Head's Up, Tails!

"Head's Up, Tails!" is the thirtieth episode of the anime series, Sonic X, as well as the fourth episode of the Chaos Saga. It first aired on 26 October 2003 and 9 October 2004 in Japan and the United States respectively.

Appearances
Characters:
 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Tikal
 * Pachacamac
 * Various Chao
 * Amy Rose
 * Lily
 * E-101 Beta's Flicky
 * E-102 Gamma's Flicky
 * Cream the Rabbit
 * Cheese
 * Big the Cat
 * Froggy
 * Chaos
 * Chaos 4
 * Chaos 6
 * Perfect Chaos
 * Christopher Thorndyke
 * Chuck Thorndyke
 * Jerome Wise
 * Scarlet Garcia
 * Doctor Eggman
 * Bocoe
 * Decoe
 * E-102 Gamma

Japanese version

 * "SONIC DRIVE" - Opening theme
 * "The Shining Road" - Closing theme

English version

 * "Gotta Go Fast" - Opening theme (USA and CAN)
 * "Sonic X" - Opening theme (AUS, NZ and UK)
 * "Gotta Go Fast" (shortened) - Closing theme

Plot
After crash-landing on the Egg Carrier, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles start to carry out their missions. Doctor Eggman starts launching missiles at Sonic, but he easily dodges them. One missile hits the Egg Carrier which opens up a hole. Knuckles leaves Sonic and Tails to search for the last piece of the Master Emerald. Eggman then calls Gamma and orders him to come to the control deck.

Amy makes her way out but she's caught by Bocoe and Decoe. She then pulls out her Piko Piko Hammer but is stopped by Eggman. Sonic then says to let her go, but Amy frees herself, hits Eggman, Bocoe, and Decoe, and slams the wall making Sonic and Tails fall on Eggman. Decoe then snatches Lily, and Eggman gets Sonic and Tails off of him. He then grabs the terrified Lily's necklace and a Chaos Emerald pops out. He then orders Decoe to give back Lily. Gamma then appears to the deck, and Eggman orders him to get rid of Sonic. Amy tries to get them to stop, but it does no good. Sonic defeats Gamma and is about to finish him off when Amy gets in his way. She tells him that Gamma set her and Lily free. Sonic believes her. An explosion then goes off behind them. Tails says that the ship is losing altitude. Sonic tells Tails to get Amy and Lily down to safety while he searches for Eggman. Amy manages to get Gamma to reboot. Gamma asks Amy why he saved her. She replies that she was just returning the favor he did for her earlier. The three of them then leave the Egg Carrier.

Meanwhile, Chris and Big manage to find Froggy in a room. When they're about to get him, an explosion causes the floor in front of them to break. On the ground, Chuck sees Amy and Tails and takes them in his car back to the house. Tails is still worried about Sonic. Knuckles manages to find the last piece of the Master Emerald, and starts to find a way out, when he's sent back into the past again. He spots an injured Tikal and some unconscious Chao on the ground in front of the shrine. She tells him that she tried to stop her father, but he didn't listen to her. Knuckles is then sent back into the present and wonders why he's being sent back to the past. Big is panicking that he and Chris might not get Froggy back to safety, but a quick drink manages to calm his nerves. Big uses his fishing pole to allow Chris to try to reach Froggy, and he manages to get him. When they reach the deck, they spot Chaos and Eggman.

Eggman tells Chaos that Froggy has an unusual tail. He starts chasing Chris and Big, jumps in front of them, and knocks Big down. Eggman picks up Froggy and chokes the Chaos Emerald out of him. He then feeds it and the Emerald from Lily to Chaos 4 turning him into Chaos 6. He then feeds Froggy to Chaos 6 to give him back his tail. Big tries to save him, but his face plants into Chaos 6 instead. Chris then climbs on top of Big and attempts to rescue Froggy, but Chaos sucks them in. Froggy's tail then disappears and reappears on Chaos. Sonic then appears and sees Chris inside Chaos. He attempts to rescue him, but gets pinned down. Knuckles shows up holding up the tentacle that had Sonic down. They both then come up with a plan to free Chris, Big, and Froggy. They find Chaos' weak spot and use the Shovel Claws to expose it. Chaos 6, being defeated, is then reverted back to Chaos 0, and Knuckles picks up the Emeralds. Sonic goes after Eggman, while Chris, Knuckles and Big are left with the X Tornado. Bocoe and Decoe have no choice but to bail out.

Back at Chris' house, Lily shows Amy a picture of her brother and sister, and that she misses them. Amy offers to help find them. Meanwhile, Sonic falls off his ride with Eggman and lands headfirst in the dirt. After getting out, he finds himself in Mystic Ruins. Meanwhile, Eggman sets up a missile and it lands in the middle of Station Square scheduled to detonate in two minutes. Tails thought that Sonic would know what to do if he were here. The people nearby begin looking at Tails hoping he could defuse the missile. Tails is hesitant at first but decides to give it a go. He starts thinking of the time he first met Sonic, and how he was always there for Tails, but thinks he should start doing things on his own. He then figures out which wire to cut and successfully defuses the missile.

Meanwhile, Chris, Big, and Knuckles land the X Tornado near Mystic Ruins. Knuckles goes to Angel Island to fully restore the Master Emerald, but moments after he left, Chris spots the last Chaos Emerald near the X Tornado and rushes off to give it to Knuckles. Big and Froggy then decide to head home.

Regional differences

 * In the Japanese version, Sonic says "You really should court a better girl, Eggman!", causing Amy to says "What's that supposed to mean?!" The English dub only shows Amy pounding Sonic down, giving no explanation for why he made her mad in the first place.
 * In the Japanese version, as Sonic tells Tails to get Amy off the Egg Carrier, he says "Don't you get it? I've assigned something important to you." In the English dub, Sonic just says that it is because he is his right-hand man.
 * In the Japanese version, the pendant that Lily wears still shines as if there still was a Chaos Emerald in it. The English dub removes this shine.
 * In the Japanese version, when Gamma recovers, Amy tells him "Robot-san, Don't listen to Eggman anymore. Hurry and please leave this place" and "I said that we'd be friends the next time we met" when Gamma asks why she saved him. In the English dub, Amy tells Gamma that he was "knocked for a loop" when he recovers and that she was "just returning the favor" when Gamma asks why she saved him.
 * In the Japanese version, there is a shot from above Big's head as he is looking for Froggy after an explosion. That shot was removed in the English dub.
 * In the Japanese version, there is a shot from the back of Tails' when he is in Chuck's car. That shot was removed in the English dub.
 * In the English dub, the texts "EGG DRINK", "coffee", "orange" and "grape", "soda water" and "water" are removed from a vending machine inside the Egg Carrier.
 * In the Japanese version, when Big jumps onto Chaos 6 to rescue Froggy and fails, Chris says "That won't work!." In the English dub, Chris says "That'll work."
 * In the Japanese version, there is a three-second shot of Chris inside Chaos 6 after Sonic appears. That shot was removed in the English dub.
 * In the English dub, Eggman tells Chaos 6 to "Tenderize [Sonic] with your tendrils".
 * The English dub makes Chris' voice sound watery when he yells for Sonic.
 * In the Japanese version, there is a four-second shot of everyone up in Chuck's lab where the camera zooms in to Amy. That shot was removed in the English dub.
 * In the Japanese version, when Sonic gets his head unstuck from the ground, he says "Damn Dr. Eggman... He was screaming to let go while bumping into the trees". In the English dub, Sonic says it is the last time he hitches a ride with Eggman.
 * In the Japanese version, when Bokkun speaks out the bomb's countdown, he is crying. In the English dub, Bokkun's crying was removed.

Differences from Sonic Adventure

 * 1) Amy stopped Sonic from harming Gamma by standing in front of him in the episode while in Sonic Adventure, she simply pleaded to Sonic without the former action.
 * 2) Big was trapped inside Chaos in the episode while in Sonic Adventure, he wasn't.
 * 3) In the episode, the missile was said to automatically detonate in 2 minutes while in Sonic Adventure, Eggman had to manually detonate the missile himself.
 * 4) In addition, Eggman did not fight Tails in the episode.
 * 5) Parts of the Egg Carrier are not missing when the Egg Carrier is damaged, and more explosions are seen.
 * 6) In Sonic Adventure, the Egg Carrier shakes, but does not lose altitude outside of cutscenes. However, in this episode, the ship is seen losing altitude.
 * 7) In Sonic Adventure, Sonic damages the Egg Carrier, but in this episode, Gamma damages the Egg Carrier.
 * 8) In Sonic Adventure, Chaos 4 absorbs the cyan and yellow Chaos Emeralds to become Chaos 6, but in this episode it uses the blue and purple Chaos Emeralds.
 * 9) Chaos 6 is not shattered into pieces when Sonic defeats it.
 * 10) Similarly, in Sonic Adventure, Sonic and Knuckles fought Chaos 6 individually, but in this episode they fight it together.
 * 11) Sonic does not transform the Egg Carrier back to its original form.

Trivia

 * There is a mistake in Jerome's dialogue (both Japanese and English). He says that he was the President's aide several weeks ago, but according to the President himself, "Pure Chaos" took place half a year after "Countdown to Chaos", which took place a month after "Fast Friends" (where he was fired), adding up to around seven months.