A/N: Nothing much to say here, I do want to say though that I am very happy with how this whole project turned out. I'm going to be writing everything like I wrote this, far in advance and have everything planned out. There's a lot less stress when you don't have to worry about people's expectation on when a new chapter is going to be released. Speaking of releases, the final chapter will be released on Friday. Without anymore interruptions, Enjoy the story!

Today wasn't a very special day for most Mobians, though to a few it was important. The few it was important too however, had gone all-out in celebration and dragged a certain two-tailed fox out of his isolated laboratory in the woods and took him to a moderately popular bar. Knuckles Bar to be exact.

Today was Miles 'Tails' Prower's twenty first birthday. Though his friends, being some of the most outgoing Mobian's on the planet, had made plans for him long ago to go and get him, and hopefully themselves as well, completely and utterly shitfaced.

Tails was never one for large parties and thankfully Sonic hadn't arranged something big, he had only invited their close friends that were free for the evening. He had always been a little anti-social, though Sonic had forced most of it away and he was begrudgingly thankful for it.

The close friends he had invited totaled six, his self-appointed aunt Sally Acorn, Knuckles the Echidna, Antoine D' Coolette and his wife Bunnie Rabbot, Nicole the Lynx, who had recently achieved a full Mobian body thanks to Tails and Rotor that was still connected to the nano-bots, and Sonic himself.

"All right Tails, now that we've got all the boring stuff out of the way I've got a surprise for you." Sonic said, a wide grin on his face.

"Well what is it?" Tails asked, having just polished off his first drink.

"It's a drinking challenge to everybody here. If you're in toss in five bucks." Sonic answered pulling out his own money and slapping it down in the middle of the table. Tails was hesitant but ultimately caved in and tossed in his own money. Everybody followed suit except for Bunnie.

"Sorry guys, I can't join ya. Wouldn't be all that smart with a little one on the way." She said in her southern drawl, patting her stomach with her hand for emphasis.

"Congrats you two, when's it due?" Sally asked, happy for the two Mobians and wishing slightly for her own.

"Oh don't let us steal sugah here's thunder. Y'all have a hoot." Bunnie said, shrugging off the question.

"All right, the drinks are here." Sonic said rubbing his hands in preparation to win.

It was close in the end, it came down to the twenty third drink between Sonic and Knuckles. The two of them could barely get the glass to their mouths without spilling it all over themselves. But in a competition there was always a winner and Knuckles eventually lost consciousness with a loud bang as his face hit the table.

Sonic followed shortly after with a celebratory woo hoo before falling out of his seat blackout drunk. Bunnie eventually left first carrying her giggling and very drunk husband home. Nicole couldn't stand properly and fell on her ass, she was a lightweight with her licker. Sally was half conscious but able to walk. Though the birthday boy didn't go down easily, he blacked two drinks before Sonic and Knuckles.

"All…right Nicole. I'll take Sonipu home and we'll have sloppy drunk sex!" Sally lost her verbal filter when she got drunk and revealed way too much information, but she never noticed because usually when she was that drunk, her friends were even more drunk.

"I'll take Tailszzz…home then. Knuckles can stay…here *hic* here cause it's his bar." Nicole slurred out, grabbing Tails arm and yanking him off the table and onto the floor which dragged her down there with him.

The fall woke Tails up enough that Nicole could drag him outside followed shortly by Sally and Sonic where they all entered a cab. Nicole ended up falling asleep on Tails's couch and had no clue if Sally and Sonic actually got it on. She assumed they did.

The Morning After

Tails awoke with a groan. "Sweet merciful god I feel like my skull's been cracked open, scratch that it's worse. I'll never drink that much again." Just speaking made his head hurt even more than it did. He tried to roll over and get the sun out of his eyes when he accidentally rolled out of bed and making his head throb even more.

"Ah! Fuck!" He said through his teeth making it come out as a long hiss that made his head throb and making him whimper slightly in pain.

Tails got to his feet while holding his head and went to his medicine cabinet and grabbed a few migraine pills. Eventually he smelled coffee brewing in his house.

"Did I bring someone home with me? First time drunk and I've probably got an STD. Great." Tails followed his nose to the kitchen where a fresh brew of coffee sat waiting for whoever wanted some. He knew coffee was supposed to help with hangovers so he just grabbed the whole pot and chugged it. Something he immediately regretted when the liquid fire burned his whole mouth.

"I'm fo ftupid." He garbled out with his burnt tongue while grabbing a some ice cubes to plop in his mouth.

"Hey Tails. I made some coffee, I see you've already had some. I want to laugh but it hurts my head to laugh." Nicole said from the coffee table she was sitting at. How did he not see her?

"Nicole? I brought you home? I was upset with myself earlier but now I want to pat myself on the back." He said while smiling.

"Not really Tails. I brought you home, I just didn't want to leave because you ha a perfectly good couch right there." Now that he took a good look at her, Tails could tell that nothing did happen between them. Her hair and clothes were disheveled and wrinkly. But it wasn't all that noticeable.

"All right. What time is it?" Tails asked while sitting down in the chair opposite her.

"Like two."

"I have to go then, make yourself at home while I'm gone."

"Where are you going?"

"To the store."

"Watch yourself, there's a nasty flu going around."

"I will."

Tails made his way through the significantly bare streets of New Mobotropolis with a fair amount of curiosity. Nicole wasn't kidding when she said something was going around, the street had maybe half of the people it normally would.

"Geez, something really is going around. What happened here?" Tails had come upon the store he always shopped at and saw that there were hazmat teams outside and that there was a fairly obvious quarantine going on.

Tails waved and got the attention of one of the men in a hazmat suit who begrudgingly came over when they saw who he was. "What's going on here and why wasn't I told about it?"

"You freedom fighters haven't been notified because it's a medical issue. It's not a military issue so we didn't bother to tell you."

"I think we should have been notified! Look at the streets! They're almost empty!"

"We know, we are working-" Tails interrupted him.

"No you aren't working on it anymore, this is a pretty big medical issue and I'll get the answers from the Acorn's if I have to. This just officially became a military issue."

"Fine, we could use a few more hands. Before you go I would suggest not eating any foods purchased here. Also what's going around isn't really a flu, we can't tell if it's airborne or not but I'd be careful walking around the hospital."

"Thanks for the info. Sorry I was kinda rude earlier, I've got a hangover right now and I'm kinda on edge."

"It's fine, stay safe."

Tails had spread the word to all of his friends and eventually Sally deployed some troops to keep a quarantine under control and to help with the sick. But despite this, as the weeks passed everyone seemed to get sicker and sicker. Sally even called in Tails to help lead the team in developing a cure.

"Sally I don't know the first thing about biology or developing a cure for a disease." He hated seeing her when she was like this, recently she had caught the disease and she had this faraway look in her eyes all the time. Plus the fact that she was as skinny as a toothpick really made him hate being around her.

"I'm sorry Tails but most of the people in the city are sick…I'll be bed ridden soon as well so I'm only asking you to try…" She asked, almost pleading.

"I'll help Sally, you know I will. Whose my team?"

"You, Nicole, Sonic, and Knuckles. But I sent Knuckles out try and get Shadow here…since he was made to cure diseases."

"Wait…Sonic and I know nothing about Biology or cures. What about the Mobian's who actually do?"

"As far as my knowledge goes Tails, only you four aren't sick."

That realization hit Tails with the force of a truck. The whole city was counting on a handful of Mobians who mostly knew nothing about what was making them sick.

Tails walked in a stunned silence into the Acorn Center for Disease Control where he was let in by an automatic door. He walked past the several unused laboratories until he came upon the one lab that seemed to be being used. He was greeted by the fairly exhausted looks from his comrades Sonic and Nicole. Though Sonic barely looked like he knew what he was doing.

"Nicole please tell me we're close."

"No we're not. But we've made a little progress."

"What do we do?" Nicole explained to him how he was supposed to layer and mix hundreds of enzymes and anti-bodies to hopefully pick the right combination that the disease could slow down. Then once they had done that they had to repeatedly pick different ones that had a similar effect to hopefully all out stop it. Then they could worrying about curing it.

"The enzymes and anti-bodies are separated into groups, pick one from each and organize them in different combinations to see what happens. If the virus stops copying itself or slows down then you're on the right track." Nicole explained, pointing to several boxes that were labeled with words he barely knew how to pronounce.

"If you get the hang of it, maybe you can figure out how to reprogram a different virus to attack that one. Don't ask me how because I don't know."

"Then why even bother telling me about it?"

"It's an option, a difficult one yes, but not impossible."

So they worked, minutes turned into hours, hours into days. Days into weeks. They made very slow progress but progress was being made despite the skeleton crew working without sleep. Tails caught himself and his friends asleep at their stations several time and he reprimanded himself.

It seemed the virus did two things, from what they could gather. First, it would actually attack the immune system with something, they couldn't figure it out yet, that would destroy the white blood cells. It then slowed down or entirely stopped production of anti-bodies to fight it off. Thankfully, it spread rather slow, but the bad news was that most Mobians have had this disease for years and it was now in its final stages. This with the fact that every symptom was nearly identical with a cold made it hard to find and treat.

"I'm so exhausted…" Tails droned to himself, as he and his two friends allowed themselves a little rest from their tireless work. He laid his head down and screamed internally.

Why weren't the three of them sick? They had all tested themselves out of curiosity and none of them were immune, but yet they weren't sick. It boggled Tails mind and he decided to test some of the things that he knew he kept on him and inside him. Perhaps chaos energy kept this thing in check, after all, their immune systems were much more resilient than a normal Mobian.

"Just give me something…anything you little fucker. Give me any ground and I will end you." Tails threatened the virus. He knew it meant nothing but he didn't care.

Tails injected a little chaos energy directly into virus's system and watched for anything, anything, that showed signs of slowing it down. He watched with a victorious grin as it wriggled in apparent pain, then looked on in despair as it suddenly began reproducing even faster than before.

He wanted to cry when he saw what happened. Nothing worked against this thing. He eventually gave up and went to sleep for a few hours before tackling the problem on a more rested mind.

Two Days Later

"Please tell me that just happened. Please tell me I'm not hallucinating." Sonic said to himself, eyeing the microscope intensely.

"What happened?" Nicole and Tails asked in unison.

"I think, don't quote me on this, I stopped it. I didn't kill it but it just stopped making copies of itself." Sonic said, unable to keep the victorious grin off of his face when he watched his apparent victory.

It was a small victory, yes, but they really needed one.

Their victory high fives were stopped when they received a dangerous phone call from Sally. The last person taking care of the sick just collapsed. One of them had to go over there and take his place.

Sadly, and fortunately, the answer to who would go over was answered when Sonic collapsed out of his chair as well. Once they got him back in his feet, they noticed how skinny he was.

"I can take care of them for a while, half dead Mobian's can't take too much can they?" Sonic asked, his cocksure smile and attitude still present, despite the pain he was in.

"Here, take this now. Make sure you keep yourself safe."

"I'll be fine. You guys will have a cure real soon anyhow. Good luck!" Sonic gave them a thumbs up with a somber smile on his face before he walked out of the lab and left Nicole an Tails alone.

"Let's get back to work."

To stay on the safe side, both Nicole and Tails took the small vaccine Sonic had made themselves. Soon after they began modifying it's several components and adding different kinds of ingredients trying to take Sonic's work and make something out of it.

If it wasn't for Sonic, both of them would probably be a lot like him right now. So Sonic had successfully bought them enough time to finish, but they may not have enough time period. Suddenly Knuckles gave them a call and it was with very unwelcoming news.

"You're joking. Knuckles please tell me you're joking. Tell me you're fucking joking." Tails said, absolutely pleading with the Echidna on the other side of the line.

"No I'm not. I saw Scourge and the Destructix leave a warp ring and head towards Mobotropolis. I wouldn't have stood a chance if I fought them on my own. I'm going to make my way back now since I'm needed there. Got to go." That was all he said before his line went dead.

"Nicole, how long has Knuckles been gone?" Tails asked , a terrified expression on his face. A fact that didn't get by Nicole.

"He's been gone for about one month. What's wrong? What did he say?" Nicole was worried, Tails wasn't really afraid of much. But here he was nearly hyperventilating and looking mortified.

"Then we have roughly a month before our death squad gets here. Scourge and his Destructix crew are on their way here right now and I'll give you two guesses as to why their coming." Tails buried his face in his hands and groaned before knocking a bunch of equipment in front of him off the table.

"Then we don't have any time to waste then."

Nicole's words rung true in Tails head as he redoubled his efforts in changing Sonic's vaccine so that it didn't just stop the virus. They had a month to do what took them two with three.

After a month Tails found himself staring at the beaker in front of him and running out of time. He waited for its color to change to purple so he could test it. He doubted it would work but they had to start over once they found out Sonic's vaccine couldn't stop it.

Tails took a stab at what Nicole told him about when he first got here and started trying to change and reprogram another hunter virus. It finally changed and Tails found himself staring at the microscope again. Like he had done so many times.

Nicole was asleep next to him at her own little station. A week without sleep was exhausting to say the least and Tails himself wasn't far behind her. After a little bit it became obvious that he hadn't really reprogrammed the virus at all. It just adapted to the attacking disease and helped it out more.

Tails groaned and almost destroyed the wall on the other side of him out of frustration. He began to loathe his genius. It would always have an idea, a lead, of something that would help. But this was not something he was acquainted with and it made him seethe.

Technology was predictable because he would have built it, but an actual life form was something that eluded him with its secrets. He had reached his wit's end and the little fucking disease was acting like it knew too. Wriggling around and acting more violent when he glared at it.

"Keep mocking me. See what happens when I eventually wipe you off the face of the planet." It seemed to wriggle in response to his words, almost as if challenging him.

"Reprogram…reprogram…reprogram…" Tails repeated that word to himself over and over. Something about was eating away at him, how could you reprogram a life form?

"If I can reprogram a robot why couldn't I…" There it was, an idea that popped into his brain. He could reprogram robots in his sleep, he would know he used to sleep walk and do it.

"By god I've got it! Nicole wake up!" He shook her awake perhaps more violently than he intended to but he had to.

"What is it?" She said sleepily while returning to her station before Tails turned her around and and made her face him.

"Nicole, this whole city is made of nano-bots right? Instead of me fucking around with medicine I'll just reprogram a couple million nano-bots to attack the virus instead. That would work right?" Tails had a hopeful expression on his face.

Nicole went from sleepy to excited in the span of a second. "Tails that will work! Hurry we don't have much time." They didn't waste any time and by the next morning millions of nano-bots were attacking any rogue cells in their bodies. Leave it to Tails to use technology in a way no one had thought of yet.

With as much speed as they could they began giving every citizen the cure they two of them had created with glee. They were so caught up in their success that they completely forgot about the looming threat that was on top of them.

Tails was finally able to get a decent night's sleep for the first time in months.

When he woke the next morning Nicole informed him of some news that he had half expected.

"Just give them until tomorrow morning and most of the sick should be fine. I can't believe we did it."

"Nicole, how far are Scourge and the Destructix?" He didn't want to hear anything about today. He wasn't confident in his ability on his own. He wanted to hear something farther than forty eight hours. So everybody could fight them.

"I don't know…oh no that better be a false alarm. Oh god no…please no." Nicole began pacing back and forth, concentrating on some foreign data that the nano-bots sent her that only she knew how to interpret.

"What's wrong? Don't tell me what I think you're going to tell me." It seemed his worst nightmare was coming true.

He didn't get the answer he was expecting when Nicole suddenly turned and began trying to squeeze the life out of him. He returned the hug with gusto. His fears came true when Nicole began crying into his shoulder.

Tails knew what he had to do. "Nicole this is what I want you to do. Stay here and accelerate Sonic and everybody's health as much as you can. I'll hold them off as long as I can."

"But Tails you'll be killed! They'll be here in a little over two hours!"

"If I don't try and stop them then we'll all die! I have to go prepare, besides, remember Knuckles was right there with them when he called. I'll have his help." Tails said in an attempt to comfort her. It didn't work much.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. I'm not fighting to win remember, I'll just hold them off until everyone is healed. Lock the bunker once I leave."