Chapter 36 An Unstable Unit

An hour had passed since Tails had come back downstairs and things had taken a turn for the better. Sonic's plan had worked. Tails had given blueprints on Eggman's robots, showing structural weaknesses, weaponry and anything that could be used against Eggman. Tails told everyone that he'd found the blueprints while he was on the island. Obviously Sonic knew better. Sonic had noted that Tails didn't have any information on the Eggdriller, and it wasn't a mystery as to why he didn't have them.

"I think that wraps this up. I'd say we're well equipped to fight Eggman." Tails said, putting all the blue prints into a bag.

"Thanks for getting us all the information, Tails. I think everything's going to be alright!" Cream said confidently. Just then, the window flew open and Rouge flew onto the sofa next to Knuckles.

"My, my, you guys sure have been busy." Rouge said. Knuckles scooted away from Rouge.

"What are 'you' doing here? There isn't any Chaos Emeralds for you to steal, so get lost!" Knuckles barked. Rouge looked at Knuckles and dropped her eye lids. "Oh come on, Knucky, I'm on you're side, remember."

"pfft, yeah right. You'd switch to Eggman's side in the blink of an eye if their was something shiny in it for you." Knuckles said, folding his arms and turning away from Rouge.

"Possibly... but at the moment, we need to work as a team. Besides... I don't think I'm the one you have to worry about betraying you." Rouge said, glancing at Tails. Tails sunk into his chair.

"What are you looking at Tails for? You're not seriously thinking he betrayed us, are you?" Amy said in disbelief.

"Pay no attention to her, Amy. Its just Rouge trying to start up trouble." Knuckles said. Rouge stood up.

"Look, I'm not messing with you. Things have gotten serious as of lately. In fact, I was also in Eggman's fortress earlier today." Rouge said.

"Y-you were?" Tails said, nervously.

"Yes, unlike you guys, I actually know how to infiltrate buildings. You guys did help keep Eggman off my back, though. Thanks for that. Also, look at what I found." Rouge took off her her own bag and took out some blueprints. She laid them out on the table.

"These look awfully familiar, don't they." Rouge said. Everyone went over to the table and looked at them. Tails gasped, before quickly covering his mouth.

"These look like the ones you showed us, Tails..." Amy said. Knuckles picked one up.

"Yeah, they are the same." He said.

"Except they're not the same. The information on these blueprints is opposite to that of Tails'." Sonic said, glancing sharply at Tails.

"hehe, I... um." Tails backed away slowly, putting his arms up in defence. Everyone looked accusingly at Tails.

"Whats going on, Tails?" Amy asked. Tails backed away some more until he hit his back against the wall.

"I... must have grabbed a fake set of blueprints. Whoops, hehe." Tails looked at everyone, hoping they would buy his story.

"How do you know mine aren't the fake ones?" Rouge said, raising an eyebrow. Once again, Tails was in the spotlight.

"Um... just a guess?" Tails said with a shrug and a nervous grin. "Crap, I'm really screwed now! I have to say something useful or they'll gut me."

"L-listen, I know that my blueprints are fake, b-but I know where Eggman is going to attack." Tails said. Everyone was surprised by this. Well, almost everyone.

"Really? Where?" Knuckles asked.

"I know you probably don't care, but its Knothole." Tails said. Amy and Cream gasped.

"Not Knothome! It cant be! Eggman has never been able to find it before!" Amy said in shock.

"I hate to speak against you, Tails, but how do we know this isn't another lie." Rouge said.

"Hey, I wasn't lying! I took fake blueprints by accident!" Tails said, defensively. Rouge put her hands on her hips and grinned.

"Alright, alright, if you say so, fox boy. I guess we'll have to find out, won't we... Oh, by the way, do you happen to know when this attack is going to happen? I mean, I'd love to hang with you guys, but I have things to do so do you have a day I could come back at... or something like that?" Rouge said, resting her head on her wrist. Tails thought about it for a few seconds.

"I think he's attacking in two... weeks." tails said, unconvincingly. Sonic walked over to Rouge.

"You know, right?" Sonic whispered to her.

"Please, I've seen better lies coming from drunks at the bar." She whispered back. "First, though..." Rouge took out a bottle of wine from her bag and flew into the kitchen. Everyone glanced curiously in her direction.

"Where does she think she's going? Knuckles said. He got multiple shrugs as a response. Rouge came back in, holding a few glasses. She set them down on the table along with the wine bottle. She opened up the bottle and poured herself a glass. She held out the wine bottle to everyone.

"So, who wants some first? Rouge said, brightly. Everyone just stared at the bottle for a few seconds.

"Wine? I don't know about this, Rouge" Amy said, fidgeting with her fingers. Rouge smile died down a little.

"Come on, I choose to share this with you. So I'll ask again. Who wants some, first?" Rouge asked again. Sonic took the bottle and started pouring himself a glass. The rest of them stared at Sonic.

"Sonic, what are you doing!?" Knuckles said in shock. Sonic glanced at Knuckles for a second before taking a sip of his wine. Rouge smirked.

"See, Sonic's getting into the flow of things. Just a sip or two won't hurt." Rouge said taking the bottle and dangling it in front of Amy, teasing her.

Amy reached for the bottle, but quickly recoiled. "I don't know..." Rouge shrugged.

"I don't see what the big deal is, you're all old enough to drink." Cream looked at Rouge in surprise.

"Well, almost all of you." Rouge chuckled lightly. Knuckles walked up to Rouge and snatched the bottle out of her hand.

"Whoa! Relax, Knuckie, There's plenty to go around." Rouge said with a wink. Knuckles ignored her and walked into the kitchen and began pouring it down the sink. Rouge put her hands against her face and gasped.

"What have you done!" Rouge shouted, flying over to knuckles and taking the bottle back, checking to see if there was anything left.

"Hey, I did you all a favour! We still don't have one good way of stopping Eggman. So no drinking until then." Knuckles said, sitting back down. Rouge folded her arms and pouted.

"Whatever... have you guys still not got any good ideas? Not even you, 'Tails'." Rouge said, looking at Tails. Tails growled under his breath, knowing she was deliberately putting him back in the spotlight. Luckily for Tails, another voice intervened. Sonic finished off his glass and put it down on the table.

"Okay, that's enough. I was hoping an idea would sprout itself from one of you, but it doesn't look like its going to happen anytime soon so I'll give you my plan." Sonic said.

"Wait, you have a plan? Why did you waste our time when you already had a plan? Knuckles asked.

"I was curious. My curiosity did not pay off. Anyway, the plan is for us to stay in this house until Eggman attacks. We don't know exactly when, so until then, Tails can go scouting for Eggman in the Tornado. Hopefully, Tails can spot Eggman and get back here and warn us before Eggman attacks. You think you're up for it?" Sonic asked, looking at Tails. Tails mouth opened in shock.

"Really!? I mean... sure, no problem!" Tails happily replied. He quickly made his way to the tornado outside and hopped in. Once the cockpit door was closed, "Cheers, you blue clown." he laughed to himself and took off into the sky, with a smile on his face.

Cream nudged Amy's shoulder. "Huh? What is it, Cream?" Amy looked down at Cream. "Can I... ask about the thing?" Cream said, rubbing her feet together. Amy shook her head. "I'll ask, okay." Cream nodded.

"By the way everyone, Cream is going to be helping us in our fight against Eggman. Isn't that great!" Amy said, optimistically. Knuckles eyes went wide. "What! You want 'Cream' to help fight against Eggman!? Are you insane!" Knuckles shouted, stomping over to Amy. Cream turned away from the angry looking Knuckles and starred down at the ground. Amy saw this and growled. She walked right up to Knuckles face.

"Who are you to tell Cream what she can and can't do! She's been training hard at home to become part of the freedom fighters and she won't be treated like a baby. Especially not from you!" Amy spat in Knuckles face. Knuckles went red with anger. "What's that supposed to mean!?" He shouted back. Both of them were now almost touching noses.

Rouge walked over to them and pulled them apart. "That's enough you two. You're not getting anywhere with fighting. If Cream has been training hard for this, then we shouldn't deny her the chance, so long as she understands the danger." Rouge spoke calmly. Amy and Knuckles gave each other one last angry glare before returning to their seats.

"I don't know, Rouge. Knuckles might have a point. If she is to risk her life against Eggman, she has to prove her strength. Especially considering how dangerous Eggman is at the moment." Sonic said. Rouge put her hand to her chin. "I think a sparring match would be a good test of her strength, wouldn't you think so?" Rouge asked Sonic.

"I was thinking just the same thing. In fact, I think I would make a good sparring partner. However, we need to be alone for it." Sonic said. Rouge looked suspiciously at Sonic.

"Oh... why exactly? Amy asked. Sonic looked away. "Trust me, I'm doing it for a reason, okay."

"Okay... I guess" Amy couldn't think of any reason against it, but it was an odd thing to ask.

Tails was listening to music in the tornado, looking forward to giving Sonic's location to Eggman. He hummed to himself in tune with the music. "Whoops, better send Sonic's location to Eggman. Just to be sure he isn't out on the hunt." Tails thought to himself. He turned on the scanner. He continued to hum as he checked the location. The radar showed a blinking red dot on the Tornado.

Tails stopped humming and gasped. "He's on the Tornado!"