Chapter 2: Reforming the Flyers
It didn't take long for Tails and Amy to get to the centre of Station Square to try and find their friends again.
But when they got close to the arena, they noticed some security tape taping off the arena plaza's entrance.
'What's going on here? Some kind of security blockade?' Tails thought to himself as he tried to see his friends through the commotion.
And when the couple did find their friends, they were already locked into an intense argument.
"You expect us to believe you after what happened a few months ago!?" Silver yelled at a certain cat as Tails and Amy arrived.
"Oh thank god, Tails… I need your he-" Blaze began to say before being cut off.
"Silence you… Miles, Blaze here wanted to convince us that she saw a lot of commotion prior to this… new tournament that is about to happen, but considering she was a part of that whole mess a few months ago, me and Silver here haven't believed a word she said." Shadow quickly explained as Blaze saw there with arms crossed.
All Tails and Amy could do was look on in confusion at the scene they're witnessing in front of them.
"Can we at least hear Blaze's side of the story before we jump to conclusions?" Tails simply asked, to which Shadow scoffed at.
"Oh please, Miles. She could still be under the Doctor's influence for all we know." Shadow replied back, obviously not convinced.
Amy shot a dirty look at Shadow as she stepped in closer.
"Just let her fucking talk, Shadow. Or my hammer will be doing the talking to your skull." Amy said, threatening Shadow.
Shadow merely stepped back, with a poker face expression as even he's not stupid enough to cross Amy when she's angry.
"Honestly, be my guest, I'd like to hear it too without Shadow's interrupting." Silver said, quickly stepping back before Amy threatened him too.
Amy, satisfied with the men's answers, calmed down and stepped back behind Tails.
"Now then, Blaze… Please explain your story to us, if you may…" Tails said, having regained control of the situation.
Blaze simply nodded, with an expression mixed of seriousness and the faintest signs of relief that at least SOMEONE was willing to listen to her.
She sighed a bit before talking, wanting to regain her composure.
"So, as I was saying before Silver and Shadow began to hound me… I saw Eggman with several suspicious figures a while ago, possibly his "supporters" of his upcoming tournament, talking and laughing about the capture of a few of our friends… again. Supposedly, they have re-captured Knuckles and Sonic and even collaborated with some "Antis" of ourselves." Blaze explained as the rest of her comrades listened in.
But for Tails and Amy, it was their worst-case scenario.
Not only did they have to go up against Eggman and his co-conspirators, but they also have to deal with Moebious as well?
What did they do to deserve this kind of bad luck?
"Go on then, did you pick up on anything else they said?" Tails asked Blaze.
All Blaze could do was shake her head.
"No, but I do have suspicions that they're going to make this tournament more of a hellish hotbed than before, which is why I want to try and help you, Tails. I want to be a part of your team for the Mineral Cup." Blaze said, giving a bit of a shocked reaction from Tails himself.
But it was at this point where Shadow had enough.
"Oh, now I've fucking cracked the puzzle. You want to be a part of our team so that way when it's time for the Final, you'll back-stab us and throw the game to win for the Doctor. Is that the way you want to play this!?" Shadow angrily said, with Blaze unfazed as she retained a look of royal seriousness.
But what Tails said would derail Shadow's train of thought.
"Shadow. Enough. We can worry about backstabbers later. For now, we're just going to have to put the water under the bridge and work with Blaze here. And if any backstabbing happens, we'll be ready for it." Tails said to Shadow, making his intentions very clear.
And while Silver allowed himself a breath of relief from Tails being sensible, Shadow just scoffed again.
"Hmph… Naive as always, Miles… but fine. If you want to play along, that's fine by me. Just don't cry to me when the back-stab happens…" Shadow said, begrudgingly giving in.
Silver just merely nodded as he gave his approval without any melodramatic drama.
"Thank you, Tails. I won't let you down." Blaze simply said, before the cat and fox shook hands, sealing their agreement.
However, at that point, the tape around the arena was cut, and a familiar rabbit ran towards them.
"TAILS!" Cream screamed as she ran and moreorless bum rushed into Tails, knocking him down to the concrete of the street.
"C-Cream, what in the world!?" Tails simply replied as he was attempting to recover from the sudden knockdown.
"Oh Tails, it's horrible! Scourge and Rosy are here!" Cream quickly explained, short of breath as she was on the teetering edge of hyper-ventilating.
Everyone knew what that meant. Blaze was telling the truth after all.
So, with the team reformed, Tails filled out the Mineral Cup form and on their way back to the arena, filed the form with the arena staff.
"Everything's in order, welcome back to competition, Tails." A clerk said to Tails as his team immediately went into the arena, with a quick thank you being uttered by the fox.
And as Tails and his friends suited back up in their sweaters, they knew that they had an uphill battle ahead of them.
But they wouldn't realize just how uphill the upcoming battle was really going to be.
And they wouldn't realize that their hastiness would turn into the tournament not appearing as it seemed on the surface.
End of Chapter
