Hi, readers! If you're reading this, thanks for clicking on this story. Anyways, constructive criticism is appreciated - I'd love to make my writing better. Anyways, Sonic and Tails may be a bit ooc in this(mostly Sonic). If you think this is a problem, please tell me.

Warning: Mild cursing

Happy reading!

Chapter One - Ignorance

Although it was six o'clock, the sun still shone glowing as if life was timeless.

Its rays gave no mercy to anyone in Station Square, leaving many to improvise. Everyone used their spare time to go to a pool, head to the ice cream store, and so on; after doing nothing but go for tiring runs and watching the television, Sonic and Tails decided to do the same thing. So on a hot August day, why not head to the beach?

The two brothers didn't have any reason not to… until Sonic realized after ten minutes of being at their destination that it was extremely boring for him. Telling Tails that he had a few "errands" to do, the speedster ran away leaving the fox alone in the dust - not that it bothered him. Relaxing and drinking a slushie was far better to Tails than hearing someone complain about the uneventful place.

Loud, recurring sipping noises came from the plastic cup he drank from. It left a cold, but pleasant feeling on his tongue, and gave him a feeling of hydration. The lapping of the waves hypnotized the kit every time he stared at them, and the feeling of the gritty sand on his bare hands was sensational. Contrary to what his surrogate brother thought, Tails thought it was a great day.

Eventually, his drink was done and he decided to get another one. Composing himself, he started his journey to a small stand a two minute walk away. Once he was at the stand, Tails asked for another slushie. After paying, the kit turned around getting ready to leave, when-

Screams erupted from the people around him. Tails lost his grip on his slushie, bringing all his attention to wherever the screams were coming from. The fox shielded his eyes as a wave of sand inched closer to him and everyone else in a second. Once most of the sand was off of him and he decided that it was okay to open his eyes, Tails stared at a certain mobian that probably not a lot of people liked at that moment:

Sonic the hedgehog looked at everyone apologetically, a small tint of red on his cheeks. "Sorry guys… I guess I was going a bit too fast this time…" A lot of people stared at the cobalt hedgehog with an irritated look on their face, but he didn't notice and instead walked to Tails.

"Heya Tails! Long time no see!"

"Sonic, you just saw me two minutes ag-"

"How are ya?"

"I was fine, until you came and ruined my slushie," Even though he was a bit irked, Tails couldn't ever get mad at his brother and smiled. "You owe me a new one."

"Uh yeah, sorry about that… Anyways, come with me. We have something to do."

Tails' eyes widened for a split second in surprise. Sonic actually had errands to do?

"Do you have it?"

Tails gave the hedgehog a confused look, as he didn't know what he was talking about.

"Wait, you don't. I think I…Just gimme a sec…"

Tails watched Sonic take off one of his gloves and stuff it into his quills. There was a sound of paper crinkling and few rings dropping into the sand, before a paper was finally taken out. To Tails, it only looked like a ripped crumpled mess, making Sonic receive another look of confusion. The hedgehog was losing his patience, so he shoved the paper in the younger's arms. Attempting to flatten the paper first before scanning it, Tails held it up to his face and read the large bold title.

"GUARDIAN UNITS OF NATIONS - TERRORIST ACTIVITY LOG"

"Oh! That…" Suddenly all the energy that Tails had left in his body vanished into thin air. A wave of fatigue came over him.

"Yeah, that." Sonic scoffed. "Now let's go."

For almost two months, Sonic had been bringing in a weekly log to G.U.N headquarters in downtown Station Square to report if Doctor Eggman had done anything illegal or suspicious, and always dragged Tails with him. If anyone asked why Tails would respond with,

"For the past few weeks, Doctor Eggman's base has been showing signs of radiation that's a lot like chaos energy. But since we have the chaos emeralds, G.U.N has been keeping watch just in case he's planning to attack the city. They asked Sonic to tell them every week if anything suspicious has been going on with the doctor, since he knows him the most."

On the other hand, Sonic would respond with,

"Eggman's too much of a pussy to fight me one on one, so instead he's being an ass and scaring the city!"

Obviously, the two of them had extremely different points of views and opinions on the subject.

"How long will it take us?" Tails asked.

Usually it would only take Sonic and Tails about five minutes to get to the location because of their speed, but since the temperature was reaching higher than normal, neither of them had enough energy to and had to walk downtown instead. They weren't happy about this, but Sonic still tried to cheer Tails up anyway.

"Look on the bright side, Tails! At least when we come back you'll be able to relax as long as you want. I'll buy you back your slushie, and I'll even buy you ice cream! You can get your favourite flavour, vanilla!"

Tails decided to block Sonic's blabbering after that, due to the fact that vanilla wasn't his favourite flavour. It was mint chocolate chip.

His attention wasn't gained again until Sonic stopped walking. "What's wrong?" Tails asked. He followed the direction of Sonic's finger to the sky.

"What..what is that?" Tails asked. "I've never seen anything like it before."

In the blue skies above them there was a large, dark red cloud, inching towards the tall skyscrapers downtown. "Me neither, but I know it's not good if it's red." Sonic answered. "I think we're gonna have to do something about this, Tails."

"Maybe you should go see what's going on over there," Tails said, pointing towards the way the cloud was coming from. "Eggman must be the responsible for it."

"You're right!" Sonic stared at Tails with a smirk. "I'll go over there. If anything happens I'll just call you." The speedster started a light jog(which wasn't much of a jog and more of a run).

"Okay, be-"

"Oh wait, make sure to bring that paper to the G.U.N place!" The speedster stopped and called.

"Oh, okay." Tails said. "Be-"

Sonic sped off before he could finish his sentence. "Careful…" The fox said staring off into the distance, watching the blue streak disappear.

Tails noticed the sky had an orange hue to it, for it was finally starting to get dark. Although Tails liked the deep blue skies and the sun out, he didn't mind the night, especially downtown. The bright lights from the buildings against the darkened sky looked amazing, and he wasn't the only one that thought that.

However, his admiration for the city ended once his watch started to ring. Accepting the call from Sonic, Tails listened.

"Tails! I think there's something really bad going on."

"Of course there's something bad going on," Tails answered. "If Eggman's behind it it's always bad."

"I'm serious, Tails." Sonic replied. "I checked the air for nuclear stuff and-"

"Nuclear stuff? You mean radiation?"

"Yeah, radiation," The hedgehog's voice was started to become drowned by the sound of wind as he went faster. "I checked how bad the radiation is and it's eighty-seven… mili..si…however you say it!"

"Millisieverts?" Tails murmured, thinking to himself in worry.

"Eighty-seven millisieverts… that's not only more than what comes from Eggman's base, but a health hazard…" Tails thought.

"Okay, I'll bring the paper to G.U.N and-"

"No forget that, they can wait." Sonic cried. "Can you do me a favour and warn the citizens instead?"

"Okay," Tails replied to his watch. "Be careful."

"Tails, am I ever careful?" Sonic asked jokingly.

The fox hung up and starting thinking of how he would do his task. Maybe get a blow horn from a store nearby? No, that wouldn't work - he didn't know how much time he had on his hands. Maybe he should just tell people face to face? No, that would take too long. After brief thought, Tails accepted that the only thing he could do was…

Scream, shout, and run around.

"Attention everyone!" The fox began. "There is a threat heading towards this area! Please find shelter!"

Nobody listened. Maybe he was too quiet?

"Attention everybody!" Tails said louder than before. "There's a threat heading towards Station Square! Please find shelter!"

A few people turned heads to the kit running around frantically and shouting, but thought nothing of it and walked away.

Tails was getting a little bit bothered and baffled. What was he doing wrong? They should listen to him, right? He was Tails the fox - Sonic the hedgehog's sidekick. They should trust him enough to listen to what he was saying.

He tried again. "Attention every single person!" Tails' throat burned from shouting so loud, and his heart ached from the cardiovascular endurance.

"There's a threat heading towards Station Square! Please find she- ah!"

Tails' body hit the ground harshly. Once he realized he didn't trip, the fox stared upwards. Towering him was a man in a business suit, with his hands folded and a glare on his face.

"Can you be quiet? No one needs to hear you screaming!"

Luckily Tails wasn't like Sonic and liked to calmly talk instead of arguing and making a scene, unless he lost his patience. However, judging by the clothes that the man was wearing, he guessed that it would be a brief conversation. In a slightly raspy voice Tails explained,

"I-I'm sorry sir. I'm just trying to warn the public of…" Tails didn't notice himself trail off as he regretted the stutter he'd made.

"Of what?" The business man's face was tomato red. He was obviously not happy. "All you're doing is bothering us!"

"Well if you'd let me explain sir," Tails started. "There's a threat coming towards Station square as we speak…"

The man took a deep breath to compose himself, much to Tails' fortune.

"How are we supposed to trust you?"

Wait...what? Did this man live under a rock?

"Sir, I'm Tails the fox - Sonic the hedgehog's sidekick." Tails began. "I've been helping around this city for years…" The fox was going to mention that it wasn't just the city, but the world - however, he didn't want to raise the man's temper any more.

"Uh..really?" The human replied. "Wait, how am I supposed to believe you? I don't know if you're brainwashing me or something."

For a business man, the person Tails was talking to was pretty dull. It made the fox stumped. What was he supposed to show to prove that he was a hero? At the corner of his eyes Tails could see a tint of ruby red, and in a second he whipped his right arm from his side and propped it close to the man's face to show him the accessory on his wrist.

"I made this watch. You've probably seen Sonic talk about it on the news… and give me recognition." Tails said.

"I've seen that before…" A smile was starting to appear on Tails' face, until…

"But what if you bought a fake one off of a site?"

Tails' jaw clenched and he sighed in frustration. "I did not buy this watch off of a site. I made this myself, and it bothers me that you think that something that took so much effort to make was bought off of a website."

"That's what someone who bought it off of a site would say."

"You know, for a business man, you lack a lot of knowledge." Tails said with a raised voice, which only made the man angrier. However, he didn't care because he was starting to lose his own patience.

"What did you just say? I'll have to know that I work at that building over there!" The man pointed at a tall skyscraper.

"Then can you please go over there and stop wasting time?!"

Tails watched the business man's hand quickly grab the watch on his wrist before pulling it, almost making the fox lose his balance. Once the watch's band became loose from force, the human threw it to the pavement beneath them and watched it smash to pieces beyond repair. Tails' breath hitched and he froze, eyes locked on the mess on the ground. It felt as if time stopped - not knowing what to do next, all voices and noises drowned out; it left an extremely thick tension. Slowly, Tails' head turned from facing the pieces of his watch to the man's eyes, which were full of venom and ignorance.

"I'm back Tails! Turns out nothing was coming from Eggman's base and I was just overreacting!" Sonic walked over to his brother, expecting an answer. When he didn't hear a response, he became a little worried. "Uh… what's going on here?"

Tails flinched to the sound of his brother's voice and started to pant from the period without air. Without second thoughts, he lifted his arm slowly before pointing to the remnants of his watch.

"He...he…" Tails was in too much shock to make a sentence.

"Sonic… the hedgehog?" Sonic's attention was split from his brother to the man who said his name. "I'm so honoured to meet you."

The cobalt hedgehog stared at the stranger as he raised his hand, wanting a handshake. Impulsively, Sonic gathered as much saliva he could in his mouth before projecting it perfectly on the human's fingers.

"Get the hell out of my sight." Sonic quietly said, owning a glare that quickly made the businessman run away. He then turned towards Tails. The fox was looking into the distance, seeming to be lost in thought.

"Tails."

The fox jumped in surprise, before looking at Sonic. "I'm so sorry Sonic - I don't know what happened and nobody believed me and-"

"It's okay." Sonic said, turning around and looking at the sky. "I think we're a little bit too late though…"

Tails didn't know what the other mobian was talking about until he turned around and looked up as well. In the orange sky the red cloud was moving closer and closer, starting to cover most parts of their area. Suddenly, Sonic's eyes widened and the hedgehog flinched, which caught Tails' eye.

"What's wrong?" He asked his older brother.

"A raindrop landed on me..." Sonic stayed, still in shock. "But I don't think they're normal ones."

"What do you mean?" Tails had no idea what his surrogate brother was talking about, or whether he was serious or not.

"When the rain touches me-" Sonic flinched once again from another raindrop. "It feels like chaos energy."

A drop landed on Tails' nose. Even though he didn't flinch, he could feel a slight surge of energy travel through him. "This is dangerous, Sonic. We have to tell everyone ab-"

"Forget that," Sonic started. "It's their fault for not listening to you."

The cobalt hedgehog tried to look towards the sky, when a raindrop landed in his eye.

"Ow!" Sonic cupped his hands around his eye in pain. "It's coming from that red cloud!"

"That means it's probably chaos energy…" Tails trailed off.

"Shit." Sonic cursed. "We need to get to the G.U.N building right now-"

"Ahhh!"

Sonic and Tails turned back around in unison to see dozens of people screaming on the ground writhing in pain. The brothers stared at each other in horror before running to someone to aid them.

"Are you okay ma'am?" Tails frantically asked. The woman in front of him strained to turn and stare at the fox.

"The rain… i-it hurts…" The woman stated.

"Sonic!" Tails cried, making said hedgehog pay him attention. "It's the rain!"

"I know…" Sonic grumbled while he helped a teenager get up from the ground. "We gotta make everyone stay inside."

"Everybody!" Tails yelled, making citizens turn heads. "Find the nearest shelter and stay in there!"

They stood in shock and confusion.

"Don't just stand there!" The blue hedgehog screamed at them. "Listen to him and get inside!"

Finally people hurried inside buildings, leaving Sonic and Tails with no problem except for the injured citizens…

"Sonic," Tails asked suddenly. "What's G.U.N going to say about this?"

Sonic froze and stared at Tails with widened eyes.

Scratch that - they had two problems.

Once everyone was inside and the "rain" stopped, agents, officers, and detectives immediately scanned the area. Meanwhile, Sonic and Tails were escorted to the G.U.N headquarters, where they were located to a small office on a higher floor of the tall skyscraper to wait for their "guest" to come. Neither of the two were happy to find out the guest was the infamous commander, one loved by all of Sonic's friends.

Once the familiar human entered the room, Tails noticed that the temperature rose higher - or at least that's what it felt like to him. However, once a feeling of butterflies were accompanied, the fox realized that someone didn't just turn up the heater. It was times like this Tails was happy he could count on Sonic to do all of the talking, especially if it associated with people that were disliked. Patiently, he watched the speedster argue with the elderly man whilst sipping from a small paper cup filled with water.

"I am very disappointed in you, Mr. hedgehog." Commander stated, looking Sonic straight in the eye.

"Why? I did my job." The other arrogantly said, shooting daggers at the human.

"Barely," Commander took a sip of his coffee before continuing. "If you were an agent at this facility, you would've been out of these doors by now.

"Well lucky for you, I'm not."

"I may have been lucky, but the injured citizens weren't."

"Look, that wasn't our problem. At the end of the day it was their responsibility if they wanted to listen to us or not, and they didn't."

"You are fully aware that if it was you who was warning the city, there wouldn't be any problem in the first place."

Tails' breath hitched, and guilt struck him in the chest.

Sonic's eyes widened in shock and anger. "Are you trying to say that I shouldn't trust my own brother?"

"No, of course not." Commander's eye contact never moved away from the cobalt hedgehog's emerald eyes. "I'm just trying to say... you should be careful who you choose to help you with your tasks."

"That's it, we're leaving." Sonic angrily said, pushing in his chair so hard that it moved the table. "Here's the stupid paper that you wanted."

The speedster shoved the paper in the human's cup of coffee before grabbing Tails and turning towards the door.

Neither of the mobians looked back to say goodbye when they left the room.

For some odd reason, Tails stayed quiet during the trip home. Sonic attempted to make conversation with him, like asking if he wanted to get ice cream before they went home. Surprisingly, Tails turned the offer down, but the speedster thought nothing of it.

"Tails is probably just sad about his watch or something." Sonic thought.

He wasn't wrong, but that wasn't the only feeling he had. Oblivious to his surrogate brother, Tails felt extremely guilty. What the commander said bothered him to the fullest, to the point that he agreed with him - Tails didn't think he was completely useless, but nothing would have happened if Sonic was alone, including the demolition of his watch.

The watch… that bothered him a lot too. However, it wasn't because of the amount of time it would take to make another one - he made an extra just in case.

But… that was the problem.

Every time Tails thought of the extra watch he had in his dresser, it made him shiver. It also made him dread going home that day, because he knew that he'd have to look at it. Unfortunately for the fox, the two brothers made it home in about five minutes. Once inside, Tails didn't hesitate to walk upstairs to his bedroom while saying,

"I'm going to bed. Goodnight."

The fox closed the door to drown out the sound of his brother saying anything, afraid of his reaction. He walked his bed and sat on it, creating wrinkles he tried so hard to remove when he made the bed that morning - but he didn't care at that point. He became lost in thought as he stared at the dresser in front of him.

He didn't have to. He could ignore it. He had self control… right?

Wrong.

Tails couldn't stop himself from opening the first dresser compartment, revealing the brand new-looking watch. He took it out and stared at it, before doing something he knew he would regret - pressing a few buttons. The screen buffered before a voice memo could be heard.

It was only the first five seconds, and Tails could feel tears form in his eyes. He couldn't cry - not over something so petty, something that was probably a joke…

Right?

What if it wasn't? That question alone along with the words coming from his watch allowed a few tears to travel down his cheeks and for him to sniffle. Not being able to bare it anymore, the kit quickly stopped the voice memo and turned the watch off before stuffing it in its previous spot. He forced his face into his pillow, allowing it to soak in the salty tears that left his eyes and drown the sound of his sniffs while thinking of the previous events that happened that day. It was all that happened until Tails drifted off into a deep slumber - a depressing way to end the day, but he could argue that it wasn't the worst.

Besides, he should've been used to it by now; it wasn't the first time it's happened.