Tails had reached his kitchen, hoping to grab a drink from his fridge. He sighed blissfully. *Another calm day in my life.* He thought. He opened the door of the fridge, only to find a certain black and orange robot inside, pointing him with a machine-gun arm.

"Okay! No more playing around! No more…" Gemerl monologue, never lowering the gun. Tails paid him no heed, instead, he grabbed a green bottle with a skull from the door compartment of the bridge, opened it with his thumb and spilled a bit of it's contains on the robots eyes, a hiss of melting sound started immediately. "Gyaaaaaahhhh!" Gemerl shouted in pain, while firing his gun wildly. Tails just ducked, knowing that it was likely shooting upward, took a still standing instant soup cup and closed the door again, leaving the robot there.

"Now, where is that kettle?" Tails said, ignoring the gunshots flying everywhere.

Sometime later

Miles wasn't a big fan of videogames about war: fight in real wars for most of your life and you will likely understand him. However, he had to admit there was something satisfying about just sitting one day for a while and mindlessly shoot at whatever digital opponent he had in front. Playing in one of his consoles with a wireless controller, with quite a loud volume, he lost himself into the game.

"Ok Miles, enough playing around!" Gemerl stated, but the fox didn't listen. "Hey! One, two, one, are you awake?!" He shouted. But still no reaction. He even fired his machine gun to the sky, but a machine gun from the game also roared, so Tails did not even notice. "Damnit Fox!" He said, putting the hot machine gun on his face, finally getting a reaction, the feeling of a burn finally snapping him from the game.

"Gemerl, that was unnecessary." Tails screamed, trying to pet his burnt part of the face, but only made the pain worse. Then a loud gun shot was heard, getting the fox attention. On the monitor in front of him, the screen turned red, as his soldier fell on his knees and to the floor." You made me lose." Tails complained.

"Believe me, that won't matter in a second!" He answered. At that instant, however, Tails gave him a soft tap with his controller. Gemerl stood still for a moment, bewildered. "…Are you kidding me?" The robot said lowly. Tails then moved the right stick to the left, making Gemerl turn around 180 degrees in that direction. "The fuck?!" Gemerl asked. Tails then moved the the left stick, forcing the bot to move against his will. "Shiiiiiittttt!" He exclaimed, unable to resist. Before long, Tails took him outside of his construction and sent him down a cliff. "Fuck youuuuuuuu!"

"There is that." He said, returning to his house.

Sometime later again.

Tails wore a monocle, helping him discern between the small pieces of the board. He was nearly done: he had changed the lubricant, changed some of its inner system to empower its acceleration as ordered and now, he just needed to put an energy compensator and a cooling systems, to balance the changes he added, connect them correctly and he would be ready to get his payment. *Just a little movement here.* He thought, using forceps to pull the wire on its proper place. Once finished, he turned it on, the engine sounding low and correctly. "Like the purr of a kitty." He said, this extreme gear ready.

Meanwhile, lurking in the shadows and on a higher place, Gemerl waited for his opportunity. He wanted to just go there and threaten Tails again, but the last chance he had gave him a good idea: Attack him when he is distracted or not expecting it. So, he opened his inner compartments, revealing his small missiles, ready to launch them. A second later, two went flying across the room into his general direction. *They shouldn't kill him. I think.*

*ALERT! INCOMING!" An alarm blared on. However, Tails wouldn't be able to react to the missiles, looking at the roof in panic since he couldn't guess where the missiles were coming. Luckily, he didn't need it: from one of the walls, a square piece moved, freeing a shadow bot that came to intercept the missiles. Miles hadn't painted it yet, his only color was brilliant silver. It also had a machine gun instead of a left arm.

The Shabot received all the missiles, damaged enough that it fell on the floor on its back. Tails only saw how the bot fell, after hearing the explosions. When the Shabot fell, its machine gun was triggered, shooting several bullets. Appropriately panicked, he went to the wall and put himself in a way where it would be less likely that the bullets would hit him. "Damnit." Gemerl cursed to itself, still, he thought that his best opportunity now would be running to the fox as fast as it could. He was however, stopped by other shabots, grabbing all his extremities, each using their free hands to land punches on Gemerl. "Sunnuva…" Gemerl growled. He trying using his spinning attack but even with it the Shabots wouldn't let him go.

"Restrain only." Tails roared, and the Shabots stopped their assault, but still refused to let Gemerl go. When the black and orange bot looked at the fox, noticing him passing his hand slowly on the extreme gear he had just finished. "It has gun shots." Tails said, his voice serious and monotonous.

*Gun shots?*Gemerl thought, until it landed on him. *The Shadow bot, the one I damaged first.* It was then that Gemerl knew, he was screwed.

"Gem, Gem, Gem." He started, moving his head to the sides. "We have been doing this mouse and cat game for quite a while now. I don't mind my house damaged that much." He said, moving closer to the Gemerl. He then put his hand on the robot´s head. His expression had been fairly normal so far, annoyed, but it was at the distance of a few inches, that it deformed: his pupils shrink into what it could only be described as the eyes of a mad man, a wicked smile exposing his canines for intimidation effect. Gemerl might be a robot, but even it jumped on his place because of the change. "But you should never mess with the Gears."

Back to Cream and Wave.

"Are you better?" Cream asked genuinely. Both friends were still on the car, just arriving at the Mystic Ruins.

"That's debatable." Wave asked, still looking somewhat depressed.

"C´mon, we got to get you to Tails." Cream said, starting to leave the car. She wasn't done when she noticed that Wave wouldn't move. Cream sighed, took her seat again, looking at Wave with concern. "What is the matter?"

"Can we just leave?" She answered, looking at the nothingness at first before looking at the rabbit. "You have his bracelet, we can just leave. Have my life somewhere else. I don't want to go back there. Please." Wave begged, her hands together, the desperation on her eyes very evident.

"You would turn into a monster anytime soon. Worse, if G.U.N finds you, they will gun you down." Cream reasoned.

"I am starting to care very little about that." She admitted.

Cream answer was a sigh, while putting her fingers around her nose. *Tails, we are going to talk about this bad boy persona you have formed.* "Wave, do you have any idea why Tails is helping you?" She asked.

This question took Wave of balance, the thought nor the question never really arriving until now. "…Because he wants to piss me off?" Wave thought. There was some seriousness in her answer, but definitely some satire too.

Cream chuckled at her answer. She then put her most serious face. "Wave, I am about to tell you something that Tails should never know you know. Do you think you can keep your mouth shut?" She asked, never dropping the seriousness on her tone or face.

"Who do you think I am?" Wave asked, as if Cream´s question offended her.

"A girl who loves to talk." Cream quipped back, earning a glare from Wave. It only made the rabbit´s smile bigger.

"Fine. Tails won´t know a word about this." She accepted.

Cream let go a hair, some nervousness came with her movements and demeanor. She opened her mouth, but then closed it again, as if she was about to step back. Finally, she took a last, big breath. "Look. This situation. This problem you have right now. It happened to one of my closest friends." Cream was somber, the words struggling to leave her mouth, her voice small. Wave only opened her eyes a lot, but didn't say anything, knowing that she wasn't done.

"She was, actually, a lot like me. When I just started going with Sonic and the others. Didn't have much confidence, felt like a damsel in distress for the most part. Like she didn't add anything to our friends. However, I am sure she realized her self-worth. How much she mattered to us… Before." Cream chocked up. She let go her head, only hanging because her body was stuck to it, tears starting to fall. It was obvious what she was trying to say.

Wave put a hand on the rabbit´s should, getting her to look at the swallow to the eyes. "I understand. I get it." Wave´s voice was low, comprehensible.

"I am not done yet." Cream admitted, wiping tears from her eyes. "The reason why this is so important for Tails. Is that she was his first girlfriend." Wave eyes shrink, a gulp coming next. No quip, no answer, no nothing, just silence. Even her mind was speechless.

"But what I want you to know is that he will never give up on you. No matter how evil he might see. He will never let that happen again. Not even if that person was his worst enemy." Cream ended.

"… Understood." Was all that Wave could say. But she really understood: she knew what it was to miss someone so bad.

Finally Cream left the car, knowing this time Wave would follow her and she wasn't disappointed. "Now remember, you know nothing about this." Cream said, still serious.

"I know, I know." Wave answered.

"I am very serious. If there is going to be a reason for Tails to rip your throat out it will be for her."

This stopped Wave´s march, eyeing the girl to see if she was joking or something, but nothing indicated that. "That's… too specific."

Before long, they arrived at the door of Tails house, knocking it.

*Door Alert. Door Alert* an alarm blared.

Tails lifted the mask for light protection he had on his face. On his right arm, he hold a whip made of electricity. In front of him, was Gemerl restrained by the arms and legs by Shabots. However, Tails had messed up with the robots extremities: somehow, they extended for over two meters, only connected by small part, sometimes metal pieces, others just wires. Even his torso was open, exposing its most sensible wires and systems.

"Oh, thank Chaos." If robots could shed tears, Gemerl would have rivers flowing down his head. There was happiness and desperation, with a bit of hope in his voice.

Tails answered by whipping his weapon at him one more time, letting the mask fall on his meant place. The moment the electricity made contact with the robot, a blinding light flashed, covering the robot, while he screamed at the top of his metal lungs, in agony. The fox then flicked his fingers: the robots let go of Gemerl, all his pieces returned to their meant places, without much noticeable damage other than burn marks. The icing on the cake was the robot mouse that came and, with more electricity, knocked Gemerl one last time.

Soon, he moved to the entrance of his building, followed by the Shabots, which carried the back bot. He opened the door and Cream was about to greet him, when the Shabots beat her to it, passed to the door, went down the stairs and introduced Gemerl to the car. There was a face of confusion on both girls, staring at Miles. "We had fun." He said, nonchalant.

He very well noticed how both girls had their eyes red and swollen, probably from having cried not that long ago. Wave was the first to enter, not wanting to talk to him yet. Cream started removing her bracelet, knowing she had to return it. "I will come frequently. And you, mister, need to stop being such a jerk." She demanded, while offering the bracelet. This got Wave´s attention, who eavesdropped at them from behind the door, only slightly open for her to look at what was going on.

"My house, my rules." Tails answered, nonchalant, trying to take the bracelet. But Cream actually put it away from his reach.

"I am serious about that. She also has crap on her life. We all get crap on our lives."

Cream was standing up to Tails pretty well: She was shorter than him; in skill sets, they were, more or less, equal, except that she was in his territory, his not-so-small fortress, full of machines that could easily kill her; plenty of their friends would chicken a bit down in a stare down against him; heck, he was the predator, she was the predated. Nevertheless, she stood firm, thought there was no sign of change in the fox face.

"…Fine." Tails answered, always maintaining eye contact. Cream finally handed the bracelet. Little after that, they started walking back to the exit. "Anything else, your highness?" He asked, with a bit of a joke, once she had crossed the door.

"Things would be simpler if you stopped acting like that." It sounded like she was begging.

"You make things sound so easy." Tails answered, waving at her. Once Cream was out of his sight, he closed the door returning. When Wave noticed it, she closed her door. She was still on his workshop, so she decided to distract herself with the boards he had, to conceal the fact she was spying on them.

When Tails entered, he passed Wave, almost as if she was not there. He moved to a door, where he put a palm on it. Instantly, a square appeared, a vertical line passed through it. The two just formed rectangles hid into the walls, revealing… "A fucking elevator?!" Wave answered with disbelief and anger. She threw accusing daggers at the fox.

He had a knowing smirk. "I imagined you would get tired of walking all those stairs. Although, to be fair, I also needed you to know where the stairs were. For an emergency." He explained.

"Shut up." She answered, unable to hide her anger.

"Come." Tails offered, gesturing her with his hand to enter the elevator. Wave was, naturally, against the idea, giving him the back. "You know, I only have one elevator and I can lock it out in any floor I want. To, you know, force you to use the stairs forever?" He explained, with, what else, a shit eating grin.

Noticing the swallow tightening her fist, he just observed as she marched down her way into the elevator, a vain popping on her forehead. Wasting no time, Tails touched the button that lead to the nursery. Once there, the first thing that they both noticed sent a chill down to Wave´s spine.

She jabbed the button´s on the elevator, but it refused to cooperate, cold sweat started to appear on her head. Meanwhile, Tails moved to the object, observing it, hitting it´s tip with his nail. After that, he smiled, knowing the object was the appropriated. He then looked at Wave, who looked like she was a second away from a heart attack, her chest rising and falling at incredible speeds, about to suffer hyperventilation.

Tails chuckled at the sight. "I didn't knew you were this afraid of needles or shots."

"I am terrified that you have the needle, not the needle itself!" She screamed in panic. "What is that? Are you going to sell my organs!?"

"It is for the whole monster transformation thingy. It is not a cure but it should slow it down. Don't want you tearing down everything in here. Now come, it won't last long." He said.

"Fuck you, you are not getting that thing close to me!" She answered. It looked like she was trying to push the wall even further than she already was.

Tails stood there for a second, observing, before he answered. "Ok." He said, putting a finger on his chin, in signal of thought. "Maybe I will attack your nerves again so you receive the shot without resistance. On the other hand, maybe I will do it in your sleep, where I will make sure it hurt you. Huuu, better yet, I could grab you in your sleep, put an anchor chained to your feet and throw you…"

"Okay, just hurry." Wave interrupted, sitting just at his side, annoyed. She also put the belt on her arm, meaning to help Tails find her veins. Tails smiled, knowing this was the result.

"Good for you." He said, while moistening cotton with alcohol and rubbing it into the area where the needle will enter. A few minutes later, the job was done, without much fuss or problem.

"There." Tails stated. After that, Wave wasted no time on getting the hell out of that room, removing the belt and throwing it carelessly. She entered the elevator. Each one of the buttons was labeled with a few letters on it, probably the initials of the floor it corresponded: Gym, Bar, Fun, Nur, Kit, Bed, etc. She pressed the bed one, knowing that it was, likely, the bedrooms. However, the elevator wouldn't activate. Impatiently, she started jabbing at the machine with no avail.

"Stop that." Suddenly, just at her side, she heard Tails talking. Wave frost for a bit, before turning to him slowly. He was really stealthy. He then touched a bottom between the others, one without any label. At the other side of the elevator a square appeared. However, Wave could easily see that it was a tactile detector. "Put your hand there, and make sure it catches all your fingertips."

*Should have expected this.* She thought, starting to remove the gloves from her hand. However, Tails stopped her from doing so.

"It can detect your fingertips even with gloves on. I didn't remove mine and it works fine."

Wave looked at him with surprise. Putting back her glove, she put both hands, the machine recognizing her as a new user. Finally, she pressed the bed button once again and it obeyed without any issue. As they went down, she couldn't help but ask. "Compensating much?" She asked, with a smirk.

"What can I say? I am still angry for never finding however messed with my boards in the first two Grand Prixes." He said, nonchalant, thought Wave winced at the mention, thought she was sure he didn't notice. "Plus, if someone tries some trick like using gloves to trick the machine, it wouldn't be tricked."

"Fantastic." She stated, trying to get to her room to rest for a bit.

"Hey." Tails called her. Wave rolled her eyes, mumbling about what could he want now. The fox however, looked a bit, flustered. "Thanks, for accompanying Cream. She needs more friends she can be herself with."

"… If her quote on quote, friends, supported her, she wouldn't need them." She answer, with more anger and frustration than she intended.

"I know." He answered, with real weight on it: it wasn't a snarky reply or a joke, it sounded serious. "Old habits die hard." He ended.

"Little brothers and sisters?" Wave commented.

"Little brothers and sisters." Tails repeated.