Archive of Our Own

Mr. Stewart walked out of an abandoned Toys R Us, carrying a large burlap bag over one shoulder. He stopped in the parking lot for a moment to slip the blue Chaos Emerald he found into his vest pocket before he kept moving.

As he approached his car, he nervously looked around to make sure no one was watching him. Satisfied, he opened the back door of the car and shoved the bag inside. Something inside it was squirming and struggling.

"Hey, just chill back there," Mr. Stewart said. "Don't make a fuss, 'kay?"

He then pressed a button on his car's control panel to contact HQ and report his find.

"Chalkboard Charlie to Homeroom. I have detained Subject CT. Over."

"Excellent. Bring him here to HQ to be processed. Over."

"Oh yeah, you're probably gonna want to know that I found two Chaos Emeralds on him."

"Whoa, for real? That advances our plan by a good month or so," the operator said, losing some of his professionalism. "That means we only have four more to go."

"Okay, so as long as they cooperate, we can get this done quickly."

"Any further discussion is to be done at HQ. Return immediately."

"Yes, sir. Charlie out."

Mr. Stewart hung up and started his engines. He glanced back at the bag.

"You hear that?" Stewart said to whoever was inside. "You just helped us out a whole lot."

Mr. Stewart parked his car in the underground parking garage of CLIP HQ. He felt nothing short of ecstatic. He had detained one of Sonic's major allies, as well as found two Chaos Emeralds!

He got out of his car, and opened the back door before picking up the bag. He had to use both hands to pull it out. Once it was out of the car, he closed the doors, hoisted the bag over his shoulder, and carried it toward the elevator.

As soon as he reached the elevator, he met with an officer standing there. The officer relaxed when he saw Stewart.

"You got him?" the officer asked.

"Yup. Landed myself a big fish. Can't wait to interrogate this guy," Stewart said as he pushed the elevator button.

"Awesome. General Passer's gonna love this," the officer said as he stepped into the elevator with Stewart. It was already on the top level, which meant Stewart didn't have to worry about wasting time.

"So how'd you find him?" the guard asked.

"Tailed him as he was coming home from school," Stewart said as he leaned on the elevator's railing. "I think it was pretty lucky for me he stopped somewhere where there wasn't a ton of people, otherwise, I wouldn't have pulled it off. Can you believe how frustrated I was getting in the past two weeks trying to catch him? He kept going straight home from school."

"Yeah, but you got him today, and that's what matters."

The elevator stopped at the bottom, and the doors opened. The two walked in silence down corridor after corridor. The walls were plain white and the floor was gray, which made the environment feel cold and sterile.

"So do I just take him to the interrogation room?" Stewart asked. "Was that the plan?"

"Yeah, we have orders to take him there. Also, the whole thing is gonna be recorded. General Passer says so."

"All right, I get ya," Stewart nodded.

Five minutes later, they arrived in a small room, which was lit with red lights, and the floor was made of metal. Stewart shuddered a little bit; he did not like this room.

The guard closed the door, and Mr. Stewart untied the bag, revealing one of his former students.

"All right, Chris, we're gonna have a little Q&A session," Stewart said.

"M-Mr. Stewart?!" Chris yelped when he recognized his teacher.

Stewart gave Chris an amused smile. "Huh, I'm surprised you recognized this old face without the homeroom getup and dyed hair," he said.

"Wh-where am I?" Chris whimpered as he looked around at his surroundings.

"You know, I could answer that, but I'm not sure if my boss wants me telling you that kind of stuff, cause that's… just not gonna happen. And you know, it's kinda funny…" he chuckled. "This is like a role reversal; where I'm teaching and you're learning… This time, I'm gonna be the one learning."

"And I'm teaching?" Chris asked.

"Kind of, yeah," Stewart shrugged. "Minus the teaching degree, 'cuz you know, you're too young for that. Don't worry, I won't hurt you. This is not a torture chamber, it's not what it looks like."

This did nothing to calm Chris' nerves.

"But be a good boy and answer my questions, and I might let you have a cellmate when I let you go."

Chris blinked.

"All right, so tell me, you found that Emerald in the Toys R Us, yeah?"

Chris slowly nodded.

"What made you wanna go there of all places? That's… that's out of your way. It's not even on your usual path home."

"Wait, how did you-"

"You're asking me questions? That's kinda not the point of an interrogation. You got it all backwards. See, I'm supposed to be the one asking you questions, okay? And then you tell me what I want to know. That's how an interrogation works."

Chris sighed.

"So let's try that again… Why did you go to Toys R Us?"

"I, uh…" Chris looked around nervously. "I saw it on the ground, and… It looked really shiny…"

"That doesn't really answer my question," Stewart said. "You were carrying another Chaos Emerald to show and tell with you?"

Chris gulped.

"So that would explain why you have two Emeralds. You know how much this is gonna help us? You, Christopher, are gonna help us defeat Eggman!"

"By kidnapping me?!" Chris exclaimed. "Look, my friends are gonna find out I'm missing and come and get me, and my parents- they have so much money, and they… and they…"

"Don't know where you are? Tsk, that's a shame," Stewart shook his head. "And it seems not even you know where you are either, and I plan on keeping it that way, hence this bag."

"But I couldn't breathe in there!" Chris said.

"Not my problem," Stewart said, shrugging his shoulders. "Anyway, tell me now, how many Emeralds do your friends have?"

"I-I don't know…" Chris whimpered.

"But they live with you, how can you not know?!" Stewart exclaimed. "Aso, that's called stalling for time, playing dumb. We don't like when you do that. And that's gonna be your only warning, by the way."

Chris nodded, feeling scared.

"So how many Emeralds?" Stewart repeated.

"F-Four…" Chris stuttered.

Stewart nodded. "Uh-huh. Thought so. Now… I wanna tell you a few things."

"Like what?"

"Like… Well, I'm kinda not supposed to tell you this, but I feel like you deserve answers. It's not like you're gonna see the light of day again without your parents' ransom money. So anyway, you're probably wondering why I showed up in the strangest places. Why I was at your parents' anniversary. Why I came over at your mom's party and that trip to Japan. Why I gave you those fancy goggles the day we took down Eggman's base. All those things have one common denominator: you."

Chris let out a small gasp. "Me?!"

"Well yeah, who else gets to hang out with Sonic on a day-to-day basis?" Stewart shrugged.

"Um, there's Tails-"

"Who's a human," clarified Stewart as he leaned against the wall. "You see, when your friends came here to Earth, we didn't know a lot about them. We knew they were staying at your house – oh, believe me, we knew a lot more than we let on. But we didn't know anything about your friends, like who they are and where they come from. And that's where you came into play. Without even realizing it, you told me everything I needed to know. But that was still not enough.

"You see, over time, we thought of ways we could get rid of Dr. Eggman ourselves. Oh sure, you guys do a great job keeping him at bay and sending him packing, but that's all you ever do. Here, we're aiming to get rid of him once and for all."

Chris blinked. "But… That's not what Sonic wants."

"He can think that all he wants; it's a free country. But that's what we want. Sonic is a pacifist. He's too afraid to get real work done. And that's where we come in."

Mr. Stewart bent down and picked up the bag.

"But I feel like we had enough chit-chat here. Time to take you to your new home. Get in," he said, holding up the bag.

"But-"

"Did I stutter?" Mr. Stewart asked. "Now, this is the part about Sonic I don't like. His whole 'look at me, I'm so cool, I'mma do it my way' attitude, you know? It's really rubbing off on you. Now last time I checked, good kids listen to their grown-ups-"

"I'm not a kid!" Chris retorted.

Mr. Stewart pushed up his glasses. "Yeeeeah, pretty sure you are. You're still a minor up until you're eighteen. Actually, you know what, forget the bag." He turned to the guard next to him. "You got a blindfold, maybe some handcuffs?"

Without a word, the guard pulled a pair of handcuffs and a blindfold from off of his belt and gave them to Mr. Stewart, who fastened them onto Chris. The young boy knew he couldn't fight back, because there was no one there to save him.

"All right, Chris," Mr. Stewart said, putting his hand on Chris' back. "Let's get moving."

As he guided Chris out of the room and down the hall, he decided to keep some light conversation.

"You know, Chris, you're a good kid, and you've been a great student. But even better, you're one of our best shots we got at taking out Eggman. Good job, kid. Your work is done."

Chris, on the other hand, was feeling terrified. He had no idea who he was, and why Mr. Stewart was one of the bad guys. Even though he claimed to want to defeat Dr. Eggman, Chris did not like the way he was going about it.

He knew Mr. Stewart was right. His parents didn't know where he was, and not even Sonic and his friends knew where he was. There had to be a way out, there just had to!

About ten minutes and an elevator ride later, Mr. Stewart stopped before Chris could hear the sound of electronic beeping.

"Welcome home, Chris," Mr. Stewart said as the boy could hear something sliding. Then he was roughly pushed into the cell.

"Hey, easy, easy!" said a strangely familiar voice as he was suddenly caught by someone else. "And hey, mind if you let some fresh air in here? Maybe some TV? Ooh, how about video games? You got Smash Ultimate? I can go for some Smash!"

Chris' spirits were elated the moment he heard his friend's voice in the cell!

"Sonic!" Chris called.

"You two can be buddies and chill in here 'til we figure out what to do with you guys," Mr. Stewart said. And with that, he closed the door with a metallic clang.

The cell was filled with silence for a bit, and Chris could feel Sonic's presence next to him, even though he couldn't see him. He didn't know how to feel about it. Even though he was with one of his friends, that friend was also captured by Mr. Stewart, and there was no perceivable way out.

"They got you too…" Sonic said quietly as he reached over to untie Chris' blindfold.

"Yeah…" Chris said, his voice trembling as he tried to stand still for Sonic. "I didn't know Mr. Stewart was one of the bad guys."

"I had a feeling," Sonic said casually.

"Wait, what?" Chris was surprised.

"Yeah, I knew he was a secret agent, all the way back when he sent us over to Silky Heights that one time. Though, I had no idea the rabbit hole went this deep."

"So you knew all along?" Chris asked.

"Yup. I didn't wanna tell you about it. Didn't want him knowing you knew."

"Oh, okay," Chris nodded his understanding as Sonic finished working the blindfold off of Chris. Even though it was dark in the cell, the boy had to squint at the suddenly bright light.

"I imagine it's a pretty big shock, getting kidnapped by some guy who, surprise, turns out to be your old teacher," Sonic said. "But, uh, did he tell you anything, like why he wanted you?"

Chris thought back for a moment. "I… think he said something about my parents and ransom… but he also said he's using me because he wants to defeat Eggman."

Sonic closed his eyes. "Just as I thought," he mused.

Chris blinked. "What do you mean?"

"He decided to interrogate me too, and he seems to be a bit excited, 'cuz he ended up telling me more than I thought he should. So from what I was able to figure out, Mr. Stewart works for this group called CLIP, right? That's the Covert Lateral International Program, if I remember correctly. These guys are nasty, they do all the dirty work for GUN, and that's saying a lot, because GUN already does a lot of dirty work. So kinda like GUN's GUN, in a way.

"So anyway, CLIP wants to get as many Chaos Emeralds as they can, because they wanna use 'em to make a super weapon or something to shoot down the Egg Carrier and put an end to Eggman once and for all."

Chris was awed. "But… I thought you said you didn't want to kill Eggman."

"I don't, no," Sonic clarified. "I just want him in prison, but nope, CLIP wants him gone forever. That's kinda messed up in my book. Not even my world's GUN is that bad."

"Yeah…" Chris said, He tried to stretch, but his arms wouldn't move more than a few inches because they were still handcuffed behind his back. He looked quizzically at Sonic.

"...How come you're not tied up?" Chris asked.

"Oh, me? They untied me so I could eat, but that was yesterday," Sonic said. "Must have forgotten to cuff me back up, so yeah, that's a plus."

"Did you try to get out of here?" Chris asked next.

"Oh yeah, tried everything. Bashed the door, spin-dashed the walls, the only thing I can't do is get through that grille above us. It's too tough to break, and it's kinda at a weird angle." He leaned against the wall, still looking up at the grille that led to the air shaft. "That's why I'm still here. The air shaft's my one and only way to freedom."

He let out a sudden gasp as he got an idea.

"Oh! Chris, maybe you can open that thing!"

Chris was surprised. "How?"

"You're taller than me, and you can reach those screws and get that thing off."

"But I don't have a-"

Chris stared in bewilderment as Sonic yanked one of his smaller quills off his head.

"It doesn't hurt much, no one'll notice I'm one quill less. And besides, they should have thought twice before throwin' me in here, 'cuz we hedgehogs are good lock picks."

Chris was amazed. "Wait, what…?"

"Turn around for me, will ya?" Sonic requested as he got to work unlocking Chris' handcuffs. "I don't like doing this too much because I'm never in a human prison, and I like my quills the way they are, but this time, they're not really giving me a choice."

"I… I never knew you could do that," Chris said quietly.

"Yeah," Sonic said. "Neither do a lot of my other friends. But I can't pick locks in Robuttnik's prisons 'cuz everything's electronic."

"And this one's not," Chris said as the handcuffs fell off of his wrists and flattered onto the floor.

"Here, try standing on the bed, it'll give you better leverage," Sonic said as he handed the quill to Chris, who carefully took it. It was deceptively sharp, so Chris told himself to be extra careful with it.

"Hold on, I wanna try something," the boy said as he walked over to the door and inserted the quill into the lock. Sonic squinted.

"You're gonna break us out that way?" he said. "Aww, c'mon, you're no fun!"

"I thought you liked getting past all the guards and stuff," Chris said as he worked.

"Robot guards," corrected Sonic. "I have no qualms with smashing up robot guards, but humans? Nuh-uh."

"Oh yeah, true," Chris said distractedly. "And it's not working…"

"Try using it like a file, see if that works," Sonic said as he leaned against the wall.

"Okay," Chris said as he slid the quill back and forth against the lock. It made a harsh grating sound that made Chris shiver, but otherwise, it too wasn't working.

"Huh," Sonic said as he peered over Chris' shoulder. "I guess I underestimated these locks. So… How about that air duct?"

"Yeah… I guess so…" Chris realized as he took the quill and stood on top of the bed. He was able to just barely reach the grille.

"You got it?" Sonic asked, looking up.

"I think so…" Chris said. He reached the quill up toward the screws and started twisting. He remembered the righty-tighty lefty-loosey rule as he rotated the screws counterclockwise.

Chris had no trouble removing the first screw, and he reached down and dropped it into Sonic's hand, and the hedgehog put it down on the floor in the corner. Chris was also able to remove the second and third screws, but he was worried about dropping the cover when he removed the fourth.

"I'll catch the cover, don't worry," Sonic said.

"Okay," Chris said as he worked on removing the fourth screw.

In seconds, the cover fell into Sonic's waiting hands, and he removed the screw and set it down in the tiny pile he started.

"Okay…" Sonic said as he stood on the bed with Chris as the boy got down. Sonic looked up in the vent.

"Looks good in there," he said. "Could be a little tight for you, though."

Chris did not like that thought. Suddenly the cell felt more open than the vent.

"So who goes first?" Chris asked, hoping Sonic would volunteer himself.

"I'll go, then I can pull you up," he replied. He took a deep breath, and hopped up into the vent before pulling himself up the rest of the way. Then he reached down to Chris.

Chris held his breath before taking Sonic's hands. He was very nervous about being lifted off the ground, and he briefly looked down before he started to panic a little.

"Hey hey, don't look down, Chris!" Sonic told him.

"O-Okay!" Chris said as he did his best to look up at Sonic, grateful that the hedgehog's grip on his arms was super strong.

Chris had to duck his head in order to fit inside the vent, and he was surprised that he was able to get through the opening at all. He was even more amazed that he wasn't pulling Sonic out of the vent either.

Once he was inside, he had to practically lie down on his stomach because the vent ceiling was so short. It was very small, with only enough room for him to raise his head a few inches.

"Y'know, they make these vents to get clean air back and forth," Sonic said aloud as he started crawling, and I followed him. "And yet for some reason, people keep crawling through them on TV like they're some kind of secret tunnel, and now here we are doing it in real life… Kinda makes me think that they want us in these vents at this point, like a tourist attraction."

Chris couldn't doubt him, but he wished Sonic could keep his voice down so that they could keep the element of secrecy on their side.

"Uh, where are we going?" Chris quietly asked.

"Oh, I'll think of that as I go," Sonic said casually.

"Wait, you mean you– N-Never mind," Chris said. He knew Sonic well enough that this was normal for him to not think everything through, but he was a bit worried because they were in a top-secret government facility, and anything could go wrong just like that.

They came to a junction a minute later, and Sonic stopped.

"Um… What are we looking for…?" Chris asked. Sonic looked both ways at the three way intersection.

"Parking garage, control room, something like that," Sonic mused. "Anything that'll help us get outta here. Preferably with something to distract the guards."

"Well, um… I think I was in an elevator somewhere…" Chris thought back.

"So, parking garage?" Sonic asked. "But first, which way were you going? Up or down?"

"Uh… I think down," Chris said.

"Yeah, parking garage it is," Sonic said as he made a left at the junction. "Any stairs that you saw?"

"No, I was in a bag the whole time," Chris said with distaste, thinking back to how tight the air was inside.

"You mean, like… They stuffed you inside a bag? He, Mr. Stewart?"

"Yeah…" Chris said quietly.

Sonic let out a breath. "Man, the way they treat people around here…" he said. "Lousy room service, no room to run, and now people getting stowed away in carry-on bags… You had it really rough, buddy."

"I know…" Chris admitted as he did his best to crawl a little quieter. He was shaking the whole time; he was scared of being in CLIP's headquarters. But he had to keep moving.

Chris didn't know Sonic had stopped until he almost bumped into him. The hedgehog was listening intently, his ears twitching slightly.

"What is it-"

"Shh!"

Sonic listened for a little longer before looking up.

"There's a couple guards down there," he said. "Can't make our getaway with those guys in our way, so… Here's hopin' they can move for us."

"Or maybe we can find another way out," Chris suggested.

"Huh… I guess one way out's as good as another, 'cuz let's be real, I have no idea where the parking garage is from here. So yeah, let's keep moving."

He started crawling forward again, and Chris followed. However, they weren't able to get far before they could hear the sound of shouting from nearby.

"They're out! They escaped!"

"Lock the place down! They can't have gone far!"

Sonic chuckled. "Heh, took 'em long enough."

"But Sonic, they're gonna trap us inside!" Chris pleaded as Sonic started crawling faster.

"Not if we're fast, Chris," Sonic said. "You're talking to Sonic the Hedgehog here. I know fast."

They made a right at the next junction, and Chris was having a hard time keeping up with Sonic.

"Man, this is like Area 99 all over again…" he said aloud, but more to himself.

"Yeah, I kinda feel the same way with the Egg Carrier," Chris added. "Except I'm feeling really hot in here." It was true; the vents were not as well-conditioned as the vents on the Egg Carrier, and he felt himself sweating.

"So when do we get outta here?" Chris panted.

"I'm workin' on it, Chris," Sonic told him.

"I mean here, like get out of the vents-"

"Still workin' on it! Just need to find a cover and then we can bust our way outta here."

"Uh, I just realized, do they know we're in here?"

"Hmm… Yeah, probably. Nothing they can do about it, 'cuz we're gettin' out of here anyway. Just need to find a vent cover. Last one was in the other room somewhere, so there should be one right– Oh, here's one!"

"Sonic, I think we should be quiet-"

"I know, I know, sorry, I just can't stop talking when I'm nervous– Uh, n-not that I'm nervous or anything, but… Yeah… I guess I am a little on edge. This is not my first rodeo stuck with humans."

"Yeah…" Chris agreed.

Sonic stopped crawling and waited a moment for Chris to catch up before he punched out the cover. It landed on the floor in the office room, and Sonic leaped out and onto the ground.

"Now I get why Knuckles gets a kick outta this kind of thing. It's no use being quiet, 'cuz they kinda already know we're out."

Chris looked down, feeling a bit anxious, before Sonic looked up at him and reached out his arms.

"You can do it, Chris. I'll catch you!" he said.

"O-Okay," Chris said, before he took a deep breath and almost fell out of the vent with a yelp because it was too narrow. But true to his word, Sonic caught him firmly with both hands before he could touch the floor.

"All right, let's get us outta here," Sonic said as he turned to the door.

"Oh… W-Wait, Sonic!" Chris realized.

Sonic turned to look at him, a confused look on his face.

"What?" he asked.

"The Chaos Emeralds! These guys have like two of them!"

Sonic gasped. "Oh right, mustn't forget those!"

He turned to the door and placed his hand on the doorknob, ready to open it. "Stick close, Chris. I don't wanna lose you."

"I don't wanna lose you too, Sonic," Chris admitted.

"We'll make it through this, and if everything goes downhill, we'll just wing it and pick up the Emeralds another day," Sonic said.

Chris nodded. "Okay."

"All right, let's do this," Sonic said as he threw open the door and ran out into the hall, Chris following right behind him.

Unknown to them, Mr. Stewart was monitoring their progress from the surveillance room.

"You just don't know how to do things stealthily, hedgehog," he mused as he looked at a monitor. "And just as I thought, you're off to pick up the Chaos Emeralds. Heh, you'd be a fool to breach the most heavily-guarded room in the facility, much less bring a kid with you."

He smirked. "You know what? I'm not gonna miss out on something like this." And he ran out of the room.

Alarms were blaring, and the facility was bathed in frequent intermittent flashes of red as Sonic and Chris kept running. The alarms were loud enough to start to give Chris a headache, and he wanted to cover his ears too, but it would very likely slow him down.

"It'd be nice to have a Chaos Emerald scanner thingy right about now!" Sonic said.

"Or Tails!" Chris added.

"Yeah, but he doesn't know where we are," Sonic pointed out.

"We can try and call him though!" Chris said.

"I'm all for it, but these guys are not Eggman. They probably got the tech to jam our frequency. Good thinking, Chris, but as much as I hate to say it, we're on our own."

Chris didn't want to think about that, but he realized Sonic was right. They had to find a way out of CLIP's base themselves.

"Freeze!" came several voices from behind them.

"Aaand they found us," Sonic noted. "C'mon, where are the Emeralds?"

He looked back to see the men in dark green uniforms running toward them, brandishing assault firearms.

"I'm gonna carry you, it's way faster," Sonic said. Chris nodded, and the hedgehog carefully lifted him into his arms and kept running as the guards closed in.

Suddenly there came the deafening sounds of pops and bangs as semiautomatic rifles were fired at them. Sonic gritted his teeth and picked up speed before rounding a corner. Before he knew it, he found himself in a big, open room, where a bunch of people were working on a large, cannon-like machine of some sort. Sonic and Chris were greeted with the clicks of guns as all eyes turned to them. The room was now dead silent.

"Uh… Hey, just came to check up on you guys," Sonic said as he leaped down from the second-floor balcony onto the main floor, causing Chris to yelp from the sudden altitude change.

"I hear you guys are workin' on a new toy to fry some eggs with, and while I love a good old-fashioned omelet in the morning, this is way mondo uncool."

"Stand down!" came the order of one of the officers as the guards closed in.

"Trust me, you do not wanna see a Swiss cheese hedgehog," Sonic warned. "You just might break your own toy if you do that. So you guys just chill, and we're gonna pick up the Emeralds and be on our way, yeah?"

The scientist in charge of the project scoffed. "You think we'll just stand here and let you take them."

Sonic started scanning the room for any sign of the Chaos Emeralds.

"Well, you're pretty much doing that right now!" he pointed out.

Sonic knew he needed both hands to pick up the Emeralds, but he couldn't risk putting Chris down because there was a good chance the CLIP soldiers would use him as a hostage.

"Now where would you be hiding two of the most powerful artifacts this word has ever known…?" Sonic pondered. However, he was forced to run out of the way as the soldiers opened fire again.

Sonic leaped on top of the weapon. "Hey, I told you, no turning us into Swiss cheese! I don't wanna see Ella removing blood stains from Chris' clothes, okay?"

But the soldiers wouldn't listen as they kept shooting at the two. Chris was trying his best to hold onto Sonic and keep his lunch down, all the while looking for any sign of the Chaos Emeralds.

The two gems could have been anywhere, from a compartment to a glass case. But Sonic knew the two had to be together somewhere. The more the soldiers shot at them, the more he felt disoriented. Bullets were not the lasers he was used to.

He would have taunted the guards, but that was not a good idea with Chris in his arms. He had to keep a firm grip on his precious cargo and keep searching.

"Sonic, I see them!" Chris called. Sonic looked, and it took a moment for him to spot the Chaos Emeralds sitting in a compartment in the back of the weapon near its engine.

Except there weren't two Chaos Emerald there.

There were three.

"Wait, when did they get a third one?" Sonic pondered, before he set Chris down. "Here, sorry I gotta do this, but a hedgehog's gotta do what a hedgehog's gotta do!"

"Blast that arrogant hedgehog!" the director ordered, but Sonic was too fast for the soldiers as he scooped up all their weapons.

"Careful now big guy, you're starting' to sound like Eggy!" he taunted. "You're becoming the very thing you swore to destroy!"

In the next instant, Sonic had piled up all the weapons in a corner, but when he returned, he saw that the guards had suddenly grabbed Chris and were restraining his arms behind his back.

"Really?" Sonic deadpanned. "You guys don't have any weapons, you can't call this a hostage situation!"

In a swift move, the hedgehog carefully kicked the guards' arms away, freeing Chris, before he grabbed one Emerald out of its slot, gave it to Chris, and picked up the other two.

"All right, time to go fast!" he said before he ran toward the nearest exit. Chris followed and joined his friend, and they left the room as the guards were radioing for backup.

"Let's go find a parking garage and then we're home free!" Sonic declared.

"Hey Sonic?" Chris asked.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think they're gonna get any more Emeralds to power their weapon?"

"Probably. Knowing Mr. Stewart, he's been trying to get Emeralds for a while-"

He froze.

"Stay here. I'll be back in a Sonic second."

Giving his Emeralds to Chris, he ran back into the lab he had just come from. No one expected him to return, so all the guards were surprised. Sonic curled into a tight ball before he bounced himself off the walls dozens of times, puncturing several holes in the mega weapon, before he landed expertly on his feet.

"Don't want you guys getting any ideas while I'm gone, okay? Just leave the Eggman busting to the pros!"

He ran back to join Chris, who was looking warily at the fresh wave of approaching guards, all carrying guns. Sonic and Chris started to run the other way and around a corner, when they ran into Mr. Stewart.

"Oh hey! Long time no see!" Sonic greeted.

"Well done on the teamwork, but I can't let you escape with those Emeralds," Mr. Stewart said. "Do you guys realize how long it took me to get just one of them?"

"Welcome to my world!" Sonic said. "Oh, and before we go, I just wanna say that Chris is done being your teacher's pet."

"You do realize he was my only link to you."

By now the guards had caught up, and were standing behind Sonic and Chris cutting off their escape.

"Is that all?" Sonic said. "You could have come straight to me and we could talk things out."

Mr. Stewart grinned. "It wasn't that simple," he said. "For all we knew, you could have been plotting to conquer the world, and even now you're a threat to society."

"Oh? How so?"

"Just take a look at what you did down in the lab."

"I can't let anyone hurt my enemies either," Sonic firmly told Mr. Stewart. "Sure, I crack open the ol' Eggman every now and then, hoping he'll stay down long enough so I can take a break. But he's a part of who I am. Without Eggman, you'd be dealing with a stir-crazy hedgehog right about now."

Mr. Stewart chuckled, and Chris warily glanced back at the guns pointing at them.

"So you're telling me that fighting a world-conquering tyrant makes you so cathartic that you can't take him seriously anymore. Sonic, this is exactly why we're doing your job for you."

"But you don't know what you're doing!" Chris shouted.

"Butt out, Chris. This is a grown-up conversation," Mr. Stewart said.

"No! This same exact thing happened when I was captured and you guys were trying to shoot down Eggman's ship. You don't care!"

"Oh, but we care enough for your safety at any cost," Mr. Stewart said.

"Aaaand that's a wrap," Sonic said, starting to sound bored. "Good point, Chris. These guys are bad news."

"Seize them and take the Emeralds," Mr. Stewart ordered.

"I wouldn't if I were you," Sonic said, holding up a finger. "You have no idea what these things can do. Unlike you, I happen to be an expert on Chaos Emerald-ology. And unless you got a lot of experience using 'em, they're just a bunch of pretty rocks. And thanks for stopping by, you really know how to spice up a getaway! But we gotta get going now, Chris' parents are getting really worried."

"But you won't be getting away anytime soon. Unless you can just disappear, this will be your new home," Mr. Stewart said.

Disappear.

That gave Sonic an idea. It was crazy, but he hoped it would work.

"Chris, close your eyes and think about home."

Chris was very nervous, but he did that.

"What are you doing…?" Mr. Stewart asked nervously, as the guards trained their weapons on them.

"I get that you're a teacher and all, but this time, I wanna teach you a lesson today." He placed his hands in the three Emeralds that Chris was holding. "And that lesson is never leave a hedgehog alone with a bunch of gemstones that have powers beyond your wildest dreams!"

He closes his eyes and called out:

"Chaos Control!"

There was a bright flash of light, and before anyone could blink, Sonic, Chris, and the Emeralds were all gone.

After reviewing the surveillance footage for the fifth time, Mr. Stewart gave up. There was no way he could explain this Chaos Control phenomenon. All Sonic did was touch the Emeralds, and say the magic words, and he vanished.

"I… I can't understand these things," he said to himself. "They can power machines, that much I know, but Sonic can use them to go super – I think that's what it's called? – and apparently now he can use them to teleport." He let out a sigh. "This is exactly why we need these Emeralds. Just when we think we figured them out, they open up even more mysteries."

His wristwatch beeped, and Mr. Stewart held it up and activated it. General Card Passer himself appeared on the screen.

"I've just been informed that the prisoners have escaped from their cell," he said.

"More than that," Mr. Stewart said. "They just took the Chaos Emeralds, broke our machine – the one we spent months working on – and just… disappeared. I'm pretty sure they're back home by now, so… happy endings for them."

Passer grit his teeth. "How exactly did they disappear?"

Mr. Stewart sighed. "Does Chaos Control ring a bell to you?"

"You're referring to the event that sent everyone here," General Passer asked.

"Um… Not exactly? It seemed to be more… localized," Stewart clarified.

"Hm… I know about this. Shortly after you bugged the Thorndyke's house on the day of their party – the one just after the Mobians got here – I overheard Sonic and his friends telling stories of their adventures. And one of the things they talked about was Chaos Control. It seems that Sonic is able to use it to pretty much travel wherever he wants just by thinking about the place."

"And that's how he got away," Mr. Stewart finished.

Passer nodded. "Exactly."

Mr. Stewart realized, he had told Chris about how he was using him to gain information about Sonic, and then some. And there was a chance that Passer would find out he did it.

"Do I do anything with Chris anymore? I mean, he wasn't just my number one student, but my number one link to Sonic as well."

"Nah, the Thorndyne kid is off the hook. He doesn't have any more use to us," Passer said as he put his feet up on his desk."

"And, uh… What about the machine? What do we do with that?" Stewart asked.

"Oh, I've arranged everything," Passer said. "We don't really need a machine, not when I have all the resources I need to destroy Eggman from the inside."

"Well, that's interesting," Mr. Stewart said, relaxing a bit. "How so?"

"You know I can't say everything over a hot mic," Passer replied in an amused tone. "There gotta be some surprises out there, you know. And speaking of surprises, the doc will never know what hit him until he's in the palm of my hand. And then–"

He crushed his hand into a fist for emphasis.