And his world calmed back down.

"Oh!" he chirped. "That makes sense!" He lurched over to inspect the four pads of the machine and was both dismayed and relieved to have his instinctive hypothesis confirmed: he had connected the cords wrong, and the mind of Cosmo's robot would presumably have likewise been merged into that of his, except that neither was activated anyway. Although his attentive skills had failed, at least his machine-building skills were as strong as ever.

The room, while lit and stable again, however, still felt rather chilly, and he shivered. "Hey, Cosmo, does it feel cold in here to you?"

"No, not at all!" he yipped again. "Your fur is so nice and snuggly! ...Uh, I guess I'm glad to hear that; thanks for the compliment!"

"Erm..." He was feeling quite normal, thankfully, but he was becoming curious as to how being Tails really did feel. "How do you feel? ...Or, how do I feel- you know what I mean."

"I'm not sure." He rubbed the fur on his own arms, almost vigorously enough to generate sparks. "It's so cool to feel all this fuzzy stuff and... for it to be me! Well, yeah! Welcome to life as Tails!"

"'Tails'..."

"What? O-oh, I'm sorry. As Cosmo's mind in Tails' body-"

"No, no, your name just gave me an idea. Can I try... flying?"

"I don't see why not, but you've never even had one tail before."

"Is that a challenge?" he retorted playfully. Sure enough, one and then both of them began to flick receptively back and forth. "Ooooooooh, this is fun!" But, for the time, this was as far as he could get. "But how do you actually fly with these? I've never understood it."

"Lots of people don't! That's okay. It's kind of hard to explain, so if you wouldn't mind, I'll just-" He trailed off and started whirring them himself, but he put on the proverbial brakes and they stopped. "No, I want to try it myself! I mean... if you'll teach me."

"Of course I will! I'm just surprised it's that important to you. Well, how often does one get to switch bodies? Good point! Uh, anyway, start flicking 'em again!" And he did, just as patiently and yet haphazardly with regards to actual vertical locomotion as before. "Now spin them each in a circle, one over the other! I usually go left over right by instinct, but that's probably why you always beat me in arm wrestling."

"Like this?" He tried it. "Not quite – same direction!" He tried again and, sensing with encouragement that he was starting to get it, started speeding them up. "Good! Now just keep them about equally spaced, so it's not uneven when you fl-ah-ah-ah-heyyyyy, you're doing it!"

He rose into the air, starting off a few inches at a time and then excitedly whipping about the entire room. "Uh... be careful, Cosmo! Oh, I will, but this is so much fun! I know, but isn't safety more fun?"

But he ignored... himself. He flew right-side up, upside down, and before he could exhaust too many other directions, straight into the wall. "Oof! Oof!" he exhaled, sliding down it and tumbling ungracefully onto the floor.

"Ha-ha-ha-ha!" Dizzily, he rattled his head around and attempted to keep his line of vision in one direction. "Uh... you're a plant; doesn't being able to sink your roots into the nice, comfy ground feel better? ...Yeah, I think it does..."

"Oh, hey!" He had another idea, alluring enough that tumbling vision and nausea were no match for it. "Why don't we go and show everyone else what we've become?"

"Cosmo, I don't know if that's such a good idea, but- oh, um, okay" – his legs were kicking into motion anyway – "I guess that's what we're doing!" He exerted a weak effort to try to slow his own legs against the inner Seedrian's excited motions, but he reached the door at the edge of his office and swung it ajar before the fox was quite ready.

"Ooowwwwwwch!" The doorknob, which had still been in the way, had careened right into his groin. He paced around aimlessly in an attempt to shake off the pain, but it lingered longer than one occupant had expected. "So that's what that feels like! I'm so sorry. Why don't you boys ever wear clothing to protect yourselves?"

"You know, I've never thought about it, but it's been so long now, it'd be weird to start."

"Anyway..." He took a deep breath to let his original occupant speak his mind. "Tails, why do you want to keep this transformation of ours a secret?"

Whip! The door opened right up again anyway, and standing in the doorway was their friend Amy Rose. "Tails, are you okay?" she asked, concerned. "I heard a bunch of pained screaming and loud noises, and those anti-science shows aren't even on right now."

"I'm fine, Amy-" – he looked curiously at the expression of horror rapidly spreading across the pink hedgehog's normally cheerful face – "but what are you looking at me like that for?"

"C-C-C-C-COSMO!" she spat, sprinting over to the technically unharmed but still very much motionless Seedrian body sprawled out on its pad.

"...That's why I wanted to."