"Can you see it?"

"Yeah-" there was a jolt of static as he spoke, his speed surely the reason for the interruption, "-ahead of me."

"What can you see?"

"Looks like a library actually. I feel like I should be whispering." The static had stopped, Sonic's voice was clear and crisp as he spoke to the fox on the other end.

"You should be whispering, Sonic. You're supposed to be in stealth mode."

An exasperated laugh escaped the hedgehog's lips as if the idea of being caught pleased him. Tails had a feeling that was exactly the case, roaming bookshelves wasn't exactly the hedgehog's idea of a good time.

"Some weird books on here, bud. There's one about alchemy, curses," Sonic's voice wandered off as Tails roamed his own computer, his eyes flicking between Sonic's location and where they presumed the bandits of the mission should be hiding. He was getting close if Amy's evaluations were correct.

"Sure Sonic, just be careful. If you set the alarms-"

A shatter of glass, Sonic no doubt penetrating whatever stood between him and a good sounding book. Tails sighed flatly, adjusting the microphone that sat gently upon his muzzle, his fingers tapping away on a keyboard which he now was using to scan Sonic's current rendezvous, quick to check whether or not the hog had set off any immediate alarms with his noise.

They weren't fighting anyone worthy of note, it was simply a group of bandits who had found a talent for robbery. Particularly antiques. Books as Sonic had so quickly detected. Tails had tracked them down after Amy had observed previous crime scenes and Sonic was happy to take on any enemy.

It was good teamwork. Tails couldn't be more impressed with how the job had gone so far. Alas, now came for the stealth and take down. The heroic act of bringing enemies to justice.

Sonic was used to robots and Eggman, destruction was often in his nature despite Tails repeating several times that they were squatting and it was, in fact, a factory belonging to someone else.

Damages were to be avoided. Even standing still, it seemed a difficult task to the speedy hedgehog.

"Sorry." Sonic replied sheepishly into the speaker, "I'll whisper now."

Another sigh, "that's fine, from this end it doesn't seem like you set off any alarms." Tails leaned back in his armchair, his laptop resting gently upon his lap.

"Do you remember Amy's description of the group?"

"Yeah I..." there was a stutter of breathing, Sonic holding his breath, Tails couldn't help but mimic his friend on the other end of the line, he too falling quiet. A rumble. Cracking,

"Sonic? Can you read me?" Tails shifted in his seat, a slight frown upon his lips.

"I think someone found me," Sonic whispered his voice electric, clearly not worried.

Often Tails didn't even have contact with Sonic when he went off to fight like this, they only had spit up so that Tails could stay and watch the surveillance. But there were no alarms triggered, no doors locked. From a security perspective, Sonic was safe from being spotted.

That was unless someone had heard whatever he had broken only moments before. Tails shook his head, a murmur of some kind pulling him out of his thoughts.

The fox pushed the volume up, hoping that Sonic's microphone would pick up any detail. But it had failed, he'd missed whatever conversation Sonic had just part taken in.

"Sonic? Are you there?"

No answer.

"Sonic. Can you hear me?"

Silence.

"If you can hear me, I'm coming to help." But something unusual stopped Tails from continuing, a very loud and explosive sound; crashing of metal and rock like a bomb had just exploded directly into the earpiece. Tails had to rip it off from his head, flinging it away from his like the headphones were cursed.

Without hesitation, he pushed his portable earpiece in and was already heading out towards the Tornado. It was time to go see how Sonic was doing with his eyes and not his ears.

It took Tails approximately twenty minutes to track down the factory Sonic had been scoping by himself for the majority of the afternoon, but it wasn't the aesthetic dirt trap they'd seen online when Tails had been looking it up earlier.

Instead, it was a blaze of fire and smoke. Tails had to try his best to avoid the licks of flames, his eyes glued to the screen of the Tornado as it homed in onto his blue friend. Sonic was at the heart of the destruction.

Something struck Tails as odd. These flames were practically lilac as he neared closer, swirling across the building as a disease. Something is his gut ached, like guilt, failure. Why was that?

A balcony struck out in the madness, Tails used it as a landing point, plucking his tracking device away from the front of the plane and landing onto the rubble below. Sonic was close, Tails just had to spot him down.

The fox stepped into the abyss of purple, coughing as he pulled the goggles he had been wearing as he flew back down on his head.

"Sonic?" He called out, "hey, are you here?"

Tails paused, listening intently as his transmitter pulsed. He was practically standing on the hedgehog, it was just a matter of spotting him.

"Sonic!" His voice held growing concern, sniffing at the air until he smelt the one thing he, unfortunately, could pinpoint anywhere due to his species. His eyes locked down onto a patch of rubble to the left, his legs moving forward at a quick pace. Finally, he saw him in the dust, Sonic pushing himself upright at an odd angle, his arm propping his torso up in an uncomfortable manner.

"Sonic?" Tails felt his own energy drain from him, his eyes glued to the hedgehog who usually looked so fierce and carefree but now looked pale and absurdly confused.

Sonic went to push himself upright further at the sight of his twin-tailed brother, but his cognition lacked. Sonic's free arm dropped and he had to awkwardly fling it forward in order to keep him from dropping into the dirt headfirst.

"Hey, Uh..." his backside fell limp and he leaned himself against the rubble behind him clumsily. "I can't," his hand flung out slightly at the newfound stability of the ground, "Something. 'S wrong."

Tails' brows furrowed and he scurried towards his friend, tossing the device to his side. His hands swung out and he took Sonic's face in his finger so as to inspect the hedgehog.

"What are you feeling?"

"Szz." Sonic's own hand seemed to reach towards Tails but it didn't make it far enough to clamp on tight enough. "S'...not good." He admitted.

Tails looked over his friend, Sonic's green eyes lacking to meet properly with his own. Tails gently pulled at the hedgehog who grunted at the movement. The muck of red was obvious, it was the shard of metal sticking out of Sonic's crown that had finally made Tails' heart pick up.