Anywho, I present chapter 5. Please review!
Chapter 5: A Living MachineIf Doctor Quack were to describe Knothole's main hospital, located close to the hospital grounds, 'sterile' would definitely be it. The walls were pure white, and the atmosphere was one full of antibiotics- a far cry from the hut he used to operate in before the fall of Robotnik. He had been disappointed at the move at first as he missed the character of his hut, but there was no getting in the way of progress.
After Robotropolis had been destroyed, the population of Knothole had skyrocketed due to the huge amounts of Mobians being de-robotisized. The town had quickly grown to a city, but as new buildings were constructed every effort had been made to keep the defensive capability of the Great Forest intact. No buildings reached over the canopy, and were all coloured in natural hues so that they were very difficult to locate. Even such large buildings as Acorn Palace, where the royal family now took residence, was invisible unless one knew where to look.
The hospital shared a similar tactic of concealment. Built both above and under ground level, it looked like any normal hill from outside. Get closer, and you could see windows cut into its sloping sides.
But despite this covering of grass and soil, it was still very artificial inside. White, the colour of death- white, for the dying.
Quack was tired, the result of a long night-through-days work. It was late afternoon now, through which he had spent hours working on Tails, putting together the report the royal family had requested on the boy. He knew better than to put it off, as it wouldn't be wise to make Sonic angry at him- and he knew that would happen if there was a delay. Proof was in the panicked way the hedgehog had burst in through the main door yesterday evening, carrying the battered and bleeding form of a familiar two-tailed fox in his arms.
He'd always rather liked Tails. He had been a good kid, remaining wide-eyed and innocent despite the fact that Robotnik had killed his entire family before he had got to know them. Always cheerful and optimistic, would never have hurt a fly- one of the many reasons why he had laughed at the idea of him committing Ari.
As soon as the boy had arrived, he'd been moved to the operating theatre where the doctor had done everything he could to stabilise his condition. As it turned out however, he didn't really need to do much except to replace some of his lost blood and supply some greatly needed nutrients for his skinny frame.
As soon as he had noticed the giveaway signs of Robotnik's work in Tails' body, the team operating on him had begun to sum up exactly what had been grafted into his body. The results were slightly disturbing to him, yet on the other hand were hopeful- after all, Tales had not become a drone like the others of... his kind. He was most unique.
Though the corridors may have seemed endless to anyone else, to him they were simply a nuisance, placed between him and his destination, which was in this case one of the lecture theatres used normally to address trainee nurses, doctors, and surgeons. Today, however, it held a somewhat more famous group. As he walked in through the double doors located at one side of the stage at the front before the stepped seating dragging his old briefcase as he did so, he eyed the group sitting near the front, doing his best to ignore the tense atmosphere. There were two big issues right now for them to face- the sudden return of the fox who was considered collectively to be their child and his rather unnerving developments, as well as it being in synchronisation with an attack. It was all rumours at the moment for none of the Freedom Fighters had officially given anything away, but it was thought that they had been attacked by a force of Swatbots. They hadn't been seen active since Robotnik was in power...
Quack was seeing a link. He was hoping that he was wrong, and there was evidence against it, but Tails could have a hand in their operation... After all, both he and the robots were very much 'constructed' by the now-dead dictator.
Still, he had to concentrate on his report right now. The leaders of the Knothole Freedom Fighters wanted to know everything they could about him before the council meeting this evening. In the theatre there was, of course, Princess Sally Acorn dressed in her casual wear of blue boots and jacket. Her fiancée, Sonic Hedgehog, sat on her right with his arm around her in a comforting manner. Bunnie was there too, as was Antoine, Rotor, and Amy, all in casual wear also. They were watching him carefully.
And that made sense, he supposed. They all had strong relations with Tails, or at least some regret for allowing him to leave. Even Antoine, who had assumed him to be guilty at first, had attempted to make up for it- sometimes he told bedtime stories to the kids at the palace orphanage school in which Amy worked, and most of them involved a heroic character named 'Tails the Fox'.
He placed his briefcase on the desk at the front of the room and turned on the nearby computer console. It booted up quickly, and he searched for records under the name of 'Prower, Miles'. It was barely a few seconds until he found them, but he did not open them, instead opting to turn to the assembled group and begin to give his account.
"Your Highness," he said with a bow to Sally, "I have the report you requested at the ready. With your permission...?"
"Yes, proceed please, doctor Quack," she said nervously. He took a deep breath- this wasn't going to be easy.
"Subject: Miles Prower. Age: 23. Species... Well, There's no getting around it, so I'll just come out and say it. I'm sorry Sally, Sonic, but Tails is closer to being a Cyborg than a normal fox now."
"Wha, what do you mean by that, doc?" Sonic spluttered. "If he ain't normal, and he ain't a Cyborg, than... what is he? He's still got his mind, right, I mean he is still Tails, right?"
Dr. Quack sighed, trying to straighten out his thoughts.
"He shows the signs of a product of Robotnik, but on the other hand there are quite a few inconsistencies with what we have seen before. I'll try to explain.
"Alright, first... what has been added to him. As you can see from this x-ray," he said whilst waving his arm to the image on the monitor, "his bones are almost a solid white. This immediately interested us in the operating theatre, so we looked into the wound, and there we caught a glimpse of one of his ribs. It wasn't white like you'd expect bone to be; instead it was a very shiny chrome. We followed it through with more x-rays, and the results all point to him having a fully metal skeleton. Now this isn't uncommon in the old Cyborgs, it appears to be one of the first instalments that Robotnik made- however, after stitching the cut we noticed that the later pictures showed something we had never seen before.
"We had...white 'dots' converging around the wound. No one knew what they were, so we opened him up again and checked for anything unusual. Eventually, nurse Katrina noticed that there were silver grains moving around- around the wound, you understand. Tails was stable, so we stood back and watched what they were doing."
He paused, trying to form the words of what had soon seen happening. It was so incredible, so new that he had a hard time expressing what a discovery it was.
"They were healing him. Completely. I don't know how they worked, but they were like little machines, breaking down old tissue and restructuring it where it was most needed. Within two hours, it had healed completely, with only a faint scar to show for it. At this very moment, whilst he remains unconscious, he is perfectly healthy. The only thing that shows he has been in a fight is that the tip of his right ear is missing- but other than that..."
The doctor trailed off, looking around at the stunned faces. They seemed to leap out from the pure white walls at him, demanding information.
So, he continued.
"Moving on and taking into consideration of your accounts of the fight the other day, we observe signs of the more common features of the Cyborg models. If I'm correct, then muscles have been given an artificial boost, making him stronger than what you'd expect. Also, his nervous system has been enhanced, increasing the accuracy of his senses- hearing, smell, touch and so forth. These two combined mean that he has faster reflexes than the rest of us- the senses to know something is going to happen, and the strength to move fast enough to react to it. But, like I said, we've seen this sort of thing before.
"All the models we have seen so far from records and plans in Robotropolis have had some combination of weaponry built into the body. Tails is no exception, though he is one of the few armed exclusively for hand-to-hand combat."
He pressed a button on his console, changing the wall display to an x-ray image of a forearm and hand. Within, placed between the solid white representation of his bones, were three lines that almost touched in a point just in front of the elbow.
"Six very sharp retractable blades – three in each arm – or you could call them claws I suppose, made from the same metal as his bones. They are positioned in the forearm and are operated by what appears to be pneumatics. Note the three pistons running down the length of the bones. The x-rays of his body show wires running next to his nervous system and to his brain, for control no doubt.
"His brain is where things get really... interesting, however."
He touched the button on the console once more, and the x-ray changed to a front view of Tails' skull. It looked relatively normal except for the left eye, in which a bionic construction was clearly visible.
"He has a bionic eye, as you can see here. Unlike previous models, however, this one is not external- it is built in and around the eye socket, linking up to a small hard drive behind. I think the idea is that it is to be used as a recording device, a camera if you will, whilst doubling up as an actual eye for Tails to see though."
"But when we were with him, he looked completely normal... Shouldn't a mechanical eye look out of place?" Amy asked with a frown.
"He's got a fake covering, like a really big contact lens. We temporarily removed it to make sure that the x-rays were correct, and he does indeed have a mechanical eye beneath it. It's a bit creepy to see actually, reminds me of Robotnik's eyes... All black, with a small blue lens in the middle. It probably glows when he's awake, it would be just like Robotnik to add a feature like that... For intimidation, you see.
Anyway, as I said, this is where there is something very strange. Every single Cyborg I have studied has had part of their brain computerised, so that they can be programmed and still retain natural movements to carry out their task. Tails, however, does not have this- it appears that a great part of the computer section hasn't been installed. There is a socket here," he said whilst pointing to the spot above the mechanical eye, "probably through which he would have been programmed- but after that there is nothing, except here..."
He pointed between the eyes on Tails' x-ray, where – barely visible – was a solid white box shape.
"A hormonal restraint. Every Cyborg had them. They are designed to stop the body releasing chemicals that trigger emotional reactions- love, anger, fear and so forth, but if anything that I have heard from Amy and Bunnie is true than it isn't working." The doctor looked at the girls. "You said he got angry in Chestnut, correct?"
"Yeah, he was being sarcastic 'n everythin'," Bunnie said.
"Cyborg's aren't supposed to be emotional, if they were than it would be harder for Robotnik to control them. If Tails is having emotional reactions, then it means that his restraint isn't working. They are usually linked directly to the computer portion of his brain, but the x-rays show no computer.
"This brings me back to my original point. He has features of a Cyborg and Robotnik's signature is all over him. However, things like the lack of a computer and the behaviour that Amy and Bunnie mentioned rule out the possibility that he is a Cyborg."
"So... What exactly is he then? What's happened to him?" Sally asked quietly.
"That isn't an easy question to answer, Sally," Dr. Quack said gravely. "You see, as I have just stated he has many artificial implants, done with such skill and ingenuity that only Robotnik could be responsible. But there are flaws which could have easily been fixed in his design.
"Okay. He has a metal skeleton, retractable blades in his arms, a bionic eye, an improved metabolism so that he heals quickly, and (supposedly) enhanced muscle tissue and nervous system. But the brain, as I have stated, has barely been touched- the only artificial connection to it is from the bionic eye, and as far as I can tell that is just to allow him to see out of it."
The doctor looked around the group slowly, taking note of their expressions- on the whole, they looked both interested and confused.
"This means," he continued, "that he is able to think for himself. He can do whatever he likes, he is a sentient being. Robotnik was not trusting enough to allow one of his creations to be independent, especially one who was undergoing Freedom Fighter training, which leads me to believe that Tails is... incomplete."
"What? Why would've 'Buttnik let Tails go part way through? That doesn't make any sense!" Sonic said with a frown.
"Yes, I agree," the doctor spoke with a nod.
"Maybe he lost interest in the lil' fella," Bunnie said.
"I don't think so. He'd have simply killed him if that were the case. No, what I think is that he takes on from Sonic and escaped... before the process was finished."
"There are a few features that support this theory. For example, his armament- you've seen him use these claws, and by the sounds of it they are in pristine working order. I expect that the same method of keeping him healed is also used to keep the blades sharp and ready. And this is all well and good, except for one thing. There are no holes in the skin between his knuckles, only scar tissue. It appears that whenever he 'fires' these claws, they have to punch through his skin, which as I'm sure you can tell, must be very painful. He'd lose blood from them this way too, so they are actually somewhat of a double-edged sword.
"If Robotnik had been able to complete him no doubt this problem would have been resolved as soon as possible, and all it would have taken was to cut and prepare openings for them. Nothing too difficult."
There was a thoughtful silence.
"Could you do that for him?" Amy asked. "So that it doesn't hurt anymore... He's been through enough already."
"It's already done." The doctor said, smiling slightly. "We cut slits in the skin between his knuckles, so he'll be fine to use them now."
"So how long has he had these, uh, features?" Rotor asked.
"He mentioned having the claws for over nine years, so it must have been within a year of leavin' Knothole "Bunnie said. The doctor nodded at her.
"That would make sense. You see, the claws are each around a foot in length. They would not have fit into Tails' arms when he was still a child, so he would have had to have grown very quickly to be legible for the alteration by Robotnik before the final attack on Robotropolis. We know for a fact that Robotnik worked out a way to increase the speed of aging, and Tails shows all the signs of it- worn and poorly grown fur, skinny appearance, and besides he just looks tired all the time. Even when he's unconscious.
"This, of course, affects his lifespan drastically. The records from Robotropolis show that Robotnik only wanted the subject to grow to an adult stage as fast as possible, little else mattered to him. This uses a great deal of the body's capability, so it cuts down on life expectancy- I think that it's reasonable to say that Tails will pass away at around 35. That's not counting his regenerative ability of course, but I have no idea what effect that will have, if any. Like I said before, it's a feature which I have never seen before."
"This regeneration," Sally said quietly, "was there anything about it in the records taken from Robotropolis?"
"I checked," Quack said grimly. "There's absolutely nothing. I tried to find if he matched any of the classes that Robotnik designed, but the only one anywhere near was the Chymeleon. And Tails can't be one of those, because he's missing the metal tail and blaster... The only information about him available to us is in his head." He paused, and briefly rubbed the feathers between his eyes.
"That's about all I can tell you."
"Is there any way he can be de-robotisized, 'jus like ah was?" Bunnie asked.
"I'm afraid not," Quack answered, bowing his head. "Cyborgs are not created like the drones from robotisization. The only parts of Tails that have been robotisized are his bones, and then they have been altered to accommodate the claws and such. De-robotisizing him would cause all kinds of chaos in his body, and would probably kill him.
"But, when you consider what has been done to him... He very much is all you could want from a fighter. As cruel as it sounds, it would be better for us if he were to stay as he is and join the Freedom Fighters. He would be a great asset."
Bunnie's expression immediately moved to one of anger.
"Yah mean like ah was? Like a tool, huh? Only useful 'cause of his claws!"
Quack winced at her verbal tirade.
"Bunnie, please..." Sally said, interrupting the argument before it could really begin. "I... I won't force Tails, but I'll try anything to convince him to stay."
"How about just recruiting him into the Freedom Fighters?" Sonic said. There was a moment of silence as Amy and Bunnie looked at each other.
"Sonic... Ah don't think that would be as easy as ya seem ta think," Bunnie responded sadly. "When we met up with Tails in Chestnut, he had some real problems with Sally-girl and y'self. He said he didn't want to see either of ya, and he'd only show us back here if we promised that he wouldn't."
"Nah, that isn't Tails! He's my best bud, he wouldn't say something like that!"
"But he did, Sonic," Amy pointed out. "He isn't really 'Tails' anymore. He called himself Miles, and has some real issues with you. He got really angry whenever we mentioned you or Sally... As if he blames you for what happened."
"No way! C'mon Sal, let's go and see him now, he might have woken up if he's healed already."
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The first thing he felt as he returned to consciousness was pain from a blinding white light. He groaned, lifting an arm to cover his eyes as he blinked them open, and attempted to get his bearings.
The walls were a painfully sterile white. The ceiling was a stale grey. He was lying on a soft bed with white covers.
It could only be a hospital.
He lifted himself to a seated position, looking around as his eyes adjusted- the light came from the setting sun through an open window past the foot of his bed, as did a soft breeze and faint aroma of vegetation. Various charts were pinned to the walls, and another three beds were positioned around the room.
'Yep, definitely a hospital.'
Having observed his surroundings, his brain switched to the second stage of recovery- had he healed?
Yes, it appeared so. No pains, no blood, and the familiar aching in his bones was there, a trace from the healing nanobots returning to their housing in his metal skeleton.
Now if he could remember why he was here- ah yes, they had been attacked by Swatbots when nearing Knothole. Shadow, his friend-turned-Cyborg had engaged him in combat, had one, and... let him live.
The fact that machines had attacked was an alarming thought, accompanied by a still-working Cyborg (which should have been impossible). But that was overshadowed by something which, to Miles' mind, was even more terrifying- they had been close to the Great Forest when he had been knocked out. Sonic, Sally, and other Freedom Fighters had been there. And now he was in a hospital, the nearest of which to where they had been was in Knothole.
He began to get a sinking feeling. Deciding that it was perhaps a good time to leave, he swung his legs across the side of the bed and reached for his old jacket, neatly folded and placed on a small desk nearby.
Unfortunately, a nurse entering the room quickly cut off his escape.
"Leaving so soon?" she asked sharply.
He stared right back at her whilst pulling on his grey jacket, standing against the hostility in her voice. The nurse, a ginger cat, was standing with her arms crossed with a fake smile plastered on her face. Her eyes were completely different, however. He knew that look- he had seen it whenever someone realised that he wasn't normal, that he was actually part machine.
It was a sad thing. Mobius had stood united against Robotnik, but as soon as the war was over petty differences between people had become more and more obvious. The most extreme was between normal Mobians and the minority group of Mobians with mechanical limbs or bodies because of robotisization. The people in power usually didn't seem to realise it, but not everyone could afford de-robotisization. Those who couldn't were dubbed 'mechs' by the normal people, and became the new targets of racism. You'd rarely see a mech with a decent job, or being treated well by an everyday norm.
"Just wanted some fresh air," he growled in reply to her question as he pulled out the IV drip from his left arm.
"I'm sorry sir, but you have to remain here for now. Princess Sally has ordered that you are kept under protection until further notice."
The words sent alarm bells ringing in his head. If Princess Sally had ordered this nurse to make sure he stayed here, then that meant that he was Knothole. And the Walkers knew, he did not want to be in Knothole.
"Alright, well I'll just open this window then," he said with a fake smile whilst moving to the window. Ignoring the nurse, he slid it further open all the way, leaned out and breathed in deep of the evening air.
Miles waited, and after a few moments he heard the door close. A glance confirmed that the nurse had left. Deciding that this was probably going to be his best chance, he jumped backwards over the window ledge whilst willing his claws to extend.
As he punched them into the wall just below the window, abruptly halting his fall, a number of odd things presented themselves to the fox. Firstly, the wall was very slightly tilted forward and was covered in grass, like an artificial hill. He was only about two stories up, and could see that his room had been on the top floor.
The second thing was that his fists did not hurt. And they weren't bleeding, either. With a frown, he pulled out the right one and retracted the three blades, looking over his knuckles with a critical eye. He could see three slits in the skin, just beneath his fur- and those had definitely not been there when he had last checked.
It clicked to him then, that the Freedom Fighters had operated on him. That would explain these 'gills' between his knuckles, as well as the looks that the nurse was giving him.
They knew that he was a Cyborg.
He growled in anger, and forced himself to focus on the present. No use in devoting attention to the fact that most of Knothole would now consider him part of an oppressed minority, no, better to work out a way to get out of here as quickly as possible. But what about his payment and equipment? This was not going to be easy-
"Tails!"
The shout of his old nickname caught him off guard. His back automatically straightened, throwing his weight back and neatly sliding his left set of claws out of the grassy wall.
With a cry he fell backwards to the courtyard of the hospital below, only just catching himself with his tails before he made painful contact with the ground. A flick of them was al that was needed to spin him to his feet, crouched and ready for a fight.
Six Mobians looked at him in surprise at his rather unorthodox entry. It seemed to him like his luck hadn't changed- who else could they be but the leaders of the Freedom Fighters, and of Knothole itself.
He felt he could face just about any horror in the world, could take on machine and organic creature alike without a problem, and he had put up with a horribly unfair life until now to prove it. But the one thing, the only thing in all of Mobius that he was utterly afraid of was this- facing his surrogate parents.
'C'mon, you've faced Bunnie and Amy, you can do this...' he thought whilst gritting his teeth. He bowed casually, even though he felt most uncomfortable, and gave a greeting whilst pulling all of his claws back into their housing.
"Highness."
It was quite an effort to shop shaking when Sally smiled widely.
"Tails, you don't need to call me that! And I'm glad to see that you're up and about so quickly-"
"With all due respect, your highness, it is only right that I call you by your proper title."
Sally stopped short, looking at him in confusion.
"Ah'm sorry Miles, we tried to tell them," Bunnie said, looking at him guiltily.
"W- huh?" Sonic said, looking quite confused.
"This was never part of the deal, Rabbot. In fact, I recall it being part of the deal that I would not be put in this situation."
As always happened when he thought of Sonic and Sally, those who were almost his parents, the fear quickly gave way to a strange anger.
It was their fault that he had become this... thing.
"I want double the rates. No, make that triple. And don't start giving me that shit about them noticing it's gone from the treasury, because they damn well know that I'm here now."
Sally looked shocked. "Tails! W-what, watch your language!" she spluttered.
"My name is Miles, your worshipfulness. Use it." He turned his attention back to Bunnie. "6000 credits, and then I leave."
The leaders stood looking at him in shock, all except for Bunnie and Amy. They had seen this coming. He could tell.
Amy took that moment to intervene, defusing the hostile situation as quickly as possible.
"It's getting late, and we have the meeting soon, right?" she said, looking directly at Bunnie. "I'll take Miles to his room, you guys go and get ready."
"Uh, yeah, c'mon Sally-girl, let's go. We can talk to Miles later, when he ain't so tired," Bunnie said whilst pulling on the princess' shoulder. Amy meanwhile didn't waste time, dragging the fox away and across the hospital courtyard. He followed willingly, glad to be away from the Freedom Fighters.
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Amy led him to what was apparently the royal palace, a large wooden structure that was even bigger than the hospital. Despite this it was not so tall that it would protrude above the canopy of the forest, which was quite an impressive feat as far as Miles was concerned.
The two made their way through the palace corridors on the second floor with surprising speed. Amy obviously knew where she was going, whilst Miles had to admit that he didn't have a clue... This was all new to him.
"You didn't have to be so mean, you know," Amy said quietly. "Have you any idea how worried she's been about you?"
Miles growled behind her back.
"I know, it's just..."
He trailed off. How could he explain what he felt? It was as if there were two people in his mind, one who was guilty and the other who was angry. Getting a straight thought about them out without falling from one to the other was as difficult as reading a book and giving an entirely different speech at the same time.
"Will you make up with them?" she asked.
"Don't count on it."
She rubbed her temples in frustration.
"This is your room," the pink hedgehog said abruptly, as she stopped and opened a wooden door on her left. "It's one of the rooms designed for students attending the orphanage school downstairs."
"This is a dorm room?" he said with a frown. "I'm going to be living around students?"
"Yeah. They... Their parents were all Freedom Fighters, some died against Robotnik and some against gangs after the war ended. The youngest is only eight..."
"Cream lives here, doesn't she," he said quietly. It was a spot of annoyance for him that, whilst he was hardened to the world form his past experiences, he still had a soft spot for kids. Especially orphans, like himself.
"Her room is just down the hall. I'm sorry, it's all we could get you on such short notice- all of the other rooms in the palace are being used. But look on the bright side, at least the kids like you."
He blinked. "Huh? ...they do?"
"Yeah. Cream's been telling them all about you during lessons." The pink hedgehog grinned at him as he walked into the apartment room. "She just wouldn't stop talking today, always saying what a hero you were and how she knows that you're going to be okay soon. I'm starting to think that she has a crush on you."
He groaned, causing her to laugh.
"You really live up to Antoine's stories as far as she's concerned."
"Antoine's stories?" he asked, looking at her over his shoulder. She followed him into the room. "What stories?"
"Sometimes in the evening I ask him to make sure that the kids have gone to bed, and some of the younger students ask for stories. And, well, you know how jealous he is of Sonic. He just can't tell a good story about him, so he made up adventures starring you, 'Miles 'Tails' Prower' instead."
Miles didn't know how to react to that. To be honest, he'd never spent much time thinking about Antoine- the coyote annoyed him too much to do so. He had rarely thought about his childhood here for seven years at least, for whenever he did he felt an incredibly strong flux of bad feelings like jealousy, anger, and resentment, and he didn't like it because it felt a little unnatural to him. After all, he did not hate any of the inhabitants of Knothole. To be perfectly honest, he was terrified of them, especially Sonic and Sally. The thought that he had disappointed them (and he knew that they would be disappointed with him if they knew of just a few crimes he had committed over the last few years) made him feel queasy and frightened, it filled him with regret- but then, his pattern of thought would take a sudden, almost inevitable twist. It was their fault that Robotnik had caught him. It was their fault that he had been forced to live on the streets of Chestnut. And it was their fault that he was now part machine.
The anger from that realisation always took over him, just as it had earlier. The only use that it had was to take away the guilt for being a disappointment.
He decided not to respond to Amy, and instead looked around the room. It was certainly an improvement over what he had in Chestnut- two nice, comfy beds (obviously students were expected to share), dry wooden walls, a green carpet, large window, desk and chair, radio, even a small bathroom through a door near the entrance. There were wardrobes and cupboards too.
Obviously, the royal family spared no expense for these kids. And this was only a spare room. The reason for it was quite clear to Miles though, they wanted the orphans to be loyal to the crown alone. They were all destined for high places among the Knothole hierarchy, such as diplomats, governors, even Freedom Fighter leaders.
Miles knew he wasn't the smartest of people (after all, he had never finished his education), but he could put two and two together. He did not trust Knothole Freedom Fighters at all, and that included Amy, who was currently standing behind him. Odds are that he could easily be given a room elsewhere, away from these... 'trainees', but of course if he were then he would not be influenced by their school-disguised training.
'Figures', he thought darkly.
"So? Will you be alright in here?" Amy asked. He glanced at her.
"Yes, this is fine. After all, I'll be leaving tomorrow."
"Uh... You can't go tomorrow."
He turned to glare at her. "Why not?"
"Sally has ordered a lock down because of the machine attack, no one goes in or out of Knothole until she gives the word that it's okay."
Of course, the machine attack. And with what they knew, odds are that they'd think that he had something to do with it.
"Do... You know anything about why we were attacked?"
Bingo.
"No, I don't. You Freedom Fighters should be more worried about that than you appear to be, you know."
"There's a meeting to discuss it in about half an hour, I'm going in a few minutes."
"When will Sally let me leave?"
There was silence for a moment. That was all the answer he felt he needed, but Amy replied anyway.
"She will probably keep you here as long as possible, what with how intent to leave you are."
Amy was silent, and he watched her carefully. He could see emotions running through her eyes.
"Goodnight Miles. Sleep well."
He nodded and turned away as she made for the door, but she paused for a moment before she got there.
"I'm glad you're back here now, Tails," she said. He guessed there was some meaning behind what she had called him, but he did not care to work it out right now.
He heard the door close behind him, and let out a sigh when he guessed that she had left the area. There was probably a camera around, watching what he was doing, but he was too tired to deal with it right now. So, he dropped onto one of the beds and got under the covers, savouring the comfort and warmth that it offered. After all, it had been a long time since he had gone to sleep in a real bed, and not just woken up in one.
But he was not looking forward to tomorrow.