After the press conference Robotnik had just one thing on his mind, who this reporter was, and why she was so interested in how the park was going to be run? Until today he had never heard of the reporter, she was not a big name journalist, merely working for a paper that only sold on Northside Island. But still, Honey the Cat had given him a lot of trouble, and the scientist was convinced it was all intentional.

As he sat swivelling on a grey executive office chair, his eyes focused on a computer screen filled with the information he could retrieve on the black cat, his mind began to wonder. As far as he knew, she had no reason to personally slight him, so she had no motive. Still, the human was focused on her. He trawled through her public blogs, her social media profiles, her various online accounts, scouring for any information he could gleam from other, but other than the usual junk he found nothing useful.

Just as he was about to give up, he found one image. He'd almost ignored it. It was a photo of her one of her friends had posted, just her sat in some coffee shop, a big cheesey grin on her face. Robotnik had nearly dismissed it as irrelevant when he noticed something behind her. It was a small bug which emitted a photoflash glare on the picture. At first it merely caught his eye, but then he began properly looking at it.

"That's it!" he said, "That's where I'd recognised this cat from!" he yelled, as he began digging through some files he'd received. Sure enough, there was a two week old file from one of his robots, the one that had been tracking Rouge the Bat. Robotnik had barely been looking through these files, due primarily to his other pre-occupation, but he had recalled seeing this one moment in time before in a preview image on the batch file.

Robotnik took a proper look at all the photo's this little bug had given him from that date. Most were irrelevant, but there was a small batch that made it clear that not only had Rouge ran into Honey, but they had actively spoken. Acting quickly he looked at the time code on the picture, and found the audio from that moment. Its quality was poor, due in part to the limits of the robot, but it was unmistakable, Rouge had spoken to Honey about the park.

It became clear to Robotnik now, in spite of her paid off silence, Rouge had blabbed. Honey had learned of Roger's efforts to bribe Rouge, and while Rouge had been true to her word not to say any more, she had tipped off Honey into digging deeper into the story. Honey was clearly hoping this story would be the big scope that got her a pay rise and a promotion, Robotnik thought, hence it was no wonder she was pressuring him. Now the question was what could Robotnik do about it?

Robotnik's mind began racing. His first thought was to simply kill her. But that raised too many questions. His next thought was again to pay her off as well, but something deep inside Robotnik knew that this story probably meant more to the cat that any amount of money could. Then he considered trying to persuade her she was wrong, but he reasoned that would only serve to make him more suspicious. Then it dawned on him. It was the perfect idea that would solve this problem. He began to send an encrypted signal to Metal.

"Metal, come in," Robotnik spoke into a microphone.

"Receiving," the dull robotic voice of Metal replied.

"I have an amendment to my previous order," the doctor grinned, "An additional target. I'm sending you an encrypted file containing the data on the target now. Take her with whatever prisoners you have already."

"Understood" Metal answered, "Will that be all?"

"No," The bloated human replied, "This one's a little more complicated. You need to be seen taking her. Make it look like you were being careless. Not too many witnesses; just enough for them to suspect my work."

"Sir?" Metal questioned.

"Do not question this! It is imperative that I look guilty of her disappearance."

"Understood. I will capture her as soon as possible," Metal answered.

Robotnik turned the communication off. The plot was so simple. Robotnik could take the blame for her disappearance. Nothing so far had connected Robotnik to Roger, and while people would be suspicious of Robotnik, it would take them too long to make the connection between Honey's disappearance, and her suspicions of the park, especially when other people, similar to herself, had also been taken by Robotnik.

The scientist was grinning wildly at the massive irony of the actions of Robotnik being a cover for what he himself was up to. But Robotnik was still aware that he couldn't gloat, at least not yet. Furthermore, he still needed to keep one eye out. Making it obvious he was involved in someone, anyone's kidnap would send that pesky hedgehog out investigating, and he still wasn't ready for that yet. Robotnik wanted to keep that encounter on hold for as long as possible, until the Northside Island was mostly his, and the human had a lot more defences in place.

Yet still the human was racing ahead of himself. The park still wasn't anywhere near ready, and the majority of his robots were busy making other robots. Time was both his alley and his enemy, the longer it took his nemesis to arrive, the more prepared he was, but the longer he had to wait, the more he had to do. Robotnik needed to be prepared for any eventuality, anything from the hedgehog arriving now, to getting the whole island fully established without it being noticed. As much as the scientist hated to admit it, he was more prepared for the former.

Robotnik's bases were very rarely finished in time. The closest he ever got was a fully functional Death Egg. Even with time on his side, in his attack on the miraculous Little Planet, he still only had about a third of the planet ready before the hedgehog's initial appearance. One time Robotnik had even been less than a week into preparing a base when the hedgehog arrived. It was a very short fight, less than a dozen robots, and Robotnik left flying off, with almost nothing to show for it. He managed to make it seem like it was just a one off surprise attack, to remind the hedgehog that the scientist was still around, but the truth was he had been caught off guard.

A quiet beeping on the communicator Robotnik had just been using snapped him from his thoughts. "What is it?" Robotnik shouted down into the receiver.

"Robotnik your graciousness," the Egg-Pawn grovelled in its pre-programmed way, "excavation of the ruins is complete. All areas are accessible. We await further orders."

"Prepare for my arrival," Robotnik grinned. This was a good chance for him to get some actual traps set up. While most the island was still accessible by the public, this one was abandoned, and hence this could finally be the first zone he could rig up as a defensive barrier between the hedgehog and himself.