Tails walked through the door of his and Sonic's house, sighing wearily as he shut it behind him. He looked like a complete and utter mess, covered in soot, bruises and cuts. Sonic wouldn't be happy to see him like this.

Their living room is decorated with two ugly couches, a glass coffee table, a 55' TV, and an overhanging fan that doubled as a light.

"Ahem.." Coughed out an all-too-familiar voice. Tails looked up with dread.

"H-Hey Sonic..." He says meekly. Sonic, instead of being angry, looked more worried than anything. A blue hedgehog was sitting on one of the couches, sipping at a cup of strong coffee by the smell of it. Sonic set the coffee down on the table. He looked terrible, with bags under his eyes and ragged looking spines and fur.

"I looked to check on you last night. You weren't in your bed so I assumed you were in your shop, making inventions. I went to your shop in the forest, and you weren't there either. I came back to check the whole apartment and guess what? You weren't anywhere to be found. You worried me, so I called Amy in the middle of the damn night. She hadn't seen you, so I started to panic." Sonic spat out, sighing after he realized his tone. Tails just stared at him with dread. He swore he felt his heart plummet to his stomach as soon as he saw Sonic's glare. Sonic notices, and his expression softens.

"Dude, you legitimately made me panic and I neverlose my cool. Where the hell did you go?!" Sonic exclaimed.

"Sorry! Sorry! I um.. I went to shop for gadgets and I just… took a while getting home." Tails said meekly. Sonic looked over his little brother again and grunted as he stood up, walked over to Tails, and knelt beside him.

"You're beat up." He said, edge to his voice.

"I fell." Tails tries not to sound too emotional.

"You're shaking." Sonic said matter-of-factly.

"I'm fine." Tails said in a whisper.

"No you're not. You're dirty, bleeding, bruised and you've obviously been through something recently, like, 10-20 minutes ago recently, buddy." Sonic looked into Tails' sea-blue eyes with his emerald-green orbs.

"Tell me what happened to you. Now." Sonic's voice was dangerously low, and Tails' breathing sped up.

"Okay! I went to go buy gadgets and I… got jumped." Tails blurted out. Sonic froze up, his heart skipping a beat.

"What did they look like?" Sonic asks, dead serious as he tightened his grip on Tails' shoulder ever so slightly. Tails gulped and shrugged.

"It doesn't matter, S-Sonic. I'll be alright, okay?" Sonic released Tails, and stood up, avoiding eye contact.

"It scares me, y'know. How you don't even trust me enough to tell me who mugged you out there." Sonic said quietly as he turned around to enter the kitchen.

"Soni-"

"Tails, go to bed. You're not allowed to leave the house without a chaperon, got it?" Sonic said as he placed a hand on the wall to steady himself. He shook ever so slightly as the little fox looked to him pleadingly. He didn't look back at him, and Tails knew his fate. He walked to his room slowly, slamming the door behind him as he entered. Sonic simply stood there, shaking more and more as every moment passed. Eventually he sighed and walked to his room, not having the heart or courage to face Tails at that moment.

Tails entered his room, and immediately rushed to his bed, shoved his face in his pillow and screamed loudly. The pillow muffled his cries. So much had happened, and the interaction with Sonic had done him in for the day. The poor little fox's cries became enraged, more so towards himself than anything as he gripped his arms with his no longer gloved hands tightly to vent his emotions. Not even he could explain his own emotions, they just happened. Perhaps it was the traumatic experience at the base, or his brother scolding him that made him so upset. But one thing was certain; He'd need to decrypt the information tomorrow without Sonic knowing. But how would he do that when he couldn't leave the house without a chaperon? He had no decrypting gadgets in the apartment. He couldn't sneak out again, or he'd surely be punished by Sonic.

What am I gonna do…?! Tails tiredly thought as he lost his voice and his emotions pulled him into a teary sleep.

The morning brought nothing short of awkwardness. Tails sat silently at the counter on a wooden stool, eating his pancakes with Sonic standing on the other side in the kitchen, looking at him with pleading eyes.

"Bro, c'mon.. I'm just doing what's best here. You know I'd probably curl into a ball of not-coolness if anything happened to you, right? I've gotta know what's going on and I've gotta be there for you." Sonic said quietly, poking at his pancakes. He didn't feel hungry right then, and he probably wouldn't feel much of anything until Tails forgave him. The small fox simply sat there, slowly eating the pancakes that should have tasted good, but just didn't taste good at all at the moment.

Tails' mind was going a thousand miles per hour as he stared at his half-eaten pancake. He suddenly sighed and looked at Sonic.

"Sonic, I know you mean well but I'm fine, really. Can I at least… go to my shop without a chaperon?" Tails' tone was desperate, as he was feeling. He needed to get to his shop without an issue coming up, Sonic being one of those issues. If he knew he disobeyed him, he'd be in deep trouble. Sonic thought on this a moment, and sighed, nodding reluctantly.

"I know that place is pretty much your only sanctuary.. But if anything happens you call me, okay Tails?" Sonic said, voice quivering slightly.

I guess last night really freaked him… Tails thought to himself. He stood up and scraped his plate into the trash, holding back a sigh of relief as he placed the plate in the dishwasher.

"Thank you, Sonic. I'll be heading out now." He says, waving to his brother figure as he opened the door and exited the house. Once out on the apartment porch, he spun his namesakes and flew at top speed to his workshop in the forests just outside of the city.

Soon, the little fox arrived and landed on the soft, cool grass. The sun had risen a couple of hours ago, but the dew had still remained on the leaves and grasses in the forests. All was peaceful for the most part, aside from the birds that chirped around Tails' property as he unlocked the door to his shop. He entered and flipped on the switch, revealing his study in all it's poorly organized glory.

He walked past his workbenches and approached a set of screens next to a super computer. He took out his device that held all of Eggman's lab data, and inserted it into the drive that was one of the many ports on his computer. Soon the information booted up, and he scanned through all of the passwords and usernames. He'd seen all of it before, except for the passwords, and he ejected the device, and plugged in the USB drive with the encrypted data on it. He took the passwords and quickly tried them all using a special program he'd written, until one matched and let him into the files…

"Holy crap." Tails muttered. He never spoke in such a manner. But what he'd seen was worthy of such a statement. Before him were unseen project files, blueprints, programs not even he could utilize without advanced tech. He opened files upon files, gleaning over them and reading the code he'd taught himself to understand. He finally, after what felt like eons, finished reading the codes and looking over blueprints. He became more and more horrified with every passing second as he noticed the .txt files meant to be diary entries. He too gleans over those. It'd not disturbed him much until he saw the final entry.

The artificial intelligence has a vendetta against me. I'll probably never be heard from again. It's even smarter than me, and even more powerful. I've made a grave mistake. It's too late for anybody. There's no hope.

"Oh my god…" Tails whispered, suddenly startled by a loud ringing by his communicator. He lifted up his 'watch', which was actually a communications device, and answered the call.

"Hey Sonic! What's up?" He said, a slightly unnerved smile on his face.

"Bro, have you seen Knuckles?" Sonic said, his voice panicked and shaky over the comms. Tails furrowed his brows, thinking for a moment before he responded.

"N-No, Sonic. Is something wrong with him?" Tails asks over the watch. Sonic looks at a pink and purple figure, and grumbles.

"Listen, buddy. I've got to go for a while, okay? You stay low. Don't leave your shop, whatever you do." Sonic said quietly into the communicator, his face close to the camera. It soon switched off, and Tails is left there alone, staring at a blank communicator. He sighed and looked around, thinking of something to do while waiting for Sonic to explain what was happening. He could maybe work on gadgets… Or possibly contact the police? No, no. That wouldn't do.

CRACK

Tails jumped at the sudden sound, and froze up as he heard footsteps. Something was approaching him.

Step

Step

Step

WHACK!

Everything went black as a sharp, crushing pain filled the poor fox's head with discomfort.

Sonic ran at medium speed to the police station, worry and panic fueling him. Tails will be fine. He'll stay hidden until I can figure out what the hell is going on. Sonic tried his damnedest to convince himself. Everybody he knew, aside from a few government workers, Amy and Big, had disappeared in the night and he'd just been notified. It was a mass kidnapping. This wasn't something the police were trained for, and this wasn't something anybody had expected. Hundreds of people simply taken away in a few hours. It was unheard of, and nothing mobian or human could do such a feat unless it was supernatural or robotic.

Wait just a goddamn second.

Robotic! This has something to do with Eggman! Sonic stopped in his tracks and looked towards the forest, brows furrowed in steeled determination. The police could wait. Sonic had a job to complete.

He changed course to the forests, running at his limit as he saw gray and blue turn to green and brown. He skidded to a halt before a large pile of ashes and dust.

"No… This is wrong." Sonic grumbled lowly, eyes wide. He walked slowly to the pile of dust and knelt beside the base. "It should be here… It was right here!" Nothing recognizable remained of the base. Sonic held his breath as he felt something on his shoulder. He turned to see…

Absolutely nothing. Nothing was there and Sonic glared at the unseen person who'd held his shoulder. The hedgehog stood awkwardly as he surveyed the area a bit more. Something bright caught his eye… and he noticed something orange and rusty red on the grass and approached slowly.

No.

Tails' fur. That was his little brother's fur and probably his dried blood smeared there on the grass. Sonic got down onto his knees and picked up a small bunch of orange-white hair. It looked exactly like Tails', but the scent was weak. Which meant that he'd not been here for a long while… But it still worried the blue blur, and he needed to make sure he was alright. Despite him having to go to the police station, family came first for Sonic. His only family always came first, before even himself.

Sonic slammed on the door a final time, crying out as he fell forwards into the wooden door and soon onto the unpolished wooden floor of his adoptive brother's shop. He looked around. Everything was on, the lights, the screens and gadgets, etc. But no sign of Tails anywhere.

"Tails! You there, buddy?" Sonic called out, standing up and brushing himself off as he walked towards his super computer.

"What's this?" He asked himself as he looked at the open files on the screens. He saw a blueprint, lines of code that made no sense to him… And an open diary entry in a plain .txt file.

"The artificial intelligence has a vendetta against me. I'll probably never be heard from again. It's even smarter than me, and even more powerful. I've made a grave mistake. It's too late for anybody. There's no hope." Sonic said aloud, realization striking him like a bullet as he glanced at the note on Tails' desk.

'Eggman probably dead. EVIL AI!TELL SONIC!'

Eggman had created something greater than himself, and doomed the whole world.

And that something just kidnapped all of his friends, probably killed them and now Tails was gone too.

Sonic ran that thought over in his head again, and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. It'll be okay. I'll find them and fix this… Sonic chuckles inwardly as he picked up the note, running a gloved finger over the rushed handwriting. He did this for a while, staring at the pencil writing, before he heard shuffling behind him. He tried to turn but didn't get far until something smashed into the side of his head.

Darkness consumed his consciousness, the blunt pain fading into nothing.