Sorry for sucky ending. I originally planned to do this in three seperate chapters but saw them to be too short. So, I put them together. Leaves more time for the action! R&R

Sonic the Hedgehog:

Tales of Soleanna

Chapter 4: Old Companions

It's been three days since Sonic decided to stay with Elise so he could protect the city. At the moment he was doing fine. Robots occasionally attacked but Sonic quickly took care of them. The people of Soleanna were happy in knowing the world famous hero was not only saving their city but living in it as well. The council even declared that they would build a statue of Sonic in his honour. In short, Sonic was loved by all. Well, almost all.

Smit was the only one who saw Sonic as a menace. He believed he was dangerous and treated life like a joke, someone the princess shouldn't be allowed near. Unfortunately for him, Sonic and Elise had begun a friendship (or restarted in Sonic's case) and spent most of their time together. She also told him all about her dreams. Recently, she dreamt jumping out of Eggman's craft and Sonic catching her. Sonic said he had no idea what that was about but secretly, he knew it was something else that happened when he last saw Elise.

In the middle of one of their conversations, Smit showed up. "Your Majesty. As you may recall, we sent for a shipment of materials from Station Square. I received a call that the boy sending them should be here any moment" he stated. Elise sighed but Sonic said "Hey. It's important. And if it's really boring, I'll be there for you to complain to". Elise gave a small smile but Smit didn't approve of that. He didn't try to not show he hated Sonic. Too bad no one listens to him.

Sonic and Elise were standing at where the pilot would land. Smit was also there, as well as a few guards. Smit had a smirk on his face. No doubt the pilot was a young man who Elise will certainly fall for and then she'll leave that irritating hedgehog he thought to himself. He couldn't help but feel that Elise was starting to see Sonic as… His thoughts were cut off when they saw a plane coming in. Everyone was expecting to see a really big plane but it was surprisingly small. It had a box that was floating along behind it, as if something was holding it up in the air. As it got closer, Sonic recognised it. "That's the Tornado!" Elise turned to him. "The what?" Before Sonic could answer, the plane landed and in the cockpit was an orange fox with two tails, hence the name Tails.

"Tails!" Sonic cried as he waved to his friend. Tails, noticing Sonic, waved back as he got out of the plane. "Hey Sonic! What are you doing here?" he asked. "Oh, just protecting the city from Eggman. Why are you here?" Sonic asked back. "I'm delivering the materials that Soleanna ordered". There was a thud when Smit fainted. He was expecting a human. Not some two-tailed freak!

Tails explained to Sonic that the box with the materials only floated because of the devices he put on the bottom. Then Sonic introduced Tails to Elise. He knew they had met before but they wouldn't know that. Tails bowed but Elise said that wasn't necessary. She didn't like being treated like a princess all the time. As she shook Tails' hand, she recognised him from her dreams. Had she met this boy before somewhere?

As the guards took the materials and the unconscious Smit, Sonic told Elise everything he knew about Tails. "So, you're good at building things, huh?" she asked. Tails nodded. "There's nothing I can't build or fix and if there is, I don't know about it yet" the young fox said, with a smile on his face. Elise was impressed that a boy of his age was so smart. Then an idea came to her head. "Look, this may seem a bit forward but, how'd you like to be a mechanic here? The city could do with someone like you" she explained. Tails thought about it. "Sure. I'd be glad to help. Only where can I stay? Where are you staying at Sonic?" he asked his 'brother'. "I'm living with Elise" he said, but after replaying what he said in head he spluttered out "I don't mean like, you know. We're just in the same building that's all! OK?" Tails was taken back a bit. "OK, calm down. I wasn't gonna say anything about that" he replied. Elise was as shocked as Tails was. Was Sonic hiding something? About her and him?

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of gun shots. Sonic and Tails looked at each other and ran off in the direction. "Elise, go back to the castle!" Sonic told her. Elise looked on as they went off. She was surprised that Tails could keep up with Sonic by spinning his tails. She then did something crazy. She followed them.

Eggman was watching his robots cause mayhem. He was wearing his wicked smile until he saw Sonic and Tails arrive. "So, you brought the fox boy too. Perfect, more of you pests to take care off!" he smirked. He then summoned another robot that looked like the one that Sonic destroyed at the warehouse, only it wasn't carrying a hammer. It just had two fists. This blew Sonic's previous plan out of the window. He made a dash for it but was bounced back by the armour. Tails, seeing this, pulled out a few fake rings and threw them at the robot, stunning it.

"Thanks, Tails" Sonic said. "How are we supposed to hurt it if its armour is too hard to break?" Tails questioned. While he tried to think of a plan, the rings wore off and the robot fired its fist from its arm. Sonic and Tails managed to jump out of the way in time. The robot recalled its fist and fired both of them. Sonic and Tails continued to dodge the fists. Lucky too. The fists left craters in the floor. The robot focused on Tails but he flew over it. Unfortunately, the fist carried its trajectory and Elise was standing in its path.

Sonic prepared to make another assault to see if he could find a weakness until he heard a scream. Elise was caught in the robot's fist. "Stand down, Sonic! Or the princess will be in a world of hurt" Eggman threatened. Sonic became angry but knew that Elise was in danger and didn't want to see her hurt. He was about to step down when something ripped the robot's arm off. Elise was let go and caught by Sonic. "Elise, I thought I told you to go back to the castle" he said scornfully. Elise looked upset, "I'm sorry. I just wanted to get some excitement". Sonic's expression softened and turned to see who had helped them. He was shocked when he saw a red echidna with dreadlocks and spikes on his fists. It was Knuckles!

"Stand back, Sonic! I'll handle this!" declared Knuckles. The robot with its remaining arm, tried to pound Knuckles into the ground but the emerald guardian jumped over it and sent his fist into the robots belly and ripped something out. He jumped back in time to see the robot explode. Eggman began sweating nervously. "I better be going" he said. "Yeah, you should be!" Knuckles yelled. He jumped and punched Eggman's craft into the distance.

Sonic and Tails ran up to their old ally. "What are you doing here, Knuckles?" asked Tails. "Eggman stole something from me" Knuckles explained. He opened his hand to show what he meant. It was a white jewel that Sonic and Tails had seen before. A Chaos Emerald. It must have been powering the robot. Elise stared at the emerald. She felt she had seen those before somewhere too.

After the introductions were made, Knuckles decided to stay. He could help them find Chaos Emeralds with the Master Emerald, which he brought for safekeeping. On the way back to the castle, Elise pulled Sonic aside. "I can't help but feel I've seen those two before" she told him, indicating Tails and Knuckles. Sonic guessed that she had seen them in her dreams too. He shrugged it off, still pretending that the dreams were just a coincidence.

Back at the castle, Sonic said "It's weird that I should happen to meet you two here" he said to his old friends. Knuckles chuckled, "Yeah, who's next?" Smit decided to approach them. He looked a bit shaken and took one look at Knuckles and shuddered. More of them. That's all he needed. "Mr. Sonic. There is someone here to meet you. She said it was of the utmost importance" he explained. Sonic raised an eyebrow. "She?" Then realization hit him. "Oh no, not…" He was cut off by a shriek from a girl further down. "SONIC!" It was Amy.

She ran straight towards the blue hero, completely ignoring Tails, Knuckles and Elise. "Don't you remember what day it is?" she asked angrily. "Uh, Tuesday?" Sonic suggested, with a nervous smile. This just got Amy even madder. "Today was when you promised to take me on a date!" she yelled. While Sonic immediately remembered, Elise looked at Amy with surprise. She'd seen her in the dreams as well. But she also heard Amy say 'date'.

"Are you Sonic's girlfriend?" she asked. Amy, having finally taken notice of Elise, immediately dropped the angry expression and smiled. "Yes, I'm Amy Rose. It's nice to meet you. You must be Elise?" Elise nodded. "I'm sorry for being so rude, but Sonic here can be so forgetful" she explained. Sonic groaned. "Amy, please, I'm not your boyfriend" he said. Amy responded by giving him a huge hug that crushed his ribcage, again. "Oh, don't be silly" she said. "We're destined to be together" she continued. Sonic managed to escape the hug and started to run. Amy suddenly pulled the hammer out. "Get back here, Sonic!" As they watched Sonic doing his best to shake her off, Tails said "This is gonna be a long day". Knuckles nodded in agreement and Elise just watched, with a slight smile on her face. She couldn't help but find this funny. Guess Sonic isn't exactly a lover's man, she thought. Suddenly, she caught a quick glimpse of her and Sonic in the pace with all the flowers and she and Sonic were hugging. She snapped back to reality just as quickly. What was that? she thought. Was that a friendly like hug or, something else?