Knock knock went Sheffer's fist on the hotel room door, making sure the noise was at a significant volume for the elderly moth to hear. He still expected a couple minute await before any response, so, just for good measure...

"Hey, old ma-" He paused, reconsidering his words, throwing in another knock. "Henshin, you in there?"



"I'm not decent!! Don't come in!!" came the shouted reply through the thick door.

...

"Ooogh, where did my pants go?"

...

"These aren't my pants at all!"

...

...

...

"Okay, come in!"


With a face one could only explain as deeply disturbed, the hedgehog reluctantly opened the door before him, stepping inside the room. His eyes were strangely focused on the ceiling, however, as if not wishing to see the contents of the room.

"I swear, doc, if you're still looking for those pants..."

"I'm no heathen, you ruffian!" barked the elderly moth, albeit playfully. "I am decent."

True to his word, he was fully clothed, although still getting himself together. His head looked kind of wet, and he was putting on his favorite labcoat.

"So what is it that brings you by today, Mr. Hawkins?" queried Doc as he trotted over to his desk and took a seat at his stool.

A sigh of relief slipping past his lips, Sheffer ventured further into the room, taking a seat on the bed amongst the mess of lab equipment.

"Well, I was watching the news last night, and the report was pretty notable," began the hedgehog. "Explosions, vandalism, the works. Ring any bells?"

"Just consider it a reminder that you're in Grand Metropolis," replied Doc. He turned and started idly typing something on his computer. "—Unless you're talking about the chemical plant, in which case I may have heard a couple interesting tidbits."

Sheffer seemed to consider this for a moment. "Alright, what happened there then? Just the name of it sounds like it's triggered to explode at some point."

"It's a filthy source of pollution and an environmental blight in general, but not that dangerous on its own," Henshin explained. "A colleague called me last night about it, though. Very interesting conversation! Do you remember that story about the bombers who attacked GUN headquarters not too long ago and stole those emeralds?"

"Yeah, I do. Gave GUN an embarrassing loss," replied Sheffer. "So, let me guess. The same thieves decided to pop up over at the plant, and things ended up getting a bit out of hand?"

"Aaactuallyyy," he tantalizingly stretched the syllable, suddenly turning around and looking like the cat that ate the canary. This was clearly the interesting part. "GUN intelligence says the bomber was hiding out there with at least one of the emeralds... and he was apprehended and turned in."

Dramatic pause.

"By our charter pilot. And the emerald wasn't turned in. Interesting, yes?"

"Hm... so either the monkey has got the rock... or someone else was involved, and managed to get away."

He sounded somewhat suspicious about the circumstances, probably wishing to spit out who he believed the other culprit was. "And there's only one other person that'd be going after the emeralds. You don't think that kid was there, do you?"

"Seems plausible," Henshin affirmed thoughtfully, then turned back to his work. "The report said nothing of any other parties, but who's to say? Perhaps you should go find out."

Keys ticca-tacked under moth's fingers as he hunched toward his screen.

"I'm on the verge of a breakthrough thanks to your mutant DNA sample! Otherwise, I'd..."

He'd do it himself?

"... call Hoji and make him do it for me."

Nope.


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A few hours later...


"Hey doc!" shouted Sheffer through the door for the second time that day, a fist rapping loudly. "You fully dressed this time? 'Cause I'll be scarred if you're not decent when I come in."

"Yeeesss, yes, come in, Sheffer," came the response from within. He sounded distracted with something. When the hedgehog opened the door, he'd find the moth lounging on the couch, watching TV... while still surrounded by his usual mess of equipment. It would seem he moved his lab desk over to the sofa, and was continuing work while watching a movie and sipping tea.

"Come, sit a spell. I'm watching The Notepad. It's so sad!"

Somewhat surprised at the doctor's leisure time, having expected him to be partaking in another experiment or creating some new doo-dad, Sheffer slowly walked across the room and sat on a chair. The angle it was set at allowed him to look between the moth and the TV, even though he wasn't particularly interested in the movie.

"Well..." he began, glancing to the television, hoping it wouldn't be too much of a distraction for Henshin. "Managed to find him. The pilot who brought us here."

"Who?" mumbled Dr. Henshin distractedly as he half focused on soldering some contraption, and half watched television. "Oh, right. Him. Hm. Dead end? Or did you just come to chat with me about it? Hoji never sits and chats. Always so busy with the hero work..."

Nevermind the fact that he spent half of the day blabbering at Hoji through the comm unit built into the raccoon's helmet.

"Actually, no," began the hedgehog, leaning back some in a relaxed posture on the chair. "Was barely given any info of what actually happened, but I do now know the kid was involved. Managed to get another emerald in the process, too."

He leaned forward then, his elbows supported on his knees as he clasped his hands together and looked at the moth with hopeful eyes.

"Thing is, he informed me that the kid has some sort of device that wards off any emerald radars that are around at the moment. I'm here to ask you if you could possibly throw something together that could get through that prohibiter."

Henshin's face was frozen, save for the grimace that slowly overtook his mouth. After a few more seconds of staring at the TV with this face, he set down the device he was working on, turned down the volume, clasped his hands, and looked to the young man earnestly.

"Sheffer," he said gently, "it's easy to suggest these things, but not so easy to... do them. We've found no practical, reliable way to track Chaosol Emeralds at all, and if there's something concealing the emissions a normal Chaos Emerald, the only solution we have is to increase the sensitivity of our sensors to a wildly outrageous level. The problem with that... is that it will light up with the glow of every Capsule Trooper, Chaos Drive-equipped machine, and metasapient in a fifty mile radius."

He sighed. "Even though we call these devices emerald 'radars', it's a horrible misnomer. They're really only a sort of... advanced Geiger counter, in a way. If the radiation isn't reaching it in sufficient quantities, then it can't detect it. It isn't like it's actually shooting out radio waves to... bounce off..."

The old doctor blinked rapidly, then squinted off into space, and went slowly slack-jawed. A grin pulled at the corner of his weathered old mouth.

"Givemebackthatfakeemeraldgiveitgiveitgiveitnow."

If his sudden lurch toward Sheffer with grasping, groping, artificial-emerald-wanting hands wasn't indication enough, he apparently just struck inspiration pay-dirt.

"Alright. Alright. Alright." The hedgehog's hand quickly dug into his back pocket, revealing the emerald and offering it to the doc, having been driven halfway up the chair from the moth's borderline assault. "Take it before I have to sign a restraining order."

"Dahahaheheheheeeeeeeheheh."

He took it with utmost glee, then began bustling the hedgehog toward the door.

"Much to do! So much to do! Thank you for your assistance! Enjoy your evening! Go entertain yourself for a while!" he jabbered quickly, pushing and urging and nudging and barely giving the poor guy any time to just leave of his own accord. "Play some video games, read some comics, that means shoo! I'll have Hoji get you and the others when I'm finished! Go! Can't have your big glittery green head distracting me! Gogogo!"

"Whoa doc, what is up with you?! What are you going to be do-" The hedgehog was cut off by the closing of the hotel door, having been promptly shoved into the hall.

"...ing."

"Wonderful..." he muttered, eying the door with a curious glance before setting down the hall, hoping the moth had something in mind.