Inside of the bakery that had become a base of operations for them at this point, the trio were sitting around a small table for what would probably be the last time, preparing to actually pull off the heist that they now had all of the necessary resources to pull off. The preparations weren't planning, however, it was just the trio all mentally preparing themselves for their mission. Luna was already prepared, and she had been for a little while, so all she was doing was sitting back in her chair with a slightly annoyed expression on her face while she waited for the others to be ready so they could get the whole thing over with. It was hard to tell whether Kit was actually ready or not because she seemed almost excited, fidgeting around and rapidly drumming her fingers on the table, although this was probably just her way of expressing nervousness instead of a genuine excitement to rob a casino. In contrast, Teddy was obviously extremely nervous, even after around ten minutes of trying to prepare himself
"Come on, it's not going to be that big of a deal. You just have to go in and then... steal an incredibly valuable gem from a crowded casino," Teddy unsuccessfully tried to calm himself down. "I need to do this already, I'm slowing everyone else down. I just need to try not to think about what I'm doing. Once it's all over, I can just relax and make a meal for myself. Yeah, that sounds nice"
"Teddy, we're all waiting on you," Luna told him
"I'm ready!" He quickly answered, his slightly shaking voice suggesting otherwise
"Okay then, let's get going," She instructed
Although he still wasn't completely ready, Teddy knew that he would probably be waiting for the rest of his life if he waited until he was ready, so he began exiting the bakery with his membership along with Luna and Kit. A short walk later, they were all standing in front of the massive building, and were about to walk up to the entrance to put their forged memberships to the test. However, before they actually could, Teddy stopped walking and began speaking
"We do actually have a plan right?" Teddy asked. "Because it would be really bad if we went in there without any idea on what we were actually going to do"
"Do you have a plan, Luna?" Kit inquired, realization slowly seeping into her
"No," She answered bluntly
"Well, we should wait a bit longer before we actually go in then," Teddy urged
"We can make a plan once we get in there. It's not like I'm going to grab the emerald the moment I see it"
While nobody having a plan certainly didn't help his anxiety about the mission, Teddy did realize that Luna was right. Getting inside the casino would let them all look at the interior and find out where the emerald actually is, and as long as the forged memberships didn't raise any alarms, they would have as much time as they would need to make a good plan
"Now, if we have that out of the way, let's actually go in now and get this thing started," Luna requested
"Alright," Kit replied, seeming more confident now
"Okay," Teddy agreed
Now that they were all actually prepared, the trio walked up to the entrance of the casino, where they had been turned away earlier. They were all holding their forged memberships, which they could only assume looked just like the real thing, preparing to show them to the bouncer the moment they reached. After only a few seconds, they were standing on the edge of where they needed to be, mere inches away from the red carpet floor the suit-wearing Mobian was on
"Hey, what are you doing back here?" He asked as soon as they got within a foot of him. "I told you, you need memberships to get in"
"We do have memberships," Luna said in a happy voice that was dripping with petty contempt
Before the bouncer had a chance to say anything in response, Luna, Kit, and Teddy all held out their memberships in front of him so he could read them. Luna and Kit were giving smug grins, while Teddy was trying to not look nervous as to not draw any suspicious as to whether the cards were real or not
"You have to apply for these and wait up to a week to get them. How did you get them in only an hour?" The bouncer asked incredulously
"It turns out we had them the whole time, we just had them lying around in a box in the attic for so long we forgot about it entirely," Kit quickly improvised
"Hmm," He said as he observed the memberships being held out in front of him
After a few seconds, everybody began getting somewhat nervous, worrying that their entire mission to get the forged memberships had been for nothing. However, after a single minute that was somehow just as tense as their escape from Amy in the maze of alleys, the bouncer stopped looking at the cards and began talking to the trio again
"These cards are real, so I guess you're telling the truth," The bouncer responded, sounding shocked that he seemed to be wrong. "Have fun in there"
Convinced that the trio had real membership cards, he stepped to the side and allowed them all to see the stunning interior of the casino that his large frame had been blocking before. The floor was covered in a red carpet with a beautiful patterned woven into it, the walls seemed to be gilded, and there were huge and shiny slot machines for as far as they could see. After taking everything in for a second, Luna, Kit, and Teddy all quickly moved into the inside of the building instead of just looking at it, both to start their mission and to get a better look at what they had just gotten a glimpse of
"Whoa, this place is amazing!" Kit exclaimed, barely containing her excitement
"It sure is," Teddy agreed, having never seen anything like the interior of the casino before. Everything around him was almost overwhelming, since it seemed to be happening all around him, but at the same time it was one of the most amazing experiences. It was almost like he was in space, with all of the flashing lights seeming like twinkling stars
Luna was also surprised by the casino floor, as she had also never seen anything like it before, but she wasn't as amazed by it as Teddy. If anything, it was annoying, all the lights and sounds overlapping and never ending. She was really starting to get irritated by the whole thing, both because it was just too much and because it was distracting her from what she actually needed to do. After breathing in and out deeply a few times, she managed to somewhat accustom herself to the environment, and began trying to get the other two to focus on their mission
"Hey, pay attention," Luna said while tapping Teddy on the shoulder. "We came here to do something"
"Huh?" Teddy replied, having just been snapped out of his wonder for everything around him. "Oh, yeah. We should try to find where the Chaos Emerald is, right?"
"Yeah, we should," She responded. "Before we do, though, where's Kit?"
"Uhh, I don't know," He stated. "As you might have noticed, I was kind of distracted by everything up until now"
While Luna and Teddy began looking for her so they could start planning out their mission, Kit was wandering around the games floor of the casino, looking at all of the different machines, and feeling somewhat sad knowing that she couldn't actually play any of them. However, watching them spin idly in an attempt to attract someone who had money to spend was almost as entertaining, mainly because of the huge variety of slot machines. Of course, there were the standard ones, but there were also ones themed around fruit, and treasure, and even ones themed around media franchises. Upon seeing some of the ones themed around media franchises, Kit immediately thought of a slot machine themed around her favorite anime, and began wandering around at a much faster pace in search of whether it was actually there or not. However, her search was eventually interrupted by Luna and Teddy finally catching up to her
"Stop wandering around!" Luna whispered angrily to grab Kit's attention
"Gyah!" Kit exclaimed. "Don't scare me like that"
"If you hadn't wandered off to stare at games you can't even play, it wouldn't have happened," She responded. "Is flashing lights all it takes to make you forget that we still need to make an actual plan?"
"Well, to make a plan to get the Chaos Emerald, we need to know where it is. I was covering a lot of ground while I was looking at the games, so I think I've probably done more work than you so far"
"We could have all been searching for it already if you hadn't run off. But, since we're all together again, let's do that"
Kit's wandering having already led them to the left section of the games floor, Luna began leading the others around while all three of them scanned their surroundings for the precious jewel. It could easily be assumed that because they hadn't seen it almost as soon as they entered the casino, it wasn't there at all, since something as valuable as it would most likely be displayed quite prominently. However, all of the lights and extremely bright machines severely obstructed everyone's field of view like a snowstorm of golden glitter in a city of plastic columns, so it was a good idea to check the area thoroughly on the off chance that it was actually there and they just couldn't see it at first
"Do either of you see anything?" Luna asked as she looked around the immediate area for the Chaos Emerald
"No," Teddy replied
"Nope," Kit answered, trying to peek over the tall machines to cover more ground
The trio continued to search the seemingly endless casino for some time looking for the location of the jewel, but they didn't have any luck. After Kit had seen the visuals of all the different themed slot machines and their flashing lights for what seemed like the hundredth time, even she became bored with roaming around the sea of machines, and tried to think of an easier solution. She thought for a few seconds, which was hard to do at first with all of the constant flashing and noises, almost coming out at a consistent pace. At first, Kit didn't think much of this pattern, but it quickly reminded her about the radar that she still had on her
"Wait, we don't have to do this! We can just use the radar!" Kit realized as she grabbed the radar and held it to the sky triumphantly
"Oh yeah, that's a great idea!" Teddy agreed
"Huh, it actually is," Luna said, sounding shocked that Kit had seemingly came up with a good plan
Everybody gathered around Kit and began watching the blank screen of the radar as she fiddled with the controls to bring it back to life. After pressing a few of the buttons present on the machine, the screen lit up once again, displaying the green interface and pinging rapidly. However, the interface looked exactly the same as it had when they were all standing outside of the casino, with the green dot completely overlapping the marker that indicated the location of a Chaos Emerald. The trio all continued to stare at the radar screen for a few seconds in disappointment and mild surprise before Luna commented on the situation
"Well, that was useless," Luna stated, probably regretting what she had said a couple of seconds ago
"I guess the radar is only meant for long distances," Teddy figured out. "It only really works for finding the general location"
"Well, it looks like we're going to have to keep looking," Kit said exhaustedly as she turned off the radar and put it away
While the trio were looking around where they were currently, wanting to take a break from roaming around the giant area for a few seconds before they got back to it, Kit was looking in the direction of the casino's entrance. Obviously, all of the machines in the way and the flashing lights made it almost impossible to see anything there at all, but she only needed to see a small glimpse of what was there to realize what was happening. Squinting her eyes to avoid the constant flashes of light from obscuring her field of view, Kit could see just a little bit of red and pink at the entrance, among other colors. While it could be just a coincidence, she decided to be on the safe side and inform her teammates about the very possible fact that Amy might have just entered the casino
"Hey, I think she's here," Kit told Luna and Teddy in a slight panic, her emphasis being enough to let them both know exactly who she was talking about
"Are you kidding me?" Luna asked, sounding both shocked and angry. "Hasn't she already made everything hard enough for us?"
"What are we going to do?" Teddy questioned
"Hide until she leaves, I guess"
After informing everyone of her very basic plan, Kit began running to the left in an attempt to get to the edge of the room before she was spotted, with Luna and Teddy following her. As the lights flashing in their eyes began to blur as they were left behind and the sounds from the hundreds of machines began to become slightly muffled from the wind they were creating with their running, they began to wonder just where Amy was. Kit was the only one who had even seen her at all, and even then, she had barely seen her at all. It was kind of like the chase through the alleyways they had all gone through earlier, but it was a lot more loud and had a lot more on the line this time. However, they were also in an environment that was a lot harder to be found in, and they were quite a good distance away from her this time. Because of this, the trio were able to eventually reach the edge of the of the casino, with Amy seemingly having no clue where they were
"I think we made it," Kit said, looking at her surroundings. Where her and the others were standing, there were no slot machines whatsoever, they just abruptly stopped being placed only a few feet behind them. Aside from a few relatively large potted palm trees and the now much more visible patterned carpet, the only thing present in this otherwise empty area was a large staircase, with its rails made out of what looked like a gilded material and its steps covered in the exact same carpet as the rest of the casino
"Whoa, a giant staircase," Teddy stated. "What do you think is up there?"
"I have no clue, but it's probably a better place to hide from Amy then here," Kit answered, starting to move towards the staircase
Everybody agreed with this conclusion, and so they all began ascending the large staircase in front of them as quickly as they safely could. While they were only really traveling into the room to not get found, the trio were all curious to some degree about what was actually in the second room, and whether it might actually have the Chaos Emerald in it. Logically, the room would probably just have more slot machines or other gambling games in it, but once Kit reached the top of the staircase, she found out that this wasn't the case. At first, it wasn't clear exactly what the room was, as it was mostly filled with tables and chairs. However, some of these chairs were put against the wall and looked like couches made of velvet, and there were long stretches of what looked like small countertops. While all these things combined did help Kit begin figuring out exactly what the room she was standing in was, she figured out what the second floor of the casino actually was once the scent of the room hit her
"This... is a buffet!" Kit shouted in excitement as she began running to the countertops to take a look at all of the foods that she could smell from the entrance of the room. There seemed to be many fried foods, like chicken and onion rings, but it was clear that there were many different types of dishes present in the long stretching counters throughout the whole room
Luna and Teddy had just barely reached the entrance to the room as Kit was running to the counters, but her shouting had already informed both of them about where they were heading to. While he also knew that they likely didn't have enough money left to get anything, Teddy was quite surprised and happy to hear that the second floor was a buffet instead of just another room of games. Luna was also pretty happy that she wasn't in such an overwhelming room anymore, but she was somewhat annoyed that the room was just a buffet, since it was very unlikely that the Chaos Emerald would actually be there
"Hey Luna, the second floor has a buffet! Isn't that cool?" Teddy asked
"I suppose. But it's a pretty small room, so we better hope that she doesn't come up here, or else things are going to get a lot harder," She answered
By the time the two had this exchange, they were both in the buffet proper now, so Teddy decided to begin checking out the various foods being served along with Kit. She wasn't that far away, only being a bit forward and to the right of him and Luna, so it only took a few seconds to get to where she was and begin seeing all of the foods contained in the counters throughout the room. While this was happening, Luna decided to try and find an entrance to other areas of the casino inside of the room, but there was nothing visible. There were no doors or staircases, absolutely nothing that didn't indicate this room was just a dead end that's only purpose was for them to hide in. To be fair, though, serving as a hiding space was a rather useful purpose, it just didn't advance the mission at all. Knowing that she would most likely need to stay in this room for a while until Amy finally left from where she was, Luna decided to let Kit and Teddy wander around, and walked over to a booth in the corner of the room to rest
Across the booth, Kit and Teddy were both perusing the selection of dishes present, which had made them start to realize how hungry they really were in the moment. Sure, they had eaten the chocolate cupcake earlier in the day, but that was just a snack, and all of the intense running they had done afterwards had probably already burnt away all of those calories. None of them had actually eaten a real, nutritious meal since they were captured by Eggman, which was weeks ago at this point. Because of this, Kit reached for the pouch of rings and looked at the small amount left inside, trying to decide whether it was worth it or not to use up her last bit of rings on a decent meal
"Hey, should I buy some of this?" Kit considered, looking at the foods bathing in the glow of the heat lamps above them
"Yeah, definitely," Teddy answered, looking forward to eating a real meal and not one that he'd assembled out of Eggman's pre-packaged meals
Hearing this, Kit opened up the pouch and grabbed all of the rings that were left in there, which she remembered was twenty five. With the money in hand, her and Teddy walked over to one of the multiple employees behind sections of the long, continuous counter with registers on them instead of trays of food. Unlike one of the other workers, the one closest to the two wasn't busy at all, allowing them to ask about the prices of the food right away
"How much is it for some of the food here?" Kit asked, ready to hand over all of the rings to the employee at a moment's notice
"Uhh, you can get a plate for twenty five rings," They answered. "Just fill it up with whatever you want, but you can only do it once"
Kit paused for a second after hearing the employee say this. That was an amazing deal. That was probably the best deal she'd ever heard in her life. She wasn't even that surprised that she turned out to have exactly the amount of rings needed to purchase this deal, she was just thinking about how this was the best business model ever. Realistically, the deal probably had a catch and wasn't quite as good as it seemed, but Kit didn't care. She knew for sure that the food would be good and that she would be able to get at least a plateful of food, and that was good enough
The employee was watching Kit the entire time she was thinking about the plate offer, so they slowly got quite confused as to why she was standing still like a statue, until she suddenly shot her arm out in front of her to hand over the rings after taking in the deal. This startled the employee for a brief second, but they quickly got over it and accepted the payment before walking into the back of the area they were situated in. A few seconds later, they came back with a decently sized plate, which was decorated by the casino's logo taking up the center of the plate
"Alright, thanks!" Kit said as she grabbed the plate from the employees hands and began sprinting to the trays of food along with Teddy
"So, what are you going to get?" He asked
"I don't know, there's so much good stuff here," She replied. "I guess I'll just put things on the plate as I find them"
While Kit began taking various foods from the buffet trays and precariously stacking them on top of each other, Luna was still resting in the booth she had taken for herself, beginning to get a little annoyed by the fact that she was being forced to sit around. Normally, she did enjoy relaxing, especially on something as comfortable as the cushioned, sofa like seating she was laying on. However, this was when she had nothing else to do, when she needed to pass time. Right now, Luna and the others were all on a mission. A mission that she wanted to finish as soon as possible, but that was being delayed because she had to hide from somebody who she'd fought earlier. While she still went along with it because it made things easier, Luna hated the fact that she had to hide like a coward instead of actually being able to fight because of her injuries and the fact that this mission was supposed to be relatively stealthy
Luna's angry thoughts and rest were both interrupted by the sound of a heavy clink coming from the table that the booth surrounded. Getting up off of the velvet surface she'd been laying on, she saw a lone plate lying on the table, piled high with food. Luna was confused by this for a brief moment, but she quickly remembered that Kit and Teddy had been looking at the food earlier, and then saw that they were both standing at the other end of the table
"Hi Luna! We got lots of food while you were over here," Teddy explained. "I'm so glad that we had enough rings to actually get something nice to eat for once"
"Yep, and you can thank me and my expert stacking skills for getting us this much food," Kit said while tapping the edge of the plate in a smug manner. Predictably, this shifted the balance of the very precariously balanced tower of food ever so slightly, causing it to collapse and fall over onto the table
Everybody looked at the spilled pile of food in disappointment for a few seconds, before Kit picked a chicken tender out from the many other foods on the table, not wanting to let the food go to waste
"What?" Kit asked as Luna stared at her. "This place is really fancy, they must clean the tables really well"
Agreeing with this reasoning, Teddy grabbed a small amount of fries from the table before trying to move as much food as possible back onto the plate, feeling bad about the mess that had been created. After most of the food had been back onto the plate emblazoned with the casino's logo, Luna decided to eat some of the food as well, starting with a small rack of ribs
After the trio had been eating for a little bit and had finished most of food Kit had grabbed, somebody new entered the buffet. This wouldn't have caught any of the trio's attention, but the Mobian who walked in was quite notable, as they were almost as tall and large as Eggman was. This was well above average height for any Mobian, including a cat, which the one who had entered the room was. Other than their exceptionally tall stature, however, there was nothing else that notable about the stranger who had walked into the room. Because of this, Kit quickly went back to eating along with her teammates. However, this was interrupted when the purple cat walked over to their table and started speaking to them
"Hi," He introduced himself
"Uhh, hi," Kit responded, concerned about why the purple cat was speaking to her and the others. "Why are you talking to us?"
"My friend told me to look for some people who she said might be in here," He explained. "You kind of look like what she told me they looked like"
Upon hearing this, the trio all immediately figured out that they were talking to somebody working with Amy. While the implications of this were horrible and would make their mission much harder since it would be impossible to tell who to look out for, meaning they would have to avoid everyone to be safe, what was happening in the current moment was also quite bad. Luna, Kit, and Teddy were all sitting in a corner booth, meaning there was no way from them to escape from somebody who knew who they were and was tasked with stopping them. Fighting wasn't an option, since it would draw attention to them, and there was no chance they would be able to take on the Mobian cornering them in a fight. However, Kit didn't want to give up yet, so she tried to get out of the situation the best way she knew how to: Lie
"Oh, I think I know who you're talking about," Kit pretended to remember. "Some criminals stole our identities earlier today and have been going around committing crimes so we get arrested instead of them"
"What a bad thing to do," The cat replied, believing what Kit had just said
"I know, right?" Kit stated. "Anyways, I think we're going to go somewhere else now, since we've already had a nice meal here"
There was still a decent amount of food left on the plate, which Kit really didn't want to leave behind, but it would be kind of dangerous to stay in the area with Amy's friend for any longer than they had to
"Ok. I'll go tell my friend that the people she's looking for aren't in here, just some people who got their identities stolen by the real criminals," The cat said as he began walking down the stairs
"No, I don't think you need to do that," Kit said as she rushed over to the staircase to block his way down, knowing that Amy would see through the lie immediately
"It's fine, I can do it myself," He insisted
Luna and Teddy were still sitting at the table while all of this was happening, recovering from the close call they had just gone through. They were also watching Kit attempting to block the staircase, which she continued to try to do for a prolonged period of time before Amy's associate began speaking to her again
"I think you're blocking the way," He answered, trying to move around Kit
"Oh, am I? Sorry, I do that all the time on accident, I'm trying to get better about it," She answered while still moving in the same directions that the cat moved to deliberately block him
At this point, the whole thing was just kind of uncomfortable for Luna and Teddy to watch, and they knew it wasn't going to do anything but buy them a bit of time. However, neither of them had any ideas on what they could do to help out, so they began talking and trying to figure out a course of action as fast as possible
"What should we do?" Teddy whispered to Luna
"I don't know," Luna answered, sounding irritated with the situation. "We might have a bit of time before he reaches Amy because this place is like a maze, but then that's pretty much it"
"Wait, this place is really hard to navigate. Maybe if we go down before him, we can find somewhere else to hide so he can't lead Amy to us," Teddy suggested
"Eh, it's not like we've got any other options," Luna agreed
Having formed a plan somewhat, Luna and Teddy got up from the booth and ran over to the staircase where Kit and the cat were both standing. The cat's frame blocked most of the staircase, but after he moved to the side in an attempt to move out of Kit's way (Which he had been doing for minutes at this point), they were both able to reach Kit. At first, she was surprised to see them, but quickly came to the conclusion that they had come to help her block the staircase, so she moved so that her and the others were all completely taking up the staircase. This obviously wasn't what they had come there to do, but it was actually rather useful that Kit though this, since Teddy could explain his plan to her much more easily now that she was standing still instead of constantly moving
"He doesn't know what we're doing yet, so he'll let us walk down the staircase no problem. We just need to find somewhere else to hide so that he can't tell anybody where we area," Teddy explained his plan
"And we can try to find the Chaos Emerald while we're trying to hide, since we still don't know where it actually is," Luna chimed in
"I guess that works better than this," Kit agreed, realizing her plan wasn't accomplishing much only now
All agreeing on the very simple plan Teddy had formed in less than a minute, the trio suddenly stopped blocking the staircase and all started running down it all at once. Since they were all running down stairs covered in carpet, and Kit didn't bother to hold onto the railing, she stumbled and nearly fell down several times on the quite short trip downstairs. However, all three of them managed to make it back to the empty area containing the staircase without injuring themselves, and seemed quite far ahead of Amy's friend. They didn't actually turn around to check this, as they immediately sprinted into the sea of slot machines now that they were on the even ground of the first floor, but they knew that there was only a very small chance would be able to catch up with them at the pace they were running
While Luna, Kit, and Teddy were certain that they had escaped from the purple cat after they had been running through the games floor for a little bit, they were still worried about running right into Amy, as she was most likely still somewhere in the area. She probably wouldn't be able to see them unless they were right next to her, but the trio wouldn't be able to see her at all due to how fast they were running between the small gaps in the placement of the machines. Regardless of this, Kit (Who was the furthest ahead of the trio) and the others kept running in a straight line, as it was unlikely they would end up near Amy due to the sheer size of the games floor and how disorienting it was to be in. Kit was also heading in a straight line because she figured that since there was a staircase at one end of the casino, there would likely be one at the other end, which would serve as a good hiding place
"Whew, this is almost as exhausting as running through the city," Teddy remarked after him and his teammates had just reached the right side of the casino's first floor
"Yeah, this place is huge," Kit said, wondering herself when she would arrive at the staircase she had only guessed would be at the other end
As she began to get tired from running, Kit began to observe all the illuminated slot machines again as they passed by her. It was nearly impossible to see the details of the machines, but the lights from them all blurred together and got stretched into a trail, which was even better to look at in a way. For a moment, she almost forgot about everything that was going on, and just focused on what looked like all of the shooting stars around her. However, eventually Kit was quite literally yanked out of this daydream when Teddy grabbed onto her arm to prevent her from running into the wall of the right side of the casino
"Are you okay?" Teddy asked
"Huh? Oh, yeah," Kit responded
"You really choose the worst times to get distracted," Luna remarked in irritation. "Anyways, we're here, let's go before she finds us"
Now that she wasn't being distracted by the lights anymore, Kit took a moment to look around the area she arrived in before moving on like Luna had asked her to. There wasn't much to observe, as it was a very barren area just like the one that led up into the buffet. In addition to that, there was also another staircase, which Kit quickly began ascending after spotting it. Luna and Teddy also began walking up the stairs, and all three of them began wondering just what was up the stairs this time. While they hadn't explored every area of the casino, this seemed like the last area of the casino. The trio all certainly hoped this was true, because at this point they were getting tired of searching, and were getting dangerously close to getting caught
"Whoa, this place is even fancier than everywhere else!" Kit said upon getting her first look in the room that she had just entered
Inside of the room, which looked larger than the buffet, there were many teal seats and booths as well as tables of several sizes. The seating arrangements all looked very luxurious and expensive, and the few chandeliers hanging above helped add to this feel. Kit wasn't sure as to what the purpose of this room was, as upon first glance, the only things there besides the tables and chairs were decorations. However, after stepping into the room and looking a bit more thoroughly, Kit noticed a stage and a large arrangement of chairs situated near it. There were performers on the stage, doing some juggling acts among other things. This captivated her attention for a few moments, but eventually she turned around to look at the other side of the room and saw something much more important
To the right side of the room, amidst all of the seating and tables, there was a single wooden podium standing right in the center. This dark oak podium had a glass case on top of it, and inside of that glass case was the Chaos Emerald, it's purple hue shining brightly even through the thick case it was being protected by. Kit nearly yelled out in excitement, but realized as the noise was reaching her throat that it would be very suspicious to shout happily about seeing the Chaos Emerald, so she quickly tried to stop herself. As a result, she ended up making a simple and shapeless noise, like a small yelp. This confused everyone nearby, including Luna and Teddy, who were now also inside of the room
"What was that?" Luna asked in a confused tone
Kit could have explained the reason for the noise she had just made, but instead she decided to choose the much simpler option of pointing to the Chaos Emerald on the podium. Upon first seeing the emerald, Luna was visually shocked for a second, before her expression broke into a small smile
"Well, we actually found it," She remarked
"Uhh, what do we do now?" Teddy questioned
"We can sit down and think about it in these really cool looking chairs," Kit said, already walking towards one of the teal booth seats. Heading towards the luxurious looking seating arrangement, Kit walked quite close to the Chaos Emerald, and was able to get a better look at everything going on with it. Surrounding the podium was a square of velvet rope surrounding it on all sides, as well as a pair of guards who were standing next to the display case diligently. The velvet rope wouldn't be much of an issue, as it could easily be stepped over or ducked under, but the guards would most likely cause quite a bit of trouble. However, Kit was already coming up with a plan by the time her and her teammates had sat down in the comfortable booth
"Alright, so you all see those two guys there," Kit began, not waiting for anybody to ask about a plan for her to start talking about hers. "But, there's three of us. You two can take care of them, and I'll get the emerald. Then we just need to rush out of here"
"I guess that's a good plan," Teddy replied, although he wasn't looking forward to the part where he would have to fight a guard. "Is, that the whole thing?"
"Yep. It's a simple plan, but it's all we need"
"Ok, then"
For a little while after they had been briefed on the plan, the trio all sat in the teal seats for a while, knowing what they needed to do to get the mission that they'd been sent here to accomplish over with. They were right in front of their objective, and the only thing standing between them and it was two guards and some glass. The trio all wanted to finish the mission so it could be over, but obviously they were all anxious about robbing one of the most precious objects in the world from a casino. However, waiting around wasn't going to fix this. They were never going to not be nervous about this. They had to finally steal the Chaos Emerald, and that's exactly what they were going to do