"Tails, you said you would come to the gathering." Nicole wasn't happy. Tails didn't interact with his colleagues that much (other than her of course), and she was certain that this decision would come to bite him in the ass in the future. Nobody was smart enough to do everything by themselves, and even if they were they didn't have the time to get everything done.

The introverted scientist in question, however, couldn't care less that Nicole was upset. At least at this very moment. He cared for her dearly, but this was just too important. He was surrounded by empty cups of coffee, and a heavy bag underneath his eyes to show that he hasn't slept since Nicole woke him up yesterday.

"I know, I know, Nicole. But this is just way too important. Come take a look." He ushered her over, grabbing the lynx by her wrist and pulling her in.

Tails brought her over to his writing desk, where instead of reports there were pages and pages of random brainstorming, questions, and questions that have been crossed out and with answers written underneath.

"What is all this?" Nicole picked up one of the pages and read through it, but Tails' handwriting was too messy to make anything out.

"That's not important, okay? Look!" Tails shoved the dragon scale into her face. It took a while for Nicole to figure out what he was talking about, but when she finally saw the tiny scratches on the surface, she let out a gasp and fell backwards.

"Y-you did it? D-did you manage to…" She couldn't even say it. The very idea of it was beyond what her mind could fathom, and she had a hard time forming it into words.

"I did it, Nicole, I managed to put a dent into the Dragon's scale!"

There was much discussion between the two scientists about what this would mean for the future of Mobius. Or whether this technology was even meaningful in the long run. Could this perhaps be the start of something new? Perhaps they could finally end the Dragon's rule over this kingdom?

"What did you tell the king?" Nicole asked.

"I didn't tell him anything yet. I have been staying up all night researching this, and I only just got to clearly make sense of it myself by talking it through with you." Tails yawned, stretching his arms and legs.

"Listen, why don't you take a quick nap. I'll go tell the king what has happened, and he can see that it was very important for you to skip that stupid report." Nicole got up from her chair and pat the fox on his back.

A nap sounded like an incredible idea. He could really use one right now, and the desk seemed like an amazing place to lay his head down for a second and…

Eyes opened, checked the clock, hours passed. Fuck.

He had a blanket over him, most likely placed there by Nicole. His reports were gone as well, but the lynx placed a post-it note where they used to be.

"I organized your findings and took them to the king. Don't worry" -Nicole

Nicole had her own burden to deal with, so Tails couldn't help but feel just a tiny bit bad for having her do his work for him.

"Doctor Miles?" A young voice called out from the entryway. Tails turned his head to see a young rabbit standing there with a nervous smile.

"Is something wrong, Cream?" Tails got up, neatly folded the blanket, and placed it on the chair.

"The king summons you to the throne room." She yelped, flinching when he addressed her name.

"That's…interesting." He got up and allowed Cream to lead the way towards the throne room. He knew where it was, but it was rude to ignore the messenger.

"Is it a good interesting or a bad interesting?" She asked carefully, hoping to not offend the great scientist.

"Good interesting, I hope. I just discovered something incredible, and hopefully, the king wants to help fund this project into something bigger."

"May I ask what this discovery is? If it is something that a person like myself could understand or even know about, that is."

"Knowledge isn't forbidden to anyone, Cream. Stop thinking so lowly of yourself." He smiled at her, which caused the little rabbit to blush. They arrived at the throne room's entrance and Cream opened the door for him, standing beside it as she wasn't allowed to enter after him.

"Oh, and I discovered something that can destroy the Dragon's scales." Tails left her to be after dropping that bombshell of knowledge onto her.

The door to the throne room closed behind him, and in the room was the king, his advisor, and Nicole waiting for him.

"Your highness." Tails bowed to his king and stood up after he was told to.

"It seems that Doctor Nicole has given me some rather interesting results from your recent experiments." He was holding his papers, the same papers that were written down hurriedly and not in a presentable manner. Knowing this, Tails couldn't help but blush just a tiny bit.

"I would have organized them better, your majesty, but those findings were only done last night." He quickly added.

"Excuses." Standing to the king's right was the king's advisor and most trusted man, Julian Kintobor. "Your highness, these aren't papers that are presentable to the public. I suggest that we postpone any sort of reasonable discussion until Doctor Miles can publish a paper that is void of doodles in the corner and drool marks."

"Focusing on appearances and ignoring what it has to offer will get us nowhere, Kintobor," Nicole stated calmly, standing to the left of the king. "Isn't that precisely why you are standing here with us?" She added, rather snidely.

"Enough." King Maximillian Acorn raised his hand, stopping both parties from snapping at each other's necks. "Doctor Nicole, apologize for insulting Sir Kintobor's weight. And please refrain from letting your personal feelings interrupt this meeting."

Nicole bowed and apologized to the king, muttering to Kintobor, "I apologize, Kintobor…"

"Apology accepted," Julian answered, apology clearly not accepted.

"Both of you have stated valid points. Therefore, this meeting will only be a discussion of what could happen and come from this. Any public announcement or serious consideration of using the kingdom's capital will happen after Doctor Miles publishes a proper paper stating his findings."

"Understood, your highness." Tails could feel the tension in the room, something he was not used to dealing with. Julian and Nicole have been going at each other's necks for as long as he could remember, usually related to the amount of funding and time Tails should be allowed to have. Nicole was the king's most trusted scientist, and Julian was the king's best friend and previous warlord. He had saved the kingdom from a war that had happened decades ago with a neighboring country and earned himself the king's pardon and the highest degree of honor. Both were highly intelligent but on the opposite side of any debate they found themselves in.

"I have read through these notes of yours, Doctor Miles. Am I correct in thinking that you have discovered a material strong enough to crack the Dragon's scale?"

"Yes, your majesty. It is a crystal formed from 8 carbon atoms forming a repeating pattern." Tails needed to keep the explanation as simple as he could to have a layman like the king understand properly.

"But it is a crystal. Forgive my ignorance, but aren't crystals meant to be fragile?" The king did not shy from asking questions, which was of course a good thing.

"It entirely depends on the atoms the crystal is made from. These are made of carbon which is the hardest earth element on Mobius." Nicole explained.

"Yes, yes, this is all fine and dandy, but making a scratch or a dent in the Dragon's scale is not the same as slicing it in half, is it?" Julian argued.

Tails didn't mind that Julian was skeptical of his findings. He was suggesting the impossible, and being skeptical and asking reasonable questions were rational behavior. He may have been purposefully going out of his way to deny Tails' claims, but they were still beneficial to the discussion.

"You are correct, Sir Kintobor. However, this is far more than what was considered to be a universal truth just a week ago. Not a single Mobian could even think of leaving a dent on the scale, and here we are, standing here, seriously discussing how effective this material could be at killing the Dragon."

"Now hold up, my dear scientist." King Maximillian stopped Tails from speaking any further. "You are suggesting that we could kill the Dragon?"

"Not right now, your majesty. But this is the first step. The first step in something huge."

"And what do you suggest, Doctor Miles, that we do with this new discovery?"

"I suggest that we put all of our kingdom's resources into researching this, manufacturing this, and creating a weapon that can kill the Dragon."

The room fell silent. Even Nicole, Tails' biggest supporter, thought this was maybe pushing it a bit too far.

"Your highness, this is preposterous." Julian was the first to break the silence. "For thousands of years, the Dragon has been an accepted part of reality itself. Millions of heroes and mages have attempted to kill the Dragon, and all have failed. And to spend the Kingdom's entire resources on this is just ridiculous! I can go on and on about how this is a ridiculous idea, but do you really need me to do such a thing?"

"The difference here," Nicole said calmly, "is that we have evidence."

"Evidence of what? That we can leave a scratch on the Dragon? Who is to say that this scale is just old and withered, therefore weaker than the scales on the Dragon itself? Or maybe, Doctor Miles Prower here has brought us a fake scale to trick us into handing him all the kingdom's money!"

"That is enough, Kintobor." Maximillion shut Julian off before he could go any further or before Nicole could jump him. "I trust Doctor Miles here just as much as I trust everyone else in this room. I will not accept accusations of treason next to my throne without proper evidence, which you do not have. Apologize to Doctor Miles immediately."

"But your majesty-"

"Immediately, Julian."

"...I apologize, Doctor Miles." Julian apologized with the same amount of sincerity that Nicole showed earlier in her own apology.

"Apology accepted."

"Now that things have settled down, here are my thoughts on this situation." He continued, pressing his fingertips together. He always did that when he was in deep thought. "I agree with Julian. There simply isn't enough proof as of now to say that this is anything more than a mildly interesting discovery."

"But your majesty-" Nicole was about to protest, but Maximillian raised his hand and ordered her to be silent.

"But I will increase your monthly funding and assign Doctor Nicole to the dragonology department to see if anything can come out of this." He continued, and Nicole seemed to be satisfied with this outcome. "However, if you fail to show any further development on this by the end of the year, which should be a little over 6 months as of today, the funding shall return to normal and Nicole will return to her usual work. Does anyone have any objections? Julian?"

"No, your majesty."

"Then it is settled. Doctor Miles, please publish your findings in a presentable manner. If you need further funding or have an objection to my judgment, file a formal petition. You know how this whole thing goes." He concluded and excused everyone from their positions.

"God, I hate that fat bastard." Nicole groaned when they got back to his, well, their laboratory. "He did one thing 30 years ago and now he gets a say in every major decision of the kingdom."

"Well, he saved the kingdom. Without him, we wouldn't be here." Tails was busy copying his scribbly notes into a more refined format.

"Whatever. Well, now that we work together, I guess I just might as well be your assistant. At least I get to keep an eye on you and get paid for it." Nicole smiled, sitting on the edge of the desk Tails was working on.

Tails rolled his eyes, but he quickly turned his focus back onto his work. This was a big deal, and Tails was going to make the most of it while he could.