them at more than 65 miles per hour. They let go of the breaths they didn't realize they were holding as they watched the red lights on the back of the SUV retreat into the distance. Chuck covered the transform button again, restarted the car, and drove back in the direction of the highway.

"See?" said Chuck after a few minutes. "Nothing to worry about."

"Nothing? My heart was racing!" cried Chris.

"Okay, maybe something. I'm sorry about that distraction. Let's get back on the road. We're just a few minutes away from where Sam said Sonic was spotted in the afternoon."

"Ugh," said Chris, who rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Could this day get any worse?"

BAM! As soon as Chris said that, something slammed into the side of their car, sending it violently spinning across the highway. The front of the car collided with the railing that lined the side of the hallway, bringing the car to a quick stop and jerking the two men forwards in their seats. Airbags exploded, absorbing much of the impact.

"Chris!" Chuck shouted immediately after it was over. "Are you okay?"

"Little banged up, but I think so. What just happened?"

"Somebody crashed into—" Chuck froze, his eyes wide open as he stared out the window.

"What's going on? What are you—" said Chris as he followed his grandfather's eyes. He too froze up as soon as he saw what he was looking at.

There on the highway, about 100 feet away, was a black SUV, its headlights still on.

"They must've doubled back too!" cried Chris.

"Car is too banged up to transform," said Chuck.

"This is why you don't get obsessed with—"

"Not now, Chris!" interrupted Chuck. "Look at the SUV!"

The SUV had reversed and realigned itself. Its headlights were now staring directly at Chuck's car. Chris's expression turned into one of horror as realization dawned.

"They're going to ram into us again!" Chris cried.

The SUV launched forward, the headlights getting blindingly bright.

"Get out now!" screamed Chuck. Chuck's car was perpendicular to the oncoming SUV. He was sitting in the driver's seat, which was facing away from the SUV, but Chris's door opened outwards directly into the path of the oncoming SUV. This allowed Chuck to escape, but Chris needed more time to get out of the way. Time that he did not have.

"AHH!" cried Chris as he held hands up against the SUV like a deer in the headlights. This is it, he thought, closing his eyes and bracing for the impact.

The impact never came. He heard a crashing sound, but it didn't hurt him. When Chris opened his eyes, he couldn't believe what he saw. The SUV had been turned over with a giant hole in its side. Behind him, he heard something land on the top of his grandfather's car. He froze. There was only one living creature on the entire planet—potentially the entire universe—who could have saved him from that close a call. He turned around slowly and was soon face-to-face with his best friend in the whole world.

"Hiya Chris," said Sonic, winking and giving a thumbs up. "Long time no see."

"Sonic," said Chris weakly.

"How've you been, buddy?" replied Sonic, jumping down from the top of the car. "Wow, you're a lot taller than the last time I saw you. You really weren't lying when you said you were 18 years old now. Glad to see you made it back to your world in one piece."

"Sonic!" cried Chris, who leaped forward to the hedgehog, embracing him in a tight hug. "Y-you have no idea how much it means for me to see you again."

In the distance, police sirens began wailing. In just a few minutes, the entire region of the highway was surrounded by S-Team members. As soon as Sam arrived, he jumped out of his race car, and rushed toward Sonic, Chris, and Chuck.

"Is everyone okay?" called Sam. "I got here as soon as Chuck gave the word."

Chris nodded at Sam and looked at his grandfather gratefully, who was still on the opposite side of the car. "Thanks, Grandpa."

As soon as Sam determined that they were okay and did not need immediate medical attention, he rushed over to the overturned SUV, where his colleagues had already arrested everyone inside. Additional police units arrived to take them all down individually to the station to be held and interrogated.

"I called Sam as soon as I saw Sonic. I don't know why anyone would want to hurt us, but I guess now we have enemies." Chuck smiled. "It's good to see you, Sonic. You had us all worried. Chris especially."

"Yeah," said Chris. "Where in the world were you?"

Sonic wanted to tell them about what happened, about Bickley, about his kidnapping, about the dark room, about the men in the black suits, about the plan to remove him from Chris's world forever.

"I was out looking for the Chaos emeralds," Sonic lied. He held up the red emerald, donning a look of false pride. "Found one."

Both Chuck and Chris widened their eyes in surprise, congratulating Sonic and asking him about how he managed to pull that off. Sonic laughed along with them, but inside, worry and guilt were eating him up.

Chris grinned madly. "One Chaos emerald in a day? At this rate, I know everything's going to be all right, just like it always is. Right, Sonic?"

Sonic looked at Chris intently, seeing his cheerfulness, excitement, and optimism, and it comforted him. For years, Sonic had always been the one to reinvigorate his friends with optimism, and now, he was getting a taste of what it felt like to be on the receiving end of that optimism. It felt good.

"You betcha, Chris!" Sonic grinned. "We'll get through this together!"

Miles away, a woman stood in her dark command center, eyes pinned on the satellite projection before her of a highway. A man in a dark suit and sunglasses walked up behind her.

"You let the agents attack the car anyway," said the man.

"Yes, I did," said Bickley. "I think it's always helpful to know your enemy and find out what they are able to accomplish. It seems they managed to thwart our agents."

"We got the readings you asked for," said the man.

Bickley turned around and smiled balefully. "Excellent," she said. "I can't believe Sonic fell for that—he really thought I was just going to let him teleport out of here. Now that we have these measurements of Chaos Control, we'll be able to analyze them and figure out a way to cause Chaos Control ourselves. Soon, we won't need the boy, and soon, we won't have the hedgehog."