Ok ok ok! Forget the hiatus, for now… brand new chapter of "Infection", this is going to be set up six days after the events in Chapter 8. And this one is gonna get interesting for Team Sonic, especially Tails, Fara and Chad. Real interesting...yikes! Hmmm… what's gonna happen?

Chapter 9.

Enemy of The State.

It had been at least six days since Tails had almost been killed, the poor kid had suffered a injury to the chest. Then came his coming down with the NIA-1 virus, once again. Sticks told the rest of her teammates that she believed that when the fox had been shot, someone else shot him with a dart containing the virus. At first, no one believed her, especially Chad, that was until Esmer found a black-colored dart with the initials, 'BCIS' on it. At first, Sonic thought that it was Dr. Eggman, but then again, he had come in contact with them on the via a satellite radio and told them that the General Election for the position of Prime Minister of Acadia Island had took place, and that supposedly, Jedidiah Prower had lost reelection for a second term to the opposing party's Acadia Island candidate, a falcon by the name Ren Lucio, and that was the day Tails' fever had broke. And now a couple days later, they were back on their way to the bio lab. While pitching up their tents for the night, Tails had found out that supposedly, there were a lot of dark secrets and rumors of treason on Lucio, but he didn't exactly want anyone else to know what he had found out, just in case if it was a hoax, but he knew better, after all, he and his friends had suspicions that Lucio was a loyal member of the Regency and that the General Election was hacked by none other than the Regency. But then it happened, lots of people came forward with evidence that Prower had indeed won reelection and that Lucio had taken part in the Regency's hacking, but before Prower even had the chance to be reinstated as the true Prime Minister of Acadia Island, he had been assassinated, supposedly by a crazed idiotic shrew who had had enough of the lockdowns due to the virus, but everyone knew that it wasn't true. When Fara and Cody had found out that their father had been killed, they took the news hard, but eventually when it was time to break the news to Tails, Sonic had been the one to tell the kid that his uncle had been assassinated. Heck, the kid took the news really hard, really hard, the kid had been crying for about hour, everyone else heard their young friend's cry's of sorrow and misery. The pain of losing a loved one is really hard, and now Tails found out what that meant, especially since the former Acadia Island Prime Minister was his uncle.

Currently, Tails was laying down on the ground in his tent, whimpering, tears streaming down his face and his throat sore from crying, the young fox silently wept. First his parents, and now, his uncle-the one person other than Sonic and his friends, Fara and Chad, Cody and their friends-was dead, buried. And the saddest thing about it was the fact that he hadn't even got the chance to say goodbye to his uncle at his funeral. Tails slowly opened one eye and hoped for the best that this was a nightmare and that none of the latest events hadn't taken place, but he was wrong. He couldn't believe that the Acadian Senate would betray their Prime Minister, his uncle like that, but then again, it happened. As far as he was concerned, they were enemies of the State, and so was Lucio, of whom got instated as Acadia Island's new Prime Minister. The kid got off the ground and walked over to a small foldable desk and started writing in his journal of what had happened to his uncle that day, but when he got to the last part, he silently wept again. Suddenly, the shadow of a mongoose stood outside his tent, Tails knew immediately who was standing outside his tent.

"Hey Tails, dinner's done." Esmer said.

The kid closed his eyes and whimpered softly. "I'm not hungry. Go away."

Esmer was at a loss of words.

"Listen, when you feel like it….. your food's ready." Esmer said uneasily.

All the mongoose got was a whisper from the little fox. "Yeah sure. I guess."

Feeling like he just got defeated, Esmer sulked away from Tails' tent and headed towards the campfire to rejoin his friends who were sitting there having their dinner.

"I tried everything I could." Esmer said.

Fara looked away from the fire and at her friend. "He still won't come out?"

"He said that he's not hungry." Esmer replied.

"Let me talk with him." Sonic said.

Fara looked towards the blue hedgehog. "Let me do it instead, eat your food."

As she was about to get up, a hand grabbed her arm and pulled her back down on her seat gently.

"Nah, let him do it, he's known Miles more than us, despite the fact that we're his family." Chad said.

Sonic looked behind him and stared at Fara and Chad.

"No, it's okay. She can come." Sonic said.

Fara wiped a tear from her eye as she got up and followed the blue hedgehog to Tails' tent. As soon as they were in reach of the fox's tent, they heard their friend sniffing. Sonic slowly opened the flap to the tent and was immediately saddened by what he saw. Tails was on his knees, his head hanging down on his chest. The fox's little body was shaking from him crying. Sonic and Fara both kneeled down and wrapped their arms around Tails. Tears were already streaming down Fara's face as she hugged him. Sonic just closed his eyes and started rubbing his friend's back in an effort to comfort the young fox. After a while, Tails finally stopped wailing and calmed down a bit. The kid then barely opened his eyes and looked at the whiteness of his tent.

"I miss him… already." Tails whispered as he hung his head down to his chest.

Fara barely smiled. "I know… so do I."

Tails' face lit up. "You know what? He would be proud to know how far we've come."

Fara looked at her cousin. "Yeah he would be."

Tails got off the ground and stood up, after shaking himself. At this point, Sonic had already left so that Tails and Fara could talk with each other without anyone else bothering them.

"You're hungry?" Fara asked him.

"Yeah… sort of." Tails replied.

Fara smiled. "That's the spirit."

Tails slowly followed behind her. He didn't know what was going to happen now, heck, he didn't even feel like wanting to wake up to a new day. He had no clue whatsoever why he felt the way he did. And at this point, he seemed like he didn't care.

Tails was depressed.

Meanwhile…

"What do you mean that Jedidiah Prower survived the assassination!?" Caden Andross yelled, banging his fist into a wall.

"I have no idea how. But I hard it on the alternative news."

Andross looked angry. Heck, he looked like he wanted to kill someone with his bare hands. And that person who he wanted to kill was none other than the white colored wolf that was supposed to finish Jedidiah Prower off.

"Well… Micah Parler? What are you gonna do about this now?" Andross asked rather calmly.

Whenever the common black-hawk spoke calmly when he was very angry, that usually meant that the person that Andross was addressing had better be on the lookout for his or her own life.

Parler looked nervously towards Andross. "There's still quite a few sleeper cells in Nova City. I could have them-"

Andross smiled wickedly. "Oh no, I will not risk them, yet."

"Then what are we going to do?" Parler asked him.

Andross eyed the wolf.

"Do you know what's going to happen if people found out that Prower is still alive and breathing?"

Parler gulped.

Andross contiuned on.

"First… they would start to investigate rather Ren Lucio really won the General Election for the position of Prime Minister of Acadia Island. And if they were to find out real fast, they would want to have Lucio hung for treason. And then do you know what would happen next?"

Parler gulped again.

Android spoke again.

"Second… we would have been found out that we were the ones that created this virus that's plaguing the islands. So tell me, what would happen after that?"

Parler looked around like a lost dog.

Andross suddenly slammed his fist down hard on his desk.

"We all would be caught, put on trial, and executed for treason!" The common black-hawk screamed.

"And that is why I cannot have people like you working with me any longer."

And just like a tidal wave hitting him, Parler knew what was going to happen now. Especially now that he let the Regency's leader, Caden Andross down.

Parler was finished for...

Yikes! What a bad ending to a chapter like this one. Sorry if this took way too long to finish. I was working on another story for the last several weeks. I promise you, this story is coming back, meaning that the hiatus is finally being lifted. But don't expect me to work on Infection all the time, okay? I've got other stories to work on. Until next time, God bless.

JalcoFox.