Fallen From Grace

by Chi-Cop1

In the heat of the final battle against Eggman, Miles "Tails" Prower made a horrible mistake. Now nothing but anger and shame drives his life. Can a new found love, along with friends and family save him before it's too late. (Genre: Action/Drama) Co-Staring: Leeta & Lyco Wolf, Amadeus & Rosemary Prower, Scourge, Amy, Jet the Hawk, Lien-da, Blaze, Bunnie, and Sonic the Hedgehog.

13. More pieces to the puzzle

Sonic the Hedgehog: Fallen from Grace.

Chapter 13.

Written by Chi-Cop1.

All the characters appearing in Sonic the Hedgehog video games, Sonic the Hedgehog television shows, and Sonic the Hedgehog comic books are copyright of SEGA, Sonic Team, Dic, and Archie Comics. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of Chi-Cop1.

Ace Combat references and names are property of NAMCO.

Author's Comments:

I have received a message recently from another writer informing me about some plagiarism of my story. I'm not surprised to hear this, since the same thing happened when I wrote Gargoyles Fanfiction back in 2006-2009 under my old penname. So out of curiosity I took a quick skim of recent "Tails x Wave" fanfics and… yep, a little bit of copycat work going on, but not too bad. Still, a personal request to one specific author, who I will not name, but I know will read this because (no surprise) he/she is watching my story and has even review commented (which I do appreciate):

Please dude, carry on with your story as is, but give me credit by name please. You have stuff almost literally the same as me. Tails as an Air Force Vet, Casino fights, the way the dates are listed, Wave and Jets break up, etc. Come on dude, I'm very happy my stuff inspires your work, but don't leave me unaccredited for it. It shows poor character and lack of honesty. Be honest and credit me, then you can yank my ideas all day long.

See, I'm very chill about this, since writing is fun and I know it's hard to come up with new ideas sometimes without inspiration. So to the author in question, be like Chucklenutz; he yanked my scene from Chapter 12 where Wave fondles Tails fur and whiskers, but he credited my story for the inspiration. So therefore I'm cool about it; and frankly it's nice to see more canon based "Tails x Wave" fics around here.

To reviewer jamiecreswell: I'm trying to get this out faster, but I'm juggling a full time busy adult life. So please bear with the delays between chapters, I can only tackle this story in my rare spare time.

To BobbytheGhosthog, self proclaimed number one fan on mine: Thank you, it's been a long goofy two years eh? I'm way behind on this thing, but I got it flowing pretty good right now. Hopefully I can keep the pace to one chapter under two months at a time from now on.

To everyone who reads this, including my 60 some fav/watchers: Thank you! Please review hard! Reviews are heavy motivation for me. Look what jamiecreswell did to me, I expedited and cranked out 13 (which is my longest chapter yet) in just over a month from chapter 12. Please keep up the support and reviews good and bad, I don't care which, and I'll keep writing on as much as life allows.

:)

-Noted on 10/03/2014 by Chi-Cop1.

-VV

The Royal Acorn Kingdom.

New Mobotropolis Royal Airfield).

Year 3241, Day 300.

1018 hours

"Eight ball, corner pocket" Miles called out, then aimed his shot on the pool table. He reared the pool cue back and then struck the white cue ball, which in-turn hit the eight ball right into its intended pocket. "And that is the game."

The Steve the Squirrel dropped his head in defeat. "Since when the hell did you become such a pool shark, Tails?"

Miles shrugged, "It's only simple physics and coordination."

"Ugh, well four losses in a row is a record for me, so I'm done for the day."

Miles ginned victoriously at him then looked around the recreation room for another challenger. "Anyone else want to take on their squadron captain?" Miles couldn't help but feel awkward with his new position. He had just turned 16, and yet he was now the flight lead commander of the Royal Acorn's 246th Tactical Fighter Wing, AKA "The Lions", the kingdom's first re-instated Air Wing since the Great War. It had 10 pilots and aircraft in all, plus the necessary ground crew and maintenance staff. Although they were ALL new pilots and held the same rank of 2nd Lieutenant, he was chosen by both them and the leadership to be Wing's senior lead. He was very humbled by that. His youngest subordinate was 18, and the oldest 26. Yet his experience and skills put forth in both training and in combat while under the GUN's command had earned their respect, despite his youth. He respected them too as was honored to lead them.

Finally an Impala name Jacob stood up from a chair and set the magazine he was reading aside, "I'll take your challenge, sir."

"All right then, go ahead and rack'em" Miles said with a smile as he chalked the tip of his pool cue.

Suddenly the attack alarm sounded, which then sent all Airmen scrambling out of the room in a hurry.

-vv

All the pilots ran to their lockers, strapped on their flight gear and headed to their designated aircraft's in the outside fight line bunkers.

Miles beat them all there using his tails to fly to his orange and grey colored GF-18C, his personal favorite of the Air Corps purchased GUN built aircraft. The ground crew had already prepped the aircraft, so all he had to do was hop in and start the plane up.

Within minutes his GF-18 was taxiing on the ramp, with the other nine aircraft in tow. Four GF-16C's, 2 GF-15A's and Four GF-18C's in all. They lined up on the large runway in pairs and took off two at a time.

Once everyone was up in the air and at 5,000 feet, Miles keyed his mic. "Command, this is FireFox One. Squadron is in the Air, we're on Station ready for orders."

"Roger that, Firefox. Our National southern perimeter defense line is under attack by large contingent of Eggman forces. Be advised, they do have air assets, and heavy armor units. Maintain a CAP on New Mobotropolis, and then proceed to engage the enemy. Ground forces are already engaging them at this time, and more are on the way."

Miles keyed the Mic, "Roger that." He switched channels, "Stiker and Starfield, you two will remain on CAP for the city. Candle, Doghound, you two will go to twenty thousand and make sure no one gets the jump on us from up high. The rest, follow me in." then he shouted their squadron's motto "Lions, hear us what?"

"ROAR!" Everyone said in unison.

With that, Miles GF-18 nosed over and went afterburner, followed by one other GF-18 and four GF-16's. The two GF-15's nosed up high in follow, while the other two GF-18's circled back and remained over the city.

-VV

At the battle site.

A heavy exchange of gun and laser fire went back and forth, between the Acorn Army units and the Eggman Tank bots and Dark Legion's hovercraft.

Just as one of the DEL's hoverpods made its way through the may-lay and was about to fire a laser directly at some of the ground troops, a blue blur smashed clean through it, ejecting the pilot.

Sonic laughed as he landed on his feet, while the Legioneer crashed to the ground with a thud. In front of him, Amy tossed her hammer over his head, clocking an old school swatbot in the head before it could fire its laser at Sonic's back.

"Watch your back next time, Handsome" she shouted as she ran passed him with two Soldiers in running tow.

Sonic shrugged, "Why, when you do such a good job?" Then he zoomed off and engaged the large Tank bot nearby with a spindash. When he hit the bot, the thick armor held and he landed back on his feet rubbing his head. "Damn, you're hard."

The robot aimed it's canon at him.

"Oh poor is me, I'm targeted now, whatever shall I do" Sonic said in a mocking voice.

Suddenly the Tank bot exploded as a laser guided GBU-39 bomb slammed into it from above.

Sonic smiled, "Ha, too bad for you, I have air support to back me up." Sonic a made a thumbs up gesture at the jet fighter zooming above.

-vv

Miles could see Sonic's gesture on the weapon's camera display and shook his head, smiling to himself. He keyed his mic. "Everyone attack at will! Stay in pairs, and watch out for surface to air missiles!"

Ragweed 8 pulled alongside his wing and they both made a 20mm Gatling gun attack run on the line of enemies, shredding through all the lightly armored vehicles, and heavily damaging the Tank bots. One of the surviving Tank bots then opened up a hatch on its back and out came several fast moving craft. Miles saw this and recognized them. "Butnik's UCAV's! Everyone take evasive action!"

The UCAV's were extremely nimble robot attack craft that were designed to be air to air hunter killers. One got on his rear and started firing lasers at him. "Tom, evasive action maneuver three!" He ripped the plane to the left, pulling a 9G turn, nearly blacking out as he set up his wingman for the counter maneuver. "Urrg, ready Tom?"

"Uhhh, ready!"

The GF-16 had pulled the same maneuver in the opposite direction and now they were both coming at each other head on. Once lined up, both aircraft turned sideways and almost grazed each other's aircraft bellies as they fired their 20mm canons; obliterating the UCAV's on each other's rear.

"Ugh, WHEW! Nice move sir" Ragweed shouted.

"(Catching his breath) Yeah, you too. Let's finish off the rest of them.

Both craft assisted the others in dispatching the UCAV's. One of the GF-16's was hit by laser fire and returned to base. Leaving the remaining seven to fight on.

Miles made another low pass and strafed the line with Gatling gun fire, only to have something make a "thump" on his right wing. Miles looked over and saw Sonic, clinging onto the wing for dear life, trying not to fly off. "Dammit, Sonic! What are you doing, this isn't the Tornado you dummy" Miles said aloud, knowing Sonic couldn't hear him. Flying low and slow for the attack run was at 175 knots, which was near the maximum speed for his Tornado's in the bi-plane mode. Sonic never wing walked on it over 150 knots for obvious wind resistance reasons.

Sonic was able to release one hand from the wing, and made a gesture for Tails to make a hard right in three seconds.

Miles saw it and made the count. Then he turned the GF-18 to the right.

Sonic jumped off hard, rolled midair into a spindash, then careened straight through a nearby Tank bot.

Miles shook his head, "How he's able to time these amazing attacks so perfectly while on the fly, I'll never understand" he said aloud.

"Because he's Sonic the Hedgehog, Sir" Tallman happily chimed in, hearing his comment on the radio.

Miles laughed then, dropped another GBU-39 on a large bipod robot nearing the defensive line.

The battle was quickly coming to an end, as the Dark Legion hover pods had all been shot down, and most of the robots destroyed.

Miles then heard over the radio from his GF-15 overwatch, "This is Doghound Seven, I have three fast movers inbound from the south. Altitude is changing rapidly, now 5,000 feet AGL and falling!"

"Everyone heads up" Miles shouted into his mic. "Are they missiles?"

"This in Reaper, I see them, it's….its Mecha Sally and two Metal Sonic's!"

Suddenly the GF-16 piloted by Reaper was struck by a red in color laser fired from Sally head canon, blowing off his rear rudder and damaging the single engine.

"This is Reaper, I'm hit, and I'm going down!"

Miles zoomed around to get a view of him, "Eject Reaper!"

The wounded GF-16's pilot safely ejected as the plane crashed to the ground.

"This is Candle Nine, I'm coming down to engage" Jacob the Impala said as he dove his GF-15 into down into the fray.

"All units, take out the Metal Sonics, but do not engage Mecha Sally, that's an order" Miles shouted.

"Firefox, she's on my rear" Ragweed shouted, as he pulled hard G's trying to get the roboticized princess of his GF-16's tail.

"I got you, wingman" Miles shouted as he pulled afterburner and came up behind Mecha Sally.

Behind Tails one of the Metal Sonic's pursued and started firing lasers at him. Suddenly the nose of a large fighter jet filled the robots view screen before it was blown to pieces by the GF-15's 20mm Gatling gun fire.

"Thanks Candle" Miles shouted as he lined up his plane. "Tom, on 3, I want you to nose up and hit the brakes."

"But then she'll take me out" The Sloth argued back in a panic.

"TRUST ME! Now on three!"

"Ok, one, two," then the Sloth jammed the stick into his gut and hit the GF-16's airbrakes, "THRREEEE! AAARRRRRGH!"

The GF-16 shot straight up as Miles dumped full afterburner to his engines and rammed Mecha Sally with his plane. His plan was for the midair collision to knock her out of the sky, so that Sonic and the others could take a shot at capturing her on the ground below. Unfortunately she had dug her metal clawed hands into the GF-18's left wing and was hanging onto the plane as it rocketed forward.

Ragweed 8 leveled his plane and followed after Miles, "Sir, she's clinging onto your plane!"

Miles turned his head and made eye contact with his roboticized former mentor. Sally then activated the laser canon on her head and aimed at his cockpit. Miles immediately jammed the stick to the left and sent his plane into a violent spin as he increased speed. This prevented her from being able to take a laser shot at him. "Grrr! I'm taking her out of the battle, everyone stay on station and continue the offensive!"

"Sir, I am not leaving your wing" Ragweed replied.

"I gave you an order dammit! She's our Princess, I have to get her out of the battle area before she gets killed!" Miles continued south away from the area, violently tossing and turning hard G's with his plane in various directions, trying to keep Sally from shooting at him.

Reluctantly, the other fighter pilots followed Miles orders and continued to bomb and strafe the remaining enemy forces.

Ragweed was furious that he couldn't help his squadron Captain, who had just saved his life. He took out his frustration by going straight after the one remaining metal Sonic and destroying it with one of his GF-16's AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles.

-vv

Miles was getting sore from all the negative to positive G-forces being inflicted on his body. He never once let off moving the GF-18's control stick around, knowing that doing so could mean certain death. After was seemed like a couple minutes he noticed that the plane no longer felt heavy on the left, he turned and saw that Sally was no longer clinging to his left wing. In a hurry, he leveled the plane and looked around trying to see where she had fallen off to.

"SHIT! Where is she?"

Just then, Miles heard a "Shunk" sound on his right, he looked over just as Mecha Sally clawed her way up from the bottom of the GF-18 and used her laser blade on her left arm to cut a hole into his cockpit's ballistic canopy glass.

"Oh…shiiiiiiii….!"

As soon as the cockpit was breached, a massive amount of wind noise and pressure change his Miles ears.

Sally then reached in through the hole with her left arm, her sharp metal hand clawed deeply into the right side of Miles helmet and then scratching part of his right shoulder. She grabbed onto his flight suit near his right bicep area and jerked him to the glass, as if trying to pull him through the small hole itself.

Miles struggled with her with one hand, while using his other to try and maintain control of the plane. Miles tried desperately to get her off of him, both physically and by turning the plane in various directions; but nothing seemed to work. Finally, as she began to literally pull his arm through the hole, he reached for his loaded .410 gauge "Governor" model revolver he had hooked into the left side of the cockpit.

He held the flight stick with both legs tightly and grabbed the revolver. Pointing it at her, he yelled "SALLY, STOP IT! PLEASE!" But she would not relent, so he jammed the loaded revolver into the hole below his arm and fired a point blank shot into her robotic gut.

The blast was loud, and it sent Sally flying off the plane into an aerial spin. Miles heart stopped as he took control of the plane again and hit his afterburner to get some distance.

Mecha Sally tumbled through the air for a second before leveling off in flight with her rocket booster.

Miles swung the plane around and circled back, seeing Mecha Sally holding her sparking abdomen damage with her left hand. She hovered in place, staring back at him with a look that reeked evil intentions as he stayed some distance away, traveling in the direction back to the Acorn Kingdom's territory. Miles was glad the .410 shot-shell didn't do too much damage to her, yet it took her out of the fight miles away from the battle. Mission accomplished, she was safe for now.

He sighed to himself. "One day, I'm going to bring you back home to us, Sally. I swear that on my life" he said aloud, still looking back at her as she grew smaller in his vision. Then he throttled up and guided his lightly damaged plane back to base, as increased wind noise from the hole in his canopy filled his ears.

-vv

Mecha Sally began sending data information to Eggman. "Damage to this unit….moderate. Battle losses….100%. Both Metal Sonic's and DEL units lost. Orders master?"

"GRRRRAAAHHHH! REPORT BACK TO THE DEATH EGG IMMEDIATELY" Eggman yelled into the radio.

Mecha Sally acknowledged the order and cut the communication line. Before leaving, she made a threat assessment on known enemy Targets, programmed into her by Eggman. She pulled up Sonic the Hedgehog, who was priority number one as a threat, and Tails Prower, who was listed as 7th place on the list. After formulating the data, adding Miles new capabilities, skills, weapons, and readiness to use deadly force against her; she computed her own threat assessment chart that was different from Eggman's.

Mecha Sally watched as the GF-18 was slowly disappearing from her view.

"Program changed. Threat assessment altered to counter new threats more effectively. Priority One threat: Miles Tails Prower. Changes saved. Now returning to base."

With that, Sally activated her main thrust rocket booster and flew to the south.

-vv

As Miles made his way back to base, he was joined by the other five member's of his flight squad. They pulled into formation with him.

"Sir, are you okay?" came Ragweed.

"(Background wind noise in his radio) This is Firefox, I'm good, only minor damage. What's the status on Reaper?"

"This is Reaper, I'm good to go, sir. I'm with the ground forces at the moment. Sorry sir, my plane is trashed."

Miles sighed in relief. "Don't worry, Reaper, we'll get you a new one. I'll swing back in a chopper and come get you within an hour."

"Don't bother Sir. Sonic the Hedgehog is here with me; said he'd give me a ride back to base."

"Heh. Roger that. Firefox out."

The group of six planes flew back to back to base at 200 knots. Miles looked to his right and saw the Sloth in the GF-16 giving him a hard stare. He keyed his mic, "What's on your mind, Tom?"

"Miles, one thing that was stressed to all of us by the GUN guys and by you, was to never leave your wingman's side. I'm your wingman, why did you order me to stay behind?"

"That's true sir. You did break that code" came Candle.

The other pilots chimed in the same.

Miles sighed, "You're all right. I broke the cardinal rule. The reason I did so was to prevent Sally for taking a shot at you guys. We can't kill her, so we can't engage properly, so for you to stick with me would put you at grave risk, Tom."

"What about you, Sir. She's roboticized, so she'll kill you just like any of us if she can. Why are you different than the rest of us?"

"Because if it comes to a choice between my life and your lives, I choose mine. I won't ask you guys to risk your lives to stop Sally without being able to defend yourselves properly. I took the chance today, and succeeded."

Doghoud chimed in, "Sir, we never leave one of our own to fight alone. You know that."

Miles was becoming frustrated, knowing he may be losing the confidence of his men. "I…..I just don't want anyone else to get hurt or killed because of my personal vendetta to save her. She's my family, I have to do this. I don't want to involve you all in something that could get you killed. I couldn't live with myself if that happened."

Tallman chimed in on the radio, "Sir, I grew up in Knothole with you and I know exactly how important Sally is to you. If I was in your shoes, I'd be doing the same thing. But don't forget she is my princess too, and I will risk sacrificing myself to help save her if I have to. And I don't think any one of us in the Squadron would turn down our obligations to you because of the risks due to these circumstances. You need to take her down to save her, and not kill her, we're all with you. We fight together, we die tighter, sir. Remember that."

Everyone then chimed in on the radio in agreement, including the two pilots over New Mobotropolis and the two others on the ground, who were listening to the conversation over the radio.

Miles began to choke up a bit, and had to take a few breaths before replying. "Thank you, guys."

"This is Starfield; LIONS WHAT?"

"ROAR!" they all yelled.

Miles tried hard to hold back his feelings from expressing themselves. But between the stress of combat, nearly killing Sally, and then having his whole team rally behind him just when he thought he'd lost their trust; caused the roller coaster flow of good and bad emotions to come pouring out as he cried silently to himself.

Tom the Sloth was still flying close on his right wing and could see the Fox having a momentary emotional breakdown. He felt bad him, the young Fox was in a way carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. It was a lot to handle for a guy at his young age.

After a few minutes Miles recomposed himself and then keyed radio. "Firefox one to base, mission is complete, show the squadron on approach for landing."

"Roger that, Lions. You're clear for landing on runway two four. Great job out there, guys!"

One by one, they all landed and taxied their planes to their respective hangers. This was followed by a post battle debriefing for all the pilots, while the ground crews carried out the required maintenance and repairs on their aircraft.

-VV

Two Hours later.

Miles sat on the floor of the hallway between the Wing's locker rooms and the gym. He was supposed to report to sick bay to address his injuries while the rest of the squadron went to get lunch chow. He stared at the damaged helmet in his lap, seeing how close he came to death by Sally's claws. "This would have been my skull if this thing wasn't on." He still was having a hard time coping with having to shoot Sally, even though he knew he didn't have a choice. If he didn't do it, he'd be dead right now. But every time he replayed the moment in his head, he wasn't shooting the metal monster trying to kill him, he was shooting the sweet loving young woman that raised him as his big sister. He clenched his teeth and white knuckle squeezed his helmet, wishing it was Eggman's head. How he so hated the man for what he had done to her.

Suddenly there was a blue flash, and Miles turned to see that an Overlander press reporter had taken a picture of him.

"Hey, this is a restricted area for pictures! Captain, get him out of here" yelled an all too familiar voice.

The reporter was then escorted out by a liaison officer while General Amadeus Prower walked down the hall to his son.

Miles quickly stood up and went to the position of attention.

Amadeus looked at his son firmly, "You were ordered to go to Sick Bay after the debriefing, were you not?"

"Yes Sir, but I just….needed a minute."

Amadeus brought his hand to his son's face and looked at the scratches on his head and the now dried blood that soaked through the bandage gauze on his right shoulder. "At ease." Then he pulled his son into a hug, "Are you okay, Miles?"

"I'm fine, Dad. It was just a tough day. We lost a GF-16, and I had to shoot Sally. At first I thought I killed her…but…."

"Enough, you did what you had to do, and everyone made back home. Sally will be okay, we'll bring her back another day." He released his hug and looked into his son's eyes. "Our forces took no fatalities today; you guys did an outstanding job out there. I'm so damn proud of you, my son. I also heard the radio chatter after the battle. It's clear now that all your men are ready to go to hell and back for you. That kind of respect comes from your good leadership and dedication. Believe in yourself, and don't let these near misses bog you down. Use them to learn from and build on to make sure that next time they aren't near misses."

Miles nodded, "Yes sir."

"Okay, now get to sick bay and get patched up. Once done, head to the chow hall. Your squad mates and Sonic are waiting for you."

Miles nodded, then hurried out to the base Medical building.

-VV

The Northern Frontier

17,000 feet Above Ground Level.

Year 3244 Day 171

2245 hours.

Sonic took one look out the Hovercraft front window before saying, "Yeah, that's them all right. I recognize that damn blimp anywhere."

"Sonic, do you know what this zeppelin's weapon capabilities are" the Army Air Corps Cheetah pilot named Gordy asked him.

Sonic shook his head.

"We saw it drop bombs once, years back during Blaze's Sol emerald fiasco, but that was it" Amy said.

The Cheetah nodded, "Councilwoman, I'd recommend we keep a safe distance from this thing and try radio contact. They may try to shoot us down if we get too close."

Rosemary Prower nodded and looked to Sonic for advice.

Sonic tapped on Gordy's shoulder, "Think you can do a quick overhead pass, so I can jump onto it?"

"I can, but I'll have come at an angle and do a pass at least two hundred fifty knots to be safe."

Sonic nodded, "Works for me. Amy seal the cockpit, I'm going to open that passenger area underbelly hatch door."

"Sonic I'm going with you, we'll jump together" Amy said stepping through the cockpit door.

Sonic nodded, "Ok, together it is." Sonic dug out two radio's with single ear headsets from the equipment storage compartment in the back of the cockpit, then turned to Rosemary, "Once where onboard and sure it's safe well contact you via radio."

Rosemary and Gordy nodded in agreement.

Amy stepped out of the cockpit followed by Sonic, who closed and locked the door. They both went near to the floor hatch in the cargo area behind the passenger seats and braced themselves by grabbing the safety bar on the starboard wall of the craft. Sonic tapped the control pad near his position, and then a fierce gust of cold air hit them as the two hatch doors swung open depressurizing the entire bay of the hovercraft while making loud wind noise. Within a minute the gust died down, and both Sonic and Amy got into position near the hatch.

Sonic activated his radio headset, "We're ready to go?"

"Roger that, stand by" Gordy replied. The hovercraft changed course and increased speed. "We'll be passing them in three seconds."

Sonic counted in his head, then jumped with Amy clinging onto his back. The zeppelin approached fast as Sonic activated the anti-grav's in his sneakers to slow their descent, and they touched down on the top of the airship. Sonic then ran on the hull to the rear underside of the airship down to the small landing deck. Once there, Sonic stopped and Amy got off his back and summoned her hammer.

The prop noise of the airship was loud, so Sonic had to yell as he spoke into the radio. "We're in position on the rear deck, heading into the airship."

"Roger that" the Cheetah responded.

"Be careful Sonic" Rosemary said over the radio.

Sonic looked over and saw Amy rubbing at her right shoulder bandage. "You okay, Amy?"

Amy nodded as she readied her hammer.

Sonic walked to the door leading to the inside and was surprised when it opened freely. The inside of the ship was eerily quiet as they both carefully made their way down the corridor, poking their heads in the handful of doorway's they came across, but saw no one. They did notice one room with blue and grey carpeting and a desk and chair that had been wrecked as if someone had a rage fit.

Finally they came to the bridge of the ship. The bridge had control panels along the sides of the wall, a green screen display to the rear center that looked like a digital map navigator, a helm station with all the controls to fly the zeppelin, and a captain's chair in the center.

Amy saw feet dangling from the captain's chair, and gestured to Sonic to point them out.

Sonic nodded and they silently approached. Amy made the first move to the chair and turned it to face them. On the chair was none other than the unconscious Jet the Hawk.

Sonic came close and looked over his Grand Prix rival. His face was horribly swollen, and there was a small amount of blood and saliva dripping down from his mouth to his shirt and pants. Sonic looked at Amy, who looked back at him unsure of what to do. Sonic decided to try and wake him. Sonic gently shook Jet's shoulder, "Hey Jet, wake up."

Jet slowly came to and groggily eyed Sonic. He made noises as if he was saying something through clenched teeth as he looked at Amy.

"Jet speak up, we can't understand you" Sonic said.

Then a door on the right side of the room opened and in walked Storm.

"Boss did you say something or…oh shit…INTRUDERS!" Storm immediately charged Sonic, who zipped out of the way to evade him. Storm gave chase swinging his fists wildly at the fast hedgehog, only to have Sonic knock him to the ground with a spindash.

Amy glared at Jet and she prodded his chest with her hammer, "Hey, enough of this, we're not here to fight."

Jet again mumbled something through clenched teeth, before attempting to stand up from his chair.

Amy shoved him back down with her hammer, "Hey you, stay put!"

"Stop it, hot stuff, he just had surgery not too long ago" Storm yelled, getting back to his feet and turning to her.

Sonic zipped over and grabbed Storm by his neck chain and jerked him back down to his knees, "Hold it, big guy. Like Amy said, we're not here for a fight."

Jet painfully shoved Amy's hammer aside and pointed to a pile of papers on a nearby table along the wall in frustration.

Amy eyed him carefully and was surprised to see the glint of metal wire along his visible teeth. She quickly put it together. "Jet, is your mouth wired shut?"

Jet angrily nodded as he stood up and stormed over to the paper pile, grabbed a paper and marker, wrote on it, then crumpled it and tossed it at Sonic.

Sonic and Storm glared at each other as Sonic let him go and picked up the paper. It read, "WHAT DO YOU JERKS WANT?"

Sonic tossed it aside, "We're looking for Tails? Is he here?"

Jet shot a look to kill at Sonic, then aggressively wrote on the paper. He tossed it at Sonic once more.

This time Sonic caught it. It read, "FUCK NO HE ISN'T! Haven't seen him since the fight. Wave's gone too!"

Sonic eyed Jet, seeing the anger in his features. He knew what Jet was insinuating about Tails and Wave. Then he saw blood starting to drip from the Hawk's mouth. "Dude, you're bleeding."

Jet reached up and rubbed the blood from his beak, only to be floored by intense pain from the touch. He made moaning noises as he leaned on the desk.

Sonic and Amy exchanged looks then turned to Storm.

Storm then said, "He's got a broken jaw from that 'roided up Ape we fought."

"You mean Sergeant Simian" Amy asked?

"Yeah…that punk. He was one tough bastard."

"Storm, Tails is missing, so we're trying to piece together what happened to him before, during, and after all that action you guys shared the other day. Where and how did you guy's first meet up" Sonic asked.

"Oh…well….uhhhh…"

Storm was cut off by Jet slapping a piece of paper onto his chest that said.
"TELL THEM NOTHING!" Then Jet violently scribbled on another piece of paper and threw it at Sonic before storming out of the room.

Sonic read the paper.

"Tails isn't here. He busted me up and took Wave with him. There you have it! There's nothing more for you both here, now GET LOST!"

Amy read the note too and looked at Sonic. They both turned to Storm who looked at them, but said nothing.

Sonic sighed and turned to leave. "Let's go, Amy."

Amy started to follow, but then turned back to Storm.

The albatross smiled at her then said, "Hope to see you at the next Grand Prix, pretty lady" he said with a wink.

Amy raised an eyebrow at the comment, then continued after Sonic.

Storm closely watched Amy's behind as she walked away. Her pink colored skintight athletic pants showed her curves nicely. "Damn, that girl's so hot."

-vv

As Sonic and Amy made their way through the corridor, they could hear Jet throwing stuff around in one of the rooms as they passed. Once they got to the door leading outside, Sonic stopped and keyed his Mic.

"This is Sonic. Tails isn't here, we'll be leaving soon. Get in position behind the zeppelin, we'll be jumping."

"Roger that, Sonic" the Gordy the Cheetah replied.

Amy turned and stared down the hall as echoes of Jets temper tantrum continued to be heard. "You know there's more to this that they're not telling us, right?"

Sonic nodded, "I know. Believe me, I'm half tempted to kick their asses and take them into custody, but I have a feeling that'll do more harm than good."

"How so?"

"If Wave is with Tails, then that means there's a good chance she'll be back here eventually. When that happens, we can make contact with her, and she could in-turn lead us to him."

"Sonic, remember when Jet wrote that Tails took Wave with him. Do you think he means…romantically…or…..?"

"With Wave?! He can't stand her….why would he…. (Sigh) I don't know, Amy…. I just don't know anymore" Sonic said as he rubbed his eyes.

Amy could see the heavy fatigue pouring out from the blue Hedgehog's tired features. She nodded in reply. They both stepped outside and radioed the hovercraft. The aircraft pulled close and they both jumped to it.

-vv

In his office, Jet watched out his window as the Acorn Kingdom hovercraft zoomed away to the south. He then slumped to the floor and moaned in pain to himself. Wishing he could go back in time and change things so he would have never have entered Storm into that fight.

-VV

The United Federation

Station Square

Year 3244 Day 172

Station Square General Hospital

0256 hours

Wave was awoken from her sleep by a female Overlander nurse tapping on her shoulder. "Ugh…huh?"

"Mrs. Tide?"

Wave opened her eyes and looked at the nurse annoyed. "Yeah?"

"Mind stepping outside with me?"

This woke Wave up pretty quickly, not knowing why the nurse would want to see her outside. She lifted her head up from Tails arm and saw that he was still out cold. She stood up and stretched, then walked outside with the nurse.

They both walked through the ER hallway to a small office. The nurse took a seat and invited Wave to do the same on the chair opposite of her. Wave sat down as the nurse dug through a folder and reviewed the paperwork.

"Okay, well the good news is your husband is going to be fine. The test results indicate he was injected with a cocktail of drugs that were meant to cause paralysis and unconsciousness."

"Will there be any side effects."

"He'll have vertigo and nausea for the first twenty four to forty eight hours, but then he should be fine. Mrs. Tide…..I'd like to point out that I've seen this drug mix used before."

"Really, where?"

"In the system of a man that was shot three times in the back about a month ago; the police said it was a Gang hit."

"Hmm."

The Nurse eyed Wave suspiciously. "Mrs. Tide, how did you say your husband was injected again?"

"He took a fall in a rocky part of the badlands and it was impaled in his leg somehow. Must have been dropped unused and left out there"

"And what about the stitches in his forehead?"

"I did that."

Now the nurse wasn't buying it. "You stitched him up?"

"Yeah. Not only did he fall on that needle, he busted his head open on a sharp rock. I stitched him because the last time I got stitches in a hospital, I caught a staph infection that took weeks to heal, and still they charged me over ten grand for the sloppy work."

The nurse raised an eyebrow. "Did you go to medical school, Mrs. Tide? The stitch work looks professional."

Wave knew this woman was prying deep for information, so she called the hand to get it over with. "Got someone around here who needs stitching, I can show you my work" she said with a confident smile.

The nurse shook her head, "Mrs. Tide, if someone is trying to kill your husband, why don't you just come clean so we can get the authorities involved."

Wave chuckled, "Fine, have it your way and don't believe me. This is why I don't like hospitals. Are we done here, so can I take him home?"

The nurse shot Wave an aggravated look then closed the folder on her desk. "Yes, he can go home, if you wouldn't mind filling out the paperwork and insurance information first."

"I'm paying cash, just put the bill together" Wave said as she stood up and walked out of the room.

The nurse shook her head."

-vv

In Miles room, a male panther in a black suit quietly entered the room and shut the front door. An evil grin crossed his face as he saw his target unconscious and helpless. From inside his sleeve he pulled out a syringe full of potassium chloride and attached the needle. Then he went over to the Fox's IV catheter and started to push the needle in.

Just then he was pushed forward and slammed into the wall hard. As he turned he saw a female Swallow grab his syringe and jam it into his neck via her left hand with lightning speed. The Panther was frozen in fear and raised his hands up in surrender.

"Who the hell are you, and what is this shit you were about to inject him with" Wave said in a deadly whisper.

"Calm down and think about what you're doing lady, I have very powerful fri….urrgh."

Wave jammed the needle in a bit deeper and said, "Should I pump this in your neck to find out?"

"Nn…no" he stammered out.

"Was this to kill him?"

"Yes. My boss wants him dead?"

"How did you find us" Wave whispered angrily.

"We have people in every hospital in the United Federation. A two tailed Fox isn't a hard to find target."

"Well then, tell your boss that Wave the Swallow is going to stick this in neck if he ever comes after my Fox again." Then she quickly yanked the needle out and swung a vicious right elbow strike to the Panther's head, knocking him unconscious.

Wave quickly grabbed the man's arms, dragged him over and shoved him into the room's closet before anyone saw him. Then she emptied the syringe into the sink and tossed it into the "sharps" box on the wall. A couple minutes later a nurse came in with the discharge paperwork. Wave wasted no time filling it out as the nurse and techs undid the IV and sat him into a wheel chair. Wave then wheeled Miles out to the Dune Buggy in the parking lot, loaded him in, and drove off as fast as traffic would allow her to.

-VV

New Mobotropolis

Tommy Turtle Memorial Hospital

0320 hours

Bunnie sat with Cream, Vanilla, and Blaze in her hospital room, playing a game of Monopoly next to the bed. The Rabbits were keeping her company, as Blaze was unable to sleep and really needed a pleasant distraction from what was going on.

Cream was pretty close to dominating the game, but Blaze definitely showed her competitive nature and kept trying to roll the dice and land the now huge "Free parking" pot laying on the middle of the board.

"Knock knock"

They all turned and saw Amy at the door.

"Hey, who's winning this all-nighter game" Amy said with a smile. They all verbally greeted her back, except Bunnie who just nodded. Amy then turned and then gestured with her hand, signaling Sonic and Rosemary Prower to come in.

As soon as Sonic came into view, Blaze screeched in fear, not seeing him, but Scourge. In a panic she nearly threw herself off the opposite side of the bed.

Cream and Amy rushed forward, grabbing her and tried to calm her down, saying it was Sonic. After a couple seconds, Blaze finally calmed down.

Blaze breathed heavily and looked at Sonic, who looked absolutely miserable at the moment. "I'm sorry Sonic. For some reason, I thought you were "him"." She quickly regretted saying that though as Sonic's face twisted in pain.

Sonic then spoke, "I'm sorry Blaze. I'm sorry I scared you….Hell I'm sorry for everything. I failed your whole world. I …I…should have been there to stop my Evil copy." Then he hurriedly turned and walked off down the hall.

Bunnie bolted out of the room after him, leaving Rosemary standing at the doorway, looking sadly after Sonic.

"Sonic wait, I'm sorry" Blaze shouted to no avail. She was confused and hurt about what just happened. She looked to Amy with a questioning stare.

Amy gestured for her not to worry, "It's not you, Blaze. He's had a very long and bad last couple of months."

Blaze sadly nodded and then calmly got back to a comfortable position with Cream's help. Then she looked at the older female Fox, who approached her.

"Hello Blaze, my name Rosemary Prower, I'm a senior councilwoman here in the Acorn Kingdom."

"Prower? Is Tails related to you?"

"Yes, he's my Son."

"Oh!" Blaze eagerly held her good arm and hand out to her, "It's a real honor to finally meet you."

While Blaze and Rosemary began to talk to each other, Amy mouthed to Vanilla that she'd be right back and left the room.

-vv

"Sonic….stop" Bunnie called out to her boyfriend, but he kept his fast pace trot down the hall to the exit stairwell. Once he entered, she latched onto his left arm with her right hand and stopped him, "Suga Hog, stop! Talk to meh." Sonic kept looking away from her, so she gently turned his face to her and saw he was now crying. "Sonic…?"

Sonic broke down and dropped to a seat on the top of the stairs and cried into his hands.

Bunnie quickly dropped next to him and hugged him to her, "Sonic, calm down….it's okay." She held him tightly as Sonic sobbed in her embrace. She knew that he was totally exhausted and just needed to release, so she let him and rocked him in her arms saying all the words of comfort she could think of as he mumbled out random things. Finally after a few minutes he calmed enough to speak coherently again. He whispered out, "I love you, Bunnie. I really do. I promise I'll never let you down like I did Sally, I swear it to you!"

"Shhh, I love yah too" she whispered back. "Now come on, let's go home." She slowly got him to stand up and they walked down the stairs together, Sonic still sobbing a bit as they went.

At the exit doorway they initially came in, the door was slightly cracked open and Amy stood there having listened to the exchange Sonic and Bunnie just had. In her mind she had come up with a rather risky unorthodox plan to try to get Tails back, but was unsure of whether or not to go forward with it. Now, seeing Sonic in so much pain, and his professing of love for Bunnie, she now had the mental green light to move forward with it. She gently closed the door and returned to Blaze's room.

-VV

The United Federation

Central City

G.U.N. Headquarters

0710 hours

Amadeus sat in Commander Tower's office reading over the G.U.N. file on his son. He already had a dozen questions from what he read in the file. "He attended Special Forces survival training? Miles never mentioned this, and why the hell wasn't this attached to training file from GUN?"

Amadeus had been waiting over an hour to meet with his G.U.N. Counterpart, along with other officers about Miles. He couldn't complain about the wait, after all it was early in the morning, and Commander Tower probably already had a schedule planed today that was now interrupted by his visit. Finally the tall Caucasian Overlander with grey hair walked into the room with another blonde Overlander officer in a flight suit, and agent Rouge the Bat.

Amadeus stood up and shook the hand of the two men, while Rouge walked passed them to the long chair by the left wall and sat with her legs crossed, annoyed look plastered on her face.

Amadeus caught the disrespect from the female Bat, but didn't care. He had no reason to be fond of her, given her shady criminal past.

"Sorry for the wait General" Commander Tower said as he sat in his chair on the other side of the desk.

The male in the Flight Suit sat in a chair next to Amadeus as he replied, "Not a problem Commander, I know this unannounced visit is inconvenient for you all."

"That's for sure" Rouge spat.

Commander Tower glared at Rouge before continuing. "General this Colonel Robert Cross, you may remember his call sign, Mobius One. His squadron trained your son."

Amadeus nodded respectfully to the pilot, "Yes I do, my Son spoke very highly of you Colonel, and I can't compliment you skills in aerial warfare enough."

Robert replied, "Thank you, General Sir. So I'm told your Son is missing?"

Amadeus nodded, "Yes. After the Death Egg battle, Miles appeared to be suffering from post-traumatic stress. And after a breakdown, he just up and disappeared. Obviously by now you've all heard about what happened with the Sol world survivors and my son's involvement. Well, he disappeared again, and I'm just trying to put the pieces together of what happened during that battle that would have caused him to act like this." Amadeus then opened his Son's GUN file. "I also have some questions about items listed in his file here that were not in the files we received from G.U.N."

Commander Tower raised an eyebrow, "Which items?"

"Special Forces Survival Training for one. I also have here a notation made by a Major Cunningham in the Medical Corps stating that I quote "Lieutenant Prower appeared to be "Shell-Shocked" and may require post combat supervision. You think that last one would be something we might have needed to know, Commander?"

Commander Tower took the file from Amadeus and looked at it. He sighed, "General, I apologize that this information didn't make it to your side. I'll make sure that this discrepancy is addressed immediately."

Amadeus nodded, "I'd also like to speak to that Major if you don't mind?"

Commander Tower nodded and hit the intercom on his desk. "Sergeant Hawthorn, get Lieutenant Colonel Burt Cunningham in my office on the double."

"Yes Sir" the female voice replied over the intercom.

Colonel Cross then spoke up, "I can answer the questions you have on the Survival training, Sir. I'm the one who sent your son through that course."

"Why, and what is it exactly" Amadeus replied.

"It's an intensive one month course we have for our elite Special Forces soldiers and top pilots. It teaches the students many forms of martial arts and hand to hand combat techniques, as well as survival while under inhospitable conditions, insurgency and gorilla-warfare tactics, and explosives training."

"I see. Did my son desire this training?"

"He did, Sir, and I made sure he got in. I took the course myself years ago. It's good know-how for pilots to have in case you ever get shot down over enemy territory."

Amadeus nodded. "Thank you for that information. Now in last moments before the Death Egg crashed, it said in the report that you and Rouge saw my son as he evacuated the Death Egg. Again, I didn't receive this information in my received file."

Commander Tower rubbed his brow in annoyance.

Robert nodded, "Yes Sir. Once Eggman's air defenses were all taken out, I took CAP over his aircraft's landing site just minutes before it happened. I was the one who called out over the radio net that he was blown off the Death Egg and was in an unconscious free fall."

"You mean he walked off" Rouge spoke aloud.

Robert shot an aggravated look at the Bat, "Lieutenant Prower was on the Death Egg exterior platform attempting to evacuate while it was going down. He was about to get back onto his GAV-8 aircraft when that deck exploded, sending him flying off. I saw it happen, Agent."

"No, you saw that deck explode and then his body in free-fall. I was below you flying near the hull just before that explosion and saw him take the plunge. He just walked off the deck, like he wanted to fall off…just before the explosion. Then you hollered over the radio to save him, which I did."

Amadeus looked at the Bat, then to Robert, "Colonel, did you actually see him physically get blown off."

He looked at the General sternly in an attempt to refute Rouge, "Sir, your son is one of the best damn pilots I had the privilege of sharing the air with. He is not the type to suicide himself like that. I saw what I saw, Sir."

"Well, then I guess I'm not needed here, you've all made up your minds on what happened, never mind the actual up close witness. I'll get back to sleep now." Rouge got up in an attempt to leave.

"Agent, SIT DOWN" Amadeus thundered, catching everyone off guard.

Rouge glared at him.

Amadeus glared right back with authority, "I'm done with my questions yet."

Rouge rolled her eyes and sat back down.

Commander Tower smiled inside. Rouge obviously was intimidated by the Fox, something he had not been able to do to her all these years.

"Rouge, you said he walked off the edge. Did he make any attempt to fly with his tails, and if not, why do you think he didn't?"

Rouge shrugged, "He was very bloody and messed up, and no, he didn't once make any attempt to fly on his own, and he could have. He was fully conscious and irrationally emotional with me on the way down."

"What do you mean by irrationally emotional?"

Rouge then showed a slight hint of sadness in her features. "Your son begged me to let him fall, when I rebuked him, he cursed me, then went limp and silent as I brought him down to the ground forces. After that I handed him off to the medics, and that was the last I ever saw of him, aside from the victory ceremony in passing. As to why, I have no idea, General."

Amadeus looked at her blankly for a second. Then he said, "Thank you for your time Agent. You can leave."

Rogue looked to Tower, who nodded with acknowledgement. Then she got up and left.

Amadeus looked down, "So now you can see my frustration, Commander. Had I'd known this information after the battle, I could have addressed it properly and prevented my Son from slipping over the edge like he did."

Commander Tower nodded, "Again, I apologize that this information didn't make to you. I myself was unaware of it till now."

Robert spoke up, "Sir, you can't believe your Son would take his own life?"

"Until a few days ago, I was just like you Colonel. I thought I knew my Son better that this. Unfortunately I have to believe her take over yours. As I learned recently, that event she witnessed would not be the first time my son attempted to take his own life. Now at least things are making more sense. He didn't happen to mention what happened up there on the 'Egg to you by any chance?"

Robert shook his head, "No. But come to think of it, Sir, his last departing words to me were rather…final…..in nature. But I didn't take as such at the time. I had no reason to believe otherwise, since we just won the War. He seemed okay to me at the award ceremony."

Amadeus nodded. "I noticed. My son disguised it pretty well didn't he?"

The intercom beeped and Commander Tower hit the key. "Yes?"

"Commander, Sir. Dr. Cunningham is surgery as we speak, it'll be at least two hours before he's available."

"Thank you, Sergeant." Then he un-clicked the intercom. "General, you're welcome to stay, I can get you some quarters if you need them."

Amadeus shook his head, "No Commander, I would just like a copy of this file on my Son, and I'll wait till the doctor is free and can meet with me." Then he went to a stand, "Thank you for your assistance."

Tower stood up and shook Amadeus's hand before the Fox turned and left his office. Then he sat back down and looked at Robert. "What do you think, Colonel."

"Commander, I think he's a worried Father, trying to find out what happened to his Son. Simple as that. I'd be doing the same if I were him. You know, Sir, I must inform you that this info about Lieutenant Prower wasn't logged into the Air Force Joint-Operation After Action Report either."

"Good God almighty, was there a total breakdown in proper information dissemination after that battle" Tower said rubbing his eyes in frustration. "(Sigh) Don't worry Colonel, I'll deal with this issue accordingly. In the mean time, why don't you show the General around while he waits for Burt and I get his son's file together."

"Yes sir." Then Robert got up and left the office.

-VV

City of Station Square.

Gold Coast Hotel

0800 hours.

Miles awoke from yet another bad dream with a massive migraine headache and sore brow, "Oh…fuck…my head hurts!" He slowly sat up and let his feet hang off the bed and tried to regain his bearings. He remembered being shot with an injection dart then falling unconscious just as he was about to get gunned down by some random guys in the Casino parking lot. Then he remembered something happening. "Wave! She came and saved me!" Then he quickly looked around and saw that he was in his actual hotel penthouse room. "Oh no, you've got to be kidding me" he whispered aloud.

As if on cue, he started to hear music playing. It was coming through the closed door leading to his living room and kitchen area. "Ugh…I can't believe this!" He reached up and felt the stitched area on his aching forehead and felt medical gauze taped over the spot. "She must have patched me up…..but how did she find out where I lived and get me up here like this? Better not take any chances." He went reaching for the inside drawer on his nightstand and saw that his .38 caliber revolver that he left in there was now missing. "Shit" he muttered aloud. "Why would she take my gun?" He slowly stood up and muscled through the headache to the room's door. Before he opened it, he looked back at the bed, then down at himself, seeing that he was now only in his boxers. Fortunately they were the same boxers he changed into yesterday after the fight. "At least I wasn't striped totally naked by her…I hope?" He slowly opened the door and was hit by the noise of the music playing loudly in the kitchen.

"Let's talk about sex baby, Let's talk about you and me, Let's talk about all the good things, And the bad things that may be, Let's talk about sex,….."

Miles recognized the song, but couldn't think of the artist. "Salt….and …something" he thought. Remembering the way Wave enjoyed the music he played when they drove together the other day told him she must really enjoy listening to a variety of music whenever she could, just like he did himself. His nose caught the scent of something cooking in the kitchen on the left, but he chose to look to the right first, scanning the living room area. First he saw Wave's duffle bag and her Extreme Gear leaning side by side along the living room wall. He looked at the dining room table and noticed that the clothing that he wore last night, the cash winnings money stack, his wallet, the Warp ring he took from Fiona, his dogtags, vehicle keys, and (most noticeably) all five of his firearms that he kept here were all sitting on the table's top. "How the heck did she find them all? I had three hidden. What did she do when I was out, strip search my place?" He then heard a noise through the music that came from the kitchen, so he carefully went left and peeked around the corner and saw Wave.

"Holy….damn!?" What he saw was not what he expected. Wave was cooking something on his stove and countertop, as she was dancing to the music in flip flops. She strutted her body around to the beat of the music as she stirred whatever was in the frying pan. He was completely caught off guard by her physical appearance. She didn't have her head bandana on, which was a first for him to see. Her head feathers were smooth and clean like some other avian's he had seen over the years. Her feet on the other hand were not avian at all. She had no socks on with the flip-flops, so he could see her five toed purple colored feet with dark toenails. He always wondered if she had yellow avian or regular mobian feet, now he knew. "Hmm, I wonder if she is mixed blood in her family line?" The one thing that seemed out of place on her was that she still had her gloves on for some reason. "Maybe so she doesn't burn her hands?"

Wave was dressed in a pink sports tank top, pink athletic pants with a blue colored g-string sticking out above her pants line. He also saw a small portion of a tattoo on her lower back, the rest of which was concealed by her pants and thong. "Since when did she get a "tramp stamp? I wonder what the full tattoo looks like?" As he continued checking her out, he also couldn't help but notice how the sports bra highlighted her chest size, which had increased just a tad since the Grand prix four years ago. Enough for him to notice, that was for sure.

"Wow…she…looks…hot!" It was strange. In the last few days he was with her, he didn't bat an eye at her physical looks, which was understandable given the craziness of what had happened. Now, he was struck by her sexiness and glued his eyes onto her, measuring every movement she made as she danced in place. Suddenly he felt discomfort as his private "member" became hard and begged for him to adjust his boxers to allow for the change. This quickly snapped him out of it. "What the fuck am I doing?" He shook his head, quickly adjusted his boxers, and positioned himself behind the counter for concealment as he found and tapped the off switch to his BOSE radio that was blaring music on the counter top before him.

Wave stopped when the music ceased and quickly turned seeing Tails staring at her with a semi-annoyed look. "Yes! Finally!" She returned his stare with a big razzing smile, "Bout time you woke up, Shorty!"

Miles cocked his eyebrow, unfortunately it was the wrong one to cock, and he winced in pain from the act. Then he said, "Wave…..what are you….(groan)…..why are you here?"

Wave turned the burner to the stove off, then faced him with her arms crossed, "Now is that anyway to greet me after what I had to go through to save your butt last night?"

Miles rubbed at his eyes with his left hand, "Oh whatever! I didn't ask for you to come back and help me. I assume you saw my key card in the vehicle to find this hotel, but how did you find my room number in this place?"

"Hmph! Well if you must know, after I parked your vehicle in the garage, I flew on my gear and checked out every patio until I found your UNLOCKED sliding door over there and saw that it was your room. Not smart by the way, with people trying to kill you and all."

Miles was about to counter her, but he suddenly began to get dizzy, so he left the kitchen and sat down at the dining room table in the living room.

Wave didn't immediately follow after him. She instead returned to the vegetable skillet she made in the frying pan, used the nylon utensil to scoop the food onto two plates she had waiting. Then she grabbed the plates and a pair of forks and walked into the living room. She saw Tails pressing on his ears and head, obviously looking a bit ill. "There's those side effects the nurse mentioned." She walked to the table and set one of the plates before him and then sat on another chair in front of her plate and started eating.

Sitting down and trying a technique he learned by putting pressure on his ears seemed to reduce his headache a bit, which in-turn made his sudden nausea go away. Then he saw that Wave had made him a plate of food, and even though it looked good, his stomach suddenly twisted in protest. "Huurgh…." Miles made a noise as he cupped his mouth with his hand and bolted from his seat to the bathroom. Then he started vomiting into the sink.

Wave thought about going after him, but knowing Tails rather prideful stance on his need to help rather than be helped made her stay in place and continue eating. "Besides, seeing him puke up will probably kill my appetite" she thought to herself. Several minutes passed before she finally heard the bathroom sink faucet running. Then it stopped and Tails made his way back to the seat and sat next to her.

Miles groaned as he stared at the food on the plate then at Wave, who shot a smile at him as she ate another bite of her food. "(Clears throat) Ok then, I think the nausea is gone, what is this stuff you made?"

"It a breakfast skillet, made with potatoes, onions, green pepper, cheese, and tofu. Try it."

Miles looked at plate for a minute. He was still a bit nauseated, but his hunger was high, having not eaten anything in over twenty four hours. Finally he casted doubt to the wind by grabbing the fork, digging in the food, and took a bite. He chewed and then swallowed. Then he repeated and ate more.

"Meet your approval, Shorty? I left the oils and spices I'd normally put in there out so it wouldn't be too much for your stomach to handle as your body expels the drug cocktail you were hit with."

He nodded but didn't look at her as he continued eating. He emptied the plate within two minutes, not saying a word.

Wave watched as he devoured his food then said, "So, where's Fiona at?"

Miles finished then set the fork down as he coldly said, "Gone."

Wave waited, but saw that he wasn't going to say any more to that effect, so she said, "And…..where is she "gone" too?"

Miles rested his muzzle on his hands which were propped via his elbows on the table, and stared into space as he replied, "Hopefully as far away from me as she can get, starting a new life for herself." Then he turned slightly to glance at her, "Something you should do as fast as you possibly can yourself."

Wave took the last bite of her food then replied, "Well, after the brawl with the Destructix and recovery, something you have yet to ask me about by the way" she said with an annoyed tone, then continued, "I did formally part ways with Jet and Storm, so I guess you could say I'm starting a new phase of my life too right now."

Miles stared at her very coldly as he replied, "Well in that case, go ahead and take whatever you want and leave. Get out of here before the demons from hell come here to finally drag me under." Then he stood up, walked over to the couch on the opposite side of the living room and laid flat on his back on it staring at the ceiling.

Wave was irked by this, but kept her cool knowing that the Fox was obviously still going through whatever he was dealing with in his personal life. She would have to work him a little at a time to break him out of this funk. She grabbed the plates and forks, put them in the kitchen sink, then returned to the living room and sat on the recliner just across from Tails. "Hey, aren't you curious about what happened to us during the fight? You know I nearly got killed by that fast Lynx dude."

Miles put his arm over his eyes as he spoke, "Then why are you here, Wave? Haven't I caused you and others enough problems? Anyone who comes near me right now is putting themselves in danger. Now please, don't force me to toss you out like a total asshole. Just take the cash on the table and leave. The sooner the better."

The last two sentences really ticked her off. "Ok then….time to take this up a notch." Wave grabbed today's newspaper off the central coffee table she read earlier after it was delivered to the room and then she violently kicked the side of the couch cushion where Tails was laying; briefly knocking his upper half into the air and down again. "HEY" she yelled. "Look at me when I'm talking to you!"

Miles was stunned by the act, dropping his arm off his face and shooting her a look that questioned why she did that.

Wave tossed the newspaper on his chest, "Read your story, you're now a big hero to almost three thousand refugees who are now being taken in at New Mobotropolis as we speak." She sat next to him on the adjoining couch. "Given all that occurred, the least you can do is talk with me about what happened out there after I was knocked out. I thought you were going to die on me out there. Remember?"

The look she gave him was a bit "hurt" in nature. So Miles sighed then started telling her what went down after they last saw each other, answering her questions as they came. He told her about Scourge and Fiona's past, why it all happened the way it did, how he used the Chaos energy to survive certain death to go to Moebius, defeated Scourge, and why he cut Fiona loose. Then he went into how he retrieved and buried Bean and Predator, dropped off her stuff on the zeppelin and blew up his workshop.

Wave listened him intently and was a bit fascinated by his claim to be the "Chosen one" and his ability to go super-powered like Sonic could. She in-turn told him about what happened to her and the other Rouges afterward, what happened at the Casino, and then the hospital. Once that was told, she decided to go back to her questions to him again. One thing that caught her was how he was so specific on everything except when talking about Fiona. That was all the ammo she needed to ask him, "So anyway, if you loved Fiona, why did you cut her loose?"

Miles was caught by the question, at first he was going to dismiss it, but when he saw her look he caved and said, "I…I used to love her, but not anymore."

"Why not" she asked, her curiosity peaking.

Miles thought about how to reply to her question for a bit; then thought of an answer that could potentially kill two problems with one stone, "Because Fiona and I were never meant to be. She never loved me in return, and had I acted on my old feelings after we came back from Moebius, it would have not worked out in the long run. She would only be with me because she felt obligated to me for saving her life and stuff. I don't want that, and frankly with my current baggage, I'd just drag her down into a shitty life yet again." He sat up from the couch and turned to her. "And that goes for you too by the way."

Wave cocked an eyebrow, "Excuse me?"

"You don't owe me anything, Wave. Don't feel you need to do things like saving my life last night and stuff because you feel obligated to pay back what I did for you. I want nothing, and you don't owe me a damn thing. Okay?"

Wave knew what he was trying to do and headed him off. "Well that works for me, I guess. We can call square and even on the whole lifesaving thing then." She got up from the couch, and retrieved her Laptop from her duffle bag in the corner of the room and then started working on it after sitting at the dining room table.

Miles was half expecting Wave to gather her stuff up and so they could start to part ways, but instead she started working on her laptop. "The heck?" He sat up on the couch, "What are you doing, Wave?"

She typed away on her laptop as she replied, "I…..am looking…over these neat research files you gave me. I got a few questions to ask before we both go searching for this ancient Babylon treasure."

Miles felt like his already aching brain just shut down from confusion, "W.w…whoa..wait…what?"

She bore a grin as she pulled up the file Miles wrote himself on Babylon Garden. "Let's start with Babylon Garden. Where was this map in the wreckage you found?"

Miles just stood there with an aggravated face, staring at her in disbelief. Then he took a breath and sternly said, "I am not going treasure hunting with you, Wave."

Wave stopped typing, then leaned back as crossed her arms, "Why not? What plans do you have for the next week?"

Miles growled a little, then kicked his living room coffee table with his bare foot, sending the glass top flying to the couch, which prevented it from breaking. Then with anger he said, "Wave….do…not…get…stupid with me. You need to pack your stuff up and leave now; while you still can."

Wave stayed emotionless and firm as she replied, "Why, what are you going to do if I don't, hurt me? Beat me up, or even kill me?"

Miles face twisted in painful disbelief that she would even insinuate that, "NO!"

"Then what then? Why are you so insistent that I leave?"

"Wave, geez! Look what happened last night! Do you realize that you may have just made yourself a target for the Mafia! You were finally free and clear, but you tossed it away and now you're willing to risk even more. Why?"

Wave kept her firm poise as she shrugged, "So what? I've been targeted for years, what's one more. I don't care."

Miles couldn't believe this. "What is wrong with you? Don't you want a better life? Isn't that what you wanted by leaving Jet?" Then he paced back in forth in frustration, then stopped, "I had to do this same crap with Fiona the other day. She also fought me when I told her to leave. What is with you women? Why do you cling to dipshits like us? Me, Jet, Scourge, doesn't matter the flavor, we're all the same….WE SUCK AT LIFE AT HURT ALL THOSE AROUND US!"

Wave shook her head in disagreement,"You're wrong, you don't suck at life, Tails" Wave said.

"YES I DO" Miles yelled out, clearly becoming more emotional by the second. "You don't know me, Wave. You have no idea what kind of dirtbag I am."

"Hmm…..now we're getting somewhere, time to crack that shell of his." "Well, then talk to me about it. What happened? What drove you to be like this and feel this way about yourself?"

It was in that second Miles looked up and saw Sally's translucent apparition standing some feet behind Wave. She was frowning at him, which made his eyes dart down to the floor and shake his head "no" in reply. "I don't want to talk about it!"

Wave uncrossed her arms then slowly stood up from her seat. She walked to her duffle bag, moving it aside and grabbed a few items she had placed behind it earlier. She walked back to him and tossed the items on the floor before him. "I'm a former thief, so it wasn't hard to find this stuff in your bad hiding spots."

Miles face twisted with regret when he saw what she found. It was a DVD disk with a video he made in its case, his one remaining Morphine injector syringe packet, and a 20 foot nylon rope made into a noose. He started at the items, too ashamed to look up at her…..and Sally, who he knew was still present at the moment.

Wave crossed her arms again and firmly said, "No wonder you didn't feel that stick impaled in your leg the other day. (Sigh) I just didn't think you were the type to be addicted to painkillers."

"I'm not addicted! I took them because I was in too much pain, I needed them" he replied.

"For how long? Since your fist fight, the second fight? Do you even remember? Do you know how close the dose level in those syringes is to being enough stop your heart? You could have killed yourself! But after watching that absolutely awful suicide note video for your family you made on that disk, and seeing this noose; it seems pretty clear you're trying to do yourself in anyway."

Miles kept looking down, tears welling up in his eyes. "That video is old. I haven't touched it and the noose in a long time."

Wave became sterner as she said, "Oh I'm sure. So you instead you enrolled yourself into the black market fights with the hope that eventually someone would kill you in the ring. That was your master plan, until "I" came along and mucked it up, right?"

Miles sniffed, let the tears fall from his eyes then nodded.

"Why?"

Miles shook his head again, and didn't say anything.

"Well, since I know you're going to ask, I did search through your whole place. I was hoping to find out what exactly has happened to you. Like how all your injuries are now gone. Unfortunately all I got was more questions." She walked closer to him, "If you yourself are so willing to selfishly throw your life away, why did you even bother lecturing and saving me in the first place? Same goes for Fiona, and Blaze, and so on? Over and over again in this last week, you time and time again you stood up and did what was right. So why are you doing this self decimating nonsense?"

He looked up and saw that Sally's ghost was now gone. Then he sadly spoke, "You wouldn't understand. (Sniff) No one does."

Wave rolled her eyes, the confidently said, "Try me?"

Miles shook his head again and mumbled out, "No." then he reached down, picked up the DVD case, pulled out the DVD and broke it into two pieces. Then he picked up the rope and tossed it and the DVD into the nearby trash can by the kitchen. He grabbed up and tossed the syringe packet onto the kitchen table before he sat down in the living room recliner and stared off into space.

"Damn this stubborn….yet surprisingly handsome idiot!" "Okay then. If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine for me. But let me ask you this? If you are running away from your old life, why not follow your own advice that you gave to me…..and…..I guess Fiona, and do something useful with your new one?

He looked at her sadly.

Wave continued, "Instead of sitting up here wallowing in self hate and pity, why don't you join me and help look for what my ancient ancestors left behind on this planet? It'll be fun, and you clearly need my company right now anyway."

Miles sarcastically said, "What exactly makes you think I even like Archeology or treasure hunting?"

"The report you gave me, dummy. You wouldn't have done all that work if you didn't like to do it."

"What makes you think I did it for that reason? What if I was just trying to one up you by learning and knowing more about your ancestors than you did? That way I could rub it in your face at the next Grand Prix."

Wave shot him a razzing smile, "Now that's the Shorty I know."

"Ugh! Enough with the "Shorty" shit, will you! I'm like 3 inches taller than you now."

She grinned evilly at him. "Well…..your height isn't the only way I can measure you, you know."

Miles went wide eyed. "Are you insinuating what I think you are?"

"Well…I did have to undress you last night…and….." She kept grinning at him.

Miles shot her a glare, but then it twisted into a cocky smile, "Well, at least now I know you didn't look, because if you did, I would have woken up with you unconscious on the floor; knocked out by the shock of seeing the biggest one in the world."

"Oh really? Well you'll have to prove that to me sometime."

"Heh! In your dreams, bird woman." Miles then wiped his eyes as he stood up. He looked at her seeing her still smiling which softened his anger a bit. "(Sigh) Okay, I'm going out for a run to clear my head and think about it. I'll give you an answer by the end of the day. But if I say no, you have to leave by tomorrow. Deal?"

Wave frowned at hearing that, but nodded in reply.

"Well, you already did it, but go ahead and help yourself to the place. Just don't negligently discharge any of my weapons, please?"

Wave rolled her eyes, "Oh shut it, or I'll shoot you in the foot."

Miles chuckled, "Why did you bring out my guns like this, anyway?"

"In case you woke up in a drugged up stupor and tried to shoot me" she said with a smile.

"Oh…well, can't have that. Can we" Miles said as he walked to his bedroom and closed the door to get dressed. A few minutes later he came out in his Army Physical Fitness clothes. He went to the table and grabbed his compact 9mm semi-automatic handgun and tucked it into his shorts. Then he walked to the front door and put his shoes on as he said, "I'll be back later. I'll tell the Hotel staff that you're staying with me, so they don't think you're an intruder or something."

"Hey, Shorty, speaking of which, what does this place charge per day" she asked walking up to him by the door.

"Seven Hundred."

"And how long have you been here?"

"About three weeks."

Then she poked him in the chest with her right index finger, "And you left me in your damn "partial-access" workshop with no hot water in the middle of nowhere with Fiona while you slept in this nice beachfront penthouse!?"

Miles could see the annoyance in her features, but wasn't sure if she was doing it for real or just razzing his fur again. So he replied, "Yep" with a smile then hurried out the door.

"You jerk" she shouted to him. Then shut the door, smiling to herself.

-VV

The United Federation

Central City

G.U.N. Headquarters

0931 hours

Amadeus was walking with Colonel Cross to the headquarters medical center as he flipped through some photos the GUN ace had given him that included his Son and his squadron mates. He was surprised, yet not surprised by the impressions his son had made on the GUN pilots. They really took a liking to him, and the other Mobian pilots they sent here for training for that matter. "It really is a shame this kind of bonding between the Mobians and the Overlanders didn't occur 25 years earlier during the Great War. A pointless war that never should have been" Amadeus thought to himself. In the back of his mind, the old War memories caused a quiet fear he had that the Overlanders would turn on them, and his Son would have been an easy picking for them here. Not to be, for clearly the opposite was the reality. And no surprise, it was this alliance with the Overlanders that tipped the balance and finally led to Eggman's defeat.

"The Doctor's office is right here, General Sir" Robert said, pointing to the door on the right.

Amadeus came out of his thoughts and acknowledged the Pilot. "Thank you, Colonel, and also for these pictures."

"Anytime Sir. If you need anything from me, in general, or with your son, just contact me through the HQ phone lines."

"I appreciate that" The Fox said with a smile as he extended his hand.

Robert returned and shook his hand, "I hope to be flying with you son again soon. Good luck, sir." Then he left back down the hallway from which they came.

Amadeus then entered the office, seeing an older dark skinned Overlander sitting at the desk writing notes.

Dr. Cunningham stood up and went to the position of attention as the General walked into his office.

"At ease, Colonel. I'm General Amadeus Prower, thank you for seeing me."

"Yes sir" then man then invited the Fox to have a seat before his desk then sat back down. "I'm told you needed to see me regarding one of my former patients, but I apologize, I didn't have time to get any details on what you needed specifically. I just got out of surgery for a heart attack case."

"It's no problem, I have the file here" Amadeus replied, holding up a red colored cardboard folder full of papers. "I see you were the primary physician when my son, Lieutenant Miles Prower was Medivac'd to you?"

The Army Doctor's expression changed to serious. Clearly he remembered Miles. "Uh, yes sir, I remember him."

Amadeus continued as he opened his son's GUN file and read from the medical treatment section, "Well, on day 196 of last year, the day of the victory over Eggman, he was brought to the emergency room here. Your diagnosis was "a severe laser burn like laceration of his upper right arm bicep and tricep. Mild trauma to both eyes and shrapnel to his face, some bruising from blunt force trauma to his….."

"I remember your son, General, what do you need to know" the Colonel said, interrupting him.

Amadeus normally would have put the junior officer in his place for the interruption, but he could see that the man was bothered by this, which meant he could get some information from him. "You're last note before my son's discharge was that he was "Shell-Shocked and may require post combat supervision."

The Colonel nodded, "Yes sir, I did."

So Amadeus set the folder down and spoke frankly to him, "Well Colonel, I have a problem. Due to a mishap in information sharing, this note never made it to us. I can tell you my son was clearly post-traumatic after that battle, but we don't why. Now he's missing, and has been missing for almost five months, and in light of recent events, I trying to get some more information to figure out what exactly happened to him up there."

The doctor stared at him coldly, then said, "Permission to speak freely without reprisal, sir."

Amadeus looked at him hard, he knew what the man was about to say to him, "Go ahead."

"What father orders his seventeen year old child into the front lines of a battle like that?"

Amadeus glared back at him, "My son is Soldier. He proved himself time and again, and he was a Freedom Fighter since he was eight years old. And frankly, I didn't have to order him; he demanded to be on that Egg ship to plant that virus, because he created it, and was the only one who knew how to employ it properly."

The doctor looked at him, softened a bit and sighed.

Amadeus continued, "My son didn't have the luxury of a peaceful upbringing. He faced a life under tyranny and had to face death way too early in his youth to even have a shot at having what you call a normal childhood. See we Mobians had to fight an insurgents fight for a decade before we consolidated enough to mount a proper resistance against Robotnik and then Eggman. Even then, it took time to get things together. We didn't even know about your Overlander civilization's existence until just nine years ago, and because of the scars caused by the Great War with one of your hostile neighboring states, it took more than half of that to forge this alliance to come together and win. My son was willing to sacrifice everything to see that victory happen, and now both our peoples enjoy a relatively peaceful life because of it. So spare me your tirade about what a child is, Colonel, and get back to answering my questions."

The Doctor nodded, "Yes sir."

Amadeus then pulled out the pictures Mina gave him and handed it to the man, "What was his full condition when he arrived in your operating room? The injuries listed doesn't fully match what I see here. Can you fill in the gaps?"

The man looked at the pictures and became more somber, "You're son was a mess, Sir."

Amadeus raised an eyebrow, "Go on."

"He was covered in blood and gore, had some metal and bone fragments embedded into his face and upper chest, as if a bomb went off and blew someone else near him into pieces. His eyes had to be flushed to get the bloody material out of his sockets."

"Bone fragments? Who the hell could it have been" Amadeus said to himself thinking aloud.

"I don't know, Sir. But as we started cleaning him, he went ballistic, and took three men to restrain him. I had to sedate him heavily before we could work again.

Amadeus thought hard, trying to think of what to ask next. Then spoke, "So the vast majority of the blood on him wasn't his, it was someone else. Was it Mobian, Overlander, or…"

"It was Mobian, Sir. There were small patches of fur, head hair, brain matter, and skin mixed in the gory mess on him. Judging from some of the hair lengths, I would say it was probably a female."

Suddenly a horribly sick realization hit him, "Dammit! Why didn't I think of this before" he whispered to himself. Then he asked, "By any chance do you have any of that fur stored somewhere for DNA testing?"

"No sir. We washed him off, then took him to surgery to repair his arm and broken ribs. The mess was disposed off like all medical waste. We figured if it was from a deceased fellow comrade, you guys would figure out who it was through battle loss accountability, and your son's own eventual testimony."

Amadeus nodded.

"Sir, I must inform you, the next day as your son was in recovery, before you and your wife came to see him, he asked me not to tell you about these details relating to his injuries. Hell, he begged me to. Of course I couldn't do that, so instead I handed him off to Captain Rogers, whom I assume you met when you came here last year?"

Amadeus nodded, "Did my son say why he wanted you to conceal this information?"

"No Sir. But after seeing him so mentally and emotionally destroyed like that, I figured he needed at least one thing to go his way at that moment to help his post-traumatic recovery. So I put in the "Shell Shocked" note in his file befor handing him over to Rogers and he took it from there."

"The file which I never got."

The Doctor shook his head, "So your son never got post-combat counseling?"

"No."

The doctor looked at him and knew right then and there how serious this was for him. Unfortunately, there was nothing more he could give him or do for him. "I'm sorry, Sir."

Amadeus nodded then stood up to leave, "Thank you for your time, Colonel." He shook the man's hand, then turned and left the room in a hurry.

-VV

City of Station Square.

Emerald Coast.

1400 hours.

Miles mind raced as he huffed breathes in and out, running as fast as his body would allow him to at this point. He had been running for hours throughout the city before making his way back to the coastline, stopping only to use the restroom or get water at public drinking fountains.

"What am I going to do? God help me, I don't know anymore."

Finally too tired run anymore, he slowed to a walk on the sandy beach, looking at the water as he was thinking of everything that had led him to this point.

"I was so close last night. A couple seconds later, this fubar life of mine would have been over and I would be before God right now facing my judgment. But then one of the most annoying, aggravating, insulting, smartass bitch's I ever met, comes back into my life yet again and keeps me alive. And now here I am faced with a choice of what to do with her. Kick her ass to the curb for her own good…..or give her offer a shot and go treasure hunting for Ancient Babylonian crap?"

As he walked the shore, he took a sand path that jutted out into the bay leading to an area at the end on an elevated wooden platform. It was filled with several picnic tables with palm tree umbrellas, a bar, food stand, and a small stage with adjoining dance floor. He'd never been out here before, but given the setting, he had no reason to come in the first place. It was clearly set up with a cozy romantic theme for couples and lovers out for a good time on the beach at night, judging from the large array of Tiki torches. At this time of the day the area was deserted, minus the two workers at the bar and food stand.

Miles was sweating profusely from the long run, and the hot sun beating on the sand all around him wasn't helping his post workout cool down. "I wonder if they'll have a problem with me just chilling at their bar for a few minutes" he thought as he took the few steps up onto the platform.

He walked straight to the bar and took a seat under the shaded canopy, and was immediately approached by the bar tender.

"What can I get for you Soldier" the Overlander male asked him, obviously taking note of Miles athletic attire.

Miles sighed to himself. So far his black fur dye and lack of use of his tails was keeping him from being recognized, but maybe it wasn't such a good idea to wear his military P.T. clothing out and about like this. After all, how many two tails Foxes served in the Royal Acorn Army? But he couldn't do anything about it now, so he looked at the drink options written in chalk on the menu above the bar and saw that they had a wide variety of smoothies. He really loved smoothies. Unfortunately, he'd left all his cash back at the hotel. "Dammit I forgot my sport wallet." He sighed in defeat and said, "Nothing, I was just out for a run and stumbled on your peninsula. Mind if I cool down here for just a few minutes?"

The Overlander smiled, "Sure. Would you like a water? No charge."

Miles eagerly nodded, "Please."

The man scooped ice into a glass then used a dispenser to fill it with water and set it before him.

Miles thanked him as he returned to his thoughts staring at the dance floor. "I bet this place is really nice and fun at night." He thought about Fiona, again regretting his decision to force her away like he did. In fact, it was that decision that was making his head spin with Wave's offer right now. He was so lonely, and having anyone, even someone as annoying as Wave around to talk to would be nice to have at this point. Maybe that was why Wave wanted to stay with him, she might be lonely too.

But as his thoughts shifted to the Swallow, he had to admit yet again that this wasn't the same Wave he had known over the last seven years. The Wave he thought he knew would never have risked her life to save his back in the day. Nor would she have openly talked to him about his problems and want to stay with him. Cleary his words and actions had changed her attitude towards him since the initial run in with her and Jet after the fight with Storm.

"A woman on the mind?"

Miles looked back at the bartender, "Huh?"

The bartended grinned, "I can tell from your look, you're thinking about a woman, right?"

Miles cocked an eyebrow, "Ummm…sort of, but not in "that" way, if you get my drift."

"Well, she's occupying your head, so there must be something there" he inquired curiously.

Miles could have dismissed his inquiry, but the gridlock in his mind was giving him a headache, so maybe talking about it would help him clear the traffic a bit. He elected to keep the details very generalized though, "Ok, yeah, you got me. So I know this woman who really wants me go on a trip with her for….research, and I'm not sure if I should or not, especially given our past conflicting issues."

"I see. Conflicting issues huh? Is this a work relationship" the man asked.

"More like competition. We've been….well acquaintances on and off for years, but we didn't get along much. See, we're both engineers, and she always kept trying to one up me, and visa versa."

"Well, what changed that she would want to hang with you now?"

"Umm…well first off was the age difference. She's six years older than me, so it was awkward with me being a young teenager, and her an adult teen. Now I'm an adult, so that difference isn't really relevant now. Then I dropped out of the field we competed in, so nothing to argue about there anymore. Then just recently I kinda saved her life when she was being assaulted by a thug, and gave her a place to stay when she and her boyfriend broke up."

"Heh! Well it seems pretty straight forward for her interest in you, so why the indecision on your part?"

"I…I'm not sure. I guess I just don't trust her. She used to do very shady things for a living."

"Does she do them anymore?"

Miles scratched his head, "Umm…..I don't think so. She's giving me every indication that she's cleaned up her act…..for now anyway."

The man nodded, "Is she attractive?"

Miles nodded, "Very."

"He he, I mean not just physically, but as a whole?"

Miles rubbed his forehead, "Uhhhhgggh….I guess, when she acts right and isn't being a total bitch."

"Ha ha ha! Well, then all that leaves is the end result possibilities. What do you have to lose by going with her, verses what you could gain if things all work out for the better?"

"Yeah, I thought about that. Still,… (whispering very low) I just don't want her to get hurt because of me."

"I'm sorry, say again?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing. Anyway, thanks for the drink, man" he said, chugging the rest of the water down and standing up from his seat. "You have a good day."

"You too, bud. Good luck" the man said taking his glass.

Miles thoughts kept racing as he headed back to the main shoreline. The bartender had inadvertently taken his thoughts into a whole different direction. Just before, he wasn't even trying to think about being romantic with Wave, even though he did find her attractive and had since the Grand Prix 4 years ago. Now he had to consider this variable in play here, What if she actually wanted to be with him for that reason?

-VV

Gold Coast Hotel

2114 hours.

Wave was laying in the bathtub letting the massagers do their thing as soap suds formed around her upper chest and head. "Oh my God, Tails! No wonder you didn't want to tell me about this place. Selfish asshole, this is the best whirlpool tub ever!" She got in the tub after working out in the gym downstairs, and lost track of how long she had been in there.

She really was frustrated with the Fox; he'd left about nine in the morning and didn't come back all day. She had debated going out and searching for him, but elected not to, as she feared crowding him may lead him to send her packing. She did have to commend his chivalry again though. Not long after he'd left, Housekeeping stopped by the room, obviously informed of her presence there, and dropped off a female bathrobe, several large towels, feminine bathing products, and new bed sheets. Though this was no guarantee that he was going to allow her to be with him, she knew that he was at least keeping his word and got her the stuff she needed to stay the night.

It was getting late, and as she sat there relaxing in the tub, she began to worry that he may be in trouble somewhere. She'd tried not to dwell on it though. Miles was a true survivor, and if there was anyone she'd ever known to stay alive amidst insurmountable odds, it was him.

She then sprang up from the tub after hearing a noise coming from the bedroom. She quickly hopped out of the tub, donned the bathrobe, put her gloves on both hands, and grabbed one of Miles pistols she had brought with her and carefully made her way to the closed bathroom door. Once there, she readied the weapon and slowly opened the door. She saw Tails, doing what looked like a sheet change to the king sized bed. She also noticed that his fur was no longer died black and looked like he had groomed it. He also changed clothes too, and was dressed in a plain white shirt, black shorts and white socks. She lowered the gun and threw the door open, "Well there you are, been waiting for you to get back all day!"

Miles looked over to her as he was stuffing the loose parts of the sheet into the area between the mattress and box spring, "Like the bathtub?"

Wave grabbed a towel off the nearby wall hook and wrapped it around her head and long feathers as she walked next to him, "I do. Is that thing another reason why you didn't bring me here the other day" she asked with a feigned look of annoyance.

Miles smiled as he finished making the bed, "Yeah, I really like that thing myself."

"So where did you go?" She could smell the masculine soap odor emanating from him. "Did you shower already?"

"Yep, used the pool area showers downstairs, took the dye off with a remover, then gave myself a haircut and stuff" he said with a bit of a shrug.

"Well look you, making yourself all spiffy for me, Shorty" she said with a razzing smile.

"Suuuurrrrre, all for you, Wave" he sarcastically responded.

"So what are doing to the bed?"

Miles grabbed the clean blanket off the nearby chair and neatly set it on top of the bed. "I have changed the bed sheets, blanket, and pillow covers for you, so you can sleep here." Then he walked over and set the alarm clock for three in the morning. "We leave at O three thirty, so you might want to turn in soon." Then he quickly walked out of the bedroom to the living room.

Wave stood there a thrown off and confused, then she followed after him. She was surprised to see that he had sat before a laptop of his own at the dining room table typing away as if he was working on something. She walked to his side and saw that he was making notations to his Babylon Garden notes. She grinned ear to ear then playfully jabbed his left shoulder with her right fist.

Miles stopped and gave her a look. He saw her happy smile and couldn't help but return a small one of his own before saying, "We have to leave by three thirty if we're going to get there at a decent time to remain undetected by others. Babylon Garden crashed in the mountains on the outskirts of the Acorn Kingdom, so it's patrolled by our Military Police personnel in Jeeps."

She nodded, then looked around the room, "How how long have been back? I didn't hear you come in."

"Oh…I got in about seven thirty."

She looked at the clock and saw that was nearly two hours ago, "I was in there that long?! Geez, didn't seem like it."

Miles chuckled, "Yeah that tub will do that to you." Miles noticed that she had her gloves on and found it peculiar, "Hey, do you like to wear those gloves everywhere and at all times or something?"

Wave looked at him and shook her head, then she set the nine millimeter handgun that was still in her left hand onto the table. "I didn't know if you were another Mafia hitman that broke in. I wanted to be at least somewhat ready for a potential physical fight. These things help cushion the knuckles when I have to punch a dummy like you. Speaking of which, I put all your other guns and stuff in the back closet." She looked around….."except for the vehicle keys."

Miles nodded, "I have them, had to get my stuff out of there. Thanks. By the way, don't worry about the Mob, I got the staff here in check. If the Mob is still after me, they'll have a heck of a time figuring out where I live."

Wave listened as her eyes locked onto the unusual black in color extreme gear that was laying next to the wall behind him. "What's that" she asked pointing.

Miles looked, then said, "My Gear."

"Where's your Yellow Tail?"

Miles frowned, then returned his focus to the computer screen, "Gave it to Fiona."

"Oh…I see." She stepped to the Gear and reached down to pick it up. "YIPE" she squeaked out as her hand was repelled by a blue in color force field like electric oval that activated, surrounding the entire board.

Miles looked over and shook his head, "Stay away from the Gear. Only I can access it."

She looked at him wide eyed, "Are you kidding me?! How the hell did you manage to get a shield on a gear?"

Miles smiled then returned to the screen, "Oh…I have my ways."

Wave glared at him, then leaned down to take a thorough visual inspection of the board without touching the shield.

Miles saw her do this then said, "You really should turn in, Wave. It's going on nine thirty and we have to leave in six hours.

Wave reluctantly stood up, then looked at him, "What about you, where are you going to sleep?"

"The couch, once I'm down refreshing my memory here."

Wave frowned, "Tails, it's your apartment, and it is a huge bed. We can do one on top of the covers, one beneath if you want" she said with a hopeful looking smile.

Miles didn't see it though as he remained focused on the computer screen and said, "Goodnight Wave. I'll see you in a few hours."

Wave frowned, but quickly changed it back to a smile, "Fine, have it your way then. I'll see you in the morning." Then she walked to the bedroom, stopping at the door. She waited to see if he would look at her before she closed the door. After a moment, he did look and shot a playful goodnight wave with his hand before returning to the computer. Wave grinned to herself as she shut the door. "Now it's only a matter of time. You're mine, Fox."

-vv

After Wave closed the door, Miles leaned back in his seat and took a moment to settle down. He knew she was naked under that robe, and she smelled so good having just come out of the tub. So he couldn't help his physical reaction to it, but was glad that he managed to not show her that he was turned on.

"Damnit, being a virgin is so embarrassing sometimes" he thought, dismissing what just happened to be no different of a reaction he would have had if she had been any other attractive female. He still wasn't sure if he was making the right decision by letting her stay with him, but any decision was better that limbo'ing around with no decision. He was just going to have to take it one day at a time with her, and let the cards fall where they may.

He returned to his notes and read over his old writings on the ancient map he found in the Garden's wreckage years ago.

-VV

The Northern Frontier

16,000 feet Above Ground Level.

Year 3244 Day 173

0145 hours.

Amy carefully piloted her "Pink Rose" Extreme Gear through the mountains until she spotted the Rogues zeppelin in the sky above. She was dressed in winter clothing and had a backpack on her shoulders, but was still shivering from the freezing cold high altitude mountain air.

She zoomed up to the rear of the aircraft, navigated through the propellers rotor wash and touched down on the rear deck. "Ugh, finally here" she thought, picking up her gear and slinging it under her left arm.

She went straight to the door and once again found that it was open, so she made her way inside. Right away she was hit by the thicker warm air, and eagerly pulled down the zipper to open the front of her coat. Then she called out, "Storm! It's me, Amy. I was wondering if we could talk?"

She got no response and figured they were sleeping. She walked down the hall toward the front of the airship when she saw that a doorway on the left was open. She peeked in and saw Jet the Hawk face planted on the floor just mere feet into the room.

"Jet?" She ran to him and rolled him over. His upper jaw area looked swollen much worse than before and dark blood was trickling from his beaked mouth. She tried to shake him to bring him to, but he was unresponsive.

"STORM?! I NEED YOUR HELP HERE" she yelled out as loud as she could.

To be continued….

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