The sun was shining and the wind was blowing as the Tornado flew over the gorgeous Emerald Beach. There were seagulls soaring through the sky, the gentle waves were crashing into the shore, and the coconut trees were swaying in the wind. Tails landed the tornado in an open grassy area a short distance away from the shore. The shore was separated from the grassy area by a steep, rocky cliff.
“Where do you think we should start looking?” Knuckles asked.
“I’m not sure. I’m trying to sense the emerald’s power, but it’s confusing for some reason.” Shadow said.
“I thought you said an emerald was here!”
“There is, but its power is strange! I don’t know why.”
“Why don’t we split up? We could find the emerald faster that way.” Tails suggested.
“That’s true, but in case Sonic shows up, we need to be together.” Knuckles said.
“Well, we better start looking.” Amy said.
There were many bushes around and an old, abandoned beach house close by. They went through the bushes carefully for the emerald.
“Do you see anything?” Amy asked.
“No, I haven’t found anything.” Cream answered.
Still, none of them could find anything. They eventually made their way to the beach house. It was a small, one-floor house, and the wood looked old and almost rotten. The door was open slightly, so the five of them went inside to continue their search. There were two rooms, a living room and kitchen, and old furniture. The paint on the walls was also chipping.
“This place is awful!” Amy exclaimed.
“Just look for the emerald!” Knuckles said.
Amy and Cream went into the kitchen while the three guys stayed in the living room. Knuckles searched behind the couch, Shadow looked behind the TV, and Tails looked around the table, but they found nothing. Cream looked in the oven in the kitchen, finding no emerald.
“Oh! I found it!” Amy shouted as she pulled a Chaos Emerald out of a kitchen cabinet.
“What would the emerald be doing here?” Tails asked, as the three guys ran into the kitchen.
“I don’t know, but all that matters is that we found it.” Knuckles said.
“That’s strange…the emerald is right here, but I sense another emerald nearby.” Shadow said.
“You mean there are two emeralds here?” Amy asked.
“Seems like it. The other emerald must be out on the shore somewhere.” Shadow answered.
“Hurry, let’s go get it!” Tails said.
The group ran out of the beach house and through the bushes to make their way back to the grassy area where the Tornado was. Just beyond the plane, there were a set of stairs leading from the high area to the shore, in order to dodge the rocky cliff. The five of them ran toward the cliff, but a gust of wind knocked them backwards. Someone had caused the gust, and it was none other than the speedy Sonic, who now stood in front of them.
“So, you managed to get an emerald. Now hand it over!” Sonic walked toward Amy, who still held the emerald she found. Amy was scared, but Knuckles stepped between Amy and Sonic. The two stood staring at each other.
“Tails, take the others and go find the other emerald.” Knuckles said.
“We’re on it!” Tails said.
“Amy, give me the emerald.” Knuckles said.
Amy handed her emerald to Knuckles as she went with the others down the stairs to the shore. Sonic and Knuckles still stood in front of each other.
“How did you get here so quick, Sonic? I thought you would be going after another emerald elsewhere.” Knuckles asked.
“Dr. Eggman told me you guys were close to an emerald, so he told me to come here and stop you. So, I used my tracker to find you and take your emerald.” Sonic said.
“How could you even be on his side?” Knuckles asked.
“Dr. Eggman and I are going to rule the world together once we have all seven Chaos Emeralds.” Sonic said.
“That’s ridiculous. There’s no way that’ll happen!” Knuckles shouted.
“So, Knuckles, you really think you can stop me?” Sonic taunted.
“I know I can stop you. You’re not getting these emeralds.” Knuckles responded.
“That’s quite a mouth you have on you. I hope your fists can back you up!” Sonic said.
“Oh, you can count on that!” Knuckles yelled.
Knuckles hit Sonic with a strong punch, knocking him back and to the ground. Sonic quickly got up and charged in for a spin dash. He knocked Knuckles into the air with his attack, and jumped into the air to kick him. Knuckles dodged the kick, grabbed Sonic’s leg, and threw him into a coconut tree. Sonic slammed into the tree and slid to the ground. A coconut fell and hit Sonic in the head, while all Knuckles could do was laugh.
“You think that’s funny?” Sonic said angrily, as he threw the coconut at Knuckles, who quickly evaded it. While Knuckles was busy focusing on dodging the coconut, Sonic ran and kicked him back into another tree. Knuckles got up and climbed the tree, then glided in the air over Sonic. Sonic jumped and tried to hit him, but he missed. Knuckles quickly grabbed Sonic in the air and threw him down into the ground, creating a small crater due to the force. Sonic lay in the hole motionless as Knuckles landed at the top of the hole.
“That takes care of you…” Knuckles said, as he went to the edge of the cliff to check on the others. “How are things going down there?” he shouted.
“We haven’t found it yet!” Tails answered. They had been digging all in the sand for the emerald.
“Well, keep looking!” Knuckles said.
While Knuckles was talking to the others, Sonic climbed out of the hole, slowly standing to his feet. His eyes had an intense fury toward the red echidna he saw in front of him. Sonic ran toward Knuckles, yelling out of anger, and tackled him. They both fell over the cliff, rolling down the hard rocks. They both grunted in pain each time the bounced off the rocks. When they finally landed on the sand, Sonic was on his knees on top of Knuckles. In his anger, Sonic started punching Knuckles’ face repeatedly. Shadow noticed and ran over to save Knuckles, charging right into Sonic, knocking him off the echidna. Knuckles could only lay there as Shadow was now on top of Sonic.
“I found it! I found it!” Cream shouted as she pulled the emerald out of the sand where she had been digging. Tails, Amy, and Cream looked over and noticed where Sonic had caused trouble for Knuckles and Shadow. Suddenly, everyone saw the water from the ocean start to ripple.
“Did you see that?” Tails asked.
“Oh, please don’t tell me…” Amy had a guess as to what was about to happen.
A submarine rose out of the ocean. It was a slightly small, but compact submarine that was armed with different types of weapons. The top hatch opened, and out of it appeared none other than Dr. Eggman.
“Oh, Sonic! It looks like you could use some help again!” Eggman shouted.
The whole group was surprised by Eggman’s entrance. Sonic took this opportunity and threw Shadow off of him. He looked over at Cream and saw the emerald in her hand.
“Knuckles and Cream both have an emerald!” Sonic informed Eggman.
“Oh ho ho ho! We can take out these nuisances and take them both! Now,” he continued, as he turned the submarine’s guns toward Cream, “why don’t you be a good little girl and give me that emerald?”
“Knuckles, are you okay?” Shadow asked.
“I’m too weak to fight right now…just guard the emeralds…” Knuckles gave his emerald to Shadow.
“Stay here and rest for now. We’ll take care of this.” Shadow reassured him.
“Give me that emerald, Shadow!” Sonic demanded.
“You want to fight? You’ve got yourself a fight!” Shadow shouted back.
“You’ll never get the emerald!” Cream said to Eggman.
“If you want to battle over it, then fine!” Eggman growled as he dropped back into the submarine and closed the lid. He charged his laser cannon at Cream. Shadow tried to run over and help Cream, but Sonic caught up and kicked Shadow into the side of the cliff. In a quick moment, Cream flew into the sky right as the laser fired and blasted the sand all over. Tails was caught off guard and got sand in his eyes.
“I can’t see! Help me!” Tails said, desperately.
“I’ll help you, Tails!” Amy shouted as she rushed to his side. Eggman fired a cannonball out of the canter cannon on the submarine. The cannonball was headed straight for Amy and Tails. Tails worried as he still couldn’t see, but Amy took action.
“Batter up!” She said as she pulled out her hammer. She swung and hit the cannonball right back at the submarine with so much force, it destroyed the center cannon.
“Ha ha! A home run!” Amy taunted.
“What about me, Amy?” Tails said, still blinded by the sand.
“Just keep your eyes closed. Your eyes will wash out the sand soon. I’ll protect you until you can see.” Amy said.
Cream, still hovering in the air, decided to go to a coconut tree and grab a coconut. She flew over toward Eggman’s submarine. “Take this, Dr. Eggman!” She shouted as she threw the coconut at the submarine. It didn’t do much more than dent the ship, though. Eggman fired a homing missile at her and Cream flew around as she was being chased by it.
“Someone, please help me! I’m getting tired flying this much!” She pleaded.
Shadow recovered from hitting the cliff and rushed over to Cream. He jumped in the air and kicked the side of the missile as it flew past him. The strong force of the kick caused the missile to malfunction and change its target. It now started flying directly at Sonic.
“What the--?” Sonic was caught off guard and blasted by the missile. He slammed into the cliff as Shadow had moments earlier. He slid down the rocky wall and landed on the sand, still propped up on the cliff with his back. Now that the missile was gone, Cream slowly landed on the shore to rest for a bit.
Eggman fired another missile at Shadow, but Shadow already had a plan. He used Chaos Control as the missile came close and warped the missile above Eggman’s ship. The missile hit the sub, causing major damage to the whole ship. Eggman appeared out of the top hatch, shaken by the explosion.
“So, you think you can win this time? Well, I’ve got a surprise for you!” He shouted as he dropped back into the ship. The submarine started to undergo a transformation. The laser cannons retreated into the ship, being replaced with two machine gun cannons, the sides expanded, and the submarine started to lift into the air. It had transformed into an airplane. At the same time, Tails’ eyes had finally washed out the sand that bothered them. Seeing Eggman’s plane gave him an idea.
“If you want to take the fight into the air, then let’s do it!” Tails shouted as he ran up the stairs to the grassy area where the Tornado was. He jumped in, ignited the engine, and took off to meet Eggman over the shore. Now that Tails was able to fight for himself, Amy ran over to check on the injured Knuckles.
“Knuckles, are you feeling any better?” Amy asked.
“Yeah, I’m getting there.” Knuckles answered as he slowly sat up on the shore. “I’ll be fine, just go and protect Cream. She still has the emerald.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot she had it!” Sonic said as he recovered from the cliff.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Amy said.
Sonic was startled that Amy was chasing him, but he was hesitant to attack her. Instead, he just kept running after Cream.
“Don’t you dare take that emerald!” Amy said as she kept following Sonic.
Shadow ran to Cream and blocked Sonic from getting to her. Amy had also kept up with Sonic and now stood behind him. Sonic was surrounded.
“Hey, Eggman, I could use some help here!” Sonic shouted.
“I’ll send you that weapon we finished earlier!” Eggman pushed a button that activated a machine back at Eggman’s base. This machine quickly flew over to their location and landed beside Sonic. It looked like a tank and had a drill on the front of it. It was one of Eggman’s simpler machines.
Sonic jumped in the machine and threatened the group one last time, “Give me the emerald!”
“Wait, Sonic knows how to work that thing?” Shadow asked.
“Of course! He even helped me build it! I taught him everything I know about robotics!” Eggman answered proudly.
“Take this, Eggman!” Tails fired bullets at the doctor while he wasn’t paying attention, hitting his plane.
“Why, you little…” Eggman did a somersault to get behind Tails and started firing bullets at him.
“Tails, do a barrel roll!” Knuckles shouted.
“What’s that going to do?” Tails shouted back.
“Wouldn’t it deflect Eggman’s attacks?”
“No! That’s only in video games!”
“Fine, just watch your back!”
Tails turned sharply to get behind Eggman again. He saw a weak spot on the right side of Eggman’s plane from when it had been damaged earlier in its submarine form.
“If I can aim it just right…” Tails waited for the right time to attack. As he lined up his gunfire with the target, he fired a missile at Eggman. It was a direct hit on the weak spot, destroying the right wing and hurting the engine.
“Ah! Look at what you’ve done!” Eggman shouted as he spiraled uncontrollably to the shore.
“So, are you scared yet?” Sonic was still busy taunting at the others from his tank.
“Look out!” Knuckles yelled from the other side of the beach. Amy, Shadow, and Cream ran over to Knuckles while Tails went to land the Tornado back on the mainland.
“Look out?” Sonic looked around, confused. He then looked up to see a panicking Eggman about to crash into him. Sonic, in fear and disbelief, dove back into his tank.
“No!” Sonic and Eggman both cried as the plane crashed into the tank, destroying them both. The two of them were blasted out of their machines and landed on their backs on the sand. The others could do nothing but laugh.
“I didn’t even get to use my tank!” Sonic yelled at Eggman.
“I can’t help that I crashed into you!” Eggman yelled back.
“Well, if you were good at not getting shot, you’d still be in the air right now!”
“Well, if you had actually used your tank instead of taunting the whole time, you’d have been out of my way!”
“Oh, just shut up and get us out of here!”
“You just worry about finding those emeralds!”
“I’m getting sick of hearing you say that!”
Eggman pressed a button that ejected the Egg Mobile from the plane. Somehow, it was still intact. The doctor hopped in and was about to take off for his base when the five heroes approached Eggman and Sonic.
“Heh, how about giving your emeralds to us?” Amy giggled and asked Sonic.
“I---uh…” Sonic was hesitant.
“Get out of here!” Eggman yelled, snapping Sonic out of his hesitance. Sonic ran off in search of other emeralds while Eggman flew off to return to his base.
“We need to get going, too!” Tails said.
“Knuckles, are you feeling better?” Cream asked.
“I’m feeling better than ever after watching those two argue like that!” Knuckles laughed.
The group ran back up the stairs and climbed into the Tornado. Tails started the engine and flew into the air.
“Shadow, where do we go now?” Knuckles asked.
“I sense an emerald in Volcano Valley.” Shadow answered.
“All right, to Volcano Valley we go!” Tails said.
“So, we have two emeralds and Sonic has two. I hope we can find the other three…” Amy thought.
“Don’t worry, Amy. I’m sure we’ll be able to find those emeralds.” Cream smiled and said to Amy. Amy smiled back, but all she could do was think about Sonic.
