Without a word uttered, Chaos Control flashed around Sonic in mid jump. What the-! The world around him slowed to a complete crawl. It was more severe than he'd ever seen the time warp as he closed the gap between himself and the falling feline. The red gem that left her hand caused Sonic no small amount of shock as he grabbed both it and the cat into his arms. Chaos Control's influence seemed even more severe, and the light so harsh, Sonic squinted to see through the glare, the world seeming to move into black and white. His fall also seemed slowed somehow as the world rose up to meet his feet.
The control lasted for what seemed a couple of minutes after the blue hedgehog had returned to terra-firmae. A quick examination of the unconscious form told him the obvious; she was hurt. The next logical step was to take her to the MRC. Tony would understand... He began his mad dash to the hospital, though his eyes wondered if the world would ever catch up to his time. As he pulled out his cell and dialed the pizza place, the world returned to its normal rhythms.
"AHA!" Rouge beamed, examining a rather lengthy data sheet before her.
"What is it now?" Topaz replied. The human female went over the bat, looking over her shoulder and brushing a strand of her short hair from her face.
"I think I'm onto something." She gave a toothy grin.
"May I remind you, we were not assigned to investigate jewel heists, Miss Rouge?" she said with some annoyance.
"Ahhh but even an old hag like you can appreciate this." She brought up a screen on the PC before her, showing a couple charts.
"Old hag! Why you---!" she began, but stopped as she assimilated the data before her. "I see...Chaos Emeralds?"
The white bat nodded. "Mmm hmm," her voice almost purred in ecstasy at her discovery. Her voice always carried a sultry tone to it, but mixed with pride it was almost intolerable to the human who'd been saddled with the Mobian partner. "Two Emeralds...this one was being kept here on Earth; this one is a recent report from Mobius."
"...It looks like the 'world pull' was affected shortly after the emeralds were stolen," the agent commented.
"Mmmhmm...and both within the last two weeks," Rouge finished.
"There's seven emeralds...so that means there's five more," Topaz said more to herself than the bat, following the same conclusion as the bat; the incidents were not isolated.
"Probably Eggman," Rouge followed. "Tails has the yellow emerald as the power source for the X-Tornado. Sonic has the red emerald."
"Where are the other three?" Topaz asked as she went to a neighboring terminal. The emeralds seemed to move about quickly no matter where they landed on either world. Gathering them together was seldom for the good of the world.
"Hmm... Well, Knuckles has the Master Emerald; we can always ask him if needs be." Rouge tapped a couple of keys, and the computer accessed the World Net (which was different than the domestic WWW of Earth). "He probably has the green one too. As for the last two, I don't know...Eggman could already have them in his possession..."
"Scary thought," Topaz sighed. She also switched to World Net and did a search for the emeralds. If they weren't in a museum or some treasury of some sort, they were often hidden away in odd locations. Knuckles and Rouge seemed to be able to sense them at close range, and Knuckles could use the Master Emerald to trace them if all else failed. Knowing what she did about the Mobian she was working with, there were also people who could make sensors to trace their energy signatures as well. "I'm not finding it, you?"
"No…. Looks like the emeralds we're missing fell off the face of the worlds." She frowned a bit. "They could be anywhere. Haven't been seen since Sonic's last collecting spree."
Topaz laughed a bit. "There's not a jewel on the planet you can't track down. I'm sure we'll find it eventually."
"Mmmm...right." Rouge grinned, baring her twin fangs. "Well, the eggheads should get this info while we start an emerald hunt. Ahh...I haven't seen those beautiful sparklers in a while," Rouge mused. Topaz had seldom heard her speak passionately about anything except jewels.
Tony let Sonic take the rest of the day off after depositing the cat at the MRC. Sonic had kept the emerald with him, though he was still a bit puzzled at both of their appearances. He had a very strong feeling he'd met her somewhere before but had nothing but a weird feeling to speak of. He didn't know if he should stay or not. Outside the MRC building, he checked his cell phone, switching between Chris' and Amy's phone numbers. He should tell them something...but what...?
Finally he dialed Chris' cell phone. "Hey, Chris?"
"Sonic! Wow, Tony let you go home early or something?" the human boy answered excitedly.
"Ahh...sort of. Look…." He explained about finding the cat falling from the sky, but not the incident with the emerald. Even now he felt like he was going faster than usual and the world was still slightly slowed. It was leaving him with a really unsettled feeling. "I'd...is Uncle Chuck there? I need to tell him something."
"Yeah, hold on." Chris went to find Charles hedgehog, which was not much of a chore. He and his grandpa had taken the day off since they hadn't slept the last four days. It had caught up with the two aging gentlemen, and Sonic's uncle was to be found laid back on a couch with an equally sleepy baby boy curled on his chest.
After a minute he was awake enough to answer the call, putting it on speaker mode. Many Mobians preferred this or a headset since human phones weren't made to accommodate the distance between their ears and their mouths. "Hello? Sonic?"
"Hey, Unc... Umm...I saved this cat today from falling and well...it was weird."
"I'm listening..." Chuck set the cell phone on the table next to him and got into a more upright position while trying not to disturb Blitz.
"She had a Chaos Emerald with her... The red one," Sonic's tone had an unusual tension to it,
"...Well... that's…." Chuck paused. "Well the Emeralds are rare enough to find, but what's the problem with that?"
"Well..." Sonic reached behind his back and fished out two emeralds from his quills. "...I have two red emeralds now."
"Two! Impossible!" Chuck nearly fell out of his seat at that statement as Blitz suddenly started crying.
"Hey! Don't be like that!" Chris's voice rang through loud and clear as he went to comfort the baby.
"I know...but it's true!" Sonic looked at the two brilliant gemstones. That certainly explained why the Chaos Control was so powerful... When the emeralds were separate for any prolonged length of time, they needed to adjust to the others' presence. A reaction would happen between them, but since it was the same emerald, the effect had been more profound.
"Hmm...I'm not doubting you, Sonic…. Wait a second, Chris!" Charles stopped him from getting another palm full of quills and showed him how to properly handle a squealing pincushion.
"Aww come on, Blitz, you're my lil' man, stop bawling, will you?" Sonic grinned a bit at hearing his son's antics in spite of the business he had with his uncle. "I'm going to stay here 'til the cat wakes up, see what she knows. Hmm...if she was followed, though... Is Shadow doing anything today?"
"Not my day to watch him," Charles replied. Chris managed to calm the baby boy down. "Why?"
"Well...she was probably being chased because of the emerald...so I kinda wanted to split them up." Sonic twitched an ear and hid the emeralds back into his quills.
Mecha 3.0 had scoured the base of the fall for several hours. "There is no sign of the queen or the emerald, Doctor," the machination replied in a cold tone.
"Not good enough!" Nega's voice carried through one of the spheroid robots that had been following her in the first place.
"Orders?" It gave off a brief burst from the rockets on its heels, giving it lift enough to reach a high ledge.
"Hnnn... I have a good idea where she's gone. Return to base, I'll need to send you on a little trip through time. You don't mind, do you?
"No," it replied simply.
"Good. Get going."
"If the power of the emeralds is unlimited, Doctor, why do you need all seven?" it asked as it returned through the aqueducts. It issued silent orders to the robots it passed, shining white and standing six feet tall, each one brandishing at least one gun arm. They all bent to its will. There was an aura about this creation that no robot Dr. Eggman built had ever carried with it. It had a dangerous aura, clad with authority.
"The emeralds should be thought of as a living organism, though... They work as one."
"So you need them all. I see," the metal creation replied. "Then, I do not understand why you need the Element as well."
"The servers are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power. Power is enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos," Eggman Nega repeated the phrase an orange echidna had once spoken to Sonic and his gang many generations ago from his current time.
"I do not understand," it replied
While only the foolish robots Eggman made had ever questioned his orders, this intelligent robot was questioning Nega. He seemed pleased outwardly as the smile on his face widened. "It means that the emeralds have no direction without a will to guide them. With the loss of the Master Emerald, that means the Element."
"I see. Why not use your own will?" it said in a dull, lifeless tone.
"Why should I when the Element I've chosen makes things far more interesting? I'm sure my creator is finding things interesting in his time." There was more than a slight hint of animosity in his tone.
"..Interesting..." Mecha Sonic said as he reached the surface and was cast into the bright sunlight. His optic sensors switched from infrared to normal operations. "It is fun for you. I see. I will try to have fun too. That is what my original would do."