Author's Note: Wow! Updating a story on the same day I published it, that's a new one for me. So far, it's not been very text heavy, has it? I'll try to change that starting next chapter. Please read and review.

Disclaimer: …… I live in a shack (not really) do you think I own Sega?

Have you ever heard a bat wail? Think of taking the world's sharpest nails to the world's largest blackboard and placing the world's largest in front of it, and you'll get a tenth of the ultrasonic produced in the reverberating chamber we were all currently in.

Forced to think quickly or risk being deafened I produce a Chaos Emerald Knuckles let me keep charge of (despite knowing that the Chaos Emeralds were unbreakable I swore I saw a crack appearing in it) and threw it towards the screaming toddler Rouge.

Fortunately, it seems that being a toddler had not affected Rouge's love for shiny things, and she immediately stopped crying and, instead, reached to grab the Emerald, cooing happily.

Taking a minute to let the ringing in my ears to go away, I asked the question that was forefront in my mind. "What happened here?"

Toddler Knuckles scuffed his shoe once, looking uncommonly subdued, but then looked up with some of the same defiance I was used to seeing and pointed towards the still cooing Rouge. "She didi it!"

At this proclamation, Rouge immediately looked up with a rather indignant expression on her face. "You hitties me!" she screamed at the little Echidna, and then sidled over to me, still clutching her precious shiny, and showed me a small bruise on her arm, the size of a small penny. "You kissies, and make better?" she asked me with all the fake innocence the adult Rouge had ever managed.

Still more than a little shocked from the entire ordeal, and not wishing for her to have a repeated wailing performance, I opted to bend over and lightly kissed her booboo.

Smiling broadly, she proceeded to wrap her arms around my neck and commanded, "Up!"

Faced with the consequences of being strangled (who knew Rouge was so strong?) I complied, picking her up. Once I did so, she immediately gave me another smile and then turning around to stick her tongue out at a pouting Knuckles.

Sighing loudly, determining that I would get any answers from the two bickering infants, I decide to do the next most logical thing. "Let's go call Tails."

Now, it might surprise some people that Knuckles would allow any type of technology onto his island, let alone cell phone which could be traced…………and, truth be told, he hadn't. I had actually snuck the cell phone I was currently using onto the Island a week after Knuckles had invited me up, but, seeing that Knuckles was busy digging a hole at the moment (proclaiming that a Worm had insulted him), I doubt that he'll very much mind if I used it now.

Or, at least, I would be if I could find any service on this spit of rock. We were in the gosh darn stratosphere, how could I not be getting any service?

Thus, did I begin my search for the holy signal, crossing plains and mountains (oddly there were castles at random intervals, with odd Mushroom people inside the that told me that the Princess was at the next castle), making deals with the Island's resident E.T. (some wakko wearing weird robes, speaking broken English, and seeming to float (I know what your thinking, no it is not Black Doom "cough" "cough" Fawful "cough")), and over coming beasts that lay only in legends, (one of which called herself HookTail and I was forced to defeat with a cricket).

………Actually, (with the exception of the second) I just went around asking, "Can you hear me now?"

But, finally, I did manage to get a signal…….on the top of a Ferris wheel (why there's a Ferris wheel on Angel Island is a question open to debate). Silently rejoicing, I quickly dialed Tails number and, after two or three rings Tails picked up.

"Who is it?" asked Tails, sounding out of breath (in the background I could here something like a herd of elephants crashing through an Antique store, and someone was yelling, "Fwoggy!? Where are you little Buddy?" at frequent intervals). "Excuse me for a minute," says Tails.

At that point, I heard something akin to a lawn mower in the background, followed by someone screaming hysterically, followed by a wet plop, followed by the sound of two cars colliding, and then sudden silence.

I paused for a moment, waiting expectantly, while the two infants were playing tag (actually Rouge had stolen Knuckles left shoe and Knuckles was chasing after her trying to get it back).

Finally, Tails picked up on the other line, and I got a chance to explain what had happened.

There was a significant pause as Tails considered what I had told him, but he eventually answered, saying, "I might have an idea, but it'd be better if you'd brought them over here so I can run some tests."

My first instinct was to say no, Knuckles constant warnings that the Master Emerald having to be constantly protected having been deeply engraved in me after all his lectures, but then I decided that, since I was taking the person most likely to take the Master Emerald with me and I wouldn't be gone that long, I had no choice.