The two were now drinking at a bar, Tails had a milkshake. Forelock laughed "You got to celebrate. We did something good tonight" "Yeah". Tails didn't look like he wanted to celebrate "Tower was right. Sonic did a lot for me, so I owe it to him, to everybody" "Do you?". Tails looked down at his glasses "Yeah. I mean… Mr Sonic gave me the chance to be more. He wanted to be better than him. And Tower wants me to live up to that". Forelock seemed to understand "What do you want?" "What do you mean?" "What do you want?". Tails just shrugged "I don't know" "What do you want? Miles Prower. Now. I know you're thinking about it". Tails hit the table and looked at Forelock "I wanna go on my trip. I wanna to go back on my trip with my friends. I want to take the girl I really like to the top of a tower and tell her how I feel… and you know…. Maybe give her a kiss". Forelock laughed "Oh" "Shut up, man" "You're not gonna do that, are you?". Tails shook his head "No, I can't" "Why not?" "Because I have too much of a responsibility". He looked down at the glasses again finally getting Forelock's attention "Are those the-" "Glasses, yeah" "Try them on. Let's see how they look on you". Tails tried them on "I actually really like them" "Can I be completely honest with you?". Tails nodded "Please" "They look really stupid. But you know, maybe they have a contact-lens version". Tails paused having a thought "You try" "No, come on" "Try them on". Tails held out the glasses and Forelock scoffed "I don't know" "Just try". Forelock slowly took them and tried them on "What do you think, kid?". Tails was deep in thought looking at the hero in front of him "Next Sonic, I trust you" "What?" "Sonic left me a message with those glasses: Next Sonic, I trust you".
Forelock leaned forward "I'm still not following. How many milkshakes have you had?". Tails sighed "He knew every mistake I ever made. He must've known I wasn't ready for something like this" "Why would he give them to you?" "Because maybe he didn't trust me to have them, he trusted me to pick who should. It makes much more sense. He knew I'd do what's right. And he's not gonna give them to Tower". Forelock shrugged "You're probably right" "Right, so the world needs the next Sonic the Hedgehog. And it's not me. I'm a 16-year-old kid from Emerald Hill. It needs to be an adult with some experience and that's good like Sonic, like you". Forelock frowned and took the glasses off "No. Tails, come on. No". Tails put the glasses back on "Cream" "Hello, Tails" "Hi, yeah. I'd like to transfer your control over to Forelock". Forelock's eyes opened wide "What're you doing?" "Doing the right thing". Cream answered "Any transfer will require confirmation". Forelock shook his head "Sonic gave you the glasses" "Sonic gave me a choice. It's my choice to make, okay? And I'm gonna make it. You're a soldier, a leader. You stopped the Elementals. You saved my life. You saved the world, okay? He'd want you to have them" "Awaiting confirmation". Tails paused "I'm… I'm gonna miss you, Cream". There was a pause "I have enjoyed assisting you, Tails. Good luck with Barby". Tails smiled "Confirm transfer". He took off the glasses and held them out to Forelock "Welcome to the Chaotix". He hesitantly took the glasses and put them on, Tails shrugged "They look good on you". They shook hands "Thank you. It's an honour". Tails nodded and got up from his stool "Mr Sonic would've really liked you" "Where you headed?" "I'm gonna find Barby". Forelock gave an encouraging smile "Good luck, kid. I'll give you a fifty-fifty chance. You're pretty awkward" "Yeah". Tails headed for the door and heard behind him "Cream gives you 90%". Tails laughed and left the bar. The moment he was out of sight Forelock turned to face the rest of the bar patrons. The entire bar phased out of existence revealing it to be a holograms. There were Flapper drones around the room projecting the holograms and only a few other people in the bar were also real. Forelock grinned "See? That wasn't so hard". The others all cheered including Dr Quark who came out from behind the bar.
Forelock laughed "Somebody get this stupid costume off me!". He took off the horn from his face revealing him to just be a normal horse. Forelock handed the glasses to one of them "We have the AI. Get these connected to our system". Everyone took drinks and started chanting "Toast! Toast! Toast!". Forelock stood up and faced them "No, this is a big win, but we still got a lot of work to do" "Toast! Toast!". He grinned and stood up on a platform "OK, toasts! Give me that". He took a drink and raised it "To the man who brought us all together, our former boss, Sonic the Hedgehog" "Boo!" "The jester king. Wrapped in wealth and technology that he was unfit to wield. Like a holographic system I designed. A revolutionary breakthrough with limitless applications that Sonic turned into a self-therapy machine. And he renamed it BARF. I told him it was a mistake, that my technology could change the world". He paused trying to hold back his anger "And then… he fired me. Said I was unstable". He raised his drink "To Sonic" "To Sonic!" "Next to Quark. The integration of my illusion tech with your weaponised drone was brilliant. Powerful illusions, real damage, worked like a charm. And it's just the beginning". He then pointed to a human man "To Lew. The story you created of a soldier from another Mobius fighting ancient monsters in Murasia is totally ridiculous and apparently the kind of thing people will believe right now. I mean, everybody bought it". He laughed and then pointed to a Seedarian "To Victoria. Staging electromagnetic pulses at each attack site so Tower's own satellites would confirm our lies. Inspired idea". Finally, he pointed a human woman "To Janice. After Sonic died, she was the one who discovered that Cream was being handed over not to us, not to the Defence Department, but to a child. And finally, to the rest of you, Sonic the Hedgehog is gone. There is a window of opportunity, and someone will step up. But these days, you can be the smartest guy in the room, the most qualified and no one cares. Unless you're flying around with a cape or shooting lasers from your hands, no one will even listen". He laughed and shrugged "Well, I've got a cape and lasers. With our technology and with Cream, I will be the greatest hero on Mobius. Then everyone will listen! Not to a boozy man-child!". "NO!" the crowd yelled, "Not to a hormonal teenager. But to me. And to my very wealthy crew. To us. To Forelock! And too Miles Prower". He frowned "Poor kid. Let's get to work".
Tails walked past a wall that had a memorial of Sonic on it. He entered the Hotel and went to his room. Ray ran up to him wearing a robe "Tails, Oh, Gaia". The two hugged "Hey, hey" "We almost died" "It's fine. It's fine. Hey, I'm done with the mission". Ray stepped back frowning "Dude, the trip's over". Tails stopped smiling "What?" "There's monsters coming out of the ground everywhere we go. Of course our parents want us home". Mr Stewart walked out on his phone "Hey, don't put me on hold. Oh, Miles, you're not dead". He hugged him "Oh, Gaia. Yes, good. Stay here. We're booking flights". Pierre then walked past "We came for science; we're leaving because of witches. Welcome to the new the Dark Ages". Once he left Tails turned back to Ray "What is going on?" "We're going home in the morning" "What? No, no. All the Elementals are gone". Ray shrugged then "Ray" "Coming, sweetie" Ray ran to Undina's room. Ash poked his head out from a door "Hey, can you guys keep it down? I'm live-streaming". He went back in, and another door opened revealing Barby "Hey". Tails turned and smiled "Hey" "Where were you" "Um, I got lost". She stared at him "We were worried about you. Good thing you're back" "Yeah". She shrugged "So much for Leonus" "It would've been fun". She nodded started to close her door "Night" "Night. You look ni-" the door closed. Tails groaned and then quickly stepped towards the door about to knock but it then opened. Barby was surprised "Oh, hey!" "Hey. Uh, look, um… I'm not ready for this trip to be over yet, and I kind of want to do something fun that's not on the itinerary or planned or with Mr Stewart" "Yes" Barby quickly said. Tails was surprised "Yes, like you wanna go?" "Yes" "Uh, okay. Awesome. I'll see you outside in ten minutes". She smiled "Meet me outside in five" "Okay. Five is good. Bye" "Bye".
Tails was in the lobby watching a news report on Forelock and Night Monkey's fight with the lava monster. Barby came over "Hey" "Hey. So, uh, where do you wanna go?" "Who cares?". Tails smiled "Awesome. Let's go". They both left the hotel nervously smiling. Once outside they walked across a bridge giving them a beautiful view of a river "I'm glad we're doing this" "Yeah, me too" "See the city a little bit". There was an awkward silence then "You know, they used to execute people on this bridge. They would put them in a basket and they would drown in the water" "Oh, really?". Barby cringed "Sorry" "No, it's okay. It's interesting". Their hands were about to touch but they both quickly pulled away "Uh, there's this thing I've been wanting to talk to you about for a while". Barby stopped and turned to him "Yeah?" "It's our last night in Europe, and I had this plan that I wanted to tell you… You know, I'm just gonna-Just gonna tell you". He took out a case "Barby, I'm-" "I'm the Prowl". Tails froze "What?" "That's what you were gonna say. That you're the Prowl". Tails quickly shook his head "No. I'm not the Prowl" "I've been watching you for a while now. It's kind of obvious" "I'm not the Prowl. What would make you think that I was the Prowl?". She grinned "Tails, Central City? The fact that you disappear out of nowhere for no reason". Tails kept shaking his head "No, I was sick. Remember I missed the decathlon" "Susan thinks you're a male escort" "What? No, of course I'm not a male escort". She nodded "Yeah, I know. You're the Prowl" "No, I'm not the Prowl at all. I don't even like the name Prowl". Barby titled her head "What about tonight? You snuck off and you fought that thing. I saw you" "You can't have seen me, because I'm not the Prowl. And also that wasn't even the Prowl, that the Night Monkey". She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes "The Night Monkey?" "Yeah, that's what they called him on the news and the news… never lies". She gave a sceptical laugh "Night Monkey. Okay. Well do the Night Monkey and the Prowl have the same arm cannon".
She took a small object out of her bag, it was metal and covered in green goo. Tails' mind raced "Uh, I mean, maybe. Maybe they have the same weapons dealer. Who knows?". He sighed and looked down at the ground avoiding her gaze "Were you really watching me because you thought I was the Prowl?". She then looked away and shrugged "Yeah. Why else would I be watching you?". Tails shook his head "Doesn't matter. Just thought that maybe-". The object suddenly flashed, and Barby dropped it to the ground. It projected a hyper realistic cloud with a monster reaching out of it. It then disappeared "What the hell was that?" "I don't know". Tails slowly kneeled down at took the device. Barby stepped forward "What is it, some kind of projector or something?" "Yeah, but it's really advanced" "It looked so real". Tails started to look suspicious "Yeah, really real" "Wait, does that mean that…" "The Elementals are fake? But… that doesn't make any sense because we were there, right? There was fire and destruction and… Who would do something like that?". He hit the object and it showed the creature again this time fighting Forelock. Tails gulped and turned back to Barby "I am the Prowl. And I've really messed up" "Wait, you're being serious right now". Tails nodded "Mm-hm" "You're 100% serious? Because it's not funny" "No, I'm not joking". Barby nodded "Good, because I was- I was only like 67% sure. So why are you here? Why are you on this school trip?" "Barby, I know you have a lot of questions. But look we have to get out of here, okay?" "Okay, okay. I can't believe I figured it out!". She laughed and the two ran back to the hotel.