"...No, the turbo boosters should go there, Tails."

"Why there?"

"Because it'll look cooler that way."

Tails groaned at his brother's remark, setting down the pen he'd been using to draw potential upgrades. "Adding turbo boosters to the Tornado has nothing to do with making it look cooler, Sonic. And if I put the boosters there, then we'll be stuck flying in circles! Not to mention the excess energy would be building up inside of the fuselage and could potentially blow the plane to pieces in mid-air, or-"

Sonic grinned, sometimes it was fun to get Tails going on and on about his machines, even if he didn't understand most of what was being said. "Just kidding Tails, no need to get all technical on me."

Tails paused, shaking his head with a grin before looking at his watch. "Oops, I'm running late... Sorry to run, but I gotta go."

"Where're you going in such a hurry, Tails?" Amy asked as Tails got up from his chair and collected his toolbox.

"The Refugee Camp. They've been having some faulty power fluctuations, and I promised them I'd check it out."

"You mean you promised Cosmo that you'd check it out."

Tails stiffened as the pink hedgehog gave him a knowing grin, and his cheeks began to burn. "W-What are you suggesting...?"

"Tails. Be real. You haven't taken your eyes off of that little rose-budded princess since she and her people got here."

"Their world was destroyed and they had to flee, and of all of the planets they pick ours to seek asylum. Doesn't that intrigue you?"

Sonic smirked, gesturing to Shadow as he stepped forward. "Shadow's half-alien, and you're not obsessed with him..." He leaned against the black hedgehog, who then shifted his shoulder so that the speedster was sent falling to the floor with a thud. "Oof!...Ow."

Shadow rolled his eyes, "Shouldn't you be meditating, Autumn Wind...? Finding more of the Amethysts?"

"What, you think they're gonna pop up one after the other like crocuses in the snow?" He sat up from the floor, "What about you? Has Thaw made contact yet?"

Shadow shook his head; if anything, Spring Thaw was hiding even deeper. It was a hard, stiff knot in Shadow's insides that wouldn't ever go away, and whenever Shadow tried to bring them closer to the surface they dug down even deeper. It seemed as though Spring Thaw was not interested in helping save his brethren or the world.

And Rouge had no idea. Shadow had made Omega swear to secrecy after the attack in the medical bay, that nobody but Shadow himself would tell her about anything about his strange new objective. She was probably already suspicious, she may have even bugged his quarters and seen him spend hours sitting on his bed doing absolutely nothing, and she probably wondered why when Commander Tower had ordered him to take a few weeks off to recover, he hadn't immediately refused and had stood down so quickly.

None of that mattered, he would tell her when he knew what to tell her. The less people who knew about it, the safer they would be.

Sonic plopped down in the chair as Tails hurried out of the workshop and towards the Tornado. "So...What do you suggest we do today?"

"Wind could start by writing down the names and powers of the Amethysts for us, so we know what kind of elemental anomalies to look out for."

Sonic grinned, and then Wind took over, rapidly taking a spare piece of paper from the desk and scribbling words down on it, even separating them by season group. "And done." He informed, giving himself a high-five.

"Okay, so Wind and Thaw can be crossed off..." Shadow took the paper and pen and then circled 'Autumn Equinox', "Autumn's top priority...Powers unknown?"

Wind shrugged, "He was born after the attack on the village. We were all told about him by the queen, but nobody's seen him in action."

"Great... Okay, so in the past, have any of the Amethysts followed a particular pattern in terms of personalities?"

"Well...Autumn Harvest and Winter Charge were always our 'techies,' you might say. They were always the ones to come up with new ways to defend our home, new weapons against the Obsidians that were mostly destroyed in the invasion..."

"Like the Obelisk Sonic had to rescue Tails from." Amy guessed.

"Correct...Autumn Leaf and Spring Rose tended to the little ones, South, North and Eclipse were sentries at the perimeter, Daylight, Winter Solstice and I were scouts that went out further... everyone else just did whatever needed done around the village. It was so quiet for those years, we..."

He paused, closing his eyes.

Amy patted the hedgehog's back, "Wind, it's okay. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"I appreciate it... Sonic, take over."

Sonic snapped back into control, shaking his head a little. "Okay...I either need to get used to that, or we need to find a less jarring way to swap."

"I'm still just glad I can tell which one I'm talking to!" Amy admitted, "Though the talking to yourself part is a little concerning sometimes."

Sonic grinned, wrapping an arm around her. "Not to worry, Amy. I'm not going anywhere..."

Shadow sighed, handing the paper to Sonic. "Keep a hold of this, maybe make some copies for others... I'm going back to the HQ before anyone comes looking for me."

"Aww...You don't want your big military buddies to know you've been hanging out with yours truly?"

"Absolutely not."

Though Shadow's tone was serious, Sonic saw the hint of a smirk, and then the black hedgehog was gone.

"What're you gonna do when he gets back at you for something you say?" Amy asked.

"Nah...He's too mature to pull revenge pranks."

Oh, do not think you are safe... Wind murmured in his head, ...You're never safe...

The best way to describe the refugee colony was a big patch of fenced-in green fields with small houses spread out across a thirty-acre space. Little white domed roofs popped up across the landscape, accompanied by gardens flourishing in the sun, and their growers milling about between them.

The Seedrian race, or the few dozen that had made it to their world, cared about nature more than anyone Tails had ever encountered, and it was no surprise, considering they were practically plants themselves. Flowers and leaves formed the 'hair' on their heads in many different ways, and the males, known as thorndrigans, even had horn-like branches protruding from their heads.

As the fox passed the security station, a few of the Petali women waved in greeting. Tails couldn't help but notice the cameras lining the tiny village, a constant reminder that though they were allowed to be here, they were always being watched. As innocent and peaceful as they seemed, the government was not fully convinced that they weren't just the precursor to later invasions.

He kept to the outskirts of the village, passing a few houses before reaching the small power station where the fluctuations were said to be coming from. Two cameras followed his movements as he opened the door and then stepped inside to check the breaker box. "Okay... Let's take a look in here..."

"Hello, Miles."

Tails jumped and nearly dropped his toolbox as the voice spoke, before turning to face the other person. "H-Hi...Hi, Princess Cosmo."

Cosmo giggled, brushing her leaves out of her face. "Sorry if I startled you, I was just coming to watch you work."

"It's not really that interesting, I'm afraid... Just moving wires around and flipping switches."

"It's more interesting than being teased by my sister and her friends," Cosmo sighed, "Being the littlest seedrian here means nobody takes me seriously."

"You'll find your place." Tails gave her a smile, "Nobody took me seriously at first either, and now GUN calls me with technical questions sometimes... You all adjusting okay?"

Cosmo plopped down in the grass, plucking a few blades and then twirling them in her fingers. "...I guess... Father's having the hardest time, I think. He didn't want to flee Greengate, he wanted to fight... I know he's up late into the night, thinking about all of the people we couldn't save... The people who sacrificed their lives so the ships could escape."

"It must be hard, having to start over somewhere in a new place and feeling like you failed even though you lived to see another day..." Tails' gaze shifted to his hands as they clenched around a wrench. "...I know someone else who's dealing with that same thing... He lost everything too."

"It is hard..."

Cosmo rested her fingers down on the ground, and Tails watched as a daisy seemed to spontaneously pop up between them. "...But just like this flower, we don't always get to choose where we're planted, only how we rise up from that place."

"That's very deep, princess..."

Cosmo giggled as she blushed, "Yeah well...Sometimes my brain just comes up with things like that, and then a few minutes later all it can think of is 'This orange is very orange.'"

Tails chuckled, and then returned his attention to the breaker box. "Well, they are rather orange oranges... So has the power been going out at any particular time? Like maybe a faulty timer of some sort?"

"It always seems to flicker when the outdoor lights are either coming on or going out... It'll be out for a few minutes in scattered patches around the colony, and then come back on, but it's never the same patch twice in a row."

"Hmm... Good to know..."

"What's it like outside? Being able to just walk around wherever you want?"

Tails paused once more, silent for a moment. "...I guess I'd never really thought about it... I know Sonic would go insane without his freedom... Hopefully one of these days they'll let you all go beyond the colony and I can show you my favorite places in the city!"

"I'd like that."

Cosmo's head perked up as a voice called out, and she turned and gave a sigh. "My sister's calling me back... Guess I'd better go."

"Yeah... I'll see you later?"

"Possibly..."

Cosmo gave him a grin and then hurried away towards her sister's calls.

Tails smiled as he watched her run across the grass, and then realized he was supposed to be working. "R-Right... Fix the electricity, Tails. Don't let her distract you..."