'I coulda sworn I was closer to town.' Was Sonic's first coherent thoughts. Then he noticed familiar bundle of yellow lying next to him and loudly smacked his forehead. 'Crap, I was suppose to wait for Tails!'

He gently shook the younger mobian awake, who responded with a groan.

"Lemme sleep for just forty more hours."

"No can do, Tails. That's a coma."

"Sounds festive."

"Tails no."

"Tails yes."

"I'll buy you some ice cream." A beat of silence.

"Fiiiiine." Tails whined. Then he suddenly shot up. "SONIC!"

Sonic winced from the volume and second hand whiplash. "Woah, Tails, careful not to throw out your back or something."

Tails stared blankly in response as his body screeched at him for waking up from what he and some college students considered as a decent night's rest and what everyone else considered a 15 minute nap. He then shook off his sleepiness as best as he could before getting onto his feet and proceeded to drag Sonic to his plane that was hopefully still there, explaining everything that happened on the way there.

Well, less of explaining and more of just info-dumping, but Sonic caught the general gist:

There was a huge earthquake yesterday morning

It broke the planet into pieces

This apparently happened before?

Some guy named Professor Pickle has more info on it

With little else to do and Tails practically shoving him into the bi-plane, the duo were off to Spagonia.

(One hour later)

"What do you mean the professor's missing?!" Tails yelled, causing Sonic and the assistant to flinch.

"I-it was a bit before the tremors hit." The man squeaked out. "This old man showed up with a...and a…and a whole pack of robots!" Sonic would usually be amused by the gestures the assistant made. However, any amusement was completely overshadowed by his concern for his uncharacteristically ill-tempered brother.

"Chaos damnit OF COURSE IT WOULD BE EGGMAN!" Tails screeched. Sonic instantly stepped Tail and the assistant before the situation could escalate even more.

"Woah, Tails, not cool!" Sonic said firmly. "You can't just blow up on him, he's trying to help! And swearing like that- What are you? Shadow? You need to calm down!"

"Calm? CALM?! IF YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED SONIC THE PLANET'S FALLING APART!"

Sonic froze, then took time to fully look at Tails, his eyes darting from the kitsune's extremely unkempt fur, manic expression, and the bags under his eyes that were so dark they practically looked like bruises. Tails started to fidget from Sonic's staring and the long silence. Finally, the hedgehog shot him a look.

"When's the last time you actually slept?" Tails groaned and rolled his eyes.

"It doesn't mat-"

Sonic cut him off with a stern glare. "When was the last time you actually slept?"

Tails shrank under Sonic's piercing look. A few more moments of silence passed before the older mobian sighed. He then shot an apologetic smile at the assistant.

"Sorry to bother you, but does this place have any beds?"

"No, not really, but we do have some pillows. Is that okay?"

"Yep, thanks!" Tails started to protest but Sonic quickly shot him down. "Sorry Tails, but I gotta pull the big brother card here. You're not doing anything until you get some shut-eye."

"But we gotta find Eggman!" Sonic started a retort, then paused. His kid brother did have a point.

"Then how about a compromise? I'll look for Eggman,while you get some rest."

"Only if I come with you." Tails stubbornly added.

"Only if you sleep in the passenger seat." Sonic shot back without missing a beat.

The two locked eyes, Tails in defiance, Sonic completely unmoving. A few moments passed. Tails broke first.

"...deal."

(Hours later)

Sonic looked over his shoulder once more, making sure that Tails was still actually asleep, before turning forward with a sigh of relief. Looking back, he probably should've voiced the concern he felt before he let Tails drag him to the Tornado. 'At least he's resting now.'

He idly checked the navigation system to make sure he was on course for Mazuri (which seemed pretty close now. It was at most a half-hour away), then watched as the sun slipped behind him as his eyes started to close. 'Wait. What.'

Sonic struggled to keep his eyes open, but his body continued to shut down, much to his terror, as if he had taken a lungful of sleeping gas. He desperately fought to stay awake, not even noticing how the steering wheel warped in his equally warping hands. Then, like the snap of a rubberband stretched too far, Sonic's conscience was replaced by the other inhabitant of his body.

It was jarring, to say the least, for the being whose vision had faded away in a forest just to then suddenly snap open some miles up in the air. Said being also happened to be filled with the inexplicable feeling that it had forcefully shoved someone out of the way and said someone was very, very upset about it.

It turned to look for the person so that it could apologize, but the place it was sitting was a tad too cramped to allow for much movement. With a mild grimace, it tried to wiggle out of its seat, its body accidentally pressing against an inconspicuous button. It was then buffeted by a lot of wind as the glass surrounding it silently folded away.

"Wha-?!" It's turned back at the sound of a familiar voice, and the only warning given to the distracted pseudo dark Gaian and the two tailed fox that something else was wrong was a sharp click of a switch being flipped.

The plane suddenly shot forward like a bullet.

The two of them flew out of their seats, the only thing keeping them from falling into the water below being the werehog's right hand clenched around Tails's leg and its left on the top of the steering wheel.

Because of this unfortunate placement said left grip, the plane was now also doing endless cycle of loop-de-loops like an aerial roller coaster from hell, dragging the both of them in tow and screaming. Tails panickedly flailed his arms before grabbing a fistful of the other's fur and holding on tight.

"LET GO OF MY LEG!"

"SOUNDS LIKE A TERRIBLE IDEA BUT OKAY!"

The pseudo dark Gaian did exactly what it was ordered to do, and with its help Tails crawled across its arms, forced himself into the cockpit, and finally, FINALLY, leveled the plane out and landed very moment he found land to do so.

The both of them shakily exited the plane and collapsed on the ground, the werehog struggling to remember how to breathe and Tails struggling to get his heartbeat down from what was probably 500bpm. For a moment, there was peace.

The werehog cleared its throat. "So, did you manage to find that blue hedgehog?"

The temperature around them seemed to drop a few degrees.

"Yes." Tails forced out through gritted teeth. "But I'm sure you know more than I do, don't you."

"I...what?"

Tails turned to glare at the werehog. "When I fell asleep on that plane, my brother was piloting it. When I woke up, you're there, and he's nowhere to be seen." Both of them stood up, and Tails marched over to it and prodded its chest. "So you better tell what happened to my brother or else!" It blankly looked at him and as the moments ticked by, Tails forced himself to ignore the fact that the other mobian loomed over him by a good two feet.

"I...don't know." Tails took a long look at the other's expression, then pursed his lips. It genuinely looked like the taller mobian was just as lost and confused as he was, if not more. Tails tiredly rubbed his eye and pulled out his Miles Electric, his adrenaline finally wearing off and leaving him feeling drained.

"You know what? How about you come and help me find Professor Pickle, and then I'll fly you back home." The werehog nodded in response, and Tails scanned the area with his device for any underground bases. With a small ping, the base was located and the duo silently trekked to their destination.

…

The werehog looked around in fascination as Tails flew up to get the professor out of the glass dome that was his cell. Initially it had been paying attention to them, but after the professor started talking about sandwiches is was pretty it wouldn't understand them. Then Professor Pickle addressed it.

"And do be sure to collect the contents of that vault before departing."

It looked at the professor, at the vault, then Tails. "Um. How?"

Tails turned towards the professor. "Do you remember how they opened the vault, sir?"

Professor Pickle shook his head. "Unfortunately, I was unconscious at the time."

Tails turned back to the pseudo dark Gaian. "Try turning it to the left." He watched as the being approached the vault door, hoping that the vault would be willing to cooperate, then stared as the taller mobian proceeded to rip the steel door off its hinges. "...I guess that works too." Tails went in, found nothing but a small tube, then gave it to the professor. With that the three of them hurried out of the base.

Once the three of them reached the Tornado, however, Tails realized there was a small problem. "Sorry professor, but I don't think we can all fit."

"No worries, there should be a town around here that we can all head to tomorrow." Tails agreed with the human's sentiment and let him stay in the passenger seat to rest, then sat on the wing and checked for updates. A few moments later, the werehog joined him.

"Sorry you lost your brother again." Tails looked up to see the other mobian guiltily looking down.

"Hm? Oh, no, no it's fine. I should be apologizing for snapping at you." Tails's fingers idly tapped against his Miles Electric, before he slapped his forehead. "Heck, I don't even think I ever introduced myself! Sorry about that." He offered the navy mobian a handshake. "I'm Miles Prower, but you can call me Tails. What's your name?" It paused, its hand hovering over the smaller mobian's as its eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"I...don't know?" Tails blinked.

"What? You forgot your name?" 'Does...does he have amnesia?'

"I don't think I had one to begin with?" Tails starred in response.

"Oh. Huh." Tails looked down in thought, before perking up. "Then maybe I can name you. If you don't mind." He quickly added.

"Yeah, sure, go ahead." Tails smiled in response, before going deep into thought.

"How about…" Tails started, then stood up in alarm as the being suddenly slumped without warning. He hurried over and caught it before it fell off the plane's wing, then speechlessly watched as it was surrounded by a purple mist. As the sun rose and the purple mist cleared, Tails looked on in pure disbelief at his previously missing, currently unconscious brother he now held in his arms.

"Sonic?"

So it's been two months since my last update and um...I have no excuses I'm so sorry. Anyway, I'm replacing the author's note with the actual fifth chapter. If you want to know what it's about, it's basically this: I ran out of motivation. But now I'm back! I'm probably still not going to be able to update this once a week, but I have no intention of abandoning this. Anywho, sorry for the wait, I'll try to update at least once a month, thank you for your patience. Let's continue this car fire!