Tails sighed happily as he strolled out of his hut in the quiet village of Knothole. The village was never really alive, except for the nights after raids on Robotropolis when it came alive with a vengeance, but there was always something small going on. Always.
It was now a good two years after Doomsday and the fight against Robotnik hadn't stopped. When it had been found that Robotnik had survived Doomsday, the Freedom Fighters had been totally shaken to the core. They had never imagined that it could have happened. In those two years Tails had become a bigger player in missions. Either because they needed the extra help or because he was growing up, Tails wasn't sure why but he accepted it with glee. He had always wanted to be able to prove himself on missions and over the two years he had. More than once he had seen his "name", Tails, written with a lightning bolt in place of the "s". He still didn't know where that had come from but he didn't disapprove of it at all.
He stepped out off the veranda and walked off into the middle of the village. It was still early morning but many people were already up and about. Tails noticed Amy and Mina standing off to one side talking. He looked over at them and waved. They noticed him and waved back.
"Hey Tails." called Amy.
"Hey Aimes. What's up?" replied the fox.
"Not much." put in Mina.
"Just chatting." said Amy.
"I see." said Tails.
Tails could see where this conversation was going. It was one of those famous "Hi" "Hi" "Bye" "Bye" type of things. He hated these types. Waste of energy really. He was about to turn and carry on when Mina spoke.
"Oh, Tails. I nearly forgot." She said, "Sonic came by earlier. He was looking for you."
Tails stopped and turned round. He was surprised. Not about Sonic looking for him but that Mina had said the word Sonic without sighing. He thought too soon though, as Amy and Mina both let out a slow sigh in unison. Tails made a mental note to bang his head on something later. Man, those two had a seriously unhealthy thing about Sonic. Didn't they know he was taken? Well, maybe he wasn't. Sonic and Sally's relation wasn't really clear at the moment. They cared about each other, but they had never really showed their true feelings publicly yet. Tails knew the reason why too. A commoner and a princess, how was that supposed to work?
"Right I'll go and find him then." said Tails snapping out of his thoughts.
"Tell him we said 'hi'." Said Amy.
"Sure." Said Tails as he turned and rolled his eyes, oh boy.
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It was approaching lunch time when Tails at last found Sonic. He was standing at the edge of the village talking to Bunnie.
"Hey Sonic. Heard you were looking for me." called Tails.
Sonic and Bunnie turned and looked at him.
"Hey big guy." Replied Sonic, "You got that right."
"So what's up?" asked Tails.
"We're holding a meeting tonight. Something big has come up." said Sonic.
"What do you mean big?" asked Tails.
"We're not sure sugah." replied Bunnie, "That's why we called the meeting."
Tails looked puzzled.
"Listen, Tails. Don't let this slip." said Sonic.
Sonic actually sounded deadly serious. Tails could catch a small hint of fear on his voice too.
"Sonic, what is it?" asked Tails quietly.
"We have recovered something from Robotropolis on our last raid. To say the least it's scared the hell out of everyone who's seen it. Meeting tonight at six sharp. Be there, Tails." said Sonic.
The hedgehog turned away from Tails and took a deep breath. Tails was frozen to the spot. Sonic wasn't acting normally. He wasn't acting normal at all. Tails slowly turned away and wandered off into the village lost in thought. What was so important that it had Sonic this spooked? He had to be at the meeting.
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Tails was starving. He hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning. After Sonic had spoken to him earlier, he just couldn't stomach any food. He was too worried. He currently sat in a chair at a long table inside a hut. The hut in question was located in the center of the village and was used as a meeting room for group planning. Next to him sat Rotor, who was busy fidgeting with a small gadget and obviously didn't know the reason for the meeting yet. Bunnie and Antoine sat opposite him. They were holding hands and Bunnie looked worried sick. Antoine was looking at her with puzzled eyes. Further down the table sat Amy and Mina who were both looking from each other and then to everyone else with a slightly irritated look on their faces. Sonic and Sally hadn't shown yet. Tails looked at his watch. It was just after six. Where are they? he thought.
"Where are they?" said Amy, voicing Tails's thought.
"They're late." said Mina.
"Quiet, sugah." said Bunnie quickly, "They'll be here in a minute."
"What's this meeting all about?" asked Rotor putting his small gadget down.
"You'll find out in a minute." Said Bunnie.
"I hope so. I've got better things to do than sit around waiting for them to show." said Amy.
"Now listen sugah. They'll be here…" started Bunnie almost rising from her chair.
"…right now." said Sonic as he and Sally passed into the room.
"About time." said Mina quietly.
Sonic and Sally walked across the room and sat down in their seat at the end of the table. They sat for a few moments saying nothing. Everyone was looking at them.
"Well?" said Mina getting impatient again.
Sonic hand flew up and a small object flew out of it and landed with a bang in the middle of the table. Everyone jumped.
"There! You happy now Mina?" said Sonic giving her a scowl.
Mina didn't respond. She just sat quietly and waited.
"What is this?" said Rotor picking up the object.
"We are not sure." said Sally.
Tails looked over Rotor's shoulder at the object. It looked like a small box with a tube entering in one side and coming out the other. Several smaller tubes entered into it from the side.
"Looks like some sort of injector port." Said Tails.
Everyone looked at him. Sally was nodding.
"It looks like it, doesn't it." she said.
There was something about the way she said that that made Tails' ears prick up.
"What you mean, Sally?" asked Tails.
"Where do you think we found that?" asked Sonic.
"Looks like of some machinery, maybe a new generator of something." said Rotor.
"Wrong guess, sugah." said Bunnie.
"We found that attached to a robotizer." said Sally.
"Za what?!" cried Antoine rising from his seat, "Are you telling moi zhat dis thing came from le robotizer?"
"Yes, Antoine." replied Sonic.
"How could this be part of a robotizer?" asked Amy.
"Let me explain." said Sonic taking a deep breath, "Myself, Sally and Bunnie were in Robotropolis last night. We were scouting out on of Robotnik's new factories. Reports had it that he was building some sort of new prototype generator system. We managed to break in undetected but instead of finding a new generator we found just a load of crates and boxes containing supplies. We thought we had been had but decided to check it out anyway."
"We are glad we did now." said Sally. "Those boxes contained robotizer parts and off to one side of the factory was a completed robotizer. We had hoped to gather a bit of information about it for use on our de-robotizer but this robotizer wasn't like any we have encountered before."
"We still don't know too much about it but the robotizer in the factory didn't run on normal energy. The construction of it was far too sensitive for that." said Sonic.
"What do you mean?" asked Mina.
"Well for one thing the inside of that injector port is coated in diamond glass." said Sally.
"Diamond glass!" said Tails, "You mean like on Doomsday?"
"Yes Tails, like on Doomsday." replied Sonic, "Whatever Robotnik was using to power that robotizer, it was not normal energy. To have that kind of protection on the injector ports it would have to be something more powerful than we have ever seen."
"You said 'was using'" said Rotor.
"Yes." replied Sally, "We planted explosives around the factory and set it off. The diamond glass parts probably survived but the rest didn't."
"It will take Robotnik a while to recover from that. Hopefully long enough for us to find out what he's up to." said Sonic.
"So what now?" asked Antoine.
"We go back to our usual tasks. We can't do anything more about this problem for now. We will have to hope something turns up." said Sonic.
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The group filled out of the hut slowly. They had covered all the other news of the day, but the news of the new robotizer was what had stuck in everyone's minds. Tails strolled across the center of the village, lost in thought. What was going on?
