Long, long ago there lived a highly advanced race of critters on the planet Mobius. They had wisedom, technology and power; thanks to their magic emeralds. They were said to be all-knowing and wise, and it was said that this wisedom came from the Infinity Emerald. It was said to be greater than any Chaos Emerald, or the Master Emerald. Finally, the day came when they decided this emerald was too powerful to be kept by any Mobian. So they sealed it inside a temple, and promptly sunk that temple to the bottom of the sea. A map was draw showing how to find the temple; and then the map was torn in half and given to two guardians.

Hundreds of years passed, and everything settled down. The ancient race vanished, but Mobius was still populated by many others. The torn pieces of the map, eventually, were hidden in two locations. One was burried underground, and the other was hidden inside a library. The one that had been burried was eventually unearthed by a man called Ivo Robotnik while he was building a factory. Robotnik learned of the legend discribed on the map, and instantly he vowed to find the Infinity Emerald and use it in his dastardly schemes.

The library that the other half was hidden in was sold to a new owner, who decided to turn the library into a book store. He found the old map, and used it as a bookmarker in one of the books on mechanics he was reading. A few days later, that book -- and the map inside -- was sold to Sonic the Hedgehog, who had purchased it as a gift for his buddy Tails, who was about to celebrate his birthday. Sonic knew Tails liked mechanics, and had no clue that the book contained such a valuble clue to the location of the ultimate prize.

History tells us that eventually Robotnik got his hands on both halves of the map, and eventually he found the Infinity Emerald. Despite a valant effort by Sonic and his friends, Robotnik was able to use the Emerald to power his new and improved Egg-shaped weapon: The Infinity Egg. With this new doomsday device, Eggman was able to build an Egg Empire. The war lasted for years, until finally Eggman defeated Sonic and his friends; killing most of them.

Eggman established a New World Order, with him as the Emperor of Eggtopia, as he renamed Mobius. However, there were still some that opposed him. Vanilla the Rabbit and her husband, Vector led a rebellion against Eggman. They waited for some way to defeat him, and one day that way finally came to them. Rouge the Bat, one of Eggman's employees, told them that Eggman had invented a time machine, and with it they could go back and stop these horrible things from coming to pass.

Unfortunately, Eggman had never trusted Rouge, and he sents spies after her. The spies found them and killed Rouge, Vector and Vanilla. Eggman believed that he finally won, and the world would be his forever.

He was wrong. There were still others. What Eggman did not know was that soon, some of the children of his arch enemies WOULD use his time machine, and would indeed go back in time to the day of Tails's birthday. History tells us that is the day Tails discovered the map inside his birthday present, and that was the day Eggman began his campaign to find the Infinity Emerald...

-----------

(Mobius. Present Day.)

Knuckles the Echidna arrived at Station Square early that day. He'd just made the long journey from Angel Island. It wasn't everyday that he made his way all the way to the Square; but it was Tails's birthday, so the Echidna decided that was important enough to get him out here. He'd been traveling since dawn, and was actually quite tired. Yawning peacefully as he walked down the street, Knuckles hurried towards Sonic's house, where the party was planned to take place.

Knuckles, usually busy with his Guardian duties, was looking forward to a nice little break. Some cake, some music, his friends -- he expected it to be a happy day, one he'd remember for a while.

He was partially right; this would be a day he'd always remember. They all would. Because today was the start of their weirdest, wildest, adventure to date.

Today was the day they began their quest for The Infinity Emerald

(-yawns- Okie day. Topic started. For all you time travelers, if you want to post in the future first, and then do the part where they fight Robotnik's robots and sneak into the time machine, that's cool with me; or if you'd rather have them already had come back in time, that works too. I'm leaving it up to you guys. Anywho... Come! post! Let it grow and live! XD. GS, out)

((I'll let BlueRush determine what happens with the future characters, so until then I'll just save Lime for later.))

Tails was happy that today was his 8th birthday! He was happy to see all his friends arrive for the party. And someone he had only recently met was going to play music for them... Samba de Amigo!

Tails turned around and spotted Knuckles, "Hey, Knuckles, glad you could make it!"

Sally tapped her foot, standing outside Sonic's house. "Ooh, where is that hedgehog? The party's going to start any minute now and I just know he's going to be late- again!" Nicole, her handheld computer, bleeped, "Sally, surely he's learned his lesson this time? It is Tails, after all."
Sally shook her head. "Not if I know that crazy hedgehog. He's probably off buying the present now." She said it annoyedly, but had a smile on her face...

((Yay! Awesomeness!! ^_^))

Angel Island exploded. Well, imploded, actually.

The island's last guardian, Lara-Su, watched from a distance as the peices of the leafy island fell down, down into the ocean. She was now officially the guardian of nothing- and the rebellion's last base had been destroyed, along with most of the rebels. Not like it was a surprise or anything, as Eggman's forces had been winning heavy victories there for some time now. As far as she knew, her and Lime were the sentient beings left on the planet that didn't serve Robotnik.

"Come on," she said to Lime, wiping 'dust' from her eye and turning back to the mission at hand: the complex in which the last hope for Mobius was stored: the time machine. "There's a ventilation shaft we can sneak through that will take us straight to the Time Machine room. If Nicole can shut off the defences for just one minute, I think we can make it past most of the defences, but we'll still have robots to contend with when we get there. Ready?"

Nicole, her handheld computer, bleeped, "You have one minute, starting- now!"
Lara-Su dove into an air duct on the side of the building.

((Heh heh, no prob, CPoC. Let's let Kimiko decide where Sonic is, and one of us will change. ^_^))
((Err, yeah. Sorry, CPoC.:hs:))

Lime quickly followed, mimicing Lara-Su's movements. She had done everything almost exactly like her, and then they arrived at the Time Machine room.

"Say... isn't it odd that this thing isn't even gaurded? This almost seemed to easy..."

((XP WOw, pressure's on me. Well, I've put a lot of thought into this --a whole 5 minutes worth- and I've decided that it would be more like Sonic to be late to a party at his own house, so now SOnic's gotta make a speedy entrance))

Sonic turned the corner at Station Square, kicking up a ton of dust as his sneakers skidded along the ground. He was holding a colorfully wrapped present in his arms as he ran to his house. He saw that Sally was standing outside, waiting for him no doubt. He grinned as he made a stop in front of her.

"Hey Sally."

Sally sighed. "Sonic... well, at least you weren't that late this time. Come on- Tails has been waiting for you." She smiled as she walked in, and joined the others.

Lara-Su leapt out of the air duct and into the room. "Yes- yes it is. Too odd- and too easy." There was the time machine, a circular portal in the center of the empty room. She ran forward and hooked up Nicole to the device. "Lara, it may take a moment to set this device to the correct timecordinates. But this room is not empty. There is a-"

The robot answered her question for her. A single blue robot stepped out of the darkness. It was a Metal Sonic, one of the latest of Robotnik's strongest soldiers. And he wasn't going down without a fight. But luckily, they didn't need to take him down- just needed time for Nicole. Lara-Su walked to Lime's side. "Come on- let's get him!"

((Hooray for creative action phases! XD))
((Also! Since you like Metal Sonic so much, CPoC, you should probably control him; or we both could. Not like he's going to be around for long. ^_^;))

Sonic nodded, releived that he wasn't as late as he thought he was. He followed her in and looked around to see who else had gotten here before he did.

"Wow." He said to Sally. "Even Knuckles got here before me. I don't know if I should be surprised or impressed."

"Hey Tails, you know I wouldn't miss it." Knuckles replied as he walked over to the small two-tailed fox. He tossed a small package to him, which contained his gift, and then he leaned against the wall, crossing his arms and looking at the crowd. "So where's Sonic? He late?"

Suddenly he looked up and spotted Sonic arriving late, not far away, near where Sally was standing. "Ah, nevermind."

Rouge landed on Station Square swiftly and looked up. It was a sunny day and she was taking a break from her 'jewel-collecting'. So it wasn't collecting, it was actually stealing. But she decided that today would be a nice day just to stroll around... not out in the OPEN open, she'd have to be careful. She's stolen a jewel or two around Station Square, and the law's the law. Not far ahead, Rouge saw a group of familiar faces walk into Sonic's place.

'That's right, Fox boy is having a birthday.' Casually, she walked in, fidgeting with a jewel she held in her hand. She was debating wether or not to give it to the kitsune as a birthday present. She decided not.

"Well, well, having a house party, are we?"

Amy scurried around, obviously in a hurry to get to Tail's birthday. She looked inside of a small basket she had holding what she was bringing.

"Cake...check......Pies....check.....Bread...cheak" She listed them off while still tring to pull on her pink coat. buttoning up her coat she grabbed the basket and ran for the door, still cursing her punctuallity issuses. Suddenly a soft purring noice broke her away from leaving. Amy's small cat, Spinx stood there with a small package in his mouth.

"Spinx?" Amy gaspsed happily relizing what he had. "Thankyou!!! I would have left his present if it werent for you!" She leaned down and patted the feline on the head. "Seeya later, I gotta go!" Amy called out shutting her door behind her.

"I hope Tails isnt angry i'm late!"The pink hedgehog ran off to Tails' house, it wasnt far but with all of her things it seemed like forever until she reached it. Finally a few minutes later she stumbled onto her friends home. She knocked a few times shuffling the basket in her arms.

Sonic had been late to the party... rather odd for someone so fast to be late, but regardless, Tails could never be angry with his best friend. Tails greeted Sonic, and Samba followed him, since he didn't really know anybody other than Tails. Tails looked at Sonic and said, "Oh, Sonic, you're here! I'd like you to meet someone I met the other day. His name's Samba, and he's really good at music."

Samba bowed and took his somrero off. Then he put it back on and said, "Jes, I am Samba! I hef heard mush about you, Soneek! And I'm glad to shoin anyone who opposes the evil Dr. Robotneek!"

Tails heard the door and decided to go answer it. He opened it and said, "Oh, Amy! Hey there!"

--

((Sounds good, BlueRush))

Lime took out a blaster and started shooting at Metal, but the blasts got deflected off of his metallic skin. "Hurry, get into the time machine! I'll hold him off!"

Suddenly a white glow appeared in the center of the time machine and the circular deivce fizzled. "Hurry!" cried Nicole. "Get in before I run out of power!"

Lara-Su ran towards the time machine but did not go in. "Lime, I'm not taking that chance. We've lost too much already- we have to get in at the same time, all three of us!"

"Not all three of us," bleeped Nicole sadly. "If I'm disconnected from this machine, it will shut off and all hope will be lost." Lara-Su looked at her little friend sadly- she would miss her. Was there no way to- their choice was made clear as Metal Sonic rushed for them- they would have to dive in now, or be killed. "Here goes... quickly, Lime!" she said, stepping through the portal.

"Happy Birthday Tails!" Amy said walking inside "Has your day been good so far?" Setting down the large basket she pulled out a medium sized box wrapped in multicolored paper. "For you" she said kindly , handing the gift the the 8 year old. "I also have this" Amy stated pulling out a pretty big cake covered in orange iceing.

Knuckles watched as the party grew bigger with more people arriving. He waved at Amy when she showed up, and raised an eyebrow as he spotted Rouge. He hadn't expected her to show up. Shrugging, Knuckles made his way over towards the gathering group.

"So kid, how's it feel to be older?" Knuckles asked, looking down at the fox. Knuckles had to admit, it wasn't a bad party. He looked over at Samba, the one person he did not know.

"Err, how ya doin'?" He asked, trying to make conversation. Knuckles never was very good at meeting new people, though.

---- Meanwhile, Elsewhere ----

"Hurry up! We're behind schedual!" Robotnik yelled at his robots. Of course, it was a lost cause. Most of the robots serving him were, well, idiots. Scratch and Grounder had disappeared and he didn't even want to know what kind of havoc they were causing; and Coconuts was busy climbing a tree, rather than working to dig for his new factory.

"I'm constantly surrounded by these fools." Eggman sighed as he walked. He was walking by when his foot touched a soft spot where his robots had been digging earlier. Suddenly the ground gave way and Eggman went tumbling down an ancient staircase

"ARGH! CURSES!" He yelled as he landed on his oversized rump. Then he looked around and realized he was in some sort of underground building. "Hello, hello, what's this?"

He looked up and saw an old pedestal with a tattered piece of parchment on it. Upon closer examination, it turned out to be an incomplete map with some writing on the back.

"Hmm? Infinity Emerald? I don't know what that is, but I like the sound of it. HEY! YOU FOOLS! QUIT DIGGING, WE'VE GOT WORK TO DO!" Eggman shouted to his henchmen. He had a new plan.

Everyone was in a good mood since of course, it was one of their dear friend's birthday. And even if it killed her... it was after all a very special day.

"Here... I found it underground, h-happy birthday." Rouge struggled with herself to give the small, but sparkly yellow jewel to Tails. Giving in, the thief unwillingly dropped it on the table.

"I just died a little inside." She said quietly, placing her hand on her forehead dramatically.

Tails replied to Amy, "Thanks, Amy! Come on in, pretty much everyone's here!"

Tails turned his head to be asked something by Knuckles. He answered, "To tell you the truth, Knuckles, it really doesn't feel any different than yesterday or the day before, besides the whole having a party thing. I'm just glad to be with my friends. ^_^"

Samba was greeted by Knuckles, "Oh, hola! My name ees Samba. I am so soree to hef not introduced myseff earlier! I recently met Tails while doing a performance! We talked and became amigos! He invited me to theez birthday party, and I'm here to play the muzeek. I theenkz. Right, Tails?"

Tails said, "That's right! Also, just like us, he has it in for Dr. Robotnik! That's kinda how we became friends. We started talking about how much of a rotten egg he is."

--

Lime had to do what she had to do, and dove straight into the time machine, mere moments before it went off. Metal had tried to grab her, but by the time he reached, she was already gone... to another time.

Metal clenched his fist and his eyes glowed red. He was not very happy about this...

Knuckles watched Rouge go off on some dramatic rant about giving her jewel away to Tails, and he chuckled to himself. Although it was nice to see her do something like that. Knuckles was never quite sure whether or not he could trust that bat, but when she did things like that it made him think she was alright. He made a mental note to say something to her later, but for now he turned back to Tails and Samba.

"Hey, any excuse for a party, right?" The echidna chuckled. He knew Sonic and the others were a fun-loving bunch, most of the time. Actually he was quite grateful to them. He really enjoyed having the excuse to slack off his guardian duties and have a nice change of pace for once. Without them around, he'd never get to have any fun.

He turned his attention to the strange Spanish monkey. "You're in charge of the music, huh? Good, we could use some tunes." When Tails and Samba mentioned thier mutual dislike for Eggman, Knuckles nodded. "Well, if you dislike baldy, you're alright in my book."

A glowing circle of black light materialized a few yards away from Tails' house. Lara-Su fell through it, and soon after Lime followed. Lara-Su got up carefully. "Well, we've got a choice now," she said to Lime. "We could go in there and reveal ourselves, thus changing the timeline so that we might not exist. Or we could go in secretly later and just take the half-map." She smiled. "But since changing history is exactly what we wanna do, I'm all for it."

She walked around to the front door and put up your hand to knock, then took it down. "Uhh, Lime, I never was good at meeting new people. Why don't you go in first?" she stepped aside.

Meanwhile, Sally was speaking to Amy. "Thanks a lot for bringing the cake, Amy." she said, then turned to Sonic. "Sonic? Where's your present for Tails? ...You do have one, right?" she asked, remembering the previous year.

Sonic nodded again. "Of course." He said. He grabbed the present he'd arrived with. "i might have been a little late, but I'd never forget to bring a present for my buddy Tails." He held the gift in front of the kitsune. "Happy Birthday."

Knuckles was having a good time at the party. He had hopes it would only get better with time, once Samba started the music and they broke out the cake. Yawning, the echidna was suddenly stricken by nature's call, and he headed off towards the bathroom. Afterwards, as he was making his way back out to the party, he noticed a couple of shadows outside the curtins of the front door. Scratching his head, he assumed it was a couple of late arrivals to the party. Judging from the shadows, one of them was a rabbit.

"Must be Cream." He headed over to the door and jerked it open, and to his surprise he found a echnida and what appeared to be a scaley rabbit. He realized he didn't know them.

"Oh. Erm, can I help you?" He asked.

"No problem Sally, I hope it's good" She placed all the food she brought on a table and went over to Sonic.

"So Sonikku what did you get him?" she peered at the present curiousity overbounding her.

SOnic was about to answer her when he trailed off, lookig over at the scaley rabbit at the door.

"WHo's that?" He asked.

Aww crud. Typical, the first person I meet is my father.

Lara-Su looked at the echidna before her, a person she'd never met before. But by his birthmark, a white collar around his neck that all guardians shared, it was clear that this was her father. She closed her jacket, hoping he wouldn't notice her symbol. Gathering up a little courage, she stepped forward and said, "I am Lara-Su and this is my friend Lime. We've traveled a long way to speak to you all, and it's rather urgent. Can we come inside?" she asked.

Knuckles, though by no means the sharpest knife in the drawer, was not an idiot. He wasn't always the smartest person, and sometimes he lacked common sense, and he had fallen for some of Robotnik's tricks back in his day; but he was a fairly good judge of people. This "Lara-Su" seemed awfully shaken up about something. Of course, Knuckles never would have imagined the truth.

"Err... yeah, okay." Knuckles said, taking a step back so that the echidna and the scaley rabbit could come inside. He hadn't noticed Lara-Su's birthmark, so he had no clue that she was from the same bloodline as him. His eyes were actually glued to Lime, because, frankly, he'd never seen a scaley rabbit before. Although he quickly realized it was rude to stare, and turned away.

"Look, we're having a birthday party here; you said it was urgent, what's the problem?" Knuckles asked. He wondered, perhaps, if she had come from Angel Island. He doubted it, since he knew most of the echidnas there... then again, he had never met an echidna from anywhere but Angel Island, which confused him. He decided not to overthink things, though.

"Hey Sonic, we got guests. Get o'er here." Knuckles called.

"Sure, come right in." Sonic said, looking at her blankly. She looked really...weird. SHe definatly wasn't from around here, he'd never seen her before. And Lime was a scaely bunny, now THAT made Sonic scratch his head. "Where are you guys from, anyway?"

Lara-Su sighed. She was going to have to explain this, wasn't she?
"Allright, listen up," she began, then was put off by the sight of her mother alive again, standing right in front of her. Okay this is getting seriously wierd. I should probably tell them as little as I can, for right now.

She collected herself, and said, "Okay, where we come from doesn't really matter right now- what matters is, sometime tonight, Tails is going to get half of a map for his birthday. It leads to a very dangerous... thing which Eggman will use to take over the world. We have to find that map and protect or else really bad stuff's going to go down." She paused. "So, um, who was planning to give Tails a half-map?"

Tails asked, "Take over the world, huh? Well, it wouldn't be the first time."

Lime said, "You don't understand! We have reason to believe he's planning something much greater and more sinister than he's ever planned before... and we need your help to stop him..."

Samba was about ready to start playing the music, when he heard Robotnik's name, "Oooh, that huevo no es bueno! I weel gladly offer my services to battle theez evil Doctor!"

Tails said, "Ya! Don't worry about it! Sonic ruins every plan that Dr. Robotnik has ever concucted! You girls really have nothing to worry about... that Eggman's no threat to us!"

Lara-Su shook her head. These people just weren't getting it.
"Look, why take chances? Just give me the map and I'll take care of it," she said.
Dang, they have the map, right? I think that's what mom said... darn it... this is looking bad...

Robotnik.

Knuckles let a soft sigh escape his mouth. It figured. They hadn't even served the cake yet, and already it looked like they had to foil another of Robotnik's schemes. That wasn't a big surprise. Robotnik had a new evil plan all the time, and they beat him all the time. He just wished Eggman could choose a different time than Tails's birthday party -- or at least wait until after the cake was served.

"Map? Nope, I got him some new science equipment." Knuckles said. Then he sweatdropped as he realized Tails hadn't opened his presents yet. "Whoops, sorry kid... err... act surprised, okay?"

He turned back to the girls. "Look, don't worry too much about Eggman. Beatin' him is kinda our speciality." He announced, glancing towards Sonic. "Besides, I don't see any map."

((Meep. I gotsa go! I'll be back tomorrow everybody!
-knuckles-))

"I didn't get him any map." Sonic said, shaking the gift he'd brought his friend. "At least, I don't THINK I got him a map..." He shook the box again. "As a matter of fact, I'm noy sure WHAT I got him; I was thinking he'd have fun trying to figure out what is was. I thought it was a set of blue prints for some kind of machine..."

Somewhere, on the outskits of town, stood (or rather hovered) a bike. It was shut down at the moment, standing without an owner. The owner himself was currently away, drinking his fill in a nearby stream of water.

He was a strange sight. He was not a typical mobian, definitely some sort of a cross, though probably more of a genetic mutation than a cross-breed. A half-cat and half-hedgehog, he was all black with blue marks and a blue tuft of fur on his chest. Not extremely muscular, he looked more the agile athletic kind, one that could balance on a rope easily. His gloves, along with his boots, were black/blue straps with a red inside. He removed his head from the water soon enough, and oughed slightly.

"Damn, it's been a long time since we drank any water..."

"3 whole dayz... Are you shure you are all right, monsieur Nite?" asked his companion.

She was even stranger. Wearing a jester's outfit with an extremely thin and litle-looking body, she looked more like one of those acrobats from a circus. And her clothing, that of a harlequin, made the impression that she was to be taken lightly. Also her face, young-looking and innocent, also confused many others into thinking that she could not defend herself and that anyone could have his/her will with this strange persona. They would be wrong though.

"So, mon ami... What nexzt? Ve have to find zis... Zis Infinit Émeraude. Where do we go to find it?"

"Don't ask me, it was your idea in the first place, Harle. I was all for it, but you said we have to find two halves of a map..."

"Yes. But Nite... Ve don't know where ze map piecés lie. Where vould YOU ztart our... recherche?"

"Search? I dunno. Maybe we'll see something to hint at it up ahead"

"Maybe..."

"Come on. Let's go. We have to re-stock up on food too, remember?"

"Se taire. I know alreade. So get moving, vous dupez!"

"Fine, fine..."

Nite went back to his bike, got into the front seat and started up. Harle sat right behind him, and Nite hit the gas, riding towards their next destination...

(Like Harle's accent? ;) )

Lara-Su was getting worried. There was no map here. Time to tell the truth. If these guys knew just how dangerous this was, they'd help, she was sure of it.

"Allright, here's the truth: Lime and I came from the future, where Eggman has already used the Infinity Emerald that that map leads to to kill everyone who opposed him, and he now rules all of Eggtopia. Which used to be Mobius. Well, I guess it is Mobius now. Anyway, we're the last of the rebels, so far as I know, so we used Eggman's time machine to come back here to prevent that future, and the best way to do that is make sure he doesn't get the emerald, and the best way to do that is to make sure he doesn't get the second half of the map, which was supposed to be at this time and place." She said all of this very fast.

Rouge, who had her arms crossed, decided to speak only now that she heard about the Infinity Emerald.

"The Infinity Emerald, hm? Wasn't that just a legend?" Rouge was now deep in thought as she wondered about the legendary emerald and the two new comers. The new echidna had given her a strange look which left the thief in deeper though of these two creatures.

Tails said, "I've never heard of it... I've only known of the Chaos Emeralds, the Super Emeralds, and the Master Emerald..."

(( Sorry, I know it's a short post. u_u; ))

Sally stepped forward. "H- hold on here, guys. Wait- you're from the future?" she asked suspiciously.

"Yep." said Lara-Su.

"And you want us to help you get this Infinity Emerald before Robotnik does?"

"No, I just want to destroy the map. That way, there's no second half, and nobody can find the Emerald."

Sally shook here head. "That won't work. If this emerald is really as dangerous as you claim, then Robotnik will stop at nothing to get it- even missing half a map won't. So we have to get that Emerald first, before he does."

Lara-Su was skeptical. "Well... I suppose you're right... Okay, then, let's work on finding that Emerald."

"Fine," said Sally. "But we start tommorrow."

"What? But....!"

"No! Today is Tails' birthday, so we do what he wants to do. This will have to wait." said Sally.

Tails was a bit worried... if these girls were really from the future, there must have been a good reason for them to choose this particular day to come back.

"Thanks, Sally... and since we'll do what whatever I want... I want to help them! I won't let the world go to ruin just because I've aged a bit..."

(Uh like how do I come in? I am sorta not on good terms with anyone presently.)

Shadow opened his eyes looking around in Station Square. Though he did not need to sleep he thought taking a nap would be good for him. He got up and jumped to a nearby building which just so happened to be Sonics.

Knuckles blinked a few times, trying to take all of this new information in. The future? The Infinity Emerald? Eggtopia? This was all beyond strange, although it did help explain how there could be an echidna in these parts of the world that wasn't from his tribe, which was the last tribe of the echidna.

He looked over at Tails, who seemed eager to help them despite the fact it would ruin their birthday plans. Well, if Tails wanted to save the world rather than enjoy cake and Samba's music, then Knuckles would have to go along with him. On the scale of importance, he supposed Eggman took rank over cake anyway.

"So wait, you're saying one of us has the map, right? That's why you came here?" Knuckles inquired. "Hey Tails, you better open your presents now. We're gonna need that map if we're gonna beat Robotnik to this emerald."

Something didn't quite add up to Knuckles. There was something off here. He just couldn't put his finger on it.

Amy leaned on the kitchen doorpost listening to what the two newcomers had to say. 'So Eggman finally managed to win?' she asked herself quizically 'That doesnt sound right...Sonikku would never let that mad scientist do that. That Infinity emerald must really be something...' The pink hedgehog let out a small sigh and dissapeared into the depths of the cozy kitchen. Setting all the unimportant food in the frige for later she began to place candles on top of the cake make especially for Tails. "Well if Tails doesnt mind having to abandon his party plans then at least he and the others should get some cake. After placing the 8th one on she made her way back out to the others.

"I know we're in a hurry, but its still Tails' birthday so we should at least have some cake!" She turned to the newcomers "Would that be allright?"

"Sounds like a good compromise to me," said Lara-Su, smiling. It wasn't often you got cake in a post-eggpocalyptic world. "We can start all this after cake, then."

"Okay," said Sally. "Then let's get started!"