"Hold on a sec… You're telling me the ARK just showed up in the sky and nobody knows why?"
Tails shrugged helplessly. Sonic let out a puzzled noise and leaned back against the wall of his sidekick's workshop. Amy and Cream sat atop a set of crates to the left of him, Knuckles standing with folded arms and his ever-serious look by the garage door. Cosmo was the only one by the kitsune, sitting on a small box a few feet from him.
"I would say Eggman was involved," Tails put out tentatively, "there's still probably a ton of untouched weapons leftover on the colony. But it just doesn't seem his style. Plus, I don't think he has the kind of technology to open a portal that large to Earth; it took a Chaos Emerald and the energy of the Eclipse Cannon just to open a tear last time. I also doubt he would risk the possibility of total temporal suspension."
"Eggman's risked more than that before," said Amy. "Don't you remember Chaos? Or the first time we went to the Ark? That overweight egghead's caused more near apocalypses than he's ever come close to taking over the world!"
"I'm with Tails," Knuckles spoke up. "I don't see Eggman as the one behind this."
Amy's brows slanted as she put her hands on her hips and turned to the Echidna from over the rim of the crate. "Whadda'you know? How many times has he tricked you into thinking he's a victim in half the schemes that had him as the cause?"
Knuckles growled in anger, raising his fists while Amy patted her Piko-Piko Hammer with violence flickering in her eyes. Cosmo and Cream immediately jumped in to try and avoid the impending conflict with pleas for peace. All four were interrupted when someone began banging on the garage door. Without even waiting in time for an answer, it was thrown open as a little, dark blue robo flew in cackling in a high pitch tone.
"I'm baaack!" shrieked Bokkun as he touched down in the middle of the heroes' meeting, Knuckles and Amy blinking a foot apart with weapons raised, as well as Cosmo and Cream with their hands around the formers' respective ankles. The messenger robo tossed his bag down and hefted a mustard-coloured Television out of it and onto the ground. "And the great Eggman wants to talk! So listen up! This messagebox is two-way!"
Before objections could be raised, static flared across the screen and resolved itself into the face of a bald-headed man complete with oversized mustache. "O ho ho ho ho!" laughed the Doctor in his trademark guffaw, at Amy and Knuckles' imminent battle to the death or simply because of the demands of his ever-constant ego, they'd probably never know.
"Hey, Eggman." said Sonic, pushing off the wall and giving a thumbs-up to the screen. "What's up?"
Ivo stopped laughing almost instantly. "Eh, Sonic?" he asked, his hairless brows furrowing. "What are you doing here? Bokkun, did you deliver this to the wrong house?!"
His messenger robo stiffened in response, his head swiveling around. "What? Er- No! This is the right place, Eggman-sama! I'm certain!"
"Then where's Tails?" his master demanded, looking at the monitor at different angles as if it would give him some sort of better view. "I don't see him anywhere!"
Half-way across the room, said twin-tailed fox sighed. After a few seconds he called out: "Present, Eggman."
"What?!" yelled the Doctor, "Bokkun, turn me around!" The android flailed his hands in surprise a few seconds before obeying, spinning the monitor around and shoving it over and almost into the kitsune's face. "Ah, Tails! Good to see you! I don't suppose you've noticed our new satellite too?"
"What's it to you Eggman?!" yelled Amy before Tails could respond, getting her ankles free from Cream and running over to Bokkun's new location. "I bet you were the one who brought it over from Earth!" she continued, jabbing an accusatory finger into the monitor while raising the Piko-Piko Hammer with the spare hand as if to strike.
Ivo let out another boisterous series of laughs, the pink hedgehog's eyebrow forming a V in response. "Why, I'm delighted that you think me so capable! Alas, it wasn't I who brought the colony over from Chris' world. Not even my magnificent genius has yet to understand how it was done… In fact, that's actually the reason I sent my messenger robo over here. I'm going up there to find out."
Tails exchanged looks with Sonic. "You could have just sent that in a message," the former said. "Why bother with actual conversation? Why even tell us, for that matter? It's not like we have any reason to stop you."
"Because the ARK is massive!" said Eggman, putting his hands up for emphasis. "We barely saw a fraction of its facilities the last time we were there! I could spend months, even years exploring it, and still not know all of the secrets aboard that my grandfather left behind! And if someone or something is behind this, it might also know about the Eclipse Cannon. If that thing starts leveling cities, I won't have anything to build my empire from! I need haste, and that, regretfully, means I need more help."
"More?" asked Knuckles, walking into view of the monitor with Cosmo and Cream.
"Shadow has already approached me seeking passage to the ARK. This is obviously of more concern to him than most. Naturally I agreed, he knows the colony better than anyone still alive today."
Sonic tapped a finger to his chin for a few seconds. Then: "The only time you ever ask for all of our help is when the World's ending. You don't look that desperate yet, Eggman."
The fat man's head swiveled over toward Sonic. "I'm not asking for 'all' your help. I'm asking for Tails'. You think I'd actually trust you in the vulnerable interior of my ships, or to be alone with Knuckles after all the times I've duped him?"
"Hey!" shouted the Master Emerald's guardian.
"Case in point," said Eggman. "Anyway, I need someone with actual brainpower. This mission will require a lot of data mining in the Ark's memory banks and systems along with the searching, which only makes one person in this room of any use to me."
Above the monitor, Bokkun sniveled a little.
Tails folded his arms. "While I may not be quite as smart as you, Eggman," he said, "I'm certainly not stupid, nor so quickly duped. I'm not nearly as good a fighter as Sonic or Knuckles, and it wouldn't be the first time you've tried to take hostages." Plus, he still wasn't particularly fond of Shadow after having beaten the kitsune half to death and almost succeeding at an attempt to kill Cosmo. But kitsune wasn't about to bring grudges into his argument.
The doctor groaned. "Hmph. Fine. You can take a companion. But still not Sonic or Knuckles! I stand by former reasoning on that issue."
The twin-tailed fox tilted his head down in thought. That still wasn't much help from a tactical standpoint. He had little doubt Shadow would side with Eggman over them if a schism formed, and the black hedgehog was the most powerful fighter he knew. Still, two was a better deterrent than one-
"I'll go," said Cosmo, standing next to Tails.
That snapped the kitsune out of his thoughts. "Er- Cosmo, you've never even been to the ARK. Shouldn't you- Shouldn't someone else go?" He changed quickly, his thoughts unwillingly drifting back to a certain ultimate life form he didn't really want to risk her around…
The seedrian turned her head to his. "You and the others have told me enough stories that I know most of what happened back on Chris-san's world, Tails. And I can be of use too; I've picked up a little from helping you on the Tornado upgrades."
Yeah, 'a little'. But damnit, he always did have trouble saying no to those big, persuasive, blue eyes. "Yeah, okay," he finally agreed reluctantly, scratching the back of his head.
Almost all of his friends instantly started voicing that this was a bad idea and that more of them should come. Eggman drowned them all out. "Excellent!" he exclaimed, "I'll be over in- Well, now!"
The television erupted in a small explosion, smoke billowing out everywhere. When it cleared to sooty and singed fur, the Doctor was standing dramatically atop the palms of Decoe and Bocoe. "Dr. Eggman-sama is here!" the two robots proclaimed while Bokkun and said Doctor laughed maniacally. For everyone else, a bead of sweat just rolled down their respective heads.
"How… did you do that, Eggman-san?" asked Cream.
"Trade Secret!" exclaimed the Doctor. "Now then, I hope you two are ready to go posthaste! Busy, busy, busy!"
The heroes had barely recovered from the overdramatized entrance before there was a thunderous quake, knocking over a few crates and causing Eggman to fall off from his perch and flat on his face. "Idiots!" he yelled, jumping back up and getting in the faces of his assistants. "You call that a 'successfully tested' auto-pilot?! Get out there before I rebuild you both as Dishwashers!"
The robotic duo covered their heads in fear, sprinting out the still open garage door and over to where a very large, oval-shaped shuttle had embedded itself into the ground. The decal was silver with red and yellow trimming, and Eggman's signature logo was splashed in white over the side facing them. A ramp in the back slammed down, and the two robots scurried in. A dozen or so seconds later, the ship pulled itself out of the ground, hovered up to the garage, spun around, and landed once more with the ramp facing them. It dropped open again to reveal the interior of the hold, Decoe and Bocoe saying "Ta-daaa!" with their hands open and pointed inward.
Ivo snorted, taking large steps as he boarded the craft, turning around at the top of the boarding ramp and calling the kitsune's name. "Two minutes, Eggman," Tails responded, walking to the back of the garage where another plane was covered in a pale yellow tarp. Before he got to it, however, Sonic pulled him aside.
"Tails, you sure about this?" the blue hedgehog asked with apparent concern. "It's not like Eggman to play nice. He's gotta be up to something."
"I know," agreed the twin-tailed fox, surprising his friend. "I don't trust him anymore than you. But an opportunity like this lets us keep an eye on him if he should try something."
The kitsune indicated they keep walking, heading over to the obscured plane. "Here's what I'm thinking: Cosmo and I will stick around Eggman and watch him. If things on the ARK should go bad, I'll contact Amy over our communicators. She'll round up everyone aboard her fighter and bring you all in for support. Sound good?"
Sonic smiled. "Wow, guess I underestimated you. Yeah, that's a solid plan." He paused, scratching the back of his head. "Just… Be careful, okay? Usually I'm the one putting myself in danger, because I like it and I don't enjoy seeing others there."
Tails smiled back. "Yeah. Okay Sonic." The blue blur gave him a thumbs up before zooming off to harass the Doctor before he left, zipping by Cosmo and Cream.
"So, you'll take care of it then?" asked the seedrian, "You remember the instructions?"
"One cup of water every other day," recited Cream, "Just enough to keep the soil moist, no more and no less."
Cosmo gave the rabbit a hug, Cheese chaoing as he joined in as well. "Thanks Cream-san. I know you'll take good care of it for me and Tails while we're gone."
Behind her, the mentioned Kitsune groaned as he kept pushing the still covered plane out of the garage and up to the boarding ramp. Eggman took a break from his banter with Sonic to look questionably at the craft. "Really, Tails, is that necessary? Judging by the size it's not even space-worthy."
The twin-tailed fox stopped to wipe his brow. "Just trust me Eggman," he said flatly.
"Coming from someone who won't even return the favor." Commented the Doctor snidely. Ivo indicated his head toward the plane, Decoe and Bocoe running over in response and each grabbing a wing from behind to push.
"Put your back into it!" yelled Bocoe to his gold-plated counterpart after the plane hadn't moved despite a few seconds of struggle-laden shoves.
"Look who's talking!" shouted Decoe back at the silver one. "You couldn't even lift a rice cake to your mouth!"
"You said you'd never talk about that in public again!" hollered Bocoe, and on and on went their banter until the plane (somehow) made it into the hold.
"That it?" asked Eggman as Tails joined him at the entrance to the ship, Cosmo arriving only a few seconds later. "Or should I wait for you to get your refrigerator too? How about a bathtub while we're at it?"
The kitsune just shook his head with eyes pointed up while he walked inside. The seedrian's own head tilted behind him as she tried and failed to understand the joke. With all of them aboard, there was a hum of hydraulics as the ramp once again rose up and hissed shut. Grass and dirt blew about beneath the craft as it rose up, and with a thrust from the boosters sped up and into the sky, and the dark void that lay beyond the white clouds.