The twelve-year-old, two tailed fox didn't feel the bright red robotic eyes following his every move, detecting every sound he made. He shuffled his fingers through his gloves, looking around the soft and peaceful forest, not too far from his home village. Knothole had expanded out into the real world after Robotnik's reign ended and Eggman replaced him—he was really just a revision of Robotnik, really. Same person, different tactics.

Knothole was now a fully functional village the homes still humble, like before when in hiding, but much bigger. Most Mobians lived there. There was also a large castle built, where the Acorns lived—all but Sally, who refused to give up her Freedom Fighter days until Eggman was taken care of.

Tails stopped walking, his large, tentative ears flickering backwards. He had finally detected the robot behind him. His fur stood up, chills spreading throughout his spine. He took a deep breath, reminding himself he was no longer a helpless nine-year-old.

He turned around fast, keeping total control of how much sound he made. He was met with a familiar face, one he hadn't seen for years. He thought Robotnik no longer existed, replaced for good by Eggman. What's with the sudden change?

The Swatbot moved at him, charging and nearly running him over. Tails was confused and stunned, but reluctant to yell for help. Swatbots were weak compared to things they fought nowadays, why would Eggman go back? There has to be a trick to this.

And Tails was right about that. The Swatbot's metal hands burst into silver flame. "What?!" Tails squeaked. Silver fire? Eggman never used fire, but what's silver fire!? On a Swatbot, no less!

Tails hovered up into the air, over a small dart of fire that was flung at his chest. He took a fast, deep breath and curled himself into a spin-dash that Sonic taught him over their years of friendship. It worked better with Sonic by his side, with those sharp spines, but Tails could make his double-tails almost as lethal.

He spun himself into the head of the Swatbot, listening to the sawing against the metal before being flung back into a tree by its arm. Any normal Swatbot would be dead by now—oh, right, this is Eggman's Swatbot. New, remade, and ready to kill.

At this point, he was ready to yell for help. "No, Tails, you can handle yourself against a stupid Swatbot!" He told himself, charging back down to its head with triple his original sawing power. Soon he felt dizzy, but kept himself going with pure will.

Finally he felt the strong metal helmet of the Swatbot give in, sawing into its motherboard-like-brain, through and out of the throat, nearly tearing it in two. He knew it wouldn't be getting up and attacking again, after that. He felt proud before realizing more might be coming. He knew he had to get back to the Freedom Fighters and tell them what he saw.

"Come on, Tails, don't be silly. Swatbots aren't around anymore." Sonic said, waving a hand towards his younger friend dramatically.

"Sonic's right, Tails. Eggman scrapped the idea of Swatbots and other robots like it when he revised his schematics." Sally backed him up, lifting a mug to her lips and taking a small drink of hot ginger tea. Sonic was standing by the table she sat at, stretching himself out as if he had just woken up or was planning on exercising. Probably both.

"I mean it, guys! It was a Swatbot, no mistaking it! Except it was tougher, and…and…it had fire! Fire!" Tails said desperately, looking to Sonic who was most likely to trust him. Both of them stopped, looking over to him without moving at all.

Sonic let his arms drop from above his head while Sally went back to drinking her tea and looking over something in a medium sized book, looking somewhat like a school textbook with lined writing paper instead of facts.

"You're making your story sound more and more silly, lil' buddy. Just give it up, Eggman stopped making Swatbots. You aren't gonna convince us." Sonic said with a sigh, stretching his legs out again before calming down and sitting half on the table. Sally gave him a brief glare, before looking back to the scribbled notes in her book.

"Come on, Sonic. You want evidence? I'll show you! Just come with me!" Tails said, folding his arms in frustration. Sonic raised his hands in defense, creasing his eyebrows and closing his eyes with a smile.

"Okay, I guess, if you want to prove it that badly. I needed to go out for a run, anyways." He sighed, standing up and dragging Tails gently to the door with by his ear. Tails hovered up into the air, staying stationary as Sonic kicked into full blast, dragging him fast in the air. Tails yelled over the winds the directions to the path he took.

Sonic stopped when he saw the Swatbot. His eyes were wide as Tails hovered down next to him. He looked really, really confused. "See? A Swatbot." Tails said.

Sonic said nothing until regaining his ability to speak. "Why would Eggman go back to his days as Robotnik?"