Tails lay on his side in the air duct, breathing hard, heart pounding. He had tried to crawl back down into the bowels of the building before the combots reached the opening, but it was too late. He could hear them outside the wall, scanning, metal hinges and plugs hissing, heavy metal feet clapping against the floor.

He clutched the walkie talkie in one hand, hoping with all his might that Sonic would receive his signal from this point.

"S-Sonic," Tails whispered, gripping the talk button with locked knuckles, his eyes wide. "Come in, Sonic—I—I think I need back up. I'm at the Spectank lab and I found a lead on Knuckles I-"

The section of air duct just behind Tails exploded open. The whole structure shuddered. Tails let out a yelp of shock, pulling his legs and tails away from the blast of heat.

A large metal hand whipped into the air duct.

It locked onto his lower legs and one of his tails. With a scraping yank, the hand pulled him out of air duct.

The combot hurled the fox's body onto the cement floor.

Tails half slid, half-spun, grinding out a shout against the pain that shot through his bones.

He raised his head, breathing hard.

Five combots encircled the fox. All towering over him by at least ten feet. Interchangeable hands and gun canons. Three-legged. Three-armed. Hour-glass shaped. Their heads and sensory panels protected by clear, acid-proof covers.

The combot still held his legs. It lifted Tails off the floor, hanging him upside down.

Tails gasped out a yell.

The first time this had happened, the adrenaline pouring through him had paralyzed him. It never got any easier. He gulped in air, trying to keep breathing, trying to think-

-His pack had fallen off-three shot blaster still on his belt-hands still free-

Tails ripped the blaster from its holster.

He pointed it point blank at the giant hand trapping his lower body.

He fired.

The blast of acid spat onto the hand. It started eating away at the wires and hinges—

But another set of hands engulfed the fox's upper body. Pinning down his arms. Squeezing his chest.

Tails let out a shout and fired one more shot. He hit the acid-proof cover of a nearby combot.

Realization dawned in Tail's eyes.

A combot ripped the gas mask from his face.

A second knocked his blaster aside.

They slammed him into the floor.

Tails cried out. He gasped for breath, struggling against the metal hands pushing down on his rib cage.

It was no use.

They had him. If they wanted, they could snap his body like a twig.

"You are under arrest for breaking and entering the private property of The Doctor," said an automated female's voice. "Show me your factory number."

"The database recognizes him as affiliated with the hedgehog," said an identical voice. "He is not logged into a factory database."

Tails strained against their grasp, trying to wrench one arm free, his chest heaving.

A combot flipped him over. It pressed the five barrels of its combot arm cannon against the nape of his neck.

Tails felt the cold rims of metal and froze. He gasped out a shaky breath, and screwed his eyes shut.

Please, they could not shoot him. Sonic couldn't lose anyone else.

"You qualify as a hyper-security prisoner and shall be reported to The Doctor. You will be punished for your crimes against Robotropolis and the New Order."

Tails heaved for air, letting his forehead fall against the floor.

If they intended to take him to Robotnik, then perhaps they would not kill him this moment. He didn't know which was worse.

At least if he had time and if Sonic had gotten his message, Sonic could come in time. If Sonic came, Tails knew he would live. Sonic would not let them take him. He was too fast for combots and he would never leave Tails to die. He never had and Tails knew he never would.

If Sonic had not gotten his message, he was alone. It was escape alone or die alone.

Tails breathed out slowly, opening his eyes. They were hard with dread.

"Mobian, do you have a statement as to why you were in Spectank lab?"

Tail's trapped hand pressed against the pocket of his cargo pants. He could feel the ring through the fabric.

"Yes—y-yes, ma'am, I—I do," Tails said, his voice shaking. He hesitated, stalling. "I—I—well. I just—"

"Give the statement."

Tails' mind raced. "I—I came in because I wanted to know why Robo—I mean, the Doctor—kidnapped a red echidna named Knuckles, how the echidna escaped from the lab out the window, and what happened to him." Tails said.

He knew it was a long shot, but maybe the combots would give him a clue as to if Knuckles had really been there or not. He might as well use the time he had.

As he had hoped, the combots took four precious seconds to process this statement. They were only robots after all. Tail's hand dug at his pocket.

"The prisoner has somehow accessed sensitive information," a combot finally said. "All others in this infographic were extracted and are deleted from files. We now have a conflict in commands."

Tails caught his breath, his blue eyes widening.

Meaning he should be dead along with the others. But he was still hyper-security, and they were programmed to let him live.

"I'm not from Robotropolis!" Tails blurted, his tone hardening, "I'm not in your files. Back where I come from everyone knows The Doctor kidnapped the echidna and stole the island relic—everyone. The queen, the council, the people—I was curious to see if it was really true or not—I guess they were right."

It was a bad bluff, but maybe it would confuse them more. Tails had three fingers in his pocket, and he could feel the ring warming as the tips of his gloved fingers brushed it.

"My files link him to the hedgehog." The head combot said. "This is a special-priority file. It out ranks the other files in question. Proceeding with analysis."

It knelt over Tails. It gripped the fox by the back of his head, the sharp brass fingers pressing into his skull.

Tails cringed beneath its hold.

"You will now answer these questions. Is the hedgehog with you? Did he send you to gather this sensitive information? Where is his location?"

Tails' blood pumped in his ears.

The hand jerked his head backwards and Tails let out a yelp of shock. The back base of his neck burned.

"No—wait, don't—," Tails rasped out, pushing down into his pocket harder for the ring.

"You must answer the questions. In cases such as these, standard protocol allows you one second chance to tell us. Afterwards, high-security prisoners will begin the paralysis regime."

Tails' blood ran cold. Tears stung his eyes and he jammed his hand down into his pocket as hard as he could. His fingers felt like they were going to pop.

"Your question is: where is the hedgehog located?"

Tails' breathing was shallow. He closed his eyes.

It was just him then. He must take a long time to respond and try to reach the ring. And he must brace himself if he failed.

Because he would never betray Sonic. He would bleed and break and die before turning on Sonic. It was the least he could do. Otherwise, he would have died alone years ago in that cage.

He better give them a good couple words to think about before they started breaking his back.

"Well." Tails said, his voice still shaking like a leaf. "Well. You asked me where the hedgehog is located, but I need you to explain more. By "where is the hedgehog located" do you mean where does he live? Do you mean where he is at this very moment in space in time—and since I am not omnipresent, I doubt I could give you a very clear answer there—do you want the name of a street? A house? A forest? An object he frequently stands nearby? A place on a map?—"

The head combot cut Tails' words short. "Answer insufficient. Second chance expensed."

The blood drained from Tails' face.

Robotnik had been streamlining the combot's processing. They were not as easy to dupe as they used to be.

The combot released Tail's head and cupped its hand tight around his neck at the base of his jaw. Moving into position, preparing. Tails began to shudder, begging in his heart, so close to the ring—

"You have not successfully answered the question, "Where is the hedgehog located?" Paralysis regime authoriz—"

"I'm right here, big guys." Sonic's voice rang through the room.

Tails opened his eyes and hope shot through them.

The combots turned to face the voice.

Tails locked a finger around the ring.

A blue and red streak torpedoed over Tails' face and into the wrist of the combot hand gripping his neck.

At the same moment, the ring activated. Energy waves shot through Tail's body. His own Mobium and the Mobium in the ring collided.

The combot hands pinning him to the floor exploded free from him as if cracking up against an invisible wall.

A Mobium shield.

The wall of Mobium energy thrust up and around Tail's body, gold, pulsing.

He yanked the growing ring from his pocket and the wall expanded in strength, circling around him.

Tails rose to his feet, combot canon fire ricocheting around him, off the globe. Across the room, Sonic rocketed around the walls of the building and in between the combots. The combots stopped firing and paused in confusion. Robotnik kept trying to program machines that could track something moving at Sonic's speed, but that was…almost impossible.

Sonic crashed into the legs of one combot, bringing the whole machine down onto its face.

Tails cheered, gathering his breath, tears still glittering in his eyes. That had been too close.

He broke into a run, still holding the shield. He pounced on his blaster and pack—the one with the flashlight and security camera memory file. He caught up his blaster—one shot left.

"Time me!" Sonic belted out as he whipped by.

"Five seconds," Tails belted back, cocking the blaster. Sonic ran so fast, he probably didn't hear. It didn't matter. Tails smile turned to a smirk, and he charged across the room towards the first downed combot.


Author's Notes:

God bless! If you have any questions or comments, let me know, please!

Update, 12/4/17: Majorly updated this chapter. Changed some of the dialogue and Tails' reactions. I go crazy if I can't get the characters' right...hopefully these changes will help (and not confuse) and I won't have to do that many more updates! ;-P

Update 3/22/19: Last updates to this chapter for now. Enjoy!