"Hey, guys," Sonic wondered aloud to his housemates: Manic, Silver, and Shadow, the latter having his same "I don't care" look on him. "Hey... has Tails stopped by today?"

"Uh, no, bro," Manic said. "Was he supposed to?"

"Um, well... he stops by occasionally, but I haven't exactly heard from him lately." The blue hedgehog scratched his forehead, a little suspicious. "I'm a bit worried about him."

"I'm sure he's okay, Sonic," Silver assured, smiling at him with his honey-amber eyes. It was surprising that Silver wasn't making a snarky comment towards the fox, but it was nice to see a change of attitude in the young time traveller.

The blue hedgehog went outside and started jogging up the street, keeping an eye out for Tails. As he passed the houses, he could see his neighbors up and about; Espio was tossing pellets into his koi pond, Cream and Cheese were tending to their rose bushes and waved as he passed by, and Blaze was reading a book on her front porch. If he went the other way past his house he would pass by Knuckles, Rouge, and Amy.

"Hey, Sonic," Blaze said, making the hog backtrack so that he could face her squarely. "Have you seen Tails recently?"

"No, I haven't. Have any idea where he might be?"

"The last time I saw him he was coming back from your house," she said, beginning to look concerned. "When did you see him last?"

"He stopped by asking if I wanted to play with him. Apparently, somebody gave him a new game or something and he wanted to play it with me."

"Oh," she said, starting to go back to her book. "Well, maybe he's cooped up in his house playing it."

"Yeah, maybe," he said, starting off again. The more he thought about it though, Tails wouldn't be that bonkers over some new game without telling anybody about it. Usually, he'd call Sonic if the game was great, or stop by and ask if they could go to the game store downtown to sell it. But it had been a few days since he'd told him about the game.

Sonic knocked on the door. "Tails? Hey, Tails! You in there?" The door was unlocked, so Sonic pushed it open. The little fox wasn't in the front room...or the kitchen...or the garage... or in his shed in his backyard where he tinkered on little gadgets. The blue hedgehog poked his head into the computer room. Empty, too. But the computer was on, sleeping.

Tails was very particular about how his machines were treated, he always made sure to make sure his computers and such were off when he was done using them. Leaving one on was sort of out of character for the little genius. Wondering how long the computer had been on, Sonic waved the mouse back and forth.

The screen was normal, just showing the desktop littered with icons. On the bar on the bottom of the screen, a Word Doc was opened. He clicked it open, and a message met his eyes.

"SONIC HELP! I don't have much time, he's got me- he's got- HELP!

"T"

What was going on? Did he only get to type this much before...

"Ugh, Eggman!" Sonic growled, standing up out of the chair. "Only he would stoop so low!" He hustled over back to the house, and grabbed everyone's attention.

"Guys, I think Eggman kidnapped Tails!"

"Aw, no way, bro!" Manic said, standing up, along with Silver, who was shocked. Shadow turned his head, looking surprised. "That evil creep!"

"What's worse is that he nabbed 'im in his own house," Sonic growled, clenching his fist. "We gotta go get 'im, and fast!"

"Sonic," Shadow protested. "I don't think the doctor did it."

Sonic glared at the dark hedgehog. "Oh yeah, Mr. I-don't-care? Why so?"

"I haven't heard from Dr. Eggman in weeks. And if he had kidnapped Tails, then how come no one noticed an attack on his house? Was there any indication of a breaking and entering at all?"

Sonic fumed. "Whatever! Manic, Silv, c'mon!"

"Yo, bro... you know, Robotnik always has something else in mind, you know? If he wanted you to know Tails was kidnapped, he would have made a... you know, a statement or something."

"Manic..." The blue hedgehog grumbled. He looked hard into the yellow-eyed time-traveler. "Are you coming with me or not?"

Silver gave a little nod and followed Sonic out. As they went down the street, Shadow's phone buzzed, and he glanced at the message.

As soon as Silver and Sonic came in, puzzled/disappointed and frustrated, respectively, Shadow commented, "No sign of him, right?"

"What do you know, Shadow?" Sonic barked. "Are you on that side of the fence now?"

"No. As soon as you two left, I got this,"- Shadow started to pull up the message. Manic's face was pale.

"Bro... you gotta see this, it's way creepy, man." The black hedgehog showed the other two the message.

"SOMEONE HELP ME! THAT HORRID LITTLE HEDGEHOG HAS GON-"

"Eggman sent this to you?" Silver wondered. "And Sonic... what did you do to him?"

"Nothing. Guys, we were out the door on the way to rescue Tails..." Sonic started to look a little unnerved. "All the Badniks were gone, and... the computer was on, too, like at Tails' house..."

"Did you send 'im something, bro?"

"No, no way, I just send little pranks via posts on his page... I..."

"What other "horrid little hedgehog" could he be talking about?" Silver wondered, looking at the other three hedgehogs.

"Not me, man," Manic said, raising his hands. "I don't get involved in all the crazy things you guys get into to with Robotnik or Eggman or whatever he is now."

"I don't reply to any messages the doctor sends me," Shadow said, deleting the message on the phone.

"You haven't done anything to him, have you, Silver?"

"Maybe he just thought it was you, bro," Manic thought. "You know, 'cause maybe he was doing something and then, like, I dunno somebody stopped him."

"Well, there wasn't any sign of a definite plot in mind when we checked out the HQ," Silver mumbled. "No sign of attack or break in either."

"And the 'message sent' screen was up on his monitor," Sonic added. "Guys, who would kidnap Tails and Eggman?"

"I don't get it either..."

On Dr. Eggman's monitor, a text box for the command input opened, and the computer began typing:

HE HE HE HE HE

HE HE HE HE HE

HE HE HE HE HE

… THE GAME BEGINS...