[Fixed up some grammar and spelling errors, changed a few descriptions and paragraphs a bit]

[New story and chapter title, I thought they were both more appropriate]

I take no credit in the creation of the characters or universe represented here. Only the story.

Chapter 2: Test Run

Tails was reading a text message from his new cell phone after just finishing calling back a few of his friends. The most difficult of all of them to call was Sonic. Tails was perplexed why until he decided to call Amy. She was talking about how she's been, listing off most of her daily activities. Tails guessed that about 50% of her daily routine was calling, texting, or in some other method: Trying to get in contact with Sonic. Tails chuckled to himself at that thought. He knew that the both of them were much closer as time moved forward, but for Sonic it seems that old habits die hard.

After talking with her, he decided again to keep trying to get in contact with Sonic. Again, he could not reach him right away and decided to try Knuckles. Knuckles said he was 'busy' and couldn't talk long. He heard a feminine voice in the background and guessed that Rouge was with him again. Rouge and Knuckles were pretty close, but whenever everyone got together and did anything fun; they'd get the most competitive with each other. Knuckles was still doing what he was best known for: Guarding the Master Emerald on Angel Island. Rouge is usually there once in awhile to keep him company, and sometimes Sonic and Tails, and maybe Cream or Amy fly up there with the Tornado to just meet up and chat. Sonic and Knuckles' relationship has improved and they seem more like friends rather than rivals like back then. Again, sometimes old habits die hard.

Finally after a few more tries Tails was able to get in contact with Sonic for the first time it what felt like years. He was happy to be hearing from one of his best friends and surrogate brother again. Sonic apologized to Tails for the amount of times he had to call him to get in contact with him. He explained the already obvious reason for almost never turning on his phone and once again Tails chuckled to himself. Amy and him have such a strange relationship, he assumed he'd never understand it no matter how much time passed. As they were starting to catch up and chat, a call bleeped in from Sonic's side, guessing that it was probably Amy. Sonic quickly explained that he had to go for now, but would meet up with him later at his workshop. Satisfied enough with that answer, Tails said his goodbyes and just as he was about to call his gift bearer, a text popped up on his phone from said person.

[Hey, I'm on the train on my way to the Mystic Ruins. I figured I would tell you now instead of scaring you again, hehe.] Tails laughed to himself and began typing back a reply to Cream.

[I appreciate it. =P] Tails sent his message and put away his cell phone for the time being. He decided to come out from the garage of his house and took with him a peculiar looking outfit. The outfit was a two piece, mechanical looking outfit that consisted of mostly an overall blue color with some white lines stretching from the body to the sleeves and leggings. His infamous twin-tailed logo was placed squarely in the center at the chest of the outfit. This outfit went along with his newly modified gloves and shoes, which he wanted to test out at the moment before Cream arrived.

Tails stepped outside and stood overlooking the landscape of the Mystic Ruins. Tails began to just walk at his normal speed, towards an open area of the ruins that eventually would lead near the waterfall and train station. Tails began to quicken his pace steadily until he was running at his normal speed. His tails began to spin rapidly, like a propeller in accordance to his rapidly increasing speed. As he hit his maximum running speed, his shoes began to kick in and he slowly and slightly began to ascend from the ground. During this process, his speed begin to increase more and more, running far more quickly than he has ever been able to run.

It-It's working! This is amazing! If I'm correct this could give me the potential to run almost as fast, if not FASTER than Sonic or Shadow! Tails thought happily to himself. Already nearing the train station, Tails hesitantly halted himself from his running speed and nearly stopped on a dime and safely back on his feet to the ground. "As far as I can tell, this test was a complete success!" He declared happily. Since the train hasn't arrived at the station quite yet Tails decided to give it another go, and began running back towards his workshop.

As he started running back, a certain blue blur jumped from the tracks of the train station and ran down, nearing closer to the running teenage fox. It took a moment but the blue blur was able to catch up neck and neck to Tails and grinned.

"Well well, someone's been running a lot more lately, huh bro?"

"Sonic!" Tails cheerfully exclaimed, "I didn't think you'd be dropping in right away!"

Sonic grinned, "Would you expect anything less from the world's fastest hedgehog? I see that someone's trying to take that title away."

Tails sweatdropped, nearly tripping at his high speeds and stopped, nearing his workshop. "I'm not a hedgehog Sonic.. I think I'll go for world's fastest fox though, if you don't mind."

Sonic rounded around the house and appeared behind Tails leaning up against his house and smiling, "Sounds good. I can guess that this extra boost in your speed is from your Shadow-like shoes."

"A keen observation, Sonic. You see, I deduced that Shadow's speed was able to match yours due to the technological aspects of his shoes.." Tails began to explain, going more and more into detail as Sonic began to zone out due to his 'techno-babble' as he'd refer it as. Sonic looked up and saw someone out in the distance walking from the train station up to the workshop.

"..and then I tweaked it a little to go into hover mode at my specific running style and speed. I was thinking about maybe-" Tails continued to explain before Sonic suddenly cut him off, with one hand atop his eyes peering out in the distance.

"Hey buddy, I think you have another visitor heading this way, it kind of looks like Cream." Tails turned around to see the oncoming visitor and smirked a little bit. In a flash, Tails was off in his newly found speed out towards Cream.

Cream saw a burst of dirt and dust shooting up from the ground from a distance, naturally assuming that Sonic was just departing from Tails' workshop. As the blur came closer and closer, Cream quickly turned her head to the left from a natural reflex, expecting Sonic to zoom past her and she'd wave him off. Cream had her hand ready, but noticed that nothing went by her and stood in confusion.

"Hi Cream!" Tails exclaimed happily. Cream jumped in surprise and jerked her head forward to see that Tails was suddenly standing right in front of her.

"T-Tails!" Cream exclaimed clutching her chest, feeling her heartbeat pick up and her breathing picking up.

"Oops, I guess I should of sent you a text to be aware that I was going to come see you quick, huh?" Tails said sarcastically with a smile and winked at her. Cream still was a little confused on what exactly just happened and how exactly Tails just seemed to appear out of no where. Starting to recover from her little shock, she crossed her arms and stared at him with half lidded eyes.

"Oh ha ha, very funny Tails." She stared at him with a false unpleased look then started to smile and giggle a little bit, not being able to keep up her charade.

Tails joined her along in a laugh a little bit, "Sorry Cream, I couldn't help it."

"Using your new found speed for tricks? That's pretty sneaky Tails." Sonic said as he stood behind Cream.

"Eep!" Cream jumped up in front of Tails and looked back at the hedgehog that seems to have appeared behind her, once again in shock.

"That's just overkill, Sonic!" Tails laughing a hearty laugh along with Sonic with Cream now starting to grow a little irritated.

"That wasn't very funny Mis-S-Sonic.." Cream pouted, "I'm already recovering from nearly going into shock." Cream's smile grew a little bit and asked innocently, "There's.. no one else that's going to appear out of no where is there? I think I'm going to faint if I end up being spooked once more.."

Sonic chuckled and shook his head, "No worries, just me and Tails here." he said as he pointed behind her. It was then she realized she was unusually close to her two-tailed friend and stepped away a bit.

"S-sorry Tails" Cream said a little hesitantly.

"It's okay, no big d-deal Cream." Tails said trying to act casual and cleared his throat. "Anyway, sorry again about scaring you.. twice. It wasn't apart of my plan for Sonic to join in as well."

Sonic grinned and ruffled Tails' bangs and began walking towards the workshop, "I'll let myself in if you don't mind, buddy. You two take your time coming in."

"No problem, Sonic." Tails and Cream waved him off and decided to walk back towards the house themselves.

Cream blinked, "Tails.. how exactly were you able to get here so fast? When I was beginning to walk down to your house there was no one around here."

Tails smiled and pointed down at his shoes, "I explained most of the details to Sonic, knowing how much he loves to hear me talk about the inventions in great detail." Tails snickered to himself and continued, "So, I'll give you the abridged version. I modified my shoes to have similar technological capabilities to that of Shadow's. I'm already able to keep up with Sonic with my regular speed, most of the time. So I started to think that if I modified my shoes with similar aspects to Shadow's, that I might be able to match their running speeds. I tinkered with them a little bit more to my specific styles and speeds to give them even better performance. Of course, these are just the prototypes; I plan to continue working on the final result later today."

"Wow, that really incredible Tails! What brought you to do something like that though? Like you said, you're able to keep up in speed with the two hedgehogs most of the time just how you run now. So what made you think to want to surpass their speeds?" The teenage rabbit asked in curiosity.

They were both walking near the house and looking out at the runway, leading out to the cliffs that overlooked the ocean. Tails took a moment to think before responding to her question, "Well, I don't know.. well I do, but well..." Tails took a deep breath to stop stumbling on his words and exhaled calmly. "I think it's because of Sonic. Well, not just Sonic, but maybe Shadow too, who knows? It's just that.. well Sonic and Shadow have always done such amazing things to help protect this planet. They've always made sure they could do whatever they can in order to stop the forces of evil whenever possible. That's why I want to do more to be sure that I can be at my best if those forces ever show up again. Not just Dr. Eggman either, since he's not the only evil we've faced in the past. I just want to be there too, if things ever get out of hand and they might need a hand. Although I sort of doubt it.. Shadow's far more powerful than I'll ever be and Sonic's always succeeding in keeping evil at bay. I figure it's always best to be prepared though, especially when it comes to protecting everyone on the planet, not to mention your loved ones."

Tails looked back at Cream, to be met with a bright, cheerful smile. Cream put her arm on Tails' shoulder, keeping her eyes on the ocean, "T-tails.. you've been there with Sonic for almost as long as he's been fighting Dr. Eggman. From some of the stories you've told me, I've gathered that if you weren't there with him, that he'd have a lot more troubles in dealing with him than he used to. Where do you think he'd be without your knowledge of mechanics and technical prowess? You've also told me that you've even confronted Dr. Robotnik on a few different occasions when Amy was cornered by him one time. You've also told me how you faced him again when you thought he finally got rid of Sonic for good. Whether you believe it or not, I think you're already on par with the two of them already. What you don't have in power or athleticism you make up in intelligence. You're careful, level-headed, and strategic when trying to think of ways in confronting the enemy. You provide different devices that you created yourself when the situation calls for it. You've done a lot for everyone and you're willing to do even more to make sure everyone's safe. With all we've been through, you still manage to be one of the n-nicest and most generous person I know." Cream turned her head slightly to get a glance at Tails. She turned her head fully, noticing he was facing away from her. "Tails?" Cream questioned a little concerned.

Tails was facing away from Cream with his muzzle glowing as bright as the red chaos emerald. He wasn't used to such high praise from anyone before, he felt quite honored to be thought of so highly by her. By her? Why her specifically? Tails shook off the thought, knowing he was keeping her waiting with his sudden analyzation of the situation, "I-I really appreciate that Cream, that's really.. sweet of you." Tails turned to face her and smiled, most of his blush fading.

Cream smiled, happy that she was able to cheer up her two tailed friend and turned around with him, facing his workshop. "Should we go in with Sonic now? He's been in there for quite a while by himself."

"Oh yeah, I uh.. forgot about him." Tails chuckled lightly at his own forgetfulness and rubbed his head. "Yeah it's probably a good id-"

"Tails.." Sonic spoke and jumped from his house and landed in front of Tails and Cream, "Is there something going on that I should know about?"

"W-what do you mean?" Tails asked, noticing his stern voice as well as his serious gaze upon him. He was starting to feel a little uncomfortable at this sudden change of emotion from his brother.

"I need to know now, Tails. I need to know what happened in town today." Sonic spoke once again firmly. He stepped closer to Tails, standing face to face with him with no falter to his gaze.

"S-Sonic?" Cream hesitantly asked, now feeling as nervous as Tails was. Tails stepped back a little, feeling quite intimidated from his brother's frightening demeanor.

"W-what's going on? Why is Sonic so serious all of a sudden. I've never seen him this serious before; not since usually entering his Super Form to face a powerful foe anyway.." Tails thought, taking another step or two back with Cream still arm in arm. It hit him then, he wasn't just facing him seriously.. he was facing him like he could be some sort of threat. Tails shivered at the possibility that Sonic would ever think of him like that. Cream felt his arm shaking and reached for his hand to try and keep him calm. This was Sonic after all, despite his actions he'd never do anything to put them in harm's way.

"Tails!" Sonic shouted impatiently, continuing to step closer as Tails tried to step back to keep space between them. Tails' fear was starting to overwhelm him a bit and he was beginning to feel a little panicked. Tails fright-filled expression was the last thing he saw before he saw Tails scoop up Cream in his arm and flee at high speeds. Sonic immediately regretted his choice of actions as that expression of fear and desperation on Tails' features was stuck in his head. He began running after his scared, two-tailed brother at maximum speed in an attempt to catch up and explain himself.

"Tails! Tails wait!"

...What? It's only been three years, calm down.

I plan to write more now, mainly this story. I can't say I'll get to every story like last time, so for now I'm going to focus on this one. I have some ideas and motivation, mainly that I want to really complete this story. Should be around 25 chapters, more or less. That means at this rate I should be done with it in 69 more years. Woo! I'll be faster with updates, or at least try to be. I want to at least finish this thing while keeping my life in tact, so I'll try to be faster than the estimated decades.

Please point out any 'Sonic' related errors: names, settings, etc. That'd be super. =3

Enjoy the chapter if anyone even remembers the least subtle writing of the first chapter.