London Beckoned Songs About Money Written By Machines

"I'm burning and I'm blacking my lungs. Boy, you know it feels good with fire back on your tongue.If you talk you better walk, you better back your shit up with more than good hooks while you're all under the gun."

-Panic! At The Disco, London Beckoned Songs About Money Written By Machines

Knuckles stood guarding the beloved Master Emerald on Angel Island with pride; being the last of the Echidnas of his race. The sun towered overhead, signaling it was noon. That also meant the time to check on the Chaos Emeralds. Knuckles flew up to the small pedestals and did a role count. He realized one was gone however. The shimmering white one.

Being the knucklehead he is—he gritted his teeth and flew down from Angel Island. No one . . . takes Chaos Emeralds from me on my watch.

"Tails!" He banged on the door to Tail's workshop. "Open up, I don't got all day!" Tails opened the door to his red friend.

"Calm down, Knuckles! What's wrong?" That poor little fox had too many friends with mental issues. He thought Sonic's possible ADHD was one thing, and Shadow's amnesia was just ridiculous. He could never establish in his mind what Knuckles's condition could be.

"Do you have a Chaos Emerald tracker? The white emerald is gone." Tails scratched his head.

"Well . . . I actually just finished my latest model of it last week. I guess she'll need a little test run while we're at it." He smiled at his stressed friend. "Go guard the other emeralds. I'll look for the white one." Knuckles departed at once and flew back up to his Island; floating up into the stormy skies.

He looked at the empty pedestal to realize the rest of the Chaos Emeralds were gone as well, except for one; the ruby one. He swooped in and took it with him. I'm going to kill whoever is responsible.

The Master Emerald was a strong girl, she could hold up by herself while he went with Tails. He'll need back up. He patted the Master Emerald and reassured her he'll be back as if she were his own lover.

Kind of creepy, actually.

~xXx~

Amy Rose could barely contain her shock. "Cream is gone!?" Vanilla wiped tears away.

"I should have gone! And now she's gone!" The girls sobbed there for a few seconds or more.

Amy wiped her tears off her pink fur. "No. . . I have to find her. Sonic will help, you'll see." She beams at Vanilla.

"Be careful. . ." Vanilla mumbles to Amy.

Amy nods with confidence. "I will."

~xXx~

"Knuckles!" The two-tailed fox points at a robot carrying a blue chaos emerald. The echidna rammed into the robot, and beat the living circuits out of it. Knuckles picked up the royal blue Emerald.

"Looks like the Egg-head is up to something. . ." Knuckles mumbled. He tossed the Emerald to his fox friend.

"We have to find Sonic maybe he can help. . ." For once, Knuckles didn't argue. It wasn't because he knew they couldn't get all of the Chaos Emeralds by themselves, but rather because he had a feeling Sonic was up to something himself.

The team ran across the murky swamp seeking more answers until they ran into a metal wall. Knuckles punched the metal over and over, but didn't even manage to dent it.

"Hmm, that's so strange," Tails read his beeping radar with precaution, "According to my radar, there isn't a wall here. In fact this is supposed to all be swamp!" Knuckles looked away.

"But this doesn't have to do with the Chaos Emerald disappearing, right?" Tails bit his lip.

"That robot did seem to be headed somewhere . . . what makes you believe it wasn't here?" Knuckles' head hurt.

"So are you trying to say it wasn't Eggman's robo?" Tails shook his head.

"I thought it was but now, I'm afraid not. It had to trace of being Eggman's in the first place. What worries me is that it looked like a very old model of his robots." The bushes shook behind them. The echidna and fox turned around swiftly ready for combat. Vector came tumbling out.

"Vector?" Knuckles called out. "Were you spying on us?" He growled. "You better have a good excuse for—"

"NO! Wait, it's not what it seems!" Tails stood between the two males.

"Whoa, hold up." Tails warned Knuckles to lay off before he directed his attention back to the crocodile. "What exactly were you doing, Vector?"

The crocodile got back up to his feet. "You see, I can't tell you the details, but I was wondering if you guys knew where ol' Shadow is."

"Shadow?" Knuckles growled. "The bastard hasn't shown his face since he trashed up the ARK Ceremony."

"Ceremony?" Vector spoke out loudly.

Tails and Knuckles looked at each other before responding to Vector. "You didn't hear?" Tails blurted out. Vector shook his head slowly while his expression remained blank.

"Vector . . . why are you here?" Knuckles asked him sympathetically.

"I'm not even sure anymore." Vector punched a tree. "Why are you two here?"

"Chaos Emeralds." Tails and Knuckles replied in unison.

Vector nodded. "I'll help you get them if you like." Knuckles glared at him.

"You're not coming near us until you tell us why you really followed us." Vector sighed; he had thought they would drop that subject.

"I was actually here on my own. I'm on a job. I ran into the metal wall so many times that I thought maybe I was trapped inside of it. Then I heard you two coming along and thought maybe I could follow you two out. . ." Tails shook his head.

"We can't be in the center. There is something beyond the wall."

"Let's go find out then." Knuckles began walking away pridefully.

~xXx~

Sonic groaned to himself in disbelief when he saw Amy approaching him. She never gives up, huh? He chugged down his drink and prepared himself to speed off.

"Sonic! Wait!" The pink hedgehog yelled. "This is urgent!" The blue hedgehog stopped in his tracks. Urgent?

"What's wrong, Amy?" He tilted his head in sympathy as soon as he saw her worried expression.

"Cream and Cheese are gone. They disappeared yesterday. Vanilla is so worried, Sonic! You have to help us!" He was never the one to give in to her pleads but this time he couldn't help himself, and it was for Cream and Cheese after all.

"Where was the last time they were seen?" Sonic asked Amy.

"Vanilla said they said they had gone to Flowery Fields. She usually goes with them but she didn't this time. . ." Amy's voice faded off into pessimistic thoughts.

"That would mean they were being observed prior to this." Sonic looked out into the sky. It doesn't take a genius to find out that Cream had been followed every day and the person must have taken their chance when they saw she was alone with Cheese. "Let's go to Flowery Fields, Amy. We'll find them." He tiled her chin up. "Smile." She leapt into his arms.

"Oh, Sonic you're so sweet!" The blue hedgehog tried to get her off him but she stuck to him like bubble gum.

"Amy, get off." He whined. "We have to get going. . ."

She sprung down and giggled. "You're right." They ran off into the horizon, with warm colors evading off the sky making it such a nice escape.

~xXx~

Charmy wondered to himself where Tails, Sonic, or Amy could be. Knuckles is always on his absurd floating island, so he can find him when he needs to. And he already talked to Rouge but she basically blew him off saying he was accusing her of conspiracy. He didn't want to get his team in trouble with G.U.N seeing how she's favorable with them. He sighed to himself.

Flowers bloomed taller than trees and a crystal lake stood in the middle of the meadow with willow trees drooping over it. Charmy didn't even notice where he had ended up in. The floor was covered in layers of rainbow flowers; one couldn't even see the ground anymore. Mushrooms of different colors acted as shades. This is the kind of place that reminded him of Cream. A malicious smile crept onto his face. One day, she will be his. He'll bring her here and they'll play tag and hide and seek until they drop. They will lie under the mushrooms and look at the clouds; spotting out its shapes and figures. He'll let her make him a crown of flowers and they will rule over this paradise. It almost seemed like a possibility, a dream that would be so against reality but that he would make possible.

"Charmy?" A familiar female voice interrupted his daydreaming.

He shook he head. "W-What?!" A pink hedgehog was looking at him funny. Her companion was the famous blue hedgehog. "How long were you guys looking at me?" He asked embarrassed.

"Not long actually." Sonic smirked at him maliciously, it made Charmy's spine shiver.

"Charmy, have you seen Cream?" Amy had a more serious expression; unlike Sonic. "She disappeared yesterday along with Cheese. Vanilla is worried sick." Charmy's heart skipped a beat.

"She's gone? How does that even happen?" Amy glanced at Sonic.

"No one knows. Someone—or something—did away with her." Amy sighed.

"You should report this to Vector, Charmy." Sonic suggested. "You guys do run a detective agency after all." Charmy nodded and set off.

He buzzed off into the fields when he realized he had just found Sonic and Amy. He zoomed back in a rush; praying to himself that they were still there. And thankfully—they were. He crashed into Sonic.

"Whoa, watch where you're going—"Charmy interrupted Sonic.

"Have you seen Shadow?" Amy and Sonic look at each other.

"Why the sudden worry for him?" Sonic mumbled.

"We haven't seen him since he crashed the ARK party." Amy answered. "We had set off to look for him with Rouge. She did manage to find him and talk to him though. She refuses to tell anyone anything though. Why?" Amy asked suspiciously.

"Um, classified. . ." Charmy rubbed the back of his head. He buzzed off into the distance once again. At this point he didn't know what was more important: The love of his life or his mission.

"Vector!" Charmy barged back into their office. "Vector?" The bee looked around but his boss wasn't there. Espio was gone as well. The bee sunk into the guest coach. What's going on?!

I apologize for the wait. I got side tracked and lost my motive, only until a while ago did I acquire a renewed love for this *sniffles* And I present to ya'll my new beta for this fic, MsKittyKitty555 :D Thanks for being my beta, I appreciate it. Let's make this fic awesome. I also wanna give a shout-out to all the other reviewers! And MaxWaylandGrey for being my best friend and ex-beta ;D It's ok, ONE DAY I'll teach you in the art of Sonic but until then . . . you're stuck with TtEIDTMHC ;) Again, thanks MsKittyKitty :} Next chapter is already being worked on so um yeah.