The rest of the journey wasn't too bad. Tails caught up with the others and they took a boat into Soleanna. They eventually docked in one of the canals in front of a hotel that was having work done on it "Looks like we're here. They're doing renovations to the place. Getting some upgrades". Ash stared at the hotel "Oh, this is trash".
They entered the reception which was also the café "Everyone, here we are" "Tell me we're not staying here. This place is stinking" "I think you mean charming". Pierre faced the group "Okay, everybody, drop your bags off. We're gonna meet at the museum at 3. Let's go!".
The group were exploring Soleanna. In one of the greatest moments of Tails' life Ash tried to get a picture with two street performers when a guy ran past and punched him in the groin. He then saw Ray and Undina getting a picture drawn by an artist. Then everybody got their pictures taken wearing costumes. Once they went outside a group of Flickys landed on Barby making her laugh. To Tails' horror Stu joked and took pictures of her with the Flickys.
Tails entered a jewellery store and spoke to the bat owner "Hi. Um, I'm looking for a black dahlia necklace". The bat nodded and went into another room returning with the necklace Tails was looking for. Tails took and admired the necklace "It's perfect. Thank you" he gave him all the money he made from selling his action figures.
Tails was walking now with the necklace in a gift bag. He looked excited and turned a corner when "Boh". Tails quickly hid the bag behind his back and faced Barby "What?" "Boh. The most perfect word in all the world. I just discovered it". The two walked together "What does it mean?" "It can mean a million things. I don't know and get out of my face. It's the best thing ever created except maybe an espresso". Tails nodded "Oh, so you've been drinking espresso" "Eh". A mouse came over with a rose "Um… Barby?". Barby raised her hand and the mouse handed her a rose "For you" "Boh". The mouse looked offended and walked away. Tails was impressed "Whoa" "Boh is my new superpower. It's like the anti-aloha. I was born to say this word. So, what's in the bag". Tails hesitated "Oh, uh… Boh". Barby smirked "Nice". The two headed back to the hotel when they spotted dozens of Mobani crabs scuttling out of the water "Cool". Barby took out her phone and took pictures but Tails started to feel that something was wrong. Tails spotted Ray and Undina on the canals as the water around them started to shift. There was suddenly an explosion flooding the buildings around the canal. Ray and Undina were thrown onto the path "Are you guys okay?" Tails and Barby helped them out of the boat. Ray watched as the water formed into a humanoid figure "What is that?" "I don't know" "What do we do?".
Tails sighed "I left my stuff in the hotel" "Why?" "I'm on vacation. Look, everyone will see my face. Get them out of here". Ray nodded and started leading the others away as the monster started destroying buildings and head for a bridge full of people. Tails flew around behind the monster keeping out of sight and managed to redirect its attention. It quickly turned and punched him out of the air. Tails hit a wall disoriented when a green blast hit the monster. Tails got to his feet and saw the unicorn flying towards them. Tails then spotted a mask and curtain on the floor near him. The unicorn flew around the monster avoiding all its attacks and continued to barrage the monster with blasts. However, the monster finally got a hit in launching the unicorn into a boat. The monster started to grow, the unicorn flew back out and continued to fight. Tails in a cloak and mask got to the roof "Excuse me, sir. I can help. Let me help. I'm really strong and stuff" "I need to lead it away from the canals". The unicorn flew away and the monster chased after him. Tails flew after them both saving anyone who was caught in the monster's path. The monster entered a large square where Mr Stewart and some of his classmates were. The monster hit a bell tower causing it to start collapsing. Tails flew forward and pushed against the tower spinning his tails as fast as he could managing to hold the tower at bay. The unicorn in the square made a magical construct in front of him which seemed to hold the monster at bay. Tails desperately tried to keep the tower falling slowly. Once he got close to the ground he flew out of the way allowing it to land without hurting anyone. The unicorn tore the monster in half finally destroying it. The water around the square disappeared and the unicorn stood in the middle heroically. The class all applauded; the unicorn saluted them before flying away. Tails checked his bag and was happy to see the necklace still intact.
At night the group were in the hotel's reception watching a news report "It's aliens. It has to be". Ash was on his phone "Maybe it's one of Chaos' species. It says here that they saw Chaos laying an egg during the battle with Inifnite". Barby mockingly nodded "Yeah, you should definitely believe everything you read on the internet" "The Prowl could have taken him". Stewart and Pierre watched the footage of the monster "What do you think it is?" "Being a man of science… witches". Tails was at the other end of the room on his phone talking to Bunnie "No, no. We want to stay" "Good thing I packed your case. I can't believe you forgot it". Tails sighed "Yeah" "So who was that guy that you were with? Was that Donkey Khan?" "Monkey Khan, Bunnie. Monkey Khan. And, no, I don't know who that was. It was a new guy. I was trying to help him…" "Ant, that's my lunch. Don't eat that". Tails paused "Ant's there. Why is Ant there?" "Oh, Tails. Sugar-'twan came by to volunteer". Tails again needed a moment "What?". There was a moment silence "Antione came by to volunteer. He's hanging around the office. He wants to say hi" "No, I do not- Hi, Tails". Tails kept his cool "Hey, Ant" "Sorry, I am working hard here. I got to do a… a leaflet drop. Glad you are having a good time. Do not worry, I am really taking care of your aunt". To Tails disgust, he heard Bunnie laugh "So, how's the plan going?". Tails glanced at Stu "There's been setbacks, for sure" "Don't overthink it. Trust your instincts and you'll be fine" "Yeah. Love you. Bye". Stu watched the unicorn on the TV "That's guy is awesome. He's like Razor and Sonic rolled into one". Ash shrugged "He's alright. I mean he's no Prowl" "What is it with you and the Prowl?" Barby asked. Ash shrugged "What? He's just awesome, okay? He protects the neighborhood, and you know, he's inspiring. He inspires me to be a better man". He then saw Tails walk in "What's up, dickwad? Thought you drowned". Ray and Undina both continued to watch the news "I wonder what his name is?" they said together. They smiled at one another "Babe". Tails went over next to Barby "So, uh, how much of that did you see" "Not much. I was running" "Right. Me too. I was also running… away… So, Leonus tomorrow. Go to the Tower. Should be great". Barby nodded "Yeah, I read it was secretly built as a mind-control antenna to create an army of the insane" "Oh". She then smirked "Which is why it's my favourite destination on the whole trip".
Ray and Tails were now walking back to their room "What're you gonna do about that water monster". Tails shrugged "Nothing. It's dead. And besides that unicorn guy's all over it. Look, I just wanna spend some time with Barby. We were talking before it showed up and I think she really likes me". Ray smiles "That's nice. Reminds me of when Dina and I first fell in love. I had just finished my fruit cobbler, right, and...". A dart suddenly hit Ray in the neck and he fell onto the bed unconscious. Tails turned in the direction the dart came from to find Abraham Tower sitting in a chair holding a dart gun "You're a very difficult person to contact, Miles Prower". Tails gulped "You're Abraham Tower. Did you just shoot Ray?" "It's just a mild tranquilliser. He'll be alright. So good to finally meet you. I saw you at the funeral, but I didn't think that was a good time to exchange numbers". Tails awkwardly nodded "Yeah, that would've been inappropriate" "That's what I just said. The important thing is, you're here. I tried to bring you here. But you avoided me and now you're here. What a coincidence". Tails didn't understand "Wait. Was this a coincidence?" "I used to know everything. Then I come back five years later, and now I know nothing. No intel, no team. And a high school kid is dodging my calls. Here's what I do know". He placed a small device on the table which projected a hologram of Mobius "A week ago, a village in Drifts was wiped out by a cyclone. Witnesses say that cyclone had a face. Three days later, a similar event in Arid. A village was-". There was a knock at the door, Tower pointed his gun at the door but Tails quickly ran over and opened it. It was Mr Stewart "Just making the rounds. See if anyone needs any counselling after today's traumatic events". Tails quickly nodded "No. We'll be okay. We're fine. Thank you" "Great because I'm… I'm not actually qualified too actually…". He noticed Ray snoring on the bed "Oh, he's passed out. I'm not really qualified to do it anyway, so goodnight". He closed the door and Tails turned back to Tower "That was my teacher. Sorry about that. You were saying?" "A village was destroyed by what may well be another world-threatening-". Another knock at the door, this time it was Undina "Babe, you okay. You haven't been answering any of my texts" "Um, he's asleep, Dina" "Oh, already?". Tower was eyeing Tails, "Mm-hm. Yeah" "Okay". She left so Tower continued "Then right-", another knock "Hey, boys those canals were full of bacteria so let me know if you start vomiting" "Okay, thank you". They heard him leave "If another person touches that door, you and I are going to attend another funeral. Now, suit up".
Tails in his Prowl disguise and Tower were both on a boat going across one of the canals "Sonic left these for you" "Really?". Tower handed a small case which Tails opened finding a pair of glasses inside "Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. Sonic said you wouldn't get that because it's not a pop culture reference".
Tower led him through dark tunnels "You can lose the disguise. Everyone here has seen you without it. You'd be feigning anonymity and showing off your holograms for no good reason". Tails turned off the holo-disguise and they turned a corner revealing a small base full of agents. Tower pointed to a familiar human "Over there, we have Topaz". Then he pointed at a brown wolf holding a machine gun "That is Diablo". The unicorn then walked out "And this is Mr Forelock". Tails smirked "You're the guy from earlier" "Yeah. It's nice to meet you". He shook Tails' hand "You handled yourself well out there today. I saw what you did with the tower. We could use someone like you on my world" "Thanks". Tails then processed what he just said "I'm sorry. Your world?". Tower nodded "Mr Forelock is from Mobius. Just not yours" "There are multiple realities, Tails. This is Mobius Dimension 991. I'm from Mobius 087". Tails now had a huge grin on his face "Sorry, you're saying there's a multiverse? Because I thought that was just theoretical. I mean that completely changes how we understand the initial singularity. We're talking about an eternal inflation system. I mean how does that even work with all the quantum… I mean this is insane". He then realises Topaz and Tower were both staring at him "Sorry. It's really cool". Forelock however was smiling "Don't ever apologise for being the smartest one in the room". Topaz and Tower let that slide "Anyway" they activated a hologrammatic table which showed a wormhole. Forelock explained "They were born in stable orbits within black holes. Creatures formed from primary elements". Holograms of the water monster and other similar creatures appeared "Air, water, fire, earth. The Science Division had a technical name. We just called them Elementals".
Topaz changed the holograms to different murals and painting "Versions of them exist across our mythologies" "Turns out the myths are real". Tails nodded "Like Razor. Razor was a myth and now I study him in my physics class". Tower stepped forward "These myths are threats" "They first materialised on my Mobius many years ago. We mobilised and fought them, but with each battle they grew, got stronger. I was part of the last battalion left trying to stop them". The hologram of Mobius started to melt "All we did was delay the inevitable" "The Elementals are here now, attacking the same coordinates. Our satellites confirm it". Tower nodded "You can thank Forelock for destroying the other three. There's only one left- Fire". Forelock sighed "The strongest of them all. The one that destroyed my Mobius". He watched the hologram mournfully "It's the one that took my family". Tails saw him holing a ring on his left finger "I'm sorry". Topaz looked over to him "It will appear again in approximately 48 hours in Frontier Canyon" "We have one mission: Kill it. And you're coming with us". Tails looked apprehensive for this "I'm sorry, did you say Frontier Canyon? Mr Tower, this is all seems like big time, you know, huge superhero kind of stuff. And I'm just a friendly neighbourhood hero, sir". Tower scoffed "Please, you've been to space" "I know but that was an accident. Come on, there's got to be someone else you can use. What about Razor". Tower shook his head "Off-world" "Okay, um, Monkey Khan" "Unavailable" "Sally Acorn". Tower narrowed his eyes "Don't invoke her name". Tails sighed "Sir, look, I wanna help. I do. But if my aunt finds out I left my class trip, she'll kill me. And if I'm seen like this here after what happened in Central City, my whole class will figure out who I am, then the whole world will figure out who I am, and then I'm done". Tower stared at him for a moment "Okay. I understand". This was obviously not what Tails was expecting "I'm sorry, what?" "Why don't you get back before your teachers miss you and become suspicious. Diablo, take him back to the hotel, please" "Yes". Tails sighed in relief "Thank you, Mr Tower. And, uh, good luck". He walked past Forelock "See you, kid" "Yeah, see you". He waved at Topaz "Bye, ma'am" "Yeah".