Thank you for your wonderful reviews and corrections (I really need those, for English is my second language). After reading the first chapter again, I actually found some mistakes caused by oversight. I don't have the habit of rechecking my work anyway. *chuckle*

Anyway, I just want to tell you something about my story.

At the end of this chapter, the story will be split into two separate adventures. One will be about Sonic and Knuckles, the other will be about Tails.

I'll focus on finishing Sonic and Knuckles' side of the story first, so don't be too disappointed if you don't see your adorable two-tailed fox in action. He'll have his moments in a separate story after this one. Enjoy.

Chapter 2: Trouble

After Tails had disappeared to his room, Knuckles tried to coax the despondent hedgehog into telling him exactly what had happened. After many failed attempts (and a lot of death threats) from the rash guardian, Sonic finally managed to find his voice back.

"I didn't mean to call him that…It was just a slip, but it was still my fault…"

"What exactly did you call him?" asked Knuckles in a gentle tone, unlike the grumpy tone he normally used. Sonic would have made a witty remark about it if he hadn't been feeling like crap for the way he had treated Tails.

"I called him a fre…freak." Sonic nearly choked at that word. "It's the one word that must never be spoken in his presence." Sonic trembled as he spoke, still blaming himself for the unfortunate slip.

"Why's that?"

"Tails…He's scarred."

"I have never seen any scar on his body?"

"Not physically scarred. Well, he used to be, but that's all in the past. He's scarred emotionally by that word. He may look like a cheerful kid now, but when I first found him, he was a scared and lonely boy that everybody hated, because of his tails. He was always beaten on a daily basis, Knuckles, and his tormentors always called him a…with that stupid word and worse."

Sonic stopped for a while and took a really deep breath and continued. "I promised never to let anyone call him that ever again, but I ended up betraying his trust because of my own stupidity." Sonic slammed his fist on the floor, effectively messing it up even further.

Knuckles was not used to seeing his blue rival in such an emotional pain. He tried to come up with ways to cheer Sonic up, "Technically, you didn't call him a…like that. You stopped yourself, did you not?"

"What's the difference? Yes, I stopped myself, but the damage has already been done. Didn't you see the way Tails reacted? What if he hates me for life because of this? What am I supposed to do then? I…I don't want to lose his trust. He's the closest thing to a family to me." Sonic said with a really depressed tone, one that Knuckles had never heard before.

"Why don't we go to his room and see if you can talk to him?" suggested Knuckles.

Sonic thought for a moment. He did not want to face Tails right now due to his shame. He couldn't imagine how the fox would react if he walked into that room. However, Sonic decided that it was best to at least try to apologize for his mistake. Besides, Knuckles was with him, so things couldn't possibly get out of control, right?

The blue blur thought for a really long time until he decided to heed the echidna's words and went upstairs. However, he walked behind Knuckles the entire way, still unsure about what to say when he came face to face with Tails. Knuckles noticed, but he was in no mood to give pep talk, so he just kept on walking.

After what seemed like an eternity, they finally reached Tails' room. Knuckles practically shoved Sonic forward to the door and prompted him to knock. After a while, Sonic did so softly, like he wasn't even trying. Knuckles was getting irritated now. After watching the hedgehog knock like he was afraid of hurting Tails' door, he finally stepped in and knocked himself.

"Tails, I know you're in there, open up!" commanded Knuckles, but he at least tried to lower his voice.

However, there was no reaction or anything that showed that the fox had heard him. Knuckles knocked again, and still no reaction. He tried looking into the room through the keyhole and saw the little fox in question all curled up in bed, seemingly asleep. Sonic did the same and was relieved that his best friend was at least still inside the workshop.

Even though the keyhole was small, Sonic could still see that some pillows and blankets were wet, obviously drenched by the kid's tears. The hedgehog felt really bad, even worse than before. Because of one stupid word, he made his best friend cry himself to sleep. Sonic sighed in defeat and walked downstairs, dragging Knuckles with him.

Once downstairs, Sonic slumped into the couch and sat there with a blank expression on his face. Knuckles really couldn't stand seeing his comrade like this, so he decided to strike up a conversation to get the hedgehog's mind off of the topic.

"So…lovely weather today, isn't it?" was the best the guardian could come up with.

This warranted a reaction from Sonic, but it wasn't the one the echidna had hoped for. Sonic looked at him and narrowed his eyes, looking like he was really ticked off.

"What?" shouted Knuckles, "I'm just trying to have a conversation here."

"Correct opening line. Bad timing, knucklehead. At least try to read the mood, dood." remarked Sonic.

"Well, you need to do something to get your mind off of this incident for a while. Go out and run or anything to clear your head and come back here to talk to Tails when he wakes up." Knuckles huffed.

Sonic was about to open his mouth to say something, but he was stopped when the door to the workshop sprung open and revealed a pink hedgehog trying to catch her breath.

"Amy? What do you want now?" said Sonic, not even bothering to act polite. The last thing he wanted right now was to suffer the fan girl hedgehog's crazy obsession.

"Nice to see you too, Sonic." said Amy sarcastically as she closed the door and walked to Sonic and Knuckles. "I'm just here to tell you that Eggman is attacking Station Square again. Where have you been, Sonic? It's all over the news."

"Does it look like we still have the TV standing there?" Sonic asked as he pointed at the spot where Tails' TV had once stood, then pointed his thumb at Knuckles, "Ask him for more details on what happened?"

"Never mind, the important thing now is that we have to stop Eggman from destroying the city. Who knows what he's planning. We've got to go, now!" At this point, Amy looked around the room and noticed that her foxy friend wasn't present.

"Umm, where's Tails?" asked Amy innocently.

At this question, both the hedgehog and the echidna flinched visibly and looked at each other. Amy was a little surprised, but when she was about to ask, Sonic beat her to it.

"He…is not well at the moment." Sonic lied, although there was some truth in his words, "Just let him rest for now. We have a bad egg to scramble. Let's go!" With that, Sonic sprinted out of the couch and sped off toward Station Square, dragging Amy and Knuckles with him. He knew that if Amy found out that Tails had been crying, she would bombard him with difficult questions to no end. The pink hedgehog was somewhat protective of the two-tailed fox for some reason.

…

After Sonic, Amy and Knuckles had left the workshop, a creaking sound came from upstairs…

That's it for this chapter, please review and tell me what you think. Your reviews are highly appreciated.