Shadow growled, and continued. Holter swallowed hard, and Scarlet chirpped, perching on Val's shoulder.

Eventually, the group found Sonic on a high up ledge, looking at a passage way across from him on the other side.

Val looked up at Sonic and wanted to fold her arms, but was worried that her stiff fur would pierce her flesh, "What are you doing up there?!" she shouted.

"Thinking about something from when I was 12..." Sonic said absently. "You?"

Val frowned, "When you were 12, did you come here?" she asked, she would be surprised if the hedgehog had come here when he was a kid.

"Yeah. That's young enough to get a pilot's permit, y'know," Sonic said.

Val raised an eyebrow, "Really, someone would let a 12-year old fly a plane?"

"Well, a learners permit, anyway. But I was a rebel," Sonic shrugged.

Val chuckled, "So how did you find this island anyways?"

"On accident. I tripped on a old inscription with symbols I couldn't read, and then Tails discovered a mysterious frequency that indicated there were at least 14 Chaos Emeralds in this location. We guessed if we found it, Eggman probably found it as well and was after it, so we decided to check it out."

Val nodded, "And what did you find?" she didn't know that only Knuckles had been living on the island when Sonic and Tails had come.