Hello everyone! It's about time for another chapter so we'll get straight into the reviews!

Perturbo: Tailsmo is literally so adorable, and it was definitely strong in the last chapter, you'll have to wait to see what lies in store for the two of them going forward!

AndTails: Tailsmo wholesomeness! It's so cute, and getting to write their relationship and dynamic with the changes from this fic has been super fun!

That's all, let's get started!

Mechanized Production

Forging a Destiny

Tails followed behind the set of drones that led him once again through the darkened halls of the Complex. His completely destroyed appendage behind him still seriously threw off his balance as he walked. A few bits of fragmented metal still occasionally fell from its frayed end, leaving a few stray pieces on the floor behind him as he walked. Eventually, after almost losing his balance completely at least a couple times on the way over, the fox arrived at his destination.

The workshop was large, but not as big as he'd remembered it being as the fox stepped inside. He'd been to the workshop more than once since he'd been a kid, mostly to be refitted with larger mechanical tails as he grew, given that his augments didn't exactly grow with him. Still, it'd been a while since his last visit here.

"Well that doesn't look very good," A familiar voice spoke. "You get those tails of yours blown up?"

The kitsune immediately looked over at the other mobian present, a purple swallow dressed in dirty white overalls and a purple shirt.

"I mean, kinda…" Tails responded, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.

The swallow's mechanizations were a bit more subtle than others, but still definitely noticeable. The most obvious change was her hands and arms, both of which were completely mechanical. The swallow's blue eyes also had a digital glow to them, betraying their true nature to the fox.

"Well, the bad news is I'm probably not going to be able to fix that." Wave continued, "But the good news is that I'll just replace it instead. How's that sound?"

"Sounds fine, just do whatever you need to do to fix it."

"You know, I think this is the first time I've had you in here to fix damage to your tails. I remember needing to replace them a couple times when you were a bit younger. But I can't seem to ever recall you destroying them like this."

"Well, there's a first for everything… How long is this going to take if you don't mind me asking?"

"Shouldn't be that long, taking the old one off and reattaching the new one should be simple, after that it'll just be some basic recalibration to get it to work the way it should, but you'll do that down in one of the testing chambers."

The swallow led the fox back to a table very similar to one found in the operating room of the infirmary, having him lay down on his front while she surveyed the damaged metallic appendage a bit more carefully, her mechanical eyes highlighting every small detail and damaged part.

"Well, unless there's some damage to that metal spine of yours, I shouldn't have to put you to sleep for this. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to salvage anything here…"

A part of the swallow's mechanical right hand extended, producing a wrench she could use to start removing the damaged appendage. "I've already told the computer to start making another tail for you, so that'll be done soon."

"How's that work exactly?" Tails asked.

"Well, they can't just exactly make my eyes mechanical without hooking it up to my brain now can they? So I guess they figured they'd let me request parts directly from the computer by just thinking hard enough about it. Does make me wonder what exactly you were doing to mangle your tail this bad, it was during a test I assume?"

"Something like that… I… Kinda scraped a wall midair…"

"Seems like the plasma energy that makes your tails work contributed to the damage here. The stuff is so volatile… Since you were flying when it got damaged, most of the energy was rerouted to the thrusters on your back. Means you got lucky, if you'd had just normal energy distribution, it could have just exploded and taken you with it…"

"How volatile is it?"

"Extremely, even just messing with the stuff too much can cause it to explode. There were a couple cases before where someone decided that tampering with the charges was a good idea, needless to say it didn't end very well for them."

"Well what stops it from just exploding randomly then?"

"There's a mechanism of sorts built into the end of the charges that lets it only discharge when it's supposed to, connecting it to something like the intake on your back releases it. I guess whoever decided that tampering with it was a good idea disabled that somehow, discharging all the energy and basically obliterating their holding cell in the explosion."

Wave completed her removal of the fox's damaged mechanical appendage just as the new one arrived, being carried into her workshop by one of the drones that roamed the facility. She took the new part from it and started to work reattaching the new limb, constant readouts of the tension required in each bolt appearing in her vision as she worked.

"Plasma is super dangerous," Wave continued. "But it's what makes most of the augments run, so it's necessary I suppose."

Tails tried his best to just absorb whatever information he could as the swallow worked. It wasn't long however before Wave finished tightening the last bolt, leaving the fox with a fresh new tail.

"Well, that should do it." She spoke, the wrench that had extended from her hand earlier returning back to where it came. "It wasn't too hard a fix, no real damage to the spinal column that holds your augments together, if that'd been the case, we would have been here a lot longer. It seems like your thrusters up near your shoulders are a bit different than your file says… But maybe that's just because I forgot to update it at some point, I'll be sure to get it in."

The fox stood up, gently flexing the mechanical limb behind him, feeling its familiar weight on his back and returning his balance to normal. "Feels nice, just like it did before!"

"Perfect, maybe there's not a need for recalibrating after all, so I'll cancel that. There should be a set of drones here soon to escort you down to your cell."

Tails leaned down, grabbing a small thin piece of shrapnel still left over from his entrance. He carefully turned the small metal piece over in his hand, being careful not to cut himself as he concealed it in his hand.

He looked up as a set of drones appeared in the doorway, ready to escort him out.

"Thanks Wave." He spoke, waving back to the swallow.

"Don't mention it."

The fox fell in with the set of drones and traveled with them back to his cell, the small shard of metal he'd manage to grab safely tucked into his hand until he arrived and was once again left to himself.

He sat himself down on the edge of his cot and reached underneath his pillow, producing the empty plasma charge from his testing yesterday. He did have one full charge concealed underneath his pillow as well, but right now, it wasn't the energy itself that he was focused on.

Inserting the empty charge into the intake on his back for a moment to ensure that it was completely drained. He heard the quiet click that came whenever he tried to drain plasma from an already empty charge, confirming that there was nothing left to pull from.

Now with nothing to fear, Tails carefully looked over the surface of the small device, spotting several small screws that held together the section that linked to his augmentations, he took the small metal shard he'd acquired and very carefully started to unscrew them, using the flat edge of the metal as a tool of sorts.

It wasn't long before he'd managed to remove the section, along with the metal that covered the internals of the top of the casing, leaving much of the circuitry exposed. After poking a bit more with the metal shard he'd acquired, he touched two points near the intake together, creating a circuit of sorts that caused the device to emit the same quiet click that it had made when it'd been connected to his augmentations.

"Perfect." He thought, "Now I just need a way to do that when I'm not right next to it."

Of course, that would be easier said than done, but that could come later. For now, he figured he'd take some time to rest and think over the plan before testing tomorrow.

-X-

Testing was once again far more brutal than usual. Tails came down from his landing hard, trying his best to catch himself. But being as exhausted as he was, he tumbled to a stop, taking a moment to refocus. His shoulders were far sorer than they had any right to be as he stood himself up, feeling as if his legs would finally give out any second now.

"Well, that was better than last time…" The voice of Robotnik spoke as it emanated through the chamber. "We'll continue this more tomorrow."

It wasn't long before the fox had retrieved the pair of charges as a reward from his recent testing, and after making it back to his cell, he promptly laid himself down on his cot to relax.

After a while, he sat up, using one of the energy charges to refill his augments and to help him relax. Once he felt he could focus well enough, he grabbed the metal shard from yesterday underneath his pillow and carefully started to loosen the screws on the other energy charge he'd been given. The orange glow from the charge in his hands reminded him of the danger of doing this, keeping him focused on the task at hand.

He wasn't exactly sure how destructive discharging all the energy in a plasma charge at once was going to be, but he didn't want to find out any earlier than he intended to…

After carefully removing the top of the energy charge, he grabbed the other one he'd stashed under his pillow, starting to perform the same modification to the other charge as well.

Even though he was focused on the task at hand, Tails' mind wandered a bit as he worked. His relatively recent encounter with Robotnik in person was still burned into his mind, and the memories and images associated with that event had been haunting his dreams in the nights since. But now, he was going to prove he was something more than just a piece in Robotnik's game. His destiny was more than just Robotnik's next incarnation…

Finishing with the second charge, he grabbed the empty charge he'd depleted right after returning from testing. After checking to make sure it was completely empty, he started to work disassembling it.

After removing the screws on the device and leaving parts of its internals exposed, he continued to disassemble it further, setting aside bits of wiring and other pieces of metal from the device as he went. It wasn't long until the charge was completely disassembled, leaving plenty of small parts scattered about, roughly sorted by what exactly they were. He started to go through the piles for anything he could use, taking some smaller individual parts and carefully putting them together as best he could.

It wasn't long before he'd finished creating a small rigid arch looking construct, one just big enough to bridge the gap between the two activator points on the modified energy charges. He connected one end of it but left the other end loose. The device's structure only allowed it to move downward toward the activator point, creating a current that would release all the plasma energy inside at once.

After completing the same modification to the other energy charge, the kit grabbed both modified plasma canisters, prepping himself for the next step of the process.

Now, it was time for Tails to make his own destiny…

Alright everyone, that's it for this chapter! Sorry for the long wait and shorter chapter, but I've been sort of on a soft break of sorts where I'm not pushing myself to write too much, but hopefully you liked the chapter anyway! Let me know your thoughts in a review and I'll see you all next time!