After Kitsunami told Starline, " I'm ready to let go now, " their hug ended after six seconds of comfort, and Kit walked away saying, " I've got to go to the bathroom anyways. " Blaze hid behind the corner near the room and when he left, she walked into it. Starline looked embarrassed assuming that she saw and heard all of that, but since she approved of how much he liked giving a kid a hug, she decided to humor him by quickly changing the subject. " Do you think Sonic would think giving Dr. Eggman amnesia was too harsh? Because it wouldn't let him decide to change on his own? "

Starline said nervously, " I was worried about that. The serum I'm going to use isn't just going to give him amnesia, it's also going to make him sleep for a couple of minutes to make things easier on him so he won't freak out at being in Eggman's base near some robots. I'd rather he wake up with amnesia on my couch, or, at least on Angel Island near the Warp Topaz, he would think those were nicer-looking surroundings than my base. Either way anyone helping with the plan would HAVE to know the serum's going to give him amnesia because if they only know it's meant to knock him out, even if they were so desperate to have Eggman captured that they don't care if he's taken to my base first, I don't want to deal with Sonic getting mad at me when he finds out he got amnesia too without his permission. I could just lie that it was an accidental side-effect of the sleeping serum, but what if he doesn't buy it? You and Kitsunami already know about that part of the plan. You wouldn't be comfortable with never telling him about it. But I doubt Sonic would be comfortable with erasing his memories in the first place and he might try to stop that from happening. "

Blaze reassured him, " I'd knock him out if I had to. I wouldn't be surprised if every single one of his friends disagreed with him on keeping Dr. Eggman as he is. I understand wanting to wait until he'd choose to be a good person because it'd mean a lot more and be a lot more satisfying to see. I can imagine the smug look on his face at saying that he's glad he realized his way was right, but, perhaps it's worth it to make him good as soon as possible instead of just catering to Sonic's desire and ego. " Starline couldn't help but smile in amusement at her insulting Sonic and said, " I thought you liked Sonic now. "

Blaze clarified, " I do but becoming his friend doesn't mean I grew blind to his flaws. " She still remembered how annoyed she was at how when she was first meeting Sonic's friends, all they ever did was tell her she should ask Sonic for help, and it still aggravated her that they did that without trusting her to be good enough on her own and even so much as asking her what SHE was capable of. At least when she was growing up in the Sol Dimension nobody thought she was inferior because she had a gift no one else did that intimidated everyone. Any time she went to Sonic's dimension, she couldn't help but be annoyed that she would never be seen as measuring up to Sonic in anyone's eyes, even though she had almost all of the same powers as him AND fire powers, and the ability to hover. She was just thankful she didn't let her jealousy of that consume her when talking to him, like it did with Shadow.

After Blaze gave him another idea to add to the plan and ran over to Sonic's house and rang the doorbell, Tails opened the door to greet her and Sonic sped to his side to ask her with an interested smile, " So what happened? " Blaze looked at the living room in front of her to see that no one else was there and quickly said with a bit of a smile, " He's alright, I'll explain later, but right now I'd like you two to come with me to have a talk with Gemerl. Don't bring Belle along! It turns out Dr. Starline's got a great idea. "

Belle walked into the room asking about Starline, " Is he gonna be okay? " and Blaze looked nervous and told her, " Oh, Belle! Yes, I took him to a hospital, he's alright now. We're going out for a little while. " Sonic, getting an idea of what Blaze meant, told Belle with a smile, " Yeah we'll be right back! Hold down the fort for us, okay? " that he wants to keep a surprise for her, and he doesn't want people to get impatient for him to succeed at it. " Belle looked confused with everyone else and said, " But how could he already be alright?! "

Blaze hesitated at first looking worried because she had found what she had seen to be unsettling and wondered if they'd be intimidated that he had such technology, before admitting, " He injected himself with some gray liquid that he was able to alter with a computer. It seems to be a way to turn a person into a cyborg. " They looked alarmed at the words gray liquid and she continued, " He parted the fur on his arm and the cuts under it vanished before my eyes! " Tails asked, " Is that really all that happened to him?! Did he look any different? "

She explained as they listened with worried looks, " No. Why would he? His fur was still red where the cuts were. So apparently he hadn't bothered to wash it since he was hurt. " She explained everything she had seen in that room, including the fact that Starline had told Kitsunami to get back at him in an ashamed tone of voice when expecting him to use the needle on him. " But then… oh, well, should I even tell you this? It's an invasion of his privacy. "

Tails looked serious and told her, " Go ahead, " and she sighed and said, " You probably don't need to know, but it turned out there are old scars on his arm. All I got to see were two horizontal scars on the back of his wrist that looked the same. He showed him one of them by accident and apologized, and he accidentally told him that he has more than one. And when he asked, he just said that he told him he used to be bullied. Before that he told me that he's lucky he survived as long as he did. " They looked especially worried, the potential explanation for the scars dawning on Tails, who admitted, " Those scars don't sound like they look like mine. How could they all look the same? Take it from me, you don't get that from being bullied. What are the chances of that? "

Blaze said nervously while hoping he wouldn't get that hurt again, " Well, I only saw TWO scars. Now, I'd like you and Tails to come with me to Cream's house if you've nothing important to do. " Belle said unhappily, " I would ask to come along but I've got a lot of important things to do in the workshop. " She walked out of the room, feeling left out that she excluded her and wondering if even she couldn't help but do so because of her looks.

Sonic and Blaze ran all the way to Vanilla's house in a minute with Tails flying behind them, Blaze rang the doorbell, and told Vanilla at the door, " We need to speak with Gemerl, please. " Vanilla called out Gemerl's name and he sped to her side in seconds. Blaze said politely, " We should sit down at a table for this because we're going to be here a while. " They went to the kitchen table to sit down, Cream of course went to join them, and Blaze sighed sitting next to Gemerl, before asking him, " Would you be strong enough to carry Dr. Eggman and fly? " There was a shocked silence.

Tails said, " Eggman may be over 300 pounds but Metal Sonic can fly while carrying him, and you're the same height and speed as him. " Gemerl explained confidently that he was as strong as Metal Sonic to start with, and reminded them that as a learning robot his training with Knuckles made him as strong as him from his bio-data. And Blaze told him, " Then he'll need your help for a plan to capture Dr. Eggman. " Sonic perked up a bit at that and said, " I knew it! " pumping his fists, and Tails wasn't surprised either, because she had mentioned going to visit Gemerl out of the blue after visiting Starline, without having a bad impression of him. She clarified, " After Sonic ties him up and uses a needle on him to turn him back into Mr. Tinker. "

They all looked shocked with her for a second, except the expressionless Gemerl, who complimented the plan as pragmatic. " Yay! " Cream cheered with her hands clapsed together. Gemerl pointed out that he didn't think Tails would have the technology for that, let alone the guts to do it. Blaze explained, " It's a serum made of nanomachines meant to erase all of his memories except the ones he had of Belle. I found it in one of Eggman's bases. " Sonic thought, " That's a little extreme! " " I know I've got a lot of explaining to do. It's clearly not a plan Tails would think of, and I agreed to have Dr. Eggman brought to one of his abandoned bases to wake up on the couch and talk to him first. It's the least I could do for the person who made that serum in the first place, " Blaze explained.

Tails asked, " Did he say why he suddenly wanted to do this? " Everyone was too in shock from how lucky it seemed to be and the worry that it was too good to be true to rejoice at the good news. Blaze explained, " Yes, it's because he knows it's the only way Dr. Eggman wouldn't horribly mistreat him. It's the only way they could get along for the rest of their lives. He said it's ALL he has to look forward to anymore. He's admired how skilled he is at engineering for 14 years before anyone thought of him as evil and it's so ingrained in him that he can't turn it off, even though he knows he'd be a terrible boss the way he is, so changing him is the only solution to get what he wants. " Gemerl and Cream knew she meant Starline at this point.

Blaze explained, " He's wanted to start learning from him and making things alongside him since high school, and it's something he's very impatient for because life's been extremely hard on him recently. He said he's ' lonelier than ever ' since his kids went back to school and he doesn't know how much longer he can take waiting for this to get done, that ' every day's a struggle. ' It's obvious he developed depression because he was badly hurt for a while and still had to be pressured into going to a hospital, even one in the Sol Dimension, and combine that with him not washing the stains out of his fur and I don't think he cares enough to take care of himself. What I'm hoping is that if he starts working for Mr. Tinker, in a dimension where nobody would be looking for Eggman to arrest him, he could actually cheer up. There's a place like Windmill Village where I'm from, and as the princess I could afford to get them a house on the spot. Kitsunami plans on visiting him there every day after school, and I suppose I wouldn't mind checking up on them too based on what he told me about what Mr. Tinker used to do. "

Sonic looked unsure and said, " Are you sure you want to shoulder the responsibility of having Eggman in your kingdom, supervised or not? He's my dimension's problem. " Blaze replied, " I don't really mind, Sonic. They'll spend most of their time not that far away from someone else in the village and we know Mr. Tinker's trustworthy so it won't matter if he's left to his own devices to make and fix things. And even if he could get all of his memories back on his own he won't be able to stay as the evil Dr. EGGMAN for more than a second. The serum's going to keep some nanomachines in his head that'll revert him to how he was a minute ago the second he turns back to his normal tyrant self. In fact he's so paranoid that he even made that gray goo account for the possibility that he already put an upgrade in his brain to automatically cure amnesia on him. It'll detect and hack into such foreign devices to make it impossible for it to do that. "

Sonic said, " So you specified tyrant and evil there. I hope that means if Eggman got his memories back on his own, but kept wanting to do nothing but good things - because he even said so himself that that life was ' relaxing, ' – he won't be made to forget that and get reverted to a minute ago ANYWAYS. Are you saying there's still a chance he could choose to be good as himself eventually? " Blaze said, " Yes, that's why I was so specific. But let's be realistic here, he's not going to choose to be good. He was Mr. Tinker before and he could've chosen to keep that life when he recovered, but he didn't. " Sonic thought, " But I thought that was because of what Starline did to him to bring him back. " Once again someone had to hold their tongue in saying something that'd make it too obvious to Blaze what kind of sordid history Starline had.

She explained everything she experienced from when she took Starline to a hospital to when she saw him and Kitsunami hug and snuck out of the base. Then she said, " I've already gone over most of the plan, Sonic's tying up HIM while Gemerl deals with Metal Sonic. I was told that anything that could shock Metal Sonic into submisison in one hit would be the best possible solution. I don't suppose you have any EMP-causing technology that you could just carry around? What about ' shock gloves? ' He wants him taken out as a threat on the first second because every one would count. "

Sonic and Tails thought of the one person who could potentially run at and shock someone in a second, Surge. But the thought of approaching her still made them really uneasy, especially since she hadn't swallowed her pride and gone to them to say she was embarrassed of her earlier behavior. She couldn't even bear to leave a note saying that.

Tails complained sadly, " Too bad the Zeti Zappers are all the way on the Lost Hex, and I do not want to risk going THERE again just to run into THOSE guys. Then Sonic would be outnumbered by them again when they're not gonna just let him TAKE one of them, and I know he's really fast but he got beaten up pretty bad by them last time anyways. " Cream reassured them, " Maybe they won't be standing right next to them. What are the chances of that? Oh, especially if you wait until midnight when they'd all be asleep! Oh, sorry. It wouldn't be very fun for someone to stay up that late. But I'd do it. "

Tails said, " ALL he'd have to do is run around until you find one Zeti Zapper, pick it up while ignoring the Zeti trying to talk to him and run back to my plane. If so he wouldn't have to risk being near it for more than a second anyways. " Blaze said, " But there's still the matter of how to get to Dr. Eggman safely, without Gemerl having to dodge any anti-aircraft missiles in the city airspace. Starline told me that the most ideal way to get to Dr. Eggman would be the Warp Topaz we left on Angel Island. But he's been too afraid of Knuckles to go back to it. "

Tails exclaimed, " Oh right! It's been so long, I forgot! We could just use THAT to get the Zeti Zapper! We could connect a portal to right below a Zeti Zapper to have it fall into it and then close it, so we'd never even have to hear the Zeti talk to us again! Thank goodness! I feel like an idiot for not thinking of that right away. If the portal makes any noise when it spawns he'll hear it and react, so making it show up right behind him would mean Sonic could tie him up while he was still busy jumping startled and turning around. And why not put the other portal below Eggman? He'd fall through it and go straight to Starline's couch. "

Sonic warned, " Knuckles wouldn't like the idea of us making a portal connecting his island to a room with Eggman and Metal Sonic. Not even for a second. He'd see our plane flying up to the island from a mile away and go straight up to it to ask what we're doing, so he'd have to find out. " Blaze pointed out, " Ther'es always the chance that Metal Sonic won't be in the same room as Dr. Eggman in the first place. He still wants him dealt with afterwards because he's a threat. But if he's not in the room, the portal shouldn't give Knuckles any cause for concern because Metal Sonic would never get a chance to know about it before getting zapped. And he's a hero, he'd be fine with us making Dr. Eggman harmless. It'd be easy for US to convince him to let us do it because it's not like it'll be Starline trying to persuade him. And he doesn't even have to know we're doing this for Starline at all. We should just tell him that Tails made this serum and plan. "

Sonic said incredulously, " You want us to lie to him? " Blaze said, " If we MUST, I'm not too afraid to make a tough decision. It's better than threatening him with my fire powers, isn't it? He can chew us out for the truth LATER, which he'd only even discover if he goes in the portal with us, but he won't because that'd mean abandoning the Master Emerald. And we could tell him that Rouge is going to steal it any second if he asks to follow us. Even if he thinks giving him amnesia is crossing the line, or even convinces himself that the serum's too dangerous because he isn't used to modern technology, well, we outnumber him. I think we can handle him. Does anyone see any way this plan could go wrong?... Nothing wrong with the plan? "

Tails commented, " It seems airtight, " Gemerl gave her an enthusiastic thumbs-up and Cream said, " It sure is a good thing our world has such amazing things! " referencing how useful the Warp Topaz and Starline's ability to cause amnesia were. Tails complained, " Yeah, and now I'm wondering why I didn't think to do this earlier. I mean the Warp Topaz at the very least could've dropped Eggman through a portal to another portal leading to a jail cell. What was I thinking ignoring that thing? " Blaze said, " We were just so used to it not being a tool we could use for most of our lives, and were so distracted by the things going on in our lives, that we didn't think about it enough. "

Sonic was still uncomfortable, and commented with his eyes looking down and to the left, " It just sounds creepy. He's expecting ME to give someone irreversible amnesia with a needle. I know he could get his memories back if he wouldn't get his personality back because of them, but it's irreversible if that can't happen. And then we've permanently messed with someone's brain! I know it's Eggman so it'd be good for everyone else but what if we don't need to do this to make him good? Wouldn't it be a lot better if he decided to be Mr. Tinker again on his own? "

Blaze stood from her chair and spoke up, " All in favor of giving Eggman amnesia anyways, say, ' Aye! ' " Tails, her, Cream and Gemerl say, " Aye! " with an arm raised looking annoyed with Sonic. Blaze and Tails had the biggest satisfied smiles as she said, " Overruled! " and sat back down. He groaned under his breath, his ego bruised by even Tails and Cream not agreeing with him this time.

He said, " Even you, Cream? I WANT Mr. Tinker back too, more than anybody but Belle! I've wanted him to just use his technology for good since I first found out he existed! Then I would've respected him and we would've been friends! " Tails reminded him, " You never would've met me then. Remember, the only reason you went to my island was from following Eggman to foil his plan, and no matter how good he'd be, I never would've gotten the guts to go approach him to be friends with him for it if I hadn't met you, because, you were the first person to appreciate me for being different. No matter how nice they were to most people, nobody else was okay with my second tail! "

There was a depressing silence for a few seconds before Sonic admitted, " Okay, you're right, and Eggman's how I met Knuckles, too, and Amy, the Chaotix, and Rouge and Shadow. I would've had a lot less friends. Anyways, it's not like I think you don't have a good reason to want to force him back to Mr. Tinker. I can't blame you for wanting to rush this but I just don't feel right about it. it'll feel depressing and icky after all my time knowing him to inject him with something while he's freaked out at the sight of it that'll permanently mess with his head! And after tying him up on sight so he can't fight back like a bully. I can enjoy smashing his machines, then I feel accomplished, but how could I smile doing that? It doesn't feel like me- " Blaze scolded with her palms on the table leaning forwards, " It's not ALL about you Sonic! You don't need to waste our time saying any of that, you've said your piece. "

He looked ashamed, cringing and looking away. Even Gemerl couldn't help but find it satisfying. Even Cream found it a bit shocking how he was just talking, but was too polite to tell him not to be selfish. Blaze said resentfully, " I already assumed you'd be squeamish about this, and so did he. So it's a good thing he decided to be honest about the serum causing amnesia so early. He thought you'd lose your temper on him if you didn't find out it did more than knock him out until after you used it, that you'd feel like you were tricked. And you getting to do this is a personal favor to YOU, because you're the one who's been fighting with Dr. Eggman more than anyone, you're seen as the most important hero on the planet, so while all he wanted was to make a robot to do what you'll do, I told him it should be you. And he got scared that you wouldn't get it done. He said you were used to talking to your enemies and listening to them when we need you to just run into the portal and tie him up. He's so scared of the plan failing that he thinks even a second's delay like that would guarantee that you wouldn't get to tie him up. And I told him you were trustworthy. "

Sonic said, " I am! " Blaze explained, " I thought you'd feel cheated out of the final victory if you weren't the one doing this. You should be the one who takes him down as a threat. But you're not the only one who's that fast. If you don't do it, I will. And I don't want to take the victory from you when it's not my dimension to interfere in, but this is more important than just a little game between you and him being brought to a premature ending. Even if I wasn't as fast as you, there's Shadow. " Tails whispered next to Sonic, " And Surge. "

" You think Shadow would be cool with this?! He's had amnesia too, remember?! " Sonic responded. Blaze said after a second, " Okay but I haven't, and I was raised to keep a calm, level head about things and to make hard decisions as the princess. I wouldn't hesitate for a second, so what's it going to be? " Tails admitted, " Even I have to admit she looks a lot more suited to this than you, logically. "

" Fine, I'll do it! I can't wait to get Mr. Tinker back. I always knew I should've just been jumping for joy and cheering the minute I was told he wanted to fix his worst mistake. It just made me sad that the Eggman I know will end up never choosing to be a good guy. I got my hopes up for some reason, so I didn't want it to have to be like this. But I'll try to have fun tying Eggman up and seeing his reaction to all of this, and not let things get me down. " Sonic replied reluctantly. Tails said, " Good. So let's go back to our house to get some rope. I've always got some stashed there in case he needs to tie up some jerks in a hurry. "

Cream said, " Good luck! " and Sonic, Blaze, and Gemerl ran of the house in a second with Tails flying behind them. They sped all the way to Sonic and Tails' house and stopped at the door. Tails opened it and ran to the garage to get some rope, had the garage door open and told Belle, " Uh, we're gonna go take the plane to Angel Island to talk to Knuckles. I'll explain later, we're in a hurry. "

The rest of the group rushed into the workshop as he got into the biplane's front seat with his tails and put rope in the back seat, and Belle worried them by thinking to ask, " Are you trying to get the Warp Topaz back for Dr. Starline? " They all looked at her startled at how easily she came to the conclusion when he wasn't mentioned in a while, and she said, " I just assumed it was Starline related because, that was the last thing we talked about, you didn't say Knuckles was fighting for the Master Emerald, and you don't go to Knuckles to hang out just for fun every day. " Tails hadn't wanted to lie to her that Knuckles was in danger when she'd call him out for lying later.

Blaze explained as Gemerl got in the back seat, " He told me he doesn't want the Warp Topaz back. He won't need it after this, so this is the last time he can imagine wanting to use it. He even said it's better for him to not have it as an incentive to stay in that village and focus on doing what he's supposed to be doing. "

Sonic got on the wing of the plane, and after it drove off and started flying away, Blaze commented, " I still don't understand why he does that. He's just begging to get flung off. " Belle explained, " Something to do with Tails giving him magnetic shoes that stick him to the wing until they feel him actually putting pressure below him to try to jump off. " Blaze said with her arms crossed, " I still think it's stupid of him. I wish I could come along but the plan doesn't have anything for me to do, at least if they manage to get a Zeti Zapper. I suppose running at and burning Metal Sonic as well as I can on contact would be just as good. "

Belle commented, " What would the Zeti DO with the Zeti Zappers? They've got no reason to use them. They don't know about me, they can control robots anyways from what Tails said. If I were them I'd think they'd be better off smashing apart the Zappers for scrap metal as soon as possible to reuse their materials. That's the only way to guarantee they'd never be used on them again. Meanwhile what does keeping them around get them? " Blaze looked alarmed by the first sentence, and said, " Uh-oh. You've got a good point, " and thought, " I was so distracted by all the other details of the plan, that I overlooked that. And so was everyone else… Well the good news is, they could always create a portal to summon any ally they want to replace a Zeti Zapper. " With that she decided, " I'm going to go watch TV, okay? " thinking she should stick around the house after all.