Dr. Eggman had been frustrated for quite some time. After the events of the Blue Typhoon, he hadn't known what to do. He knew of Cosmo's returning, he knew that Sonic now had a job. He desperately wanted to defeat Sonic and thus remove any obstacles for ruling the world. But, all his ideas had been spent. If he could recreate the Egg Fleet that his creation, Metal Sonic, had built, without letting Metal Sonic intervene, he could possibly defeat the cursed hedgehog. But, it was beyond him and his creating abilities.

For the past few months, he had spent his days in a rundown laboratory off the coast, thinking off wild and crazy robotic inventions that he could beat Sonic with. He had a chaos emerald too, but that alone was insufficient. He also needed a carrier for it to become destructive. His mindless thinking was stopped by a knock on the door that hadn't been opened since he got there.

"Now who in the blazes has found me?" Dr. Eggman muttered as he got out of his chair to open the door. He had a blaster in his hand, just in case the figure wasn't welcome. He opened the door slowly. To his surprise, it was a figure, just about the same size as Sonic, with folded wings. More to his surprise, it was a robot.

"Hello, Dr. Eggman, I presume?" The figure asked.

"Yes… Who sent you?" The Dr. asked.

"I sent myself. I need your help." It answered kindly.

"How could you send yourself? All robots have a master that they serve. Who are you?"

"I am Xavier; model number XT-421 of the Rinocian Empire. I am a fully sentient artificial intelligence robot. I sent myself, and I need your help. Will you comply?"

"Yes, but you must help me first." The Dr. smirked. "You see little robot, I have been for the past countless years, trying to kill a persistent hedgehog by the name of Sonic. I will help you if you can help me. Understood?"

"Affirmative, but my sights also lay on Sonic the Hedgehog. Particularly his friend's girlfriend Cosmo. I need you to send two armies out, one to kill Sonic, another to stop kill Tails."

"Why kill Tails? He is a weak, insecure little boy."

"But, he is Sonic's best friend, and without him, Sonic will crumble, fall into a pit of despair. And we need to separate them first."

"You, my little friend, are a pure evil genius. That plan is perfect. Without Sonic, Tails will die, and without Tails living, Sonic will be unable to fight back."

"Now build the armies."

"It will take awhile."

"Not if I build them, you need only to control them."

"Wow, you can build robots too? Who made you? I must see this genius. For he has created the greatest creature alive."

"'She' is not near here yet, and she is the greatest inventor of all time. She needs not to know that again."

"Ok, get to work my minion."

"Now know this, I am not your minion, and I am not working for you. You, along with everybody else on this planet, are but pawns to my greater cause. Now goodbye." XT growled as he walked into a vacant part of the room.

XT stood there for awhile, rethinking every robot that the Dr. had ever created, trying to come up with a one that mimicked every one of their attributes. His goal was not really to kill Sonic or Tails, but to glorify Tails to Cosmo, and make him the hero once again. XT then transformed himself into a large tunnel, filled with small mechanical arms with different tools on them. A voice echoed from the tube.

"Dr. Eggman, please apply a chaos emerald, and continue to supply me with metal, the armies shall pop out single file, ready for combat." The Dr. grudgingly placed a chaos emerald into the slot on XT and placed a lot of metal into a side of the tube.

Instantly, XT responded, little parts of the metal were cut off from the scrap that Dr. Eggman placed in front of him. As the parts traveled through the tunnel, they were expanded, added to, and then brought to life by the chaos emerald. Every half minute, three new robots of the same type came out.

Dr. Eggman was thrilled. Now he not only had an army on its way, but also a creature to create more every minute. If only I could enslave this creature… I would be unstoppable. The Dr. continued dreaming as XT continued to create.

Everybody seemed to be having a good time. Cosmo, who never really had that much time on the Blue Typhoon to listen to stories, got to hear about everybody and the tales they had been through. She was fascinated by the world-saving epics that Tails and Sonic had been through in their lifetimes. Tails had been reveling in the talk about himself, Sonic, and the good old days; but also reveling in the thought of Cosmo hearing about them. He never told her everything about himself and how brave he could be at times. Everybody was done eating, but they continued to sit at the table, just talking. Sonic, who would be the least likely to enjoy sitting, was actually the one holding everybody there. He continued talking about every story that he'd been in.

"Um, let's go now, I wanna have some fun." Amy stated, stopping Sonic from continuing.

"Uh… ok…" Sonic agreed, ending his conversation. The group of seven, including Cheese, all got out of their seats. Tails gently offered his arm to Cosmo as she got out of her seat. Just before she accepted, Cream butted in, and took Tails' arm. Tails, not knowing what to do, offered his other arm to Cosmo, she took this one, without any interference from Cream.

Cosmo was a little agitated by this act by Cream. That was a little rude of her, but then again, she is only eight years old… Maybe she didn't realize that Tails was offering his hand to me… Cosmo followed Tails around with Cream, as Tails left the café, following Sonic and Knuckles.

"So… Where to?" Sonic asked the group.

"You mean, you really didn't have a plan set out for a day like this?" Tails asked them. Sonic scratched his head.

"You see, my idea of a fun day, is a day without stress. A schedule is stress, so I went without one." Sonic made up an excuse.

"Ok, Cosmo, you pick where we should go." Cream asked her.

"Well, I don't really know this city well, so I have little idea where anything is…" Cosmo stumbled.

"Tails never showed you the city?" Knuckles asked her.

"No, it's not that he didn't show me, it's just that I was too busy around the house to get out very much." Cosmo answered. Tails, seeing that his girlfriend was feeling trapped, interrupted.

"Why don't we show Cosmo Extreme Gear riding?" Tails suggested to the group. Sonic's face lit up with excitement.

"Yeah! That, that is a brilliant idea my little kitsune friend! I'll go to your storehouse and get all the Gear that we collected." Sonic bolted off over to Tails' house in the distance.

"What's an Extreme Gear?" Cosmo asked innocently.

"First, how well can you balance?" Tails asked.

"How do you mean? Usually, I'm pretty well balanced."

"Good, can you skate?" Knuckles asked her.

"Like, ice skating? Yeah I can do that, I oddly remember liking doing something like that, when I was back at…"

"Doubly good. Then Cosmo, you're gonna find out real soon. Quickly everybody, to the canyon!" Tails shouted, as Knuckles, Amy, and Cream all cheered.

Sonic had already gotten to work. In the storage house outside Tails' house, there was every Extreme Gear that Tails had ever thought of. They were cheap, small, and producing them for G.U.N. was a good source of income for Tails. From boards to skates to bikes, Tails had it all. But there were too many for Sonic to carry, so he put them all into a wagon and hauled them all over to the canyon, where everybody went to ride Extreme Gear.

Dr. Eggman had obtained a second chaos emerald; while he left XT produce an army. When he came back, he gave XT the emerald. XT's system absorbed its power and utilized it to triple his speed. In ten seconds, three robots were created. The doctor then went to work on a restraining bolt for XT in secret. I'm gonna reprogram this little robot, and harness his energies to mold them to my purposes. He shall become the greatest fighting machine that ever existed. XT just continued his amazing pace. There was about 1000 robots about now, all armed and ready for activation. The Dr. would have enough to lure Sonic away in about three hours.

The group had now amassed themselves in the canyon. It was a large, naturally barren canyon that was perfect for high-speed racing. Sonic had just arrived, and had begun unloading his wagon-filled load of Extreme Gear. Cosmo looked curiously at the little machines that Sonic was pulling out of the wagon. Cream and Amy were already getting their personal favorite Gear. Cream got her skates from the pile, as did Amy with her board. Knuckles was patient, waiting for Sonic to completely unload the wagon before finding his bike. Tails found his board, and helped Sonic get his. Cosmo still had no idea what an Extreme Gear was, or what they did.

"Here Cosmo, I really have the thought that you'll do well on a board." Tails told her as he handed her a green colored board.

"What do I do with it?" Cosmo asked, looking over the mainly flat piece of decorated metal in her hands.

"You ride it. Here, let me show you. Like this." Tails placed his bored on the ground and kicked it into action. The thing began floating as he stood on it, keeping his balance carefully.

"Ok…" Cosmo did the same with her board. She stepped onto it carefully and tried to keep her balance on it.

"Wow, you catch on pretty quick." Tails remarked.

"This feels so weird though! How does it keep me afloat?"

"Well, air is hyper compressed into the air tanks in the board and then let out through small little nozzles at the bottom, causing a lift that keeps you up. Also, the lighter you are, the less air will be wasted, in which case, Cosmo, you can ride these things for a long time." Tails explained.

I love it how he knows what he's talking about… Cosmo thought as she listened to her husband of her dreams.

"Now, you can try to move. Just get a little push off of the ground, a stay balanced; the board will do the rest." Tails instructed as everybody else got ready to go. Cosmo did this, but she didn't go very far, she continued to move forward at a walking speed on her board for about twenty feet.

"Wow, this is a bit harder."

"Hey Cosmo, come back here." Tails told her as she picked up her board and walked over.

"Come on Tails, we wanna go!" Sonic urged, knowing that if they sped up, Cosmo was more likely to need to rely on Tails.

"Ok, Cosmo, give the board a real good push, and lean backwards onto the pad in the back. That will make you go a bit faster. I'll be right at your side if you fall." Amy held her hand to her mouth. That is so cute of him! She thought.

"Ok Tails." Everybody started their Gear and kicked off. Cosmo and Tails were side by side, getting ready to push off.

"Let's GO!" Sonic yelled as he ran and pushed off into a blur of speed. Amy followed him, closely by Knuckles. Cream was hesitant, waiting for Tails and Cosmo to launch off. But she eventually could help it, and went off in a burst of speed. Cosmo, who had started off slowly, didn't see the other's jet off. Instead, she was focusing on the ground ahead of her, and Tails' face. She hadn't yet gone into the fast speeds that a Gear could go on, but she soon remembered Tails' statement and pushed down on the back of the board. Instantly her speed increased. She went from 12 miles per hour to about 200. She was having trouble seeing everything, it was moving so fast that all she saw were blurs. To make it worse, the sand in the air was getting in her eyes. She soon lost her balance and fell off, onto Tails who was riding smoothly right next to her. The two fell off and landed on the ground with a thud. Cosmo looked at Tails, who was laughing underneath her.

"I'm so sorry, Tails!" Cosmo begged for forgiveness.

"It's ok; you did well for a first time. What went wrong?" Tails asked.

"I couldn't see; the sand got in my eyes." Cosmo said getting off Tails and picking up her board. They were now about a hundred feet away from the wagon. Sonic, Amy and Knuckles were nowhere to be seen. Cream was turning around.

"Let's get back to the wagon; there are some goggles that you could use. Here, get on my board, lean as I do." Tails scooted forward on the Gear, allowing Cosmo to get on it. He then jetted forward to the wagon, where he grinded to a stop and let Cosmo get off. Tails shuffled through the wagon looking for some goggles as Cosmo waited patiently. Tails' tails were moving about as he searched, and Cosmo was lured to them like a cat was to a ball of yarn. She fiddled around with one. Tails jumped and hit his head on the top of the wagon.

"That felt so weird."

"I'm sorry, it was hard to resist." Cosmo said sweetly and innocently.

"Don't be, it oddly felt good." Tails continued looking for goggles and eventually found them.

"Here you go!" Tails announced as he put the goggles on Cosmo's head. The goggles were tinted, to prevent glare and stop some of the sunlight, and they appeared a reddish color. Cosmo adjusted the goggles and let her eyes get used to them.

"Well, it's going to be easier now, though, I'm still going to be at your side until I'm a bit more confident." Cosmo stood on the board and the two took off, followed by a plotting Cream the Rabbit.

Dr. Eggman's plan was working nicely. The restraining bolt was ready, and he was already working on something to try to control XT. XT had already created 5000 robots and was working on a new batch of flying units. They went faster. Each flying unit was lightly armed, and was brittle. Though the amount of power it packed was worth the loss of durability. XT continued mindlessly producing the robots as he watched, through his copters, Cosmo and Tails.

"Soon, little XT, soon you shall be done. And Sonic will finally be destroyed." Dr. Eggman laughed maniacally as he walked out of the room.