A/N: Happy 2021! I hope everyone is doing well during the virus, and everyone is staying happy.

Also, you might have heard that there's going to be a new Sonic TV show on Netflix called Sonic Prime! Even if they're going to replace some of the voice actors, I'm still really excited for it, since we haven't had a proper Sonic TV show since Sonic Boom!

Also, I want to thank you all so very much for an incredible 50,000 views and over 200 reviews! That is so crazy to think about. Without all of you, this would not have been possible. Thank you again so much for reading and reviewing my story.

I also want to announce that after the next chapter, I will be going on hiatus to update the earlier chapters and bring them all up to standards. Also, I will keep the author's notes at the end of this chapter and the beginning of the next one to a minimum, so I don't break the flow of the story.

I know GuardianDragon98 is really eager to see what I've done for the scene where Sonic gets attacked by Eggman's robot, and now, the wait is finally over! I think your expectations are going to be met.

Speaking of that, I am going to put some WARNINGS in a couple parts that are a bit violent, and there will be a little blood in one scene, so please keep that in mind. And also, this chapter will be SUPER emotional, so keep that in mind, and this goes especially to SuperTailsFan0812. Keep your tissues handy, okay?

Fun fact: The Eggsterminator was originally called E-99 Egg Emperor in the sub, but it was changed by 4Kids so it wouldn't be confused with the robot from Sonic Heroes. In my opinion, that's one of the only things 4Kids did right with the dub. However, I'm combining the names, and it will be called E-99 Eggsterminator.

And finally, I'm tweaking Super Sonic's personality. In the dub of Sonic X, his voice is the same as his normal form, but in the sub, Sonic sounds calm and collected. So Super Sonic will not be cocky like normal Sonic in this story.

I want to thank SX-000, digimonhero, najlaayuni, MouseBoy, Sarcastic Black Cat, dianapinto19041, and Kianna25 for favoriting and following, and I want to give an extra special thank you and shoutout to TheGameNguyener for favoriting and following this story! Please be sure to check out his stories New Brotherhood, Revengeful Resistance, and My Own Worst Enemy; they are really good!

With that being said, let's move on to the reviews and what matters most: the story!


14 reviews!

SuperTailsFan0812

I am so glad you enjoyed the chapter, and I hope you had a really happy birthday, my dear friend! :)

As soon as I saw that Dr. Seuss quote, I KNEW I had to use it.

It took Chris a long time to admit that, but he is finally opening up his true feelings. And I borrowed that from episode 51, because it was such a touching moment for Sonic and Chris.

Yeah... I wanted to increase Tails' stress because I thought it wasn't quite enough in the original episode.

I wanted to boost the intensity with having Eggman saying his full name, and I think I did a good job there. He was just rubbing it in with his victory.

The wait is over! Enjoy the next to last chapter of season 1! :)

azzyofhyperdeath

I think the chapter should be up, because I saw your review on chapter 22.

GuardianDragon98

I knew I had to do that, because even though the show did it to an extent, I felt like it didn't explore Chris' thoughts enough. And you can expect more of that in this chapter.

And yes, that scene, the one with Sonic and the Eggsterminator, is finally here, and I did not hold back. I would love to hear your thoughts on this scene.

SonicX224

No, I'm sorry to say that the Egg Carrier will not appear in the Metarex Saga, and I will be using the Crimson Egg as per the original show. One of the big reasons is that the Egg Carrier is not equipped for space travel.

dbehi1

I was wondering if someone would pick that up :) I imagine that she had a small part in the war, but afterward, she went back to being a feral jungle badger :P

CVGWJames

I'm glad you liked it! :)

Animation Adventures

I thought it was for the best to really explore what was going on in Chris' head during the chapter, and how his thoughts influence his actions.

I agree; Even though Knuckles may not have much interaction with Omega, he knows he's one of the good guys now.

I wanted to write Mr. Stewart out of the story (except maybe for the Shadow Saga), so this was the best way I could do it. I'm glad it paid off.

And also, I was watching a video on 4Kids' censorship of Sonic X, and it was talking about why the candy analogy scene was censored. It had something to do with taking candy from strangers, I think. I didn't want to remove the scene because of that, because it was a great analogy.

Chris and Chuck going to Mobius... that would be a great AU. I would love to write something like that if I had the time and ideas for it.

thor94

Chris did have suspicion of Eggman, but he fully trusted Knuckles because he was his friend. Also, he may end up following the anime path, but he will definitely be enhanced.

CreativeKitty975

I'm so glad you enjoyed this chapter! :D

And yeah, I really wanted to explore everything that was going on in Chris' head during this whole episode, and I will do the same in this chapter too. And on a technicality, it's not quite an extra scene, but I took the very brief scene with Chris and Sonic outside, and blew it up into an entire comfort scene. And I think it really worked well.

Yeah... and sadly, Chris is about to reap the consequences for lying really soon!

Buckle your seat belt, and keep some tissues with you, because this is going to be quite a ride! Are you ready for the thrilling conclusion?

D.J. Scales

I really liked reassigning Jerome Wise's role, as it makes so much sense for some reason. And yeah, he is kind of like this story's version of Agent Stone. Speaking of him, I wonder if he will appear in the next movie?

The Green Seer

I think the secret to having very few spelling errors in the last chapter is that I took my friend's advice and tried Grammarly. But I agree; looking back, I have improved so much. And I want to touch up on the first several chapters so that they can be up to my current quality.

I can definitely see where you're coming at, but the reason I had it kinda drag on is to give the sense of time dragging on when you're filled with guilt. Time seems to move slower, and every single sound seems enhanced.

And yes, you're going to get your fix of Super Sonic in this chapter!

azzyofhyperdeath

:D

Sheng-long

I'm sorry, but I don't really have any plans to add the Sky Patrol, Death Egg II, or Freedom Fighters in the story. Sorry about that.

SX-000

GUN learning about Dark Sonic sounds like a really cool idea, but I don't think I have room in this story for it. It sounds like a cool oneshot idea, though.

The Chaos Saga is complete with planning, but plans for the Shadow Saga are still in the works. And I just might include a SnapCube dub reference in there somewhere ;) Good thing I won't need 70 alternative accounts to do that.

As for Infinite... I think it would be really cool if he shows up. Imagine all the potential he could bring to one of the sagas! I'll keep him in mind, but no promises :)


Chapter 23
Episode 26
Don't Leave Me, Sonic! The Seven Emeralds Unite - Super Sonic is Born‼
Open Your Heart


The X-Tornado – Fri May 13; 10:15 PM – Third-person POV

Tails pressed the button to end the call with Sonic before reaching behind him and handing Chuck's phone back to him. Once he felt the phone leave his grip, he returned his full focus to the controls.

He felt determination course through his veins as he slowly banked to the left. Now that he knew where Chris was, all he had to do now was find the Egg Fort II.

"I can't believe Eggman's holding him prisoner…" Amy said, clearly sounding shaken at the new news.

Tails finished adjusting his flight course and leveled out. "Well, if Knuckles was involved in this, then it's not entirely his fault anymore," speculated Tails. "Maybe it sounded like a good idea to them at the time."

"That's what I'm hoping…" Chuck solemnly said as he reached down and lifted a radio-like device onto his lap.

Tails noticed it out of the corner of his eye, and briefly glanced back at the device.

"What's that, Chuck?" he asked.

"It's an advanced police scanner I made a while back," he answered. "I'm interested to see how the police are responding to this." He looked back up at Tails, who was now focusing on the controls once again. "Is, uh, is this going to interfere with anything?"

"Nah, you should be fine," Tails responded. "Chaos energy runs on its own frequency."

"Okay, thank you," Chuck mumbled as he reached his hand into his labcoat pocket and slipped out a pair of white earbuds. After about a minute of trying to untangle them, he plugged them into the scanner and put the earbuds into his ears, partially blocking out the sound of the X-Tornado's engines.

"I hope Chris is going to be okay…" Cream quietly said from the back of the plane. "I… I love him very much and… and I don't want him to…" Her voice trailed off; she could not finish that thought without crying.

"Even if we do get him back, we won't be able to get all the Chaos Emeralds back," lamented Amy. "But... his safety always comes first."

Chuck continued to fruitlessly adjust the dial on the scanner, but all he could hear was static. But then he had a sudden stroke of luck. Voices started coming through on the other end. As he listened to them, he realized that not only were they mentioning Eggman, but…!

"Hey Tails," Chuck began.

"Yeah, Chuck?" replied Tails.

"I think I just picked up a GUN frequency!"

Tails gave a gasp of delight. "Then see if you can listen in! This could be really important!"

"I'm on it!" Chuck said. Tails' excitement always seemed to be contagious for the aging professor.

Amy, however, was anything but excited.

"I don't know how we're possibly gonna get Chris out of there…" she said. "I mean, this is really, really bad."

"Don't worry, Amy," reassured Tails. "This is nothing we haven't done before. I know the stakes are really high this time, but Sonic has the best shot at rescuing Chris, so let's hope for the best."

"Okay…" Amy replied with a little uncertainty.

"Hey Chuck, are you getting anything?" Tails asked.

Chuck looked up from his deep concentration. "Oh! Yes, GUN just mentioned Sector 105, Course 237."

Tails squinted. "I'm… not sure what that means."

"Um…" thought Chuck as he removed one earbud from his ear. "My knowledge of GUN coordinates is a little rusty, but I think that several GUN units are positioned at the northeast side of the city and moving southwest. And they also mentioned something about a Valkyrie…? I know some of the vehicles GUN uses, but this one I'm not familiar with."

Tails gave a hum of interest. "That is new. Maybe we can find out what it is while we look for the Egg Fort II."

"Sounds like a plan," agreed Chuck as he put the loose earbud back into his ear and continued to listen to the GUN radio transmissions.


The Egg Fort II – Fri May 13; 10:15 PM – Chris' POV

I had never been more afraid in my whole entire life. Not even my ordeal at Silver Valley could compare to this, and that was saying a lot.

I was tightly secured to the wall behind me with a pair of cold metal brackets – one around my legs, and the other pinning my arms to my sides, completely restricting any movement except for my head and hands.

If that wasn't enough, the brackets were suspending me two feet above the ground, so my feet weren't even touching the floor. I was getting more uncomfortable by the minute, and I couldn't do anything to change my position.

And to top it all off, while Decoe and Bocoe were overseeing the piloting and navigation of the ship, Eggman was pacing back and forth in front of me, making sure I knew my place. And I was uncontrollably shaking and trying not to cry.

"Who could have guessed that you, that diehard fanboy of that insufferable rodent, could be such an invaluable asset to further my goals with?" he gloated. To me, I was less of an asset and more of a liability to this crazy dictator.

"Y-you…" I fought my way through my tears, anger boiling its way to the surface. "You'll never get away with this!"

But Eggman seemed to be amused by my struggling.

"Oh please, Christopher, that's the oldest retort in the book," he chuckled. "At least try something a little more sophisticated. Do humor the good doctor a little."

"Doctor," Decoe announced, luckily distracting Eggman from taunting me. "Sonic is gaining on us! What are your orders?"

That was very good news, and I found that it gave me a well-needed morale boost. That meant my friends knew I was a hostage and were coming to rescue me. Now I was glad they didn't listen to what my note said, because Eggman's ship was the last place I wanted to be right now.

"Sonic is not my concern at this moment," Eggman stated. "Not with the seventh Emerald at state. I will deal with the rodent as soon as I secure the last Emerald."

He turned back to me, and I found myself shrinking back as far as I could.

"I sense your endorphins rising, Christopher," he said. "Well, don't get your hopes up. In a few short hours, your friends will be vanquished and the Eggman Empire will rise!"


A GUN helicopter – Fri May 13; 10:23 PM – Third-person POV

Topaz's mind was a blur. She had no idea what was going on right now.

She and Rouge had watched the Egg Fort II take off a few minutes before the helicopter came to pick them up. Rouge would have flown after it to hitchhike, but Topaz forbade her on account of her injured wing.

They both confirmed that Knuckles and Chris entered the craft, but neither of them left again before the ship lifted off the ground. Shortly after takeoff, Knuckles seemed to be ejected from the craft, but Chris was still unaccounted for. Topaz feared he was still inside, now a prisoner of one of the most feared military leaders Earth had ever known.

The helicopter was flying back to Station Square to rendezvous with the rest of the GUN fleet organized there. Not only was Topaz's mind a blur, but everything around her seemed to be happening so fast.

She couldn't help but wonder why Knuckles and Chris were even near the Egg Fort II to begin with. They had practically no business there. Topaz did not know why Eggman chose to eject Knuckles, but what mattered was he was holding a civilian hostage. And Chris wasn't just any civilian – he was the son of a Hollywood actress and a world-class entrepreneur. The stakes were extremely high.

Topaz opened her eyes once more. The cockpit was silent, except for the mesmerizing whine of the chopper's rotors. Everyone else inside was either focused on the mission ahead or lost in their thoughts as she was.

Glancing to her right, she could see Rouge sitting on the seat next to her, idly turning over the topaz in her hand while she gazed out the window. And then she remembered what she wanted to say before she was interrupted.

"Rouge," she spoke, breaking the silence. "What were you going to tell me before the chopper came?"

Rouge hummed, her gaze not leaving the window. "You'll have to fill me in."

Topaz hesitated a moment. "Um… A few minutes ago… You said you could do me one better…" She fidgeted with her fingers. "What did you mean by that…?"

"Oh, that's right," Rouge said, her eyes snapping back to the gem in her hand, and then up at Rouge. "About the jewelry you gave me… well…" She took a deep breath. "I… I can't believe I'm saying this, considering our… rocky start, but… I like you as a friend too."

Topaz sat up straighter. "I…"

"I mean it," Rouge admitted with a small smile. "You've really grown on me. And truth be told, I would never have guessed that an old lady like you would make such a perfect teammate."

Topaz chuckled lightly at the "old lady" joke, grinning from ear to ear. It seemed to no longer offend her, because she had worked with Rouge for so long that she had gotten used to all of her… quirks.

Topaz watched her bat friend reach into Hammerspace and pull out a black box before holding it out to Topaz. The human agent was awed that Rouge would go out of her way to get a gift for her like that.

"Open it!" urged Rouge.

Having taken the box, Topaz opened it and gasped. There was an expensive diamond ring inside. It was so beautiful and exquisite. Even with her high salary from working directly for the government, she could never have afforded a ring like the one Rouge had just given her.

"Is… is this for me…?" Topaz gaped.

Rouge smirked. "Take it before I change my mind. I am still a jewel thief, you know."

Topaz covered her mouth in surprise; she couldn't take her eyes off the gemstone. She didn't know too much about jewelry, but this diamond was absolutely priceless. It looked exactly like one of the gemstones Rouge obtained for her collection.

"Thank you, Rouge…" Topaz whispered, unable to contain her emotions.

"Don't mention it," Rouge said. "I know, I know, now is probably not the best time, but… I don't know how long we have until we have to go home."

"It's fine," Topaz responded, her eyes returning to the diamond in the box. "Now was as good a time as any."

"We have reached the rendezvous point," came the pilot's voice over the helicopter's intercom.

Topaz quickly glanced outside, and saw dozens of GUN helicopters hovering in place, their flashing lights piercing through the darkness.

"Promise me this isn't goodbye forever," Topaz said as she slowly closed the jewelry box.

"No promises…" Rouge admitted, "but the two of us… we're a team. And speaking of teams, you really should swing by Mobius some time, and… maybe you could be a part of Team Dark."

Topaz looked up in interest. "You have other teammates too?"

Rouge nodded, her excitement growing. "Me, Shadow, and Omega. We all work with GUN… on Mobius, that is. And sometimes we work solo too. But I do want to warn you, Shadow is a bit rough around the edges, and Omega is bent on revenge against Eggman, but I think you'll get along just fine with them."

"So who exactly are Sha–"

"You two, focus on the mission at hand," a nearby GUN officer told them. "We need all hands on deck. We've got to destroy Eggman at all costs."

Rouge looked a bit deflated, but Topaz looked straight on. She had a feeling their long mission would come to an end very soon, but it could go either way at this point.


Station Square – Fri May 13; 10:31 PM – Sonic's POV

I had been on Eggman's tail for the past fifteen minutes now. The Egg Fort II was still flying straight forward, a sure sign that he knew exactly where he was going. Where that was, I had no idea.

I could only hope Eggman hadn't laid a finger on Chris in there. I could understand from Eggman's perspective why he chose to take a hostage. I knew he was getting pretty desperate, not to mention close to victory, but that didn't stop me from worrying very much about Chris' safety. He must have been so scared inside Eggman's ship.

While Eggman had been known to take prisoners a lot, he was not the type of villain to hurt them short of roboticizing them. But I wasn't going to take any chances. Chris was a very good friend of mine, and I knew Eggman could try to do anything to get on my nerves.

Sure, I could try to board the ship no sweat, but I wanted to find out where it was headed first. If I took on Eggman now, I wouldn't be able to find out where the last Chaos Emerald was. So I thought it was best to hide away from view of the ship and see where it was headed.

About two minutes later, the Egg Fort II finally showed signs of stopping. The engines' roar dropped in pitch as the ship slowed down over a deserted section of the city. And it reeked.

It was filled to the brim with everything from broken cars to hundreds of plastic bags. The Egg Fort was slowing down over the city's landfill.

I hid out of sight behind a pile of smashed cars, so that I could see what Eggman was planning to do. He probably knew I was nearby, but I would cross that bridge when I came to it.

The landfill was completely dark except for the occasional flashing guidelights from Eggman's ship brightly illuminating the landfill as it finally slowed to a stop. Seconds later, I spotted two shapes descending from the ship toward the ground. Squinting, I could see that they were Egg-Robos.

I looked toward the part of the ground they were flying towards. There was a solitary object standing there, probably waiting for them. It looked like another robot to me. I couldn't see very well, but it looked like some kind of transaction was about to be made.

And I knew I had to act.

The solitary robot handed an object to one of the Egg Pawns, and seconds later, both of them ignited their jetpacks and started flying back up to the ship. That was when I made my move.

I bolted forward across the treacherous ground and leaped into the air, spinning through one of the Egg-Robos. The resulting explosion sent shrapnel directly into the other Egg-Robo's jetpack, and it fell back to the ground.

But something else landed in the giant pile of trash. Without taking my eyes off of it, I ran over and squinted at the object. It was a small box. And then I was reminded of something Chris had told me earlier that night.

"Matt texted me earlier, and he said if it helps, the Emerald was in a small box when it was lost."

This had to have been the box Chris was walking about. But how did it end up at the landfill of all places…? Questions for later, I told myself.

Bending down to pick up the box, I undid the latch and opened it. Sure enough, the final Chaos Emerald was resting inside. I took it out of the box and held it up high for Eggman to see.

"Is this what you're lookin' for, Eggy?" I taunted. I smirked when I heard Eggman's satisfying response over the Egg Fort II's loudspeaker.

"Don't you dare touch that Emerald, Sonic! Not when I'm one step away from achieving world domination!"

Immediately a swarm of robots flew down from the small bay door that was still left open. There were only like two dozen of them, but they were still dangerous.

I grit my teeth. There was always that chance he could do something to Chris if I destroyed his robots. On the other side of the coin, there was no way I was going to let him have the last Chaos Emerald, especially when he had the other six with him.

Summing up the robots in front of me, I saw that along with the last Egg-Robo, there were several Crabmeats, Buzz Bombers, and various other drones. Curiously, they weren't making a move for me yet.

"Now before you do anything rash, Sonic," said Eggman, "let me tell you that I am holding your friend Christopher as a hostage. You may also want to know that he has graciously given me all of your Chaos Emeralds."

"Tell me something I don't know, Eggman," I dared.

Eggman growled. "Well, here's something that will make you a little less arrogant. In the name of the Eggman Empire, I order you to surrender the Chaos Emerald or else I will roboticize your friend right here and now!"

I weighed my options. If I took out his robots, Eggman would immediately roboticize Chris, and I was not going to take that chance, because I knew deep down that Eggman was not bluffing this time around. But there was no way on Mobius that I was going to surrender my Emerald because Eggman had the other six with him, and there was no telling how much damage he could do with all seven Emeralds.

Either way, I had to make up my mind fast, because the robots were now starting to bear down on me.


The Egg Fort II – Fri May 13; 10:34 PM – Third-person POV

As Sonic stood his ground against the approaching robots, Eggman, Decoe, and Bocoe looked on in interest to see what he would do. For Sonic's own sake, Eggman hoped he wasn't stupid enough to fight them with the threat of his friend's roboticization looming over his head.

"Doctor, several unidentified vehicles are approaching us at a high velocity," warned Decoe.

Eggman barely had time to turn around before several heavy laser blasts appeared out of nowhere and struck all of his robots, completely incinerating them on the spot. The doctor was astonished and left speechless at what had just happened.

"…Go with the third option, why don't you, hedgehog…" muttered Eggman a moment later as he turned and walked over to the viewscreen. There was too much smoke for him to see anything.

"Surely he couldn't have survived that," mused Eggman.

But he ate his words as Sonic became visible once again when the smoke began to clear. A confident smirk was on his muzzle, and he looked no worse for wear. Eggman clenched his teeth in frustration.

"I hate that hedgehog…" he muttered.

"Heh… I gotta hand it to ya, Doc…" said Sonic, "you almost had me there for a moment. Bet you can't win round two!"

"He thinks I built them…" pondered Eggman as he turned to the short gray robot next to him. "Bocoe, run a scan on these newcomers. I want to know everything about them."


The landfill – Fri May 13; 10:35 PM – Sonic's POV

Eggman's new robots had taken me off guard by their sudden arrival. In fact, I would have been fried if it weren't for my bullet-time reflexes.

As the smoke cleared and I taunted the doctor's efforts, I realized that I had lost the Chaos Emerald in the ambush. And then I realized that this was not Eggman's style. He wouldn't intentionally send in reinforcements to destroy his own robots unless they were defecting. Furthermore, they didn't quite look like Eggman's usual style of robots. They looked more like high-tech tanks to me.

And then came a blaring human-sounding voice from the lead tank's loudspeaker.

"Valkyrie Squad of the Guardian Units of Nations Alpha Division to Sonic the Hedgehog," he introduced. "This is an official government operation. We are about to launch an attack on the enemy. Get to a safe distance immediately."

Normally I wouldn't have any problems with that, but…

"But you don't understand!" I argued. "One of my friends is a hostage in there!"

Either I hadn't been clear enough with them, or the noise of the tanks' engines were too loud for them, because the Valkyrie pilots weren't listening to me. In fact, they did the exact opposite as they opened fire with their heavy laser weaponry on the Egg Fort II.

I would have been fascinated by the way this planet's humans harnessed laser weaponry if it weren't for the direness of the situation and the distress mounting within me. I couldn't believe that GUN was this belligerent and unwilling to listen to reason. GUN was normally arrogant, but they had gone too far this time.

I clenched my fists. Now I had to leap on top of one of the tanks to try to get their attention.

"I said wait!" I demanded. "My friend's still in there, it's a hostage situa–"

I hadn't even noticed that all five tanks were charging their top-mounted cannons as I was trying to get through to them. I was interrupted by a deafening explosion that would probably rupture human eardrums as five supermassive laser beams were projected from the cannons and arced toward Eggman's ship. I felt dread and helplessness, knowing there was nothing I could do to stop GUN.

The giant laser beams scored a direct hit on the ship, resulting in a blinding flash and a brilliant explosion. I was unable to look at the immense light and the exploding ship.

"CHRIS!" I screamed.

I landed back on the ground, feeling myself being fueled with rage that Chris may have died before my eyes. In fact, it took everything I had to keep my negative Chaos energy levels low and avoid becoming dark, especially since I didn't see the Egg Fort II through the light of the Valkyries' laser cannons.

Even though I wasn't dark yet, I was still seething with rage. I was livid at both Eggman for capturing Chris, and at GUN for shooting the Egg Fort, even though I told them not to.

I grit my teeth. I didn't know who to tear apart first.


The Egg Fort II – Fri May 13; 10:37 PM – Chris' POV

The entire ship shook violently as it took the full brunt of the superlasers fired by the government tanks below us. If I hadn't been scared before, I certainly was now.

I cringed at the impact and let out a cry of fright. The noise of the lasers hitting us was so loud that it was practically deafening. The worst part was I couldn't even move my hands to cover my ears and drown out the roaring sound!

Extreme shock had set in right away. I couldn't believe the government tanks were shooting the Egg Fort down with me in it! I really thought I was going to die. I didn't want to die!

I squeezed my eyes shut tightly, expecting the inevitable…

…but nothing happened.

As the roar and shaking died down, I slowly opened my eyes and looked down at my chest. There wasn't any blood, which meant I hadn't been impaled by any debris. In fact, there wasn't any debris at all! The ship looked very much intact!

"That… that actually made me nervous…" a shaken Eggman said as he placed a hand over his racing heart. "Decoe, damage report."

"Damage is minimal," announced Decoe from his post. "The barrier had absorbed the majority of the attack. It is 92% stable."

"Keep the barrier up," instructed Eggman. "We can't afford to be destroyed, not when all the good cards are in my hand. Decoe, run a scan for the Chaos Emerald. It can't have been blown far."

As Decoe went about scanning the area for the Chaos Emerald, Eggman turned back to me. I wanted to get away from his presence so bad right now.

"Rest assured I won't let them kill you," Eggman said with a grin beneath his oversized mustache. "I have plans for you just as soon as my victory is ensured."

My pupils narrowed. "Please don't turn me into a robot…" I silently begged.

Eggman gave a short laugh of amusement. He clasped his hands behind his back and slowly blades the floor.

"Why shouldn't I?" he said gleefully. "Then you wouldn't have to worry about all those little things like… fear, or emotions in general."

"Doctor, you will want to take a look at this," reported Bocoe from the other side of the bridge.

"So the scan is complete?" queried Eggman as he left me alone at last and strode over to his robot assistant.

"Yes, Doctor," Bocoe reported. "The internal schematics of the opposing battle machines are virtually identical to that of your own."

"What?!" exclaimed Eggman. "How is that possible?!"

I, on the other hand, was lowkey interested as to how the humans managed to harness Eggman's technology like that, assuming that's what they did.

"I am not 100% positive, but it most resembles the build of your E-23 unit," continued Bocoe. "It is possible that they salvaged the wreck from your first attempt at establishing the Eggman Empire on this planet."

Eggman grit his teeth. "Haven't they heard of copyright?!" he barked.

"Perhaps your robots are not protected under fair use?" suggested Decoe from the other side of the bridge.

"I'll change that!" crowed Eggman. "Open all gun ports! I'll annihilate those plagiarists!"

"The Chaos Emerald's signal is strong," reported Decoe. "This indicates it is still in E-77's possession."

"E-77 is still in the vicinity," Bocoe added. "To open fire now would pose the risk of terminating it."

Eggman stuttered incredulously. "Have– have you gone soft?! E-77 has already fulfilled its duty! Besides, with the luck it has been endowed with, it'll come out without a scratch."

I really wanted to know what happened to Sonic. I remember I felt great joy when I realized he survived Eggman's attack earlier, but that was earlier. I wanted to know what he was doing now, but I was way too afraid to ask Eggman because I didn't know how he would react.

I decided to just get it over with. I took a deep breath.

"I-Is Sonic o-okay…?"

"Who cares," Eggman replied without looking back. "I'm here for the last Emerald."

"He is searching the landfill for the Emerald now," answered Decoe.

"Doctor, the GUN robots are recharging," warned Bocoe.

"Not if we act first!" Eggman declared. "Wipe them all out!"

I watched Eggman's robots working at their consoles as they pressed a few buttons, and soon came the whooshing sound of the ship unloading its arsenal of missiles upon the landfill below. As they exploded in rapid succession, I could only hope that Sonic wasn't caught up in the explosions. I would have had more confidence in Sonic if I wasn't busy playing damsel in distress.

"Report," Eggman stated once the barrage subsided.

"There is only minimal damage to the Valkyries, and Sonic is unharmed," Decoe reported.

Yes! I mentally cheered.

"Why am I not surprised…?" said Eggman. "In that case, it's time to charge the Egg Beam Cannonball."

I did not like the malicious tone he was using…

"I object," said Decoe. "But only because at the range, such an act would be suicidal."

Eggman held up a finger. "Not if we have the barrier up."

"The barrier has been reinstated," reported Bocoe.

"Egg Beam Cannonball is 10% charged," said Decoe a moment later. "Diverting all power to weapons."

I couldn't believe it. If the Egg Beam Cannonball was as powerful as everyone was making it sound, Sonic was doomed.

"Egg Beam Cannonball 35% charged."

I struggled a bit against my restraints, of course to no avail.

"40%…"

Tears began to prick my eyes in my fear and frustration.

"50%…"

It was charging much faster than I thought was possible.

"60%…"

I leaned forward against my restraints as far as they would let me.

"70%…"

"P-Please don't do this!" I shouted through my growing tears.

"80%…"

"I don't remember asking for your negotiation!" snapped Eggman. "Robots, you may fire when ready!"

"90%…"

I couldn't believe they were actually going through with this.

"100%!" finished Decoe. "Firing now!"

The moment Decoe and Bocoe pressed their buttons at the same time, the Egg Beam Cannonball was launched. The launching sound was much quieter than I expected. I had no idea what it would do, but if Decoe said a close-range launch could be suicidal, then chances were it could blow up the entire landfill.

I had noticed the lights changing on the wall behind me, because they had gotten brighter in the past few seconds. I tried to turn my head to the right as far as I could, and while it was painful, I could see that the green wall behind me was actually a screen. From what I could see, it was showing a gigantic white ball of pure energy having just left one of the Egg Fort's cannons and was slowly heading down toward the landfill. It was aimed directly at the Valkyries.

Seconds later, a massive, thunderous explosion rang out from below us. It was an incredible sight to see. In fact, I couldn't see anything for a moment because it was so bright.

"I would advise extreme caution, Doctor," warned Bocoe. "Such an attack can be overkill if used in excess, and technology on this scale can destroy an entire ecosystem."

"Been there, done that," shrugged Eggman. Now I wondered what he possibly could have done to destroy an ecosystem. "But you may be overreacting a little. Even if I do destroy this entire planet, I can always build myself another one from scratch, just like the Death Egg. Now give me a status report; the GUN tanks could not have survived that."

"But they have," contradicted Decoe. "The enemy vehicles are relatively undamaged."

"They must have anticipated the potential of your firepower, which is why they are utilizing these vehicles," added Bocoe.

Eggman hummed in fascination. "Even my own talent mesmerizes me…" he said. "It turns out these humans aren't as shabby as I thought if they managed to understand and harness laser weaponry so quickly."

"And what of Sonic?" Decoe asked.

One of the screens in the front of the ship changed to show Sonic, who was not only safe, but completely untouched by the Egg Beam Cannonball. He was now actively searching for E-77 and the Chaos Emerald. I felt some relief, even if it was just a little…

"I just had a thought," Bocoe announced, "or rather, the mechanical equivalent of one. There is a possibility that the children of Station Square will see us on the news and attempt to replicate our actions."

"It is virtually impossible for minors to imitate firing missiles and lasers," chided Decoe.

I expected Eggman to berate them about why it even mattered in the first place, but instead he muttered, "These days, you never know…"

Just then I became aware of the sound of Morse code entering the cabin from one of the speakers. Everyone fell silent to listen to the message. I couldn't understand any of it, but it seemed Eggman and his robots could.

"E-77 still has the Emerald," Eggman decoded. "However, the impact of the Egg Beam Cannonball has blown it roughly 800 yards to the southeast. Robots! Set a course for the Chaos Emerald! We're moving out!"


Station Square – Fri May 13; 10:43 PM – Sonic's POV

As I rapidly searched all over the landfill for the Chaos Emerald I had just lost, I felt great relief that Chris was safe, and that he hadn't seen me manifest my dark form. I never wanted him to see my dark form, because then he would be scared of me.

Eggman had immediately responded by launching a super weapon I didn't even know the Egg Fort II had. It was aimed more at the Valkyries than me, but that was because I steered clear of the blast. Eggman was too slow once again.

I was shocked that the GUN tanks survived the blast with only minor damage. Lucky, which was the name of the robot, was thrown clear by the last, and the Emerald along with it. If only I had held onto that Emerald a little tighter…

As I watched the Egg Fort's thrusters ignited once again, I felt determined to find the last Chaos Emerald before he did. However, I knew he was capable of detecting the locations of Chaos Emeralds, and I was no Knuckles, so that would be a challenge.

Just then I noticed something happening behind me. I stopped for a moment to see the Valkyries changing form, the eerie sound of shifting mechanics filling the night sky. I wanted to know what their game was, but I didn't have any time to stick around and find out. Knowing me, I could still claim the Emerald before the doctor could blink an eye.

I sped out of the landfill, and I could see that the Egg Fort II was headed in the general direction of the ocean. I gulped. Either the Chaos Emerald was that way… or Eggman had something more nefarious in mind for me…

Then I became aware of the sound of additional engines from behind me. They seemed to be louder than I expected because sound usually traveled farther at night. I really hoped it was the X-Tornado, but it sounded like more than one motor, not to mention they sounded more heavy-duty.

I threw a quick glance upward to see the Valkyries taking flight. It was a good thing I looked up when I did, because I could faintly make out the form of E-77 in the distant night sky. Finally, a stroke of luck… no pun intended.

And then I did a double take. E-77 was flying. I couldn't see any thrusters anywhere, so how was it able to fly on its own?

That was when I noticed what I guessed to be wings on its head it was using to keep itself aloft. However it was very high up, and I couldn't jump that high to catch it, assuming it had the Emerald with it.

And then I noticed that the Valkyries were spaced apart enough that I could use them as leverage to get to E-77. It would be tricky, but I knew I could make it work.

I stood still for a moment to study them. My mind was nowhere near as analytical and complex as Tails' mind, but I figured that at their current distance and velocity relative to both myself and each other, I could get enough air time to leap from tank to tank and get to Lucky.

So I braced myself, took off running out of the landfill (almost tripping over a broken refrigerator), and took a big flying leap up toward the lowest Valkyrie. I misjudged my jump and almost didn't make it, but I was able to stick the landing, even if it was a little shaky, for I had to spread my arms out to keep my balance. It was quite a literal Ride of the Valkyries, I chuckled to myself.

However, as I was preparing to make another big jump over to the next tank, it jolted underneath me as it and the other Valkyries opened fire on Eggman's ship once again. I didn't see its shield go up this time, and I cringed as the ship took some visual damage.

I couldn't believe my message didn't get across to them. I thought I had made it perfectly clear to them that I did NOT want them to shoot at the Egg Fort with Chris still inside. I didn't know if Earth's GUN was this belligerent compared to Mobius' GUN, but whatever the reason, some things never changed between worlds.

I eyed the next tank, and jumped up onto it in a flash. Fortunately, it was closer to me than the first one was, so I had an easier time sticking the landing without wobbling.

I took another glance up at Lucky. It was still very far away, and I had run out of tanks between me and it. But I knew I had to make the jump. Now or never. I could figuratively hear Chris' voice calling out my name in my head. That was what it took to spur me on and give me the determination I needed.

I took a deep breath, and bent down into a runner's position on top of the tank. I told myself I was doing this for Chris, and for the fate of the whole city– no, the whole world.

I pushed myself off the tank with all my might, and took a huge leap of faith far out toward E-77. This had to have been the biggest jump I had made in forever. It took a lot of guts, even for me.

Without looking down, I stretched out my hands toward Lucky, hoping desperately that it would catch me. As I got closer, I realized that it didn't look like any of Eggman's robot designs I had ever seen. In fact, it was covered in all kinds of lucky symbols that Chris once told me about.

I started to feel myself plummeting, but I managed to grab onto Lucky at the last second. I could feel my heart pounding. That was quite a scare.

But my sudden weight increase took Lucky completely off guard, and it panicked as it dropped several feet.

"Shhh, it's okay, just relax," I spoke in a soothing voice despite the harrowing situation I was in. "I'm not gonna hurt you."

As I was saying that, I was tightening my grip on the robot's bell-shaped body for dear life.

Whatever you do, don't look down! I told myself.

That was when I noticed the Chaos Emerald in the robot's hands. It must have recently reacquired the Emerald when it was blown away.

"That's a Chaos Emerald you're holding there," I gently told the robot. "It's very important to me and my friends. Can you please give it to me once we land?"

I was very well aware that this was one of Eggman robots, and there was probably some sort of self-defense mechanism built inside, but it seemed to comply with me. In fact, it moved its arm back toward me like it was actually going to hand me the Emerald right then and there!

I was amazed. It was incredibly rare, but Eggman had officially made another defect.


Station Square – Fri May 13; 10:46 PM – Chris' POV

"No! No! No!"

I could barely see on the screen what was making Eggman rage all of a sudden, but I could clearly tell that Sonic was involved somehow. And if he got on Eggman nerves like that, it had to be good news.

At the same time, Eggman had made me scared now. Scared at what he would do to Sonic, or even me. I had to know what was going on.

"D-D-Did… Did your r-robot malfunction…?" I stuttered. It took a lot of courage for me to ask that.

"Don't rub it in, boy," growled Eggman, barely turning his head in my direction but not facing me directly.

"Should we activate the tractor beam, Doctor?" asked Decoe.

Eggman grinned a sinister knowing grin. "Not yet," he decided. "If you look at the screen, you will see that E-77 and Sonic are situated directly over the ocean. At the rate they're falling, Sonic will land in the ocean, and you all know how well the hedgehog copes with water. Luck is once again on my side!"

"Perhaps not," said Bocoe as he looked up from one of his screens at the console. "An air vehicle is approaching us. Scanners detect it is the X-Tornado."

Yes! I mentally fist-pumped. They're coming for me! I'm so glad they didn't listen to my note!

Eggman, on the other hand, looked ready to punch something, but he relented and sighed.

"It's time," he announced in a low tone. "Time to transform."

"The transformation, Doctor?" asked Decoe.

I could see a dangerous gleam in Eggman's eye as he grinned.

"Yes, Decoe," he said. "The transformation."

I paled. "Wh-what are you doing?" I dared to ask.

Eggman turned around and started walking toward me, wearing his devious grin the whole time.

"Is it not obvious?" he gloated. "I'm going to transform this ship into the ultimate robot to destroy your precious friends, and you are going to watch."

I was literally sweating and even trying not to wet myself in my fright. Eggman was sick, and that was an understatement.

Eggman spread his arms wide. "In fact, Christopher, you should be honored! You have a front-row seat to the birth of the Eggman Empire!"

Turning back to all his robots at the controls, he cleared his throat. "Begin the E-99 Eggsterminator transformation now!"


The X-Tornado – Fri May 13; 10:39 PM – Third-person POV

Since Sonic's call, Tails had been flying around the darkened city for half an hour searching for any signs of the Egg Fort II with no success. It was eerily quiet inside the dual cockpits. There wasn't a single sound except for the soothing hum of the dual boosters outside, and Tails occasionally flicking switches.

Chuck coughed from behind him as he continued listening to GUN. It made Tails jump a little bit. He placed a hand over his rapidly beating heart as he kept his other hand on the yoke to maintain control.

"Sorry, Tails," apologized Chuck.

"It's okay, Chuck," replied Tails.

The way Chuck seemed so excitable sometimes when he got to work with Tails… it was so humbling. Like… no one had ever been that excited to work with him of all people before. It was an honor to work with a scientist from Earth such as Professor Chuck Thorndyke.

Not only that, but his know-how with tech, as well as being his guardian in a sense… there was a sense of familiarity in this man that Tails couldn't shake. He wanted to admit it openly, but he was a bit nervous too. But since he didn't know if this was the last night he would be around Chuck, he had to bite the bullet.

"Hey, Chuck…?" Tails quietly spoke.

It was quiet enough for Chuck to hear Tails without removing his earbuds, but he did it anyway. "Yes, Tails?" he responded.

"Um… I… I wanna say… you're just like one of my friends back on Mobius…" he said, becoming a little apprehensive. But there was no going back now.

"Oh…?" Chuck was now interested. He removed his other earbud.

"Yeah…" replied Tails. "His name was Rotor Walrus. He was part of a group of Freedom Fighters, back when I first met Sonic and Eggman first took over… He was super cool with technology… He reprogrammed Eggman's robots and helped to sabotage his factories… He even taught me all the basics about technology."

"And I remind you of him somehow?" Chuck asked in curiosity.

"Yeah," replied Tails with a fond smile on his muzzle. "He was really kind and eager to work with me with all our new projects… and he took good care of me…" Tails cheeks turned red a little, and his voice started to break. "…just like you, Chuck…"

Chuck's heart melted as he listened to his friend's wholehearted confession of his friendship.

"And… I want to thank you for taking very good care of me… and for being my very best lab partner and friend…" A single tear rolled down his cheek. "You're the bestest friend ever, Chuck… thank you for everything!"

Chuck could feel his own eyes misting over as he listened to Tails.

"I… I don't know what to say…" he admitted as he wiped his eyes. Even with the back of Tails' seat between them, they shook hands in a friendship handshake. They probably would have hugged too, but Chuck knew that Tails was busy flying the plane, and he didn't want to distract him.

"It's been such a privilege working with you, my friend," admitted Chuck. "I'm really going to miss you when you go."

Tails couldn't stop his tears now. "Me too, Chuck…"

"Awww…" came the voices of Amy and Cream from the back of the plane.

"That is so beautiful…" Cream said, uncontrollably smiling.

"Yeah…" agreed Amy. "They're the perfect friends…"

"And Chuck?" Tails continued. "If you do find a way to come to Mobius, I really want you to meet Rotor. I think you'll really like him."

"I would love to meet him," agreed Chuck.

The plane fell into silence again as Tails returned his attention to the controls and Chuck plugged his earbuds back into his ears. He was glad to have gotten that off his chest. He had been really nervous to say it for quite a while now, but he was glad he had finally done it. Because who knew if he would have another opportunity to admit his feeling of friendship to Chuck after tonight?

In the back of the plane, Amy was now gazing out the window.

"How is Eggman this hard to find…?" she mused. "I mean, he has this giant ship."

"It's possible he could still be somewhere outside the city," replied Tails.

Chuck scanned the skies around them. "Even so, we can see for miles, we should be able to– OH!"

All eyes turned to the giant explosion of light far in the distance. Cream was just beginning to point toward it, but there was no need for her to say anything because everyone already knew about it.

"Okay, that has to be where they are," said Tails in a sure voice. "Can anyone tell what just happened over there?"

Chuck squinted his eyes and peered closely at the explosion. "I think it looks like Dr. Eggman fired something big at the ground," he summarized. "I don't know why, though."

"Think Sonic's involved?" asked Amy.

"Yeah," replied Tails, before raising his voice. "All right, I'm heading over there now. I'm just warning you now that we're probably going to enter combat in a few minutes. It's gonna get rough."

"That'll be a first for me," Chuck said with a dry chuckle.

As Tails steered the X-Tornado toward the distant Egg Fort II, he looked back at Chuck with concern in his baby blue eyes.

"But are you gonna be okay?" Tails asked. "I mean… this is your first time going into combat with us."

Chuck took a deep breath. "It's just like you've always said, Tails... There's a first time for everything," he admitted, "and I trust your skills completely."

Just then the plane's alarm blared through the cockpit, taking Tails by surprise. His heart raced as he glanced at the radar.

"I'm afraid there's no time to turn back now," Tails said. "Several hostile units are appearing on the radar!"

"Badniks?" asked Chuck.

"No, these are too big to be Badniks," replied Tails. "Not even Super Badniks."

"Then they have to be E-Series!" gasped Amy.

"I wish you were wrong, Amy…" Tails groaned.

"It seems Eggman came prepared for us tonight," Chuck said in a solemn voice.

"Yeah, I thought Eggman might do something like this," Tails said. He gripped the joysticks harder. "But we're ready for him too!"

"This has to be a diversion," Amy speculated.

"M-Mr. Tails?" Cream nervously asked. "What kind of robots are we going to fight?"

"Um, I don't have a visual yet…" Tails said, glancing at the radar, before his eyes widened. "Three Beacons approaching at one o'clock, distance 11,000 feet! But yet I see eight dots on the radar."

Chuck looked up from listening to the GUN radio. "The Valkyries, whatever they are, they just launched a simultaneous attack on the Egg Fort, but it did nothing at all."

"What?!" everyone else exclaimed.

"Why on Mobius would GUN attack Eggman when Chris is still a prisoner on board?!" fumed Amy. "Didn't Sonic tell them about it?"

"Well, even if they did, GUN is not known to take advice from anyone, not even Sonic," Chuck replied. "I hope that's not going to be their downfall tonight."

"Okay, the Beacons are within range," reported Tails.

He pressed the buttons on top of the joysticks to open fire, but he was forced to steer out of the way as the Beacons unloaded their own lasers upon the X-Tornado. Thanks to Tails' excellent piloting skills, they flew just wide of the plane.

"There are Falcons right behind them!" shouted Amy. "At least five!"

"You're right, Chuck; Eggman really was prepared for us," Tails said with mounting frustration. "And what's worse, I don't even have time for this! I don't have enough reserve Chaos energy to last me a whole fight!"

"He's not leaving you with much of a choice…" Chuck mused.

As the E-43 Falcons crowded their way around the X-Tornado, one of the Beacons' lasers narrowly grazed the plane's top right wing. Tails gripped the joysticks a little tighter.

"I can do this," he told himself out loud. "It's going to be tight, but Sonic taught me everything I know. I've got this!"

Chuck smiled fondly at the young fox's courage. "I know you won't let him down, Tails," he said. "I believe in you."

"Hey Tails," called Amy, "don't look now, but it looks like the Egg Fort II is doing something. I… I think it's changing."

Chuck could only stare as the Egg Fort II's components shifted and changed over the course of the next two minutes until it resembled a full combat robot. It was by far the biggest robot he has ever seen. Amy and Cream could only stare in shock at the newly-formed robot.

"And… Mr. Chris is still in there!" squeaked Cream.

"Chao-chao…" whimpered Cheese.

"I know Sonic can take care of himself for now," Tails said. "I'll join him as soon as we deal with these robots!"


Station Square – Fri May 13; 10:46 PM – Chris' POV

"Transformation complete," reported Decoe once the floor finally stopped shifting and we stopped rising into the air. In fact, we were so high up that my ears were starting to pop.

Eggman pulled up an image of the transformed ship we were in. The Eggsterminator still resembled the Egg Fort II, but now it was a huge robot. In fact, it looked bigger than some high-rises in the outskirts of Station Square, and it was definitely way bigger than any of Eggman's robots I had ever seen.

Eggman beckoned to the image. "This is the ultimate weapon that will 'eggsterminate' Sonic once and for all!" he declared gleefully.

I felt sick that he was making jokes like that. I just couldn't believe it.

"And for your information, help is not coming anytime soon, as much as it pains me to say it. Sonic is going to be crushed, and the X-Tornado has just been ambushed by my diversion force, so you may as well just sit here and witness oblivion!"

The doctor cackled heartily, until a new voice came from one of the screens. I immediately recognized it to be Sonic's voice! And I could even see him standing on the pier with the clear Chaos Emerald in his hand!

"You may have stepped into the ocean on purpose to prevent me from attacking you directly, but hear me out. I will defeat you, and I will get Chris out of there."

Never before had I heard him sound more determined and confident.

"And Chris, if you can hear me… I'm gonna get you out of there… I'm gonna do whatever it takes… So just sit tight for a little bit longer, okay, buddy?"

I knew that Sonic was going to be in for quite a fight, but I felt very encouraged by his words. In fact, I couldn't help but exclaim Sonic's name in joy!

"SONIC!"

As I saw on the external camera on the screen that Sonic was running all across the Eggsterminator, Eggman turned to me incredulously.

"Do you really think he can hear you, brat?" he asked as he walked back toward the frontmost console. "Well, no matter. What will matter is that you will witness the destruction of Sonic the Hedgehog – and it all starts with these."

He pressed a big red button on the console, and a large shield-like platform began to rise out of it. Once it finished rising a few seconds later, it pivoted backwards and clicked into place. I could see quite clearly what was on the shield, and what I saw made me scared to the core.

"Now I am quite sure you are familiar with what these are," beckoned Eggman.

Oh yes I was… the other six Chaos Emeralds were resting on the shield with an empty slot for the seventh. However, there was another one, a large, round, white one, that was placed at the tip of the shield. I had never seen it before, and I was way too afraid to ask him what it was, even though I knew he was eccentric and was probably more than happy to tell me what it was.

"In case you need a refresher, these are called Chaos Emeralds," he said with bravado. "The servers are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power… power that energizes my creations! They exist to serve me and me only!"

He gave me a wicked grin, and I felt my anger rising, especially since he just twisted the prayer of the echidna tribe right in front of me.

"And now, my young human friend… you will watch as I embed them one by one into E-99. And they will be further powered with this energy-amplifying Corona Corundum which I have unearthed back when I still had a permanent headquarters."

He spread his arms wide, his voice reaching a crescendo of insanity. "With each Chaos Emerald, E-99 will get stronger, and in a few short minutes, Sonic will be no more!"

As Eggman full-on laughed, I felt a burning mixture of dread, anger, sadness, fear, and regret.

WARNING STARTS HERE.

Click.

I watched the first Chaos Emerald being clicked into place in its spot in the shield.

"Heat signature map is loaded," reported Decoe.

"Targeting computer has been activated," added Bocoe.

"Excellent," Eggman said, practically rubbing his hands together in glee as he sat down at the robot's controls. "At this rate, this will be Sonic's fastest demise yet."

"Target locked on, Doctor," Decoe said.

"Oh, Sonic~" cooed Eggman. "You are irreversibly in the crosshairs of my E-99 Eggsterminator! Run all you like, but you will find that you cannot evade me this time, hedgehog!"

As I looked on, I felt overcome with dread. There was a huge pit in my stomach, and I even felt a bit light-headed. I felt dread at what was about to happen to my best friend. At what would happen if Eggman actually killed Sonic for real and succeeded in his goals.

Then what would become of me? I didn't want to become a robot at all! From what Sonic said, becoming a robot would strip me of all my free will and make me a servant of Eggman, and that was what scared me the most.

Click.

I felt intense sadness as I watched the second Emerald being loaded into the shield. As the sound of fighting ramped up outside, I felt my eyes beginning to water. If I wasn't already crying before, I was now, and there wasn't going to be any comfort for me any time soon.

Now that all the Chaos Emeralds were together at last, I knew deep down that Chaos Control was going to happen, and when it did, it would send Sonic and all his friends away, dead or alive. Furthermore, if Eggman did succeed in destroying Sonic, and I somehow survived this ordeal, I would never forgive myself. I would be sad and miserable for the rest of my life knowing I was directly responsible for my friends' deaths.

Click.

I felt anger – anger toward Eggman for having the guts to do this to Sonic. For showing absolutely no mercy toward him. Anger toward myself for even entertaining the idea of trusting Eggman. I should have listened to my gut and not taken the Emeralds, even if it meant Eggman would come after me, but at least I would have had my friends to protect me.

However, it was far too late to change that.

My anger toward the doctor was full-on hatred. How I wanted to escape right now and give him a piece of my mind. But even if I could escape the brackets, Eggman's robots would be upon me in a heartbeat.

Click.

I felt fear… an intense kind of fear at that. In fact, I may or may not have actually wet myself by now.

The cabin was jostling wildly due to E-99's rapid movements, and the sounds of Eggman's combat robot pounding the ground reverberated throughout the bridge. Both of these combined with my being tightly secured to the wall started to make me sick to my stomach. It took everything I had to keep my nausea down. It was a terrible feeling in my stomach, and I didn't want to deal with Eggman chastising me for throwing up on his ship.

I was scared for my life and the lives of my friends. People could actually die tonight. And if Sonic died, Eggman would make sure I lived to regret it by entombing my mind inside a metallic case and calling me his servant.

Click.

The regret that filled me was almost overpowering.

Regret for helping Knuckles in his obviously foolhardy plan.

Regret for staging an elaborate scheme to steal the four Chaos Emeralds we had right out from under the noses of my own friends.

Regret for the very thought of helping Eggman.

Regret for lying through my teeth to my own friends who had helped me for so long and had been with me through thick and thin.

I couldn't even forbid myself from crying anymore. Hindsight was so cruel.

Click.

I watched the sixth and final Chaos Emerald clicking into place. Through my watering eyes, I was horrified to see through the windshield that Sonic was being mercilessly battered and smacked around by the Eggsterminator.

I was unable to control my emotions. I let out my dread, sadness, anger, fear, and regret in one powerful bloodcurdling scream.

"I'M SORRY, SONIC!"


Station Square – Fri May 13; 10:49 PM – Sonic's POV

In my opinion, the Eggsterminator was by far the biggest and most powerful personal Eggman robot I had ever fought. This brought back flashbacks to when I was intimidated by Eggman's original Death Egg Robot a long time ago, but this robot was way more powerful than that.

The whole time I was trying to avoid Eggman's brutal punches, I was hoping for my life that Chris was not hurt inside. Eggman would pay dearly if he even laid so much as a finger on that kid.

Right off the bat, it struck me that this was not going to be like any of the other Eggman robots I had ever fought before. Even though the Eggsterminator was as tall as a high-rise building, it was frighteningly fast, to the point where I almost couldn't dodge some of its punches.

Luckily, I had one Chaos Emerald with me. However, I figured I needed two to fly around like I did back when I destroyed Eggman's old base, but I only had the one, so I had to make do with what I had.

I glanced up at the cockpit. It was so high up that I almost couldn't see it. But if I could just scale the Eggsterminator and break into the bridge, I would have a good chance of getting Chris out of there, and hopefully the rest of the Chaos Emeralds too.

Narrowing my eyes, I bolted toward the Eggsterminator, leaving behind a glowing blue aura that lit up my trail as I ran. However, it seemed to disappear completely. One moment, I was getting closer and closer to Eggman's robot, and the next, I wasn't getting closer to anything at all.

Before I could even register that it had reappeared behind me, I was punched harshly through several nearby buildings.

Even with my nerves of steel and high pain tolerance, it hurt quite a bit for me, especially since I was looking right through several holes I had made through the drywall of the building I was outside of. I was both surprised and amazed that Eggman harnessed Chaos Control the way he did.

I couldn't risk taking any chances this time. I was not about to underestimate the combined power of six Chaos Emeralds. Regardless, I smirked. It was pretty tough, I had to admit, but it still had nothing on me.

I pulled myself free from the wall, glancing impressively back at the hedgehog-shaped hole I made, before looking back up at the Eggsterminator.

"You got a good right hook, Eggman," I called, "But you're gonna have to try a little harder than that!"

"If you insist, hedgehog…" came Eggman's reply.

Even though I was a bit battered, I ran back toward the Eggsterminator, only to be slammed into the ground again. Once E-99's fist rose back up, I looked around at the cracks on the ground of the shipping yard I was in. They were huge cracks, a sure sign of Eggman's raw power.

Groaning, I stood up and held my head. I was forced to strafe to the side to avoid another pounding.

I had to tilt my head way up to see Eggman's mighty robot towering high above me. One thing was for certain… it would take more than speed to defeat Eggman this time.


The X-Tornado – Fri May 13; 10:46 PM – Third-person POV

Even in the dead of night, the silhouette of the E-99 Eggsterminator was clearly visible to those within the X-Tornado. But that wasn't what Tails was focusing on now. He was intently focused on trying to stay alive and relatively damage-free while returning fire on Eggman's robots.

By this point, Tails had managed to shoot down one of the Beacons, but that still left two more of them, not to mention the five Falcons that were trying to rapidly swarm around the craft.

"I don't know how much longer I can last up here," Tails quickly said, his breath hitched. "I'm reduced to only basic controls and weaponry without any Emeralds."

Even though there seemed to be a momentary lull in the enemies' barrage of lasers, Chuck gripped the sides of his cabin to avoid hitting his head.

"Then we need to do something to fix that if we're going to survive this," Chuck told Tails.

"Yeah," Tails said, before quickly banking to the left to avoid another sudden laser storm.

Just then Cream gasped in alarm from the back cabin, and pressed her small hands against the window as she peered outside.

"The robot is hurting Mr. Sonic!" she cried out.

Amy too gasped as her head whipped in the Eggsterminator's direction.

"Tails, get him a ring quick!" Amy urgently added.

"I-I wish I could, but the X-Tornado can't make any without a Chaos Emerald!" Tails called back. "Sonic's on his own for once."

"No," Amy firmly said, clasping her hands together. "We still have GUN. And speaking of, Chuck, can you tell us what they're doing out there?"

But Chuck was already way ahead of her, listening intently to GUN's transmissions. "They're regrouping," he reported.

Amy frowned. "I don't think they could do anything to Eggman before," she said.

"Well, he seems to be distracted by Sonic at the moment, so there's a chance they could do something," Chuck said.

Even in the heat of battle, Chuck seemed to be remarkably calm. Yes, he was still a bit scared, but he had confidence in Tails, who was doing an amazing job keeping everyone alive and the plane just ahead of the path of the lasers. However, the X-Tornado had to take various dips and turns to evade the robots, and Chuck had to hold his breath to avoid having his stomach turn inside out, even though his stomach was strong and he was used to flying in small planes.

"They're charging their guns," Cream announced, referring to the distant Valkyries.

"But is it gonna do anything?" wondered Amy aloud.

"It has to," Chuck said. "It's going to be next to impossible for us to get anywhere near Eggman with all these persistent robots."

To punctuate Chuck's point, the plane shook from another impact from the light lasers the Falcons were firing. Tails grunted as he fought to keep the plane under control.

"EMP gas!" blurted Amy. "Do you have any?"

"No," Tails responded as he banked to the left. "Earth doesn't have the right resources for me to make any; otherwise, I would have already used it by now!"

Since the plane was moving around so much, Chuck had to constantly crane his neck to watch the movements of the Valkyries in the distance. Already he felt like he needed to stop turning his head so much, or he would get a neckache. Meanwhile, Tails opened fire on one of the Beacons, only for a pink energy shield to appear around it, protecting it from Tails' lasers.

"Ahh, I forgot about those!" exclaimed Tails.

"I think Eggman knew we would be powerless without the Chaos Emeralds," Chuck said.

"Yeah, I'm starting to think the same thing," he said as he gripped the controls harder and banked to the right. "He played us perfectly!"

"They're firing," Amy announced, at the exact time the Valkyries opened fire upon the Eggsterminator with all of their weapons, including their top-mounted cannons. However, before the beams from the cannons could reach it, it suddenly teleported to the other side of the Valkyries, and their attacks missed. Everyone in the X-Tornado was astonished.

"Did you see that?!" Amy exclaimed incredulously. Her eyes were wide; she couldn't believe what she thought she had just seen.

"No," replied Cream.

"I think I saw something," replied Chuck.

In the seconds that followed, electricity began to materialize on the fingertips of the Eggsterminator's left hand, and arced out toward the Valkyries, shocking all five of them simultaneously. Five dark shapes plummeted toward the ground and exploded one by one, starting small fires where they crashed.

The plane suddenly dipped to avoid a burst of laser fire, and Chuck had to duck and cover to reduce the risk of possibly hitting his head on anything. He still felt the sensation of falling, though, but he was somewhat used to it from flying a long time ago. He still didn't like it, though.

"Eggman just destroyed the Valkyries," Chuck reported in dismay as he uncovered and removed his earbuds.

"Wha– Just like that?!" asked an incredulous Tails.

Chuck nodded. "Just like that."

Tails sighed in frustration. "I'm so sorry I can't get him a ring or anything…" he lamented.

Tails turned back around, and once his targeting computers locked onto one of the Falcons, he opened fire. Even if he only managed to shoot down one of them, it was still progress.

"Okay, that's one down and four to go," reported Tails. "We might be able to survive this."

Amy's breath sounded shaky as she looked out the window at the dark shape of the giant robot in the distance.

"I'm scared…" she admitted. "That robot is– I haven't seen Eggman build anything that strong in forever…"

"Me too…" whimpered Cream. "It's too scary for me…"

"We're gonna make it," Amy tried to reassure both Cream and herself "Just like always. We have to survive."

"Hey, can any of you tell me how Sonic's holding up down there?" requested Tails.

Chuck peered down out the window. He could barely make out the tiny figure of the hedgehog far below them. His movements seemed to be a tad different than usual. His eyebrows furrowed.

"He's not acting cocky like he usually does," Chuck observed.

"Yeah, you're right," Amy seconded his opinion. "He's serious now."

The X-Tornado banked away from the scene, and Chuck could no longer see Sonic as the robots kept up their onslaught against the plane. A few heavy lasers from the two remaining Beacons narrowly missed the X-Tornado.

"I'm down to 10%…" Tails said after glancing at his energy readout. "Hey Chuck?"

"Yes?"

"I'm gonna need you to plug the green wire into the jack behind my seat."

Chuck eyed the wire. "That's the one for conserving power, right?"

"That's the one," nodded Tails.

Chuck reached down and picked up the correct wire, but a nearby explosion nearly jostled the wire out of his grasp. He almost hit his head on the side of the window, but he caught himself just in time. He gripped the wire more firmly to avoid losing it again.

Holding his breath, he located the jack to plug the wire into, and made the connection. Once he did that, the numbers on Tails' energy readout changed from white to green.

"Thanks, Chuck," Tails piped up. "That should stretch our energy supply a little longer."

"Still, I think you should take it easy," Chuck said, before flinching as a Falcon flew right past his window.

"Of course," nodded Tails.

Amy leaned forward "Hey Tails, how are you doing on energy? Are you still at 10%?"

"Nine now," replied Tails as he glanced at the readout for a split second. "I wasn't expecting a dogfight, so it's been dropping very fast until now. I think it was like… sixty-something before the fight…?"

A tiny piece of the bottom left wing was clipped by one of the Falcons' lasers, and Tails grunted as he struggled to maintain control of his plane. He banked back to the left to avoid another spray of lasers from the pursuing E-series robots.

Suddenly Amy screamed, and so did Cream. Tails and Chuck gasped, and their voices caught in their throats as they saw the most horrific thing before them. They looked on in shock as E-99 was mercilessly pummelling Sonic into the earth. The robot landed punch after punch on the ground, and everyone knew exactly who its target was.

Chuck had to look away. He was feeling sick to his stomach, not because one of his greatest allies was getting hurt, but because he knew Chris was being forced to watch. He was going to take it very very hard.

"S-Sonic…" Tails said in a strained voice, trying not to cry. He wanted to try to be strong and hold back his tears, especially since he was still flying, but he couldn't, so he decided to just cry, because it was all he could do.

In the back, Amy and Cream were already sobbing, and Chuck felt immense sorrow. It had been a long time since he heard anyone besides Cream crying.

"Th-th-this should be h-happening a-at all…" Tails whispered.

Amy choked back a sob. "If Chris hadn't been a jerk and stolen the Chaos Emeralds, none of this would be happening right now!"

"Now Amy–"

Chuck couldn't even diffuse the situation, because they were suddenly reminded of their current situation. The plane shook from another laser blast which did moderate damage.

The sound of uncontrollable weeping rose from the back compartment. There was no way that all hope could be lost. Not yet…


Station Square – Fri May 13; 10:50 PM – Sonic's POV

Chris… I am truly sorry I failed you, and… I want you to know that I tried my absolute hardest to take down Eggman this time.

This hurts like crazy… it's kinda like the entire planet is crushing me right now… but I know it's nothing like the pain I know you're going through in there.

I think I know now why you took the Emeralds. It had nothing to do with Knuckles. It had nothing to do with him wanting Eggman to agree to help us cause Chaos Control. No… it was because you didn't want us to leave.

Heh… I totally get that, buddy. Back before we all showed up, you didn't exactly have too many friends; and the ones you did have only liked you because you were popular. They didn't like you for being you.

But when we arrived, your life had radically changed. Like, you were smiling a whole lot, and there was no going back for you. We pretty much changed your life completely.

And then when Eggman had gone too far and put you in danger once again, we banded together and swore to protect you with our lives. Chris… we really care for you, which is why we're risking our fur to break you out of there tonight.

Now that all seven Chaos Emeralds are pretty much together, this could go one of two ways. Either Eggman wins and we all die, or me and all my friends – Mobian friends, that is – are all sent back to my world. But then that would mean you'd be left alone again, just like before we came to Earth.

You did this so that we could all stay here longer and be with you. Sure, anyone else would think you're selfish, but I understand. I know it threw everyone into jeopardy, and I know it put me into this situation.

I hate to admit it, but for once, I don't know if I'll be able to escape this nightmare alive. But whatever happens…

I forgive you, Christopher Thorndyke.


The Egg Fort II – Fri May 13; 10:50 PM – Chris' POV

I could only stare in shock as Sonic was being relentlessly battered before my eyes. There was a lot of the fight I couldn't see, but when I could see Sonic, he was more bruised and injured than I had ever seen him before.

But shock wasn't the only feeling that was overcoming me. I was horrified, and above all, absolutely livid at Eggman for doing this to my best friend. And here I had thought that Eggman wouldn't ever stoop this low.

"NOOOO!" I screamed. "SONIC!"

I desperately tried to escape from the brackets, which, surprisingly, was something I didn't try too much yet because Eggman was busy taunting me. This time, however, Eggman chose to ignore me, because he was too busy having his revenge on Sonic.

And then the cherry on top of this nightmare cake was when the Eggsterminator's movements slowed. It bent down for a moment, and then slowly stood back up. Its right hand moved within clear view of me and everyone else inside of the view. My pupils narrowed.

Eggman's robot was lifting up the limp body of Sonic in front of me.

Sonic… he was…

No…

But he was clearly…

I squeezed my eyes shut tightly, and then reopened them. They were not deceiving me.

Sonic the Hedgehog was dead!

And if even that wasn't enough to shake me, Eggman rose from his seat and pumped his fist in the air in triumph.

"Long live the Eggman Empire!" he crowed. He belted out a hearty laugh as all of his robots with him joined in the chant.

The sounds of Eggman and his robots laughing and chanting at the destruction of Sonic fueled my anger to new limits that I didn't even know I had. I closed my eyes tight as I was hit with several flashbacks of the time I had spent with my best friend.

Our first meeting at the pool…

Playing racing games on the PS4…

Sonic rescuing me and my friends at Tingalin Villa…

Sonic taking me on a run to get a feel for his speed…

Me hugging Sonic after he promised to protect me…

All these memories happened so fast… and now… I could never see Sonic alive again… I could never see his emerald eyes, or feel his soft blue fur, or hear his confident soothing voice ever again…

As my burning tears gradually blinded my vision, I felt an incredibly powerful surge of adrenaline building up within me. It was almost too much for me to handle. I had to let it all out.

And so I did. I released all of my emotions in one giant scream of sadness, agony, rage. I struggled with literally all my might, pushing myself forward; and after a few tries, I actually managed to break free from the brackets. With a shearing sound, they tore free from the wall and clattered to the floor, along with a good chunk of the wall behind me.

The bracket around my torso came loose first, followed by the one around my legs. I had almost forgotten that I was still two feet above the ground. I landed hard on my hands and knees, and I could feel pain shoot through my right knee. It hurt, and I knew it would feel bruised for a few days, but that didn't matter now.

As I painfully picked myself up and advanced toward the Chaos Emeralds, I saw Eggman staring at me in shock and amazement. Even the robots weren't making a move.

However, Eggman recovered from his shock sooner than I hoped. Even though he was stuttering, he barked out a command and pointed right at me.

"G-Get him!" he shouted, his voice cracking in fright. "Take him to the roboticizer!"

Without a moment of hesitation, Decoe and Bocoe immediately rushed forward and grabbed me under the arms, and then lifted me toward another door I didn't know was there before. From what I heard, no one could really escape when they were being carried the way I was, but I was going to break out and that was that.

I struggled violently against the robots, even more than against the brackets, and I actually managed to break free from them by kicking their legs until they let go. We were very close to the door when they dropped me.

Now that I was free, I ran as fast as I could toward the shield holding the Chaos Emeralds. Only one thought was on my mind: Shut down E-99 and make sure no one else gets killed. Eggman must have seen how determined I was, because he screamed "Shut it off!" to his robots instead of making a move to stop me.

The very moment I laid my hand on the first Emerald, I cried out as a serious and severe burning sensation ignited the palm of my hand. It was the worst pain I had ever felt. It was like touching a hot stove, only it stung more like an electric shock.

Determination was the only thing that was preventing me from thinking twice. I grabbed the other five Emeralds as quickly as I could, burning my other hand in the process. They were able to come out of the shield surprisingly easily. I assumed Eggman switched off the power to E-99 as a precaution, knowing I would do something like this.

I had to cradle the Emeralds against my chest, because it was extremely difficult for me to hold all six of them at once. I had never held more than three at the same time before now. And there was no way I could get the Corundum out of the machine because the Chaos Emeralds were my focus at the moment.

Even though the machine was switched off, the incredible power surge threw me up onto the bridge's equivalent of the dashboard right beneath the windshield, and it even broke the glass, but miraculously, I didn't fall out the window.

"Give them back!" I could hear Eggman shout, even though he sounded very far away. But I didn't react. I couldn't.

The Emeralds' oppressively overwhelming power flowed through my entire body, and I was struck by several flashbacks, many of them too fast to see clearly, but some of them I recognized from the dream I had in Africa some time ago.

I started to lapse into unconsciousness from both the pain and the Chaos Emeralds' power, but I was able to fix my eyes on Eggman as he stared impassively at me.

"Th… They're mine…" I groaned as my eyes started to close. "You'll n-never… have… th-them…" I choked back a sob; I didn't even realize I was crying. "A-a-and… Sonic… ngh… y-you're staying with me… f-forever…"

WARNING ENDS HERE.


Outside – Fri May 13; 10:54 PM – Third-person POV

I messed up. I really really messed up.

That was the mantra going through Knuckles' mind as he was clinging to his perch outside a GUN helicopter. He glanced out at E-99; by now it was completely stationary. Something had to have happened to it, because it was wildly attacking Sonic moments before, but now it just… stopped.

The echidna prepared to glide out toward the robot, knowing very well that Chris was a hostage inside. He had not done something this daring in a very long time, not since the Phantom War. The deafening helicopter blades were buffeting him and blowing his dreadlocks all over the place, and he had to hold on to the side of the chopper to avoid losing his grip and plunging toward the docks below.

He was kicking himself the whole flight over for listening to Eggman, and even for entertaining the thought of letting him have his Chaos Emerald. And now Chris had been roped into this. Now Eggman had not only six of the seven Chaos Emeralds, but him too!

Knuckles knew his moment was now. Determination was in his echidna heritage. He had to do whatever it took to get Chris out of there.

He took a deep breath, and pushed himself off the helicopter as hard as he could. He hoped he didn't push too hard to shake everyone inside, but that wasn't his concern now. He extended his arms out in front of him and straightened his legs horizontally, and was soon gliding toward the robot.

He hoped Eggman wouldn't see him coming. If he did, the robot would act accordingly. But it wasn't moving at all, and Knuckles was left wondering why. Whatever the case was, he was taking it.

As he was flying over, he noticed a whole swarm of Badniks flying out of the robot's bay door and making their way toward the GUN helicopters. Eggman had come prepared for extra resistance. But he knew GUN could deal with them well.

Knuckles made a beeline for the windshield and glided through it, smashing it into pieces. However, upon landing on top of the console, he saw that there was no sign of Chris anywhere.

"Where's Chris?!" he bellowed, pointing directly at Eggman.

The doctor seemed to be taken completely off guard by Knuckles' sudden arrival, but he quickly regained his composure.

"O-Oh, you mean the brat who took my Chaos Emeralds again?!" retorted Eggman.

Knuckles' eyes widened in surprise. "He what?" he gasped.

Looking around, he saw that the wall was broken and a pair of metal brackets were lying on the ground. Near the front of the bridge was a shield-like platform with seven slots for each of the Emeralds. There was another gemstone currently in an eighth slot, but that was not Knuckles' focus, as the Emeralds were missing. If Knuckles wasn't more focused, he would have asked about it.

Just behind the shield, there was a second hole in the windshield that he hadn't noticed before. His purple eyes darted from the hold to the brackets, then back at Eggman.

"…Did he get out by himself…?" he asked incredulously.

Eggman smirked, before his expression changed to fake sympathy. "Yes, he did," he said. "The moment he pulled the Emeralds out of the shield, there was an overwhelming power surge that sent him through the window. I'm afraid he's dead."

This angered Knuckles to the core. He clenched his fists.

"He better not be," he growled.

Eggman glanced out toward the window. "No one can survive a five-hundred-foot fall into the ocean, much less a human child," he said matter-of-factly.

Knuckles let out an enraged battle cry and charged toward Eggman, but Decoe and Bocoe quickly stepped in front of the doctor and expertly tangled with the echidna in a series of karate moves.

"You're bluffing!" shouted Knuckles.

Eggman grinned, and a sinister gleam formed in his eye. "In the end, it doesn't matter what happened to Chris," he said as he looked on. "All that matters now is that all seven Chaos Emeralds are together at last. And when that happens…"


Outside – Fri May 13; 10:53 PM – Third-person POV

By now Rouge was a safe distance away from the Eggsterminator. In her arms were Chris and the six Chaos Emeralds. It was extremely difficult to carry them all at once, but Chris was still cradling the Emeralds, which by now were already beginning to cool down.

Rouge was seriously tempted to keep all of the Emeralds to herself; she was a jewel thief after all. But the stakes were much too high now. People's lives were on the line.

Glancing behind her, she caught sight of Knuckles gliding toward the Eggsterminator. She knew he was too late to save Chris because she already beat him to it, but she was too far away to tell him. Perhaps, she thought, it would be more entertaining for him to find out for himself.

She gritted her teeth against the pain in her wing. It hurt like crazy whenever she flapped it, but she still had to do this. In fact, she wouldn't have gone if she knew Knuckles was hitchhiking.

Rouge mentally apologized to Topaz for breaking GUN protocol and leaving the helicopter against Topaz's wishes. Someone had to rescue Chris and get the Emeralds. And she was glad she was able to rescue him sooner than Knuckles.

Chris slowly began to stir in her arms. Rouge glanced down at her precious cargo. She didn't know how he even got the Emeralds out of Eggman's robot, but he looked badly burned and bruised on his face and hands.

"S… Sonic…" he whispered.

It would have been barely audible to anyone else, even for a Mobian, but Rouge was glad she was a bat, and her excellent hearing allowed her to hear Chris' desperate plea.

"T-take… take me… to S-Sonic…"

"Shhhh, I know, kiddo," Rouge said in a soothing voice, groaning against the pain in her wing. "But it could be a while until then. I just need a place to set you down, and then I'll see what I can do about Sonic."

Chris slumped in her grasp, and Rouge's grip on him instinctively tightened. As Chris fell back into unconsciousness, he released his grip on the Emeralds, and Rouge gasped as all six of them fell toward the ocean hundreds of feet below. She immediately started to dive after them, but after flying a few dozen feet, she realized it was pointless; they were falling too fast, and she wouldn't be able to catch all of them even if she tried.

She sighed. The Emeralds were right there…

However, she knew that protecting the life of a civilian came above jewelry no matter what. She knew firsthand from a painful experience a long time ago that she was still regretting.

With that in mind, she took off for the docks below them. She held back an audible cry at the pain in her wing. It was still patched up, and it still hurt to fly. But she would get some rest once this nightmare was over.

Just when she thought she was going to be in the clear, E-99's gigantic hand silently grabbed her from behind and squeezed her tight, preventing her from escaping. She caressed Chris closer, even though her arms were hurting, and hoped he wouldn't take the brunt of the pressure.


The X-Tornado – Fri May 13; 10:53 PM – Third-person POV

We're coming, Chris. Just hang in there.

Tears stung Tails' eyes as he continued to fight against Eggman's remaining robots. He had cried even harder when he saw that Sonic looked like he had just been killed, and then dropped limply into the ocean. The sad thing was, he couldn't even get a moment to just be alone and grieve for the loss of his friend. And there was nothing that his friends could do to comfort him, because the threat of getting shot down still loomed over their heads.

Even with two Falcons and one Beacon left, they were still a big enough threat for the distraught fox. He was surprised that he was able to hold out this long on such a limited supply of Chaos energy.

Chuck wished he could take over the controls for Tails to give him a moment to grieve, but there was no room for him to get to his seat. Tails had to do this himself. He was their only hope now.

"Don't let your guard down, Tails," Chuck told him. "I can help wherever you need it."

Tails gave a nod of thanks, before his gaze turned back to the Eggsterminator. He wiped away his tears with the back of his glove.

"The windshield's broken…" he reported, his voice barely above a whisper, and Chuck had to lean forward to hear him better.

Cream's sobbing was slowing down, just as she spotted something outside the window.

"I-I-It's Chris!" she squeaked. "He's safe with Rouge!"

Folding his hands, Chuck let out a deep sigh of relief. His grandson was rescued at last.

There was another close explosion right behind the plane, and Tails steered the plane up and to the right.

"I didn't know Rouge was gonna be here!" Amy exclaimed in relief after wiping her tears.

Chuck held on to the sides of the plane to balance himself. "She probably came over with GUN," he said. "They do have a few helicopters on the scene now, but it looks like they're occupied."

Sure enough, the helicopters were attempting to fire bullets and rockets at the swarms of Badniks, but they were not made for this type of combat. It was a losing battle for them. In fact, they watched in shock as a massive explosion ensued and one of the helicopters fell slowly toward the ocean below. It had been shot down by the overwhelming numbers of the Badniks.

Suddenly Amy screamed. Chuck and Tails looked over to see that the Eggsterminator had suddenly started to move again, and it had just grabbed Rouge out of the air. Even worse, she was still holding Chris, so he was grabbed too!

Cream gasped. "He's going to crush them!" she exclaimed.

The X-Tornado shook violently from a few more laser blasts. Tails gasped from the impact and tightened his grip on the yoke. Now he was too determined to cry. He had to fight to make sure all of his friends were okay.

"It's gonna be tricky, but I'm gonna see if I can get an opening," he announced.

"Tails…" Chuck spoke. "Look at the water…"

Tails glanced over at the ocean, and his eyes became fixated on one spot about a hundred feet away from the Eggsterminator. It was glowing gold for some very strange reason.

Amy and Cream gasped in wonder. Both girls still had remnants of tears in their eyes, but they were changing to tears of relief because they knew exactly what was going on.

"It's happening…" breathed Tails. He sounded just like a child in awe, and it was adorable.

However, Chuck was the only one who was left completely confused.

"Can someone tell me what's going on out there?" he asked.

Tails' broken voice was gradually filling with relief. "When all seven Chaos Emeralds come together, Sonic becomes Super Sonic," he explained. "He's really powerful, and he can defeat just about anyone!"

"I remember hearing you say something about that," Chuck commented. Tails had told him about this back when he was just beginning to figure out the Chaos Emeralds.

Sure enough, Sonic was rising out of the water on his own. He was no longer blue, but now he was glowing in a pure golden radiance.

Chuck was left absolutely speechless at Sonic's new appearance. He looked so different, so… beautiful, even. His quills were spiked upward, and he was radiating with the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds. He illuminated the entire night sky around him with his brilliance.

So enraptured was Tails at the sight of his hero and best friend becoming super that he lost focus on the battle. The last remaining Beacon shot a direct hit at the undercarriage of the plane. Normally the X-Tornado would have been able to sustain such an attack with moderate damage, but something was starting to happen to the plane.

Tails gasped when he looked at the readout.

"Zero percent?!" he exclaimed. "But…!"

"What?!" Chuck blurted. "Where did it hit?"

Tails scanned the readout for a second. His eyes widened, and his pupils started to narrow.

"It hit the capacitor housing chamber!" Tails shouted. "We lost all our Chaos energy! We're going down!"

Amy and Cream screamed at this realization, and then they all felt their stomachs dropping as the plane was rapidly losing altitude. Even Tails let out a scream of fright as he frantically tried to pull up to no avail.

Sonic noticed this and flew over like a golden comet. Chuck saw him coming, and watched in awe as he aimed himself toward the pursuing robots behind the plane. He flew through them like they were paper, and crushed them just as easily.

Even though Tails, Amy, and Cream have seen Super Sonic in action before, they couldn't help the feeling that they were completely safe in his presence, because he was unstoppable. Even as they were plummeting to the ground, they knew they would be safe.

They felt a jolt underneath the craft, and their downward momentum began to slow as the craft leveled out.

"Wait, what's going on?!" exclaimed Tails.

Amy looked down to see a golden trail emanating from beneath the plane.

"I think he's guiding us to a safe landing!" she said.

"I'm so happy Mr. Sonic came back!" Cream exclaimed.

"Chao chao!" cheered Cheese as he clapped his stubby little hands.

And then something happened that nobody expected, not even Tails. Sonic seemed to be shaking violently now, which in turn made the plane shake. Suddenly a burst of rogue Chaos energy shot out of him, and it sent him flying toward the ground at a very sharp angle. He immediately lost his grip on the plane, sending it into a nosedive.

"Wh-Whoa, what just happened?!" Tails exclaimed.

"I don't know!" Amy replied.

Tails felt incredible shock and dread at what had just happened. In fact, he screamed as the plane descended at an alarming rate. He and Amy and Cream were all scared for their lives.

As the alarm blared in Tails' ears, Tears formed in the young fox's eyes as he knew he was going to die that night, along with all of his friends. He didn't know if Sonic could even save him in time. And now he felt blame. It was his fault for bringing Chuck, Amy, and Cream. They would all be killed if he died too.

S… Sonic… help… me… I… I don't wanna die… please…

Tears stung his eyes and poured from his cheeks as he fought to pull the control stick back with all his might. But it was to no avail, because the X-Tornado refused to pull up.

The alarm suddenly stopped as the plane finished running out of Chaos energy. Now it was dead silent except for the girls' bawling. Even Tails was crying loudly now, and his thoughts were a mess as the ground was getting closer and closer.

And then there was a second jolt from underneath the plane. To Tails' surprise, it gradually began to level out. Tails held his breath. Sonic was trying his best, even with whatever happened to him not long ago!

Unfortunately, Sonic did not get to straighten the plane completely, and it crashed in an unoccupied parking lot. It skid forward about a hundred feet before stopping. The front of the plane had burst into flames, and it was now resting on its belly.

WARNING STARTS HERE.

Tails sat there dazed from the impact, and he had a nasty bump on his head. He lifted his glove to feel it. It was dazed, but there was no blood.

There was a groan from behind him. Tails turned around and gasped. There was blood on Chuck's forehead from a bad cut, and he looked very weak. He seemed to be holding his left arm funny too. Even worse, the front of the plane was on fire, and Tails knew he had to get everyone out of the plane now!

He tried to open the cockpit, but it wouldn't budge. The tears running down his face from all the trauma he had just gone through were obstructing his vision. He pushed with all his might, but still nothing.

Panic set in, and he started to cry freely now, wrapping his tails around himself to try to comfort himself. He was trapped in his own plane with all of his friends, and it was practically a burning grave for them unless he could somehow get out!

And then he became aware of a light coming from above him. He turned his tear-stained face upward to see Super Sonic floating about fifty feet above the burning X-Tornado. He was flying toward them fast, and Tails involuntarily flinched. He shielded his face as Sonic broke through the front canopy and then the back one, providing them an escape route.

"Get as far away as you can from the X-Tornado," he instructed. "I'll handle Eggman."

With that, he took off back toward the Eggsterminator, but sadly, he shook and glitched again before another sudden explosion of Chaos energy sent him in another direction.

"Cream!" Tails could hear Amy calling from behind him. "Cream, wake up!"

"Chuck, are you okay?! Speak to me!" called Tails.

The professor groaned. "Ngh… I can't… move… Help me out…"

Instinct kicked in, and Tails spun his namesakes and flew out of his seat and above the X-Tornado. he extended his hand down to Chuck, who took his hands with one of his hands.

"I think I'm gonna need your other hand," requested Tails.

"I-I think it's broken," Chuck said as he struggled to stand up in his seat. He attempted to move it, and to his relief, he could. "Maybe it's just really bruised."

He gave his other hand to Tails, and the fox pulled him out of the burning wreckage and over to safety about thirty feet away from the wreckage. He let out a cry as Tails set him down, and he collapsed.

"Chuck!" exclaimed Tails. "Chuck, are you okay?! Where are you hurt?!"

"M… My leg…" he groaned as he felt his left leg. He was really hoping it wasn't broken, but it seemed to be in very bad pain from being squeezed in Tails' seat in the crash. He pointed to the plane. "Get Amy and Cream out of there, now!"

Tails was shaken from his trance. He turned and ran back toward the burning X-Tornado. He felt extreme dread, especially since Amy implied that Cream was unconscious. He felt his aching head. It was a bad headache, but he had to fight his way through it, at least until he was far enough away from the X-Tornado like Sonic said.

He spun his tails and flew up to the back canopy, and stretched his hands down to Amy, who was trying to climb out of the cockpit, but had a hard time doing it while holding Cream.

"Amy, give me Cream," Tails requested.

"Chao chao chao…" whimpered Cheese as he flew just above his owner's head.

Very carefully, Amy passed Cream over to Tails, who turned around.

"I-I-I'll come back for you…!" promised Tails as he flew off with Cream. Cheese flew off after them, because the tiny Chao didn't want to leave his owner's side.

Not wanting to wait, Amy, who was surprisingly mostly uninjured, started to climb out the side of the plane. Her tears were calming down because of the adrenalin rush. She stood up on the edge of the canopy, took a deep breath, let it out, and then jumped.

It wasn't a perfect landing on the pavement, as the smoke was a bit disorienting, and pain shot up through Amy's leg all through her body.

"Ahh!" she yelped as she hobbled toward the others. She hoped she didn't sprain her ankle during that landing.

Her heart sank when she saw the look on Tails' face as he was running back toward him.

"I thought I told you to stay until I got you," he chided as he helped Amy limp back to where Cream and Chuck were. "It would have been safer."

"I'm sorry," Amy apologized as she hissed at the pain. "I-I couldn't wait…"

Tails' arm was around Amy's shoulder, and her arm around his as he helped her walk. Seconds later, he sat her down, and he sat down himself next to Chuck at the grassy embankment surrounding the parking lot. The three of them sat in silence looking out at Tails' burning plane and Super Sonic's battle against Eggman's robot way out in the distance.

"X-Tornado…" whispered Tails as he cried softly, wrapping his tails around himself and trying to hide his face from the others. "My plane…"

"Tails…" Amy spoke softly as she gently rubbed the kitsune's back. "...What happened to Sonic? Why did he act like that…?"

"It's like he was having a seizure…" Chuck mused, his voice shaky from the adrenalin wearing off. "I wonder if it has something to do with the Emeralds."

Tails' namesakes twitched as he thought about it. A second later, they unwrapped, and his head shot up as he gasped in realization!

WARNING ENDS HERE.


Station Square – Fri May 13; 10:59 PM – Sonic's POV

My hand was cluctched over my heart, I grit my teeth in frustration as I struggled to maintain control of my power and flight.

My super form has never acted like this before. I had gone super a few dozen times in the past, and short of fainting afterward, not once has it ever caused me harm like it was doing right now.

It felt like my super form was fighting against me, as if the Chaos energy inside me was rejecting me and trying to force its way out of my heart. It was causing a burning sensation in my heart from the moment I was initially thrown off course. It wasn't like eating a really spicy chili dog. It hurt a whole lot more than that.

I almost didn't rescue Tails in time. I didn't know what caused the X-Tornado to suddenly fall out of the sky like that, but if I hadn't been there to level out the plane… I didn't want to think about it. I loved Tails too much to let that happen.

I had veered out of control while leaving Tails and the others after the rescue. I was struggling to keep my coordination as more Chaos energy shot out of me. And I was shaking the whole time like I was having a seizure.

By the time I finally regained full control of my body, E-99 was fully ready for me. However, as fast as it was, it couldn't react fast enough to attack me, and I dodged its right hand as it attempted to swat me out of the air. I avoided it with the greatest of ease, and I made a beeline for the other arm, the one where I saw that Rouge and Chris were being trapped in. I hadn't seen it happen, so I assumed Rouge broke Chris out somehow.

But right as I was getting close, another rogue energy burst caused me to miss the mark, followed by another sharp pain that hit my chest and made me cry out.

Already this was the hardest battle I had ever had to fight in my super state. Something like the Eggsterminator should have done down within mere seconds, but not when I was wildly flying out of control at random times.

And then I realized why I was acting like this!

During the past nine months, the Master Emerald had not been on the earth to keep the Chaos Emeralds' power stabilized, so they were going out of control however they wanted. I had never even thought of what kind of effect they would have on my super form! I had gone into this taking it for granted!

About ten seconds after it happened, I regained my mobility, and I turned around and sped back toward the hand joint that was securing Rouge and Chris. This time on the second pass, I successfully crashed through it, and the hand's fingers loosened and let the two of them go.

I watched to see if Rouge would recover from the fall quickly enough. To my relief, she did, and she grasped Chris tightly and flew to safety with him. Normally she could glide smoothly without flapping her wings too much, but her flying was a bit irregular this time. I began to wonder why she was attempting to fly when her wing was still injured.

I started shaking out of control once again before I was suddenly jerked to the side by my chaotic energy. If that kept up, I wouldn't be able to maintain my form long enough to defeat Eggman.

When I got my control back, I flew back around the side of the robot and down toward the cockpit, where I knew I had caught a glimpse of Knuckles a moment ago. The Eggsterminator saw this, and its remaining hand attempted to punch me, but it seemed to be really feeble. I tried to catch it to destroy it, but I shook again and glitched out of the way.

Why is it so hard to destroy a simple robot like this one?! I thought as I regained control. I should have destroyed it several times over by now!

I squinted as I caught sight of a heavily-damaged Decoe and Bocoe falling out of the cockpit. I immediately assumed Knuckles was the culprit. I dived down to catch the robots, but I started shaking again, and I was launched upward by a burst of Chaos energy. As a result, I was nearly swatted by E-99's hand, and the two robots fell into the ocean.

Somehow I hadn't seen the Badniks that were picking off the GUN helicopters this whole time. So I changed course and veered through as many of them as I could. Just as I was finishing destroying the last of the Badniks, I was shot downward by more rogue Chaos energy. In fact, I almost landed in the ocean by the time I recovered.

Still shaking from my close call with the ocean, I turned around and bolted back toward the Eggsterminator's hand. It attempted to shock me with electricity from its fingers, the same kind it had used against the Valkyries. I saw it coming and caught it, then attempted to feed it back into the robot by pushing against it. It worked, and the entire arm blew out of its socket and fell to the ground below, doing significant damage to the Eggsterminator.

My rogue Chaos energy started to act up again, and I felt like I was steering myself away from E-99, but I attempted to use my willpower to change course and return to the fight. It worked to an extent, but not by much.

The moment I regained full control of myself, I returned back toward the cockpit and looked inside to see if Knuckles was there. I saw him trying to keep his balance, with all the shaking going on inside the robot.

"Knuckles, can you hear me?" I called.

"Yeah!" I could hear him call. Normally I wouldn't be able to hear him from this distance, but all of my senses were greatly enhanced in my super form, including acting upon instinct.

"Chris is safe with Rouge," I reported. "Get to a safe distance, because I am going to destroy this robot."

Knuckles was awed to see me, even though he had already seen me in my super state a lot of times. However, he looked a bit more concerned at how erratic I had been flying. Speaking of, I was jerked backward by yet another Chaos blast. And every time that happened, it sent a pang of pain to my heart, even though I wasn't supposed to feel pain in my super state.

Regardless, he nodded and leaped out of the cockpit, then executed a glide and turned toward the docks below us. Turning to Eggman, I smirked, gave him a two-fingered salute, and sped toward the robot.


GUN Helicopter – Fri May 13; 11:04 PM – Third-person POV

Topaz was watching in silent amazement as Sonic flew in and out of the defenseless E-99 like it was a hologram. There was no stopping Sonic when he was like this. It was just like how she saw him at Eggman's old fortress all those months ago, except he was way stronger.

She was glad she had destroyed all of the Badniks that had been swarming their helicopters, because she didn't know how much longer they would be able to last otherwise.

She tried everything to stop Rouge from leaving the chopper on her own, but she had been stubborn as usual. Yet at the same time, despite her broken wing, it had been a good thing she had done so, because if it hadn't been for her, Chris would not have been rescued fast enough.

Topaz did not personally know Chris too well, but a while back, she and Rouge did go over to his house to speak to his grandfather about Eggman and the few remaining Chaos Emeralds at the time. However, that had been Rouge's idea because she thought she could get something out of it.

The giant robot began to smoke heavily, and Topaz took this as a warning sign.

"All choppers pull back," she instructed. "Pull back!"

The pilots started doing so, but it was at a painfully slow rate. In fact, Topaz didn't know if any of the helicopters or even Sonic would be able to survive an explosion from something that huge.

"Sergeant, there is a massive energy disturbance forming inside the robot," one of the pilots told her.

Topaz peered out the window just in time to see a gigantic sphere of pure white energy expanding outward at a rapid pace that she knew would overtake the helicopters even at maximum speed.

"Chaos Control…" she said. "We're in the endgame now."


Station Square – Fri May 13; 11:05 PM – Third-person POV

By now Cream had woken up, and she had been crying at the X-Tornado burning, but now everyone's emotions were changing to excitement when they saw a familiar white glow of light rippling outward from the robot as it imploded upon itself.

Chuck was a bit nervous, but he was also awed. It was exactly as his friends had described.

"This is it…" he breathed.

Amy clasped her hands as she stood up, but winced from her potentially sprained ankle. "This has been nine months in the making…" she added.

Cream and Cheese were practically bouncing up and down in joy.

"We can finally see my mama again!" she cheered. She had never been this excited on Earth!

Tails, who had been massaging his aching head, turned to look at chuck as realization hit him.

"Chuck, you and Chris are gonna be sent back with us too!" he exclaimed.

"I don't mind, really," he stated as he watched the Chaos Control explosion get closer and closer. "I always wanted to see Mobius with my own eyes."

"You might not have a choice," Tails said as he gripped Chuck's hand and looked directly into the intensely bright wave of pure energy. "Here we go!"

All five of them felt the ground leave from underneath them as they were completely surrounded by a blinding field of white.


Somewhere – Some time – Chris' POV

"Chris… Christopher… Wake up…"

At the sound of a soothing voice which I couldn't quite identify yet, I slowly pried open my eyes. It was very bright all around me, and I was forced to squint a bit. There was nothing but white around me for miles and miles.

Is… is this… heaven…?

I started to wonder if I had just died as a result of being shocked by the raw power of six Chaos Emeralds. Tails did say that they could be deadly if they were touched directly when they were like that, or at the very least cause severe burns. And right now, I very definitely had severe burns.

And yet… that voice I just heard… it sounded way too familiar. Did… did Sonic die too…?

As I slowly turned my head to look around, I screamed aloud as I felt intense pain in my hands and chest. They were hurting like never before, and they even looked like they were burned. They were from the Emeralds when I wrangled them out of Eggman's machine.

"Easy there…" I could hear Sonic's voice from behind me as I could feel his presence bending down toward me. I turned to look up, making sure not to use my hands to adjust myself because they hurt too much.

What I saw made my jaw drop in awe. It was Sonic; I knew it was him because he had that same confident look to him, even if he looked different. He was glowing a golden color, his quills were spiked upward, and his pupils were now red. But it was him. And now that I thought about it… this was the exact same hedgehog I saw in the dream I had in the safari!

"Y… You're…" I was left speechless at Sonic's new look.

Sonic smiled a warm smile on me. "I know," he said. It was true; Sonic was absolutely beautiful now. "I would have died if it weren't for the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds."

So… this was what the Emeralds were capable of… This was why Sonic wanted all seven…

"Uh… Where are we…?" I asked as I looked around. There was absolutely nothing to see, and the floor looked and just as white as the sky and the horizon. It was slightly disorienting to say the least.

As I was looking around, Sonic took both of my hands in his own. It hurt just a little bit, but then something amazing happened. Chaos energy began to flow out of his hands and into my own, and I watched as it traveled up my arms and throughout my entire rest of my body. As it happened, I could feel the pain gradually lessening.

"This is Chaos Control," he explained as he worked.

The moment Sonic let go of my hands, I held them up and examined them. They looked exactly the way they did before I had touched the Emeralds. They were completely healed! And I didn't want to lift up my shirt in front of Sonic to check my chest. I didn't need to either, because I knew my chest was healed too. In fact, it felt like I had never touched the Emeralds at all!

"I… I don't… I don't feel hurt any more…" I gaped. "H-How did…"

And then a scary thought hit me right there and then.

"S… Sonic…?" I started to say. "Does… Does this mean… you're going home now…?"

Sonic nodded, his smile unwavering. "And it's all thanks to you, Chris."

This made me start to get upset as tears of frustration began to well up within me. Sonic leaving me was the last thing I wanted.

"N-no…" I whispered. "D-Don't go, please… I-I'm not ready…!"

Sonic slowly nodded in understanding, his expression morphing into a mixture of confidence and sympathy.

"Chris…" he said softly, his voice seeming to reverberate. "Even if me and my friends aren't going to be there anymore…"

"Please don't say that!" I begged, holding my hands out to him and rising up onto my knees. "You… you're like m-my brother! You're all my family!"

I had considered Sonic and his friends to be my family for a long time now, but this was the first time I had openly admitted it to him. I was a bit nervous to do it, but these were extraordinary circumstances, and I was very likely never going to see him again.

Tears fell from my eyes as I watched Sonic start to fade right in front of me. He was going away forever…

"A-A-At least take me with you!" I exclaimed.

Sonic nodded and leaned toward me to take my hand. I stretched out my own hand, but Sonic's hand went right through me. I realized exactly what this meant for me, and I started to really cry now. I would never see him again… never…

"S-Sonic…!" I sobbed. "D-Don't go! I… I-I wished on a star for you!"

That was a last-ditch effort I knew would fail.

"I… I don't wanna be alone again…"

Sonic was still fading right in front of me, but I could still hear him as clear as day. He was still smiling warmly at me.

"Chris… listen…" Sonic spoke, and I stopped speaking to listen to him. He sounded dead serious, and yet encouraging at the same time. "You are not nobody. You have never been nobody. You have been an invaluable ally and an excellent friend. Without your help, we would not have gotten this wonderful opportunity to return to our own land. I know you will see us again, but until then, keep being the boy you were made to be."

I was holding my breath as Sonic spoke. He was getting harder and harder to see.

"So Chris… Always believe in yourself, act by your instincts, never give up, be strong, be brave… and most importantly…"

By now Sonic had completely faded. Only his voice remained.

"Never stop being you."

With those last words, I completely broke down in a sobbing mess, wailing for the loss of my friend. Sonic the Hedgehog was officially gone, never to be seen again! And deep down, I knew that all of his other Mobian friends had also gone home too. Now it was going to be the same boring old days just like I had before they all arrived.

As I cried myself to sleep, I thought I could hear a faint voice calling to me. I didn't know if it was in my head or not, but it carried that cocky, confident tone I was so used to over the past nine months.

"Until next time, Chris, keep on juicin'!"


Chris' memories – Chris' POV

Cream bounded through the doorway into the room, with Cheese right behind her. True to Sonic's word, Cream was back to beeing her happy cheerful self. However, Chris still felt the need to make things right with her.

"Cream…" he started. "I…"

"It's okay, Mr. Chris," Cream responded. Before he knew it, she and Cheese had laid a beautiful crown of flowers upon his head. Chris glanced up at it.

"What is this?" Chris asked with intrigue.

"It's a flower crown," Cream responded, a beaming smile on her face. "It means you're one of my bestest friends!"

"Chao chao!" Cheese echoed.

Chris was in awe. Not only did Cream and Cheese fully forgive him, but he even had something tangible to remember that they were really great friends now!


Cream was like a little sister to me. I never really admitted it to anyone, but… I always wanted a little sister. From what I heard, and from what Danny had told me, little sisters could be a little annoying. However, I never knew that experience, because I was an only child.

But Cream broke that mold. She and her Chao Cheese were so sweet and gentle, and those two words failed to even begin to describe them. They were so innocent, and they pretty much never failed to help me feel better when I was feeling down.

And Cheese was kind of like a living teddy bear and security blanket at the same time. He was way softer than he looked, and he too was really cute. I was going to miss them both so very much.


We watched as Knuckles took an impressively huge leap off of the Citadel toward Eggman.

"You'll never trick me again, Eggman!" he roared before rearing back and kicking Eggman's hovercraft far away. The doctor screamed aloud as his hovercraft sailed out of sight.

Landing back atop the Citadel, Knuckles took a few deep breaths before leaping into the air and pounding the top of the robot with both hands, causing a giant crack to run straight down the middle of the entire robot. It was just like watching Kirby's Megaton Punch in real life.


Knuckles was an incredible wonder to witness. I had never seen any human or animal with that kind of brute strength before. No one else on Earth was capable of causing deep cracks to run through boulders.

I didn't know him all too well, but I knew that even if he was gullible, he meant well, and he still had a heart of gold. He was kind of like a cousin who visited from afar in a strange way. It was funny watching him tease Sonic about going out on a date with Amy.

He was quite protective of me, especially on that last day, even if we didn't know each other well. In fact, I found myself wanting an opportunity to repay him if we ever got the chance to meet again.


"I… I kinda feel weird about this," I admitted. "Shouldn't we maybe tell this to the police first? 'Cause I don't think we'll ever hear the end of it if they found out two kids went down a dark tunnel on their watch, not to mention it might also be haunted."

"Well…" Amy seemed to be at a loss for words for a moment. "Normally that's a good idea. But Chris, the police don't know what they're getting into. These are literal ghosts from Mobius with more power than they can handle." She looked back at the hole we had unearthed. "We have to do this ourselves; it's the only way we can free everyone."

I opened my mouth to argue, but realized that she was right about all this, and not just because of her knowing smile.

"Of course, you don't have to come," Amy said in a somewhat teasing tone, "but you can't chicken out now, not when we came so far!" Then she added in a more assuring voice, "But seriously, if you're scared, you can always stay up here. I don't blame you."

Rubbing my arm, I took another uneasy glance down at the hole. If I had to listen to common sense, I wouldn't go down there if there was money on the line, not that we needed a lot more of it. Rather, my friends were on the line, and that was why I felt like I had to go.

"To be honest, I… might be more scared up here alone than if I had someone to be with down there. And… and if you get caught… I-I can't do anything to help!"

"Chris, it's okay," Amy told me, sounding not only reassuring, but also determined. "But you do make a fair point. In that case, it's best that we stick together. And if anything happens, I can protect both of us."


Amy was like my older sister in a way, even though we were the same age. She had been so helpful to me. She had proven to be very tough and protective of me, and that only grew after that unfortunate incident in the castle my mom was filming at. At first I was a bit scared of her giant hammer, but now I had come to feel safe when she was using it, knowing she would always be on my side.

Having a big sister was so much more fun than I thought, and I was going to miss her so much.


I hugged Tails' tails more, trying not to completely bury my face in them and let any tears flow. "I actually feel like if I'm not safe with my own family… then I'm not safe anywhere…"

I already felt tears appearing in my eyes. I absolutely hated feeling this helpless.

"It's gonna be okay," quietly reassured Tails. "Um… I know that Eggman made you one of his enemies… just because you hang out with us now, but… I want you to know that I wanna keep you safe no matter what. And… um, you know how Ella and Grandpa and Mr. Tanaka are your guardians? Well, um… what if maybe we can be your guardians too…?"

I smiled at this.

"Yeah…" I said. "Th-Thank you…"

"And of course, um… we're always gonna be your friends too, and taking care of each other is what friends are for."

"Yeah," I replied, still holding onto Tails' tails gently as the X-Tornado continued its course home.


It was really a lot of fun to have a geeky little brother like Tails. I enjoyed helping him out with a lot of his projects wherever I could and whenever I had free time. In fact, it seemed like we had a lot in common. I had never felt anything as soft as his fur in my whole life.

I would miss Tails dearly, and I knew Tails felt the same about me deep down.


"Sonic…" I whispered, shaking a little. "I promised… I p-promised to help you get the C-Chaos Emeralds… just to see you go…"

Sonic gently wrapped an arm around my shoulder and slowly pulled me in close, so that I was leaning against him in a sort-of hug. He gently rubbed my back to try to help me calm down.

"Don't cry, Chris," he said in a soothing voice. "Just smile. It's gonna be okay."

With his free hand, he pointed up the moon which had risen over the horizon, and I followed his gaze.

"Hey, Chris… Whenever you miss me and my friends… just look up at the moon. It's the same on both your world and mine."


And then there was Sonic… I was going to miss him most of all. He was like a big brother to me, one I not only wanted, but also needed. He was always there when I needed him, and even when he wasn't, he would always come to the rescue. He was always there to boost my self-confidence.

I was going to miss him more than anything. If only–

"Chris? You okay, buddy?"

I slowly opened my eyes. Everything was a blur, but it looked like I was curled up in the fetal position at the pier. The sound of many police and fire truck sirens filled the air, as did the smell of smoke and the orange glow of a few distant fires.

I slowly sat up, noticing I wasn't in pain anymore. So that encounter with Sonic wasn't a dream… I slowly turned my tear-stained face around, and what I saw immediately flooded me with overwhelming joy.

The wink and thumbs-up were unmistakable.

"Long time no see, Chris."


A/N: And that concludes Countdown to Chaos!

Like I said at the beginning of this chapter, I'm keeping this to a minimum, but I called this chapter Open Your Heart after the name of the song from Sonic Adventure 1 because it explored Chris "opening his heart" about his feelings for Sonic and his friends before they have to go back home.

Next time is the season 1 epilogue, where everyone recovers after what happened that night! Don't miss it!