Chapter 5: Sonic Meets Elec
Elec and Tails had a great time discussing science and their respective inventions. Cream and Cheese woke up and Tails introduced them to Elec. Elec noticed that Cream seemed shy around him, but Tails didn't seem worried about it. Elec figured that he wouldn't mention the mission he had been given by Vanilla, given Cream's shyness and the current situation. Cream quickly became bored with the science talk and started reading a children's book Chris had brought up there for her. After Elec explained that his shoes were fried, Tails found some spare parts and they quickly repaired them. Tails even came up with a modification to keep the shoes from overloading as easily. Sonic was still out running.
Once the electric shoe repairs were finished, Elec's stomach rumbled. He sheepishly explained that he hadn't eaten much since chaos control had sent him to Earth. Tails explained that Chris was providing food for them and where it was stored. Elec zoomed off and returned with food for the four of them. While they were eating, Tails was reminiscing about how when he and Sonic were younger Sonic would bring him food the same way, but sometimes it came with a playful practical joke. Tails felt that he was never able to play good enough jokes back though. Then he looked at Elec, at himself, and finally looked like he had an idea.
Tails talked Cream and Cheese into letting Elec take them to Chris's room, then he asked Elec, "How strong are your acting skills". Elec replied using a reasonable impression of Tail's voice, "They are decent, why?" Tails was impressed. Tails outlined his plan to finally play a grand joke on Sonic once he got back from running. Elec caught Tail's mood and listened intently.
Sonic returned from running and grabbed some food from the pantry. He was about to zoom off to the garage when Chris asked him to take a bag of supplies up to tails. As sonic carried the rather heavy and awkward bag off and wondered what was in it, Chris pulled out a toy walkie-talkie and said "Sonic is on his way". Sonic made it to the first floor of the garage and yelled up to Tails "Could you give me a hand with this, its heavy!" Tails replied "Come up here Sonic, I want to show you something." Sonic was up there in an instant.
He saw a Yellow fox who he thought was tails. It was wearing black gloves, black shoes, and sunglasses. He thought he saw bandages on one of its two Tails, though he wasn't sure from the angle where he was standing at.
The fox asked "Sonic, do you like my new look?". Sonic responded, "Its... good" but his face said otherwise. The fox turned so Sonic could see that one of its two tails was in bandages. "Tails, what happened to your Tail?" Sonic asked. "I accidently shut it in the door", the Fox responded. Sonic was about to say that Tails needed to be more careful when he realized that something was different about Tail's voice. "Your voice sounds different." Sonic said. "I caught a cold" the fox replied, and punctuated it with a convincing fake cough. Sonic was considering what to say next when he noticed the fox suddenly didn't look so good, "Sonic... help me" it said as it pretended to faint. Sonic caught the fox and said "Tails, say something!". "Just kidding!" the fox replied with a big smile. The look on Sonic's face was priceless enough to trigger a wave of laughter from above him. Sonic looked up to see the real Tails hanging from the ceiling via some sort of gadget, laughing his head off and holding a video camera. "Who, wha, how?" Sonic stuttered. "Sonic, this is my new friend, Elec the fox, and we just got you good!" Tails managed to say in between laughs before laughing some more. Sonic started laughing too. Once Tails and Sonic had calmed down a bit, Elec took off the sunglasses and offered a handshake in greeting. Sonic shook it and formal introductions were made. "I can't believe we fooled you with bandages over some wires and Chris's old sunglasses." Tails said as Elec detached the second fake tail.
Later that day: Sonic, Tails, Cream, and Cheese were all eating dinner together. "Your sense of style is fine Elec. I just never thought Tails would dress like that." Sonic said, then a question dawned on him. "If Tails is orange, then why are you Yellow?" Sonic asked Elec. "Its genetic" Elec replied. "He was born that way" Tails added after seeing Sonic's confused look. Tails asked the next question "I've wondered this since we met. Since I'm an orphan, do you think we had the same parents?" Elec felt that it was time to tell them the whole story of who he was, given all they had done for him. He answered, "Not likely. My mother had a birth defect such that she couldn't bear children" "So your adopted?" Sonic questioned. "No", Elec replied, "I am my parents' son. I just wasn't born the usual way." He told them about the truths he'd heard on the day of the freak accident and finished by saying "My parents destroyed the reproduction technology that created me shortly after I was born. They were brilliant minds and great people. As the only family I had, I miss them". The sadness was very evident in his voice. Tails looked sad too, but then he perked up and said "Elec, you still have family". Elec looked confused. "Right here" Tails finished and pointed to himself. "And here" Sonic added with a similar gesture. Elec registered their words and was grateful for the kind gesture, but somehow, maybe because he'd only just met them, Sonic and Tails didn't feel like true family.