Cream was doing her usual thing, picking flowers in a garden near the lake not far from her house.
"Cream, it's time for breakfast deary!" her mom called.
"Coming!" Cream said back, as she ran over to her house.
"Oh, your friend Storm came by." Cream's mom said. "He said to meet him at Miles's house later today."
Cream looked at her mom confused. "Did he say why?"
Cream's mom shrugged. "He said he wanted it to be a surprise."
The little rabbit just walked to her table, in wonder of what the surprise could be.
10 MINUTES LATER
Cream was walking over to Tails's lab after she finished her breakfast. She was still just as curious as before as to what her surprise was.
She walked up to the metal door next to Tails's garage door, and knocked.
Shortly after that, she heard foorsteps coming from the inside getting gradually louder, as she suspected that they were approaching the door.
The door swung on its hinges, as she saw a fluffy orange tail poked out from the side of the door. She then saw another, and quickly afterwards, she saw her orange fox friend.
"Ah, Cream. There you are." Tails said. "Storm's just inside. He'll just be a second. You can wait in here, he's been working pretty hard on this."
"Really?" Cream asked, suspicious.
"Yeah, really." Tails said. Cream thought she heard him mutter "For a first." in an insulting voice.
She then proceeded to sit on the couch that was across the room from the X Tornado.
"Ready!" Cream heard Storm shout from the next room over. He then proceeded to walk out of the room.
"So what is it?" Cream asked impatiently.
Storm looked at Tails. "Is she normally like this?"
Tails shook his head.
Storm shrugged. "Alright, come on out!" he shouted into the room he walked out of.
Cream waited, before hearing a metal footstep.
"What's that?" Cream asked, scared.
"It's fine." Storm said, as she heard another metal footstep. This time, however, she saw the tip of an orange metallic foot.
No, it didn't exactly resemble a foot. It obviously had no shoes, but it was extremely skinny, and there weren't any toes.
Another footstep sounded, and another foot moved forward. This time, she could see more of it. The small rabbit noted that the middle of the foot was a much lighter colour.
She could also see part of a face, but the lights were placed to weird that it was difficult to make out any colours in the upper body parts, such as the head or chest. She did notice a large bump where the left eye should have gone, and given the way they were walking, she couldn't see the right side.
Once more footstep, and they fully left the other room.
She noticed a horn on top of their heads... No, not a horn exactly. She wasn't sure what it was.
The limbs were all skinny, with 2 straight skinny bars that looked to be attached by an axis of some sort.
The lights started to adjust, and Cream started to make out the figure features.
Yellow limbs with orange joints, orange fingers attached to a circular yellow hand.
And, on the head, the figures face was yellowish-orange with an orange line in the middle, which is where the little spike on the top of its head was.
The eyes, on the other hand, represented dark blue bug eyes. Nothing else much to say there.
Once Cream realized who she was looking at, she started tearing up a little bit.
"Is that... ML?" she asked.
"Finding him was a bi-" Storm started, before realizing he was talking to a 5 year old. "A CHALLENGE, but not so difficult as to have to drown."
"How... How did you bring him back?" Cream asked.
"That's a bit of a long story." Storm said.
3 HOURS AGO
After Tails finished telling Storm the stories of what happened three months ago, that's when he started feeling bad for the little guy.
"Sorry... For questioning it." he said. "I can see why you didn't want to tell me earlier, and got mad at me when I did."
"It's alright." Tails said.
"A lot of that story gave me an odd sense of déjà vu, though." Storm said. "And you said she transformed by an circular red stone, right?"
"Yeah, why are you asking?" Tails asked.
Storm reached into his spine, and pulled out the stone from the volcano. "Did it look like this?" he asked, holding it out to him.
"Y- Whe- Ho- Where did you find that?" Tails asked, after stuttering a couple thousand times.
"Remember when I went into the future, and contacted you with the Master Emerald (which to this day I can't figure out how I did)?" Storm asked. "I found this in a volcano shortly before I got back."
Tails put his hand on the stone, and gently carried it out of Storm's hand. Storm swears he saw the two-tailed fox tear up a little, as he set it down next to the plant.
"This means she's coming back... Sooner or later... Or at least part of her." Storm said, smiling, as he continued to work on the beaten up robot. They made very good progress while Tails told his story, but there were still some modifications that needed to be made to the programming before it could leave with a chance of not trying to kill everyone.
"Thanks for giving me this..." Tails said, tears filling his eyes.
"Not to ruin the moment, but you're acting a little bit like a chick." Storm said. "I mean, I'm not saying that I wouldn't do that same, but seriously dude, come on."
Tails looked at the robot, and wiped the tears away. "Right. Sorry. We should finish this."
"What we should do is get help from Chris." Storm said.
"No. He may know his way around Earth technology and basic Mobian technology, but even I barely understand ML's circutry." Tails said.
"Yeah, I guess." Storm said. "But didn't he help around with the Blue Typhoon and the X Tornadoes a lot last time he was here?"
"Yeah..." Tails said, remembering the past.
Storm just sighed. "Do you have a computer that I can plug into his operating system? Maybe if I can adjust that, it'll stop him from going berserk again."
"I do have one, but it might not work..." Tails said, walking over to his blue X-shaped plane.
"You have a computer attached to that thing?" Storm asked. "Whatever, it seems to have worked for you in the past. And it should work for us in the present."
"And if it doesn't?" Tails asked.
"Then we'll need to destroy and redo the plane." Storm said. "If that's a problem, we'll need a different one. Possibly a computer WITHOUT access to a bunch of weapons that can kill things instantly."
"I don't think I have a computer like that." Tails said.
"Then we'll have to use this one and hope for the best. You're better at programming than me, so the instant I connect the two, I need you to start looking through his programming, and change whatever it is that makes him go berserk whenever he comes into contact with a Chaos Emerald. You'll have 2 minutes before ML's consciousness transfers over to your plane, so you'll want to finish and disconnect before that happens." Storm said. "Are you up for it?"
Tails looked at him suspiciously. "Where the hell did you get all of that information from?"
"There's a warning on the back saying not to connect other computers to him and just use the one built into him." Storm said. "But, as that one has gone completely flat, even aftet draining the water, we don't have a choice."
Tails shrugged. "Alright, I'm confident."
Storm plugged one end of a very long, thick, black cable into the X Tornado. He then took the other end over to the orange robot, and help it over the plug on its hard drive.
"Ready?" Storm asked, still holding the unplugged cable.
"Ready!" Tails shouted.
"GO!" Storm shouted, as he plugged the cable into the center of ML's currently open chest.
He looked at where Tails was working, and saw that he was working fast.
He just hoped it was fast enough.
A minute and a half later, Storm was getting bored. However, he couldn't abandon his friend, and he also couldn't bug him.
Nonetheless, those last few minutes were very long for the red rodent.
"Finished!" Tails said, at the minute 50 second mark.
"Good." Storm said, walking over to the robot and plugging it out of the plane. "That wasn't a challenge at all. I expected a bunch of robots to come and try and provoke us from finishing the programming."
"Giveh who our neighbour 10 doors down is, I wouldn't have been surprised if it did." Tails said.
"Might be a little more than 10 doors." Storm said, moving his hand over the robot's power switch. "More like a couple hundred."
"You may wanna give it time to buffer." Tails said, grabbing Storm's arm, and moving it away from the robot. "It could explode if it doesn't."
"I doubt that's true." Storm said.
"Just wait for it to finish installing the new software I downloaded, okay?" Tails suggested.
"Wait, new software?" Storm asked. "Couldn't you have just edited his old software?"
"I didn't have time." Tails said. "So I just took the basics from his old stuff, and replaced the details."
"So what improvements are there?" Storm asked, looking over the orange robot.
"He has rockets now." Tails said.
Storm whirled around to look at him. "You managed to make an entire form of matter... That EXPLODES... Using only a few lines of code?" he asked. "This planets logic is weird."
"What do you mean 'this planets' logic?" Tails said, using finger quotes around the two words that confused him. "You seem to make a lot of phrases like that, and I've been curious what you mean."
"Well, like I told you, I don't remember anything before running up to your house." Storm said.
"Yet you had the knowledge to blow up the Death Egg by wiring everything to the engine." Tails said. "There's something you're not telling me."
"Well, I do admit that while the planet was basically dead, I kinda..." Storm hesitated, not knowing how to finish the sentence. "I might have dicked around in your lab a bit."
"You were in my house without me knowing!?" Tails shouted.
"That reaction is why I didn't want to tell you." Storm said.
"YOU were in MY house," Tails started to repeat. "without ME knowing!?"
"Look, I'm sorry." Storm said. "I thought it was abandoned!"
Tails simply sighed, and pushed the thought out of his mind. "What kind of stuff did you do while you were here?"
"Looked at electronics. Didn't touch any, though." Storm said. "That's the furthest back I remember, I swear."
"Did anything else happen?" Tails asked.
Storm put a finger on one side of his chin, and his thumb on the other. "Now that you mention it..."
3 HOURS LATER
"So what was it?" Cream asked.
"Nothing important." Storm said. "I should be heading out."
"Thanks for Cosmo's stone." Tails said.
"No problem." Storm said. "I just happened to have it on hand, but since you're my friend, I would've been searching all over the place if I didn't."
With that said, Storm walked out of the lab.
2 HOURS LATER
"So we just let these androids attack Sonic for us?" Silver asked.
"Bingo." Eggman said, pushing a button on his metallic desk, making the black androids' eyes glow. "And with any luck, they'll also stop those other pesky rodents for us as well."
Silver grinned, as the black android dropped off the wall.
"This'll be neat." Silver said.
AT THE VILLAGE AREA
Sonic was running around the houses.
"HEY STORM! YOU AROUND!?" Sonic asked. "I GOTTA PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE!"
"Chao!" he heard someone say behind him.
The blue hedgehog stopped running, and looked to see the small Chao with a red bowtie.
"Cheese? What's wrong?" Sonic asked.
"Chao chao chao!" Cheese exclaimed.
"I'm not Cream." Sonic said. "I can't understand the Chao language or read body language. What are you saying?"
Cheese facepalmed, and pointed into the forest.
Sonic looked, and saw Shadow.
"Shadow! Wait up, buddy!" Sonic shouted, running after him.
"Hmph?" Shadow grunted. "What do you want?"
"What are you doing around the village!?" Sonic asked. "I thought you went to find more Chaos Emeralds!"
Shadow laughed lightly, and shook his head.
"CHAOS SPEAR!" multiple voices around Sonic said in unison.
"Huh?" Sonic said, before he got struck by a spear made completely of Chaos. "AGH!"
He then collapsed onto the ground, and passed out quickly, the last thing he saw being a group of 20 or more hedgehogs gathering around him.
AN HOUR LATER
Storm burst into Tails's lab. "We have a problem." he said.
"And what would that be?" Tails asked, curious, from the engine of the X Tornado, which he was tuning up.
"I can't find Sonic anywhere." Storm said.
Tails looked away from his project. "You think he got kidnapped again?"
"Given the fact that that Silver hedgehog is working with Eggman, they might be trying to kill him." Storm said. "Either way, I'm not taking the chance. Where's Amy?"
"She walked by here screaming." Tails said. "I'm guessing her talk with Sonic didn't go so well."
"No, because Sonic's great at conversation." Storm said, sarcastically.
"My point is that she may not wanna help us right now." Tails said.
"Didn't think so." Storm said. "Guess we'll need some weapons, instead of going in empty-handed like usual."
Tails nodded, as he closed the hood over the front of his plane, and walked over to a drawer.
The orange fox opened the drawer, and took out a blue cylindrical object that looked like it wrapped around someone's arm through one hole, but there was also another hole.
"What does that do?" Storm asked.
"It gathers particles of energy from its surroundings, then uses a form of photosynthesis to transform it into a circular physical-energy projectile." Tails said.
"Umm..." Storm said, completely stumped.
"IT SHOOTS BALLS OF ENERGY!" Tails shouted.
"Why couldn't you have said that earlier?" Storm asked, walking into the house. "Go on without me, I gotta grab something."
Tails nodded, as he hopped in the X Tornado, and started powering it up.
UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
When Sonic woke up, he felt himself being dragged away. He would take a guess as to where, except he felt some sort of cloth over his eyes, so not only did he have no idea where he was, he couldn't even try to find out, because he couldn't see. He just had to wait for whoever was dragging him to stop.
At least that's probably what they thought.
The blue hedgehog began spinning as much as he could. It took his opponent by surprise, as they were thrown into the wall.
"AGH!" his captor shouted, hitting the wall. Their voice sounded deep, and also familiar.
Sonic stood up, and while questioning why his hands weren't bound, untied his blindfold.
He appeared to be in a slate coloured metal hallway. There were some lights on the roof. It was similar to Eggman's multiple bases from the past.
On the ground, against the wall, Sonic saw a black hedgehog with red stripes in his head-spikes.
"What are you getting at, Shadow!?" Sonic asked. "Why are you kidnapping me and taking me to Eggman's base!?"
"Hmph." was all Shadow got out, before sitting up.
"Didn't you get the memo?" someone asked from behind the blue hedgehog.
Sonic spun around, and saw dozens upon dozens of black hedgehogs.
"Shadow!?" Sonic asked. "Wh- why are you multiplied!?"
"Dr. Eggman's been busy working on this project." one of the Shadows said.
"Shadow Androids!" the rest of them said in unison.
"Androids as in the cell phone operating system?" someone asked from the roof.
Everyone looked up, as something fell through, really fast.
Sonic looked, and saw the red hedgehog, Storm.
"I know you might still be pissed after what happened with Amy," Storm said, quietly. "but I'm still getting you out of here."
"CHAOS SPEAR!" 5 of the Shadow Androids shouted, flinging their arms out, and shooting energy directly at Storm.
The red hedgehog waited until right before they hit, before grabbing a stick from behind his back that Sonic didn't even notice until just then.
In one fluent motion, Storm yanked on the stick, and moved it in the path of the Chaos Spears.
Once they were gone, Sonic looked at what Storm held, and noticed that it wasn't a stick at all.
It was a hand-and-a-half long sword, which appeared to have all of its weight in the blade, because it looked heavy.
The colour of the sword appeared to be black on one side, and orange on the other. The orange side was currently glowing.
"I can hold them off long enough to get you out of here, so hurry!" Storm shouted.
Sonic hesitated, but then nodded, as he jumped through the hole that Storm made in the ceiling.
"SOMEBODY GET HIM!" a familiar fatass shouted over the loudspeaker.
"Yeah, no." Storm said. "Anybody that's gonna be chasing him will first have to have an appointment with my sword."
"So what?" Eggman asked. "Fine. Robotic clones, go chase that hedgehog!"
"You do that, and they'll have to deal with my friends cannon." Storm said.
"They'll take the risk." Eggman said. Although Storm couldn't see him, he thought for a second that the fat Mobian warlord was grinning.
Hope you enjoyed. If you did, follow this story for future updates. And leave a review with suggestions if you want.
And if not, then order some lasagna.