1x02: An Old Base

Previously on Desperate Hedgehogs:

Everyone halted their current activities when it was discovered that the mad scientist, Dr. Eggman, had escaped prison. Amy Rose saw it as an opportunity to finally get the love of her life by going on her own mission to catch the doctor, but she found something unusual which was the disappearance of the master emerald.

Meanwhile, a mysterious white hedgehog has appeared in the area, which the Chaotix are assisting, whether he wants them to or not. But just who is this hedgehog, and what does he want with Dr. Eggman?

And Sonic finally gets going on another adventure, receiving a request from the president to go search and defeat Eggman. But when he and his partners explore Eggman's old Mystic Ruins base, they discover their old friend, Shadow the Hedgehog, who was assumed to be dead...

Shock was all three of the people in the room could feel. Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles Tails Prower, and Rouge the Bat came into the abandoned Mystic Ruins base of Dr. Eggman to look for the mad scientist himself, who had recently escaped from the GUN prison. But what they found instead, was an old friend that they thought had left planet Earth five years ago after a long hard battle against his prototype. But that wasn't the case, as the very same creature just opened his eyes in the capsule he was trapped in.

When his eyes opened, the three were just left speechless. They didn't know what to expect from the old friend, but they got their answer, when Shadow broke out, destroying the capsule he was trapped in, releasing the liquid his body was apparently swimming in. Shadow landed on the ground, and slowly approached the three, who almost began to walk away.

“S-Shadow?” asked Sonic.

“Who has awakened me from my rest?” asked Shadow. “Who are you?” Shadow then pointed to Sonic. “And why do you look like me?”

“Shadow, don't you remember us?” asked Sonic. Sonic was pretty surprised at Shadow's immediate amnesia, but then again, he didn't really know what to expect from someone that was thought to be dead for five whole years.

Shadow shook his head. “No, I don't. I think I would remember someone like you that looked a lot like me.” Suddenly, Shadow received a nudge inside his head that only he seemed to hear. He covered his ears trying to make the sound not as loud, which made Sonic, Tails, and Rouge look at him weirdly as they couldn't hear anything. “Ugh!” Shadow screamed.

“Shadow what's wrong?” asked Sonic. Sonic was worried, as he didn't know what to expect next from this surprising creature. In fact, Sonic wondered if this was the real Shadow at all. It would take a miracle to survive something like that.

Shadow suddenly stopped hearing the nudge in his head, and he slowly looked up at the three just staring at him. He suddenly knew exactly what he was gonna do next, which was, “Intruders, you're not supposed to be here,” said Shadow. “Now, either leave now or face my wrath!”

All three of the people staring at Shadow gasped, as the thing they were least expecting was a brutal beating from the ultimate life form. “Shadow, I don't want to fight you!” said Sonic.

“Well that's too bad,” said Shadow.

Suddenly, Shadow jumped towards Sonic, kicking him in the stomach pushing him all the way into the wall. Sonic crashes into the wall, and slowly falls to the ground. Shocked faces on Rouge and Tails, they tried their best to stay out of the hedgehog versus hedgehog fight. Sonic slowly got up, barely bruised by the attack. It would take a lot more to defeat someone like Sonic.

“Alright Shadow, if this is how you want our reunion to go, I have no problems with that!” exclaimed Sonic.

Sonic then charged at Shadow, a little angry for being attacked by someone he considered a friend. But he had to assume that this was no longer the Shadow he remembered, in hopes of being able to beat him and then be able to get answers out of him. Sonic began rapidly punching Shadow, with Shadow blocking almost all the attacks. Shadow jumped backwards to avoid anymore punches. Sonic was getting ready to spin dash into Shadow, but Shadow threw a chaos spear at Sonic after screaming those words, knocking Sonic out of his ball form throwing him backwards.

Sonic quickly got up and began circling around Shadow. Shadow was a bit confused by this, but then realized what Sonic was doing when Shadow was flung into the air by the bluest of all tornadoes. Sonic then jumped up to where Shadow was and began repeatably spinning into him in his ball form left and right, and then finishing it off with a slam dunk towards the ground. But Shadow quickly recovered, and landed on the ground slowly. Shadow chaos controlled himself away, leaving Sonic wondering where he was. But Shadow appeared right behind him, and quickly began punching him rapidly.

But Sonic was one step ahead and jumped away. The two suddenly got into their ball forms, and began hitting each other like pinballs, each trying to hit harder then the other trying to get each other out of their ball forms and then finishing them off with a final blow. But nothing budged them, and this fight seemed like it'd be taking awhile between two evenly matched hedgehogs.

While the two hedgehogs fight, near the Mystic Ruins forest, lied a floating island. Or should I say, once a floating island? Angel Island has stopped floating, and is now floating on top of the ocean, due to the master emerald being taken away from a red echidna. He didn't know what had happened, he just knew it happened while he was being taken out by Amy Rose, who was really taking him out to get his help on her in her quest to win Sonic's love after so many years of trying to pursue it. Knuckles, the red echidna, was not very happy hearing Amy's true motives, and he certainly wasn't happy when he found out that Vector let the master emerald slip away.

Everyone was surprised from the sudden collapse of the island, and they all laid on the island resting. Trying to recover from the sudden amounts of water that had entered their bodies. Everything on the island was soaking wet from plunging into the ocean, and the same could be basically said for the people on the island.

Amy Rose suddenly opened her eyes though, and slowly got up, coughing out all the water that was in her mouth. She stared at her surroundings seeing how everyone was all shaken up by the sudden crash. “Oh my,” she said. “So that's what happens whenever the master emerald goes missing?”

Knuckles suddenly got up, and quickly ran to the spot where the master emerald was supposed to be sitting. He fell to his knees, and hit the ground with his hand, expressing his anger for ever leaving the master emerald in the hands of such an irresponsible crocodile. “Ugh, I shouldn't have ever left this island!” cried Knuckles.

Vector suddenly woke, seeing a very angry Knuckles right in front of him. He quickly got up and got away from Knuckles as quickly as he could. He went to Amy, and then asked, “So um, I'm still getting paid right?”

Amy sighed, but surprisingly actually gave Vector some rings. This angered Knuckles, who quickly came running towards the two immediately.

“HEY, what are you doing giving this idiot money?!” exclaimed Knuckles.

“Well, I kinda promised him anyway, I mean, he did try his best,” said Amy.

“Hey Knuckles, um, we're still friends right?” Vector said, sweating as much as a crocodile could.

Knuckles' eyes made him look like he was in absolute rage. Vector took that as a sign and quickly ran to the edge of the island and jumped off into the ocean. What? Crocodiles can swim.....or are those alligators? Knuckles sighed, not knowing how he was going to live with himself after five years of perfect guarding.

Cream suddenly slowly got up, along with her pet chao Cheese. They looked around at the wet island, and sighed at everything they were seeing. “Wow, this island looks really sad now,” Cream said.

“I can't believe I even thought about leaving this island, no idiot but me seems to have the ability to keep this emerald in one place!” said a frustrated Knuckles.

Amy looked pretty sad, she did feel pretty guilty. “Hey Knuckles, I know you think this is all my fault,” said Amy.

Knuckles shook his head. “No, this is strictly my fault. I should never had went with you guys, as a guardian of the most powerful object in the universe, I should have known better.”

Amy looked pretty angry all of a sudden, which was a surprising change to Knuckles, who started to look a little scared. “Now you listen here Knuckles! It doesn't take a genius to know that spending your entire life on an island by yourself is a horrible thing to do to yourself! Stop blaming yourself for a natural craving, and instead, let's get going and try to figure out who stole the freakin' emerald!”

Knuckles, Cream, and Cheese were all very surprised at Amy's outburst. I guess she was getting tired of feeling guilty, and was maybe looking for a way to ease the guilt off of her shoulders. However, Knuckles was in agreement that it was time to actually stop wasting time, and really time to find that master emerald.

“Ugh, I wish that Vector told us how the master emerald went missing,” said Knuckles.

“Maybe if you didn't look like you were about to attack him, he would've explained why the master emerald was stolen,” said a very smart ass like Cream.

“What was that?!” asked a very annoyed Knuckles.

Cream looked very scared suddenly. She may be a nice rabbit, but she also was not very bright. She unfortunately gets on Knuckles' nerves even when she doesn't mean to.

Amy tried to calm the sudden tension. Cream's truthful yet innocent comments can get her into a lot of trouble, that much Amy knew from experience. “Well then, why don't we go try to find Vector and see if we can get an answer out of him?” asked Amy.

Knuckles nodded, and started flying off the island and towards solid ground near ahead of him. Amy and Cream quickly followed, with Amy grabbing onto Cream, and Cheese followed closely behind. Before Cream let Amy grab her legs though, she said, “I thought we were gonna go shopping today.”

Speaking of Vector, he was suddenly swimming on a river in the Mystic Ruins forest. He must've swam a pretty long way at this point, but Vector was no doubt a good swimmer, so he probably didn't have a hard time to get to where he as. He finally did get out of the river though, and was finally standing on solid ground.

Vector was coughing out the water he had gotten from jumping into the water in the first place. He knew Knuckles for a long time, since the days he actually was a part of the Chaotix team, so he knew all about Knuckles' temper, and he wasn't going to be a victim of it like he was in the past. Vector knew the rivers really well, so he was pretty sure he was close to the Chaotix Detective house.

Meanwhile at the Chaotix house, we have Silver, Espio, and Charmy just about to go on a little quest to help Silver in his search for Dr. Eggman. But there was one thing Silver didn't quite understand, which was revealed when he said, “So, why aren't we going yet? We're wasting time!”

Espio turned to Silver, a little annoyed by Silver's impatience. He then said, “Patience is key if you really want something. Maybe as a government agent, you should know that.”

Silver wasn't what Espio and Charmy thought he was at all, so he obviously wouldn't know how to be patient, like government agents of this area seem to need to have. Silver just sighed and continued waiting, although he forgot what they were waiting for in the first place. Silver decided not to ask though, he wasn't really the person that felt comfortable saying just about anything.

“There he is!” Charmy suddenly said.

In the direction all three of them were looking came Vector, who had recently swam all the way from Angel Island. Silver remembered why they were waiting now. Apparently, he was waiting for the leader to come back, who is going to be guiding them in their recently acquired mission.

“WELCOME HOME VECTOR!” shouted Charmy.

“Shut up Charmy!” said a very annoyed Vector. “I just had to swim all the way here from Angel Island so don't do anything stupid! Anyway, what was the big emergency?” Vector then noticed the presence of Silver. Quite curious about the person he's never seen before, Vector asked, “And who might this be?”

Silver was about to answer Vector's question, but Espio went and did it before he got the chance to when he said, “This is Silver, and he has a mission for us. And he says he'll be paying us as well.”

Silver actually wasn't sure how he was going to pay the Chaotix, as he really didn't have any rings on him. Maybe he could find some while on his search with them for Eggman, or maybe he'd try to lose them during the journey. Either way, the Chaotix weren't going to leave his side at all, as proven with the desperateness Charmy had shown before. So Silver was gonna be stuck with money hungry detectives either way.

Suddenly, Vector stared into the sky as if he had money signs in his eyes. With his obtained money through Amy and this white hedgehog's money adding to it, their lives were bound to finally be saved. Maybe they could afford a mansion. Vector snapped out of it quickly though, and headed straight to the mission to try to get his money quickly. “So then, what's the mission?” asked Vector.

“Silver is apparently a government agent who's been assigned to track down Dr. Eggman,” said Espio.

“Oh yeah, I've heard about that,” said Vector.

“Well then why didn't you tell us about it?” asked Espio. “Charmy and I literally just found out now!”

“Well, it never really concerned us did it?” Vector then turned to Silver. “Until now that is. Okay Silver, we'll be happy to help you complete your mission! First, we should think of areas Dr. Eggman could possibly be hiding at. I mean, he's only been out for a month, so he couldn't have made an entirely new base in some location we don't know. No, it's gotta be something already built that would work fine for Eggman.”

Charmy, actually using his mind to think up a possible answer, said, “What about Eggman's old base right here in the Mystic Ruins?”

“C-Charmy, that's a brilliant idea!” said Vector. He was pretty shocked by how sometimes Charmy wasn't a complete idiot, though people can suppose that's just part of Charmy's charm. No pun intended. “Alright then, let's head to the old Mystic Ruins base and see if we can find any clues or even Eggman in there!”

“Sounds good to me,” said Silver. Everyone else nodded, and they all started to head for the old base that was at its peak during the era with Chaos. Now though, it didn't seem to hold much use, at least, that's what the cover makes it look like...

Meanwhile inside the old Mysitc Ruins base, two old rivals were battling it out yet again after so many years of separation. Sonic and Shadow the hedgehogs, were having their reunion with quite the battle. The battle scene now seemed more torn up, as there were even more broken machines everywhere. Tails and Rouge still stood back, just watching the two rivals battle it out. Though, they were still pretty confused on why Shadow was exactly fighting Sonic, they wouldn't dare interrupt the fight.

Shadow suddenly landed on the ground, and seemed to be resting for a bit. “Hmph, not bad hedgehog,” said Shadow. “But whoever you are, I'm just getting warmed up.”

Sonic then finally landed, and was resting as well. “Shadow, does the name Sonic sound familiar?” he asked.

Shadow paused for a second, trying to answer his rival's question. Shadow was thinking hard for a bit, when suddenly, his mind portrayed sudden flashbacks of him and Sonic in the middle of the city at night, where he stood in front of him, holding a chaos emerald. Shadow quickly ended the flashback, afraid of what was to come from it. He then answered Sonic by saying, “Doesn't ring a bell rat!”

Shadow then suddenly charged at Sonic throwing many punches at his face and then finally kicking him up towards the ceiling. Sonic crashes into the ceiling and slowly falls to the ground, until Shadow interrupts and kicks him into a wall. Shadow was suddenly becoming more aggressive.

Sonic noticed to sudden increase in Shadow's power. He didn't know why Shadow was suddenly attacking him so much harder, but Sonic knew it meant it was time to get down to business. Sonic jumped up and started charging for a spin dash. At least, that's what it looked like. But in reality, he was charging for a light speed attack.

Shadow had a bad feeling about what Sonic was up to, and began to charge at him getting to throw in some more punches, but Sonic finished charging up his attack, and all of a sudden was a ball bouncing around the room, attacking Shadow left and right. Shadow was knocked all over the place, and it seemed like it wouldn't be stopping anytime soon.

However, Sonic's attack finally wore off, leaving Shadow lying on the floor. “Grr,” moaned Shadow.

Sonic began to walk up slowly to the injured Shadow, thinking it was safe to go and talk to him now. But Sonic was wrong, as Shadow suddenly got up, and kicked Sonic in his stomach, making him fly all the way into the wall.

Shadow jumped and dashed to where Sonic was trying to recover. “This battle ends now!” exclaimed Shadow.

Sonic got up, and then said, “I agree!”

Both Sonic and Shadow suddenly used chaos control simultaneously, and began attacking each other. Trying to outsmart the other by appearing in a place so unexpected and attacking them. But Sonic and Shadow kept appearing in the same spots, and they kept punching each other until they teleported to another spot. One just couldn't seem to be able to surprise the other, and this was really annoying the both of them.

But suddenly, Rouge the Bat came between the two, having enough of the useless battle, shouting, “STOP!”

Sonic and Shadow suddenly stopped, temporarily pausing their battle.

Meanwhile outside the Mystic Ruins base just right at the entrance to it, there came Silver, Espio, Charmy, and Vector. They've all finally found the base, and were about to begin searching for clues. The forest was right behind them, it was a lot more open in this area. Silver then asked, “So, is this the base you guys are talking about?”

Vector nodded, and then said, “Yep, this here's the old entrance to the Mystic Ruins base of Dr. Eggman. It may seem like a predictable place for someone like Eggman to hide in, but there's really no other place we can really think of.”

Silver nodded then, but as he observed the base, he then commented on it by saying, “Geez, this place looks really busted though.”

“Maybe it's a different story inside,” Espio suggested.

Charmy then ran to the front of the group and then said, “Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go and kick some eggs!”

Vector was yet again annoyed by Charmy's behavior, so he showed it by saying, “Charmy, get back to the back of the group! I'm leading this mission!”

Charmy looked down in disappointment, and was secretly scolding Vector in his mind, but Charmy never outright complained, even though he knew exactly what to say if he was to do so. But another day, another time for that to happen Charmy thought, as he knew the group needed some money bad.

So the group finally entered the base, only to find Espio's suggestion to be wrong. The base was a complete and utter mess, full of dust and broken robots and rusting paint. It really did not look like the ideal base for a mad scientist. If Eggman was hiding here, you'd think he'd renovate the base a little.

“Well, it doesn't look like anyone's been here for awhile,” said Silver.

“Well, there still has to be some kind of clues at least to Eggman's whereabouts!” said Vector. “And besides, he's only been out for a month, maybe making a decent place was at the bottom of his list.”

Everyone else nodded in agreement, and began to search through the base. They were a bit surprised that the lights were on, but then they were thinking it probably was a motion sensing light that turns on whenever someone was in the base.

They continued walking, but then walking, was replaced with falling. This is because suddenly, the group stepped on something that was revealed to be a hole in disguise, and suddenly began falling to their doom. Before all four of them actually crashed into the ground though, Silver and Charmy flew with their natural flying abilities, leaving Espio and Vector with a very unpleasant crash towards the ground.

“What was that all about?” asked Silver.

“It seems to me that the doctor had some booby traps implemented into the base,” confirmed Espio.

“Don't worry, I can fly us out of here,” said Silver. “It's time to show you guys some of my powers.” Silver then suddenly picked up the entire Chaotix using his telekinesis, and began to fly towards the surface. The Chaotix were actually quite stunned at this power, as they didn't know anyone else that had such abilities. But unfortunately, before Silver was able to save the day, the hole they fell through suddenly closed, and all four of them crashed into it, and fell to the ground yet again.

“NO!” cried Silver. Yep, the four of them were stuck.

A few minutes before, as that group was entering the base, another group of four was trying to find Vector. It was none other then Amy, Cream, Cheese, and Knuckles. The four of them came to the entrance to the Mystic Ruins base right after the Chaotix and Silver entered it.

“I could've sworn I saw Vector go through that door with three others,” said Knuckles.

This confused the group, as they wondered why in the world Vector would go visit Eggman's old base. Amy expressed her confusion when she said, “Why would he go through that door? This is Eggman's old base.”

“I don't know, maybe there's some case they have to solve or something,” said Knuckles. “Eggman definitely seems to be a big name at the moment.”

Amy suddenly came up with a possibility on the master emerald's disappearance. But it was a rather predictable one, as there's really only one person that would want the master emerald excluding Rouge. “What if Eggman stole the master emerald?”

Knuckles then turned around to Amy, and then nodded in agreement. “It seems very possible, we better go ask Vector just to be sure though.”

Knuckles then started to head into the base, and then Amy was about to follow. But before Amy went in, she saw that Cream was just staring at the base. Amy walked over back to Cream, and then told her, “Come on Cream, let's go!”

Cream looked very scared and worried, along with Cheese. Cream then said, “This place looks scary Amy. This is the place where Eggman did all those bad things back then.”

“Aww come on Cream, it'll be fun!” Amy then suddenly grabbed Cream and dragged her into the base, Cheese then quickly followed, not wanting to be apart from his owner.

Knuckles stood in the base waiting for Amy and Cream and Cheese to follow. They finally came in, with Knuckles saying, “It took you long enough. They shouldn't be that far ahead so let's get going.”

“This place looks really disgusting,” said Cream.

“It probably means there'll be nothing to scare you then Cream, because all this junk doesn't look like it works,” said Amy.

Cream was a little cheered up because Amy did make a good point. So all four of them started walking through the base, wondering where Vector had gone. But then suddenly they heard a few screams as if they were plunging down to their death. The four were confused though, as they couldn't quite make out the sound.

“Do you think that was Vector?” asked Knuckles.

“Could be,” said Amy. The four then began going faster, trying to go in the direction where the sound was coming from.

Back in the room where the two hedgehogs were battling, Rouge the Bat suddenly had stopped the battle from going on any further. “Shadow, why are you fighting Sonic?” asked Rouge.

“That's none of your business!” said Shadow. “And who in the world are you?”

“What Shadow? You don't remember me?” Rouge then smirked and her personality was starting to return to its regular flirty state. “Remember Shadow? I was the one in your group back then that really was a government spy? Even though, I did give you all the chaos emeralds.”

Shadow suddenly had another flashback, which contained that precious scene aboard the ark when he had discovered that Rouge was a government spy. He seemed to be quite furious at the bat, remembering how betrayed he had felt towards the bat. And also how confused he had felt with the bat's words, when she had suggested that he wasn't the real Shadow.

Shadow immediately escaped the flashback however, and rage had appeared in his eyes. He attacked Rouge and kicked her into a wall, quite angry at her from the flashback. “Shut up!” he cried. “This has gone on long enough!”

“Oh, so you do remember me?” Rouge concluded as she was slowly recovering from the attack. “It's nice to see you do Shadow.”

“Uh Rouge, I think you should be quiet,” Tails suggested, very scared of what Shadow was going to do next.

“The fox boy has the right idea,” said Shadow. “However, it's a little too late for that. It was fun fighting you...Sonic, but I feel it's time to end this awakening of myself.” Shadow suddenly dashed to something in the room, and pressed a button on it, which caused this sudden beeping noise, and the time on it to start moving backwards. It started at ten, then went to nine fifty nine, then nine fifty eight, and continued on.

“In less then ten minutes, you all will be brought down along with the base, when the bomb detonates!” cried Shadow.

Sonic, Tails, and Rouge all had shocked looks on their faces. The last time a bomb like that was dropped was five years ago on Prison Island. Guess Shadow wanted a second round of that excitement. Before the three could scold Shadow for doing that, he chaos controlled out of the area, probably trying to get out of the area quickly.

“We need to get out of here and fast!” shouted Tails.

“I'm way ahead of ya Tails!” shouted Sonic. “Try to catch up ya two!” Sonic then ran out of the room, leaving Rouge and Tails behind.

“Well, he's definitely kept his attitude for these past five years,” said Rouge, as she started to take off and then left the room.

Tails then quickly followed, but he thought about Rouge's comment, and agreed with it too in his mind.

5 minutes left.

Amy, Cream, Cheese, and Knuckles were still trying to find where that sound they had heard was coming from. Part of it did sound a little like Vector, but it was hard to make out. Knuckles was in the lead, but he suddenly stopped walking, causing the other three to stop their movement as well.

“Ugh, I'm starting to think we're going the wrong way,” said Knuckles. “We've been walking for who knows how long and we still can't find them!”

The other three actually felt the same, as it did felt like they were walking aimlessly looking for this random sound that might be Vector, but it also might not be. Everyone was getting tired of walking around, because it seemed like it was going nowhere.

“It doesn't even look like there's anything useful in this base either to help us find the master emerald,” said Amy. “Maybe we should wait for Vector to finish whatever he's doing here and return to his house, and then we can ask him there.”

The other three nodded in agreement, so they were about to exit the base, wherever the exit was. But all of a sudden, the base started to rumble, causing the group to almost lose their balance. It was as if an earthquake was forming under the base.

“W-what's going on?” asked Cream. “Is it an earthquake?”

“I-I don't know,” said Amy.

Suddenly though, three beings ran into the group, one looking like a blue hedgehog, another a yellow fox, and the other a white bat. They all started at each other, surprised at each other's presence.

“Amy, Cream, Knuckles, Cheese?” asked Sonic in confusion of what these guys were doing here.

“Sonic!” said Amy happily. “It's so good to see y-you woah!” Amy said woah because the ground was beginning to shake even more. All of them were starting to get sick of the shaking, as it kept them on their toes, which is something they hadn't experienced in awhile.

“What are you guys doing here?” asked Sonic.

“Sonic, isn't this fate? I mean, you and me running into each other like this!” exclaimed Amy.

“S-Sonic,” said Knuckles as the rumbling was getting worst. “D-do you know why the place feels like it's in the middle of an earthquake?”

“Ugh, S-Shadow activated a bomb and this place is going to blow very soon! It must be already starting the process!”

“SHADOW?! BOMB?!” exclaimed Amy, Cream, and Knuckles. While Cheese just went chao, like all chao do.

“No time to explain!” said Sonic. “We gotta get out of here and fast!”

Everyone nodded in agreement, and started running towards the exit as fast as they could, with the limited amount of time they have left until the bomb detonates.

2 minutes left.

Deep deep deep under the base, were four recent prisoners to the base. Silver was at the top trying to break open the thing that was locking them up in the area. But it was no use, it just didn't seem to budge, no matter what powers he used on it. He tried to move it, destroy it, nothing seemed to work. Silver suddenly came down to the Chaotix, who were just chatting actually.

“I'm sorry guys, I can't seem to get it to open,” said Silver. “Do any of you guys have any ideas?”

“Don't worry, one of us will think of something eventually,” said Espio. “In the meantime, you should just relax and try to think of something yourself. Remember, patience is virtue.”

“But you don't know what's gonna happen if we stay down here too long!” complained Silver. “You guys are here to help me right?” The Chaotix all nodded their heads in agreement. “Well then, I REALLY need your help this time. So if you can try to speed the process up, then try to seem more dedicated to actually trying to get us out of here!”

Espio went tsk tsk tsk at Silver's comment, and the Chaotix continued on with their casual like chats, only bringing up a way to get out from time to time. This angered Silver, who just flew all the way to the top and kept on attacking the thing that sealed them from the outside world.

Suddenly though, the area they were stuck in began to rumble, like an earthquake. It was very very noticeable, and the Chaotix found themselves being thrown everywhere due to the rumbling.

Silver quickly flew down to the Chaotix and got them all up on their feet. “See?” he said. “This is what I mean! We HAVE to find a way out of here NOW!”

“Vector, have you thought of anything yet?” asked Espio.

“Hold on guys, it's hard to think under pressure!” complained Vector.

“It's also hard to t-think when it feels like you're on a roller coaster!” said Charmy.

Vector kept on thinking, as he looked at the thing on the top that sealed them from safety. He kept on thinking, and then finally, he came up with something when he remembered a crucial fact that could get them out. “Espio!” he shouted. “Remember that move you were trying to pull of f last week with making objects invisible?”

Espio nodded his head to the answer. “But I still haven't been able to fully do it yet, and even if I could, it'd be only for a few seconds,” he said.

“Well now's the time to master it then!” exclaimed Silver.

Espio nodded, and was carried up to the top by Silver who was flying as fast as he could. Charmy then followed carrying Vector.

1 minute left.

Silver then threw Espio towards the hard surface, and Espio quickly grabbed onto the ceiling. Espio concentrated hard on the ceiling, trying his best to make his powers work. He was struggling and struggling, seeming to not be able to pull off the valuable move.

30 seconds left.

Silver, Charmy, and Vector were sweating, as they knew the rumbling was getting worst and worst and that could only mean worst things were coming. Espio was probably sweating the most, trying to make his power work. But it just seemed hopeless, he was ridiculously out of breath, transferring all of his energy towards the ceiling.

But, by luck, the ceiling suddenly became transparent. Silver, Charmy, and Vector looked relieved, but didn't waste time and quickly jumped through the new hole. Espio them quickly dashed to surface, where he was finally able to catch his breath.

Vector walked over to Espio and patted his back. “You did good pal,” he said.

Espio smiled in response to Vector's comment. But then they all turned around and saw a bright flash of light heading right towards them. All four of them began to try to out run the light, but the light was just too fast, and they all became covered by it...

10 seconds left.

The base was really starting to rumble now, and it was really starting to crumble too, with all sorts of things falling to the ground from the ceiling. But this didn't stop the seven running from impending doom. Sonic the Hedgehog headed through the door, followed by Tails, Knuckles, then Cream and Cheese. Amy was about to get through the door, but Rouge, who was right behind her, suddenly tripped and fell on Amy. They both were lying on the ground, with only a few seconds left to get up and escape. But both of them were too slow, and the explosion was getting closer and closer.

Suddenly, Shadow appeared out of nowhere, with only five precious seconds left on the clock. “Ugh, it looks like I'll have to chaos control again. CHAOS...” but before Shadow said the second word, he noticed Rouge and Amy in front of him, lying helpless getting ready to be taken by the bomb. Shadow suddenly had these flashbacks of Amy, who was telling him something on the Ark, that seemed to mean a lot to him. Then he had a flashback of Rouge, who was talking to him on the ark, but she didn't seem to have pissed him off at all.

Shadow didn't know why, but he knew he had to disobey what his current thoughts said. As the timer on the bomb reached 0:00, Shadow skates to the two ladies. Touching both of them, Shadow then screams, “CHAOS CONTROL!” He, and Amy and Rouge then suddenly disappeared, right before the floor they were on exploded.

It was about time the Mystic Ruins was finally erased from existence. Nothing but bad memories seemed to come from the base. And even for someone like Dr. Eggman, the base seemed utterly useless now due to the lack of maintenance for five years.

This person was watching the base explode in front of his monitor. All the destruction he witnessed, he just sat still and stayed speechless in the dark room. But if you looked closely at the person's eye, you could see a tear escape his eyes as he watched the destruction behind the glasses.

“I'm gonna miss that beauty,” he said. “But I had to do it, there was too much evidence in there.”

The monitor then showed a picture of Shadow. The person then began to grin, saying, “He did exactly what he was supposed to do, that's all that matters.”

The room suddenly seemed to grow a little brighter, until you could fully see the person's face. The face was so popular, yet so controversial. Everyone hated his guts, but he didn't care. He let out an evil laugh he hadn't been able to laugh like a long time, because he was Dr. Eggman, ready to enslave the world.

What will become of Silver, the Chaotix, Shadow, Rouge, and Amy? Where will Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Cream, and Cheese go from here? And where is Dr. Eggman now? All this, on the next episode of Desperate Hedgehogs.