Hello everybody! It's time for another chapter! But first, reviews!

1TGN: It's certainly better than nothing, but with how closed off Four Fifteen is, getting any information is tough. There's certainly more to unpack however, and we'll have to see how their relationships advance over the course of the story!

AndTails: Hopefully the fox will get to figure out and experience things for himself! His and Sonic's relationship is improving bit by bit, and we'll have to see where it ends up in the future!

Perturbo: These character interactions are certainly fun to write! They're all such unique takes on the characters that it's been a blast to create them!

BigYeetus305: Thanks for the review! It really means a lot when I see some new faces in here, glad to see you're enjoying the story!

That's everyone! Let's get going!

Mechanized Production

Calm

Four Fifteen sat alone in his cell, the most recent test had gone quite well, leaving him with another plasma charge to fend off his thoughts for a bit. He'd already drained half of it and now he sat focusing on the sensation of the energy running through his blood.

Eventually however, the calm feeling subsided as usual leaving room for the fox's inner demons to appear.

"Oh, so now you're opening up. I can't wait until I see your little heart get crushed to bits."

"Just shut it alright." He responded back, "Besides, it'll be fine. Sonic seems really nice."

"Still, I think deep down you know how this ends. You're just so naive to really think that he'll like you."

He pushed off his thoughts for now, it was almost time for his daily meal and chance to leave his cell for a bit, which meant another chance to see Sonic.

It felt weird to be looking forward to seeing someone, almost unnatural. But still, he was somewhat excited by his day.

He scratched at an itch on his neck. Moving the metal collar over just a bit. No response came from it, which was a relief. Every member of the Complex had one of the collars. The Damocles Behavioural Correctional Collar as it was called, prevented them from escaping, probably by slicing their head clean off should it be activated. He'd heard of stories of other Mobians that had tampered with it enough to set it off, leaving quite the grisly scene in their wake. Again though, it was only stories from what he knew, but he didn't quite fancy testing it himself…

The small squadron of drones had come to collect him once again, escorting him to the mess hall. Collecting his food and quickly identifying where Sonic was, he sat next to the hedgehog.

"Hey bud!" The hedgehog added, "How are things today?"

"Fine I guess, I mean nothing really new so there's that."

"Well, sometimes just having a normal day is good!"

"Speaking of which… How long have you been here?"

"A couple days, not much more."

"What was it like before? How did you get here?"

"Well… Some of Robotnik's patrols dragged me here after a group of them found me. Not much more to say about it really, just got myself caught."

"What did you do before coming here?"

Sonic smiled, "You know, some people say there's no honor among thieves. But I'll say that judging by the both of us talking here, I'd say otherwise."

"I'm not a-"

"Well judging by what your red friend said the day we met, I'd say you've got at least a bit of a reputation."

Four Fifteen's gaze shifted down to the floor in shame. Sonic instantly noticed the change in demeanor. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to come out like that. I did the same thing before coming here, so I'm not particularly innocent myself."

The fox seemed to lighten up a bit afterward, but still, Sonic could tell there was something with him that he just couldn't place his finger on.

"Do… Do you know if you could tell me a little more about the outside?" The kit asked. "I liked what you said yesterday… It sounded beautiful."

Sonic internally felt quite a bit of pity for the fox, he really didn't know anything about it, did he? There was a distinctive chance he never would either, while he had heard stories before coming here of some Mobians breaking out, if they were true or not he couldn't say. Still, the least he could do was grant the fox his wish."

"It's hard to describe sometimes, but I'll try my best. It's just absolutely stunning, the sun shining through the leaves, the quiet peacefulness of everything. I'm sorry I'm not particularly great at describing it."

"It's fine… I'm just hoping I can see it for myself one of these days."

The fox was obviously somewhat upset now, Sonic wondered if he'd only made things worse.

"Hey," The hedgehog spoke. "I promise, if I'm getting out of here, I'm taking you with me."

While the statement didn't have much effect on Four Fifteen, it did seem to lighten the mood a little bit. After a while however, the fox seemed to come out of his slump, even if he was still thinking about what it might be like outside.

"What do you have to do today?" The kitsune asked.

"They're having me do a check up to make sure these things are still working right." He responded, gesturing to the metal spines on his back. "Apparently they want to make sure there's nothing that went horribly wrong."

"Seems like a good idea, if you meet her, say hello to Cream for me."

"I'll be sure to do that!"

The fox made his way to his feet, having finished his meal for the day. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow I guess."

"Sure thing! I'll see you then!"

The fox returned to his cell, still contemplating the things that Sonic had told him over the past few days. The hedgehog soon returned to his own quarters, awaiting his scheduled appointment. Both of them knew however, that there was something more to each of them.

-X-

Sonic stepped into the infirmary as the drones escorting him made their way back to their posts, leaving him alone for a moment. As he made his way in, he was met with a voice.

"Give me just one second! Just finishing up!" The voice spoke, it sounded quite sweet and caring, about what Sonic expected to be honest.

Eventually, a rabbit made herself known to the hedgehog. She was clothed in a nurse's outfit and had a set of long floppy ears, or at least, one long ear. The other was replaced with a dish-like structure of sorts that connected to an implant on the side of her head. For what it was for, Sonic could only begin to imagine.

"I assume you're five hundred and one right?"

"That's me, and just call me Sonic."

"My name's Cream! It's nice to meet you!"

"You're Cream? Four Fifteen told me to say hi."

The rabbit was seemingly amused by his message, "Well tell him that hopefully I won't be seeing him any time soon, otherwise he'll be in a bit of trouble. Now, let's get those augments of yours looked at."

The hedgehog sat down to allow himself to be checked over, Cream began to look over the metallic spines attached to the hedgehog. "Well, these ones seem fine." She mused, "I'll have Cheese check the rest of them though."

"Who's Cheese?"

Almost as if prompted, the mechanical chao made its way over to Sonic, while its sudden appearance did alarm him a little bit, he quickly relaxed once again. As the drone checked over the rest of his augments. Cream scanned the barcode on his arm and pulled up Sonic's file once more to look it over. After a while, she stopped.

"Huh, that's strange… You wouldn't happen to be related to Four Fifteen somehow right? I mean I doubt it but-"

"No, I didn't even know the guy from before, and he was born here, so there's no way that I would be able to be related. Why?"

"Well, it's just, it specifies here that you and Four Fifteen are kinda friends."

"What's odd about that? I assume they record everything here."

"Yeah but… Personal relationships between inmates rarely get mentioned in files. That sort of thing isn't important to Robotnik for testing… Something's odd here, and I just can't put my finger on what."

"Wait, have you ever seen that sort of relationship in a file before?"

"Not unless they're close family with each other, which I doubt you two are given the situation you two met in, plus your very different circumstances, and not to mention different species. Which is why it's odd, why bother going through and putting that in there for two completely unrelated Mobians?"

"That is odd then… Well, I do know one thing, Four Fifteen isn't family, but that just raises more questions for you doesn't it?" Sonic asked.

"It would seem so, and I'm not sure why this would even be here then…"

"Either way, that's certainly strange. But not a whole lot we can do with it huh?"

"I guess not, still, I'll keep looking into it." Cream commented as Cheese finished looking the hedgehog over. "Now, let's get you finished up here."

-X-

Four Fifteen sat alone in his cell once again. It was funny, he'd never really considered just how lonely it was in here until a while ago. Having Sonic around made him realize just how lonely it was being on his own. Still, it wasn't too bad, especially if he didn't dwell on it that much.

He stared at what fragments were left of his mirror from the other day, the same bright blue eyes stared back into his soul. He wasn't quite sure how to feel. He'd been alone long enough that having someone to call a friend felt weird, still, either way, he'd get over it.

"Yeah, when he finally decides that you're not worth keeping around."

"Didn't I tell you to shut up already?"

"Oh please, you can't shut me up. I'm you! You know I'm right, nobody's ever wanted you, I wonder why that might be? Maybe, it's because you're a worthless little orphan fox now aren't you?"

"I'm not an orphan…"

"You're right! Orphan implies that they died! What would you call one who doesn't have parents because he wasn't wanted? I think freak is a good place to start."

Wanting to fend off his thoughts for a moment the fox retrieved the half spent energy canister from under his pillow, inserting it into the device on his back. The fresh plasma that instantly surged through his bloodstream felt wonderful. The voice in his head dissipated as he drained the remainder of what was left from the canister. As he felt the energy course through him, a thought came to his mind. He'd heard stories before, stories of other Mobians that had gotten used to the feeling of plasma, some who'd even gotten addicted to the stuff. Of course, they were just stories, nothing more. He refocused on the calming sensation in his blood, he wasn't like them after all, and besides, not like he'd ever seen it happen, they were just stories.

He pushed the thought out of his mind as he refocused again, it wasn't like he needed the stuff anyways.

Four Fifteen was perfectly fine with how things were, everything was going to be fine…

Alright everybody, that's all for today! Sorry about the massive amount of this story recently, but I'm just loving writing it! Hopefully, you've all enjoyed it just as much! Leave a review with your thoughts and I'll see you next time!