One look, and a silent vow was made to never let Sticks be around Elise again.

Well, to be honest, Sticks didn't even begin to start going off the rails (more so than usual) until the door opened. But even with that in mind, what the badger did was so incoherent and outlandish that Knuckles had to forcefully escort her away from the property. The uneasiness of the situation did not go away easily either- the truth being that, although they did not know her, she still had the potential to harm them all. The only other human they interacted with on a normal basis was Eggman, right? So how would they know they could trust this one?

Unfortunately, Elise knew the odds were against her. And when she told them what little story she had to tell, the looks they gave her were not the most kindest or trusting.

"So... you can't remember anything?" Amy Rose carefully asked.

"Nothing." Elise agreed. "Except for my name and..."

"And what?" Tails asked.

Elise did not answer at first, instead her eyes drifted to the coffee table in front of the couch she was sitting on. A sparkling sky blue gem sat on the table as if it were illuminated by the sun. Elise looked at it and stared as a small fragment of her memory came back.

"Elise?" Sonic inquired with a tilt of his head. Elise snapped out of her trance and looked at Sonic, Tails, and Amy with a rather pale face.

"The Emerald, where did you find it?" Elise asked.

"Emerald?" Amy repeated in confusion, "What emerald?"

"This." Elise said as she picked up the gem.

"Not to be rude, but aren't emeralds pigmented green?" Tails inquired, meaning no harm.

"Well... yeah." Elise admitted, "But this one's special. It does... something..."

"Something?" Tails repeated, not sure whether to be irritated or amused.

"Something." Elise agreed as she started to carefully trace the cut lines on the gem. "I can't remember what it does, but I know it does something."

"Well that helps." Amy retorted.

"Sorry I can't remember anything to your liking." Elise shot back. "But we've gotten off subject; where did you find this gem?"

"It was with you." Sonic spoke up, rather offended by the way she had spoke to Amy. "When I found you on the beach, it was in your hands as you mumbled something about destruction."

"Destruction..." Elise said under her breath as she inspected the gem more. The longer she looked at it, the more she thought she was able to see a figure inside. The figure started to grow more distinct and recognizable until she remembered another little fragment of memory.

"I need to find Silver!" Elise exclaimed as she stood up quickly in revelation. From standing up so quickly, a part of her dress started to fall away -having been badly torn before she washed up on shore- that nearly revealed her entire upper torso. Amy quickly reacted by covering Tails's eyes, and although he stared for maybe too long, Sonic rushed to get Elise a blanket to modestly cover her again.

"You're not going anywhere until you're decently dressed." Amy told Elise as she slowly uncovered Tails's eyes. For a moment, Elise held a face of pure panic -most of it came from recognizing Silver, but not knowing who exactly he was- but she also realized that Amy was right.

"Fine..." Elise mumbled like a little kid who didn't get their way.

"Besides," Amy added, "It's not like your Silver could get in a lot of trouble without you- right?"

To be honest, Elise realized that she didn't even know the answer to that one.

. . .

"Sonic's been rather quiet lately." Doctor Eggman said to himself rather pleasantly. Orbot and Cubot looked at each other with a certain degree of fear- whenever Eggman was that pleasant, certainly nothing good would come from it.

"The storm did quite a large amount of damage last night, my best arsenal may not be up to par to the standards I have set."

"Not that they were very high to begin with if Sonic is able to destroy them." Orbot whispered to Cubot.

"I heard that!" Eggman thundered, making his robot servants tremble in fear. Interrupting his threat, the door bell went off. Instantly, Eggman went to the monitors to see who was at the door. Imagine ol' Egghead's surprise when he saw a white hedgehog standing outside the lair door looking very confused and even more anxious.

"Are we going to let him in?" Cubot asked.

"Depends..." Eggman said as he stroked his mustache in thought before pulling up the intercom connected to the main door.

"What are you doing at the great lair of the feared Doctor Eggman?!" Eggman shouted flamboyantly into the intercom, making the white hedgehog outside jump a little with surprise.

"I... uh..." the hedgehog started to say as he got his face really close to the intercom camera. "I'm looking for someone... a, um, a girl."

"Aren't we all?" Orbot said wistfully, which earned him a rather nasty kick from Eggman.

"Well," the hedgehog continued, "She and I came on the same boat together when the storm came around last night, and we ended up wrecking rather badly. And, um, I was wondering if you may have seen her... around here...?"

"I don't get many visitors." Eggman claimed. "Ladies are a true rarity around here- and if I ever found one, why would I tell you about it?"

"Please," the hedgehog begged, although grudgingly, "She's a princess of a far away land, and she's being hunted by monster who would do anything to see the world engulfed in flames. I don't care if you're most wanted around here or not- I need to find her now!"

The mad doc stroked his mustache again in thinking.

"Is this princess... special?" Eggman asked.

"Yes." the hedgehog responded with a blunt expression. "And if she cries when the monster is near her, she will unleash a demon that will make Hell look like paradise."

"No fooling!" Eggman exclaimed with impressed surprise.

"If I was 'fooling' with you, I would have burst through this door hours ago."

Now impressed with this hedgehog's wit (and the promise of having a potent hell-raiser on his side) Eggman pressed the button for the lair's main doors to open. As the hedgehog slowly and carefully started to walk inside, Eggman added one more thing over the intercom;

"I can help you find your princess, if you can help me with a small problem of my own..."