It was quiet in his work area. Sitting at his cluttered desk, he knew he was at home. The only thing in place was the small sign on his desk that said, "Dominic Hendricks". He was busy drawing a character, and his pencil was very sharp, not to mention fragile. His eyes were concentrated, and only concentrated, on the figure before him that was turning out so beautiful…

All of a sudden, the door to the room burst open, and there stood one of the Dominic's students. The sudden slam of the door startled the man so much, the pencil broke. He muttered something undistinguishable, and looked up. His student looked excited.

"What is it now, Kyle?" Dominic asked.

"Sir, we just received word of something very unbelievable," the student, Kyle, replied.

The artist snickered. "Try me."

"Some children, eight of them, to be exact, were overheard to be talking about having been to Sonic's world!"

Dominic froze, as the words rang through his head. He cleared his throat. "Go on."

"Well, all we know is that, sir. We don't know if it's true or not, but…" his voice trailed off as he saw the artist in deep thought. "Sir?"

Dominic didn't reply. His mind was in a whirl.

"Sir?" Kyle tried again.

Dominic shook his head, and looked at his student. "Kyle, you and the other students may go home, now. That was enough drawing for today."

Kyle had a question, but kept it to himself. He'd been in Dominic's art lessons long enough to know that when Dominic gave a command, it was better not to ask why.

On the way home that day, Dominic's mind was producing thoughts a mile-a-minute. Was it true? Did eight kids actually go to Sonic's world? And if so, how? Well, there was only one way to find out.

Once home, Dominic at once headed to his basement, but froze when he saw the picture of his beloved wife. The widower sighed. He had loved her dearly…but it wasn't time to think about that now. There was a mystery for him to solve. With that in mind, he continued his journey to the basement.

Once there, he walked over to his computer and turned it on. After making sure everything was ready, he finally typed a secret code in, and up on the screen appeared a familiar two-tailed fox.

"Hey, Dominic! Long time no see!" Tails greeted.

"Hey, Miles," Dominic replied.

"Take that as a privilege, Dominic. I usually don't let people call me that," Tails smiled.

"Oh don't worry, I do. Now, the reason I wanted to talk to you was because I have to ask you something," the artist began.

"Yeah, what is it?" Tails asked.

"Did eight kids come to your world from Earth?"

Tails' face fell, and for a second, Dominic thought he saw a tear fall.

"Miles?" he asked.

Tails shook his head, clearing his mind out. "Yeah. But how did you know?"

"Word gets around. Now, are you absolutely sure eight kids came unto your world?" Dominic asked once more.

The fox nodded.

"What happened?" Dominic asked.

Tails took a deep breath. "Well…Eggman was at it again, and this time, he awakened Shadow…"

Dominic's eyes widened. "Sonic Adventure2: Battle…" he whispered.

Tails strained his ears. "What did you say?"

Dominic shook his head. "Nothing. I was thinking about something."

Tails furrowed his eyebrows. "Oh…well…okay…"

"Tails, can you tell me what their fancharacters looked like?" Dominic asked.

"Sure. One was a brown animal of some sort, who's name was Jet. She was the leader of the group. Then there's a teal echidna named Maya Eva. She was the faithful one. Now, one who was a bright blue hedgehog called Shani was the 'child' of the group. There also was a half-robot half-hedgehog one who was known as Mira. She was shy, but after a while, she was the encourager. Also, there was a hedgehog like Shadow, but had Amy's clothes. That was Darkness. She'd make a great lawyer someday…anyway, there also was a white hedgehog who was called Krystal. She had a pretty voice. There also was a fox that looked like me…his name was Lee. He was my best friend…" Tails cleared his throat, and then continued. "…and then there was a white seal name MJ. She fell in love with Shadow—"

"WAIT! One of them fell in love!" Dominic nearly screamed.

Slowly, Tails nodded. Dominic leaned back in his chair, laying a hand on his head.

"Dominic? What's wrong?" Tails asked.

Dominic shook his head. "Nothing, Tails. I'd better let you go. Thank you for your help."

"No problem. After all, I have to repay someone who helped us defeat Chaos, don't I?" Tails winked.

Dominic smiled. "Tails…that was years ago…when I was still married to Eva."

"It wasn't THAT long ago. More like last year," Tails informed.

Finally, Dominic agreed. "Yeah…anyways, I'll hopefully talk to you soon."

"Yeah. Bye!" the fox waved, and the connection was broken.

Dominic leaned back in his chair again, thinking about what he must do. Finally, it struck him. As he felt a weight of responsibility, he searched on the internet, hoping he could find something that would give him a lead as to who these eight kids were, from their fancharacters. He knew what would happen next. He knew it. He had to prevent it, and the only way to do it, was to send those kids back to Sonic's world, and stop Eggman's plan once again.

But he didn't pay attention to the question in the back of his head, whispering: But what if they never come back?