Miles Prower stepped out of one of the DWMA's interrogation rooms. He had been called there to give a statement on Sonic's disappearance. Eggman asked a variety of questions, but Tails hadn't seen Sonic since he stormed off from the DWMA. The Grim Reaper didn't grill him as much as expected. Tails got the feeling that Eggman had some important details on the situation. Unfortunately, Tails wasn't the one conducting the interrogation, so he was given little information.
All Miles did was wander about the empty campus for a bit. It had grown less and less active since the kishin's reawakening. Opinions were torn between thinking Death City was the safest place in the world, or the most dangerous. The majority of people leaned toward the latter conclusion, so Tails had little company on his walk back to his room.
Last time Tails had seen his brother, he seemed so angry. Thinking back on that made him worry, and things were uncertain enough as is. Even the air around him seemed hostile, somehow. There were few people left he could trust. He needed to talk to Knuckles.
"I'm worried about Sonic,"
Tails spoke his words in the darkness of Knuckles's dorm room. He was fixated on the echidna shaped lump on the bed.
"What if something happened to him? I'm scared, and everything feels off,"
There was no reply.
"You should be worried too. You should say something,"
No relevant sound waves were emitted. Frustration gripped Tails; he was tempted toward lashing out in some way. The door opened.
"Tails?" Knuckles asked. He flipped on the light, giving him a full view of the perplexed fox standing in the middle of his room. "How'd you get in here?"
Tails placed a hand on the pocket of his hoodie. He could feel some of his tools were inside, ones that easily allowed him to overcome a standard door lock. But he had no memory of using them. His mind split between wanting to laugh, and wanting to cry.
"I'm worried about Sonic," Tails murmured.
"He was being kinda weird last time we saw him. Acting like a drama queen," The echidna flopped onto his bed, closed his eyes, then let out a relaxed sigh.
Most of Tails was convinced that this Knuckles was real. The part of him that wasn't stared intently. "You don't look worried,"
"Sonic always runs off and finds trouble. But I bet he'll pop up out of nowhere like nothing happened. Just give it time,"
"The DWMA interrogated me. Something isn't right," Tails urged.
Knuckles peeked one eye open. "They interrogated me too. Sonic chose a bad time to take off without telling anyone," His eye closed again. "Things are tense around here. If you start getting all worried, it'll only make things worse,"
Tails scowled. "We have to do something. We need a plan!"
Tails returned to his own room. He sat at his desk, scribbling frantically in one of his notebooks. Each mark he made was meticulous. His mind strained under the weight of all the possible outcomes. But things were coming together, somehow.
Just as he was about to finish, the lead of his pencil snapped. Tails quickly picked up another pencil without breaking his flow. He dusted off the page and admired the final product.
"Okay, I've got it. If we follow this, we can find Sonic,"
Knuckles sat in the corner of Tails's vision, but didn't move or speak. Tails tried holding up the paper so his weapon could see, but Knuckles was gone. Tails saw only his vacant room. He growled with frustration.
"If Knuckles is going to keep vanishing, I'd better account for that in my plan,"
Miles continued writing. He filled one page, then another. It seemed like Knuckles entered the room again, but he vanished when Tails tried looking. Luckily, he was a quick learner, so he promptly ignored Knuckles's third appearance.
"Fool me thrice, shame on thee," Tails chuckled.
A light entered the dim room, replacing the darkness with a neon green glow. Although Tails knew it was likely best to ignore it, as the spectacle was likely just Knuckles emerging for the fourth time, he also knew that if someone went through the trouble of manifesting four times, they likely meant business. He turned his head, and saw two unconvincing Sonic and Shadow projections standing in his room.
"Hey Tails," The "Sonic" said.
Miles silently stared at the two hedgehogs for 3.5 seconds, the appropriate allotment of time for discerning the authenticity of something.
"You're not real," Tails dismissed before going back to scribbling.
Sonic exchanged a worried glance with Shadow. Shadow stepped forward and placed his hand on Tails's shoulder. A small amount of soul waves passed on to Tails.
"That's cold!"
The fox shrunk away. Then, his body perked up and he inhaled gradually. A sharper focus entered his eyes. Shadow stepped back. Tails stared at the hedgehogs in his room again.
"Sonic!" Tails left his desk so he could hug his brother. "It's really you. And you found Shadow!"
"You were being affected by the madness. Are you okay?" Sonic opened the blinds covering the single window of the room. "What were you doing in here?"
Tails picked up the cluster of papers on his desk. They were filled with the words:
SONIC AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES AND KNUCKLES…..
Tails crumpled the pages into a ball. He tossed it into the trash with a sigh. "Nothing, apparently," His eyes widened. "Wait a minute, did you really just teleport in here?"
"Yeah. A lot's happened. We'll fill you in,"
A knocking came from the door. Knuckles's voice was on the other side.
"Tails, are you talking to yourself again?"
Tails opened the door. Seeing Sonic and Shadow standing around calmly made Knuckles feel dumbfounded.
"Yo," Sonic waved.
"You're back?"
Knuckles had just stepped in when the door at the end of the hall flew open. After a series of hasty footsteps, Blaze barged through the exposed doorway of Tails's room.
"Miles, your brother is…!"
The princess locked eyes with Sonic. He waved.
"Yo,"
"How are you…. " Her expression went from concerned to suspicious. "I didn't sense you in here a minute ago,"
"I wasn't in here a minute ago,"
Silver came down the hall next; he was very much winded. Blaze pulled him into the room, then leaned on the door to close it. "We go on one mission and you and Shadow are wanted fugitives by the time we get back,"
"Got bored," Sonic replied cheekily.
"Oh, I'll bet," Blaze crossed her arms. "Starline is missing, by the way. Alongside the darkling,"
Both Sonic and Shadow were understandably surprised by the news.
"If Eclipse is gone, I'd assume Tikal is responsible since Zero was focused on me," Shadow commented.
"I just saw Starline last night," Sonic said. "He warned me that Eggman was going to wipe Shadow's memory,"
"Wipe his memory?" Silver asked.
"Yeah, Eggman's a scumbag. Who knew?"
"Who is this Zero person?" Blaze inquired.
"The witch Infinite," Shadow clarified. "He's the reason I escaped from the DWMA in the first place,"
"You were working with the enemy?" Blaze accused.
"Not exactly," Sonic interjected. "We took his soul,"
"You made Shadow a death scythe?" Tails yelped.
"Yep,"
Excitement spread through Tails, Knuckles, and Silver. Blaze had a tinge of concern amidst her look of curiosity. "We have some relevant information regarding Black Doom and the DWMA,"
"Who's Infinite? Knuckles murmured at Tails. "Is he the darkling, or is that Zero? And I don't know what a Black Doom is. Probably worse than regular doom, right?"
"Knuckles…" Tails huffed.
"Can we, uh…" Knuckles brushed some of his long hair away from his face while addressing the entire group. "...do a quick debrief or something?"
"Talking here for much longer is ill advised," Blaze added.
"I have an idea," Sonic addressed Tails and Blaze. "Can you guys link souls with me?"
"You want to resonate as a group? The princess asked. "Why?"
"It's a surprise. The resonance doesn't have to be strong, just a simple connection,"
"Make it quick," She replied.
Blaze resonated with Silver, then let her soul reach toward Sonic. After Sonic sensed both Tails and Blaze's souls form a link with his own, he focused his resonance on Shadow.
"Chaos…."
Emerald light filled the room. The surrounding world shifted until they were someplace new.
