Chapter 1: The Mobius Circle


	"We've finally arrived at temple number four," chuckled a silver-hued fox as she proceeded through the dark, musty place.  Her hair was done in a braid and she was dressed in a khaki pants with a bunch of pockets along the legs and a short, skin-tight black shirt.  Three tails gently swayed behind her, one the same color fur as the rest of her, but her second tail was green and the third blue.

	"Would it kill them to at least keep the place tidy," sneezed a Kappa.  The green demon turtle carried around a shell-shaped backpack in place of a regular one.  His head was concaved like a bowl and contained some water the splashed about as he stumbled through the temple.  "All this dust, achoo!  Ugh, and the cobwebs!  Gross get them off!"

	"It wouldn't be much of an ancient temple if it didn't look like this," the Tanuki of the team pointed out.  He was brown furred and the shortest of the group by a great margin.  He wore a shirt that was made up of tons of leaves.  "Now keep yourself steady.  We don't have any more water if you spill what you have right now."

	"I can't help it," he sniffled.  "It's my allergies."

	"Don't worry," the fox said with a smile.  "We've arrived."  Looking ahead she saw an old fox with a mix of gray and white fur.  He had a long beard the reached down to his waist.  He dressed in a yellow robe and sat down in a stone chair.

	"So, you have finally come," he spoke, his voice sounding weak.  "Word of your deeds have even reached me here."

	"I'm flattered that I've become so famous," she stated with a smug grin.

	"You shouldn't be," he retorted.  "Did you think you could get away with such transgressions?"

	"Get away?" she repeated her smugness continuing. "All I've been doing is getting away with it since I've begun."

	"Well, your ambitions end here," he stated his voice growing louder and the temple starting to shake.  One of his seven tails glowed with a bright yellow light.  "I admit we were foolish not to take you seriously until now, but no longer!  You will answer for your sins now!"

	"He's using his power!" cried the Kappa panicking and sneezing as the shaking upset the layers of dust covering the temple and sending it into the air.  "Death by sneezing!"

	"I seriously doubt that," sighed the Tanuki.  "Now try and calm down before you-"

	"Whoops!" cried the Kappa as he collided with the Tanuki and landed on top of him.  All the water on his head spilled onto the floor.  "Sorry."

	"Get off of me," the Tanuki grumbled.

	"Can't," he replied. "I can't move without my water."

	"Just relax you two," she said confidently as she watched the old fox begin to change.  Slowly he rose from his chair, then one after another every muscle in his body bulged bigger and bigger.  His faded fur began to regain its youthful yellow and his height increased drastically.  He robe tore to pieces and the once elderly fox was no more.  In his place now stood a gigantic, musclebound fox clad in a shorts and iron gauntlets.  The size difference between him and the intruders were now overwhelming, but the female fox didn't even flinch, she continued her air of confidence.  "I don't need any help with this one."

	"Fool!" he roared.  "This is my legendary Kitsune Technique that has single-handedly crushed an entire army that attempted to invade this land long ago.  It is this very power that has earned me my position as Guardian of the Yellow Temple."

	"I'm fully aware of that," she said her voice unimpressed.  "All that info was easy to come by."

	"Then you know that it was folly for you to even attempt to challenge me!" he stated.  Raising his arm up high, he swung it down on her and her companions like he was hitting a nail with a hammer.  He connected and the ground quaked violently.  The ground cracked all over and crevices formed in the temple.  But when he saw his what his attack had done to his opponents his stuttered in shock.  "Impossible!  How could you have survived?"

	"I told you," she replied a spherical barrier protecting her and her allies from harm.  Her blue tail glowed with a blue light.  "I did my research on you and the thing about such famous techniques from ages ago is that counters are inevitably created.  For all your talk it seems I'm still being seriously underestimated."  Placing a hand on the massive fox's hand, her silver tail now started to glow.

	"Wh-what are you doing now?" he questioned feeling his strength quickly fade away. His attempts to pull away didn't work as his body was frozen in place."

	"You should know the answer to that," she stated as the large fox's muscles began to quickly deflate till he was back to being an old man, this glow in his one tail gone and then tail itself vanished reducing his tail count to six.  "So much for that famous Kitsune Technique of yours.  Care to try something else?"  The old fox wheezed attempting to get up, but his attempt quickly failed as he fainted.  "Guess not.  He was way beyond his heyday if that pitiful resistance was all he could do."

	"It's great that you won," said the Tanuki.  "But do you think you could help us now?"

	"In a moment," she replied walking around the old fox and past the stone chair he had sat on.  "I need to claim the treasure that we came here for."  Entering the room behind it, there on a pedestal stood a glowing yellow sphere with ancient runes glowing within it.  She stared at it admiringly, her green eyes reflected on the sphere's surface.  "A bit cliche, but it makes things all the easier for me."  Reaching her hand out she placed it on the sphere and watched it glow and grinned.  "And now I possess another of the treasures."

	Far out in the ocean in the world of Mobius, the Tornado soared.  Looking at a monitor, Tails turned on the autopilot and then grabbed some binoculars and gazed down at the ocean below.  "I should be over the area now," Tails said to himself.  "Now to see if there is any truth to the legend."

	"Hey, Tails," called Sonic over the radio startling Tails into nearly dropping his binoculars.

	"Woah!  Sonic?  How's things back home?  Eggman didn't show his mustached face, did he?"

	"Don't worry," replied Sonic.  "After scrambling him last time we're good for at least another month and a half before he schemes something new.  I was just seeing how you're doing."

	"I just arrived at the Mobius Circle," replied Tails.  "I was just starting my investiagation when you called."

	"What's the story with that area?" asked Sonic.  "There isn't even a circle there on the map, just a lot of water."

	"Anything that enters these waters is said to get lost and never seen again.  From all the reports given about where planes and ships vanished researchers were able to get a general idea where the Mobius Circle was located and found that it takes up a sizeable circular area.  Unfortunately, nothing else has been discovered about it.  I'm going to find out what kind of secret it hides be it magical or scientific."

	"Maybe I should have gone along too," commented Sonic.  "Things have been rather dull and all this leisure time is making Amy act a little weird."

	"Weird how?" asked Tails.

	"She's setting up a wedding for us," Sonic told him.  "A tailor is coming over in an hour to measure me for a suit.  Why didn't I go with you again?"

	"Because other than the plane to walk on all there is around us is endless, endless ocean," Tails pointed out.

	"Right," Sonic replied with a slight chuckle.

	"Oh, Sonic!" chimed Amy knocking at his door.  "I need your help deciding on what kind of wedding invitations we should send out."

	"Uh, gotta go fast," Sonic cried before hanging up and rushing out of his home.

	"Run all you want," chuckled Tails.  "That's one opponent you'll never get away from."  Tails's amusement didn't last long as the Tornado began to beep its warning signals.  "What's going on?"  Checking out his instruments, Tails was dumbfounded as everything was going haywire.  All his instruments were showing incorrect figures and quickly changing at random.

	The only thing that Tails was certain of was the Tornado was starting to descend into a nosedive.  Taking the plane off autopilot, Tails tried to take control of his plane, but it didn't make any different.  Looking around, Tails couldn't see anything that could have caused the malfunction.  "This must be the work of the Mobius Circle, but just what is it?"  Jumping out of the plane, Tails spun his tails like a copter and remained airborne as his plane continued to plummet.  He watched, an ache in his chest at the loss of his plane.  "Sorry, Tornado."  As it continued to fall it vanished into midair.  "What?  It's gone?"  Slowly descending to the area it vanished, Tails extended his hand and felt his hand pressed against something that as he pressed against it, his hand went through it and vanished.  "A force field of some sort?"  Trying to pull his hand out, Tails found he could not.  Instead, he was being pulled into it.  Tails tried to struggled against it, but his effort proved useless as his entire body was completely taken in and he vanished.