Hello! I'm finally back with another chapter to this story! Gomen Nasai for taking so long between the updates. I promise I'll update more often this summer.

!-Begin chapter Five-!

My mom is alive, Tails!

Tails stood up and looked around the rubble that used to be the Factor X. He helped Cream to her feet and walked around, turning over metal with his feet. After a few minutes of searching where he thought the cockpit would have landed he found a small communicator. He picked it up and dusted it off. He examined it very closely. The machinery appeared to be fine on the outside, but it might the wires might have melted down from the heat before the explosion. He opened up the back of the hand held machine and was slightly worried at how easily the metal crumbled in his fingers. He looked inside at the wiring, it appeared to be safe. He turned it over and turned it on. A little light on the front flashed green and he spoke into it.

"Hello? Can anyone here me?"

!-

Back at the village Sonic looked up at the transmitter. He was finishing repairing the infirmary when he heard Tails's broken up voice. He stopped what he was doing and walked over to it. He pressed a button and spoke.

"Tails? Tails? What is it?"

!-

Tails's heard Sonic's very broken up voice with relief. "Sonic! I must have overlooked something, the plane blew up. I think there was too much power from the Power Emerald for the systems to handle."

!-

On the other end Sonic only heard "Sonic!" then there was a large break up of Tails's voice, "overlooked" more break up "blew up" more break up "systems"

"Huh? Tails, you're breaking up!" Sonic was thoroughly concerned, "What's happening over there?"

"Sonic!" Tails was practically shouting, "Plane blew up."

"What!"

"The plane blew up in the middle of a forest. We're alright for the most part."

Sonic's eyes widened and he ran out of the hut and jumped onto the roof and looked around, he couldn't see any smoke, they weren't nearby. He jumped back down and came in just in time to hear Tails speak, "Sonic, I think I hear something. I need to..." Tails's voice completely broke up. Sonic ran around the village, trying to find someone. 'Just hang on buddy, we'll get you.'

!-

Tails sighed as the communicator smoked in his hands. He dropped it onto the ground as it burst into flames. He walked over to Cream, who looked about ready to cry. Tails put a hand on her shoulder, comfortingly. "No need to worry, Cream."

"How can you say that, Tails? The plane's gone, and I don't know where we are."

Tails tried to smile comfortingly and not look to worried for Cream's sake. He looked around the forest. The crash had knocked out his sense of direction, however he had gained it back pretty quickly. "I think I saw a city in the north, Cream. We should probably head over there." He looked at the edges of the forest with concern, he was sure he had heard something walking around there earlier, but now he could only hear silence. He spent a few seconds looking around the plane and found a silver emerald and after a few more minutes, for it was buried deep within the rubble, a black box. Both were rather light and he could carry them with ease.

"What's that for, Tails?"

"Because if Eggman saw the smoke, I don't want him finding these two things. Both would be dangerous tools in his hands."

"Oh"

The two of them walked along in silence, nothing bothering them except the crash. Tails was leading but he occasionally looked back to check on Cream. She was handling this a lot better than he had thought she would. Six months ago she would have taken this a lot worse, but she was different now. But then again, so was he. He had been kind and gentle and helpful and very patient. He could still be that, but he tended to be moody, irritable, and tended to yell at people.

He sighed, since when had he changed? They had gone back to Mobious and he was fine, but then Eggman had taken over and they needed to create a village. Since he was the only one who could match and beat Eggman in technology and strategy he was called on by the others a lot and asked the impossible which he could pull off. But he had reached his limit, the stress was starting to pressure him too much, he supposed that's when he had started to change.

Cream had heard Tails sigh and looked up at him. What was wrong. She noticed he kept looking back to check on her. Maybe to see how she was doing. She knew Tails had changed, probably more than the rest of them, but she had changed too. When her mother had been captured and she went to live in the village with the others she had decided that she couldn't sit around and look pretty, she needed to help them out as much as she could. She had strengthened herself in mind and body to be of more use. She was no longer the emotional child she had been, or at least as much, she was still a child and the world was cruel. She had grown up with her mom, unlike Tails had, she had never learned at an early age how to defend herself. She was not as likely to cry as she used to be, but she was more likely to cry than anyone else at the village.

She sighed as she thought that and followed, eyes glued to her arm as she inspected the various burns, bruises, and scratches on it. She felt sore all over but there were no really serious injuries. The sleeve of her dress had been torn slightly, her shoes had been scuffed, her gloves were in tatters but that was the worst of it. Except for her ears. They were big and sensitive to pain. While she didn't mind the numbing pain from the rest of her body, her ears had been burned slightly and she was fighting not to break down from pain. She had to keep moving. She had to force herself to move until they reached a place in the city where they could rest.

Tails was actually in more pain than Cream. There were a few deep gashes on him from kicking the glass open, but the bleeding had slowed to a trickle when he had come conscious again. He was bruised and battered all over. It was more like a living hell for him to shift his body slightly. Walking was pure torture. But he wasn't going to stop now, Cream was relying on him to lead them to the city.

They reached the city within an hour, they had made good time considering how badly beaten and bloody they were. When they reached the city they saw ruin and disaster everywhere. Robots had stormed the city. Tails's eyes widened as he heard a group of robots coming towards them. He grabbed Cream's hand by carrying the emerald and the box in one arm and half dragged, half carried her behind a building. Cream picked up her feet and ran along with Tails so she was being one fourth dragged and three fourths running. They ran along the alleys until they thought it was safe. Cream stood next to Tails and whispered to him.

"Tails, I can carry the emerald for you."

Tails nodded and handed it to her. He closed his eyes and followed the movements of the troopers with his hearing. He opened his eyes wide in shock and some fear when he heard something drop behind him. He turned around and moved in front of Cream.

He squinted his bright blue eyes to focus in the dark, for some odd reason they didn't want to. As his eyes slowly adjusted to the light something bright shined upon the two of them.

"What do we have here? A fox and a rabbit? Both seem injured, and I think they were just running from some robots." The light was dimmed and it seemed as if the mysterious person was speaking aloud to himself. Tails blinked some water from his eyes from the sudden bright glare of light. He focused on the source and saw a demi-human cat standing there. He couldn't see much detail except for glowing yellow eyes that didn't appear to be too far off the ground.

The person walked towards them and shined the light on itself; it had snowy white fur marred by think black stripes. Its fur gave it a scruffy looking appearance but it didn't look like it couldn't keep its fur clean, more like it wouldn't. A pair of white pointy ears poked from the top of its head with the same scruffy appearance. Its eyes were still glowing yellow from the low light.

"My name is Shiro Tora, but you can call me Scruffy. Who are you?"

"My name is Tails"

"I'm Cream."

"Well, Tails and Cream, the city isn't the safest place to be since Eggman took over again. You should come with me, besides I've got something to treat those injuries of yours."

Tails and Cream looked at each other and nodded. Tails spoke up, "Fine, Scruffy."

Scruffy lead the way for them through the alleys and back streets, away from the lights and robots. He came to an old dilapidated building. Inside was only dust but he lead them to an old elevator shaft. If the elevator till ran it wouldn't be that safe, however when the rusty doors opened, a bright sleek metal elevator was revealed. Tails and Cream followed Scruffy inside the machine. The doors hissed closed and it dropped down quickly. Tails and Cream grabbed a rail on the wall to keep from falling over. Eventually the speed lessened until it stopped suddenly. Too suddenly, however Tails and Cream managed to stay standing, although they felt a bit dizzy. Scruffy was unaffected through all of this.

They walked out and looked around in awe. This was the sort of place Tails wanted to work in. There were about five computer terminals. All in all it was sleek, modern and high-tech. This is what Tails needed to do as much work as he was asked to do.

Bending over a computer was another cat type person. It was orange furred with black stripes, this one didn't have as much a problem with scruffy looking fur, in fact it was rather neat and glossy. It was wearing a form fitted red-purple top and a pair of slightly looser pants of the same coloration. It turned out to be a she and turned to look over at Tails, Cream, and Scruffy.

"Scruffy, who are they?"

"This is Tails and Cream. They were running from Eggman, besides, they need some help. They aren't in too great of shape."

She stared dubiously at them and sighed and shrugged, deciding they weren't a danger. "Fine, but we need some robot parts. You go get them like you were supposed to. I'll help them out."

"Alright fine." Scruffy left them with the mysterious looking woman.

"Who are you? You know who were are."

"My name is Mizu Hoseki. I've got something that should help heal those cuts and bruises in a jiffy." Mizu left through a metallic door and came back with two small glasses of something. She handed them to Tails and Cream. "Drink this, it will help." Tails and Cream chugged down the liquid and tried not to spit it out, it tasted horrible! They swallowed it and the taste disappeared from there mouths. Within moments they were feeling better.

Mizu smiled at them as the cuts healed and the bruises vanished. "What was that?"

"Something I developed."

"Oh." Mizu looked at Cream. There was something about her...suddenly she snapped her fingers.

"You look familiar. Are you by chance related to a Vanilla Rabbit?"

Cream's eyes widened. A smile could be found on her face maybe this person knew who her mother was. "Yes! She's my mother, how do you know her?"

Mizu smiled as did Tails. "Oh, she was in here a few weeks ago, she was in pretty bad shape. Apparently she had nearly escaped being turned into one of Eggman's robots."

"Is she here now?"

"No, sorry, she left saying something about finding her daughter."

"Do you know where she is?"

"No, she wouldn't tell us where we were going." She noticed Cream's disappointed expression, "I'm sorry, but that's all I know."

Cream nodded and Tails rested a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, its better than what we had thought before, Cream."

"Yes, I knew she was alive, even when you guys wouldn't believe me."

"We couldn't find her. But we should be able to now." Cream nodded. "Maybe we should stay here for the night and get some rest." Cream nodded again, and Tails looked up at Mizu, "Would that be a problem."

"Not at all."

!-End chapter Five-!

And here I thought I wasn't going to use any OCs at all for this story...oh well.

Know your Japanese Shiro- White

Tora- Tiger

Mizu- Water

Hoseki- Gem