Above Desert Hill Zone, 18:59

The Freedom Fighter Special sliced through the night sky above the desert. The powerful jet engines that propelled it blended in perfectly amidst the many stars. The massive mass of metal served as a mobile base of operations, so naturally it would include everything from living quarters to a kitchen and even a recreational center.

There was a certain room with a large round table surrounded by several chairs. While it served a multipurpose function in the past, it was then being used as the meeting room.

The Freedom Fighters with the exception of Bunnie were seated. No, Knuckles did not sit down. He stood. He's not a Freedom Fighter. I don't know how many times I've stressed that now.

Sally also stood but for an entirely different reason. People giving presentations tend to do that. Standing to her left was a girl lynx who went by the name of Nicole.

Rotor set The Freedom Fighter Special on auto pilot, coordinating a direct course towards Knothole. With assistance from the resident A.I. Nicole hooked up to the fortress' control deck, it was set to shift its position if it ran into any obstructions.

Sally slightly leaned forward and placed her hands on the table. Her eyes narrowed while she briefly studied everybody in the room.

"Freedom Fighters," she said with a natural air of authority and respect. "And Knuckles. I believe it goes without saying that our latest escapade went a little too well."

"Too well?" Knuckles asked with a bit of skepticism as he folded his arms. "We almost died. Several times even. In fact, Amy made an especially close call. But a win's a win, right?"

Sonic turned his head to the right and looked at Knuckles with a judgmental expression. He then looked back to Sally and pointed back at his red friend with his left thumb.

"Why is he still here again?" he said. "I'm pretty sure he has a giant green rock that he's supposed to let get stolen for the umpteenth time."

"Fight me!"

"Not in front of the children, sweetie."

"Guys," Tails said as he narrowed his eyes and placed the tips of his fingers on his temples. "Focus, please."

"He never calls me sweetie," Amy grumbled as she folded her arms and puffed her cheeks.

"...Anyway," Sally said. "Normally, Eggman goes out of his way to keep his plans hidden. Logic would dictate that informing your enemy of your position would leave you open for interception."

Rotor squinted and placed an index finger under his chin.

"It was awfully suspicious that he intentionally lured us into his base," he said.

"But," Bunnie said with a bit of concern in her voice. "Why would he lead us to his base if alls he wanted to do was blow up a bunch of cities? He could have done that with us in Knothole, catchin' us completely off guard. We wouldn't even have enough time able ta react. The fact that he led sugarhog of all people to his base makes even less sense."

"Eggman's goal is world domination," Tails said. "He uses destruction as a tool of instilling fear into the people and forcing them into submission. He's proven time and time again that he's more than capable of large scale devastation, even on the planetary level. It wouldn't make sense for him to kidnap us only to blow up territories that he wants to rule and at this point, he's already infamous enough that he doesn't need to prove his power…Something's definitely not right here."

"Additionally," Nicole said. "He controls 32.97% of the planet's resources. He would have no incentive for demonstrating that he is capable of destroying the empire he has spent years slowly acquiring."

"Wait," Antoine said. "Et es true, we ave been duped but what would be the point in not initially inviting Sonic? Could it be zhat Eggman is using him to further his agenda for world domination? The fact that he could teleport his fleet over any major city, including Knothole, shows zhat he could ave destroyed us at any time he felt. Capturing us only to destroy us is redundant, wasted effort. And chances are, slim as zhey may be, he would attempt to pour all his assets into overwhelming Sonic if he was ally less. But he clearly saw incentive in luring him to his own base and destroying us all at once."

"But how would Sonic factor into his plans?" Amy asked. "Sonic has a sharper nose for an Eggman plot than anybody and he's stubborn to a T. He'll fight Eggman until he's completely incapable of continuing, no if, ands, or buts. Fooling him into unknowingly helping his worst enemy that he knows so well is a tall order. A much bigger task than Eggman may be willing to partake when he could just send a giant robot, army, or whatever to try and smash him." Amy looked down, squinted, and placed her bent index finger under her lip. "Then again, he's tricked Sonic before, but he's only ever lured him into traps. He's never directly tricked him into taking action. Sonic values freedom too much to do anything he doesn't want to unless it serves the greater good. And there was the time we the latest Extreme Gear Grand Prix, but he hid his identity and played into Sonic's…interests…"

Sally snapped and pointed at Amy

"Bingo," she said. "He wouldn't even try to fool Sonic directly. The key to manipulating him would be to force him to be himself. It's how he fooled him on the ARK a while back. He was just playing into Sonic's good-hearted nature. And he's doing the same thing by not only putting the general populace in danger but by marking us, his closest friends, as targets. He wants Sonic to know that he can hurt us at any time."

Sonic leaned back into his seat with his arms folded behind his head and his feet on the table. He looked to the side with his eye(s) half open. One might suspect he was in deep thought but his closest friends might attest that he was just bored.

He rubbed the bottom of his nose with his right index finger.

"Yeah," he said. "I may have dropped the ball on that one. Trusting Egghead for anything that isn't world dominated related is a no-go."

"It's not your fault," Sally said. "He gave you an ultimatum. 'Do this or someone gets hurt.' Only this time, it's on a global scale. Question is, why? What is he gaining by doing that?"

The room went silent. As she held Cheese in her lap, Cream looked around at her elders who folded their arms and shifted their gazes around. Big laid his chin on the table in defeat. After a while, Tails spoke up in an annoyed tone.

"Chaos Emeralds," he said as he rolled his eyes. "He wanted the Chaos Emeralds. Sure, he could have just sent any number of his robots to go after them but even that would have gathered suspicion. Sonic would have eventually noticed and step in. There's also a minute possibility that G.U.N might have interfered."

Amy spoke in an offhand manner.

"You mean the government organization that never does anything anymore?"

Bunnie placed her left hand on Amy's shoulder. She quickly turned around at the sudden sensation of cold metal. Even though she was old friends with the cyborg, her reactions overrode her conscious thinking for that split second.

"To our knowledge," Bunnie said with an earnest smile. "But that's a conversation for another day, sugarhog."

"Ah," Antoine said as he raised his right hand to signal that he had a point to make. "And ze fact zhat we just had a major battle would lessen the chances of us going after zhe Emeralds right away. He's probably sending a search party as we speak!"

"Slow down there, Antoine," Sally said as she raised her right hand as a signal for him to calm down. "Both Metal and Silver Sonic, two of his fastest chief enforcers, were destroyed."

"That," Knuckles said. "And me and Sonic took out like seven zones worth of badniks."

"Right. He also lost a large portion of his fleet. Right now, he's low on resources. If he anticipated that we would discover he was after the Emeralds, he wouldn't be so hasty as to spend more of his already dwindling forces on a task of major importance when the possibility of defeat would be eminent. We have to consider that he might outsource help."

Sally didn't speak as her gaze shifted to everyone else in the room.

"Guys, Eggman's planning something big."

Big sat up with his eyes wide open.

"Hm?" he said.

"Heh, no, not you."

"I'm more concerned at how grammatically incorrect that would have sounded in the context of my name."

Sally stared at Big with a blank expression. Amy, Cream, Cheese, Bunnie, Antoine, Rotor, Nicole, and Tails soon did the same. Knuckles raised an eyebrow.

"I wonder how Froggy's doing..."

"So," Sonic said. "Which of my Rouges Gallery do you think he'd be digging up?"

"Our Rouges Gallery," Knuckles said.

"Oh, don't be so possessive. You have an entire island to yourself."

"You can have this room to yourselves too," Amy said in an obviously spiteful tone.

Sally sunk her face into her palm. Nicole smiled, rolled her eyes, and pointed behind her. A holographic projection appeared. It displayed a few familiar faces. Others however, seemed entirely new, at least to Sonic.

Sally pointed at one of the possible strangers with her index finger. It was an especially heinous man with a creepy smile that showed sharp teeth. He had blemishes on his pale skin and a very long white beard. His ears were pointed and he had a horn on top of a bald head. The icing on the cake to this especially sinister muggle were his crimson eyes.

It is not wise to judge by appearances but if one were to guess he was evil based on that description, they wouldn't be wrong.

"Walter Naugus is a strong contender," she said.

"But…" Cream timidly said. "I read about him in the history books. Doesn't he hate Eggman?"

"Yes, but that's exactly what makes him the perfect candidate. We wouldn't expect a sudden attack from him, especially since we're concerned about Eggman. Plus anything he'd do to oppose us could be used to distract us from gathering the Emeralds first. We should assume Eggman's spent a considerable amount of time allocating allies for this plan."

Sonic raised his right hand. With a smile, Sally sighed and put her hands on her hips.

"Yes, Sonic?"

"I'm sorry," he said. "Walter who?"

Sally frowned.

"Former wizard of the Acorn Kingdom, turned traitor because he wanted power, really spiteful at my dad for losing to him in strip poker. Sonic, we went over this several times."

"Yeah, I don't bother remembering bad guys whose butts I didn't personally kick."

Amy leaned forward and put her hands on her hips.

"That's code for 'I wasn't paying attention and was instead thinking about how handsome I am,'" she said.

"In my defense, I'm fairly handsome."

"Fairly punchable too," Knuckles said."

"Don't hate me because I'm beautiful."

"WALTER," Sally said almost shouting. "Is especially dangerous right now because he is in hiding and we haven't been able to locate him since his defection. Although we know he's an elemental user, he kept to himself often. He could have any number of skills related to the supernatural that he's built up over a lifetime of wizardry that we're completely unaware of. That in addition to him being involved in the Acorn's Strategic Board for a brief period, we must be weary of his tactical prowess. Be prepared for the worst from him and expect anything. Literally anything."

"…His face scares me," Cream said lowly.

"Me too," Antoine said as he nodded in agreement.

"Luckily, we have a method of dealing with him. The Sword of Acorn is the only thing that is impervious to his dark magic. With it, we should be able to minimize the damage he can do. If that pans out, we can secure him in a special cage in the Detention Facility for his crimes of treason and conspiracy against the throne. However, he's been out of the picture for quite a while and we haven't been able to collect any intel on him during such. Anything could happen so we should prepare contingencies in the event the Sword fails. Next…"

She pointed to a picture of a wanted poster of a purple weasel wearing a fedora, a green duck with a goofy smile, and a light yellow polar bear with a green scarf and red skull cap.

"Fang the Sniper, Bean the Dynamite, and Bark the Polar Bear. The Hooligans are excellent at avoiding authorities and are Eggman's go to for grunt work that requires a delicate touch of destruction and intelligence not present in his own forces. They're thieves to the bone and they're darn good ones too. We've beaten them before but we never could successfully detain them. They're collectively cunning enough to use that fact against us especially under Fang's guidance. We need to be weary of any underhanded tactic or premeditation on their part. For all we know, Eggman could have supplied them with any assistance before-hand."

Next, Sally pointed to an angry looking lynx with a straw cap.

"We also have to consider the possibility of assistance from other kingdoms seeking to dethrone the Kingdom of Acorn as the most affluent kingdom in the world or to take our resources. Unfortunately, that includes the Ryug Clan as suspects. They're not allies and have this intense urge to be the "strongest clan in world" or some other Shonen nonsense. Them being an entire army of ninjas makes them especially dangerous since they've made operating unnoticed into an art. They could have and could be taking any number of steps right now regarding this plot."

Sonic slammed his palms on the table to gather everyone's attention. He had his eyes closed and a bleak look on his face.

"They could be," he said lowly before he slowly opened his eyes. "In this very room."

Cream squeezed Cheese and gulped. As he shut his eyes, the round ball on Cheese's head morphed into a scribble. A drop of sweat ran down Big's temple. Knuckles took a step back and placed his hands up while his gaze darted around the room. Antoine's eyes widened and he clung onto Bunnie's waist, who looked around with wide pupils. Amy spun her back and leaned onto Sonic's as her sight wandered. Rotor and Tails narrowed their eyes and smiled.

"C-c'mon, sugarhog," Bunnie said with a bit of hesitation in her tone. "Stop messin' around."

"Y-yeah," said Cream. "D-don't scare us like that Mr. Sonic. It's mean."

Sonic laughed while Amy held her hammer diagonally and silently studied her surroundings.

"Nyuk nyuk nyuk."

"I'm not scared of some highly trained assassins and spies," Knuckles said with his pupils rotating in various directions. "I eat spies for breakfast."

Sonic looked at Knuckles with a slick expression.

"You wish," he said.

After he turned back around, Sonic's eyes widened for a second when he noticed Sally had her wrist blades on and Nicole looked around cautiously.

"Uh, guys. You do know I was kidding, right? Kidding? Noun? A statement or remark made with humorous regard and not meant to be taken seriously? As in 'Guys, you do know I was kidding, right?'"

"Joking or not," Sally said with her gaze shifted horizontally. "You presented a very real possibility. If this plan was premeditated months in advance, there's a chance that we may have been bugged without any of us noticing."

"Ship scan complete," Nicole said with a bubbly voice and smile. "There are no foreign elements within this aircraft. We may now proceed with the laughter of relief."

"I'm a little relieved," Knuckles said before he slowly folding his arms. "But I'm not laughing. Eggman just showed that he could take the Master Emerald any time he wants."

"That's not news," Sonic said offhandedly.

Knuckles grunted and scowled at Sonic who looked away with a smile, pretending not to notice.

"I'm needed now more than ever. If Eggman gains control of the Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds, then we lose. With his brains and the amount of power at his disposal, the world as we know it would change forever. Maybe even the universe. I don't even know what we could do if that happens..."

The atmosphere instantly grew anxious. Bunnie placed the tips of her left hand under her lips and looked down. Cream's eyes sadly narrowed and she redirected her gaze to her feet. Sally looked around the room and took note of her discouraged comrades. The way her mouth slightly crumpled signified that she wanted to say something but couldn't find the right way to phrase it.

At that moment, Sonic closed his eyes and took his feet off the table.

"Knux," he said, disappointed. "What kind of talk is that?"

Knuckles stoically glared at Sonic, who returned the gesture.

"When have high stakes ever stopped us from acting? It's the same ol' same, business as usual. Even if gets to that point, all we gotta do is swoop in at the last second and throw a spanner in the works. We wouldn't be doing anything any differently from what we always do."

Tails smiled haughtily at that analogy. Rotor's expression was a bit more mellow but his face seemed brighter than it was seconds ago. Amy wrapped her arms around Sonic's shoulder and leaned towards his face, making their cheeks touch. Cream and Cheese were smiled innocently. Antoine wrapped his fingers around Bunnie's robotic hand and gently squeezed it. Their somber gazes met.

And just like that, the heavy feeling of dread was gone.

Sally closed her eyes and smiled.

"I couldn't have said it any better myself," she quietly said.

Nicole observed her with a smile.

"Yeah," Knuckles said with a smirk. "But I only said that because I'm not the tactician around here. You say 'Punch this,' and I say 'When?'"

"Really?" Sonic sarcastically said. "I mean, you're totally right when you said you're not a thinker, but I don't know. That reason seems liiiiitle too convenient."

Knuckles walked to Sonic and grabbed him by the collar. He jerked him close enough to his face that their noses were touching.

"You know, I've had just about enough of you and your 'sarcasm'! How about I 'sarcasm' your face?!"

"How about you take a children's literary class?" Suddenly Sonic's eyes widened. He jammed his palm into Knuckles' face and turned to Sally. "Wait. If Eggman and Friends are scheming something now, the best thing for us to do would be to act fast. The Emeralds just scattered. Getting them first would throw whatever he's planning down the drain."

"That's exactly what he'd expect," Sally said immediately. "He knows you'd go after the Emeralds the moment you discovered they were a part of his plan. He could have any number of traps waiting that we currently can't anticipate due to a lack of information. Sonic, I'm not letting you go out there."

"Then, what do we do?"

"We wait."

Sonic leaned forward and narrowed his eyes.

"Pardon me? Did you say 'sit down and do absolutely nothing?' Because I don't speak useless, especially with Baldy McNosehair involved."

"We just discussed this. He's waiting for you to do something. He's baiting you."

"So? I love bait! Bait's fun!"

Amy lightly placed a hand on Sonic's shoulder.

"Sonic," she said in a soft tone of voice. "We don't know what he has in store for you. Anything could happen."

Sonic turned to her with a blank expression.

"And?"

Strength slowly gathered in Amy's palms. She said these next words quietly but it was audible due to how close everyone was. It almost sounded like she was choking.

"And we don't want anything to happen."

"You have a bad habit of charging in head first without thinking," Knuckles said notably loud. "If it wasn't for us, you might not even be around to complain."

Amy gave Knuckles a death glare after that remark. Knuckles shivered and looked away. At the same time, Sonic gave him a very critical look.

"And so, the pot called the kettle black," he said.

"Hm? But I didn't…?"

Sonic turned back around and placed a palm on his forehead.

"No, I didn't think that one through."

"But Sonic," Tails said. "They're right. Despite results, you can be pretty impulsive."

"What?! I'm not impulsive!"

"Yes, you are," said everyone else in the room. Yes, that included Cheese.

"Your senses may be better than anyone else's, but maybe we should take a step back to premeditate this time. Just to play it safe. Not that we're doubting you but, well, better safe than sorry."

The sound of something light hitting the floor several times was heard. After a few seconds, Sonic stopped tapping his foot, closed his eyes, and pinched the skin between them. He sighed, reopened his eyes, sunk into his seat, and folded his arms.

"Okay," he said bitterly. "I'll play it safe. For now. But what does that translate into the rest of you doing?"

"Simple," Sally said. "Nothing."

Sonic did not reply for a few seconds. Then he stood up and started walking to the window.

"I wonder how far this drop is?"

Amy grabbed him by the shoulder to stop him. Antoine gave a critical look and folded his arms.

"Eggman could have any number of contingencies waiting for us at every turn. Worst case scenario, he spent months meticulously planning. The sooner we act without any definite answers, the more screwed we'll be in the long run. The best thing to do for the time being is nothing. At least until he sets his plan in motion. We'll do everything we can to slow him down. Then, we'll intercept him at the apex of his plan. We'll spend these next few days brainstorming but we have to make it look like we're completely ignorant of his doomsday project."

"Wait," Bunnie said. "So, we'll just be waitin' around til' he blows up a bank or sommin'? If we're gon' stop him anyway, wouldn't it make a lil' more sense for us to do it ASAP?"

"Thank you," Sonic said.

"Like I said," Sally continued. "He could have any number of traps waiting for us and the first thing he'll expect is for us is to act as quickly as possible. Granted, we usually win but he's just established that he's capable of operating under our radar. This time, playing into his hand could be lethal. So until he makes the first move, we do nothing. We'll act if he's doing his typical mad scientist thing, but we'll only do something about this huge plot at the last possible second. He tends to reveal his plans anyway so acting like we know could bring opportunity to change his course of actions. Any sooner, and we might be doing what he wants. We'll fight him here and there but we can only stop him for good once his plan is close to completion."

"…That still leaves a lot of room for him to do what he wants," Cream said.

"No problem," Sonic said, folding his arms behind his head. "We'll just kick his egg-shaped butt before things get too ugly. Like I said, business as usual."

Death Egg, Several hundreds of miles above Earth's atmosphere, 02:32 UST

A pair of white double doors opened, allowing Dr. Eggman to stroll into a dark room with Orbot and Cubot hovering behind. He took a few long strides and stopped with his minions following suit. He stood with his arms folded behind his back and a strong posture.

Without receiving any orders, Orbot spoke.

"Function: chat box."

A large, light blue screen appeared a few feet away from them. A list of names appeared. "Mama Robotnik, Wily, Bowser, Dentist, Those creepy, little yellow things that are irrationally popular."

"Open: groups."

The screen changed to a single list. In white lettering, it read "Project Genesis."

"Function: call."

The screen changed into a green icon of a classic cord phone. A phone tone emitted for a about five seconds. Afterward, it was lined up with a few familiar faces.

The first of those faces was a bloodshot purple weasel. He rubbed his right eye with the base of his fist and yawned.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?" he said with a tired voice.

"Fang," Eggman replied with a smile. "How nice of you to join us. If you're too busy, I can call again later. Of course, I'd have to terminate your services and then have you eliminated. Can't have you running around with all my secrets now, can I? Loose lips sink ships."

"No need to do all that. I'm just cranky because no one in their right mind makes a call at 2:30 in the flippin' morning. Then again, 'no one in their right mind' just about sums you up."

Suddenly, a green, blue eyed duck filled the screen.

"Is that Dr. Eggman?" he said in a voice so loud, static feedback nearly drowned him out. Eggman slightly hunched forward and covered his ears with his palms. Orbot and Cubot covered the sides of their heads with the same motion despite not having ears. "Do doctors still make house calls? But isn't a house call when you actually visit the person? That doesn't make any sense. And I guess a house call in the literal context would just be a regular call to someone's house. Furthermore, why don't you visit me anymore? The least you could do is write. But noooooooo. "Dr." Eggman has better things to do than to keep up with old friends. Keep that behavior up and you're uninvited to the wedding."

Fang stared at his looney comrade with narrow scowl and bags under his eyes. Whether that was due to exhaustion or stress is open for interpretation.

"Haha," Eggman somberly laughed. "It's good to see you too, Bean. Apologies for disturbing you. I'll make it up to you later."

Fang studied Dr. Eggman's face. He unconsciously squinted, although it was subtle. Eggman replied with a grin, as if telling saying "I know you know something's not quite right but you'll never figure it out." Fang looked away and scratched his cheek with an index finger.

A raspy man's voice then became audible. One could describe it as the slithering of a predator snake.

"You seem to be in high spirits, Ivo."

"Haha," Dr. Eggman laughed, although his eye brow twitched slightly. "Naugus. We talked about this. We are no longer on a first name basis. You will refer to me as doctor and/or Eggman."

"Don't disrespect me, baldy."

"Gck!?... Better bald than being called a horny old man…"

"Heheheheheh…"

"Hohohohoho…"

Fang exchanged glances between the verbally belligerent, bald men.

"…Were you two like, a thing in the past?" he asked.

"What would their ship's name be?" Bean asked. "Waltivo…No, that sounds like a failed TV company. Ivolter…No, that sounds like a failed handgun. EggNaug? What do you think, Bark?"

In the background, a large, pale yellow polar bear sluggishly sat up from a bed. There were several bags underneath his bloodshot eyes. He slowly turned his head to Bean and squinted but didn't reply.

"As far as portmanteau couple names go," Orbot said with an index finger raised. "EggNaug would make the most sense."

"Yeah," Cubot said. "And it's the least confusing."

Eggman rested his face on his palm.

"Please don't entertain bad fan shipping," Dr. Eggman said. "This world is already halfway to hell. In fact, it'll be one of the many things I will personally seek to being abolished."

"For once, we agree," said Naugus. "Now, why are you calling at 2:30 in the bloody morning?"

"But that should be self-evident my magical mate."

"Don't call me your mate, chum."

"The Emeralds have scattered once more. This sets Project Genesis in motion."

Naugus' smiled. His raised eye brow indicated a hint of surprise but he seemed more delighted than anything. From wherever he was, he leaned forward.

"You have my full attention."

"Sonic and his disgusting Freedom Fighters have most likely deduced that I've been scheming something by now. With his tendency to butt in to things that are none of his business, the first thing he would do would be retrieving the Emeralds."

A female voice spoke up. It was a melody of authority and beauty.

"And what you plan on doing about that? Sonic is fast, and his allies are as well. They can cover land, sea, and air in a short span of time. Waiting for them to strike first would be the absolute worst course of action."

"Exactly," Eggman said. "I'm currently low on resources. But there's no doubt that they've assumed I would have laid several traps for them in advance. Even though I'm practically powerless with over half of my fleet gone. Since they're aware that I'm capable of obliterating them at any time, they've most likely assumed that I've spent several months laying the ground work for various traps should they go after the Emeralds even if I've done no such thing. Without really trying, my presence has influenced their decision making. Let that be known on this day.

"They're aware that I'm more than capable of manipulating them to do my bidding by forcing them to be their disgusting heroic selves. They won't act unless they're sure we're in the very final stages of our plan so they can throw a spanner in the works at the last possible second like the truly annoying heroes they are. But until then, they'll stay put. They'll be at a stalemate."

"What does that translate into for you?"

"Simple my dear. I do exactly what I'm doing right now. Nothing."

"Pardon?"

"Hold it," Fang said. "So while we're out there busting our tails, you're gonna be sitting on your fat hide with a sub sandwich in hand?!"

"For the time being, yes." Fang took mental note that Dr. Eggman didn't snap back at being called fat. "If I act, they'll use that as justification for seeking the Chaos Emeralds. And if they get the Emeralds first, it's game over. Granted, I'll still be keeping up appearances to throw them off and give you more time to act but I'm not the big bad of this season. For now, I'll just be a reoccurring villain and fan favorite."

"…But," Bean said confused. "That's exactly how a Big Bad acts anyway."

The female voice did not initially reply.

"That doesn't fully answer my question. We've been given our assignments but there seem to be holes in some areas, mainly blind spots for counter attacks."

"Hahahaha. Being cryptic is simply a formality for us mad men. But I suppose I wouldn't be a good villain if I didn't explain my evil plot with painstaking detail. After all, this is just business as usual. Now shut up and lend me your ears."