Cream's room was spectacularly neat and tidy. Yes, she liked to keep it organised and clean but anyone else seeing it now would call it borderline obsessive, even for her. Luckily she didn't have to explain her behaviour to anyone except her mother, who had already accepted Cream's explanation of "I'm just trying to maintain your standards, mother." This was half true, considering that any imperfection in her room would always be rectified very quickly by her mum. However, the small brown-eyed rabbit knew she was lying to her own mother, and she hated doing it, but for Cream this was far better than the alternative.
The very reason she had been keeping her room in such an immaculate state was to keep her mum out of there. If she ever came in and looked inside that second drawer – Cream didn't want to think about it. She would be absolutely mortified, because that drawer contained a beautiful gift for a friend. Its discovery wouldn't be so bad apart from the fact that it clearly stated who the intended recipient was, Cream having already carved the message 'For a Very Special Kitsune' upon it. Despite possessing the gift for a few weeks, Cream had put off giving it to him. But as she hurried into her room, she knew that it was now or never. He would finish that strange machine soon and then Cosmo would very likely be back.
Cream couldn't help but think it quite ironic that she was the one to discover the main problem preventing Cosmo's return. Of course Cream missed her late friend very much, but recently she had become quite close to him...still, she could hardly offer something so heartfelt and personal right after someone he cared about so much came back. What would he say? What would Cosmo say if she were to find out? She had to give it to him now.
Cream rushed over to the drawer, retrieved the gift and pocketed it. Cheese, the only other person (well, Chao) who knew about all this, heard the disturbance and awoke from his sleep. Still feeling groggy from illness, he could only manage a weak "Chao chao?"
"I'm sorry Cheese, I can't talk now." Cream said in a hushed voice. "I've got to deliver this. Get better soon, ok?" Cheese nodded and gave a small smile when he saw what she was doing. Cream ran downstairs and called "I'm going out for a bit, mother!"
"Again?" she heard the reply. "Alright, but don't be back too late!"
"I won't!" she called again. She opened the front door to be greeted by two things: the sun's orange glow, now barely visible on the horizon...and Amy marching up the path to her house. "Oh no..." Cream instantly thought, sensing the pink hedgehog's stroppy mood a mile off.
"Cream!" Amy shouted, still only half-way up the path. "You didn't do it, did you?"
Cream shut the front door to prevent her mother hearing and waited until her temperamental friend had stomped the remaining distance before replying "Um, didn't do what, Amy?"
"Someone's gone and stuck notes all over my house trying to tell me how to woo Sonic! You'd better not be responsible!" She pointed an accusatory finger. Under any other circumstances Cream would probably be struggling not to fall on the floor laughing her ears off, but right now she was only concerned that the gift was in her pocket. It was possible Amy might spot it.
"N-no, I don't know who did that." Cream lied. She had already decided it would be best to calm Amy as soon as possible. The best way to do that was usually by agreeing with her. "I mean, it's up to you, isn't it?"
"Too right it's up to me! How dare they?!" she bawled, actually shaking with anger. "I decide how to treat my Sonic! ME!"Amy growled, before suddenly sighing happily. "Oh Sonic, one day I'll win you over..." She swooned, hands clasped together and love hearts practically forming in her determined green eyes.
Cream just stood there with a priceless look on her face. Amy's rapid changes of mood genuinely scared her. "Uh, you're right Amy, but I was just heading to Tails' house, so -"
"Great idea Cream!" Amy interrupted. "Maybe he knows who insulted my extensive knowledge of love!" And before Cream had a chance to protest, Amy had grabbed her wrist and began to drag her away, the gift still in her pocket.
Tails wiped his brow as he appraised his own handiwork. "Whew! I think that's all finished." He turned to the blue hedgehog standing behind him. "What do you think, Sonic?"
"Well, I know nothing about this mechanics stuff, but if it works then it's another job well done, buddy!" Sonic had arrived less than a minute after Tails had abruptly ended their phone call, trying to convince the fox to rest for a while. After a very short time he'd realised that Tails was in that state where he was a mechanical maverick, and that right then was definitely the best time for him to complete his detector. Now, less than an hour later, Tails was waving it in front of his face, seemingly satisfied with what he had created.
"Let's test it out!" Tails said cheerfully, pulling four batteries from a cupboard. Then he frowned. "What's wrong, Sonic?"
Sonic was barely managing to stifle his laughs. Then he gave up and burst out laughing, banging his fist on a nearby worktable. Tails crossed his arms and scowled, his namesake stiffly upright and eyes demanding an explanation. "Hahaha! This thing runs on batteries?! The last time I saw you use those as a power source, I don't even think Amy was chasing me!" Sonic lost himself in another fit of laughter.
Tails waited until Sonic got hold of himself. "Yes Sonic, it uses batteries. And they're going to help me bring back the girl I care most for in the entire universe." he said quietly.
"Oh, geez...sorry Tails. I didn't mean to offend ya, it's just that your inventions usually use a Chaos Emerald now or something. You know I want Cosmo back as much as you do."
"No you don't Sonic." Tails thought. "You really don't." But he knew that the hedgehog meant well and he could never stay mad at his best friend. "That's alright Sonic." he said, smiling slightly. "I can't use a Chaos Emerald because we don't have one. Even if we did, I don't think I'd waste it on this; it's only a portable radar. Besides, the only reason it took so long to make is because it's the thing we're actually looking for that's so complex and rare." he explained.
Sonic nodded. "I understand. Well, like you said, what are we waiting for?"
"Yeah, let's do it!" Tails exclaimed, that enthusiastic spring in his step again. He inserted the batteries and flicked a switch to turn it on, seriously hoping that the 100 mile range was enough to detect a source of Mowarium from his house. He didn't want to have to start travelling all over the place looking for some.
After a few tense seconds, a flashing blip appeared on the screen. "Is that it?" Sonic dumbly asked.
Tails leapt into the air out of joy and relief. "Of course that's it! And look, it's a strong signal only about five miles from here! The X-Tornado will get us there in minutes!"
Sonic frowned, noting the fast fading daylight. "Tails, this time I really do think we ought to go tomorrow. It's half past eight and there isn't much light left outside." he reasoned.
"I only want to check out the location to verify that the detector works." Tails countered. "I promise I won't start looking underground or anything. It'd also help to know if there's enough of it to keep the regeneration process going."
"What do you mean, 'keep it going'?" Sonic asked, confused.
"Ah, I might not have already told you, but the Mowarium that I'll incorporate into that final machine part will decompose during the actual process. In other words, I'll need to inject more as it depletes or else the machine will stop."
"But how will you put more in? Isn't there dangerous radiation?"
"I've already built an external delivery tube leading from the observation room where we will be to where the component will stand when I've made it. The observation room's protected by a thick layer of glass which the radio waves can't penetrate, so we'll be fine. From there, it'll be a piece of cake. The most important thing is that the supply of Mowarium doesn't stop until the regeneration is complete." Tails finished.
"Yeah, we wouldn't want that..." Sonic said nervously, a hideous image of a half alive, half dead Cosmo appearing in his head. He forced it away.
"So, are you coming to check it out?" Tails asked.
"Well, alright. But only to look, I'm not going to let you start trying to get at it, yeah?"
"Affirmative!" Tails said, winking and giving a mock salute. "You wanna ride with me in the X-Tornado?"
"I'll stay on the wing." Sonic said as he hopped up onto it. "You know I don't like being in tight spots!"
"Alright then, let's -" Tails was cut off as his doorbell rang. "Again? Stay there Sonic, I should only be a minute." Sonic nodded and practically collapsed flat out on the wing, hands behind his head.
Tails jogged out of his workshop to the front door and opened it to find Cream stood behind it for the second time that day. "Cream? Didn't you go home a couple of hours ago?"
"Yes, except I was forced back out. I flew ahead to warn you in advance." she said, wiggling her huge ears.
"Huh?" Tails was utterly baffled. "Warn me of what?" His question was answered for him when he heard distant yells that could only belong to one being on Mobius. "Ohhh, no. What does she want?"
"She came to ask you about those notes in her house." Cream said, giggling.
Tails' eyes widened in horror as painful flashbacks of getting thwacked by Amy's tremendous hammers rushed through his brain. "You didn't drop me in it did you?!" he worriedly asked, already preparing to fly away. Fast.
"Of course I didn't! She came to my house first, I told her I didn't know anything and now she's dragged me out here to interrogate you." Cream quickly explained, the shouts rapidly becoming louder.
"Good." Tails sighed, thoroughly relieved that Cream had indeed notified him early; despite his pink hammer phobia, Tails wasn't sure if he'd have been able to restrain his own laughter if Amy alone had turned up demanding answers. "Right now we've got another problem, because Sonic's here too. Better to persuade her to leave quickly."
"Why's Mr Sonic here?" Cream asked.
Before Tails could answer, the yelling had become too loud to ignore and a few seconds later Amy appeared, sprinting the last few strides to finally catch up with the rabbit. "Cream...no fair...can't fly..." she panted. Then her gaze fixed on Tails.
Tails knew that if they were ever going to investigate that area tonight, he had to get the topic going before Amy started ranting on about those notes, or else he wouldn't get a word in edgeways. He seized the chance while she was still catching her breath. "So like I was saying Cream," he said loudly, "I've finished my detector and we were just off to look at the place it's picked out." Cream looked delighted, most likely due to the news of his radar's completion, but Amy just narrowed her eyes. Why was she looking at him so suspiciously? Then, too late, Tails realised his mistake.
"We?" Amy's expression turned into a smile that was almost evil. "Who else is in there?"
"Oh, no-one." Tails said, trying to cover for his blunder. It didn't work.
"Yeah right! It's Sonic, isn't it? Don't worry, I can tell by your feeble attempts at acting casual!"
Busted. "Yes, it's Sonic." Tails conceded. "If you want, I suppose you can ride with us in the X-Tornado and I'll drop you both off at your homes on the way back." Somehow he sensed that Sonic wouldn't be ecstatic about Amy's presence, but he could hardly just leave her here on her own. She'd probably snoop around and wreck his stuff anyway.
"Sounds like a plan." Amy said. "See, everyone's happy when you're up front! Like how Cream told me that your machine's nearly done!" She stood on his doorstep for a moment as if in thought, then crossed the threshold into the house and gave Tails a surprising hug. He let out a confused noise before Amy spoke quietly into his ear. "By the way, I'm glad everything's coming together to bring back Cosmo." She pulled away and smiled sincerely at him, reminding Tails that despite her temper, Amy was as faithful a friend as anyone he'd ever met.
"Thanks, Amy."
Amy nodded, knowing that nothing more needed to be said. "Well, I'm guessing he's in your workshop!" she said, returning to her usual tone of voice. "Oh, SONIIIIC!" she playfully called. Tails shook his head and chuckled as he and Cream followed the hedgehog's quick pace.
"This is gonna be an eventful flight..."
The doors to the deck of Eggman's mobile humanoid base automatically opened as the man himself approached. There was no need for hand scanners or retinal ID up here; his defences were such that anyone who was on this floor, was permitted on this floor.
However, personnel identification was not the subject on the self-proclaimed genius's mind today. He slowly sat down on his command chair, where he could manually control and (when necessary) override the robot's actions and movement whenever Decoe and the like screwed up, which was often. But at the moment his trademark trio of robots were absent, checking on the engine and other essential machinery.
It was just as he began thoughtfully stroking his ridiculously long moustache when an unexpected voice called out to him. "Trouble, Doctor?" it said. The voice was extremely feminine and might even have sounded seductive if he ever had time for anything like that. Which he didn't. Eggman didn't bother trying to look for the source because he knew she could be anywhere in the room. After a few seconds of stalemate, Rouge spoke again. "Up here, egghead."
Only then did he look skyward to find the bat sitting cross-legged on a beam near the ceiling about thirty feet up. Eggman scowled. "If you keep breaking in here I'll kick you outta this base permanently!" he warned.
Not long after their return from space, Eggman had decided to retain the unspoken yet mutual deal they had developed while fighting the Metarex, which was that Rouge and Shadow could tag along with him so long as they assisted him occasionally and then stayed out of the way when he didn't need them. This arrangement suited all of them just fine, seeing as the pair of base-squatters would often go off for long periods to do their own things, leaving Eggman with more time to plan and less time having to punch a stress-relief toy.
Rouge leapt from the beam and gracefully glided downwards until she was level with his chair. She put on an obviously fake look of hurt and said "Ouch. I think I prefer your usual grunt of acknowledgement than a threat like that. And what's happened to our little game of 'Find the Pretty Bat'? I enjoy it when you get that bewildered look while you're looking for me, but this time you didn't even make an effort."
"I'm not here to please you! You're the one in my territory!" Eggman grabbed a pencil and on a piece of paper in front of him started drawing what he hoped to Rouge would look like a next-generation robot, but what was actually more of an aimless doodle. This was simply an attempt to try and ignore her, but that was quite difficult when she was hovering right in front of his face.
"Come on, now. What's got a brainy guy like you all thoughtful? You know you can tell me anything." Eggman remained silent. "Well, that's alright. Suppose it's none of my business." Then, in a tone that suggested she might ask the same question every day, she said "Say, what's with that green stuff stored in the left shoulder of this thing?"
Eggman's insides burned. How the hell did she know about that? He hadn't seen her since he'd discovered it and he doubted that even those incompetent disasters that were his robotic assistants would be stupid enough to inform her of its presence. That left only the very plausible possibility that she had found it by herself while sneaking around and deduced that it was of interest to him. "Eh? It's nothing special." he said nonchalantly. Trying to drive the subject elsewhere, he said "Shouldn't you be hanging upside-down a tree somewhere? And where's Shadow?"
"What am I, his babysitter?" Rouge scoffed. "And yeah, I'm sure it's nothing. After all, every evil genius keeps piles and piles of shining green rock that does absolutely nothing." She glanced down and gasped. "Oh my, Doctor, you've mastered the art of self-portrait!"
Eggman only now realised that in his growing anger, his hand had kept the pencil furiously scribbling on the paper. The result was a very large blob. "THAT'S IT!" he bellowed. "Listen to me, you little thief. I don't know how you found it, but from now on that area is off-limits! I'm going to heighten robot security so that even your batty little face will be attacked on sight!"
Rouge shrugged. "Whatever you say. I'll just hang around in here for a while."
"No you won't!" Eggman rebutted. He wasn't going to take any chances. The six Chaos Emeralds were kept in this room and for Rouge every second spent within it was a second of figuring out a way to deactivate the protective lasers and steal them. "This room's off-limits too! I'm not going to have you swiping my Emeralds when I only have one left to get. I stand by my earlier decision; if I ever find in here again, you'll be chased out by an army of angry robots!"
Rouge dropped any hint of appeal in her voice. "Fine." she said roughly.
Eggman huffed, satisfied that she'd got the message. He had no doubt she would try and steal one or the other eventually (and with her skills he had no reason to discredit her chances of success), but he felt that even Rouge didn't know just how close he was to success. Still, he would have to keep a very close eye on her from now on. The Emeralds aside, he had no solid ideas on what the green rock substance could do; early analysis had demonstrated its chemical structure to be far more complex than he had first imagined. His intuition was screaming at him that there was something massively profitable to be gained from it. Whether financially or scientifically he didn't know, but his gut was one of the few things he trusted. Rouge could not be allowed to interfere. "Well, what did I just say?" he asked incredulously when he saw the bat still stood there. "Get out!"
"I was going to, but then I thought you might want some help with those guys." Rouge used her thumb to direct his gaze out of the huge glass window in front of him.
His motion radar was already bleeping but, despite the darkness outside, he didn't need it. The sight of a plane which was a constant thorn in his side roaring towards them was all too clear. "What?!" he yelped, actually jumping out of his chair. "What in blazes are they doing here?!" He snatched up a nearby microphone and shouted into it. "Bocoe! Decoe! Get your metallic backsides up here this instant! We need to prepare for battle!" Rouge raised questioning eyebrows at him. "Fine, you can stay for now!" he growled. Because the truth was he was much more scared of the speeding plane's occupants ruining his plans than of a half-dressed bat.
