The ruins were just as empty and lonely as before, but this time, Tails was prepared. He pulled his notepad out of his backpack, overlooking the clearing. "Okay..."

Day 1. Despite the ruins having been here for centuries, the general layout seems to be almost completely intact. The majority of the remaining structures are made of large stones, which I can only guess how they were moved here. Perhaps one of the Amethysts can control stone?

He walked down further into the clearing. Obelisk is the only structure still in one piece. Several buildings collapsed, others missing a few walls but otherwise intact. Hole on edge of the clearing suggests a well for their main source of water.

He peered in the door of one of the more intact buildings, his eyes catching on a slab of stone overlooking the rest of the camp from a large carved hole that must act as a window.

Tails walked over to the slab and blew off the dust, his eyes widening as he looked at it closer. "...A console...?"

It did look like a console for something, with little crystals embedded in it and resembling lights, and a series of holes that looked like were meant for fingers to go into. "These guys were more advanced than I thought..." He searched for a power source, but saw none, and he had a feeling the crystals weren't the power either. "I'd take this back to the shop for study, but that might be stealing... How long does something have to be left before it's considered archeology and not grave-robbing, anyway?"

"That's not important."

Tails jumped at the familiar voice, then yelped as a metal claw wrapped around his torso and pulled him out of the ruin. "Hey! Put me down!"

He struggled as his eyes met with Eggman's. "Eggman...! What do you want!?"

"Not much... Just a little world domination. Don't think that I haven't noticed you and the blue pincushion spending a lot of time here... What are you hiding?"

Tails' eyes narrowed. "Like I'd tell you." He struggled more, then watched as Eggman hovered down towards the ruins. "I-I wouldn't go in there, the whole place is booby-trapped."

"Oh don't give me that! You should know you can't fool a genius! Even if it was booby-trapped, you would have already set them off."

Tails fought to get loose as Eggman moved towards the console. Powerless or not, that console may still pose a threat, especially if Eggman figured out whatever it did.

Not to mention Sonic would kill him if he let Eggman break anything.

"Well well well...What is this?" Eggman ran his fingers over the console, his lips curling back into that grin of satisfaction he always gave when he thought he was winning.

Tails managed to pry the robot hand's grip just enough to drop to the ground once more, and frantically took off as the robot tried to stomp on him. He had to do something, anything, to keep Eggman from learning about the Amethyst Culture...And especially from discovering the chamber beneath them.

The stomp shook the ground, and Eggman turned only to see the robot aiming its blaster at Tails who was running full speed towards him. "What!? No! Hold your fire! Hold-"

The robot was in no mood to hesitate. In fact, it was in no mood at all. All it 'knew' was that its prisoner had escaped and that was unacceptable. Both Tails and Eggman dropped to the floor at it fired, Tails finding cover under part of a collapsed wall.

The blast hit the console and seemed to absorb it. For a moment, there was only silence, then the crystals lit up and a blast from outside was followed by an explosion as an energy blast hit the robot and blew it to pieces.

More energy blasts were fired, hitting the shrapnel and melting it into puddles.

"My robots!" Eggman shouted, rushing outside and dodging blasts, which Tails could now see were coming from the top of the obelisk. "Retreat!"

The metallic enforcers hurried after Eggman as he flew through the barrage, some not making it out of the clearing before being melted.

Tails ran to the console, searching for a way to shut down the obelisk turret, but there were no buttons, switches or levers. "Come on...! There has got to be some way to shut this thing down...GYAH!"
Tails yelped as the turret fired at him through the window, ducking underneath the console and pulling out his communicator as the turret seemed to fire erratically around the ruins. "S-Sonic! Sonic, come in!"

...This hardly seems like a good idea, Sonic.

"Yeah well, I think it's a pretty good idea..."

Sonic stood on the edge of the rooftop, looking down at the street below. Nobody down there knew he was watching them from above, or what he was about to do. "Torrent City Tower is the highest point in the city. I jump from up here, and I'll definitely catch a draft and fly up over the city. No problem!"

Or, you'll drop like a rock, and I'll have to step in and save your dumb behind.

"Hey. My body, my plan." Sonic took a few steps back. "...One..."

What was I thinking?

"Two..."

I should've gone with a shoemaker again, not some reckless-

"Three!"

Sonic shot forward, unfolding his wings and then jumping free of the roof. He fell only for a moment, before his wings caught the breeze and he righted himself, taking off over the streets with an excited hoot. "YEEEHAH! This is fantastic! I've flown as Super Sonic, but never with wings!"

Then how are you already so good at it?

Sonic shrugged. "Watching the birds, I guess?... Whoa!" He twisted up as he nearly crashed into the windows of another building. He flapped hard to keep in place for a moment, and then changed direction. "But I wouldn't say I'm an expert yet..."

Obviously...

Sonic blushed, and then broke free of the skyscrapers to fly in the open air. "Can all of the Amethysts fly?"

Indeed. It is their most primary defense.

"Gotcha..."

S-Sonic! Sonic, come in! Tails' voice hollered from their communicator.

"Tails?" Sonic pulled out the communicator. "What's up?"

I-Gyah! Tails ducked on the screen as a bolt of energy flew past him. I need your help! Eggman showed up at the ruins and activated some sort of security system!

"Eggman's at the ruins!?"

Not anymore. He left when it started melting his bots! Just get here and shut this thing off!

"Hold on, Tails! I'm on my way!" Sonic took off across the city, wings flapping hard as he picked up speed. "Wind, what do you know about this security system?"

Winter Charge designed a security measure that was supposed to take in his electrical powers and use it to defend the camp from invaders, but it must've absorbed the energy from Eggman's plasma blasts and utilized that as a power source.

"Great. How do we turn it off?"

Normally Charge would just deactivate it with his powers, but he did set up a backup shutoff switch in case he was harmed and couldn't shut it off himself.

"Great. I'm gonna let you take the reins for now."

For just a split moment, the hedgehog's body went limp as he and Wind swapped places, but then they shot forward, faster and faster until Sonic found himself going as fast in the air as he could running on the ground. "This is awesome...!"

I appreciate that...

Tails remained curled up under the console, his namesake appendages curled up around him tightly. The firing had ceased for now, but if he moved from that spot, he knew they'd lock on his position and fire on him again. He'd tried that earlier and been herded by the blasts right back under it. His hands covered his ears, afraid to make any noise and alert it.

He slowly moved and pulled out his notepad, quickly scribbling in it. Day 1 continued. I have discovered firsthand that the Amethyst race did possess a form of security to defend their home besides their powers or traditional weapons. An energy turret that is currently active. I have found no way to deactivate it, and it is preventing me from searching further. Hopefully Sonic can-

He paused as he heard wing beats, but didn't dare move.

"...Tails?" A familiar voice asked.

"Over here...!" Tails hissed.

After a moment, Sonic appeared, his wings outstretching to cover the fox's hiding place. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine...Just shaken..." Tails hesitated a moment, and then crawled up under Sonic's wings. "...It's not firing."

"No. It won't attack an Amethyst." Sonic helped him stand up on his feet again, putting his hands on his shoulders. "Just stay under here until we can activate the killswitch."

"There's a killswitch? Thank Chaos...! Where?"

"Over there."

Sonic pointed to another building, and Tails groaned. He'd have to make his way across the clearing without being hit.

"Chill out, Tails. We can make it."

"Okay..."

The pair moved from the room and slowly out into the clearing. The light of the obelisk moved over onto Sonic, and Tails stiffened up, but it didn't fire.

"You're okay, you're okay..." Sonic whispered to his little brother as they moved, step by step.

Sonic finally reached the other building, and went over to a wall, where a handprint was plastered into the wall.

Tails ducked lower as Sonic leaned over him, then the hedgehog's eyes glowed orange as he placed his hand on the print and spoke a series of words. Tails wrote down the words into his notepad, for future reference. After a few seconds, the light of the obelisk faded, and Sonic retracted his wings out from over Tails. "Phew...That was close."

"Did Eggman take anything?" Sonic asked, turning the topic back to the reason the security had been activated in the first place.

"Not that I know of. He was trying to get me to tell him what we're going here, but I didn't say anything."

"Just the same, we should look around." Wind replied as he gained control. "There could still be weapons here that we can't have Eggman getting his hands on."

"What kind of weapons?"

"Energy Pulsars, Dimension-Tearing Blades, etc. Anything we can find that is still intact should be placed down in the Bunker with Howlite. We'll go together, in case any more security systems come up."

Tails nodded in agreement, and the pair began their search. The more they searched the ruins, the more remnants of the previous inhabitants they found: Broken clay cups, tattered blankets, paintings decorating the leftover parts of sleeping quarters.

As they wandered, Tails could hear Sonic mumbling to himself, probably talking with Wind about things they found. The further they went into the ruins however, the longer the hedgehog would stay in a space, just holding the broken objects and looking at them sadly. He kept putting his hand on his shoulder as if trying to comfort Wind, whispering things Tails couldn't quite catch.

Eventually Tails paused. "Do you need a minute? I mean... Does he need a minute?"

The hedgehog looked up from the blanket he'd been running his fingers over, his eyes shifting to orange. "...Just a few... Thank you, Miles."

Tails nodded, stepping back into the hall. He leaned back against the wall, not saying a word as he heard sobs suddenly break through the hedgehog.

Even if it wasn't really Sonic, it still brought tears to Tails' own eyes. Wind wasn't just some new energy that Sonic had absorbed to gain more power, he was a whole other soul that had lost everyone he cared about and never been given the chance to really mourn them until now. The words leaving his mouth were not intelligible, but Tails didn't know if it was another language or if he was just unable to speak coherently.

After a few minutes, the sobs eased and then ceased, and he heard Wind thank Sonic for giving him that time. Sonic came back out, wiping tears from his face. "Man...I felt that..." He whispered.

Tails placed a hand on Sonic's shoulder. "...You're both going to be okay..." He whispered.

Sonic nodded. "Yeah...I know... This is enough for now. I don't think Wind has the strength to do this any more today."

"Okay...Then let's go home."