As I told you, things are hard for me, at the moment. They are starting to clear up, though, so I might be able to update as I was before. It will take some effort, but I will manage. I was barely able to post this, so it might be a little messy. As always, Enjoy!
All about Mechanics
Tails immediately got to work on Sonic, properly bandaging his arm; dressing the various wounds and burns on his muzzle, arms, and legs; and making sure he didn't run off when he needs rest. Knuckles' legs had turned blue, but reverted to their original color by the time they had arrived at Dr. Tenma's establishment. Astro had introduced him to Tails and Knuckles. Tails' namesakes had wagged crazily when he heard that Astro's father was an inventor. He finished working on Sonic, and went to help Dr. Tenma with Astro. His circuitry had taken quite a beating during the last battle.
The doctor was glad to have help, never betraying to who he was not three years ago. Miles helped wherever he could, impressed by the advanced circuitry. Dr. Tenma and Tails finished on Astro in less than an hour. In that hour, Tails quickly found out how anti-social Astro's father could be. He never even uttered a word. After they had finished, they stood there in awkward silence for a good five minutes before Dr. Tenma had uttered out, "thank you."
Tails hurried out of the room soon after. Sonic had fallen asleep, so Tails decided it was time to give his plane a small tune-up. Astro's dad had walked out of the room Astro was in to hear the sound of a wrench. Intrigued, he quietly crept up to his garage to see the fox in the cockpit of a small, blue plane tightening something on the dashboard. When Tails had finished tightening whatever it was he was tightening, Dr. Tenma cleared his throat quite loudly. The unexpected sound in the otherwise silent room startled him, and he dropped the wrench. Dr. Tenma cleared his throat again and said, "You seem to have dropped your wrench."
Tails slowly nodded, "yeah, could you get that for me, please?" Dr. Tenma took this opportunity to strike up a conversation, something he hadn't done in years.
He asked, "Is this your plane?" Tails nodded faster, and the talk continued. They conversed awhile, and Tails was overjoyed at talking to someone about his favorite subject without seeing the clueless expression on their face. Dr. Tenma understood him clearly, and he was interested in seeing his inventions. "So, you are interested in mechanics I see", Dr. Tenma said after examining Tail's plane, "You built this all by yourself?"
Tails shook his head, "Actually, I modified it to be able to take on the missions I do often. Sonic built the actual plane." At this remark Dr. Tenma was slightly confused.
He said, "I find that hard to believe, being a mechanic and inventor just does not seem to fit correctly with his character."
Tails nodded, "I know it doesn't, but I couldn't really say I was too normal either." He pointed at his namesakes, saying, "These aren't normal, even where I come from." Dr. Tenma nodded, quickly glancing over his two bushy tails.
"I see, so this Sonic. What is he like?" He was curious about his new guest more than ever now.
"Well, he's generous, kind, and forgiving, he never likes to sit around, has a short temper, he's definitely smarter than he looks, and he's easy to befriend." Dr. Tenma took it all in, trying to picture such an odd character, nothing really came up.
He did see a way to get more information, though, "where did you learn the skills necessary to build such a vehicle?"
"Sonic gave me a major starting point in building big stuff, though only airplanes, since that's all he knew how to build. After that, I taught myself."
By now the doctor wanted to know just one question. Now, only a simple question that would satisfy his curiosity. He asked, "How old are you?"
Tails smiled proudly and happily stated, "I'm eight years old."
If Dr. Tenma had been eating or drinking anything, he was sure he would have choked on it by now. This boy was a miracle! Maybe he could convince the fox to join the Ministry, but that would put up many other problems. How could he get the boy 'up to date' was the main one. He decided to base his plan of action on Tail's decision, "you are a very talented young lad, with very precocious intellect. I would like to know if, by any chance, you would want to become part of the Ministry of Science."
Tails became interested right away, "what is the Ministry of Science?"
"It is an association of every kind of science, from astronomy to biology. Think of it as a factory that produces new ideas rather than tangible materials. If you figure out how to mass produce your idea, you can become extremely wealthy lending them to companies that are able to physically create them. Of course, you will need a physical working model, but with your talent, the only problem I see is funding.", Dr. Tenma smiled, a rare occurrence anywhere.
Tails nodded and said, "Alright, when can I get started?"
IN SONIC'S ROOM:
Sonic woke up with a splitting headache that made his eyes water. He tried to get up, but his side stung as if Shadow had thrown a Chaos Spear at it. He winced and lay back down, already feeling bored and trapped. "Well, well, sleeping beauty finally woke up." Knuckles teased.
"Lay off knuckle-head, I wasn't out that long." Sonic thought for a minute, "was I?"
Knuckles chuckled, "Much longer than I have."
Sonic knew what was coming, but didn't feel up to it at the moment, "I'll deal with you later Knuckles, have you seen Tails?"
Knuckles nodded, "He walked out of here two hours ago." Sonic mused over the new independent nature of his 'little brother' for a minute, and then ran out of the room. Knuckles sighed and yelled out, "do you even have a clue where he went?"
Sonic stopped dead in his tracks and looked back looking honestly confused, "no, should I?"
Knuckles sighed, "Forget about it. Just call me if you find any Master Emerald prices."
"Alright, see ya!" Sonic walked down the ornate staircase, once again wondering how much it must have cost just for the rug he was standing on. Once he was outside, he looked around for the most teck-like building he could find. He didn't have to look far. Dr. Tenma's house was at a dead end and on the other end of the road across an intersection, was an enormous building with a sing near the front that read 'Welcome to the Ministry of Science'. 'That's got Tails written all over it' he ran toward the building, stopping at the door. He opened it and carefully walked inside.
He learned from experience that smart people like their work environment dead quiet, and would take big precautions to get it. The last thing he wanted was to walk into the building and get arrested right after he was barely let off the hook the first time. Sonic also knew that geniuses stuck together, so to find Tails he had to find either Dr. Tenma or Astro. He somehow managed to find the receptionist's desk through the monotonous decoration and uniform appearance. The receptionist was reading what appeared on a page made of a blue light created by some sort of tube-like machine. He was about to ask her where Dr. Tenma was when he noticed another tube-like machine that was labeled 'labs in use'.
He picked it up and searched for some way to turn it on. He found a red button on an end of the machine, so he pushed it. A page made of blue light popped out of a slit in the machine. Sonic, realizing he held it backwards, turned the tube so the button was facing away from him. He read the first page, which had a lab or office number, a name, and either a 'in use' or 'not in use' sign on its right. He slid his finger upwards on the now-solid screen to see if he could 'turn a page' or scroll.
Sure enough, the names above disappeared and new names popped up on the bottom. Sonic quickly scrolled through the list, looking for Dr. Tenma's name. To his surprise, he found 'Miles Prower' in the list. "Funny, I didn't know Tails had a job." Sonic looked at the room number. He was in room D-0. "Room D-0 it is then" Sonic ran off toward the room, leaving the receptionist to her reading.
Room D-0:
Sonic had no trouble getting their whatsoever, just winding around the scared security guards. 'Then again' he thought, 'it's kind of hard to catch anything when you're in complete shock'. He opened the door to find Tails working on the X-Tornado. It looked like Tails was welding something in the cockpit. Blue sparks flew around like a swarm of flies and died out before they got anywhere farther than the chair Tails was sitting on. "Finished!" ,Sonic heard after a minute.
He smiled and shouted out "hey Tails, what are you doing here?" His twin-tails twitched in surprise, he looked up from the control panel and saw the familiar blue he knew so well.
"Hey Sonic, I'm working on the X-tornado. I'm trying to add a scanner, so we'll be able to see Eggman coming if there's a surprise attack."
"Nice, so are you done?"
"Yeah, I'm just testing it out to see if it will work." Sonic ran up to the plane and jumped into the passenger seat.
"What about the scanner for the Chaos Emeralds?" ,he asked.
Tails smiled like if he had just discovered Atlantis, "the scanner can now scan for Eggman robots, Chaos Emeralds, Rings, and many other powerful artifacts. It just needs an example to scan on." Sonic smiled, remembering the powerful artifact he was wearing.
'Now there's an idea' he pulled off his gauntlet, which somehow nobody had noticed and handed it to Tails, "alright, then scan this."
Tails looked at him blankly, "scan what?"
Sonic raised an eyebrow, "the glove in my hand."
Tails looked at Sonic a little worriedly, "Sonic, I don't see any glove."
Sonic's eyes widened in realization, 'of course'. "Look, you're going to have to trust me. What I have in my hand is a gauntlet. Try to grab it." Tails looked skeptical; nevertheless, he reached out toward Sonic's seemingly empty hand. His hand stopped. About two inches from Sonic's hand, Tails felt the hard, cold, and familiar texture of metal. Tails grasped the invisible object and placed it in a compartment on the dashboard.
"Starting the scan, scanning...Sonic, we located something!"
"Ha-ha, let's go!" Tails pressed a button, and the back wall folded in on itself. Sonic's jaw dropped for a second before he regained his composure, "that isn't all the upgrades you did apparently, nice one buddy." ,Sonic congratulated him. Tails just modestly blushed and started up the X-tornado.
Cora's House:
Astro knocked on the door, and waited for Cora or her mother to answer. After a few minutes, the door opened to reveal the face of his good friend. "Hi, Cora! The robot destroyed much of the city, and I just wanted to know if you were alright", he said. Cora smiled, already reassuring him that everything was fine.
"Yep, everything is pretty good here. What about all of your other friends?"
"I haven't checked on them yet, I was hoping you'd come with me. Or better yet, I was hoping maybe everyone could meet up again. It has been a long time since everyone got together. I was hoping everyone could meet me at my dad's house." Cora's smile fell a small bit. She didn't really like Astro's friends from Metro City, especially the geek Alejo. The way he was so snoopy about the things making Astro tick annoyed her to no end.
Still, she bit her tongue and said, "Sure, let's go!"
"Thanks, Cora. Let's go get Abercrombie first, then let's get Zane." Astro crouched a bit, signaling to Cora that she should get on. She jumped onto Astro's back, bracing herself for Astro's dynamic launch. She didn't have to wait too long, she felt the relentless pull of gravity just seconds after she had gotten on. In a minute, they had already reached the clouds. Cora stared once again at the wonderful, puffy landscape, dressed in differing shades of purple, orange, blue, and red.
They swirled around in a puffy, slow movement. Then Astro raced forward, making many of the clouds blend together like an underwater scene. The sun not too much higher than them, emitting a strangely cool and soft light over them, revealing more of the intangible landscape as they flew. After some time, Cora began to notice that Astro looked hesitant of something, unsure. "Hey, are you all right?" ,she asked.
"Ye-yeah, just a-a little bit nervous I guess." She could tell something was wrong, but figured he'd feel more like talking about it after he saw everyone. Cora decided to put it off until later. They arrived at Abercrombie's house minutes later. Astro rung a modest doorbell and stood in front of a plain blue door on a house looking much like Dr. O'shay's.
Abercrombie answered the door two minutes after Astro rang the doorbell, "hi, Astro! I haven't seen you in a while. How come you don't visit us as much anymore? The Sky Riders are pretty lonely without you there." Astro gave him a sheepish grin and said "Sorry, I've been pretty busy." "Abercrombie smiled and said, "No biggie, I just wanted to know is all. So, why the sudden appearance, Astro?"
Astro's eyes lit up, "oh. Right." It took him some time, but he finally realized that although it was a good idea, he hadn't thought his plan thoroughly enough. He didn't know what they were going to do once everyone was there. He had to admit, there wasn't much they could do in their usual meeting place that was suited to a party of 10. So, he improvised. 'Maybe dad will let me bring my friends over' he thought, 'he never says no, so I don't see a big problem giving him an hour's notice'. Astro still felt pretty bad to surprise his father like that, 'I'll make it up to him later'.
Astro replied, "Uh... I was hoping that we could meet at my dad's house, if it was okay with you guys."
"You guys? Oh, you mean everyone. Kinda' like a reunion or something like that. Okay, I'll be there in a few minutes. Thanks, Astro!"
"You're welcome, thank you too. Bye!" Cora jumped on Astro's back and they flew off toward a newly built orphanage, where they would find Zane, Sludge, and Widget. Astro rose above the clouds once again, flying through the white ocean. He jumped once, like a dolphin, before plunging back down below the clouds to find the orphanage directly below him. He let himself fall a few feet before he remembered he had a passenger on his back. He flipped so that he was right side up, and then checked on Cora.
"Are you alright Cora?", he asked, knowing the reply he'd get from her.
"Well you were prepared to dive-bomb the rest of the way there at maybe a hundred miles per hour. How do you think I am?"
"Sorry, I sorta forgot I had a passenger, you were being so quiet."
Cora just shook her head, "let's just go, before I lose my lunch." Astro lowered himself the rest of the way fairly slowly, landing without any tricks.
He looked pretty sad, so Cora playfully pushed him forward, "oh come on, Astro. It's all right. You know I could have taken a small dip like what you were going to do." Astro turned towards Cora and gave her a small smile before walking up to the orphanage and knocking on the door. A small and skinny man with a helmet of white hair answered the door, dressed in clothes that looked like they were made of rags. For some reason, Astro had always felt a pang of guilt looking at the man, like it was his fault that he was wearing those rags.
The man, whose name was Koro, had treated Astro nicely, though, and reassured him countless times that it was his decision to wear such things. Astro had deep respect for him, because he used even some of his own money for the children in the orphanage. "Hello, Koro. Could I see Zane, Sludge, and Widget please?"
"Sure, my friend. Come inside, I will take you to them." Astro followed Koro down the hallway in front of them, taking them to a room whose number was 245.
IN AN ABANDONED MINE SHAFT:
Sonic raced forward with Tails by his side, following the green arrows flashing on the screen. It didn't take them long to find a huge chamber, with glowing purple hieroglyphic symbols written all over the walls in intricate patterns. In the middle of the chamber was a rock with a glowing cylinder in the middle that stretched to the roof. Sonic walked towards it, curious as ever. "Be careful Sonic, it could be one of Eggman's traps." , Tails warned from behind. Sonic and Tails arrived at the column to see that it was a cylinder of light surrounding a sword. When they arrived, Tails noticed that the golden gauntlet was now visible to him.
A sword he knew very well. It was Excalibur, but Sonic knew it by a different name. "Caliburn, is that you?" The sword didn't answer.
"C'mon Sonic, quit talking to it. Swords can't talk." Sonic could tell that Tails was getting aggravated, so Sonic decided to show Tails through demonstration rather than through conversation. He wrapped his fingers around the hilt, and pulled. For a full minute the sword didn't come out. Sonic was afraid that Caliburn had not chosen him this time, but the sword eventually slid smoothly out of the rock. Sonic let it go right before the sword spun like a buzz saw. It stopped.
The sword spun around so that two eyes and a metallic mouth faced Sonic and Tails. "Knight of the Wind, is that you?" Sonic's already large smile stretched wider at the sword's recognition.
"Long time no see Caliburn, are you still an oversized letter-opener?"
"Only if you, my friend, are still that ill-mannered knave that I had the honor of teaching." Through this whole time, Tails remained quiet. Sonic turned around to see his little brother's eyes bulging like saucers, filled with confusion.
"Tails, meet Caliburn." Tails eyes shrunk a bit, but were still pretty wide when he nodded toward the sacred sword. "Caliburn, welcome to the future I guess. This isn't even the world I live in."
Caliburn gave him a questioning look, "what do you mean by that?" Sonic scratched the back of his head, finding the ordeal to be too hard to understand, himself.
"Let's just say that I got caught in the middle of another mess."
"Well, let us get on to fixing it then." ,Caliburn said.
Sonic's expression turned a tad bit more serious, "first, I think you should have a look at this gauntlet I'm wearing. Do you know what these markings are for?" Caliburn examined them closely, his gaze gliding over the intricate patterns engraved into the knuckles of the artifact.
"No, I apologize Sonic. They are not familiar to me."
Sonic shrugged his shoulders, "eh, you can't win 'em all. Now, then. We've got to find Astro, and tell him what happened. Let's go Tails!" The trio ran to the plane, Sonic grabbing Caliburn so he could be in the plane as well. Tails initiated the launching sequence, and they were off. Tails still kept quiet until they got to the plane, only one thing swirling around in his mind. 'I can't believe it, Sonic was right!'