Sorry this chapter is short, but it's just one of those ones that is necessary to advance the story. So here's chapter 14: Evil Plans Are Born

OOO

Hours had passed and the sun was almost completely up over the horizon. Shadow stayed against the wall in Tails' old house the entire night, waiting for him to return. Amy woke up in reaction to the sunlight beating on her face that came in through a window. She got up slowly and observed the room. Sonic rolled over, subconsciously trying to avoid the sun from coming into his eyes and Shadow stayed exactly where he was when she fell asleep. But she did not see Tails.

The pink hedgehog wiped her eyes and stood up, facing Shadow. "Has Tails come back yet?"

"No" Shadow replied plainly.

"Well, shouldn't he have been back by now" she asked with a worried tone.

"I don't know" he began. "It is possible that they are hiding from Eggman's robots somewhere. There is also a small chance that he has failed."

Sonic mumbled something and sat up, glaring at Shadow. He had been awake long enough to what Shadow said. "I told him that he couldn't do it. And he listened to you over me!

With all of the advanced machines that Eggman has built over the years, he would be lucky to get to within a hundred yards of Eggman's tower!"

Shadow stepped away from the wall and uncrossed his arms. "He is taking longer than I thought he would, but I highly doubt that he has failed."

Sonic continued his glaring at him and gritted his teeth. "How can you possibly know that? What makes you think that he is capable of breaking into Eggman's base. He's just a kid!"

"Tails is more powerful than you can imagine! I have seen some of the things that he can do when he is motivated or angry enough, and I know that he would dive into the deepest parts of hell to get what he wants!"

The room fell silent for a moment and Sonic couldn't think of anything smart to say back. Sonic would always think of Tails as the little fox that followed him around five years ago, but Shadow knew much better of his new found abilities. By the way Shadow was bragging about him, Tails must have changed a lot.

"You do not realize what happens to someone when they lose someone that they care for" Shadow began to say calmly. "Tails lost someone very important to him, and he would die before losing someone else."

Sonic had a vague idea of what that was like. When Tails left, he would have done everything in his power to keep another one of his friends from leaving. The blue hedgehog sighed and sat back in the bed. As much as he hated it, Shadow was right.

OOO

Tails could feel Cream start to move around slightly. She was waking up, and Tails had been keeping track of the time. He could not be completely right, but he guessed that it would be early in the morning. The cave was still totally dark, but Tails looked down and could barely see Cream's eyes open.

Tails stood up and took her hand. "I think it's safe to leave now" he said gently, pulling her to her feet. He held on to her hand and guided her to the entrance.

Unlike Tails, Cream couldn't see at all, and relied on him to get her out. They were in deep, so it took a few minutes to reach the end. The sunlight was bright and it looked as if it hadn't rained at all last night.

Cream looked up at Tails for the first time in five years. His fur was thick and shaggy as she had guessed, but it was clean and shined brightly in the golden sunlight. He was considerably taller than her, and he had acquired a slightly different wardrobe.

Tails looked back at her, her brown eyes looking up and down at him. He smiled and chuckled. "You're looking at me like you've never seen me before." His voice had changed much also, but Cream had noticed that last night.

Suddenly, the tan rabbit leaped at him and hugged him tightly, burying her face in his chest and softly crying. "You were gone for five years" she said in between sobs, muffled from being against him.

Tails looked down at her and frowned. He felt so guilty. He had done this to everyone, but Cream was so young when he left. She was his best friend, aside from Sonic, but she was the one he probably saw the most.

"Cream…"

Tails wrapped his arms around her and returned the hug. It was then he made the decision that he was thinking about before leaving the island yesterday. "I'm back. And I'm never going to leave again."

Creams sobbing stopped and she looked up at him, tears still running down her face.

"Really?"

"Yes." And he meant it.

Cream smiled and stepped back, wiping the tears from her eyes. Tails gave her a warm smile and held out his hand. "What do you say I take you back to your mom?"

Cream took his hand and he scooped her up and lifted off of the ground. "Hold on" he said before blasting off in the direction of Cream's house, going fast enough to scare the small rabbit, but she felt safe in Tails' strong arms.

He looked down and saw Cream's look of amazement. She could fly herself, but never dreamed of going this fast. She didn't think that anyone could go that fast except for Sonic. The ground beneath them moved by in a blur. Tails loved the feeling of having his rings off and flying at breakneck speeds, but he could go faster if he pleased.

"You want to go faster?" He had to yell for her to hear him over the wind rushing past them.

Cream's eyes widened, but she did want to go faster. It was so fun! She nodded her head and braced herself. Tails spun his Tails as fast as he could, and an extreme burst of speed followed. The air they rushed through moved around them in a bubble shape. Tails was close to the speed of sound, but this was a fast as he could go.

Cream was laughing. The rush was great to her, however, it ended quickly. Traveling nearly the speed of sound can get you anywhere fast. Tails slowed down and landed softly on the ground in front of Cream's house, letting her down as he did.

The young rabbit faced him and gave him a sad look. She was worried that she might not see him again, and her once happy smile dropped into a frown.

"What's wrong" Tails asked, concerned.

"Are you going to leave again" she asked sadly, her eyes getting bigger with tears.

Tails smiled kindly at her. "Didn't I already tell you that I'm not leaving again?"

He waved goodbye and started walking backwards down the road. "I'll be at my house if you ever want to visit" he said before turning around and walking down the countryside road, heading back to his old home.

Cream stood there and watched him until he was out of sight. She was so happy. Her best friend was back and he was going to stay. Her mother would also be very happy to know that he's back. Speaking of which, Vanilla still didn't know that she had been saved. She must be worried sick. Cream turned around and ran up to the door and inside the house to see her mother again.

Tails was running down the country side road back to his former home. He decided to run instead of flying to give his tails a break. The young fox was actually quite exhausted.

After a few minutes, he arrived back at the house and quietly walked in. He sat laid down on the sofa and sighed.

Shadow had heard Tails enter and walked down stairs. He could see that Tails' eyes were closed, but he knew that the teenage kitsune was awake. Shadow felt a sense of satisfaction coming from Tails, and assumed that he had accomplished his mission.

"What took you so long" the black hedgehog asked mockingly.

Tails grinned and opened his eyes. "You expect too much. And thanks for keeping Sonic put. I owe you."

Shadow nodded and walked towards the door. "I'll be out. If you need me, go to the island."

Shadow had had quite enough social interaction in the past few hours. Besides, he was a lot like Sonic, and didn't like to be still for a long time, although he would never admit it. The black hedgehog exited the house and dashed down the beach, going anywhere he pleased.

Tails closed his eyes and put his arms behind his head. He would rest, but not sleep. He almost never slept, just to avoid nightmares, and he would always keep his mind busy to stop thinking about Cosmo. The young fox never had any uninterrupted rest for his mind or his body, but he got what he could, so he just lay there, daydreaming.

But then his thoughts wandered to Doctor Eggman. The spherical villain would surely seek out revenge for his little break in. The most likely thing he would do, is attack another city to lure him and Sonic there, then try to defeat us. By the way Sonic looked, he was defeated almost every time, but now that Tails was back, Eggman would have no chance. He would not allow the doctor's empire to spread any further.

OOO

Meanwhile back at Eggman's base, the good doctor was furiously typing on his computer, looking for any way to defeat the new and improved Tails. After a few minutes, he had an idea, and pulled up a page on the monitor with different pieces of scrap metal. At first, it looked like junk, but the label said 'METAREX' on it.

"Perhaps I can put these ruined Metarex parts to work" he pondered to himself.

He pressed a button and a tray with the parts came down from the ceiling. It was quite large and had various pieces from the metal exoskeletons of Dark Oak, Pale Bayleaf, and Dark Narcissus. When they had transformed into the three dragons that attacked them in space, Eggman took the liberty of grabbing the parts.

"Dark Oak was able to keep up with Super Sonic" he began to say to himself. "And if I can refurbish these parts, I can make a robot that will take down that pesky hedgehog and his fox forever!" Eggman's laughter rang throughout the room, echoing for a few seconds after he was done.

"Decoe! Bocoe! Bokkun! Get in here!"

The three robots stumbled out of a door to the side of the room.

"Yes, doctor!" they said in unison, saluting him.

They all looked disheveled and mistreated. Rust was very visible on Decoe and Bocoe and Bokkun looked plain dirty. Ever since Eggman had gained more powerful robots, he rarely had a need to use the three, and therefore rarely kept up with their maintenance.

"I want you three to do some research" he began. "Decoe and Bocoe will take a ship and search for the chaos emeralds. Bokkun will spy on Sonic and his friends and report their location and actions to me at the end of every day."

"Yes, doctor" they mumbled as they left to begin their assignments.

Doctor Eggman returned to typing on his computer, building plans to utilize these parts that he had.

OOO

End of chapter 14.