Doctor Starline let out a laugh, he had never truly understood the obligations of mad geniuses to laugh madly at their work until he had split off from Eggman.

He now stood in a rented-out abandoned warehouse and had set up the perfect trap for the hedgehog, all was set for him to get back in Eggman's good graces, there was just one problem.

"You'll never get away with this Mister Doctor Starline!"

"Ugh, for the last time my name is Doctor Starline!" said doctor yelled back "You don't need to put Mister in front of it, that's just being redundant!" Yes the bait for his trap, one Cream the Rabbit, also known as "the destroyer of Starline's last nerve." He had expected her to resist his attempts to kidnap, it was only to be expected, but in the form of crying and begging not yelling, screaming, and biting!

Starline unconsciously rubbed his still-sore hand "Look I already made sure this place was soundproofed, so why don't you save both of ourselves the trouble and stop yelling?"

"No!" Cream maintained her defiance and stuck her tongue out "My mother said I should never listen to people like you!"

This is why Starline hated children, at least he had managed to get her tied to a chair with minimal injuries. Just as he was beginning to think he should have kidnapped Vanilla instead, Starline watched as the silhouette of a hedgehog entered the warehouse "Ah nice of you to join us."

"Let her go Starline!" the gruff voice gave Starline the funny feeling that this wasn't the hedgehog he was expecting, which his hostage quickly confirmed.

"Mr. Shadow!"

Okay, not exactly who he was expecting, but he could work with this "She isn't going anywhere until I get what I want hedgehog."

"You don't get to make demands." Shadow started to walk towards Starline with murder filled eyes, however before either could act another voice interjected.

"Release the small rabbit unit immediately pathetically duck unit!" Omega yelled as he entered the warehouse, minigun trained on Starline's head.

"Okay first I'm a platypus and second" Starline turned to Shadow "you must not be that confident if you brought him along." however the dark hedgehog was just as surprised by Omega's appearance.

"I didn't tell him to come." Shadow glanced over at his robotic companion "Omega why are you here?"

"The small rabbit unit was under my watch when Starline kidnapped her! I tracked them here to retrieve her less I face the wrath of her mother unit!"

"That's strange I don't remember you being there." Starline recalled snatching up Cream from just outside her house with no giant red murderbots in sight.

Omega held up a rabbit plushie "I was busy retrieving Miss Hoppsaplenty!"

"Oh thank you Mister Omega." Cream tried her best to clap with her tied up hands "You were careful and didn't break anything right?"

"Affirmative! On an unrelated note, your bedroom now has a new doorway!"

"Oh that's nice! Wait a minute…"

"Ahem! I'm sorry can we get back to what's important here?" Starline would admit he only really planned for a hedgehog, and a different one at that, but one could never say he wasn't good at improvising.

Suddenly an explosion rang out from above and chunks of the roof rained down "Oh what is it now!?" Starline yelled as he saw a silhouette descend down through the dust cloud.

The dust cleared to reveal Eggman's superior replica of the Gizoid Emerl, Gemerl, glaring down Starline. "Alright bud let her go or-" Gemerl paused as he spotted the two others in the room "Shadow, Omega, greetings."

The pair awkwardly greeted the newest arrival while he tapped his foot and shot Omega a look "So, I guess looking after Cream wasn't easy after all Omega."

"You better not tell her mother unit about this!"

Gemerl shrugged "Sorry, but Vanilla knows when I lie and I'm not getting on her bad side."

"Traitor!"

"So how did you learn about this?" Shadow questioned.

"Miss Vanilla forgot her wallet at home, so I went back to get it. When I returned to Cream's house and saw Omega and her gone, so I tracked Omega to here and what do I see?" Gemerl shifted his attention back to Starline "A wannabee Eggman about to be beaten into the ground by me!"

Okay this was starting to get a bit… complicated, Starline didn't know the exact capabilities of Gemerl, but if it was even a fraction of its predecessor Starline would definitely be in trouble. However, before he could even begin thinking of a solution, the universe decided to drop another problem into Starline's lap.

A pillar of fire appeared in the middle of the room nearly scorching Starline as he and everyone else raised their hands to block the heat. Just as quickly as it appeared, the pillar dissipated as a figure stepped out of it, that being Blaze the Cat, princess of the Sol Empire, and currently oh so pissed off.

"Where is she!?"

Cream hopped in her chair "Over here Blaze!"

"Cream! Are you alright, are you hurt?"

"No." Cream thought for a moment before adding "But I am a bit thirsty."

Blaze's anger somehow grew a thousandfold as she glared down Starline "How dare you…"

"Hold on how did you even learn about this?" Shadow questioned, treating the entire situation rather casually at this point, which made sense all things considered.

"I had a feeling." yes that's what it was and not using the Sol Emeralds to spy on Cream because she doesn't trust any of the idiots on this planet to keep her safe.

Totally.

"Alright good to know, now does anyone else want to join us?" Starline sarcastically questioned and as if answering him, a loud clang was heard as the warehouse's door flew into the room "Well there goes the security deposit…"

"I think that was gone when I busted through the roof." Gemerl said.

"That's besides the point, who is it now!?"

"Your reckoning Doctor." was heard as a trio walked into the room.

"Yeah! We're gonna beat you up!"

"You should have known, there's no hiding from Team Chaot-" Vector's boasting was cut off as he noticed all the other people "Woah… crowded warehouse."

Starline could feel a migraine start to come on "Okay, how did you three learn I kidnapped Cream!?"

"We were just following a lead and saw you had rented out this warehouse." Vector awkwardly admitted, "Cream's here?"

"Hi Mister Vector!"

"Hi sweetie." Vector gave a quick wave before turning back to Starline "Alright we're really gonna beat you up now."

However before Vector could make a move on Starline, Shadow grabbed his arm "Hold on I got here first." as he said this, Omega interjected.

"Negative I must make up for my failings and avoid her mother unit's wrath!"

"I'm her 'robo big bro' as Cream puts it, I get first dibs on anyone that messes with her." Gemerl argued and Blaze joined in soon after.

"I'm her best friend, the duck is going to rot in my dungeon if there's anything left when I'm done."

It didn't take long for the group to break out into full-on arguing, each of them equally believing they had the right to beat the now sweat-drenched platypus into the ground. By this point, Starline had mentally calculated his odds at surviving this encounter and, deciding he liked the insides of his body inside his body, the platypus went to take his leave.

"Yes… keep fighting over who gets to beat me to a pulp…" Starline neared the exit and opened the door.

"CHAO!" was the last thing Starline heard before a chubby blue limb slapped him upside the head.

Starline fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes "Bah… what…" he muttered through his now blood-filled mouth, spitting out a tooth, as his blurred vision tried to identify his attacker now floating over him.

Said attacker was one very pissed-off bowtie-wearing Chao, Cheese, and the only reason was Starline was given this little break was because they wanted him to see the pain train coming. "Chao!" Cheese said, which if Starline was fluent in Chao-speak would know translated to "Any last words punk?" luckily Starline still got the gist.

"Mummy…"

At this point, a certain blue blur finally sped into the warehouse "Alright Starline, let her go or-" Sonic's jaw dropped as he took in the madness unfolding. Cheese was unleashing a full-course meal of whoop-ass on Starline while all the others continued to argue, evidently too distracted to notice this happening.

Sonic rubbed his head and asked, "Uh need some help there Cheese?"

Cheese paused his beatdown for only a second to yell "Chao!" before returning to his assault on Starline.

"Okay then." Sonic walked over to Cream muttering "May need to talk to Vanilla about that language."

"Hi, Mister Sonic."

"Hey kid, you doin' okay."

"I'm fine just a bit thirsty."

"Cool, we'll stop for some Chaos Cola on the way back." Sonic untied Cream and scooped her up into a piggyback ride.

Before Sonic could speed off Cream pointed to the others and asked, "Shouldn't we let them know you're taking me home?"

Sonic stared at the still-bickering group for a moment before deciding he didn't want to get on their bad side "…They'll figure it out."

And with that, the pair sped off leaving the others and Starline to their fates, which would be kicking the shit out of Starline and getting the shit kicked out of him respectively.