“What’s taking Sonic so long? It’s been almost an hour.” Tails began to worry over his best friend.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure he’s fine. He’s Sonic, after all.” Knuckles reassured him.
Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Cream were all outside Cream’s house having a picnic and enjoying the sunshine of another beautiful day. They were eating their lunch under the shade from a tree since Knuckles didn’t like how bright it was outside. There was a cool breeze blowing through the area as Vanilla, Cream’s mom, came outside to check on the group.
“Did you all have enough to eat?” Vanilla asked.
“We sure did, thank you Miss Vanilla.” Amy replied.
“Gee, I do hope Mister Sonic is okay, he’s missing out on our picnic.” Cream said.
Beyond the lake near the house, a bird was flying closer to the house. Tails noticed and said, “Hey, there’s a bird over the lake that looks like it’s coming toward us.”
“What?” Knuckles turned to look, but all he saw was the intense reflection of the sun off of the lake’s surface. “Ah! My eyes!” he shouted.
“I think you’re right, Tails.” Amy said.
Sure enough, the bird floated down to the group. This was no ordinary bird, however. This was one of Eggman’s badniks. It had come to deliver a live message from the Doctor himself. The bird’s wings spread out to transform into a video screen, while the audio speakers were on its belly. The group watched and listened as Eggman’s transmission began on the monitor.
“Ha ha ha! Hello, everybody! I hope you’re all enjoying your picnic. I’m sorry I’ve kept Sonic from joining you for so long, but he’s been a little…”tied up”! Ha!”
“Fail…” Knuckles criticized.
“Shut up! Anyway, if you want to see your blue friend again, I suggest you come to my base in Metropolis. Oh, and you better be quick about it…” The transmission ended.
“Oh, why does Eggman have to ruin such a wonderful day?” Amy complained.
“You know Eggman, he loves doing that.” Knuckles answered.
“Well, you all best be moving on and rescue Sonic. I’ll clean up the picnic for you.” Vanilla said.
“Thanks, Mom!” Cream said.
“Be careful now!” Vanilla said as she waved goodbye to the group.
The four of them hopped into Tails’ Tornado and flew to Metropolis to infiltrate Eggman’s base.

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Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Cream worked their way to find the main control room at the top of Eggman’s base. Surprisingly, the lower floors were empty of robots. There were no tricks or traps, neither.
“Something’s not right here…” Knuckles was on his guard.
As they entered the control room, they were greeted by the voice of Dr. Eggman.
“Ha ha ha! Good to see you all made it!” Eggman pushed a button that opened the floor in front of them. Two sentry bots then arose from the opened floor. The hands of these bots were machine guns and they were preparing to shoot at the group.
“Knuckles! Do something about these things while I distract them!” Tails planned.
The bots started firing at a rapid pace, and Tails took flight to move quickly around the room. One of the bots followed Tails with its gunfire, but the other robot was targeting Amy and Cream.
“Oh, no!” Tails panicked.
Amy and Cream started jumping as the robot fired bullets at the floor. While they both were screaming, Cream quickly decided to use her ears to fly around the room. The robot continued to fire at Amy, but Knuckles quickly came and punched the robot to the wall. The robot was destroyed upon impact, but the other robot was still firing at Tails. Cream was in awe at the sight of Knuckles’ punch that she wasn’t watching where she was flying.
“Cream, look out!” Tails yelled.
It was too late. Cream and Tails collided in midair, sending them both down to the ground with the gunfire following them.
“If they hit the floor, they’ll get shot.” Knuckles ran to the robot.
Thankfully, Amy was already there, winding up for a big swing with her hammer. With one smash, she completely crushed the sentry robot to the floor. Tails and Cream hit the floor with a hard landing.
“Are you two okay?” Amy asked.
“Yes, I think so. Ouch…” Cream said.
“Grr…you won’t get away with this!” Dr. Eggman proclaimed as he entered an escape pod in the wall.
The group saw Sonic over in the corner of the room, locked in a cage. They ran over to find a way to let him out. Sonic looked like he was badly hurt.
“There’s a key…on Eggman’s control panel…” Sonic said in agony.
Tails flew over and got the key. They unlocked and released Sonic from his prison.
“Thanks, guys. You don’t know how much I appreciate it…” Sonic said.
“Well, you know we’re always here for you.” Tails said happily.
Sonic stood up with his head hanging down. A smile came across his face, but when he opened his eyes and lifted his head, there was a dark glare in his eyes.
“Uh, Sonic? Are you okay?” Tails asked.
Sonic quietly laughed, “Why, I’ve never felt better!”
“Sonic?” Amy worried.
There was some rope in the cage that Sonic had been locked in. In the blink of an eye, Sonic grabbed the rope and ran laps around the four friends, tying them up tightly. Sonic ran to Eggman’s control panel.
“Sonic, what are you doing?” Knuckles shouted.
Suddenly, the escape pod that Eggman had went in opened back up. The doctor walked out laughing maniacally. The “escape pod” was nothing more than another room for him to hide in until it was the right time to come out, and that time had come.
“Oh ho ho ho! So, how do you like the new and improved Sonic?” Eggman asked.
“What do you mean?” Cream replied.
“Tell us what’s going on, Eggman, right now!” Knuckles demanded.
“With pleasure, my little echidna, but first, why don’t you go and ‘prepare yourself’, Sonic?” Eggman said.
Sonic went into another room behind Eggman while the doctor revealed his plan.
“You see, I know just how annoying Sonic can be, since he has destroyed practically every machine I’ve ever built. He has even managed to destroy Eggman Land, my one dream that had become a reality. So, I decided to find a way to use his power for my own deeds. While we were fighting today, he managed to destroy my newest robot yet again, but he didn’t know that I was expecting him to! While he was retrieving the emerald from the robot, I used its power to shoot a brainwashing beam at Sonic. His memory of his friends and his good intentions were wiped, and I then took him here to my base. I trained him to fight for evil and to work under me. He is going to help me find the other six chaos emeralds very quickly, and there’s nothing you can do to stop him. With his help, I’ll finally be able to rebuild Eggman Land for good and expand it to conquer the world!”
“You dirty swine…” Knuckles said.
“That’s terrible!” Amy shouted.
“How could you do this?” Cream cried.
Tails couldn’t say anything. He couldn’t believe his best friend had fallen into the hands of his enemy like this.
In all of his anger, Knuckles managed to break the rope that held the four together. Sonic then came out of the back room with a handheld device.
“Behold, the Chaos Emerald Tracker. This machine can quickly locate the emeralds, and using Sonic’s speed, they will be collected in no time.” Eggman said.
“Sonic,” Tails ran to him, “don’t you remember who I am?”
“Of course I do, Tails…” Sonic said.
Tails was surprised and started to smile.
“…You’re my sworn enemy.” Sonic continued.
The feeling Tails had was reversed into worry and despair. All Eggman could do was laugh.
“Now go, my little blue friend! Go and find those remaining six emeralds!”
Sonic dashed out of the base in search of the emeralds. Tails ran back to the Tornado with the others following behind. They flew out to follow Sonic while Eggman laughed as he watched them leave.