Turns out trying to fit fifteen people inside a shuttle the size of the Bluejay was a bit of a bad idea. It's cramped, it's awkward, and Sonic doesn't even know the names of the seven people of Spark Squad who stayed behind with the shuttle. They're a mixed bunch for sure, and Omega has to crouch in Sleep Mode beneath a seat to fit in at all, while the pilot gets three people sitting with him, one of whom is Rouge and who also insists on backseat-piloting, and meanwhile Faith occupies two seats because she's unconscious again…
Sonic himself is shoved between a wall and a hard place, because he's sort of been aiming to avoid Gadget, but now he's almost sitting in the poor guy's lap. Dammit.
"So, I heard that you defeated Chaos?" There. That's a conversation starter.
"I guess." Gadget isn't even looking at him.
Sonic frowns. "You did great – Faith is the only injured one."
"Yeah," Gadget says. The air feels even staler than before. "Did we complete the mission?"
"Yeah!" Sonic says, ignoring how obviously Gadget changed the topic. "We got the intel – so-" So now the resistance would have a better shot at reclaiming the city – and they did rendezvous with Shadow, too. Shadow was always good to have on your side (as proven by the Black Arms War) and Rouge and Omega would be incredibly valuable in making some battle-plans for taking back Central City. So, they got all the information they wanted…
-but it'll be who-knows-how-long for GUN to starve and die, before they can liberate the city.
"I wish – we should've tried getting GUN out of there, too." Or what remains of their forces, anyway…
"I know." Gadget sighs, and for a brief moment Sonic feels as if they understand each other better than before. Same goals, some morals. Walked the same dead streets. The moment passes and Gadget says resignedly, "But – well, we didn't have a lot of options, did we?"
Did they? No. Not really, seeing as they had to do a Chaos control while using Shadow's emerald to even be able to leave the city, the amount of robots steadily increasing the closer to the wall you got. Security must've caught them – probably when Chaos flooded half the shopping district…
"Doesn't mean I have to like it," Sonic replies, eventually. Words start to feel emptier the more you repeat them. "We'll just have to win this war as fast as possible, am I right?" he looks at Gadget. Gadget just looks at him flatly. Flatly. Flat words, flat people. Nothing seems to matter when you've already lost, and it all just seems so incredibly funny. Guys, what's the point? They will die. We will die. Everything will— and then Sonic lurches away from that edge, reels back from the abyss, always appalled at himself.
(it's not funny anymore)
Sonic says, convincing himself, "We will do this. We always come through in the end – we're going to make it. We're going to win this."
(but at what cost?)
Gadget lets out a deep sigh, but then he smiles tentatively. "If you say so…"
"It's gonna be alright," Sonic says, and grins, because if he didn't believe in hope, didn't believe in his friends, then he would probably be long dead by now. He's got to hope, that's what it is. He's exhausted and has bruises in several places, the high of battle just starting to wear down, but it's only a matter of time until they're all safely back at the ARK. The team, reunited. Even a vagabond misses their home when it's storming…
Elsewhere…
They're on the way. Tails feels as if he can finally relax, seeing as he had overseen the upgrades for their shuttle (072-BJ) himself, and there's not really anything in space that can harm them, anyway. It's one less worry for him, so he can check that off the list. Unfortunately his list is very long, and in the personal section Sonic's wellbeing is number one. Because dang it, Sonic is obviously not okay; he's as much alright as Eggman is a good person.
He's missing fingers. He's been through torture up on the Death Egg, and Tails feels so overwhelmingly guilty that he couldn't find the place sooner, couldn't help him defeat Infinite before it all began. That the war stole all his time and energy, and that he thought Sonic was dead. He thought Sonic was alive and that everyone was lying, he thought Sonic was dead but that was impossible, there's no way- It was incomprehensible. Everything would fall apart like a house of cards if that was the truth. So, therefore it was a lie.
Sonic is always there, you can always count on him. He can't be killed. That's facts of the universe, and Tails knows all rules can be broken but he could not be gone.
-And then the resistance had recruited Tails, because obviously. Thinking about life? Completely overrated. Tails had upgraded the whole radar system on ARK in less than a day, and next there was the air-recycler, the temperature controls, the shielding system which needed a brutal rewrite of the whole system, and then there was the power plant and all the lights on the fourth floor and lagging doors and-
It felt like the ground had been ripped away beneath his feet when they caught wind of where Sonic was held. That he was a prisoner, period. All the sleepless nights of staring at a screen, staring into space thinking what-if, if-only, had finally caught up to him and punched him right in the face. Now? There's hope. There's evidence. Of course Sonic was alive, he's unbeatable, a living legend, Tails' big brother who's not allowed to die…
…And now he's out in the open again, immediately getting himself sent out on a mission, as soon as he and Knuckles were done playing hot potato with the responsibility of being Commander of the resistance.
But he's not okay. Tails caught him staring once, just standing at the counter, a broken glass on the floor. He was frozen and staring into nothing, his expression…
-Tails is better with machines than with people, but shoot. That wasn't a good thing in anyone's book. The worst thing? Tails doesn't know if he can help. Another bad thing? Tails has so many other responsibilities – head of engineering & programming, assistant strategist and occasional leader of Fox Squad – that he doesn't think… he can't put time on it. He can't afford to be there for Sonic like he should because guess what? The lights went out again, this shuttle needs repairing, the entire motion controls system in the bridge just. Shut down.
And the problem is, that they are going about the situation as if it is still just guerrilla fighting, one on one, when at this point it's already a full-scale war. Small groups are perfect for the situation but right now they're forgetting how many people they have, how many people that need help. It's just not a weird monster or a wicked machine they're fighting this time – it's a whole army.
Tails doesn't really sleep anymore. His schedule is full until next holiday, and he knows, logically, that coffee is bad for eleven-year-olds but it's just that kind of year, isn't it?
Meanwhile…
"-This is your pilot speaking: we're going to dock in fifteen minutes, please sit tight."
The conversation muted for a moment, and then it restarted, the atmosphere subtly changed. Silver himself could sadly not participate: his jaw hurt and was starting to get kind of swollen. And Gadget would have his hide if he even thought about speaking, and… well, about the thinking, Silver still hadn't managed to figure out how telepathy worked.
Everyone insisted that wow, you're totally able to do telepathy too, right? He was not. Likely, he would never even get the hang of it… he thought. What are the chances, anyway?
Silver would like to talk to Shadow, though, who was sitting next to him. Shadow seemed to have his life more together than Silver – how did he do it? The focus? The ever-present calm? And don't even get him started on Espio; that guy is just… so collected. A soothing presence to be around. He had made Silver mint tea and taught him how to meditate. Meditating helped Silver so much, and he had instantly liked Espio after that, nevermind his initial suspicion.
(he's head of the intel division, so obviously Silver joined that branch)
…But Shadow, though. He had an air of importance to him. And it was more of an 'I hold the fate of the world in my hands' kind of thing, than a 'my ego could fuel a spacecraft' thing. There was also the very juicy information he no doubt had gathered, and Silver knew just how desperate the resistance were for information that could help them win. Also, Silver was curious. And bored. Not-talking is boring.
"Five minutes left." –it takes Silver a moment to realise that it was Shadow who said that, despite Shadow glancing at him.
Silver has to settle for nodding excitedly, because what else is he supposed to do? Text him?
Shadow looks at him for a long, tense moment. And then he says, "Have you ever been to Soleanna?"
Silver shakes his head for 'no.'
"Hmm." Shadow looks away, and doesn't say anything more. Silver doesn't mind that much though, because now the ARK is so close he can almost count all the unfinished rails on its bottom, can almost count the tiny glittering windows. He can feel Shadow looking past his head and out the window, and he pushes back the urge to prepare for a fight. The ARK is like a giant, looming moon above them-
-until it swallows them up, and spits them out in a cavernous hangar stuffed with shuttles and ships.
"This is your pilot: we've docked. Please wait while the doors open…"
Moments later…
In the Great Room, a stressed-looking chinchilla informs Commander Knuckles and Amy Rose that the Bluejay is back: Sonic is back.
In the hangar, Tails almost hits his head on the underside of a ship, poking his head out of its guts to watch, just as the Bluejay's engines die.
In the shuttle 072-BJ "Bluejay", Sonic the Hedgehog is almost twitching in his seat, waiting. Waiting.
Next to him, Gadget worries. He's worried about the future, he's expectant. He's hoping for things.
Next to them, Shadow fingers the USB still tucked into his glove, lost in thoughts.
Next to him, Silver sits and waits, excited to be back. He can't wait to get his jaw fixed, among other things.
-The doors of the Bluejay slide open with a faint hiss, and the pilot lets out a sigh of relief to finally be rid of Rouge and her teasing. Sonic is the first one out of the shuttle, hopping out with an easy confidence that is almost faked, only to immediately be tackled by a golden blur with two tails. "Sonic!" Tails exclaims happily, hugging him, and shit, soon even Tails will be taller than Sonic.
"Buddy, pal, hey-" Sonic lets out a breathless little laugh. "-you're strangling me."
"Am not," Tails argues. "Amy told me to aim for the neck – what kind of amateur do you think I am?"
Sonic grins, and then he reaches out very deliberately, and ruffles Tails' bangs.
"No fair!" Tails slinks away from him and steps back, carding a hand through his hair. Sonic grins wider.
"No fair? There's only the laws of the jungle now." –Tails gives him a look. Sonic reconsiders his joke, and says instead, "And guess who we found?"
"Eggman Nega?" Tails jokes.
"Better!" Sonic makes a grand gesture to the mouth of the ship, and says, "Behold – Team Dark!"
-as if on cue, Rouge steps out the Bluejay, looking like a popstar exiting her private helicopter. And after her trails Shadow, Omega, and lastly Silver, sticking out with his light fur.
Sonic glances at Tails, and Tails' expression… it's changed somewhat. Like he's planning ahead, like he's gotten a new puzzle piece. It's a puzzle, all of it. The war, the strategies, the stars and the ARK and Egghead's new power source – why Shadow's way of saying 'Chaos energy' sounds cool when everyone else just makes it sound dire, or stupid, or like utter nonsense techno-babble. Sonic's happiness feels almost like something he has to maintain nowadays: two spoonfuls of hope, a cup of meaningless optimism, a pinch of genuinely funny jokes…
Artificial. He really wants his joy to be natural this time.
Tails says, voice quiet with its sudden seriousness, "They've got information?"
"They've got it."
.
A/N: -If you want to divide this story into parts, then congratulations! We're through Central City Zone, now up for arc 2, space shenanigans :D
-Also if any of you like infidget and didn't see it yet, I posted a short fic about them like two weeks ago