"What?" Black Mist repeats, rubbing his wrists, where the ropes have dug deeper into his skin. "What are you talking about? From what I can gather, the Barians are supposed to be dead."

I shake my head. "No, a man named Dr. Eggman has brought the Barians back. How, I do not know."

Black Mist chuckles. "Well, I had no idea we'd be working together with this one." He looks at me, suddenly getting serious. "This is just a temporary alliance, okay? I don't need you or anybody else getting the wrong idea."

"Of course."

Apparently confused as to why there is now silence, the others come into the room.

"What happened?" Sonic asks. He sees Black Mist free, and he gets into a battle position. "Why is he free?"

"Sonic, relax," I say. "We have forged a temporary alliance for now because we have a common enemy."

Black Mist sighs. "Barians. Such a pain in the overlay units."

"The hell are overlay units?" Silver asks

"These things right here." Black Mist summons three glowing orbs. They revolve around his body. "Overly units. When you overlay a certain amount of monsters, that same number becomes the overlay units." He cracks his knuckles and grins. "So, have any of you idiots found the ol' doctor?"

No one speaks up. Black Mist growls.

"Can't do anything right, can you?" He makes his duel disk materialize and places a black card similar to Hope's down. "96, appear before your master to do as your told."

"Yes, master?" Black Mist's monster asks. "What can I do?"

"Does any of you have some sort of picture of this Dr. Eggman?" Black Mist asks.

"I do," Silver says, pulling out a picture of Eggman. "Don't ask me how I got it. I can't remember."

"This'll do." Black Mist shows the picture to 96. "Find this guy and come back after. Tell us the location."

The monster nods and melts into the shadows. Black Mist grins proudly.

"Now what?" Shadow asks.

"Well, since I have no clue how this place works, why don't you guys show me around?" Black Mist suggests.

Knuckles growls. "I don't trust him."

This makes Black Mist laugh hard. When he catches his breath, he says, "What's to trust? I have no reason to trust you guys either."

I roll my eyes, and Black Mist grins at me. He shrugs in an innocent gesture.

"So, you guys just sit tight, and I'll go terrorize a village or something," Black Mist says, waving away.

"Why you little...!" Shadow makes a move to get the evil Number.

Black Mist laughs again. "Don't worry," he says playfully. "I let my monster do that. Byeeeeeee!"

Shadow makes a move to get him again, but Sonic stops him with a shake of the head.

"Just leave him, Shadow," he sighs. "I'm sure he won't cause us too much trouble."

I nod. "He will not cause trouble unless he is absolutely bored with everyone. That is when he will cause trouble."

This fun fact brings us all to a moment of silence, but it is broken by Black Mist's monster coming in with his master riding on his shoulder.

"I bear good news!" Black Mist calls. "We have found the location of the doctor!"

"Where?" Silver asks.

"Follow me, and you'll see!" Black Mist waves us over, and we follow.

We go for a few hours, Black Mist muttering to his beast sometimes. Most likely to confirm if we are going the right way. Either that, or they are devising a plan. I begin humming a tune for a while.

Hours later, we arrive at the ship. Black Mist frowns, apparently unimpressed.

"Man, this guy does not have any sense of camouflage," he comments.

Sonic laughs in agreement. "Not really, no."

"96, see what's in there," Black Mist commands.

"Yes, master," the beast says. He gives Black Mist time to jump off his shoulder, then he goes off into the ship.

"Are you sure he won't get caught?" Silver asks, a little bit dubious. "How can something that big sneak into that ship?"

"Don't mind his size. He can lurk a lot better than your 'scouts'."

I nod. "That is true," I agree. "Hope and I have had enough encounters with this Number to know."

Black Mist places his hands behind his head. "You got that right, Astral. This guy can sneak up on anybody. Only downfall is that he's weak as fuck."

Shadow growls. "So, we're relying on a weak monster to scout?! What if he gets attacked!?"

Black Mist waves dismissively. "Oh, relax. That's where the overlay units come in."

"Detach one overlay unit to take half the opponent's attack points and add it to his own. That monster loses the amount taken," I recite.

"Black Storm's ability is much better!" Black Mist exclaims. "If Number 96 was used to rank up, this monster gets the following effect: detach one overlay unit to take all of the opposing monster's attack points and add it to him. The opposing monster loses all of its points."

"That actually makes a lot of sense," Silver comments. "If something is weak, it normally has some way to live."

Black Mist points to Silver. "This one gets it. Give this man a cookie!"

Number 96 returns to us in the form of sliding goo. He forms, and he gives his report. "Not many guards, but I would keep my guard up, master. That gem is heavily guarded."

"Alright, then." Black Mist sighs. "We'll come back some other time. Make a better plan, maybe." He looks to his monster. "You can go back now."

The beast nods and disappears into Black Mist's deck within his purple duel disk.