"Yes, I suppose so. But I assure you, the city has been on high alert ever since Robotnik tried to invade some weeks ago. Our collection is quite secure. IF any of these gems in the collection are what you claim, you can rest assured that they will be perfectly safe here." The Currator replied confidently. Despite whatever else he might be trying to say, it was pretty plain that regardless of whether or not the gems were chaos emerald shards, he wasn't keen on giving them up.
Opening his mouth the argue, Tails thought better of it and stopped. It was better to save any sort of disagreement for after they checked the gems. After all what good would it do to make a scene over nothing? Even so it still irked him to no end that someone would be so unwilling to give up a tourist trap to save the world. The last thing he wanted to do was to have to take them by force, but what if he had no choice. Several universes were on the line, Sonic wouldn't have hesitated to do what was right.
Realizing that his emotions were clearly playing across his face, Tails squashed the thoughts and returned to the current situation
Upon reaching the display, Tails approached the case. Closing his eyes, he tried to concentrate on the pull of the emeralds. Though he rarely showed it, Tails is well in tune with the energies of the emeralds. Not as much as Sonic, Knuckles, or Shadow, but well enough. Knowing he had to be thorough, he stayed in this pose for a few minutes.
(Since I have no idea if these are actually fragments or not, I'm gonna leave it at this for now.)
Zyra followed the fox and curator into the museum, flipping her visor down, and eyeing all of the exhibits. Unbeknownst to both of them, hopefully, she activated the recording function in the visor, and swept her eyes over everything she could, including corners, doorways, and any other obvious hiding spots.
As she stepped up to the gem display, she started a ChaosSol energy scan on the gems, reserving any more judgement until she had her results.
The museum itself was a visual marvel as they entered. A grand foyer with a massive glass dome hung high above with a variety of ancient, fossilized flying creatures suspended within the dome. The second floor ringed the main foyer, with elegant marble columns supporting the structure and opulent banners highlighting several of the museum's main attractions. As to be expected, the main foyer was littered with displays of various show piece items. None of which of course, were the display they were most interested in.
The curator lead Tails and Zyra past the main foyer, listing off the various historical objects as they passed as though he were one of the tour guides. They soon entered a long, wide hallway lined with archaic suits of armour. It almost felt like the empty visors were watching as you passed.
Finally, after what felt like several minutes of walking, they arrived at their ultimate destination. "And here we are! The crown jewel, if you'll pardon the pun, of our museum!" The curator stepped aside and swept his arm out toward the massive display case.
The whole semi-circular display took up the entire back of the circular room they stood in, with easily a hundred different gemstones inside. While many, especially those on the wings of the display case appeared to be relatively mundane mineral formations and genuine rough-cut jewels no doubt worth a pretty penny, the stones at the centre of the display seemed to just draw in Tails and Zyra's attention.
And not just because of the place of prominence they held within the case. For Tails, he could feel a distinct, familiar, yet barely perceptible pull drawing him towards several of the stones in the case. For Zyra her sensors would easily be able to pick up on the faint aura surrounding the same gems Tails was being drawn to. About three blue sapphire gems, or rather, to Tails and Zyra's eyes, shards of a once larger gem in the case, and another three rubies seemed to radiate with the energy.
Strange, I thought I told Philip to fix those place settings." The curator said, no doubt thinking aloud. If they were to follow his gaze, they would notice that one of the rubies and seemingly fallen out of it's place setting, and was presently resting close to one of the sapphires.
After walking through the museum and taking a recording of as much as possible, Zyra took extra care to film this display case in particular. Her gaze lingered longer on the shards of the emeralds, making sure it was just these six pieces. At least until the curator mentioned the settings being off. "You're saying those aren't where they should be?"
She looked again, noting the proximity of one of the ruby shards to one of the sapphire ones. "You need to open this case right now! If those two pieces touch, this entire city could be wiped off the map, in a best case scenario!"
"Oh... I'm sure it will be fine. I'm sure our custodial staff simply purchased a defective display case or something. No need to worry about it." The curator waved his hand dismissively. Although, if one were perceptive enough, they'd notice a faint bead of sweat trickle down his temple.
"Still, we can't have the display looking untidy now can we." The curator added as he took a set of master keys out of his pocket and unlocked the case. Taking pains to make sure that neither Tails or Zyra had an easy access to the case, the curator plucked the red gem from it's resting place and put it back in it's proper placement.
"There, all better now." The curator then put his keys back in his pocket and made sure to pat his pocket to ensure they were still there. "Now then, I do believe I've got some important paper work to attend to in my office. I hope you both enjoy your visit to the museum."
The dragoness watched the curator fix the placement of the ruby shard with a sigh of relief. It wasn't the chance she had hoped for, but at least nothing catastrophic would happen. Yet. But if those shards could move on their own once, they would do so again, and no telling how long it had been since they had been set initially. This balance was delicate at best, and if Zyra had any disguise on her, she'd storm this place by force within a few minutes. Still, being seen as a "noble cop" had its own merits, and so she hatched upon another plan. One that would cost her a bit of her pride, but hopefully pay off in the long run.
She followed the tiny man back toward his office, attempting to pick Mammoth's minion of out the crowd as she did so. "Excuse me, Mr. Dulland? I'd like to apologize for my previous outburst. I've only recently arrived here, and based on what I've learned, I'm afraid I panicked at the thought of anything bad happening so soon. I'd like to make it up to you by offering my services as a guard for the display, if you'll allow me."
The curator smiled gratefully, but his smile held a certain fragility of being forced. "Thank you, Miss, but I can assure you our own night security is more than able to attend to our collection. Though you may be a 'Zone Cop'..." He paused, punctuating his words with quotation fingers. ", I'm afraid it would be terribly irresponsible of me to just allow any person who wandered off the street to take on security. Why, I wouldn't even be willing to hire someone like Tails and Sonic. It's just not done my dear. If you truly wished to work here, you'll have to go through all the standard application and security screening procedures just like anyone else. Though, with all the bizarre happenings of late, being able to satisfactorily check your background would be more difficult..." By this point the curator was mostly just rambling to himself and thinking out loud.
Tails stood by not particularly paying attention to the conversation going on between the other two. He was far too transfixed with the emeralds and his own thoughts. He didn't know exactly what would happen should the shards interact with one another however he had enough experience with the forces at hand, from his own studies, to know that the possible blow-out of energy could be potentially world shattering. Combined with the complete lack of comprehension on the part of Mr. Dulland and you ended up with an extremely volatile situation.
"Excuse me, Mr. Dulland? I'd like to apologize for my previous outburst. I've only recently arrived here, and based on what I've learned, I'm afraid I panicked at the thought of anything bad happening so soon. I'd like to make it up to you by offering my services as a guard for the display, if you'll allow me."
Hearing this caused Tails ears to perk slightly. He was no fool and had a good idea as to what the Zone Cop was most likely planning. Looking back at the case however, Tails realized that time was a luxury that they may not have. The shards had already come close to disaster once. Who was to say that it wouldn't happen again.
Realizing what he needed to do, Tails tried to sound as authoritative as he could and turned to the curator.
"I-I'm sorry Mr. Dulland, b-but I need you t-to open the exhibit now. These are fragments of two of the Chaos Emeralds and they need to be taken somewhere safe."
Tails realized that he probably didn't sound very convincing. Rightly so since he wasn't used to trying to impose his will upon another, but in this instance he had no choice.