Alright, here's another update for you. I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 9

The Culprits Revealed

The door to Team Sonic's house opened and in stepped Cream, half-supporting a near-unconscious Tails. She helped her new boyfriend over to the sofa and sat him down.

"Tails... I'm so sorry. I really am," Cream said, apologizing for the umpteenth time since the incident.

You see, after shopping for about 2 hours, Tails decided that maybe it was time to get going. The reason being that he believed the DNA decoding process might be finished by now, that he was broke from spending so much money on Cream, or maybe both.

So upon leaving, Cream became so cutely fascinated with the revolving door, proving that all of her child-like habits had not disappeared with the experiment. She began to run around inside of the door, causing it to rotate rapidly. She then encouraged Tails to try to jump in. He was reluctant at first, but her cute giggling finally swayed him to try. He was just one step away, when he tripped on his untied shoelace and fell toward the door, promptly knocking himself in the head.

When Cream saw this, she immediately stopped her actions and went to the aid of her downed boyfriend. She helped him up, into the Tornado, and she drove home...

Cream helped Tails lay down on the couch and removed his hand from his forehead. She kneeled beside him, removed his hat, and pushed aside his bangs to reveal a reddish-purple bump beginning to form through his fur.

"Ouch... that must really hurt," Cream said as she gently stroked it with her hand. "I really am sorry Tails." She looked down and began to wring her hands.

"Don't worry about it," Tails grunted as he pushed himself up. "It's just a little bump. No major harm done, so please stop apologizing." Tails lifted her face so that they were looking at each other.

"Ok. I'm still..." Cream began to apologize again, but before she could finish, Tails caught her lips in a kiss. It was nothing serious, just something to stun her into silence for a minute, a butterfly kiss of sorts.

"I told you," began the fox gently as he broke away, "its ok; just a little bump. Now, why don't we go and check on the machine?" Tails got up and offered his hand to the faintly blushing Cream. She took it and once she got up, they both went down to the lab.

They walked hand-in-hand down to the lab and when they got there, Cream took a seat on a workbench while Tails went to pick up a stack of papers that looked like they had been spit out of the machine he was fooling with before they left. Upon examining the papers, he began to make a lot of interested "Oohs" and "Ahhs". Cream wasn't sure what he was talking about, but from the look on his face she could tell that Tails had identified the thief.

"So Tails, what does it say?"

"Well, the good news is that we know who took Cheese. The bad news is that it's not going to be as easy as I thought to get him back," Tails said scratching the back of his head, walking to the workbench Cream was sitting on, and handing her the papers. She thumbed through them and made some of the same interested sounds that Tails had made.

Most of the papers contained figures and equations that Cream had never seen before. She just made the noises to make it seem like she could keep up with all of this. But the last page was very lucid and straight out. On the last page were the names of the culprits and their pictures.

Cream gasped when she saw none other than the faces of Team Dark staring up at her from the sheet of paper.

"Well," She said hopping off of the bench-like table, "we know where to go. Let's go!" Just as she was about to shoot up the stairs, Tails caught her arm.

"Hold up, Cream. We can't just go charging into Team Dark's headquarters without some kind of plan."

Cream kept trying to pull away. "We don't have time for a plan Tails! They could be hurting my Cheese."

"But Cream we..." Tails was cut off in mid-sentence as Cream suddenly snapped her head around and, with tears in her eyes yelled,

"Don't you think I've done my waiting! Cheese could be hurt or worse; he could be..." She was unable to finish, her words caught in her throat behind a sob as she thought of the possibilities that her little chao might not have made it.

She stopped resisting Tails' grip as he pulled her into a tight embrace, rubbing her back and telling her that everything was going to be Ok.

"I did it again, didn't I?" Cream said after a few minutes.

"Did what?" Tails asked as he wiped a tear away from her chocolate colored eye.

"I started crying again. I really do need to work on that."

"Don't worry about it. You have every right in the world to be upset, but rushing into things and thinking on impulse isn't going to get us anywhere."

"I know. I'm just really worried about Cheese."

"I understand," Tails whispered as he hugged Cream tighter. "But if we're going to do this, we're going to do it right. Now I can help, but it may take a little longer than planned. Do you trust me?" Tails, once again, put his finger under Cream's chin and lifted her face, as so to make them eye-level.

"Of course, Tails. I trust you completely." Another hug and a kiss on Cream's forehead, and the two were off to start planning. But not before finding Sonic, Knuckles, and Amy to enlist a little bit of help...

Ok, Ok, I know. It was really, really short. Even shorter than the last chapter, but hey look on the bright side: at least this update was a lot faster! Anyway, the next update might take a little longer because a lot of the action and one of the main plot points comes out in the next chapter. So please be patient with me and don't give up hope. R&R if you loved it.