Chapter 37 A Fight for Respect

Tails fearfully looked around him. He saw no one. He breathed a bit easier, confident it was just a mistake on the radar. Tails still spun the plane upside down, just to be sure. After he was fully satisfied, he put the plane on autopilot so he could see what was wrong with the radar. He took out his tool kit and checked to make sure everything was how it was earlier. After seeing nothing wrong, he could only come up with the conclusion that the screen wasn't working properly. Tails opened up a screen and typed in a code he had earlier received from Eggman. As he was doing this, his neck started feeling hot. He rubbed it with his hand, coughing a little.

"Damn Sonic..." He mumbled under his breath. Eggman's face suddenly appeared on the screen.

"Ah, Tails! I was getting a bit worried when we were cut off earlier. I see you handled whatever happened." Eggman said, smiling. Tails neck started getting hotter. He grunted and gritted his teeth.

"Hmm, it seems you had a rough time with them. At least you've now seen first hand what they can do." Eggman couldn't help but feel a little giddy. His plan was working much better then he'd hoped. Though, he was really curious as to who did this.

"So which one of the heartless monsters did this to you, my furry companion." Eggman asked. Tails winced.

"The worst one of them all. The blue hedgehog." Tails said quietly, as his throat seemed to get worse the more he spoke. Eggman made a dramatic gasp.

"That's awful, Tails! However, I did warn you about what he could do." Eggman said, knowingly. In reality, he was pretty shocked about this information. He could definitely sense a chance in Sonic's mood, but he didn't think the hedgehog could be so ruthless with his best friend. "He must have figured out that Tails is working with me, but how? I'll get the information out of Tails when he's back on my ship."

Tails looked away from the screen and coughed.

"Forget about it, Tails. The despicable Freedom Fighters will pay, along with all those who stand with them. I promise." Eggman said with a rub of his moustache. Tails looked back at the screen and nodded.

"Don't worry, Doctor Eggman, I have no doubts that the glorious Eggman Empire will triumph over evil once again." Tails said, confidently. Eggman grinned.

"Good. Now get back here as soon as you can. I've sent you the location of the Egg Destroyer, in case you forgot were you're going."

"I haven't forgot, Doctor Eggman, I'll be there shortly." Tails responded. Tails closed the screen and turned off autopilot.

"I hope the great doctor knows what's wrong with my radar, as I know he want's to keep track of the hedgehogs movements. That damn hedgehog broke my communicator so this radar is the only way I can track him. Doctor Eggman's going to be really disappointed in me if this radar doesn't work..." Tails grew increasingly worried at the thought of it.

Cream followed Sonic out into the woods. She wasn't sure where Sonic was taking her, or why they had to fight out in the woods, but she wasn't complaining when they stopped by a shallow stream. She smiled in delight when she saw the glistening clear stream. She remembered this stream. Her mother would sometimes take her there for picnics by the water. When her mother couldn't accompany her, she would go by herself and pick all sorts of weird flowers that she couldn't find in the meadow. Her mother had told her it was called 'Flower Forest', because of the unusual variety of flowers.

Cream sat down by the stream and smiled brightly, loving everything about the place.

"We can start the sparring match now, if you're ready." Sonic asked. Cream was in a bit of a trance and wasn't paying attention. Sonic coughed to get her attention. Cream turned in surprise.

"Huh... oh, that's right. We have to fight now..." Cream said, with little enthusiasm.

"If you don't want to fight me, I get it, but I need to see you fight. I won't go too hard on you, but you better take this seriously, or else..." Sonic voice lowered at the last two words. Cream stepped back. "Or else what?" She thought in confusion. She put her hands up.

"I'm ready." She said determinedly. Sonic wasn't quite sure if she really was ready for this.

"Are you positive you're ready. This is you're last chance to back out." Sonic said. Cream said nothing, but her mood quickly changed. He friendly face disappeared and she started looking even more serious then Shadow. "I won't be treated like a baby anymore. I won't be made a defenceless hostage ever again. I've worked hard for this and I'm not backing down anymore... I 'will' be a Freedom Fighter."

She ran up to Sonic and swung her fist at Sonic's face. Sonic moved his head to the side to avoid it, her punch skimming his face. Although he dodged the punch, it was closer then he would have liked. Sonic hadn't expected this from Cream. Cream's normally soft and caring personality seemed to disappear when she fought. She was much different.

Sonic blocked a torrent of punches to the face, still struggling to see how this was the Cream that he saw looking at the stream, without a care in the world.

Cream stopped the punching and attempted a side kick at Sonic's ribs. Sonic turned to the side and blocked it with his arms. Sonic sighed. He was happy that she was taking it so seriously, but she appeared to have the same weakness as Tails. Cream then took to the sky's, using her ears to fly above Sonic. Sonic looked curiously at her. She flew straight at Sonic and attempted to kick Sonic in the side of the head. Sonic turned to grab her leg with both of his hands. Sonic then proceeded to spin her around, just like he'd previously done with Tails. Cream gritted her teeth as he started to speed up.

Sonic had a feeling this would be the end, However, Cream wasn't having it. She growled and with all her might, she stomped Sonic's hands with her free foot, forcing Sonic to release her. She went flying through the air, hitting the ground quite roughly. She quickly jumped to her feet and flew at Sonic as fast as she could. Sonic shook his hands, surprised of what had happened. She turned to Cream and was met with two feet smashing into his jaw, sending him flailing to the floor. Cream hovered for a few seconds, before dropping to her feet and panting. She sighed in relief and grinned.

"I did it! I got you good, Sonic!" She cheered to herself. She stopped bouncing up and down when she didn't see Sonic get up.

"Oh no, Sonic, are you okay!? I'm so sorry!" She ran over to him and knelt down beside him. She looked at the side of his face and saw his eye closed. She slowly edged her hand closer to his face. Suddenly his hand shot up and grabbed her wrist. She jumped in surprise. He let go of her wrist and smiled. Cream frowned.

"Hey! Were you pretending to be hurt, just so you could scare me! That's not very nice!" Cream folded her arms and looked away from Sonic in frustration. Sonic picked himself up and rubbed his check.

"Sorry about that. I wasn't trying to scare you. I was just letting you know the danger of dropping you're guard." Sonic said. Cream dropped the moody expression and unfolded her arms.

"Really? I'm sorry, I thought it was over..." Cream said, almost apologetically. Sonic shook his head.

"It's fine. Besides, I really only wanted you to get one or two hits on me. I really wasn't expecting a powerful two foot kick knocking me to the ground. It was quite impressive and also quite surprising." Sonic praised Cream.

Cream smiled and turned away, feeling weirdly embarrassed. She was also surprised by it. Sure she had been training hard, learning martial arts from Espio, but she had never been so aggressive before. She had also been surprised by the willingness of Espio and Vector to come over and help her train. She didn't even ask for Vector's help, but he was more then happy to come over with Espio to 'inspect his training method', even though he spent most of the time talking to her mother. She found it a bit bizarre.

"I have no doubts that you trained very hard, but I just have one question." Sonic said.

"What?" She asked.

"Was that you're strongest attack?" Sonic asked. Cream tilted her head.

"I... I guess so." She said, awkwardly. Sonic thought about this for a second.

"Hmm... Okay, when Eggman attacks, I think you'd be best suited to fighting the weaker robots alongside Amy. Alright." Sonic said.

"Okay... Wait, does that mean I'm an official Freedom Fighter now!" She asked, excitedly.

"Well, you have my approval." Sonic responded. Cream jumped up and down with joy.

"I did it! I'm one of you guys now! I can't wait to tell my mother and Cheese!" She said, unable to hold back the joy. Sonic scratched his head.

"Yeah... We're done now, so you can go on ahead. I'll follow you in a second." Sonic said. Cream nodded and began skipping her way back to the house, humming to herself. Sonic shook his head and chuckled lightly. "Well that was unexpected."