~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CHAPTER FOUR

After about ten minutes or so Tails brings the plane down near the mega-fortress that has risen out of the earth. He just sits there and stares at it for a good minute. I try not to be annoyed by how slow we have to go in order for the plane to keep up.

"Wow," he gasps. "How did we not see this? This is the biggest fortress yet!"

"It was underground," I tell him. "I pressed…this button, and it just sort of appeared."

"Oh Sonic," says Tails, shaking his head, "how many times have I told you, don't press the big red button?"

"A lot," I mutter sheepishly. "But if I hadn't, I wouldn't have found Eggman!"

Tails looks at me in a way that suggests finding Eggman was the worst thing the button could have let me do.

"Anyway, let's get going," I say. "He could be in trouble, you know."

Tails doesn't really seem to care, but he follows me anyway.

I lead him through the half-finished hallways and disordered rooms to Eggman's command centre, and Tails is just looking around in that nerdy way of his, you know, like he's seen something he wishes he made and is now trying to think of what he can make to better it. But I don't let him take too long admiring the sights. I usher him through the now-open doorway into the room.

Eggman is still sitting in his chair, just as I left him, only slumped over.

As soon as Tails sees him, he rushes forward, all of his doubts vanishing as he takes in and evaluates the state Eggman is in.

"Oh gosh," Tails breathes, moving around the chair and laying a hand on Eggman's left shoulder, "I don't believe it."

"I know, right?" I say, moving around beside him.

"This looks pretty bad," he tells me. "But I'll probably need to take him back to my lab in order to figure anything out…"

We look at each other. No matter how helpless Eggman may be now, if he gets better while he's at our place…

"Well," I muse, trying to think, "can't you move your stuff here instead?"

"I guess so," says Tails, fidgeting a little and creasing his brow. He rubs his hand on his face and sighs a little. "Trouble is, at this point, I don't know what to bring."

"Tell me what you need right now and I'll go get it," I tell him.

He thinks for a moment, then takes out his handheld and types on it for a few minutes. He hands it to me.

"I'll need these things," he tells me. "Should I come with you or… "

"No, stay here," I answer, shaking my head . "I… it's not right to leave him when we know he's like this."

Tails nods. "You're right," he says. "Call me if you can't find something."

I nod back and, after a bit of hesitation, I head off. I don't like leaving Tails alone with Eggman. Maybe this is all a trick. Maybe when I get back Tails will be a robot or something. I'm trying not to think about what would happen after that, digging through one of his eight million carefully sorted drawers, but I'm looking too fast and not finding anything. After going through the same one three times I realize I need to slow down if I'm going to do this with any efficiency.

I stop, take a breath, reread the list, and go back to searching. Within a few minutes I've found everything and am running back towards Eggman's base.

When I re-enter the room, Tails is gone.

I drop the bag of stuff on the floor and turn to Eggman. He's still in the exact same position, slumped over in his chair, but that doesn't mean anything. It could have been a robot. It's usually a robot.

"TAILS!" I yell, and I'm running into the hallway to look for him. This whole thing has got me so worked up I'm not really paying attention to where I'm going, just taking mental snapshots of the blur around me hoping to find Tails in one of them. There's a nasty tingling in my gut that I don't like and can't ignore. I skid around a corner, only to run into something and fall down.

"Yow," yells Tails, pushing me off of him, "Sonic, what are you doing?"

"Well, you were gone—so I thought—"

"Oh, I'm fine," scoffs Tails, brushing himself off, "I just wanted to take a look around. It's not every day I get to inspect one of Eggman's fortresses. Usually we're too busy blowing it up."

"Alright," I say, hoping he doesn't realize just how worried I was. Maybe it is kind of silly, what I thought, but hey, it's Eggman. Anything could happen.

Tails sets up his stuff, plugging one thingy into another, tying a couple of wires onto Eggman, and typing nonsense into his handheld. I don't know what he's doing.

I just sort of wander around the room, touching stuff I have no idea of the purpose of (usually not a good idea), and bothering Tails whenever possible. He doesn't mind, though. I try to pretend this is just another day where I'm bored and Tails doesn't feel like entertaining me because he's busy, but I've just been feeling so tense about all this since I found Eggman. I know it wasn't that long ago but it feels like years. And now I've brought Tails into it. Should I have? Or should I have figured out what to do on my own?

"Well." Tails finally stops fiddling with his stuff.

"What?"

"I have no idea what's wrong with him."

"Well that's great," I yell sarcastically, wanting to throw my hands in the air but not wanting to be melodramatic. "What are we supposed to do? We can't just leave him here."

"I know." Tails winds up some of the wires and sets them beside him carefully. "Well, there is one thing that could work…it's the only thing I can think of right now…"

"What is it?" I ask him.

Tails raises his eyebrows and makes a face. "Well, there's only one thing that works when nothing else does."

I stare at him but he seems to be serious.

"You're kidding, right?" I ask him. "That's not really… that can't be… they're not wishing rocks, Tails."

"It is," insists Tails. "It's the only way."

"You don't even know that they'll work."

"You got a better idea?"

"I trust your judgement bud, really I do," I tell him, "but…isn't that taking this a little too far?"

Tails sighs.

"I know it's a big risk, Sonic," he continues after a long silence, "but you said yourself we can't leave him here… and if we don't do it, that's exactly what we're going to have to do."

"Wow," I say. "Just wow."

Tails looks at Eggman as if he's trying to see inside him and figure out what's going on.

"… will you do it?" he asks.

I look at Eggman.

I don't want to do it. This solution… it can't mean anything good, it just can't. This is a trick. This is a plot to get me to gather them for him. I know it. I'm not gonna fall for it.

"Sonic?"

"I can't leave him here," I whisper helplessly. "I have to do it… I don't want to, but…"

He looks at me sympathetically.

"I know, Sonic." He gets up and comes over to me, putting a hand on my shoulder. "I'll do anything I can to help."

"No, you better stay here," I tell him, brushing the hand off. I want him to come too much. "In case he wakes up and he can tell you something, anything about how he got this way."

"Okay," Tails concedes. He gives me the handheld.

I take it, and leave the fortress in search of the Chaos Emeralds.