Tails had been up all through the night, trying to design something that they could use to remain imperceptible to the stone creatures posing all their current problems. He hadn't found it easy, especially as it was impossible to know exactly how they were able to see them, but the theory proposed by a certain electric cat seemed like a good place to start. While not perfect, the assumption that they could only see non-gargoyle creatures and not each other did eliminate much guesswork.
There was only one provable way that came to the young fox's brilliant mind if the assumption held true: infrared radiation. Mobians, regardless of species, were warm-blooded, a trait that normally wasn't shared with sentient statues. If he could figure out a way to block infrared signals, then that might bring about a way that they could avoid or even neutralise the gargoyles at night.
But how would he do that?
It had taken a while, but eventually he had a brainwave and a never-ending stream of ideas started flooding in. He tested and tried so many things, with varying success, until he found something that worked.
A double layer of glass on either side of a clear aerosol containing special microparticles that acted as obscurants by absorbing infrared radiation produced very desirable results while still allowing the barrier between Mobian and gargoyle to be transparent. The aerosol microparticles stopped any high-frequency infrared radiation that the glass allowed through, and the double layer of glass kept the aerosol in a concentrated state and prevented diffusion of the gas, which would drastically reduce the efficacy of the obscurants.
Of course he could have used something opaque, but with it already established that a broken line of sight also caused them to lose interest, if he did that then he would be unable to tell if his anti-infrared mechanism was working as intended - and even if it were, if he were to make a chamber out of the preventative materials (which was his plan), then those inside would not be able to see outside to know if it was safe to exit, and if they happened to capture any gargoyles inside the chamber then they could not safely observe the gargoyles from the outside.
There was still one problem, though. Glass was far too fragile. If in a rage one of the creatures smashed even one of the glass layers, the entire mechanism was rendered absolutely useless as the aerosol would escape.
More hours of his night were spent trying either to reinforce the glass to be unbreakable whilst still maintaining the transparency and absorptive properties, or to re-engineer the tiny particles so that they absorbed all radiation instead of only what glass let through.
He eventually focused on the latter, believing it to be a little easier, and one of his prototypes for the reinforced glass became the double layer. It was sturdy and transparent, essentially perfect for his new plan of approach.
It took surprisingly little time for him to make the adjustments to the microparticles once he made it his sole priority, and soon he was on to constructing the chamber. He could now use other materials in the structure, he realised, since he didn't necessarily need the low-frequency absorption of the glass anymore. He still had some Ti64 after reinforcing the nearby outposts; he could use that.
He began building.
Some time later, he got an alert from his scope, indicating that movement outside had ceased and that it was daytime again. He hurried to his comms device and switched it on, having kept it off previously to avoid distractions while he was working, and proceeded to inform everyone that it was safe once more.
As Tails was sending the message to everyone, he saw that Shadow had at some point - when his comm was off - sent him a message that detailed the gargoyles' confirmed lack of regeneration and their ability to see in almost total darkness. How the dark hedgehog had managed to figure that second one out was a mystery, but it was more information that they didn't have before and so he didn't question for too long.
Quickly he went to his and Amy's list of discovered features and jotted the two new ones down, before returning to welding the metal into place to hold the glass.
Hardly had he begun that again when he heard a voice address him. "Tails? What're ya doin'?"
The combination of the pitch of the voice and the accent told Tails exactly who it was. "Oh, hey, Nickel! I didn't expect to see you here so early. I was working on a little project that might help us out," he replied without looking back.
There was a small silence as, presumably, Nickel eyed up the glass structure. "What does it do?" he asked eventually.
"It's supposed to test that theory you had yesterday, about the gargoyles not being able to see anything other than us," Tails explained.
He turned to the cat, and raised an eyebrow at what he saw. Nickel's long hair was messy, almost windswept; not at all like his usual, more controlled, curly spikes."Uh, Nickel? Are you okay? You look like you just woke up."
Nickel made a face of disdain, presumably at himself for having forgotten to fix his hair before coming over. "I did. Your message woke me up and I came over to see what's goin' on for today," he excused.
Tails nodded, accepting the answer."In any case, would you like to help?"
"Sure. What d'you need me to do?" Nickel asked through an oncoming yawn.
"There's a little bit of admin to finish up." The vulpine gestured to the main HQ screen, black at the moment as it was in sleep mode. "Amy was compiling a list of features we'd discovered about - " Tails paused as he again found himself at a loss for a unique name. "We need a name for these guys, we can't just keep calling them 'statues' or 'gargoyles' all the time."
"Want me to try to come up with one?" the feline offered.
"If you can, but what I really wanted you to do was create a table or a spreadsheet for easier viewing of those particular characteristics. There's a sheet of paper with the list next to it, you can use that to do it."
"Alright." Nickel went to do just that, as Tails returned to his glass box.
About an hour later, Amy emerged into the hub room, addressing Nickel as he was closer to her, and not long after a much grander entrance was made by a certain Sonic the Hedgehog."Hey, Tails! Hey, Amy!" he greeted after nearly ploughing through the entrance's semi-auto door.
Nickel spun his seat around to regard the speedster."Wow, no greeting for me? I see how it is," he jested.
Sonic took it in stride, as always."Oh, hey, Nickel! Didn't see ya from behind that chair. How's it goin'?"
"We're doin' alright. Didja find out anythin' about - whatever we're gonna call those things?"
"The moongoyles? Actually, yeah." Sonic raised a hand to physically show the point he was about to make. "It doesn't spread when you touch 'em. I fought a bunch of 'em last night, and nothing came off on me. Stopped and checked and everythin'."
Tails had a little smile to himself, as once again Sonic had put the "universal name" polylemma to rest. A little later this time than during the Metal Virus outbreak, but he'd done it regardless.
Nickel swiveled back to the screen to input the new information, and Amy piped up for the first time in this conversation."You didn't hit them too hard, did you?"
"Tried not to after Tails told me about parts of 'em breakin' off and stuff," Sonic reassured, "but they're not that easy to damage anyway. We should be fine."
"Nickel described hitting them as being like hitting stone and not hitting stone at the same time; what did it feel like for you, Sonic?" Tails questioned his best friend.
The blue hedgehog cast his mind back to the miniature scuffles he'd had with some of the moongoyles, but struggled to verbalise the notion of how battling them felt."I mean, I guess that's one way to describe it?" he began uncertainly, his hand reaching up and finding the long quills at the back of his head. "It's like you're hittin' rocks 'cause they're tough, but it doesn't hurt like you're actually hittin' - do you understand what I'm talkin' about?"
No one could give an answer before the doors opened once more, this time to reveal a mauveine chameleon in the doorway."Hello, everyone."
"Hey!" Sonic answered.
"Hey," Nickel echoed with much less vigour.
"Hi!" Amy replied.
"Hey, Espio," Tails returned.
"Good to see you've all made it through the first night unscathed as well," Espio remarked with an air of satisfaction. Whether he hadn't expected everyone to make it or whether he was simply pleased that they had was indeterminable to Tails. "I have some information that I managed to get the night prior, but I hadn't had the chance to share it until now."
"Well, what is it?" Tails queried.
"The creatures were able to see me even when I was invisible."
At first, it sounded like an incredibly powerful trait, but Tails quickly remembered that infrared signals would still be emitted even from a camouflaged source. If the theory were to be proven right, this strength of the moongoyles would be counteracted as well - and even if it weren't, if they could come up with a similar counterplay then the trait still meant little.
Amy called to the cat. "Nickel, did you get that?"
Nickel looked up from his screen, the expression on his face giving away his next words. "No, sorry. Could you repeat, please?"
"They could see me even when I was camouflaged perfectly," Espio repeated. "Perhaps their vision is not all physical."
"I'm glad you said that, Espio," Tails stated, and he began his exposition. "This box that I'm constructing here is meant to stop the "moongoyles" from seeing us. How does it do that? Well, it's based on an idea our feline friend had about 're always hostile to us, and only us, not towards each other. Maybe they can't see each other, and maybe that is because they are only able to see infrared signals. If that's the case, they might be "cold-blooded", so their core temperature conforms to the environment and therefore they remain imperceptible to each other; but as we are warm-blooded our core temperature would stand out in the otherwise featureless night, and they would target us because they can identify us."
He then went on to explain the components of the half-finished chamber, and what roles they played in the structure. The hedgehog half of his audience was struggling to keep up with his technical delineations - which they were used to, to be fair - but the other half seemed to be on pace.
"So, who's willing to try it out tonight?" he concluded.
"I'll do it," Sonic spoke up, without hesitation. "I trust ya, li'l buddy - wouldn't have anybody else in my corner to come up with this stuff."
"Thanks, Sonic," the fox said with a smile.
.
.
.
Over the next few hours, during which time Shadow and Rouge and Silver came into HQ, Tails worked on finishing his project. He toiled through his tiredness, refusing to succumb until he had completed it; and as the later arrivals filtered in he explained the mechanics of the chamber to them.
Of course he had no real time limit, but with the uncertainty that this experiment posed, it was best to do it quickly so that, in the event that it failed, they had ample time to strategise and find another plan.
At long last, the box was done. He called everyone, with only Rouge and Nickel not answering said call as they were outside, and when they arrived he explained to them what he wanted from them.
"I need to stress-test the box to make sure it can withstand attacks. Could you guys try to beat it up for me?"
A strange request, but the gang happily complied. Tails could only guess they were somewhat bored, especially the likes of Sonic.
As they got to work, the vulpine headed off to a secluded area to get some sleep. He desperately needed it to return to peak performance, both mentally and physically. He just hoped that his tiredness hadn't caused any problems with the box.
Meanwhile, Sonic, Shadow, Silver, Amy and Espio battered the glass chamber with everything they could muster up, but they did no observable damage. It had been really well constructed; even when Rouge joined in after hearing the commotion inside, it stood strong and unharmed.
They paused for a break. "Man, that thing's tough! Tails did a good job," Sonic remarked. "Nothin's gonna break through that."
"But how are we supposed to get in?" Amy asked. "It's supposed to be able to have people in it, right?"
They hadn't thought of that, and upon inspection it appeared that a tired Tails hadn't either. There was no entrance to the chamber.
"Well, that's something that we'll have to bring up to Tails when he awakes," Espio noted. They all agreed.
"Rouge, where's the kid?" Shadow asked suddenly.
"Oh, he's still outside," Rouge replied nonchalantly, waving a dismissive hand. "He probably just didn't want to come inside yet."
"Well, why don't you call him in?" Silver asked. "Maybe he can help us test the box."
"Oh, please. As if he's gonna do anything. You know how scrawny he is," the bat said.
"I wouldn't say that. He can throw a mean punch when he tries," the grey hedgehog argued. "Plus, his powers might be useful too."
Rouge wasn't moved. "If you say so. He'll join if he wants to."
Just then, Tangle and Whisper came in. "Hey, guys!" Tangle greeted ebulliently. "Sorry for being late. We got a little... hung up." She looked around. "Where's Tails?"
"He's sleepin'," Sonic told them. "He was up all night buildin' this glass box."
"Ooh. What's it for?" Tangle questioned.
"It's meant to stop the "moongoyles" from seeing us, so we can observe them more closely and safely during the night," Espio explained.
"We were just testing out its strength by beating it up," Amy stated. "Do you want to help?"
"Sure!" Tangle concurred without hesitation. "Do I just hit it a bunch?"
"Yeah, that's essentially all there is to it," the pinkette confirmed.
Before Tangle could do anything to the glass chamber, however, Whisper asked another question. "Where's Nickel?"
Alarm bells began ringing in the minds of everyone sans the lemur and wolf. If Tangle and Whisper had just come in, and hadn't seen Nickel who was supposed to be just outside, that most likely meant that the cat was no longer there.
Shadow gave an accusatory glare toward Rouge, who was appalled that he would think that she was somehow involved in Nickel's sudden absence. "What are you looking at me for?" she asked indignantly, despite already knowing the answer.
"You were the last one with him," Shadow returned curtly.
"And you think I did something to him?" the bat challenged.
"Do I need to remind you of your history?" the hedgehog shot back.
"What happened?" Tangle asked them.
"Nickel had been just outside HQ for a while," Shadow answered. "We thought he was still there, but if you didn't see him on the way in, then he clearly isn't there anymore. Rouge was the last one with him."
"That doesn't mean anything," Rouge continued to defend. "I bet he just went home to check on his little girl."
That idea was quashed when they tried to ring him. There was no answer, no matter who called or how many times they tried. Concern was climbing higher; even Shadow had now stopped his accusations. Where was he?
Then Whisper had an idea. "Track his comm."
Eyes lit up at the suggestion. "Oh, that's so smart!" Tangle praised.
"Aw, but it's too bad Tails is asleep," Sonic lamented. "He'd know how to do it."
"Tails showed us how a while back," Amy reminded him as Espio headed over to the large screen in the hub room. "Weren't you there when he did?"
"It's Sonic. Of course he wasn't," Shadow answered sardonically.
Sonic wanted to argue, but didn't. Not only was the black hedgehog right in his assessment of why he'd missed the informative session in question (he was notoriously unable to sit still), but arguing at a time when their friend could potentially be MIA was stupid. He held his tongue.
Espio worked swiftly to locate Nickel's comms device. Each device had a unique code that corresponded to the locator frequency it emitted, which could be inputted into a specifically crafted program to pinpoint where the particular device was.
The series of characters was plugged into the program, and everyone awaited the result with somewhat bated breath. The pause in anticipation of the outcome felt like an eternity...
The search came up empty. No sign of any signal.
Heavy sighs sounded out from the more emotive members of the group, and Silver urged Espio to try again just in case they had gotten a false negative. That yielded nothing different.
The discontent and apprehension that were spreading were palpable. "He can't have gotten that far," Sonic remarked, more out of hope and will than certainty. "I'll go out and find him - if I can't, then we'll know he's in trouble."
The blue speedster raced out of HQ. Everyone else remained static for a while, unsure what to do in their worry for their friend.
"Should we wake Tails up and tell him what happened?" Tangle asked uncertainly.
Amy shook her head no. "He was up all night. Let him sleep."
"But he needs to know now!" Silver rebutted, determination coating his tone. "We can't just wait. What if something did happen to Nickel?"
Amy took a deep breath. "I know you're worried about him. We all are. But a tired Tails now isn't going to be of any more help than a sharp Tails later. Remember: a tired Tails forgot to put a door on his box." She looked over at said box as if to further solidify her point. "Besides, we still don't really know where Nickel is. If Sonic comes back with him, then there's no need to wake Tails up. We just have to wait, and hope."
The alabaster hedgehog wasn't entirely convinced, but he acceded anyway. "Alright. Well, what can we do until then?"
"Let's continue with what we were doing before," Shadow stated, playing the arbitrator. "If that glass thing isn't properly tested and it fails because we didn't do what we were supposed to, we'll only have ourselves to blame."
He returned to the large transparent chamber, and everyone followed suit, but even as they began again they still couldn't shake the question circling their minds.
Where was Nickel?
.
A satisfied evil scientist smiled maliciously as he regarded the catch that one of his badnik squadrons had brought in. He'd hoped to execute this stage of his plan rather early, but never had he dared to think that he could succeed this quickly. His genius and impeccable timing were frightening at times.
"Oh ho, you did it!" Eggman praised the robots as they made its way to him, bringing with it an unconscious red cat. "You're not as useless as I would have made you out to be before today."
If the bots could have expressed joy at their creator's "compliment", they would have.
Eggman took the cat's flaccid frame and deposited it into a small but specially constructed cage. "I must say, boss, this plot is going exceedingly well so far," the metallic British voicebelonging to Orbot sounded out as he did so. "Perfect planning, flawless execution, and - rather incredibly - no intervention from Sonic yet."
"Yeah!" said the far less demure Cubot. "Why did we kidnap this kid, though?"
Before an answer could come from the doctor, the unit of badniks promptly left the scene, nearly flattening Cubot who had of course been standing precisely in their way. "Imbecile," Eggman muttered as the cubic robot struggled to rise again.
"Imbecilic as he may be, sir, he raises a good question," Orbot reasoned. "You said you'd tell us why we captured Nickel specifically once we'd done so. Are you sure Sonic and the others will even come looking?"
"Oh, I'm counting on it," Eggman responded. "And when they do, they'll walk right into a trap."