Alright, I'm back to work! I'm gonna tell you what happened with Team Sonic, Fara and Chad, but only because I don't want to write about them being bored, yes, they did have to quarantine, and don't worry, Tails did recover from the virus, and now with that out of the way, I'm gonna skip a few weeks ahead, if that's fine with you all. So now, on with Chapter 5!

Chapter 5.

The Adventure Begins.

A few weeks later.

It had been a few weeks since Tails had came down with the virus, but he had recovered fast, but now, the whole entire island of Bygone Island had to quarantine, a few citizens of the island had came down with the virus, including Lady Walrus and her son, Stratford, and the other victims included; the Gogobas, Leroy, Beth the Shrew, Mayor Fink, Comedy Chimp and Wolf Sidekick, and a few members of the Lightning Bolt Society. Mayor Fink had been luckily, asymptomatic, despite his test coming back positive. The other victims had not been so lucky, Stratford had almost died, but luck seemed to be on the safe side for him, Tails and Knuckles had gave Lady Walrus life-saving medicine for him, the village thought that they were heroes for saving Stratford's life, but they especially thought that Tails was a hero for fighting the virus and recovering as quickly as he did when he came down with it. Comedy Chimp and Wolf Sidekick seemed to be doing well, with just a occasional cough and tightness of breath, but other than that, they too quickly recovered. They had to cancel their show, due to quarantine, but they promised to go live from their homes, the island had also been shut down, the Mayor of Hedgehog Village had put a stay-at-home order that went in effect until further notice, unfortunately however, Eggman had decided to use this opportunity to attack the village, and Mayor Fink had called off the order so that Team Sonic could deal with the mad scientist who had used the time to his advantage. But the news about Acadia Island had gone very grim, from what Team Sonic and Fara heard, the island had lost at least a few thousand people to the virus already. One day, Fara had received a email from her father, saying that he and her brother, Cody, had recovered from the virus, and so had the island's Attorney General, Bill Kidd. She also read in the email that her father wanted to see her, Chad, and Team Sonic, like immediately. Fara wondered why her father wanted to see them so urgently, he told her in the email that he had already talked with Mayor Fink about the current situation, the Mayor had said in the news that another stay-at-home order was going into effect, but not before allowing Team Sonic, Fara, Chad, and Esmer to leave. But before they left, Team Sonic had made Eggman promise Mayor Fink that he would not attack the village, especially now that the whole island was going to re-shut down until further notice, Eggman had agreed to the terms, Fara and Chad had told him that they were witnesses and that if the fat man himself attacked Hedgehog Village, that they were going to hold the mad scientist accountable for his actions. After that deal was settled, the group left the island in Esmer's boat and had set off for Acadia Island, the whole entire village had wished them luck on their journey, and ironically, so did Doctor Eggman.

Sticks had kept saying that she somehow 'knew' that an evil and corrupt government was behind the creation of the virus, of which now the news media and top medical officials of the islands had named the virus the 'Neola Island Alpha-1 Pox Virus' or 'NIA-1' for short. Sonic and Tails didn't like the fact that the media was calling the virus after the island where it all began, in about three hours, they had made it to Acadia Island, but they had to once again, be quarantined for ten days, just be safe. After the ten day of quarantine, none of them showed up positive for the NIA-1 Virus, and they good to go on to Nova City, the capital of Acadia Island, but while on the way there, they had almost been killed by a tornado, in the middle of the night while they were sleeping at a small town's local hotel, they had been awakened by the town's sirens going off, in the next few minutes, the hotel had been torn apart to shreds by the damaging winds from the tornado, no one, not even the townsfolk expected this to happen at midnight, but that's not what got the group the most, what got them the most was that at least several people had been killed in the tornadic storm, and if wasn't for Amy, Sticks and Chad rushing to wake up Sonic and Tails, both the hedgehog and the fox could have been numbered with the deceased that were killed by the tornado. The next morning, they had helped the town clean up the tornado damage that littered the streets, the town's Mayor had said that a tornado had definitely touched down, and right in the middle of the town, where the most fatalities occurred. After running some tests on the buildings that had taken the most damage but were still standing, Tails had told the Mayor that the tornado was at least, an EF3. The Mayor had agreed that the kit was right about that. Afterwards, the group left the town, and had headed on to Nova City. Ironically, Tails had found out that the name of the town that they just left was none other than South Haven, Fara told him that the town had always gotten tornadoes, depending on the time of the year, if it was spring, the town didn't get much tornadic activity, but if it was in the middle of summer, then South Haven was in for some very nasty storms, like the one that had happened last night. Once they got to Nova City, they headed towards the Prime Minister's Mansion, where the Prime Minister lived, once they got there, Fara felt like she was home again. Cody was delighted to see his sister again, and he squealed when he saw Tails, he gave him a big hug, the others told him that they had been worried sick about him.

Esmer immediately saw that his best friend, Tauren Rhoms, was there too, the two friends were more than happy to be reunited with each other. From what the others were told, Esmer and Tauren were basically the 'Sonic and Tails' of Acadia Island at one point, before the mongoose ended up moving to Bygone Island with Cody, his sister, and her husband. But what was more surprising was that Tails' uncle Jedidiah came out of his den, but he wasn't alone, with him was none other than Neola Island Prime Minister Franklin West, and Olathe Island's Prime Minister, a female anthropomorphic gray-colored echidna, named Kim Brennan. Knuckles was actually surprised that he was no longer the last echidna on Mobius. Brennan had to be at least in her mid-fifties, but she wasn't the only other Prime Minister in the den with Prime Minister Prower, the other Prime Minister was none other than Andrew 'Drew' Murphy, the son of Jerek Murphy. Drew had became Peoria Island's new Prime Minister upon Andross' arrest. Jerek had been living with Jedidiah Prower for the last year and had taught his son how to run Peoria Island the way it was supposed to be, Drew thanked his father for the advice. Rhett 'Red' Fargo, the black-colored wolf, who was at one time, been Andross' Private Investigator, joined up with the group. He was now serving as Drew Murphy's Private Investigator, and he was proud to be. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Sticks had been surprised when they found out that it wasn't Tails' uncle who had called the urgent meeting, it was none other than Red. Fara, Chad, and Esmer were also surprised about that. Red had them join him in Jed's den, where a map of the islands was seen on the desk. Tails was immediately drawn to the map, pointing out Bygone Island for his teammates to see, the Acadia Island Prime Minister sat down in his chair behind the desk. Once Red saw him at his desk, he got everyone's attention, soon, everyone anticipated what Jedidiah Prower was going to say, but rather than say anything, he let Red say what Team Sonic and their friends came here for.

"The reason why you all are here is because, we need you all to find out who caused this 'NIA-1' virus to go stir-crazy; and if someone is really behind this pandemic, why." Those were the first words out of Red's mouth.

Sticks immediately gave her friends a 'I-told-you-so' look. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy only apologized to her in sign language, which the badger understood. Sticks smiled and accepted their apologies.

Red continued on. "We have received a message from an unknown contact, and we've figured that maybe, Tails could find out where it came from, and who sent it. Also, we have learned that Andross and Murdoc may have escaped from prison, and if so, that they have gotten the Gala Syndicate back up and running."

Tails immediately gulped when he heard about Murdoc, his teammates immediately saw him worried about the current situation with the one person who had tried to kill the fox cub just a year ago, and now, they were worried sick that their young friend was going to have one of his PTSD episodes. Tails immediately started breathing shallow, his heart rate was going up, Sonic seen this and immediately placed a hand on the young fox's shoulder, Tails immediately calmed down upon feeling Sonic's hand on his shoulder. Still, the kit had every right to be worried about his personal safety, now that Murdoc was possibly on the loose, the kit immediately started silently hyperventilating, freaking out, he knew that if Murdoc was really on the loose, that it would probably be a short amount of time before they would cross paths again, and that scared Tails to the point that he started freaking out. The others immediately seen this, but Red, Tauren, Tails' uncle and the other Prime Ministers were startled by Tails' sudden behavior.

"Tails, are you okay?" Sonic asked.

Tails' whole body shook with fear. Amy knew immediately that her young friend was freaking out.

"Tails, it's okay, it just a rumour, that's all." Amy reassured him.

But, Knuckles, on the other hand, went too far. "It's fine, if Murdoc finds us-"

"Stop! Just stop it!" Tails yelled. The Prime Ministers, including his uncle, were startled by his sudden mood, so was Red and Tauren. Everyone else looked at him, Sonic placed his hand on Tails' shoulder again.

"Leave. Me. Alone!" Tails yelled, he immediately whipped his body around and punched Sonic right in the chest real hard. Everyone immediately backed away from the now angry kit, Sonic groaned as he fell down to the ground. Tails, upon seeing what he had just done, immediately got on the ground and kneeled down next to Sonic, the young fox now had tears trickling down his face.

"I'm sorry! Sonic, you're okay!?" Tails cried. After a long suspenseful minute, Sonic got up, but when he did, he immediately hugged Tails, not angry about what just happened. Once they got off the ground, the kit was embraced by Fara. Tails stopped crying, and instead, just welcomed her embrace.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. I'm sorry." Tails said.

"You're fine bud, I understand." Sonic said.

Tails weakly smiled, but then, it disappeared, he saw the other people in the room surrounding him, he soon realized that everyone had saw what happened, Sonic and the rest thought that Tails was going to cry again, but rather than that, the young fox looked at them with a blank look.

"Tails?" Amy asked.

The kit didn't respond.

"Tails? You okay?" Sonic said.

Tails immediately closed his eyes, the young fox felt dizzy, swaying from side to side, he collapsed to the floor.

"Tails!" Everyone shouted. Sonic immediately kneeled back on the floor and wrapped his arms around Tails' body, the fox cub felt fine, but still, they were all concerned about Tails. After a long minute, Sonic knew what had happened- Tails was so scared about Murdoc that he had passed out because of the news.

An hour later…

Tails had just woke up from his unconscious state, and found out that he was lying down on a soft couch, he felt a little tired, he closed his eyes and tried to get some actual sleep, but he then felt a hand touching his shoulder, immediately opening his eyes, Tails looked up and saw that the person was none other than Sonic. Tails then looked at the hedgehog's chest and saw a small, slight bruise where he had punched him earlier.

"Did I really do that to you?" Tails asked Sonic, looking at the bruise on the hedgehog's chest.

"Well…it was only just an accident." Sonic replied.

Tails then gave his best friend a look of regret and sadness. "Sorry 'bout that...I...I…(sniff)...I didn't mean it…"

Sonic hugged him and began rubbing his back. "Tails... even if you did mean it or not, I'm not angry with you, and don't let this stop you from guilt tripping yourself, okay?"

Tails looked Sonic in the eye, after a few seconds, the kit then buried his face into the hedgehog's chest and wept softly.

"I'm sorry... it's all my fault…(sniff)...(sniff)... for my freaking PTSD about Murdoc taking me over." Tails cried.

"Tails…" Sonic said softly and gently, "it's not your fault that you suffer horrible memories of that wretched wolf... so, don't beat yourself up, because you punched me out of a PTSD episode."

Tails looked at the hedgehog, tears streaming down his face. "It is my fault, I hit you out of anger...and I have every right to be mad at myself for doing so...I shouldn't get so angry-"

Sonic gently placed a hand over Tails' mouth, and then after being sure that the kit wouldn't talk, took his hand off of his mouth and hugged him again. The fox cub just kept on weeping, the cobalt hedgehog comforting him until the kit was no longer crying, and now he was hiccuping in between sobs.

'I wish I could do something to make my lil' bro feel better.' Sonic thought. Then it came to him, why not have Fara fix him a big cup of hot chocolate? Chocolate chip chunk cookie flavored. Speaking of which, Fara so happened to come in the living room and placed a hand on Tails' back, rubbing it up and down. She had Red bring in a big cup of hot chocolate in and place it on one of the living room tables, she took it off of the table and gave it to Tails, who had now unburied his face from Sonic's chest, and immediately seeing the cup of hot chocolate, he smiled and took the cup out of Fara's hands and took a big sip of it.

"Umm... chocolate chip chunk cookie flavored, huh?" Tails asked them.

"Yeah…" Fara said, "for you, I heard you crying and I thought it would cheer you up if you had a drink of something you liked, so I made it for you."

Tails beamed real big, his blue eyes shining with a joyful spark in them, he smiled again as he felt Sonic's hand ruffling through the three bangs of hair on his forehead.

"Alright, now that I'll be fine, who's ready to listen to the rest of what Red was telling us?" Tails asked. As for an answer, both Sonic and Fara got up, Tails following suit and all three of them walked back in her father's den. Once her father saw that they were back, he grabbed a compact disc and handed it over to Tails, along with a CD player and a pair of headphones for listening. The kit was only sure that the message was on the CD, so he put the disc in the CD player and put the headphones on his head after plugging them in to the CD player's phone jack and afterwards listened to the message after the player loaded up. Everyone soon looked at him, wondering what he was listening for, the fox cub soon snapped his fingers, pointed at Red, motioning for him to give him a pen and paper, afterwards, Tails wrote what he had listened to, carefully and steady,after doing that, he took the headphones off his ears and gave them back to his uncle, along with the CD player. Sure enough, the young fox told everyone that what he had listened to was indeed the message, from what he had told his family and friends, that the message contained some good news and some not so good news.

"Well... what is it?" Sticks asked, concern on her face.

"I'm gonna tell you this one thing…" Tails said softly, gulping as he spoke, "just to get this out of the way... Murdoc's escaped prison...a...a... and from the sounds of it...s...s... so did Andross…"

Sonic couldn't believe it, Murdoc had escaped from prison, and from what Tails had said, so did Andross. He now had a blank look on his face as he now knew that his best friend, sidekick, and overall, his little brother's worst fear had come true...and he felt sorry for the little fox.

"I'm so sorry... Tails." Amy said, sympathy in her voice.

Tails looked up at his friends, fear in his eyes. Fara couldn't believe that just a few minutes ago, her cousin had joy in his eyes, but now, it was replaced by fear, she felt bad for the kit.

"It's okay buddy, if we cross paths with that wretched wolf again, just know... we'll have your back." Sonic reassured him.

Tails looked at him. "Well, actually... I'm not afraid for my life... I'm afraid for...for... for you all." Tails admitted.

"Tails, why are you afraid for us like that?" Amy asked.

"What if he hurts you guys…" Tails gulped, "or worse...decides to kill you all, just to get to me?"

"First of all," Chad said, "he wouldn't do that, and second of all, he would need us alive, so that he can get you to come to him, not saying that he would do something like that."

Tails then gave the note to Esmer to read out loud for everyone to hear. The snow-colored mongoose took the note from the kit, unfolded it, and read it for the rest to listen.

" 'Dear friends,

What you are about to hear is gonna turn your world upside down, I have learned of a horrible plot to wreck our very lives as we know it... it's a plan to have Lyric the Last Ancient rule us, and rule us with a iron fist. His followers, formerly known as the Gala Syndicate, but are now known as the Regency, have been planning to release a very toxic and deadly virus...one that even they say that, no one can stop, and now, I fear that they have already done so... and if it's true... millions will lose their lives... for the selfish plans of the Regency, of which, if they get their way, our world will be in for a day of reckoning as we know it.

Also, I've wanted to tell you that in the midst of this, there is hope, a hope that the Regency can be defeated, if you follow the map I have sent to a certain person I know, you will find the location of where this "NIA-1" virus was created at. I hope that with that out, it is up to you to decide whether or not you will take down the Regency and destroy the virus, remember, it is up to you to decide. I have the antidote for the virus, and now, the Regency has a trained killer, that goes by the name, "Tristan 'Murdoc' Rhoms", after me, to hunt down and kill me, and I'm afraid that he will also try his hardest to take the life of a "Miles Prower"...yes I know who you are...my nephew... watch yourself, I plan to see you one day, if that evil Murdoc hasn't gotten to you. Now to the rest of you, like I said, it's up to you to decide if you will defeat the Regency, and if you decide to, I will wish you luck on your perilous journey.

Godspeed... Team Sonic.

Sincerely,

Kari Prower. ' "

"What…? Mom's still alive?" Fara choked.

"Yes... it's true," Prime Minister Prower answered. "I knew that your mother was still alive, but I was told by her to keep it a secret from you and Cody."

Both Fara and Cody said that they understood what their father meant, Tails, on the other hand, was in shock from learning that his aunt was still alive, and that she had been the one to send the message to them. The kit's teammates were all astonished that their young friend was excited to know that she was still alive after all these years. Fara cried a little bit, but then, she had stopped crying when Tails hugged her.

"The map?" Sticks asked.

Red told them that he had map, and that they should leave Acadia Island if they were going to defeat the Regency and stop the virus from spreading even further, the team and their friends said that they were more than ready to defeat them, they wanted nothing more than to make the Regency history.

Later that evening, they left, but not before the Acadia Island Prime Minister sent them off with a blessing and a prayer, Red, Tauren, Cody, and Jerek went with the group to assist them in their dangerous quest. They took off for the mysterious island that the bio lab was located on in Esmer's ship, The WaveWalker. And as if for Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Sticks...even though they had weren't really wishing that their archnemesis was with them, they did wish that Doctor Eggman was with them, not as their enemy; but as their temporarily ally, they could use his robots.

Woe! Kari Prower... ALIVE? And what about the Regency's plan? Well...you just found out. Will Team Sonic and their friends make it to the "Mysterious Island"? That's all in the next chapter.

JalcoFox.