Tails and Sally were caught a little of guard when they reached Amy's house. Because it was not Amy who greeted them. They found themselves standing before Cream the Rabbit instead. Tails hardly had time to process it before he was being crushed in the world's tightest hug, and practically being pulled through the door.

"Tails! I've missed you so much!"

"Hey Cream. Been a while, huh?"

Cream was another friend that Tails had been dreading meeting since his big reveal. When they were kids, Tails and Cream were very close friends. In Tails' mind, Sonic didn't count as a friend (because he was more of a brother to the 8-year-old kitsune), so he considered Cream as his best friend. Most of their older friends thought that their friendship would the start of a budding romantic relationship later down the line, but, of course, that was not going to be the case. Tails knew that Cream had changed a lot over the decade between his crash and now, and he had been worried that she'd be angry at him for hiding for 10 years. He wouldn't have been surprised at all if that had been the reaction, but he was relieved that she didn't seem that cross.

And then she slapped him. Hard.

"'Been a while, huh?' That's what you have to say after pretending to be DEAD for 10 YEARS?!"

There was the reaction he had been expecting… And he couldn't say anything. Sally stepped in to break the tension.

"Hello, Cream. What are you doing here?"

"I came to see Ames whilst you two were gone to see Blue Boy. She told me the news." She returned her glare to Tails. "You'd better not mess things up with her, Foxy, or you'll have me to answer to."

"You needn't worry. I don't plan to." He took a deep breath before continuing. "And, I'm sorry. For everything. Probably should have started with that." He let out a small chuckle before embracing her again. Cream settled down again and sighed.

"I'm just glad you're ok."

With that the trio moved to Amy's living room, where she was waiting, and sat down to catch up.

Back at GUN HQ, things weren't quite as relaxed. There were no big emergencies, but the agents still were totally on edge. Why?

Because nobody wanted to guard Sonic.

As you'd except, since Sonic was such a high-level threat, he needed a guard posted at his cell at all times. However, most guards were, understandably, terrified of him. His fur hadn't been its usual blue since he got here and it was common knowledge that when his fur was darker than normal, he was angry. So, as a result of this, most agents were sweating bullets, praying that Bunnie, who was in charge when Sally was absent, wouldn't call their name to be the next Sonic guard. Thankfully, Bunnie herself was getting sick of it, too, so for the next guard shift, she had volunteered herself. She stood in the moving tunnel as it approached the cell, telling herself not to freak out (even though that's exactly what she was doing internally). She had known Sonic longer than any of the other agents currently at GUN, with the exceptions of Sally and Rotor, and that gave all the more reason to fear him. But, she had to remain calm and not show her fear to the hedgehog, so she steeled herself and prepared to enter the area around Sonic's cell, just as the tunnel finally connected. The former guard, a red wolf, stood at the other side of the door, and as soon as it opened, he bolted through, and made the return trip on foot, not even waiting for the tunnel to retract. Bunnie, on the other hand, stepped through as calmly as she could. Sonic's cell was dark. She almost couldn't see him sitting in the back corner. But, he was there. And he was grinning. He laughed.

"Well, well. Bunnie Rabbot. My, it certainly has been a while, hasn't it, "sugar"?

"Indeed it has, hedgehog. Now, if it's all the same to you, I didn't come here to talk, so zip it."

"Aw, don't be like that, Bun-Bun. We're old friends, are we not? Besides, none of the other guards talk to me. I'm bored."

"Well, that's not my problem. And, we're not old friends. We were, before you became this. Now, are you going to shut up, or am I gonna have to ask you again?"

"Touchy, are we? Buns, you know I'm a chatterbox. Won't you allow me even one conversation?"

"You don't deserve one, murderer. Now be quiet. I'm here to stand here and make sure you don't go anywhere. I'm not here to keep you company or keep you entertained. Got it?"

There was a brief moment of silence, leading Bunnie to believe he had actually finally listened to her. However, it wasn't long before that silence was broken again.

"You're no fun, rabbit. Fine. I'll shut up, as you so eloquently put it. But, before we fade into complete silence, I do have one question." Sonic's tone had completely changed. He wasn't trying to crack any jokes, or annoy her. He was being serious now, and Bunnie didn't like it. Usually, when Sonic got serious, people were about to die.

"I had Taylor pay me a visit earlier, but he didn't tell me how he's doing these days. Care to enlighten me?"

"If he didn't tell you, then he doesn't want you to know. I'm not going to betray his trust like you did."

Silence. And, in the darkness, Bunnie could swear she saw Sonic's fur get a shade darker. Suddenly, she felt the same as all the other guards.

She wanted to run.

"That was a mistake, Bunnie. I may not be the Hero of Mobius any more, but I'm no liar." Now it wasn't just his tone that had changed, but his voice had too. It was deeper and more menacing, and he wasn't even trying to mask his anger now. "You'd better hope you're not my guard when I get out of this cell."

"And, what makes you think you'll ever be getting out of that cell?"

"Because, until now, I didn't have any real reason to. But now, I do, since you won't tell me about how our foxy friend is doing, so now I have to break out and ask him myself."

"Forget it, hedgehog. You're never getting out of here and you know it. We all know you can't swim, and you can't activate the tunnel from this side. Face it, you're stuck." Sonic, realising she was right, calmed down just enough for his fur to go back to normal. But, he wasn't going to let her get off that easily. He still had enough sass for one more jab.

"Well, when the day comes when I can prove you wrong, you might want to get out of town fast. Otherwise you might have to say hi to Antoine for me." She jolted, and Sonic knew that he had hit the mark. But, Bunnie bit her tongue and remained as professional as possible.

"Yeah. Whatever you say."

However, contrary to what you might believe, Bunnie was actually looking forward to the day that Sonic tried to make a break for it, because the only way he'd be able to go anywhere would be by using his Chaos powers. But, another thing that made Sonic's cell particularly unique was that the bars were created using technology derived from Shadow's Inhibitor Rings, which were created so that he can't go over his limit. These bars essentially nullified the abilities of any Chaos user trapped inside them, which usually included Chaos Control. They could be beaten if the person in the cell had a Chaos Emerald, but Sonic had been thoroughly searched and the agents were certain that he didn't possess any of the mystical gems. There were only 5 people within GUN and the Freedom Fighters who knew this little detail: Sally, Bunnie and Amy, because they were among the three highest ranking agents there, as well as Shadow and Rotor, who both played a major part in the development of the bars. The only uncertainty they all had was Sonic himself. Shadow had been uncharacteristically kind enough to allow them to test these bars on himself, so they know that the bars are powerful enough to completely cancel out the powers of an uninhibited Ultimate Lifeform. But, they didn't know whether or not Sonic in his most powerful form, most commonly referred to as "Demon Dark Sonic", was more powerful than Shadow at full power. The upper limits of Sonic's power were still totally unknown, and they had no idea if the bars would be strong enough to hold him at that upper limit. They'd just have to wait and see.

Bunnie's train of thought was interrupted by the sound of her communicator. Rotor. However, instead of answering, she declined the call and took out her phone instead, choosing to text him instead.

B: Sorry I can't speak right now. Don't wanna talk within earshot of you-know-who. Guarding him now. What's up?

R: Ah. Nothing important. I just finished making a couple of tweaks to MTP-Bot's programming, and he think we can make use of him.

B: Ooh. I'm intrigued. Well, my guard shift should be over in about 50 minutes. I'll come and have a look at him when I'm done.

R: Alright. See you then.

She pocketed her phone again, returning her attention fully to Sonic, who had gone back to skulking in the corner. This was gonna be a long 50 minutes.

Amy's house was still very much the opposite, with lots of laughing and conversation happening between the four friends. Cream still wasn't completely over the situation with Tails, and she doubted she'd ever be, but she was willing to leave it alone for now and just be happy that he's back. Eventually, conversation turned back to the pregnancy, and the mood shifted slightly. Sally, once again being the "big sister" decided it would be best if she and Cream weren't here for this, so she asked Cream to join her for a short walk around the neighbourhood. Once they had left, the couple sat themselves down in the now quiet living room, preparing themselves for the most serious conversations they'd ever had.

SORRY FOR THE LENGTHY DELAY AGAIN! I must give a massive shoutout to "BlueAxe48" for his reviews reminding me to get my arse back in gear! I'll never abandon this story mid-way through without any announcement. I'm fully aware that I have taken some rather long breaks with this story before, so I can fully understand why some of you may believe that. But, I'm planning on changing that now. As of today, I plan on releasing one chapter of Game Over every weekend until the story is concluded. There aren't gonna be too many more chapters, but I still thought I should say that. I'm also thinking of doing a Q/A at the end of the story, so if you have any questions for me regarding this story, PM them to me and I'll respond to them in the final chapter. But, for now, that's all I have to say. I'll be back next week with the next chapter.

RDFAN7669