During the battle with Gigakahn, Sonic had to use the Chaos Emeralds to heal a mortally wounded Godzilla, but after the king of the monsters had been healed the seven precious emeralds were scattered across the globe. Gigakahn had also stolen the Master Emerald and used it to power his gigantic robot body, so the Master Emerald had been blown to shards when Gigakahn's body was destroyed. In the months that followed Knuckles had managed to regain all the pieces of the Master Emerald, but the Chaos Emeralds were no where to be found.

"To think one of them would have turned up by now." said Sonic.

"Well we've done several circles around the world already, and the radar hasn't picked up anything." said Tails.

"Maybe Eggman already got his hands on them?" asked Amy.

"No, If Eggman got his hands on even one of the Chaos Emeralds he would've set one of his robots loose in Station Square."

"What about Shadow and Rouge?" asked Cream.

"They haven't been seen since the night we fought Gigakahn."

"Knowing Rouge she's probably already searched the entire globe for them."

Suddenly an alarm went off

"Jacob, what's going on?" asked Chris.

"Incoming transmission from… sources unknown."

"Bring it up on the big screen TV!" said Sonic.

A tall figure sitting in a chair with wavy black hair and a short black beard came up on the screen.

"Oh gosh it's… it's… who is this?" asked Helen.

"Joseph Marx, head of the Russian mafia." said Jacob.

"Oh boy…"

"Ello istah orthnyke en thiends, ie hack uh popazition thock hue."

"What?"

"Ie hack uh popazition thock hue."

"In don't understand a word your saying." said Chris.

On the screen Joseph Marx took something out of his mouth.

"Sorry, I forgot to take out my retainer. Anyway Mr. Thorndyke I call today because I have a proposition for you."

"Not interested."

"Oh I think you are, I have something dear to your little animal friends."

He pulled out a Chaos Emerald.

"He's got one of the emeralds!" exclaimed Knuckles.

"Actually… I have three."

"And let me guess, you're not going to just give them to us."

"I wouldn't dream of it."

"What do you want?"

"A tremendous amount of money…"

"How much?"

"… Thirty million American dollars."

"Would you excuse us for a minute? Jacob, put him on hold."

"Yes sir."

"Girls, take Michael and Jasmine into the other room."

"Thirty million? Is he insane?" asked Helen.

"No, the insane ones would make a suit powered by those emeralds, march into Washington D.C., and play king of the mountain. This one knows what he's doing."

"Sir, Mr. Marx is getting a little impatient." said Jacob.

"Okay, bring him back on."

Joseph Marx's image reappeared on the screen.

"Well Mr. Marx believe it or not, I don't have that much cash lying around."

"Do a wire transfer."

"Uh… Yeah… but that would send up red flags all over the place."

"Hmm… Well, if you're unwilling to pay the money, you could just give me a couple dozen of your exo-suits, maybe even your precious Mechagodzilla."

"Absolutely not. And Mechagodzilla belongs to the United Nations; it isn't mine to give away."

"In that case shall I auction your precious gems off to the highest bidder?"

"… Okay… We'll think of some sort of… arrangement."

"… I'll be waiting for your call."

At that the call ended.

"You're not seriously thinking about paying him are you?" asked Helen.

"Oh course not. We don't even know if those Emeralds are real, even if they are he'd probably give us fake ones and then auction the real emeralds off."

"So what do we do?" asked Tails.

For a moment everyone was silent.

"We're going to steal them aren't we."

"Well it's not technically stealing since those emeralds don't really belong to him anyway." said Sonic.

"Jacob, search all known data bases. Find any information you can about Joseph Marx's mansion in Moscow."

"Yes sir…"

After a few hours Jacob had gathered all known information about Marx's mansion, from construction orders to water and sewage.

"Well guys, this will be difficult to say the least." said Chris "Joseph Marx is one of the biggest mob bosses in the world, his mansion is an air-tight fortress, and even if we could successfully retrieve the Chaos Emeralds there is still the matter of mob reprisals."

"So it's impossible?" asked Tails.

"I never said it was impossible, I just said it would be difficult. Provided we can get somebody to hack into the mansion's security system and shut it down, we would still need someone to sneak in and out of the house unnoticed and steal the emeralds."

"That's where I come in…"

The all turned around to see…

"Rouge!"

"The one and only."

"How did you get in here?"

"I came down the chimney, ho ho ho." she joked "Any way, I think I can help you get those precious gems from that mobster."

"Yeah and you'll probably run off with all of them."

"I won't, cross my heart and hope to die."

"Rouge… Why help us?"

"I do something for you, maybe you'll do something for me someday…"

"I can't make guarantee I'll keep that promise."

"I'll take my chances Knuckypoo."

(To be continued)