Dr. Eggman was bored. Ever since Sonic and Tails had moved in together, his 'scheme well' had run dry. In the past, the mad genius would have gone out, guns blazing, only to come back not even an hour later with a bot in ruins after another defeat, and then repeat it all the next week. But now, it was trickier. A lot of the bigger cities had grown wise to his tricks, and, while he was still the smartest person on the planet, he was still just one person. One person couldn't really do much against an entire army by himself, even with a giant mech on his side.

It didn't help matters that Sonic's annoying foxy boyfriend was getting more involved in developing these Anti-Eggman Weapons (AEWs). He was probably the only Mobian alive who'd be able to rival Eggman on sheer technical know-how, and that was saying something. In the past, he was merely a nuisance child, making small inventions to aid in the search for Chaos Emeralds, or translate aliens, or whatever new thing Sonic needed to do for a particular mission, but now that he was a young adult, things were different.

Especially considering that Tails had the support of the Mobian government, due to his association with Sonic. Suddenly, Eggman had found himself on the receiving end of giant mech attacks, except it would be Tails' logo that would be emblazoned on the flanks, rather than his own. And, to make matters worse, Tails had shared his blueprints with the Mobian military, so very soon, he found GUN bringing mechs to his doorstep, too. Thankfully for himself, the Doctor still had his wits about him, and while his offensive strategies had mostly faded into obscurity, his defences were still as sharp as ever, so his main base was still mostly intact. Any damage would be repaired quickly anyway, and even if this base did get destroyed, as usual, the Doctor's backup plans had backup plans. His mobile bases were still active, and only he knew where they were, so he'd have somewhere to run if things got too messy here.

Eggman was about to shut things down for the day when his computer sounded an alert. Eggman's attention was immediately on his screen. That alert was only programmed to sound when his network of radars and satellites detected one specific plane: The Cyclone. Sure enough, an image of the blue and orange plane buzzed to life on the main screen, flying to one of Mobius' many mountainous regions. Eggman mused where the fox might have been going, as he didn't have any operations in that direction, nor had he uncovered any rumours about Emeralds. He guessed that Sonic would be involved to, so he set his scanners to search for his blue nemesis. It didn't take them long, as an image of Sonic appeared alongside the Cyclone mere moments later. It seemed that the Doctor's guess was spot on, as it looked like Sonic was heading for the same destination as his foxy boyfriend. Eggman estimated that their paths would intersect at Hill Top, so he gathered that that's where they'd be meeting.

The gears started turning. Hill Top was a very isolated location, after all, with lots of mountains surrounding it. Perfect for an ambush.

Paying closer inspection to Sonic's screen, Eggman noticed that Sonic was carrying something. Actually, multiple somethings, by the looks of it. After zooming in, he was able to identify a basket filled with who-knows-what in one hand and, under the other arm, a large, rolled-up blanket.

"A picnic, Sonic? How romantic. It would be a real shame if someone came to ruin it!"

Sonic was running as fast as he could. It wasn't easy with all of the extra weight, but he needed to get there before Tails, and he knew that his kitsune would most likely be in the air by now. He wanted to get the picnic set up as a surprise, and it would kinda ruin it if he was still setting up when his other half arrived.

Of course, there was more to this surprise than just a picnic, but that would come later.

Sonic finally slowed to a stop at a clearing with a great view of the eventual sunset, surrounded by wildflowers and pine trees. Sonic deemed this location perfect and, after double-checking that Tails would have a place to land his plane, began setting up the picnic. He hadn't been finished long when he heard the gentle whirr of a single-prop plane engine that he was all too familiar with.

After landing the plane, Tails was immediately in awe at what was awaiting him. In the centre of the clearing lay a large picnic blanket, chequered red and white. In the centre of the blanket, there was a small glass that Sonic was apparently using as a vase for a small bunch of red roses, and each corner of the blanket was dotted with a candle.

"Sonic, what is all this? You didn't have to."

"I wanted to. I don't do enough romantic gestures for you, so I wanted to surprise you."

"Sonic, I… love it! Thank you!" Tails quickly embraced his hedgehog with a hug before leaning in to reintroduce their lips to each other.

"I love you, too, Foxy!"

Before long, the couple made their way over to the blanket and sat down, but not before Sonic had revealed the next part of the surprise: cupcakes!

"I didn't bring a full dinner with me, but I hope these'll do!"

"Of course they'll do, Sonic!"

And that's how the evening progressed, with the two cuddling up together in the centre of the blanket, feeding each other cupcakes and watching the evening creep into night. They talked and laughed for a good few hours before just lying down together and basking in each other's company as the sun disappeared below the mountains.

"Hey, Sonic?"

"Yeah?"

"Why did you do all this? I know you told me your whole 'romantic gesture' line earlier, but you know I love you just as you are. I don't need you to go out of your way just for me."

"Can't a hedgehog just do something nice and unexpected for his boyfriend?"

"Fair enough. I'm most certainly not complaining!"

"I just wanted tonight to be special."

Tails turned to look at Sonic, only to see that his face had erupted into a similar shade as the roses.

And he was sweating. Sonic never sweat.

"What's so special about tonight?"

"Well, I haven't shown you everything yet. There's still one more surprise I have in store tonight. I wanted everything to be perfect before I revealed it."

"Well, in that case, mission accomplished! Tonight has been perfect!"

"Then I won't make you wait any longer." Sonic sat up and leaned in to the basket, before turning back to face Tails, with his hands clamped together, obscuring whatever it was he held in there.

"Miles, these past ten years… actually, no. These past fifteen years have been the happiest of my life. Ever since we met on that beach, I haven't been able to imagine my life without you in it. We basically grew up together, and over the years, you've shown yourself to be the smartest, cutest, kindest soul I've ever known. And, when we started dating, despite the rough beginning, I realised that I'd quite happily spend the rest of my life with you."

Tails' eyes were beginning to water, as he was starting to realise where this was going.

"I know there'll be obstacles, and there will always be those who don't approve, but I know that, whatever comes our way, I want to face it together with you by my side."

Sonic stood up, only to kneel back down again a second later.

On one knee.

He opened his hands to reveal a small velvet box, and Tails hands leapt to his face, the tears of joy falling freely now. Sonic opened the box, revealing the small gold ring. It was a simple ring, with no jewels adorning it, but it had been manufactured in such a way that it resembled to fox tails meeting in the middle and wrapping around each other.

"Miles 'Tails' Prower, will you marry—"

Sonic was cut off by an explosion, which knocked him off balance.

"My, my, you really pulled out all the stops here, blue boy! But, what's a romantic picnic without some fireworks?" Eggman fired another missile from his pod, which made contact not far from the picnic. This time, the force of the explosion was enough to send Sonic and Tails, and all of their picnic supplies, flying. Sonic landed hard on his back, which caused him to drop the box.

He could only watch in horror as it fell off the nearest cliff and into the abyss below.

"NOOOO!" He looked over at Tails, who was just sitting up himself, and the tears sprung forth in to the blue blur's eyes.

"Oh, boo hoo! Take it from me, hedgehog, it wouldn't have been worth it anyway. You and I both know you're never gonna 'settle down'."

That stopped the tears instantly, and the utter despair that Sonic was feeling was suddenly replaced with another emotion: pure unadulterated rage.

"You monster. You couldn't just give us one night, could you?! I was about to propose! How are you ok with ruining something as important as that?!"

Sonic's fur was darkening. Eggman was laughing too hard to really notice, but Tails spotted it right away. He knew he needed to act quickly, so Tails managed to sneak his way over to the Cyclone. He wasn't planning to take it into battle, but he had equipped it with a silent alarm button that would notify Amy and the rest of the Resistance that Eggman was active. He didn't hesitate to press it, despite the late hour, because he knew that, regardless of how this inevitable fight was going to go, they'd need some backup.

However, Tails wasn't sure who'd need the backup more: them or Eggman. He had never been witness to Sonic's Dark form before (probably because he only knew of one instance when Sonic was in a bad enough mood to trigger it), but he had heard that it was potentially as strong as his Super form. Honestly, that scared him more than anything, because that meant he'd be less likely to hold back, so things might get messy. For now, though, Tails decided to hang back. Despite years of training, to the point where he was more than capable of holding his own against Sonic in a sparring session, he knew Sonic had more experience on the actual battlefields. If things looked like they weren't going Sonic's way, he'd jump in then.

Amy and Cream were hanging out at Amy's house when the both of their phones went crazy. They had just settled down for a late night movie marathon, an event that happened once a week between the two, but once they had looked at the notification, they both decided that it could wait.

"It's Tails' alarm. Eggman's active? At this time of night? Seems unusual for him."

"Well, we shouldn't be surprised. He has been a bit unpredictable as of late. Where's the alert coming from?"

Amy looked at the beacon flashing on her screen.

"Hill Top."

"Didn't Sonic say that was where he was headed?"

Amy cast her mind back to earlier that afternoon, when Sonic had visited The Pink Rose. He had told her that he wanted to collect a bouquet of roses for the prop—.

Oh no.

"Cream, we need to go right now! Can you alert the others?"

"I'll try, but it is quite late. Who'd be available?"

"Shadow and Rouge definitely, maybe Knuckles, and possibly some of the Entropy Eyes."

"I'll try to get in touch with them. But, how are we gonna get to Hill Top?"

"We'll take the Malleus. How else?"

The Malleus was another of Tails' aircrafts, one he had built specially for Amy as a thank you for all of her support over the years. It was a small, two-seater helicopter, painted pink and white with yellow rotors. It wasn't as quick as the Cyclone, but it was tough. It had bulletproof glass, a lightweight carbotanium body, and a couple of extra toys that gave it a nasty bite. The pride and joy was something Tails had affectionately christened the Boom: put simply, it was basically a pair of two ultra-powerful speakers under the body that emitted a concussive sonic blast when triggered. There were also some more traditional weapons, too, like side-mounted gatling guns, but those were kept to a minimum to avoid adding too much weight. And, of course, Tails was always more than happy to explain where the name came from: Malleus came from an old human language called Latin. It's meaning?

Why, hammer, of course!

Eggman was in bad shape. By now, he had 100% realised that Sonic's Dark form was active, and the smallest part of his mind was regretting interrupting when he did. He was somehow still airborne, but his pod had taken quite a lot of damage, and most of the Buzz Bombers he had brought with him quite simply didn't exist anymore. He was starting to realise that he wasn't going to win in a head-to-head fight against his enraged opponent. He needed to play dirty.

"Hey, Sonic! Aren't you forgetting someone?" With little warning, Eggman turned his pod to face the Cyclone and fired a missile.

"NO! TAILS, GET OUT OF THERE!" The world moved in slow-motion as the missile approached the plane. Sonic calculated his options. There wouldn't be enough time to deflect the missile, and even if he caused it to explode before contact, the explosion would be too close. He could see that Tails wouldn't get out of the plane in time, so he only had one option left.

He jumped in front of the projectile.

"SONIC!"

Aaaand cliffhanger! I know, I'm evil! I'd keep going, but it's currently 4:28 AM as I write this, and I need my beauty sleep! Don't worry, I won't leave you all hanging for long. And, yes, this is a long chapter, but obviously it's an important one, so I felt like I needed to extend it.

You all thought I'd forgotten about the good doctor, didn't you? Honestly, I kinda did, but I think it worked out for the best! I needed to give this story some more action, anyway!

Also, for those doubters out there: yes, carbotanium is a real material. It's a hybrid of carbon fibre and titanium, which makes it an incredibly strong and lightweight material, and it was used in the manufacturing of the Pagani Huayra hypercar!

Special thanks to pikachulover1234567891011 (holy crap, man, that's a lot of numbers!) for the review and the multiple PMs you've sent my way (and if anyone else wants to chat with me or ask me any questions, feel free to do the same!)! But, anyway, that's enough rambling for one Author's Note, so I'll see you all in the next one, which will probably end up releasing before the end of this week (key word being 'probably'). Ciao for now!

OnTheSpectrum