One thing that Sonic had learned early on was that a resistance generally didn't have a lot of funds most of the time. Once in a while a particularly crafty noble could come up with a way to covertly 'support the downtrodden' as it were, but the movement wouldn't survive if they banked on that. So any self respecting soldier of the resistance learned to make things last. Sometimes this meant pushing some gear or vehicle just a touch past what might be considered safe. Other times it meant striping down broken tech for any spare parts. But most often, it involved what the royal siblings were doing now…

"Ew, ew, ew," Sonia whined, trying to kick some unidentifiable sludge off her boots.

...Sifting through a junkyard for anything useful.

"A junkyard," she grumbled. "It had to be a junkyard. Couldn't have been something nice like a recon mission or a raid. Mother sends us to a literal TRASH PILE!"

"Regular part of a resistance, S.A.P," Sonic said with an eye roll. "Get used to it."

"It's disgusting, is what it is!"

She flicked the last of the slime off and shuddered.

"Oh, you think this is bad?" Sonic asked with a nasty smirk. "You're lucky this is the rich side of town. It can get much worse."

Sonia merely fixed him with a glare.

"Are we sure this is the best option?" she finally asked.

"Don't have many others," he said with a shrug.

"There can't be anything useful in here."

"You'd be surprised at what rich people throw away, sis."

"One of us is gonna get sick or-" She stopped as her eyes glanced at a particularly rusty piece of metal.

"Hey, Sonic?"

"Hm?"

"You've had your shots, right?" She asked. "For tetanus and the like?"

"Oh, yeah. Uncle Chuck got most of that taken care of before…" He rolled his wrist. "You know. You?"

"Of course," she scoffed. "But what about Manic?"

"You'd have to ask him that," Sonic said with a shrug. "But Manic's a big boy. He knows not to get hurt."

Sonia was silent for a second.

"And Miles?"

Sonic flinched.

"Uh," he coughed and turned away. " This isn't Tails' first time in a junkyard."

Sonia narrowed her eyes at him.

"Sonic," she growled. "Does. He. Have. His. Shots."

Sonic refused to look at her and crossed his arms.

"Pr-probably?"

"SONIC!"

"I don't know!" he cried, throwing up his hands. "I haven't been able to get the brat to a doctor in the three years I've known him."

Sonic sighed and put a hand to his forehead.

"If I even bring it up, he clams up and bolts. Kid is terrified the docs are gonna take him away and experiment on him." He turned back to Sonia with a frown. "I tried once, to force it, and he gave me this look and I… I haven't had the heart to try again."

Sonia sighed.

"Still…" she started. "We need to get him his shots."

"If you can get him to go without traumatizing the kid, go ahead."

"I will."

"Will what?" Tails asked as he and Manic walked around a junkpile.

"After this we're all going for a check-up," she declared. "Who knows what sort of stuff is hiding in the cesspool."

"Yo, sis. I doubt I need to go," Manic said. "Ferral was really big on makin' sure all us 'rat pack' weren't gonna' get sick."

"I've had all my shots!" Tails practically cried. "Mom took me and said I don't have to go back for a few years!"

He hugged one of his tails to his chest.

"Do I have to?" He asked softly.

"Er… W-well,"

"MOM GOT YOU TO GO!?" Sonic yelled as Tails' words finally registered. "How!? It took me three days to find you when I tried and I thought you'd never talk to me again after."

"I don't know," Tails said shyly. "I wanted to run." He looked away and blushed. "But then she did this thing where she put her hands on her hips and gave me this look and was all 'Miles Tails Prower, if you run, I will be very disappointed in you. I know you're afraid, but do not make me chase after you.'"

"That explains it," Sonic said with a chuckle.

"Indeed," Sonia echoed.

"What?" Tails asked, tilting his head. "What'd she do? After she said that I couldn't move. It was really weird."

"Looks like Mother has been using Miles to practice her 'mom voice'."

Manic slung an arm over Tails' shoulder.

"She's hit me with it too, T-2," he said with a grin. "She had her back to me and I tried snaggin' some spare parts for my board. Next thing I hear is just 'Manic Hedgehog, if I turn around to find you stealing parts again I will be very disappointed'." Manic threw his head back and laughed. "Don't think I've dropped somethin that fast before in my life."

"That's kinda creepy," Tails muttered.

"That is just mothers for you," Sonia responded with a shrug. "You get used to it."

Sonic shook his head fondly.

"Well, with that taken care of, let's get back to looking for anything we can use."

"I highly doubt there is anything for me among this junk," Sonia grumbled.

"Oh yeah!" Tails started shrugging off Manic's arm. "Me and Manic-"

"Manic and I," she corrected.

The three each raised a brow.

"Sorry," she said with a cough. "Force of habit."

"So Manic and I," Tails continued, a small bit of sass slipping in. "We found this old motorcycle in some wreckage. We were coming back to ask if you wanted any parts from it."

"What was that about there not-"

"Zip it," she warned.

She sighed.

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt to look at it. Lead the way."

"It's just behind this junk pile."

Sonic began digging through another pile as the group wandered off.

"It looked pretty advanced," Tails said as they rounded the pile. " Maybe we can use it to soup up your bike?"

"Doubt it," Sonia said with pride. "Aside from that chaos converter, I've tuned her up to perfection. Still, it's always good to have spare paAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

In a flash, Sonic dashed after his siblings, only to find himself confused as she stood with wide eyes pointing at the bike they had found.

"Geez, Sonia," Manic gripped. "Think me an' T-2 just tied for vertical take-off."

"I can't believe it," she mumbled.

"Hey, Sis," Sonic called. Mind tellin' us why you gave me a heart attack?"

"Of all the places."

The three brothers glanced at each other.

"Uh, sis?" Sonic called again. "Sonia? You still with us?"

At some unheard signal, Sonia squealed and dashed towards the bike.

"I can't believe it's here," she gushed. "Who in their right mind would throw away something like this!"

She touched the frame reverently.

"I didn't think I'd ever be able to see even a piece of one."

"Sonia!" Sonic yelled.

"What?" she grumbled.

"Mind sharing what's got your attention with the rest of the class?" Sonic asked, gesturing to himself and his brothers.

"Yeah," Tails said. "You're acting like Amy when she first saw Sonic."

"Who?" Manic asked.

"Not important," Sonic said, throwing a glare at his little bro.

"Do you guys not know what this is," Sonia asked in shock.

"Looks like a regular old motorcycle ta me, sis," Manic said with a shrug.

"This, my uninformed brothers, isn't just a 'regular old motorcycle'" she said, once again in reverence. "This is a Moberry 5000."

"Okay, and?" Sonic said with a raised brow.

"AND, it's one of the rarest bikes in existence," she said. "They only made fifty of them. Any gear-head would give just about anything to have one. I always wanted one, but Lady Windemire said that even getting a frame would bankrupt us. The closest I ever had was a poster."

"So it's an old collectors piece," Sonic said with a roll of his eyes.

"It's more than just a collectors piece," Sonia startled. "It's a miracle of engineering. This thing was designed a hundred years ago and even then it could still top 200 easy

"Pft, only 200," Sonic scoffed.

"May not seem like much to you 'Mr Speed-limits-are-just-suggestions' but back then it was a marvel."

"Are you sure it's not like a reproduction or something?" Tails asked.

Sonia scoffed. "Trust me Miles. I've spent so long studying Moberry 500s that if this thing isn't legit, I'll eat my wrench set." She let out a shudder of anticipation. "I can't wait to get this back to the garage."

"I can help modify it, "Tails said.

"Up, hup, hup," Sonia started as she turned towards him. "Back off, fox-boy."

"Is this about the bike incident," Tails said with a frown. "I said I was sorry."

"This isn't about the bike incident. This is about keeping it as close to the original as possible. The only modifications I want on this baby is a more environmentally-friendly fuel source."

"But," Tails argued. "I can make it better."

"I'm sure you could," she countered. "But I don't want a 'better' one. I want a Moberry 500."

Tails' ears dropped. Sonia sighed.

"Listen Tails," she said softly. "It's been a dream of mine since I was your age to own one of these. Even If I can only salvage the frame, it would still be a dream come true. Understand?"

Tails nodded but the frown stayed.

"I'm not saying you can't help me," she continued. "In fact, I will need your help. The motors in these things were closer to jet engines and that falls more into your area of expertise than mine."

Tails' smile lifted.

"However," she said, moving towards Tails and Manic. "I want to make one thing very clear to both of you." She grabbed both brothers shoulders and lowered her voice. "Anything happens to this bike, the smallest scratch, the lightest dent, and I find out it was one of you..." She lowered her voice to a whisper. "And you'll wake up missing a tail."

Manic gulped as Tails hugged one of said appendages to his chest.

"W-we got it, Sonia," Manic said nervously. "Uh, hey, looks like there's some bot parts over there. I'm gonna check 'em out SEEYAH!"

With a speed that would have impressed even Sonic, Manic dashed away.

"Wah," Tails cried, following soon after. "Manic, wait for me!"

"Good boys," Sonia said, dusting off her hands.

Sonic shook his head.

"And you said you wouldn't find anything."

"Zip it," she growled. "And help me get this onto the trailer."

Sonic rolled his eyes.

"At your command, S.A.P."