It wasn't hard to catch up with the robots. Sure, they were pretty quick considering they didn't have legs, but "pretty quick" wasn't much when running from Sonic the Hedgehog… especially considering they stopped to argue at an intersection. Sonic reached them first, of course; Tails had noticed that he had much faster acceleration now (Sonic called it "boosting"), which was another plus of this new form. It also, however, seemed to be hard to control. Tails winced as Sonic slammed face first into a wall. As he ran up to help him back to his feet, the robots took their chance and ran… in opposite directions. Great.
"I'll take Cubot, you take… the red one," Tails suggested.
"Split up? Are you sure?" Sonic asked, uncharacteristically worried.
"Just for a bit," Tails said. "And if either of us gets trapped, the other can break them out."
"Right," Sonic agreed hesitantly. He started to say something, but then stopped himself. "Right, good plan. Good luck!" He flashed Tails a grin, then took off after the red robot.
That left Tails to chase down Cubot. He spun his tails behind him, propelling him down the hall. The yellow robot glanced over his shoulder, yelped, and put on a burst of speed. The two of them tore down the hall and out into a room, where Cubot—still looking over his shoulder—slammed into a console. Tails quickly took his chance, grabbing the robot before he could flee again.
"Eeep! Don't hurt me!" Cubot shrieked, raising his hands as if to protect his face.
Tails rolled his eyes. Only Eggman would program his robots to feel fear. "I'm not going to hurt you," he started to say reassuringly but then a devious idea sprang into his mind, and he grinned. "That is, I won't as long as you tell me what you were trying to do with that Wisp."
"Wisp?" Cubot echoed.
"The alien," Tails said impatiently. "Why were you trying to capture it?"
Cubot blinked at him. "Because Orbot told me to."
Orbot. Of course that would be the other robot's name.
"And why did Orbot tell you to?"
"Because Eggman told him to?"
This was going nowhere. Tails had half a mind to just crack the robot's head open and get the information himself, but he was distracted by the clack of metal feet on the floor, a far too familiar sound. He growled and dove behind one of the consoles that populated the room, dragging Cubot with him. He kept one hand over the robot's speaker (mouth?), muffling his shrieks, while with the other he reached for the energy cannon he kept in his subspace.
When the badnik's footsteps didn't come any closer, Tails peered around the console. His eyes widened. Cubot took advantage of his distraction to wriggle free of his grip and flee, but Tails barely noticed.
Egg Pawns were going back and forth across the room in what seemed to be a supply delivery line. But more interesting than the boxes of parts in their hands was where they were taking them. Seven portals lined the wall. They looked much like the gateways Tails had seen Whip and Pretzel use in the Gaia Temples back on Earth, but rather than appearing in ancient stone doorways, the portals were suspended in round metal holders hung on the wall. They glowed a different color, too, gold around the edges and black in the middle, like the rings to the special stages where the Emeralds often rested. Egg Pawns trekked to and from the portals in a steady stream, passing boxes of parts through them. Were there more Egg Pawns on the other side? Where did the portals lead?
Tails crept closer, studying the strange gateways. His eyes drifted upward. There were signs above the portals, glowing cheery neon colors like they were announcing amusement park rides. Tails glanced around, then quickly darted over to a console. The Egg Pawns didn't pay any attention to him. Maybe they were construction robots, not programmed for fighting?
There were seven consoles in the room, one for each portal. Looking at the one in front of him, Tails saw several screens, all giving readouts on the portal and whatever was on the other side. One screen showed a diagram of a planet with one moon. A close-up map was connected to the moon, showing what looked like a resort. Why would Eggman build a resort on the moon? Hadn't he blown it up? No, looking closer, Tails realized the planet was all wrong. No oceans, just dusty yellow-brown land. And the moon looked bigger compared to its host planet than Earth's moon. At the top of the screen, small text designated the planet "Proxima Centauri b".
As Tails was studying them, the screens suddenly flickered. He looked up in alarm as the lights flashed He winced, flattening his ears as a high-pitched buzzing noise seemed to rattle the entire space station. He gasped softly as, for just a moment, the color seemed to disappear from the world, stranding him in a strange black and white reality. Then, as quickly as it happened, everything went back to normal. The Egg Pawns continued shuffling back and forth from the portals as though nothing happened. Had Tails imagined the whole thing? He looked at the screens, but the readings hadn't changed. Maybe a generator had failed? But why the sudden monochrome?
Tails shook his head. Sonic was right; he needed to stop staying up so late. He tried to put the odd moment out of his mind. The portals were the more important thing here. The bright, colorful sign overhead labeled this particular portal "Tropical Resort". He looked back down at the console, noticing a small pile of… holographic pamphlets? He carefully picked one up and turned it over in his hands. It felt light, but solid. Tapping on it made it turn to the next page. He swiped back, and it returned to the front. "Welcome to Tropical Resort!" the cover declared cheerfully. Beneath it were pictures of palm trees under a starry sky, a neon ferris wheel, strange totem-like wooden statues, and a buffet with Egg Pawns standing by, dressed as waiters. Eggman was really dedicated to this theme park idea. But what did the Wisps have to do with it? Powering the portals…?
Shaking his head, Tails put the digital pamphlet in his subspace—he was definitely going to dissect it later—and turned back the way he'd come. Cubot was long gone, but Sonic should have caught Orbot by now, unless he'd been distracted like Tails had. Tails looked over his shoulder at the strange portals one more time before taking off down the hallway, spinning his tails behind him.
His ears soon picked up the familiar sound of breaking metal, and he sped up. A blue figure came into view as he rounded a corner, standing over a trashed Egg Pawn.
"Sonic!" Tails called, slowing down.
"Oh, hey Tails!" Sonic greeted cheerfully. "You find anything out?"
"Yes, actually!" Tails skidded to a stop next to his brother, fumbling to pull out the pamphlet. "I found something really weird! There's this room with all these portals and Egg Pawns going in and out of them. I think Eggman's turning all these different planets into an amusement park." He looked up at his brother. "Did you catch…?"
His words trailed off as Sonic looked back at him. Something felt strangely off, but he couldn't figure out what. Same deep blue quills, same emerald green eyes, same tan muzzle and markings. Tails slowly circled him, trying to figure out what was throwing him off. Same spiky quills on his back, same small, pointed tail, same short fur… Wait.
Tails stumbled back, eyes wide. "You're— you're back to normal!"
"Oh, this?" Sonic looked down at himself. "Yeah, it was really weird. I followed Orbot into this room where Eggman had some strange machine. I don't know what it was supposed to do, but I don't think it worked, because all that happened was I turned back to this. Eggman was spitting mad." He chuckled.
"That… is really weird," Tails said, blinking. "Do you have any idea how it happened?"
Sonic shrugged. "I've never been a science-y guy. You know that."
"Yeah," Tails agreed hesitantly, then shook himself. "Maybe I can look at the machine and figure it out."
Sonic made a face. "Ehh, I wouldn't be so sure. It got kind of… destroyed after doing whatever it did."
"Oh." Tails remembered the strange interference he'd experienced in the portal room and wondered if it had something to do with… whatever had happened with Sonic. "And you don't feel strange or anything?"
"Nope." Sonic leaned over to peer at the pamphlet still held in Tails's hand. "'Tropical Resort'? What's that?"
"It's a resort Eggman's building on this alien moon." Tails said absentmindedly, still puzzling over what had happened. Sonic thought whatever Eggman had been trying to do had failed, but what had Eggman been trying to do?
"Cool!" Sonic said, bouncing on his heels. "So we sneak in, trash the place, and get to see some cool alien planets while we're at it?" He didn't wait for an answer, boosting back the way Tails had come with a shout of "Let's go!"
"Hey, wait!" Tails called, then shook his head and sighed. He followed more slowly, flicking idly through the pamphlet as he walked. At least Sonic seemed less thoughtful and distracted now, more like his usual self. He set aside his confusion about how exactly Sonic got turned back to normal for another time. No need to look a gift horse in the mouth, right?
He arrived in the portal room to find the Egg Pawn's gone and Sonic standing amid a pile of robot parts, dusting off his hands with a pleased expression. He waved as Tails arrived.
"I see you've been having fun," Tails observed, stepping around the scattered parts.
"Yup!" Sonic grinned and stretched. "You ready to go?" He jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the portal.
"We don't even know what we'll find on the other side," Tails pointed out, examining the console. "The atmosphere might not even be breathable for us, or there could be a robot ambush waiting, or any number of things."
"And we'll never know if we don't go!" Sonic said cheerfully, bouncing on his heels.
Tails rolled his eyes and leaned in to study the screens. "It looks like he's set up an artificial atmosphere similar to what we have on Earth, so we should at least be able to breathe…"
"Works for me!" Sonic said, and dove through the portal.
"Hey— Sonic! Wait!" Tails yelled to an empty room. He huffed. "Whatever happened to being careful?" He took out his energy cannon and stepped toward the portal.
Just half an hour earlier Sonic had been the one saying they should be cautious in case this was a trap, and now he was jumping through portals like there was no tomorrow. The thought gave him pause. Sonic had been acting differently after the Gaia Incident. Quieter, more thoughtful, more distracted. He'd assumed it was a side-effect of the Gaia energy that had turned him into what they dubbed "Twilight Sonic". Sonic himself had mentioned the mix of energies in him was exhausting, as was his new mental link to the Gaias. If Sonic had been turned back to normal, did that mean Eggman had drained that Gaia energy from him? And if he had, would that have affected Sonic's mind? Could it have changed his personality in ways Tails didn't yet realize? Eggman wasn't known for being careful or delicate. Even if Sonic seemed to just be back to normal, there could have been any number of side effects from Eggman ripping the Gaia energy out of him.
Tails chewed his lip nervously, then shook his head. He shouldn't worry about worst case scenarios when there wasn't any evidence something was wrong. Sonic was probably just extra chipper now that he didn't have to deal with two opposite Gaias bouncing around in his head. And it wasn't like running into danger headfirst without a plan was unusual for Sonic. That was what he had Tails for: dragging him out of the trouble he got himself into. Tails nodded and walked up to the portal. He checked his energy cannon one more time, took a deep breath, and stepped onto another world.