Chapter 14: Emeralds, Emeralds, and More Emeralds

"Lalala, I'm not listening, lalala, I'm not listening," Tails screams in the corner of the room with his hands over his ears.

"Aw man, what are we going to do now," Sonic says. "This will be tough."

"I don't know," Knuckles replies. "Now do you see why I was trying to hint at it? He's smart, he can fight, but he's still has the mind of a kid."

"And you know what else," Amy asks. "Tails will not be able to even look Tikal in the eyes for a while."

Sonic runs over to Tails and grabs him by a tail. He lifts Tails up with him hanging upside-down. His eyes are open wide and they are watery. His expression is so sad.

"Sonic, please help me," Tails begs.

"I can't," Sonic says. "There's nothing I can tell you. I have not done anything myself. I hate to say this, but Knuckles must help you this time."

"Nooooooooooooooo," Tails screams. Sonic throws Tails to Knuckles.

"Uh, I really don't have anything to tell you," Knuckles explains. "Hmm, let me put it like this. So far, you have probably noticed things you can do that make Tikal happy. I mean, I'm pretty sure that Master Emerald thing was not the only time you kissed her, right?"

Tails just shakes his head to say yes.

"Good. If you were to do those things more frequently and on a bigger scale, then maybe, just maybe you might be able to get somewhere," Knuckles says. "That's really all there is to it."

"But that's common sense," Tails says. "I need to know the other stuff."

"Ah well, let's go get more pieces of the Master Emerald," Sonic orders quickly. "First two people that touch me get to bail out!" Amy and Rouge wastes no time in Sonic's decision, and they are gone in a flash. Knuckles stands there with his hand out, but he was too slow.

"This is weird," Knuckles remarks as he sits back down in his chair. "You are smart, right? Surely you know about this stuff."

"That's a very dumb statement," Tails replies seriously. "I actually thought it over and I realized that I must do this in order to save the planet. What if we told Tikal this? Would that make this better?"

Knuckles puts his hand on his face. "No, no you idiot. You seriously don't realize how important this is to your relationship? Telling her about this whole ordeal will only force her to do it. That's not good at all. You need to make her want to do it. You can't force this."

"I see," Tails says with his hand on his chin.

"I obviously see that you are thinking way too hard about this," Knuckles says as he puts his head down. "Let me make it simpler. All you need to do is focus on strengthening your relationship with her. Because of your plans and your determination, you have saved her life a few times already. You are basically already in. You got to focus on the little things now. Find out what she likes, spend as much time with her as you can, and stuff like that. You goal here is to make her love you more. Once you accomplish that then this task will become much easier. For example, you know how Tikal is always at your bedside whenever you are weak or hurt and she takes care of you? Go do that for her."

"I get it now," Tails says as his head has a revelation. "Thanks. You are not as dumb as you look." Tails runs up the stairs.

"I'll let that one slide," Knuckles says.

Tails runs upstairs and opens the door to his room. There's a huge hole in the ceiling going straight through his laboratory to the outside. His bed is gone too. Knuckles comes upstairs.

"I sort of saw this coming," Knuckles remarks as he looks up.

"What I don't understand is how anyone got into my lab in the first place," Tails says.

"Did you change the password to your lab after Cosmo left," Knuckles asks.

Tails slaps himself on the head. He runs to his lab. He looks outside and he sees something flying off in the distance.

"Let's go get them, Tails," Knuckles suggests.

"You stay here, I'm doing this alone." Tails flies through the hole in his ceiling and follows the plane.

Once outside, the weather is obviously not agreeing with him as he can see. It's nighttime. The moon is completely covered by clouds which are raining down very hard. This doesn't bother Tails at all. He activates his jet anklets and follows the plane. It's now beginning to thunder. Tails sees the lightening in the distance, but this doesn't worry him at all. The only problem here is whoever is in that plane. With his jet anklets out, he's only able to go at the speed of the plane that's getting away from him. He will never catch up like that, so he uses Chaos Control. He teleports to the top of the plane. It's not really that big. To the front he sees a place for the pilot, but he can't make out who it is. Where he's at now is the back part of it. It seems like a cargo hold. He opens the door on the top and drops in. He opens the door in this room and heads towards the control room. He doesn't even say anything. He just grabs the person in the seat which is Cosmo.

"Where is Tikal," Tails demands.

"I'll tell you," Cosmo says calmly.

"What," Tails screams. "Don't play games with me. Speak."

"But you are a game," Cosmo replies.

"I don't have time for this," Tails says. "Tell me now before I send you through that window!"

"I'm not telling you anything with that kind of attitude," Cosmo remarks.

"That's it you stupid plant," Tails says. He grabs her by the neck. "Well, I'm supposed to do this anyway." He starts to hear a countdown starting at three. Tails is not pleased. "I should have seen this coming." He drops the fake Cosmo, sits in the pilot seat, and hits the eject button. He flies into the air then watches the front part of the plane explode. With Tails now being angry beyond control, he goes to the obvious place where Cosmo would most likely be at. He teleports himself to in front Robotnik's base. The door is locked shut. There's a speaker right next to it.

"I was expecting you, Tails," Cosmo says through the speaker. "Please come in." The door swings open. The place is blocked off. All he sees in front of him is a glass tube. He jumps in it. Air pushes him through the tubes. Each tube is connected to every room in the lab. He lands on his face. He jumps to his feet and looks around. Cosmo is in his direct line of sight. She's sitting in a huge chair. Tails turns around to notice monitors on the other side of the wall. They are linked to cameras that have been put around the whole place.

"Thanks for instantly bringing me here," Tails says. "That makes things so much easier."

"I would wipe that look off your face if I was you," Cosmo says. She presses a button the armrest of her chair. From a door to the left, Shadow and Cream comes out carrying Tikal. Tikal is wrapped up in tape. Her mouth is taped up so she can't say anything.

"Now do you understand," Cosmo remarks. Tails looks at her with the intent to kill. "I want to make you an offer. Swear your undying loyalty to me and I promise that Tikal will be spared."

"Are you freaking crazy," Tails says as he laughs. "Chaos Control!" Tails looks around frantically. Shadow and Cream are just looking the other way. "Chaos Control!"

Cosmo chuckles. "What did you think I made you go through the air pipe for? Its air was electric charged. It extracted the Chaos Emerald from you."

"I see," he pulls out the full set of Super Emeralds. "You know, Sonic and Knuckles has no use for these since the Chaos Emeralds are Sonic's bag and the Master Emerald is Knuckles' bag. This set of emeralds is mine. I have been entrusted with these. These are the only emeralds I can use. My only problem is that I still need a Chaos Emerald for me to perform Chaos Control, but I can still use these for other things. I made sure to grab these before leaving my lab. So, let me offer you a suggestion. Give me Tikal and maybe I won't burn you alive," he explains to a stunned crowd.

"What can you do with those," Cosmo asks with a worried look on her face.

"You only understand action," Tails replies. The Super Emerald starts to float above Tails' head. He jumps in the middle. The emeralds start to glow. They turn into golden birds that float around him in a circle. "Now I'll take Tikal back by force," he screams.

Shadow laughs. "Wow, that is the lamest thing I have ever seen," he says while he holds his side.

"The little birds look cute," Cosmo says.

"Laughing at my super form," Super Tails says. "You guys are idiots."

He picks up his hand and points at Shadow and Cream. One of the birds flies off faster than the speed of Chaos Control. Before anyone could even blink, Shadow and Cream are on the floor laid out while Tikal is being carried around Tails by one of his birds.

"As long as I have these, I'm invincible," he says with a smile. "I know I'm supposed to kill you, but I don't want Tikal to see me do it so I'll leave for now. Next time we meet I guess I'll bring a flamethrower or something." He leaves in a flash after that and leaves Cosmo stunned.

He arrives back at the workshop. He lays Tikal on the couch. His super form goes away and he gathers all his emeralds back up. He pulls out some scissors and cuts the tape off of Tikal.

"I'm sorry," Tails says. "I knew you were weak from helping me out earlier so I should have taken care of you instead of leaving you in my room."

Tikal hugs him. "It's ok. I knew you would come save me and you did so that is all that matters," she says with a smile.

Tails thinks about it for a moment. He was about to tell her about what Silver said, but then he remembered what Knuckles said.

"You must still be tired I guess," Tails says. "If you want, I'll go get the other bed I have out of storage and bring that into my room. You can sleep on that."

"Nah, this is ok," Tikal says. "I'm not actually tired, just a little weak. Also, my neck and back hurt a little."

"Aw, is there anything I can do," he asks. "I'll do anything. Tonight is all about you."

"Why," Tikal asks.

"Because, without you we wouldn't have ten pieces of the Master Emerald and that fleet would have definitely captured us," Tails explains. "That pales in comparison to my normal save you routine. You are very useful."

"I have one request," Tikal says. "Could you rub my back for me?"

"Uh," Tails hesitates. "Okay."

Knuckles went to the one tree in Tails' backyard. He finds Sonic, Amy, and Rouge sitting under this tree.

"You guys were here the whole time," Knuckles asks.

"Yeah, we just wanted to leave you alone with Tails," Sonic says. "How did it go, knucklehead?"

"I have no idea," Knuckles says as he takes a seat. "Tikal was captured so Tails went go do the whole heroic deed thing and recused her. Once they returned I came out here."

"How long do we stay out here," Amy asks.

"I say we go somewhere until Tails tries to contact us," Rouge says. "If we just walk into the workshop at the wrong time then we could ruin everything."

"True dat," Knuckles remarks. "Where are we going?"

"I know where I feel like going," Sonic says. "I want to be a spy."

"No you don't," Amy disagrees. "That's just wrong."

"Hey, I'm bored," Sonic answers. "Oh, idea. Let's go into Tails' laboratory."

"Good idea," Knuckles says. "Chaos Control can get us pass the metal ceiling."

Everyone touches Sonic and he uses Chaos Control to get them inside. Once inside, Sonic takes a seat in Tails' huge chair. He presses a button in the armrest that makes some screens pop up from a compartment in the table.

"Alright, the security cameras," Knuckles says. "Way to go."

"I saw Tails do this a few times," Sonic explains. "Anyway, check out the camera for the front. I see stuff."

"Alright, Tails is getting somewhere," Knuckles exclaims. "By the way, is Tails a masseur?"