Unwelcome Alibi

The twenty minutes of train ride from Station Square to the very end of the railway line at the coast of Mystic Ruins passed in syrupy silence.

Tails tried to look occupied by staring intently out the windows, as if he'd never seen the landscape rushing past before and as if it was the most interesting thing he'd seen in a while. The truth was, he'd of course been on this train hundreds of times. He knew every bush, every hill, maybe even every flower next to the track almost like his own backyard.

But he didn't want to be staring at Rouge instead; it could have been easily interpreted as nosiness, or worse, a silent cue to start a conversation.

It wasn't that Tails disliked the bat. He didn't like her that much either; she was one of the people he had little to do with and that were 'just there', in a way. On every normal occasion, Rouge belonged to the group of people Tails would greet, maybe even a little happy to see a familiar face, then he'd exchanged some words with her, on what she was doing and that kind of small talk stuff, and then they'd go their ways.

The few times things had not gone like that had always included some kind of crisis that forced Rouge, her enigmatic agent colleague and friend Shadow and their robot comrade E-123 Omega to work together with Tails and the others.

This time it was different. Rouge wasn't around as a person he happened to know he'd met randomly, neither was she here in the role of a somewhat friendly ally. It was the first time Tails remembered the white bat really felt like a GUN agent to him, although he had to admit to himself she seemed to be more on his side than her colleague or underling or whatever he was in Station Square. Tails had no idea what position or rank Rouge, or Shadow for that matter, held in GUN. Apparently it was a higher one that the dim-witted guy they'd left in the city.

Secretly Tails was glad about that…

Still, no matter how much more on his side the female bat appeared to be, she was a part of an agency Tails didn't really trust, and right now this agency was hunting down his best friend and sole family member. The two-tailed fox was sure it was a farce, or some kind of stupid mistake. Actually, Rouge seemed to think in similar ways, but that didn't change that she accompanied him not to help prove Sonic's innocence, but more like watching over him. It was like she was here to keep an eye on Tails so he couldn't commit any crimes. It made him feel like a suspect. Distrusted and somewhat humiliated.

So he kept his quiet and tried to ignore Rouge's presence. There was nothing he could have told her, anyway.

If the white furred agent minded the silence remained her secret; if she did, she had the decency not to show it and she didn't try to start a conversation on her own. At least Tails didn't feel like a criminal in cross-examination anymore.

When the train slowed down to stop at the final station, overlooking the sea, the young fox wondered what he'd do with his 'guest' once he got home. He was eager to get going with his work on the Tornado… but he wasn't sure how much of the technical details of it he wanted witnessed by a government spy. He wasn't sure at all on Rouge's knowledge when it came to technology, but he wouldn't like finding one of his newest inventions on a GUN machine that could some day turn against them.

Putting his rucksack back on, Tails slowly strolled out the train and continued down the wooden stairs. Usually, he shortcut his way home by just flying from the top platform, unless he had non-flying company. Rouge clearly didn't qualify as that, but his backpack was so heavy Tails didn't feel like flying with it and risk dropping out of the sky halfway down… especially not with her watching. That would be embarrassing.

Rouge followed silently, but when they reached the bottom of the stairs and walked over the grassy hills, she gestured around, a small smile on her face. "You know, it's not a bad place to live at you have here."

Tails smiled a little. "Thanks. I like to have my peace and quiet more than people around, so it's right perfect." He noticed only how that must have sounded to his uninvited visitor after he'd already said it, so he hurriedly continued in an attempt to at least look like a remotely good host and gentleman. "And the look over the sea is really great, too."

The bat nodded. "Guess I'd find it nice for a holiday here. On the long run, there's not enough nightlife for ol me."

"I'm not really the nightlife person," Tails replied.

Rouge laughed shortöy. "Anything else would have surprised me. I –" She was interrupted by the beeping of her cell phone in her suit's pocket. Stopping her walk, she reached for it and answered the call.

Tails had stopped walking as well, watching her. She said nothing but a few times of 'yes' before putting the phone away again, the expression on her face suddenly a little more serious. "What's it?", Tails asked.

For a moment the bat looked at him, one eyebrow raised, then she shrugged. "A blue, superfast hedgehog has broken into the science lab of the leading ring capsule manufacturer and taken all development material on the construction of these capsules with him."

Tails stared at her. "When?" It spoke volumes that he was way past the 'What?' at this stage.

"Just a few minutes ago." Rouge looked at Tails. "I think your pal's in trouble."

Tails shook his head. "There is some kind of mistake. Sonic doesn't do something like that."

The agent and treasure huntress folded her arms. "I don't really think he does either, truth be told. There's no motive. It doesn't make sense. But I can't help it, Tails. The Commander just ordered me to stay with you for now… And he wants me to search your house for something suspicious."

"What?" Now he was back at the 'What the heck?' stage again. Yes, they were making progress fast.

Rouge shrugged slightly. "I'm sorry, Tails. If I don't find anything, you're probably rid of me again. We'll just get over with this quickly, okay? Then you can have your peace and quiet back, and I can do something sensible. We're both not in the greatest situation."

Tails sighed. It sounded like a point, and it sounded remarkably sincere given who he was talking to. "Okay. Let's go…"

The unlikely pair continued their walk slowly, neither of them very eager to get to the house. They slowly ascended the stairway to the first blank platform next to Tails' house, crossed it and were about to take the next set of steps up to the flat top of the hill the building sat on when suddenly a tangled lump of blue and red blurs rolled and bounced down these stairs.

It rolled over the flat ground before hitting a rock and coming to a stop, revealing two teenaged Mobians. A red echidna was pressing a blue hedgehog down to the dusty soil with his left knee on the small of his back between the tail and the two arced spikes on the hedgehog's shoulder blades, and the large, white-gloved hand pushed the spiked head down. "Finally had enough, traitor? Just tell me where the Emerald is and it's over…"

"No luck, Red…" Sonic coughed a little from the sand he'd inhaled when speaking, but suddenly and quickly jerked his body to the side.

Apparently the movement was too fast for Knuckles and having been leaned onto the hedgehog he ended up falling forwards when Sonic was suddenly gone and jumping to his feet next to him.

Not slow on reactions himself, the red echidna rapidly scrambled to his feet, briefly lost his balance, was still quick to jump at Sonic again after he shook himself briefly, but the hedgehog stepped out of the way faster than the naked eye could follow. He jumped when Knuckles rushed past him, landing a flying kick in Knuckles' back that floored the echidna.

Tails stared open-mouthedly at the fight before him. He had totally forgotten about Rouge's presence until she spoke up. "Oh wow, looks like we came at a bad moment…"

Knuckles was still on all fours, his long spines a mess, but his head snapped around at the sound of her sultry voice. "You!"

"Way about giving a girl a nice welcome, Knucky." Rouge smirked, and Tails wondered how she could possibly find the situation funny.

"Shut up, Emerald thief," Knuckles growled, finally back on his feet. "I'll get over to deal with you right after I'm done with that one." He didn't take the time to point at Sonic, but the way he launched himself at the hedgehog was totally sufficient indicating who he meant.

Sonic dodged the first blow of a spiked fist aiming for him, but the second that followed immediately grazed by his side, throwing him a few meters through the air and shredding to a stop in front of Tails' and Rouge's feet. Slowly he got back upright, holding his side. "Hey, Tails. Do me a favor and talk some sense into that Knucklehead, will ya?"

Tails blinked, studying his friend's dirty and bruised appearance. "Just what's going on, Sonic?"

"Ask him! He's the one who turned up here out of the blue, trying to make hedgehog pancake out of me!" Sonic pointed an accusing finger at Knuckles.

"Don't believe a word of what he says, Tails," Knuckles cut in before Tails had a chance. "He's been lying to me all the time; he might as well be lying to you! He stole the Master Emerald this morning!"

Tails felt his jaw drop. After a stunned second his mental gears resumed spinning, though. He needed a moment to close his mouth again, then he turned to Rouge. "He can't have been here and in this factory at the same time, right?"

The bat smirked, turning to the red echidna. "Knuckles, when exactly did Sonic steal your Emerald?"

"Right in the morning, not long after dawn. He probably came to the island over night to prepare himself!" Knuckles' violet eyes shot daggers in Sonic's direction.

"And how long have you two been here, punching each other's brains out?", Rouge continued, seemingly ignoring the hostility.

The question seemed to surprise the echidna and he finally interrupted his staring contest with Sonic, flashing a short glance at Rouge before looking up at the sun and checking its angle over the hills, head tilted a little in thought. "Half an hour, I guess. Why's that important?"

"Because you just gave Big Blue there an alibi, a quite believable one, actually." Rouge smiled smugly.

"I what?"

"What's she talking about, Tails?", Sonic asked, still holding his side and keeping a careful eye on Knuckles.

"GUN's searching for you, Sonic. They apparently think you stole some stuff from them. They think they saw you on surveillance cameras, yesterday evening and a few minutes ago," Tails explained. "But if you're here with Knuckles, you can't have done it."

Sonic shook his head. "Why does everybody accuse me of stuff today? First the police guys in Metropolis, then Knuckles, now GUN… Way about my holidays."

"You've been in Metropolis, this morning?", Rouge asked. It sounded like a random question, but Tails had caught the gaze she'd trained on the hedgehog. Tails didn't know Rouge that well, but right now he was sure she'd see it if Sonic tried to lie to her.

The hedgehog didn't seem all that aware on the hawkish look on him. "Yeah. Got there…. around nine or something." Sonic nodded. "Before that I was in Emerald Hill. I've been sleeping there and got to Metropolis for breakfast, but instead the police was suddenly hunting me down. So I came here to ask Tails what's going on, but he wasn't home. I sat down to wait for him, and then Knuckles turned up in the worst mood ever."

"That was very interesting, Sonic. It seems like there's someone looking like you going around stealing GUN's goodies," Rouge said, smiling a little and Tails again asked himself what about this was funny at all. "Oh, and your goodies, too, Knucky."

"You've no right calling me anything like that and… and… ", Knuckles complained, but to Tails' relief he looked to be in less of a killing mood by now, "… and I saw him!"

"What did you see, Knuckles?", Tails asked. "Are you sure, really sure, it was Sonic?"

"Of course, he was right there, running so fast he was a blur to me, and then he took the Master Emerald, held it over his head and ran off, to the island's edge. I followed him there, but I only saw him jump off the island and then he was suddenly gone!" Knuckles was still overly agitated. Tails could hardly remember a time Knuckles had gestured around at all.

The fox sighed. "Fine. How close were you to Sonic? Could you see his face, his eyes, things like that?"

"Uh, no? But it's not that he's easy to confuse. There's only one supersonic blue spiky guy around, right?" Knuckles shot Sonic a death glare.

The hedgehog however seemed much closer to calming down than the echidna. "Oh really? Just think about your story, will ya, Knucklehead? Since when do I carry the Master Emerald? Above my head, even? Do you even realize how heavy that thing is? No? Well, it's very heavy? I can hardly lift it, let alone carry it around." Sonic took a deep breath. "And I ran from you? All the way from the Temple of Chaos to the island's edge? And you could follow me? Me? You gotta be kidding. You wouldn't even see the dust in my wake if I meant to run from you."

Knuckles looked about to explode again, so Tails quickly stepped in front of Sonic. They needed to get to the bottom of this, and another fight wouldn't solve anything. Hence, Tails decided to play shield. After all, if he was really to try it, the echidna wouldn't hurt him to hurt Sonic… at least that was what the young fox hoped. "Knuckles, listen. Someone's trying to make you and GUN think Sonic stole their stuff. We have to find out who these people are, okay? We will find out who does that, and who stole the Master Emerald from you, but you have to calm down, okay?"

Knuckles ground his teeth. "Okay… For you, Tails."

For a second, Tails felt his chest swell with the notion that Knuckles would step down, now, because of him. It seemed special.

Then the echidna continued and it gave a slight dent to Tails' short moment of awe. "But if this is a trick…" The look Knuckles shot at Sonic was hostile enough further words weren't needed to clarify.

"Do you want something to drink?"

Knuckles shook his head to Tails' question. The fox shrugged, more to himself than his friend. He was right now content that Knuckles was sitting down on the worn-out sofa in the workshop instead of trying to kill Sonic or something.

"Fine." Tails stood in front of the sofa, leaning over Knuckles' head, trying to clean a few bleeding cuts above his right eyebrow. "Were that spikes?"

Knuckles shrugged. "Don't know. Might as well have been some stones on the ground. But it's hard to dodge Sonic's quills on the long run, even if he doesn't use a spin." He took a pause before adding: "And the things are damn sharp."

"It's kind of the point." Tails smiled a little, not bothering to notice that Knuckles too was spiky in parts.

Knuckles remained silent.

Tails again wiped at the cuts. "But with a bit of work you'll look like new," he said.

It was a plain lie. With Tails' efforts Knuckles looked less dirty and the open cuts and scrapes would soon be neatly covered with band-aid, but that didn't change that he looked as if he'd been in a war.

Sonic didn't look any better off; at the moment he was upstairs being interrogated and patched up by Rouge. The bat and fox had agreed it was a good idea to first of all separate the two, and Tails had volunteered to take care of Knuckles and ask him about all the details, thinking it was better than leaving the echidna in his momentary mood alone with the white bat. It was a known fact Knuckles couldn't really stand her teasing attitude even on a good day, today clearly wasn't a good day, and Tails really didn't need another fight.

Half an hour later Tails sat next to an increasingly quiet echidna on the sofa. He'd told Knuckles in all details what he knew about what was going on – what wasn't much, admittedly – and he'd let Knuckles retell his day. Twice. They'd very thoroughly gone through everything Knuckles had seen and assumed because of it, and the more they talked the more Tails found Knuckles was seeming to shrink on the sofa. As if he meant to burrow into it. He didn't say anything, but something about the echidna looked pitiful. Suddenly he looked down to Tails, down and sad and tired and hurt and ashamed, all at once.

It was an unusual look on proud Knuckles.

Rouge came down the stairs at some point, announcing she'd get back to headquarters and report the events. She said Sonic was fine and for now not a suspect anymore, but the hedgehog stayed upstairs even after she left. Tails knew all the sounds in his house and he could hear him walk around upstairs for a few minutes before he picked up the sounds of metal pods being pulled from the kitchen cupboards and figured the hedgehog was making himself something to eat.

Tails sighed, looking at Knuckles on the sofa again. Not only Sonic was awfully quiet at the moment, and no matter what Rouge had said, the fox wasn't sure if anything would be 'fine' anytime soon.