I shiver as the Barian Emperor Vector waits us. When he sees me, his eyes turn gleeful.

"Astral!" he greets with a wave. "How nice that you're here, too! But where's your partner?"

I narrow my eyes and will my duel disk to materialize. "What are you doing here, Vector? From what I can tell, you are supposed to be dead!"

Vector waves that off. He rubs the Emerald, which makes Knuckles growl. "Details, details." He chuckles. "That doctor guy brought us back, that's how."

"He did what...?!" we all exclaim.

"Eggman, you idiot," Shadow mutters, face palming.

"Hope, come forth!" I call, summoning the Number on my disk. Hope roars as he emerges.

"Master, is that the Barian Emperor?" Hope asks, glaring at Vector.

"Yes," I mutter. "Hope, can you help us not let him escape?"

"Of course, master." Hope unsheathes his dual swords and takes a battle position.

I place my hand on the top of my deck, getting ready to rank up. Sonic, Silver, Knuckles, and Shadow separate and start attacking Vector. I pull out the card, and the Limited Rank Up Barian Force card comes to my hand. I play it and rank Hope up to Hope Ray Victory.

"Hope, attack Vector directly!" I command with authority.

Hope obeys, and he raises all his swords up, hoping to slash Vector down. Before Hope can even touch him, Vector opens up a portal and leaves with the Master Emerald.

"You monster!" Knuckles roars. "Get back here!"

"Knuckles, leave him," I say softly. "We will get him, I promise."

"What are we gonna do now?" Silver asks. "The Master Emerald is gone. How do we get it back?"

"Knowing Eggman, he probably has it on his ship," Sonic muses. "So, all we need to do is find his ship and infiltrate it."

I order Hope back into his card, and I sigh. "How will we find it?"

"Astral has a point," Shadow comments. "Eggman moves his ship all the time. His location is unpredictable."

Silver hums for a while, thinking. "What if we send our best scouts to search the land?"

"Like who?" I ask.

"Well, there's Blaze, Espio, and Shadow. They're the best out of all of us."

Shadow tries not to show too much pride. "Well, I am the Ultimate." He looks at us. "So, do we go now?"

"I would say yes," Sonic says with a nod. "Gather the team and go."

Shadow punches Sonic's face. "Don't tell me what to do." He goes off to gather the people mentioned. "We'll start tomorrow," he calls behind him.

"Come on, you can stay at my house," Silver offers. We go to his place for the day.

*************

The next day first thing in the morning, Shadow and his crew sets off to find Eggman's lair. We watch them go.

"Do you think they will find it?" I ask as Silver and I go to his house.

"Dunno. I can't really say for sure, but I'm going with yes just because I'm optimistic," Silver answers, making himself float. The blue-green aura covers his entire body.

"I hope they do..."

We wait from morning until the afternoon. We play bored games while we wait. Silver is surprisingly good at chess. Even I have a hard time looking into his strategy.

When the scouts come back, we go to see them. Blaze looks at me.

"There's something I think you should see," she says flatly.