...Amy and I did eventually get called in by Bunnie. We wasted no time getting there, though.

Some may want to finally understand why Bunnie- the deroboticized rabbit who left on a journey of self-discovery- was now back in action with the rest of us. The truth is that she never liked considering herself helpless. After the loss of her "rabbot" parts, it took her a while to find her own usefulness again... but in these months recovering, she's turned into a fighter through and through. Some could say that she's one of our most capable, despite being the leader now.

Heck, she still takes on regular missions, despite time and time again being reminded she must lead more than do. Bunnie never did like waiting for someone to do the job for her... It makes me wonder a lot if she and Antoine can really work out together. Antoine knows when to quit. She doesn't. I'd say Antoine is the brains, but the more likely fact is that he's just scared.

... I guess that still doesn't matter much, since he's still in a coma.

Walking through the busy halls of the reformed Freedom HQ- once again in service- Amy observed the changes done since the wave hit. Change here had to happen, too. The member count had obviously grown, because thrice over she nearly bumped into a few of them. The very foundations inside had been reconstructed to be made of polymer walls and ceiling. Tile flooring was put in as well. Everything had been taken to the future, essentially. Even the entertainment systems were made more modern. We weren't even in the Mission Control room, either.

Sure, damage was a reason these upgrades needed to be done, but there was also the fact that ... Well, I don't like to think about it, as you can tell, but we more or less officially disbanded. And I'm not talking about the loss of key members. I'm talking about before the wave hit.

Bunnie's departure played a part, then. Nicole had been named an exile due to being under the Iron Queen's control for a time. People just couldn't trust her... and then there was the sacrifice Antoine made... and other complications still...

... Sonic's disappearance changed something in all of us, though... I think of it as his final gift, because soon after he was gone, everyone overlooked what happened with the Iron Queen and accepted Nicole, again. It could have been that she was physically weakened from the loss of so many nanites and honestly, that's what I believe changed the counsel's ruling in the end.

Bunny came back for reasons she still doesn't talk about one-hundred percent. Antoine has shown signs that he might wake up ever since her return, though he still hasn't. We know she takes small visits to his hospital room bed every now and again.

Despite the others, the Freedom Fighters have actually been reformed... but now, I'm in doubt of the reformation, if we have more like the ones Amy described in our ranks.

"Tails, holy cow..." Amy finally piped up as we were walking to the sliding doors of Mission Control.

I stopped and turned to her with a smile, watching as she basically did a turn around in awe of how sleek everything was. "Big change from the hole in the ground it used to be, huh?" She nodded as she slowly looked back down at me. "We did a massive overhaul. Nicole was great help, even with her weakened state."

"Huh." With hands o her hips and eyes wandering to the MC door, she came again. "No kidding..."

Walking on and toward the doors, I continued to speak, even as I looked at the new password-locked keypad and punched in a sequence of numbers. "These changes wouldn't have been done if the wave didn't nearly turn this place into a buried tomb."

"About that..."

As I was about to punch in the last number, I stopped... then turned to face her.

She seemed troubled with that furrow-browed frown on her face. "I'm not a sciency wizz or anything, but I do know what the waves did before." Cocking a brow, she looked me in the eye. "Tails, how are we still here? This all should have been erased, but... it failed... Why?"

The Keypad sounded out with a sour beep as it zeroed out and reset. I looked down at the floor, grimacing. "...Yeah... I-.. I really don't know... Genesis Waves never failed before and this one was definitely super-charged by chaos emerald power. Yet, here we are... The wave somehow failed to do the one thing it was truly meant to. All it really did was cause a butt-load of damage..." I shrugged and looked back up to her, losing the expression. "I mean, yeah. I could take a wild guess and say that 'it's because of something Sonic did' and that's probably the obvious answer, but even as Super Sonic, that seems like it would be a bit much."

She nodded in unsettled agreement, but shook her head of the thought shortly after, sighing into a grin. "Oh well. If you don't know how this is possible, I'll just be happy that we're still here, in the very least."

... After a pause and one unwelcome thought, I nodded, but that thought made me pause... It hadn't been the first time it came into my head and it wouldn't be the last. Could that be why we never found Sonic? Because he sacrificed himself and brought Eggman with him...?

I shook my head at the idea, however, because it could be wrong. Cindy had been able to finally pick up on his trail, after all. He had to be somewhere, if that were the case... Though, in what shape or status, I couldn't say... The scan was designed to pick up ANY sort of readings related to Sonic and/or the Genesis Wave.

"Tails?"

I gasped out of my thoughts and snapped my attention back to Amy, blinking.

She grinned nervously. " Uhm... I said, so let's get our butts in there?"

Blinking once more, I nodded and made a grin of the same nervousness. "R-right!" Turning back to the keypad, I punched in the code. [8256#2251#*] The Keypad too a moment, then flashed blue and beeped twice before spelling out [ACCEPTED].

The doors quickly slid open to the busy, noise-filled Mission Control as Amy walked inside, immediately taking to awe at the new interior. It was significantly bigger by twice it's original size with multiple operators manning stations both on ground level and a whole new level above Screen upon screen made the forward and side walls a literal surround of action and movement, making the overhead lights a bit redundant while their own light could be used to keep the room bright.

These monitored screens showed every team in current operation and their activities. For a few examples, a duo of all flight capable member teams were currently in battle with airborne badniks over the mountains. Another team was extinguishing a freak forest fire as part of an assistant fire fighting force. Yet another was fighting land-based badniks with great success. Still more teams all over the continent could be observed doing whatever they could to end the remaining conflicts left behind. Whether they be naturally or by Eggman, they were all tasks that needed our assistance, apparently. Chatter all over was all that could be heard while this was going on.

Quite a long way to come for some young punks that took over for the parent generation, right? I guess it's not too surprising, though. Our group's always been above that "average" margin.

Amy looked lost before long, covering her ears at the very least by pulling her hat down over them.

I gently poked her on the shoulder as she turned my way and blinked. "Follow me! Bunnie's at the top!"

She nodded and followed as I led us both to a platform on the left side of the room. I gently stomped the panel twice before it started to climb to the second floor on a piston. Once we got to the top, I walked off while she followed close behind, then a railing sprung up behind her as the panel descended back down to ground level.

My eyes stared off to the left as I spotted Bunnie off a short ways, standing atop the tallest stand over everyone else as her eyes scanned over the screens.

She'd kept that same outfit from before. However, there was a new hole through her stetson at the back and her jacket was a bit ripped up at the bottom. Something happened to them before she returned.

Even though Rotor opted she should get a new jacket at the very least, she said that it held new "sentimental value" and told him it's best they leave it at that. Amy knows this story, too. She was there and so was I, even if she was a fair bit more distracted then.

Bunnie didn't bark orders or request anything of the operators at all. She seemed to know they knew what to do, even with that stern gaze she seemed to carry.

... We both looked at each other, then walked together up to her stand. We both stepped forward, but I spoke. "Bunnie, We're here." I didn't need to yell over everyone. Her ears were sharp.

I, on the other hand, couldn't hear what she said very well. "Ah know." The rabbit turned around to us, arms folded as she stared at us both, then nudged her head to the side. "Let's get ourselves outside. Noise 's stingin' mah ears."

We both agreed with a nod. Both of us watched her step down from the stand and walk passed the both of us before we began to tag along.

She stopped when she came to an operator's side watching Team Freedom's monitor, then leaned into him before whispering into his twitching dog ear. He looked at her with his grey furred face and sharp eyes before nodding and saying something right back. She nodded, then walked passed him as he returned to his duties.

We both followed her back out of the room as the double sliding doors shut behind with a -kchnk!- ... For a moment, all three of us just stood there. Bunnie turned herself around and stared us both in the face with a half grin. "Ah'll be derned iffin this don't stir me. The both uh y'all t'gether just leaves me misty. Makes me think uh the ol' days."

I smiled a bit. Bunnie doesn't smile much these days. Understandably, there might not be much to smile about for her.

She looked off to my side and at Cindy's tablet as her smile faded. "Thanks again, Chips. When ah see them no good varmints in Team Steel, they'll be gettin' the reckonin' o the century."

"Twas nothing but pleasure for me, Mistress Bunnie. I do so enjoy the squirms of a criminal. And such sweet nothings there shall be, mhm hm!"

"If they show their faces, ya mean." Amy was the one who spoke with a glare. She took a breath as her hands went to her hips. "I like to fancy myself a proper lady, but..." She lifted her hands as one curled into a fist and SMACKED into the other's palm with the loudest noise like someone just snapped hard plastic! "If I see them first, their butts are MINE!"

My eyes bugged while I took a step back from her.

Bunny blinked a bit, then shrugged. "Ah don't par-ti-cu-lar-ly care which uh us smacks their hides, so long as they get smacked right outta the Freedom Fighters. Y'all better beat me to 'em, though."

Amy nodded, then took a moment to breath as she pinched her forehead and cleared her throat. With a sweet smile, she asked, "So! Wanted to talk?"

She nodded and folded her arms back while leaned on one leg. "S'pose so." With a proud grin, she explained why we were BOTH called upon. "Ah'm down right pleased t' see ya, sugar. Ah was hopin' you'd consider comin' back. Team Fighters has been outta the game ever since y'all left. Ah cain't right send Tails off t' fight or nuthin', bein' he ain't no one man army. Heck, He'd be dandy, ah'm sure, bein' the smartest soul we got... but muscle does count. He don' 'ave enough for that. That was all you and that hammer uh yer'. So, ah was hopin' you bein' here meant y'all were comin' back home, Yea? We'd be lucky t' have ya."

As Bunnie went on, Amy grew less and less pleased with how she made her case, Smile turning slowly into a glare. She made it sound like she only cared about having one extra team. Even I could see that with all my humility. "Is that really your reason for calling me here?"

Bunnie cocked her brow in actual confusion. "... Pardon?" ... How did she not hear what she sounded like just then?

Amy closed her eyes and shook her head with a huff. "I know you heard me... And I'd like to think you hear ME of all people louder than the rest." Opening back up her eyes, she shot daggers into Bunnie's with her own. "Is that really how you wanna make this sound? Like we're just another TEAM?"

Bunnie seemed to lose her calmness, that actually surprising her as her eyes grew wider. She put a hand up. "Wait, hold on a mite! Now, ah didn' mean it like that- honest! Ah'm just tryin' t' say ah miss ya!"

Amy softened her glare a level, but she was still not backing down, even as she nodded. "Yeah. Uh huh. You have a weird way of telling it, then, because that's exactly how you just sounded. Like you were recruiting just another team for the Freedom Fighters." Tilting her head to the side with a hand to her hip as she leaned, Amy went on. "Ya wanna sound like you care? That's nice. You missed me? How did you miss me? As a friend or as a FIGHTER? Because right here, just then... you sounded like the job came before care or feelings."

I was just in awe... and maybe a bit of discomfort. I knew Amy could lay it on thick, but this was actually aggression. I could almost feel the heat rise off of her body.

Bunnieheld both hands up and took a step toward her with a frown. "Please now, Sugar! Ah didn't mean it like that! Ah don't know why Ah said it that way- A-ah jus' did! Of course ah miss ya like a friend would! Ah jus..." Bunnie furrowed her brows and suddenly stopped... then stepped away, pulling her stetson down over her eyes. "Sssshuck, Ah know ah messed that right up. Y'all er' right t' be mad... What's wrong with me?"

"Don't know, Bunnie," Amy stated plainly, shaking her head. "This isn't much like I thought seeing you again would be. But whatever." She looked down to me and grinned a little. "I came back for Tails, not anyone else or for any other reason. So yeah." She looked back up to her old friend as the grin faded like turning a page. "I guess you get your FIGHTER, regardless."

... Bunnie didn't respond. Whatever Amy struck, it apparently hurt. A lot.

Amy sighed and just held her head, before placing a hand on my shoulder. "Tails, let's go. I don't WANT to have to say the rest of what I'm thinking."

I just stared up at her with a frown... before eventually nodding.

She walked off ahead of me while I took one last look at our friend. The rabbit's eyes were very clearly visible to me at my height. Tears were running her cheeks. I'll leave it there.

I couldn't keep my eyes on her face, frowning off to the side. My feet started moving and I was suddenly running to catch up to the pink hedgehog, but...

"Tails, hang fer' uh sec..."

I stop as I stood there, not turning to look at my "commanding officer"

The feeling of Bunny's eyes on the back of my head wasn't lost on me. "... Ah'll.. get mahself fixed b'fore too much longer. And... Ah'll try to take away more of'en from the Freedom Fighters... Jus'... Y'all be patient with me..."

... My mouth remained shut, even if I gave a small nod. Then, I ran off to catch up to Amy, who'd basically gotten to the stairs. When I finally did, I slowed down to a walk and fell behind her.

Even I had to admit something. Amy went too far. She's always had an aggressive side, but not many times did she use it with a friend in earnest. Sure, she got mad. She even smacked people with the hammer... However, despite that, Amy was regardless one of the nicest people I knew. What she did just now was new.

Knowing this, it made me nervous. "Amy I-I-"

"Tails, you should have been leader."

My ears perked while my eyes grew wide, mouth open from being cut off... I blinked, trying to work the question out. "...W-what?"

As we descended the stairs, she spoke plainly. "After Sally, the leadership goes to Sonic. After Sonic, you were next, right? Either way, I know that you would've been a better leader. Like she just admitted, you're the smartest one around. AND you're Sonic's best friend."

"... I was offered the position by Sally, but said no."

Amy seemed to flinch and turn to me as we stopped on the stair well. She looked shocked. "W-what? But Tails, you-"

"I don't have any interest in leading," I cut in. I was perfectly serious. Taking out Cindy, I took a breath and presented Cindy's screen, which was still scanning for Sonic even as the dish on the top fidgeted. "Cindy and this tablet were what I was working on for all that time you didn't see me. I was planning to tell you what she was doing when I actually had something to show for it, but better to just tell you what she's doing, now."

Amy looked over the screen and blinked in puzzle, before looking back up to me with brows furrowed.

I looked into her eyes and softly spoke. "I made this Tablet to search for Sonic. I might have stopped looking before, but what Nicole said to me a month ago felt funny. She said, "I can still sense Sonic, but can't identify where he is or what his status could be." And that made me realize he could still be out there and we hadn't looked hard enough..." Even as she looked at me with a worried expression, I went on to say it. "And now that the scanner is perfected, it's pretty much confirmed. Sonic IS out there, somewhere."

That made the pink hedgehog's eyes grow wide with a gasp. "...S-Sonic is...?!"

I nodded with certainty. "Even as everyone thought Nicole was just malfunctioning, I knew better. Nicole wouldn't have said that if she weren't one-hundred percent on it and especially not in that way. And now, it's doubtless, because even Cindy detected him. All I'm waiting for now is for her scan to give me direction."

Amy looked like she was struggling. She took her hat off and held her head, looking like she might cry, but never did. "S-Sonic... All this time... And I thought h-he was..."

"What Master says is every bit as it seems. I know that might be hard to accept as everyone's gotten used to the fact that he is well gone. However, my sensors do not confuse and cannot lie. The young master is correct. Sonic is indeed... somewhere. The exact location is incredibly difficult to pinpoint, however. Nothing beyond my abilities, mind you, but it is proving a truly onerous task. ... I am so close that I might be able to... Hold a moment..."

The both of us blinked at the tablet. Even I was confused. The screen took a change and my heart skipped a beat. An arrow had just appeared pointing to the northwest.

"I've locked on to something with his signature. It directly co-relates to Genesis waves and Sonic, though it seems ... almost like it's on the very edge of my range, but... no? What is this?"

Amy looked up at me with a smile. "Does that mean...!?"

I lifted the tablet closer to my face as I stared at it intensely... "I-is that...?"

"I... It most certainly seems to be Master Sonic, but the readings are... all so strange... This.. requires travel. I may be able to obtain a clearer reading if we can merely get closer."

It felt like I nearly had the tablet in my face. "How much closer?"

"By my estimate, Five-thousand six-hundred and thirty-seven miles closer, at the very least."

My heart was racing. My hands shook a little. I could barely believe even a shred of hope remained. I took a seat on the nearest Stair and sighed out heavy, passing my hand over my head. "... Doesn't matter how far. I'll go."

"I'm going with you, Tails!"

I snapped my head up and looked Amy in the eyes. She was leaned in on me... a bit closer than I would have wanted. My cheeks turned red at the invasion of personal space. "U-uh..."

It took her a moment, but she blinked while her own cheeks reddened, then stood back up and cleared her throat. "B-but really, I'm not taking no."

With a deep breath and a sigh as I held my chest, I looked up at her and nodded with a grin. "Alright, but what about kicking Team Steel to the sun?"

"About that." She pointed at me with a hand on her hip and a smirk. "Can we maybe wait until tomorrow so that I CAN?"

I soimply made an "O" with my thumb and index as an "OK" while smiling in a cheeky manner. "I'm guilty of wanting to see that, so yes. I planned to wait the whole day away while Cindy was scanning, anyways."

With a thankful grin, she made a curtsy.

I knew this would be glorious.

It had turned night before Team Steel came back. The team consisting of the aforementioned sparrow, a rocky, male armadillo with spiky hair and even spikier accessories all over and one of the Echidnas. All of them looked tough... but Amy was tougher, which was why they were running from her with ... actually very little success.

Amy had gotten faster apparently, because she ran circles around them and had gotten in plenty of hits with her hammer.

Just then, she rushed ahead of the sparrow and whirled around with a shrill growl to catch her in the gut with her oversized mallet! It smacked her like a rubber ball as she was sent flying back into her two team mates! The collision looked like a bowling ball crashing into pins when the Echidna and armadillo went sailing to the sides before tumbling flat to the ground!

Amy slammed her hammer to the ground, indenting the grass and dirt! The three stooges yelped and huddled together like miserable cowards. The pink hedgehog leaned to one side and glared them down with a literal snort of hot air through her nose. "WHAT'S THE MATTER?! YOU'RE ALL FREEDOM FIGHTERS! I'M ONE "LITTLE PRISSY HEDGEHOG", RIGHT?!" She pulled the hammer from the dirt, revealing ruined grass and an inch deep indention. Hoisting it over her should like nothing, she dared them as she waved to her self. If I didn't know any better, her eyes were glowing red she was so mad! But they weren't. "C'MON, COOL GUYS! SHOW ME WHAT YOU DID WHEN YOU WERE "FREEDOM FIGHTING" TODAY!"

One of the three actually worked up the nerve to try. The Echidna rose to his feet and stood ready to fight, dukes up and everything as he sunk into a low boxing position... I cocked a brow. That was Knuckles's fighting pose. "Yeah, fine! I see how it is!" He smacked his fists together twice as he grunt through bore teeth and sharp eyes.

The sparrow shook her head and tugged on his leg. "Clive, you stupid-ass! She's a freak- Are you crazy?!"

He spit and tried to act tough, but I was just grinning at it all. He was afraid. I could see him shaking. "M-maybe, but look totally gutless?! Ta hell wit' that!"

... Okay fine. I'll humor him. That was an alright thing to say... but he really was an idiot. Worse than Knuckles if he was taking on a rage fueled Amy Rose. After all, she'd knocked him flat a good few times. ... Still, he seemed to at least have SOME courage.

Starting at his forehead, there was a split arrow (or was it a shovel...?) that went over the top of his head and dreadlocks. He wore knotted bandanas on both of his forearms: one red, the other white. The white "boxing gloves" standard to echidnas adorned his fists. He had this weird, blue collar around his neck that read "Dirt Killer" in bold, red, ragged letters. I think that meant something related to digging. Maybe he was a digger.

On his feet, he wore boxing shoes of Blue, red and white. Blue was the primary color while red made a swath through the middle of the shoe and the entirety of it's tongue. White lined the red.

He did a mock combo of punches as he danced in place. Looked like he knew how to fight, but maybe he was just trying to fake it. "C'mon, le's go, lady! You n' me!"

Amy didn't look very impressed, but she did smirk. "That's cute. At least you have heart, unlike your low-life friends." She got down with a hand to the ground, then sprinted at him with great agility as she zig-zagged!

"Clive" trained his eyes on her to watch for an opening. When he realized that was a bit harder than it sounded, he started to sweat. He simply ran at her and kept his pose low.

Seeing that he would actually put up a fight, Amy smirked, then quickly slung the hammer down and into the ground, flinging herself into the air above the fighter as he stopped with a skid. As she swung down, she sent herself down and spinning toward him!

He cursed, then dodge-rolled out of the way as she smashed the hammer's down, ground giving under the impact as it buckled and splintered! She nearly hit him with the terrain itself, even though he dodged!

Even I gaped at the mouth, being smiling and whistling. "That guy is boned."

The other two looked like they might loose their eyes if they grew any wider. That isn't even saying anything about how pale they looked.

The digger/fighter got back up on his feet as Amy emerged from the mini-crater she just made, smiling broadly down at him. "Still want to do this?"

Without much thought, he put up his fists again... after taking like five steps back. He was definitely shaking like a leaf. Okay, I get that he was trying to be courageous, but this was just brave. Bravery could DEFINITELY be stupid. And this was stupid.

She smirked as if she saw that coming, shaking her head. "You don't wanna do this."

With a very shaky tone and an unnerved expression, he lowered his fists and goofily asked, "I-I don't...?"

I cracked up.

Amy hopped down from the splintered ground overlooking him and landed behind him before swinging her hammer and NEARLY hitting him square in the head with the flat nose of the mallet as he shook from the breeze it made! I could see him go as stiff as a board! "No. You don't. You want to go back to those two kind bunnies' house and help them repair the damage you did. You ALSO want to find new friends."

He swallowed and nodded his head as he uttered, "Y-yeah..." I felt a little disappointed, but... not for very long.

The dark gaze of the pink hedgehog fell upon the sharp-tongued sparrow and her Friend. Her wing hands went over her mouth with eyes wide. Amy looked like she might explode. "Run FAR away."

And so, they scrambled from the ground and took off in no particular direction other than away from Amy.

Amy is scary when she's angry~...

"M-Mistress Amy is-"

"I know..."