On the way to the city in one of Eggman's vehicles, Kit was peering out of a window and watching the surroundings passing by her. Luna had already figured out exactly where the bus was going at this point, and that was the city that she had once been sent to so she could hang up posters. Kit and Teddy didn't know this yet, but Kit had a window seat and the bus was slowly getting closer to the city itself, so she was going to find out quite soon
"Wow, there sure is a lot of forest here," Kit said as she looked outside. "I mean, it does look really nice, but I kind of wish the scenery would change a little bit, it would make things a lot more interesting"
Almost as if the landscape itself had answered Kit's request, less than a minute after she had spoken the horizon shifted to show towers of gray and brown instead of the foliage that was always on the distance before. Kit was excited at first, as it meant she would soon get to see something new through the window she had been given, but after a few moments of thinking about what she was seeing in the distance actually was and the memories of first walking to Eggman's base, she realized that the bus was headed towards the city where she had taken the job offer on one of Eggman's posters
"This bus is heading towards that city... No, it's fine, we're probably going to just pass right through it on the way to our actual destination," Kit thought to herself
While both Luna and Kit now knew where the bus was heading, Teddy still had no clue due to not having a seat near a window, and was still sitting in his seat contently. He had been getting a little bit bored, but he had been sitting in an empty basement for two weeks straight, so he had learned how to pass the time in boring spaces
After some more driving, Teddy still wondering where he was going the entire time, the bus finally stopped on the outskirts of Station Square. Everybody got up from their seats after the vehicle had been immobile for a little bit, but before any of them could get to the door to try and leave, Eggman's voice began speaking through the vehicle once again
"Ok, now that you've arrived in the city, you'll need to come up with your own strategy to get the Chaos Emerald," Eggman's voice explained. "However, there is a crate of supplies in the back to help you out, go and open it and then get me that emerald"
"The city?" Teddy asked as he got up. "Oh, is it the city that we went to before?"
"Yep," Luna answered
"Oh, that's cool! It's a really nice place, I'm glad we get to go back here," Teddy said happily
"Anyways, let's go and open that box and see what's inside of it," Kit said as she got up from her seat
At the end of the aisle, there was a medium sized orange and blue crate, about the size of one of the rows of seats. With Luna and Teddy following, Kit walked over to the crate and pulled the set of latches on it off before throwing the lid open and looking at the contents
"Whoa, this actually looks pretty useful!" Kit exclaimed
Inside of the crate, there was a brown pouch tied off with a rope, seemingly full of something, as well as a metallic rectangle that had a screen in the center of it and several buttons. Kit excitedly pulled both of these objects out of the crate expecting more things to be beneath them, but all she saw was the bottom of the crate
"Oh, these are the only things he gave us," Kit realized as she looked at the two items she was holding in her hands
"What do you think is in the bag, though?" Teddy asked. "It might have more than one thing in it"
"Huh, I don't know. I'll open it up," Kit said as she set the small machine back down in the crate
With her other hand free, Kit pulled the string keeping the bag shut off and then opened it with both her hands. Inside, there was a decent amount of small golden rings, almost filled up to the top of the bag
"Rings!" Kit shouted happily
"Oh, that's great!" Teddy replied as he walked over to the bag to see the rings for himself
While Kit and Teddy were excited about the equipment they had gotten from the crate, Luna was rather annoyed that they had been on the bus for so long, and went over to the two to get them to actually head to the city
"Are we actually going to the city or are we just going to stay in the bus?" Luna asked, sounding annoyed
"Oh, right, sorry," Teddy apologized
After Luna's complaint, Teddy walked over to the exit door where she was standing, with Kit going there as well after re-closing the bag and picking up the machine from the crate. With everyone ready to leave, Luna tried to open the door to get out, but it didn't open. After a few seconds of slamming her hands against the door in an attempt to open it, Eggman spoke through a speaker system once again
"One last thing before all of you begin your mission," Eggman begun talking. "Don't try and repeat what you did last time, I have my robots surrounding this entire city"
After Eggman had informed the trio that they wouldn't be able to run away anymore, he remotely unlocked the door, allowing everyone to leave the bus and walk into the forest right outside the city. Teddy and Luna had already seen the city from this same spot once already, but it was quite a nice view. The city was filled with huge towers and dazzling structures, some of which they had already seen up close before
Teddy turned around to see what Kit thought of the view, expecting her to be enamored by the view like him, but this wasn't the case. Instead, she looked almost uncomfortable at the sight of the city, looking at the sprawl of buildings with an anxious expression
"Kit, are you okay?" Teddy asked
"Huh? Oh yeah, just, a bit nervous about the mission," Kit responded. "But, we still have to get it done, so I guess we should head over there and get it over with"
"Yeah, that's a good way to think!" Teddy encouraged. "Come on Luna, let's head to the city"
"Alright," Luna agreed. "Don't run so far ahead this time"
Teddy chuckled at the memory of him running towards the city as fast as he could and leaving Luna behind for a little bit, and then began walking down the hill at a reasonable pace this time, with Luna and Kit walking alongside him
"You know, this city is kind of where we first met you," Teddy stated. "At first, I was mad at Luna when I found out she threw the posters in the trash, but now I'm really glad she did, and not just because the person who gave me the posters turned out to be evil"
"Aw, thank you," Kit replied
"Yeah, throwing away that huge stack of posters I'd been carrying for so long was one of the only things that actually made me happy last time I was here," Luna added
"What were the other things that made you happy?" Kit asked
"Leaving," Luna responded after a couple of seconds of silence
After the conversation had mostly wrapped up, Kit looked ahead of her and noticed that she had gotten quite close to the city. After making this observation, she turned back towards Luna with a smug smile and began talking again
"Well in that case, you're probably not going to like what I'm about to tell you next," Kit joked
"What are you talking about- oh," Luna said as she saw the city in front of her
"Alright, we're almost there!" Teddy cheered
With their destination very close, it didn't take very long for the trio to finally reach the city proper, entering from almost the exact same spot they had before. Nobody took a rest on the bench this time, though, instead they looked around them and began wondering how they were actually going to find the Chaos Emerald
"Wow, I almost forgot how big this city actually is," Teddy stated as he looked around all the buildings. "How are we going to find the emerald in such a big place?"
"I say we do what we did last time," Luna suggested
"You mean explore the city? Huh, we actually do have rings this time, and we were never really given a deadline... That actually sounds like a really good idea!" Teddy agreed
"Eh, there's not really that many things to do here," Kit chimed in. "Maybe we can just get the emerald and leave"
"Oh, really? I was kind of looking forward to being able to actually explore the city this time around, but you probably know a lot more about this place than me, so I guess you're right"
"Huh? Oh, no, when I was here it was just a brief trip to try and see interesting stuff. Now that I think about it, maybe I just missed all the cool stuff"
As the conversation went on, even after Kit had agreed to exploring the city, Luna was quite annoyed with her and Teddy standing around and not doing anything
"Well, then let's go and see the cool stuff if that's the case," Luna requested sounding annoyed
"Right," Teddy answered. "Where should we start, though?"
"I don't know, let's just pick a direction and start walking," Luna replied
"Ok then, let's head to the right," Teddy said as he began walking
Although there were many buildings all around the city, it took a while of walking to actually find something fun or interesting to do for a couple of reasons. One of these reasons was the fact that a lot of buildings in the city were offices or other similarly mundane buildings that didn't do anything except employ people. Even when the trio were able to spot fun buildings, such as a spectacular looking amusement park, it cost more rings than they had on hand just to get in
"Huh, I guess you were kind of right, Kit," Teddy told Kit after walking for a while. "There is a lot of things that look fun, but we don't have enough rings for any of them"
"Yeah, that sucks," Luna replied
"Well, there's still plenty more places in the city to see," Kit encouraged
"Yeah, and even if we don't end up finding anywhere we can afford, there's probably something neat that we can do for free," Teddy claimed
"Well, we better be able to find at least one new thing to do this time, because I don't really feel like repeating the last time I was here," Luna chimed in
A little while after the trio had this conversation, the area they were walking through slowly became less dense and urban, and gained small trees or other plants growing on planters in the sidewalk or on brick walls. Teddy enjoyed seeing the little plants grow, and wherever he looked in this area that he had walked into, there was at least some sort of foliage always visible amidst the urban environment
"Wow, these plants can grow even in somewhere like this, where they only have the bare essentials they need to stay alive," Teddy thought to himself. "It's... wonderful"
Teddy continued to look around him to try and find more plants growing in unlikely places, and he saw that, but he also saw something else that was surprising. Not too far away from him, there was a huge collection of large plants, not small like the ones that were merely surviving. It looked like a plant paradise, and Teddy had to see it closer
"Hey, wait, can we stop for a second?" Teddy said after spotting the plants nearby
"What is it?" Kit asked
"There's plants, lots of them! They look like they're growing really well," Teddy explained
"Oh, that's neat," Kit replied as she saw the plants from watching Teddy look at them
"Let's go and see the plants closer," Teddy requested excitedly
"Sure"
Luna wasn't really that excited to see plants regardless of the environment they were growing in, but it was better than having to do the mission, so she didn't say anything and walked along with the others to where the plants were. During the walk, more and more thriving plants came into view as the trio got closer, and other structures slowly popped up as well. A fountain, benches, and a few small stone sculptures were among the non-plant objects visible in the area
"Hey, I think I figured out what this place is," Teddy stated as he was standing not too far away from the location of the plants. "It looks like it's a park"
The place that the trio were heading to was indeed a park, and once they actually arrived at it, they saw even more of the plants and sculptures they had seen before. Aside from the standard towering trees that were present at every park, there were many shrubs and bushes grown around the perimeter, ranging in height from only half a foot tall to almost as tall as the trees. Dotted around the park, there were also the stone sculptures, which upon closer observation were small statues of both humans and Mobians
"Wow, this place is really cool!" Teddy said upon seeing a full view of the park
While Teddy wandered around the park to admire all of the plants and general atmosphere inside of it, with Kit following him, Luna lied down on a bench (not because she was tired, just because she wasn't interested in the decorations as Teddy was)
"All these trees look so well taken care of," Teddy observed. "This park must have some really good gardeners working for it"
"Yeah, the leaves are really... green," Kit commented. "You seem to really like these plants, have you ever done any gardening before?"
"Oh, yeah, a little bit," Teddy answered. "My village had a lot of flowers in it since they're needed to make honey, and I got to grow a few of them"
Speaking of flowers made Teddy wonder if there were any present in the park, as so far he had only seen shrubs and trees, which were quite common to find in parks. Walking away from the tree he was admiring, he roamed around the smallish park trying to find any flowers growing, but instead found a damaged looking tree
"Oh no, what happened to this tree?" Teddy thought out loud as he looked at the damages to the plant. All around the bark of the tree, there were rather deep scratches and cuts that reached into the interior wood. It was hard to tell how it had gotten into the condition it was currently in, but one thing that was certain was that the tree was quite damaged not a very long time ago
"What's going on over here- oh," Kit reacted upon seeing the hurt tree. She was silent almost immediately upon seeing all of the scratches
"How do you think this could have happened?" Teddy asked
"I don't know," Kit answered
Both Kit and Teddy looked at the scratches on the trees for a second with uncomfortable looks on their faces before Teddy walked away to a different part of the park to continue looking for flowers, while Kit continued talking after also getting away from the trees
"I'm about ready to leave," Kit stated. "Whenever you're ready, let's all find another place to go"
"I think I'm about ready to leave too," Teddy responded after giving the park one last look over for flowers and finding none
"Ok then," Kit said as she began walking away from the park
After walking a few feet away from the area, she realized that she was walking off without everyone else, and quickly turned back. In this short window of time, Luna had noticed Kit leaving
"Well, if Luna doesn't have anything in mind, then I think you should pick since going to the park was my idea," Teddy suggested
"I don't know any buildings in this city except for one, so lead the way, I guess," Luna told Kit
Now that she was able to bring everyone to somewhere, Kit began navigating the city streets with the others following, turning corners with almost no hesitation. However, after a small bit of time, she began seemed to get a bit lost, slowing down during these decisions, and not sprinting down the streets quite as fast
"So, are we going to somewhere in specific, or are we just walking around to find something cool?" Teddy asked
"Just walking around," Kit answered. "We should probably run into something cool that's in our budget soon, though"
Soon after this, Kit could spot a sign attached to one of the buildings in the endless rows that caught her eye. It was made of flashing neon lights and quite tacky looking, unmistakably the sign of a pawn shop. Aside from being instinctively drawn to the bright colors, Kit knew that pawn shops would have a lot of fun or useful items for relatively cheap, which was perfect for the current situation the trio were in
"Hey, I think I found something pretty neat!" Kit said as she pointed over to the sign in the distance
"I can't really read the sign from here, what store is it?" Teddy questioned
"Oh, you'll see when we get there," Kit brushed the question off
Once Teddy was in front of the store along with Luna and Kit, he could actually read the sign now, but he still had no clue what the building he was standing outside of actually was. After adjusting his eyes to the nearly blinding light the sign was emenating, Teddy was able to read the words Pawn Shop on the sign. Normally, this would have entirely cleared up any questions about what the store was, but Teddy had lived in a small village his whole life, and as such had no idea what a pawn shop was
"What's a pawn shop?" Teddy asked. "Do... they sell chess things there?"
"Right, I guess I should have explained that to you first," Kit replied sheepishly. "A pawn shop is a place where you can sell and buy pretty much anything, and the stuff in there is usually pretty cheap"
"That sounds pretty cool," Teddy stated. "We probably should be careful to not spend all of our money, we might need it later"
"Yeah, sure," Kit agreed
Now that everyone was clear on the concept of a pawn shop, they all walked inside of the relatively small shop, a small bell ringing a pleasant tone as the door knocked into it from being opened
"Hey, there you are! It's been a while since you last stopped by here, I was starting to get worried," the shopkeeper greeted Kit in an enthusiastic voice. "Anyways, what can I do for you today?"
Kit seemed just as happy to see the shopkeeper as he was to see her, and after his greeting, walked up to him and began chatting with him, although their conversation couldn't be heard due to how quietly they were talking
While Kit and the shopkeeper were talking, Luna and Teddy began looking around all of the goods inside of the store, kept in both the shelves behind the counter and the illuminated glass case that was used as a counter. While there was an incredible variety of items both big and small in the shop's two storage areas, there wasn't really anything that immediately stood out to the two
After a few minutes of Luna and Teddy browsing from a few feet away and still not finding anything that they wanted, Kit finished her conversation with the shopkeeper and walked back over to them
"Sorry I took a bit there, did either of you find anything you wanted while I was talking?" Kit asked
"Uh, not really," Teddy responded
"You know, this shop really doesn't look like it has anything good in it," Luna stated bluntly. "It would just be a waste to spend anything here"
"That's not very nice, Luna," Teddy said as he walked over to the counter. "I'm sure there's some good stuff here, you just have to look for it"
Getting closer to the counter did actually make looking for something to buy easier, as the items no longer visually blended together, and Teddy could see small individual items in both the glass case and the shelves behind the counter. At first, he still couldn't find anything he really wanted or needed, as at first it mostly seemed to be sports equipment or jewelry, but after a bit of time, he found something that caught his eye
Sitting near the bottom of the counter, there was a small piece of clear plastic holding up a watch. There were other watches as well, but they were all made out of gold or other precious metals, and were obviously far too expensive to buy. This watch looked practical, being comprised of a nice little leather strap and a simple metal face. It seemed like the perfect thing to get, especially because spending two weeks straight in a windowless room had really messed with Teddy's perception of time
"This watch looks nice," Teddy commented. "How much does it cost?"
"What, the cheapest one in the shop? You're killing me," the shopkeeper joked. "Eh, I'm just messing around, it's fifty rings"
"Oh, I think we have that," Teddy remarked as he turned to Kit, who was holding the pouch of rings
Kit opened up the bag, which was filled with what looked like hundreds of rings, and Teddy plunged his hand into the open bag and grabbed a handful of the golden shapes. He counted them up in his head before picking up a few of them with his other hand and putting them back in the back
"Alright, here's all the rings," Teddy said as he set the rings down on the glass counter, producing tons of reverberating clinks
"Thank you, kid," the shopkeeper said as he pulled the rings towards himself before opening up the glass case and taking the watch out of it
Now that the watch had been paid for, the owner of the shop set it on top of the counter, allowing Teddy to pick it up and untie it before putting it on the wrist of his organic arm and retying it. He looked at the time displayed, which was about mid-day, and then put his arm back down and turned to the shopkeeper
"This is a nice watch!" Teddy cheerfully told the shopkeeper
"Thanks, although it's not really that high of a bar to cross unless you're rich," the shopkeep chuckled
Teddy laughed at the shopkeeper's joke, before walking back over to Kit and Luna to see if either of them were planning to purchase anything for themselves
"Are you going to get anything, Kit?" Teddy asked, figuring she would since she was the one who brought everyone to the store
"Yes," Kit replied as she began walking up to the counter, already seemingly having a product in mind
After reaching the counter, Kit pointed to an object that Teddy couldn't see due to him being far away from the shelves once again, but it looked quite high up
"How many rings is that?" Kit asked as she continued to point towards the item
"Eh, I'll have to get it down to check first, give me a second," the shopkeeper explained. After walking through a door to the side, he promptly came back with a stepladder and placed it against the shelf, climbing up it and grabbing the item Kit had pointed to. Whatever the item was, it was clearly a bit heavy, as the shopkeep appeared to have a bit of trouble moving it down while on the ladder. However, he managed it, and placed it on the glass countertop with a loud thud
Now that the item was on top of the counter, Teddy could finally see what it actually was, and that was a very large book. However, it didn't seem like any of the books he was used to reading, The book had a paperback cover, and the cover itself was very colorful and fascinating. There was a lot happening on the cover, but the most prominent part of it was a nine-tailed fox wielding a sword, one that looked quite similar to the one Kit had
"Is that why Kit uses that sword?" Teddy thought to himself as he looked back and forth between Kit and the cover of the book
"Well, this is quite the hefty book, but considering it's not that old and doesn't have anything special to it, it should only set you back about twenty five rings or so," the shopkeeper told Kit
"Alright!" Kit cheered
Kit quickly dug into the bag of rings and excitedly slammed them onto the glass counter, nearly cracking it, and once the shopkeeper had counted up all of the rings, pulled the book towards herself and looked at it in glee
"Wow, you seem really happy to have that book," Teddy noted. "What exactly is it about?"
"Oh, it's this really cool series about this girl who finds a magical sword and uses it to defeat a bunch of villains with other swords," Kit explained. "It's been going on for a really long time, and I've been trying to read all of it for years"
"That book is really huge, is is the entire story?" Teddy inquired
"No, it's just one arc," Kit corrected while continuing to hold up the hefty book
"Oh, well I'm still glad that you were able to get it, now you finally have something really interesting to do in case we end up in the basement for a long time again," Teddy continued talking
Now that both Kit and Teddy had gotten something from the shop that they liked, and still had most of their rings, Teddy asked Luna one last time if she wanted to get anything
"I think we're about to leave, are you sure you don't want to get anything, Luna?" Teddy asked
"Yep," Luna answered
"Ok then," Teddy replied
Teddy began walking out of the store, with Kit and Luna walking as well shortly after, until all three of them were a small distance away from the store
"So, what should we do now?" Kit asked. "I'm honestly out of ideas"
"Me too," Teddy remarked
"I don't have anywhere I want to go," Luna added
Everybody thought for a second as to what their next move would be. They had already gone to some interesting places, so it was probably time to actually go on the mission that they had been sent to the city to do. Thinking of the mission began making Teddy think about the gear that they had received in the van, and how nobody had figured out what the rectangular machine was yet
"Hey Kit, did you ever find out what that machine thing you got from the crate is?" Teddy questioned
"Uh, no," Kit answered. "I should try to figure out what this is"
Kit began fiddling with the small machine, pressing buttons on it until the screen eventually sprung to life, showing a green interface with concentric circles and a line that spun around those circles. The machine also continually emitted a small beeping noise at a very steady pace, almost like a heart rate monitor
"Whoa," Kit reacted to the activated machine
"I think it's a radar!" Teddy pointed out after looking at the machine for himself. "There's a dot right there, that has to be the emerald we have to take"
"So now we know exactly where the emerald is!" Kit exclaimed. "This is going to be easier than I thought"
"Well, we don't have anything else to do, let's find that emerald," Luna suggested after a few moments of silence
"Right," Kit answered, putting the radar's screen up to her face
With an almost exact estimate of the radar's position, the trio finally began seeking out the Chaos Emerald that they had been sent to get. By this point, they were all at least a little bit familiar with the layout of the city, so trying to get to the dot on the radar wasn't too difficult, although the lack of an actual map led to Luna, Kit, and Teddy having to walk long distances around buildings a fairly often occurrence
Partway through the walk, Teddy looked down at his new watch and observed the time, quickly comparing it in his head to the time it had read when he was right outside the store. He had been walking for ten minutes, which wasn't all that long, but he had only seen the radar once right outside of the pawn shop, so he had no idea how far along he was in his walk towards the Chaos Emerald. Of course, he could just ask Kit to show him the radar to find out this information, so that's exactly what he did
"Do you know how close we are?" Teddy asked Kit, who was still looking at the radar
"Oh yeah, we're pretty close," Kit stated. "Shouldn't be much longer until we reach wherever this thing is being held"
Kit's statement was correct, as it only took the trio a few more minutes for the center of the radar to be practically in the same exact spot as the dot, which excited Kit
"We're really close to the dot, whatever building is ahead of us has to have the Chaos Emerald inside of it!" Kit remarked
Nearly sprinting ahead, all the other buildings passed by Kit and the others until they were all in front of the building that the radar was pointing them to. Looking up from the radar, the building was grand, and covered in what looked like hundreds of sparkling lights and signs almost like the pawn shop on a much larger scale. The most noticeable of these signs showed what the building was, spelling "CASINO" in giant, dazzling letters
"A casino?" Kit observed
"Maybe they're giving the emerald away as a prize," Teddy suggested
"Well, that's going to make things harder, since I've never played any gambling games before," Kit stated
"You two do know that we can just steal it, right?" Luna asked. "We don't have to play any stupid games, we just have to take it out of wherever it's being held and escape"
"Oh, right," Kit realized
Assuming everyone was ready to steal the emerald this very moment (And because she was tired of waiting around) Luna began walking right into the casino, intending to steal the emerald. Kit didn't mind this all that much, but Teddy didn't really want to try and steal the emerald right away, due to both him not feeling entirely on board with stealing and the fact that nobody had a plan yet
"Luna, I don't think we should go in yet, do you even know how you're going to get the emerald?" Teddy asked, following her at a distance of a few feet
"I'll find wherever it's being stored, and then I'm going to grab it and walk out with it," Luna stated. "I can take on whoever tries to stop me"
"I guess that could work..." Teddy reluctantly agreed
"I think it'll go good enough," Kit chimed in. "I mean, it's not like we can really get the resources to do this any other way"
"Oh, I didn't think of that," Teddy responded
In the relatively short time it took for the conversation between the trio to wrap up, Luna and Kit had actually managed to walk a few feet into the casino, but before they could go any further, they were stopped by a bouncer wearing a suit standing in front of them
"You need a membership to enter this casino," the bouncer stated. "Do you all have one?"
After learning that she needed a card to get into the casino, Luna's first thought was to fight the bouncer, and Kit was planning to lie to try to get her way in, but Teddy walked over to them before either could do anything and began talking
"Sorry, we didn't know that," Teddy apologized. "How can we get one, though?"
"You have to apply for it and wait to be approved to receive it," the bouncer explained. "Now, please leave the casino until you have a membership"
"Alright," Teddy replied, walking out of the casino. Luna and Kit followed him out, but only because they really didn't have any options to continue trying to get in after that
"What is wrong with you?" Luna asked Teddy in frustration. "Who cares if one guy was standing in the way, do you really think that he would have been too much for all of us to handle?"
"I'm sorry, I just thought that if we could get in legitimately, it would make it a lot easier to find the emerald than just fighting right away," Teddy explained
"Well, you better know how to get one of those memberships, or else we're going to be forced to go with my plan"
Teddy thought for a little while on how he would get a membership to the casino for everyone, despite the fact that he didn't know the actual process for getting them. This fact set in quite quickly, and the overall stress of the situation was making thinking about how to get a membership more difficult than it already was. Because of this, Teddy ultimately decided that he needed to sit down and get something to eat to help out his planning
"Ok, we need to come up with a plan, and I'm a bit hungry from all of the walking that I've done today," Teddy began. "Luckily, I've got the perfect place for both of those problems"
"Ooh, are we going to a restaurant? That sounds perfect!" Kit enthusiastically said
"You're going to go to the bakery, aren't you?" Luna guessed
"Yep," Teddy confirmed
From the moment he had arrived in the city, Teddy was quite excited to have another chance to go to the bakery, especially after getting the bag of rings. This time around, he would finally be able to truly enjoy a treat from the store, one that he'd be able to purchase for himself. As he happily tread the path towards the familiar store, Kit began speaking
"You two actually know somewhere in this city already?" Kit inquired
"Oh, yeah, me and Luna went to a bakery here a while ago when we had to hang up posters," Teddy remembered. "It's actually the same day we met you"
"That's right, I remember that," Kit remarked. "I guess I just didn't notice there was a bakery over there"
After some walking, everybody arrived in a part of the city that looked familiar to them, with Teddy vaguely remembering the path to the bakery from this section of the city. He wasn't completely sure if he was going the right way at first, but after he saw the bakery's exterior in the distance, those worries faded away and were replaced with excitement about eating at the bakery
"I can see the bakery in the distance!" Teddy exclaimed
"I wonder what they serve there?" Kit thought out loud. "Hopefully I'll be able to get something sweet"
"You probably will, last time I ate there I had a cupcake, and it was really good," Teddy responded
"That sounds perfect, I'm going to get that once I get there," Kit stated
Luna didn't know what she was going to get at the bakery, but she did know that she was going to get to sit down indoors for a while, which was a huge relief. Because of this, Luna matched the pace of her excited teammates for once, and before they knew it all three of them were at the bakery
"Yay, we're finally here!" Teddy cheered as he stood at the front of the small building
"Come on, let's head in!" Kit excitedly instructed
"For once, I agree," Luna said, sounding relieved to finally be there
Pushing open the doors and rushing into the shop, a wave of cool air washed over everyone, almost like a feeling of relief and calmness given a physical form
"Wow, this place is really nice," Kit commented as she took in her surroundings
"Thank you," an employee of the store told Kit from behind a counter
Kit jumped at the sudden voice, as her haste to get in the bakery had made her completely forget that there would obviously be employees there
"Is there anything I can do for you three?" the employee asked after a few seconds of Kit recovering from the startle she had gotten
"Oh, yes," Teddy answered before turning around to Luna. "Luna, what do you want?"
Luna simply gave a shrug as an answer. What she was going to eat didn't matter to her, as she had already gotten everything she wanted the moment she arrived inside
Teddy thought for a second after Luna's not so useful answer, and an idea quickly popped into his head. Practically beaming with a smile, Teddy turned around to order for everyone
"Three chocolate cupcakes, please," Teddy requested
"Alright," the employee said as they began fishing out the confectionaries from the glass counter display before setting them all on a small plate. "That will be ten rings"
Kit opened the pouch as soon as Teddy turned around, nearly shaking with excitement, and watched as he grabbed the required rings to purchase the three desserts
Teddy set the rings down on the counter, quite excited himself, and picked up the plate, making sure to handle it gently. With everybody's food in hand, he walked over to a table with three chairs and set down the plate, sitting down in one of the comfortable chairs
Luna and Kit quickly occupied the remaining two seats at the table, grabbing a singular cupcake from the little plate they rested on. Teddy grabbed one as well, and took some time to observe it before he ate it
The chocolate cupcakes at this bakery already held positive feelings for him past the normal excitement of getting such a delicious treat, but the cupcake was made even more special by the fact it would be the first piece of real food Teddy had eaten in more than two weeks. It's appearance was also great, but he was hungry, so he didn't take much time looking at it before peeling off the wrapper and eating it
Teddy ate the cupcake in a few bites, and he knew at that moment that this simple little snack was going to be the best part of his trip to the city. Kit definitely agreed on this notion, as she ate her cupcake just as fast as Teddy had, enjoying it quite a lot. After a bit of resting in the chair, Luna ate her cupcake as well, and with everybody having eaten, Teddy remembered the other reason he came to the bakery
"Ok, now that we've all eaten some delicious food, we still need to think of how we're going to get the Chaos Emerald," Teddy reminded everyone
"Right. I'm not sure what we're going to do to pull this off, but I'm sure we'll figure it out," Kit reassured herself and the others
"Yeah, that's the spirit!" Teddy responded. "Now, let's get planning"