1x04: Four Searches

Previously on Desperate Hedgehogs...

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles had decided to stop worrying about Amy, Rouge, and the Chaotix and just continue pursuing what they needed to do. Sonic and Tails finding Eggman, and Knuckles finding the master emerald. Knuckles particularly gets a breakthrough in his search, when he finds a shattered piece of the Master Emerald.

Silver and the Chaotix have found themselves in this strange hospital after the bomb detonated. Well, at least most of the Chaotix, as Silver discovered at the end that Vector was no longer a patient.

Amy and Rouge find themselves prisoners after nearly dying in the Mystic Ruins base, due to an unexpected rescue from a hedgehog that all sorts of questions surrounded. Now the girls have to figure out the situation though and find a way out.

And lastly, Shadow was revealed to yet again, be taking orders from Dr. Eggman. Why he is taking orders though is unknown, but Dr. Eggman is after the chaos emeralds, and it isn't yet known why...

Shadow the Hedgehog. Often called the anti-hero of the heroic Sonic the Hedgehog. And with good reason too. He had manipulated the evil genius Dr. Eggman into nearly destroying all mankind. But frankly, he didn't seem to be a villian either, since by the end, he had made a dramtic turn around and helped Sonic in his quest to stop the Space Colony Ark. It was a happy ending for everyone, except for Shadow himself, who was at least thought to be dead.

But now this black hedgehog was standing in front of Dr. Eggman, the mad scientist he was able to trick so easily. It's surprising yet not surprising that these two weren't fighting as soon as they reunited. Eggman hates to be made of fool of, but Shadow was also his only connection to his family's past. Dr. Eggman looked up to Professor Gerald very much, even after finding out he was a madman.

The two were in the control room of Eggman's once abandoned base in the desert. But after Eggman had escaped the authorities, the base had finally gotten back into action, and everything was still working perfectly, for the most part at least. You may think the doctor has an artistic side to him, seeing shapes of his face all around the base. Or maybe you'd call that very self-absorbed.

Eggman had just told Shadow he wanted the Chaos Emeralds, and Shadow accepted without any hesitation. Why exactly these two were working together is still unknown, but it seems like Shadow wants something from Dr. Eggman.

"Good Shadow, you can get started right away," Eggman said with a grin.

Shadow nodded, and was about to leave the room to get going. But before he did, he asked, "Master, why did I feel the need to rescue those two strangers?"

Eggman didn't exactly know how to answer that question, but with his large IQ, he was quick to find one and then said, "Un un un, first get me one Chaos Emerald and I'll start answering some questions!"

Shadow was a little annoyed that the doctor refused to answer his question, but he knew he had no choice, he needed answers to the current situation, and it seemed like only the doctor knew what those answers were. "You're right, sorry, but um, do you have an idea where the first Chaos Emerald is?" Shadow asked.

Eggman's smile was more obvious then ever. "I'm glad you asked. I've been working on something that will be able to assist you in finding the Chaos Emeralds. E-123 Omega, report here at once!"

Suddenly, a robot came entering the door behind Shadow. It was a pretty big robot, colored black and red just like Gamma was. But this robot looked much stronger, nothing about the robot looked very cute at all. "At your service, Dr. Eggman," he said.

"It's time for your first mission to begin Omega," said Eggman. "I've been working on you for far too long, so it's time to see you be put to good use. You contain an emerald radar inside of you, I want you to go with Shadow and find me a Chaos Emerald. Failure is not an option, they're key to my plan!"

Omega nodded by bowing down, as he didn't actually have a head. His head seemed to be the same thing as his tummy, if that makes any sense at all. "Mission recieved, will begin progress immediately," he said.

"Good, Omega, wait outside the base for Shadow, when he comes, begin your search immediately," said Eggman.

Omega heard the message loud and clear and immediately exited the room, as Shadow watched his legs taking each step they took. The robot did seem intimidating, but it was a robot, robots don't have minds of their own, he would be fine with it.

"So Shadow, when you're ready, head outside and join Omega and begin the search," said Eggman.

Shadow nodded, and walked out of the room leaving Eggman to his doings. Shadow wasn't just ready to go on such a journey though. He first had something that was on his mind before he entered Eggman's control room that he had to take care of.

In another part of the base, there were two prisoners, both female, just letting time go by as they were stuck in a very small and dark prison cell. It sucked being stuck in a place with no way out, especially to these two girls, who absolutely needed all the fresh air they could get. These are two girls they don't belong in cages at all, Amy and Rouge.

The two were sitiing with their legs crossed, trying to think of ways to get out of the cell, after Amy's little tantrum that was with slamming the metal bars with her hammer. She was a wild girl, wild girls didn't like to be trapped. Unless of course, they're saved by their favorite blue hero.

"Maybe Sonic will come save us," said Amy, souding a little more hopeful now that Sonic had returned to her mind.

"Oh please, they probably think we're dead," Rouge said, sounding very annoyed at hearing Sonic's name.

"Don't say that!" Amy shouted in a very angry tone.

"It's not far from the truth though," said Rouge. "I mean, if Shadow is telling the truth and he saved us from that bomb, they probably can only assume that we didn't make it out in time."

Amy was about to shout something insulting, but she thought about Rouge's words, and then sighed. Rouge was right, they probably think that they were dead, if her and Rouge were ever going to get out, they had to do it themselves, or maybe ask Shadow a million times. "I just wish we knew where we were," Amy said.

Nope, Rouge and Amy still couldn't figure out that they were at a base they were standing in five years ago. But it had been five years, they didn't really feel the need to keep this base in their heads. But they had to figure it out eventually, they definitely were there before.

Suddenly, the girls could hear footsteps coming towards their cell again. They didn't sound too different from the ones they heard before with Shadow, and since Shadow was the only person they knew was in this base, they could only assume it was him again.

And they were right, as Shadow was finally seeable in their eyes, and he then stood in front of the cell, just looking at the two people he had saved from an inevitable death.

"Hey," said Shadow.

"Shadow...," Amy said.

"How are you two doing at the moment?"

"Not bad, except that we're kinda trapped," said Rouge sounding very annoyed.

Shadow chuckled surprisingly, and he didn't really know why, but Rouge's attitude seemed familiar. "Can you two answer some questions for me?" he asked.

Amy and Rouge were a bit surprised at Shadow's question. Rouge quickly answered though when she said, "Maybe if you tell us where we are, and let us go."

"Well.....then nevermind," said Shadow. Shadow then started to walk away from the cell, leaving Rouge looking pretty annoyed.

But Amy had a different plan, as she ran to the bars and grabbed them with her hands and tried to put her head through the space between two of them. She then shouted, "Shadow, wait!"

Shadow stopped, and turned around to Amy, who's head was outcide of the cell.

"Shadow please, don't you remember us?" asked Amy. Amy sounded desperate, as if she thought this was the only way to get out of the base, which seemed to be true in their minds. "Don't you remember? I told you something that made you change your mind about mankind, and then you went and saved the world with Sonic! Why are you trapping us here now? I thought we were your friends."

Shadow's face suddenly had shown a ton of confusion. He remembered getting that flashback of Amy telling him something very important. Did he save these two girls because he knew they had answers to his question? It was too bad they weren't going to answer any unless he let them escape. Shadow shrugged Amy's comment off his shoulders then, and just exited the room like he had planned, leaving Amy falling to the ground with her head down.

It was a very strange hospital indeed. When Silver the Hedgehog entered the room of the Chaotix Detective Agency leader, he came out and saw that his name was no longer next to the door. He didn't hear anyone coming to take the name off, so unless they were tip-toeing the name seemed to have vanished. Silver kept looking at the now empty name-tag, wondering if Vector's name was still there somewhere.

But, Vector's name wasn't there, Vector was no longer assigned to this room. Was Vector assigned to a different room? Silver didn't know, but he knew that something fishy was no doubt going on. He didn't know exactly what it was, but he didn't like that this was pausing his mission to find Eggman.

"Maybe he checked out or something," Silver said. "Maybe I'll go ask that nurse." Silver was referring to the nice nurse that was talking to him when he had first woken up. Silver thought he might find her somewhere on the first floor, so he quickly got to the stairs and began running down.

He finally reaches the first floor, and sees the counter near the front door, and the nurse was over there doing some paperwork. Silver walked over to the nurse, and then said, "Hey there."

The nurse looked up to see Silver's face. His eyes looking for her eyes. The nurse smiled, and then said, "Oh, hey Silver! It's good to see you on your feet hun!"

Silver nodded smiling back. There was something about the nurse that was really sweet, that made you feel like she was really on your side no matter what. Silver immediately said, "Thank you. I'm feeling pretty good at the moment. Hey um, do you know where Vector the Crocodile may be? He's a patient here but I can't seem to find him anywhere."

The nurse looked at Silver pretty weirdly, as if she was a bit weirded out by what Silver had asked. She quickly responded though by saying, "I'm sorry Silver, but there's no one named Vector in this hospital."

Silver's face suddenly showed a sense of confusion. He knew if he, Espio, and Charmy were in this hospital, Vector had to be in this hospital too. "But, I saw a door with his name on it before, but then later on, the name tag changed and there was no name on it. Did Vector check out or something?"

The nurse's face continued to show a sense of weirded outness. It's as if she thought Silver was spouting out something crazy. "Silver are you okay? There was never someone named Vector the Crocodile checked into this hospital."

"What? B-but, I saw the nametag on the door, his name was on it! Vector the Crocodile was in this hospital not too long ago." Silver seemed to be a little frustrated at this point. Was his mind playing tricks with him, or was there something even stranger going on?

The nurse's face suddenly had shown much worry, as if she thought there was something wrong with the person she was speaking to. She confirmed this when she said, "Oh my, these must be some side effects," she said. "We must take you back to your room immediately and do a check up."

"Oh um, no thanks, I actually just wanted to check out," Silver said, who didn't seem to know what he was saying due to such a surprising comment.

"NO!" shouted the nurse. "You aren't going anywhere until we get you checked up!"

Silver was immensely shocked by how such a nice and pretty nurse turned so aggressive so soon. Was this really some side effect to whatever damage was dealt to him, or was something even bigger going on?

Everyone in this universe had at least heard of the Master Emerald. Its great powers that could completely help or destroy the universe. But the power is not easily accessible. At least, the full potential isn't. No, if you really wanted control of that unlimited energy that could completely stop the Chaos Emeralds from doung anything, you had to be one echidna, which was Knuckles.

Unfortunately, since Knuckles was the only one that was able to really use the Master Emerald's energy to its full potential, he's a popular person to try to trick into giving information. Luckily he had never given such information, and the secret to really harnessing the Master Emerald's power is still a secret.

So, people may take an alternative to reaching true power, which is to steal the Master Emerald so that it could not stop the Chaos Emeralds, which on the other hand was very easy to absorb power from. Sometimes, even shattering the emerald. This is all Knuckles could think of, when he found a missing piece of the Master Emerald.

He stood in front of the bush outside Tails' lab in the Mystic Ruins with Sonic, and they both stared at the Master Emerald piece, which Knuckles was now holding. Knuckles at least knew what the state of the Master Emerald was, but who did it, and why?

"There's no doubt about it, this is a piece of the Master Emerald," Knuckles said.

"Now why would someone go and steal the emerald, then shatter it?" asked Sonic,

"Beats me," said Knuckles. "Whoever did this though is going to meet my fist!"

Sonic chuckled, always seeming to laugh whenever Knuckles showed his anger. The Master Emerald was usually a good place to start if you wanted to piss the echidna off. "Why is that your answer to everything?" asked Sonic.

Knuckles was in rage, and didn't really appreciate Sonic's smart comment. "This isn't a joke you idiot!" Knuckles said. "Someone has the nerve to not only steal the Master Emerald, but smash it into pieces as well! I must find the colprit as soon as possible!"

Suddenly, the two heard something coming up behind them, and they saw that it was Tails, who had just exited the lab, looking like he was wondering what all the commotion was about. "You guys are really loud, what are you talking about?" Tails asked.

"Guess what we found Tails," Sonic said, as Knuckles showed Tails the Master Emerald piece.

Tails' eyes lit up, as he definitely didn't expect to see a master emerald piece sitting there right next to his lab. "Woah, is that what I think it is?" he asked.

Knuckles nodded, then said, "Yes, it's a missing piece of the Master Emerald. Whoever stole it shattered the Master Emerald for whatever reason!"

"Whoever did this, why would they waste their time to steal the darn thing and then just break it?" asked Sonic. "I guess though, they could just be really clumsy."

"Well, it's kinda scary that a thief might've been near my lab while we were gone," said Tails. "I mean, what if they stole anything I made as well?" Tails' face suddenly showed alot of worry, you could say he was the type of guy that could get very attached to things he created, kind of like a father and son relationship.

"Heh heh heh," said Sonic. "Don't worry Tails, I'm sure with your mind you'd just be able to make it again."

Tails turned around and faced Sonic actually looking very stern, then said, "It's not as simple as you think, you have no idea what I've been inventing these past five years Sonic."

Sonic was taken a bit by surprise, as Tails would usually always laugh at his little jokes. At least, that's what the Tails he knew five years ago would do. Sonic shrugged the comment off though, and then just said, "So, not only do we have Eggman on our minds, but we also have some guy that cared about the Master Emerald enough to want to steal it. And for what we know, they could've shattered it on purpose or by accident. Sounds like another adventure guys!"

Knuckles was pretty annoyed by Sonic's laid back attitude, like he always was. He showed it by saying, "This isn't all fun and games Sonic. If someone wanted the Master Emerald it's because they know it has enough power to stop the Chaos Emeralds. And if they wanted to shatter it, it's because they plan to use the Chaos Emeralds and don't want the Master Emerald to get in the way. Maybe Eggman is the one that did this, the person you two happen to be looking for as well."

Tails suddenly remembered another reason why he had come out to chat with the two guys. He had something to tell them, which was, "Oh, that reminds me guys, get into my lab, I just remembered something incredibly important that could lead us to Eggman!"

Tails then began to run into his lab, and Sonic and Knuckles followed shortly.

It seemed like Amy and Rouge didn't have very good luck for awhile, considering the fact that not only were they stuck in prison in a place they just could not recognize, but they could not even get any answers from someone they had considered a hero before. But then again, it was Shadow, no one but Eggman seemed to had known enough about the black hedgehog.

Amy and Rouge were both lying on the floor, trying to think of ways to turn their luck around, which would be by actually getting out of prison and out into the free open world so that they could figure out this mess. But so far, they had come up with nothing, and it felt like forever since Shadow had last visited them.

"Rouge, thought of anything yet?" Amy asked, sounding very tired and lazy actually.

Rouge sighed, sounding just as tired and lazy as Amy, then said, "Nothing yet. And I'm getting bored feeling like we're being trapped here for eternity. Aren't we at least supposed to get something to eat? My ideal way to die isn't starvation."

"I can't believe you're thinking about food at a time like this," Amy said sounding annoyed. "But then again, you are very self-absorbed."

"Wow, since when did little miss sunshine use words like that?" asked Rouge, sounding pretty mocking like actually.

Amy yelped a big fat ha to Rouge, as she knew exactly what to say in response. "It's called growing up Rouge, which is something maybe someone like you should consider."

Rouge girnned, thinking Amy's comment as quite amateurish at trying to be a decent insult. She responds by saying, "Says the one that can't let go of a crush on a guy that's probably not going to settle down for anyone."

That comment really hit Amy deep in her heart. She didn't like to be called a child just because of her enormous crush that she knew she couldn't let go of yet. Even after five years of total rejection, she still loved that blue hedgehog as if he were her true soul mate. Fire raged in her eyes, she faced Rouge, and then shouted, "Who do you think you are?! Love is something that cannot be helped, it isn't some childish thing! Then again, you probably don't know anything about it knowing your lying nature."

Rouge then said, "Believe me honey, I do," knowing exactly what she was referring to. "Why are you being so defensive? Face it Amy, your little crush on Sonic is kinda hopeless if he's ignored ya for five years."

"Well you don't know that!" Amy shouted. She sighed and laid back on the ground. "Gosh, staying in this cell with you is making me go insane."

"I think I can see that," Rouge said. "Don't worry, it's all making me pretty cranky myself, we've got to find a way out of here." Rouge was right, who knows what will become of Amy and Rouge the longer they are to stay in such a confined area.

That must've sucked. Feeling like you were in tip top shape, only to be told that your feelings were wrong and then rushed back into the room to do extreme testing. Silver knew there was nothing wrong with him though, and these tests that were being performed felt very weird to him. He just felt this certain sense of sleepiness as whatever that was being inserted into him kept going in.

Silver had a bad feeling about this now. He was getting more and more sleepy. And there didn't seem to be a way to fight it. He stared at the nurse, who seemed to be staring at him with much worry. But to Silver, there seemed to be something odd about her face. It just seemed, well, you could say Silver never thought someone like her could even show worry, let alone so much of it. How long had she known Silver now? About an hour at this point? There just seemed to be something...odd about her.

However, Silver had no time to think about it all, as he couldn't help his eye lids close. He tried to resist, and it actually seemed like he might've been able to stay awake for a little while.

But then the nurse said, "Don't worry sweety, you're safe with me, please let us help you."

Help you, help you, help you, help you, help you. The words kept repeating themselves in Silver's head. He couldn't control himself at this point, his eye lids finally closed, and he appeared to finally be giving into whatever was being inserted into him.

"Yes yes, rest, that's what you need, rest," said the nurse. She then slowly walked out of the room, and then closed the door behind her.

If something was going on, then Silver had basically failed to try to resist whatever it was, and now he seemed to be sound asleep. All hope was lost, Silver had fallen into whatever clutches he had fallen into.

At least, that's what they thought.

Silver's eyes opened, and took out all the appliances hooked up to him. He seemed pretty tired, but not tired enough to have actually fallen asleep like what was thought. He slowly got off his bed, trying to gain his balance. He almost fell to the ground, the stuff inserted into him was pretty effective, but it couldn't get Silver completely, as he was awake, barely.

"I-I know what this is," Silver said slowly. "And it isn't any good."

Silver seemed more convinced then ever that this hospital wasn't exactly a hospital. Something about what was injected into him seems to have led him to this conclusion. He had to tell Espio and Charmy. He had to get out of this place. He had to find out what they had done with Vector. He had to be the hero. The Chaotix were going to pay him when this was all done.

He slowly walked up to the door, and slowly opened it, hoping no one would hear or see the door opening. He slowly put his head out the door, to see if anyone was in the hallway. He looked to the left, nothing there. He looked to the right, nothing there.

"I've got...to tell Espio and Charmy," Silver said. He slowly exited the door and began walking, well, barely walking.

Tails' lab was still a shocking sight to Sonic and Knuckles. But then again, it definitely was the first time they saw the lab be as huge as that. It definitely wasn't the lab they knew before during their days battling Chaos. They could only assume that the more years that past, the smarter that Tails gets.

Tails was standing in front of his computer. He seemed to be trying to get something up to show Sonic and Knuckles. Sonic and Knuckles were waiting, wondering what Tails' important news was.

"Okay guys, let me ask you something," Tails began to say. "Do you guys remember another one of Eggman's old bases we hadn't investigated yet?"

Sonic and Knuckles were thinking, Eggman had the ability to create massive bases in such a short time. It wouldn't be a surprise if they forgot about a base that Eggman could possibly be hiding in. But, nothing really came into their minds, so they both shook your heads.

"Oh, I don't blame you guys for forgetting, we only actually were at this certain base for a short time," Tails said. "But it's the most recent one we saw! Eggman's base in the desert, when he was working with Shadow!"

Sonic and Knuckles suddenly remembered exactly what that place was. How could all three of them forget about such a base? Especially since it was the most recent one. But then, they remembered why they didn't even consider the base, why they didn't even remember it.

"Tails, didn't that base get engulfed during some desert storm three years ago?" asked Sonic.

Tails nodded. "Yes, that's why we all didn't remember it," Tails said. "The base was reported to be buried in the sand, and it was impossible to find, as searching through sand is very hard, even with the technology we have today. But guys, this is Eggman we're talking about. He may have possibly found a way to get back into the base. It's our only clue left."

Sonic smiled, pretty happy about what Tails had discovered. He gave him a thumbs up, and then said, "Nice work Tails! It'll be tough trying to search through such a large desert though, it actually kinda slows me down running on sand."

Tails wasn't very into the idea of searching endlessly through the desert himself. What their task was was basically digging up an entire desert in search for this base that was a very small part of the entire desert. But Tails, being the genius he was, had a solution. "That's why we're lucky that I found the exact coordinates of where the base was on the computer. All we gotta do is basically get to these coordinates and really just start digging."

Sonic faced Knuckles and then said, "Well, it's a good thing we got ourselves quite the digger here!"

"What, me?" asked Knuckles.

"Alright guys, let's get going, I'll fly us over to the spot on the Tornado 3," Tails said.

As Tails was walking over into a different room, it suddenly occured to Sonic. Tornado 3? Did Tails really make another plane? He wondered what it looked like, and what it could do. Was it as fast as him? Sonic would soon find out, as Tails gave them a hand gesture a little later to come into the room and get onto the plane.

Sonic and Knuckles entered the ginormous room. But it was actually pretty dark, none of the lights were on. So they couldn't see a thing. This was unusual, but maybe Tails wanted to surprise them that much more.

"Hey Tails, can you turn the lights on in here?" Sonic asked.

"Sure," Tails said, with the lights immediately going on right after.

The Tornado 3 was huge, very huge. It wasn't as huge as let's say, the Egg Carrier, but it was still pretty freakin' huge. It was painted white, with the words Tonado 3 nicely painted on top of the white. The shape of the plane seemed alot more complex, and there were all sorts of guns on the plane as well. It had two seats inside of it, which was one extra seat then the previous Tornado.

Sonic and Knuckles really had no idea Tails' abilities in technology have gotten this advance. They knew he was a genius, but he never actually made anything that would absolutely amaze them. This reunion seriously brought lots of surprises.

"Woah!" Sonic said.

"Impressed guys?" asked Tails. "Let's get going!"

Tails and Knuckles hopped into the plane seats, while Sonic took his usual spot on the outside. Although, it seemed a little more uncomfortable, as it didn't seem like Tails made this plane with Sonic riding on it in mind, strangely.

Slowly, the garage door in front of the plane opened. The plane's engine turned on, and fire started blasting out from behind, as the plane got ready to take off. As Tails shouted, "here we go", the plane flies out of the lab, and heads for the desert.

A Chaos Emerald was no ordinary object. It contained huge amounts of power, that only so few could actually absorb and control. Chaos Emeralds were not to be played with, especially in the wrong hands. Dr. Eggman certainly didn't think he had the wrong hands, as he had ordered Shadow and his newest robot Omega to retrieve them. But many people in the world would obviously disagree, Dr. Eggman didn't care.

Shadow and Omega were walking around in the shadows in the sub-urban area of Station Square. Omega's radar had led them to this area first. They both hadn't exactly been to this area. But Omega's radar had come in handy, so all they were doing is just following the radar.

The both of them were pretty silent on the trip so far, but Shadow wondered if Omega would be able to answer any of his questions himself. Omega was a robot of Eggman's afterall, maybe Omega had some of Eggman's memories. But he couldn't just outright ask a stranger he guessed. But what did he have to lose.

"That emerald radar is really useful," Shadow said, trying to break the ice. "Do you know how Eggman built it?"

Omega faced Shadow as they were both walking, and then said, "Information unavailable."

Shadow knew Omega was a robot, but it just seemed very weird how he talked like one so much. Did this robot have no mind like all of Eggman's robots did? Omega must be a very powerful robot if he can be mindless but can find the Chaos Emeralds. Or perhaps Eggman made Shadow go with Omega because he knew Omega could not do it alone. Although, Omega seemed to be doing pretty well so far.

"So, what do you think of the doctor?" Shadow asked.

Omega ignored Shadow's question, making Shadow believe even more that Omega was just a mindless robot. Shadow didn't think he'd get anything out of him, so he just kept his mouth shut for the rest of the trip.

The walking in silence wouldn't last much longer though, as the two finally stumbled upon what they had been looking for. A Chaos Emerald was right in front of them. It was laying on the bush trying to blend in with the surroundings with its green color. But the emerald was far too shiny to not notice. Quite a strange place for an emerald to be at actually, where there were so many people, but it looked like no one seemed to come to this spot very much anyway.

"That's a Chaos Emerald," Shadow said.

Omega nodded in agreement, and took the emerald and put it inside himself. Omega then said, "Now, let us report back to the base to store this emerald."

Shadow nodded, and Omega began to walk back the direction they came from. But before Shadow followed his footsteps, he heard something strange. It was a cry. It didn't sound like tears of joy at all, but tears of pain. Shadow quickly turned around to see what the commotion was. He knew the way back to the base, he'd catch up to Omega later. He ran up to the bush in front of him and hid in it to observe who was making such sad sounds.

What he saw with his eyes was a young orange rabbit and her pet chao crying into their mother's tummy. The orange rabbit's face was in her mother's as her mother tried to comfort her, and the pet chao too. Yep, it was Cream the Rabbit and her pet chao Cheese, along with Vanilla, their guardian. Shadow had never met these three before, yet the crying was enough to get his attention. He listened in.

"Oh, it's okay dear," said Vanilla. "I know Amy was a great friend to you two, I'm sure she's out there somewhere."

"B-but, you didn't see the bomb mom," said Cream, who was still trying to fight her tears enough to speak. "It was just so huge, and if Amy didn't escape the base, it really is likely that she's dead."

"Oh stop it Cream. I'm sure the bomb was pretty big, but remember, Amy is a fighter. She's taught you to be tougher then you were before. If she can do that, I'm sure she's out there somewhere just trying to get to you as soon as possible."

Cream's tears seemed to lesson, her mother really was encouraging. "Y-you think so mom?"

"I know so."

Shadow knew that Vanilla was right. Amy Rose was still alive. If only he could tell them, and stop the crying. But he mustn't show himself. The doctor told him that the best thing to do was to remain undercover, and with no one else to trust, Shadow agreed already.

Amy and Rouge haven't really talked to each other much after their little verbal fight. They just needed some space. It was too bad that they wouldn't be getting any anytime soon. The two were stuck with each other for who knows how long, and there's only so much they can take.

Amy suddenly thought of someone she hadn't thought about since she had woken up in here. And that was her best friend in the whole wide world, Cream, with her pet chao Cheese. She knew that the two of them wouldn't take her missing very well, and now a sense of worry struck her head.

"I hope Cream and Cheese are okay," she said. "They must be really sad that I'm missing."

Rouge heard what Amy's supposedly self comment was, then she asked, "What is it now?"

Amy was still mad at Rouge. Amy did still feel very negative feelings towards her, and she was determined eternal life with her in prison wasn't going to change that. "I'm just worrying about my friends, nothing of your concern," Amy said.

Amy was feeling more and more worried about Cream as the seconds past. She knew that Cream wasn't the strongest person in the world, but Amy did help her grow stronger as the years have passed since they first met accidently. Amy thought of how she told Cream everything, and how Cream told her everything, and how cute Cream's chao was. Cream, is she okay?

Amy couldn't stand it, she felt like she was responsible to make sure Cream was alright. She didn't want to be the cause of Cream pausing her life. Amy needed to get out now. "Oh my gosh, I need to get out of here!" Amy shouted.

Rouge was a bit startled by Amy's outburst, thinking that she was done with that phase. Apparently though, there was no end to Amy tantrums. Rouge had to get out now too, she couldn't stand another Amy tantrum. "Shut it!" shouted Rouge. "Gosh, not another of your tantrums please. I was having this perfect daydream about my jewels back home if you don't mind."

Amy then turned to Rouge and said, "Don't you have anyone you actually care about besides your precious jewels? At least I have a living being I need to be there for."

"Oh believe me Amy, there's more to me then jewels," Rouge surprisingly said.

"Hmm, how so?" Amy asked.

"That's strictly confidential," Rouge said with a giggle at the end.

"Hmph, you're such a terrible liar," Amy said, coming to the conclusion Rouge was lying about having someone to care about.

"Believe what you want to believe," Rouge said. Rouge laid back at the ground and was about to close her eyes and do some more daydreaming. But before she closed her eyes, she noticed something on the cieling she hadn't noticed before. She suddenly stood back up, and tried to get a better look at the ceiling, but it was just too dark to see it clearly.

"What are you doing?" Amy asked, since Rouge wasn't the type to do something so random.

"The ceiling," Rouge said. "There's something on it, but I can't see it."

"Well, you can climb can't ya? Go climb up there and get a closer look."

Amy actually gave a great idea thoguht Rouge, so Rouge flew up to the ceiling and stuck onto it. She realized that what she was looking at, most of it was covered in this unusual material. Rouge had her gloves on, so she wasn't afraid of anything disgusting. She started tearing the material off.

"Ew, what do you think you're doing?" Amy meanwhile was not fond of the stuff falling off the ceiling. She was wearing a sleeveless dress and the disgusting material was getting on her arms. Amy brushed it all off and tried to find a safe spot in the cell.

Rouge was almost finished though. She finally took all the material off to reveal what Rouge wanted to see. Rouge's eyes suddenly opened up, as she suddenly found a piece of information that could really benefit them both.

"Why didn't I realize this before?" asked Rouge.

"What?" asked Amy, who then looked up at the ceiling herself. Then, Amy's eyes opened up just as wide, as she knew exactly what Rouge was talking about. Rouge was right, why didn't they realize this before? The ceiling had a picture of an Eggman symbol. This was the old Eggman base that was thought to have been buried by a sand storm.

The desert was a very hot place. Staying out here for too long would probably be a pretty bad thing, unless you were in an area that was air-conditioned 24/7. Nothing was going to bring down these three though, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, who all had a goal in their mind coming into this area, which was to find Dr. Eggman. Sonic and Tails were asked to bring the doctor back to prison, and Knuckles just had a strong feeling Eggman was responsible for the Master Emerald being shattered.

The plane was flying pretty fast. It wasn't Super Sonic fast, but it was pretty fast. It definitely beat running on the sand. Tails' piloting skills seemed to have definitely improved since Sonic last saw him flew. He was basically starstruck at everytime Tails had been doing so far. Who knew the fox had grown up so much?

"We're here," Tails suddenly said interrupting Sonic's thoughts. The plane landed smoothly on the sand. There weren't any ancient ruins or cities anywhere near where they were. It was just an endless area of sand. Nothing else but sand, and the unbearable heat. But the three were going to find that Eggman even if it's the last thing they do.

The three of them got out of the plane, and looked around at all the sand. It was such an enormous place, they had no idea how they were going to find that base.

"I hope you guys aren't expecting me to dig all this sand up," Knuckles said, which he had every right to say seeing all that sand.

"Don't worry Knuckles, I'm sure if we all just dig into this sand we'll find something!" Sonic said.

"No, that's a horrible idea Sonic," Tails said. "With all that sand getting into your body, you'll probably die out here," Tails said sounding very annoyed. "Don't you know that? What we're going to do is try to find a secret entrance to the base. If Eggman truly is here, all we have to do is find a secret entrance."

"Well, sure Tails," Sonic said, a little surprised by Tails' disagreement.

Tails nodded and said, "Good. I'm going to go get this scanner I took with us in the plane, you two just start walking around here and see if you can find anything without killing yourselves." Tails then ran back towards the plane, while Sonic and Knuckles began to explore.

"Geez, did you two get in a fight or something?" Knuckles asked, noticing Tails' attitude.

"Huh, what do ya mean?" asked Sonic.

"Like, last time I was with you guys, you two were totally in-sync. What happened?"

Sonic unfortunately didn't know the answer to the question. But he didn't think there was much of a problem himself. He just thought that Tails well, grew up was all. Grew up into more of a jerk that didn't laugh at any of his jerks, but grew up. "Eh, I think you're over analyzing things Knuckles," Sonic said, even though he knew that was a blatant lie.

He could barely stand, and he certainly didn't want to get caught by that nurse, but he had to see his new friends. He had to find out what was really going on. This substance that was inserted into Silver was something very bad, he knew it. He knew that it was no way something that was supposed to help you heal. He knew that it was a poison, to try to put you to sleep for life. He knew the effects may last for a long time with only a little of it inside him, but he was able to walk, he had to do something. He had to get out of this hospital.

He slowly walked up the stairs, trying to reach the floor Espio was on. Silver couldn't believe how slow he was going. He couldn't believe it had become such a struggle to get up these stairs. He wish he could just use his powers and fly to the next floor, but he felt like his powers were wiped out. That poison really did it for him.

But eventually, he finally made it up a floor, and didn't waste anytime to get to Espio's door. No one was around thankfully, so he entered the room, and saw both Espio and Charmy there. Espio was still meditating, and Charmy was playing video games.

"There you guys are," Silver said slowly.

"Hi Silver!" Charmy said while still keeping his eyes on the TV. "What's up?"

"Can't you two leave a chameleon at peace?" asked Espio. "Meditating would be much easier if you both were to leave the room."

"W-we have to get out," Silver suddenly said. "We have to leave this place NOW."

"Why?" asked Charmy. "This place rocks Silver! I can't get these video games anywhere else!"

"And the peace I've been able to obtain in here, it actually is a great place to train as a ninja for me," Espio said.

Silver wished he didn't have to convince them to leave the place, as he was pretty tired. But it looked like he had to try his best. It seemed strange they didn't notice how tired he was. "G-guys, have you seen Vector at all?"

"Not really," Charmy said. "And who cares?"

Silver's ears didn't fool him. Silver did not expect Charmy to say that at all about his leader, who he had probably spent alot of time with. "What do you mean you don't care?" Silver asked, with a little more energy due to the shock.

"Like yeah, who cares Silver?" Charmy asked. "Infact, let's stay at this hospital forever! It's free and fun!"

Espio grinned while his eyes still stayed shut. He then said, "I actually agree. I've never actually been to such an amazing facility before. I don't see the harm in staying."

"WHAT?!" shouted Silver. Both of their comments woke Silver right up, as not only were they not suspicious about anything this hospital is doing, but they actually were suggesting to stay at the hospital forever. At least Silver was now finally awake, but things just got even stranger.

Questions are still there to answer, not to mention some new ones as well. What's Eggman's plans with the Chaos Emeralds? What will Amy and Rouge do now that they know exactly where they are? Will Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles find the base? And what will Silver do now that he knows what the hospital truly is? All this on the next episode of Desperate Hedgehogs.