The Crystal Egg was just one of the Dr. Eggman's many fortresses. Normally, Eggman set up fort inside a metallic airship or factory, so few would expect him to choose such a shiny stone temple as his hideout. But of course, the Pyramid Cave and the Cryptic Castle were equally unlikely sanctuaries of choice.

After defeating Metal Sonic—or more accurately, a silver version of the robot—and obtaining the sixth Chaos Emerald from him, Sonic the Hedgehog used Chaos Control to transport himself and his friends to the crystal fortress Eggman now called home.

"All right, everyone," said Sonic. "There's a Chaos Emerald waiting for us somewhere in this place. Let's find Eggman and take back what belongs to us!"

"I hope Mom's okay," said Cream.

"Time to clean this place up," said Rouge.

"Let's go teach Eggman a lesson," said Tails.

"How dare you take Cream's mother away, Dr. Eggman," said Shadow.

"I'm gonna turn this ancient ruin into rubble," said Knuckles.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Floating piranhas comprised the few robotic inhabitants of the fortress. They moved slow enough to be ignored by Sonic and co, but the temple was filled with greater dangers of its own, such as falling stone blocks, spiked metal balls floating in orbits, and not surprisingly, spike beds lining sections of the floors and ceilings.

"What a weird looking place this is," Amy said, as she was looking around.

To her side, a brown Manx kitten made a shaking motion with her head. Her darker-colored hair was kept in a ponytail, which was neatly tied with a yellow ribbon, as another makeshift tail. This was mostly due to the length: it reached slightly below her hips. Then again, the new member of their team, Tiara Boobowsky, had a rather odd choice for clothing. She keept her chest fit into a red sports bra, which matched her semi-tight sports skirt, and wore a pair of red and white running shoes, similar to the ones Sonic wore."

"Tiara, how did you know what this place is?" asked Tails, as the team got further into the maze.

"Dad told me about it," answered the Manx. "According to him, this place was built by Eggman's ancestors, even though they didn't plan anything evil at the time."

"I wonder if Gerald ever saw this place for himself," commented Shadow. "I wish Maria could have, instead of spending what little of a life she had on the ARK."

"It sure is pretty," commented Cream.

"Of all places possible, I would've expected to see those robots in that chlorine-filled lake, not here," said Knuckles, pointing to a few of the aforementioned Piranha badniks drifting towards them. Even without speed, they could've simply walked away from the droids, but Shadow and Rouge decided to do them in anyway in case something unexpected happened from behind the group. The next thing they knew, a crystal block almost landed on Tails, but Tiara fired a ball of lightning at it and shattered it. Up ahead, another block fell down, this time above Amy, but Knuckles jumped into the air and punched it into pieces.

"That's a sign that we better get moving," said Sonic. "Let's go!"

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Deep inside the ruins was Dr. Eggman, inside a metal room and giving instructions to a 12-foot-tall rooster badnik and a tank-like robot with a stump for a head and drills for hands and a nose.

"All right, Egghead, hand over the Chaos Emerald!" ordered Sonic as soon as he and the gang entered the room.

"Scratch! Grounder! Deal with these pests at once!" ordered the egg-shaped doctor. "I've got business to take care of."

"Aye aye!" yelled the robots in unison, before turning to the heroes. Eggman, meanwhile, had escaped into his control room to prepare the "real treat" for them.

"You won't be saving that bunny rabbit anytime soon, hedgehog!" taunted Scratch.

"Dr. Robotnik needs just a little bit more time to arrange things, so why don't you play with us instead," added Grounder.

"Why don't you girls take care of these two losers while we continue pursuing Eggman!" Sonic suggested.

"Sonic's right," said Amy.

"Rouge, let's roast that big chicken while Amy and Cream smash that tank to a pulp," said Tiara.

"Agreed," answered the other three girls.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Scratch started the fight by running up to Tiara and scratching her across the cheek.

"They don't call me Scratch for nothing," he said after leaving the gash. Rouge then kicked the robot from behind, sending it crashing into a wall.

"Next, I'm gonna drill you into the ground like a fence post," said Rouge as she then took to the wall.

"I can do that too," said Scratch, as he noticed Rouge's climbing ability. He did the same thing, while Tiara nursed the wound on her face for the next minute. When the two opponents reached the top of the room, both of them glided at each other, hoping to send their enemy sprawling on the ground. Just then, a lightning bolt came down and knocked Scratch out of the air, allowing Rouge to crush his torso with a drill kick.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Grounder made repeated attempts to either ram down Amy and Cream at full force or fire his drill hands at them like missiles. The hedgehog and the rabbit successfully dodged each of his attacks, either by running or jumping to the side, whacking him aside with the Piko Piko Hammer, or pouncing on his head. After a few minutes, Cheese made his own assault on the green robot, striking him from the side onto his nose with enough force to unscrew his head from his body.

"Here, take this, you stupid robot," said Amy as she gave the airborne head one last whack with her mallet, colliding it with a wall.

"Hey! No fair!" said Grounder.

"Yay, we did it!" cheered Cream "Now let's help Mr. Sonic."

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Isolated from the room where the girls fought Scratch and Grounder, Dr. Eggman stood inside a booth on a metal ledge, with some sort of control panel in front of his body.

Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow had chased Eggman into the core chamber via a pipeline. He started the fight by summoning something in the shape of a bright-flashing letter X comprised of five metal balls. The object stayed in a short orbit in the center of the room while the good guys took turns landing a blow on Eggman's armor. Another object was summoned into the room, and both of them made larger orbits in the room than the first one alone, but equal to each other, like electrons in an atom.

"Something's going on with those things," said Tails, being the first one to notice.

"Whoa! Let's watch those things like a hawk!" said Sonic as he turned around in response.

Another one more entered the room after the next five seconds, causing the boys to scramble around the room rather than attack Eggman. Tails took the first hit, but was still able to continue fighting. However, more hits to each of the good guys, followed by a flood of electricity, would take a nearly fatal toll on them.

"All right, girls," announced Eggman. "My job is halfway done, and now it's time to do away with you little brats."

"You just did us a favor by holding us up, Dr. Eggman," replied Amy. "Now we know what to expect."

"Hey, look! There's an escape chute in the floor," said Cream, cueing Rouge to drill-kick her way through the lid covering it..

"And on the ceiling," added Tiara as she struck the one she noticed with a lightning bolt, allowing Cream to take shelter right there. Amy and Tiara then followed Rouge into the floor, where they would orbit the room while studying Eggman's pattern and waiting for an opportunity to strike.

Five seconds went by…a second projectile began to float around.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," taunted Eggman.

Five more seconds passed…a third projectile joined the fray…then a fourth one…then a fifth one…and then…

"Gah! This isn't working." The room was then flooded with static electricity again, which provided enough noise for the girls to take cue and finally emerge.

Amy smashed the armor with her hammer, while Cream, Rouge, and Tiara attacked the doctor in their jumping ball forms, hoping to wear him down the same way they smashed most of the other large badniks.

"Get a load of this!" taunted Eggman, as he sent a series of electrical ripples through the floor. Tiara escaped into the pipeline, while Rouge clung to one of the walls and Cream lifted Amy off the floor. Cream could only fly with Amy in tow for a matter of seconds, though, and barely managed to avoid the shock waves when they landed. Tiara then emerged once again, and used her electrokinetic powers to overheat the control deck, and blow it up.

Eggman was still alive, though crippled. Rouge and Tiara then turned their attention towards the boys, who were also in critical condition. Amy and Cream passed through a third pipeline, which was exposed from behind Eggman's unit.

At the other end of the pipeline was the last Chaos Emerald and a delirious Lady Vanilla. However, it didn't take long for the rabbit to recover upon seeing her daughter and Amy.

"Amy, Cream, thank you so much for saving me," said Vanilla.

"Mr. Sonic and the others don't look too good," said Cream. "I don't know how we'll get out of here without him or Mr. Shadow."

The three of them went back to the previous room and regrouped with Rouge and Tiara. The latter two girls could do nothing in their own power, but with the seven Chaos Emeralds united, the boys then started to de-age, all the way down to infancy. Their condition had improved considerably in the process, though.

"Now how are we gonna leave this place?" asked Rouge.

"We have all the Chaos Emeralds, but only Sonic and Shadow are able to use them," said Amy.

"And we can't expect babies to know how to use them," added Cream.

"Maybe I can use them," suggested Tiara. "Chaos Control!"