Tails quickly typed away at the computer and had been doing so while Sonic had his torso bandaged up by Vanilla. Around the time the bandages were applied Tails had sat back in his chair visibly upset.

"I can't find any kind of information with that description," Tails said. "You said he used magic?"

"Yep," Sonic answered enthusiastically. "It was pretty neat stuff too."

He jumped off the chair and Vanilla held her hands up to him.

"Careful," she said. "It'll take a little bit for that to heal."

Sonic thanked Vanilla and gave her a thumbs up. He stepped up and leaned against Tails' chair casually.

"No sign of those monsters I told you about?" he asked his friend.

Tails shook his head and said, "They sound a little bit like the ones we encountered during the Dark Gaia incident, but you already said that's not what they were."

"Definitely not. These things weren't as tough. Truth be told I'm a bit more worried about the fact that this Ignatius guy is after the Chaos Emeralds and kidnapped Eggman."

Tails looked upwards towards Sonic and said, "Are you sure he was kidnapped? This sounds a lot like that time we got sent through our own timeline."

Sonic waved a finger. "I thought that too for a bit, but Eggman actively tried to get away. The guy even used that weird magic that kept me in place on him. I get why you're so skeptical but trust me, this doesn't feel like a typical Eggman plan. Anyway since he's after the Emeralds, do we know where the rest are?"

Tails nodded and brought up a chart with a few of their allies. "Knuckles is currently on Angel Island with the Master Emerald, and he told me the other day that three of the Emeralds are there with him. There's that one that Eggman - and then Ignatius - stole. Shadow is in possession of one. The last two that you retrieved from Eggman earlier in the week are safely locked away here. You think he'll make a move for the others?"

Sonic nodded and clicked a button on the console. "We should contact Knuckles and Shadow since they have the others."

After a moment Knuckles' face appeared on the large monitor. He looked irritated that he was being bothered.

"You want to explain to me how you lost another Emerald, Sonic!?" Knuckles shouted.

"Found out already?"

Knuckles growled and looked towards the Master Emerald that sat behind him. It's green glow was relatively dim, more noticeable due to the sun being nearly set at this point. He folded his arms and looked back towards Sonic and Tails.

"I sensed the energy just up and vanished," Knuckles finally said. "What happened?"

Sonic gave Knuckles a shortened version of the events, though he emphasized the odd magic powers that Ignatius used. When it was brought up that he was able to keep up with Sonic's speed and freeze him in place Knuckles had appeared concerned.

"No wonder," Knuckles said darkly. "How do you fight against someone like that?"

Sonic scratched behind one of his ears lazily and replied, "I don't think we'll have to worry about him for a little while. Admittedly he got the jump on me, but I did manage to hurt him pretty bad too. If anything we might have to worry about those monsters or Eggman's robots. The ones I saw were pretty easy though."

Tails brought up another window and brought up a few charts and a map of the world up with the locations of the other emeralds.

"I think we should prepare for the worst," Tails said with concern. "Chances are that Ignatius already knows the location of Angel Island and logically he'd go after you first, unless Eggman tells him that we took a couple of the Emeralds from him."

"I'm not asking for help." Knuckles interrupted.

"But Knuckles!"

Sonic chuckled lightheartedly and shrugged. "Don't worry about it Tails. Knuckles will get attacked, the Emeralds along with the Master Emerald will be stolen, and he'll come running to us asking for help anyway. You know, like clockwork."

Knuckles reacted as predicted. "What was that Hedgehog!?"

Sonic smirked and looked over his shoulder. "I'm just saying it's predictable these days. You stay there on your own, someone comes up and steals things, you come asking for help. Every time."

"You say I'm predictable."

"Aren't you?"

Knuckles began to fume. He grabbed the monitor and shook it violently. So violently in fact Tails began to worry if he would have to replace it again.

"Fine, send whoever you want!" Knuckles shouted. "I'll show you who's predictable!"

The screen went black and Sonic rubbed under his nose proudly. Predictable and easy to fool. An incoming call warning displayed on the monitor. When Tails answered an image of Rouge and Shadow standing in some kind of office or waiting room appeared.

"Speak of the devil," Sonic said. "Sup Shadow, long time no see."

Shadow only responded with a shake of his head before speaking. "Not all of us have the time to be galavanting around the world like a certain blue hedgehog. You were supposed to notify us on what happened with Eggman, Sonic."

Sonic motioned for Shadow to calm down. "I was going to but we had a few hiccups happen."

"You didn't retrieve the Emerald?"

"Eh, not exactly."

Sonic started up the conversation again, though unlike with Knuckles this one was a little bit more engaging since Shadow tended to interrupt with important questions on certain aspects of the actual mission that was supposed to take place before Sonic was attacked. At the end of it Shadow looked at Rouge and she casually brushed her hand through the air.

"I don't do anything for free honey," Rouge sighed. "Besides, being cooped up on a floating rock doesn't necessarily sound like a lot of fun. Especially not with an echidna that's been nearly as moody as you've been lately, Shadow."

Shadow shook his head. "Not you. Go talk to him and try to get the remaining Emeralds. Bring Omega with you and tell him to stay put with Knuckles. Judging from what Sonic said I doubt this guy could take on two powerhouses at the same time, and those monsters shouldn't be able to either. There's another job that the President needs the two of us to accomplish ASAP."

"That's a lot of extra work for no pay. Angel Island isn't exactly a cake walk from here you know. Besides, who's to say he'll even listen to me. That guys as stingy with the Emeralds as you are hard to talk to."

Sonic chuckled and gave Rouge a thumbs up. "I already dealt with that. Just don't mention anything about being tricked."

Rouge appeared impressed. "Thinking ahead. My, this must be serious."

Sonic nodded. "Thanks, Rouge."

The bat waved and walked off screen. The door slammed shut and Shadow looked straight at Sonic for a moment.

"This Ignatius," Shadow said quietly. "He gave you that kind of trouble?"

"Yeah," Sonic confirmed. "It was almost like Silver honestly."

"Except it wasn't telekinesis," Shadow pointed out. "Tails, did you find any information on him?"

"Nothing," Tails said, disappointed. "I did several searches but nobody with his description or power set made any matches."

Shadow closed his eyes in thought. "I'll talk to some of my connections. We should focus on keeping the Emeralds hidden away. I'll put one of the Emeralds under heavy lockdown in the G.U.N. vault. I'll take another one since two Emeralds are safer with me than anywhere else on the planet right now. The third will stay with Rouge since she'd protect it with her life anyway."

Sonic snapped his fingers excitedly and jumped. "Sounds like a plan!"

Shadow nodded and looked at the blue hedgehog. "I'll get back in contact if I find out anything else. Why don't you call up the Chaotix group? Those fools should be good enough to help us find something out."

The call ended and Sonic stretched before flipping and rolling his shoulder. Vanilla appeared worried for a moment but Sonic assured her he was fine. He walked over to a spot on the wall and put some pressure on a random brick. A small hidden panel opened up in the wall revealing the Emeralds and a small package. Sonic grabbed the package and shut the panel.

"Good thing we kept these around," Sonic said. "Their office is still in Central City, right?"

"Yep," Tails answered.

Sonic gave Tails a thumbs up then ran off, the bandages falling off as he did. Tails and Vanilla stepped outside and watched, though Vanilla appeared to be the more worried of the two. She was about to speak her mind when a sudden cold gust blew through the area. They both looked past the cliff that housed the lab and noticed storm clouds incoming.

Vanilla bid Tails farewell and hurried home. Tails hurried inside and checked weather radars immediately. The entire week was supposed to be calm and sunny. In fact the closest low pressure zone was hundreds of miles away and being forced to go around the high pressure zone that had stalled over the area. When he checked the radar his suspicions were confirmed. The odd system wasn't even being picked up on the radars.

Within minutes remaining sunlight of the evening that shone through his lab's windows had been replaced by complete and eerie darkness. Tails clicked a button on his desk and slipped a couple of metal wristbands on before hurrying outside. The clouds had covered the sky and odd purple lightning ran along the surface of them. Before long bolts smashed into the ground and shook the area. Tails flew a few feet above the ground to avoid falling and so he could be ready for anything.

As the smoke from the bolt's impact cleared the odd lizard like creatures appeared. The energy in their bodies glowed yellow and was made eerie by the surrounding darkness. Tails flew a little higher and took stock of what he was facing. Five of the odd creatures, these clearly being the ones Sonic had described.

The energy of each of the creatures turned red at the same time and two of them leaped towards Tails despite his current height in the air. He quickly dodged back and thrust his left hand forward. From his hand a punching glove formed and sprang forward. It hit one of the monsters with so much force it had actually disappeared in a black cloud. As that occured tails aimed his right hand at the other monster that had leaped toward him and his Energy Cannon formed, immediately shooting a ball of electricity towards the monster.

Tails quickly flew downward and used his weapons on the remaining three monsters, all three disappearing after only one or two strikes with his equipment. He landed and looked around quickly. They had come for the Emerald, that much was clear. He hurried inside to check, and fortunately nothing in the lab had been tampered with.

"My ,my Tails" Eggman's voice from the doorway. "What a quaint little lab you have here. Absolutely nothing compared to mine of course but I suppose not all geniuses are capable of such mechanical feats such as mine."

Tails looked behind him. Eggman's silhouette stood tall in his doorway. He hopped back towards his console and grit his teeth. Of course it was a trick!

"I knew it was a trick!" Tails exclaimed.

As he inched towards the console Eggman wagged a finger towards him arrogantly.

"I wouldn't alert that annoying hedgehog if I were you, my little twin-tailed friend," Eggman threatened.

He pulled out a device and tossed it at Tails. It was a compact monitor and on the screen was a birds-eye view of the Rabbit household. The same lizard monsters were surrounding it.

"I'd be careful with your next move," the Doctor continued. "The wrong one would cause quite a bit of harm to the sweet little bunny rabbits, don't you think?"

Tails grit his teeth, but he didn't hesitate to pull away from his desk. He wasn't willing to have Cream, Cheese, and Vanilla get hurt just because he wanted to protect the Emeralds. Sonic would have done the same thing. Eggman motioned for Tails to hurry, clear that he knew the fox knew exactly what he was there for. Tails grabbed the Emeralds and was about to walk to Eggman when he held a hand up.

"Toss them," Eggman demanded. "Need to make sure you don't try any funny business. You understand, yes?"

Tails was frustrated but tossed the Emeralds nonetheless. Eggman caught them and took a good look before turning to leave.

"Good lad," Eggman laughed. "Now give it some time. I'd say about half an hour or so. In case you don't get what I am saying, do not follow me."

"What are you planning now?" the Fox demanded.

Eggman laughed maniacally as he walked out and stepped into his pod.

"I can't share that," he boasted. "I assure you though it will be glorious!"

Tails hurried out and watched as Eggman quickly flew off, the guilt of not being able to protect two Emeralds and his friends at the same time.

"Why can't I ever help?" he said to himself as the eerie clouds began to fade away, completely obscuring Eggman's pod with it.