Mr Stewart now wearing a suit led the class through a parade "I bet now you're all happy I had you pack a nice outfit" "Yeah, because we'd much rather go to a four-hour opera instead of the biggest party in the world" "Again, don't look at me" Pierre said. Tails walked with Barby but heard a voice from his earpieces "Prower, do you copy. Comm check, one, two".
They arrived in a nearly empty theatre room "Okay, here we are. Beat the rush" "Yeah, the rush out" "Lucky for us, we got the best seats in the house". Everyone went to the seats except for Barby who stopped, her hair was done up. Stu smiled at her "Hey, I'll save you a seat". She nodded and Tails moved next to her "You look really pretty" "And therefore, I have value?". Tails paused "Uh, no. No. That's not what I meant at all. I was just-" "I'm messing with you. Thank you". Tails chuckled "You're welcome" "You look pretty too" "Thank you". They then both saw Undina and Ray for some reason gushing over opera glasses. Barby looked back at Tails "Wanna… go in on a pair?" "You mean, sit next to each other?" "Yeah". Tails was about to take that offer but "Are you in position?" "No". Barby looked confused "Excuse me?" "Why the hell not, Prower" "You don't want to sit next to me, or, no, you just don't want the glasses?". Tails tapped one of his earpieces "I didn't mean that. Uh. If you go ahead, I'll go grab us a pair…". Barby smiled and nodded "I'll save you a seat. A lot of seats, so I'll be up there" "Awesome". Barby smiled wider and went over to the seats. Tails tapped his earpieces again "No, I'm coming". He stopped Ray "Hey, I got to go. Could you tell Barby that I'm sick or something?" "Okay. Be careful. And whatever you do, please steer the monster away from the opera house" "Yeah, Ray, I know. Okay, gotta go". Tails ran out the door but then looked back in. Ray told Barby but Stu overheard him and moved over next to Barby. He then spotted Tails and gave him the finger. Tails looked angry and was about to do something but "Prower! You better be on your way" "Coming". Once he left Barby looked back and then got up from her seat. Undina spotted her "Where do you think she's going? To the carnival?" "Oh, I-" "Should we go. Yes, we should go. Come on. Come on". She grabbed Ray's hand and they both snuck out leaving Stu alone.
Tails was now standing on top of a building watching the festival. His holo-disguise was now red and a few tweaks in the hologram made him look more like a monkey shape instead of a fox. He looked around "Alright, I'm in position. As soon as I see something I'll let you know, Forelock" "Roger that". He then heard Tower "How's the new disguise" "Uh, it's great. It's great". Not known to Tails, Ray and Undina were in the parade "Oh, Gaia, babe, isn't this beautiful?". Ray was clearly very worried "Yeah, it's real beautiful, babe" "What's wrong?" "You know, honestly, I just… I don't do well with big crowds, so maybe we should…". Undina grabbed his arm "I have the perfect thing. Come on". She led him to a Ferris wheel "Don't worry, babe. We'll get away from the crowds, get some fresh air. You'll be a thousand times better". They got on not noticing Barby in the crowd looking around for Tails. Tails was still on the rooftop and saw a fountain beginning to steam up "Energy spiking" "We have seismic activity". Barby felt the ground shake and lava started to break out of the ground around the fountain. She ran back as the fountain breaks apart revealing the monster who roared down at the crowd "Okay, he's here. Forelock, you ready?" "On your lead, Prowl".
As everyone fled as the monster crushed and absorbed the metal in a car. Ray and Undina were trapped on the Ferris wheel "No, come back! Help us!". Forelock landed in front of the monster "You're up, kid". Tails few in and used the grappling hook from his arm cannon to throw a large container at the creature. Forelock fired green beams at the creature keeping him at bay as Tails broke off a fire hydrant and directed the water creating a cloud of steam. Undina watched "What is that? Do you think it's the Prowl?". Ray quickly shook his head "Uh… No, no, no. It's a Murasian rip-off version of him. I actually read about him. It's not him". Tails got hit out of the sky and the monster started to absorb a destroyed carousel "Forelock, he's getting bigger!". Undina kept hitting Ray's arm "What's his name? What's his name?" "Uh, it's night… Night Monkey". Undina didn't like the name but "Hey, Night Monkey! Help" "Yeah, Night Monkey!". Tails looked up to them "Oh, no, no". The monster started to get bigger and then began stomping towards the wheel. Tails fired goo at the feet trying to stop it, but they burnt up. He tried firing energy balls but it barely slowed it down. However, a strange object shot out of the back of the creature and landed near Barby. The creature was about to crush him, but Forelock flew in and formed a shield to save Tails "Are you okay?". The creature grabbed the shield slowly breaking through "On to Plan B?" "Yeah! We got to hit him with something he can't absorb!" "I go left, you go right! Now!". He broke the shield and the two went in different directions distracting the monster.
Tails flew over the creature and threw a ring bomb into its chest. Forelock then fired a blast into the same spot "That hurt him. Keep it coming". The creature slammed its fists into the ground, breaking it apart around the Ferris Wheel. It reached for the wheel, but Forelock got in the way and desperately tried to hold it back. Barby watched hidden in an alley as Tails flew behind the wheel and fired goo to try and keep it stable. He saw scaffolding fall onto the monster allowing it to absorb the metal. Forelock started to look worried "No, no, no". Topaz and Tower arrived in a car "It's too late". Forelock looked back at Tails "Whatever happens. I'm glad we met" "What? What're you doing? Forelock!" "What I should have done last time". Forelock started to glow bright red as energy pulsed through him, "NO! Don't do it!". Forelock charged forward and rammed right through the creature's chest. It started to turn red and stumbled back. It fell to its knees and exploded releasing a red expanding dome of energy in all directions before disappearing. Tails desperately looked around and saw Forelock lying on the ground. Tails flew down and turned him on his back "Forelock". He woke up and stared at Tails "Oh, thank Gaia", Tails helped him up. Undina smiled and turned to Ray "I'd kiss you, but I think I threw up a little in my mouth". Ray paused "I… might have a mint". Tower and Topaz ran over to Forelock "So it's over?" "That was the last of them". Tower smiled "But not the last threat we'll ever face. We need to stay vigilant. There's a void in this world for someone like you. Topaz and I are going to headquarters in Twilight tomorrow. You should join us". Forelock got to his feet and shook his hand "Thank you. I just might take you up on that". Tower then turned to Tails "You got gifts, Prower, but you didn't wanna be here" "Mr Tower, I-" "I'd love to have you in Twilight too. But you got to decide whether you're going to step up or not. Sonic chose you. He made you a Chaotix. I need that. The world need that's. Maybe Sonic was wrong. Was he?". Tower couldn't see the tears in Tails' eyes "The choice is yours" he walked away. Forelock gave Tails a sympathetic look. He walked over and patted his shoulder "Let's get a drink" "I'm not 21".