eyy

this might be the longest chapter and coincidentally, i think it is also the shortest gap between chapters

uhh so anyway ig enjoy this monument to my procrastination

thanks to Nishiya for commenting!


Day 6: Keep Moving Forward

The atmosphere as the three made their way back to Eggman's base was uncomfortable for Blaze, to say the least.

She hadn't really expected it to be a pleasant experience. Two of their friends had been kidnapped and they had to split up with another to go and save them. It was fair to say that on its own was enough to fuck up the mood.

It wasn't helped by Sonic, the usually chipper and ready for trouble semi-leader of the group, who had taken an oddly humorless approach to the whole thing. A mission of this type would usually lead to near-constant quips and jokes, especially since the teen in question couldn't just run ahead and mess with Eggman on his own. But, Blaze supposed, this was different. She may not have known Sonic for all that long, especially compared to other members of the group, but it was clear enough to her just how much he cared for Tails. She had noticed the watchful eye he kept on the younger during all of their exploits, quick to pull him out of harm's way. Barring this particular instance, she had yet to see Tails in any real danger, despite the frequency of their adventures.

Besides, she couldn't blame him for his concern. Ever since Eggman had revealed his hostages, her mind had been racing with her own anxiety for Silver.

But despite all that, what really contributed to the overall mood was, surprisingly enough, the presence of Shadow. In most contexts, Blaze would be perfectly fine with his appearance. She enjoyed the company of all of her friends, but when it came to missions, she got along particularly well with Shadow. He didn't bother with the usual chattering and bothersome small talk, but instead took each mission with precision and focus, which she appreciated.

It wasn't that all of that was gone, but rather that there was something else that now bothered her. There was some sort of tension between Sonic and Shadow, the air around them thick with it. She had moved to the back of the pack, the center stifling her with it. She couldn't quite put her finger on what it was, but it was clear that something was up.

Up at the front, she could hear Sonic whispering to himself, an oddity considering how silent he had been for the past day. Sonic wasn't one to keep his thoughts to himself. It seemed that he had reached a breaking point, his thoughts spilling out of his lips despite himself. The two, blue tails behind him flicked anxiously, emphasizing his unease.

Just as Blaze had this thought, Sonic spun around, facing the other two. Even without her previous observations, it was apparent that he was having a rough go. He licked his lips anxiously, glancing at the ground. "Can I-" He hesitated, his eyes flashing down once again, "-Take a minute?"

In her peripheral vision, Blaze could see Shadow shy away from making eye contact with Shadow. "Sure," she answered for the both of them.

A layer of guilt was still written on his face, but Sonic nodded and walked away, putting his hands on his head.

As soon as he was out of sight, she turned to Shadow. "Is he alright?"

Shadow was still staring at the place where Sonic had been, but answered, "I think he's just stressed."

"I can't blame him for that," she said quietly, "I'm worried too." She paused, searching for the right words. "I just haven't seen him this serious before. He's barely talked for the last day."

This would normally be the time when Shadow, the ever petty dickhead, would say something about how it's a perk that Sonic finally shut up. But instead of the usual biting remark, he stayed silent, fiddling with Rouge's white gloves, eyes shifting to the side as if he knew something that Blaze didn't.

The whole Sonic and Shadow business was really starting to get on her nerves. "Is something going on?" she asked bluntly.

Shadow looked up, confused. "What?"

"Between you and him," she clarified.

"I-" He stopped, seemingly considering his words, before continuing. "Don't know," he admitted, "I want there to be, but I'm not sure what he wants." He sort of shrugged awkwardly. "We keep having these times, these moments where I think he might like me, but then it always just kinda goes back to how it was. There was one the other night, when we were on the mountain, but I don't know how much of that was just because Silver and Tails were missing. I just... don't know," he repeated.

Blaze was surprised, not necessarily at the confession itself, but that he dared to say it. She had figured, along with most of their friends, that Sonic and Shadow liked each other, but were either too stupid or stubborn to do anything about it. She hadn't expected him to admit it so freely.

He shook his head. "Forget it," he seemed to say more to himself than anyone, "It doesn't matter. We need to focus on getting out of here. I can deal with..." He gestured vaguely to the side. "That later."

Blaze opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by the return of Sonic, who still looked a little worse for wear, but still significantly better than before. "Sorry," he said sheepishly, "We can keep going now."

Blaze nodded and they continued forward, each lost in their own musings.


"Can I see the weed gem?" Amy asked as they walked. The three had slept in, unsure of their next course of action, but had eventually decided on going north. Amy herself had awoken in Blaze's purple coat, the sleeves of which she had rolled up early on. Rouge was the only one out of the three to gain a power useful for travel, clothed in Shadow's dark wardrobe.

"Sure," Knuckles said bemused, taking it out of the silver jacket he now wore.

The younger girl plucked the green jewel from his hand, seemingly sizing it up as she did so. She held it close to her face, staring it down for a few seconds. Knuckles watched as her face scrunched up in concentration before she groaned and pulled it away. "Dammit!"

"What was that?" Knuckles asked, eyebrows raised.

Amy sighed, defeated. "I dunno. I just thought that maybe since I had Blaze's powers, I could try and use the emeralds to sense 'em or something." She shook the emerald wildly. "How have we been wandering around this godforsaken island for a whole fucking week and still not managed to find anyone?"

Knuckles made eye contact with Rouge, who was walking beside him. "I'm with Amy. This is getting weird."

"It's only now getting weird?" Rouge said sarcastically. She sighed. "I get it. I've got a bad feeling too. But-" She hesitated before continuing, "I'm not sure what else we can do."

Knuckles opened his mouth to reply but closed it as a rustling was heard from behind them. All three of them stopped and turned towards the noise, glancing at each other. "Badniks?" Amy whispered.

"I don't think so," Knuckles said, "Doesn't sound like it." As he spoke, he powered up Silver's tech-laden gloves. "Be on guard, though." Heeding his advice, both Rouge and Amy shifted into defensive positions.

The foliage shuddered again, the sound far too natural to be coming from one of Eggman's mechanical monsters. Just as Knuckles thought this, he was proven correct as an orange-haired girl tumbled out of the leaves, clad in grays and electric blues.

Amy stood up a little straighter at the sight. "Elise?"

The princess' eyes widened with recognition. "Amy!" She leaped up from her place on the ground, dusting herself off as she did so. "Rouge! Knuckles!" she said excitedly, "Boy, am I glad to see you!"

"Yeah, good to see you too," Amy said, just a little bit awkwardly.

Knuckles and Rouge, on the other hand, wasted no time with their questions. "Where are the others?" Knuckles asked, "Weren't you with Silver and Blaze?"

"What about the other three?" Rouge jumped in, "Have you seen them?"

At the mention of their other friends, Elise's face fell. "That's actually why I'm here," she said slowly. She looked back up at the three. "Something's happened."


As Robotnik typed in another piece of code, Tails, tied once again to the chair in the lab, squeaked out a question. "Doctor Eggman?"

The doctor seemed unfazed by the small child's voice, continuing to type. "What?" he replied gruffly.

"I gotta go to the bathroom."

That certainly got the doctor's attention. He ceased his typing and spun around in his wheeled chair, facing the boy. He looked him directly in the eye. "Are you lying?"

Tails shrugged sheepishly (or, as well as he could, tied up as he was). "No, I've really gotta go."

Robotnik squinted his beady eyes at him. "Why didn't you go when you were in the jail cell?"

Tails vaguely recalled a small toilet in the corner of the cell that neither he nor Silver was brave enough to approach. "I did go in the jail cell," he lied, "But I gotta go again."

The doctor thought for a moment before turning back around in his chair. "You'll just have to hold it."

"But I've been holding it for hours now, and I really gotta go!" Tails whined, "Please? It's already humiliating enough that I have to ask."

Robotnik let out a hearty groan and for a split second, Tails worried that he would be subjected to yet another Eggman meltdown as he had on the Space Colony ARK. Instead, the doctor turned once more. "You'll be quick?" Tails nodded enthusiastically in response. Eggman put his head in his hands briefly, before standing. "Fine," he said, loosening the bonds holding the child and dragging him from the room, much as he did the night before. When he was certain Eggman wasn't paying attention, Tails swiped a pen laying on one of the desks as they exited the lab and quickly shoved it into Knuckles' oversized pockets.

Soon enough, they reached an unassuming door on the right side of the hallway. "Three minutes," he said, shoving his captive towards the door. Tails eyed the door with a level of unease, but feeling Eggman's watchful glare, turned the knob and entered the restroom.

As soon as he was out of the doctor's view, Tails let himself breathe a sigh of relief but didn't waste time. He had no doubt Eggman would keep him to the three-minute time limit. He had to be quick.

He fished the stolen pen from his pocket, fumbling with it clumsily due to Knuckles' large boxing gloves. He pulled a paper towel from the dispenser next to the sink and began furiously scribbling down lines of code. Most of what Tails had seen up until this point was general, lines that, if need be, could be easily replicated and didn't require modification. But just before Tails had requested his bathroom break, Eggman had finished typing up the command inputs telling the machine to take the powers from the targets. Tails had immediately memorized the inputs but knew he would have to copy it down if he wanted to reverse the functionality, which was where his little scheme came into play. Although, he thought just a little wistfully, he could use a bathroom break.

A sharp knocking on the door pulled him out of his thoughts. "Are you almost done?"

Shit. "Just a minute!" he managed to stammer back. He diverted all of his attention back to his crude notes, jotting down more as he did so. He couldn't lose focus. His friends were depending on him to figure out the machine. He couldn't let them down.

"What's taking so long?" Tails could hear the mounting frustration in the doctor's voice. He really had to hurry. He was pretty sure that Eggman would give him the privacy he required, but he wasn't too keen on chancing it.

"Nearly done!" he called as unsuspiciously as he could.

He could hear Robotnik mutter something, but he paid it no mind, scrawling his thoughts down as fast as he could.

"Tails!" Eggman barked, pounding even harder on the door.

A second later, the door's lock came unlatched, revealing Tails, staring right up at the doctor. "Finished!" he said, an innocent smile on his face.

Eggman bent down to face him, eyes narrowed. For a moment, Tails thought he was screwed, that he knew what he was up to. But instead, he asked, "Did you wash your hands?"

Tails scrunched his face up in disgust. "Of course. What kind of question is that?"

Eggman stood, putting his hands up in mock surrender. "Don't take it personally. Five-year-olds forget things like that."

"I'm not five!" he insisted, "I'm almost eight!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Eggman said dismissively, pushing the small child back towards the lab, "Come on."


"Robotnik has Silver and Tails?" Rouge repeated hesitantly.

Elise nodded. "As far as we know."

Knuckles' hands unconsciously curled into fists. "That bastard," he said, a low growl creeping into his voice, "I'm gonna kill him."

Rouge's eyes glanced over at him, but she didn't comment, directing her attention back over to Elise. "You said the others are trying to find them?"

"Yeah," she confirmed, "Sonic, Shadow, and Blaze were taking the two emeralds we found to Eggman to try and get them back, but we still haven't found the third."

A strange look briefly crossed Amy's face as she pulled out the weed gem. "You mean, this emerald?"

Knuckles turned back to Elise. "Were they actually gonna give Eggman the emeralds?"

Elise raised her shoulders helplessly. "I don't know. There wasn't a concrete plan when I left to find you guys."

The group fell into an uncomfortable silence, each lost in their own thoughts. "Where were they headed?" Rouge said finally.

"The main base," Elise said hesitantly, "The one Sonic, Shadow, and Tails started out at."

"Well, then we should head there too," Amy said, looking around as if it were obvious, "Even if we aren't giving up the emeralds, we gotta be there to get Tails and Silver out."

"Amy's right," Rouge agreed, "We can probably get a good distance covered before sunset if we go now."

"It's northwest from here." Elise turned to Rouge. "I can carry Amy if you have Knuckles."

Rouge nodded and made her way to Knuckles, who had stayed mostly quiet during the entire conversation. She took his hand, gaining his attention. "Are you alright?" she asked quietly.

Knuckles didn't answer right away, staring down at her hand. "Other than worried, I'm fine."

A few feet away, Elise looked over at the two, then back at Amy. "Are they-"

"Yep."


It wasn't until almost a half-hour after sunset that Sonic returned to their makeshift campsite. He had claimed he was going to gather firewood, but it was clear enough to Blaze that he just needed some air, just like he had earlier in the day. Despite her knowledge, she couldn't help but get uneasy the longer he was gone.

Blaze was debating whether she should go out and search for him when he finally returned, carrying a feeble number of sticks in his arms. He gave Blaze a small nod of a greeting and set his small set of spoils down next to the roaring fire, glancing around the area as he did so. She watched him, confused, for a moment before realizing he was looking for Shadow, who had gone to bed soon after Sonic had left. She gestured over to the sleeping form of Shadow. "He's already asleep."

"Oh." Sonic stood up a little straighter, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "Cool," he said sheepishly, sitting down next to Blaze.

They sat there in silence for a while. Blaze held her white-gloved arms close to her. "You're not the only one who's stressed, y'know," she said finally.

Sonic seemed to deflate a little bit. "I know. I actually wanted to apologize to the both of you. I-" He seemed to struggle with what to say. "-Haven't exactly been at my best. I guess I just kinda shut down." He looked down, embarrassment apparent on his face.

"I get it," Blaze said softly, "I don't hold it against you, and neither does Shadow. It's been a rough couple days." Understatement of the century, but she couldn't figure out a better way to phrase it. Her eyes flicked over to Sonic, who still curled into himself, unaffected by her lame attempts at comfort. She sighed lightly. Clearly, she would have to get just a little bit further out of her comfort zone.

"Did you know I've known Silver for about as long as I can remember?" That seemed to gain his attention, the slight movements of the two tails behind him ceasing. "He was always unbearably shy and I didn't like people all that much, so we clicked pretty easily," she continued, a waver starting to appear in her voice, "Of course, it was the end of the world, so our people skills didn't matter all that much, but it was nice to have someone to rely on." Her mind flashed with memories, Silver being there for every single one of them. "We might be the same age, but Silver's always been my little brother. I know it's not the same," she said quickly, "Tails is a whole lot smaller than you, but-" She shrugged a little, "I do get it."

Sonic didn't respond at first, seemingly processing Blaze's words, but after a couple of minutes, he said, "I was ten when I first met him." His voice was quiet and rough, barely discernable. "Eggman had been looking for the Chaos Emeralds, so I followed him to West Side Island. Tails was just this little kid living alone at Emerald Hill, and so when Eggman showed up, he wanted to help. I could've told him no," he said, something like regret in his voice, "That it was too dangerous, that I could handle it on my own, but I didn't. I let him tag along, and it was great." He chuckled bitterly. "We got along well and I don't think I could've beat the Death Egg that first time without him. Hell, I doubt I would've survived half our adventures if he hadn't been there." He shook his head. "I dunno. Taking him in has been the best decision of my entire life," he said seriously, "But every time he gets in trouble, I can't help but wonder if he'd be safer if he never met me."

Now it was Blaze's turn to pause, trying to figure out how to respond. This was one of the few instances where her disinterest in social interactions was an active shortcoming. She settled on throwing out any attempts at tact, and instead speaking her mind as it came to her. "I know we haven't been friends for all that long," she murmured, "But that's some of the dumbest shit I've heard you say." Sonic sat up a little at that, bewilderment crossing his face. "Is that really what you think, that Tails would be better off without you? That kid adores you," she said sincerely, "I can't imagine either one of you without each other." She looked at him fully now, trying to make her meaning clear. "I know you're worried, but he's a smart kid. He can take care of himself. He'll be alright. They both will. We'll make sure of it."

There was a shadow of a grin on his face. "We will, huh?" he said, eyebrows raising slightly. He didn't say it outright, but Blaze immediately knew his meaning. The mischievous glint in his eye was enough for her to almost hear him say it.

Aw, Blaze, that was real sappy.

Well, she wasn't gonna stand for that. She had a reputation to uphold.

She looked him dead in the eye as she spoke. "Well, I think Shadow has a bit of a vested interest in your happiness, so yeah."

That did the trick. Any of the teasing tone he had before disappeared in an instant, replaced with the ever-growing embarrassment that was becoming all too familiar to Blaze. "Wh- What's that supposed to mean?" he managed to stutter out.

"Playing dumb won't work with me," she said bluntly, "Shadow said the two of you had a 'moment' the other day." She put up air quotes as she spoke. "He doesn't really know what to make of your intentions at the moment."

Again, Sonic was speechless, seemingly struggling with what to say. Honestly, if it weren't for her first-hand experience, Blaze wouldn't believe this was the same kid who, under normal circumstances, wouldn't shut the fuck up.

"I-" He swallowed tensely. "-Don't really know either. I like Shadow, I really do, and I want something to come out of this, but-" He shrugged helplessly. "I just don't know how to make it work."

"It seems pretty simple to me. Tell him how you feel."

"It's not just that, though," Sonic said quickly, "I'm..." He searched for the right word. "Scared. It just feels like everyone around me is constantly in danger, the people closest to me especially." He looked down. "I don't wanna put him in any more danger."

Her thoughts slipped out before she had the chance to hold them back. "That's kinda fucking stupid."

"What?" Sonic said, sounding almost offended.

"He's your friend," Blaze said curtly, "He's already close to you. Do you really think Eggman's gonna care if you're dating him or not?" Sonic let out a chuckle at that. "Not only that, but it's not like Shadow's very good at avoiding danger on his own." She rolled her eyes a little. "Frankly, it's none of my business and I don't give a shit about your love life, but you are my friend. If you're gonna make yourself unhappy, at least don't bullshit a reason."

Sonic didn't react at first, but with a sigh, he said, "You're right. As usual."

"I'm always right." She stood up, smoothing out Elise's white dress as she did so. She held out a hand to Sonic. "Are you gonna continue pouting, or are you gonna try and sleep?"

With an annoyed but fond smile on his face, he took her hand.


As soon as Eggman was out of sight from the two children, Silver got to work. "Did you figure out the machine?"

"I think so," Tails said, patting the pocket where his notes were held, "What's your plan for escape?"

Silver walked over to the far wall, which was covered with metal panels. "I found this yesterday before Eggman brought you in." He went to the corner and stood on his tiptoes to pull off the panel, revealing a grate in the wall.

"Of course!" Tails said, rushing forward. "The ventilation system! Silver, this is great!"

"It is?" Silver said shyly. He rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean, it wasn't very hard to find. I don't think Eggman realized it was here."

Tails examined the grate from his position on the ground. It didn't look too secure, but it would still be difficult to open it without a screwdriver. Luckily for him, with Knuckles' strength, he could probably open it with leverage alone. He ducked down to the discarded panel and broke a piece off with ease. He stared at his makeshift tool in surprise for a second but determined it would be sufficient for his needs. He prepared to propel into the air with his tails before he remembered they weren't there. "Could you give me a boost?" he asked timidly.

If Silver noticed his embarrassment, he didn't comment, creating a step with his hands for the smaller boy. Tails climbed on, wobbling a bit, not used to the instability of standing on another person. As carefully as he could, he leaned forward, lodging the piece of metal in the small gap between the vent and the wall. As expected, it popped right off, no match for the immense strength he now possessed. Tails pushed the grate into the hole he had opened up, climbing in after it. Once he adjusted himself in the small tunnel he now found himself in, he held the grate out towards Silver, beckoning him to grab it. "Careful, don't let it drop."

Silver grabbed the grate from him and buckled under its weight. "Jeez, that's heavy."

"It is?" Tails wondered aloud. The only thing he had trouble with was its awkward size, not its weight. But then, as he watched Silver struggle to set down the vent cover, he saw his own hands clad in Knuckles' red boxing gloves. Oh, right.

Having rid his hands of the grate, Silver reached up and Tails grabbed his arms, pulling him into the vents effortlessly. Silver coughed a little as he breathed in the dust that was disturbed by their presence. "Thanks."

Tails crawled forward slightly. "You wouldn't happen to know where this leads, would you?"

"No," Silver said from behind him. "I didn't wanna risk it until you were with me."

Tails sighed nervously. "C'mon. Let's hope it's as easy to break out of this place as it was to break in."

The ventilation system wasn't all that big, but neither were Tails and Silver, so it wasn't too tight of a fit. They also both donned rather flexible clothing, Tails with Knuckles' athletic wear and Silver with Amy's romper. Despite this, it still wasn't a comfortable journey. Due to the careless way this particular vent was blocked, a large assortment of dust bunnies littered their path. Tails felt himself scrunch his nose involuntarily to try and prevent sneezing. He wasn't sure where they were in the base. They had to be quiet. Even the slightest noise could alert a badnik to their presence, or worse, Eggman himself.

After a few minutes of crawling, the old, rusted-over shell they had previously been crawling through was replaced with clean, shiny metal, much more indicative of the rest of the base. Despite the shift in comfort, Tails knew it wasn't exactly safer. The renovated vents meant that they were above an area that was used recently.

Sure enough, Tails stopped as he heard a voice below him, the one that had chilled him since he was a toddler. Silver stopped as well as the voice floated up.

"Those goddamn kids making my job so much fuckin' harder," Eggman grumbled, seemingly to himself, "Could've just sucked out their powers and be done with the whole fucking thing, but no! They just had to run all over the whole fucking island!" He gave a deep, guttural sigh. "Okay, I just gotta think, lower my blood pressure." They heard what sounded like a water bottle being opened. Tails grimaced as he heard Eggman gargle down the beverage. Once finished, the doctor laughed loudly. "What am I doing? I have plenty of robots. I'll just round up the little fuckers and bring 'em here, just like the two little ones!" The doctor chuckled evilly. "And I already have the perfect cages." A few seconds later, the mechanical sound of the door closing echoed into the vents.

Silver got close to Tails. "He's gonna go after the others?" he whispered, fear thick in his voice.

"We gotta do something!" Tails whispered back. He slid a little further, only to find a small hatch. He pulled the panel, pushing it forward. The drop to the ground wasn't too far, but it certainly wouldn't be silent. As quietly as he could, Tails dropped into the room, Silver behind him.

The two froze, but once it was clear no badniks were going to burst out and catch them, they relaxed a little. They seemed to be in another laboratory, one smaller than where Eggman had been keeping Tails. It was a bit neater than the other one, but it only had one monitor, which Tails gravitated to. But before he could, he was stopped by Silver's soft voice. "Tails?"

"What?" He turned to Silver, only to see what the other boy was focused on. The other side of the room was home to several metallic boxes, each hooked up to a myriad of wires and cables. They were almost coffin-like in appearance, but that wasn't the only thing that made Tails' stomach churn. "These look a lot like the machine that Eggman's been making," he said slowly.

Silver just stared at them, seemingly working out something in his head. "There's nine of them," he said simply.

Elise. Blaze. Rouge. Silver. Shadow. Amy. Knuckles. Sonic.

Tails swallowed back his fear. "We won't let him use 'em, Silver." He turned away from the pods, desperately trying to rid his mind of the image of his friends trapped in them.

The monitor he had previously approached was already on, displaying a map, red dots moving around the land. "Is that the island?" Silver asked as Tails went up to the keyboard.

"I think so," Tails said, the outline of the landmass seeming familiar enough, "It looks like those markers are all of the robots he's sent out." He took the mouse and exited out of the page, scanning the desktop for something more helpful.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to figure out how to keep Eggman's robots from going out," Tails replied, keeping his eyes on the screen, "But his desktop is a mess. Like, would it kill him to use folders?"

"It wouldn't kill me," a voice said that was decidedly not Silver, "But it would make it a lot easier for little rats like you to take my shit!" The two whipped around, only to see Eggman himself, aided by a robo-walker. Badniks flooded into the room after him, surrounding the two in seconds. Despite his previous statement about his blood pressure, Eggman made no attempt to keep it down, his face already red with anger. "Did you think that I wasn't gonna notice that my two fucking hostages disappeared? I swear to fuck, the only reason you sons of bitches keep getting in trouble is because you seem to think I'm fucking dumb!" He gestured to one of the badniks behind Silver. "Bring the little gray one back to his cell and bind him."

The robot moved to fulfill his master's bidding, but it didn't get far before it was crushed by the piko-piko mallet in Silver's hands. The older boy swung the hammer towards the approaching badniks again. "Tails, run!"

Tails listened to him, taking off towards a shelf on the wall. The door was blocked by Eggman and his badniks, but if he timed it just right, the shelf could give him enough height to reach the vent they had come in through. It was a long shot, but there was no other way out. He swung his fist clumsily at an advancing robot and was surprised to find that it made a difference at all. He worked his way through the enemies, making the slightest bit of progress.

Silver cried out in pain as one of the badniks shocked him. "Silver!" Tails watched helplessly as Silver lay prone on the ground. The distraction was enough for another robot to do the same to him, sending him to the floor. He writhed in pain but refused to fall to unconsciousness.

The remaining badniks grabbed Silver, taking him out of Tails' view. A second later, two skinny legs appeared in front of him. "We gotta find you a more secure cage, don't we?" Eggman said.

Tails felt himself being lifted but didn't have the strength to resist the tight grip of the badniks. Through half-lidded eyes, he could see their destination: the very pods he and Silver had been so fearful of. "No," he managed to say, but it did nothing to stop the robot. The hatch to the pod slid open with a hiss and he was placed in.

The last thing he saw was the sickly grin of Dr. Eggman before the door shut, leaving him in darkness.


oop

ngl my mind is mush rn i have a midterm in nine hours and instead of studying, i wrote this so y'all should be grateful

please comment! send me good vibes for my midterm that class is going to Kill Me

g'night y'all