25/02/2020: chapter fully rewritten.

"Sonic, do you hear me?"

"Loud and clear, Tails." Sonic responded, raising two fingers to press the tiny device clipped to his ear. The earpiece vibrated slightly and crackled with static, muffling for a moment the so familiar voice of his fox sidekick. The hedgehog couldn't help but wonder if the thing was going to electrocute him. "Ok, maybe not that clear."

Rubbing his ear, Sonic surveyed his surroundings to distract himself from the annoying static. Gigantic trees surrounded him like ancient pillars, their massive trunks bearing thick branches that reached up so high above, they seemed to cradle the very sky in their embrace. Due to the almost never-ending blanket of leaves, the whole forest was also covered by a dense veil of darkness. The streaks of sunlight were the only signs of daytime.

The multiple shades of green in the ancient forest created a strong contrast with Sonic's royal blue fur, and he smiled weakly as the pleasant chirps of birds reached his free ear. Sonic actually had never really come to this place before, even though one of his main hobbies was running for hours just to explore. This made him curious, it wasn't easy to miss such a huge area. Over the years, he had discovered countless places in his trips that were completely unknown to people. He often visited these spots whenever he sought peace of mind.

Thinking about that, Sonic could tell this peaceful piece of land was perfect for a hedgehog to stop and relax after a good run. Sometimes it was great to stop and spend some time thinking and nothing else, to just slow down… as ironic as it sounded for somebody like him.

... If only that very forest wasn't his newest source of distress.

Sonic sighed. He could vividly remember how, nearly a week ago, he approached her house and knocked on the wooden door. That day, he was feeling quite anxious while he waited... And waited and waited. It didn't take much longer for anxiety to turn into confusion as he knocked a few more times and still no response came. Said confusion then turned into concern, until Sonic kicked the door down and felt his concern explode into a rush of rage. He had found himself facing a destroyed living room, with debris and broken furniture scattered all over the place. The floor had multiple charred holes, and the back of the house had been completely destroyed, leaving a large gap that exposed it to the elements. It was as if a tornado had paid the place a visit, possibly followed by a meteorite shower.

With his speed, Sonic searched throughout the entire house. He called for her name repeatedly, and yet the only response he got was the sound of wind blowing through the destroyed wall. It didn't take long for realization to hit the hedgehog like a brick.

Amy Rose had been kidnapped.

Not that this wasn't a common recurrence in his life. Every now and then Eggman would at least try to kidnap one of Sonic's friends to lure him into a trap, and Amy just happened to be the victim in 99% of the cases… Something to do with the classic damsel in distress concept, he supposed, as if the whole world domination thing didn't make the mad scientist sound cliché enough. After turning the house upside down in search of clues, it took Tails quite a while to track down the old man's whereabouts. Only this morning, a week later, he finally identified the approximate location of Eggman's new base. Apparently, the Hyper Tornado had detected irregular chaos energy spikes coming from somewhere in that forest. However, something kept causing interference in its system whenever it flew too close to the base location. It definitely wouldn't be wise to fly into that large, suspicious section of woods when the plane could easily be taken down by whatever was causing the disruption.

And thus, Sonic's mission came into the picture. Nothing new about it, though. As usual, he got the duty of running through that maze of trees, avoid as many traps as possible, find the hidden base, free Amy, kick Eggman's butt to the other continent, destroy whatever robot crossed his path in the way out, explode the entire place and come back home with a safe and sound Amy in his arms.

Piece of cake.

"Hey, Tails, the interference is getting stronger, I bet I'm close!" Sonic said, twisting the earpiece microphone closer to his mouth. More static invaded his ear, to which Sonic scowled and flinched.

"Okay, Sonic." Tails' voice was slightly broken by the interference, but it was still a relief from the awful noise. "According to my readings, just run a few more kilometers to the left and you'll get there in no time."

Finally! Maybe he would finally have some action, after all! "Sure, buddy." Sonic turned to said direction and sped off, tracing the route with his famous blue streak. The thunderous sonic boom followed soon after.

It was a short run for Sonic, but he enjoyed it nevertheless. He couldn't wait to get this situation over with… Well, not that he didn't enjoy beating Eggman and ruining every single plan he concocted. In fact, it was quite a hobby to Sonic! After all, if it wasn't for all those failed world conquering plans, Sonic would have drowned in boredom long ago. They even served to give him some laughs. Eggman's newest stunt, however, had already exhausted the blue hero's patience. Just the task of finding the base had taken him and Tails far too long, and every second they spent on it only added to their concern and distress.

With this, Sonic didn't think twice before going at full speed, ready to destroy any machinery in his way and put an end to that mess. Hopefully this would be quick enough to go back home for a nice chilidog before sunset. The hedgehog cut through the land like a blade, raising dirt and dodging the countless exposed roots in his path. He couldn't help but smile at the feeling of the wind blowing through his quills. He felt unstoppable!

… Too bad he didn't see the force field in time.

Everything happened so quickly, not even the fastest thing alive could react. First, Sonic felt his body slam against something solid… or at least it felt solid. His pained grunt became a piercing scream once the electricity followed. The current ran through his entire body like a snake suffocating its prey, covering each of his limbs and raising every quill and hair. Then, within a few seconds, the same electric barrier rejected his body with a loud crackle, throwing away like a ragdoll. Sonic's back slammed on a tree and he slid down to the grass, where he spent a moment growling as many curse words as possible.

"... Tails… I think I found it…" His voice was all but a pained groan as he slowly stood up on wobbly legs. For a moment, Sonic stayed still just trying to understand what the hell had just happened, holding his throbbing head on body hands. To make matters worse, Sonic quickly spotted red stains on a white glove upon moving his hands away. Great. Now his nose was bleeding.

Sonic shook his head and looked around in search of whatever had almost fried him. Initially, the hedgehog expected to see an immense, glowing energy shield. The kind you would see in sci-fi fiction, with menacing tendrils of electricity cracklings and running wildly along its surface. It could even be surrounded by spikes reinforce its dangerous presence… How about some robots while we are at it, too?

Instead, though, Sonic saw nothing but more grass and trees, a sight he was quickly growing tired of by now. There was no noise, no sparks… not even a single groan of a gear. The only evidence of the hidden danger in such a serene looking place was Sonic's smoking fur. "The hell? I don't like the look of this. I'd better call Tails for- Wait, where's my earpiece?!" He touched his cheek and ears, noticing the missing set. After taking a frantic look around, he groaned exasperatedly at the sight. Now his only way to contact with Tails had been reduced to a pile of charred metal. Goddamnit.

"Oh, c'mon. You gotta be kidding me, Eggman!"

Growling, the cobalt hedgehog took a deep breath slowly stepped forward. His ears kept twitching in every direction in search of any suspicious sound. Whatever had electrocuted him wasn't there for nothing, Sonic knew it from experience. It probably had been a new trap to slow him down until Eggman's forces could get him. It wouldn't be a surprise, the old man had used this trick several times before and, as usual, failed miserably... But no matter how much Sonic focused his senses on his surroundings, he couldn't catch anything abnormal. No shiny metallic parts crossed his sight, no sounds of engines or gears reached his perked ears, no smell of oil touched his nose... Nothing. He frowned, even turning around several times to check if any threat had been sneaking behind him, but there wasn't anything there either.

The entire forest was just so quiet and peaceful...

Way too quiet and peaceful.

Suddenly, Sonic felt his skin crawl with static and his fur started to stir up again, it made him stop dead in his tracks. Narrowing his eyes, he crouched down and picked a rock from the ground. Then, observing the forested view attentively, he threw the object forwards with all his might.

The moment the rock was suddenly stopped in midair, he could swear he saw the area in front of him sway for a split second. It was as if he had thrown the object into a mirrored lake instead of thin air. It was followed by a loud, familiar crackle, and Sonic had to step aside as quickly as possible to dodge the rock flying in his direction at breakneck speed. "Woah, a cloaked force field? Eggman is surely improving. It's about time he got some new challenge for me!" He stepped closer to the invisible wall, feeling his fur and quills standing up again. Maybe I could use my body like a drill and dash through the ground to get out at the other side of this thing...

But then again, it's Eggman the one he was talking about. A crazy old man with an unhealthy obsessed for robotics and machinery... He could very well have built the whole base underground. Sonic definitely didn't want to bang his head against a floor made of pure titanium.

"Man, if only I could contact Tails..." He groaned to nobody in particular. "Well, this only leaves me with one option... Lucky thing that I've been practicing lately. I may be rusty, but for now it'll do." Reaching his back quills, Sonic took out a polished, deep red gem. It recognized the hero's touch immediately and lit up with a gentle glow. Sonic could feel a portion of its limitless power already running up his arm, filling his body with a sense of warmth and calm.

Sonic had hoped he wouldn't need to use the chaos emerald, as he only reserved that for emergencies. Unfortunately, with Tails out of reach and an annoying force field ready to fry his spiky self to the bone, he was left with no better alternatives. With this, the hedgehog tightened his grip on the crimson jewel and closed his eyes, emptying his mind and then focusing on the mission he had in his hands... and specially on the image of a certain pink hedgehog.

In a matter of seconds, the peaceful silence of the dense forest was broken by two short, yet powerful words.

"Chaos Control!"

Deep underground, a large circular chamber could be found. Its metallic walls were covered with monitors, some of which displayed incomprehensible data in constant movement. Others displayed different environments either filled with trees or robots. Machines in all kinds of shapes filled the room, and it was nearly impossible to see the floor under the thick layers of cables. Now and then a few sockets connected to said cabled would even release sparks, which added an eerie tension to the atmosphere. Anybody with a sane mind would surely think twice before entering that place.

Soft beeps and weak groans of gears were heard as two small robots moved around the room as best as they could. One was red and round shaped, focused on typing commands on a touch panel. The other was yellow and resembled a cube, doing god-knows-what with the cables of an unknown machine. Every few seconds the latter would let out a robotic yelp, probably from a brief shock. Its partner didn't seem to notice it, but somebody else surely did.

"Cubot, you stupid piece of junk! Can't you stop your whining for a moment? I'm trying to focus here!" In front of the biggest monitor stood a very known, round figure. He slowly stroked his abnormally long mustache and narrowed his eyes behind dark glasses. He had been standing there for quite a while already, paying so much attention to the footage in front of him, that he didn't even bother turning around to look at his assistant robots.

"My bad, boss!" Cubot raised his hands in a defensive gesture. "But these thingies are hard to fix, they won't stop shocking me!"

"This is why a robot is doing this job, not me." Finally turning around, Eggman twisted his face into a deep scowl. He really wasn't in a good mood today. "Orbot, report!"

The red robot moved away from the panel and towards his boss. He would have gulped, but he wasn't programmed for that. "The machine seems to have finished analyzing the samples we collected from the girl, Doctor. According to the results, there's a chance of 89% for the Exchange Point to be successful! We managed to get enough energy readings from her body to keep a stable inter-dimensional connection with-"

"-But?" Eggman interrupted, already expecting some sort of obstacle in the way of his plans. He walked towards the panel in front of Orbot to check the information he was talking about.

"... Well, we obviously don't have enough chaotic energy to start the connection. Don't you remember how the first portal was made?" Eggman crossed his arms at the comment, rewinding the events of that unforgettable day in his mind. He could vividly remember how his so despised blue nemesis had invaded his base to rescue that obnoxious rabbit girl, Cream... only to end up ruining one of greatest machines, consequently causing a massive chaos control that sent everybody to another dimension.

Grumbling under his breath, Eggman crossed his arms and glared at the screen. "So, we still need all the chaos emeralds to make this work? I'm already using four of them to power this whole thing up, I thought they would be enough since the objective isn't opening a new portal!… well, at least not fully."

"Just making the connection to another dimension still requires lots of energy, Doctor. I thought you would have figured this out, given how intelligent you're supposed to be." Orbot pointed out in his monotone, robotic voice. Always the one to criticize Eggman, of course.

"Shut up, you insolent bunch of screws! Do you want to become scrap metal?!"

"Actually, Doctor, I would refrain from considering doing that. You must remind yourself that I'm very useful."

"Oh, really? Give me an example."

"Who managed to fix Cubot's voice chip definitely?"

Almost ten long, agonizing seconds of thick silence went by before the old man's voice echoed in the room again, with a very noticeable hint of irritation in it. "You know what? Just go back to the control panel and run another scan to check if all the seven emeralds are really needed for this. I also want you to check our hostage's vitals. I noticed her brain activity has intensified recently and I certainly don't want that girl waking up."

If he could, Orbot would have rolled his eyes. "Of course, Doctor."

"And you-" Eggman turned towards Cubot, who had been awfully quiet during their short conversation. Just then he noticed Cubot was finally done rearranging and connecting the cables. "-bring me a cup of tea, all this work left me thirsty."

"'All this work'?! Orbot and I did everything while you just stood there watching the-" When he noticed the murderous scowl on the Eggman's face, Cubot quickly stopped in mid-sentence and brought a hand to his yellow forehead. "I-I mean, yes, sir! Tea express on the way!"

Who would know a robot could disappear so fast?

Eggman took in a deep breath and rubbed his face in frustration. "Idiots."

If he analyzed every single plan he ever made to bring the so dreamed Eggman Empire to life, this newest one surely wouldn't be the craziest. Still, it was easily becoming one of the most difficult, mentally exhausting ones. Eggman had been working on it and making endless, mostly fruitless researches for over a year and a half, and even then, his progress was minimal. In the end he needed to capture a victim to confirm his theories.

Amy Rose was the chosen one, of course. From experience alone the scientist knew very well she would be the easiest target in his list. Catching her off guard in her own house turned out to be a piece of cake, just like all the other times he had ambushed her. This time, however, he didn't want to use her as bait for the blue pest, which was quite surprising considering his usual strategy style. This time, that girl would play a very important role in his latest project.

Thinking about this, Eggman couldn't resist letting out an arrogant chuckle. He walked to the middle of the room, where a circular black base rose from the floor. Its dull surface was decorated with a large variety of buttons and switches, several of them even glowing different colors. The odd machine supported a large, thick glass tube that reached up all the way to the ceiling, where a huge cylinder of steel held it in place. Several clear pipes fed the whole apparatus an unknown translucent liquid, and countless thin wires were plugged all over the machinery.

That same transparent liquid filled the large glass tube, flowing within its confinement in lazy streams. Inside, a pink figure could be seen curled in a fetal position. Eggman touched the cold glass while checking on a monitor nearby from the corner of his eye. It displayed a steadily moving heart line that emitting a soft, constant beep. Even given the current situation, the pink hedgehog still looked rather peaceful as she floated in place. Her eyes were closed and her expression was serene, and if it wasn't for the air mask tied firmly to her muzzle, or the dozens of wires connected to her body, anybody would say she was merely sleeping.

With Amy being much more than just a bait this time, Eggman needed as much time as possible to get what he wanted from her. No wonder Sonic and Tails were taking so long to find her location, as the doctor made sure his base was very well cloaked rather than another flamboyant feat of architecture. Who knows how long they would take to rescue her... weeks? Months? The thought alone made a wide, toothy grin cross the man's lips.

But well, it didn't last long.

Suddenly, a loud alarm blared in the room. Emergency lamps then covered the place under a bright red light. Eggman rushed to the control panel, typing on the keyboard at speeds even Sonic would be jealous of. In fact, speaking of him, soon footage appeared on the biggest monitor featuring the speedster himself. It was a sight that immediately made a growl come from deep inside Eggman's throat. "Oh no, no and NO! It can't be! I thought that stupid hedgehog would take longer to find us!"

"Doctor, he must have tracked the discharge of chaotic energy during the experiments." Orbot said, checking on the data displaying on various screens. "Even the signal interference to keep them away, it didn't fully cover up the energy signatures."

Eggman rubbed his face in exasperation, still watching the screen. He could see the forest background as a blue blur crossed it at full speed, raising dirt and shaking the cameras with the bursts of wind following him. He kept watching the monitor with visible irritation until he switched cameras. Now it displayed Sonic hitting the cloaked force field shielding his fortress, only to get electrocuted. As satisfying as the scene was to him, he knew it only meant the damn hedgehog had officially found the location of the base.

At that moment, Cubot finally returned to the room, a trail with a small cup of steaming tea carefully held between his mechanical hands. "Here's your tea, doc! I even put some more sugar 'cause I thought the news must've stressed you up even more, how about it?"

"Just give me this already, idiot!" In the blink of an eye, Eggman snatched the cup out of the tray and took a long sip. His mind was racing with countless thoughts and strategies, so much his head started to ache. He narrowed his eyes and stared at the screen, observing a pained hedgehog struggling to his feet. "Orbot, other than the problem with the chaos emeralds, the machine is now fully functional, right?"

"Correct, Doctor."

"So, we no longer need the girl." Suddenly, a smirk crossed his face. "Cubot, send the Egg-Squadron A to the surface to intercept our new visitor, and send Egg-Squadrons B and C to the second and third floors. Orbot, lead D to get the machine to the EggCarrier and prepare the fleet to take off. I'll handle things here and keep that blue rat busy."

"Sir! Yes, sir!" Once again Cubot moved a hand to his head in a salute and then rushed out of the room. Orbot on the other hand approached his master.

"Doctor, what about the girl?"

"We have already collected all the information we need, that pink brat is no longer of use. Let Sonic do his part and rescue the damsel in distress." Behind the dark glasses, his eyes moved to the screen once more. He watched with interest as Sonic took out a shining blood red jewel from his back quills, a sight that made his smirk grow wider. "Besides, this way the blue rat has a motivation to come here and bring me a small souvenir, don't you think?"

Hey there, guys. Welcome to my first fanfic!

... well, at least in English.

I used to write Teen Titans fanfics for a brazilian site, but over four years ago I stopped this hobby to focus on several personal projects of mine. So, I'm not only super rusty on writing fics after not making any for years, but I've never written a full story completely in english before either! Awesome! This means you'll have to be very patient with me because even though people used to like my writing style in portuguese, converting it to another language SUCKS. ¬¬'

But oh, anyway, back to the point: the plot for this story is the result of a weirdly-random-as-hell idea I had one day, but it will take quite a while for it to be revealed. Even though I've already got several chapters finished, I can't guarantee fast updates either because I've just started university, but I swear I'll try my best ^^'.

Also, to those who don't get the title, the hedgehog dilemma is an analogy used to explain introversion, based on how hedgehogs can't mate or snuggle to one another for heat without getting pierced by their quills. Basically, it refers to when two people can't get close to each other without getting hurt. Here, the title stands for both this and… something else that will come later in the story.

So, well, see you in the next update! I hope you can bear my writing as I try to get used to this. XD

~*Night