WHEN DO MY STORIES END CHAPTER 3
Chapter 3: Nothing Good has Happened Yet

"C'mon Tails, hurry up!" I said waiting for Tails in front of his workshop. It was really the garage, but Tails transformed it into a workshop; and it has gone through a lot of changes since his machines and gadgets have been expanding every new adventure we have. I guess I left him behind a little ways back since I got a little too excited to go and beat the heck out of Eggman. Then again, who wouldn't be psyched to take a chance to crack that annoying egg? I know I wouldn't. I looked around to see if I could see Tails anywhere. It wasn't long until my ears picked up the sound of spinning tails. I smiled now that I was able to see him in my view of sight, but it still wasn't worth the wait.

"Sorry Sonic, you kind of...took off without me," Tails panted.

"Well you made it and that's good enough for me. Anyway, are you ready to kick that fat egg's butt?" I asked super hyped to meet with my old "friend". I waited for Tails to answer, but he started to sound like he was giving me a lecture again, so I began to do my usual stretches not even listening to any of Tails' objections and sayings. Usually, he would tell me to stop and think about what I was going to do. Well, right now, I'm thinking about giving Dr. Eggman a rude welcome by destroying his entrance and making the best use of his traps. Then, I would be destroying one of his giant killer robots once I make it to the control room. That's usually the cycle of what I do whenever I let myself in on one of Egghead's bases. The layouts of his headquarters are not the same, but the traps and robots in it never change. There's always a small possibility that I would get jumped by a robot, but there's a huge possibility I would destroy that robot before it tries to get me down. Actually, they would never be able to touch me. I can't help but chuckle to myself about that.

"Sonic, are you listening to me?" Tails asked glaring at me. I looked up at him and jumped up on my feet from stretching.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm listening..." I lied. Then I started brushing away at the invisible dust just so I wouldn't make eye contact with my little brother. I didn't really like it when he started nagging at me, and I thought the nagging usually came from Amy. I guess it wore off to Tails as well because he spends a lot of time with me since Amy is sometimes clinging on to me.

"Alright then, what did I say?" Tails said, now crossing his arms. I looked at him with wide eyes. Did he really want me to repeat whatever he said?

I took a deep breath and held up my finger, "You were going to tell me to think before I act and—"

"Nope," Tails shook his head.

"Um~..."

Tails sighed and uncrossed his arms, "I just want you to watch yourself. I don't want you to get yourself hurt, okay?"

"Tails, Tails, Tails..." I breathed, "you're over exaggerating. All of Eggman's bases are the same no matter what changes he attempts to make to them. C'mon, let's just hop on your bi-plane and head on over to Egghead's base. I'm sure that you'll see that there'll be nothing wrong. I'll be running out of there without a scratch or a bruise on me." I smiled at my brother sincerely and walked over to the workshop. I grabbed at the handle of the garage and lifted it open. My grin grew wider at the sight of the Tornado. She was always presented as her best whenever I came to see her. At least, whenever my team is ready to go up against Eggman. Tails walked up to the plane and jumped in the pilot seat—his favorite seat in the small bi-plane. I couldn't help but think that maybe Tails doubted me. I just hope that I could be able to have Tails smile before I go solo into Eggman's robot-filled territory. I did my best to not get that thought engraved into my head and jumped the wings of the plane once I saw the propeller start to spin.

"Ready Tails?" I shouted for him to hear through the roaring sounds of the Tornado's engine.

"Always," Tails smiled, and I gladly returned with my trademark grin and thumbs-up. We were finally flying over to Eggman's base without any further arguments.

The whole time we flew towards the destination, we had barely talked. Truth be told, I didn't even know what to talk to Tails about. Part of me wanted to tell him what had taken place on the ARK, but I decided against it since Tails will be asking me to go into deep detail about it. I looked on forward and saw a jungle coming into view. The area was filled with trees and was complicated to find an open area to land the plane, but I had fun looking at the scenery from above. Dr. Eggman always had a tendency to build his base where there were enough plants, sand, snow and etc. to keep his base from being spotted.

Suddenly, I felt the Tornado slowly descending since my feet was losing the feel of the metal wing, and I looked forward to find a small opening. That was probably where Tails was going to land the Tornado. I took a hold of the edge of the wing so I wouldn't go flying off with the wind—even though I would've loved that. I looked over to my right and heard sirens going off. 'Uh-oh, I think we just triggered something,' I thought. I turned to Tails, and he was looking worried as well. "Tails, you're going to have to land this thing quick before we're greeted by Eggman's welcoming party," I announced. It wasn't any different from anything else I've experienced...yet. I would always encounter this whenever it came to invading the doctor's bases, which would make my adrenaline pump.

"Yeah, I figured that when I first heard the sounds of sirens go off," Tails remarked. All I could do was smirk. I couldn't help but sometimes point out the obvious; even Tails would sometimes miss a couple of details. Then at the corner of my eye, I saw a missile coming our way.

"Tails, looks like you're going to have to land the plane on your own, I'll meet up with you when I'm done handling with Eggman's mechanical toys," I said.

"What, what are you...?"

Before Tails could say anything, I jumped leaving Tails' question hanging in the air. All that was in my head was to start teasing Eggman by playing with the missiles that he had launched at us—me, especially. I grinned to myself as I steadily placed my red shoes on to the flying missile. I didn't want to trigger anything since it would explode once came into contact with anything. I surfed across the sky on the missile for some time until I got it to turn around towards Eggman's base. As I was approaching Eggman's base, I heard more missiles firing from behind me. My smile grew. Now, the fun had finally begun. "C'mon Eggman, show me what you got!" I exclaimed in the missiles direction. I turned my attention to in front of me and jumped about a close second before the missile hit a metal wall of Eggman's base along with the two other big bullets that followed after me to create more explosions. I was later blown away by the heat wave. It took me awhile to get myself in the correct position to land. I wasn't too high off the ground to make myself unsteady. I looked up and found debris falling from where the missile had hit the base. I quickly stepped back without having a scratch on me.

I looked around and smirked. I knew Eggman was looking at and listening to me...from somewhere. "Eggman, you can't stop me from doing what I do, it's better if you just quit right now! You could be able to keep your whole base in one piece if you cooperate just this once!" I spat accusingly pointing my finger randomly at the air. After that comment, I felt the ground below me start to shake. It looked like Eggman was going to send his robots to take care of me. I wondered how big they were going to be, then again, he would leave the big ones last for me to fight. Then I heard hisses as holes were created in the grass, I cautiously peeked over it and then pulled back as insectoid robots quickly popped out from them. Their eyes fixated on me. All I could've ever done was smirk. I heard more buzzing sounds from all around me. I was surrounded, but these guys were easy. I jumped and launched myself at them, creating a chain of small explosions behind me. Smoking metal and bits of robot scraps were left on the ground for Eggman to clean up.

"Didn't even break a sweat," I taunted. I clapped my hands in a way as if dust were on my gloves. I shook both of my legs and tapped my foot on the ground. I didn't want to have any pulled muscles coming at me later on. Eggman wouldn't be attacking for awhile, so I would take this time to meet up with Tails and get him to help me navigate through Eggman's maze-like base. My ears perked at the sound of the wind blowing which is then followed by crickets and birds resuming their chirping and singing their songs. Then, I heard my wrist communicator ring. I expected it, since Tails would be the only one contacting me. I pressed the respond button and was happy to be able to see Tails on the little screen.

"What's up buddy?" I smiled.

"Oh, nothing much, I just wanted to know how you were doing and what you were up to," Tails answered. "But, I do need you to hurry up though; I don't know how much time we have until Eggman sends his second wave of robots."

"Ditto," I remarked. Tails nodded and ended connections with me and so did I. Then, I looked around trying to remember the image I had of Tails' chose landmark for the Tornado. Even though my image of it was a little hazy, I headed into the most accurate location I remembered. Of course, there were tracking devices installed into our comms, I didn't really want to use it to help me locate Tails. I had my own map in my head—when it came to remembering something such as land or something worthy to remember. Not a lot of time passed, if you could it time. I didn't think much time passed because there wasn't much of a gap between me reaching Tails and when we were contacting each other. I screeched to an immediate halt when I slid right next to the Tornado. Of course, I found Tails playing with his little navigation gadget thingy. I scowled at myself. He would never put his toys down unless he was told to.

I wiped the expression off my face and jumped up the nose of the bi-plane. "Hi!" I greeted once my feet stomped on the plane. The sudden break in silence startled my yellow buddy a bit. I couldn't help but make a funny face at him. It was always fun trying to scare him. His face was priceless and was worth seeing.

"Sonic, you could've given me a heart attack!" Tails exclaimed. "I already have a lot to worry about!" He was angry, and I just couldn't help but continue to laugh at him. I dropped dead on my butt on the nose of the plane.

"Well, you should pay less attention to your fancy gadgets and pay more attention to your surroundings buddy," I stated cockily. I leaned on my back. Even though where I was resting was quite narrow, I had to keep my balance. It wasn't that hard once I got used to it. I heard Tails grunt to himself. I began to wonder what he was worrying so much about. It wasn't like I was going die tomorrow. Though, that would be a scary thought, I didn't want to leave everyone just yet. Especially when I was just beginning to get a better understanding of how Shadow worked and lived, I didn't want to leave and let him continue to live the way he has for the past couple of years. Plus, I would also leave behind so many broken hearts too. I pushed those thoughts aside not wanting to darken my mood when I am excited to foil Eggman's plans. I sat up and looked at Tails again. My eyes softened when I saw him. He works so hard to try and find the safest routes for me to follow as I try to find the main control room and meet Eggman without any distractions or delays.

"Hey Tails, you don't need to worry. I'll make it through just fine. I promise," I reached out and placed my hand on Tails' shoulder.

"Is it too late to turn back now?" Tails asked nervously. My friend having a tiny glimmer of hope that maybe I would give in to the pressure and agree with him. But who was I to say and agree? I wanted him to feel so much better and not have a sick feeling in his stomach, but I wanted so much to do with Eggman. I didn't want to come back the next day and find out that he's gone. I couldn't take the chance, so I shook my head with the usual smile slapped on my face. I looked into his eyes again and noticed him turn away from me. I began to feel a bit guilty, but I couldn't blame him for feeling that way.

"C'mon Tails, we've already came here and made it this far. We've already got this far, there is only one step left to do, and that is to take on Eggman and bust out of here with a victory on our side," I said trying to brighten the mood.

"What if you get injured?" Tails asked.

I sighed, "You're hopeless Tails."

Tails shrugged. Hey, at least I saw a small smile creeping up on his face unless he's only forcing that out for me to feel better about my decision to keep moving on.

"I don't mean it in a bad way Tails," I retaliated. "I just don't want you to be distracted with my well-being or else you won't be able to focus on helping me through Eggman's base. I don't want you failing me Tails." I chuckled and brushed my fist up on Tails arm. My smile widened when I heard him laugh along with me. I was finally going to get through with this with no hard feelings. I jumped off the bi-plane and walked off in front of Tails.

I heard some noises in the background, and I knew that Tails was changing the flying plane into a walking robot...with no head. I wondered why Tails never bothered to add an actual body and a head to the robot, but I wouldn't want to get into his business. Then, I heard stomps on the ground, looks like the cyclone was moving. The half-robot and I were moving at the same pace, and I didn't mind about trying to speed up. I wanted to hear a couple of details of Eggman's new base that Tails was apparently blurting out. I was trying to listen, but Shadow just kept coming back into my head. I thought I was going to go crazy if his image wasn't getting out of my head.

"Sonic!"

I blinked myself back to reality. That was all it took to get myself to stop thinking about him? I growled lowly. I hated the way I thought sometimes. It made me slow. Thinking always slowed me down. Is that why I always let my friends think things for me? No way, I wasn't that kind of person. There were some times when I had to calculate things myself when I had to go solo. Like, whenever I get sucked into those storybook adventures.

"Sonic!" I looked around and found Tails a distance away from where I was. I didn't know I slowed down, or even stopped walking. I cursed myself angrily. I was right. Thinking did slow me down. After finishing off Eggman, I'm going off to have a special amount of run time. I ran up to Tails.

"What's up?" I waved my hand as I approached.

Tails motioned for me to look at his little computer gadget. I walked up to the cyclone and looked at it. Tails was going to explain a couple of things to me before I head off on my own. Of course, we'll be constantly communicating on each other, but Tails would always want to double check things with me before I go.

"I'm going to download my map of Eggman's base into your comm so you won't have to have much difficulty trying to get through it, but I'll be leading you to Eggman in the quickest way I can," Tails told me. I looked at my comm to see the map. It was a big place. I scanned the image and sighed to myself, looks like I'll be trying to get myself out of those many corridors and hallways once again. If there is one thing I was getting bored of from the fat egg was the way he laid out his bases. "Any questions you'd like to ask Sonic?" Tails asked.

I smiled genuinely. "Other than the fact that you're doing another fantabulous job Tails!" I winked and zoomed off into the drafts. I chuckled inwardly when I saw the light tint of pink on his face. He was always getting flushed whenever he got a compliment. I slid through the vents and then placed my shoes down to slow down when I saw a vent door thing coming up. I was hoping I didn't "crash" into it. The sound would probably echo throughout the whole base. I crawled and looked through the slits. I gasped when I saw a robot walking this way. I regained my composure and pulled myself back into the shadows. I didn't want the walking trash can to see me.

"Tails, how am I going to get out of this draft? The whole hallway is swarmed with robots," I whispered into the comm.

"Just hang in there Sonic, I'm trying to change the robots' directives in your area," I heard Tails say. I also heard some keys clicked. He must be hacking Eggman's files. Seriously, I wonder where he got these skills from sometimes, but they do come in handy. I waited for some time, and then I heard no movement from outside the vent. I peeked out and saw the robots frozen in place. Then I heard sirens go off again. I panicked. Did I set it off, or did Eggman's firewalls detect Tails hacking into his file? I hoped not. I would rather have the robots come after me than charge after Tails.

"Tails, is everything going alright?" I asked. My heart was pounding.

"Um...I didn't do that!" I heard Tails say frantically. "Sonic, I'm going to need you to stay down for awhile. I'm going to try and stop the sirens."

Tsk, forget that! I'm not going to sit here and wait for him to stop everything. I kicked the vent open and hopped out of the drafts.

I swung myself out and looked around. The whole corridor was empty.

"Sonic!" I heard Tails' voice ring from my wrist. I pulled it up.

"Don't worry Tails, it looks like you nor I made the sirens go off," I smiled when I heard the familiar growl, snarling and grunting of an angry guardian down the hallways. I ended the connection with Tails. I just didn't want Tails to hear everything I was willing to do without his consent. I just didn't want Tails worrying about me all the time. I turned a corner and then saw the last remaining robot with a giant whole in its chest. Then it fell flat on its back. I looked up and smirked at my friend, Knuckles. The echidna never did cease to show up at the right, or wrong, time. "Geez, when that siren came on, I was beginning to think Tails didn't do a good job or something," I said with the usual smile. "What are you doing here anyway? Did Eggman fool you again and get you pissed off?"

Knuckles straightened his stance and crossed his arms. "You're one to talk. You just told me you almost had a heart attack," he remarked with a snicker following afterwards. I wasn't really satisfied with the result and shrugged it off. The red echidna was never really good with comebacks. "And no, I came here to get the Master Emerald that Eggman managed to take from me!" Knuckles exclaimed cursing to himself for losing the precious emerald again. I couldn't help but snicker to myself silently. Typical Knuckles.

"Looks like we're both looking for a good beatin' to that Egg-head huh?" I jabbed my friend by the side with my elbow.

Knuckles nodded, and then we both started off to the main control room. I then held up my comm and linked my connection back with Tails' again. I hoped he wouldn't be mad at me for disconnecting our communications. I just thought that maybe the knuckle-head had needed my help on defeated the rampaging robots. I read the green-colored screen, and my eyes shrunk. It said that it couldn't connect to Tails' comm. My whole body became tense. My thoughts began to swell with the idea that maybe Tails was attacked and couldn't be able to communicate with me due to the comm being broken. Then again, the Chaos Energy emitting from the Master Emerald could be the one trying to mess with the wireless signals. I calmed myself and returned the screen back to the map that Tails had downloaded into my comm. Looks like I'll be doing this on my own...again. I turned to Knuckles, "Looks like we're going to have to navigate through this place on our own Knux!"

"What? You can't connect to Tails?" Knuckles exclaimed.

"I guess Eggman's that Master Emerald to use," I remarked, but my friend's response wasn't good. I knew that whenever Eggman got his grease-filled gloves on the Master Emerald, nothing can be good. I held my breath for a while hoping nothing too bad will occur. "But don't worry, I have the map that will—" I stopped mid-sentence when I heard another siren go off. I was beginning to grow tired of hearing those ear deafening sounds. Usually I would be gettin' warnings from Tails by now, but since I couldn't get anything from him, I'll be stuck in the hallways fighting one swarm of robots after another with Knuckles.

"I thought Tails would tell you where each trap was!" Knuckles spat at me.

"Well, I can't connect to him at the moment, so we're going to have to get to Eggman the long way," I shouted. Down the hallways, I could hear robots coming in from both directions of the corridors. I gave myself a couple of stretches before I went to fight. "You ready for a battle?"

"Of course, I'm always looking forward to making dents into those robots," I heard Knux cracking his knuckles. I rolled my eyes. He was stretching as well. If there is one thing that I find good about being partnered with him is the fact that it was hard to take him down—unless it was me. He's gullible and all, but he makes up for it by his deadly punches. Knuckles and I were standing in our places for not too long when the robots came and stopped about a few yards away from us. It almost seemed like there was a perfect circle around us. I scanned our enemies and a toothy grin found itself forming on my face. Mentally, I heard a countdown in my head as if it were a race...

3...

...but it was a battle. A war against life and robots.

2...

I was getting excited. My body was begging for some robot beating, and I knew that Knuckles was waiting for the first move to be made.

1...

It didn't matter when and where it came from just as long as we were able to fight.

GO!